Murder Story of Yanov Jews at the Yanov Polish Cemetery

…On May 29, 1942, toward evening, a mounted SS detachment with its death head emblem… armed to the teeth, arrived in the town of Yanov, Kalinovka County, Vinnitsa District. At this time many auxiliary policemen assembled from [various] counties were gathered in the town. Word of the arrival of the detachment immediately spread throughout the village. Everyone was gripped by terror and quaking… Soon anxiety spread throughout the ghetto. It was announced that the [inmates of the] ghetto would be relocated for work to another place and that they were not allowed to take anything with them. The Fascists [and] auxiliary policemen started a round-up, searching for people trying to escape. A couple of hours after the arrival of the detachment, all the inmates of the ghetto were forced [from their homes] and herded into the stables of the Khlebopashets collective farm. Under the cover of darkness, Aron [?] Iosifovich Gershkovich jumped out of a stable window in an attempt to save his life; he crossed the Bug River, but was killed by an enemy bullet. More and more people were brought to the stables. It became very crowded there and the newcomers were placed under close guard outside the stables. At dawn on May 30, 1942, a Saturday, all the people in the stables and outside them were taken and lined up. Suffering from hunger, cold, and illness, the people started out on their last way, surrounded by the Fascist detachment, auxiliary policemen, and by large crowds of villagers, many of whom came to see their acquaintances for the last time -- to bid them farewell. The death procession moved very slowly. Their heads were bowed; they were ashamed of themselves and of their fate; their hearts were boiling with hatred for the enemy… The women were carrying their small children in their arms, pressing them very tightly to their breasts, ready to meet death twice if that would somehow spare their children. While the procession was moving forward, one woman, who was completely emaciated and was carrying her child in her arms, lagged behind the column. One of the fascist monsters immediately drew his sword… and with one stroke lopped off the heads of both the mother and the child. They were the daughter and granddaughter of Khaika Pinkhasovna Sklyar. Both of them immediately fell to the ground…. However, another Fascist ordered [their bodies] to be put onto a cart and for the column to proceed…. Suddenly Basya Srulevna Blecherman saw a peasant woman she knew and handed her daughter to her. Another peasant woman, who was a fascist, pointed this out to an auxiliary policeman and the daughter was returned to her mother. Thus, they were walking, with every minute seeming like a year, every meter -- a kilometer but, despite that, their way became shorter. Then they arrived at a small bridge near the Polish cemetery. They went past some clay pits and everyone saw pits that had been dug there. The aim, the purpose of those pits were clear to all of them. Suddenly more than a thousand people started to cry. They cried with inhuman voices, loudly and without a pause. There were appeals to Heaven for help; there were appeals to everyone living for help. But help did not arrive. Their cries bothered even the damned Fascists. It seemed to them that the crowd of tormented people, driven to madness, would throw itself upon them, would bite them, and tear out their hearts to repay them for all their abuses. But [in fact] nothing happened. The people did not have the strength to move and their hands were empty. Then they [some Germans] approached one bearded Jew, assuming that he was a rabbi, and forced him to call for the crowd to calm down… Then an order [for the Jews] to take off their clothes was given. They did not do so. The order was given again and [again], but they did not take off their clothes. Then came threats, people’s eyes were even gauged out. Not wanting to be tortured anymore, people started to take off their clothes, but Klara Nakhmanovna Lipovetskaya and the wife of Shikha Lipovetskiy did not take off theirs. The two of them were cut down by swords… Then the bloody massacre started. The shooting was carried out in two locations. Behind the Polish cemetery people were shot with machine-gun fire and, a little bit away, where there is now a monument – with submachine-gun fire. Their families and relatives at the square [the area where the people had to wait until being taken to be shot] displayed solidarity. The words “Fascists" and "murderers” were on their lips. The people were taken to the pits. They were forced to lie down next to each other along the entire pit. Several shots were heard, followed by wild cries. These were cries of pain, grief, and protest. Families, lovely and full of kindness to each other during their lives, ceased to exist within minutes. The entire town -- with its human sounds, the laughter of its young, the smiles of the old men, died along with such sounds and sights. More and more groups [of people] were being taken [to the pits]. The shooting did not cease. People who remained at the square for several hours became petrified and lost consciousness. People whose hair still had its normal color when they left the stables had it turn gray, like that of old people. The execution was continuing. Fewer and fewer people remained at the square; the pits were being filled. The Fascists began to doubt whether the pits would be sufficient. They started to bring one or two people to level the [bodies] of the victims in the pits. When Yakov Srulevich Khlebopros was brought and a Fascist officer kneeled down to show him how the bodies should be leveled, Khlebopros took out a razor and, with great dexterity and courage, slit the officer’s neck and throat… He [Khlebopros] was hacked to pieces with swords… The shooting continued. It was the turn of Noyakh Muchnik. Local villagers were pleading for him to be spared. But Muchnik did not agree, not wanting to remain alive without his family, friends, and acquaintances… He jumped into the pit and cried “Shoot!” The enemy's bullet struck him, and he fell down dead… Hardly anyone remained at the square; it was the turn of the last victims. The Fascists forced villagers to cover over the pits. The next day the blood from the pits streamed onto the square, the square became red…. The earth over the pits heaved and fell again for two days. In that way about 1,000 people were murdered in the course of one day….