Murder Story of Kiev Jews at the Monastery of the Cave

…During the German occupation of Kiev, in the winter of 1942, the Germans established a camp for prisoners of war and Jews near the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra [Kiev Monastery of the Cave], on its slopes, in the building of a [former] workers’ dormitory. Every morning in the course of February-March [1942] I witnessed brutal atrocities committed by the Germans against the prisoners of war and the Jews. During the distribution of the meager breakfast every prisoner of war would be beaten with a rubber whip by the guards if he did not bow low enough. All the prisoners of war were lined up every day after breakfast and 5-6 Jews and Russians were shot before their eyes. After the shooting the bodies were placed in a barn near the camp. Only after lunch the same prisoners of war were forced to dig pits, to take out of the barn on stretchers [the bodies of] those who had been shot, and to bury them in the pits. The [victims] were always shot [after they were forced to strip] naked.

…In late 1941 or early 1942, I do not remember exactly, but it was in the winter, the Germans brought about 75-80 young male Soviet civilians about age 15-16 to the territory of the artillery depot opposite the main gates of the Kiev Monastery of the Cave. There were among these also a very few older people. These were people in ragged civilian clothes, emaciated, and of Jewish origin. I could determine this from their accent when they were talking, i.e. begging passing civilians for food. They [were], however, Jews from the western areas of Ukraine, judging by their way of speaking and their Polish clothes…. The SS unit was stationed in the building of the artillery depot (it was called this way before the war), which had a kitchen garden near the monastery, and they (the Germans) often drove these prisoners out to work in this kitchen garden. In the fall of 1942, I do not remember the month, but it was when the kitchen garden work was already finished, the Germans brought about 40 people, both men and women, from the labor office to the kitchen garden and forced them to dig a pit 3 meters wide, 3 meters long, and about 2 meters deep. The people who worked digging this pit did not know for what purpose they were doing this. Afterwards, however, they gained an idea of its purpose when the next day the same people were again forced to work on this pit…. When the pit was ready, the workers were sent away and, on that evening, at 6 p.m., the Germans brought to the pit by truck all those Jewish civilians who had been incarcerated in the camp at the artillery depot and started to shoot them. The shooting was carried in the following way: the prisoners were unloaded from the vehicles about 60-70 meters from the pit. They were guarded by 50 Germans armed with submachine-guns. Two Germans armed with submachine-guns stood on each side of the pit, while the guards forced the living people into the pit by whipping them. At the same time, as soon as the people entered the pit, two Germans standing at the edges of the pit shot the people, firing volleys from submachine-guns into the pit. I heard the screams and heart-rending cries of the poor martyrs. When all the people had been driven into the pit, the Germans started to cover the pit with lime and earth, while those two [Germans] continued to fire long submachine-gun volleys into the pit. The moans and the cries of the people were heard until they were buried and then all was silent. The next day the same workers from the labor office were brought and forced to move earth from the wall (the fortress wall) to the burial place of those people who had been shot. In the spring of 1943 the Germans ploughed over this place and planted potatoes in the place where the people had been buried….