Murder Story of Ruzhin Jews in Balamutovka

The last murder operation was carried out in Balamutovka village in late November 1942 (according to some testimonies the operation took place on September 6, 1943). The surviving inmates of the Ruzhin ghetto had to come to the Gendarmerie office to register twice a day. On the day of the shooting they were surrounded in the yard of the Gendarmerie by Germans and policemen. In a panic the people attempted to escape from that place to the nearby forest. Some of them succeeded, but most of them were killed. According to some testimonies their bodies were later taken to the area of the garden of the Kommuna [kolkhoz] and buried there. The number of victims is estimated to have been between 75 and 80.