Murder story of Uliyanovka Jews in the Ulyanovka Area

In February – March 1942 the mass extermination of the Jewish population was organized. The police went through the villages of Grushka County in drunken gangs. Following lists drawn up in advance by the village heads, they burst into Jewish homes and looted valuables, clothes, and shoes. The groups of Jews were taken and driven to the county gendarmerie and police headquarters, where they were beaten and tortured until they were half dead. Then, in terribly cold weather, they were forced to strip naked and taken out to be shot at pits that had been prepared in advance in a ravine behind the police station. They were shot from submachine-guns, rifles, and pistols. During the mass shooting many people, especially children, were thrown into the pits and, while still alive, covered with earth. With one child in her arms, Dobe Gershman was holding another child by the hand. She was shot and fell into the pit, together with the child who was still alive. When Savitskaya was shot, her 7 or 8-year-old daughter begged the police chief, Lisitsa, not to shoot her, claiming that she was Russian. But Lisitsa threw her into the pit alive. This is how more than 200 people were shot to death on that day. During the days of the mass shootings more than 700 Jewish people were shot dead, most of them old people, women, and children.