Murder Story of Makarov Jews in the Garden of the Vozrozhdeniye Collective Farm

FROM THE TESTIMONY OF YAKOV PAVLOVSKIY: …I participated in the arrest and shooting of these [Makarov] Jews and I know about Skrobach, that he also participated in it. This was in late summer, before the start of the fall, in 1941, soon after I started my service in the rural police of the village of Makarov. At that time the rural police was still sharing a building with the rural and county administration, a private house near the building of the Makarov County military registration and enlistment office. Approximately after 11 a.m., all the policemen were gathered at the police station…German gendarmes were also there and I saw Skrobach talking to them. I do not know why Skrobach did not give us policemen, any orders, but [instead] Ivan Ivanovich Bozhok read out the last names of Jews [and] the assigned policemen who went, together with the Germans, showing them the apartments in which Jews, who were subsequently arrested by the Germans, lived. I personally was then ordered to show the house of a Jew named Vinnitskiy and I did so. I pointed out to the Germans the house in which Vinnitskiy was living. He was arrested by the Germans and shot afterwards. I do not know what exact role was played by Skrobach in the arrest of the Jews since I did not see this. The property of the arrested Jews was then taken to Vinnitskiy's house, where subsequently it was guarded by policemen. It is hard for me to say how many Jews were arrested but among them there were many women, children, and elderly people. I do not know where they were held after their arrest but when, on the next day or the second day after their arrest, they were taken to be shot, they were taken from a barn in the yard of the former Makarov County executive council, that housed the Gendarmerie or the Gestapo (I do not know which for sure) during the occupation. In any case, there were many Germans there. On the day the Jews were shot Skrobach…participated in this murder operation. I cannot say exactly what part Skrobach took in the shooting of the Jews, but it was [basically] as follows. The policemen…assembled at the appointed time in the morning at the police [station]. From the police [station] all of us were sent to the yard of the former Makarov County executive council, where there were already some Germans. There the Germans took out of the barn and lined up the arrested Jews, women, men, elderly people, [and] children - all those who were able to walk. I saw him, Skrobach, among the Germans who were taking the arrested Jews from the barn and lining them up. He walked around there and spoke about something to the Germans. After all the arrested Jews were lined up, on German orders we policemen surrounded them on all sides and, in this way, took them under guard to the site of the upcoming shooting, to the garden of the "Vidrozhdenne" [Vozrozhdeniye, "revival" in Ukrainian] collective farm in the village of Makarov. Together with us policemen, the Germans guarded the Jews up to the shooting place and I saw Skrobach going with them, the Germans, to the shooting place. After we took the arrested Jews to the garden of the collective farm, the Germans split up us policemen and assigned us to cordon off the garden, while they started shooting the Jews. I personally was also part of the cordon of athe shooting place, but was too far away from that place to see whether or not Skrobach took a direct part in the shooting of Jews but, after the shooting of Jews was over, together with the policemen Chmyak [?], who was [also] part of the cordon, on German orders I went to the pit to bury the bodies of the Jews who had been shot; [I saw] at that time that he, Skrobach, together with the Germans, had already left the pit, where the bodies of the Jews who had been shot were lying…

…Being the chief of the Makarov [auxiliary] police, on one day in September 1941, he [Skrobach], together with policemen under his command and some Germans, participated in the mass arrest of Soviet Jewish civilians living in the village of Makarov. Then the murderers arrested 39 Jewish women, children, and elderly people, who on the next day were [all] shot by Germans, with his [Skrobach's] and other policemen's participation, in the garden of the collective farm Vozrozhdeniye of the village of Makarov….

…About 300 people, including Jews, Communists, prisoners of war and [Soviet] activists, were arrested during the time of my work in the police. All of them were incarcerated in the Makarov prison. The arrests were carried out on my orders. About 90-100 people…mostly Jews, from among those arrested, were shot in the fall of 1941. All of the 100 people were shot in groups of 7 to 10 to 17 people in the garden of a collective farm near the police station in the village of Makarovo [Makarov]; their bodies were thrown into a mass grave… I was present twice at the shooting of Jews in November 1941. About 30 people were shot on those occasions. I was there at the shooting to check the cordons of the policemen who were under my orders. The shootings were carried out by the Germans themselves, while the policemen only guarded [the place]. At no time did I participate in the shooting…

…In the second half of September 1941, I do not remember the exact date, in my capacity as chief of the county police, I was ordered by the chief of German field gendarmerie [military police] (I do not know his last name) to assign, at first 4 policemen and then 4 more, and to dispatch them to the field gendarmerie. At that time I assigned a total of 8 policemen. Since this number was not enough, I too had to take part in the operation of arresting Soviet Jewish civilians. During the first half of the day officials of the German field gendarmerie, divided into groups, together with the policemen I had assigned, carried out the arrests of Soviet Jewish civilians throughout the town of Makarov. The officials of the gendarmerie entered the houses [of the Jews] by themselves and arrested the Jews, who were handed over to the policemen who were to guard them to the prison at the Makarov county police [station]. I remember participating then as part of a group consisting of 4 [German] gendarmes, me, and a policeman Shulga whose name and patronymic I do not remember, in arresting the Jews. At that time we arrested four Jews, two of whom were imprisoned by me personally and two more were taken to the prison by policeman Shulga. On that day a total of about 20 Jews - women, children, and elderly people - were arrested, as I have already mentioned [in his testimony in February 1950 Skrobach stated that 20 Jewish families had been arrested and shot]… All the intact items of Jewish property were taken by the German field gendarmes, while the rest, especially the furniture, was sold to the [local] population… The arrested Soviet Jewish civilians were kept in the [prison] cells of the Makarov County police [station],where they were guarded by policemen under my command and, then, in early October 1941, all those who had been arrested were shot at the same place, in the town of Makarov, in the former collective farm garden… Those arrested Jews were shot by members of the German field gendarmerie….