Murder Story of Tetiyev Jews at the Pyatigory Machine Tractor Station

…Stavishchi, a policeman from Tetiyev, and gendarmes from Tetiyev County took part in a shooting operation against Jews in the village of Pyatigory in the fall of 1942. A total of 55-60 [local] policemen and 3 Germans came to Pyatigory to shoot the Jews. The Germans were divisional sergeant of the Tetiyev gendarmerie Pobyl, chief of the Tetiyev gendarmerie Hoffmann, and divisional sergeant of the Tetiyev gendarmerie named Adolf, whose last name, however, I do not know. The following policemen participated in the shooting operation conducted against the Jews in Pyatigory: the chief of Tetiyev police Ivan Kurovskiy; deputy police chief Andrei Markotyuk; and a policeman from the Tetiyev gendarmerie Pyotr Mitsenskiy. I remember the following policemen: Yefim Panchenko, Pavel Panchenko, Ivan Golodnyi, Fyodor Moskalyuk, Semyon Moskalyuk, Anton Serenchuk, Grigori Benderskiy, Aleksandr Polishchuk, Ivan Fayer, Polyarush, Bas, Muzychko, Korniychuk, Sinyavskiy, Lipa, Susal; I was with them too… Before leaving for Pyatigory the police collected from the all the villages of the county [Tetiyev County] the Jews living there. The Jews were taken by horse [by sled] to the village of Pyatigory. The police took 7 families whose names I do not remember from Tetiyev. Absolutely all the Jews were taken by the police. On their way to the village of Pyatigory from Tetiyev, the policemen took all the arrested Jews with them. When we arrived at Pyatigory, the Jews from other villages of Tetiyev County (from Kashperovka, from Dibrovka, from Goroshkovo, from Pyatigory and from Tetiyev) were taken there. A total of 140-150 Jews of various ages and of both sexes were collected in the village of Pyatigory…. All these Jews were locked up in a building… In the evening the gendarmerie chief, the German Hoffmann, and police chief Kurovskiy gathered all the policemen and Kurovskiy told us: "Tomorrow early in the morning we are going to shoot all the Jews and each policeman has to shoot 5 people. This is an order from Pan (Mister) Hoffmann." Early in the morning all the Jews were taken out of the building where they had been held, surrounded by the policemen, and taken to the Pyatigory MTS, where the Jews were forced into a cold garage. [Outside] it was very cold, frosty, and windy. About 50 meters from the garage a ditch had been dug some time before. The Jews were forced to take off their clothes by a German named Adolf and then were taken in groups of 5-8 from the garage to the ditch. They had had to take off all their outer garments, kerchiefs, and some had to remove their good shoes. The nursing infants were carried from the garage to the ditch in their mothers' arms. The Germans Hoffmann and Pobyl approached the ditch. The following policemen went voluntarily with the German to shoot the Jews: Ivan Kurovskiy, Kirill Sinyavskiy, Ivan Fayer, Bas, and several Stavishche policemen whom I do not know. The rest of the policemen stood guard at the garage, where the Jews were being held. Policemen who had been assigned by the German named Adolf guarded the Jews when they were taken to be shot. The shooting was carried out with pistols and rifles…The Jews went to the shooting in silence. Only in the garage were children crying….

…QUESTION: Who arrested you and took you to the police [station] on December [sic, November] 15, 1942? ANSWER: I was arrested by the policemen Semyon Morozyuk and Semyon Moskalyuk from the village of Plokhanovka. They came to our apartment and stated that I and my mother Anna Borisovna Fishman were being arrested. They took us to the police [station], and put us into a cell there. On that day all the Jews in the village of Tetiyev, irrespective of sex or age, were arrested. A total of about 20 people were arrested in Tetiyev… QUESTION: What was done to the Jewish people after they were arrested? ANSWER: We remained in the cell for only 3 hours. At about 11 A.M. on December [sic, November] 15 all the Jewish inmates were taken out of the cell, placed on sleds, and taken under police guard to the village of Pyatigory. In Pyatigory we were herded into one room, where we spent the night. Apart from the Jewish population from the village of Tetiyev, Jewish people from all the other villages of Tetiyev County were taken to Pyatigory. QESTION: Tell us how the Germans and policemen shot the Jewish population in Pyatigory. ANSWER: At 6 a. m.. of December [sic, November] 16 we were taken out of the school building and ordered to line up two abreast. My mother and I were one of the groups of two. We were surrounded on all sides by policemen and taken to the territory of the Pyatigory MTS, where all of us were forced into a barn. Four Germans, with an Oberleutnant, whose name I do not know, were at the head of the column. After we were driven into the barn, we were ordered to strip [in groups] of three-four people. Not only our outer clothes, but also our dresses, shirts, decent pants, and all our shoes had to be taken off. The children too were made to take all their clothes. The German assistant of Gendarmerie chief Pobyl ordered us to strip. After the groups of 3-4 people were stripped, they were taken to a pit located about 30 meters away… and shot there. First [groups] of 3-4 men were taken to be shot, then women and children. When the Jews were taken to the pit, they were ordered to sit down at its edge and were shot there. Heart-rending scenes took place in the barn where we were. Mothers and children, relatives and friends said farewell to each other. The mothers begged the German gendarme Pobyl, who knew Ukrainian, to spare the children but the Germans and policemen were implacable. I looked through a hole in the barn [wall] at the shooting site. The executioners were in a hurry and did not shoot the nursing infants but grabbed them by the legs and threw them alive into the pit, along with the bodies of those who had been shot. The shooting was carried out from 6 a.m. to 9 a. m. on December [sic, November] 16, 1943 [sic, 1942]….