Murder Story of Armavir Jews in the Anti-Tank Trench in the Krasnaya Polyana Area

In August or September 1942 the German authorities ordered the Jews of Armavir and nearby rural areas to prepare for evacuation. The Germans told them that they would be relocated to a supposedly safe place. At first approximately 525 Jews were taken under guard to the brick factory at 57 Shosseynaya Street, where they had to leave their clothes and belongings. Then the Germans took them to an anti–tank trench, approximately eleven kilometers from Armavir, near the village of Krasnaya Polyana. At that place the Germans shot the Jews to death and buried them in the trench. In the course of their occupation the Germans used the trench for other mass shootings of the civilian population in and around Armavir. About 6,680 bodies were found there after the liberation of Armavir.