Murder Story of Markhlevsk Jews at the Markhlevsk China Factory Office

My mother told me this.... It was in September 1941.... But not all the Jews were shot on that day. They searched all the houses, looked behind every door. I know two girls who lived on Lenin Street, who were found, taken to the basement, and held there [along with other Jews]. About twenty people were found and shot in the course of two weeks.... We are now on Shchors Street. From this building, Lenin Street begins. There was the so-called office of the former china factory.… In its basement, there were up to 30-35 Jews, individual Jews who were caught during mass raids, ones who had been hiding in the forest after the mass raids and the shooting. Here they were held, after being rounded up, [in groups of] two or three people -- men, women, and girls -- all kept in one basement. And then, before the morning, the police took them to [unclear], dug an additional pit there, and shot them. This took place in September 1941.

My mother told me this.... It was in September 1941.... But not all the Jews were shot on that day. They searched all the houses, looked behind every door. I know two girls who lived on Lenin Street, who were found, taken to the basement, and held there [along with other Jews]. About twenty people were found and shot in the course of two weeks.... We are now on Shchors Street. From this building, Lenin Street begins. There was the so-called office of the former china factory.… In its basement, there were up to 30-35 Jews, individual Jews who were caught during mass raids, ones who had been hiding in the forest after the mass raids and the shooting. Here they were held, after being rounded up, [in groups of] two or three people -- men, women, and girls -- all kept in one basement. And then, before the morning, the police took them to [unclear], dug an additional pit there, and shot them. This took place in September 1941.

There used to be a field there. In 1947-48, we were children, and we played football there. Approximately over there, there used to be a hill, which was a meter and a half high, and all overgrown with weeds. We were afraid to approach it, because some adults told us that some people had been shot there. What people? During the war, those people, who had been shot by the police, were brought here and buried. They were individual people. Until 1950, it was like this. And then, one day, this hill disappeared. Were they reburied? Were they exhumed? Nobody could tell me. Some people said that Jews had been shot there. It is not known when they were shot. This was between the barn that we can see and the building that is on Lesya Ukrainka Street, in the village center. It was close to the former police station, where there is now a library. That is No. 6 Lesya Ukrainka Street. There is a vegetable garden there now.