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Murder story of Miłowidy Jews in the Mołotówka River Area

Murder Site
Molotovka River Area
Poland
Grave of the Jewish victims from Milowidy
Grave of the Jewish victims from Milowidy
Iosif Rubakha (Rubacha), Copy YVA 14616213
The Jewish populations of Milowidy and of nearby Skorynki village were murdered on August 7, 1941. The Germans who arrived in the village on that day collected the Jews and took them to bushes near the Mołotówka River. There the victims were divided into three groups – men, women, and children- and then shot in peat pits. Two of the women attempted to escape from the site. Shortly afterward, one of them, apparently wounded, drowned in the river. The other returned to the murder site and was shot on the following day. According to some sources the number of the victims is estimated as having been 24.
Related Resources
Lyuba (Lyubov) Volchok (neè Kruchenko), who was born in 1927 in Milowidy and lived there during the war years, testified: (Interviewed by Iosif and Alexey Rubakha (Polish: Rubacha) in 2013
Lyuba (Lyubov) Volchok (neè Kruchenko)
Photo by Iosif and Alexey Rubakha (Polish: Rubacha
One Sunday, at about three o'clock a killilng squad arrived… They [the Jews] numbered 27. The children were put in the first group, the men -- in the second group, and the women -- in the third group. [So they were divided] into the three groups. And they [the members of the killing squad] shot those 27 people. Two people remained alive but were wounded. One was an elderly woman; the other was my friend Liba. They were shot on the far side of the reiver. There was a bridge there that leads to some village. The younger one drowned. She became weak because of her wounds and she drowned. The first person, the elderly woman, went to them [to the Germans] and was shot. She survived until the next morning. What she went through, that poor one... [sighs] She remained there until the next morning. She said to some people: "Go to the Germans and call them to come to finish me off. This is how it was. She suffered a lot. So, some people went and told them [what she had said] because she cried and said: "I won't survive in any case." And indeed, one German came, and people say that she closed her eyes, and …[unclear]. Q.: Where did the Germans shoot them? A. You know, beyond the bridge there is a village, there are some bushes growing there. They [the Germans] took them behind the bushes . (Today there is a farm there.)So they took them [the Jews] to the bushes near the river and shot them there.
Private Collection of Iosif and Alexey Rubakha (Polish: Rubacha)
Molotovka River Area
Murder Site
Poland
52.895;25.850
Grave of the Jewish victims from Milowidy
Grave of the Jewish victims from Milowidy
Iosif Rubakha (Rubacha), Copy YVA 14616213