Murder story of Baranovka Jews in the Silage Pits in the Yosifovka Area

We are now on the outskirts of the village of Yosipovka. Before the war, these used to be ordinary fields – but now, as you can see, the area is forested. There are two silage pits where, during the war, the Fascists shot innocent residents of Jewish origin. The shooting began on January 11, 1943. The employees of the Baranovka china factory, and their families, were brought here under guard. As long as the Germans were willing to fight on and keep the factory operating, they spared the lives of the workers. The factory artisans had traditionally been Jews. However, on the night of January 11, 1943, these people were taken into custody, having been told that they had to go to the Radulino railway station, not far from here, to be transported to Germany or elsewhere. Instead, they were brought to this place. As you can see, we have now traveled 8 kilometers from Baranovka, to the silage pits that were used as a murder site. A group of policemen, headed by Tomashevskiy, arranged the shooting. Planks were put across the pits, and the policemen forced the Jews onto the planks, so that they would fall into the pit after being shot. About 600 people were killed in this fashion in the course of 24 hours. This was not the only shooting site in the forest. There are some additional Jewish burial sites – both clusters and single graves, with 5-7 people in each of them – that lie not far away, about 150-250 meters from here. The graves are unmarked now; the "markers" appear in the spring, when the whole area is in blossom. [By contrast,] the pits remain black, since the soil in them contains so much phosphorus.