Murder Story of Budennovsk Jews in the Anti-Tank Trench in the Budyonnovsk Area

October 14, 1975 Interrogation Report in Stavropol Einsatzgruppe D During the temporary German-fascist occupation of a part of the Soviet Union I did my duty in the Caucasian company of the SD; it was under the command of Einsatzgruppe 12. From August-September 1942 until January 10, 1943, I served together with Sarkisjan, in the town of Budyonnovsk. As soon as we arrived in Budyonnovsk, we were under a German officer, but I cannot remember his name. At first in Budyonnovsk in “EK [Einsatzkommando or "Unit"] 12" there were only Sarkisjan and me and four Germans with whom we worked. One of them had an officer's rank. The other three were non-commissioned officers. Some Germans and Caucasians joined our Einsatzkommando. Afterward, our commando had between eight to twelve persons, among them six Germans, the rest was Caucasians. During our service in the SD unit in Budyonnovsk, our main duty was to guard the building, during day, as well as at night. The unit was mainly occupied with the annihilation of the inhabitants of Jewish nationality. For example, on one day in August or September, in some location, the [local] police of Budyonnovsk arrested a group of Jews; they were taken into town and locked up in a residential building which was next to our building. The police officers told [us], that those Jewish people had been arrested in neighboring villages. I cannot tell exactly how many people had been arrested, but it was between 45 and 50. Among them were men, women, old people, and children. I do not know which of those police officers arrested those Jews and how they did this, because I did not saw this. The police officers handed over the prisoners to the members of our unit. After that, we guarded them; I was among those who guarded those prisoners. They were under our supervision for one or two nights. After that, in the morning, the leader of our commando ordered us to take our weapons and to prepare us to leave with the Jews for the outskirts of town. We did not knew the reason for this. We took our weapons and just at that time two trucks arrived in our yard. One of them belonged to our unit; the other was clearly from Pyatigorsk. Those vehicles drove to the building where the prisoners were, and we went there on foot. The leader of the unit, a German, opened the door of the prison building and ordered the Jews to enter the vehicles. The minute the prisoners saw the weapons, they began to cry since it was not difficult for them to understand that they were going to be driven to their execution. The Germans pushed the victims to force them to enter the vehicles faster. The people entered the vehicles with tears in their eyes, but they did not put up any resistance. As far as the prisoner took a seat in the vehicles, it was ordered that we should also enter the vehicles and to guard them on the way to the execution site. I sat there, together with Asat Sarkasijan in one vehicle and , together, we guarded the prisoners. Wolodja and some soldiers who were Chechens by nationality, guarded the prisoners in the other vehicle. As soon as everything was prepared for departure, the leader of the unit set off driving in his car with the other vehicles behind him. As far as I remember, we left town and headed west along a side road. I cannot remember if we crossed some built up areas, but I believe that we did not cross any built up areas. However, I do remember that we crossed a railroad line which lead to the town Budyonnovsk. After six to seven kilometers beyond the town we turned off the road, to the left or the right, I cannot remember exactly [in which direction]. We stopped at a pit, which was similar to an anti-tank trench. It was not broader than three meters and not less than 100 meters long. This pit had been dug in an open field and there was neither any rise or elevation there. … At the very moment that we arrived at the pit and stopped, the Jews realized that they were going to be shot to death. They started to cry and beg for mercy. Especially the women and children cried, but not a single one of the violent criminals cared. A German officer, the head of the unit,commando, ordered the prisoners to leave the vehicles, to undress and to move to the edge of the pit. The Jews did not want to leave the vehicles and asked the Germans not to shoot them since they were innocent. However, the violent criminals forced them to leave the vehicles and to undress. After the victims realized that they could not change the situation; they left the unloading area of the vehicles, [they] left their clothes three meters from the pit, and moved toward the pit. Then they were ordered to get down on their knees, what they did. Afterwards the commander of the “EK 12” and another German who had riden with us to the pit shot the victims to death in the neck with their pistols. The victims kneeled down facing the pit. The drivers of the vehicles forced who did not wanted to go to go anyway. There were three of these drivers. Sarkisjan and I were at he unloading area of the vehicles. Among the victims were children: they were 15 children between 3 and 10 years old. They had arrived with their parents at the execution place. The smallest ones were held by their parents while otherand parents were leading their young children by the arm. Furthermore, the children were undressed before the execution. The women had to strip to their slpis and the men to their underwear. The children were killed together with their parents by a pistol shot to the neck.