Murder Story of Budennovsk Jews on Pushkin Street in Budyonnovsk

January, 1967 Interrogation Report in Krasnodar Einsatzgruppe D The Germans ordered all people of Jewish nationality, who lived in Budyonnovsk to appear at the yard of the SD. They were to bring with thenm only their valuables and food for some days. They were told that they were going to be evacuated to another place. On that day the Jews -- men, women, children, and very old people -- showed up with their families in the yard of the SD. Our group were ordered to guard them there. Two trucks were waiting in the yard for all the people to show up. The head of the SD, I cannot remember his name, ordered the Jews to leave all their valuables and their food there and to enter the vehicles. They were told that they would get their things back as soon as they arrived at their destination. The people entered the trucks obediently, taking their little children with them. As soon as they were in the vehicles, we too were ordered to to enter the vehicles to guard those people. Afterward, the vehicles left the yard and drove out of the town. I do not remember in which direction. Soon we arrived at an anti-tank trench. There the vehicles stopped and we left the vehicles. The people who were under arrest remained in the vehicles. Our group, that means Asljani, Obosin, Kurotshkin, me, and others, including Matewosjan and Akop, were ordered to cordon off the execution site. I cannot say who else was involved in cordoning off the area because I cannot remember the family names of those people. The translators, Jurtshenko, and the Germans were directly involved in the mass shooting. They unloaded the vehicle and ordered the people to undress after they left the vehicles. The victims realized that they were going to be shot; they started to cry and to scream while they were taking off their clothes. Mothers begged that their children not to be shot, but the Germans ordered them to also completely undress the children. After the people were naked, they said farewell to each other and approached the pit. The mothers cared their children in their arms. They stopped at the pit and the Germans, the translators, and Jurtshenko shot them in the head with a pistol. The people fell into the pit, and then the above-mentioned [shooters] left and went back to another vehicle,forced the people to the pit and to undress, and then shot them to the death. The vehicles went back to the town but returned after a while with new victims. This procedure was repeated. Overall each vehicle did two runs, with approximately 100 or more people being murdered on that day. All the shooting took place in front of my eyes because I was approximately 10 meters away, in the cordon, and saw everything. After each person was shot to death, we took his or her clothes and went back to our location.