Murder story of Arzgir Jews in the Arzgir Ravine

Because I didn't really care one way or the other, I decided to go to Arzgir. I arrived there on August 11, 1941. I worked there in the budget department until the arrival of the Germans at the end of June 1942. When the Germans arrived, there were approximately 700 people who had evacuated from Bessarabia. Immediately, they [the Germans] started to register these people. The Jews were registered on one list, the Russians -- on another. Afterward, the Jews were sent to work; they worked there until September 1942. During the night of September 30 Ukrainian militia arrived at our place. Everyone was ordered to appear on October 1 at the Gestapo headquarters [supposedly] in order to be returned to their homeland. On October 1, in the morning, all of them showed up with their belongings. I was there too, but I was not on the list. The Jews remained calm. Absolutely no one knew that the Germans were going to slaughter them. In the meantime, everyone received a food ration because each of them had worked. By October 1 everyone had to be registered, along with their possessions. Everyone thought that they were going to go to Bessarabia since they were Jews from Bessarabia. However, it turned out quite differently. Everyone was ordered to gather in the courtyard, to arrange themselves into groups of four, and to leave their possessions, all their belongings, all their property, in the yard. At that point the Jews understood that they were not going to be returned to their homeland, and that what was going to happen would most likely be bad. A terrible outcry began. Jews with long beards fell at the feet of the Gestapo men. The children, including one particularly beautiful one, cried bitterly. I never saw them again. The Gestapo noticed me and someone said that I was Jewish. I had gone there with my friend, whom I happened to meet at work. She had also fled from Kiev and had worked with me in Russia until the arrival of the Germans. Her name was Elisabeta Ivanovna Tashkirina. She went with me to the Gestapo. She stood on the threshold, awaiting my return. When the Ukrainian militia started asking why she was standing there, she said that she was waiting for her colleague. "She is a Jew, she will die like all the others" [said a militia man]. She answered: “No! She is not Jewish.” I was interrogated from six in the morning until noon. At the last moment I saw Jews being taken under guard from the the yard to their deaths. This was very hard for me. I begged for help, because I had nothing, no food or anything else. Then one German said: "Go!" I was shocked, I couldn't move, but there were a translator there who led me to the door where the Ukrainian militiamen were standing. My colleague was still there next to the door and she took me away - to her apartment. On the same day we left the apartment in order to cover our tracks, moving to another part of the village. At four p.m. I heard the rattling of machine-gun fire when they started to kill the Jews. I was registered as a Pole under the name Anna Wladislawowna Tepper. The moment that I heard the sound of the machine-gun fire, I realized that the Jews were being killed. There were 525 of them. There was a ravine and the Germans ordered the Jews to stand above it, and then the Ukrainians shot them and took the Jews' possessions. I cried because of what had happened. According to local witnesses, the earth heaved for an hour because of the people who were still alive in the mass grave. Only one person, a boy, succeeded in escaping from the pit [ravine] during the night. He went far, far from that place and remembered that day for the rest of his life.