Murder Story of Dubăsari Jews at the Dubăsari Tobacco Factory

In late August 1941, SS-Obersturmfuhrer Max Drexel, the commander of a detachment of Einsatzkommando 12, ordered a member of Einsatzkommando 12, Walter Kehrer, to dig several pits outside the town. Subsequently, Walter Kehrer approached the newly appointed mayor of Dubăsari, Alexandr Demenchuk, asking him to mobilize locals to dig trenches on the northern outskirts of the town, ostensibly for the storage of vegetables for the German Army. On Demenchuk's orders, Ukrainian policemen, local laborers from the surrounding villages, and some Jewish men from the ghetto dug seven pits in the field near the former tobacco factory. In mid-September 1941, when the pits had been dug, Drexel, with the assistance of the Romanian authorities, ordered the shooting of at least 1,500 Jewish men, women, and children who had been concentrated in the ghetto by this time. On September 11, the eve of the shooting, Drexel, acting through Mayor Demenchuk, spread misinformation among the Jewish ghetto inmates, claiming that they would be moved to the city of Tiraspol on the morrow. Early in the next morning, September 12, the entire population of the ghetto (men, women, elderly people, and many children), who had their belongings with them, were convoyed by German and Romanian police, and by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen, to the former tobacco factory. There, the killers separated the Jewish men from the women and children. The victims had to hand over their possessions and remove their overcoats. They were then taken directly to the shooting pits, in groups of about 100. The women and children were left under police guard in the courtyard of the tobacco factory. Upon reaching the shooting site, the men were rushed toward the pits in groups of 20, forced to kneel facing the pits, and shot with carbines in the back of the head. The shooting was carried out by the firing squad of Einsatzkommando 12 (consisting of 20 members). Each group of victims was covered with straw and earth that had been prepared in advance for this purpose. The Jews who did not fall into the pit after being shot would be pushed into it with pitchforks. After the execution of the men, the women and children were taken to the shooting site. Some of the women, who were unwilling to undress, were severely beaten with clubs by the policemen. Afterward, the women were separated into groups of 20 and forced toward the pits. During the shooting, some small children, who were covered by their mothers, fell into the pit alive together with the mothers' bodies. There, they either suffocated or were buried alive, unless killed by the bullets fired by the Germans to finish off any survivors. Other children were shot in front of their mothers. According to a testimony, some members of the firing squad had to be replaced because of the psychological stress. During the shooting, alcohol was given to the members of the squad and to the auxiliary forces. Romanian gendarmes and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen were guarding the murder site, to prevent the Jews from escaping. Max Drexel was present at the murder site, overseeing the process of mass shooting, while Walter Kehrer directly determined its course, issuing the necessary commands to the victims at the pits and frequently giving the order to open fire. After the annihilation of the Jews, the clothing and valuables stripped from them before the execution were taken to the former old hospital, which was now the headquarters of Einsatzkommando 12 (according to another testimony, they were taken to the storeroom of the Dubǎsari town council). Alexandr Demenchuk took the best clothes for himself and for the local policemen, while the items of clothing deemed unfit to wear were given to the locals who had covered the bodies of the Jewish victims. Around September 20, 1941, an additional group of least 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children were brought to Dubǎsari on foot from the towns of Krasnye Okna and Kotovsk. Upon arrival, they were locked up in the barracks of the former tobacco factory. Then men were separated from the women and children, and, having been stripped of their valuables and overcoats, they had to make their way to the execution site in the same field near the disused tobacco factory. There, they were shot by the squad of Einsatzkommando 12. Subsequently, the women and children, too, were shot at the same site. The killing method was identical to the one used in the previous mass shooting. For about ten more days, other Jews arrested in various districts of Moldavia were brought to the site to be shot.