Murder story of Yessentuki Jews in the Glass Factory in the Mineralnyye Vody Area (Gas Vans)

I was born in Leningrad on September 20, 1923, and was a Soviet citizen. I was Jewish not by religion, but by race. My father’s name was David Ossinovski, and my mother was Esther, née Rautenshtein. In 1939, I enrolled in the University of Leningrad and studied art history. From August 1941, I experienced all the horrors of the Siege of Leningrad. Then, in April 1942, there was a momentary break in the siege, and I was evacuated to the Caucasus, to Yessentuki. There, I was trained as a nurse at a hospital. The Germans occupied this area in August 1942. To receive the bread coupons, the Jews had to be registered. After a short waiting period, all the registered individuals had to show up for work, and they were then forced to wear the yellow badge. The Wehrmacht arrived first, followed by the SS a month later. Then, all the Jews and half-Jews who had been unable to hide were slaughtered. Friends hid me, while other friends supplied me with fake documents, which gave my name as "Clavdiya Avdeyevna, born 1921." My presence endangered my friends, since many people in the town knew that I was Jewish. A friend of mine drove to Pemeshnaya, so I took advantage of this opportunity and drove with her to Pemeshnaya. It was a little village in Ukraine, near the Romanian border.