Murder Story of Levokumskoye Jews at the Levokumskoye Brick Factory

Somehow, we could deduce that something horrible was about to happen. The German command and their collaborators prepared this atrocity. They had enough time to carry out a registration of the local residents and the evacuated citizens of Jewish nationality. Then, in late September 1942, the Germans hurriedly began to arrest the citizens of Jewish nationality.… There were rumors at the time, according to which the arrestees would be taken to the railway station and transported elsewhere. Then, on October 2, 1942, at about 1:30 PM (Moscow standard time), we saw a big column of people on Proletarskaya Street. They were guarded by a large contingent of Germans and local policemen on horseback.… And so, on October 2, 1942, we heard the shots until sunset. The sounds were particularly audible on the west side of the village of Levokumskoye, where I used to live… On October 3, 1942, at about 3 PM, [we] went to the killing site and looked at the graves.… The graves measured 3 x 6 meters, and they were filled with bodies.... In the early morning on October 2, 1942, the German villains took the civilians – elderly persons, men, women, and children – out of the village of Levokumskoye, to the area of the brick factory. There, 286 people were buried in three ditches.