Murder story of Krasnograd Jews in the Natalino Ravine

…An exhumation of the grave of some 90 Jewish residents of the city of Krasnograd shot by the German-Fascist occupiers has been carried out, and the following has been determined: The bodies of the shot were thrown into the pit haphazardly; since 1.5 years have passed since the shooting in June 1942, they can no longer be identified. The shooting was not witnessed by any residents of the village of Natalino. However, collective farmers who had joined the commission for exhuming the grave told us that, one evening in summer (approximately in June) 1942, the Jewish population had been taken away from the town of Krasnograd in two vehicles, and driven to the ravine of a clay pit about half a kilometer beyond the village of Natalino, where they were brutally shot. Some of the victims were thrown into the pit alive and covered with soil, and human noises and moans could be heard from inside the pit. The victims of the shooting included Anna Vulfovna Grimberg, a physician from the Krasnograd clinic; Goldshteyn…, Gosteva, and others….

…In June 1942, during the Red Army offensive, the police and the Gendarmerie [apparently, this refers to the Feldgendarmerie, the military police]… ordered the Jewish population, both adults and children, to come forward to be registered. They subjected them to various forms of abuse in the police courtyard. Afterward, they [the policemen] rounded up 90 Jews, loaded them on two covered vehicles, and took them to a ravine beyond the village of Natalino, where they tortured them, and then shot them over the ravine. Some of the wounded were buried alive, while those trying to crawl out of the ground would be finished off with spade blows on the head, or have their hands and feet chopped off.

…In June 1942, the German monsters, under the threat of death, rounded up the entire Jewish population of the town of Krasnograd, including the children and the elderly individuals, and herded them all into a single courtyard on Leningrad Street. After subjecting them to various forms of abuse, forcing them to run, sit down, and stand up…, they brought two covered vehicles, loaded [the Jews] onto them, took them [the Jews] to a ravine beyond the village of Natalino in the Krasnograd County, and shot them after brutal torture….

It happened before the harvesting of the crops. On my way back from Krasnograd, I was overtaken by two vehicles full of people. They looked sad. Some of them smiled involuntary smiles that looked forced, while others had tears glistening in their eyes, since they guessed where the insatiable Fascist bloodsuckers were taking them. When I approached my yard, I saw both vehicles standing there…. At that moment, my mother emerged from the yard. I asked, “Why are these vehicles standing here?” My mother replied in a tone full of unhappiness and anxiety: “Jews are being shot”. At that moment, the cries of the innocent people reached our ears. Two persons holding each other by the hand – apparently on the orders of the Fascist dogs – ran forward crying. It was impossible to understand what they were crying. At that moment, a submachine gun began to rattle, and these two vanished. I had no more energy to look at this horrible and tragic scene…. The next day, on my way to the kitchen garden I passed the place where those skunks had carried out the shooting of the Jews. Here, I met the citizen Lena Slivka. We noticed two nearby patches of earth that seemed to be dug up. When we approached, we saw pits covered with whole layers of earth, with human bodies and clothes sticking through the gaps….

…Once in the summer – I cannot tell you the exact month, but approximately in June 1942 – the German occupiers drove all the Jewish residents of the town of Krasnograd, from the youngest to the oldest, into the courtyard where I lived at the time, and herded them into three houses from which all the Russian residents had been evicted. The three houses were guarded by [local] policemen and German soldiers, and no Jew was let out. Two covered vehicles approached, and the Jewish population was herded into them. Nursing babies were held upside down by the legs and thrown into the vehicle. There was also a girl, the daughter of my brother Fyodor Bondarenko, whose mother was Jewish. She, too, was thrown into the vehicle. I tried to rescue the girl from the vehicle…, but the child remained there. After herding the Jewish population into the two vehicles, the German monsters drove them to a ravine beyond the village of Natalino and shot them. The Jewish residents… who remained in the courtyard were abused in various ways, being ordered to stand up, sit down, run, etc.… During the night, they, too, were taken by vehicle [to the ravine] beyond the village of Natalino and shot there….

I cannot say what month it was, but sometime in summer 1942 I learned from the residents that the German occupiers had taken the Jewish population of the town of Krasnograd to the village of Natalino by vehicle, and shot them in a ravine beyond the village. Sometime later, Kolomiitsev [Kolomiets], the headman of the collective farm, told me to go to the place where the Jews had been shot and bury them, since the rotting bodies were creating a stench, and were also being devoured by dogs…. I went to the shooting site and found a 1-meter deep, 3x4-meters wide pit, which was heavily overgrown. The earth had been dug up by the dogs, and the… bodies had already been torn apart by them. Many human bodies, both male and female, were piled in the pit. I also discovered the bodies of three children, who were approximately three years old. I gathered up the body parts that had been torn off by the dogs, returned them to the pit, and covered it with soil – i.e., I buried the remains in such a way that the dogs would no longer be able to reach them. There were some 30 shot Jews, and I would later learn from rumors that they had been taken there in two vehicles….

…During the German occupation, I lived in the village of Natalino in the Krasnograd County…. Approximately in late June 1942, the German Fascists removed the Jewish residents of the town of Krasnograd by vehicle, and took them to a site about one kilometer from the village of Natalino, where there were clay pit ravines. They then subjected them to brutal abuse for no reason, [and] shot them there. I myself did not go to the shooting site, because I was afraid, and neither did any of the other residents [of the village]. I cannot tell you how many Jews were brought there. However, collective farmers who were working in the fields and walking past the shooting site saw the fresh [?] [grave?] of the executed people, from which the stench was already spreading. Once, already in early July 1942, a field crop grower from the collective farm, Polikarp Naumovich Pugach, who is now serving in the Red Army, told me personally that [the bodies] of the executed Jews were already in the dump pits, being torn apart by dogs, and that the stench ought to be dealt with – i.e., …the bodies should be buried. I… spoke to the citizen Nikolai Vereshchago, asking him to go to the shooting site and bury the bodies. Vereshchago did so….

…During the German occupation, I lived in the village of Natalino.… Approximately in June 1942, I went to work at the kitchen garden, and was followed closely by a German vehicle, which was honking at me, although I did not pay it any mind and did not look back. After some time, I heard the sounds of gunfire, and, turning back, I noticed that the Jewish residents were sitting in one of the vehicles, while the other one was closed. The people – the Jewish residents – were crowded near the ravine.… I wanted to get closer to see what this was all about, but then I saw that the German Fascist monsters, who were armed with submachine guns, were shooting the Jewish residents…. When the sounds of gunfire had died down, I, being curious about what had taken place in the ravine near the village of Natalino…, decided to go to the ravine. There, I saw pits covered with a thin layer of soil.… Moans [and] noises were… coming from inside the pits, and the earth was shifting, rising and falling. Hair and clothing… could be seen near the pit….