Murder Story of Sakhnovshchina Jews at the Sakhnovshchina Airfield

In spring 1942, I personally saw the auxiliary policemen of the town of Sakhnovshchina, together with the Germans, take groups of 2-3 and more Soviet citizens to be shot at the pit behind the veterinary hospital of Sakhnovshchina.… The auxiliary policemen Semenets, Anton Sidorenko, and Sheyko (I do not know the names of the rest of them) took [the people] there and shot [them]. I know the auxiliary policemen who guarded the citizens and carried out the shootings very well - I saw it myself, since I live near the shooting site. I also repeatedly saw the auxiliary policemen Semenets, Sidorenko, and Sheyko strip the bodies of the murdered citizens and take their clothes for themselves. Other policemen, whose names I do not know, followed their example. QUESTION: Can you tell us how many bodies of Soviet citizens there are in those pits? ANSWER: I cannot give you the exact number of bodies of Soviet citizens; I cannot even guess, but there is a great lot of them. Two large pits were filled to the brim. They did not even cover these bodies properly, so that dogs would snatch arms, legs, and human skulls from there. I approached those pits once, but could not stand the horror, and went away immediately. I just saw human bodies scattered inside the pit, as well as arms, legs, heads, and torn clothes [scattered] around it….

…A large quantity of human skulls and other bones, of men, women, and children, was discovered during the excavation of the 20x20 meter pit at the former airfield, at a depth of one meter. The bodies were not at all preserved. The witness Ivan Timofeevich Soshin (born 1877) testifies: “I live across from the veterinary clinic. Back during the Soviet period, a storage pit for fuel was dug at the airfield in front of my house. All the time, in the evening and early morning, the German authorities would lead groups of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and even more Soviet citizens and Red Army soldiers to that pit, and shoot them there.… On May 1 [1942], a woman being led away to be shot was weeping bitterly and begging the killers not to shoot her, claiming that she was completely innocent and knew nothing. They shot her [all the same]. I personally saw the auxiliary policemen Sheyko, Sidorenko, Redko, Budko, Perets, Struts, another person named Sidorenko, Semenets, Rezinkin, Kishinets, and some Germans whose names I do not know carry out the shootings. I also saw that the citizens led away to be shot were followed by the German commandant of Sakhnovshchina in person. Very often, the auxiliary policemen, gendarmes, and Germans would come into my courtyard after the shooting and wash their bloody hands in the well. They would bring the clothes and shoes of the shot citizens. All of them would be drunk, and they would frequently go on drinking in my house. At least 500 persons were shot at that pit. I can state it with certainty only because I saw it myself. Furthermore, my kitchen garden was near that pit, and, just before the spring sowing in 1942, while I was in the kitchen garden with my wife, I collected some 280 human skulls that had been dragged out of that pit by dogs. I gathered these human skulls and buried them in the pit.