Murder Story of Sumy Jews at the Aero Club in Sumy

In February 1942, the Germans began to round up the Jews of the city – men and women, children and elderly people – in the courtyard of the aero club, in the area of the Church of the Nativity. I cannot remember the exact date, but it was sometime in February 1942. I was chatting with the other women and hearing rumors, according to which the Jews were going to be executed. At about 5 PM, I heard the sounds of machine gun fire. I went out into the yard. From there, in the darkness, I could see the flashes of gunfire, and hear screams, moans, and sentences in Hungarian. All this happened between 5 and 9 PM. The next morning, I went out to the site where the execution had taken place. It was full of dead bodies. They were piled up, and there was a lot of blood around the edges of the pit. A great deal of blood was also seeping out of the other piles. There were all kinds of documents, passports, and other items lying scattered about. A policeman stood next to the pit, and he prevented me from getting closer. He fired into the air as soon as he saw us. On the next day, a second group of Jews arrived, and the execution began at 4 PM. I was at home, and I could see everything from an empty room. The people were led out of the courtyard of the Church of the Nativity in groups of eight. The execution on the second day lasted from 4 to 6 PM, and it was carried out by the Hungarians. There were children and elderly people among the victims. I could hear spoken words and screams during the execution. One seven-year-old boy told the Hungarians that his father was Russian, and that he was serving in the army. However, the boy was forced to sit down at the edge of the pit, shot, and thrown inside. I heard a sixteen-year-old girl begging for mercy; the killers screamed at her: “Lie down, Jew!” and shot her. The killings lasted for two days, and they claimed the lives of 350 people.

On February 19, 1942, the policemen entered our home and declared that all the Jews, including my husband, were to assemble at the Church of the Nativity, where they would be isolated. I did not know what would happen to the Jews, so I went to the German administration, to secure permission for my husband, who was a sick and bedridden person, to stay at home. The doctor gave me a paper stating that my husband was unable to get out of bed. Still, no one would tell me anything definite. During my absence, they came to our apartment and tried to remove him from the bed. However, on February 19 he was not taken with the other Jewish people, who were herded toward the building of the aero club on that day. By Wednesday evening, it had become clear to the locals that the Jews were going to be executed in the area of the aero club. I foresaw the fate of my husband, but refused to believe that an innocent person could be executed for no reason. On February 20, 1942, at 11 AM, a vehicle drove up to our house, and they told my husband to get ready for departure. Afterward, the vehicle left and drove to the hospital. Many Jews were removed from the hospital, taken to the aero club, and shot there. At 2 PM, the vehicle returned, and they ordered me to dress my husband, so that they could take him away. At that moment, when I took my husband out of the house, I already knew what lay in store for him, that he was going to be shot. I did everything I could to ease his suffering, and I started packing foodstuffs and other important items into a basket. Since I was unable to lift him off the bed, he was taken out of the house with the bed, thrown onto the vehicle, and driven away. I asked my neighbor to follow them to the aero club and observe what would happen to my husband there. The neighbor, Samaikov, did as he was told. He came back about two hours later and told me that my husband had been executed at a pit next to the aero club. Before being shot, he was forced to strip down to his underwear, and he even had to remove his bandages.

On February 19, 1942, the Jewish citizens had to assemble at the Church of the Nativity, on the pretext of an evacuation. The people – men, women, elderly people, and children – showed up. There were physicians, scientists, and artists among them. They were sent to the building of the aero club in Sumy. Then, they were led in pairs to the pit that served as an execution site, and were shot there. The people who had failed to show up were arrested. Since the killers intended to rob the Jews, they ordered them to bring their valuables along with them. On February 19, 1942, at 2 PM, there were more than 100 Jewish people gathered in the building of the former aero club. Between 5-9 PM, the Germans escorted them to the shooting site in groups of seven or eight, and executed them. The German butchers smeared some poisoned cream under the noses of the little children, causing them to die very quickly, and their bodies were then thrown into the pit.... At 2 PM on February 20, 1942, some 200 people were taken to the aero club; they, too, were executed in groups of seven or eight. It has been determined that the shooters used explosive rounds, and this accounts for the disfigured appearance of the victims, whose skulls, faces, and other body parts have been ripped apart. Sick and infirm people, who could not walk, were not taken to the pit, but executed in the aero club, and their bodies were thrown into the pit afterward. My wounded relatives and people of Jewish nationality, who were convalescing in hospital or at home, were taken to the execution site in horse-drawn carts, and executed there, as well.