Murder story of Glukhov Jews in the Borok Forest in the Glukhov Area

A bilingual German-Russian announcement of several "obligatory" measures was posted in the center of Glukhov. The text of the decree spoke of the need to maintain order, and it instructed the local population to hand over their food and weapons to the Germans. It included a warning to anyone who would shelter or assist Red Army soldiers, stating that such actions were punishable by death. The announcement also mentioned the coming election to the local council and the council of elders of Glukhov. The local residents were informed that Communists and Jews were banned from running for election to either of the councils. Jews of both sexes aged 16-55 were ordered to wear a white armband on both arms and to perform public work. The decree was signed by the high commander of the German armed forces. The text was followed by a codicil, stating that the elected elder was to obey the German commander at once. The Jews were ordered to register within three days.

In the course of several nights in November 1942, the police and the Gendarmerie arrested some 700 people all over the Glukhov County. All the arrestees were taken to the military town of Glukhov, where they underwent a selection. Afterward, they were herded to the Borok Forest near the town and shot dead. In this way, according to preliminary and incomplete data, the German administration and their accomplices executed as many as 700 innocent civilians.... On October 10, 1941, Alexander Samoilovich Kaplunov, a worker at the traffic hub, was beaten unconscious, and his two-year-old son was beaten, as well. Both were then taken out and shot dead.… According to the eyewitness Khaim Volfovitch Gershevich, on December 30, 1941, the German administration arrested 105 citizens of Jewish ethnicity, beat them severely, and shot them in the Borok Forest near the town. Whole families were executed; there were little children and elderly people among the victims. Some of them were over the age of ninety.... In October, the Germans arrested a sixty-year-old Jewish man named Lyubomirskiy, who was sick and bedridden. He was thrown into a vehicle, taken away, and shot dead. His wife was executed along with him.