Murder story of Kalnibolotskaya Jews in the Kalnibolotskaya Garden (Gas Van)

In September 1942, the German monsters began to round up all the Jewish evacuees who lived in the county, under the pretext of sending them to work at collective farms. The county headman, Georgiy Andriyanovich Rykov, wrote a sharply worded letter to the heads of the collective farms, telling them that they were to deliver the Jews to the German headquarters. He threatened that those who tried to shelter Jews would be handed over to the German military administration. The police chief, Gerasim Silvestrovich Prokopenko, showed much initiative and energy in organizing the execution of the Jews. All the Jews were taken to School No 6 on Ternovka Street. The Gestapo from Tikhoretsk arrived in a large, closed vehicle, which was painted a deep black. All the Jews were loaded onto this vehicle and driven to the community gardens, southeast of the village of Kalnibolotskaya. A pit had been dug in advance in the northeastern section of the garden, by police officers Ivan Latysh, Efim Mordik, Nikolai Ortoshko, and others. This vehicle made two trips. Local residents Anna Stepanovna Saiko and Yefrossinya Ignatyevna Metrofanenko witnessed the horrible execution of the defenseless citizens of Jewish nationality. They testify: We were working at the community garden, the vegetable garden of the food industry. Suddenly, we heard the roar of an engine. We looked toward the pit that had been dug on the previous day, and saw a dark-colored vehicle arriving at the pit, which lay approximately 300-400 meters from us. When its doors opened, we heard the squeals of adults and children. These squeals were accompanied by several individual gunshots. The Germans were probably killing their last victims at the pit. The same procedure repeated itself when the vehicle arrived there for the second time.