Stepań Ghetto Related Communities
Stepań Related Murder Sites
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Murder story of Stepań Jews in the Stepań Ghetto
Murder Site
Stepań Ghetto
Poland
On August 25 (or August 22 or 24), 1942, during the liquidation of the Stepań Ghetto, Gendarmerie chief Beckmann, his deputy Franz, and the landwirte (senior German official of the town) Gempel instructed the police to kill the elderly people and the small children, who could not walk, in the ghetto itself. Some of the inmates, who tried to escape from the ghetto, were shot on the spot, as well. Beckmann, Franz, and Gempel shot some of the victims with their own hands. Thus, according to the ChGK document, approximately 50 ghetto inmates were killed on the spot.
Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports
Alexander Khait, who was born in 1928 in Stepań and lived there during the war years, testifies:
…In the ghetto, [Beckmann] also shot, and ordered [his subordinates] to shoot, all those who tried to run away and hide. Beckmann and Franz also shot the elderly people who couldn't go with the convoy [to the murder site].…
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-71 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19976
ChGK Soviet Reports from Stepań
…[As for] the elderly people and children who couldn't walk under convoy, they – Beckmann, Franz, and Gempel – ordered the policemen [to kill them]…, and they shot [the elderly and children] on the spot in the ghetto. Thus, about 50 of these inmates were shot dead by them….
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-71 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19976
Kiril Pinchuk, who was born in 1908, testifies:
…In the ghetto, he [Beckmann] also shot, and gave the order to shoot, those who tried to run away [from the ghetto] and hide. Beckmann and [his deputy] Franz also shot [in the ghetto] the elderly people who couldn't walk to the convoy [i.e., the assembly point from which the Jews were sent to the murder site].…
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-71 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19976
Stepań Ghetto
Ghetto
Murder Site
Poland
51.133;26.306