Murder story of Chervonoye Jews in the Chervonoye Forest

Maria Stelmach (born in 1926) testified on July 6, 1978: During the temporary occupation of the territory of the Zhitomir District by the German-fascist invaders, I lived in the village of Chervonoye in the Andrushevka County, on the southern edge of the village, near the forest. Around mid-July 1941, the Fascists showed up in the village. Around August that year, I do not remember the exact date, the Fascists who had arrived in the village carried out a mass shooting of Soviet citizens of Jewish origin in the forest not far from the house where I lived. One day in August 1941, sometime in the afternoon, I heard a commotion in the street. I went out into the courtyard of my house and saw a large group of Jews who were being shot on the road from the sugar factory area to the outskirts of the village. Another large group of people was moving along the road from the sugar factory to the outskirts of the village. When this column approached my house, I saw uniformed fascists, armed with machine guns and accompanied by dogs, convoying a group of some 50-70 arrestees. At the head of the column of arrestees, there was a car with some fascists. Other fascists were riding on motorbikes. When the column came level with my house, I recognized some Jews I knew among the arrestees. There were only men in the column. They were marching in rows of four. The men were screaming, crying, bidding farewell to their acquaintances. Beyond the last houses, the fascists ordered the arrestees to turn toward the forest. The sounds of gunfire from the direction of the forest could be heard for a long time. Then, the arrestees who had been convoyed past my house were shot, as well.

Nadezhda Korotkaya (born in 1918) testified on July 6, 1978: When they took the Jews away, I also left our yard and went to the market; I stood there and saw what was going on at that market. There were many fascists armed with machine guns there. Many of the fascists had dogs with them. Many Soviet citizens of Jewish origin were arrested on the spot. The fascists ordered the Jews to lie face down on the ground. The arrestees were forbidden to get up. Whenever some arrestee tried to stand up, they [the fascists] would sic a dog on them. It was a horrible scene. The fascists then ordered all the arrestees to get up and arrange themselves in columns of four. The columns of arrestees were flanked by guards. Many of the fascists had dogs. Upon the orders of one Fascist, all the arrestees were escorted to the Chervonoye sugar factory. I would later learn from the village residents that the arrested Soviet citizens of Jewish origin were convoyed to the southern suburbs of the village of Chervonoye, where they were shot dead. Prior to the execution, the fascists robbed the arrestees of their gold, jewelry, and other valuables. A total of 60-70 people were rounded up by the fascists at the market. The arrestees were told that they would be taken elsewhere, rather than be executed. The majority of arrestees were men of various ages. The fascists took my neighbors, but also those who were at the market. They [the fascists] wore uniforms, and were armed with machine guns. The uniforms were rather dark, but I cannot recall the exact color. I cannot recall their exact office badges, either. I do not personally know any of those who arrested the Soviet citizens of Jewish origin and convoyed them, and I cannot identify them. The former members of Reserve Police Battalion 82 – Captain Piehl, commander of the 1st company; and Chief Sergeant Kuegler, section commander in the 2nd Company, both of whom have been named by the investigation officers – are both unknown to me, and I cannot tell you anything about them.

[From the interrogation of Ernst Fritz Winkler, a former staff member of Reserve Police Battalion 82; Wernigerrode (East Germany), March 28, 1979:] As I have already explained, I cannot recall the place from which the victims were brought to the execution site. One can be certain that those were local Jews. I cannot even recall the age of the victims of the mass murder. I only remember that there were no children among them.… The reasons for the execution of the Jewish citizens… are unknown to me.… According to the account in the memoirs, Soviet aircraft had bombed an airfield that had been built only two days previously. The memoir goes so far as to say that the bombing had been facilitated by some act of treason, and therefore sixty-four Jewish people from that locality were executed.… As I stated previously at the relevant point, I remember this bombing raid on the airfield. However, I cannot connect this event with the execution of those people. In my testimony from January 26, 1979, I stated that the shooting of those sixty-four Jewish people on August 30, 1941, in the context of the operation by the First Company in Chervonye near Berdichev, was related to the abovementioned reprisal, which has been repeated to me today.… I do not know… whether the mass killing I have reported is identical to the shooting of those sixty-four Jewish people on August 30, 1941.… I was told that the victims from the village of Chervonoye had been rounded up in the village square; they passed by the market and the area of the local sugar factory; they were then led into a forest. The shooting I have described did not take place in that forest, but in a small grove not far from it, which I remember in detail. The exact site of the execution was an open area, which I have depicted in my sketch. If the sugar factory had been located near the execution site, this fact would certainly have remained in my memory. I therefore note that the location of the mass killing depicted in the drawing from July 11, 1978 [made by a local eyewitness from Chervonoye, who had submitted his testimony] is not identical to the one drawn by me. We are talking about two different operations here.