Murder story of Verkhovnya Jews in the Ice Cellar in Verkhovnya

One day in late August [1941], a punitive squad came and collected all the people who had stayed at home. They were rounded up at the pharmacy. All the Jews were gathered there. They were searched, and a [Soviet] flag was found. All the men were stripped naked.… The flag was burned, and all the Jews were ordered to jump over it. They [the Germans] forced the pharmacist Moisey Davidovich Nakhimovich to play the guitar, and all the Jewish men had to dance naked. Then, they were ordered to put their clothes back on. This done, they went out onto the porch. One German remained on guard, while the others went in search of an appropriate shooting site. They found an ice cellar somewhere in the area. It was a deep pit.… The rest of the people were taken to the ice cellar.… A neighbor of ours, a Russian, showed me the site where the people had been shot. I ran to the pit. It was a horrible sight.… They were mostly men; there were no women among them, because all the women had gone out to work in the fields. It was in August 1941. Only the men lay there, having been shot dead.