Report of the ChGK, Lyady GARF 7021-44-1082; copy YVA JM/21182

The following report of the ChGK from December 20, 1943 contains a description of the mass murder of the Jews in Lyady:

... On the eve of Easter (Holy Thursday) April 2, 1942, the Germans slaughtered the Jewish population. Nazis escorted the Jews in groups of 100 - 200 to the anti-tank ditch at the end of town, forced them, still alive, into piles on the bottom of the ditch and proceeded to shoot. Many children and babies were thrown into the ditch alive, with their backbones and limbs broken, and their heads crushed. Within several days, more than 1,000 shot and tortured Jews were buried in the ditch. Among them were: the Khazan family (three people); Dr. Shendler, aged 32, and her two babies; Gil Drabenski, aged 70; Sonya Simkina, aged 26; Rachel Gorodenchik, aged 35, and her son Villi, aged 1. The murders were carried out by a German SS troop, a killing squad headed by Oberwachtmeister Heinrich Bull and the traitors – county Buergermeister Ostapenko and police chief Kulikovski (both of them retreated with the Germans) ....