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Murder story of Dnepropetrovsk Jews in the Krasnopovstancheskaya Ravine

Murder Site
Krasnopovstancheskaya Ravine
Ukraine (USSR)
Ravine where the Jews of Dnepropetrovsk were murdered on October 13-15, 1941
Ravine where the Jews of Dnepropetrovsk were murdered on October 13-15, 1941
YVA, Photo Collection, 503/13687
During the night between October 12 and 13, 1941, which was the Jewish Simchat Torah holiday, Germans ordered all the Jews of Dnepropetrovsk to assemble at the department store on Karl-Marx Street. The assembled Jews were told they were either going to be resettled in a ghetto or be sent to Palestine. The Jews were robbed of all their belongings, lined up in columns, and led along Karl Liebknecht Street toward the southern exit from the city. Just before the exit the column turned left toward the area of present-day Gagarin Park and the botaniccal gardens, to the Krasnopovstancheskaya Balka (Ravine), a huge 10-20 meter deep ravine that extended through the southeastern outskirts of the city. There, near the campus of the Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Transport Engineering the Jews were ordered to undress. Then, in small groups, they were pushed into the ravine and shot with submachine-guns. When some women with infants in their arms threw themselves into the ravine before the shots were fired, the executioners fired on them there. The murder of the Jews continued on October 14 and perhaps on October 15. The people who were not shot on the first day were left to await their fate in that location in the open. When the temperature at night fell below zero many of them froze to death. Many others had their feet frozen to the ground so that the next morning they had to be pried from the earth by strong men. The massacre was carried out by a special squad of the High SS and Police Leader "South," as well as by members of the 314th Order Police Battalion and local auxuliary policemen. The total number of Jews killed on this and the following day there, as well as near the Jewish cemetery, exceeded 10,000.
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From the letter of Alexandra Burtseva to Ilya Ehrenburg:
...We lived until October 13, 1941 in fear for our lives and the lives of our children... I remember as if it were now, it was a cold October morning. There was rain mixed with snow. At 6 a.m. they knocked on our door and told him [my husband] to pack items for me and our child and [for the three of us] to go to Karl Marx Street to the Lux [department] store, supposedly all the Jews were being assembled and forced to pay a fine. When I came with our child to the store, there were a lot of Jews there already. Among them were old people and women with nursing infants. The huge four-store building was full of people. At the entrance people's belongings and foodstuffs were taken away, whoever did not want to give them up was beaten by the SS-men. Since I did not have any belongings, I was not forced to go into the store. I stood near the store in a column composed of about 5,000 people. Suddenly I saw my mother and little brother being taken toward the store since they had some possessions. I started to plead to be let through and to push toward them but policemen would not let me. Nevertheless, I succeeded in slipping in and started to search for my mother on various floors. With difficulty I found her. She did not know where Father was since he had resisted and did not go. We were all driven out of store onto the street, lined up 6 in a row, and surrounded by gendarmes and policemen. Then my mother said that we should somehow give my daughter Lenochka to some acquaintances so that they could take her to my husband. Near me I saw my neighbor I. I. Atamanyuk, who was lookig for his (Jewish) wife and their child, and I asked him to take Lenochka. When we were taken away, I saw that we were being followed by my husband, who was carrying Lenochka. When we were going along Karl Liebknecht Street (I was walking on the side) an acquaintance of my husband (a Russian), Volodya Yefimov, jumped toward me and told me to take off my armband without being noticed and escape since he had learned that we were going to be slaughtered. He gave me his address and said that I should go there. But I did not want to leave my mother and brother. When my mother learned why Volodya had come, she begged me to flee for the sake of my daughter Lenochka: "In any case, you can not help us," [she said]. I walked with them for a long time and saw how relatives were forced to carry on stretchers the ill and old people who could not walk. A truck with old people and children also passed us. I saw a man in this truck who jumped to his feet and slit his throat with a razor ... however, a German pushed him back into the body of the truck so that noone could see him. At Yuryevskaya Street, without being noticed, I lagged behind the column [to escape] and then proceeded to the address that had been given to me by Yefimov....
YVA P.21 / 33
Krasnopovstancheskaya Ravine
ravine
Murder Site
Ukraine (USSR)
48.476;35.023
Nelli Tsypina was born in 1932 in Dnepropetrovsk and lived there during the war years (Part I)
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 23331 copy YVA O.93 / 23331
Nelli Tsypina was born in 1932 in Dnepropetrovsk and lived there during the war years (Part II)
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 23331 copy YVA O.93 / 23331
Nelli Tsypina was born in 1932 in Dnepropetrovsk and lived there during the war years (Part III)
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 23331 copy YVA O.93 / 23331
Nelli Tsypina was born in 1932 in Dnepropetrovsk and lived there during the war years (Part IV)
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 23331 copy YVA O.93 / 23331