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Murder Story of Nemirov Jews at the Brick Factory in Nemirov

Murder Site
Nemirov
Ukraine (USSR)
Site of the murder of some of Nemirov's Jews. Photographer: Eugene Shnaider, 2008.
Site of the murder of some of Nemirov's Jews. Photographer: Eugene Shnaider, 2008.
Genesis Philanthropy Group project, Copy YVA 14616127
Early in the morning of November 24 (November 7, according to one report), 1941 members of Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by local auxiliary policemen, drove the Jews of Nemirov of all ages and both sexes out of their homes and took them to the former Catholic church, which during the Soviet period had been transformed into a "house of culture." They were told that they were going to be resettled. In the House of Culture the victims were robbed of their money and valuables and the skilled workers were separated from the rest of the Jews, who were taken, partly by truck and partly on foot, to the area of the brick factory on Nemirov's outskirts, in the vicinity of the former Polish cemetery. There the victims were forced to strip naked, taken to the edge of three large clay pits, which had been enlarged for the massacre, and shot dead there. According to some testimonies, the victims were not shot, but rather were electrocuted. The children were murdered separately from the adults. The total number of victims of this massacre was about 2,700.

On September 14, 1942 an undetermined number of Jewish inmates of the Nemirov labor camp, primarily women, children, and elderly people, those incapable of work, were taken by truck to the same site where Jews from Nemirov were murdered in November 1941 and shot dead. The perpetrators of this massacre were probably German rural policemen and Ukrainian and Lithuanian auxiliaries, who were guarding the labor camp.

Related Resources
"The rest - men, women, and children…were shot; my mother was among them…" From the account of S. Bronshvag of the annihilation of the Jews of Nemirov (Ukraine) in November 1941 and in June 1942:
… The first murder operation was carried out in the fall, in November, 1941. At dawn Germans and local policemen burst into our houses, drove everyone outside and took us under guard to the commandant's office, to the office of the Gebietskommissar. The Ukrainian residents were apparently informed in advance about the upcoming murder operation since large crosses were painted on the doors of the neighboring Ukrainian houses. The "selection" was carried out in the Gebietskommissar's building. Craftsmen with various trades were allowed to return home. The rest, including women and children, were taken to pits behind the Polish cemetery and shot. I do not know the exact number of those murdered… My father was among the craftsmen released to go home. My mother, I, and a neighbor hid in the attic of our house (we did not return to the ghetto) on that morning and in this way we survived….
Yitzhak Arad, ed., Destruction of the Jews of the USSR during the German Occupation, Jerusalem 1991, p. 229 (Russian)
From the article of Avram Rosengaft "The Mass Murder Operations against the Jewish Population…"
…This lasted until November 24, 1941, when the first mass murder operation directed against the Jewish population of the ghetto started. Between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. a special unit of the SS, assisted by local policemen, drove people out of the ghetto, and collected them in the building of the former Palace of Culture. They took everyone without exception. The people were driven like a herd of cattle, rushed along with whips. At the former Palace of Culture [most of] the prisoners were loaded into the body of trucks and taken hurriedly from the town to where huge trenches had been dug. There the shooting was carried out. The murder operation was carried out with inhuman cruelty. The young children had their heads smashed against each other and were thrown into the trenches. The wounded were thrown into the trenchs, and the next victims fell on top of them. Prisoners of war were forced to cover the filled trenches with earth. At exactly 6 p.m. the bringing of prisoners to the trenches was halted. The murders ceased. The surviving Jews were taken back under guard from the Palace of Culture into the ghetto. The trenches filled with the victims of the massacres were covered with earth. According to accounts of eyewitnesses ( prisoners of war who survived by a miracle), the earth there continued to "breathe" [i.e. heave] for a day….
Boris Zabarko, ed., We Are the Only Ones Who Have Survived, Kiev 2000, pp. 381-382 (Russian)
Nemirov
Brick Factory
Murder Site
Ukraine (USSR)
48.972;28.837
Alla Aizensharf was born in 1936 in Nemirov and lived there during the war years
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 19158 copy YVA O.93 / 19158
Boris Oivin was born in 1928 in Nemirov and lived there during the war years
USC SHOAH FOUNDATION, 15339 copy YVA O.93 / 15339