Murder Story of Strizhavka Jews at the POW Camp in Strizhavka

January 12, 1942 From the Activity Report of SS-Sturmbannführer Schmidt, Vinnitsa office of the Reich Security Service: …227 Jews were living in the locality of Strizhavka. This large number of Jews can be explained by the presence of a GPU [Glavnoe politicheskoe upravlenie, i.e., security] camp. Since Jews represented a big danger for the facility [i.e. Hitler's "Werewolf" headquarters] I ordered the Gebietskommissar to have [them] evacuated. Due to certain circumstances evacuation was impossible. Therefore, on January 10, 1942, between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., the Jews were killed off. In order to be able to carry out this operation our office had to arrange for the digging of an appropriate pit and for its proper leveling after they [the Jews] were gotten rid of. With the participation of auxiliary policemen and prisoners of war the pit was created using explosives due to the heavy frost and [afterwards] it was leveled. 4 security police officers, 20 officials of the military police and of the urban police, and all the officers of the [Vinnitsa Reich Security Service] office participated in this operation. This assignment of officials was necessary to [take] the Jews from their apartments and to bring them to the distant pit and to prevent unauthorized persons from reaching the execution site….