Murder story of Ruzhin Jews in the Stavki Ravine

Early in the morning of September 10, 1941 all the Jews were collected at the local department store. There the women and men were divided into separate groups, while the artisans and their families were put into a special group that was combined with a children's group. Some witnesses reported that the police placed a bucket in the middle of the crowd and ordered the Jews to put all their valuables into it. Then the men were taken away -- on the pretext that they were going to work on road construction. After that, the group of women was taken away -- on the pretext that they would be used for agricultural work in the fields. Instead, these Jews were taken under guard by policemen to the Stavki Ravine in the Chorniy/Zarichanskiy Forest near Ruzhin and shot. Other sources say that the shooting was carried out on Karacheva Hill. According to some testimonies the men and the women were shot separately, in different pits. The shooting was carried out by several German soldiers. The number of victims has been estimated as between 750 and 950. Some testimonies mention that the Jewish women and older girls were buried in the area of the garden of the Kommuna kolkhoz, while the men were buried in three pits in the forest.