Murder Story of Markhlevsk Jews at the China Factory Office in Markhlevsk

My mother told me this.... It was in September 1941.... But not all the Jews were shot on that day. They searched all the houses, looked behind every door. I know two girls who lived on Lenin Street who were found and taken to the basement and [along with other Jews were] held there. About twenty people were found and shot in the course of two weeks.... We are now on Shchors Street. From this building Lenin Street begins. There was the so-called office of the former china factory.… In its basement there were up to 30-35 Jews, individual Jews who were caught during mass raids, ones who had been hiding in the forest after the mass raids and the shooting. Here they were held, after being rounded up, [in groups] two or three peopl -- men, women, and girls - all kept in one basement. And then, before the morning started, the police took them [not clear], dug an additional pit there, and shot them. This took place in September 1941.

My mother told me this.... It was in September 1941.... But not all the Jews were shot on that day. They searched all the houses, looked behind every door. I know two girls who lived on Lenin Street who were found and taken to the basement and [along with other Jews were] held there. About twenty people were found and shot in the course of two weeks.... We are now on Shchors Street. From this building Lenin Street begins. There was the so-called office of the former china factory.… In its basement there were up to 30-35 Jews, individual Jews who were caught during mass raids, ones who had been hiding in the forest after the mass raids and the shooting. Here they were held, after being rounded up, [in groups] two or three peopl -- men, women, and girls - all kept in one basement. And then, before the morning started, the police took them [not clear], dug an additional pit there, and shot them. This took place in September 1941.

There used to be a field there. In 1947-48 we were children and we played football there. Approximately over there there used to be a hill, it was a meter and a half high, and all overgrown with weeds. We were afraid to approach it because some adults told us some people had been shot there. What people? During the war those people, who were shot by the police, were brought here and buried. They were individual people. Until 1950 it was like this. And then one day this hill disappeared. Were they reburied? Were they exhumed? Nobody could tell me. Some people said that Jews were shot there. It is not known when they were shot. This was between the barn that we can see and the building that is on Lesya Ukrainka Street, in the village center, it was close to the former police station, where there is now a library. That is No. 6 Lesya Ukrainka Street. There is a vegetable garden there now.