Murder story of Chernigov Jews in the Berezovyy Ravine

… The witness was asked … about the mass shooting of Soviet civilians in Berezovyy ravine near the village of Koty. She stated the following: "At the beginning of the autumn of 1941, at about 5 p. m., a German truck covered with a dark tarpaulin drove up to our house, which was located near a road, next to a field. First some Germans and policemen got out of the truck, and then they forced some of our people out of the truck. The people were lined up and taken under guard to the ravine near our house, to a place where not long before 30 people had dug pits. When they [the victims] were taken toward the pits, they were forced to strip to their underwear, then taken to pits and shot. I saw how the people acted before they were shot: many of them hugged each other and said their farewells. Afterwards, during the following week, every day trucks drove directly to the shooting place, where I saw the same scene as on the first day. The shooting was carried out by Germans, while the guards were [local] policemen. Men, women, and children were all taken together to be killed. During the shooting the children were thrown alive into the pit. The clothes of the victims were loaded onto trucks. On the first day of shooting, during the unloading of people from the trucks, one of the civilians tried to run away but was caught by Germans in a nearby garden and shot. I saw two such instances. In my house I could hear the screams of people being shot at the shooting site. Those who did not enter the pit were kicked and beaten with rifle butts and then thrown into the pits.…

… During the German occupation I lived in Chernigov. I served in the Schutzpolizei … [and] the Ukrainian police.… In November 1941 there was a shooting of Jews which continued for three days. The situation occurred in the following way. We guards were summoned to the head of the Chernigov police, Shikutskiy (he left with the Germans, his superior was a 1st lieutenant). He gave us a verbal order: to go to the Jewish families and to tell them to collect food, the clothes they needed, and valuables and that they were about to be resettled in another part of the city. We arrested them and took them to Brick Factory No. 2. I and other policemen also guarded the arrestees, who were going to be shot. Graves were dug by people who did not have identification papers. 7 German officers whose names I do not know arrived from the commander's office. The interpreter conveyed [to the Jews] the order to take off their clothes in twos.… They took off their clothes and went in their underwear to the graves, where they were shot with machineguns. In my presence more than 100 people were shot there, on the right side of the road to Gomel.…

… A mass shooting campaign of civilians of Jewish nationality was carried out immediately after the occupation of the city of Chernigov in November 1941. Before the shooting, there was a registration of the Jewish population, followed by an order to appear on the [central] square for the purpose of resettlement. All those who appeared for the above-mentioned purpose were surrounded by armed guards, taken to a certain location, and shot. People who for some reason did not come to the square were arrested in their homes, taken to prison, and then shot.…

… In Berezovyy ravine there are graves located in the ravine not far from the village cemetery, between the road to Gomel and the Strishno River. They consist of three murder pits which are located not far from each other and have the shape of rectangles measuring 3 x 5, 2 x 7, and 2.5 x 10 meters. The graves are not covered by mounds and are not readily visible on the surface of the ground. The commission stated that the shooting of Soviet civilians in Berezovyy ravine was carried out by Germans in the autumn of 1941. The Soviet civilians who were about to be shot – men, women, and children - were taken there, in German trucks that were covered with dark tarpaulins, from the Chernigov prison.… The shooting was carried out with machine-guns. At the time of the shooting the site was surrounded by policemen. According to testimonies, 1,500 Soviet civilians were shot by Germans at this place.…