On July 12-13, 1942 some of the Jews held at the Dinamo Stadium, mainly women, children, and elderly people, were taken in groups to the nearby city prison, where the local commandant's office was located, in order to be registered again. Upon their arrival their belongings, valuables, and keys with their addresses, as well as their documents, were confiscated. They were beaten brutally and forced to undress by a unit of Sonderkommando 11a. Only a few individuals were released or ordered to return the next day. They [the rest] were loaded into black gas vans waiting near the prison and asphyxiated on the spot. Then the trucks drove to the Balaklava road, where the bodies were thrown into anti-tank trenches and covered with earth. At the city prison dozens of Sevastopol Jews who had escaped the operation that began at the Dinamo Stadium but who were later caught by the Russian auxiliary police and handed over to the Germans were shot by members of an SD unit and Russian auxiliary forces.

Related Resources

German Reports / Romanian Reports

ChGK Soviet Reports

From the Judicial proceeding against Paul Zapp, former commander of Einsatzkommando 11a:

From the interrogation of Paul Zapp on January 8, 1968 ... I remember that right after the fall of Sevastopol I went there and visited the temporary living quarters of the [Sonderkommando] detachment commanded by Hauptsturmfuehrer M. that was stationed there…. The reason for my visit was the [temporary] transfer of the gas vans that were at the disposal of the [Einsatz]gruppe to the detachment located in Sevastopol.… On this occasion I witnessed the extermination of Jews, (men and women) in a gas van. The victims were completely naked and packed into the van. Afterwards the doors were closed in such a way that the van was hermetically closed. Then the motor was turned on and operated while the van was standing. After a short time no sign of life could be heard from those who were inside. Afterwards the van drove toward a pit outside the city. The doors were opened and the bodies were thrown into the pit. I don't know who drove the van or who unloaded the Jews from the van. I believe that there was a special team for this van. As far as I remember, the faces of those murdered in this van looked peaceful....

ZENTRALE STELLE, LUDWIGSBURG B 162/1205 copy YVA TR.10 / 1076

From the testimony of First-Lieutenant Ernest Shreve, head of the Feldgendarmerie, Ortkomendature 1/260 in Sevastopol

... Nevertheless, some Jewish civilians managed to avoid showing up at the stadium. The auxiliary police was in charge of finding and handing them over to the SD unit, who shot them to death….

Круглов, Александр Иосифович. "Уничтожение еврейского населения в Крыму 1941-1942 годах." In: Вестник Еврейского университета 15 (1997), 216-232

From the testimony of Peter Baum, a military doctor who was serving in Sevastopol:

They [an SD squad] were rounding up those who were Jews by nationality or religion near the fenced off part of the city prison next to the wall of the building and killing them. They were pushing those doomed to death into the body of the truck. The door was then closed. When the motor started up this activated the gas mechanism.… A few minutes after weak sounds were heard [the voices of the Jews being asphyxiated], the noises from within the body of the truck ceased and the driver left the prison. At that point he was transporting only bodies, which were thrown into old anti-tank trenches outside the city.…

The Holocaust: The Catastrophe in the Crimea 1941-1942, Simferopol, 2004, p. 58 (Russian)

City Balaklava Road (Gas Vans)

road

Murder Site

Russia (USSR)

44.664;33.652

Photos

Courtyeard area of former city prison. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.

YVA, Photo Collection, 14615581