Online Store Contact us About us
yad vashem logo

Murder Story of Feodosiya Jews on the Simferopol Road (Gas Vans)

Murder Site
Simferopol Road (Gas Vans)
Russia (USSR)
The murder site of the Ashkenazi Jews in Feodosiya. Photographer: 	Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
The murder site of the Ashkenazi Jews in Feodosiya. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615592
On November 27, 1941 an order was issued by the commander of Sonderkommando 10b, Alois Persterer, that by December 1 the Ashkenazi Jews had to appear with the keys to their apartments at the collection point of Sennaya Square on the pretext that they were going to be resettled in Ukraine. They were allowed to take with them some possessions and food for two days. The other things had to be left intact in their apartments. The death penalty was announced for those who did not obey this order. Those who had shown up (mainly women, children, and the elderly) were taken to the S.D. prison (the former city prison building), put into cells with broken window panes, and kept there in the freezing cold. According to one testimony, several Jews attempted to be released from prison by obtaining papers from the Orthodox Church testifying that they had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. However, they remained in prison since the Germans did not recognize their conversions from Judaism. Some of the Jews were sent home for one night in order to bring valuables with them when they returned to prison. About 120 people from mixed marriages (mainly children) were, temporarily, exempted by the Germans and after a day or two were sent home. The belongings and provision of the Jews were left in the prison courtyard. Then, guarded by SD men and Russian auxiliary policemen, the assembled Jews were taken, partly by truck and partly on foot, to the outskirts of the city, to an anti-tank trench near the road to Staryi Krym (the Feodosiya-Simferopol road). They had to strip to their underwear at the building of the Mechanik Factory, were forced by being whipped to run in small groups to the anti-tank trench, and then shot to death by a unit from Sonderkommando 10b. The shooting lasted for several days. The personal belongings of the victims, mainly their outer clothes and money, were piled up and then taken back to S.D. headquarters in Feodosiya. According to a German report, about 800 (according to the ChGK report, approximately 2,000) Jews) were murdered during this operation. On December 10, 1941 the Krymchaks were ordered by the city administration of Feodosiya to appear on December 12 at Sennaya Square in order to be relocated to another part of the city. About 300 Krymchaks appeared at the collection point; others went into hiding. Only 9 Krymchak families (42 persons) of artisans with their families were temporarily spared by the Germans in order to fill German labor needs. The rest, guarded by the policemen (from an Order Police battalion) and the Russian auxiliary militia, were taken by truck to the former supplementary poultry farm of the city hospital, that was located several hundred meters from the Mechanik Factory and shot to death by members of Sonderkommando 10b. Military policemen (Feldgandarmerie) from Field Commandant's Office 810, as well as Russian auxiliary policemen, took an active part in this shooting. According to a report of the field commandant's office, during January and February 1942, 36 Jews who had gone into hiding and, apparently, also Jews from mixed marriages (mainly children) were shot to death at the anti-tank site. On March 5, 19, and 23, 1942, during roundups of Jews in hiding, another 66 Jews were caught and shot to death by members of Sonderkommando 10b and the Wehrmacht at the same murder site. According to German sources, in April 1942 some Jews (including women and children) were loaded into gas vans and asphyxiated during the ride from the SD headquarters in Feodosiya to this site. Their bodies were disposed of there.
Related Resources
Mark Goldenberg, a volunteer director of the local "Hesed Yahad" museum program, and Moisey Berman, who was born in 1928 and lived in Feodosiya during the war years, related about the murder of the Ashkenazi Jews: Interview by Mikhail Tyaglyy in 2011
-We'are now standing at the very place where the Feodosiya Jews were shot by the Nazis on December 4, 1941. - How did the shooting happen? - An order was issued. It said that the Jews should gather on December 1st to be resettled. They should bring the keys to their homes, food, and clothes. They were all to come to the Market Square. Then they were put in jail. People who were of mixed marriages were temporarily released. Some sources mention 120 people whose passports were stamped “temporarily released.” The rest – some 800 people or more, were brought here and shot on December 4th. People who witnessed these events say that adults and children above 12 were shot and children under 12 were poisoned. The poison is believed to have been prepared by a local doctor and his wife, as they were ordered to do so by the Nazis. But this information needs to be verified. Our city was liberated by the Red Army for two weeks at the end of December, and it was one of the first places where the Soviet military personnel witnessed the mass destruction of the Jewish population. During the liberation some important documents were found, a diary of First--Lieutenant Heize among them. In that diary there was a description of the December 4, 1941 shooting. As Heize writes, a group of Jews were taken from the jail. They were divided into groups of 10 people, had to undress, and descend into the trench (2.5 – 3 meters deep). Then 10 shooters who stood on the edge of the trench fired, following an officer’s order. After that the next group would go down, and everything started all over. The younger men were ordered to put the bodies in some kind of order, so after each shot they had to “tidy up” the pile of bodies. The procedure went on till everyone was dead. The last ones shot were the young men who had cleaned up the trench. This was a document that showed how one could “industrialize” mass death in such a pedantic way. Only someone with a German character could decide that the dead bodies of shot people should be put one on another in some precise order… - What was the name of this place then, and how is it called now? - It was the outskirts of Feodosiya, here was an anti-tank trench, and there was a small factory called “Mekhanik” – not even a factory but a small workshop that made plumbing equipment. - In what direction did the anti-tank trench go, do you know? - In that direction, toward the highway. I dug it myself. - What is this area called now? - This place is called Memorial Square.
YVA O.101 / 537
Mark Goldenberg, a volunteer director of the local "Hesed Yahad" museum program, and Moisey Berman, who was born in 1928 and lived in Feodosiya during the war years, related about the murder of the Krymchak Jews: Interview by Mikhail Tyaglyy in 2011
- Tell us please where we are now. - This is a trench, the continuation of that trench. There is another kilometer to go. I helped my mother: each female resident of Feodosiya took part in digging this trench before the Germans came. - What happened here? - At this place? A shooting. - Who was shot? - Krymchaks. After them, maybe someone else. The trench was very long. I know that many bones were found, and children’s things. - So do I understand correctly that, although the Jews and the Krymchakis were shot in different places, all the bodies ended up in this trench? - Yes, it was very, very long. - Before the war there was in this location a farm that belonged to the city hospital. On December 12, 1941 a group of Feodosyian Krymchaki was brought here from the city jail. In the lists of the city hall 449 Krymachaks were registered. 9 of the families (a total of 42 people) were released from the transport as they had “professional value.” . The rest – 245, according to one source, and almost 300, according to another, were brought here by truck from the jail and shot here by Sonderkommando 10b of the German Nazi occupiers. The adults were shot, the children under 12 were killed by some poisonous powder put on their lips. Some sources say that the occupiers’ forces were assisted in the shooting by the local police. - The city police? - Yes. - How many people? - There were 20 people from the city police, and it was headed by Mr. Pushkarev. How many policemen assisted the Germans and how we don’t know. After December 12th they brought more people to be shot here: sometimes it was the Jews and Krymchaki who had been found hiding, then in January – February mixed families were shot (in December, they had been released) and everyone who was considered an enemy of “the new regime.” - Moisey Solomonovich, do you have relatives who were killed during the occupation here in Feodosiya? - Yes, not first cousins but second cousins… - Are their bodies buried here? - Yes. - Who were they? - 2 uncles, and they had… 4 children: one brother had 1 and the other -3. - Do you know why they shot Jews and Krymchaki on different dates but at the same place? - I think that the place was chosen for the convenience of the Sonderkommando: they preferred to have a building nearby - to store the things and to warm up. The operation took place over quite a long time. Near the trench there was no building at all. - And why different on dates? - We can’t know but can only guess. Maybe because the city jail was not big enough. Maybe there were not enough executioners. Maybe there were other operations [being carried out then]. Maybe they wanted to pace the Sonderkommando’s activities and give their people some rest. But all those are assumptions
YVA O.101 / 536
From the letter of a the non-Jewish teacher to his former student Yehezkel Keren, whose parents were murdered in Feodosiya on December 4, 1941:
Dear Izia, I received your letter of September 6, 1944 only the day before yesterday ….. First of all, I tried to find out whether your parents had succeeded in leaving the city [before the war] since, if they hadn't left the city, there was no longer any reason to ask further. More than 2,500 Jews of the city were murdered. Even the old Fidelev couple, for whom the [local] authorities tried to intercede, were found and thrown into a well. It is known that your parents remained in the city and [therefore] perished. I found this out from Sima Naydich and a local civilian named Keelson. . . I was also advised to ask the secretary of the [municipal] executive committee about this but he (Citizen M. Chulkov) answered that [at the committee] they don't have materials about the evacuation or the lists of those who were killed. It is not known why they [your parents] did not leave the city or what they were hoping for. ….
YVA O.41 / 1981
Shlomo Appelbaum, a Polish refugee who fled to Feodosiya and who was living in the city during the war years, testified (written in Yiddish):
When the war broke out [in the Soviet Union], I was in Crimea, in Feodosiya city, working there with lots of fellows from Poland. When the frontline approached Perekop, the evacuation of people via the Black Sea from Feodosiya to the Caucasus began.… Some of my friends got away. My two brothers and I couldn't leave the city since [the authorities] wouldn't release us from our work.… Two days after the German army captured the city the Germans ordered all the Jews to appear at a designated point in the city. I foresaw the fate of those who would appear [at the collection point] since [before this] I had met by chance a Ukrainian acquaintance who told me what the German executioners were doing to the Ukrainian Jews who had obeyed these orders. Several days after [the mass murder] there were already reports that all the people [the Jews] had been killed. My brother and I didn't show up [at the collection point] but instead went into hiding for 7 weeks [sic] at the home of a Christian acquaintance. Fortunately for us … the Red Army captured the city [this was the first liberation, that lasted only from December 29, 1941 to January 17, 1942] and we were saved from the German executioners. But, some time afterwards… we were imprisoned by the NKVD, suspected of collaboration with and spying for the Germans. As we were told, the fact that all the Jews had been murdered while we had survived seemed very suspicious to them [the NKVD]….
YVA M.1 / 725
Simferopol Road (Gas Vans)
road
Murder Site
Russia (USSR)
45.036;35.376
The murder site of the Ashkenazi Jews in Feodosiya. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615592
The murder site of the Krymchak Jews in Feodosiya. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615593