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Murder Story of Sudak Jews at the Sanatorium of the Leningrad Military District in Sudak

Murder Site
Sanatorium of the Leningrad Military District in Sudak
Russia (USSR)
Sudak promenade in 1948 - the site where an anti-tank trench was located during the war. Photographer: 	Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
Sudak promenade in 1948 - the site where an anti-tank trench was located during the war. Photographer: Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011.
YVA, Photo Collection, 14615594
On February 13, 1942 a group of 25 Jews from Sudak, mainly consisting of women and children, was shot to death by a Sonderkommando 10b murder squad and a military police (Feldgendarmerie) unit near the former sanatorium of the Leningrad Military District, at a anti-tank trench on the town's beach, near the location of today's life-guard station. The Germans forced the victims to strip naked. The Jews were abused and beaten. The women and children were the first to be collected at edge of the anti-tank trench and shot to death with sub-machine guns. The men were made to bury them. Then, the men were shot to death in a similar way. Apparently, their bodies were left there. The exact murder site has not been identified. During the war this area was also the murder site of the other residents of Sudak - Communists, government officials, and non-Jewish civilians.
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From the testimony of M. Dimitrashko, who was living in Sudak during the German-Romanian occupation of the town:
... It is my duty to tell about our local "Babyi Yar." I see before my eyes the horrible pictures of the inhuman murder of the people. I knew a wonderful woman, the head of the pharmacy, and her adult daughter Roza, who was working there as a pharmacist. I also remember well an experienced photographer and his wife, who had a daughter of about 13. When they were taken to be shot, the parents told the girl to run away to the forest. She was about to start running toward Perchem Mountain, but the fascist bullets caught her. She was killed before her parents' eyes. This took place in the area of Sakharnaya Golovka [near the murder site]. The Hitlerites were taking people towards the beach of Sudak, to the place where there is now a life-guard station. In the summer of 1941 the local population dug [there] a huge anti-tank trench more than 5 meters deep near the sea-shore.… No one could imagine that the fascists would use it as a grave for innocent civilians. As far as I can remember, among those who, after being rounded up, were shot to death on the edge of the anti-tank trench were Jews whom I knew - the barber, his wife, and their children.… As if it were now, I can see before my eyes their little girl. She had blonde and had wavy hair, and big, blue eyes. She was very beautiful. The masters of "the new order" hunted down all the Jews, as well as the Communists and government officials, and shot them to death. I remember one of the women [who were taken to the shooting] pleading with passers-by to take her girl and hide her from the enemy and, thus, save her. But the German machine-gunners who were guarding the victims didn't let anyone approach the people they were taking to be shot. No one survived the sub-machine volleys. The bullets knocked them all into the mass grave – the Jews, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the people of other nationalities. To this very day the shots that were shot at the Sudak beach resound in my ears. To this day I hear the horrible crying and screaming of those doomed people....
Let the Living Ones Remember: Sudak and Its Residents during the Years of the Great Patriotic War , Simferopol, 2011, p. 64. (Russian)
From the testimony of Yelizaveta Volchaninova (nee Shevchenko) who was living in Sudak during the German-Romanian occupation:
… The shooting of the Jews was a real shock for me. My family had been friendly with the Volynskiy family. They were living on Lenin Street. "Uncle" Isaak, his wife Zhenya, [their son] Yasha, and Zina, the little one – all of them were shot to death. All of them! And Roza, the beauty with the wavy black hair. And the barber, and his wife, and their two school-age children. And also Beba, the daughter of the photographer....
Let the Living Ones Remember: Sudak and Its Residents during the Years of the Great Patriotic War, Simferopol, 2011, p. 66 (Russian).
Sanatorium of the Leningrad Military District in Sudak
sanatorium
Murder Site
Russia (USSR)
44.851;34.972
Contemporary view of the Sanatorium of the Leningrad Military District murder site in Sudak. Video by Mikhail Tyaglyy, 2011 Yad Vashem Visual Center 14653801