1 Execution site(s)
Yefrosinia TS., born in 1922, described the life of the Jewish colony Neuleben: “YIU: Did you go into the shops as well?
W: Yes, I did. There were two shops.
YIU: What did you buy there?
W: We bought sugar and sweets, everything we needed. They also sold fabrics to make dresses. They had everything one could need. They were very nice to us. They gave us loans and we could pay them back whenever we could. They just made a note and we paid in one or two years. They were very nice. When you enter the shop, they asked you to sit down. There was also a tailor in the shop who took orders for clothing. You could buy fabrics and order a dress at the same time.” (Testimony n°1998, interviewed in Bereslavka, on March 31, 2016)
“In September 1941, in the district of Bereslavka, 41 Jews workers of the kolkhoz aged from 1 to 70 years old were murdered in the kolkhoz Neuleben.” [Act of State extraordinary commission, RG 22.002M. 7021-66-124]
Bereslavka is a village located 76km south of Kirovohrad, today’s Kropyvnytsky. Back then, an agricultural Jewish colony Gromokley was located a couple of kilometers away from Bereslavka. Found in 1857, the Jewish colony doesn’t exist anymore. According to the local witness interviewed by Yahad, the village was divided in two parts, the Jews lived on one side of the river, and the Germans and Ukrainians on another. During the Civil war the Jewish population suffered from pogroms and looting. There was a Klub and two Jewish shops in the village. There was a synagogue and a Jewish heder. There were mixed marriages between Germans and Jews. The majority of Jews worked in the kolkhoz. There were also artisans and merchants. On the eve of the war about 80 Jews remained in the colony. The Germans occupied the village in early August 1941.
For more than one month the Jews continued living in their homes without being marked or registered. On September 21, 1941, they were all taken in trucks towards the sand quarry where they were shot. In all, there were 41 victims.
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