Koneva | Vinnytsia

/ Ivan S., born in 1926: "They brought the Jews into the trench and shot them right in front of me. I was terrified. I ran home with my cow." ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Ivan S., born in 1926: “I was grazing a cow next to the well in Koneva village when the two motorcycles passed by. In each side car there were three men wearing huge caps.” ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum The former animal remains pit where the bodies of Jews who died in the ghetto were buried. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum A symbolic monument in memory of the Jews who died in Koneva during WWII has been erected near the second burial site; it is located near the road, some 300 meters from the pit. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum A drone view of the former burial place and a monument. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Ivan S., born in 1926: "And then the Jews’ bodies started decomposing. So, my cousin and I took two shovels and buried them.” ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum Ivan S., born in 1926: "Several small groups of Jews were killed around Koneva. Together with my cousin we had to bury the bodies because of the smell and decomposition.” ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Koneva

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Animals’ remain pit
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
Dozens

Witness interview

Ivan S., born in 1924: "And then the Jews’ bodies started decomposing. So, my cousin and I took two shovels and buried them. Two weeks later a man arrived by cart. This man asked if anybody knew where two Jews were killed. And I said that I knew. So, I went with them… My house was on the edge of the village, and still is. I took them there and showed them where I buried them. They dug up the bodies, put them on the cart and took them to Ozaryntsi. That’s how it was. And after the war there were no Jews in Ozaryntsi anymore. They moved away. Some moved to Mohyliv, some to other places." (Witness n°2811U, interviewed in Mohyliv Podilsk, on October 13, 2020)

Historical note

Koneva is a village, 99 km (61mi) southwest of Vinnytsia. The village was home to Ukrainians, Poles, and some Jews. Many Jews lived in the nearby town of Ozaryntsi, located 5 km west of Koneva. According to the 1897, census 994 Jews lived there, making up 25% of the total population. The Jews lived mainly in the village center and were engaged in small-scale trade or handicraft. From the 1920s-1930s, many of them worked in the kolkhoz (collective farm). 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Koneva was occupied by German and Romanian troops on July 20, 1941. According to witness no. 2811, a shooting of four Jewish men from Ozaryntsi took place on July 20, 1941. It was perpetrated by a Romanian, who shot the victims on the outskirts of the village of Koneva. The victims’ bodies were recovered by the Jews and buried at the cemetery in Ozaryntsi. Other cases of shootings of small groups of Jews were reported by witness no. 2811, who had to bury the victims’ bodies himself. Some of the victims were Jews brought from Bessarabia and Nothern Bukovina and who died or were shot on the spot while the column passed by. In September 1941 Koneva became part of Transnistria, which remained under Romanian occupation. The ghetto inmates were marked with white armbands bearing yellow Star of David. Many of them died through the winter of 1941-1942 as a result of a typhus epidemic. Some Jews who died in Koneva were buried in the Ozaryntsi Jewish cemetery and some were buried in an animal burial pit, located in an agricultural field, near the road leading from Ozaryntsi to Slidy. A symbolic monument has been erected near the second burial site; it is located near the road, some 300 meters from the pit.

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