2 Killing site(s)
Nina I., born in 1922: "In the winter, the Romanians brought about 300 Jews here and confined them in a large barn, which had previously been either a pigsty or a sheep barn—I no longer remember which. There were very few men among the Jews—most were women, children, and elderly people. Many of them came from Odesa. I know this because a Jewish woman doctor and her daughter often came to our house. The mother wanted her daughter to ’breathe the air of a home,’ if only for a little while. My mother and other women brought food to the Jews in the barn. Then, one evening, German colonists arrived on sleds. They surrounded the barn. They took the Jews out in groups of about fifty, made them undress in a garage located about 200 metres from the barn, and then led them on foot to the clay pit on the outskirts of the village. We watched the Jews being taken away. Then we heard bursts of machine-gun fire, and the colonists returned to fetch the next group. This continued until all the Jews had been shot. Afterwards, they brought hemp, built several small pyres, and burned the bodies." (Testimony N°YIU1295U, interviewed in Kutuzivka on November 09, 2011)
Kutuzivka is a small village in the Voznesensk District of Mykolaiv Oblast, located approximately 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Mykolaiv.
Before the Second World War, Kutuzivka had no known permanent Jewish population. The nearest substantial Jewish community was in Voznesensk, approximately 30 km to the northwest, while several Jewish agricultural colonies were located elsewhere in the district before the war.
Kutuzivka as well as the surrounding area were occupied by German troops in August 1941, and the Romanian civilian administration assumed control in September 1941.
According to the testimony of Nina I., born in 1922 and interviewed in Kutuzivka by Yahad – In Unum, approximately 300 Jews were brought to the village by Romanian soldiers during the winter of 1941–1942. They were confined in a former collective farm (kolkhoz) livestock barn.
Nina recalled that, despite their confinement, the Jews were allowed to move about the village. They came to local houses in search of food and warmth, and villagers were also able to bring them provisions. Their stay in Kutuzivka was brief, however, as they were killed later that same winter.
According to the witness, one evening, local German colonists, known as Volksdeutsche, arrived on sleds and surrounded the barn. They removed the Jews in groups of approximately fifty. Before being taken away, the victims were ordered to surrender their valuable clothing in a garage located near the barn. They were then escorted on foot to a clay pit on the outskirts of the village, where they were shot with machine guns. The Volksdeutsche policemen repeatedly returned to the barn to escort successive groups until all of the prisoners had been shot.
Nina further stated that the following day the policemen returned to the clay pit to search for any survivors and kill anyone who was still alive. Several days later, they brought hemp to the site and constructed a number of small pyres by alternating layers of bodies with layers of hemp before setting them on fire.
According to the witness, several Jews died from exhaustion or exposure to the cold during the forced marches through Kutuzivka. Their bodies were buried in an anti-tank ditch running alongside the road. Neither this burial site nor the killing site at the clay pit are marked by a memorial.
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