1 Killing site(s)
Ivan L., born in 1929: "Novozlatopil was the center of the Jewish district, which comprised fifteen colonies, I believe. I remember the Jewish settlements of Maïdorf, Oktiabrfeld, Sladkovodnaia, Krasnoselivka, Merezhino, Roter Poyer, Hupalovka... Most of these Jewish villages no longer exist today.
One day, the Jews were ordered to report to the Novozlatopil gendarmerie. They had been told to bring food for two or three days and their valuables under the pretext that they were to be relocated to Palestine. The Germans had deceived them.
The Jews were brought from their homes to this site. There was a very long building there: before the war, it was the police station, but upon the Germans’ arrival, it became the gendarmerie. The Jews were locked in cells for about two days, long enough to fill them. Then, the Germans forced Jewish men to dig a pit and construct a two-meter wooden fence. It was built so that no one could see anything, and everyone was hiding. But along with a few other boys, we climbed up into the attic of the pharmacy, whose outer door looked directly out over the shooting site, and we watched what was happening.
Before shooting them, the Germans made them undress inside the gendarmerie, confiscating their jewelry, belongings, and finest clothing. The guards wouldn’t allow anyone to approach the gendarmerie. The pit was very long, probably around 20 meters. The fence had a gate that opened directly toward the gendarmerie. They led people from the gendarmerie to the pit through this gate and shot them in the back of the neck. Mothers held their children in their arms or by the hand. Small children and those who resisted were thrown into the pit alive. Inside the pit itself, Jewish men were forced to arrange the bodies along its entire length. Once the pit was full, they shot them as well.
The policemen and guards were made to beat on buckets and other metal objects to drown out the gunfire. They even forced a local musician to play the tambourine—all to muffle the screams and shots. But it was impossible, of course… We still heard the screams and the gunfire.
Afterward, they brought in the Jews from all the surrounding villages. This went on for several days, and each time, the shootings lasted two or three hours in the exact same manner." (Testimony N°YIU399U, interviewed in Novozlatopil, on 30/12/2006)
" […] In November and December 1941, mass arrests of innocent Jewish Soviet citizens—including the elderly and children—began. An announcement was posted and relayed by the commandant, policemen, and starostas ordering the Jewish population to gather at the police office with food and good clothing to be sent to Palestine. They were forbidden from taking much food and were allowed to bring only fine clothing for Palestine. Once a part of the Jews had gathered, they were locked inside and, without any interrogation, forced to dig pits in the vegetable gardens located in the backyard of the police building.
When about four pits had been dug, at 2 p.m. they began taking the Jews there to be shot. Before being led to the pits, they were forced to undress and all their fine garments were confiscated, after which they were made to approach the pits. People who did not resist much were shot. People who tried to resist were thrown into the pit alive. In order to drown out the screams and groans of those thrown alive into the pits, the German henchmen beat on perforated buckets and boxes and even started up tractor engines. However, it was impossible to muffle such loud screams and groans. Once a pit was filled, collective farm (kolkhoz) workers were requisitioned to cover it over. This task was an unbearable burden for these people, as there were living individuals moving inside the pit, causing the thrown dirt to continually rise.
After shooting all the Jews who had reported of their own free will for deportation to Palestine, the gendarmerie issued orders to the village starostas and policemen to hunt down any remaining Jews and bring them to the Novo-Zlatopol district center. All orders from the gendarmerie were carried out by the starostas and policemen, who captured the Jews, rounded them up, and brought them to the gendarmerie. Upon the liberation of the Novo-Zlatopol district from the German scoundrels by the Red Army, I was present at the opening of the pits in which the murdered people of Jewish nationality had been buried. Approximately 800 people were buried in these pits. The opening of the pits took place on September 23, 1943. Upon opening 4 pits in the Novo-Zlatopol district located in the police yard, the charred skeletons of men, women, and children were discovered. Swaddled children were found alongside their mothers. The bodies were lying in disorder. […] " [Deposition of a witness Ivan Petrovich Plyasovitsa, born in 1909, taken by State Extraordinary Soviet Commission (ChGK), on May 11, 1944, pp.58-59; GARF 7021-61-21/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
Novozlatopil is a rural settlement located in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine. The village lies approximately 150 km (93 mi) southeast of Dnipro and 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Polohy, serving historically as the administrative, cultural, and economic core of the surrounding agricultural colonies in eastern Zaporizhzhia.
Novozlatopil was officially founded in 1848 as Colony No. 1 (Ershter-numer / Perver-numer) by Jewish agricultural settlers under Tsarist state-sponsored land allotment programs. Rapidly developing as the central "mother colony" among the Jewish agricultural settlements of the Ekaterinoslav Governorate, Novozlatopil established an early communal infrastructure. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the settlement maintained a consecrated synagogue, a Jewish cemetery, traditional elementary schools (Cheders), a Russian-language Jewish primary school, established in 1910, and organized self-defense units that successfully thwarted pogroms during the 1918–1921 Russian Civil War.
In 1929, Soviet authorities designated Novozlatopil as the administrative capital of the newly established Novozlatopol Jewish Autonomous District which encompassed dozens of regional colonies and new Soviet agricultural hamlets. During the interwar period, local social life underwent radical institutional transformations. Traditional religious institutions were closed or converted to secular uses under state anti-religious policies, while Yiddish was instituted as the official language of local administration, justice, and education. The town hosted Yiddish-language primary and secondary schools, an agricultural technical college , a district hospital, judicial courts, and the official district newspaper, Der Kolvirt Shtern ("The Collective Farm Star").
Historiographical evaluation of pre-war Jewish demographics in Novozlatopil requires distinguishing between the intra-muros settlement population and the broader autonomous district. According to the January 1939 Soviet census, the village of Novozlatopil proper recorded 1,109 Jewish residents, representing roughly 70–80% of the village’s total inhabitants, while the entire Novozlatopol Autonomous District contained 4,701 Jews across its constituent colonies and collective farms (kolkhozes).
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, an estimated two-thirds of Novozlatopil’s Jewish population managed to evacuate eastward prior to the arrival of Wehrmacht troops in early October 1941.
Between October and November 1941, the remaining Jewish residents of Novozlatopil and nearby villages, who had been unable or lacked the opportunity to evacuate, were murdered. Initially, an official announcement was posted and circulated by the local commandant, auxiliary policemen, and starostas (village chiefs), ordering the Jewish population to assemble at the Novozlatopil police station with food and best clothing under the pretext of being transported to Palestine. Believing these instructions, many Jews reported voluntarily. Upon arrival, they were immediately forced to dig pits in the vegetable garden behind the police building, located in close proximity to the Jewish cemetery. Meanwhile, auxiliary police forces established a security cordon, blocking access roads to the station and preventing local non-Jewish residents from approaching.
Once approximately four pits had been dug, German soldiers, who had reportedly arrived in trucks from Hulyaipole, began bringing the victims to the killing site. Before being led to the pits, the Jews were forced to undress in the police building, and their belongings and clothing were confiscated. They were then taken to the edge of the pits and shot. Those who attempted to resist were thrown into the pits alive. To drown out the screams and groans of the victims, the perpetrators beat on metal buckets. Several witnesses interviewed in Novozlatopil and neighboring villages recalled hearing these noises, which, despite the perpetrators’ efforts, failed to muffle the sound of gunfire and crying.
After shooting those who had reported voluntarily under the guise of relocation, the German authorities instructed the village chiefs and local police to track down any remaining Jews hidden in the surrounding area and bring them to the Novozlatopil. The local police and chiefs carried out these orders, rounding up remaining Jewish families and delivering them to the gendarmerie. These victims were subsequently shot at the same killing site. Overall, between October and November 1941, with some archival sources indicating that the final shooting took place on February 5, 1942, approximately 800 Jews from Novozlatopil and the surrounding district were murdered at this site.
Following post-war reconstruction, approximately 250 Jewish survivors returned briefly to Novozlatopil, though most subsequently migrated to major urban industrial centers or the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Birobidzhan.
Today, a monument dedicated to Jewish victims commemorates the killing site in Novozlatopil.
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