1 Execution site(s)
Hanna R., born in 1927: “The Jews were brought to the shooting site by the police in the morning. They were guarded near the pit by the policemen, there were no Germans. A man with a list called up the Jews one by one, or sometimes by families, and led them to the pit. The shooting went on all day. The villagers said that a group of Jews had tried to evacuate in carts, there were about 12 carts in all, but when they passed through the village, they ran into Germans and were killed along with local Jews. ” (Testimony n°2872U, interviewed in Kalnybolota, on December 1st, 2020)
"On February 27 and 28, 1942, district chief K*** ordered the arrest of all Jews in the district. Police chief S***, N**, Ia** Mikhail and I went to Kalnibolota, where the "Pyatyroti" was located, where all Jews from the surrounding area were to be brought and shot. The shooting was carried out by policemen [the last names are listed] from Kalnibolota, P*** from the “5th unit" and a policeman from the village Nadlak. In all, some 70 Jews were shot. The Germans were present in the village but did not take part in the shooting. Among the Jews shot were people from Pokrovka and Nadlak. [...] Last night, around 17 Jews, adults, and children were arrested in Pokrovka. The arrest of the Jews was led by district chief K*** himself, together with district policemen Sh*** and R*** and Pokrovka policemen M***, the chief policeman, B***, A***, and P***. A Jewish woman, Ievdokia Iurovskaia, who was married to a Ukrainian man, tried to flee but was arrested and killed with the others. A Ukrainian, Semion Skliarenko, hid his Jewish wife and 3 children for 3 months. But the children, except for the 5-year-old son who survived, were found and killed by local policemen. [...]
On the night of February 27 to 28, 1942, five Jewish families (fifteen people) were arrested in Nadlak. They were the Shifrin, KItaigorodski, and Miropolski families. At 2 a.m., they were transported to Kalnybolota on 8 sleds. We arrived at dawn in front of the Kalnybolota uprava (village administration), where several policemen were waiting for us. All the Jews of Kalnybolota were gathered together in a warehouse near the Uprava, where you could hear them crying and shouting. The Jews from Nadlak were taken off the carts and locked up in this warehouse too. Then the Jews were taken out of the warehouse. Five Jews and one policeman were put on each sled. The policemen said there were 75 Jews in all. The sleds headed for the Jewish cemetery. Once there, Kalnibolot police chief K*** and district police inspector V*** stepped forward. V*** read out an order from the German government accusing the Jews of being enemies of the Ukrainian people and of the whole of Europe and condemning them to death. Then five unknown policemen armed with rifles stepped forward. Five Jews were removed from the first cart and lined up with their backs to the policemen. Inspector V*** gave the order to fire, and they were shot. Then it was the Nadlak policemen’s turn to shoot (…). In this way, the policemen took turns for 1.5 hours until all the Jews had been shot. Throughout the shooting, V*** undressed the bodies by putting their clothes on a pile and stowing them away.” [Deposition of the accused Grigoii Ts., chief police deputy of Novoarkhangelsk, Source: A.Kruglov, A.Umansky, I.Shchupak, Holocaust in Ukraine, 2016, pp. 306-308.]
Kalnybolota is located 60 km (38mi) east of Uman. Jews began to settle there in the late 18th century. In 1897, 588 out of 4,993 population were Jewish. Their main occupation was agriculture and farming, although many Jews lived off trade and handicrafts. There was no synagogue or cemetery in Kalnybolota. A bigger Jewish community lived in Novoarkhangelsk.
Kalnybolota was occupied by German forces in early August 1941. The Jewish population of Pokotylove, excluding those who had managed to evacuate before the Germans’ arrival, was annihilated in one major murder operation carried out in February 1942 by the policemen from Novoarkhangelsk.
Until that time, the Jews continued to live in their houses. During the murder operation, all the Jews were rounded up and taken to the pits dug in between the cemetery and the woods. At the site, the victims, men, women, and children, were called one by one or in families according to the list and shot inside the pit. According to a local witness, among the local Jews. there were also several dozen Jews who passed by the village. Today, there is a monument at the site.
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