![Hanna P., born in 1930: “There were pregnant women, young and elder people, handicapped walking with crutches among them. They had small bundles [tied] to their backs. That is all that had.“©Omar Gonzalez/Yahd-In Unum](/thumb/cache/2239f26349aef4310e9588c95da54fc9/85913/media_fichier_YIU_UK55_Day06_Mykholaiv_Loukanivka_T2471_08.jpg)
1 Execution site(s)
Hanna P., born in 1930: “Straight after the occupation, the first Germans passed by the village. They rounded-up local non Jewish population whom they took with them. They were supposed to dig anti-tank ditches for the Germans all the way [to] Vradiivka. Once the Germans passed, the Jews were brought from Kryve Ozero by the Romanians. There were pregnant women, young and elder people, handicapped walking with crutches among them. They had small bundles [tied] to their backs. That is all that had. Some of them managed to escape and hide in the wheat fields. Those who were shot dead on the spot were gathered by the local population and buried in a mass grave.” (Witness n°2471U, interviewed in Lukanivka, on September 11, 2018)
Manshurovo was founded in 1848 as a Jewish agricultural colony. Today the colony doesn’t exist. At the beginning, 68 Jewish families settled down there, and by 1858 the Jewish population had increased to 873. The synagogue was built in the middle of 19th century. The colonists lacked agricultural skills and rented out their land plots to peasants of neighboring villages in exchange for half the harvest. Those Jews, who weren’t involved in the agriculture, lived off craft and small scaled trade. Some of the colonists searched for work in other places. In 1918-1919, the Jewish community was attacked during pogroms and suffered pillage. During the 1920s, a reading house and a two-grade elementary school for Jewish children were opened. In 1921, a soap-making artel (workshop) was set up in Manshurovo. In 1925 only 337 Jews lived in the colony. In 1929, two kolkhozes “Kotovsky” and “Khleborob” operated in the colony. The Jews and non-Jewish population worked there.
Manshurovo was occupied in mid-July 1941 by Germans followed by Romanians. There is no exact information of what happened to the local Jewish community. They were probably exterminated either in the nearest camp of Vradiivka or on the spot while attempting to escape. Several isolated shootings took place in July 1941, just a couple of days after a passage of the column from Kryve Ozero to Vradiivka. We believe that some Jews from the column attempted to hide, but were found out and shot. Their bodies were gathered and buried outside the village, in an anti-tank ditch close to the blackberry bushes. The exact number of the victims remains unknown. According to the testimony n°YIU/2471U they were Romanians in green uniforms who conducted the shooting.
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