Obilnoye | Stavropol

/ In this building the Germans established their Kommandantur. Before the war it was a school. Today the building has been changed. © Cristian Monterroso/Yahad-In Unum Ivan V., born in 1927: “Beside the village, near the prison, there were silo pits where the Germans conducted the execution.” © Cristian Monterroso/Yahad-In Unum Yevdokia D., born in 1936: “ My cousin and I went to the field to harvest foxtail millet. Suddenly, we saw a shell hole with a lot of corpses inside.” © Cristian Monterroso/Yahad-In Unum Yevdokia D., born in 1936: "In the other trucks, there were other Jews, but they were still alive. They were lined up in groups at the edge of the pit and shot." © Cristian Monterroso/Yahad-In Unum In this field the Germans shot the evacuated 56 Jewish refugees. Some victims were killed in the gas van and buried in a mass grave. © Cristian Monterroso/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jewish refugees in Obilnoye

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Silo pit located in the field
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1942-1943
Number of victims:
About 56

Witness interview

Yevdokia D., born in 1936, remembered: “My cousin and I went to the field to harvest foxtail millet. The field was located between the forest and the road. Suddenly, we saw a shell hole with a lot of corpses inside. I remember seeing the bodies of a dark-haired woman, a child who was wearing pretty boots, an elderly woman, and the legs of another person. Then we heard the sound of the engines so we hid in a field. We saw the Germans arriving by motorbikes and looking around.” (Testimony n°578 interviewed in Obilnoye on October 26th, 2015)

Historical note

Obilnoye is located on the banks of the Kuma River, 190 km south-east of Stavropol. The village was founded in 1784 by settlers from the Voronezh province. At the beginning of the 20th century, Obilnoye was a large commercial village with 8,100 inhabitants, according to the census of 1913. The majority of the population was Russians and Ukrainians. There were  two schools and one church. Once the war broke out, 56 Jewish refugees arrived from Ukraine into the village trying to flee the German executioners.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Obilnoye was occupied in August 1942. Nothing was known about the fate of the Jewish refugees. During field research, Yahad-In Unum found out that they were shot, like many others in this area, most likely at the end of August or early September 1942.  According to the witnesses, the Jews were brought to the execution site, located in the field, in trucks. There were four or five uncovered trucks and one gas van. Those who were transported in the gas van died during the transportation from the exhausts fumes. Their corpses were thrown in the silo pit while others were shot dead at the edge of the same silo pit. Among the victims there were women, children and elderly people.  There is no memorial today.

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