1 Execution site(s)
Maria P., born in 1924: “Y. U. : Did those Romanians bring the Jews to Pavlivka?
Witness : Yes, they did. They brought them here, put them into stables, there were about 250 persons [Jews], they [the Romanians] tortured them there. My mother and I used to prepare some potatoes and beetroots and bring it to them there. Their leader put a kind of sackcloth, and we left food on it. The Jews came and they were given two large potatoes and one beet or four small potatoes and one beet. Then they came back and laid down on straw. There was a local man, my mother often screamed at him; he got on a horse and walked on people. They tortured them.
Y. U. : When you and your mother brought them food, did you go inside the stables?
Witness : Yes, we went inside the stables.
Y. U. : Did you go there only with your mother or did other villagers come too?
Witness : Other villagers went there as well. They [the Jews] also went to the village and people gave them some food. People didn’t hurt them, but the murderers robbed them and took all their gold. Once when we arrived, we saw them [the murderers] loading a truck. They put the most rich Jews on the truck and took them somewhere. They told them, “We will take you to Rudnitsa, there we’ll let you go”. But they brought them to the forest and killed them there. Then they took all their belongings, drove back the cart, put all that things in one of those murderers’ yard and shared it with each other.” (Witness n°2673U, interviewed in Pavlivka, on October 24, 2019)
From the deposition of Alshtat Grigoriy, dentist, born in 1910, from 1005 Jews brought to Pavlovka from Bukovina and Bessarabia in 1941, only 113 remained alive as of March 1942. Some died from hunger and diseases. A part of the Jews died from the hands of the traitor, Zakhariy T., born in 1920, native from Pavlovka. This fact was confirmed by the head of the rural administration [selsoviet] Afanasiy D. […] On January 28, 1944, the village of Pavlovka was burned as a reprisal act against the partisan movement. During the fire, 26 people died while 56 others were shot afterwards.” [Act n°6 drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission, on July 20, 1944 in Staraya Obodovka; GARF 7021-54-1259]
Pavlivka is located 150km (93mi) southeast of Vinnytsia. According to the residents interviewed by Yahad, Pavlivka was home to Ukrainians, no Jews lived in the village before the war. There were three kolkhozes [collective farms] in the village. Agriculture was the main occupation.
Pavlivka was occupied by German and Romanian forces at the end of July 1941. The village remained under the Romanians and became part of Transnistria in September 1941. During the first days of the occupation, on July 28, 1941, 8 local men, including 3 komsomols, were executed. Shortly after, a ghetto was created where the Jews deported, in the fall of 1941, from Bessarabia and Bukovina, were confined. According to the Soviet Archives, about 1,000 Jews- men, women, and children among them- were placed in the pigsty that belonged to the collective farm. The buildings were not fenced in, although it was forbidden for the Jewish people to leave the territory. The Jews were subjected to different kinds of humiliation and robberies from the local bandits headed by Zakhariy. According to Maria P. (YIU/2673U), interviewed by Yahad, he even conducted isolated shootings.
During the existence of the ghetto, hundreds of the Jews starved to death or died of diseases. In March 1942 only 113 of the Jews remained alive. The village was burned down in January 1944 as reprisal action against the partisans. As a result, 28 people were killed, and 56 others were shot.
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