1 Execution site(s)
Oleksandra B., born in 1932: “One day, when I was going to see my grandmother, who back then lived near the Jewish cemetery, I saw a group of people being gathered. At the beginning, I didn’t understand what was happening. When I came to my grandmother’s house, through a window I saw these people being marched towards the Jewish cemetery. At this moment, I understood that they were Jews. There were women, men, and children in the column. They were all arranged by fours. The column was guarded from both sides, but I can’t tell you by whom. I don’t know whether they were Germans or local police.” (Witness n°2658, interviewed in Pykiv, on September 14, 2019)
« On June 30, 1942 a mass round-up of the Jewish population was carried out in the area of the towns of Kalinovka and Novy and Stary Pikov. The following policemen, the German allies, participated: D. Boyko, N.V. Pushkar, D. Kravchenko, L. Kugay, Zakharevich, A. Bevzyuk, A. Strubchevskiy, V. Vechirko and the police chief N. Yarovoy, L. Krasikov, and Gendarmerie translator Geyn [sic] as well as German gendarmes whose names could not be determined.
The round up, in which about 700 women, elderly people, and children were arrested, started at 4 a.m. The gathering point was the stables of the Molotov kolkhoz, where they [the Jews] were kept until 3 p.m., i.e. until the pits were ready.” [Act drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK) on August 12, 1944; GARF : 7021-54-1274, pp.119-124]
Pykiv is located about 40km (25mi) northeast of Vinnytsia. The first records about the Jewish community go back to the 18th century. In 1900, 1,479 Jews lived in the town. In 1926, half of the total population was Jewish. The Jews had two synagogues, a Yiddish school and two Jewish collective farms [kolkhozes], one created in 1924 and another one in 1936. Most of Jews lived off small scale trade or handcraft. On the eve of the war, about 1,200 Jews lived in the village.
Pykiv was occupied by the German and Romanian troops on July 16, 1941. The village remained under German military administration until October 1941. Then the village remained under the Civil administration until its liberation in March 1944. Shortly after the occupation, all the Jews were registered and marked with Stars of David. According to the souvenirs of Jewish survivors, an opened ghetto was established in the end of July, although most of the historical sources mentioned that it was created in September 1941. The ghetto wasn’t fenced, but it was still forbidden to leave its territory. All the local Jews, as well as those who lived in the nearby villages, were forced to move in. The ghetto inmates, even women and children, were subjected to perform farm works in the kolkhoz. In March 1941, according to Altman, a group of women and men were selected and sent to Ivaniv. Most likely they were murdered along with the Ivaniv Jews later. The Jewish community of Pykiv was annihilated in three aktions that took place from May to June 1942. The aktions were conducted by the Gestapo unit helped by local police. Before the first execution, a group of Jews fit to work was selected and displaced to the labor camp created in Kalynivka. The labor camp numbered about 500 inmates who were supposed to work on the airfield construction. The ghetto was liquidated on May 30, 1942. During the liquidation about 960 Jews were rounded-up and taken to the Jewish cemetery. The Jews were shot in groups of fives on the edge of the pit that was dug in advance by the requisitioned villagers. The next two mass executions were conducted on June 6 and June 11, 1942. In all, 120 Jews, mainly those who were found in hiding, were rounded-up and shot at the same place, in the Jewish cemetery.
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