3 Execution site(s)
Oleh S., born in 1928: “There was a family of Krutyousy living there. And the Krutyousy were the relatives of the Jew, Yulin, his niece was living there. And this Yulin was part of the column; he was famous for slaying farm animals for the winter, and his friend was also there. And as they came to this house, his friend whispers to him: “Run!” And this Yulin sneaked into the door of the house. And what is interesting is that if that would have been a column of ours, somebody would surely scream: “Look, he ran away!” (The witness shakes his finger in negation). The Jews saw, they couldn’t not see, that is what I think. He hid himself in a corn field. There was also a potato field there; he stayed there until evening, then they took him inside. And they let his wife know. She was Ukrainian and she lived several streets away on another side of the school building. But how to get to her? In the house of Yulin was quartered one German officer. And there were guards there with the dogs. And they had to wait when there would be nobody at home to bring him there. It so happened that at night she took him home and he lived in the basement. And if the dog was growling, they would say it is somebody running around, or something like that. And that’s how he lived throughout the whole occupation. And when ours came, he came out from the basement. And there were two kids by them and they didn’t know that he was there. And when our troops came into town, he came out to meet them; that’s how he came out. And then he went to war, but because he wasn’t fit for military service, he was taking care of the farm animals. And when he came back from war, he worked here as before the war. He raised an adopted son,Vasilyi, a daughter, Galina and a son named Slavko. That was the destiny of Yulin.” (Witness n°2749U, interviewed in Talne, on August 21, 2020)
“[…] On August 10, 1941, the German executioners carried out the execution of 2,800 Soviet civilians, including women, elder people and children. Beforehand, there was an announcement saying that all the people in question had to present themselves at the Kommandantur under the pretext of the registration, before being displaced to Uman for work. Once gathered, all the people were taken by the road going to Uman, in the direction of the Bilashky village, where they were shot by machine and submachine guns. The same day those elderly and children who weren’t able to walk in the column were forced out of their houses and shot on the spot. They were the residents of the Talne [Note: here follow the list of victims’ names among which many Jewish names].
During the first days of October, the Gendarmerie tortured to death 11 Soviet activists.
On April 6, 1942, another mass shooting of citizens took place, during which 115 people, including 80 children and elder people, were shot. This crime was committed outside of Talne, near the slaughterhouse. […]
On August 13, 1941, 30 residents of the nursing home were taken outside of Talne and shot.” [Act drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission on March 16, 1944 ; GARF 7021-65-241]
Talne is located 130 km (81mi) southwest of Cherkasy and 38km (24) northeast of Uman. The first records about the Jews go back to the 18th century. According to the 1848 census, 1,807 Jews lived in Talne and by 1897, the population increased to 5,452 Jews, making up 57% of the total population. The majority of Jews lived off trade, especially cord trade, and handcraft. In 1910, the community had its own synagogue, four prayer houses, a Talmud Torah as well as a private Jewish college for men. Many Jews suffered from the Civil War pogroms conducted in 1919-1920 in the region. As a result of the pogroms dozens of Jews were killed, hundreds were injured, and the property was looted. In the 1920-30s, the number of Jews in Talne, like in other towns of Ukraine, decreased due to famine, repression, and migration. In 1926, only 39% of the total population was Jewish. On the eve of the war, 1,866 Jews remained in the town, making up only 15% of the total population.
Talne was occupied by the German troops on July 29, 1941. By that time a small number of Jews managed to evacuate. Shortly after, on August 10, 1941, under the pretext of the relocation for works in Uman, about 1,000 Jews, or according to the Soviet archives 2,800, were gathered at Kommandantur and then taken in two columns 2km outside of the town, in the direction of the village of Bilashky, where they were shot. Those who couldn’t walk were shot on the spot outside their houses. Their bodies were collected by the locals and buried at the Jewish cemetery. The execution was carried out by the German gendarmerie headed by an ethnic German [Volksdeutsche]. On August 13, or according to another source, on September 20, 1941, another 30 elderly and infirmed Jews who were deemed unfit to work were executed.
The remaining Jews, as well as the children from mixed marriages and their non-Jewish parents, were moved to a ghetto. It was created in three houses and was fenced in. The ghetto was liquidated on April 6, 1942. During the liquidation 115 Jews, including 80 children from mixed and non-mixed marriages, were shot near the slaughterhouse.
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