Bereslavka (former Jewish colony Gromokley) | Kirovohrad

View of a colony people pose near buildings and hay piles, 1925 © YIVO Archives Jewish colonists eating breakfast at an agricultural settlement in Kherson, Ukraine, 1925.© YIVO Archival Resources Piling hay on a wagon the colonist at the top of the pile loads hay forked up to him by the other colonist, 1925 © YIVO Archives / Nothing has left from the former Jewish colony Gromokley. Today, there is a field. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum The Jewish cemetery of the Jewish colony, Gromokley. The grandmother of Lev Trotsky, born Bronstein, is buried here. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum At this place a Jewish school was located. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum The foundation of the religious building. According to the witness, it was as a synagogue. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Yefrosinia TS., born in 1922 is the last remaining witness living in Bereslavka who remembered the Jews from the Jewish colony Gromokley. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum Yahad’ team at the execution site. Back then it was a sand quarry and today it is a field. There is no memorial. Nothing reminds about 41 innocent victims murdered here by Nazi. © Kate Kornberg/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Bereslavka

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Sand quarry
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
41

Witness interview

Yefrosinia TS., born in 1922, described the life of the Jewish colony Neuleben: “YIU: Did you go into the shops as well?
W: Yes, I did. There were two shops.
YIU: What did you buy there?
W: We bought sugar and sweets, everything we needed. They also sold fabrics to make dresses. They had everything one could need. They were very nice to us. They gave us loans and we could pay them back whenever we could. They just made a note and we paid in one or two years. They were very nice. When you enter the shop, they asked you to sit down. There was also a tailor in the shop who took orders for clothing. You could buy fabrics and order a dress at the same time.” (Testimony n°1998, interviewed in Bereslavka, on March 31, 2016)

Soviet archives

“In September 1941, in the district of Bereslavka, 41 Jews workers of the kolkhoz aged from 1 to 70 years old were murdered in the kolkhoz Neuleben.” [Act of State extraordinary commission, RG 22.002M. 7021-66-124]

Historical note

Bereslavka is a village located  76km south of Kirovohrad, today’s Kropyvnytsky. Back then, an agricultural Jewish colony Gromokley was located a couple of kilometers away from Bereslavka. Found in 1857, the Jewish colony doesn’t exist anymore.  According to the local witness interviewed by Yahad, the village was divided in two parts, the Jews lived on one side of the river, and the Germans and Ukrainians on another. During the Civil war the Jewish population suffered from pogroms and looting. There was a Klub and two Jewish shops in the village. There was a synagogue and a Jewish heder.  There were mixed marriages between Germans and Jews. The majority of Jews worked in the kolkhoz. There were also artisans and merchants. On the eve of the war about 80 Jews remained in the colony. The Germans occupied the village in early August 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

For more than one month the Jews continued living in their homes without being marked or registered. On September 21, 1941, they were all taken in trucks towards the sand quarry where they were shot. In all, there were 41 victims. 

Jewishgen

Go to the Townpage on JewishGen Ukraine SIG website

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