1 Execution site(s)
Hanna G., born in 1926, says: “They were taking all the young adults to Germany. I also wason their list. But my father managed to convince the Germans that I was still only a child.” (Testimony n°1622, interviewed in Hladkovychi on April 20, 2013)
Hladkovychi is located 140 km north of Zhytomyr. The first records of the village go back to the mid-16th century. Before the war there were several Jewish families in the village. They lived off small scale trade and handcraftsmanship. The village of Hladkovychi was occupied by the Germans in August, 1941.
Immediately after the occupation the Germans appointed a new starosta, who had to round up people to deport to Germany. Soon after that the Jews and non-Jews were shot on the edge of the village, in a small forest near the flax fields. At that time the witness, interviewed by Yahad, helped a local woman to find a body of her murdered husband in the mass grave. So she had seen the pit with mostly male bodies inside. According to her testimony, the Jews were brought to the shooting site in two covered trucks. They were forced to go down into the pit where they were shot with a machine gun. The shooting lasted for two weeks. The number of victims remains unknown.
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Read Yahad-In Unum’s report of the research trip in this area