1 Killing site(s)
"[…] In the first or second week after the occupation, about 40 persons were shot in Rastadt by the German occupation troops. These were mainly local Jews from Rastadt and Neu-Rastadt. Among the victims were also several Volksdeutsche men who had held leading positions in the community during the Soviet period. Who carried out these shootings, I do not know. […]" [Deposition of Florian Weinberger, born on May 16, 1916, in Rastadt/USSR, to the Criminal Police. Made in Schwelm, on May 27, 1968, BARch162-2310, p.6]
"[…] I never belonged to the Selbstschutz (the self-defense unit) in Rastadt. My brother Hyronimus belonged, to my knowledge, like all able-bodied men, to the Selbstschutz. […] Regarding the mass shootings of Jews in or near Rastadt, I cannot say very much. Everyone in Rastadt knew that in the years 1942 and 1943 Jews were killed in large numbers in our vicinity. Where the Jews came from, I do not know. It was also known that members of the Selbstschutz had to take part in the shootings on the orders of the SD commandant’s office (BX). However, I am not in a position to give the names of such Selbstschutz members. […] I myself did not make any direct observations in this connection, because the actions were carried out during the night and were completed by dawn. During this period, I only once saw a convoy of Jews which was escorted by Romanian troops and led from outside Rastadt in the direction of Wesselinowo [today Veselynove]. The Selbstschutz was not involved in this. The convoy, which consisted of about 200 people, moved in a rather scattered way because the people were very weakened. It was winter and there was snow, which also made it very difficult for the convoy to move forward. The Jews, as well as the Romanian guards, were on foot. […]
One also heard from time to time that one or another member of the Selbstschutz refused to take part in the shootings, and that in such cases the people were forced by members of the commandant’s office to participate in these executions. […]" [Deposition of Raphael Böhler, born on December 6, 1926, in Rastadt/USSR, to the Criminal Police. Made in Wirges, on May 20, 1968, BARch162-2310,pp.14-15]
Porichchya is a village in the Mykolaiv region located about 35 km (22 mi) from Voznesensk. The village was founded around 1810 by ethnic Germans (or German colonists) as part of the agricultural colonization policy of southern Ukraine. The village was named Rastadt in reference to the German city of Rastatt.
The population was predominantly Catholic and spoke German in everyday life until the Second World War. Two Catholic churches were built there. Thanks to state subsidies and the success of agricultural policies, the village experienced significant demographic growth, from 470 inhabitants in 1811 to 3,807 in 1919.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the region came under Soviet control, bringing significant changes for the local population. The implementation of agricultural collectivization, the imposition of religious restrictions, and the loss of cultural autonomy led to a decline in the German population during the interwar period.
Regarding the Jewish community, German archival documents refer to at least 40 local Jews residing in Rastadt and Neu‑Rastadt before the WWII, both of which are part of the modern-day village of Porichchya.
Porichchya, formerly known as Rastadt, was occupied by German troops in August 1941. Like other settlements in this part of the Mykolaiv region located west of the Southern Bug River, the village subsequently came under Romanian administration as part of the Transnistria Governorate. However, as an ethnic German colony, it remained under the strong influence and direct control of German authorities.
The Nazi authorities granted the inhabitants of German origin (Volksdeutsche) a privileged status over the local Soviet population. The German administration moved quickly to reorganize these colonies: many inhabitants were mobilized into self-defense units (Selbstschutz), while individuals suspected of collaborating with Soviet authorities were displaced or purged to ensure the "ideological purity" of the settlements.
According to German archival records, approximately 40 residents of Rastadt and Neu-Rastadt were shot during the first or second week of the occupation. While the victims were predominantly local Jews, they also included several ethnic Germans who had held positions of responsibility under the Soviet administration. During a research mission in the area, a local resident who requested anonymity identified the approximate location of the killing site in a former kolkhoz field that was ploughed over shortly after the war; today, it remains a sunflower field. As for today, there is no memorial to commemorate the victims.
Beyond these local killings, witnesses interviewed by Yahad-In Unum in neighboring villages confirm the key role played by the German residents of Porichchya in the destruction of the Jewish population throughout the wider region. A police post was established in the village, and Volksdeutsche policemen assisted German soldiers or sometimes carried out the shootings of Jews themselves, including Jews brought from Odesa to surrounding villages. Thus, Mykola T., born in 1931 and interviewed in Novovoskresenka, recalls: "In Buzovarove, Ivanivka, and Novovoskresenka, the shootings were carried out by the German colonists from Rastadt, now Porichchya." Olena, born in 1925, and Kateryna, born in 1937, both interviewed in Lidiivka, confirm these statements and attest, that German colonists from Porichchya also participated in the shootings of Jews in Lidiivka.
The Mykolaiv region was liberated by the Red Army in March 1944. With the restoration of Soviet rule, the German inhabitants were widely regarded as suspected collaborators, and the majority were deported to Siberia or Kazakhstan. In 1946, the German name Rastadt was officially abolished, and the village was renamed Porichchya, marking the end of the German colony.
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