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1 Killing site(s)
Mykola N., born in 1933:
"YIU: What happened to the Jews of Kakhovka when the Germans arrived?
Witness: Very quickly, in 1941, they were taken to the well that was seventy meters deep. All the wells around here are very deep — seventy meters or more. The Jews were brought in trucks called polutorkas. They were told to bring clothes, valuables, gold, silver, children, and so on, because they were supposedly being taken elsewhere.
Once the Jews arrived here, the police and the Germans forced them to undress and robbed them. There were 1,600 of them.
YIU: Where were they gathered before being killed?
Witness: In Kakhovka. I don’t know exactly where. Malokakhovka was 5 km from Kakhovka. Under the Germans, we weren’t allowed to move around freely. They imposed a curfew, and we weren’t allowed to go out after 9 p.m.
My sister was working in a cotton field next to the well that day. They weren’t allowed to go near it, but they could hear the shooting. The Jews were thrown alive into the well, and then… After the Jews had been buried, the earth above the well heaved for three days. There was an old Jew here — Jeanna Karlovna’s uncle — who had a wooden leg. People said that his prosthetic leg was sticking out of the pit." (Testimony N°YIU2020U, interviewed in Malokakhovka, on May 25, 2017)
"On September 4, 1941, 60 Jewish men were brought by truck outside the town and shot in an anti-tank trench. On September 16, 1941, more than 1,700 Jews, including women, children and the elderly were brought by force near the police building. From there, they were brought in groups outside the town, towards the Malkovo hamlet [which clearly refers to the village of Malokakhovka]. According to the hamlet’s residents’ testimonies the victims were thrown alive into a well about 40 meters deep and then it was exploded with grenades. The commission managed to find the location of the pit in Malkovo; some bodies were exhumed. [...] In all, over 2,000 Jews were killed in Kakhovka. Their belongings were shared between the German administration, the police and the starosta. The extermination of the Jews was organized and coordinated by the German gendarmerie and the commander of Kakhovka." [Closing statement written on November 10, 1943 by YANKUSHENKO, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice, Deputy Military Prosecutor of the 44th Army. GARF 7021-77-414/pp. 119–121/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
Izrailson, an old Jewish man, and his elderly wife lived at 7 "The Germans arrived in town on September 1 [1941]. Several Jewish families lived in my building. Some left the town in time, while others stayed. Around September 6 or 7, the Germans summoned approximately 60 Jews, supposedly to bury the bodies. Among those selected were my friends Lagerman, Slutski, and Sheikhman. They were taken outside of town to a stone quarry and shot. […] Some time later, the Germans ordered all the Jews to gather in front of the police station. From there, they were taken away in trucks. […] Izrailson, an old Jewish man, and his elderly wife lived at 7 Pushkinskaya Street. One morning, police chief Ruf, his brother, and several German gendarmes came to their home and took the old lady away. Izrailson was bedridden, so he was left behind. That evening, I went to check on the old man. I was sitting next to him when the Ruf brothers and a German policeman came in. They took the old man outside. They forced all the neighbors to go back into their homes. I was standing in front of the door when I saw them sit Izrailson down at the edge of a trench. The policeman then shot him in the back of the neck. I buried the old man when they left. Later, I learned from the locals that all the Jews had been taken 6 km from the city to a field belonging to the Dimitrova kolkhoz and thrown alive into a large well. […] Nearly 2,000 Jews from Kakhovka were killed in total." [Interrogation Report of Witness Akim S., born in 1878. Written on November 6, 1943. GARF 7021-77-414/pp. 75-76 /Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
"The Commission carried out the exhumation of a mass grave containing 68 people—50 men, 12 women, and 6 children aged 1 to 14 years—shot in an anti-tank ditch between October 4 and 10, 1941. Among the victims, relatives identified: NAGAI (Communist Party member); KRAMARENKO (Communist Party member); NOVIKOV (Communist Party member); KALINITCHENKO; KOTLIAR; NADEL; KOZLENKO; GARKOUCHA; and SENIN. The mass grave is located in an anti-tank ditch, 500 to 600 meters southwest of Kakhovka. The exhumed bodies were reburied in a mass grave in the southwestern part of the city." [Statement written on July 19, 1944. GARF 7021-77-414/p. 10/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
Kakhovka, a district center in the Kherson region, is located on the bank of the Dnipro River, approximately 80 km (49 mi) northeast of Kherson. The settlement was founded in 1791 as part of the Russian Empire. Until 1840, Kakhovka was a town within the Pale of Settlement, the territory where Jews were legally permitted to live. The first documented Jewish residents appeared here in the early 19th century.
In 1867, there were two synagogues, several chederim, and a private school in Kakhovka. In the second half of the 19th century, Kakhovka became an important trading center in southern Ukraine. In 1887, the Jewish entrepreneur Gurevich founded an agricultural machinery plant. According to the 1897 census, 3,003 Jews lived in Kakhovka, making up 40% of the total population. At that time, most Jews were engaged in various crafts and trade. They also owned many small factories, including an iron foundry, a steam mill, a butter mill, a wool-combing factory, and perfumery and chemical production plants.
By the early 20th century, Kakhovka had active branches of Zionist, Bundist, and Poale Zion groups. Between 1918 and 1920, the Jewish population suffered several pogroms. According to local witnesses, before the war there was a Jewish quarter in Kakhovka as well as a Jewish kolkhoz called Faiarberta. Due to the relocation of many Jews to larger cities, the Jewish community declined. Thus, in 1939, there were only 1,072 Jewish residents living in Kakhovka, comprising about 9% of the total population.
Kakhovka was occupied by Wehrmacht units on September 1, 1941. Soon after, a new administration was established in the town, which included the organization of a local auxiliary police force. In the early days of the occupation, the Jewish population was registered and forced to wear identifying badges. Jewish men deemed capable of work were subjected to forced labor, including tasks such as trench digging and road repairs.
Shortly after the occupation began, isolated shootings targeting individuals and groups of locals, including Jews, were reported. While archival sources differ on the exact number and locations of the first killings, it is documented that in early September 1941, between 40 and 100 Jews were gathered under the pretext of forced labor, taken outside the town, and shot. According to Soviet archival records, approximately 60 Jews were shot in an anti-tank ditch. Other testimonies suggest that roughly the same number of Jews were transported to a stone quarry near the town and shot there, possibly on September 6 or 7. On the same day, additional individual shootings were carried out across Kakhovka, including the documented killing of a Jewish man named Izraislon. According to further accounts, an unknown number of Jews were also murdered near a well located in the Rekord cooperative area.
The largest massacre of Jews from Kakhovka and, presumably, from surrounding areas occurred in mid to late September 1941. It is difficult to establish the exact date of this Aktion, as different sources — including Soviet archives and German reports — provide varying dates. During this Aktion, carried out by members of Sonderkommando 10a, with the support of German forces and the local auxiliary police, between 650 and 1,700 Jews were gathered in the stadium and taken to the Dimitrov kolkhoz (collective farm) located in Malokakhovka, where they were murdered and buried in a well.
According to other sources, shootings of Jews took place on the same dates in an anti-tank ditch and in the Slobodka district (northwest of the city). Witnesses from the Soviet Extraordinary Commission also reported that around 100 Jews were shot in a trench in the power station yard.
Isolated killings of Jews found in hiding continued throughout the German occupation. The total number of Jewish victims in Kakhovka and the surrounding villages is estimated at around 2,000.
In the course of its field research, Yahad identified the killing site located at the former anti-tank ditch. In addition to Jewish victims, numerous others — including civilians, prisoners of war, and communists — were murdered and buried there during the Second World War. A monument was later erected at the site in memory of the victims of fascism.
For more information about the killing of Jews in Malokakhovka, please refer to the corresponding profile.
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