1 Execution site(s)
Iosyp V., born in 1931: “According to the adults, weaker Jews were shot every day in a pit dug in an agricultural field. It was located between the pond and the road, about 10 meters from both. The Jews had to enlarge the same pit as they filled it. One day, myself and some other villagers who were working in a beet field on the other side of the pond, about 1 km from the execution site, saw five Jews being taken there in a small two-wheeled cart pulled by some other Jews. That day, the pit had already been half filled-in, but there was an empty space prepared in advance. The victims were lined up on the edge of the pit to be shot standing up by men shooting them in the back of the head. If the victim didn’t fall into the pit on his own, the gunman would push him inside the pit. After the execution, the Jews had to cover the bodies with earth, and widen the pit for future executions at the same time.” (Testimony n°2855U, interviewed in Stanislavivka, on November 18, 2020)
"In the summer of 1942, 448 men and women were taken to the village of Stanislavovka to work on the Uman - Novoarkhangelsk road, in a camp located in the former kolkhoz stable.
From the very beginning of the roadworks, the Germans and Lithuanians killed 3-4 people a day. According to Kelia Stepanovna S*, "One day I saw these people going to work and an old man couldn’t move because he was starving, so a German pushed him into a pit, an old ditch, and fired four pistol shots, but he wasn’t dead, and the German forced people to cover him with earth while he was still alive."
A witness from the village, Gerasim Zakharovich P*, recounted: "I personally saw people working in a field near the Tovsta forest one day, and around noon the Germans took 20 people with shovels into the forest and brought them back in the evening. When they left the forest, me and old K* Ivan Semionovich went into the forest and saw a pit about 25m long and 4-5m wide. The next day, I worked there again, as the Germans and Lithuanians forced everyone from the camp into the forest. After that, we heard gunfire, and about two hours later, the Germans and Lithuanians came back alone." [From Soviet State Extraordinary commission, Source: RG 22.002M/7021-66-123]
Stanislavivka is a village located about 130 km (81mi) east of Kirovohrad (today known as Kropyvnytsky). Before 1939, it was a part of the Uman district, Kyiv region. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, the village was home only to Ukrainians, with no Jews living there before the war. A big Jewish community lived in the nearby town of Torhovytsia, located 14 km (7mi) away. The majority of Jews worked in small businesses and handicraft.
Stanislavivka was occupied by the German army in early August 1941. In the summer of 1942, a labor camp was created in the village. Several hundred Jews, men and women, were brought there to work on road construction, notably the road from Uman to Novoarkhangelsk. The camp, which numbered 448 inmates, was created in the former collective farm’s stables. It was fenced-in with barbed wire and guarded day and night by Germans and local police. Local non-Jewish villagers were allowed to bring food to the camp inmates, or ask for services, such as tailoring, or blacksmith services. While working, the Jews were guarded by two Germans. Local Ukrainians from Stanislavivka and nearby villages were also forced to work on the road construction. According to the archives, weaker Jews were shot throughout the camp’s existence at their place of work and buried on the spot. However, field research revealed that the victims’ bodies were taken away and buried in a mass grave in a field north of the village. Moreover, testimony no. 2855 revealed that some of the victims were shot at the edge of the mass grave, and not at their place of work. The Jews themselves had to fill in the pit and widen it after each shooting in order to accommodate subsequent victims. With the help of local witnesses, Yahad managed to identify the approximate location of the mass shooting site and mass grave. There is no monument on site. Based on eyewitness accounts and archives, we can assume that 150-200 Jewish victims were buried on the spot. The remaining Jews were shot at the end of the war in the Tovsta forest, located 2-3 km north of the village. The pits were dug by the Jews themselves in advance. The shootings were conducted by Germans assisted by Lithuanians and local police. Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, it was impossible for the Yahad team to access the execution site.
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