Overview
- Interview Summary
- Aleksandra Shemeneva, born in 1924 and living in Dneprovskaya at the time of the interview, discusses working in the fields when a man in a black uniform exited a truck and shot a group of people, mostly women and children; the pit in which the bodies were buried; learning that the victims were Jewish; and the search of her home by German soldiers.
- Interviewee
- Aleksandra Shemeneva
- Date
-
interview:
2010 May 16
- Geography
-
creation:
Dneprovskaia (Russia)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Russian
- Extent
-
1 videocassette (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Russian. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Russia. Jewish children--Crimes against--Soviet Union. Jewish women--Crimes against--Soviet Union. Mass burials--Soviet Union. Massacres--Russia (Federation)--Dneprovskaia. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Soviet Union. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Dneprovskaia (Russia) Germany--Armed Forces. Russia. Soviet Union--History--1939-1945. Soviet Union--History--German occupation, 1941-1944.
- Personal Name
- Shemeneva, Aleksandra.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was directed and supervised by Nathan Beyrak.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:21:10
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn45053
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- See Rights and Restrictions
- Terms of Use
- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
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Oral history interview with Margarita Bavkunova
Oral History
Margarita Bavkunova, born in 1932 in Starodub, Russia, discusses the numerous Jewish families living in Starodub before the war; their Jewish neighbors, the Mankovskiy family; the beginning of the war and her father being recruited to the army; hiding from the bombings in a dugout in their yard; the arrival of the Germans and the taking of the locals’ food; the occupation of the Mankovskiys’ house by the SS; being bitten by one of the SS dogs; watching as Jews were taken to an execution site near the river; the imprisonment of Jews and communists in a shed for five days before they were all shot in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); seeing the burial pit the following day; hearing later that the victims of the execution dug the pit before being shot; how after the execution people from her street hid a Jewish boy (Yasha), passing him from house to house; the betrayal of hidden Jews; life during the occupation; her mother hiding a cow in the forest; how when the Germans were withdrawing, they used locals as a shield from Soviet air attacks; being forced with her mother and sister to walk for three days; and the destruction of their home.
Oral history interview with Raisa Arshanskaya
Oral History
Raisa Arshanskaya, born in 1933 in Starodub, Russia, describes living in Zakholevichi, Russia then Klintsy, Russia; her Jewish mother and her Russian-Lithuanian-German father; being the only Jews on their street; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war and the bombing of their town; the recruiting of her father into the army; the round up of Romanies; having to wear yellow fabric sewn to their clothing; being imprisoned with her mother; being rescued by a policeman named Sergey; the execution of her mother on December 5, 1941; staying with the policeman’s family for two months; staying with the Kapralov family; the hanging of the policeman who betrayed she and her mother; the mass execution in Klintsy, during which she heard shooting for several days; and the looting of Jewish belongings after the execution.
Oral history interview with Klaudiya Prilashkevich
Oral History
Klavdiya Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Smolensk oblast, Russia, discusses her Jewish neighbors, the Reykhel family; her father, who was a butcher and was friends with Jews; her father’s activities in the army during the war and his friendship with Meylikh, a famous Jewish blacksmith, with whom he escaped capture; the two-year German occupation; the execution of her father’s three sisters (Lida, Vasya, and Alina) and their families on August 21, 1943 for working against the Germans; her father’s attempts to remove the bodies and bury his family properly; the relocation of the Jews to a ghetto soon after the occupation began; Jews having to wear yellow patches; the looting of Jewish homes; the execution of Jews soon after her aunts were murdered; witnessing the roundup and march of the Jews to the execution site; hearing the shooting and shouting; witnessing with her sister and friend as the first 15 to 20 people were executed then running away; her father burying Meylikh after his death; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; and how after the war Soviets hanged Lyubavichi policemen (Zharkin Kirill, Zharkin Ivan Grishka, Pecherskiy Yefim) and servants (Astrakhanskiy Nikolay) who helped Germans. [Note that part of the interview takes place at the site of the mass murder of Jews.]
Oral history interview with Valentina Prilashkevich
Oral History
Valentina Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Russia, discusses the Jewish community in Lyubavichi and the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; her parents and two sisters; their Jewish neighbor (Kiva Zibelbord); the German occupation beginning in 1941; the relocation of Jews to a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow patches; witnessing with her sister (Klavdiya Prilashkevich, RG-50.653*0031) as Jews were rounded up and shot; recognizing many of the Jews, including Doba, Zyama Raykhlin, and Yuliy Borisovich (her teacher); Jews being forced to put their belongings on a yellow tablecloth on the ground next to the pit before they were shot; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; the story of her father’s Jewish friend Meylikh, who returned from the army, found that all his family was gone, and was killed soon after; and the four local policemen hanged by the Soviets at the town center after the war. [Note that part of the interview takes place at the site of the mass murder of Jews.]
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Zinaida Golovacheva
Oral History
Zinaida Golovacheva, born in 1930 in the village of Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses living in Kapustino (possibly Khalyutino), Russia during the war; the numerous Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; the beginning of the war; her father joining the army while her mother took care of the four children; the German occupation and the round up of Jews; Jews having to wear yellow patches on their sleeves; the execution of Jews beginning in the summer of 1941; seeing people brought to the execution site by truck and murdered with machine guns; hearing the shots and people screaming; the executions taking place over several days; how the last person to be murdered there was Korotchenko, whom people said was a policeman and helped Germans execute Jews; seeing bodies at the execution site, which was a pit; the local camp that held approximately 100 prisoners, who worked extracting swamp peat for fuel; a camp worker who killed a police-guard (Yurka) for criticizing the quality of his work; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and how only four Jewish men with their families returned to Rudnya after the war.
Oral history interview with Elena Matveyeva
Oral History
Elena Matveyeva, born in 1931, in Velizh, Russia, describes her life before the war; living with her aunt and her family; the numerous Jewish residents living in Velizh and having good interactions with them; befriending a Jewish family that lived across the street from her family; how many of the Jews in Velizh left before the Germans arrived; the beginning of the war and her father being taken away; the bombing of Velizh two weeks after the war started; escaping with her family to a small village for a short time and moving back to Velizh; how the Jewish population began wearing the yellow markers and the Germans forced Gentile men and Jews to hard labor; the forced relocation of Jews to a ghetto that was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Germans and local police; the post-war trials of the local police who guarded the ghettos; the large fire in the ghetto during the winter and seeing Jews being shot as they tried to escape; hearing that many Jewish families played dead in the snow to avoid execution; a German bringing a young Jewish boy her family the night after the fire; taking care of the boy for a single day before he left to find his own people; many Jews being protected and saved by Russians in Velizh; locals moving into the abandoned Jewish homes and also burning down homes to avoid letting the Germans have any supplies; returning to Velizh from Belarus in 1944 during liberation to see an overgrown foundation of a city; how the Germans kicked all of the residents out of their homes and into jail in Velizh; the residents being taken at night to Belarus over the frozen river by horse; how all the men were gone from the city and only women, children, and teens remained; being happy to be away from the war zone; having to live in the basement while tanks and artillery were being fired upon the house; being warned by Russian soldiers to leave or the Germans would end up killing them and having nowhere to run to; hearing accounts of the atrocities of the Germans towards the remaining locals; how at first the Jews in the ghetto were allowed to leave and return and they were allowed to bury their dead in the graveyard; the death of many Jews from hunger; seeing a large pile of dead bodies after the fire in Velizh when the firefights and artillery battle was ensuing; and seeing a dead child frozen in the river.
Oral history interview with Aleksandr Bordyukov
Oral History
Aleksandr Bordyukov, born in 1928 in Velizh, Russia, discusses the large Jewish population in Velizh before the war; the restrictions on Jews; living in a Jewish-Russian neighborhood; the relations between Jews and non-Jews; the nine synagogues in Velizh; how mixed marriages were normal; how Jews were craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers), musicians, and tradesmen; his Jewish classmates, including Klara Lesina, Isaak Moiseyev, and Vera Sokolova; the bombing at the beginning of the war; the Jewish families who fled or stayed; the suicides of some local Jews; Jews being forced to do labor; the creation of a ghetto on Zhgutovskogo Street; the local police, including Filatov, Kiriyenok, Sychyov; how almost none of his classmates died in the ghetto; the shooting execution of 150 Jewish men from Velizh and Surazh in October 1941 in Kurmeli village and witnessing it from a nearby field; seeing the ghetto being burnt during the night of January 28, 1942 and the killing of 700-800 Jews; leaving town the next day because his street was on fire; returning to Velizh in 1943 after the town was liberated; Russian people settling in Jewish houses; people being hanged for their connections to the partisans; the lack of Jews in Velizh after the war; and helping to raise money in the 1960s for a memorial to the ghetto victims.
Oral history interview with Yevgeniya Yershova
Oral History
Yevgeniya Yershova, born in 1931, in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Usvyatsky District, Russia, describes her life before the war; the relatively large Jewish population in her town; her father’s Jewish friends; how the Jewish children tended not to play with Gentile children; the beginning of the war and how the Jews remained in their homes; the relocation of the Jews into a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow markers; hearing about the round up the Jewish residents by the Germans; the shooting of Jews who tried to escape the ghetto; how her father was told to bury all of the Jews that had been executed within the ghetto; being told by her father that not everyone who was buried was dead; the indiscriminate shooting of people; how her father knew many of the victims; never going to see the murder site; how the Russians returned to their homes, which were taken for the ghetto, after the mass murder of the Jewish residents; seeing a Jewish man hanging near her sister’s house; how there was no real violence towards the local Gentile population; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty.
Oral history interview with Zoya Semionova
Oral History
Zoya Semionova, born in 1932 in Dvorets, Russia, discusses growing up in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Russia; the Jewish students in her classroom before the war; the Jewish community; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews; the arrival of the Germans; local men hiding grain; the execution of her father after he was accused of hiding grain; the creation of a ghetto in Usvyaty and the relocation of Jews and non-Jews; the hiding of Jews by local families; seeing the execution of Jews briefly; returning to the execution site after the shooting was over and seeing people who were half-alive in a pit; seeing two hanged people, a Jew and a partisan; the execution of a local photographer, Khrapkov, because he was Jewish; leaving Usvyaty with her family when the bombings and battles began; returning in 1944; police officer who was tried for crimes after the war; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty after the war.
Oral history interview with Zinaida Malashonor
Oral History
Zinaida Pavlovna Malashonor (Leontieva), born in 1929 in Sebezh, Russia, discusses her memories of life before the war; how the Jewish and Russian families lived on the same street, and all the children went to the same school and played together; Jews usually working in small shops; the beginning of the war at which time many families including younger Jewish families evacuated, while older Jews and one family with pregnant wife stayed in the village; her memories of villagers, including children, being forced to do hard physical jobs; Jews being forced to clean the ice on the lake, which was very dangerous; the massacre of all the Jews one day in the winter of 1942 (this included 20 people from her street); the gathering of the Jews by the local Russian policemen across the frozen lake, near the Jewish cemetery, where the Jews were shot; the burial of the Jews in a freshly dug ditch after which the area was set on fire, this was to prevent anyone from counting the dead; hearing rumors that a young boy named Boris hid inside a chimney during the roundup and ran across the lake to the neighboring village, but then Germans found him and killed him; the plundering of the Jews’ homes after the massacre by Russian police; the Germans publicly hanging partisans and their contacts, after which they plundered and burned their houses; being arrested and sent to the basement full of other people; being sent to a slaughterhouse; experiencing starvation and sometimes they had nothing else but dirty potatoes to eat; liberation, after which the policemen who worked for the Germans were charged and sent to prison for 15-20 years, though some of the Estonians from the “death squads” and a few Russian policemen escaped.
Oral history interview with Polina Sinitsina
Oral History
Research interview with Galina Koroliova
Oral History
Galina Koroliova, born in 1935 in Ardavskoye, Belarus (now in Verkhniadzvinski raion, Belarus), describes being five years old when the war broke out; her memories of the Germans arriving in her town and how they were very friendly and joyous; the roundup of everyone into a grain shed; escaping the shed with her brother and mother along with numerous others; hiding in a large bush in a field; how those who were unable to escape were burned alive inside the shed, including her best friend; the enormous black plume coming from the shed; the Slavic-speaking police officers who helped the Germans round up the townspeople; the survival of only 23 people from Ardavskoye; how after the young men left either to live in the woods or to join the army, the Jewish and Romani population was comprised of only children and the elderly; the destruction during the second summer of the German occupation of Belarus, including the burning of cities and villages; joining a community in the woods with her family and other survivors; a commotion one morning when the Germans were approaching and began shooting at them as they tried to flee; successfully escaping with her family; the gradual return of people to the village in the woods; how bakers made bread for the partisans with the grain they hid away in the ground; the arrival of the Romanians and being forced with her family and the small remaining population into a cellar; the good relations between the village and the freedom fighters; surviving an explosion in the cellar; the nature of her life during the war; how when the Fascists came, the partisans left and when the Fascists left, the partisans came; the forcing of the adults to dig trenches each morning while the children were free to do whatever they wanted, including going out into the surrounding town, where they begged for food or stole whatever they could; getting sick with typhus and not remembering how the camp was liberated; surviving villagers returning and being greeted by allied soldiers who had begun liberating Europe; seeing an enormous car by the side of the road just outside of the woods and being terrified as she nudged the bodies of dead German soldiers surrounding the car; not knowing if there were Jewish villagers from other towns in the camp; how there were no Jews left from Ardavskoye; and the mass grave in her current town of Sebezh, Russia, where the Jews were massacred during the war.
Research interview with Vera Moskoukina
Oral History
Vera Moskoukina, born March 13, 1929 in Smolensk, Russia, discusses her mother’s numerous Jewish friends (including Lilya Estrina and Faina Arkadyevna Karbalenkova); the beginning of WWII and being injured during the bombing of Smolensk; the Jewish ghetto in Smolensk; seeing Jews wearing yellow stars on their clothing; life under the German occupation; her mother’s friend, Lilya Estrina, who was among the first people to be arrested; hiding her mother’s friend Faina Arkadyevna and her daughter in the basement under their room for over a year; witnessing as Faina and her daughter, Alya, were arrested by the Germans and never knowing what happened to them; being taken with her mother to a camp in Orsha, Belarus when she was 14 years old and her mother was 34; being taken a few months later to Minsk, Belarus and from there in cattle cars to Germany for forced labor; being held in the Dabendorf camp and forced to clean the railroad after the Allied bombings; building a secret railroad; the prisoners in the camp, none of whom were Jewish and included Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian women and their teenage children; and being liberated from the camp on April 22, 1945.
Research interview with Sergey Panus
Oral History
Sergey Panus, born in 1928 in Surazh, Russia, describes his childhood; the Jewish community in Surazh; the Jewish-owned businesses, including the mill, two sausage factories, and a cheese factory; his grandmother working as a cook for a wealthy Jewish family; learning German from a private tutor; his sister, Yekaterina, and her friendship with the Jewish Yuzovich family; Yekaterina attending a special NKVD school to improve her German and learn military vocabulary, Morse code, and encryption; the evacuation of Jews from Surazh to Klintsy at the beginning of the war; the German occupation beginning August 17, 1941 when he was 14 years old, his older sister was 17, and his younger sister was 12; his father being recruited to the army; Jews having to wear yellow fabric signs on their clothing; being told by his sister that he was going to work as a messenger for the partisans; his sister’s work with the partisans; being supervised by Kostyanoy Grigoriy Mikhailovich from Oryol, Russia; his mother’s recruitment into the partisans; the relocation of Jews into a ghetto; a man (Lukyanets Nikolay Nikolayevich) who was sent by partisans to work in the police undercover; the lack of food in the ghetto; healthy Jews being taken to a German hospital to donate blood; being detained by the Gestapo for a week and severely beaten for possessing an anti-Nazi leaflet; the looting of Jewish belongings by the poor; the execution of Jews (approximately 500 people, including 260 local Jews and Jews from Belarus) on March 27, 1942; details on the massacre; and taking pictures of the column of people.
Research interview with Mariya Shirokova
Oral History
Mariya Shirokova, born in 1931 in Novozybkov, Russia, describes the fleeing of many Jews before the Germans arrived; the Germans forcing the remaining Jews to leave their homes and sending them to an unknown location; the participation of the local police officers in the deportation of Jews; seeing the deportation of the Jews, many of whom she knew personally; hearing about the execution of Jews nearby; the looting of Jewish homes; the Germans often causing trouble for the civilians; and how the war came through Novozybkov.
Research interview with Larisa Antonova
Oral History
Larisa Antonova, born in 1930, in Novozybkov, Russia, describes her life before the war; the numerous Jews in the town; the beginning of the war; the evacuation of some of the Jewish residents, while others were forced to stay in the town; her interactions with the Jewish children in the community; how the Jews had to wear yellow stars on their backs, but were allowed to stay in their own homes; seeing three sleds full of Jewish men, women, and children being taken to the woods to be killed; witnessing the massacre; a young boy who was able to escape, but was too scared to accept any help from Larisa's grandmother; how, after the killings in the woods, there were no more Jews in Novozybkov; the police officers in charge robbing the Jews of their belongings; hearing stories of the partisans causing trouble for the Germans; hearing stories of Jews having to give up their valuables and belongings; the accidental shooting of a 17 year old girl by Germans; the Germans' protocol to shoot partisans and anybody who involved themselves with the partisans in any way; and the signs around the city that warned of capital punishments for hiding Jews and partisans.
Research interview with Tamara Suschenkova
Oral History
Tamara Suschenkova, born in 1928, in Starodub, Bryansk oblast, Russia, discusses growing up in Starodub and her Jewish neighbors; her father's death during the war; hearing stories of prisoner-of-war camps; the murder and mass burial of many of their Jewish neighbors in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); the atrocities that the Germans and police officers committed to the Jews; being nearly killed by an SS officer because he thought she was Jewish and being saved by her mother; trying to find moments to enjoy life during the war; her Jewish classmates who perished; Jews having to wear a specific mark distinguishing them; being kicked out of their homes; being forced to leave the city with the Germans to act as shields; escaping with her mother and sisters as the Russian Army approached; going to Novozybkov, Russia, where the girls were welcomed with open arms; and finishing school and becoming a teacher.
Research interview with Margarita Bavkunova
Oral History
Margarita Bavkunova, born in 1932 in Starodub, Russia, discusses the numerous Jewish families living in Starodub before the war; their Jewish neighbors, the Mankovskiy family; hiding from the bombings in a dugout in their yard; the arrival of the Germans and the taking of the locals' food; the occupation of the Mankovskiys' house by the SS; being bitten by one of the SS dogs; watching as Jews were taken to an execution site near the river; the imprisonment of Jews and communists in a shed for five days before they were all killed in Belovshchina (now part of Starodub); seeing the burial pit the following day; hearing later that the victims of the execution dug the pit before being shot; how after the execution people from her street hid a Jewish boy (Yasha), passing him from house to house; the betrayal of hidden Jews; life during the occupation; her mother hiding a cow in the forest; how when the Germans were withdrawing, they used locals as a shield from Soviet air attacks; being forced with her mother and sister to walk for three days; and the destruction of their home.
Research interview with Raisa Arshanskaya
Oral History
Raisa Arshanskaya, born in 1933 in Starodub, Russia, describes living in Zakholevichi, Russia then Klintsy, Russia; her Jewish mother and her Russian-Lithuanian-German father; being the only Jews on their street; experiencing antisemitism; the beginning of the war and the bombing of their town; the recruiting of her father into the army; the round up of Romanies; having to wear yellow fabric sewn to their clothing; being imprisoned with her mother; being rescued by a policeman named Sergey; the execution of her mother on December 5, 1941; staying with the policeman's family for two months; staying with the Kapralov family; the hanging of the policeman who betrayed her and her mother; the mass execution in Klintsy, during which she heard shooting for several days; and the looting of Jewish belongings after the execution.
Research interview with Klaudiya Prilashkevich
Oral History
Klavdiya Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Smolensk oblast, Russia, discusses her Jewish neighbors, the Reykhel family; her father, who was a butcher and was friends with Jews; her father's activities in the army during the war and his friendship with Meylikh, a famous Jewish blacksmith, with whom he escaped capture; the two-year German occupation; the execution of her father's three sisters (Lida, Vasya, and Alina) and their families on August 21, 1943 for working against the Germans; her father's attempts to remove the bodies and bury his family properly; the relocation of the Jews to a ghetto soon after the occupation began; Jews having to wear yellow patches; the looting of Jewish homes; the execution of Jews soon after her aunts were murdered; witnessing the roundup and march of the Jews to the execution site; hearing the shooting and shouting; witnessing with her sister and friend as the first 15 to 20 people were executed then running away; her father burying Meylikh after his death; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; and how after the war Soviets hanged Lyubavichi policemen (Zharkin Kirill, Zharkin Ivan Grishka, Pecherskiy Yefim) and servants (Astrakhanskiy Nikolay) who helped Germans.
Research interview with Valentina Prilashkevich
Oral History
Valentina Prilashkevich, born in 1929 in Lyubavichi, Russia, discusses the Jewish community in Lyubavichi and the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; her parents and two sisters; their Jewish neighbor (Kiva Zibelbord); the German occupation beginning in 1941; the relocation of Jews to a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow patches; witnessing with her sister (Klavdiya Prilashkevich, RG-50.653.0031) as Jews were rounded up and shot; recognizing many of the Jews, including Doba, Zyama Raykhlin, and Yuliy Borisovich (her teacher); Jews being forced to put their belongings on a yellow tablecloth on the ground next to the pit before they were shot; how no Jews were left in Lyubavichi after the execution; the story of her father's Jewish friend Meylikh, who returned from the army, found that all his family was gone, and was killed soon after; and the four local policemen hanged by the Soviets at the town center after the war.
Research interview with Zoya Baburchenkova
Oral History
Zoya Baburchenkova, born in 1932 in Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses moving with her family to Kapustino in 1939; the Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; seeing Jews (collected from Rudnya, nearby areas, as well as Belarus) brought in an open truck to a trench and shot in groups; several more groups being brought to the site and executed during a week's time; the looting of some Jewish belongings; the prison in their village that housed Russians who worked at the swamp; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and a German corpse that was left on the road for a long time and seeing young people passing by and hitting his body.
Research interview with Zinaida Golovacheva
Oral History
Zinaida Golovacheva, born in 1930 in the village of Vyazoiki, Russia, discusses living in Kapustino (possibly Khalyutino), Russia during the war; the numerous Jews in the neighboring town, Rudnya; the beginning of the war; her father joining the army while her mother took care of the four children; the German occupation and the round up of Jews; Jews having to wear yellow patches on their sleeves; the execution of Jews beginning in the summer of 1941; seeing people brought to the execution site by truck and murdered with machine guns; hearing the shots and people screaming; the executions taking place over several days; how the last person to be murdered there was Korotchenko, whom people said was a policeman and helped Germans execute Jews; seeing bodies at the execution site, which was a pit; the local camp that held approximately 100 prisoners, who worked extracting swamp peat for fuel; a camp worker who killed a police-guard (Yurka) for criticizing the quality of his work; the cruelty of the Vlasovtsy (Russian Liberation Army); and how only four Jewish men with their families returned to Rudnya after the war.
Research interview with Elena Matveyeva
Oral History
Elena Matveyeva, born in 1931, in Velizh, Russia, describes her life before the war; the beginning of the war and her father being taken away; the bombing of Velizh two weeks after the war started; escaping with her family to a small village for a short time and moving back to Velizh; how the Jewish population began wearing the yellow markers; the forced relocation of Jews to a ghetto that was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Germans and local police; the post-war trials of the local police who guarded the ghettos; the large fire in the ghetto during the winter and seeing Jews being shot as they tried to escape; hearing that many Jewish families played dead in the snow to avoid execution; a German bringing a young Jewish boy her family the night after the fire; taking care of the boy for a single day before he left to find his own people; many Jews being protected and saved by Russians in Velizh; returning to Velizh from Belarus in 1944 during liberation to see an overgrown foundation of a city; how the Germans kicked all of the residents out of their homes and into jail in Velizh; the residents being taken at night to Belarus over the frozen river by horse; how all the men were gone from the city and only women, children, and teens remained; and being happy to be away from the war zone.
Research interview with Aleksandr Bordyukov
Oral History
Aleksandr Bordyukov, born in 1928 in Velizh, Russia, discusses the large Jewish population in Velizh before the war; the restrictions on Jews; living in a Jewish-Russian neighborhood; the relations between Jews and non-Jews; the nine synagogues in Velizh; how mixed marriages were normal; how Jews were craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, watchmakers), musicians, and tradesmen; the bombing at the beginning of the war; Jews being forced to do labor; the creation of a ghetto on Zhgutovskogo Street; the shooting execution of 150 Jewish men from Velizh and Surazh in October 1941 in Kurmeli village and witnessing it from a nearby field; seeing the ghetto being burned during the night of January 28, 1942 and the killing of 700-800 Jews; leaving town the next day because his street was on fire; returning to Velizh in 1943 after the town was liberated; Russian people settling in Jewish houses; people being hanged for their connections to the partisans; the lack of Jews in Velizh after the war; and helping to raise money in the 1960s for a memorial to the ghetto victims.
Research interview with Yevgeniya Yershova
Oral History
Yevgeniya Yershova, born in 1931, in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Usvyatsky District, Russia, describes her life before the war; the relatively large Jewish population in her town; her father's Jewish friends; how the Jewish children tended not to play with Gentile children; the beginning of the war and how the Jews remained in their homes; the relocation of the Jews into a ghetto; Jews having to wear yellow markers; hearing about the round up the Jewish residents by the Germans; the shooting of Jews who tried to escape the ghetto; how her father was told to bury all of the Jews that had been executed within the ghetto; being told by her father that not everyone who was buried was dead; the indiscriminate shooting of people; how her father knew many of the victims; never going to see the murder site; how the Russians returned to their homes, which were taken for the ghetto, after the mass murder of the Jewish residents; seeing a Jewish man hanging near her sister's house; how there was no real violence towards the local Gentile population; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty.
Research interview with Zoya Semionova
Oral History
Zoya Semionova, born in 1932 in Dvorets, Russia, discusses growing up in Usvyaty (Usviat'), Russia; the Jewish students in her classroom before the war; the Jewish community; the good relations between the Jews and non-Jews; the arrival of the Germans; the creation of a ghetto in Usvyaty and the relocation of Jews and non-Jews; the hiding of Jews by local families; seeing the execution of Jews briefly; returning to the execution site after the shooting was over and seeing people who were half-alive in a pit; seeing two hanged people, a Jew and a partisan; the execution of a local photographer, Khrapkov, because he was Jewish; leaving Usvyaty with her family when the bombings and battles began; returning in 1944; police officer who was tried for crimes after the war; and the return of some Jews to Usvyaty after the war.
Research interview with Zinaida Malashonor
Oral History
Research interview with Polina Sinitsina
Oral History
Research interview with Olga Ogurtsovskaya
Oral History
Research interview with Tatyana Matyuhina
Oral History
Research interview with Nicolay Gubyonok
Oral History
Research interview with Galina Ryabtseva
Oral History
Research interview with Elena Mikhailova
Oral History
Research interview with Lyubova Ulyanova
Oral History
Research interview with Anatoliy Kasikov
Oral History
Research interview with Nina Ivantsova
Oral History