1 Execution site(s)
Nina P., born in 1929 recalls: “I was at school and during the break I saw a column of about 50 Jews on the road close to the school. People in the column walked pell-mell, they were guarded on both sides by 6 policemen in green uniforms with armbands. The Germans were dressed in black uniforms with military caps and followed them in two trucks. A friend recognized his father in the column: the kolkhoz chief. He ran behind but the other schoolchildren stayed at a good distance. People told that when the column crossed the bridge, a Jew jumped in the river to escape, but he was shot directly.” (Eyewitness n°2150 interviewed in Lypovets on November 6, 2016)
“In September 1941, in Lypovets, a group of SS has rounded-up the male population of the city. This day these scoundrels have brought 200 innocent civilians in the field of the village of Beriozovka and shot them cruelly. Among these people, there were Soviet activists (communists, Komsomol’s and 17 war prisoners). The pits had been dug in advance. People had to undress entirely and then, in group of 20 – 30 people, they laid into the pit facing the ground and waited for the death that the bloodthirsty executioners gave them shamelessness with automatic weapons.” [Act of the Soviet Extraordinary Commission drawn up on August 10, 1944. RG.22-002M ;Fond 7021, opis 54, delo 1254]
“September 1941: 200 people shot
April 1942: 1200 people shot
June 1942: 167 Russian people shot
April 1942: 1200 people shot
June 3, 1942: unknown number of Jews was hot
February 1943: 23 people shot
In all, 3 267 people were shot.” [From the report on the executions conducted in Gebietskommissariat Ilintsi, drawn up on December 12, 1969; B162-7377 p.2]
Lypovets is located 41 km east of Vinnitsa. The first record about the Jewish community dates back to the middle of 18th century. By the end of 19th century Jews represented almost the half of the local population. In 1918s-1919s the Jewish community suffered from a wave of pogroms during which their houses and shops were looted and destroyed. The majority of Jews lived off handcraft and small businesses. Jews lived in the center of the city around a hill on which there was a synagogue. There was also a Jewish cemetery in the town. Jewish and Ukrainian children went to school together although there were several Yiddish schools in the town. In 1924 an agricultural collective Broyt un Arbet (Bread and Labor) was established near Lypovets which was lately transformed into collective farm. Jews had their own kolkhoz where a lot of them worked but before the war it has been annexed by the Ukrainian one. At this moment, all religious institutions including churches are forbidden and were closed but Jews continued to marry in the synagogue. In 1939, 1,353 Jews lived in the city and represented 52% of total population. Many Jewish refugees from the West arrived between 1939 and 1941. The town was occupied by German and Czechs troops on July 22, 1941. By this time about 15% of Jews managed to evacuate to the East.
Immediately after the German’s arrival, all Jews were registered and marked. They were subjected to different kinds of forced labor. The Jewish population in Lypovets and nearing villages was exterminated in the course of several aktions which were carried out by German gendarmerie and SD unit from Vinnitsa and actively helped by Ukrainian local police. The first execution took place in September 1941 in the fields south west of Lypovets, close to the village of Berezivka. According to different sources from 50 to 200 people, including Jews, activists and 17 POWs were executed on this day. According to the local eyewitnesses to the shooting interviewed by Yahad, once on the site, the victims had to get into the pit and lay down in two rows feet to feet facing the ground and a German, who was also at the bottom of the pit, fired at them. Those who refused to get inside the pit were shot dead at the edge and their bodies were kicked inside. They were killed in that way in groups and after each group they put a small layer of soil. In the fall of 1941, an “open ghetto” was created and it existed till its liquidation at the end of April or beginning May. Jews couldn’t leave it except for work and to go to the market. During the liquidation 700 Jews had been brought to Vikentiyivka and 300 others to Vakhnivka where they were killed shortly after. After the liquidation only a small number of Jews, mostly artisans and specialists, remained living in the town. They were killed along with the Jews brought from Vakhnivka on June 3, 1942. In all, 167 people were killed during this Aktion. The last execution was conducted in February 1943, during which 23 people were killed, but there is no any information if they were Jews or no.
For more information about the executions in Vikentiyivka and Vakhnivka please refer to the corresponding profiles
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