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There were poster announcements in Ukrainian and German on the houses. They said ‘Work gives freedom’ and contained instructions on gathering points to go to work. People decided that they would be paid for work. There were 126 of young men and women that gathered on the first day at the given point. Policemen convoyed them to the Jewish cemetery and shot all of them. Before they were shot they were ordered to excavate trenches. Policemen threw dead bodies in those trenches. Those Ukrainians that brought us food told us about this shooting. They said the earth was stirring for 3 days at this location. There were wounded that were buried alive. Inmates of the ghetto were in panic. We were convinced that shootings would continue, but this was the only mass shooting in Tomashpol. In 1980s there was an obelisk installed on this common graves. There is an engraving on it ‘To Tomashpol citizens that were brutally shot by German invaders on 4 August 1941’: it doesn’t mention that they were all Jews. Well, this is a known fact, anyway. On the anniversary of this shooting people from all over the world came to honor the memory of the departed.
Period
Interview
Arkadi Yurkovetski