Yizkor

The German invasion of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, began in June 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa. As German forces advanced, they were often accompanied or followed by Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) tasked with murdering Jews and other groups targeted by Nazi ideology. In many occupied areas, local collaborators, including some Ukrainian police units, assisted in these atrocities. Many massacres occurred across Ukraine and other occupied Soviet territories. These actions were part of what historians call the "Holocaust by Bullets," where Jews were murdered in or near their home communities rather than being deported to death camps. One of them occurred in Khashchevatoye on February 16th. Such massacres often followed a similar pattern: German forces would enter a town or village. Local Jews would be ordered to gather in a central location, often under the pretext of resettlement or labor assignments. They would then be marched to a nearby location (often forests, ravines, or sometimes synagogues or other buildings) where they were murdered en masse, usually by shooting. These actions were carried out with brutal efficiency and often involved the entire Jewish population of a community, including women, children, and the elderly. The use of a synagogue as the site of such a massacre was particularly cruel, turning a place of worship into a site of mass murder. It's important to note that while some local non-Jewish citizens collaborated with the Nazis, others risked their lives to hide or protect their Jewish neighbors. The complex history of collaboration and resistance in Ukraine during this period continues to be a subject of historical research and debate. After the war, many of these massacre sites became places of remembrance and memorial. However, due to Soviet policies that often downplayed the specific targeting of Jews, many sites were not properly recognized until after the fall of the Soviet Union. Today, organizations like Yahad-In Unum work to document these lesser-known sites of Holocaust atrocities, conducting interviews with witnesses and survivors, and marking the locations of mass graves.

The events in Khashchevatoye and similar communities serve as a stark reminder of the brutality of the Nazi regime and its collaborators, the specific targeting of Jewish communities during the Holocaust, and the importance of remembering and honoring the victims of these atrocities. As the war began, all men in Khashchevatoye aged 18 to 50 were mobilized for military service, and evacuation efforts commenced. Some residents, engaged in digging trenches, found themselves stranded in the village. Elder residents, veterans of World War I, reassured others, saying, "The Germans are a civilized nation; they won't allow atrocities."  Many villagers attempting to evacuate with their carts and livestock became stuck at the Dnieper River crossing, overwhelmed by the convergence of troops and tens of thousands of refugees. By August, the Germans had taken control of all of right-bank Ukraine and forced refugees to return home. Exhausted, they returned to Khashchevatoye, where a "new order" awaited them, established by deserters, traitors, criminals, and local miscreants acting as "activists." An oppressive atmosphere of fear engulfed the village. In October about 500 Jews were transported into the Bershad ghetto, into Romanian occupied territory. On February 16, 1942, police officers from surrounding villages, assembled by the German commandant's office, blockaded the village and began forcing people out of their homes. Drunken bandits broke into houses, pushing people out with curses and rifle butts, driving them towards the cinema building. About a thousand people were locked in the cold, dark room. People didn't understand what was wanted from them or what awaited them. They were taken in groups of 20, starting with the elderly and adolescents. Two dozen intoxicated thugs, armed with German automatic weapons, drove them to a clay quarry where large pits had been dug. There, they were ordered to undress, kneel facing the pit, and were then shot. The executioners were particularly brutal when it came to women and children. Women refused to undress, clutching their children, some spitting in the faces of their killers. "Bastards, when our people return, you'll answer for everything!" Bursts of automatic fire cut short their lives and cries of "Mama!" The frenzied policemen finished them off with rifle butts... A sea of human blood. By chance, an 11-year-old girl named Riva Tashlytska* survived. Losing consciousness, she fell into the pit, with her murdered mother and brother falling on top of her. At night, regaining consciousness, she crawled out from under the corpses. Half-naked and barefoot, she began knocking on doors, but no one would open. Only Terentiy Dzyama's household let her in, washing off the blood and warming her. A week later, another kind person, Viktor Zelinsky, took her to a neighboring village to his relatives, Yukhim and Valentina Levitsky. At great risk to their lives, they hid the girl for more than two years until the Red Army arrived. In total, more than 1000 citizens were killed, almost half of whom were children. Isaac Kris, an adolescent, also managed to escape death, he managed to hid in a prompter's box, was saved by an Ukrainian family. Later he was sent to Bershad ghetto but survived. 

In the Databases' pages, there is a list of the people who were killed in this event. I compiled this list from different sources: the site I mentioned on top of this page, the book that Leonyd Roytman wrote about Khashchevatoye and different sources in YadVaShem.

In 1944, when the Gaivoron district was liberated, the police officers fled. Some went into hiding (and remain hidden to this day), while others were caught, tried, and punished (some sentenced to 10 years were later released early for "good behavior").  Lisitsey Nikolai and Palamarchuk Peter were between the Ukrainian policers in the village that organized the massacre. The shootings described above had been conducted by the Ukrainian police, under the direction of the Germans. About 60 Ukrainian policemen took part in the shooting; of these, 22 were caught and shot, according to decisions of the Odessa military court, issued in the years 1945-1946. Their names were: A.Ye. Belochenko, P.P. Blazhko, I.T. Gal, S.F. Lukashuk, O.I. Palamarchuk, I.I. Svirid, G.F. Chernichenko, K.A. Andriyevsky, M.A. Ragriy, T.D. Balanda, I.G. Vovk, I.D.Melnik, V.I. Lokhmaniuk, I.P. Klimkin, O.Ya. Belous, V.M. Prituliak, M.P.Liulka, Ye.I. Svirid, V.Z. Shvets, I.Z. Gavursky, S. Baydukov.

In addition:
– Police officer P. Grigorash was caught in the 1960’s and sentenced to 25 years in 1969.
– Chief of police Dorosh was caught and executed by court decision in 1962.
– Police officer Andrey Kravchenko was the last known participant of the shooting of Jews from Khaschevatoye. In 1991, while living in Russia, he was sentenced in absentia in independent Ukraine. Russia didn’t agree to extradite him to the Ukraine. In 1994, Kravchenko hanged himself in his apartment. 

After the war, a modest clay memorial was built at the site of the tragedy. In April 2013, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine declared the site of the shooting at the Jewish cemetery a cultural heritage site of local significance. The "Memorial to the Khashchevatoye Tragedy" was created, headed by Efim Marmer. 2013. The memorial was created with donations from citizens.

On May 9, 2014, at 12 noon, the grand opening of the memorial took place. The opening of the memorial was attended by descendants of the victims, village residents, guests from Kiev, Kirovograd, Odessa and neighboring regions, the head of the Kirovograd regional council Oleksandr Chernoivanenko, and the director of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Research Anatoly Podolsky. At the opening, high school students from the local school read their own poems and lit memorial candles. The victims were honored with a minute of silence. Oleksandr Chernoivanenko spoke, as did the head of the village council Vladimir Nikolaevich Kuznetsov, the director of the Khashchevatoye secondary school Elena Mikhailovna Vdovychenko, the head of the memorial construction, one of the first liquidators of the Chernobyl accident Viktor Bevzenko, and the organizer of the memorial Efim Marmer. 

Every year on May 9, Victory Day, former residents of the shtetl come from America, Israel, Germany, Odessa, Kherson, and Kirovohrad to lay flowers and mourn at the graves of their loved ones. They are joined by their children and grandchildren. A rabbi comes. And then the words of an ancient prayer are heard over the cemetery, and people repeat through tears, "Yitgadal v'yitkadash..."

While many from Khashchevatoye faced tragedy at home, some of its men fought bravely on distant battlefields. Notably, seven men from this small village participated in one of the war's most pivotal and brutal engagements - the Battle of Stalingrad. Among these brave soldiers, Idel Khait stands out as a particularly heroic figure. Khait and his unit were involved in one of the most famous episodes of the Stalingrad battle - the defense of Pavlov's House. This fortified building, which a small group of Soviet soldiers held for 60 days against waves of German attacks, became a symbol of Soviet resistance in Stalingrad. Pavlov's House was a four-story building in the city center that offered a strategic vantage point over a central square. Khait and his comrades transformed this ordinary apartment building into an impenetrable fortress, repelling numerous German assaults and providing crucial support for Soviet forces in the area. Tragically, Idel Khait did not survive the battle. He gave his life defending Pavlov's House, contributing to a stand that would become legendary in the annals of World War II. His sacrifice, along with that of his comrades, played a part in the eventual Soviet victory at Stalingrad - a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany. Other Khashchevatoye soldiers who took part in Stalingrad battle are: Isaac Nikolayevitch Shkolnik, Leonyd Roytman, the author of the Yizkor book about the village, Avrum Goikhman, Haim Senik, Daniil Froymovitch and Mikhail Yudkovitch Roytman. The story of Idel Khait and the other six men from Khashchevatoye who fought at Stalingrad provides a poignant contrast to the tragedy that befell their home village. While Khashchevatoye itself fell victim to one of the war's darkest chapters, its sons were fighting bravely hundreds of miles away, contributing to what would become one of the Soviet Union's greatest victories.

This dual narrative - of tragedy at home and heroism afar - encapsulates the complex and often heartbreaking stories of many Jewish communities during World War II. The bravery of men like Idel Khait serves as a testament to the resilience and courage of Khashchevatoye's people, even in the face of unspeakable loss.

82 years have passed since those terrible events of 1942. The shtetl has long ceased to exist, replaced by a village. Few now know that a hardworking and talented people once lived there—Jews who were friendly, always cheerful and that they were murdered here.

A special thank to Mikhail Rosenfeld for his help in writing this article and to https://jewua.org/khaschevatoye/ for making us aware of what happened to the torturers.

* An interview with Riva Tashlytska. (translation to English)