The Nazi armies retreating in the Caucasus are leaving behind them devastated towns strewn with the mutilated corpses of hundreds of Jewish men, women and children, it is reported today by a Russian correspondent in the Caucasus, who has just visited Nalchik and Mineralnye Vody which were recaptured from the Germans early this month.
In Nalchik, he reports, an anti-tank pit which had been dug in what had formerly been a cavalry field of the Red Army was filled with the corpses of women, children and old Jews. Survivors related that many of the victims had been buried while still alive in the Nazis’ haste to hid their atrocities before retreating. More than 600 bodies were found in this pit alone, the correspondent writes.
In Mineralnye-Vody, several Jewish women who escaped execution by the Nazis told the Soviet correspondent that shortly before they abandoned the town, the Germans took a large group of Jewish women, children and young girls to the outskirts of the town and shot them there.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.