Ninety-five Jews, including fifteen children ranging in age from one to thirteen, were executed in the Russian town of Toropetz, in Kalinin province, in a mass-slaughter staged according to the familiar Nazi pattern, it was revealed here today by Misha Ivanov, a non-Jewish turner who managed to survive until the Red Army recaptured the town.
Ivanov stated that immediately upon entering Toropetz, the Nazis ordered all its Jewish residents to don armbands bearing blue Mogen Davids. Later all the Jews in the city were concentrated in the dormitory formerly used by workers at an adjoining textile factory. There they lived without adequate clothing, food or heat.
One day German police halted all passers-by near the dormitory and ordered them to return to their homes. Shortly afterward heart-rending shrieks came from the dormitory. Ivanov and some friends succeeded in peering through holes in the building’s gates. They saw German soldiers lead groups of five Jews to the brink of one of two deep pits which had been dug in the courtyard. There the Jews were shot and their bodies tumbled into the pits. This continued until eighty Jews were dead – both men and women. Then the children were thrown into the pits still alive and the Nazi soldiers proceeded to cover the mass grave, suffocating those who were not yet dead.
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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.
