Systematic Execution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Russia Reported by Partisans

Further details of the systematic extermination of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied portions of Russia were made public today by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, on the basis of reports brought here by partisans operating in the German rear.

A Jewish partisan who succeeded in slipping into Kiev, dressed in peasant clothes, told the following story.

“When we were inside Kiev I decided to take a look at my home. However, I met one of my neighbors in the street who warned me to stay away. She reported that German officers were now living in my house. ‘Not a Jew has been left alive in Kiev, she said. ‘Those who did not manage to escape were either killed on the spot or were driven to the place where the body of the Yushtchinsky boy was found in 1912 (precipitating the famous ritual murder trial of Mendel Beilis) where they were executed.

“After telling me that these executions went on daily and that mounds of bodies were dumped from carts into the Dnieper every day, my neighbor again warned me to leave the city as soon as possible, She hurried into her house and borough me some food and then told me which road to take. For several days I and several other partisans wandered around in the woods and swamps outside Kiev. One night we decided to stop at a certain village. The German commandant allowed any non Jewish companions to stay, but he decided that I was a Jew and must be sent to Red army man – all of whom were slated for execution.

ANTI-JEWISH POSTERS URGE UKRAINIANS TO “GET EVEN WITH JEWS”

“En route to the outskirts of the town in which the headquarters were located we passed through streets covered with posters reading; ‘Get Even With the Jews.’ All of us intuitively felt that we were being taken to an execution place, Suddenly, a German military car came speeding along the road and dashed into our ranks. Many were killed, but I and several others succeeded in escaping in the subsequent confusion,”

Mina Jaroschewitsch, who was in charge of an orphanage in the region of Cherkassy, not far from Kiev, told partisans who rescued her and many of the children from the Nazis, that when the German troops first invaded the orphanage they drove all the children into the surrounding woods, From among the 150 orphans they chose the 32 who were Jewish and lined them up. Then the Nazis deliberately drove their tanks over these children, crushing all of them, and compelled the non-Jewish youngsters to bury them. A few minutes later the partisan detachment broke from the woods and surrounded the Nazis, killing many of them.

The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee also reported today that many Jewish children, orphaned by the Nazis, have been adopted by non-Jewish families who are rearing them as members of their households.