The Volchin Ghetto was exterminated on 22 September 1942, the day after Yom Kippur.
The Wysokie Litewskie Ghetto had been liquidated around Erev Rosh Hoshanah, 1942, about 10 days earlier. Everyone knew it was empty, so the Germans told the Volchiners they could occupy the empty Ghetto. Everyone knew!
I offer this testimony given about two months after the liberation:
Protocol September 28th 1944, village of Volchin
I, general prosecutor of district of Wysokie Litewskie, D. Grushnikov, in my investigation of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their helpers during the occupation 1941-1944 in the village of Volchin. The witness who is investigated is Verbanyuk Makar' born 1889. He was born in the village of Mozshevitz' district of Wysokie Litewskie, and is now a resident of Volchin. This is his testimony:
“I personally was present in the autumn of 1942 and saw policemen together with some Germans who participated actively in the killing by shooting the Jews of Volchin whose number was about 350. The shooting was carried next to a pit beyond the kościół (the Polish Catholic Church) of Volchin, about 200-300 meters from the last house of the village. The German Commissar ordered a group of policemen to strip all of them naked. They were ordered to gather the clothes unto wagon standing by. They led them or dragged them in groups of 2-3 persons until they reached the pit and when they neared the pit, there was a German standing there with an automatic machine-gun who shot them. The Policemen pushed them to the pit. A Polish man by the name of Oz`ansky commanded the policemen. He was commander Grenizon [?] -- Volchin Police. Policemen of Motikele who were brought to the place also participated very actively. After the shooting, that commander shouted orders to the people of the village who were drafted in time for this mission, and also to the policemen, to cover quickly the pit in the ground. ”
I hereby sign out of my free will -- Vebriniuk M.
I note that this testimony was given before the investigator of the strict Soviet rule. Under the Stalinist regime, not telling the truth would bring about a very heavy penalty -- in which the Soviets excelled. Therefore I accept this testimony as reliable.
The Post-War Soviet Response
Ivan Pavlowitz was a witness --one of those who covered the pit in which the Jews of Volchin were murdered-- and this is what he told Shmuel Englander in 1997:
The Soviets, after the liberation, suspected everybody of collaboration with the Fascists. Immediately when the Soviet authority entered the village, local people started to appear here and there who at the time of the German rule were in hiding. When they came out of their hiding they told the authorities about many people who collaborated with the Germans. An officer of the Red Army --a Jew-- came to the village and started questioning each of the suspects, even for the most trifling act. All were detained. Many of them were transferred to Brest for further investigation. Some were sentenced and returned home after several years in prison. They returned invalids. I remember that people said this Jewish officer was stricter with those who collaborated, helped, or took part in extermination of the Jews in the village. Listen, I was also detained and that officer questioned me a whole day about why I participated in covering the pit. Finally he was convinced of my innocence and that I had no other choice, and I was released to go home.
Cemetery and monument
At the site of the mass murders of Jews at the north end of Volchin, the Red Army erected a monument at the mass grave. (Dov's photos here and here.) On the plaque they wrote:
Here are buried citizens who were murdered by the Nazi fascists.
A Jewish Volchiner in the Red Army added a Magen David to the plaque, and two Hebrew letters: פ נ
signifying
פה נקבר
In English: Here is buried
Aftermath
When we were there, the monument was disintegrating. Shmuel Englander (may he rest in peace) met Ivan Ivanovich, head of the council of Volchin, and they agreed that we, the Vochiners, will put up a new tomb and the local council will pave a way to the tomb from the road leading to Wysokie Litewskie. We returned to Israel but we never succeeded collecting enough money for the new tomb.
Meanwhile, we discovered at Yad Vashem testimony of the head of local police in Motikele, composed of Belarusians and several Poles. This testimony was given in Brest, half a year after the liberation, before the chief prosecutor Muchanov and an anonymous NKVD man. In the testimony, the head of police, Timofyevich, admitted that his policemen participated in the murder of the Jews of Volchin and they, and himself included, also murdered 50+ people from the Ghettos at Brest, who escaped the fate of being massacred. They ambushed them in Motikele. I sent copies of this testimony to the chief of council of Volchin and to Mr. [Arkady] Blacher, the administrator of the small Holocaust museum in Brest. The result: the authorities put up a new monument. At the base of the monument they inscribed that this tomb is government property and he who damages it will be punished. Another thing --pupils of Jewish schools in Brest were sent to clean up the old Jewish cemetery in Volchin.
