The Zonal State Archives in Rechitsa presents a document on the genocide of the Nazi invaders against the residents of Rechitsa

From August 23, 1941 to November 18, 1943, Rechitsa was under German occupation. The archival collection of digital copies on the rights of original documents of the Extraordinary State Commission of the USSR for the Investigation of the Crimes of Fascism contains the protocol of the interrogation of a witness to the reprisals of the German occupiers and their accomplices against the civilian population – a resident of Rechitsa Ekaterina Anatolyevna Matveyeva (F.864. Op.1. D.3. L.74-76ob), who testified as follows:

«A week and a half after the occupation of the city of Rechitsa, the German occupation authorities summoned the Jew Malinkovich, who was ordered to conduct a census of the Jewish population living in the city of Rechitsa, and to sew 2 five-pointed stars on each person’s clothes, and to hand over the lists of the Jewish population to the German authorities. At the end of November 1941, the Germans drove the entire Jewish population of the city of Rechitsa into a two-story building in the factory district, surrounded by barbed wire, where approximately 785 families were driven, which amounted to about 3,000 people, and then began mass executions… Around November 25, 1941, in the morning, 3 cars drove up to the prison where prisoners of war, communists and city activists were held, into which they loaded 30-35 people, and then took them to the city, where they were mercilessly shot.

The execution of prisoners of war, communists and city activists lasted from morning until 4 o’clock in the evening. Having finished the execution of prisoners of war, the Germans began mass executions of the Jewish population. On this day, November 25, 1941, at 4 o’clock in the evening, 7 cars drove up to the camp where the Jews were held. Each of them loaded 45-47 people, and then took them out of town and shot them in an anti-tank ditch. The process of shooting the citizens took place in the following order: cars with people loaded on them approached the anti-tank ditch, 15-20 people were unloaded from them, the people were placed in the anti-tank ditch, and then they were shot with machine guns. The seventh car, in which my mother and I were, drove up to the anti-tank ditch. Together with the others, my mother and I were placed in the anti-tank ditch, they fired a volley of machine guns at us, and we fell. Being wounded, we freed ourselves with great difficulty from the corpses that had fallen on us… At the moment of the shooting of the Jewish population, a cry was heard: «Bandits! Fascists! You are spilling our blood – the Red Army will avenge us anyway!» These words were spoken before the shooting by an 8-year-old boy, Boris Smolovitsky. The person who carried out the execution hit Smolovitsky on the head with a rifle butt and knocked him down, after which the boy was shot».

In the photos: ZGARech. F.864. Op.1. D.3. L.74-76ob