Extraordinary Commission Soviet Crimes Document

The Extraordinary Commission Soviet Crimes document records eyewitness testimony about the loss of life and property in Lyubar during World War II. It was created in 1945.

Copies of this document are held at Yad Vashem in Israel, and a partial copy is available on microfilm at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (USHMM).

It was compiled as an effort by the Soviets to collect war reparations. There are detailed lists of names of those rounded up and exterminated along with brief explanations of the events that occurred. The names of German officials and local Ukrainians that participated in these events are specifically stated.

The USHMM will not copy, read, or translate this 90-page document for you. When I copied the microfilm in 1995, the photocopy equipment there was not very good and copying it proved to be a tedious process. The Cyrillic handwriting is sloppy and only parts are legible. It is written in an official tone and is not emotional.

A bilingual friend, Alisa KOGAN, and I read through the entire contents on audiotape over the course of several Sunday mornings. Following is a brief overview of the contents. We need a volunteer fluent in Russian to transliterate the lengthy list of names.

It is the story of when the Nazis came to Lyubar, how they rounded people up and where they were taken.

The Jewish people were killed gradually and not immediately upon occupation. Not all of them were buried at the mass gravesite. There is mention of the execution of four families in a field that was communal property where many people worked. Ukrainians and Russians were also killed.

This file includes a list of 1199 citizens for the Lyubar region including the names of those who perished and were arrested, arranged in columns with birthdates, death dates, religion or nationality. No addresses or occupations are included.

Testimony Q&A is by "witnesses" of those killed by German Fascist invaders and their collaborators. The Commission included doctors from the community,

There were visitors from other towns including Polonnoye and 197 people in the body count unknown to the Commission.

Several documents
Document #1: 6/5/45
Document #2: 5/30/45
4/30/45-hearings
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per Alisa Kogan Shestopalova, Arlington, VA

"List of People Living in Lyubar Killed Sept. 1941" prepared by the Lyubar Council, May 30, 1945

List of little towns/villages with inventory of those killed and arrested. How shot, hung, tortured, died from bombs, prisoners killed. How many sent to Germany for work or for slavery.

Those responsible:
1. Otto GROSSMAN (German Oberlatin (like a lieutenant). Chief of shooting and kidnapping, his supervision.
2. ____ MILLER (German). Chief of Gendarmen (police division), his supervision.
3. Paul VILLE (German). Zander of village (commander). He took people to Germany from M- and he confiscated Soviet citizens.

Summaries
1. July 1941-January 1944: Mass taking of people to Germany who commanded and organized (Stranislaw KULCHITSKY - chief of local police). Another collaboration was a member of the village government of Uruvka (SANEVICH Gregory Andreovich). He was supervising how people got to railroad station and to the German camps located under the open sky and surrounded by a wire.
2. Continuously organizing the group shooting of peaceful citizens. All ages and genders.
3. Destruction of Jewish population. Tortured enormously before being killed.
4. Tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, and others were first used for needs of German Fascist torturers. Then killed the same horrible way.
5. Same destiny for big part of other Russians, Ukrainians, and minorities in this area.
6. Shooting took place in Peschanoye Pole (sand fields). Bodies left in mass graves without covering.
7. July 1941-January 1944, 3,050 were taken to Germany. (See first chart for counts).

Act #2
May 30, 1945 Liubar of Liubarsky Region
Signed by physicians of the Liubar Hospital
LEIVLOV?, PROKOFEFORE,

They opened 1 of the graves at Peschanoye near the village Kazoniya Gromada located 3km NW of Liubar.

5 holes where Soviet citizens left after shot in September 1941 - 121 or 126? Hole 3x10 meters in a wet area only 30-40cm beneath the ground. Bodies and luggage for nearly 150 people. Skeletons now. All ages and genders. All shot. No other torture found.

In Dec. 1941 - Peschanoye Pole - mass execution of the people by shooting. Thrown in pits, not buried.

Witness Testimony
May 30, 1945 Liubar
Lt. KATULNYIK (of militia) interrogating. Woman (see name) b. 1899, peasant, never arrested. "Please tell everything you know of the crimes of the German Fascist occupants?" Answer: "They immediately began to torture people, mainly Jewish. Took them by night by car to Peschanoye Pole 3 km from Liubar. Shot there in September 1941. In July 1941, they shot my husband. He was killed because he was a member of the Communist Party and before 1941 was chief of the village of Steofska?" Also was asked why her husband killed and who the collaborators and germs were. She names.

Witness #2
Named ?, b. 1909 from Yurovka
Asked same questions. Her husband killed December 1941. He killed their pig when he wasn't allowed to. Arrested. 12 other people killed with her husband 3km near Liubar. All were killed for using salt.

Act #2 Summary
September 1941
Those killed by Fascists and their collaborators who lived in Liubar = 1199
Including:
53 families totaling 180 people traveling through and were caught and killed while in Liubar.
Another 147 prisoners of war were included in this count. Their names are not known.
These executions under GROSSMAN, KULCHITSKY (chief of police), KUDIMOV (member of police), KEYAN, SUKACH & other collaborators.

Act. #3
April 30, 1945
Village Derevichka

Act #67
Village of Liubar