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The Holocaust period and the colonies

Source of the Holocaust material and translater of
the testimony sheets.

Chaim Freedman
Petah Tikvah, Israel
email:
chaimjan@zahav.net.il

 

The following is a description of the action carried out by the Nazis against the Jews of Zelenopolye in which Shlomo-Reuven Komisaruk was killed.

(See Yad Vashem testimonies below)

 

The Death of the Jewish Collective Farm Workers of Zelenopolye

Taken from `The Black Book' (by Ilya Ehrenburg, 1980)

 

Zelenopolye is an old Jewish agricultural colony. At one time it was the site of the rich and flourishing collective farm "Emes". Before the war, Jews, Russians, there every year to see this blissful friendly family.

When the Germans arrived in Zelenopolye, they found that a significant portion of the Jewish population had evacuated. Only a few families and a handful of old folks remained who did not want to leave the place where they were born and had grown up. These were feeble old people: Idl Kalmanovitch, Girsh-Leib Kozlovsky, and his wife, Shloyma Kamsoryuk and his wife, and others.

As soon as the Germans occupied the colony they decided to "clean the earth and the air" of Jews. Murder was not enough for them. According to their plan, the people had to pass through all the circles of hell. Idl Kalmanovitch was an old, respected, religious Jew. The Germans spread his tallis on the ground and ordered the old man to kneel on it before the bandits. The old man refused. Then the Germans shaved off his snow-white beard. But even that was not enough for them. With a razor they scraped the skin from his face, cut his face in many places, and cut off his ears. In spite of his terrible pain, Kalmanovitch did not ask the Germans for mercy.

Shloyma Kamsoryuk was an invalid and an honest worker. The villains tortured him mercilessly. They cut Shloyma into pieces and cast the dismembered body to the dogs.

The other Jews remaining in the colony hid in the rain and the cold for a long time, but the same fate overtook them as well.

Khana Patursky's family was murdered in a vicious fashion. Her sixteen-year-old daughter Rakhil was raped and shot. Her other two children and her mother were also shot. The oldest daughter, Tanya, was hanged before her mother's eyes.

All in all, seventy-four local residents and fourteen nprisoners of war were killed in Zelenopolye. There were very many victims in this region, since it was a national Jewish district.'


Three Yad Vashem testimony sheets (scanned original and translation) for
Shlomo Reuven Komisaruk and his sons Vladimir and Lev.
 

YAD VASHEM

"DAF ED" [testimonial form]

[number] 166816

Surname: Komisaruk

Personal name: Vladimir

Date of birth\estimated age: 1900

Gender: Male

Marital state:

Birthplace: Ukraine, Zaporozhe Oblast, Jewish colony Grafskaya

Mother: -

Father: Shloyme-Rubin

Spouse:

Place of residence: Ukraine, Zaporozhe Oblast, Jewish colony Zelenopolye

Place of residence during the war: Action in army.

 

 

Vladimir Komisaruk - Yad Vashem

Place and circumstance of death: Perished at the Front in Smolensk region.

Details of the declarer: Komisaruk, Daniil Semenovitch

Relationship to the victim: brother

Address: Ukraine, Town of Mariupol, 15 Kazantzev St. 31, apartment 125.

I declare herewith that the testimony I have given in all its details was correct and true to the best of my knowledge and familiarity.

Signature: Komisaruk

Place and date of registration: Town of Mariupol, 19.12.95

During the war I was in the camp\ghetto\forest\prisoner: evacuated

 

YAD VASHEM

"DAF ED" [testimonial form]

[number] 166835

Surname: Komisaruk

Personal name: Shloyme-Rubin

Date of birth\estimated age: -

Gender: Male

Marital state: married

Birthplace: Ukraine, Zaporozhe Oblast, Jewish colony Grafskaya

Mother: -

Father: Shepa

Spouse:

Place of residence: Ukraine, Zaporozhe Oblast, Jewish colony Zelenopolye

Place of residence during the war: then - Jewish colony Zelenopolye.

Occupation: farmer

Date of death: October 1941

 

 

 

Shloyme-Rubin Komisaruk - Yad vashem

 

Place and circumstance of death: Perished in the Jewish colony Zelenopolye, Zaporozhe Oblast in the mass execution [ shooting] of Jews.

Details of the declarer: Komisaruk, Daniil Semenovitch

Relationship to the victim: son

Address: Ukraine, Town of Mariupol, 15 Kazantzev St. 31, apartment 125.

I declare herewith that the testimony I have given in all its details was correct and true to the best of my knowledge and familiarity.

Signature: Komisaruk

Place and date of registration: Town of Mariupol, 19.12.95

During the war I was in the camp\ghetto\forest\prisoner: evacuated.

 

YAD VASHEM

"DAF ED" [testimonial form]

[number] 166831

Surname: Komisaruk

Personal name: Lev

Date of birth\estimated age: 1907

Gender: Male

Marital state:

Birthplace: Jewish colony Grafskaya, Zaporozhe Oblast, Ukraine

Mother: -

Father: Shloyme-Rubin

Spouse:

Place of residence: Ukraine, Zaporozhe Oblast, Jewish colony Zelenopolye

Place of residence during the war: Action in army.

Occupation: storeman in exchange store. [place where people brought old clothes, metal to exchange for food, soap etc]

Date of death: October-November 1941

 

Lev Komisaruk - Yad vashem

 

Place and circumstance of death: Perished at the Front in Donbass region.

Details of the declarer: Komisaruk, Daniil Semenovitch

Relationship to the victim: brother

Address: Ukraine, Town of Mariupol, 15 Kazantzev St. 31, apartment 125.

I declare herewith that the testimony I have given in all its details was correct and true to the best of my knowledge and familiarity.

Signature: Komisaruk

Place and date of registration: Town of Mariupol, 19.12.94

During the war I was in the camp\ghetto\forest\prisoner:

 

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Remember to check the Yad Vashem database. The Central database of the Shoah victims' names. There are many people who came from our colonies and towns. Search by surname and by town name.

 

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Research Contact: Chaim Freedman
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Updated Thursday March 07 2024. Copyright © 1999 [Jewish Agricultural Colonies of the Ukraine]. All rights reserved.