Final Report of the International Commission on the - Minority Rights ...

to <strong>the</strong> Mostovoye-Veselyevo [Veselinovo] region, in <strong>the</strong> Berezovka district. From <strong>the</strong> Berezovka station,
<strong>the</strong>y are escorted to <strong>the</strong> relocation area. To date, 6,000 have been evacuated, and <strong>the</strong> transports are
continuing daily.
It is very difficult to find shelter for <strong>the</strong>m in <strong>the</strong> relocation villages, since <strong>the</strong> Ukrainian population
does not accept <strong>the</strong>m; consequently, many end up in <strong>the</strong> stables <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> collective farms. Because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
freezing temperatures (which sometimes reach -20˚C) and <strong>the</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> food, and [because <strong>of</strong>] <strong>the</strong>ir age and
miserable condition, many die along <strong>the</strong> way and freeze where <strong>the</strong>y fall. The Berezovka [gendarmerie]
legion has been recruited for this operation, but due to <strong>the</strong> severe cold, <strong>the</strong> escort personnel must change
<strong>of</strong>f frequently. Bodies are strewn along <strong>the</strong> route [and] buried in antitank trenches. We are rarely able to
recruit local people to bury <strong>the</strong> bodies, since [<strong>the</strong> locals] try as much as possible to avoid such operations.
We shall continue reporting on <strong>the</strong> progress <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> operation.
Gendarmerie headquarters repeated <strong>the</strong> above almost verbatim in its first summary report on <strong>the</strong>
operation, updating only <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> deportees: “As <strong>of</strong> January 22, 12,234 Jews have been evacuated
out <strong>of</strong> a total <strong>of</strong> 40,000.”
The depleted convoys proceeded to various destinations. An estimated 4,000-5,000 Jews were sent to
Bogdanovka, where <strong>the</strong> liquidation operation had been completed but <strong>the</strong> body burnings were still at <strong>the</strong>ir
height. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> new arrivals were taken straight to <strong>the</strong> pit, shot, and burned. O<strong>the</strong>r Jews were brought
to Domanovka, where Padure was conducting selections and separating out <strong>the</strong> “expert craftsmen.” Tens
<strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> Odessa Jews brought to <strong>the</strong>se two camps in November 1941 had already been
slaughtered. At Domanovka, <strong>the</strong> liquidations continued, and <strong>the</strong> latest convoys met <strong>the</strong> same fate as those
before.
Several transports were directed to <strong>the</strong> local state farms, which had passed into Romanian hands
wherever uninhabited by German villagers. The bulk <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> convoys, however, were led to improvised
camps in ethnic-German villages in Berezovka. The march to <strong>the</strong>se camps was prolonged in order to thin
<strong>the</strong> ranks along <strong>the</strong> way, or, as one survivor put it, so as many as possible would die a “natural death.”
Convoys sent to camps 18 kilometers (11 miles) from <strong>the</strong> Berezovka train station were walked in circles
for three days in <strong>the</strong> frozen, snow-covered wasteland, with most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> exhausted adults and children
expiring in <strong>the</strong> fields. Each convoy was robbed by <strong>the</strong> gendarmes, who seized anything that appeared
valuable: “They took our last possessions from us. By <strong>the</strong> time we reached Domanovka, we were
paupers.”
The Berezovka Massacres
Transnistria contained <strong>the</strong> largest concentration <strong>of</strong> Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) in <strong>the</strong> Ukraine. A
census conducted by <strong>the</strong> Nazis in early 1943 registered 130,866 Germans living in <strong>the</strong> region, compared
with 169,074 in <strong>the</strong> entire Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Some 100,000 <strong>of</strong> those in Transnistria were
scattered among <strong>the</strong> villages and towns ringing Odessa. Under <strong>the</strong> Soviets, Greater Odessa had
encompassed almost all <strong>of</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn Transnistria. The local Germans in <strong>the</strong> Odessa area constituted some
forty percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Soviet Germans under Nazi occupation. Based on <strong>the</strong> Nazis’ wartime figures,
Transnistria comprised more than thirty German villages whose populations exceeded 1,000 each.
Convoys <strong>of</strong> Jews from Bessarabia were marched past German villages north <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Dniester estuary,
northwest <strong>of</strong> Odessa and east <strong>of</strong> Tiraspol. Likewise, convoys deported on foot from sou<strong>the</strong>rn Transnistria
to <strong>the</strong> county <strong>of</strong> Golta passed dozens <strong>of</strong> German communities. One witness described <strong>the</strong> thirst for Jewish
blood among <strong>the</strong> SS’s new German recruits, who shot into crowds <strong>of</strong> Jews. Ano<strong>the</strong>r Nazi body operating
among <strong>the</strong> ethnic Germans in and around Odessa was Einsatzgruppe D, numbering some 500 men.
Secondary units reached <strong>the</strong> area in late August 1941 after conducting extermination campaigns in