VERESHAKI – A JEWISH SHTETLE
Goretsky region (does not exist today)
Location of Vereshaki.
Tatians Vasilievna Borodotskaya, born in 1962
I am a math teacher in the village of Yurkovo.
Execution site of the Jewish residents of Vereshaki – 300 m away from the village. The memorial was set up several years ago with the assistance of the local authorities.
I was born and lived in the village of Potashi. My mother witnessed the execution of Jews in the village of Vereshak. In 1942 she was 13. She told me that one day Nazi policemen came for their neighbor Katia Kudriavtseva, who could speak German. She, together with my mother, went to the village of Vereshaki. They had no idea of what was going to happen there. In Vereshaki they saw a big ditch and a machinegun next to it. They remembered seeing only two Germans. All the village residents were taken to the ditch. There were very few young men – mainly old people, women and children. The translator had to tell them they had to form groups of ten people, then the first group was made to lie down in the ditch. They were shot. There was no resistance. When everyone was shot the ditch was covered with ground.
Jews did not come back to the village after the war.
Melania Fedorovna Pyrkina.
Melania Fedorovna Pyrkina (Zolotarskaya), born in 1928.
I am now living in Yurkovo but was born in Potashy. Next to it there used to be a village of Vereshaki. Most of its residents were Jewish.
We used to go to school together with Jewish children.
I remember the names of two Jews from Vereshaki: Kivol and Leizer. They were very poor. Kivol’s wife, together with two daughters, escaped from Nazis and was wandering from village to village. However, someone gave her away and she was murdered.
A young woman named Genka used to come to work in Potashi. Her husband’s name was Aron. They were killed as well.
Another woman, Sara, was a little older than me. She was very pretty and could sing really well. Sara was also killed by Nazis.
All the women from our village used to go to Vereshaki to visit Mihla, a tailor. She was murdered.
Only one woman, Faina, survived. I do not know how she managed to escape the execution.
Prepared by A. Litin and I. Shenderovich
Photos taken by A. Litin
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