Koriukivka Massacre
Monument in Koriukivka memorializing the victims of Nazi violence
LocationKoriukivka, Army Group South Rear Area
Date1-2 March 1943
TargetUkrainians
Attack type
Genocidal massacre
WeaponsFirearms
Deaths6,700 civilians
PerpetratorsNazi Germany Nazi Germany, Hungary Hungary[1]

The Koriukivka massacre was a war crime against 6,700 residents[2][3] of Koriukivka (then a village of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) on 1–2 March 1943 by the SS forces of Nazi Germany and the Royal Hungarian Army. 1,290 houses in Koriukivka were burned down and only ten brick buildings and a church survived.[4] The residents of neighboring localities were intimidated and refused to help the Koriukivka residents.[4] On 9 March, the Germans returned to Koriukivka and burned alive some elderly people who had returned to the village after escaping thinking it was safe.[5]

According to forensic evidence, the deaths were brought on particularly by shootings from automatic weapons such as submachine guns and light machine guns also blows with blunt objects and burning. Some people were burned alive.[6] The mass murder was committed as a retribution for Soviet partisan activities headed by Oleksiy Fedorov.[3] Koriukivka was liberated by Soviet troops on 19 March 1943. A report on the number of victims and inflicted damage was compiled in the same year. The Koriukivka massacre was the largest German punitive operation against civilians in World War II.[6]

Background

During the German occupation, the village of Koriukivka was a center of Soviet partisan warfare in Chernihiv Oblast. On the night of 27 February 1943, the partisans of Oleksiy Fedorov, having learned that the children of the commanders of a Soviet partisan unit were jailed in the Koriukivka prison, attacked the local Axis garrison, which consisted mostly of Hungarians. During that raid, 78 Axis soldiers were killed and eight captured.[4] Several persons were released from the prison and some buildings were blown up. The partisans had warned the residents of Koriukivka about possible German retribution, but the next day after the partisan raid the way out was blocked. Nonetheless, at least one woman with three children managed to escape from Koriukivka on that day.[4]

The massacre

On the morning of 1 March 1943 an SS unit came to Koriukivka from Shchors. Koriukivka was sealed off. Initially, the Germans tried to huddle all residents in the village's center. When some residents, anticipating the forthcoming killings, had tried to escape, the Germans started to enter all houses, shooting down every occupant. Those who were huddled in the village's centre were shot down in the village's largest buildings, the restaurant and the theater. In the restaurant, about 500 people were killed. Five of the civilians huddled at the restaurant managed to survive. An order to shoot down all Koriukivka residents who had escaped to neighboring settlements was issued.[4]

According to historian Dmytro Vedeneyev, the massacre was committed by SS and collaborationist auxiliary police.[7] The number of perpetrators of the massacre is estimated at 300–500.[6] 5,612 victims of the massacre remain unidentified.[8]

References

  1. ↑ The Untold Stories. The Murder Sites of the Jews in the Occupied Territories of the Former USSR
  2. ↑ Юрій Поташній. Корюківка: забута трагедія. Як нацисти знищили 7-тисячне містечко // Історична правда. 2 березня 2011 (in Ukrainian)
  3. 1 2 Украинский институт национальной памяти Историческая справка (in Russian). Kuban-Ukraine.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Великая Отечественная: когда захороним последнего солдата? (in Russian). Russia-today.ru. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Book and information exhibition to the days of Koriukivka massacre". Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  6. 1 2 3 "Victims of the Koriukivka Massacre Remembered on the 70th Anniversary of the Tragedy". Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Dmytro Vedeneyev - Koriukivka (in Ukrainian) Mass executions of civilians, the destruction of settlements in the Chernihiv region, other war crimes and atrocities on the territory of the region from October 1942 to September 1943 were carried out by servicemen of the Hungarian 105th Light Division on the orders of the commander of the group, Lieutenant General Aldea-Papa Zoltana Johan, born in 1895, native of Budapest. The names of Nazi executioners become known.
  8. ↑ "Указ Президента України № 925/2011 «Про заходи у зв'язку з 70-ми роковинами Корюківської трагедії»". Archived from the original on 24 September 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2013.

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