The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Pre-1941: Kremenchug, city, Poltava oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1943: Krementschuk, initially under the control of Rear Area, Army Group South (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd) and (from September 1942) center of Gebiet Krementschuk, Generalkommissariat Kiew, Reichskommissariat Ukraine; post-1991: Kremenchuh, Poltava oblast’, Ukraine

Kremenchug is located 133 kilometers (83 miles) west-northwest of Dnepropetrovsk. In 1939, there were 19,880 Jews residing in Kremenchug.

In the weeks after the start of the German invasion in June 1941, about two thirds of the Jews of Kremenchug managed to evacuate to the east. Units of the German 17th Army captured Kremenchug on September 9, 1941, and the city remained under the jurisdiction of Rear Area, Army Group South until September 1942. One week after capturing Kremenchug, the military administration ordered that Jews be registered with the city council and that they wear the Star of David on their sleeves. Between September 13—26, 1941, Sonderkommando 4b, under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Günther Herrmann, arrived in Kremenchug and shot 125 Jews.¹

On September 27, 1941, the military commandant ordered the Jews to move into a ghetto located in a barracks on Lenin Street no. 22 in the suburb of Novo-Ivanivka, where they were deprived of all possessions and documents. Altogether about 3,000 Jews from Kremenchug and the vicinity were concentrated in the ghetto. After their departure, the Ukrainian policemen and city rabble plundered the empty Jewish apartments; some Ukrainians also attempted to seize Jewish apartments.²

The German administration imposed a special curfew on the ghetto, and Jews were not allowed to visit the “Aryan” quarters or communicate with Ukrainians. The Ukrainian city council, headed by Synytsia Verkhovs’kyi, was authorized to organize Jewish labor details for various tasks such as cleaning streets. Those working in the labor details received 400 grams (14 ounces) of bread daily; those remaining in the ghetto received only 200 grams (7 ounces) per person. The German administration imposed several “contributions” on the ghetto, which were collected by the Jewish council of elders. The Germans and Ukrainian police often raided the ghetto, robbing Jews of their remaining possessions. In late September, the Germans discovered that city council chief Verkhovs’kyi had procured false certificates of baptism for Jews through a local church (allegedly in return for large bribes). He was subsequently arrested and executed.³

On October 28, 1941, the forces of the Higher SS and Police Leader South Russia (HSSPF Russland-Süd) collected about 2,000 Jews from the Kremenchug ghetto and the surrounding countryside and murdered them outside the city at a place known as the Sand Hill.⁴ About 500 Jews remained in the ghetto. Between November 5—19, German forces subordinated to HSSPF Russland-Süd murdered 285 more Jews (147 men, 101 women, and 37 children) in Kremenchug in a series of Aktions.⁵ On November 24, 1941, the local military headquarters (Ortskommandantur 239) reported that Kremenchug was “almost cleansed of Jews.” Nevertheless, a number of Jews still lived in the ghetto. They were again registered, and the registers were handed over to the HSSPF. Some Jewish doctors and nurses were also spared to work at local hospitals. In January 1942, during a large antipartisan sweep through the Poltava region, the Germans shot all the remaining Jews they could find in Kremenchug. Altogether about 8,000 Jews from Kremenchug and its vicinity lost their lives during the war.⁶