On November 28, 1941 an order was issued to the effect that by November 29 the Ashkenazi Jews had to appear with the keys to their apartments at the collection point of Sennaya Square on the pretext that they were going to be resettled. They were allowed to take with them some possessions and food for three days. The Jews from mixed marriages were temporarily exempted from showing up. Nine Jewish dentists were also temporarily spared since the Germans needed them for their dental services. The Jews were warned that anyone who violated these orders would be shot to death in public. Those who showed up (mainly women, children, and the elderly) were taken in a column six rows wide to the city prison. Those who couldn't keep up the pace due to illness or old age were beaten and thrown into carts. At the prison the Jews had to hand over the keys and the addresses of their apartments to the prison commander. Their valuables were confiscated. Many women and teenage girls were separated from the rest and put into separate cells, where they were brutally raped and tortured. The Jews were barely given any food and no water. On December 1-3 a unit of Sonderkommando 10b shot to death about 2,500 Ashkenazi Jews (the Soviet ChGK report noting 7,000 Jews was an overestimate and apparently included members of the non-Jewish population) at an anti-tank trench near Bagerovo village, located 4 kilometers from Kerch. The Jews were taken to the murder site by truck. After being forced to strip to their underwear, the victims were taken in groups of 10 to the anti-tank trench, positioned there with their backs to the murder squad that was standing at the edge of the trench, and shot to death. The shooting lasted from early morning until evening. After the shooting the outer clothes and the belongings of those murdered were loaded onto trucks and taken to the city. On December 29, just two days before the first liberation of Kerch by the Red Army, the Ashkenazi Jews who had been found by the Germans in hiding were shot to death by a unit of Sonderkommando 10b at the same site. During this period the Gypsy (Roma) residents of Kerch and other non-Jewish residents of Kerch and its environs were also murdered at this location.

More information: Yad Vashem

On June 22 (or July 8-9), 1942 about 1,500 Krymchak Jews (or 800, according to other sources) - mainly women, children, and old people, as well as the remaining Ashkenazi Jews and people from mixed marriages, were collected at Sennaya Square, put into prison, and then taken by truck to an anti-tank trench near Adzhimushkay village. They were shot to death, apparently by a Sonderkommando 10b murder squad. The little children were thrown alive into the trench. According to German and Soviet testimonies, some of the victims were asphyxiated in gas vans during the ride from the city prison to the murder site and their bodies were thrown out at the [murder] site. The clothes and personal possessions of the victims were taken away and their apartments were confiscated by the Germans. During this period Soviet military personnel and prisoners of war were also shot to death at this site.

More information: Yad Vashem