According to some testimonies early in the morning of July 24, 1942 the surviving Jewish artisans, 50 in number, were loaded onto trucks and taken from the ghetto toward Berdichev. Apparently these people were shot somewhere in the vicinity of the Berdichev road, although the exact murder site is unknown.

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Early in the morning of September 10, 1941 all the Jews were collected at the local department store. There the women and men were divided into separate groups, while the artisans and their families were put into a special group that was combined with a children's group. Some witnesses reported that the police placed a bucket in the middle of the crowd and ordered the Jews to put all their valuables into it. Then the men were taken away -- on the pretext that they were going to work on road construction. After that, the group of women was taken away -- on the pretext that they would be used for agricultural work in the fields. Instead, these Jews were taken under guard by policemen to the Stavki Ravine in the Chorniy/Zarichanskiy Forest near Ruzhin and shot. Other sources say that the shooting was carried out on Karacheva Hill. According to some testimonies the men and the women were shot separately, in different pits. The shooting was carried out by several German soldiers. The number of victims has been estimated as between 750 and 950. Some testimonies mention that the Jewish women and older girls were buried in the area of the garden of the Kommuna kolkhoz, while the men were buried in three pits in the forest.

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On May 1, 1942 the ghetto inmates who were still alive were taken to the local synagogue and then they were forced to go on foot to the area of the garden of the Kommuna Collective Farm. The victims were taken to a vegetable storage pit or, according to other sources, a silage pit there. The craftsmen were returned to the ghetto but their family members were shot. The children, about 40 in number, were thrown alive into the pit by a local policeman.

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The last murder operation was carried out in Balamutovka village in late November 1942 (according to some testimonies the operation took place on September 6, 1943). The surviving inmates of the Ruzhin ghetto had to come to the Gendarmerie office to register twice a day. On the day of the shooting they were surrounded in the yard of the Gendarmerie by Germans and policemen. In a panic the people attempted to escape from that place to the nearby forest. Some of them succeeded, but most of them were killed. According to some testimonies their bodies were later taken to the area of the garden of the Kommuna [kolkhoz] and buried there. The number of victims is estimated to have been between 75 and 80.

More information: Yad Vashem