On September 3, 1941 between about 100 (according to Soviet records) and about 300 (according to German reports) Jews of Vasilkov of all ages and both sexes were collected in the orphanage building on Bolnichnaya Street and were taken from there by truck to the eastern outskirts of Vasilkov. At this murder site the victims were forced to strip to their underwear, robbed of the valuables they had with them, and then taken in small groups to the edge of a ravine near the Pokrov Christian cemetery, known as the Kovalevka Ravine, and shot dead there. The perpetrators of this massacre were members of a forward detachment of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C or soldiers from an unidentified Waffen SS unit. After this massacre, Jews from Vasilkov and from nearby villages continued to be taken to the Kovalevka Ravine and shot there. In July 1942 an unknown number of Jews, apparently both from Vasilkov and from the towns and villages of Vasilkov County, were also shot to death at the Kovalevka Ravine, apparently by members of the German security and order police.

More information: Yad Vashem

According to some testimonies, the Jews from villages in Vasilkov County were shot to death in May-July 1942 in the vicinity of the Pokrovskoye cemetery in Vasilkov. The exact number of the victims is unknown, while the total number of Jews from Vasilkov County who were shot during that period is around 800; some of them were shot in Kovalevka ravine.

More information: Yad Vashem