On Yom Kippur - September 21, 1942, or a day afterwards, a Security Police unit, together with members of the Ukrainian police, arrived in Aleksandria to dig pits in preparation for the murder operation. The pits were dug by the Soviet POWs near the village of Svyattya located to the west of the town, at the nearby forest. On September 23, the ghetto had been surrounded by German Gendarmerie (German order police) and Ukrainian auxiliary police. All Jews were gathered in the square located at the town's center, they had to take off their outer clothes and to give away their valuables. They weren't allowed to take with them any food or drink. Then, under armed convoy, the Jews were taken to the Svyattya Forest. Upon their arrival to the murder site, men and women with children were separated. First women with children were made to strip naked and then taken in groups into the pit, forced to lie with their face down and shot by the members of the Security Police detachment from Równe. Then men were forced to get undressed and to get in groups inside the pit. Most of the victims, however, were buried alive. Ukrainian auxiliary police and German Gendarmerie guarded the murder site, shooting those Jews who tried to run away. According to a testimony, Judenrat members, who also had been brought to the murder site, were ordered to sort the clothes of the killed Jews, and after carrying out their task, they were killed as well. Afterward, Germans ordered the local residents to cover the bodies of the victims. The clothes of the Jews were taken back to Aleksandria.

More information: Yad Vashem

Three weeks after the mass killing of Aleksandria's Jews on September 23, 1942, Karl Heifler, a landwirt (agricultural leader) of Aleksandria ordered to post notices across the town calling all those who hid themselves in all the region to return home, since no harm would be done to those who would return. About 85 hiding Jews returned to Aleksandria. On October 28, 1942 they all were taken by Germans to the pit that had been prepared at the Jewish cemetery and shot there by a German unit. The victims were buried at the site.

More information: Yad Vashem