On September 23, 1941 the Germans transferred Kherson's Jews, excluding converts to Christianity and the offspring of mixed families, from the ghetto to the local prison. Those unable to walk were beaten mercilessly and then shot. The Jews were held in the prison compound overnight. The next morning the Jews were told by the Germans that they were going to be resettled. The following day all the Jewish men, women, and children were taken in groups of 15 to 20 to anti-tank trenches located seven kilometers northeast of Kherson, on the grounds of an industrial settlement near the villages of Zelenovka and Rozhnovka, and then they were shot by machine-guns. Before they were shot, the Jews were ordered by the Germans to cover with earth the bodies of those who had been shot before them. At the murder site children age 2 to 14 were separated from their mothers, lined up, and given a poisonous substance to inhale. The mass murder was carried out by a unit of Sonderkommando 11a commanded by SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Eberhard Heinze. The estimate of the number of victims of this massacre varies from 5,000 (according to German sources) to over 8,700 (according to Soviet sources).

More information: Yad Vashem

According to eyewitnesses, during the early period of the occupation the Germans dug a pit on Suvorov Street, in the area where there was a movie house and where there is now a planetarium. Gas vans were driven up to this pit and the bodies of Jewish children were unloaded. Neither the exact date of this event nor the exact number of children's bodies buried in the pit is known.

More information: Yad Vashem