Information About the Holocaust from Investigation Files of Local Policemen (the Case of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine)

The new Document Blogpost presents the Soviet investigation files of Kryvyi Rih policemen from the SBU archives (State Archive Branch of the Security Services of Ukraine). Kryvyi Rih is a city in Central Ukraine. The blogpost by Roman Shliakhtych examines arrest warrants, interrogation transcripts, indictments and verdicts from these files and shows how these materials make it possible to study the course of events during the largest mass shooting of Jews in Kryvyi Rih on 14 October 1941. Additionally, the files make it possible to identify the perpetrators and the victims of the Holocaust in the region.

Social-political 'face'

The analyzed details from the questionnaires make it possible to determine that the social-political profile of most policemen, at least in Kryvyi Rih, did not differ from the general social-political ‘face’ of Soviet society in the 1930s. They did not suffer from mental conditions, before the war they had had decent, for Soviet standards, jobs and education, most were no Party members, and prior to the occupation they had not harbored nationalistic views. However, during the Nazi occupation they joined the local police and, according to statements by locals, were ‘more terrifying than the Germans’.

The blogpost also uses the material to research other criminal activities of the local police against the Jewish population. It advocates for further investigation and analysis of the criminal files of local policemen.

Read the Document Blogpost

This blogpost is part of The Holocaust in Ukraine – EHRI Document Blog Special Thematic Series.

Image: Photo of Rodynovs’kyi, DA SBU, Dnipro, f 6(R), op. 2, spr. 18835, t.1