Lack of reliable information and spread of speculations about resonant historical events leads to “myths” emergence. In history of the German occupation in Sumy (1941-1943) there are many “white spots” that have transformed into urban myths. Now it has become possible to debunk them because the archives of the repressive institutions of the USSR are open for study. First, it is about the archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (former KGB) in the Sumy region. The study of criminal cases against the residents of Sumy, who actively collaborated with the German invaders, provides answers to many historical questions.
At the crime scene
On a cloudy morning on November 21, 1979, an unusual event took place in the entrance courtyard of a five-story building on the Lenina St., 81 (now it is Petropavlovskaya St., 81). A group of people walked around the courtyard, took measurements on the terrain, examined buildings and courtyard nooks and listened to the stories of an elderly, stooped man. He shivered chilly in his coat with a fur collar and from time to time straightened on his nose glasses with thick lenses. 35 years after the terrible tragedy in which he was a direct participant, the man again stood at the scene of the crime that took place in this courtyard. He remembered, told, and, for sure, was afraid that his quiet life as a pensioner could change dramatically again.
The handwrited inscription: The place in the courtyard of the house at the address: Sumy, Lenin St., 81, where in February-March, 1943 about 30 Hungarian Jewish citizens were guarded before execution.
Martynenko Grigory Tikhonovich, born in 1918 in the village Stepnoye, Nosovsky District, Chernigov Region, Ukrainian, a citizen of the USSR, married, retired, a resident of Sumy. With the beginning of the German occupation, Martynenko remained in Sumy. In December 1941, he became an investigator in the Sumy city police. In the fall of 1942, he transferred as an investigator to the Sumy Security Police of the SD (more familiar as Gestapo). The SD police identified and destructed communists, partisans, Soviet activists. In February 1943, the SD police was reorganized into the SD Sonderkommando. Martynenko became a police officer of the Sonderkommando and served in this position until the fall of 1943. He took part in mass exterminations of people. Later he fled to Belarus, changed his name to Ivanov Vasily Grigorievich and served in the Soviet army. After the war, Ivanov-Martynenko was arrested in Vilnius, where he worked as the chief accountant of the consumer union. On May 4, 1949, the military tribunal of the MVD troops in Sumy region convicted Martynenko under Art. 54-I “a” – treason of the Motherland – for 25 years in a forced labor camp. In 1965 Martynenko received a reduction to actually served term and returned to Sumy. He lived in the city center, in two blocks from the inspection site.
An American footprint
Before the described event the major-general Vakulenko I.I., the head of the KGB in Sumy region, received a letter from the investigative department of the KGB of the USSR in Moscow. It, in particular, said: “The US justice authorities requested assistance in the case of Nikifor Denisovich Luchinov, born in 1901, who lives in America, a native of the village of Lyudzha, Trostyanets district, Sumy region. As we know, Luchaninov was the head of the Sumy prison during the Nazi occupation of the Sumy region. According to our data, Luchaninov in 1941-1943 took an active part in the execution and burning of over 500 Soviet citizens in the city of Sumy. ” Before the appeal of the Americans, the KGB conducted search activities for Luchaninov and found that after the end of the SW war he managed to move to the United States and lived there under a different name. The former chief of the prison revealed himself by the only letter he sent to his sister in Lyudzha. In it, a man Smirnov asked about the fate of Luchaninov’s only son.
An Urban legend
In February 1943, units of the Soviet Army approached Sumy and the Germans were hastily preparing for a retreat. Soviet tanks even took to Romenskaya Street, where a battle ensued. But then Soviet troops were forced to retreat, and the German occupation in Sumy lasted until September 1943.
The Sumy prison was located on the Gorky St. (there is a car parking at this place now). During the liquidation measures at the end of February, it was set on fire. An urban legend says that on the eve of the retreat, the Germans herded into a vegetable storehouse from 500 to 600 prisoners and burned them alive. Who were executed – in these details the stories differ. One of the versions belongs to the former paramedic of the prison, Daniil Makhonko, and includes 300 Hungarian Jews among those who died in the prison. From the testimony of Makhonko: “In February 1943, more than 500 people were shot, burned and buried alive on the territory of the prison in vegetable stores, of which more than 300 were Hungarian Jews.”
SD Police Building
Let’s return to the place of inspection. The Sumy Security Police SD was located in a five-story building, shaped like the letter “G”. The entrances to the building were, as now, from Petropavlovskaya Street and from the courtyard. The SD police officers worked on the first floor in three offices. The SD police were headed by German officers: the head was Adam Gagnon, his deputy was Karl Mehlich. They occupied one of the offices. In the other room worked a translator and Gagnon’s secretary Irina Zhukova. In the third and largest room, the rest of the police officers, including Martynenko, worked. The dining room was located on the second floor. Gagnon, Mehlich and the German chauffeurs lived in the rooms next to it. All other apartments in the building were empty. The SD police had two trucks and a car, which Gagnon and Mehlich drove. The SD police gas storage was located in the courtyard of the building.
The handwrited inscription: The building at the address Sumy, Lenina St., 81, where the SD security police housed in 1942-1943, later it transformed into the SD Sonderkommando.
In February 1943, the Sumy SD police were reorganized into the SD Sonderkommando. In addition to the mentioned persons, it included translators Fritz Eisengeer and Mark Byk (both were citizens of the USSR before the war, and then took German citizenship as Volksdeutsch; they were not Sumy residents) and the prison staff: its head Nikifor Luchaninov and warders Ivan Grishko and Vasily Roslik (all of them were Sumy residents).
In February 1943, the Sumy SD police were reorganized into the SD Sonderkommando. In addition to the mentioned persons, it included translators Fritz Eisengeer and Mark Byk (both were citizens of the USSR before the war, and then took German citizenship as Volksdeutsch; they were not Sumy residents) and the prison staff: its head Nikifor Luchaninov and warders Ivan Grishko and Vasily Roslik (all of them were Sumy residents).
Confession of mass murder
From the testimony of Martynenko:
“One day in February 1943, shortly after the transfer of Luchaninov, Roslik and Grishko to us, a German military unit (whose number I do not know) handed over about 30 arrested men. They were taken into the courtyard of house no. 81 on present Lenina St., where the “Sonderkommando SD” located. Those arrested men were between 20 and 50 years old, unshaven, thin and emaciated. Gagnon told us that these are Hungarian citizens of Jewish nationality. He did not tell their names and said nothing about their past. They were all in dirty, tattered clothes, partly civilian, partly in Hungarian military uniforms.
On the same day, after lunch, Gagnon decided to shoot the Jews. He instructed Eisengeer, Luchaninov, Roslik and me to do this.
In the courtyard where the Jews were standing, there was a “Sonderkommando SD” gas storage, approximately 3×6 m in size and at least 2 m high. The gas storage went into the ground by about half a meter. Several steps led up there. Its walls were lined with bricks, and a thick soil was poured onto the roof. In this semi-basement we were to shoot the Jews.
The handwrited inscription: Schematic plan for the examination report dated November 21, 1979. Legend: 1. Location of the SD Sonderkommando in the building N81 on Lenina St. The red lines mark the entrance. 2. The place where the arrested men were guarded. 3. The way of escorting to the place of execution. 4. The place where the gas storage was located. 5. One-story house.
All the Jews stood in the courtyard, in the corner formed by the wings of the house. I have already indicated it resembles the letter “Г” in shape. I guarded the Jews htre, armed with a Russian carbine and a revolver. Eisengeer and Luchaninov had parabellum pistols. Roslik had a Russian carbine and a parabellum. Before the execution, the Jews were not undressed. Eisengeer, Luchaninov and Roslik took 3-4 Jews, brought them into the gas storage and shot them. After that, they returned, again took the same group of Jews, brought into a storehouse and shot. They shot about 30 Jews – all those transferred to the “SD Sonderkommando” by Germans.
During the action, Gagnon went out into the courtyard several times and observed our doing.
The door of the gas storage was on the opposite side from me, I was standing at a distance of about 50 m from it – I did not see what was happening inside, but I could hear the shots and shouts of those being shot. During the execution of every 3-4 Jews, 3-4 shots were fired.
I did not see any of the Soviet citizens watching this execution.
In order not to leave traces of this action, Gagnon yold us to set fire to a gas storage. Eisengeer, Luchaninov, and Roslik entered the storehouse and poured gasoline from several barrels over the corpses. I do not remember who of them set on fire. When a flame flared up, I went to the door and looked into it. Everything inside was engulfed in fire. In the light of the fire, I saw a pile of randomly lying human bodies. Several people were still alive, as they made a weak movement with an arm or leg.
When smoke poured in, Soviet planes swooped in and began bombing the city. Gagnon was confused. He ran out into the courtyard, then hid in the entrance of the house. At this time, several shells exploded at a short distance from us. Gagnon ordered the fire in the storage to be extinguished, but our attempts were unsuccessful. The strength of the fire showed that a lot of gasoline was spilled in the basement. By evening, the bodies of the executed Jews were completely burnt down. “
The mentioned bombing of the city by Soviet planes allowed me to establish the possible date of the event. It was on February 23rd, since I found one document in the funds of the Sumy State Archives, which testified to the death of one woman during an aerial bombardment on that date.
Who were the victims
Former prison guard Goncharenko said that on the 2nd floor of the prison there were German prisoners guarded by the SS. Around October 1942, 37 people of Jewish nationality from German troops entered the prison.
It is known that during the Second World War, Hungarian Jews were sent to forced labors on the Eastern Front as part of the so-called “labor battalions”. These were technical support personnel for regular military units. In total, 50 thousand Jews in Hungary were drafted into such units, about 40 thousand died. The Hungarian Jews executed in Sumy were such solders. The fact that some, according to Martynenko, were in military uniform suggests that there could have been servicemen among them, which means that they should have had personal military tokens.
Much later after I wrote and published the article I got the idea to look for names on the site of Yad Vashem (the global database of Jewish victims of the Second World War). I could find 15 names of possible victims. Now I publish the list.
- Drexler Ferenc, 1912, from Budapest. The date of death – 14.02.1943.
- Joldosh Ferenc, 1912, from Budapest.
- Kalman Geza, 1911, from Budapest. The date of death – 13.02.1943.
- Katona Lajos, 1909, from Budapest. The date of death – February, 1943.
- Katz Solomon, 1900, from Romania. The date of death – 12.02.1943
- Keszek Jozef, 1915, from Seged, Hungary.
- Koroi Mihai, 1912, from Czech. The date of death – 11.02.1943.
- Lichtvicz Erno, 1901, from Budapest.
- Markowitz Laszlo, 1912, from Ujpest, Hungary. The date of death – 14.02.1943.
- Mautner Imre, 1921, from Martonvasar, Hungary. The date of death – February, 1944(?).
- Nagy Imre, 1901, from Budapest. The date of death – 15.02.1943.
- Sas László, 1911, from Budapest. The date of death – 15.02.1943.
- Fried Sándor, 1912, from Hungary. The date of death – 13.02.1943.
- Frolikh Jakov, 1911, from Hungary. The date of death – 15.03(?).1943
- Hajdu András ,1896, from Budapest. The date of death – 14.02.1943.
- Stasz Ferenc, 1906, from Budapest. The date of death – 9.06.1942.
Greetings from the past
I never found information about the exhumation of bodies at the place of the fire. There is no mention in the materials of the search case against Luchaninov, which I used to write my article. This means that the remains can still be at the place of execution. Now it is an area, favored by homeless people. Nearby, a one-story house is dismantled (it is on the schematic plan under number 5). It will be a new building constraction here (there are rumors about new mart). On the place in question, earth work may also be carried out. If human bones are removed from the ground, these will be the remains of the victims.
Epilogue
Let’s go back to the participants in the events. They all fled to the West along with the retreating German troops. Adam Gagnon retired due to his age in 1944 and his further fate is unknown. Nothing is known about the translator Fritz Eisengeer. Grishko and Roslik, whom the KGB was looking for after the war, disappeared without a trace. Mark Byk was convicted in May 1945 and shot in Sumy. Grigory Martynenko, after serving 16 years, returned to Sumy. The former chief of the prison, Luchaninov, moved to the United States. What happened after the exchange of information between the KGB and the US justice authorities is unknown. There is no data about it in the case. I also did not manage to find anything additionally.
Author of the text is Olena Pryymach ©
The Russian version of this article is here: Венгерская трагедия в Сумах
The article is written on the basis of the criminal cases against Luchaninov, Martynenko and Goncharenko at the archive of the SBU in Sumy region.
Історичний блог Олени Приймач 