• Memorial to the murdered Jews of Yefingar
Since 1953, a memorial commemorates the Jews who were murdered by German units in the former Jewish colony of Yefingar (today: Plyushchivka).
Image: Yefingar, date unknown, Old synagogue, www.efingar.narod.ru  
Yefingar, date unknown, Old synagogue, www.efingar.narod.ru  

Image: Plyushchivka, 2017, Memorial, Christoph Helweg
Plyushchivka, 2017, Memorial, Christoph Helweg
The former Jewish colony of Yefingar whose name means »beautiful river« in Hebrew is located on the left bank of the river Ingul north of the Black Sea. It was founded in 1807 by 43 Jewish families who moved from the regions of present-day Belarus to the Black Sea region. Yefingar was the first and later one of the most successful Jewish agricultural colonies in the region. Soon after ethnic Germans also settled in the colony, but at the end of the 19th century about 92 percent of the 2.038 inhabitants were still Jewish. When faced with massive anti-Jewish riots in 1905, the Jewish inhabitants of Yefingar founded a self-defence group which successfully withstood the violence. In the turmoil after the October Revolution, several Jews perished in pogroms or as a result of hunger and disease. In 1926 the town still numbered 1.528 Jews, which made up about 91 percent of the population. The population continued to decline in the 1920s and 1930s. During this time, in the course of the Stalinist collectivization, all rural households were combined into two kolkhozes.
On August 12, 1941, a few weeks after the German attack on the Soviet Union, Yefingar was occupied by the German Wehrmacht. Prior to this, the Soviet authorities evacuated all young people capable of defending themselves together with cattle and machines. Some of the remaining Jewish inhabitants also fled to the interior of the Soviet Union.
On September 10, 1941, the German authorities and their helpers, recruited from local ethnic Germans, rounded up all the Jews of the village in the local school building. On the same day the Jews were shot by members of Sonderkommando (special unit) 10a of of the Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) D in a sandpit two kilometres away. The Jewish population of Yefingar was thereby obliterated.
Image: Yefingar, date unknown, Old synagogue, www.efingar.narod.ru  
Yefingar, date unknown, Old synagogue, www.efingar.narod.ru  

Image: Plyushchivka, 2017, Memorial, Christoph Helweg
Plyushchivka, 2017, Memorial, Christoph Helweg
Supported by the local municipal police which consisted primarily of ethnic Germans, the Sonderkommando (special unit) 10a of the Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) D shot approximately 520 Jews from Yefingar and the surrounding area near Konstantinovka in a sandpit on September 10, 1941.
Image: Yefingar, around 1920, Jewish colonist Mojshe-Izy Gurevich and his family, efingar.narod.ru
Yefingar, around 1920, Jewish colonist Mojshe-Izy Gurevich and his family, efingar.narod.ru

Image: Plyushchivka, 2017, Site of mass shooting, Stiftung Denkmal
Plyushchivka, 2017, Site of mass shooting, Stiftung Denkmal
The Red Army recaptured Yefingar on March 14, 1944. In 1945 the settlement was renamed Plyushchivka. About 488 Jews returned there after the war. Most of them emigrated later. Today there are no more Jews living in this place.
In 1946, relatives reburied the corpses from the mass grave at the Jewish cemetery. In 1953 an obelisk was erected there. The Russian inscription reads: »Here lie 521 victims of German fascist barbarism, who were murdered on September 10, 1941«. Since 1956 every year on September 10th, a commemoration ceremony is held at the memorial. The Community for Jewish Culture from Mykolaiv organizes commemoration ceremonies and trips to the memorial sites in the area.
Image: Plyushchivka, 2017, Preserved house from the former Jewish colony, Christoph Helweg
Plyushchivka, 2017, Preserved house from the former Jewish colony, Christoph Helweg

Image: Plyushchivka, 2017, Inscription on the memorial, Christoph Helweg
Plyushchivka, 2017, Inscription on the memorial, Christoph Helweg
Name
Pamjat' ubitym ewrejam Jefingara
Web
http://efingar.narod.ru
E-Mail
y.pasik@mail.ru
Possibilities
Every year on September 10th, a commemoration ceremony is held at the memorial.