Номер объектаM1996/033:002
ОписаниеPart of a collection of ammunition remnants, including spent cartridges and bullets in evidence bags, uncovered during the excavation of three mass graves in Ukraine. In 1990 and 1991 in the wake of the Australian Nazi war crimes investigations, three sites at Serniki, Ustinovka and Gnivan were excavated in order to find the archaeological and forensic evidence of the heinous crimes perpetrated. The excavations were undertaken by a team from the Special Investigations Unit, headed by Professor Richard Wright, and assisted by Ukrainian officials and soldiers. At the time, no other mass grave from the Holocaust had been excavated for evidentiary purposes.
After cleaning up some of the corroded cartridge cases found during the excavation of Serniki, it was determined that the killers had used German and Soviet ammunition. Professor Richard Wright stated: “Finding a cartridge case was a breakthrough. They are stamped with the place of manufacture in Germany and the date of manufacture, and the most recent one we found was dated to 1941. The killings must have taken place in or after 1941”.
Part of a collection of material evidence belonging to the victims and perpetrators of mass killings uncovered during the excavation of the three grave sites in Ukraine. An estimated 4000-5000 Nazi war criminals found sanctuary in Australia. Of the 843 cases the SIU investigated, only these three presented sufficient evidence to lay criminal charges.
Australia's first Nazi war crimes charge, and in fact the only one actually brought to trial, centred on the mass killings at Serniki. The accused, the Ukrainian-born Ivan Polyukhovic, was charged with having participated in the slaughter of the Serniki Jews in early September 1942, as well as with having hunted down Jewish escapees in the surrounding forests. With the help of local collaborators, the Jews were rounded up and brought to a pit 40 metres long and 5 metres wide on the outskirts of the village. The victims were forced to lie face down on the floor of the pit, while marksmen at the edge of the pit targeted the heads of the victims. Other victims were clubbed to death. Altogether, about 850 men, women and children were massacred. After the Supreme Court Judge had disallowed much of the prosecution's evidence, the jury took less than one hour to agree on a verdict of not guilty.
In 1991 Heinrich Wagner was charged with killing both adult Jews and Mischlinge children during the mass executions outside the village of Israylovka, in the Ustinovka district, sometime between 1 May and 31 July 1942. 104 Jews were marched two kilometers to a ravine, which served as a killing pit, where they were shot by Ukrainian forces. Afterwards, 19 children guilty of having Jewish fathers were torn from their mothers, loaded onto a cart and transported to the killing pit where they were murdered. The Wagner case was dismissed in 1993; Wagner was declared unfit to appear in court.
In August 1991 Mikolay Berezowsky was charged with the murders of five members of the Raykis family and several other of his Jewish neighbours in 1942, in the village of Gnivan, Ukraine. There, 102 Jews remaining in the village were rounded up, herded into the nearby forest at gunpoint towards a deep pit, where they were all shot. The case was dismissed by a magistrate due to contradictory evidence given by witnesses and historical experts.
After cleaning up some of the corroded cartridge cases found during the excavation of Serniki, it was determined that the killers had used German and Soviet ammunition. Professor Richard Wright stated: “Finding a cartridge case was a breakthrough. They are stamped with the place of manufacture in Germany and the date of manufacture, and the most recent one we found was dated to 1941. The killings must have taken place in or after 1941”.
Part of a collection of material evidence belonging to the victims and perpetrators of mass killings uncovered during the excavation of the three grave sites in Ukraine. An estimated 4000-5000 Nazi war criminals found sanctuary in Australia. Of the 843 cases the SIU investigated, only these three presented sufficient evidence to lay criminal charges.
Australia's first Nazi war crimes charge, and in fact the only one actually brought to trial, centred on the mass killings at Serniki. The accused, the Ukrainian-born Ivan Polyukhovic, was charged with having participated in the slaughter of the Serniki Jews in early September 1942, as well as with having hunted down Jewish escapees in the surrounding forests. With the help of local collaborators, the Jews were rounded up and brought to a pit 40 metres long and 5 metres wide on the outskirts of the village. The victims were forced to lie face down on the floor of the pit, while marksmen at the edge of the pit targeted the heads of the victims. Other victims were clubbed to death. Altogether, about 850 men, women and children were massacred. After the Supreme Court Judge had disallowed much of the prosecution's evidence, the jury took less than one hour to agree on a verdict of not guilty.
In 1991 Heinrich Wagner was charged with killing both adult Jews and Mischlinge children during the mass executions outside the village of Israylovka, in the Ustinovka district, sometime between 1 May and 31 July 1942. 104 Jews were marched two kilometers to a ravine, which served as a killing pit, where they were shot by Ukrainian forces. Afterwards, 19 children guilty of having Jewish fathers were torn from their mothers, loaded onto a cart and transported to the killing pit where they were murdered. The Wagner case was dismissed in 1993; Wagner was declared unfit to appear in court.
In August 1991 Mikolay Berezowsky was charged with the murders of five members of the Raykis family and several other of his Jewish neighbours in 1942, in the village of Gnivan, Ukraine. There, 102 Jews remaining in the village were rounded up, herded into the nearby forest at gunpoint towards a deep pit, where they were all shot. The case was dismissed by a magistrate due to contradictory evidence given by witnesses and historical experts.
Место изготовленияUkraine
Дата 1941 - 1942
Наименованиеammunition
Материалmetal
Размерность
- width: 10.00 mm
length: 20.00 mm
Кредитная линияSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by the War Crimes Investigation Unit