Documentation from the State Extraordinary Commission for Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in the Soviet Union (ChGK) which was active in Crimea, 1944

Documentation from the State Extraordinary Commission for Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in the Soviet Union (ChGK) which was active in Crimea, 1944
 
 The State Extraordinary Commission for Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in the Soviet Union (ChGK), 1942-1951, was established by order of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union, 02 November 1942. The ChGK was responsible for the collection of documentary data and the preparation of material regarding the atrocities committed by Nazi criminals and the damage caused to Soviet citizens, kolkhozes and the State as a result of the occupation of the Soviet area by the German Nazi military and its allies. ChGK notices served as evidence presented by the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. The ChGK structure consisted of an Executive Secretariat, an Accounts Department, an Archive, and consolidated sections including a supervisory department, an accountancy department that kept note of damage caused to agriculture, industry, kolkhozes, cultural institutions, public organizations, and citizens, and a department for registration of criminals. By order of the Council of Ministers, the ChGK concluded its activities on 09 June 1951. In accordance with this order, the ChGK documents, collections and photograph albums were transferred to ЦГАОР (the Central State Archives of the Soviet Union).
 
 In the ChGK collection there are reports from Feodosiya, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Yevpatotiya and Kerch, as well as from other regions in Crimea; reports regarding damage caused to kolkhozes, to the educational system, the health system, agriculture and industry, as well as to the culture of the Republic of Crimea; statistical reports regarding the number of residents who perished and the number of villages burned to the ground; lists of residents who perished; lists of Nazi criminal, and lists of residents sent to forced labor in Germany.
 
 According to the census conducted just before the war, 65,000 Jews lived in Crimea. There were almost no observant communities. Most of the Jews were citizens who lived in big cities, some of whom worked on kolkhozes (27,000 Jews). Most of the Jews were of Ashkenazi origin; some were Krymchaks (approximately 7,000), and some were Karaites. Most of the Krymchaks were concentrated in the Crimean peninsula in the cities of Simferopol, Feodosiya and the village of Karasu Bazar, as well as other villages in the southern area of the peninsula.
 
 Many of the Crimean Jews succeeded in escaping to internal areas of the Soviet Union, since the occupation of the Crimean peninsula by the German Army only took place in October 1941. The civilian administration organized Judenrats which were active for a very short period. The Judenrat heads were from the communities of Yevpatoriya, Simferopol and Yalta, people who were not well-known within their communities, who were appointed by the German authorities. The Jews were not concentrated in ghettos within the Crimean cities, with the exception of Yalta, where there, too, they only remained for a short time. The authority in Crimea was maintained by the Wehrmacht, which did not have any need for labor from the Jews. For this reason most of the Jews were annihilated during the early months of the occupation. For example, in Simferopol, between 09 and 13 December 1941, the soldiers of Sonderkommando 10b and 11a shot almost all the Ashkenazi Jews and the Krymchaks of the city to death. In some of the places, the Germans murdered the Krymchak Jews at a later stage. The German occupation authority in Crimea had sent a query to Berlin regarding the Krymchaks due to the uncertainty regarding their origins and whether they belonged to the "Jewish race", and the limited knowledge the Germans had about these Jews. The answer that arrived from Berlin was that the Krymchaks are to be totally annihilated just like the rest of the Jews. Throughout 1941 and early 1942 most of the Krymchaks were annihilated together with the Ashkenazi Jews of Crimea. In the city of Kerch most of the Jews were executed between 01 and 03 December 1941, and just before the first retreat by the Germans. The answer regarding the Krymchak Jews only arrived from Germany in late December. The date for the murder of the Krymchaks had been set for 03 January 1942, but the city was liberated by the Red Army on 30 December 1941, the Krymchak Jews were evacuated via the Kerch Bay and they were saved, In early 1942 approximately 2,000 Krymchaks from Karasu Bazar were murdered in gas vans. The murder of Jews working in kolkhozes was postponed due to agricultural labor being carried out, but at the beginning of the winter, they, too, were murdered. On 26 April 1942, the Crimean peninsula was declared Judenrein (free of Jews). Karaites who lived in Crimea were not annihilated. After the liberation of Crimea by the Red Army in May 1944, some of the Jews who had been evacuated returned to their homes.