Murder story of Staroselye Jews in the Brinkov Forest

... The Jews were taken to the open graves and they [the killers] began shooting them in groups. They did not take the clothes off the people. They died fully dressed. The shooting, which had started in the morning, ended at noon....

... The cruelty of the fascists in regard to the Jewish population was terrible. The Germans had taken about 400 Jews to the Brinkov Forest. There were also prisoners-of-war, both soldiers and officers. They were forced to dig four huge graves. Automatic weapons fire resounded and the people fell down. They were thrown into the graves and, when these were filled, they were covered with earth. This was a terrible burial of both dead and half-dead. Some of the doomed threw themselves on the fascists and engaged in unequal battle [against them]. Among them was Aron Bliumin from the village of Staroselye. Choosing the moment when a fascist murderer was changing the magazine of his submachine gun, he threw himself on him, knocked him down, grabbed the sub-machine gun and, after shooting the German, escaped to the Brinkov Forest....

... Already on that day SS men arrived [in Staroselye]. They surrounded the entire town from the directions of the field and the forest and then proceeded to kill the Jews. This was in October ... I was in Staroselye with my mother. We had relatives there, Zelda was there, she was already 20, she was three years older than me. But Fanya had gone some where. I didn't know that she would return the same day. We were sitting in the house with Zelda. At that moment her 10 year-old brother ran up to us and said "Some SS men have just arrived, a murder squad to kill the Jews." Zelda was my cousine. The two of us ran into the house. My mother said: "Run away!". So the two of us, me and Zelda, went to the village....

...The Jews of Staroselye were shot in the summer of 1942.... All the Jews were assembled in the large building of the primary school. They were held there overnight and, toward morning, were taken to be shot at graves that had been dug specially for this. The shooting was carried out by a German murder squad. People said they were SS men. After the war it was said that local villagers had taken the clothes of the victims and also looted [Jewish] property....