Murder Story of Smidovich Jews at the Smidovich Tartar Well

... The most terrible thing happened on December 27 [1941]... In the morning near the school I saw a covered German truck into the body of which the bloodied Nakhmenberg and his comrades were thrown at night. But the most terrible thing was still ahead: the car approached in turn each house where Jews were living and the fascists threw into the body [of the truck] their next victim. I managed to warn several families but it was too late. The village was surrounded. There were heartbreaking screams of people who went mad from the terror threatening the village. The old people, women, and children were dragged out of their beds and thrown, as they were, into the body of the German truck. Then the truck approached the Pikmans' house. The old man had already lost his mind several weeks before. He rushed through the courtyard in his underwear with his hands stretched out, begging for the help. He was caught and had a rag stuffed into his mouth so that he would stop screaming; then he was tied up and thrown into the body of the truck. Then the excutioners dragged out his wife, who had been bedridden for several years, and their two children. The next house [was that of] Abram Raif. A venerable, pious man who was respected by everybody for his erudition and his ability to pray in Hebrew language. He walked out of the house on his own, carrying a Bible in his hands. He was praying, turning to God. Even the executioners did not dare to interrupt him until he rose from his knees. He looked at his family and his house ane, then, proceeded toward his death. He was followed by his wife Sarah and their three children. They [the executioners] tried to help him get up. He moved aside in disgust, spat in a policeman's face, and climbed the body of the truck on his own. The Gonikmans, the mother and her two little children, were dressed and waiting at the gate. They were thrown like sacks into the slowly moving truck. A slight delay occured at the house of Abrasha and Sonya Balanevskiy. Abrasha, who till the last did not believe in the possibility of the annihilation of his family and was trying to explain something, was killed on the spot before the eyes of his wife and their five little children. He had the fortune to escape a more terrible death. In the house before the last, before the pharmacy the Kutsaks were living. The father was at the front and the mother had been paralyzed for two years already. The oldest son in the family, Milya, and his nine-year-old brother Zyama managed the household and struggled as best as they could to care for their mother. I had managed to warn Milya already the night before about the imminent danger. Probably, he could have fled and hidden with his little borother but [he was not prepared] to leave his helpless mother to the murderers... A naive boy, he decided to fight alone against this pack, relying on his formidable weapon - a hunting rifle that he had assembled by himself. He made a barricade for himself and put up a fight. He managed to shoot down several policemen who appeared before his small window. No more shots were heard. I only saw him being tied and thrown into the body of the truck, followed by his brother and paralyzed mother. The truck left the village, turned right toward the kolkhoz threshing floor and, then, stopped at an abandoned Tartar well. There the monsters... decided to make... a grave. We, unwilling witnesses who had been driven there, were about thirty... When they dragged out the bloodied Nakhmenberg and two mutilated fellows in naval uniforms and pushed them into the well I lost consciousness for some time.... When I regained consciousness, I saw Milya standing at the edge of the... grave. His hair has turned completely gray. The cunning murderers threw [his] paralyzed mother and brother into the well before his eyes. In the last moments before he met his death, while being tied up, he sank his teeth into the hand of a policeman wearing a fascist armband... and, with the cry: "They will avenge us!", jumped into the grave. I did not see anything more - I lost consciousness again. They told me afterwards that moaning was heard for some time from the depths of the well. Then all became quiet....