Murder story of Bratslav Jews in the Raygorod Forest

…In September 1942, I believe the day after Yom Kippur, when we fasted and prayed, the first murder operation took place after work. The commander of the camp was Police Sergeant [Polizeiwachtmeister] Kroner. The Jewish camp elder Brucker was ordered to compile a list of 500 adults - men and women age 45 and older - and of all 85 children - from nursing babies to 14-year-olds. He was warned that he would be shot if he disclosed anything about the murder operation that was being prepared. On the day of the operation the inmates were taken as usual at 4:30 [a.m.] to report for work; the 500 inmates who were to be shot were not taken for work with some excuse and, along with the 85 children, were left in the camp when the rest of the inmates were taken to work. SS men arrived with trucks, into which they loaded those who were doomed to death and drove them across the Bug [River] to a forest, where they were shot and buried in a mass-grave: [a total of ]500 Jewish men and women and 85 Jewish children…. In the summer and fall of 1942, when Police Sergeant Kroner was camp commander, several more SS operations took place, during which the executioners contented themselves with [murdering] smaller groups [of Jews]. The murder operations were always prepared down to the smallest detail. The place where the mass grave was to be dug was always selected in advance. The executions were carried out only by SS men and always outside the camp. On the days of the executions an SS commander appeared with his men and ordered those doomed to death to appear with their possessions [this was done] to deceive them into believing they were being relocated. They [the SS men] took them to the place selected in advance, almost always in a forest, forced them to dig deep, long pits, and then placed them naked at the edge of these pits and shot them. Ukrainian peasants who were at that place said that the earth covering these pits heaved because some [of the victims] had been buried alive rather than been killed by the shooting....