Murder story of Ladyzhin Jews in the Basalychevka Ravine

…We started our conversation with Karp [A Ukrainian resident of Ladyzhin] with the question of how he got to the Basalychevka ravine. Karp told me the following…: "I was standing at my market stall, when a panic arose at the market. The policemen were detaining everybody at the market and started with a selection: Jews [were sent] to one side, and Ukrainians to the other. The Jews were driven immediately to the church square, while we were told to wait. We did not know what for. However, when shovels were brought and distributed among us, we started to suspect that we would be forced to be grave-diggers. Afterwards , surrounded by policemen in order to prevent us from escaping, we too were driven to the same square. There I saw the following picture. The[re was] a crowd of men, women, and children, who had totally lost control, gathered at the square near the church, crying uncontrollably, walking back and forth incessantly, striking their heads with their fists, and talking to themselves. Some [of them] were praying, stretching out their hands toward the heavens as if pleading for God's help. Women were tearing their hair out while children were holding onto their mothers' skirts and sobbing loudly. One could go mad from these cries, while Emka Kozlovskaya [an ethnic German, the wife of the teacher of the Ukrainian language in the Ladyzhin school who had brought the Germans to the town] watched [this], together with German officers, and roared with laughter. More and more people were coming. The Germans themselves did not go into the houses to search for Jews in hiding. This was done by policemen and volunteers from among our people. Then Rabbi Yitzhak Neyman and David Zaltsberg, a teacher of the Jewish school,…were taken in a cart, the shafts of which were pulled by several people. Both of them had been in the hospital and could not walk after the operation. After the policemen reported that all the houses were empty, the Germans and policemen started to line up the people using sticks and whips. Surrounded by the Germans and policemen, the line of people started to move silently, slowly. The parents were carrying their children in their arms; the feeble, and the sick were supported by those [walking] at their side. The cart with the Rabbi and the teacher was pulled behind them and we, about half a hundred grave diggers, were walking with shovels on our shoulders some distance from the line… When we approached the Bug [River], somebody shouted "Where we are being taken?"-"To death"-was the answer. There was an incident when [we] were passing the bridge over the Bug. Hillel Gitis broke through the cordon of the guards and jumped into the river. Shooting started. Hillel managed to pull his head above the water several times to breathe but afterwards he did not emerge anymore. Apparently he drowned after being hit by a bullet. When they passed the nearby former inn with a well, some of the people rushed to it to quench their thirst, but were immediately shot. About a verst [i.e. 3,500 feet] before the village of Basalychevka an order was given to turn right toward the forest visible in the distance… We were walking through the brush until we could see bushes behind which there was a deep ravine that had been recently expanded, with fresh earth lying around it. When we approached this ravine, our burial squad was taken aside to a small nearby ravine, where we sat down waiting for what would happen next. First, everybody was ordered to strip. Afterwards, a dozen adults with their children were taken to the edge of the ravine. The policemen were bringing [the people] to the ravine, while the Germans were shooting the victims from submachine-guns at point-blank range. Those murdered fell into the grave by themselves. The Germans sipped frequently from their flasks. One woman (whom I could not recognize from afar) went into labor. Two policemen gripped her by the head and legs and swinging her, threw her alive into the same place [into the ravine]… The cart with the Rabbi and the teacher was pushed to the edge of the ravine and [both of them] were thrown into the pit alive and then a volley of shots was directed at them. I will never forget the screams of the doomed and the rattling of the submachine guns. Many people were only wounded and, when some individuals tried to crawl out of the ravine, the policemen finished them off smashing their heads with shovels. The blood and [parts] of the broken skulls spattered the faces and uniforms of the shooters. After finishing their work, the Germans ordered us to start covering the ravine with earth, while they themselves went to the Bug, which was not far away, to wash themselves. The policemen stayed with us until we finished our work. It was growing dark when we came back to town and then separated to go home…"