Murder Story of Teofipol Jews on the Bazaliya Road

[March 24, 1944] … The following persons participated in the mass murder of the Jewish residents of Teofipol County and the town of Teofipol: 1. Ivan Shpack … who was deputy head of the Teofipol County Ukrainian auxiliary police … . As my deputy, he was in charge of collecting the people… in the camp [ghetto]… . After the men were taken to the school building, it was Shpack who made them undress to their underwear and who then led and took the group of men under guard to the ditch, where they were shot to death. I personally saw Shpack standing near the ditch: he reloaded the Nagan pistols that he gave to the German gendarmes and the latter carried out the killing. After the murder operation was completed, there were people in the ditch who were mortally wounded but who were still moving. Shpack finished them off with the Nagan pistol that he had at his disposal. … [March 28, 1944] Question: It is known to the investigation that the mass murder of the Soviet civilians in January 1942 was preceded by a provocation carried out by the Ukrainian policemen. Tell the whole truth, what do you know about this? Answer: … In the morning of January 20, 1942 I entered the office of Rain, the head of the Gendarmerie [of Teofipol County]. He showed me a letter that had supposedly been sent by post. On the letter's envelope was written "to the Teofipol Gendarmerie... The letter was written in big letters and in a somewhat illiterate style. The letter stated that the Jews in the town of Teofipol had bombs and were planning to destroy the Gendarmerie building. There was no signature at the end of the letter and I don’t know who wrote it. After showing me the letter, Rain went to the post office. After he came back, he announced: " I was given an order from [the town of] Izaslav to shoot the entire Jewish population of Teofipol." Afterwards, he ordered me to collect all the Ukrainian policemen. … I don't know whether the letter received by the Gendarmerie was a German provocation or not. But apparently it served as an excuse for the mass shooting of the Jewish population. … I am also guilty of participating in the mass shootings of Soviet civilians in January 1942. … I personally gave orders to the Ukrainian policemen to shoot Soviet civilians and, while present at the murder site near the ditch, personally shot to death two people – a woman and an old man. I was also in charge of taking the innocent people from the camp "ghetto" to be shot in the ditch. I fully acknowledge my guilt. I am also guilty since the looting of the property of those civilians who were shot to death took place under my direct command and with my participation. …

We, the undersigned… compiled the following report: Today a ditch, located about 3-4 kilometers from the town of Teofipol, on the road leading to the town of Bazaliya, was opened … .The opening of the ditch disclosed the bodies of the victims who had been shot to death by the Gendarmerie men: Hauptwachtmeister Rain, [the head of the Gendarmerie of Teofipol County], … Franz [head of the Teofipol Gendarmerie]… the head of [the Ukrainian auxiliary] police Pasechnik, his deputy… Shpack, and others – [these were the bodies of] Jewish civilians who had been incarcerated in the concentration camp, the so- called "ghetto," that was located on the outskirts of the town of Teofipol. The shooting took place on January 21-22, 1942. … on January 21, 1942 all the [Jewish] men, about 500, were taken from the camp "ghetto" and forced to strip to their underwear in the school building, and then, under guard by [Ukrainian] policemen, in groups of 15-20, when the temperature outside was minus 20, and they had been stripped to their underwear and many were barefoot, they were taken to a ditch, where the shooting was carried out with firearms aimed at the back of the [victims'] heads. On January 22, 1942 the women, children, and old people, a total of over 800 people, under guard by Ukrainian policemen, were taken to the [same] shooting site. Many of them were naked. … they were forced, while lying on the ground with their faces down, to crawl to the edge of the pit, where they were shot to death. The examination of the bodies exhumed from the ditch definitely indicted that the shooting of the Jewish civilians was accompanied by unimaginable abuse, beatings, and sadism; many of them were killed by being struck on the head with heavy objects, apparently rifle buts, so that their skulls were smashed. Nursing babies and teenagers were thrown into the ditch alive, as indicated by the absence of any traces of bullet wounds on them… The following bodies were exhumed and examined…. 4. the body of a 35-year-old woman, who had been killed [by being shot] in the back of the head… . 5. the body of a 13 -year-old girl, with scratches and traces of blows on the head; she had been killed by the blows of a blunt, heavy object. 6. the body of a 10-year-old girl,… who had been thrown alive into the ditch. 7. the body of a 7-year-old boy,…. who had been thrown alive into the ditch. 8. the body of an 8-year-old girl,… whose head had traces of blows from a heavy object. …. 9. the body of a 2-year-old girl, … who had been thrown alive into the ditch. Thus … about 1,400 Soviet civilians were killed. It was impossible to exhume, examine, and identify all the bodies in the ditch ….