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Murder Story of Torczyn Jews at the Torczyn Jewish Cemetery

Murder Site
Torczyn
Poland
Contemporary view of the murder site area
Contemporary view of the murder site area
Sergei Shvardovskii (Ukraine), Copy YVA 14616458
Early in the morning of August 22, 1942, on the Sabbath day, the 9th of Elul, the ghetto was surrounded by a Gendarmerie unit and local Ukrainian auxiliary police headed by Yakov Rimarchuk. A number of Jews managed to escape on the night before the murder operation. About 100 non-Jewish residents of the town were taken to dig a mass grave at the old Jewish cemetery at the end of Sadovskaya Street. Then they were replaced by a group of Jewish men who, upon finishing the digging of the mass grave, were shot there to death by the Germans. During this time the Jews were taken, after being rounded up, by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen to the town square. According to one testimony, the collected Jews were told that they were going to be taken to a labor camp near Łuck. During the selection that was carried out at the site several craftsmen and artisans were put into a warehouse outside the ghetto, while the rest – men, women, children, and the elderly, were loaded onto trucks and carts and taken, under the guard of Ukrainian policemen, to the Jewish cemetery. Upon their arrival at the site the Jews were lined up in rows, made to strip naked, and forced in groups into the pit, where they had to lie face down. Then they were shot to death with pistols by members of the Security Police and an SD unit from Łuck. During this murder operation, that lasted from dawn to dusk, most of the Torczyn's Jews were murdered. Several hundred Jews who had succeeded in hiding during this murder operation and those who had been discovered in hiding were allowed to remain in the ghetto. Shortly afterwards the Ukrainian auxiliary police forced them out of their houses and assembled them at the town square. According to one testimony, when trucks apparently carrying a Gendarmerie unit reached the square, many Jews trying to escape were shot to death on the spot. The rest were forced into one building and, after being forced to strip naked, were taken by truck to the Jewish cemetery, where they were shot to death. Christoph Wallendschus, a German officer and the agricultural administrator of Torczyn, was in charge of this large murder operation. Apparently during the first days of December, the remaining Jewish artisans and craftsmen who had been kept in the town until then were shot to death at the same murder site.
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From the testimony of Giza (Jean) Chapnick, who was born in Turczyn and was living there during the German occupation
… it happened on the Sabbath, the 9th of the month of Elul, August 22, 1942: before sunrise the ghetto was surrounded by a human chain of murderous Ukrainian police. Everyone in the ghetto realized that their death was imminent. Their will to live was very strong. The young people walked around crying that they wanted to live, but everyone was powerless. The Ukrainian police only reacted to these cries with a satisfied smile. Thirty-three artisans were selected and taken out of the ghetto. They believed that they would remain alive. The Germans collected the Jewish forced laborers working on nearby farms and forced them into the ghetto. At 10 a.m. a few hundred Ukrainian auxiliary policemen and several Germans from Łuck arrived in Torczyn and, together with German [units] from Torczyn, entered the ghetto with dogs. They started to work immediately. Like locusts, the entire [German and Ukrainian] force began to drive all the Jews from all their houses to the area near David Liber's bridge. The men were beaten while they were being loaded onto trucks. In the afternoon the women and children, and whoever remained waiting at the site under the guard of the Ukrainian [police] were taken away. They took everybody to the Jewish cemetery, to a large ditch prepared by Christians [i.e. local non-Jewish residents] from the town the previous day. All the Jews had to undress and, when naked, were ordered five at a time to enter the ditch, where they were shot to death in the back of the head one on top of the other, and buried in that ditch. After the murder of the Jews, on their way home from the [Jewish] cemetery the Ukrainian policemen sang joyful songs about Ukraine being independent and free from Jews. The following day a few Jews who had managed to hide… were promised by the authorities that the killings would stop as soon as all the Jews reported for work. A few hundred [in fact, they numbered only in the dozens] Jews remained alive after that first massacre. On the first Wednesday after the slaughter, the Germans again ordered all the Jews to appear at the square near the [Ukrainian Greek] Catholic Church, where they were supposed to receive documents; they were told that anyone without [these] documents would be shot. This was yet another German tricks. Jews, including the first group of selected artisans, were once again collected by the Ukrainian police from all the places where they were working. At the square [i.e. in a building near the square] they had to strip naked and, once again [i.e., like previous victims], were taken by truck to the Jewish cemetery, where they were slaughtered in a second mass grave.…
YVA O.33 / 5024
Torczyn
Jewish cemetery
Murder Site
Poland
50.766;25.000
Contemporary view of the murder site area
Contemporary view of the murder site area
Sergei Shvardovskii (Ukraine), Copy YVA 14616458
Tombstone at the old Jewish cemetery in Torczyn
Tombstone at the old Jewish cemetery in Torczyn
Sergei Shvardovskii (Ukraine), Copy YVA 14616459