Murder Story of Rozyszcze Jews on the Bank of the Styr River in Rożyszcze

"… a month after the [German] occupation, 8 Gestapo men arrived [in the town] by car and went to the office of the Jewish council. They demanded to be given 80 Jewish [men] for work. The [Jewish] council collected 80 [sic] Jews and the Germans loaded them onto trucks and took them to the outskirts of the town. [There] the Ukrainians dug a pit and the Germans shot all 80 Jews to death. The Ukrainians took away the clothes [of the victims] and buried the Jews, and the Germans drove back [to town]. Two weeks later some other Gestapo men came… to the Jewish council and ordered it to give them [another] 250 Jews [Jewish men]. The [members] of the Jewish council said that no one would appear [at the collection point] since they were afraid that they would be shot to death. [Therefore] the Germans and the Ukrainians collected [by force] 350 Jews, together with the [members of] the Jewish council. Later they released the members of the Jewish council, while the remaining 350 Jews were shot to death at the same site where the 80 Jews had been shot to death."

… ... my brother Ben-Zion was a soldier in the Red Army and during the retreat of the Russians [i.e. the Red Army during the first weeks of the war], when the Germans … began to occupy our region, my brother retreated with the Russian Army and he came to say good-bye to us, [but due to] the urging and crying of my mother, of blessed memory, he deserted, hid his rifle, and remained in town. The Germans arrived and, after two weeks, he was arrested, along with a group of 120 [Jewish] young men; they were taken outside town and shot to death with machine-guns in a mass-grave. I followed them and I saw with my own eyes how it happened and where it happened. … after they were taken outside the town. I was [still] a boy. I ran after them along the road, hiding all the time in the wheat until I reached the place where I saw they had been taken. I saw them being lined up in rows across the field. I was 30-40 meters away from them. I heard shots and then I saw that all those who had been standing had fallen down. I remained there. I understood that they had been shot to death. I waited until everyone had left, I approached the site and then I saw fresh earth, the fresh pit covered with earth … then I realized that this was a pit and that all of them had been buried there….

… [One day we - my brother and I] heard the noise of trucks. My brother was older than me, we had our fishing rods. Not far from [our] house there was [the Styr] River and reeds were growing where you could fish.… We went down to the reeds and started fishing. Suddenly we heard shooting. It [the murder site] wasn't far from the town. When we heard the shots, we knew [that a group of Jewish men had been shot to death]. We stood [hidden] among the reeds, thinking that they [Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] wouldn't see us. Meanwhile the Ukrainian policemen who were sailing in boats along both banks of the river [looking for escapees] noticed our fishing rods. We weren't the first ones [to be discovered], there were others who had been already caught. When my brother saw them approaching, he jumped out of the reeds, grabbed a horse … and tried to run away. They [Ukrainian police] jumped out of their boat, grabbed two horses and began to chase [after him]. I began to run on foot [after my brother], I knew which direction to run.… Meanwhile they caught my brother…, they were faster [than he was]. They beat him and forced him down near the river. [By this time] I reached a hill that wasn't far away [from the murder site]. Suddenly I heard the noise of a crowd of people and I saw many people on the other bank of the river. I saw people standing there, there was a pit: people were standing there and digging. I wondered what all this meant.… I wanted to see what was going on there. Meanwhile they [some Jewish men] were standing there [near the pit]. Suddenly I saw that they [the Germans] were driving up [to the site] in another truck with people who were then forced to get out of it.… And I saw that my brother was taken from the one bank to the other bank of the river, to the crowd [of victims who were standing near the pit]. Then, suddenly, I noticed that the people were being forced to the very edge of the pit. Shooting began. I looked up and I saw [standing near the pit] my two brothers, arm in arm with my father's brother and his son.… And I was standing there and I could only cry out "God, full of mercy." What would I tell my mother?…