Murder story of Rozyszcze Jews in the Kopaczewka Sand Quarry

… It was on the Sabbath [Saturday]…. Everyone [of the Jews] was told to gather at the market place. By that time the Jews already knew [that they were going to be killed] since the ghetto of [the nearby city of] Kowel had been liquidated … that the murder [of Jews in the city of] Rowne had taken place, and that [the Jews] had been already killed in the surrounding localities. Then all of them went to the market place,… from which they were taken to the place called Kopchista Valley [i.e. Kopaczewka village area].… [Upon their arrival at] the site they had … to strip naked and to kneel down [at the mass grave]. [The German murder squad] was standing [near the mass grave] and shooting all [the Jews] with machine-guns. Those [in the next group] who approached [the grave] … had to push those [who had just been shot] in if they had not already fallen in…. And on that Sabbath … we knew that it [the murder] would take place. [At that time she was carrying out forced labor together with her brother and a group of other young Jews at the peat mine outside the town]. Some non-Jews came and told us that here [near Rożyszcze] the Jews were being liquidated. They just said… "All [the Jews] are being shot to death." At that time we were working on the peat when suddenly we saw two trucks coming [to take them to the murder site]. We were [a group of] about 60. And then, those who could - ran away. My brother escaped while I remained. I was caught, loaded onto a truck with another 30 people, and it began to drive. Those [of the escapees] whom they [Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] were able to shoot from a distance were shot to death. And those whom they [Ukrainian police] were able to catch, were loaded onto trucks…. On their way to Rożyszcze, which was about 20-25 kilometers from Rożyszcze, the [trucks] arrived in the village of Kopaczewka. Then they were stopped by the village elder. I remember him getting out [of a building] and, suddenly, we heard him telling them [apparently the German and Ukrainian policemen]: "Oh, today is a holiday. Come in, have a drink. And they came in to drink, and then someone in the truck said: 'We will be shot to death anyway, so let's jump out [of the truck]! And we did begin to jump out of the truck. I jumped out too. Wheat was growing near the road. The wheat was [high], it was just before harvest time…. I thought that if I ran [through the wheat] they [the policemen] would notice that the wheat was moving. So I lay down almost at the end [of the wheat field]. Then I heard them leave [the house of the village elder] and begin to shout: "The Jews are running away, the Jews are running away!" and they began to shoot. I didn’t see whether or not they shot anyone to death… I just know that they cursed and drove away. I remained [lying] there.…"