Murder Story of Maciejow Jews at the Catholic Monastery in Maciejów

… Ben's [Jacob's brother] wife Rickiel, along with her two brothers, my father and me, harvested the fields. … We did not get to finish the harvest, however. Rickiel was captured one night during another search of Jewish houses and taken away to the monastery with three hundred other young women. All the women, including Rickiel, met their death at the same place their men had a month before.

Hundreds of Jewish men from sixteen to sixty were assembled near the rabbi's house. Everybody was looking into everybody else's eyes silently, with frightened looks that seemed to say, "What's going on?". Then, at exactly eight o'clock, cars and men in dark uniforms with death's heads on their hats, resembling the ones I had seen in my dream arrived. We realized that we were facing the Gestapo, the German secret police, for the first time. … The Gestapo sent a few older men back home, including my father, and started marching us to the monastery, which was now their headquarters. …. The gate [of the monastery] was open, but as we marched through, the gate was immediately shut behind us. One of the Gestapo, a very strong and rugged man with a heavy stick in his hand, quickly began dividing the men into two groups. A few were placed in a group off the side, but most were ordered to pass between two lines of Gestapo into the building. A big dog was set on each man as he went through the line. The dog attacked the men and tore out pieces of their flesh; from where I stood, I could see blood through the men's torn clothes. Then the Germans hit the men so hard over the head with heavy sticks that it sounded like the chopping of dry wood. … The selection and beatings went on very quick, so organized and so shocking that I closed my eyes for a moment …. But the mad screaming of the commanding man that led the selection alerted me quickly as I came close to him in line. I neared – I was standing in a state of shock. I heard the man in front of me say the word…. Sawmill worker, and saw him pulled off the side. I said the same, and was also put off to the side. … Soon after, we heard shots from number of guns going off at once behind the building. A while later the gates through which we had entered opened and Ukrainian milicia [i.e. auxiliary police] and civilians walked through carrying spades and sacks of white lime, which they took to the back of the building.… Finally the selection process ended, and we were ordered by the guards to drop down on our knees. The shooting in the back continues periodically. Every volley stopped the beating of my heart.…