Murder story of Trojanowka Jews in the Czerewacha Forest

… In the summer [sic, for September] of 1942… chief of the [Maniewicze Ukrainian auxiliary] police Nikolayi Slepchuk ordered other policemen, including me, to get onto a truck in order to go to Czerewacha village… but he didn't tell us for what purpose. ... All the above-mentioned policemen arrived by truck in Czerewacha village and stopped near one building [i.e. a school]. Yakov Poselyuk and I remained near the truck while the rest of the policemen entered the building and took out from there and put onto the truck Soviet Jewish civilians whose last names I don't know. I remember that at that time about 12-15 people were taken from that house and put onto the truck, and also that all of them were men. Besides someone, I don't remember exactly who, took away a sewing machine and loaded it into the body of the truck. Afterward, all the policemen sat down in the truck, and we drove toward the town of Maniewicze. I recall that from the village of Czerewacha we took another road and drove about 1 kilometer from the village, crossed the road leading from the village of Czerewacha toward Maniewicze, and then entered a forest, where we drove another 200 meters and stopped near a pit that seemed to be an old trench. At the order of Nikolay Slepchuk, I – Alexei Slepchuk … [and other Ukrainian policemen] took about 6 people from the truck and forced them into the pit, in which we ordered them to lie facedown. … Then we policemen formed a row and each of us shot one person with our rifles. Nikolayi Slepchuk used his pistol…. Afterward Yakov Kostyuk, Yason Parfenyuk, and I returned to the truck that was parked about 40 meters from the pit, and the policemen… took from the truck the remaining civilians, whom they forced to enter the same pit and then shot them the same way we had done. Nikolay Slepchuk… was present at the pit for the whole time of the shooting of the civilians. … I should add that at that time the civilians we shot to death were clothed and, also, that we did not cover them with earth [sic], but instead went back to Maniewicze immediately after the shooting. …

… In the summer [sic] of 1942, I don't remember exactly when, [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen came on five trucks, during the day, from the village of Trojanówka … and took Soviet Jewish civilians to the village of Czerewacha. All of them were collected at the school building. I only saw five trucks driving from the village of Trojanówka toward the village of Czerewacha, but I didn't see clearly who among the [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen was inside those trucks. After those civilians had been collected at the school building, there were rumors throughout the village that the [Ukrainian] policemen had taken Jewish civilians from the village of Trojanówka to the school building. Approximately half an hour later one truck passed near my yard in the direction of the village of Zofjanówka… . I was in the house at that time and through my window I saw [Ukrainian] policemen armed with rifles… who were sitting in the body of the truck, but could not see the other people [i.e. Jews]. About half an hour after the truck passed my house, Ivan Smychik, along with a Ukrainian auxiliary policeman who was unknown to me, came to my house and ordered me to take a shovel and to accompany them, but he didn't tell where. I took a shovel and went together with the policemen, who took me along the road leading to the village of Zofjanówka. About 200 meters from the village of Czerewacha the policemen turned right, into the forest, and after 100 meters stopped, where I saw Grigoriy Mefanyuk [a Ukrainian auxiliary policeman] standing with his rifle, along with two other [policemen] whom I did not know. Nearby, about 20 Jewish civilians who had been shot to death were lying in a ditch that had been dug some time earlier. Some residents of the village of Czerewacha were standing there with shovels … . I don't know who pexactly shot those Jews but, as soon I arrived with a shovel, Ivan Smychik ordered [us residents of Czerewacha village] to cover the shooting victims with earth. …. So I[and others] covered with earth the bodies of those civilians who had been shot to death. After that, the policemen let us go home, while they went to Czerewacha village.