Murder Story of Luboml Jews at the Jewish Cemetery in Luboml

… a month later … several large trucks with Gestapo [men] suddenly appeared in the town. They [Germans] began rounding up men on the streets and even taking people from their homes. Replying to the question of where those people were going to be taken, the Gebietskommissar [Uhde] said that they were going to be taken for work. The Judenrat collected some gold and Kalman [a member of the Judenrat] went to the Gebeitskommissar and succeeded in having several prominent Jews released. The murder operation lasted for 3 [sic] days. [During this time] many Jews escaped to [nearby] villages and fields. On the fourth day the rounded-up men were taken outside of town. They were guarded by Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen. When the [Ukrainian] police returned [to the town], the wives and the parents of those who had been taken away went to the policemen and brought them expensive woven material and watches, and the policemen told them that the men who had been taken away were working not far from Luboml, saying that they would return in a month or two. However, to our regret, the people, who numbered as many as 500, never returned home. They were taken to the old [Jewish] cemetery, where they were shot to death. At that time the town lost its finest Jews, for example Shlomo Samet and his son Yitzik, Rabbi David Vainer, Aharon the shamash [synagogue beadle], and others. The first murder operation took place around July 25, 1941. …

My father, I remember this very well, was caught by the Germans, together with my two uncles and other Jews. They were taken near the [Jewish] cemetery and murdered there. That time they murdered 400 people, including my father. This was only a month after the German occupation of Luboml. When the Jews were taken to the murder site, I ran after the truck and I remember shouting and screaming: "Father, Father!' Tears streamed from my eyes. I heard the shouting of the Jews and then "Shema Yisrael!" [quote from the central Jewish prayer, often recited before death] and then the shooting began and then again [I heard] "Shema Yisrael!" and then shooting again…. Then all became quiet – they were all dead. I returned home, knowing that I no longer had a father.

… a month later an S.S. unit, with green uniforms and a skull on their hats, together with Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen, arrived in the town and, along with local Ukrainian policemen, surrounded the whole town. The SS men entered the Jewish homes, took all the [Jewish] males they found and loaded them onto trucks. In this way, up to 300 men were collected and taken outside the town near the Jewish cemetery. There they were ordered to dig pits. Afterward all of them were shot to death, in groups, with each group covering the previous victims with earth, and so forth. Ukrainians covered the last group of victims. I learned about the murder later from local Ukrainians, but it was hard to believe them since we were told that they [the Jews] had been sent to work. In order to find out whether this [report of the] slaughter of 300 men was true, together with a group of other Jews, I went at night to the mass murder site. We dug there until we found the bodies of the victims. ….

… At the market square … they installed loudspeakers, through which a newscast was transmitted in German about what was going on at the front. I think that the newscast was being transmitted at about 11 a.m. I passed by to hear the news. And I saw them [Germans] coming with their trucks. They were not big trucks and there was a special symbol painted on the trucks. Then they [the Germans] collected 350 people. Only after a long time did we believe the rumor that all of them been murdered near the [Jewish] cemetery, [where] a large pit had been dug, that they had been shot there. Some non-Jews also said that they had heard shooting and [noted] other signs [of the murder]. …

One day a friend of my brother came and told us in an agitated voice that many trucks had arrived in town. My father and brother ran away immediately and hid at the flour mill. My sister and I remained [in the house]. From the window I saw an SS man beating a Jew named Moshe Vaitsman. I also saw many Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] attacking Jews and beating them. Suddenly a tall German, wearing a helmet with the symbol of a skull, entered the house. He began searching everywhere, even under the beds, shouting repeatedly: "Where are the men?" Not finding any men, he left the house and entered another one. At 3 p.m. I ran to the flour mill, but I didn't see anyone. I was sure that my brother, his friend, and my brother-in-law had been taken [by the Germans], so I ran to the place where all the Jews had been collected. However, I didn't see my family members there. I believed that they had all been taken for work, but the non-Jews thought differently, saying: "Their end has come at last!" After a while people said that the Ukrainian policemen had promised that if they were given vodka they would release all the [Jewish] men. We believed them and began collecting vodka, but meanwhile the men were taken somewhere else. For weeks we didn't know where those who had been rounded up had disappeared to; only after some time did we obtain the information that they had been taken to a plot of land near the [Jewish] cemetery and murdered there. …