Murder story of Kamien Koszyrski Jews in the Kamień Koszyrski Forest

… and it happened again on Friday, aleph of Rosh Chodesh [the first day of the Jewish month] Elul. That day one of my sisters came home, my sisters were cleaning for the Germans. … This sister pleaded with my father, who was at that time in the synagogue, praying. She took his prayer shawl and then said to him: "Father, run away! Run away quickly, there is danger." She probably had heard something to the effect that the [Jewish] men were going to be rounded up. We had a cow, as did many other Jews in the town. I used to take the cow to graze. … [That day] in the morning I went with the cow to a field. The pasture was three or four kilometers from the town; then suddenly, at 9 a.m., I saw my father approaching me. "What's the matter?" I asked. He told me that there were Germans in the town and that they were beginning to cause trouble. He told me that my sister had come to him and told him to run away from the town, to get away quickly while it was still possible. So he came to me, to be together with me in the field. After half an hour, another Jew came, his name was Isar Kasher, a tall, strong guy. He came and we were [then] three people in the field, a small group. We heard trucks driving, apparently near the edge of town, on the outskirts, where the non-Jews were living. Suddenly, around 12 noon, [several] non-Jewish peasants, Ukrainians who worked [nearby] came to the field. Apparently someone had informed on us, reporting that there were Jews in this pasture. They came and arrested us…. [They took] us to town. On the way they beat and abused us. My father was an observant Jew with a beard. While they were abusing us, a strong non-Jew who was taking me asked me how old I was. I was little, short, so [my] father replied: "He is only 14 years old." The strong non-Jew said: "Only 14 years old, huh? He gave me several blows with the stick that he had in his hand and said: "Get out of here!" It turned out that there was [a German] order to round up Jews between the ages of 15 to 60. Only the men. He released me and I went back to the pasture.… That day they [the Germans] went from house to house, accompanied by Shmuel Verbale [the head of the first Jewish council] … and they arrested the men who were found in the houses. Every man who fit the requirement of being between 15 and 60 was arrested and taken to a house that belonged to a Jew. That day about 80 Jews were arrested. All day long they [Germans] were arresting Jews, but most of the Jews had run away so they succeeded in collecting only 80 Jews. They were held there [in that house] from Friday night until the Sabbath. In the morning they were taken by truck outside of town and disappeared. I … heard shots toward morning, but I didn't suspect anything. I didn't have any idea of what was going on. Afterward several non-Jews, Ukrainians, showed up and said that those men had been taken to work at the front. Much later several non-Jews came and told us that they [the Jewish men] had been murdered. They [the Ukrainians] saw how they were unloaded [from trucks] about 3 kilometers outside of town and were murdered there. I should note that this Shmuel Verbale had a family: he had a wife and a daughter… and a son…. Apparently he knew where he was going. He went with the Germans and asked… : "Where are the men who were taken outside of town, where were they taken?" So he said [to some non-Jews]: Don't inform on them [the Jewish men]…. People said that, in fact, they [the Germans] didn't want to take Shmuel Verbale. But he exclaimed "If you take those Jews who are from my town … I won't abandon them, I will go with them." And he did go with them.…