Murder Story of Lubieszów Jews in the Lubieszów Ghetto

On August 15, 1942 the Gebietskommissar of Kamień Koszyrski [Fritz] Michaelis arrived in the town of Lubieszów, together with 85 [men] from the Gestapo, the Gendarmerie, the [Ukrainian auxiliary] police. They surrounded the ghetto, and began to murder the Jews. On that day, August 15, 1942, as many as 2,230 Jewish civilians were shot to death or killed by being struck with weapon butts, in different locations,[including] in the ghetto itself. … The committee also established that the main perpetrators of the mass annihilation of the [Jewish] residents of Lubieszów County were the Gebietskommissar of Kamień Koszyrski Michaelis and his accomplices, Ukrainian auxiliary policemen….

We, the undersigned… established [the following]: 2. … that… the annihilation of civilians on the territory of Lubieszów County was carried out under the leadership of the Gebietskommissar of Kamień Koszyrski [Fritz] Michaelis and his accomplices…. 3. … the mass annihilation of civilians on the territory of Lubieszów County was carried out by the German Fascist occupiers and their accomplices at different times and in different locations, namely: … [on] August 15, 1942 in the town of Lubieszów….

… On August 5 [15], 1941 Gebietskommissar [Fritz Michaelis] arrived with up to 85 Cossacks [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen from Kamień Koszyrski, surrounded the ghetto, and ordered all [the inmates] to collect at the square … where all of them were called out according to a list, artisans without children, [were put] on one side, the remaining Jews -- on the other, the artisans were sent [to the workshop] separately, while the reprisal began against the others, who were murdered, i.e. some of them being killed at the square, others - in vegetable gardens, etc.. There were as many as 280 [killed]….

… On August ? [illegible], 1942 the Gebietskommissar [Fritz Michaelis], together with Gestapo men, arrived in Lubieszów "for work." They drove all the Jews [i.e. inmates of the ghetto] to the square, surrounded by the [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen, with 10 meters distance between one [policeman] and the other, and began to call out people's names and give them laissez-passer [i.e. work permits]. 186 [qualified] workers got such laissez-passer and were taken out of the ghetto to the workshop; the others were taken to the large premises of the synagogue. People anticipated their ]imminent] death and began to escape, then the struggle began. The [Ukrainian] policemen who surrounded [the square] returned to the ghetto and, together with the Gestapo men, quickly shot people who were falling like trees [cut down] in a forest.… I was among those [qualified] workers who were left [alive] as workers in the workshop. When we were taken from the workshop there was a large pit in the ghetto that was lightly covered with earth and over one hundred people who fell in this fight at the square were in it. Gendarmerie men ordered [Jewish] men to strip the bodies… to clean the synagogue and to put in order all the clothes as if they were going to be stored. From this "store" the Germans took the best clothes for themselves, the other [clothes] they sold to their people [i.e. accomplices].…