Murder story of Włodzimierz Wołyński Jews at the Włodzimierz Wołyński Prison

… The little ghetto, that contained 500 [Jews], as the Gebietskommissar wanted, was growing from day to day. Inside the ghetto [people] began to say that the illegal [inmates] who did not have [work] certificates, would be hunted down [so] people again began to hide in shelters. The news was confirmed. One bright day [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen and Gendarmerie [men] entered the ghetto and began to check everyone. Assisted by the Jewish police, they searched in every house. The illegals [found in hiding] were collected in the ruins of the ghetto, from which they were taken to be shot in the prison.

Monday, 29 September 1941 was etched into the history of the Ludmir [Jewish] community as "the "bloody [Mon]day" or [in Yiddish] "Der Blutige Montag". On that Sunday, in the afternoon, SS men suddenly appeared and Ukrainian policemen began to carry out hectic searches for Jewish men. All those who had been caught were taken to prison. Rumor had it that the Gestapo had again arrived in the city. In our neighborhood as well, SS men were working hectically to find men, but on that day they didn't succeed in catching a single man in the neighborhood. Haim, my brother, was hiding, as every day, in the cellar of our neighbor, and even though they struck the walls and floors they didn't succeed in finding him. The searches continued until late evening. … During the afternoon and evening hours about 1,000 men were caught. The [city] prison was packed full. Rumors circulated that at dawn the people would be taken to the train [station] and from there in cars would be taken for work…. During the night hundreds of women assembled near the prison gates and along the road leading to the closed gates.… My mother and my sister Sosia left [the house] right at dawn for the prison, carrying a package of clothes and food, [hoping] that they might be able to give it to my [other] brother Motil [who had been arrested].… Only at 9.00 a.m. were the gates of the prison opened and a convoy of [Jewish] workers was taken out by the SS men. Many people tried to get close to the convoy, trying to hand to them clothing packages and food.… the SS men were watching to be sure that no one would succeed in approaching the workers.… Hundreds of people were missing from the convoy that was taken to work. Many tried to console themselves that those who were missing probably still remained behind the prison walls since the SS men did not need such a [large] number of workers…. It was Tuesday, September 30, 1941, the eve of Yom Kippur. With the onset of evening, when they finished their work, all the workers were released to their homes. My sister accompanied my brother back home.… Motil was taken home, with his clothes soaked with blood, and all his body was bruised and wounded from the beatings that he had received. From the people who were released we learned for the first time of the great suffering [in the prison] during the night by those who had been arrested. We heard with trembling the [following] words of my brother Motil about what had happened during [that] night in the prison yard. "Yesterday, Monday, when we finished our work, we were not taken, as we were always, to have lunch, to the synagogue. Without food or drink, we were taken under heavy guard … straight to prison. While beating us, Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen and SS men pushed us into the cells.… The crowding in the cell was getting worse and worse. From time to time other men who had been found in hiding were put inside. In a small room 70 men were crowded together. At midnight the door of the cell was opened. Several SS men entered, accompanied by Ukrainian policemen. With their pocket flashlights they illuminated the faces of the people and chose only several dozen out of seventy. Those who had been selected were ordered to exit from the cell.… I was among those who had to leave the cell. We were taken to the prison yard. There we found collected hundreds of our men who had been taken to the yard from other cells. SS men and [Ukrainian] police organized us for the first time in groups. … The SS men stood in two rows, one in front of the other. They were armed with iron [weapons]. Many of them were equipped with axes, some of them with sticks and others with rifles. Then we were ordered to run in the space between the two rows [of the SS men] and, while [we were] running … they hit the runners with iron, axes, sticks and rifle butts. Since I was wearing a shirt, I succeeded in reaching the end of the row with only light injuries. Only few of us succeeded in reaching [the end] without falling. When I arrived at the end of the race, I was chosen, with a group of people, to drag those who had been murdered or injured, and even those who had only light wounds, toward pits that had been prepared earlier. We worked in pairs: we were ordered to grab each dead or wounded person by his arms and legs and throw him into a pit. Many of those who had been thrown into a pit had only light wounds, but since they had fallen down, they were fated to be thrown to a pit.… The throwing of the bodies was carried out [by us] at a frantic pace, running very fast without a moment to rest.… Many of those whom we threw into the pits asked us to give their last regards to their families. During the night not a single shot was fired. Everyone who tried to cry, received a blow on his head from an axe. … From time to time our work group was decreasing in number: from 12 persons there were left 10, 8, 6, and then 4. We knew that our turn was coming closer, that those were our last moments of work. We would very soon be thrown into the pit. Suddenly I saw the Gebietskommissar turn to the SS men who were standing with their sleeves rolled up and holding in their hands murder weapons like a butcher in front of slaughtered cows. … The Gebietskommissar asked one of his subordinates: "How many did you kill?" The SS man … replied:"Two hundred and fifty men! Gebietskommissar gestured with his hand and gave the order "Enough!" At that moment the slaughter ceased.…"

In [late] August [1941], on a Friday [the Jews] were rounded up on the street [supposedly] for [forced] labor and taken to prison. As became known afterward, this was [done] on the order of members of the Gestapo who had arrived in our city. During that night about 800 men were shot to death in the prison. …Among the martyrs was the lawyer Weiler from the Judenrat [i.e. the head of the Judenrat]…. … Six weeks later [sic] the Gestapo [men] again arrived, again rounded up about 400 men and, it turned out that they were all shot to death in prison during the night.… That was on Monday. Tuesday [sic, for Wednesday] was the eve of Yom Kippur [i.e. September 30, 1941]. People were again rounded up on the street and from all the sites where they were working. They were not released but taken to prison. There, near the iron gate, they were asked about their occupations; those who worked were put on one side, those who did not work – on the other. Since I worked in a bakery,I replied: 'baker.' I was taken to the side of those who worked. It is difficult to describe what was going on in the prison yard, people were buried there one after another, in groups. Due to the ruthless beatings by the Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen aided by the Germans, with rods tipped with pieces of iron, cries [of the Jews] rose to the very heights of heaven. The blood was streaming. Fainting, people fell on top of each other. They were thrown alive into a pit, and a second group of Jews… who did not work was ordered to cover them with earth. Then the "next" Jews were beaten to death and another group of Jews was forced to cover them.…

… It was the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). With the assistance of an Ukrainian policeman, all the Jews were taken to the prison, near the mountain. They were positioned with their faces towards the wall and beaten mercilessly on their heads with iron rods. Those who fell down were shot on the spot.… Jewish blood was splattered on the prison walls. They [the Jews] cried and screamed: "Hear O Israel" [the central Jewish prayer recited, inter alia, before death]. Jews in hiding were praying Kol Nidre [the opening prayer of Yom Kippur eve] in cellars. I will never forget the sight of those Jews covered with prayer shawls. Shooting was heard again and new Jewish victims fell [dead]. The Jews in the cellars interrupted their prayers and said Kaddish [the mourning prayer for these victims]. On this day Jews who had been caught and who did not have any profession were shot to death in prison. By 10 p.m. 180 had been shot to death. Thus, passed the first Day of Atonement.…

… Apparently during the next days of the [first] murder operation [i.e. in September 1942] there were days when the Jews were murdered in the prison yard [since] the Germans did not bother to take the victims to Piatydni. Thus, on September 11, a Friday, the day before Rosh Hashanah, in the afternoon, while watching from the attic towards the prison, I was witness at the arrival of many Germans and [Ukrainian] policemen. I heard shooting and screaming coming from the prison yard, and, two hours later, two trucks loaded with the clothes of the murder victims left [the prison]. ….

The first roundup for the purpose of mass murder took place on Saturday, July 5, 1941. During the morning the Ukrainian [auxiliary] police began to scatter around the Jewish areas [of the city] searching for Jewish men of all ages. The Ukrainian policemen were equipped with sticks.… [Ukrainian] policemen entered the houses and took the men from the houses. All of them were taken to prison. No one knew for what work or for what purpose those arrested had been selected.… At nightfall the men were still not released. Many women and children began to assemble near the prison, hoping that their dear ones would be taken [from the prison] to work and, thus, they could be able to give out them food packages and clothes or, perhaps, they [men] would be released. During the whole night the women were waiting for their husbands and brothers in vain. None was taken out of the prison gate. At dawn only a small group of [Ukrainian] policemen and SS men left the prison. Not one attempt to find out where those who had been arrested on Saturday bore any fruit. Those people had disappeared without a trace. There were rumors that the roundup was carried out by the German Gestapo assisted by Ukrainian policemen. No one wanted to believe that hundreds of people had been murdered behind the prison's walls. What is more, volleys of shots were not heard, only screams or single shots were heard from the prison yard.… No one yet wanted to believe that their dear ones had been murdered and buried in the prison yard.…