Murder Story of Włodzimierz Wołyński Jews in Piatydni

At dawn, on Tuesday, at 6 a.m. the destruction began. Screaming "hooray" the Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen and Gendarmerie [men] from Ludmir and Łuck, who were brought especially, broke into the ghetto. They began to drag the Jews out of their houses. They [Jews] were collected under heavy guard near the ghetto gate … and taken – Jewish women, men, and children - by special trucks to Piatydni, to be massacred. Not many Jews remained at the site [i.e. near the gate], but rather they were taken right away [to the killing site] due to the [Germans'] fear of resistance.… The murder operation began in "the ghetto of the dead [i.e., those who were doomed to be killed soon]," as it was called. In "ghetto of the living" all was quiet. It was surrounded by policemen and tightly sealed: no one was taken to work on that day. I was high up, in a small room in an attic in the "ghetto of the living," watching the trucks that were leaving the ghetto proceeding along the road, loaded with people being taken to their death. I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't realize that this was indeed happening, that indeed the cursed day that we had been anticipating every day but didn't believe would come, had begun.… Later I saw a truck full of clothes entering our ghetto and turning toward the "red school," not far from where I was [hiding]. What could this mean? I heard screams and shouts of "Faster, faster!" As I learned later, the clothing of the martyrs who before their deaths had been forced to strip naked were taken to this big building. Those Jews [still in the ghetto] were forced to take from the truck the belongings [of the murdered Jews] to the building. The vehicle again rushed to take new victims to be killed from the other ghetto. I was shivering although it was already noon. It was quiet in our [ghetto], perhaps destruction would spare the ghetto? Exactly at 12:30 p.m. I saw from a distance a group of Ukrainian policemen, led by Gestapo members, on their way to our ghetto. The gates of the ghetto opened and with a shout of "Hooray," they rushed off in all directions…. I saw how the people [the Jews] were collected in groups and then taken out of the ghetto.… I didn't have time to think. I ran downstairs and hid in the shelter that had been prepared; my family had been hiding there since early in the morning.… We remained until the evening of the fourth day, when we smelled the strong odor of smoke from a pit. … I took to my heels. My idea was to get out of the city, but there were too many policemen there, arresting [people] and taking [them] to prison. Since I was carrying a child, I could not run, and I was taken to prison on the fourth day, at about 1 a.m…. The gates of the prison suddenly opened. Ukrainian policemen, under the command of the Gestapo, approached and ordered us to stand still. At this point I said farewell to the world. I was going to die, in fact not to die but to be shot to death. We were again taken in trucks, packed in like sardines, … under heavy guard. There was no possibility of escaping.… Through holes in the truck we saw human heads. People were walking dawn the street, free, and only we unfortunates were not going to be allowed to live. The vehicle was driving very fast, as if it wanted to take us as quickly as possible to our deaths. I felt it driving through fields, and then stopping. "Fast, faster, you damned ones!" – we heard the Gestapo [men] scream. Suddenly there was a light, and we were ordered to get out of the vehicle. Around us a there was a tight ring of Ukrainians [auxiliary policemen] with loaded guns; we were in the middle. Around us were only Germans, Gestapo men. I looked around me to see what was going on. I saw the [non-Jewish] driver of the truck, standing near the vehicle, smiling. I knew him well. He spoke Yiddish well.… I wanted to look around, to try to find some place [to hide or flee to], to plan my escape. But I didn't have the time for thinking. Orders were heard all around: "Strip naked! Faster, faster, damn it!" We were getting undressed, crying silently, and saying farewell. They don't allow us [to say good-by], driving us, naked, to a pit. An old woman refused to take off her head kerchief and her underwear. She was beaten; they tore off all her clothes and rushed her on. It is difficult, very difficult to report about the last moments of the people. During the operation were they thinking about what to do or had they completely lost their minds and, like automates, just followed orders. I threw away my jacket and began to run, without any idea of where I was running to. "Damn it, where are you running, come here quickly" – I heard a voice address me. I thought for a moment whether I should go back or keep running? "Faster, damn you! Come back this instant. Follow my order, or I will shoot you immediately!"... I recognized the voice of the … head of Gendarmerie, I had been hit by him even before the ghetto [was set up]…. I returned and approached him. He asked me where I was running. I didn't reply, but just looked him straight in the eye. He ordered me to organize the clothing that had been taken [from the victims] and to search for money and gold in the pockets. I thought to myself: I will have time to look around and try to escape. Together with two other Jews, I began to organize the clothes of our brothers who only moments before had still been alive but were now lying shot to death on top of each other in a mass grave. My hands and legs shivered when I touched the clothes. Gevald, [Yiddish for " it is terrible!"] What I am doing, I am searching for money in the pockets of my brothers…. From time to time more trucks with people were arriving. They [Jews] [as ordered] got undressed and ran to the pit. Others, naked, broke through the cordon of the Ukrainians and ran into the fields. Bullets hit them as they were running. The mountain of clothes was growing, so I got some people to help me with the work, saying [to the head of Gendarmerie] that I needed more people.… We knew that we would be shot to death after we finished organizing the clothes. However, we though that we might succeed in breaking out of this hell and running away…. The trucks with the victims kept coming, without a pause. Every time a truck came, we were ordered to move aside…. It was horrible. What I saw from the distance affected me badly: people have to take off their clothes - men and women together, mothers holding in their arms children who didn't understand that they had only a few minutes left to live. They were forced to lie down in the pit on top of the still warm bodies of those who had just been shot to death, and then they themselves received a bullet in the head. One Gendarmerie man, Keller, damn him, shot the victims with an automatic rifle that was exchanged for him every time it became too hot to hold. He was standing alone, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was red-faced, as he had [just] been eating and drinking, while he carried out the "sacred" work that was assigned to him from above. As he noted later, he received 20 pfennings for every person [he shot]. Every five people who entered the pit were recorded by a person who was sitting nearby, calculating the number of [the victims]. Then a truck drove up with new people, more women and children. Among the children a boy of 12 recognized his father who was [working] with us. "Daddy, daddy, what are you doing here? Save me, I want to live, save me!" shouted the boy, running towards his father, falling on his neck and crying. A Gendarmerie man ran up to him, tore him from his father, beating him to force him to take off his clothes and proceed [to the pit]. The boy was crying and screaming. The father begged the head of the Gendarmerie to let the boy to work with us, kissing his hands and pleading: "This is my son, my son!" We all pleaded with the head of Gendarmerie to let the boy work with us, to let the boy join his father. The head of Gendarmerie agreed. The boy kissed his father and began to work diligently, organizing shoes, ties, hats into separate groups …. This scene had a negative effect on us [me]. I was thinking that the boy must believe that we will remain alive, but… the murderers didn't give us much time to think but ordered us to work faster…. However, we decided to work at a slower pace since it might get dark by the time we finished our work, and we might be able to escape. This [thought] saved us - the idea of our surviving until night. [Then], at the order of the head of Gendarmerie we might load the clothes onto trucks and be returned to prison….

On September 1, 1942, the Gestapo surrounded the two ghettos. The chief of this [murder] operation was [Wilhelm] Westerheide.... The chief of the Gendarmerie was Keller. This murder operation lasted for 15 days. During the first 5 days the Jews were taken 3 kilometers outside the city to the place called Piatydni, where there were prepared pits that had been dug by the Jews. There were three prepared pits.… One pit was only for Jews, the second one was mixed [for Jews] and [also] for Soviet prisoners of war. Half a kilometer before the pit the Jews were forced to strip naked and to stay naked. As if playing some game, the Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] hit them from both sides, threw them alive into the pit, and afterward shot them to death.…

… On November 13, 1942, those who did not have a profession [that was considered useful by the Germans] were taken to Piatydni, where they were shot [to death] in pits. The Jews in the "professional ghetto" heard the screaming of their brothers during the massacre, but they could not help.…

… On September 1, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by Ukrainian [auxiliary policemen] and German policemen. At 6 a.m. the Gendarmerie entered the ghetto armed with weapons and ordered everyone to come out of their houses. They broke shutters, roofs, and doors in order to find those in hiding. Everyone was ordered to get onto a truck and sit with his head bent down. They were taken 7 kilometers outside the city, to Piatydni, where a large pit had been dug…. The site was surrounded by German Gendarmerie men. Not far from the large pit there were two [other] large ones. The Jews were forced to strip naked, to jump into the pit while holding each other's hands, and [then] to lie facedown. A German shot each one of them in the head near the ear, [but] not everyone died instantly. The graves were filled with thousands of martyrs. Thus, in the course of 15 days 18,000 Jews were shot to death.…

… Around 10 p.m. we returned from work [i.e. forced labor] to the ghetto. The tension inside the ghetto was terrible. It turned out that the [large] ghetto was surrounded by Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen and German Gendarmerie men. The people from the large ghetto, of the unemployed, tried to find a way to move to the smaller ghetto, of the employed, but this was impossible. In the panic people were hiding in pre-arranged hideouts, in cellars and attics. That night all the inmates of the ghetto were hiding in their shelters, but the night passed calmly. Even though their fear was great, the people gathered slowly and suspiciously near the Judenrat building…. Suddenly, like wild beasts, a gang of Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen appeared. Their chief Kwasnicki was riding on a horse and supervising the murderers. Right away the first shots were heard and the pursuit of the unfortunates began. The people ran to again hide in their hideouts and the [Ukrainian] policemen pursued them. Those who had gathered near the Judenrat were loaded onto trucks and taken to Piatydni. I was [this whole time] in a hideout with my mother and I learned about what was happening on the streets later on.… The liquidation had been carried out in the large ghetto. The Jews in the small ghetto were sure that it [liquidation] would not affect them. When, at the noon [of the same day], the murderers also attacked the small ghetto, the people [there] were surprised and shocked and only a few of them managed to hide. In this way the whole ghetto became totally emptied of its inmates. The [murder] operation of September 1942 lasted for 15 days....

… The Nazis surrounded the whole ghetto with policemen [i.e. members of the Gendarmerie], the Gestapo and also Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary police]. It is not possible to describe this scene. Together with my sister and my brother, I succeeded in hiding again. We entered a cave. When they conducted a search, [they] found us, collected us all in the prison, and there a few, including my brother, were chosen for professional work. We [i.e. the rest] were taken by truck to Piatydni, where a pit had been prepared. During the ride it was forbidden to raise one's head. It was impossible to run away. We arrived at the site. We were ordered to take off our clothes and all of us were killed by an automatic weapons – inside the pit, one on top of the other. Among those who were taken to the pit were my sister and I. The only consolation we had was the knowledge that at least one family member was left alive -- our brother. As my turn to approach the pit where I was going to be shot came closer, I could no longer see what was going on. I was lucky that I was among the last ones. I, too, was shot. I fell into the pit. The pit was full of dead [bodies]. I was in the top row, wounded in three places. They thought I was dead, and I didn't know what was happening to me. I fell asleep. During the night I woke up and someone from the pit was talking to me. It was a woman. She stopped talking right away. In the morning Poles came to cover the pit. Since I didn't want to be buried alive, I raised my head, and they became frightened [seeing] me alive in the pit full of dead [people]. They told me to run away. The question was "To where?" I was naked and wounded, but they were still crying that I should run away. I got out [of the pit] and walked through a field. Then I lay down on a pile of hay. [Some peasants] came from the village to [take] the hay and saw me. They gave me clothes and bread … .