Murder Story of Shpola Jews at the Brodetsk Cherry Orchard

...We traveled on foot for two days to a place, to the village of Brodesk [Brodetsk]. It was in the Caterinobel [Katerinopol] Region…We were supposed to build a road… When I got up, took my things, and looked out the window, I understood everything. I saw the cars. I saw the police from the region, not our village police, and Germans. All of them had guns and I understood that this was our last day, our last moments of life. I went into another room… However, after a few minutes a policeman came and told me to go out, to go out. Altogether we were 20 sick people. Ten of us were told to go out the door. I remember that day very well. I remember that a boy was ill although he had not come down with typhus. Something was wrong with his eyes and his mother was a doctor. That day she remained in the camp. She was allowed to remain in the camp. When we understood that this was the last minutes of our life, she said to her son: "Don't be afraid. I will go with you. I wll follow you. Don't be afraid." Thus, everyone realized that it was our last way. What was I thinking about at that moment? My father had been killed in 1941. I thought that if there really was another world and you could see not only this one, I would meet with him. So we came up to the pit that was ready and another one that was being prepared; two men from our concentration camp were digging that other pit. Germans were standing opposite us so I can't say [exactly] how things happened. It is difficult now to express it, but in a moment, a second, I decided to escape. I lay down on the ground. I crawled and crawled. There was an orchard there, a cherry orchard. The grass was very high. I crawled. I can't understand the people who were [still] standing near the pit. They saw what I had done, but nobody followed me. Just a minute later I already heard shooting….