Murder story of Wolczyn Jews in the Gravel Pit near Wołczyn

Ivan Pristupa: … The date was September 22, 1942 and it was exactly that day, one day before your holiday that my mother used to say that you had your fast (later checking on my part revealed that it was the day after Yom Kippur).... One of those who had been involved in this work told us that the Jews who had remained in the ghetto were supposed to be relocated to the larger ghetto in nearby Wysokie Litewskie. Horse-drawn carts were provided for those who were unable to go on foot to Wysokie, for the sick ones, for the young children, and for the Jews' belongings. Pavel Vityuk: …Within an hour the Judenrat members and policemen went from house to house with a list and made sure that no one remained in the ghetto.… When the checking was finished, they [the Jews] were ordered to head toward the exit. As soon as they passed through the gate, some more Germans and other, unknown people joined [the Jews]. The sick people were loaded onto carts, while the rest began walking toward the town of Wysokie. Two Germans headed the procession, with policemen and some strangers beside them. At the end of the procession there were some more Germans, and then there were carts with horses, and another German, together with several policemen. That is the way they went on their final march towards death…. According to [people's] accounts, not only they [the Jews], but the policemen, and the Judenrat members who were heading the procession also, did not know [where they were going], believing that they were really going to be relocated to the town of Wysokie. Thus they proceeded until they reached the village. There they were ordered to stop and so the whole procession did stop. Then they were told to turn right onto a side road. This led to the pit from which Sobelman … used to take sand to make roof tiles for the tile plant that he had had during Polish rule…. About 100 meters from the house [where the witness and other people were waiting] there were two pits, a larger and a smaller one. This time he [the man who gave orders to us] spoke to us in Russian. He told us to enter the larger pit. It was filled with garbage, wood, and all sort of junk that was had been discarded there. We were told to clean out the weeds and remove the wood from the pit. We started working and continued that way for several hours … until they told us to stop working and to take our tools. They took us to the other side of the house of Denisko…. Suddenly one of us saw that many people were standing far from us on the main road. Suddenly all of them turned in our direction. At first we did not know who those people were or what they were doing there. As they came a bit closer, one of us said that they were the Jews who had remained in Wołczyn. He recognized some of them. We paid attention: they were walking very slowly, surrounded by Germans with pistols in their hands, and some more people holding sticks, appeared to be forcing the people to move along. Q[uestion]: Did you hear them screaming or crying? A[nswer]: Not then. Thus, they were forced along, apathetic and tormented. Some of them were holding their children by the hand, others were helping the sick ones who were unable to walk on their own. Whole families were walking together, holding hands. They stopped a hundred meters from us, just one hundred meters. Their guards ran around them shouting; everyone screamed. The Germans shouted and had their pistols cocked. The rest of the guards shouted at them in Russian and in Polish, ordering them to take off their clothes, to strip naked. Only then did all of them suddenly begin screaming and weeping. Only then did they apparently understand what was going to happen. And I can tell you, Mr. Shmuel, their acreams and crying were really strange. Where did they get the strength for those screams? Although they were very thin and weak, suddenly they screamed very loudly. People in the village said that they heard the screams from far away. The children also screamed and cried. It was terrible to see and to hear this. It was at that time that the Germans and their accomplices ruthlessly forced them to strip naked. They [the victims] clung to each other and cried in the cold of late September. Finally, they apparently could not even cry any more and some of them approached the pit. In the pit there was a German with a machine-gun who shot at them. Each time four or five bodies piled up at the edge of the pit; several people came and pushed them into the pit. Those who were unwilling to approach the pit lay down on the ground. Another German shot them right there. Those who threw the bodies into the pit shouted and cursed them [the Jews] because they had to drag them quite a distance to the pit and this was hard. Q: Was there anyone who resisted and refused to strip? A: Yes, there was one woman, a Jewess from Russia whose husband was a Christian, also from Russia…. As a Jewess, she had been in the ghetto. She resolutely refused to strip naked. After she had screamed for some time, a German came up to her and shot her on the spot. She was thrown into the pit with her clothes on. Q: Were there any people who tried to escape or resist? A: Mr. Shmuel, they were like flies, not human beings; every one was weak. When they were undressed, one could see only bones. And where could they have escaped to? If some young people had been among them, they might have tried to escape. Q; According to your account, most of them accepted their fate and went or were dragged toward their death. How long did this slaughter last? A: About four hours. By the time all of them were finished off, it was already getting dark. Q: How did the Judenrat members behave? A: I will tell you. When everybody was ordered to strip naked, the Judenrat members were ordered to do the same, but they were allowed to put on overcoats. Every time there were a certain number of bodies at the edge of the pit, they were ordered enter the pit and to drag the bodies to the other side and to arrange them so that they could be put into a neat pile inside the pit. At the end, at the very end, they [the Judenrat members] were also shot and [their bodies] put into the pit.…