Murder Story of Dubno Jews at the Wygnanka Jewish Cemetery

On July 22, [1941], a month after the invasion of the Nazis, the first [sic] murder operation was carried out. It was on a Tuesday, in the afternoon. Suddenly [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen burst into Jewish homes, looking for 150 [men], saying that they needed them for work for several hours. The people were collected near the post office, about 70 of them were sent home, and the rest were taken on trucks to the Jewish cemetery. Christians who were living near the cemetery told people afterward how they [Jews] were put to death. On their [the Jews'] arrival at the murder site, the Germans were waiting for them, they took people one by one, placing them near the pit, shooting them and throwing them, while they were still half alive, into the pit on top of each other. Before putting them to death, [Germans] ordered them to throw their documents to the side onto a pile. When the Germans finished their "work," they covered the pit and burned the papers. Those [non-Jews] who were living nearby [near the murder site], were ordered not to tell anyone what they had seen and heard. … However, after two days, the Jews of the town learned that 80 young people [men] had been executed. The day after the murder operation Jews … who visited the [mass] grave found scraps of documents that apparently had been blown into the air by the wind. … … On August 21 [1941], a Thursday, after 10 a.m. the second murder operation began. During this operation 1,000 [men], plus seven women, were killed. [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen and [German] Gendarmerie men scoured the town and began to arrest the Jews. Many of those who had gone to work that morning were sent [back] to their homes on the pretext that they were free that day. Thus, almost all of them were collected from their homes. They [Ukrainian auxiliary police and Gendarmerie] burst into the houses like animals and drove the people out to the designated places where trucks were waiting for them. Panic arose, people began to hide, to escape, to run from one place to another; the lamenting of the women and the crying of the children were awful. I learned the details of the murder operation itself after the all the people had been taken away [I saw this with my own eyes] from my neighbor Pinhas Steinberg, who also had been caught but managed to escape. Here is his story: the people were taken to the new prison in the suburb of Surmicze. At the gateway, on both sides of the gate, were standing two long lines of members of the [Ukrainian auxiliary] police and the Gendarmerie. When a truck approached the gate, the Jews were ordered to get off [the truck] one by one and to pass the line of the policemen by running or crawling … until they reached the prison yard. The Jews were beaten one by one, with thick sticks; [therefore] when they [Jews] reached the prison yard they were black and blue from the beatings, wounded and bleeding. Those who lost consciousness while being beaten and could not run further were shot to death on the spot and thrown to the side. [The rest] were ordered to form a large circle inside the yard…. The policemen … counted them, wrote down their names …. The people were crowded together full of despair, having a clear sense that their fate was doomed. Many began praying. Steinberg said that many asked [the Germans] to kill them right on the spot since they could no longer stand the beatings. All the time new people kept arriving - until about 900 [men] were collected.… At 1 p.m. several dozen men were taken from the prison by truck to the Jewish cemetery, where they were ordered to dig large graves. When they finished digging, they were killed [on the spot.] From 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. all the people were taken from the prison by truck to the Jewish cemetery, where they were shot to death one by one and thrown into the pits. Until late at night, the murderers were busy covering the pits and, then during the night they went to get drunk. The Christians who were living nearby related the details about the people [victims], how they looked when they reached the cemetery, all of them wounded by the blows they received in prison. Their clothes were torn and they were already half dead when they reached the cemetery and were not capable of putting up any resistance. Pinhas Steinberg was saved in prison. He was shot at after he fainted, but the bullet did not hit him…. The Germans thought he was dead and left him where he was. At night he regained consciousness and crawled back to his home.…

… On July 22, [1941], a month after the German invasion [of the Soviet Union], the first [sic] death hunt after the Jews was carried out. On Tuesday afternoon several trucks with SS men, who had recruited to assist them Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen, arrived in town, and began the first murder operation. The Ukrainian [auxiliary policemen] carried off approximately 150 men. All the men were driven from the house where I was living…. I and another three [men] … succeeded in hiding. The arrested Jews were taken to the post office square, where the murderers, SS men, were awaiting them; they [the latter] attacked the arrested [men] and beat them severely; 70 were released to go home, [while another] 80 were thrown onto trucks and taken to the Jewish cemetery, where pits had been prepared for them. They were ordered to undress. The SS men again beat them mercilessly, pulled the gold teeth from their mouths, positioned them at the edge of the pits, and then shot them to death. The next day a Ukrainian neighbor … brought various photos, documents, glasses, and other items that he had collected from the pits. The second [sic] murder operation was carried out on August 21, 1941 and involved only male victims. It was a Thursday. Already at half past ten a.m. various rumors were spreading, a terrible panic immediately followed, and Jews began to flee in every direction. Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen, armed with machine-guns, iron poles, and wooden sticks appeared on the streets…. Like beasts of prey, they descended on Jewish homes, yards, streets and stores, attics and cellars, dragging people from their hiding places, sparing no children or elderly people, pouring their wrath out on the wounded and defenseless. That day I happened to be at the Judenrat. The murderers broke into [the building] about 20 times, turned everything upside down and behaved wildly. Of the 42 clerks who were working ther, 37 were taken away. One hidden corner where I hid together with several other clerks saved us. From there we could look at the market place and see how groups [of Jewish men] were taken to the town prison. People were saying that in the prison the Ukrainian [auxiliary policemen] were standing in two thick rows and that every [Jew] who was taken there had to pass between them while he was beaten from both sides until he bled. When the wounded [victims] reached the end of the row, a door to a hall was open to where the [German] murderers were sitting and making a selection: 'Those - to death, those - to life." Only a few were released, the rest were taken to the Jewish cemetery and shot to death while naked. The murder operation lasted for 10 hours and ended with the murder of 1,000 Jewish men.…