Szibiena Hura Related Communities
Dubno Related Murder Sites
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Murder Story of Dubno Jews in Szibiena Hura
Murder Site
Szibiena Hura
Poland
According to one testimony, on May 26, 1942, at night, a mobile SS unit from Równe, together with Gendarmerie (German rural order police) and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen, broke into the ghetto where the unskilled Jews were incarcerated. They began to drive the Jews out of their houses. Handicapped, very sick, and old people were shot to death on the spot. About 4,000 Jews – men, women, and children -- were collected at the square located on Sholem Aleichem Street, near the entrance to the ghetto. The assembled Jews were divided into two groups - men separately and women and children separately. Then the men were loaded onto trucks and taken to Szibiena Hura, a hill with a ravine below it, located 4 kilometers west of Dubno, near the village of Kleszczycha. Upon their arrival at the shooting site, the Jewish men were made to strip naked and, in groups of 10, forced to lie facedown inside a pit that had been dug beforehand. They were shot to death in the back of the head or in the back by the SS murder squad. Then another group of victims was placed on top of the bodies and shot to death. After each shooting, the Germans poured lime over the bodies. During the two days of the murder operation (May 26-27), trucks shuttled back and forth -- to take victims to be shot and then to take their clothes to Dubno, where Jewish workers from the skilled workers' ghetto were forced to search the victims' clothes and shoes for gold and other valuables. The most valuable items were shipped to Germany.
On October 24, 1942, there took place the killing of the several dozen remaining professionals (along with their families) despite their "secure" certificates. These inmates of the skilled workers' ghetto were collected on Rybnaia Street and taken by truck to Szibiena Hura. Upon their arrival at the murder site, they were forced to undress and to lie facedown in groups in pits, where they were shot to death in the back of the head. This shooting was carried out with machine-guns and pistols. Once again the Germans confiscated the clothing of their victims. According to the ChGK document, during these two murder operations, Hungarian forces joined the German ones in carrying out the shootings.
Gebietskommissar (regional commissar) of Dubno Werner Brocks and the head of the Dubno Gendarmerie Papke both headed and participated in those two murder operations.
Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports
Aharon Groisberg, who was born in 1903 in Dubno and lived there during the war years:
On May 27, 1942, after the Germans, using Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen, surrounded the square on Sholem Aleichem Street. There they collected 3,800 Jews; the men were put separately and women and children separately. Afterward, the men were taken to Szibiena Hura, where they were shot to death. Before that the victims were ordered to take off their clothes. The shooting was then carried out in groups of 10 victims, who were ordered to lie facedown on the ground [in the pit]. After the shooting [the bodies] were covered with lime and then a second group had to lie down [on the top of them], and so on. According to testimonies from the residents of the nearby village of Kleszczycha who were eyewitnesses of this shooting, a Jew named Benzion Shtivler, who was a cultural worker, was taken [to the murder site]. Before the shooting he asked the executioners … to be allowed to deliver a speech of 10 minutes to the victims before their death. One German looked at his watch, and allowed him only 5 minutes. In his speech Shtivler called on his fellow Jews to be ready to die…. After he was forced to strip naked, he was the first to descend into the pit. Thereupon, all the [other] Jews followed his example….
On October 24, 1942 they [the Germans] collected about 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children on Rybnaia Street; they were shot to death at Szibiena Hura in the way noted above….
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
Hersh Drukh, who was born in 1892 in Dubno and lived there during the war years, testified:
… Thus on May 27, 1942 3,800 Jewish residents were collected from the ghetto at the corner of Sholem Aleichem Street. The men were taken separately and and transported to the Szibiena Hura [ravine], where they were shot to death. …
… The last mass shooting was carried out on October 24, 1942, when over 1,000 Jewish residents – men, women, old people, and children who had been collected, were shot to death at Szibiena Hura. …
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
Idel Shnaider, who was born in 1898 and lived in Dubno during the wear years, testified:
On May 27, 1942 3,800 [Jews] were collected on Sholem Aleichem Street after the street was closed off with barbed wire. The collected Jews were divided into two groups, i.e. the men separately and women and children separately. The men were taken to Szibiena Hura, outside the town of Dubno, about 3 kilometers in the direction of Młynów. Before being shot, the victims were forced to strip naked and then, in groups of 10, they [the Germans] forced them to lie down [inside the pit] and then shot them to death. After that another group was forced to lie [on top of the bodies].…
On October 24, 1942 the Germans collected the last Jews [of the ghetto], about 1,000 of them, on Rybnaya Street. These included me and the members of my family - my wife Ida Shnaider and our two children age 7 and 10. Along with other men, women, and children, we [Jews] were taken to Szibiena Hura where, in the above-noted way, we were shot to death. I [personally] survived because I succeeded in escaping from the collection point.…
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
Leizer Mantver, who was born in 1884 and lived in Dubno during the war years, testified:
… On May 27, 1942 3,800 [Jews] were shot to death, including my parents; [some of the victims] were shot to death at Szibiena Hura. [Among them were] Michel Shtivel, Zosya Shtivel, Shmuel Fuks, and others.
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
The ChGK report from Dubno
We, the commission … compiled the current report as follows:
On this day we arrived at the exhumation site located 4 kilometers west of the town of Dubno, in the direction of the village of Kleszczycha, at the place called Szibiena Hura where, in ravines, were found three large pits, during the exhumation of which were found bodies of those who had been killed, shot to death; [the victims were] Jewish civilians from Dubno, Kozin, Werba [and] Ostrozec Counties. The area of all of the three pits is 900 meters and their depth 4 meters. That is where there lie 6,000 [sic] Jews who were shot to death. During the exhumation it was found that the bodies of those shot to death were lying [in the pits] facedown in 6-7 layers; in each layer there was a row of up to 21 shooting victims. They [the Germans] poured lime over every layer of those shot to death. The position of the bodies with their face down and their naked state indicate that the shots were fired into the back of the head and in the back, and reveal the existence of a bullet hole that was found in the back of the head and the shoulder blades…. The fourth [shooting of the Jewish residents of Dubno was carried out] on May 27, 1942…. And the last one on October 24, 1942, on which day over 1,000 victims were shot to death. The following persons were among those shot to death: the [Jewish] residents of the town of Dubno: David Litsman, with four members of his family; Anton Hamburg, with his family – a total of four people; … Dr. David Kagan, with his daughter Didot Kagan, who was also a doctor; Dr. Avraham Fishman, with his family – 6 persons; the doctor, a surgeon… Roitman; Dr. Kaplan along with members of his family, a total of 3 persons, … [and many others, mainly specialists]. The organizers of the mass annihilation were: Gebietskommissar [Werner] Brocks… from the Gendarmerie … [von] Papke [the head of Gendarmerie]…. In addition to the Germans, Hungarian forces took part in the mass shootings. During the exhumation the bodies were photographed.
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
Yitzhak Litsman, who was born in 1895 in Dubno and lived there during the war years, testified:
On May 27, 1942 the Germans collected 3,800 Jewish men, women, old people, and children on Sholem Aleichem Street in the town of Dubno; then the men were taken to Szibiena Hura.
Both the men and women were forced to strip naked and lie down in the pit; they were shot to death in groups and lime was poured over their bodies. Then another group was put [on the top of the bodies]. The shooting was carried out with machine-guns and pistols, mainly in the back of the head. The Germans took away with them the clothes of those killed. This shooting was carried out under the direction of the Gebietskommissar [Werner] Brocks….
On October 24, 1942, after the collection of the remaining Jewish inmates [of the ghetto], over 1,000 of them – men, women, and children -all of them were taken to Szibiena Hura and shot to death.… The shooting was carried out in the same way as that mentioned above.…
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-48 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19974
Szibiena Hura
Murder Site
Poland
50.403;25.745