Murder Story of Mizocz Jews at the Sugar Refinery in Mizocz

… On September [sic for October] 13, 1942 the gates of the ghetto were closed by the Germans and their accomplices the Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen. The following day, on September [October] 14, 1942 all the Jews were assembled at the market square. After leaving their houses, the Jews by themselves set their houses on fire. While we were walking to the market square, the Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] told us Jews that the graves had been dug out for us. From the market square the Jews were driven to the place near the sugar factory. There the Jews saw pits, dug graves. We were waiting for 24 hours at the same place, since the town's commandant had not show up. During all this time we were standing completely naked. By evening, when we saw what awaited us, all the congregation began to flee to the different directions. It is obvious that some of them were killed, but a group of 1,600 Jews succeeded to escape to the forests, I was among the members of that group. Later the locals, who were engaged in digging the graves, told us how the murder operation was conducted. They [Germans] took every time 50 persons, laid them down [in the pit] in one row and shot them. [Then another] 50 persons were again laid down over them, and again [Germans] shot them and so on and so forth. Thus the story of Mizocz ghetto, [located] near [the city of] Równe was over.…

… On October 13, 1942 someone nocked on our window at 5 a.m. Behind the window was standing our acquaintance, his arm was bandaged and I noticed that it was bleeding underneath the bandage. "We are surrounded!", he shouted, "I wanted to run away but I was shot!" We jumped out from our beds and got dressed in the blinking of an eye. My husband took out [his] doctor's certificate from under the frame and put it in coat's pocket. [He said:] "I'd rather die than loose the certificate".… We run to the street. People were running to all directions, like mousses in a trap. Mothers and fathers were holding their children's arms. The brother of my friend, Motek Mizocz was lying on the street. He was wounded in his belly, one could see his bowel outside. He was pleading: "Kill me!". I saw how children were dragging their dead mother by her legs and head that was hit by the milestones. We were unhinged. We didn't know where to escape and we were running in a roundabout manner along with the others. An old man was standing at the gate of one of the houses, he was covered with praying shawl and holding a tefillin in his hands. He was praying. When he saw us, he said: "Doctor, you are young, maybe you will be able to survive, in our house at the attic there is a hiding place, hide there, I can't hide anymore. Get inside, get inside children" he pleaded with us. We run upwards, we found there a lot of people behind the crates. Children were crying, parents were giving them some kind of tranquilizer tablets, maybe sleeping peels.… Thus we were sitting for several hours. Suddenly we heard [a noise] like a sack that was unraveling. My husband peeked outside and saw that the house was burning. We started to jump from the attic. Everything around was burning. Jews themselves set their houses on fire, since before the liquidation of the ghetto there were talks that if the [murder] operation occur, they [Jews] would burn by themselves their houses in order not to leave anything to the Germans. I grabbed the hand of my husband, but the smoke was so thick that I left his hand and covered my head with my hands. I ran forward and my husband [was running] behind me, he was several meters distant from me, when I saw him throwing his coat because of the hit and the smoke. From the magnitude of the horror that drove him crazy, he forgot that inside the coat there was his medical certificate. After a minute, I saw that three Gendarmerie [German rural order police] men were running after him, with the rifles in their hands. They shot him and I saw how my husband fell with his face towards the ground. Then, as I was standing, I failed to move my hands and I [only] said "Already!". I remember well this event. I was standing inside the fire with the belly [she was pregnant] and I said only one world … afterwards I recalled that in [one] village there was one peasant woman that had promised me an assistance the minute I would need it. I walked towards the bridge and when I just get inside it, two Germans approached me and shouted "Where are you running?". I replied to them: "I am returning to the ghetto, I am coming back". In the same minute 3 Jews came running [to the site]. The Germans turned to them, ran after them and I took the opportunity and jumped into the water. I was sitting there for a long while, and then I carefully began to advance inside the water. I went along the [river] bank concealed by branches. When finally I went to the shore, I was wet and I was very cold, but [at least] I was already outside the ghetto.…

… On that day a murder operation of the ghetto in Zdołbunów and in Mizocz was carried out. Along all the Jews, the members of the Judenrat [Jewish council] of Mizocz perished: Abe Stiefel, Jojne Niemirower, Szmuel Bunis, Melech Gosak, Moniek Ridner, Taler and the head of the Jewish police Blumenkranz. In the night between October 12 and 13, 1942 I heard shots. I went down to the cellar. In the morning, when I got out [from the cellar], I saw that the ghetto had been surrounded. I ran to my brother, Nachum: "There is nothing to do" – said my brother – "We are surrounded. We can only burn everything". He took the clothes from the closet and set them on fire. I ran to the street. My uncle was standing at the gate to one of the houses: "Come to us – we will hide" - he said. I saw how at that moment the sister of my wife ran to the wall of her house and poured on it an kerosene battle. The flames broke out and all around began to burn. It became so hot, that I threw out the coat. We saw that we wouldn't hold on in the burning house and we ran to the street. There the Jews, running around in different directions, were caught. An Ukrainian policeman, Serczuk, led us along with other Jews. About 1,000 were collected. When we reached the [market] square, where was located a department of the dentist Fidelman, we saw how all his family was led [to the collection point]. There were Gerdermerie [German rural order police] men Otto and Hill. Otto was in good terms with Fidelman and promised him once that he would remain alive. When Fidelman was taken away [from his house], Otto approached him: "Fidelman, give me your wallet, these pigs [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] will take it from you on the way. When you'll come back, I'll return it to you". Fidelman gave him everything he had and he was sure that he would survive, would come back and Otto would give him everything. He went together with other [Jews]. We were taken to the grove near the sugar factory. About 100 meters from the grove there was a narrow bridge over a shallow river. At certain minute I jumped from the bridge into the water. An [Ukrainian] policeman Winogrodzki led us [to the murder site], but he didn't see me jumping. I hid. I saw there a woman from this group, she run away as well. She said to me that she was [originally] from [the city of] Brześc nad Bugiem. She had already escaped 5 times the liquidation of [different] ghettos. We sit in the water until the evening. [During that time] the Jews were taken several times to that grove through this bridge. There [in the grove] they were shot to death. There was also murdered Fidelman with his family. At night we got out of the water. I remembered that in the village I had a peasant, Ukrainian, Daniel Rybak. We went to him.…

By the evening the anxiety rose, [people] were saying that the Gendarmerie [German rural order police] arrived [in the town].… And the next day [the Jews] were told [by the Germans] to get out, [and] that they would be taken to the rail way station… [from there] they would be taken to Germany for work. Some [Jews] believed it, some didn't, some were calming down their families,… [in order to avoid] panic [Germans were telling the Jews] to collect valuables, dress up warmer, better, … and a person … was thinking maybe he would survive or maybe not … so [Jews] were taking [with them] all the valuables and went with them [to the collection [point]. And a rabbi came out [from the crowd], a cry rose, and he said "go"… and those people, those who remained in this ghetto, were driven [to the killing site]…. I don't know whether Jews set it [ghetto] on fire or the Germans in order to take them [Jews] out of the smoke … since many [succeeded in] running away, but [as a result] many [Jews] were shot to death, and the [remaining] Jews were driven … in rows, as Germans were taking [Soviet] POW's. It was … in 1942 ... on October 14. I didn't see it, but other [people] saw that when they [Jews] were driven [to the murder site], a star was shining on them on the broad daylight, accompanying them, as if giving them the way, this was seen by lot of people.… They [Jewish inmates] were driven beyond the sugar factory, there were ravines… there were extracting clay for bricks. And there they [Jews] were driven, there were high precipices … and there [Germans] were killing them with machine-guns, rifles and … automatic machines.… [On their way to the murder site] behind them were going Germans with German shepherd dogs and [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen.… People were watching how [the Jews] were shot to death….