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Murder Story of Młynów Jews at the Murawica Dam
Murder Site
Murawica Dam
Poland
In September 1942 the Germans ordered local peasants to prepare a large pit in the valley between the towns of Młynów and Murawica, (near the Murawica dam, known as the kruzhuk), about 1 kilometer from Młynów. Shortly afterward, all the Jews who worked outside the ghetto on various farms were ordered to return. Some returned willingly to be with their families, while others had to be taken into the ghetto by force by the Ukrainian auxiliary police.
On September 22 a squad of Security Police and SD from Równe arrived in several trucks in Młynów. Then, under the command of the German civil administrator of Młynów, named Schneider, together with the Ukrainian auxiliary police, headed by Dimitrii Novosad, they approached the ghetto and surrounded it. Loudspeakers announced to the ghetto's inmates that it was forbidden to leave the ghetto. All the inmates of the ghetto – men, women, children, and the elderly - were forced onto the street. Then they were forcibly loaded in groups onto trucks under the pretext that they were going to be relocated. Afterward, the Jews were taken under the guard of Ukrainian auxiliary police and Gendarmerie (German rural order police) men to a site near the Murawica dam, where pits had been prepared. The victims were forced to strip naked and lie facedown in the pit. They were shot to death in the back of the head with machine-guns. Then another group of Jews was positioned on top of the bodies and shot to death. Apparently the Germans photographed this murder operation. Afterward, the clothes of the victims were taken to Młynów and put into a storehouse. According to the ChGK document, 980 Jews were shot to death on this day.
untoldStories.relatedResources
Resources.tabstitle.written Testimonies
Resources.tabstitle.chgk Soviet Reports
From the testimony of Miriam Barber (nee Blinder), who was born in Młynów in 1927 and who was living there during its German occupation
At the end of [September] 1942 they [the Germans] surrounded the ghetto, shot many people; they loaded them like animals onto cars [sic, for trucks] and took them to their death. Beyond the town there were pits that had been prepared and after the Jews were shot to death they were thrown there. Those were such horrible experiences that it is not possible to describe them. I do not know how many Jews were killed or how many had been in the ghetto. [In this murder operation] I lost everyone: my mother and my five brothers and sisters. I survived since I was then with the Gabowieckas [a Christian family]….
YVA O.3 / 1878
From the testimony of Yehudit (nee Mandelkeren) Rudolf, who was born in 1930 in Młynów and was living there during its German occupation
On October 8 [sic for September 22], 1942 the ghetto was surrounded by Ukrainian [auxiliary] police under German command. They announced through loudspeakers that it was forbidden to leave [the ghetto], and from time to time, both in groups and as individuals, the Jews were returned to the ghetto from their work places. Everybody understood that this was the end. Men, women, and children went out onto the street. Panic and hysteria broke out: people were praying, crying, and screaming; they were saying farewell to their dear ones. When it became dark, the loudspeakers announced that all those [the Jewish inmates who remained in the ghetto] should return to their homes and not turn on the lights. Those who left their houses would be shot to death on the spot. From time to time single shots were heard, as well as the sound of motorcycles of [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen inside the ghetto.…
Yitshak Siegleman, ed.: The Book of Mlynow-Murawica (Haifa: Va'ad yots'ei Mlinow-Murawica byisrael, Haifa, 1970), pp. 291-292. (Hebrew).
Murawica Dam
Murder Site
Poland
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