Murder Story of Krzemieniec Jews at the Krestovaya Hill

The Gestapo arrived in town and the people who had been politically involved [with the Soviet regime] … were immediately imprisoned, as well as the majority of the Polish and Russian [and also Jewish] intelligentsia who were accused of being sympathetic to the Soviets. The Jundenrat [Jewish council] was ordered to submit a list of people of various professions, ostensibly to be employed.… In the summer of 1945 [the Soviets] exhumed and removed their bodies from the sand-trench … at the foot of Krestovaya Hill.… People who were working near Tivoli [the location of the Gestapo headquarters] saw and knew that those Jews who had been abducted had been murdered, but they didn't say anything. However, the Jewish population did not believe [that they had been murdered] or did not want to believe it. The Judenrat supported the version that they all had been sent to work, that nothing bad had happened to them, and they were still alive - All this [was done] in order to prevent panic. On his return to the town, one Jew who had escaped from the labor camp said that he saw with his own eyes the murder of the Jews by the Nazis…. During this murder operation [carried out] by the Gestapo the majority of the Jewish intelligentsia was murdered, including rabbis, [Jewish ritual] slaughterers, and rabbinical judges. It was terrible when the relatives of the abducted people were taking to the Gestapo food packages for their misfortunatethe ones who were no longer alive– and the murderers were taking the food from them [the relatives] and offering to let them "see" their dear ones. We never saw them or their relatives again.

Several days after [sic] the burning down of the [town's] synagogue [i.e. in early September 1941] the Gestapo issued an order that all those [Jews] who were engaged in free professions: doctors, lawyers, engineers, nurses, teachers, and others would report near the Tivoli garden [i.e. Gestapo headquarters]…. They were called to the building supposedly to be collected there. Afterwards the doors were closed on them and no one was allowed to get in or get out. The people were held there for 4-5 days without food or water. This aroused great fear among the families of those arrested and in the town in general. Their relatives began to bring [them] food, but they were not allowed in.… The relatives were sent back home, but the food was not delivered to the prisoners. Then the Gestapo men announced that anyone who would volunteer to serve the food to the prisoners would be allowed in. Among those who had brought food there were ten who offered their servicse…. They were taken inside, but not one of them ever returned. Among those who had gathered [at the collection point] was Galina Sorochinksaya, a Russian woman of German origin who just happened to be there. She told the Gestapo men that she wasn't Jewish and had got there only by mistake…. Then [Gestapo men] agreed to release her, but [before doing so] made her swears not to tell anyone what she had seen inside. Nevertheless, people found out from her that the starving people [those who had been collected] had been tortured there, had been forced to kneel for hours with their hands tied behind their backs and their heads [bent] between the knees. The Gestapo men went around, whipping them constantly. Finally, they [the victims], to the very last one, were executed at the Tivoli grove [i.e. Krestova Hill] and buried there. Among the murder victims were: Dr. Tabak… the daughter of Dr. Polonsky; Yanci (Yaakov) Shrayer and his wife, a technical guide at the ORT [vocational] school; Michal Hidis, a teacher at the Polish elementary school … [and others]. Thus, the Jews of Krzemieniec were deprived of their intelligentsia.…