Murder Story of Łanowce Jews at the Łanowce Jewish Cemetery

… On that morning [i.e. August 10, 1942] the ghetto's gates were closed and no one was allowed to go out. For four days we had been tightly closed [inside the ghetto], without knowing what to expect at any moment. Single shots were heard from outside, we knew that each shot took the life of a Jew. My heart was trembling, fearful so I … decided to save myself.… At the beginning of the month of Elul [i.e. on August 14], at 8 a.m., all the ghetto inmates were driven outside [the ghetto], one by one, and taken under an armed guard of Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary police] and a number of Germans [Gendarmerie men] toward the [Jewish] cemetery. Two pits had been already being dug there. One of them was in its final stage of being made ready. Several people wearing white clothes were standing and completing the digging, I saw them, but I couldn't make out who they were or why they were performing such dirty work in such a clean and hygienic uniforms. On the way [to the murder site] an Ukrainian [policeman] shot to death Rabbi Aharoli Rabin.… [Upon the arrival of the Jewish victims at the murder site] Ukrainian [auxiliary policemen] put the men separately near the first pit, while the women and children were put separately near the second pit, for which the digging had just been finished. The men were forced to strip naked before the eyes of their women and children. When all of them had been stripped naked, they were positioned with their faces towards the pit; in front of them [were standing] the Ukrainian [auxiliary policemen] and armed Germans ready to shoot. When given the command, the armed [Germans] shot the wretched people. They [the Germans] were shooting them [the Jewish men] in the face so [so that the latter] could see their death with own their eyes, while they were falling into the pit, kneeling over, and screaming. Afterward, they [the Germans] proceed to do the same to the women and children. The groans of the men were still emerging from the pit. They didn't allow me any respit but made clear to me my certain death. [At that moment] I jumped llike a cat out of our line and ran toward some tall standing grain. They [the Germans] did not notice this. The standing grain hid me, it was much higher than I was since my height had been reduced by suffering and hunger. I run away. From a distance I heard a volley of shots and I knew, for at least a while, my life had been extended -who knew for how long?…

[Right after the mass murder of Łanowce Jews on August 14, 1942, Moshe Rozenberg returned to the destroyed ghetto]. … The ghetto was ruined, empty, quiet, desolate. Not a murmur could be heard inside it. I entered[the house of] our former [non-Jewish] neighbor Mrs.Lucki. She confirmed what people were saying - that all [the ghetto inmates] had been taken to the [Jewish] cemetery, under a heavy guard [consisting] of people and dogs, and then moved into … to the area of the … cemetery, forced to strip naked, … organized [into groups] according to sex and age, and after being made to stand near three open pits, were shot and killed. Women separately, children separately, and men separately.…