Murder story of Tarnopol Jews in the Tarnopol Prison Courtyard

…The main drama was taking place at the prison. The Jews were taken there in order to exhume the [bodies of the] Ukrainians who had been killed by the Bolsheviks before their departure. They had been shot. A Ukrainian medical doctor, Dr. Roman Moroz who, as a representative of the noble Ukrainian medical profession, had been called to attend the execution of the Jews at the prison, gave me all the horrible details. A few rows of Jews were killed at one time with handgrenades. They were placed by their brethren who were awaiting a similar fat, into one big pile. Some of them were still alive and died due to suffocation, buried under the huge pile of corpses. One of them, a young Jewish boy named Rubin Fischer, escaped, waited until dark, and then came to the Jewish section, where he told us the whole story…

… The following presents the experiences of a young Jewish man who was about 22 years old at the time of the German entrance [into Tarnopol]. "On…July 4 [1941] we learned about the crime of the torture of some [German] pilots. The Soviets left behind them in prison three bodies of German pilots, one of whom had his eyes gauged out and another - his tongue cut off, while the third one had been burned with hydrochloric acid. Moreover, a cellar full of bodies of those murdered by the NKVD was discovered…; the number of bodies amounted to 200 - they were the bodies of people who had disappeared mysteriously-men and women - Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians… The Jews… were blamed for all of this…. Such a crime called for revenge, so it led to the first pogrom that started on July 4, 1941…. The "Aryan" population, mostly Ukrainians of all ages and of both sexes, including children as young as six years old, accompanied the [German] soldiers, pointing out every passing Jew and every Jewish apartment. They found a common language with the Germans, although they used only two words: 'Hier Jude' (Here is a Jew). At that time those words amounted to a death sentence… At 5 p.m. a group of Ukrainians appeared and ordered all the men to follow them. From our house my father, my brother-in-law, and I went. At the house gate they joined us to a group of Jews who had already been collected and took all of us to the prison building. On the way, we were showered with insults and curses, slapped in the face, and beaten with rifle butts. In the corridor of the prison building we were lined up in two rows to be taken out to the courtyard. From there shots, cries, screams, groans, and wails reached our ears. Suddenly a senior SS officer appeared and ordered: 'Genug fuer heute' (It is enough for today)-'Jawohl' [Yes, sir!] the sergeant answered, and went out to the courtyard. After a short time the shooting stopped. For several minutes the Germans spoke among themselves, and then we were given shovels and taken to the prison courtyard. The sight that met our eyes almost caused me to lose consciousness: hundreds of bodies of people who had just been murdered were scattered around the whole courtyard. Blood flowed from their wounds in streams and, here and there, faint groans were heard. The features of some of them were distorted in pain, while others had a calm expression, as if expressing satisfaction that the worst was already behind them. Those who tried to flee were lying far from each other, where the deadly bullets caught them. Others, apparently desperate and ready to accept their fate, were lying next to each other or, sometimes, on top of each other, while sometimes the victims were holding each other's hand, apparently believing that it [would be] easier to travel the sad road to the unknown… together. An old murdered Jew was lying there, holding in his hands and pressing to his heart…a pair of phylacteries. Suddenly the order rang out: 'This rubbish [meaning the bodies of those murdered] has to be removed today!' The work started. We dug a large pit and placed in it the [bodies of the] murdered, about twenty in a row and, then, one on top of the other. The people who did not work quickly enough received heavy blows and were taken to work under special supervision in the second courtyard. After we finished our job, we too were transferred to the second courtyard, where our comrades had started to dig another pit. In the courtyard there was already a pile of bodies that needed to be buried. The bodies of the three German pilots were placed in the middle of this courtyard. The officers and some photographers took pictures of them nonstop, paying attention to the non-Germans who had been murdered. They [the officers and photographers] also cursed us and threatened us with serious punishment for the crime that had been committed. After 11 p.m. the work was finished. To our great surprise, we were released but were strictly ordered to appear the next day to continue the work….

…On July 6, 1941 I was brought by Ukrainian militiamen in Tarnopol, together with 2,000 other Jews to the prison. I know for certain that there were in the prison yard several mass graves of Ukrainians and members of other ethnic groups who had been buried there. Ukrainian militia[men] and German SS [members] ordered us to open the graves and to exhume the bodies. At that time we were beaten brutally by Ukrainian militia men and other Ukrainians. They acted toward us in a sadistic manner. I also know for sure, since I saw and experienced this personally, that 2,000 of us Jews were shot and beaten to death with rifle butts. They smashed the skulls of Jews. This murder operation carried out against Jews was among the most massive and most terrible ones….

…German armies invaded our area of Russia. In late June [1941] the Germans occupied Tarnopol. Before the German invasion, Russians had killed all the prisoners they held who opposed Communism, among them many Ukrainians. They buried them in a mass grave in the prison courtyard. The Ukrainian families of the prisoners who were buried in prison's courtyard asked the German authorities to open the mass grave, to exhume the bodies, and to bury them individually. The authorities agreed and forced Jews to do this job. I was among them [those Jews]. I remember Ukrainians and SS-men coming to our house, taking my father and me, and on the way dealing us with near-fatal blows. They searched us at the entrance to the prison, taking everything we had with us: money, photographs, jewelry, and watches…. We arrived at the prison and found many other Jews there. Apparently the SS-men decided that there were too many of us so they put all of us up against the wall and started to shoot to eliminate "the surplus." I stood there facing the wall with my arms raised, looking at the sky and thinking that that was the last sight I would see before a bullet ended my life. Suddenly the firing stopped just several people before me. It turned out that they had stopped shooting because so many had been killed that they had to remove the bodies. We were ordered to turn around and to lower our arms and to show both sides of our hands. Whoever had too soft hands or was old was immediately taken aside and shot. Whoever had hands that indicated he was fit for work, this included my father and me, was taken to remove the bodies. Afterward, we were forced to open a common grave of the prisoners, to take out the bodies, and to load them onto carts that were waiting at the prison's gates. The carts drove [us, the living and the dead] to the cemetery. There we were divided into two groups: one worked inside a grave and the other loaded bodies onto the carts. Initially I worked alongside my father inside the grave. We dug with our bare hands and there was a terrible smell. Afterward, we were moved to work in another group. There two people had to take hold of a body and, running, load it onto a cart. After some time, my father was unable to run [anymore]. He said to me "Koba, I cannot go on, may God give you strength to continue and to return home to your mother and to your sister Pola." I suggested that he return to work at the grave, where there was no need to run. "I cannot stand the stench", he responded. The people working there vomit and pass out. One of those overseeing our work noticed my father lagging behind and struck him in the forehead with his rifle-butt. My father died right away before my eyes. I felt that I would soon be following him, that if I continued, my end would be similar to his. After some time, at one point when I went up to a cart full of bodies, in exchange for my watch, I asked the cart driver to let me hide among the bodies. [He agreed.] The cart full of bodies drove to the cemetery. I left one hell to go to another one. However, although there was no lack of blows at the cemetery, it was still easier there than in the previous place. Even though it started to become dark, it seemed that the work would not end. Several Jews, including me, ran away. Each of us ran in a different direction….