Murder Story of Janów Jews at the Bronna Gora Railway Station

In June 1942, five trainloads of Soviet civilians arrived at the Bronna Góra station.… The second train, which was made up of 46 cars, came from the stations of Drohiczyn, Janów, and Horodec. The vast majority of civilians in these 46 cars were of Jewish origin. The cars were overcrowded; there were at least 200 people in each one…. The doors of all the cars of the trains that arrived at the Bronna Góra station were tightly locked. All five trains were driven to the branch line that leads from the central railway station of Bronna Góra to the former military warehouse. About 250-300 meters from the central railway (next to the branch line), six large pits had been dug, each of them about 25-30 meters long, 10-12 meters wide, and 4 meters deep. As the passengers were being unloaded from the trains, the bodies of some civilians were thrown out of the cars. I suppose that those people had died during the trip, either from exhaustion or because of the overcrowding in the cars. While the cars were being unloaded, all the [surviving] civilians were forced to take off their outer garments and underwear – in other words, they were stripped naked – the men, the women, and the children. After that, the fingers [of the victims] were examined and, if any rings were found, they would be removed. After this thorough examination, the naked [victims], one after another, were led to the pits and forced to climb down into them with ladders. In the pit, they had to lie face down. When they had filled the bottom of the pit, they were fired upon with submachine guns. A second and third layer were then added, until the pit was full. I personally saw all the atrocities and heard the groans and screams of the children, the women, and the men. I was able to see all this because the switchmen's hut, where I was stationed, and the railway junction lay no more than 250 meters from the pits where the shooting was taking place….