Murder Story of Klewań Jews at the Klewań Railway Station

1. The [ChGK] committee has examined a mass grave located in the area of the Klewań rural council N. 2, to the left of the railway station, some 300 meters north of that station…. 2. The examination of the mass grave has revealed the remains of civilian clothing; the bodies have gone through all the stages of cadaveric decomposition.… As a rule, all the bodies have… an oval hole… in their occipital bones, which indicates that these Soviet civilians were killed by being shot in the head. 3. The reason for the murder of these 48 Soviet citizens… was the appearance of anti-German leaflets in several localities of the [Klewań] region, such as: Pokosy, Orzhev, Klewań N. 1, and Klewań N.2. The Gestapo men took hostages and shot them. 4. The responsibility for this crime – i.e., the annihilation of the civilians – should be laid at the feet of the German authorities, as embodied in the persons of Lieutenant Franz Goldfrieder, former chief of the Klewan region; the German commandant… Schupe, and his assistant, a Pole named Tedka. 5. It has been determined that the abovementioned crime took place on April 11, 1942.

…On the night of April 6, 1942, some unknown persons posted anti-German leaflets in the towns of Klewań N. 1 and Klewań N. 2, and in the [nearby] villages of Orzhev and Pokosy. As a reprisal for these leaflets, on April 6, 1942, the Ukrainian [auxiliary] police, under the command of the German Gendarmerie chief (I don’t know his last name), carried out arrests of civilians from the towns of Klewań N. 1 and Klewań N. 2, and from the villages of Pokosy and Orzhev. My husband, Ivan Panas, was among those arrested at this time…. Out of these arrestees, a group of about 18 Poles and 30 Jews were shot by the abovementioned German-Ukrainian police on April 11, 1942…. [The shooting took place] some 100 meters beyond the railway [station], at the edge of the forest….

…On the night of April 4-5, 1942, anti-German leaflets in Polish were posted by unknown persons in the villages of Pokosy and Orzhev and in the [towns of] Klewań N.2 and Klewań N. 1. For this [action], the German-Ukrainian police [i.e., the Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police] arrested 60 residents of the abovementioned villages, who were suspected of posting the leaflets. 12 out of the 60 detainees were eventually released, while [the remaining] 48 individuals – including my husband, Ivan Kovalskyi – were shot by the German-Ukrainian police at the Klewań [railway] station on April 11, 1942…. The chief of the Ukrainian [Auxiliary] Police, Pavel Demidovich, took part [in this shooting]….

…On April 8, 1942, I was one of a group of 60 civilians arrested by the German police [Gendarmerie]. 10 [of the arrestees] came from the village of Orzhev; 10 from the village of Pokosy; 30 from the town of Klewań N. 1, and 10 [from the town of] Klewań N. 2. All of the arrestees were held at the police [station] in Klewań No. 2 until April 11, 1942. On April 11, 1942, the German Gestapo released… 12 of the detainees, including myself, [Vladislav] Birita, while the remaining 48 persons were taken beyond the Klewań railway station and shot at the edge of the forest…. I, Birita, and the other 59 persons had been arrested by the German police [Gendarmerie] on suspicion of having posted leaflets in the villages of Orzhev and Pokosy, [and in the towns] of Klewań N. 1 and Klewań N. 2. Those Polish-language leaflets had encouraged the locals to resist German rule.… The following [persons] took part in the killing [of these 48 arrestees]: the chief of the German police [Gendarmerie], Sergeant Shupak [sic]; and his deputy, Sergeant… Adolf. From the Ukrainian [Auxiliary] Police, the chief of the Ukrainian police [of Klewań], Pavel Demidovich, took part in the shooting…, [as did some others]….