Murder Story of Horodec Jews at the Bronna Gora Railway Station

In June 1942, five trains with Soviet civilians arrived at the Bronna Góra station….The second train, which consisted 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, and there were at least 200 people in each one…. The cars of the trains that arrived at the Bronna Góra station were tightly sealed. All five trains were driven to the branch line that led from the central railway station of Bronna Góra to the former military warehouse. Six large pits had been dug about 250-300 meters from the central railway (next to the branch line); each of them was approximately 25-30 meters long, 10-12 meters wide, and 4 meters deep. While the civilians were being unloaded from the cars, the bodies of some civilians were thrown out of them. I suppose that those people had died in the cars, either from exhaustion or because of the overcrowded conditions. 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 taken away. After this thorough examination, the naked [victims], one after the other, were taken to the pits and forced to climb down into them via a ladder. In the pit, they had to lie face down. As soon as they made a full layer, they would be fired upon with submachine guns. A second and a third layer were added, until the pit was full. I personally saw all these atrocities, and personally heard the groans and screams of the children, the women, and the men. I was able to see all this because the railway junction, and the switchmen's hut where I was, were located no more than 250 meters from the pits where the shooting was taking place….