Murder story of Derazne Jews in the Korczewie Forest

…In fall 1943 [sic for August 1942], after being held in the ghetto for almost a year, all the Jews were convoyed to the town of Kostopol, along with Jews from other counties. All of them were shot there. I don't know how many Jews were held in the Deraźne Ghetto, [but I know that], after the Jews had been taken to Kostopol, all their property was confiscated by the German authorities, and commandant Kulik personally collected all the valuable articles and claimed them for himself….

In September 1942, during the temporary German occupation of the town of Kostopol and the village of Korczewie…, I was working at the [German] "State estate" [i.e., former Soviet farm] of the village [town] of Deraźne. Approximately on September 20-25 [sic for August 24], a [German] police unit consisting of 4 Germans… and 50 [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen, traitors to the [Soviet] Motherland, arrived in the abovementioned village [i.e., Deraźne]…. The abovementioned traitors to the Motherland rounded up all the Jews, 500 persons in total, and took them toward [the town of] Kostopol. Kulik, the head [sic] of the "State estate"…, tried to calm everyone down, [saying] that we were all being taken to work in Kostopol. As we were being led [to the shooting site]…, some Jews began to run away, but they were shot dead on the spot….. At about 2 PM, we reached the area of the village of Korczewie..., where we saw three pits that had already been dug. The Gebietskommissar [Heinz] Löhnert and his deputy [Rudolf] Guenther were already present at those pits. As we were being led toward the [mass] graves, Guenther positioned himself in front of us… and made us turn left. I was standing some 5-6 meters away from Guenther, while he focused his attention on those in front of him. I stood a little away from Guenther, and, when I saw that he was paying me no mind, I ran up close to him, struck him on the chest, and knocked him to the ground. I then ran toward the [nearby] forest, eventually reaching the Janowa Dolina-Kostopol railway. However, since I could not cross the railway tracks, I returned and hid myself in the bushes not far from the pit where the mass shooting was underway. I personally saw the Jews being shot dead. There were terrible screams that went on for at least half an hour, and then they ceased. Before being shot, [the victims] were forced to strip naked, and they were then made to sit facing the pit; each of them was shot in the back of the head, and fell into the grave. In this way, all the Jews present [at the murder site] were shot dead in turn. Some 20 Jews managed to run away. When the shooting was over, [the mass graves] were covered with earth, and [the Germans] then drove a car several times [over the bodies of the victims, tamping the mass grave down]. All this took 2-3 hours. Afterward, the Germans [together with the Ukrainian policemen] loaded the clothes [that had been taken from the victims] onto carts and cars and took them [the clothes] away….

…Some time afterward, all the Jews who had been held in the "ghetto" were convoyed by German policemen to the town of Kostopol and shot dead there. I don't know exactly how many Jews were taken [to the murder site], but I can confirm that they numbered approximately 1,000….

…In summer 1942, the Jewish residents of the villages of Deraźne and Osowa [Wyszka] – a total of 1,860 people of both sexes [and of] various ages – were driven to the town of Kostopol, near which pits had been dug beforehand. There, they [the Jews] were shot dead under the following circumstances: Each person, regardless of sex, had to strip naked, lie upon their stomach inside the pit, and be shot in the back of the head. [Then,] new victims would approach the row of the executed people; they would be forced to lie down atop the dead bodies, and suffer the same fate. [The ChGK committee]… testifies that "schutzmänner," German policemen of Ukrainian nationality [i.e., Ukrainian auxiliary policemen], took an active part in the abovementioned shootings of the Jewish residents. All of these policemen were local residents, from Western Ukraine….

On this date, the [ChGK] committee exhumed the mass graves of the victims of Fascist terror, which lie 5 km from the town of Kostopol, in the forest on the left side of the road between the villages of Peremenka and Korczewie: Six mass graves have been identified at the site…. The exhumation of each mass grave has revealed the bodies of men, women, and children, all of them naked….. According to the verdict of the [ChGK] committee, these mass graves contain the bodies of about 4,000 victims, mostly Jews, who were brought to the shooting site from the [nearby] villages [i.e., towns of] Deraźne, Stepań, and Osowa Wyszka. The shooting took place in August 1942. The bodies lie in regular rows, [and the victims] were shot in the back of the head…. ….Gebeitskommissar [Heinz] Löhnert, his deputy [Rudolf] Guenther, [and some others] took part in this mass shooting….