Murder Story of Kolomyja Jews at the Kolomyja Ghetto Orphanage

…On September 7, 1942 [sic], he [Knackendoeffel] entered the Jewish Orphans’ Home and slaughtered all the inmates.…

…A day before the murder operation of October 1942, I was informed by the Gestapo that I should bring all the children to a certain place in the square. I had to write down the names of the small children and leave them at the orphanage. Toward the evening, when I was at home, a man from the Jewish Ordnungsdienst [ghetto police] – a human being in the fullest sense of the term – came over and told me: “Be careful. Hide all those you can, because the murder operation is going to be final and terrible.” I got back to the orphanage. It was no laughing matter to hide 180 children, but it was necessary to quickly change the list of their names. I told the bigger children to run away and hide on their own initiative…. I reported twenty sick [children] who had to stay, and another twenty babies (up to 1.5 years of age) who were still unable walk. Some of the children hid in the attic, while others, about twenty of them, were hidden by the Judenrat in the ghetto hospital. The next morning, the most horrible of the atrocious murder operations began. We left the orphanage: Mrs. Kesten, Lila Kriss, the Hungarian landlady with Gitta [one of the children] (Miriam stayed in bed), and myself with forty children. The children were marching in line, with Mrs. Kesten, who was joined by Dr. Kesten, who would later be shot in the square, walking in front. I can wholeheartedly endorse Lola Kesten, the "Korczak" of Kolomyja. She led the children, taking care of their needs on the way – tying their headkerchiefs, straightening their caps. My husband and father stood beside me in the square. The small Gitta, too, abandoned her mother and stood beside me. The whole line of children with Lola Kesten stood beside us. My mother with Lila Kriss were in the other line. Leideritz [chief of the Security Police office in Kolomyja] approached us and asked me: “Ist das Ihr Kind?” [Is it your child?] After that, he sent five of us adults to one side, while the line of children was surrounded by Gestapo men and taken away. All this happened at a murderous pace. I could not help the children. I also had a problem with my mother. My father broke away forcefully and approached her. I saw Leideritz order him to get back. The Gestapo man hit him over the head, but my father shook his head and went to the deportation. We were taken to the barracks by force. They added the mother of Dr. Marmaresch to our group and closed the gates behind us. From afar, I saw people walking without overcoats and jackets. Afterward, the area grew quiet, but my head was filled with terrible noise and with anguish for my parents and for the children from the orphanage. We were gathered at the Judenrat [offices], and the chief murderer, Hertl, who had the orphanage on his conscience, arrived there on his horse and spoke from the stage about cleanliness, order, and discipline. When I returned from the square with my husband and Dr. Gross, I first of all went to the orphanage. I was literally stepping over the bodies littering the streets. I ran upstairs to the small children. I beheld a horrible scene: The children – with their mouths hanging open, twisted as though they were crying, and with blood dripping out of every mouth – were sprawled in twenty beds. The twenty trickles of blood mingled into a stream on the red carpet, flowing toward the doctors’ balcony. A similar scene unfolded in the sick hall in the second building. The only difference was that here [the bodies of] the children lay in various positions, twisted in agony….

The Jewish Council (Judenrat) set up a house for the orphans whose parents had been murdered by the Germans. This house stood on Mokra Street. Once, I saw the defendant [Knackendoeffel] leave this house with his dog. While he was inside, I heard terrible cries. Immediately after the defendant's departure, I entered the house with some others, and we saw that all the children younger than six had been murdered. The smallest among them had not been shot, but had had their heads smashed, and there were traces of their brains on the walls….

…I should note that this group of murderers killed and exterminated all the orphans at the “orphanage”. Moreover, they arranged the poor children in a circle and shot them one by one, down to the last child….