Murder Story of Kolomyja Jews at the Kolomyja Jewish Hospital

…On November 15, 1942, he [Knackendoeffel], together with Gay, entered the hospital on Kopernica Street and killed all the patients. He then ordered [the Jews] to bring all the children from the nearby Children’s Home, and he killed them in the hospital courtyard.

I recall how, once, he [Knackendoeffel] entered the hospital across from the Judenrat [offices] on Copernicus Street. He ordered all the patients to get out and lie down in a line in the courtyard. He went over them one by one, shooting them dead with his pistol. There were several dozen people there. Upon his orders, the children who were at the hospital were tossed in the air, and he shot them. I saw it with my own eyes….

…During my stay in the ghetto, there was only one case of a German coming to our hospital. This was when Knackendo[e]ffel showed up, accompanied by his Alsatian dog. It was after the liquidation of the orphanage, which was located in another part of the ghetto. At the time, [our] hospital housed some twenty children aged 2 to 15. I do not know how the Germans learned of this. The fact was, however, that, in the afternoon, Knackendo[e]ffel came over and demanded that they be handed over. He ordered to take the children out into the hospital garden, and there he shot them singlehandedly in the back of the head…. I will always remember the sight of the children in the nightgowns lying in a line in the grass like butchered hares.

…There was a hospital in the ghetto, which had a maternity ward. I saw the defendant [Knackendoeffel] take all the patients down to the courtyard. There were thirty-five people there. He laid them down on the ground and shot them. I also saw him throw newborn babies into the hospital courtyard. There was a girl named Bortek. She had red hair. He ordered her to lie down on the ground, but she refused. He then unleashed his dog upon her, and, when she fell down, he shot her….

…I lived near the ghetto hospital. One day, I heard gunfire. I went outside and saw the defendant Knackendoeffel take the patients out and lay them down in a line. Afterward, the children, too, were taken out. He seized the little children, threw them in the air, and shot them. Afterward, he shot all the patients who were lying on the ground. [Then,] he lit a cigarette, smiled, and left. I saw it with my own eyes….

…In late 1941 or early 1942, the commandant Leidritz [Leideritz] ordered the Jews to set up a hospital, if they wished to. We had Jewish doctors, so that we established a hospital near the Jewish Council building. Some thirty patients were admitted into it, but most [of the Jews] feared to go to the hospital, lest they die [there]. Several weeks after the establishment of the hospital, a Gestapo man named Knakendorf [Knackendoeffel] entered the ghetto hospital with a dog and shouted that all the patients, who lay there in their nightgowns, had to get up and run to the yard. At that moment, I was at the Jewish Council offices to fetch linen for the Germans, and I saw all the scenes. He [Knackendoeffel] grabbed two children who were in the hospital and threw them out through the window. Two people were unable to walk, so he shot them as they lay in their beds. He got down to the yard, where he ordered everyone to lie on the ground and shot them. After finishing with this, he left….