Murder Story of Sarny Jews at the Sarny Poleska Camp

…When the fence that surrounded the [Poleski] plot of land had been cut, my brother ran away, and I followed suit. The Germans and their accomplices began to shoot at the running mass of people, and the bodies of dead and wounded inmates began to pile up near the hole in the fence. Even those who had managed to climb over the pile of bodies and pass through the fence were either injured or killed there….

Suddenly, an uprising broke out at the killing site [in the Poleska camp]. A Jew named Mendel [i.e., Yosef Gendelman] had procured metal-cutting clippers, while [another Jew named] Tendler… obtained an ax. At that time, three structures were set on fire. The crowd of people rushed toward the fence that had been breached. The Germans shot at the crowd with automatic firearms and threw hand grenades at them. I, too, was among those who rushed through the fence and demolished it. I wanted to die before I could see the deaths of my beloved wife and children. The multitude threw me down and trampled me underfoot. I was covered by a pile of people who had been killed or suffocated while falling on top of each other. I estimate that, after the fence had been breached, some 2,500 people were murdered, while more than 1,000 managed to run away.… According to my estimate, some 1,000 people, mostly women and children, were burned alive in the three building that had been set on fire.…