Murder Story of Rokitno Jews in the Forest in the Area of Rokitno

…On August 26, 1942, after the [mass] escape from the [market] square, I was in the forest, not far from the pit where the Germans were shooting the Jewish residents…. On August 27, 1942, I personally saw the Germans, together with the Ukrainian policemen, catch the scattered Jewish residents who had run away from the [market] square and take them to the pit where they were shooting [them]. … At that time, I was in the forest, not far from the pit where the Germans were shooting the Jews…, and I saw [the shooting] very clearly. After the shooting, when the Germans and Ukrainian policemen had moved away from the pit, I emerged from the forest and approached the pit, where I saw many Jews whom I had known…. They were either dead or wounded… There was a young girl, aged about 15, inside the pit.... [She was] fully conscious, and her body was half-concealed by corpses and wounded people…. Upon my arrival [at the pit,] she asked me to pull her out, and, when I began to pull her out, I saw that the Ukrainian policemen were leading a second group of Jews to be shot. [Therefore,] I was forced to abandon this girl, Gitelman, and run into the forest. This girl, Gitelman, remained alive near the pit.…

…The remaining Jews who had managed to escape [from the market square], as well as those who had taken shelter [i.e., gone into hiding] during the first day of the shooting [in the market square], were hunted [by the German Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian auxiliary police], who threw them alive into the pits, tossed hand grenades at them, and covered them with soil while [some of the Jews] were still alive. …

…And afterward [after some Jews had been shot at the synagogue], [the Germans] took [the Jews who had been caught hiding] out of the town and shot them there [i.e. in the forest].…