Murder Story of Klesów Jews at the Klesów Railway Station

…I know that, in the morning of August 26, [1942], approximately at 4 AM, the Germans and their accomplices rounded up as many as 600 Jewish residents [of Klesów] in the square near the Klesów railway station….This roundup [of Jews] was carried out under [the threat] of arms. Right there in the square, before the loading [of the Jews onto the cars], two sick women were shot dead. I don’t remember their last names.…

…On August 26, 1942, I was in Sarny. At 7 AM, I was already in Klesów. By that time, some 600 Jewish residents had been assembled in the square near the Klesów railway station…. At 4 PM, all the Jews were loaded onto [freight] cars, while several sick individuals were shot dead on the spot….

[On August 26, 1942, as the assembled Jews of Klesów were being loaded into the freight cars,] two old women, whose last names I don't remember exactly, were shot dead on the spot [at the railway station], for the sole reason that they were ill….

…After the roundup [of the Jews at the railway station, they] were [loaded] onto [freight] cars, while 3 sick people were shot on the spot.…

We, the undersigned [ChGK] committee…, have compiled the present report, [which concludes that], during the [German] occupation of the region, the Germans deported… 580 people [i.e., Jews]... from Klesów.…[Some of them were sent away to be killed near Sarny], while others were shot on the spot [i.e., at the railway station].… Vladimir Makarchuk, a resident of Klesów, has stated that, in August 1942, he had seen the German policemen and soldiers surround Klesów and drive the [Jewish] civilians to the square near the railway station, beating [the people] up with sticks and whips. Sick individuals who were unable to walk were killed on the spot [at the railway station]. Among those killed [at the station], there was an old man [named] Boris Kachka, [as well as] Yankel Marader, Khil Marader, Yakov Buzda, and [several] children – Dinka Sheintukh [?], Shiva, Motl Yaruch, and some others.…

…On August 26, 1942, at about 3-4 AM, the town was surrounded [by Ukrainian] policemen under the command of Vasiliy Kryzhanovskiy, the chief of the [Ukrainian Auxiliary] Police, and all the Jewish residents were ordered to assemble for a roll call in the square near the Klesów railway station.... When all had been assembled, they [the Jews] were ordered to hand over their valuables. Afterward, a train [arrived]…, and the [Jews] began to be loaded onto the cars. Three people – Shteinbok from the village of Sochi, Drach from Klesów, and a woman whose last name I don't recall – were shot on the spot because they were ill. A German named Titman, who was the deputy of the chief of the [German] police [i.e., the Gendarmerie], shot these three people singlehandedly….Karl Begermann, the chief of the Gendarmerie …, was also in charge of the shooting of some [Jews] in the town of Klesów.…