Murder story of Dabrowica Jews in the Dabrowica Area

… On the way to the railway station, many tried to run away, but they were either shot by the guards or caught by the Ukrainian [residents of Dąbrowica].…

…In the morning of the last day [in the ghetto; i.e., August 26, 1942], the Judenrat was ordered to assemble all the [Jewish] residents near the house of Yitsik Fleishan. At 7 AM, the Judenrat members began… to lead the people to the designated place. Shmuel the carter, who was among the first ones [to be taken to the assembly point], turned to the elderly Rotenberg [a member of the Judenrat], screaming: "What you are doing with your own hands? Don’t you see or feel the upcoming death?"…. Rotenberg approached the Gestapo officer, who was standing at the site, and asked him: "Where will these assembled people be taken?" That evil man raised one hand and put it on Rotenberg's shoulders. A second later, he tore off a single hair from his [Rotenberg's] head and answered politely, with a slight smile lurking in the corners of his mouth: "These people will not lose a single hair; they will all be taken to work." Afterward, [the members of the Judenrat] Rotenberg, Gildengoren, Asher Shtrum, and [Avraham] Liebersohn [the head of the Judenerat], together with the Jewish policemen, approached the crowd and calmed the congregation down: "Jews, calm down! All those who run away [from the ghetto] will be caught and executed, while we, who are standing here, will be taken to the nearby [town of] Sarny to work." Upon hearing these assurances, the people were released from the grip of the fear that had lodged deeply in their hearts. The assembled Jews began to bless each other with "Mazal Tov!" [congratulations!] and line up in rows – each family with its relatives, in alphabetical order. There were many who did not join these rows, choosing instead to run away through the narrow lanes, looking for hideouts and places of refuge. In the meantime, the peasants from the vicinity [of Dąbrowica], together with their wives and children, had gathered to look for buried treasure in the abandoned houses and plunder the Jewish property. In front of their eyes, the terrible journey began – the march of the Jews toward the murder site, toward those deep pits…. This path of torment, [which led] toward the mass murder, began at the house of Yakir the butcher, through the market [square], and along the road leading directly to the railway station, [which lay] 2 kilometers from the town. Armed [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen, the local ones, surrounded the marching people…. Guards were posted in the corners of the [town] streets, and their rifles were aimed at the marching people. The Ukrainian residents stood in the doorways of their houses and greeted the marching people with diabolical laughter.… The procession went on. The bitter crying of thousand [of people] being led like sheep to the slaughter rose up to the heavens. This was the collective sobbing of an entire congregation marching to their deaths. A helpless congregation, humiliated, abused, and surrounded by gleeful predators. This was the collective outcry of a wretched people facing the desecration of God, the biggest ever in the history of the Jewish people. When the families whose last names began with the letter "P" reached the bridge [over the Horyn River], a group of 30 German policemen drove nearby, speeding toward the railway station. Five minutes later, the rattle of machine guns was heard. The column [that was] near the bridge stopped walking. Now, there were no more hopes or doubts; those [Jews] who had reached the railway station were no longer among the living. At that moment, Leibel Landau… began to negotiate with the Ukrainian policemen, and, in exchange for a bribe that was dropped into their pockets, they agreed to turn a blind eye to what was about to happen. And then a mass escape began…, back toward the town. The main wave of escapees burst onto Novaya and Brastiya Streets, while some individuals, as well as groups of people, scattered through other streets. Gunfire was opened on the escapees from all directions. There were some 1,500 escapees in total, and about 200 of them fell [i.e., were killed].…