On August 26, 1942, those Jews (the majority) who had not attempted to flee en route to the railway station were ordered to march in columns toward the station. Upon reaching the site, they were loaded onto several freight cars and transported to the Poleska camp in the town of Sarny.

On August 27-28, the Jews of Dąbrowica were taken from the Poleska camp, along with Jews from other localities in the Sarny County, and led to several pits that had been dug 1.5 kilometers northwest of the town of Sarny, at the edge of the forest, near the road leading to the village of Tutowicze.

Upon arriving at the Tutowicze forest shooting site, the victims – men, women, children, and elderly people – were ordered to strip naked and empty their pockets into a specially prepared box. Then, in groups, they were forced into the pits. Men from the Security Police and SD squad from Równe (reinforced by German Police Battalion 323) would force the victims to lie in the pit in rows, face down, whereupon they would shoot the victims in the head with machine guns. The little children were thrown alive into a separate pit. In this way, up to several rows of bodies would be stacked in each mass grave. The pits were then covered with chlorinated lime, and earth was piled on top of them. Among the victims, there were some 100 Roma people, who died protesting that they were not Jews.

The Gebietskommissar of the Sarny County, Kameradschaftsfuhrer Huala, was in charge of this murder operation.

Related Resources

Written Testimonies

German Reports / Romanian Reports

ChGK Soviet Reports

Dobroshka Kobazlo testifies:

…In the [Hebrew month of] Elul [August] 1942, an order was given [by the Germans], requiring the [ghetto inmates] to report for registration once more. It was on Wednesday. Germans and Ukrainians took the unfinished orders away from the Jewish tailors. This was a clear sign that our end was at hand. During that night, 1,500 [sic] [ghetto inmates] vanished. Many of them were caught on the roads and killed on the spot. Those who had come forward to be registered were encircled by a guard of Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen and Gestapo men, and taken on foot to the railway station. [From there], they were transported in cars to [the town of] Sarny, where they were annihilated and buried in three pits.

L. Losh, ed., Book of Dombrovitsah, Tel Aviv, 1964, p. 458 (Hebrew and Yiddish).

Yehuda Tsatskes, who was born in Dąbrowica in 1919 and lived there during the war years, testifies:

…Not everyone tried to run away in the mass flight near the bridge. Those who remained at the site [on the bridge] continued marching in rows, shouting very loudly [at the Jews who were running away]: "Hurry up, run away, remember to avenge our spilled blood, revenge, revenge…". …Some 3,800 people, who were still alive, were loaded, crowded and squeezed, onto a few [freight] cars, with no air to breathe and no sunlight. They were taken to [the town of] Sarny, [where they were shot dead]. …

L. Losh, ed., Book of Dombrovitsah, Tel Aviv, 1964, p. 454 (Hebrew and Yiddish).

Tutowicze Area

forest

Murder Site

Poland

51.277;27.215

Photos

A present-day view (as of 2009) of the murder site area.

Sheryl Bronkesh, USA, Copy YVA 14685539

A sketch of the murder site area, drawn by the ChGK comittee

GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-71-70 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19976