Murder Story of Wysock Jews on the River Bank in Wysock

…On the day before the massacre, I was, as usual, with the cows in the pasture outside of town. My fifteen-year-old son Nathanel was with me. In the morning, when he got up, he expressed his wish to visit his home in the town. He was missing his mother and sisters. I couldn't prevent him from doing so, and he went away. Shortly afterward, I followed him.… I arrived in the town, and immediately learned that the "butchers" [i.e., the Ukrainian auxiliary policemen and German policemen] had gotten there before me. Yosel Shlipak was the only barber in town. He shaved the Germans and cut their hair. While doing so, he overheard their conversations. We learned from him that pits had already been dug on Podvisochye Street…. In order to calm him down, the Germans told him that the pits were intended for war needs. [But,] from the words of the 'Gentiles' we learned that these were indeed the pits [for the annihilation of the Jews of Wysock]. There were two large pits, each of them fifty meters [long]. I sensed what lay in store for us…. I woke up hearing a noise and the sound of cars. My heart sensed the impending disaster. I saw and heard the [German] cars drive, approaching the bridges over the [Horyn and Syrets] Rivers at the entrance to the town. Their lights had been turned off; the cars were advancing, and one of them drove into the town. We ran to the rivers [that flowed] near the town. There was a deathly silence. We didn't hear any sounds beyond the town. It was 10 PM. Shortly after [the murder operation], we met Bril Begun, who had been in the town on the day of the massacre, in the crowd that had been taken to the slaughter, and he told us [the following]: Initially, the Jews had been ordered to bring their money and gold. Those who still had some [property] left brought [it along]. Upon the [Germans'] orders, the Jews assembled in one place. They were lined up in rows and split into three groups, with 500 people in each group – a total of 1,500 people.… A few armed Germans, about ten of them, were marching along the convoy. The rest of the escort consisted of "gentiles" – the Ukrainians, the town's policemen…. …One of the "gentiles", who had been present [at the murder site] during the slaughter near the pits, recounted: "When the procession [of Jews] reached the vicinity of the pits, they were all ordered to undress. The insistent requests, pleas, and cries were in vain. Everybody – both men and women – was forced to strip naked and climb down into the pits, row after row. Each row of people was then forced to kneel in the pit, along its sides, and they were thus shot with their faces to the wall [of the pit]; a second row was then forced into [the pit], and the same horrible thing was done to them. [The massacre went on] until everyone was piled up inside the pit – the killed and slaughtered ones – one on top of the other, in tightly packed and sticky rows.…

…In the middle of the [Hebrew month of] Elul [i.e., August 1942], two weeks before the slaughter, a rumor began to spread in the town: Large pits were being dug outside of town, at the end of Podvisochye Street. We became aware of the impending calamity. Those were the pits designated for us. Panic gripped the town. The head of the community [the head of the Judenrat] was sent to the [German] authorities to find out what this meant, and those [Germans], with their diabolical cunning, managed to confuse and calm down the seething hearts [of the ghetto inmates]. "The pits" – so they said – "are being dug for war-related needs…" The people's spirits calmed down a little. They wanted to believe that this was indeed the case, but deep inside their hearts they knew: The bitter end was approaching.… And indeed, two days before Rosh Hashanah [the Jewish New Year] – on Wednesday; Elul 27, 5702 – the bitter day came. That night, early in the morning on Wednesday, we woke up hearing unusual shots, and were gripped with fear and panic. At dawn, we were terrified: The ghetto was surrounded with armed [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen, standing twenty meters apart – since they were guarding us so carefully, no one could escape by [climbing] over the barbed wire fences [around the ghetto]. And then the order was given: Everyone was to assemble in the center of the ghetto. Most of the [Ukrainian] policemen in charge of this task were originally from out of town. They even broke into the houses, killing people – mostly men and youths. Our family, which had insisted on staying together, found itself torn apart in the great panic that prevailed in the town. My father and brother Pivel vanished from our sight, and they most probably died in the ghetto, from the bullets of the Ukrainian policemen. My mother, sister, younger brother, and myself joined hands and went together to the square in the center of town, where all the Jews had assembled upon the policemen's orders. The panic that gripped the assembled Jews is indescribable…. The moans, the weeping and screaming of women, children, and elderly people rose up in a single enormous wail. I sensed what was about to happen, but my heart had turned to stone, and I didn't shed a single tear. My mother was crying and wailing terribly, as were all the other terrified mothers. Germans were walking through the crowd, and those who failed to obey their commands were killed on the spot. Upon their orders, the assembled people knelt down in rows, and were forced to empty their pockets, take off their outer garments, and pray for the ascent of the soul.… From there, the people were split into several groups and led off one after the other, with an armed police escort, toward Podvisochye Street. Half an hour after the first group had left [the ghetto], the order was given for the second group to get going. My family and me were in this group. We were several hundred people – mostly elderly individuals, women, and children, with a few young males. As we left the ghetto and entered the "gentile" street, I beheld a sight that I will never forget: the gentiles, standing at the entrances to their homes (waiting for us to move further away from the ghetto), with sacks in their hands, ready to plunder…. We were walking in rows. There were some carts traveling in front of us, probably in order to collect the clothes and belongings that we were carrying – since, as I would later learn, those doomed to die had to remove their clothes before getting inside the pits…. Three armed Germans preceded us, while Ukrainian policemen, armed with rifles, marched behind us. These twenty-thirty people made up the escort in charge of this death convoy. Thus, we made our way along Podvisochye Street – until, suddenly, a commotion arose in the procession. Screams of "Hooray" [warning] were heard. Many began to flee in every direction, and I was [also] among them.…