Murder story of Brody Jews in the Leszniow Forest Area

…Q: How were the people buried? Let’s go back to this question. Well, the bodies of the murdered were picked up…. A: I do not know where the bodies [were taken]…. The bodies [were taken] into the [Leszniów] forest…. An old-timer from Brody… led me to the site where the people had been shot. The Jews… Q: Not at the cemetery? A: Very close to the site where the shootings had taken place, near the Jewish cemetery. There is a very large Jewish cemetery there. This was in a forest….

…I was told by a shepherd from the so-called "small farms" that, in August 1941, several dozen Jews from among the Jewish intelligentsia had been shot in the woods [in the Leszniów Forest] near Brody, in the vicinity of the Jewish cemetery. The shepherd, to whose neighbor I had been summoned to deliver a baby, told me that the bodies of the victims had been thrown into a nearby lime kiln. The shepherd told me that the Jews had been brought there by truck, lined up in a row, and shot dead…

…Shortly after occupying Brody, the Germans carried out a murder operation against the Jewish intelligentsia. Some 500 Jews – doctors, pharmacists, and teachers, including my father – perished in this murder operation. I did not witness the actual massacre; I only know from others that those Jews were invited to the gymnasium in Brody, [on the pretext of resuming] their former jobs. There, they were loaded onto trucks, taken under guard to a spot near the Jewish cemetery outside of town, and shot dead at graves (trenches) that had been dug in advance. This murder operation was carried out by an SS squad, together with the local German rural police. I have learned [about the massacre] from the Jew Treger, who lived near the cemetery and saw everything that happened there.

…I recall that, in August 1941 (I do not remember the exact date), upon the orders of the Judenrat, the intellectuals, the professionals, and some artisans had to assemble in the courtyard of Trejbicz’s residence. I, too, complied with this order. We were some 100-120 persons. We waited there from morning until midday. At about noon, the Gestapo chief from Tarnopol arrived. I do not remember his name, I only remember that he was a tall, slim man, a rather southern type, with a mild face, aged about 40-50. The Gestapo chief carried out a selection in the square. He released the doctors and the members of the Judenrat. The rest – including the teachers (all of them), some of the pharmacists, and some others – were detained. I went home, but learned from others (this was general knowledge) that the detainees (some 70-80 people) had been taken in vehicles into the [Leszniów] Forest (near the Jewish cemetery) and shot dead.

…Two weeks [after the arrival of the Germans in Brody], the first murder operation against the Jewish Communists was carried out – they took away mostly the doctors and the teachers, along with various others. Anyone denounced by the Ukrainians as a communist would be taken away. The teachers and the doctors were told to report for work, and they never came back. [Their] wives and children were taken along with them, and they were [all] shot dead at the Jewish cemetery [near the Leszniów Forest]. Four vehicles were crammed with these people. [There were] 150 or 170 people in total.…

…There was a memorable gathering [of members] of the professional intelligentsia, who had been summoned by the Gestapo under the guise of a briefing regarding their future work. In an attempt to lure the greatest number of attendees, the Gestapo called off the gathering twice. Thus, on the third time, 250 unfortunate, unsuspecting people, along with those caught in the roundup in the town, were taken in vehicles (having first been stripped naked) to the lime kiln in the Leszniów Forest, and shot dead there.…

…[The deputy commandant of the Jewish labor camp in Brody]. He was the murderer of the Jews. During the murder operation in the camp, he shot my brother Psachne [?] with a submachine gun. On that day, during the liquidation and deportation of some of the camp inmates, he fired volleys at the fleeing Jews, killing my brother in the camp square. I then managed to hide in the attic. I was discovered in the attic by a search party and taken back to the square, where the Jew Donner, commander of the Jewish police, asked the [camp?] commandant… to spare my life. Some fifty of us were left to work at the rural police [offices]. All the other Jews were taken into the Leszniów Forest and shot dead over the mass graves that had been dug there. Some 150 people perished at that site.

…As stated above, two or three days later it was announced to some of the people – not to all of them, but only to some of the Jews – that they had to assemble at the town hall, since the governor wished to discuss the future of the town with them. Q: The German governor? A: Yes, and they invited all those with a certain status. Q: Tsipora, in other words, the German governor actually invited the distinguished members of the community? A: Exactly. Q: He wanted to establish a Judenrat? A: Surely, he wanted to establish a Judenrat; he would establish a Judenrat later on, but he had no intention of establishing a Judenrat [at that time]; he did not intend to consult with anyone at the gathering that he had convened. All he wanted was to take all the… let’s say, the pillars of the community, and finish them off. Q: That is, to behead the community? A: Indeed, and that is exactly what happened. Now, my parents did not go. It is interesting that, in the course of a single week, my mother’s attitude changed, after she had seen all this thing with the white armband. I remember that, when they invited my parents, my mother said…. Q: Does this mean that your father was regarded as one of the leaders, a notable? A: Yes, my parents, both my mother and my father, were notable individuals. They were very active, both in the parents' committee and among the merchants. They were also wealthy people, so they enjoyed some standing. And my mother decided that she was not going. She announced it, and I remember my father asking her “Why?” and her answering “They will make a decision without me.” The people were invited at noon…. Q: Does this mean that it was your mother’s decision, that she felt intuitively that it was not a good thing? A: That nothing good would come of it: “They will make a decision without me.” Q: And your father agreed with her position? A: Yes, they both said: “We are not going, they will decide without us.” As I told you earlier, my mother and father were real partners in various matters, and they valued each other's opinions. Q: Give us some examples of people who were invited – the Rabbi, the physician? A: All the physicians, rabbis, pharmacists, teachers – i.e., all those capable of giving moral support to the community, uniting the people. My mother felt so strongly that nothing good would come of this that I remember her standing at the gate and telling several passersby: “You had better not go there.” She cautioned them against going. I do not know what happened there next, but I do know that one of those people decided to go. The next day, we learned that they had murdered everyone during the night, in a forest not far from the town, where we used to pick berries, raspberries, and mushrooms in the good old days. Today, there is a monument to the Jews there. They shot them… at a disused mine, I do not know which one, and they used this place to shoot everyone.…