Murder story of Złoczów Jews in Złoczów

…Horrible things happened in Złoczów. [Jews] were massacred mercilessly. The Ukrainian Fascists rampaged through the streets, brandishing bloody knives and axes. Whoever fell into their hands would die a martyr's death. We received a letter with an account of all this from a cousin, who had pretended to be dead in the square….

…The terrible, unforgettable day of July 3, 1941 began at 7 AM. SS soldiers, together with Ukrainians, went through the houses and drove the people – big and small, old and young – into the street; the sick and the elderly were shot dead right away. My brother was caught in the street. I was able to hide in the house. They were looking for Jews in cellars and attics, and those they found would be horribly beaten, or shot dead right away. Then, I heard a mass outcry in the street. It was followed by a tumult, and I realized that something terrible was going on out there. Through the window of my hiding place, I saw the Jews running through our yard, which served as a passage between the streets. They were desperate to save themselves from the SS men and the Ukrainians, who were chasing after them with pitchforks, sticks, and spades, beating them on the head and firing at their backs, leaving the victims behind….

…On Wednesday, July 2, 1941, the leaders of the nationalistically-minded Ukrainian intelligentsia gathered in the hall of the Ukrainian Casino. A thirty-strong committee was set up there, and its members included the merchants Antoniak, Mudry, Alyszkewicz, and Dzwonnik; the lawyers Wanio and Joiko; the physician Gilewicz; the teachers Symczyszyn, Sobolewa, Wanio's wife, and his daughter; the public officials Lewicki and Krawczuk; the priest Mykietyn; Hupalowski, Pawlyszyn, and others. The committee decided that one of its first tasks was to organize and carry out an anti-Jewish pogrom. This pogrom was to be a political act on the part of the Ukrainian nationalists, and therefore it needed to be a mass action – both in terms of the number of participants, and in terms of its outcome. It also had to be “legally” sanctioned. A legal pretext, which would make the pogrom popular among the broad Ukrainian masses, was promptly found. On the very first day of the war, the Ukrainian nationalists had carried out acts of sabotage against the Russian authorities. The Russians retaliated with mass arrests, and they shot all the arrestees before retreating. The execution took place at the municipal prison, which was then located in the fortress, and the victims were buried there, as well. The Ukrainian committee issued a proclamation declaring that they held the Jews of Złoczów responsible for the deaths of the nationalists. This lie spread quickly, creating a fertile soil for a pogrom. The committee, in its proclamation, called upon all the people to take revenge against the Jews for the shed “innocent” blood…. The Germans greeted this Ukrainian initiative with pleasure, accepted their plan, and promised to give them all manner of assistance in this regard. The pogrom was scheduled for July 3, 1941. It was a Thursday. The Jews of Złoczów, who had weathered the calamities of the first two days, comforted themselves with the thought that everything would settle down and return to normal. The people stayed indoors, waiting for the heated mood to cool off. None of [the Jews] (or very few of them, at most) knew what their enemies had in store for them. On that day, at 7 AM, the Ukrainians, wearing yellow-blue armbands and armed to the teeth, descended upon the Jewish residences. By carrot or stick, they lured everyone outside, telling them that they would go to work. Since everyone was eager to work, no matter where, many got out readily on their own. They all had to bring out the tools of their trade. To a certain degree, this quieted the people down and filled them with confidence. However, this feeling evaporated as soon as they left their homes. The enraged mob was rampaging through the streets. It surrounded the Jews and began to herd them to the fortress, which the murderers had selected as the assembly point. The committee’s incitement fell on fertile soil. The people had come en masse from the surrounding area. Naturally, they all carried bags, in the expectation of heavy looting. The young and the old alike participated in this “holy” work. The ten-year-old urchins chased after elderly Jews, beating them brutally; the adult Christians tortured innocent children and made fun of their suffering. The murderers derived particular pleasure from grabbing elderly, sick Jews or pregnant women. Whoever was caught praying would not be allowed to remove their prayer shawl and phylacteries, but was chased through the streets wearing them. Mercy was an alien concept to the murderers. They beat [the Jews] with whatever was at hand: sticks, iron rods, and spades. In their hands, any innocent tool became a murderous weapon. Most of the rounded-up Jews never got as far as the fortress, the gathering point, but were simply murdered straight away. While the sick and the frail fell to the first blows, the strong had to endure protracted torment. Their bodies were tortured systematically, and they were doomed to a slow death. There were stories about the death of Hersz Tabak: He was one of the healthiest young people. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and stood out thanks to his extraordinary physical strength. The murderers dragged him to the cemetery, where a certain chimneysweep named Serba hit him over the body and the head with a monkey wrench, until he dropped down, bleeding. He was tortured and kicked until he expired…. Even more gruesome was the death of Dowid Lwow. When the murderers began to torture him, he did not beg for mercy, but boldly cried "Shema Yisrael!" A German SS man, unable to bear his cries, fired at him. To everyone’s surprise, Dowid Lwow did not drop down, and the Shema Yisrael continued to fly from his heart. The SS man fired a second shot at him, and then a third, but these had no more effect than the first one. His soul was reluctant to leave the healthy body, and Dowid Lwow clung to his faith, exclaiming the Shema with his last strength. The SS man became confused. The patriarchal countenance and extraordinary strength of this Jew scared him, and he retreated. At that moment, a local Ukrainian jumped to Dowid Lwow and split his head in two with a spade. The Shema remained hanging in the air. One of the most pious Jews of Złoczów was dead. It is also difficult to forget the terrible death of a rabbinical judge from Kossow, Elenberg. He was praying at the very moment when he was dragged out of his house, tied by his beard to a motorbike, and dragged through the streets, until his body became a formless, bloody, fleshy mess. The cries of pain of the tortured and murdered Jews filled the air. All those who still were in their homes understood from the cries what was going on outside.… Death lurked everywhere. Some of the Jews, who had Christian friends, tried to find sanctuary with them. However, few succeeded in this. Most paid with their lives for their illusions. Salek Parnes can serve as an example. Salek Parnes had a Christian wife, whom he had married shortly before [the occupation]. They loved each other. And yet, on the very first day, when the Germans entered their apartment, she denounced her husband as a Jew, even though it was difficult to identify his racial origins. The Germans interrogated him. He managed to escape, but was later killed by them. The fate of the young Friedlender also became widely known. On that dreadful day, the Jewish workers from the Złoczów cannery managed to avoid thousands of dangers and reach their workplace. Since the cannery had been built and owned by the Jew Oskar Robinson, who was known for his fair treatment of the workers, regardless of their origins, the Jewish employees believed that their Christian coworkers would help them in these hard times. However, they were bitterly disappointed. They [the Christians] let them enter the cannery, gave them a friendly reception, and then, when the gates were closed, they drew the knives. Friedlender, a fourteen-year old girl who stayed there with her father, was first molested by the murderers, and then brutally murdered; her father had to watch it with his own eyes. Some of the Jewish workers managed to escape from their “friends” and save their lives…. It is not an accident that most of the Orthodox Jews were annihilated on the very first day…. Chane Opper, granddaughter of the great Złoczów Rabbi Faiwl Rohatiner, a woman in her sixties, declined all of her neighbors' proposals to hide her. At the height of the pogrom, she sat alone in her house, reading the Psalms. A gang of murderers led by a janitor burst into her apartment and drove her to the gathering place. All along the way, she kept reciting the Psalms. Because of her age, the barbarians treated her with exceptional brutality…. At the same time, the murderers did not forget that the pogrom also had to include attacks on houses of worship. A group of Ukrainians led by SS men made their way to the prayer houses. They cracked open the doors, looted all the valuable objects, and destroyed the rest. They gathered all the holy scriptures and set fire to them. Few know of the heroic deed of Chaim-Joel Horn. Chaim Joel Horn was a simple man of the people. Throughout his life, he had served as a servant [shamash] at the Great Synagogue, and, like most of the synagogue servants, he was very poor. He had a large family; however, the synagogue was his home. He dedicated all his time to it, from dawn to dusk. On the day of the pogrom, he could not bring himself to stay at home. He wanted to be where he always was – at the synagogue. Heedless of the begging of his wife and children, at the very height of the pogrom, the old, fragile Chaim-Joel made his way through the town and reached the synagogue, where the butchers were already rioting. It is difficult to grasp what happened next. Chaim-Joel rescued a Torah scroll from the flames and began to flee with it. The murderers watched him with contempt and amusement, and, when he reached the small bridge over the river, they shot after him. The bullets hit him, and Chaim Joel dropped into the water, together with the Torah scroll. Several days later, the body of Chaim-Joel Horn washed out, his hands still tightly gripping the rescued Torah-scroll….

...Before the war and during the occupation, I lived in Złoczów. In the very first days after the arrival of German troops, an anti-Jewish pogrom erupted, and it lasted three days. Mueller, who would later become chief of the Tarnopol Gestapo, was in charge of this pogrom operation. During the pogrom, I was hiding in my apartment, and I saw through the window the Germans and Ukrainians murder, beat, and shoot the Jews….