Murder story of Pilyava Jews at the Alekseyevka Stone Quarry

On July [sic for August] 19, 1941, the first [sic] pogrom in Pilyava took place. [The Germans] announced [to the Jews] that everyone would be evacuated. [Therefore,] it was necessary to take absolutely everything, and those who had valuables [were to bring them along; the people had] to assemble in the [town] square, dressed in their best. Those who failed to show up would be shot on the spot. Thus, all the Jews were assembled there. A [small] part of them were taken away, including my sister and her two daughters. The rest of them stayed behind.… In short, here is [the town of] Pilyava; here is a little bridge, and there is [the village of] Alekseyevka. There were two Jewish families living in Alekseyevka. There was a man there who used to be very wealthy; he worked as a manager for the landowner; I have forgotten his name.… Tereshenko.… He went away and said: "Jews, put on your best clothes; we are being taken to our deaths; we won't be coming back." Well, there were some who believed [him], while others didn't believe. But when they had all been lined up [in rows], and as they were being driven to the village of Alekseyevka, there was one healthy man [among the Jews] – I don't remember his last name, but I do know that his first name was Hershl – who turned away and shouted: "Why are we going willingly, like a flock of sheep? Let's fight!" He was killed…on the spot, you see.… and they were driven toward the Vilnya [area] …, and there, in Vilnya, when I was a little boy, there used to be deep pits, awfully deep pits, [which were known as the stone] quarry. And thus, these people were taken there: Some were forced to undress, while others were not stripped naked, and [some] were thrown [into the quarry] alive. All of them were annihilated. At night – Timashuk told me all that, and I fully believed him – one of the boys managed to get out [of the mass grave]; there was a family named Parduler, and they had a lot of children. He got out – alive, but evidently injured. They used to live on the outskirts [of Pilyava], near the river, toward the mill. And so, he was standing there, washing himself. And [at that moment], a passerby saw him, and on the second day he was killed.… The boy was killed.….