Murder Story of Ołyka Jews at the Jewish Cemetery in Ołyka

… about six weeks after the Germans entered the town the first murder operation was carried out, during which about 500 Jews out of the total of 3,000 Jews of Ołyka were murdered. From what I heard an Einzatkommando [SS murder squad] carried out this murder operation. [At that time] I saw Germans wearing brown uniforms [of SA men]; they carried out this operation. I was working in the garden near my grandfather's house and suddenly I saw a German pursuing my cousin Asher Fridman, who had just emerged from my grandfather's house. The German entered the house, shot at the ceiling, and left…. I came home and told everyone that [the Germans] were taking people away. We hid in the attic of our home. On that day some Germans came to our house [to take us away as well]. During that murder operation the following members of my family were killed: My maternal grandfather – Rabbi Yehiel Baruch Mintsas (I believe he was taken from the synagogue) My paternal grandfather – Rabbi Yaakov Grinshtein My uncle (the husband of my father's sister) Kahat Fridman, the father of Asher Fridman My uncle (the husband of my mother's sister) Rabbi Itshak…. All the people who were collected on that day were put into the Radziwill Fortress. At first [some young] women were also taken [there]; this included my sister Khava, who later returned home and said that all the women had been released. The men were taken [from the fortress] to the Jewish cemetery, made to dig graves for themselves, and shot to death. The murder operation was carried out by Germans with the assistance of Ukrainian auxiliary police.… Local non-Jews told us that those [Jewish men] who had been carried off were lined up in rows [in front of the mass grave] and shot to death with sub-machine guns.…