Murder story of Krymno Jews in the Pesotskoye Tract

… At the beginning of the fall of 1942 all the Jews who had been interned in the ghetto were taken under guard by [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen to the Pesotskoye tract and were shot to death there. Just before this murder operation, in the morning, Kiril Gorbaryuk, the chief [of the Ukrainian auxiliary police] of the Krymno area, collected all the policemen. Then from Zabłocie the chief of [the Zabłocie area] Gendarmerie Sitzler arrived by car with the gendarmes Wagner and Kaminski and also Nikolai Dufanets [the head of Ukrainian auxiliary police of Zabłocie area], with a group of 30 policemen from the Zabłocie police area. Then Dufanetz informed everyone about the impending shooting of the Jews and said that all the policemen were to participate [in this murder operation] by taking the doomed to the shooting site and guarding them during the shooting to prevent them from escaping. Then, on orders from Dufanets, the policemen surrounded the ghetto [in Krymno] and took all the Jews to the lake [near the village]. As I recall now, by this time about 10 policemen from the Kowel [rural order] police [i.e. Gendarmerie] … arrived at the village of Krymno and [also] several Germans [SS men], who also took part in taking the doomed ones to the murder site. When the Jews were collected near the lake, their rabbi delivered a speech, then they were formed into a column and taken under guard by the policemen to the Pesotskoye tract, where a pit had been dug. During the convoying of the Jews, the policemen, including me, were walking on both sides of the line with rifles in our hands. At the Pesotskoye tract the doomed civilians were collected near the northern edge of the pit. Soon afterwards, on orders from Dufanets the doomed ones were stripped naked; afterwards [entire] families were forced into the pit and forced to lie down inside facedown, and then Dufanets began shooting them. I should add that the first families went to the southern edge of the pit, where I was guarding and that I saw Dufanets from a distance of 4-6 meters. Dufanets carried out the shooting of Jews while standing on the top, at the edge of the pit. He was shooting … single shots from a machine-gun. Later Dufanets was replaced by Sitzler, who also shot several families to death. Then the shooting was carried out again by Dufanets. When the shooting of the Jews was over, Nikolai Dufanets walked around the pit and finished off with his pistol those who showed some signs of life.…

… In the fall of 1942 all the Jews interned in the ghetto were shot to death at the [Pesotskoye] tract by Kaminski and Wagner [Gendarmerie men from Zabłocie] and also by a group of the subordinate to me [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen from the Zabłocie [regional] police. The chief of [Kowel] County Gendarmerie [Philipp] Rapp also arrived in Krymno with a group of Kowel policemen. At my order the policemen surrounded the ghetto and all the doomed Jewish civilians were take to the lake. Afterwards the doomed civilians were formed in a column and taken under guard of the policemen to the Pesotskoye tract and assembled near the pit. Then on my order the Jewish civilians were stripped naked, [entire] families were forced into the pit and [ordered to] lay there with their faces dawn, afterwards I, being positioned above, on the edge of the pit, began shooting them with PPSH machine-gun … by single shots. After I had shot to death several families, my magazine was finished, I was replaced by Sitzler [a chief of Zabłocie area Gendarmerie]. After putting another magazine, I then finished off with a machine gun those who showed any signs of life. I remember that the shooting of Jews was also carried out by Wagner and Rapp….

… In the summer of 1942 Gendarmerie members [German rural order police] carried out a mass shooting of the Jewish residents [of Krymno and its environs]. [Several months before] the entire Jewish population of [Zabłocie] County, numbering about 400, was collected at Krymno. About 90 skilled workers who had been selected from this number, were sent to Zabłocie. In the village of Krymno the Jews were incarcerated in a camp [i.e. a ghetto]. In June or July [sic, for September] 1942 a special SS murder squad arrived from [the city of] Kowel. The SS murder squad, Zabłocie Gendarmerie and [Ukrainian auxiliary] police carried out the shooting of the Jews who had been incarcerated in the camp in Krymno. A long pit [had been dug]. The shooting was carried out in groups. [First] one group was shot to death, then another group was taken to the site. The total number of those shot to death at the site was 800 [sic, for 400]. … The shooting in the village of Krymno was led by the chief of Kowel's [regional] Gendarmerie captain [Philipp] Rapp, and the head of the Zabłocie Gendarmerie … Sitzler. …

… On September 6, 1942 [Nikolai] Dufanets [a chief of Ukrainian auxiliary police of Zabłocie area] and Sitzler [the Gendarmerie chief of Zabłocie area] with a big group of policemen arrived in Krymno, and several Germans [SS men] arrived [there] as well. After their arrival, the chief of Krymno [Ukrainian auxiliary] police [Kirill] Gorbaruk announced us, the local [Ukrainian] policemen that we would participate in the shooting of Jews who had been interned in the ghetto. He also warned us that during this murder operation we should be vigilant, not letting the Jews to escape this punishment [i.e. murder]. After this briefing/instruction I, policeman Bubela and others… drove all the Jews from the ghetto to the Domashneye Lake, where they were searched for valuables that were taken from them, then, with my participation they were taken under guard to the Pesotskoye tract, located approximately 2 kilometers from the ghetto, where they were gathered near a big pit. During the convoying of the Jews to the shooting, the [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen with weapons in their hands were moving … at the distance of about 5-6 meters from each other. During the convoying I was positioned from the left site of the column. At the murder site the policemen encircled the doomed to death people, afterwards, as I can remember now, the victims [were forced] to take off their clothes, and while being in their underwear or naked they were shot to death in the pit by Dufanets and Sitzler. The victims were forced by families into the pit, laid with their faces down and while lying on earth they were shot to death. When the pit was filled with the bodies, another victims [were forced] to lie on the top of the bodies. Screaming and noise were [heard] at the murder site.… During this murder operation I was located about 10 meters from the pit, with a ready rifle I was watching that no one would escape.… During about 2 hours all the victims were shot to death and the policemen from Zabłocie police who participated in this murder operation left, while we went to the police station. Among those shot to death were my fellow-villagers: Bunya and his son, Moshko with a family of 4, Yankel with a family of 4-5 and others whose last name I can't remember now.…

… It was on September 5, 1942. [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen Krychuk told me to take with me a shovel and come after him. He collected about 10 men with shovels and took us to the Pesotskoye tract.… When we arrived in the Pesotskoye tract, there had been already 3 [Ukrainian] policemen. They ordered us to dig a pit of 20 meters [length], 4 meters [width] and 2 meters depth. We began digging, after an hour or two another 10 men arrived with shovels from the village of Lubosziny. Until midnight the pit was ready.… The next day we were released home to have a dinner and ordered to came back … [to the ghetto]. Here, on 4 a.m. on September 6, 1942 the [Ukrainian] policemen drove the Jews from the ghetto, formed them in a column and took them towards the Pesotskoye tract. The column was stretched up to 150 meters. Policemen encircled the column. We were told to go with the shovels at the end of the column. [Upon arriving to the murder site], near the pit an order was given [to the Jews] to strip naked.… Whole families were ordered to get inside the pit and lie with their faces down. [Nikolai] Dufanets was shooting [them] to death from a machine-gun. I was located about 20 from the pit, [standing] in the bushes. The whole shooting lasted for two hours. When all were shot to death, we were ordered to cover the pit. When we were throwing the earth into the pit, there were people there who were still moving. Dufanets was turning around the pit, finishing off [those still alive] with his pistol. One Jewish woman who turned out to be alive, asked Dufanets to have mercy on her and take her out of the pit. Dufanets told her: "I'll take you out right away" and shot her in the head with his pistol.… [During the shooting] people were forced by families into the pit, lied with their face down and were shot to death. There were screaming, old and little ones were screaming. They were getting inside the pit by themselves since this was an order. When [afterwards] we had covered the pit, I and Kirill Bandura were ordered to go and take carts. After about an hour we arrived on two carts [back] to the pit. The policemen loaded onto the carts the clothes of those shot to death and we took it to the school building, and only afterwards we were allowed to go home.…