Murder Story of Lwów Jews in the Prison on Zamarstynowska Street in Lwów

On July 1, 1941 a terror against the Jewish population started in our neighborhood. Ukrainian militia[men] recognizable by their armbands burst into the houses. Jewish dwellers, women and men, were dragged out of their houses. By a stroke of luck the house in which I lived at the time was spared by these actions. Jewish residents dragged out of their houses were taken toward Zamarstynowska Street. As I learned already on the same day, these people were brought to a former prison at Zamarstynowska Street. Later I learned that hundreds of bodies were discovered in that prison. The On their way to the prison, as well as at the entrance to the prison and in prison's yard Jews driven out of their houses were abused by a mob and by Ukrainian militia[men]. The Jews herded into the prison yard were told that they are about to go to work. In reality, however, it was a pogrom. Out of hundreds of Jews only few managed to flee. The majority of them was murdered in prison yard. Among these were members of my uncle's family, Max, Sarah, Lonek and Isidor Brand who lived in prison's vicinity. I learned about this from my Jewish acquaintances who managed to escape and from Polish eyewitness who told me with abhorrence about this massacre. I also told that German officers and soldiers attended this massacre, spurred the mob to the murders with cynical remarks and then took themselves the pictures...

...Everything began on Wednesday morning, July 2. The retreating Soviets left behind three prisons... the prison at the former military headquarters on Zamarstynowska Street.... [Its] population consisted mostly of criminals and political prisoners from the Lwów area. Many of them had been executed and buried in prison courtyard.... The Gestapo decided to reap a propaganda benefit.... For that purpose, Jews were to dig up the graves in the presence of a special commission, the work would be photographed, and the German propaganda machine would thereby acquire first-class material... After that, all hell broke loose. The Germans seized Jews in their homes and on the streets and forced them to work in the prisons. For that purpose they called upon the services of the Ukrainian police force, which they had set up recently. The Polish and Ukrainian populace rendered whole-hearted assistance to the Germans.... Every morning over one thousand Jews were assembled and would then be split up among the three prisons. Several hundred were put to work right away breaking open the concrete floors and removing the corpses. Other Jews were packed into a small courtyard or some prison cell and shot. Not all the unlucky ones who were assigned the job of opening the graves returned to their homes. Some, having fainted from the stench from the graves, were dragged out and shot immediately.... Wearing gas masks, the German taskmasters, officers and soldiers, strolled among the Jewish workers with taunting cries such as "sweet is the vengeance." Great crowds of the "Aryan" residents of Lvov attended this horrendous spectacle. The prison square, the courtyard, the hallways were filled with people who looked on with gleeful satisfaction and with an unconcealed Schadenfreude. From time to time hysterical voices could be heard: "Shoot them, the murderers!" Here and there a hand rose to help a German hit the Jews. In the first days of the occupation, over three thousand Jews perished in the Lvov prisons....

…The slaughter started immediately…. The hunt for Jewish men and women went on unabatedly. Several thousand were herded into the prison … on Zamarstynowska [Street]…. The captives were unmercifully tortured and many shot….