The Knives are Sharpened.

From the first days of the war, the town was gripped by a wild, nervous mood. Instinctively we knew that momentous events were about to occur. The radio brought alarming reports: Heeresgruppe Sud ^[11] under Von Runstedt was advancing on the regions of Galicia and Wolin. Soviet authorities sought to maintain the calm of the civilian population, while preparing themselves to evacuate. During the first days of July, 1941, the Soviets began their orderly withdrawal from the town.

They were accompanied by some 200 Jews, mostly workers, craftsmen and some who simply had good sense and a clear vision. I stress “clear vision” because very few Jews fully understood the danger awaiting them. On the contrary, no matter how fatally foolish it may now appear, there were some, mainly among the more affluent, who thought that living with the Germans might be easier than with the Bolsheviks. Realistically, where was one to run? To Russia, the Red Hell? Or, at least, that was how those Jews assessed the situation. Another part, the majority of the Jewish population, simply thought: how can we leave our homes and go off into exile? And so the Jews left their fate in the hands of God and to the future.

On 3 July, the Soviet civil administration, the police and the armed detachments left the town. Only a few soldiers remained behind to carry out specific assignments and the town was left without a government. On the deserted streets, underworld characters and various peasants from the neighborhood sought opportunities for robbery and other adventures.

At the first signal of the impending conflagration, the beginning of agitation and turmoil occurred - even before German jackboots marched into town. A peasant named Hilko Kory (some say he was called Krupa) said to the Jews: “Wait. Just wait, you kikes. Hitler's coming soon and we'll slaughter you all like chickens!” A Soviet soldier, hearing of the incident, was outraged by such talk. He tracked down the peasant, dragged him off into the fields and left him there dead. The incident enraged the already excited peasants and provided the village of Krzywe with an excuse to carry out an act of vengeance on the few Jewish families living nearby. They murdered them all in a beastly fashion. Blaming his death on the Jews, the executed peasant was declared a “holy martyr.”

The peasants in town and in the surrounding villages were stirred up. They began sharpening their knives for the coming slaughter. At midnight on Friday, 4 July, we heard the continuous sound of machine guns and the detonations of exploding grenades. At 2:00 AM the first German patrol arrived on motorcycles, surveyed the neighborhood and called out over loudspeakers: “Ukrainian brothers, awake!” There really was no need to rouse them as they were already wide awake, ready to help the German soldiers -especially in robbing and killing the Jews, who were fleeing in all directions. At 5:00 AM on Saturday, 5 July, the regular German troops arrived. Joy was widespread among the Ukrainians. They dressed in their holiday clothes decorated with ribbons in the blue and yellow of their national colors. Ukrainian flags decorated their houses and here and there fluttered red banners with the Nazi swastika. Carrying floral bouquets, and with songs on their lips, Ukrainians came to greet their German liberators. They danced and kissed in the streets.

Later that Sabbath morning, some Jews walked openly and unhesitatingly to services, carrying their prayer shawls, as though nothing had happened. Others, - in truth, very few - went off to admire the German military equipment. Today it sounds incomprehensible, but some Jews were convinced that so cultured a people as the Germans would not harm anyone. Besides they believed that now they would be more secure: before there had been danger from the enraged goyim, ^[12] but now there would be law and order.

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At first they seemed right: the German military harmed no one. On the contrary, they spoke in a friendly manner to the Jews, boasting of their swift and heroic deeds against the Reds. These Jews later argued with others: “Fools, what are you hiding for? Are they harming anyone?” Some affluent Jews, though not all, naively thought that even if the worst were to occur, it would not affect them but the “Eighth Company.” ^[13] Therefore, these people felt, let the Socialists or Bolsheviks worry, but not the well-off. The Germans themselves know that the prosperous ones were also victims of the Red regime. The new rulers would probably return the land, the confiscated wealth and the nationalized houses. Thus some deluded people reasoned. They quickly learned, however, how such foolish optimism had clouded their minds.

At around 10:00 in the morning, several battalions came to a halt in the shtetl, while other troops continued their “triumphal march” eastward. The Commander of the SS brigade, so that his troops might “have some fun,” gave the order: Tzen minuten shlachten Juden! ^[14] The soldiers passed the order on to each other and quickly leaped from their automobiles, tanks and other armored vehicles and ran to the very center of town. Sweaty, begrimed from the long ride, in shirt sleeves with the cuffs rolled up, they ran about like wild wolves, firing their guns. First they assaulted Jews encountered on the streets. The first victim was Efraim Diener, ^[15] hose beard they cut along with part of his face. The bullets fired at him missed, miraculously. The murderers were in a hurry and left the victim, who had fainted, on the ground.

Peasant children and some of their elders ran after the raiders, pointing out Jude! ^[16] Jude! The town was thrown into turmoil and gripped by panic. Germans ran after the fleeing Jews, shooting at them constantly. They chased Mordechai Orenstein (the milkman) and his wife down to the riverbank and drove them into the water. They fired at them until their bodies sank, leaving only red stains on the surface. Then some Germans, led by Ukrainian peasant children, ran among the houses, shooting at each pointed out Jew. Other soldiers raided homes: ostensibly searching for weapons and hidden Bolsheviks, while robbing, defacing and destroying the contents of the homes. The allotted ten minutes sufficed to turn the town upside down, to leave some twenty Jews killed and an equal number wounded. Some were slightly wounded and others seriously. The Jews sought to hide wherever they could. Their homes, now unguarded, fell prey to the Ukrainian peasants and the Polish town hoodlums, who rioted for hours afterwards. They stole whatever they could, and beat, unmercifully, any Jew that they found.

This was but the prologue to the slaughter of the following day, conducted entirely under the direction of the newly appointed Ukrainian administrators.

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