The Last Act of the Tragedy

Skalat remained ungoverned for three days after the partisans departed. Understandably, the Jews expected severe reprisals. When the Germans did return, the local Gentile population informed them about the Jewish behavior and that many Jews had left with the partisans. The Germans, on their part, did little about this information at first: they wanted to avoid alarming the camp Jews and to keep them firmly in their grasp.

Such tactics had always served to deceive the Jews before, enabling the Germans, subsequently, to send the Jews to their deaths. In fact, many Jews emerged from hiding and returned to the camp after learning that all was quiet there. By this time there were some one hundred fifty Jews in the camp, working in the quarries outside of Skalat.

The shtetl was officially considered Judenrein. During this period, there were many incidents in which peasants who had been sheltering Jews murdered them themselves or turned them over to the police. Lonek Kleiner and Beryl Pikholz were among those who met their deaths that way. They were bound with barbed wire and then stabbed to death. When old clothes were brought to the camp for sorting and shipment, the inmates could tell at once how many more Jews had been murdered. Often they even recognized the clothes which belonged to friends and relatives.

The administration of the camp no longer indulged in orgies or other weird behavior. People faced life in the re-established camp with ever increasing doubt and concern. They faced the next day's survival with the special awareness of a Jew. They lived with the constant sense of the executioner's presence and in a state of stupor. Their minds were dulled as if under an anesthetic, inhibiting the drive toward self- preservation. If someone did manage to focus, somehow, on the future it was only under the sway of morbid or mystical ponderings, which at that time shaped the imagination. Thoughts of family would weave in and out.

There, in the mass graves outside of the town, lay buried parents, children, the closest relatives and friends. In what way is one better than the rest? Even if rescue were managed - although that was impossible to believe because there were no miracles -what would life be like then? People are no more than beasts: all is destruction. Life is a vale of tears. The world is drowning in blood and fire. And what good things can be expected from anyone? God, the World to Come and Death - these are eternal. Perhaps self sacrifice and sacred death is really the highest achievement one can attain. Why, then, separate oneself from the whole?

But this does not last long. While these gruesome thoughts raced through the mind, suddenly, with a jolt, one would awaken to the prosaic matters: to life at the moment and to the feeling of hunger and pain. One is instantly sobered by the body's demands and the stomach's need for food. The work was oppressive. Days dragged on and the nights were passed in sleepless fear.

The area where the Jews of Skalat still were was called a camp, but everyone knew it was really a lion's den: a trap leading eventually to death. The Schupo remained in constant contact with the camp. Noting the chronic unrest among the inmates, some of the Security Police tried to calm and console them: demonstrating ostensible understanding and sympathy for the tragic plight of the Jews.

One evening in late July of 1943, the Schupo Kommandant, Schneider, came into the camp in a very good mood. He showed interest in every detail of camp life and spoke with the Jews in an “Oh, so friendly” and jolly manner. It almost seemed that a change for the better was about to occur. He even cheered the crowd somewhat by telling hearty jokes and the Jews did try to forget their sorrows for the moment.

Seeing Schneider's open-heartedness and good mood, some Jews dared to ask him about various things, but mostly about what concerned them most: what were the prospects for the Skalat Camp and what would become of the tiny remnant of the Jews? Schneider stared in disbelief at the Jews and their

[Page 64]

fears. “Nothing will happen to you,” he declared. In his great enthusiasm, Nirler presented him with his own gold fountain pen, and Schneider responded with his sacred word of honor that the Jews could remain calm. He guaranteed that there would be no 'actions,' in the Skalat Camp for a few months at the very least. The Jews must just work faithfully and, most important, keep themselves clean. After such assurances, the camp Jews went to sleep with a degree of calmness.

At about 11:00 PM. when the camp was wrapped in slumber, they were all awakened. The Night Watch reported that someone was approaching. For some time now, almost all of them had slept in their clothes out of constant fear and now, in one minute, the entire camp was on its feet -fearfully awaiting what was to transpire. Suddenly the Schupo -member Marold appeared at the entrance breathing heavily. Hurriedly he said: “Run quickly -there's danger!” and then quickly disappeared.

The German Marold apparently had his own personal score to settle with the SS-men and was determined to see their murderous efforts fail. In addition, as noted before, he had been well bribed by the Jews and had promised to warn them in the event of danger.

The Jews began to run in panic, not knowing where to go. Soon most of them, including Nirler and Rus, had vanished somewhere in the darkness of the night. This time, again, there remained behind the old people of the “Shit Brigade,” some women and children, and those bereft of all will to live: some sixty to seventy people in all.

At dawn on 28 July 1943 (25 Tammuz 5703), a group of SS-men arrived from Tarnopol. Obersturmbannfuhrer Rebel was among them, of course. They surrounded the camp building and then dragged all of the Jews they found to the field: to that same mass grave of the previous slaughters. There, with a machine gun, they shot down every one of them.

While the Ukrainian Construction Battalion was burying the bodies, peasants brought them a group of twenty more Jews whom they had caught in the fields. These, too, were shot on the spot and buried in the same grave as the others. It is said that when the captives were led through the town, they were savagely beaten by the village peasants and street toughs who stuck feathers in them and spat in their faces, while bystanders laughed loudly in amusement. It was the closing act in the bloody drama of the Skalat Camp. This final mass murder put an end to Jewish life in Skalat. The town was now truly Judenrein.

Some individual Jews remained hidden with peasants in the surrounding villages. Their situation, however, grew worse from day to day and the toll of victims among them grew steadily. Mordechai Parnes, one of the most honorable members of the former Judenrat, had lost his entire family. He was hiding in Mantiawa. It seems that the peasant there ordered him out and, since he could find no other place to hide, he decided to put an end to his life. In October of 1943 he turned himself in to the Schupo and asked to be shot. The gentleman obliged him. At about the same time, Shimen Chassid also reported to the Schupo. He had been intercepted by peasants, who tried to dissuade him from turning himself in. They even fed him. But he had no alternative, because there was no possibility for him to survive.

The last Jews escaping from Skalat now turned to the nearby forests. They were turning toward life.

[Page 65]

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14