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the brick factory stood and where four long deep
pits had been dug out previously for this purpose.
These mass graves had been dug out three months
before by the same Jews as forced laborers. At that
time, the Jews were told the pits were dug to
produce clay for bricks and pots. All the Jews who
had been hiding and had tried to escape from the
city were caught and killed. Not one of them was
left alive.
Some Jews did not run away but were hiding
in their schronen [hiding shelters] in their own
homes. My own family, 15 of us, were hiding in
a kitchen cellar hideout, passing through a secret
opening that led through a long tunnel out of the
house (underground) below an apple tree. This
was a space about 20 feet square, which had been
dug out long before in anticipation. We had no
long-range supplies of food, and neither did we
have water or air. Above us in our houses, the
murderers were digging, tearing out floors, destroying
wallseverything. One group of murderers
left only to be replaced by a second group,
until nighttime, when the Ukrainians, trying not
to be noticed by the Germans, began to loot and
rob. A couple of Jews were shot in the street near
US.
We were as if made of stone. We had neither
food nor water. We came to such a point that we
ate raw potatoes and sucked on the wet roots of
the apple tree. We spent thus eight days of
torture. When we could not bear it any more, we
tried to risk our lives by climbing out of our
hiding place with every bit of energy left us. As
we came out (nine of us at first) we saw two rows
of police, but we managed to evade them and to
go a little distance away, while light from rockets
flew all around us and we were shot at. We were,
however, able to escape and reach a village.
Meanwhile in the town, the Jews were daily
being pulled out of their hiding places and murdered.
In the town, outside the town, in the villages,
fields and roads, are scattered hundreds of
unmarked graves of martyred Jews shot by the
Germans and Ukrainians. A couple of hours before
the October "action," two groups of armed
Jewish youths had left Libivne. We never heard
from one of the groups againthey were killed
fighting with the Ukrainians in the villages. Out
of the second group, only two Jews survived-
THE ANNIHILATION 249
one is my childhood friend, Avrom Getman.
That's how I found out about the two armed Jewish
groups.
Some Jews were able to escape to Polish and
Ukrainian villages (among them was my family)
where some were gradually killed off by those
"friendly" peasants who previously knew them.
We had escaped from Libivne in a group of 15
(including a relative refugee from Ludmir) After
two months, only six of us remained alive: my
parents, sister and my two brothers; and we were
suffering greatly. We were swollen with hunger
and our extremities were frozen; we wore the
same underwear and clothes for 24 months; we
were covered with lice that reigned over our
bodies, since we could not wash. If we were in
one place in the daytime, we slept in another one
at night. We ate grass (if we could find it). By day,
the Germans and the Ukrainian police were
looking for us; at night the Ukrainian villagers
and nationalists.
We must have died a thousand times before
we reached the partisans. Moreover, which partisans
should we join? Except for small Jewish
units, they were killing Jews too.
Thus we suffered a whole winter, until 1943.
The sun was up; it was spring; but for whom?
Certainly not for us, the exhausted Jews; nature
was awakening, but not for us Jews, for us the days
were growing darker.
The murderers were not yet satiated with our
Jewish blood; they were looking for more Jews
day and night, night and day. Sometimes, we
had to change our place of hiding several times
a day. Life became so bitter that we finally came
secretly to the town to see Pan Lachor, a Polish
gentile we knew, and bribed him by promising
him all sorts of treasures. After we had been hidden
by him for two months German gendarmes
and Einsatzgruppen [special action groups] came
looking for partisans and remnants of the Jews.
The murderers came within 6 feet of our hiding
place and stayed there for a whole month. During
all that time we did not sleep and barely breathed.
We witnessed numerous times how they tortured,
tormented, and killed partisans and hidden
Jews whom they found. We were evidently
made of steel to be able to watch this and remain
alive.