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killed there. In spite of the danger, a few Jews
went to the cemetery in order to make sure, and
there they found a large grave and discovered the
victims.
A special incident was the cutting of the
beards. Jews were caught and their beards forcibly
cut; most were pulled out by the roots. Not
three weeks went by and another "hunting party"
went out. In three days, 300 men and women were
summarily arrested and taken to an unknown destination.
But it soon was known that all 300 souls
were murdered in the Borki forest (a place where
the Jews of Luboml had often gone hiking), and
there they were buried.
Again a new edict: to concentrate in a ghetto,
formed from a part of the street that led to the
railroad, for those who were still physically strong
and could workthey received "red" certificatesand
Brisk Street for the rest of the Jews.
Everyone was forced into this section of the city
even though the buildings had been damaged in
the fire and there were those who lived 15 to a
MOM.
There were no barbed-wire fences as in
other ghettos, but sentries were posted to see
that no one got out. Those who went out of the
ghetto to work were accompanied by guards
and were brought back into the ghetto after
work, tired and depressed. The Jews were
careful not to leave the ghetto. The Germans
ordered that we prepare provisions for the
transfer to the ghetto, and every Jew bought
food and supplies with whatever money he
had left. The following day, the Germans sent
the Ukrainian police, who searched and found
the foodand confiscated it.
One day, while conducting a search, the
Germans accidentally found in the Great Synagogue
the Purim Megillah in its black holder, and
they defamed it, saying: "This is probably a list
of curses against the Fuhrer." All the explanations
by the Jews were to no avail and the order
went out to burn all Torah scrolls, along with the
Megillah. Fifty young women were made to bring
the Torah scrolls out into the street and burn
them under the watchful eyes of the Germans
and the Ukrainian police. On that autumn day,
there was a strong wind, and the Ukrainians who
THE ANNIHILATION 277
witnessed it said it was the anger of God for the
burning of the Holy Scriptures.
For over a year the Germans forced the Jews
to work in the lumber mill, in building the railroad,
in the forests and in digging trenches, etc.
Jews were hitched to wagons like horses and
forced to drag heavy loads from warehouses, the
flour mills, etc. Food was given to the workers
grudginglya half-pound of bread daily, a quart
of milk a week. It was forbidden to buy anything
from the farmers.
There was no limit to the extreme brutality of
the conquerors. For instance, when a Ukrainian
woman was caught with a chicken and was
forced to reveal which Jew it was for, she told
them the name of a hat-maker she knew-
Nachman Shtreicher the hat-maker, a father of
seven childrenand he was arrested and killed.
When the three daughters of Meyer Melamed and
Dovid Melamed who worked on the railroad
were caught while exchanging kerchiefs for bread
and milk [and eggs; see previous story), they were
arrested and sentenced to death. These sentences
were posted publicly. Jews were forbidden to come
in contact with Christians.
In the area near the brickworks outside the
town, piles of clay that had been dug grew higher
and higher. The Jews were placed between these
to dig the pits even deeper, and an engineer
would come to measure the results. The Jews
were afraid and suspected these pits were going
to become their graves, but those who oversaw
the work denied this, and the authorities, who
were always "receiving" nice presents, promised
that nothing bad would happen.
In the days between Rosh Hashana and Yom
Kippur of 1942, there was a lot of talk in the
ghetto about a final round-up, on a large scale.
Young people found ways of getting weapons
from Ukrainian youths, prepared bunkers, tried to
get food that was almost nonexistent and, most
importantly, tried to protect lives. And this was
not in vain. Members of the Judenrat went to the
commissar with "presents," among them an inlaid
menorah, in order to appease him, and they
tried to find out the meaning of the pits, etc. He
received those presents and dismissed the fears of
the Jews, explaining the pits were for clay and that