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286 LUBOML
gold chains, silver cups for blessing the sacramental
wine, beautiful silver Sabbath candlesticks,
etc.
A month went by after the first slaughter.
Early on Thursday morning of August 22, 1941,
the town was surrounded by the Gestapo men
and their Ukrainian helpers. The closed autos
came again and Jewish men and women were
again seized and taken to the headquarters. This
slaughter lasted not one but all of eight days! It
went on continually day and night leaving only
widows and orphans alive. It was a dreadful
sightthe grabbing of people and throwing them
into big closed cars! There was nowhere to hide.
The Ukrainian neighbors, anti-Semites, refused
to let us in and stood watching and laughing and
making snide remarks that we were being punished
for the sins of our forefathers who had
murdered Jesus.
Two of my brothers, Meyer and Shmuel (z"1),
were captured, but by a miracle they succeeded
in escaping from the headquarters. The other
Jews were taken to the Skiber Woods, which had
huge deep pits, and were exterminated. This
bloody action was accomplished by the SS with
the aid of the Ukrainian militia.
When things quieted down , the remaining
Jews could not believe this had happened. When
they began to ask peasants whether any of them
had seen where the Jews had been taken, not all
of them wanted to tell us the truth. But those
peasants who lived near the woods told us they
had heard shooting and later had seen the bodies
of the murdered Jews.
This second slaughter destroyed almost the
entire Jewish population of Libivne. The town
lost its finest and best youth; only a few women
with their children were left. There were very few
Jewish men to be seen in the street after that.
After both actions ended, everything quieted
down a bit. But soon a new evil decree came: The
Jews were to take off the white bands and put on
yellow patches, 3 inches in diameter: one in front
and one in the back. Even children with no
understanding of what was happening had to
wear them. The first patches were put on exactly
on Yom Kippur. When the holidays were over, a
new decree met usthe ghetto, to which all Jews
were forced to move.
The ghetto included Kusnishtcher (November
11) Street. Overcrowding made the suffering
of the Jews even worse: 12 to 15 people were
forced to live in one room; later came hunger and
dirt! Even more tragic was the moral degradation
we felt in contrast with the peasants. Those Jews
who had a trade lived separately on Koleyova
Street. They had red identification cards which
they called "gold passes." They were led to work
by the militia every day, never sure of their lives.
It was not long before a new order came to the
Judenrat, telling them to provide 100 men to
drive horses to Poltava. Only 11 of those men
came backthe rest were butchered!
Winter came and the Germans ordered the
Judenrat to provide a quota of fur coats for them.
This too was fulfilled.
In January of 1942, the murderers again came
with closed autos and began to catch Jews. Those
they caught they beat with their leather whips so
hard that the snow was covered with blood. They
took the Jews to the movie house, where they
were watched by the Ukrainian police. But they
were released a week later. We spent the winter in
dread and in pain. The Jews built bunkers in their
houses as hiding places. But no matter how hard
the winter was, all of us wished it to last longer,
for we foresaw that worse was yet to come with
the end of winter.
In fact, as the winter months of 1941-42
passed and the sun came out again in the spring,
it did not shine on us Jews. No matter how harsh
the winter had been and what dreadful fears we
had experienced, yet we had been hoping that,
with God's help, the foe would be vanquished.
When the winter was over, however, we were
exhausted! All our hopes had been for naught, for
new actions, new decrees, and new liquidations
came upon us.
For Passover, the Judenrat paid the town
commandant Uhde a large bribe to allow us to
bake matzos. Oh how difficult it was for us to get
flour! My brother Meyer risked his life to bring
flour illegally from Masheve. Someone betrayed
him by reporting him to the gendarmes, and on
Friday morning they came and took him away
together with the flour and all our possessions.
They beat my brother so mercilessly that the next
day he came home all bruised.