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Yitchak, son of Dvora and Michoel Chumut, who lives in the United States, wrote his testimony in Yiddish in 1953. It was translated to Hebrew in 1989.

When we were informed of the defeats of the Soviets and the advance of the Germans we were stunned. The Jews wandered around the streets helplessly. It was difficult to decide whether to leave all the property that had been accumulated through years of labor and to run away eastwards with the Russians, or to stay at home. For the young and for the single it was easy to decide. They organized in small groups and set off on the road, some on bicycles and some on foot. For those with families with small children it was hard to go out towards the unknown. There were many who were concerned by the question of kosher food, work on the Sabbath, and similar. There were those who had suffered humiliations and whose businesses had been harmed during the time of Soviet rule and they were happy to be rid of the Russians. There were also those who cultivated hope in vain and deluded themselves: The Germans are not as terrible as they have been told. It became clear that not one person had any notion of what was awaiting us.

We had two lovely daughters, ages 10 and 7. We labored for years to build a beautiful house and it was hard for us to leave a house that was new and comfortable and to go out with two young girls as refugees. We knew we needed to walk 80 kilometers by foot to the first railway station. Thus we remained in place, full of fear and terror. Many refugees passed through Tuchyn on their way east. They traveled in carts harnessed to horses, rode on bicycles, and walked on foot. Most of them were Jews. They all hurried in the direction of Korets, which was 40 kilometers from Tuchyn.

The Ukrainians glowed with happiness. They heard that the Germans were approaching and they planned to prepare an enthusiastic reception for them. The Germans promised them an independent country and the opportunity to plunder without disturbance.

In the meantime the front drew nearer. We heard the echoes of shots and mortars falling in the town. Fires broke out and there were already people injured and killed. We went down into the basement of our house because the mortars were flying above us. Suddenly it became quiet. I went up from the basement and I saw that all the houses of the Jews were locked up and there was not a living soul to be seen. German soldiers began to arrive, apparently patrols. They approached the houses of the Jews and with the stocks of their rifles broke windows and broke through doors. They beat the frightened residents of the houses and demanded their jewels and objects of value. They

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invaded the houses of the Jews through the whole city and looted them to their hearts' desire. They left behind killed, injured, and great destruction. After them, day and night, flowed in different battalions of Germans. The Jews shut themselves inside their houses and were happy that the robbery had stopped.

A few days passed and the Ukrainians established a police force, a local government, and various public institutions. Bloodthirsty murderers took on the positions. Many of them had only yesterday served in senior roles in the Soviet regime. The Germans were interested in the friendship of the Ukrainians and therefore gave them a free hand to act. The ambition of the Ukrainians was to rob and to abuse the defenseless Jews. The head of the police force, Prokop Polishuk, issued an order according to which the Jews were obligated to register with the police within two days, and whoever did not would be executed. The Jews stood in line to register and the Ukrainians abused them and arrested many on the pretext that they were communists. Those who were arrested they humiliated and tortured. There were those who did not win out to return home.

After a number of days an order was issued that forced the Jews to hand over to the authorities, within two days, their furs, from mink furs to the simplest sheepskins. The threats were routine: Whoever was found with a fur in his possession after the designated date would be executed. And again the Jews stood in line to hand over their coats.

Order followed order, and the turn came for the gold, the silver, the copper and the rest of the metals, and even the handles of windows and doors that were made of copper and nickel. The next order was simple and short: The Jews must hand over the rest of their property – clothing, furniture, dishes, and so on – and leave themselves only the clothing that was on their bodies and the furniture that was of essential use, such as a table, chair, bed, and so on. Within two days much Jews property was collected and Jews remained without anything.

All of this took place at the command of the 22-year-old Ukrainian murderer Prokop Polishuk. The main partners of the commander were his two brothers, a policeman by the name of Ostamenko, Todos, from the town of Kripa, two brothers from Shubkiv, Ritchiak the lame and Damian. These held official positions. The view grew that a Ukrainian was allowed to do whatever he felt like doing to Jews. And indeed, the Ukrainians took advantage of every opportunity to rob, to abuse, and to murder, in the knowledge that no punishment awaited them.

On Saturday, July 20, 1941, the Ukrainians carried out a pogrom in the city. In the evening gangs invaded and with iron rods they beat the Jews, without differentiation between the elderly, women, and babies. From every house came fractured cries. On that night 25 Jews were murdered. There were many who were severely injured and there was no one to offer them help.

Among those killed on that night of terrors were: Shmuel Agres, Mrs. Chisdo, Usher Zabodnik and three of his sons, Mrs. Sherl, a mother of seven children, David Chait's 15-year-old daughter, Yaakov the shoemaker's son together with his wife and children, the wife of Sioma Sapozhnik, and more.

Among those severely injured were my dear wife and my 7-year-old daughter. I feared for their lives. Until today I have pangs of conscience towards them. It is possible that I could have prevented the terrible suffering they endured and it is a great fortune that it ended as it ended. When the Ukrainian murderers knocked on the door, I ran away from the house and hid in a garden not far from our house. My wife and the girls did not manage to escape. She opened the door and the murderers asked about me. When she said that I was at work they began to beat her on the head with iron rods. Despite her cries they continued to hit her until she lost consciousness. They thought she was dead. After that they went into the next room, where a young woman lived with her one-year-old daughter. The murderers landed murderous blows also on her, and killed the baby. I was hiding in the garden not far away. I was confused. In a time of trouble I could not help my wife.

The murderers left and I came at a run and I saw the horrors. My dear wife was lying in the entrance in a pool of blood and unconscious. I broke out in shouts and tried to bring her inside. I did not notice

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that the murderers had not yet gone far away. One of them actually saw me, returned, and hit me on the face, which swelled up from the blow. I did not feel pain because I was completely occupied with saving my wife. She was swollen and the blood dripped from every part of her body, especially from her head. There was no possibility of bringing a doctor. The murderers were still roaming in the streets and the only doctor who was prepared to help a Jew lived one kilometer from my house. I did not know how to stop the blood or how to take care of my injured wife.

I ran to the house of my mother-in-law. She and my brother-in-law came and together we did the best we could. We put cold bandages on the injuries but we did not know how to stop the hemorrhage. Two hours passed and she opened her eyes. We cleaned her face and her head and it emerged that she had six holes in her head and two in her forehead, her nose was broken, and she could not see out of her left eye. Her arms and legs were swollen and there was congealed blood on them. The bedding was also soaked with blood. The house looked like a slaughterhouse.

We took care of my wife and we did not notice that our little daughter had disappeared. After much searching we found her under the bed in the room of our neighbor. We spoke to her and she did not answer. We tried to get her up and she was not able to stand. We did not see signs of violence on her but she did not respond. We placed her in bed and began to look after her according to our understanding. We rubbed her hands and her feet, [and] we tried to put a little water in her mouth, but she did not open it. I saw my poor daughter dying in front of my eyes, without the ability to bring a doctor. I shouted and I wept. My brother-in-law saw my state and pulled me out of the room. I was next to my wife and I had to pretend that nothing had happened to our daughter.

Morning came and I made many efforts to bring a doctor to my daughter. There was then in our town a paramedic by the name of Homaniuk who collaborated with the murderers and did not offer medical assistance to Jews. Against this, the Polish doctor Bortnovski helped Jews despite the warnings of the Ukrainians. It was he who offered the first medical assistance, cleaned the wounds, and bandaged them. My wife had many open wounds. About my daughter, the doctor determined that she had been hit on the head with a heavy blunt object. The blood had collected in one spot and congealed. The girl was paralyzed, did not speak, did not move her right arm or right leg. The doctor suggested putting cold bandages on her [head] – the one piece of advice that could have succeeded.

Outside I saw the destruction from the night of terrors. In the street bodies of the murdered were still lying. From inside the houses came the fractured cries of the severely wounded. It was impossible to get medical assistance. At an early hour representatives of the government, those who had organized these acts of horror, appeared and from their mouths came an order to turn out and within two hours bury all the victims and clean the streets of the traces of the murder. They also warned us not to speak of what we had experienced and seen. The doctor and the paramedic received an order not to give medical assistance to the injured. Rumors spread that the murderers would come at night and would kill the injured from the pogrom, and thus no trace would be left of the horrors. The Jews made efforts to hide the injured.

I moved my wife and my daughter to the house of Meir Guchman, who lived in a narrow alley next to the bathhouse. Meir and his wife were dear people and good-hearted. They gave up their only bed for my wife and my daughter and they themselves slept on the floor. I will never forget their generous treatment. We stayed in Meir's hut and healed the wounds of my wife and my little daughter with cold bandages.

On the sixth day after the catastrophe, my daughter succeeded in saying “Father.” My joy had no limits, as we had feared that she would remain mute. Apart from the many injuries that troubled my wife, she began to go blind in her left eye. And who could get to an eye doctor?

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Catastrophe followed catastrophe. On Friday, July 26, 1941, three men of the Gestapo came from Rivne to the Ukrainian police. In their wake a number of Ukrainian policemen came to the center of the town and in their hands was a list of Jews. They collected 20 people or more from among the dignitaries of the city, among them: Hershel German and his two sons, the dentist Moshe Gamer and his son, Baruch and Milka Rozenberg, both of them lawyers, Meir Zilberberg, Hershel Feldman, Moniah Batt, Yitzchak Druker, Fridel Glatshtein, and still others. Ostensibly they were invited to the police in order to sort out matters important to the Jewish public. It did not occur to their family members that they would not return. In the afternoon they took them out to the orchard that was behind the police [building], shot them, and threw their bodies into a pit that had been prepared in advance.

At the time of the shootings a band played, so that the neighbors would not notice what was happening. Jews who were working that day in the police yard saw all the events and told of them in the town. Their family members refused to believe that their dear ones had been murdered. They asked the police and they [the police] responded that they were working outside the city and would return at the end of the day. Thus the time passed and every day we felt new decrees that grew and increased.

Germans arrived who took over the management of the town from the Ukrainians. At their head was the Gebietskommissar^[1] (responsible for the district). They appointed Getsel Shvartsman as the head of the Judenrat so that they would have a body to which to direct their satanic demands. And these came one after another. One time it was gold watches and another time it was leathers for boots, after that cigarettes and tobacco, and so on without any break.

Each time they set a final time for the fulfillment of the “order,” which if not met, they would take 50 or 100 Jews to work. We knew that those who were sent to “work” outside the city did not come back. When the oppressors were convinced that we had no property left and that there was nothing more to squeeze out, they began to demand people for work. In the beginning, when we did not know that they were being sent to death, the Judenrat would prepare lists of those who were going out (and it cannot be denied that there were various tricks in the preparation of the lists). Over the course of time, when it became clear that those being sent out were not returning, it was not within the Judenrat's ability, even if it wanted, to supply the number of “workers” demanded. Simply, the people did not agree to go.

After that closed trucks began to appear by surprise and S.S. people would trap Jews with the aid of the Ukrainian police, as if they were hunted animals or stray dogs. They would close off a certain area on all sides and lash out with riots against the Jews. They did not consider the age or the state of health of the person abducted. Those aged 70 and those aged 13 as one. The poor people were imprisoned in closed trucks and police guarded them. When the number of those trapped did not satisfy them, they would break into houses roughly and bring out frightened and defenseless youths. Their families could not help them. The screams were terrible but the murderers were not moved by them. Those abducted were led to the nearby forest or to the open field. There they gave the victims shovels and ordered them to dig graves for themselves. After that they would shoot them and cover up the pits. There were many injured who were buried while they were still alive.

The Jews began to build disguised shelters in their homes. More than once we were also forced to hide in these shelters from the eyes of the Judenrat's Jewish militia, just as we hid from the emissaries of the S.S. I too installed two disguised shelters in our house with the assistance of a reliable carpenter. These saved us more than once from certain death.

With the entrance of the Germans the Jews were obligated to wear white bands with a Star of David on the sleeve of the left arm. After some time they ordered us to remove the band and instead to sew a round yellow patch of a certain size on the chest and on the back [of our clothing]. If a Jew was caught and the patch was not the correct size, he was taken to the police

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and returned from there beaten and dripping blood. It also happened that those who breached the order did not return [from the police]. The murderers succeeded in frightening us to the point that we were scared to leave our houses. I sat in my house for two months. I was scared to go out because the police would snatch Jews for various jobs, such as cleaning the streets, chopping down trees for the local authorities, and so on.

I was scared to death of the police. When I received a message from the Judenrat to present myself for work, I hired someone to work in my place, and I paid him with a handful of flour or a bit of oil that we sacrificed only so that I could remain at home. This “arrangement” was acceptable. After some time they began to invite me to work at frequent intervals. Our food stores dwindled and I could no longer pay my replacement with food, and I was forced to go to work. One evening I received an order to go out to guard next to a grain storehouse. This was in winter. The cold was harsh and my clothing was thin. Near to the place there were a number of other Jews who were guarding the shops. At 2 o'clock at night came two Ukrainian policemen who were supervising the guards. One of them was Todos, the known murderer. When he saw me he ordered me to go with him. I feared that what was awaiting me was a meeting with the angel of death. The policemen brought me to the “Brum” building. In the past this had been a fortress and in our time it had been turned into a shopping center. Two policemen hit me with the stocks of their rifles and I began to shout with all my power. Todos warned me that if I continued to shout, he would shoot me “like a dog.” I believed him. He was capable of it. They continued to hit me until I fell down unconscious. Then they scattered and I remained in place, at the end of my strength. When my spirit returned to me, I thanked God that I remained alive, but I did not have the strength to go home. In the meantime they returned and again they began to beat me in sensitive places.

The worst of all was that they ordered me to get up and to go with them to the police. I burst into sobs and begged for my soul. I did not have the strength to walk a distance like that and I knew that if I would arrive at the police I would not come out of there. At the police they would exterminate Jews without mercy. In my desperation I decided to try to bribe the murderer. I offered him fine leather for boots. He was enthused about this but delayed his agreement for a long time in order to stretch out my terror and my torments. I returned home and then I began to feel the pains. I was blue all over from the blows and covered with blood clots on the injuries. For more than a week I lay in bed and I suffered terrible pains. It is not possible for me to describe the fears and the torments that we suffered in those terrible days. We did not know then that awaiting us were troubles worse than these.

On October 26, 1941, the Germans carried out a slaughter of the Jews of Rivne. In Rivne, which was at a distance of 27 kilometers from Tuchyn, there were 25,000 Jews. A week before the slaughter it became known that Russian prisoners [of war] were digging pits in “Grabnik^[2],” in the city park of Rivne. The Germans spread rumors that these were defensive diggings in the event that the Soviets would attack the city. It did not occur to the Jews that they were digging mass graves for an entire people.

Two days before the slaughter, an order was issued that all the Jews of Rivne, women and men, who were not equipped with work cards had to present themselves at “Grabnik” in order to be sent to work in surrounding towns. They allowed each person to take a bag or package of 10 kilograms. As usual the order was accompanied by the threat that if they would find a Jew without a work card after the designated date, he would be executed on the spot. I must point out that only a limited number of Jews succeeded in obtaining work cards, as the Germans gave them only to those holding needed occupations, in whose services they were interested.

I have no words to describe the atmosphere that was created in Rivne. People who were born in the city, who worked there all their lives, established families, accumulated property, and were involved in society, needed to leave everything and go to an unknown place. At the time we thought only of being cut off from our homes for some time, about physical difficulties. In every family there were partings:

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parents from sons, sons from their parents and their brothers. There are no words to describe those terrible separations. Wailing cries were heard from far away. And what is even worse is that it did not occur to anyone that those who were going to present themselves were being led to a slaughter the likes of which there had not yet been.

The people were obedient. On that Thursday at the hour of 8 in the morning close to 20,000 Jews assembled in the park, men, women, and children. Each one had a small bundle, all his property. It was natural that they took their most valuable objects, in the hope of receiving for them a bit of food for their children or their parents. Thus the Jews stood, trembling with fear and many of them weeping. They were surrounded by the “guards of order,” hundreds of Ukrainian police. After a short time 20 trucks with S.S. people appeared and an order was given to put all the packages in one pile. As the Jews were being pushed to hand over the packages the suspicion awakened in their hearts that they were being cheated. They thought that the Ukrainians wanted to rob their sparse property. After that came an order to hand over all the money, the watches, jewels, and even pocket knives. And then came the order to hand over the certificates and the coats, and there was no longer any doubt that they were about to kill them.

A commotion broke out. Rabbi Ma-Yafit addressed the crowd and urged them to accept everything with love, because this had been decreed from heaven. The mass murder began. Group by group the people were led to the pits. There the S.S. people were waiting and on their hands were white gloves. They shot with their machine guns. The Ukrainians pushed those who had been shot into the pits and brought new groups closer. The poor people were forced to undress and to place their clothes in a pile. The Russian prisoners covered the victims with soil. Many were buried alive and no one paid attention to that. The slaughter continued for two days. In this way they cruelly wiped out a Jewish community that was hundreds of years old. Those who held work cards they shut into a ghetto that covered a number of alleys in a poor neighborhood.

After the destruction of the Rivne community, fear fell upon the Jews of the whole area. Everyone was prepared to hand over his sparse property in return for a work card. We believed then that this would save us from a certain death. In reality the work card was worthy [only] to delay our death for some time. In the end they exterminated everyone without differentiating, those who held cards and those without cards. This labor was done by the Germans with the help of those wild animals the Ukrainians.

In our region the “aktzias” – in simple language, the extermination of the Jews – began in the summer of 1942 and befell city after city. Mezhyrich, Korets, and Kostopil. After that, the remainder of the Jews of Rivne. It was no wonder that all the time in Tuchyn we lived under tension. We feared that we were next in line. We knew that it was a matter of days or weeks. We wandered around like confused people and each one thought of a strategy to be saved, and there were those who hoped for a miracle. Jews who had managed to hide property handed it to a Christian who promised to give them shelter at the time of the extermination. We began to understand that the extermination was a process that could not be stopped.

There were those who hoped for the integrity of Christian acquaintances. I did not have any friends among the Christians and I did not secure a savior from among them for myself. All the time rumors spread that pits were being dug next to the town. Rumor followed rumor and the Jews did not sleep at nights. Those spreading the rumors were the Ukrainian murderers and through this they promised the Jews an apparent refuge in their homes in order to acquire their property.

The plots were carried out in the cruelest possible way. Near the city they would dig a pit or a number of pits, according to exact calculations by engineers, who decided the size of the pits according to the number of Jews in the city. How far did this baseness reach! On the day of the decree the Ukrainian police would secure the entrances to the city so that there would be no escapees from the ghetto. When everything was ready the S.S. forces would arrive at an early hour of the morning. The Jews would be given an order to assemble at a field not far from the pits. The murderers would

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run around the houses of the Jews like predatory animals. With blows they would drive them from their homes. When wailing would break out the Nazis would shoot into the crowd and silence would prevail. Then came the driving to the pits, there awaited them the wild animals the S.S. in white gloves, who carried out their schemes with German precision. These “operations” were carried out in broad daylight and in front of the eyes of our Christian neighbors. Their presence at genocide did not upset their consciences and did not disturb them from going to church after they robbed, abused, and murdered. After the aktzia ended, they would hang up a sign: “Judenrein^[3].”

In the end Jews remained in only a few towns in our region. The last towns that I remember were: Zdolbuniv, Oleksandriya, Antonivka, and Tuchyn.

A week before Rosh Hashanah 1942^[4] the Gebietskommissar from Rivne came to Tuchyn. Together with the Gebietskommissar and several of the despicable murderers from the local government who were joined by the paramedic Homaniuk and Grisha Deminiuk, a tour of the town was carried out and an area for a ghetto was decided. The ghetto spread over a number of alleys around the synagogues. The plan was approved on the spot. On the same day the Jewish carpenters were called in and were ordered to take apart a number of wooden buildings and with the planks to erect a high fence around the site that had been marked for the ghetto. The order came out to prepare to move into the ghetto. Then we knew that this was our end.

The confusion was great. The Ukrainians ran around the town like the in-laws at a wedding. They visited Jews who owned property and promised to save their families in a time of trouble. They also promised to bring food to their friends in the ghetto. All the promises had one theme: to acquire the remaining property of the Jews. The desperate Jews knew that in any case there would not be room in the ghetto for their furniture and the rest of their belongings, and they handed their property over to the robbers in the hope that perhaps they would get from them a bit of food for their child or for their ill parents.

The bitter day came. Four days before Yom Kippur 1942^[5] an order was published that until Tuesday, that is, the day after Yom Kippur, all the Jews, without exception, had to be found inside the ghetto. And the style was already known: A Jew who would be found outside the ghetto would be executed. Two days before Yom Kippur, guards of police and soldiers were placed on all the roads into and out of the city.

We prepared to move into the ghetto. We sat at home in sadness. To leave everything and to go to a ghetto? And the worst of all: It was clear that what was awaiting us was death. We were still sitting there depressed when into our house came a woman who introduced herself by the name of Mrs. Lumatska, the wife of the school principal. In her hands she had a letter from the local government and in it was stated that we had to hand our house over to her. It was a new house. We had invested much labor and all our property in it. She saw us packing our things and crying, and she expressed her condolences for our troubles. At a certain moment, into the room came our elder daughter, Chanaleh, may her memory be for a blessing^[6], age 11, a talented girl, beautiful and intelligent. The principal's wife was impressed by Chanaleh and said that it pained her heart that such a lovely girl would go to the ghetto, and if we did not have any objection she would take her to her home, that is to say, keep her in our house … and she would take care to save her. Because she did not have any children, she was even prepared to adopt Chanaleh. Time was pressing. There was no opportunity for hesitations. The girl was dear to us and parting from her was very hard, but we did not see any better way out.

We decided to go to the ghetto without Chanaleh. She stayed in our house, which had passed into the hands of the school principal. In the depths of my heart, I thought that if we would all die in the ghetto, my daughter would remain as the last vestige of the family. Our friends and acquaintances were happy about our rescue. One daughter would be saved at least. The next day we moved into my mother-in-law's house, which was in the area of the ghetto. The principal Lumatski and his wife moved into our house and Chanaleh stayed with them. Throughout Friday the Jews ran around panicked and agitated. All the roads in the town were under strict guard by the army and the police. All those who had hesitated all the time about whether to flee or whether to stay already knew

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that they had missed the deadline. Despite this, there still nested in me the hope to find a breach and to escape from the ghetto with my family. I even planned to take dear Chanaleh with us. Of course I did not have any practical plan. Without pause I embroidered plans of escape and I knew that there was great doubt whether we would be able to carry them out.

On Saturday [Shabbat] I decided to leave Tuchyn with my family along the paths in the fields and to go to the house of a Ukrainian acquaintance by the name of Pavlo Girasimtchuk. We had commercial relations with him. When the troubles began, Pavlo told me that in a critical situation we could always come to him and he would give us shelter in his home. We still did not know that a Christian who would allow a Jew to enter his house would place himself in danger of his life. On the eve of Yom Kippur, Sunday, we went out, the whole family together with Chanaleh, at an early hour to the village of Shubkiv, Pavlo's place of residence.

We had to go a distance of 4 kilometers. In peaceful days this had been a pleasant trip. In these days it was an impossible mission. We had to cross a wooden bridge that was guarded by the police. There was no chance of this. I decided to go through a grove and to cross the river by boat. I found a Ukrainian youth who owned a boat. I paid him and he transported us to the other bank. Our happiness had no end.

We had overcome the main obstacle! The distance to Pavlo's house was not great and I expected to arrive in safety. Suddenly Ukrainian children who were herding cattle appeared. They began to raise a lot of noise and threatened to alert the police. I began to hold a negotiation with the ruffians, [and] I offered them money. There were 10 of them and they demanded that I pay each one separately. When I fulfilled their desires, they again threatened to inform to the police who were next to the bridge. I paid them again and again. They took the money and shouted out loud: “Jews are escaping from the ghetto!” In another time I would have beaten them and would not have responded at all to their shouts and their extortions, but at this time our lives were in their hands. The bastards held us in place for two hours. My daughters had always known that they could rely on me, on “Daddy who can do everything,” and here we were suddenly helpless against inflamed children. They abused us and we were silent. From time to time we tried to beg for our souls and for them it was a kind of entertainment.

The end came when they set off on a run to inform the police. From a distance I saw policemen running towards us. We too began running, in the direction of the village. The distance between us and the police was about a kilometer. We held the girls in our arms and we ran. With the last of our strength we reached the first house of the village. We did not know the owner and we did not hang hopes on him. I saw the panicked faces of the girls, who understood what was awaiting us, and for that reason I wanted to calm them a little at least. There are moments in life that are an entire world and all that is in it.

The farmer did not expel us. Not much time passed and the angels of destruction caught up with us. They broke into his house, hit me and my wife with the stocks of their rifles, threw us out, and shouted that we had breached an order and had run away from the town (indeed, this was truly a terrible “crime” …). They drove us in the direction of the bridge and all the way hit and cursed and reminded us of what was awaiting us in the ghetto. In my heart I prayed that they would bring us to the ghetto and not to the police. I knew that at the police they would shoot us on the spot.

We reached the bridge under blows and curses. At the same time an S.S. officer riding on a motorcycle arrived at the place. He saw our situation, the girls who were weeping bitterly, and he began to express an interest in us. The Ukrainians told him that we had run away from the ghetto. The German asked why we had breached the order. Go and explain to him that we had only wanted to save our lives. I told the German that we had gone to give our elder daughter to a farmer because we did not have anything with which to feed our family. He knew that this was not true but it happened even among officers of the S.S. that one could be found who possessed human feelings … he ordered the policemen to release us so that we could go “home,” to the ghetto of course.

We returned to the house of my mother-in-law in the ghetto. They had thought that we were already in the next world. We knew that it was only by chance that we remained

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alive. We were emotional and we could not calm down out of fear and out of the stress of that day. Once again we had been saved by a miracle but miracles did not happen every day.

The hours pass and the Jews go to the synagogue for the Kol Nidrei^[7] prayer. These were terrible days in the full meaning of the word^[8]. I too went to the synagogue. The atmosphere and the prayer were different from what had been in previous years. For the first and only time in my life I saw women and men crowding together^[9]. And the prayer! It was not a [standard] reading from the prayer book. Each person expressed his prayer in his own way. They wept, they cried out to the heavens. There were shouts of “Act for the sake of the infants who have not sinned!”^[10] There were those who hoped that this pure prayer would cancel or soften the evilness of the decree. But the atmosphere was terrible and the despair ate at all of us. It was clear that this was the end. The Gates of Mercy^[11] were blocked. It was the last Kol Nidrei prayer in the beit midrash^[12] in Tuchyn. All that night I did not shut my eyes. I did not calm down from the events I had endured through the whole day, and despite that I could not let go of the idea of escape. The gate of the ghetto had not yet been locked. I knew that the moment it would be locked, there would no longer be any possibility of leaving the ghetto.

At an early hour I went outside. Jews were wandering around the streets fearfully. Rumors followed rumors and denials alongside them. They told that pits were being dug on the road to Richytsya^[13] and it was clear that these were destined for the Jews of Tuchyn. I went back to our room and did not tell my wife about the atmosphere in the street. Together with her I conjured up escape plans. We would plan and immediately cancel and already new plans would pop up. I could not adopt the thought that everything was lost. We decided to return Chanaleh to the school principal. Perhaps at least she would be saved. In the street it was not recognizable that today was Yom Kippur^[14]. I saw Jews busy with all sorts of occupations just to pass the time. The innocence of many astounded me. It was clear that we had only limited hours left and here there were those who with the last of their strength were dragging a broken cupboard or some other old furniture that would not be of any usefulness. A few were dragging with them doors and windows from their houses.

Before noon the head of the Judenrat, Shvartsman, came from the Gebietskommissar and announced that he had received an order to supply, within two hours, a large quantity of gold watches, leathers for boots, new suits, and so on. If the demand would not be fulfilled at the designated time, one hundred Jews would be sent to work in Kiev^[15]. We knew the significance of this, which was none other than execution.

The rabbi stopped the holiday prayer in the synagogue and asked the crowd to go home and to bring objects that still remained to them, so as to save one hundred Jews from death. The worshippers dispersed to their homes and by the fixed time filled the cravings of the murderer. There was a certain relief. The decree had been postponed, and only so that they would not have a pretext.

The hours passed. It would soon be dark. Who knew what the night would bring with it? Dear Chanaleh, may her memory be for a blessing, came to visit us. I sat with my wife, both of us depressed. The girls fell apart [emotionally] on us. They understood the situation. I still had not given up on the idea of escape. I am trying to remember all the names of my family members then, a day before the great disaster. I, my wife, and our two daughters; my older sister Miriam with her husband Yehuda Shneider and their daughter Yenta, age 18; my younger sister Sara and my brother Eliyahu, who was then 25 years old; and as usual uncles, aunts and cousins. The family of my wife: my mother-in-law Dvora and Sara, my wife's younger sister. Sara was active in Hashomer Hatzair^[16] and for years was a librarian in the Zionist movement's library. There was also the widow of Fridel, who was among the first to be murdered upon the entry of the Germans into Tuchyn, with her 3-year-old daughter.

We sat huddled into ourselves, sunken in passing thoughts. Suddenly Pavlo came in. He was embarrassed, as if he was ashamed of the deeds of his neighbors. He had heard and seen what was being done in the ghetto. It was clear to him without a shadow of a doubt

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that our fate had been decided. He struggled to express his condolences for the sorrow and the suffering of the innocent Jews. He debated how to help us at the critical time. We told him about our situation and about our aim to leave the ghetto even for a few days and then to see how matters developed. Pavlo saw our distress. He said that if we were speaking about a hiding place for a short time, we could come to him. On his way to us there had not been any guard on the bridge. We decided that my wife and my little daughter would go with Pavlo. Chanaleh would stay temporarily with the principal in our former house. I would stay in the ghetto in the meantime to see how matters would develop. My wife went with our little daughter with an easy heart, as if everything was all right and as if they were going out for a short visit. It did not occur to her that she was parting forever from dear Chanaleh, from her close family members, and from all the residents of the city. I parted from my wife and my daughter with a heavy heart. In the evening they arrived safely at Pavlo's house. It was only after time passed that we knew to appreciate what a wonderful person our friend Pavlo was. He presented them with food after days of tension and a day of fasting. My wife did not sleep all night out of fear that the neighbors might have seen her and that they would bring the police.

I too could not fall asleep that night out of worry over how [whether] my wife had made it to Pavlo. My brother Eliyahu went that day to a Ukrainian who promised to hide him on his farm. He [Eliyahu] gave him a large amount of property and the Ukrainian murdered him about three days later.

The Chumut family

Thus the people disperse, full of fear, each to his corner. The gate of the ghetto is still open and there is no guard at the exit. In the meantime my daughter Chanaleh came to see me and to check whether I had received a message from her mother and her little sister. She saw with her own eyes what was happening around us. She returned to the principal with a heavy heart. I asked her to come again the next day. I accompanied her to my house that had been turned into the principal's house.

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In the evening rumors spread that at night something would happen. I went with Zisia from the town of Kripa and with Ozer Markus to the house of Shmuel Gilberg, which was outside the area of the ghetto. Shmuel was the only Jew who was allowed to live outside the ghetto because the Germans were interested in the felt that was produced in his workshop. There we met a number of Jews who hoped to find a shelter. Among them were Yosef Kupershtein and his wife. We sat together for long hours and we tried to encourage each other. In the end we fell asleep in our clothing. For a long time already we had been sleeping in our clothing, even the small children. Early in the morning wild cries were heard from outside and into the house broke Ukrainian policemen. They drove us outside with curses and swearing, and hit us with the stocks of their rifles. They led us to the ghetto. When we were outside we saw that hundreds of Ukrainian policemen had surrounded the ghetto and many were next to the gate. They pushed us inside and locked the gate.

The Jews of the ghetto were still asleep and did not know that the ghetto was surrounded. The word spread quickly and the people came out of their houses. There was a commotion and running around without purpose. It was clear that the end had arrived and there was no chance of any kind to be saved. Time had run out. In the morning the Judenrat received an order to supply 50 workers immediately: carpenters, builders, and also those with no profession. Pressure built up next to the gate. There were those who hoped to slip outside with the workers who were going out, even though they saw that the gate was guarded by many policemen. The police and the S.S. men made judgments about those who tried to escape from the ghetto. The pressure next to the gate continued to grow despite the increased guard.

I ran around back and forth like an insane person. I knew that dear Chanaleh would soon come to visit me, as we had discussed yesterday. Now she would be easy prey for the murderers. I must delay [her] for her sake. I run along the length of the fence and search for a breach. But along the length of the fence are stationed armed guards who are awaiting a victim.

From a distance I see with pain my former house. There is my Chanaleh. The distance from the fence to the house is short. Only the road separates them. Today there is increased traffic on the road. I cannot find any rest for myself. At any second I am likely to lose my daughter. In the end my decision won over: to jump over the fence that was opposite my house and to reach Chanaleh. I knew that I would be endangering my life. My sister and the rest of my family members plead with me not to put myself in danger. I have no chance at all. I am as tense as an animal. My eyes follow the steps behind the movements of the police.

At a certain moment the policeman close to the fence turned his gaze in another direction and I threw myself over the fence. I crossed the road at a run and I was already in an alley behind my house. I heard a number of shots.

I quietly opened the door, which faced the yard, and I was already in the corridor. I went up to the concealed hiding place that I had built with my own hands. The principal and his wife did not hear a thing. I stayed in the place for some time. I was agitated and thirsty. I had no sense of time. I did not hear shots. The policeman, it would seem, was scared to leave the section over which he had charge, and perhaps he was not interested in it becoming known that in the section over which he had charge a Jew had escaped.

My patience expired and I came out from the bunker. I knocked on the door at the entrance so that they would not suspect that I had been inside. The wife of the principal was there. I asked about the welfare of my daughter. She was still in bed. I felt relief. The lady asked why I had come so early. I did not tell her that the ghetto was already locked and that there was no going out and no going in. I said that there were rumors that the ghetto would be closed and I asked that she not allow Chanaleh to go outside. I went into the bedroom. My daughter was already not asleep. She asked why I had pre-empted [her visit] to come. I told her about the situation and I asked her to be very careful and in an hour of need to go up into the attic and go into the hiding place. At the same opportunity I revealed to the principal's wife the existence of the hiding place in the attic and I advised her to use it in an hour of need. I knew that if I was to leave the house the police would catch me. I said goodbye to the principal's wife, went out of the door into the yard, and entered the second shelter, which I had built in the cowshed. I gave the impression that I had left the house. I stayed there. I removed a brick from under the stairs and I could see and hear the commotion in the ghetto. After that I heard the [domestic] servant

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of the principal tell how tomorrow they would liquidate all the Jews of Tuchyn. They were waiting for a group from the S.S. to arrive from Rivne to orchestrate the action.

After some time I learned that the head of the Judenrat went to the Gebietskommissar to sort out ongoing matters. The German sponsor ignored him and in the end expelled him from his view. The head returned to the ghetto depressed. He did not try to calm the Jews as he always used to do. He spoke about things openly and said that the game was lost and they were going to exterminate all of us.

From the shelter I heard the shouts and the weeping that came from the ghetto. Many committed suicide. When it was clear to everyone that within a short time everyone would be murdered, it was decided not to make this labor easier for the murderers. A clear instruction was given: When the first shot is heard, each person will set his house on fire and everyone will break through the fence and run away in the direction of the cemetery. From the cemetery each person would make efforts to reach the adjacent forest.

It was clear that many would die in this action, but if they would obey the Germans, everyone would die. “We will not go like sheep to the slaughter!” Young people hurried to distribute kerosene to the houses. There were rumors that there was also a number of weapons in the ghetto. Would this help? Who knows? One thing was clear: It would not be easy for them to liquidate us. The day passed in tension and with rumors. When it became dark, shots were heard and immediately terrible shouts broke out, the likes of which I had never heard in my life. The barrage of shots continued to grow. The shouts were silenced as if by an order, and within a moment the ghetto was alight. Everything around was aflame. I sat in the shelter full of terror. I could not go out and join in what was being done outside. Suddenly I heard a low murmur in the cowshed and after a few minutes I heard the soft voice of my beloved daughter. She came to me slowly and asked that I allow her to come in to me in the shelter. She was terribly scared by the huge fire that engulfed everything around, and by the shots that echoed in the air. From the attic she had seen everything that happened in the ghetto.

Until today I cannot forgive myself for my strictness then, that I did not bring Chanaleh into my shelter despite all her pleadings. There is no doubt that in that hour I acted according to the right considerations. If the principal was to come to visit her and not find her, he would discover the second shelter and then everything would be lost. But it was forbidden for me to act on rational considerations in the presence of my daughter's fear. I begged her and asked her to hold on and to make an effort and to return to the shelter in the attic. I promised her that if we would be in danger I would come to her. I spoke with her as one speaks with an adult. Chanaleh understood our situation. She returned to the attic, to the shelter. The fire grew and spread. I feared that we were in danger. Our house too was likely to be ignited. I decided that if the fire was to reach our house, I would move to Chanaleh's shelter and we would burn together.

Many policemen roamed in the street and a Jew who appeared was shot on the spot. The ghetto burned the whole night. In the morning the fire began to subside. My worry was all given to my daughter. There were moments when I feared in case she had died of fright. She was closed in by herself in the shelter. I confess that at that time my thoughts were distracted from my sisters and the rest of my relatives who were suffering in the ghetto and who perhaps were already no longer alive. I thought only about the girl, and every minute was like an eternity. In the end I heard the door opening and the principal's wife went out of the house. It would have been fitting that she would have gone to visit the girl after a horrifying night like that, but she went first of all to feed the chickens. They were closer to her. Indeed she had spoken about adoption, but her heart was not the heart of a mother.

I waited impatiently until she made time to go to my daughter, and finally I won [the joy of] hearing the pleasant voice of the girl. A stone was lifted from my heart. When I heard the footsteps of the landlady coming down from the attic and going into house, I went up to the shelter. My daughter was still gripped by fear from the terrible night, from the fire that was around, and from the shots. All night she sat in a dark corner with her eyes closed so as not to see the strong fire. In the end she fell asleep.

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The principal's wife told her that no Jews were left in Tuchyn and that they had been expelled to Kiev for work. I confirmed the words of the manageress, but we both knew that this was not true.

I felt an urgent need to know what had happened in the ghetto in reality. Perhaps someone still remained from the family or friends? And what were the fates of my wife and my little daughter who had gone to the village? Did they arrive safely? But to go outside would mean death.

From the attic I could see the destruction. Everything was burnt and only two houses remained: the house of Chaim Leib Chait the shoemaker and the house of Berl Zaltsman. Among the ruins were lying dozens of bodies of adults and children. Ukrainian policemen and S.S. people orchestrated the work, which was carried out by Ukrainian murderers. The Ukrainians would load the bodies on carts and transport them to the pits that had been prepared in advance, and other Ukrainians collected various belongings that remained among the ruins. I saw my city, which had been destroyed overnight over the heads of its sons.

Suddenly I saw two policemen leading Shebsel Markus. He walked in front and carried a spade. They pushed him and hit him with the stocks of their rifles and after that they forced him to dig a grave for himself and they murdered him. In this way they got other poor people out from their hiding places. Ukrainians roamed among the houses of the Jews that were outside the ghetto, searched in the houses, and dug into the ground, and from time to time discovered various hidden objects. They searched for “treasures” in order to enrich themselves from the ruins of their former neighbors.

I remained with my daughter in the shelter all that day. I forgot that for two days food had not crossed my mouth. I did not feel hunger. My daughter insisted that I eat with her. I returned to the second shelter, in the cowshed. Now I was tortured by thoughts about the fate of family members and friends. I was terrified too about the fate of my wife and my little daughter who had hidden with Pavlo.

What could have been done? Could I have summoned up some kind of help for them? In any case it was forbidden to stay in the shelter. The principal was likely to find me in the house and then the end would come. Despite this, I was forced to remain there for a number of days. Every day I visited my daughter and she shared with me the food that they brought her. When I came to her on Saturday [Shabbat], she told me with happiness that the principal's wife had promised to return her to the house in the afternoon. They were no longer hurting Jews. I did not believe the stories of Mrs. Lumatska, I thought that she wanted to encourage Chanaleh and therefore she was telling her things that were not feasible. In the afternoon Chanaleh indeed went into the house with the lady.

Chanaleh found a convenient time to slip out of the house and to come carefully to my shelter in the cowshed. She told me that outside she had seen Shmai Shprintz and his wife Zelda. I was happy that Jews remained in the city, but I acted from the assumption that “one should not believe a dog” and it was forbidden to trust the words of the murderers. I stayed in the shelter for another two days.

On Monday, a week after Yom Kippur, I went out of the shelter and entered the house through the front door, as if I had just now arrived from somewhere. Mrs. Lumatska was panicked by my appearance. The first question she asked was: “How? How did you survive?” I said that I had been in the forest. I hugged Chanaleh, as if I had not seen her for the entire week. The lady told me that they had destroyed the Jews cruelly and wildly. She and her husband had gone through a difficult experience when everything around was burning. She could not comprehend what a miracle it was that the house had not been burned! The fire was close and the wind fanned the flames over the house. They lay on the floor the whole time and were frightened to get up, because there was shooting around. She told that firefighters came from Rivne to put out the large fire. What exactly happened in the ghetto? She did not know to tell. She heard that many Jews ran away from the burning ghetto. It seemed to me

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that it was as if she was sorry that too many Jews escaped … she offered me food.

I swallowed the food and I went out into the street to search for Jews. I walked quickly. My legs trembled with fear, I was moved and disturbed by seeing the ruins with my own eyes. The few houses that had not burned looked like naked bodies. The doors and the windows had been removed. In the street fragments of furniture rolled around. The air carried the smell of burnt feathers and perhaps of scorched corpses. I went impatiently into the house of Bluma Sapozhnik. I was told that this was where Jews who had survived were to be found. In the first room I saw an old woman in a dying state. She had suffered terrible burns, to the point that I could not recognize her. Her cries were heartbreaking. Next to her, on dirty straw, lay five babies each a year old, who screamed from hunger and from thirst. Their parents had been murdered and they remained. There was no one to take care of them. In the second room there were more than 20 Jews in states of utter exhaustion. Among them were Yitzchak Sheinfeld, his wife, and their two daughters. They were fully conscious and we were able to discuss our situation. We hugged and we cried.

They told me and I told them about the week of terrors that we had endured. They saw the horrors. They were witnesses to the murder of my eldest sister Miriam. About the fates of the rest of my family members, they did not know.

There I also met Shmuel Segel the shoemaker, Izrael Yaakov Shkolnik and his wife Roizl, Aharon Sukennik, Hershel the son of Hilel Melamed, who was with another boy, Aizik the son of Yerachmiel and his wife, Teibel the daughter of Shaikeh Zeitchik with her groom, Ester the wife of Yechiel Finkelfarb with her baby, and Chantcheh Bergman with her two daughters. Her husband Mordechai Kashtan committed suicide. From their mouths I was informed that at the time of the burning of the ghetto more than a hundred people were killed and suffocated. More than 2,000 Jews managed to escape in the commotion. On Thursday and Friday after the burning of the ghetto the Ukrainians collected a thousand Jews in Tuchyn, among them injured and weak, led them to pits that had been prepared in advance, and shot them there. After the burning of the ghetto the Ukrainians would snatch Jews who had not managed to find a hiding place. They would concentrate them in Tuchyn in one of the houses and when their number reached a few dozen they would take them to the pits and shoot them. In searching for Jews and bringing them to the police were involved Ukrainian civilians who received payment from the property of the Jews that had been robbed. On Friday afternoon villagers were placed to cover up the pits containing the bodies of the victims.

The living Jews who were hunted down in the following days would be brought to one of the houses that were not burned and there waited for their deaths. Those I found in the house of Bluma Sapozhnik were also among those hunted by the Ukrainians. They knew that at any moment they were likely to be taken out for execution and they had even come to terms with their fate. While I was in the house of Sapozhnik an S.S. officer came inside and read out an order that they would not be executed. They were allocated two houses and they would have to be only in them, and they would have to register with the police.

The people did not believe what their ears heard. The joy was great. And I stand and wonder, is this a dream? In the meantime, two Ukrainians arrived with two babies that they had found on the way. The babies were crying. The Jews were not able to accept the babies because they did not have any food. The official who came to register the Jews ordered them to accept the babies and promised to take care of food for them.

The official went. After some time two Ukrainian policemen came near to the house. When I saw them through the window I fled into a storeroom and hid in the attic. When I came down the babies were no longer in the house. They told me that the policemen called over eight Jews, gave them digging tools, and ordered them to dig a pit in the cemetery. They transported all the babies without parents there in a pram. They shot the children and forced the Jews to cover the grave.

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I decided to run away from that house and from the city. I left in secret and reached my former house. The shocking sight in the Sapozhnik house accompanied me without let-up. I trembled with fear. I told my daughter that I would make an attempt to get to Pavlo to see how my wife and my little daughter were. At our parting I asked her to be careful all the time and to keep to herself. I set out on the road full of terror. I did not know that this was a parting forever.

On the way I met Jews who were returning to the city after they heard that they [the Germans and Ukrainians] would no longer be hurting Jews. Among them were Avraham Lamden, who used to make ropes, and Yeshayahu Rotsimring the barber. To my good fortune, I arrived at Pavlo's house safely. It is hard to describe my meeting with my wife and my little daughter. My wife had been sure that she would never see me again. I told her what I knew about the great disaster. My wife told me about the fears and the torments she endured when she saw the ghetto burning and heard the bitter cry of the Jews. Pavlo too was gripped by fear when he saw the ghetto go up in flames but he did everything to calm my wife and my daughter. He treated them with generosity and with gentleness. He moved them into the hay barn and hid them amongst the sacks of grain and straw. When it was cramped and hot for them he raised them up on to the haystack in that barn. It was there that I met them when I came to the village. All the time Pavlo brought them food and drink. I came to know that Pavlo was a human being, a good person like no other. He endangered his lives and those of his household members. A person with such a gentle soul as that I have not seen all my life. He was not happy with my arrival and feared in case his neighbors had seen me. I calmed him that no one had noticed me.

He indeed remembered that I had asked for shelter for a short period but of course he agreed that the three of us would stay until another way out could be found. I promised Pavlo that when more Jews from Tuchyn would gather we would join them. We thought salvation was near and we stayed in his house. It did not occur to us that a great deal of time remained, until the end of the war.

Pavlo took care of our needs and served us food with a generous hand. But we could not help but see that his wife was angry about the trouble he had brought to their house. Pavlo was terribly frightened and fearful of being informed upon. And the main thing: We knew that Pavlo was a poor farmer who could barely support his family and the food that he was giving us was sacrificed from the mouths of his household members. On Friday, October 2, 1942, we sat in the hay barn and decided to leave and to return to Tuchyn. Suddenly, shots were heard from the direction of Tuchyn. We were panicked. Pavlo came to calm us. We tried to guess the meaning of the shots, which were continuing and increasing. There was a sinking in our hearts. We wept. Pavlo did the best he could to encourage us. He turned to us with feelings of pity and condolences. In the end he said he would go to Tuchyn to check what was happening. He returned depressed and told us that we were staying on with him, because we had nowhere to go. Pavlo told [us] that the Germans' announcement that was distributed among the public, that Jews were authorized to return to the city and they would not be harmed, had been a malicious act of deception. About 300 souls were assembled anew in Tuchyn. On that same Friday, at an early hour, Ukrainians and Germans appeared in the town. They led all the Jews to the cemetery, shot them, and buried them on the spot.

We told Pavlo that we were leaving his house because it was not within his ability to support us, as after all he was giving us his own bread. His reply was that at a time like this he would not expel us from his house. Pavlo was fearful in case one of the neighbors knew of our existence and therefore he prepared a hiding place for us inside a pile of straw in his yard. Thus we were forced to subsist like animals inside the straw. It was cramped. During the day it was terribly hot and a disgusting smell was carried from the pot in which we relieved our needs and which was next to us all day. At night Pavlo would empty the pot. It was very unpleasant that Pavlo was forced to service us in this manner. We sat inside the pile for a number of weeks. We did not wash and we did not change our clothing. Lice appeared. We got scabies. We were forced to get used to this way of life. We made a small hole in the pile of straw so as to get some light and some air. We would strip off our clothes and the lice eggs. Our situation deteriorated from day to day.

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Once Pavlo came to us, full of terror and fear, and asked that we leave his farm. He wanted to bring us to the forest and promised to bring us food from time to time. He justified himself. He had bad neighbors and if they were to discover that we were in his yard the end would come for him and for his family. About a return to Tuchyn we no longer thought. Indeed, two days after the murder of the 300, it was again published that Jews who survived were authorized to return to the city. It was clear that this was a new deception but in no place was there shelter to be found and there was no food, and every Ukrainian who met a Jew robbed him and turned him over to the police and received from them a kilogram of salt. Through lack of choice and out of desperation the Jews came back to the city. And again there were assembled close to 200 souls. On October 13, 1942, they murdered them. The tactic repeated itself again and again. After every liquidation an announcement would be published that Jews were permitted to return, and those that came had the intention to finish with their suffering and with their lives.

On November 4, 1942, there was the last slaughter. It was then that my dear daughter Chanaleh, may her memory be for a blessing, was murdered. After that slaughter an order was published according to which anyone who would give a hiding place to a Jew would be executed with his household members, and his farm would be burned. This last order dropped terror on Pavlo and he came to pressure us to leave at night for the forest. He could not look at us in our weeping and therefore left us to ourselves and blocked up the hole in the straw.

A number of days passed. All the time we thought about a way out of the predicament. We wanted to release good Pavlo from the pressure and the fear that we had caused him and his family. Suddenly we heard the barking of a dog that was tied up to our pile of straw. We knew that the dog barked only at strangers who drew near. And indeed, within a few minutes we saw through the spaces in the straw two Ukrainian policemen approaching us. They wandered around the yard and dallied next to our pile. They questioned Pavlo if there were Jews at his house or maybe at the neighbors. Pavlo was a bit embarrassed but said that for some time he had not seen Jews in the area. The police claimed that it had been reported to them that Jews were to be found in the area and it was better that he would admit this. Pavlo denied this with full force. The policemen left.

After a short while I saw Ukrainian policemen who were leading Leibl Briman and his wife the teacher Genia, their 2-year-old son, and his wife's sister. After that Pavlo was informed that they had been found in pile of straw like ours on a nearby farm.

The situation worsened. There were cases in which entire Christian families were executed, for the sin of hiding Jews. We could not stay on. If they had found Jews in one pile of straw, there is no doubt that they would find us too. All hope was lost. There were moments when the despair took hold of us and we considered committing suicide, all of us, by drowning in the nearby river. We were scared to go to the forest because we heard that the Ukrainians were tormenting Jews they discovered, demanding that they tell of additional Jews in the area and pressuring them to reveal where they had hidden their property. We heard about Jews who were caught by the police and who begged to be shot by them, only so that they would not add to their tortures.

One evening Pavlo brought us food and said that he could see that we had nowhere to go. He also understood our fear of life in the forest. He decided to dig a pit inside the barn that would be used by us as a shelter until the storm passed. I joined Pavlo. We dug a pit all night next to the barn, and the entrance to it was in the barn. The sand that we dug up Pavlo spilled into the river so that there would not be any sign of the digging. In those days every change on the ground aroused suspicion. That same night we moved into the pit. The conditions were horrible. There was wetness and a lack of air.

When I told Pavlo about the new difficulties that had been discovered, he suggested that we dig inside the straw that was in the barn. And that is what we did. We could only lie down. When we sat up our heads were inside the straw. In this way we lived inside the straw for 16 months. Today I cannot grasp how we held on. When we lay down, we took up the whole space, and if someone wanted to turn over, the three of us were forced to turn over. The pot for relieving our needs was also very close to us all the time and wafting from it

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was a strong stench. The Bandrovists^[17] roamed around the area and visited the yard, and on those days Pavlo could not take the “pot” out, which filled up. The heat and the stench were unbearable. Lice and fleas bothered us, visits by mice were a day-in, day-out event.

We made a narrow slit in a plank of the wall of the barn so that a little air would penetrate. It let in a weak light, with the aid of which we were able to clean our clothing a little of the lice and of the various insects. We became used to the darkness and when we were able to go outside we could not tolerate the light. Our legs swelled up and were paralyzed from lack of movement and from deficient nutrition. Sometimes we tried to walk a few steps and then we were forced to hold on to the walls of the barn.

Pavlo's economic situation was poor. The farm was tiny and the children were small and he worked by himself. It was no wonder that it was not within his ability to support us. Our main food was potatoes that were cooked with their skins and with their mud. Every crumb counted. We were always hungry. It is strange that in that entire time we did not fall ill. My wife suffered from liver disease and had always been under medical supervision. During the war she became immune and did not suffer a single attack.

Pavlo was careful. It happened that we suffered from the heat in the summer and he did not bring us water because he saw children playing near to the place and they could have told their parents.

What is strange is that we did not want to die, despite the terrible conditions, despite the loss of all hope. More than once death hovered over us. The Ukrainian police carried out searches and when they succeeded in catching a Jew, they would increase the searches on the assumption that they would find additional Jews close to the place. And there was an additional trouble: the “Bandrovists.” These were Ukrainian partisans who murdered Jews. One day they decided to organize a weapon storeroom in Pavlo's barn. What a good neighborhood! …

Pavlo Girasimtchuk, who saved the Chumut family

Whoever believes in miracles can say that this was a miracle. I have nothing to say. One day S.S. people appeared in a truck in the yard. Pavlo was not at the farm at that time. The Germans wanted to take hay. When they did not find the owner [of the farm] they went into the barn and began to take out the hay that was being used as our housing and as our camouflage. We saw that they were already getting near to us. We feared that at any moment they were likely to poke us with a pitchfork and discover us. We had no illusions. This was the bitter end. My only hope was that they would not torment us before they murdered us.

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For a moment I imagined that I felt their hands on my back. At that same critical moment the good angel Pavlo appeared. He was terribly confused but recovered quickly and put on an honest face as a friend of the Germans. He told them that it was dangerous to give the horses moldy hay. And in this way he led them to his father's yard and gave them what they requested there.

The second incident happened when the Germans were already in retreat. Until today it is hard for me to grasp how they did not catch us! Maybe they were scared of us? The Germans were digging defensive trenches along the river and set their headquarters in Pavlo's house. Fifteen soldiers placed themselves in the barn for 12 days. They spread out on the pile of hay underneath which we lay. That whole time [that they were resting on the hay] we were in a state of alertness. We knew that it was forbidden for us to cough or to sneeze. In any case my wife and I were awake the whole time, but the girl was eight years old and she too had to be careful. We were hungry and thirsty. Pavlo did not have the chance to get close to us. The guards wandered around at night over our entrance. Again cases of miracles.

When at last the Germans left, the area turned into hell. There was a battle of cannons over the village. Mortars flew above us and fell into the yards. The residents fled to the forest. Pavlo and his family also ran away. Every time a fire broke out in one of the yards. We lay there like “observers” and we saw the fire around us. Again a miracle event: Our barn did not ignite.

The truth is that despite the danger from the mortars and the fire, I had great enjoyment. I was happy at their misfortune: Also in Shubkiv the Ukrainian, the anti-Semitic, houses were burning. Of course there was no comparison between the fire that took hold of Tuchyn and the fire that broke out in Shubkiv, but let them feel it too, if only the tiniest little bit. The battles in the area did not continue for long. On February 15, 1944, the area was liberated by the Red Army.

We stayed in the shelter for a few more days. We waited for the local government to stabilize. The murderers were still running wild in the area. We wanted to know if there were Jews in the area and how the Soviets were treating the Jews. After a number of days Pavlo was informed that in Tuchyn a few Jews had gathered. We began the preparations for a return to our destroyed town.

We needed to get used to walking along the length of the walls. Our legs did not obey us. We were still careful that they would not learn about us in the village. The Ukrainian murderers murdered Jews without mercy, they were afraid that the Jews who survived would give evidence against them. And indeed, there were Jews who passed through all the departments of the Nazi hell and who were murdered by the Ukrainians after the liberation. We parted from Pavlo and the members of his household and set off for Tuchyn.

I repeat and praise highly the noble treatment of Pavlo and his wife towards us. Not only did they not take payment from us for all that they did for us, but they also gave us clothing and provisions for the road. When we [first] arrived at their home, my wife gave Pavlo a gold watch. Now when we were leaving, he gave the watch back. The two of them, Pavlo and his wife, were happy when they saw us leaving their house after all the terrible days that we had endured.

In Tuchyn we found 12 Jews. It is hard to describe the meeting with the remnants of a Jewish community as vibrant and active as our community had been. Each person told his sad story. We wept when we remembered our dear ones who had been murdered in various ways. And then we felt the terrible loneliness. We organized ourselves all in one house next to the Russian police. Gangs of murderers ran wild in the area and we were frightened of a surprise attack. The alertness of the Russian police was impeccable. One night they stopped a gang with weapons and hand grenades next to the house in which we were living. A week after we arrived in Tuchyn, my wife and my daughter fell ill with typhus. Their fevers were high and their situations were difficult. There was no doctor.

I was conscripted to the Red Army. Of no use were my pleas that my wife was ill and that there was no one to take care of her and that I myself was worn out

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from everything that I had been through. On March 20, 1944, I was sent on foot with a group of Ukrainian conscripts to Rivne. For me this was a backbreaking journey. From Rivne I was sent to Bryansk^[18]. There I was placed in a reserve unit. We passed basic training. All the time I was tormented that my wife and my daughter had remained behind ill and there was no one to nurse them in their sickness. I went through a difficult crisis. From time to time there awakened in me thoughts of depair. For a moment I thought it would have been better had I perished with the rest of my townspeople. Two months passed and then rumors spread that they would send us to the front to western Poland.

Many were indeed sent to the front. They sent me to Stalingrad^[19] to work in a munitions factory. I was disqualified from [going to] the front because of my age. After some time I requested a vacation to visit my family and I received 10 days. The movements of the trains were disrupted and it took me eight days to make my way home. I was convinced that I would sort things out with my commander when I returned to the unit. But one day I was walking with my wife when there was an inspection of documents. It became clear that my vacation was finished and I was arrested as a deserter. At the NKVD^[20], they told me that I could expect imprisonment of eight days. Following great efforts, the head of the NKVD agreed that until my imprisonment I would be able to sleep at home. I arrived home and immediately set out on foot for Rivne.

My wife managed to find a driver who drove her and our daughter to Rivne. We succeeded in joining a group of refugees who had returned from Russia. We traveled by train to Chelm^[21]. We were frightened all the way. We were scared in case a telegram would arrive and they would arrest us. In Chelm we breathed in relief. We had left Russian territory and we were in Poland. Precisely on the same day the Germans bombed Chelm and especially the train station. It was a very strange feeling. Such bad luck. After everything that we had been through, hunger, bereavement, fear, and so on, to die in a bombing …

In April 1945, we moved over to Łódź^[22]. We met many acquaintances there. In September 1945 we left with a group of Jews along the routes of the “Brichah^[23]” to Austria. We had falsified certificates of the Red Cross. We crossed borders on foot. For my wife it was quite hard because she was pregnant.

After many wanderings we arrived in Linz^[24]. They housed us in “Bindermichl^[25]” in the American zone. Before that it was a camp for S.S. officers. The conditions were good. On October 29, 1945, our son Michael was born. We held a very grand circumcision ceremony for him. Many Jews came to the circumcision because it was the first celebration after the war.

We stayed in Austria for three years. In January 1949 we arrived in the United States. We began to organize ourselves in normal life conditions. Our daughter finished high school together with other girls her age even though she had missed four years of education. Our son, who was born in Austria, is already studying in the first grade. And we are hoping to give him a good Jewish education. We are happy that we have arrived in the United States, a land in which every citizen feels free and can enjoy full equal rights. We do not forget the heavy disaster that struck us and our dear and beloved ones, who were tortured and murdered for no wrongdoing of their own.

We are grateful to our good friend Pavlo Girasimtchuk and we do not forget him even for a moment. He and his family endangered their lives and saved us from certain death. Despite all our efforts, we did not succeed in making contact with them. I am prepared to pay any price and even to endanger myself in order to find them and to repay them for their good deeds. To our great sorrow, this thing is difficult, because they are to be found behind the “Iron Curtain.” We heard that they expelled all the Ukrainians from our region to Siberia. Recently, my efforts bore fruit. We managed to locate our savior Pavlo and his family. We have established letter connections with them and we will take care to help them to the best of our ability. We are happy to receive good news from Israel from my two sisters with their families from Israel. Out of all of my wife's extended family, there survived [only] her cousin Simcha Shneider, who lives with his family in Petach Tikva, and her cousin Manya Charbsh, who lives with her family in Rishon Lezion^[26].

Translator's footnotes:

1. German for “area commissioner,” a district administrator. Return
2. Now Hrabnyk, both a street and a park and square next to St. Basil's Cathedral on the eastern side of the city. Return
3. “Clean of Jews” in German. Return
4. The Jewish New Year, which began at sunset on Friday, September 11, 1942. Return
5. The Day of Atonement, which began at sunset on Sunday, September 20, 1942, and ended at sunset the following day. Return
6. Traditional respectful expression said after naming a deceased person. Return
7. The traditional prayer said on Yom Kippur eve. Return
8. The Hebrew expression used by the author, yamim noraim, translates both as “terrible days” and as “days of awe,” the latter referring to the High Holy Days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Return
9. In Orthodox and traditional synagogues, men and women sit in separate areas. Return
10. Paraphrased from the traditional Yom Kippur liturgy, pleading with God for forgiveness and for mercy. Return
11. In Jewish tradition, the ancient Gate of Mercy in Jerusalem, also known in English as the Golden Gate, is the gate through which the Divine Presence used to appear and through which the Messiah will come. Return
12. Torah study hall. Return
13. About 5 kilometers northwest of Tuchyn. Return
14. Yom Kippur is marked by fasting and prayer and in normal times the streets would have been largely empty, with Jews either praying in the synagogue or resting at home. Return
15. Now Kyiv, some 280 kilometers east of Tuchyn. Return
16. “The Young Guard,” a secular socialist Zionist youth movement. Return
17. Followers of far-right Ukrainian nationalist militant leader Stepan Bandera. Return
18. In southwestern Russia, over 600 kilometers northeast of Tuchyn. Return
19. Now Volgograd, southern Russia, over 1,300 kilometers east of Tuchyn. Return
20. The Soviet police and secret police, a forerunner of the KGB. Return
21. In southeastern Poland, over 220 kilometers west of Tuchyn. Return
22. Located in central Poland, Łódź was Poland's second-biggest city after the capital, Warsaw (and is now its third-biggest). Towards the end of the war and in the initial years after it, Łódź became a center for returning refugees, as Warsaw had been largely destroyed by the Germans. Return
23. Hebrew for “Escape,” an underground organization that worked to bring survivors surreptitiously to Israel, then under the British Mandate, which severely limited Jewish immigration even during and after the Holocaust. Return
24. In northwestern Austria. Return
25. A displaced persons' camp that operated until 1949, now a suburb of Linz. Return
26. Both Petach Tikva and Rishon Lezion are cities in central Israel. Return

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