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The Soviets conscripted young people to the Red Army. Many Jews were called up. My brother Leibl was also conscripted. According to news that arrived after the war, my brother fell [was killed] during the war. The Germans who lived in the area moved to Germany according to the agreement between the Soviets and Germany. A number of Jews from Tuchyn were exiled to Siberia.

The Germans who attacked the Soviet Union advanced very quickly and already at the beginning of July 1941, about two weeks after the outbreak of the war [between Germany and the Soviet Union], they entered Tuchyn. In their retreat, the Soviets transferred to the Soviet Union all the people who had been working in government offices. Many young Jews escaped in the wake of the Red Army.

On the Horyn River was a bridge that connected Tuchyn with the Ukrainian village Shubkiv. During their retreat, the Russians blew up the bridge. The Ukrainian population received the Germans with enthusiasm and helped the German army enter the city. They placed boats at their disposal to cross the Horyn River.

Fear fell upon the Jews of Tuchyn. Every family searched for a hiding place for itself. Many families left their homes. It seemed to the Jews that it was worthwhile scattering to distant houses that stood at the edge of the city. Our family moved to the house of a cousin of my mother's, Moshe Gitterman, who was the owner of a farm and lived outside the city. The Germans who entered the town carefully checked the bundles that were in the arms of the Jews they stopped in the street. They were searching for weapons. The Ukrainians were guides for the Germans and pointed to the houses in which Jews lived. In Moshe Gitterman's house that day were a number of families – about 50 people. The Germans went inside, [and] ordered all of us to go outside and raise our arms. They carried out a search in the house, and when they did not find anything they ordered us to disperse and for each person to return to his own home.

The German soldiers settled themselves in Tuchyn and immediately took over all the offices: city hall, the post office,

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and the schools. In the first days, they left people in their homes. Our house was in the “Sands^[2].” Our neighbors were by a large majority Poles. In the area also lived Ukrainians. In those first days, brigades of German soldiers would come to the city, rest, and continue on their way to the front. There was constant movement by day and by night. Brigades left and new brigades came. German soldiers also took over the city park. This garden had belonged in its time to the estate owner Otfinowski^[3], and the Russians turned it into the city park.

The Ukrainians saw themselves as lords of the city. Not just from Tuchyn, but also from the villages in the area, Ukrainians began arriving with sacks in their hands. They would break in to the houses of the Jews, [and] fill the sacks with clothing, bedding, and anything that had value.

About a week after the entry of the Germans, the first pogrom took place. The organizers were Ukrainian sons of the city who during the time of the Russians cooperated with them and declared their loyalty to the Soviets. Already in the first days [of the German occupation], they changed their colors. At the head of the rioters stood: Hritchik the lame^[4], Prokoptchuk, Ostomenko, Prokop Polishtchuk, and others. At night Ukrainians broke into the houses of the Jews. The criminals acted mainly in the center of the city. They murdered and plundered. Jewish blood was spilled. There was not a house in the center in which killed or injured people were not found. There were killed and injured in the houses of: Halperin, Katzman, Gittelman, Chisado, Sapozhnik, Feldman, and others. To the “Sands” the rioters did not come that night. In Tuchyn there was a Ukrainian paramedic, Homaniuk, and a Polish doctor, Bortnovski. Homaniuk was a Jew hater but Dr. Bortnovski offered his help to the Jews in all the difficult times. There was a Russian medical nurse by the name of Genia, and she also helped.

After the pogrom, the German and the Ukrainian police in Tuchyn gathered up around 30 Jews and led them to Shubkiv. Before that, they tortured all of them in the gendarmerie and on the way to Shubkiv shot all of them. It was then that they murdered Pinek Tsilingold, Yankel Gelfenboim and Baba Shpitz of the residents of Tuchyn, and also others who were refugees from different towns in the area. I saw how they led the people [away]. Together with other Jews I was sweeping the streets of the city then under an order of the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians took over the rule of the city and immediately organized a police force. As head of the police, Prokop Polishtchuk was appointed. Ostomenko was his deputy. Also active in the police force were Hritchik the lame, Alexander from Shubkiv, and others. All of them were known as robbers and murderers and haters of Jews. Shetcherbeniuk from the village Sina^[5] was appointed mayor. He too was a known anti-Semite. Also working in city hall was Grishka from Tuchyn. In the municipal offices worked Ukrainian nationalists, all of them known anti-Semites.

The Gestapo people arrived from Rivne. They came with the intention from the beginning to kill Jews. They ordered the Ukrainians to collect the Jewish communists in the town. The police went from house to house and searched for men. In total they collected 28 men and in the yard of the police [headquarters] they shot them all. The Ukrainians were active and tried to catch as many Jews as possible. The Germans, who were known for their exactness, set a specific time for the end of this “aktzia^[6]” and the Ukrainians were extremely disappointed when Jews who were brought after the fixed time were sent back to their homes. The Germans told the Ukrainians: “The time for the action has ended and today there will be no more shooting.” That day they killed Moshe Gamer and his son, Baruch Rozenberg and his two sons, Hershel German and his two sons, Yitzchak Driker, and others.

The Ukrainians began catching Jews for work. To our house one day came Polishtchuk and Ostomenko from the police. They ordered my father, Getsel Shvartsman, to establish a “Judenrat^[7]” in Tuchyn and to present himself as its head. My father was for many years the “soltis*”^[8] in Tuchyn and everyone knew him, maybe because of this they turned to him.

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Getsel Shvartsman, head of the Judenrat

The Judenrat was established. The Judenrat in Tuchyn indeed carried the name, but in practice it functioned as a kind of [center of the] Jewish community. As my father's deputy was appointed Meir Himmelfarb, and as members of the Judenrat were chosen: Yosef Rotenberg, Elik Chumut, Berel Zaltsman, Chaim Glatshtein, Berel Zilberberg, Krishtol, Aharon Marakish. Additional Jews would also help the Judenrat in times of need. The secretary of the Judenrat was Yosef Rotenberg and in the secretariat worked three young women: Chaya Appel, Basia Valdman, and me.

In Tuchyn sat the commandant of the district (Kreislandwirt)^[9], a German by the name of Grabner who was sent to the place together with Germans who worked in the Gestapo and in the government offices. In the Gestapo in Tuchyn Ukrainians also worked. To the Judenrat they would all turn: Grabner, the Gestapo people, the Ukrainians, and each one with their own demands. The Germans would demand Jews for cutting down trees in the forests in the area, [and] for work in Shubkhoz^[10] in the village Shubkiv, which was established in the time of the Soviets and continued to exist as an agricultural farm also in the days of the Germans. Jewish women they would demand as cleaning workers in the offices and private homes of Germans and Ukrainians.

The Judenrat had to organize the list of people who were sent for work and to take care that everyone returned from it. The Judenrat would pay large bribes to everyone who came in contact with the Jews: to Grabner, to the police, to the Ukrainians, and also to the supervisors over the work, in order to guard the safety of the Jews.

In Rivne there was a central Arbeitsamt^[11] for all the district, and the district commissar (Gebietskommissar^[12]) was Dr. Bayer. There also was the office of the state commissar (Reichskommissar^[13]) for Ukraine, by the name Koch^[14]. The Judenrat would also send large gifts to Rivne to the people in the labor office. They would bring them clothing, shoes, furs, and pork meat. All these things the Judenrat would collect from the Jews, and their aim was to influence the center so that the Jews would not have to leave the city.

Immediately after the Judenrat was established, my father was invited to the gendarmerie. There waiting were Germans from Rivne and Ukrainian gendarmes and they demanded that he pay a “kontributzia.”^[15] They demanded that he bring jewelry, gold, silver, and foreign currency. In addition to all that, they imposed a head tax [on the Jewish population] in German marks. The Germans ordered my father to bring the “kontributzia” by the next day in the evening hours. I remember that in the Judenrat then we worked all night then in order to organize the lists. Many Jews had come to Tuchyn as refugees from cities and towns in the area in which “aktzias” had already been carried out: Kostopil, Mezhyrich, Rivne, and other places. There were in Tuchyn also refugees from western Poland, who had arrived in 1939. These Jews were in Tuchyn illegally and they needed to be guarded from the eyes of strangers. There was obvious danger to them from the Ukrainian detectives, who were always ready to inform on the refugee Jews. A Jewish refugee who was caught would be returned to his city and could expect a risk of death. Of course my father ordered us not to put the names of refugees into the lists, and also not the names of the Jews who were missing permits

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for work (Arbeitskarte).

On the same day my father turned to the Jews of Tuchyn and spoke to them from the podium in the synagogue. He told them of the tax (the “kontributzia”) and asked for a wide response. Many brought their jewelry themselves. A large crowd gathered next to the Judenrat and its members were frightened that the gathering and the movement in the streets would awaken the attention of the Ukrainians. They were always complaining that too many Jews were wandering across Tuchyn. Because of this the gathered Jews were asked to return to their homes and the Judenrat people would visit them and collect the valuables.

The next day my father and Yosef Rotenberg went to the gendarmerie in order to hand over the kontributzia. My father explained to the Germans that Tuchyn was a poor town and it was impossible to collect more. This time the Germans were satisfied with what was brought to them, and they returned to Rivne.

Months passed and from Tuchyn Jews were not taken out, and the Judenrat continued to bring bribes to the Germans and to the Ukrainians. One day a new police commandant was appointed in the town by the name of Stadnyk, and his deputy was Stiopa Trofimtchuk. Hritchik moved to the district [office]. These Ukrainians acted according to the Germans' instructions. In the gendarmerie a new department was opened, “the punishments department.” At its head was placed a Ukrainian from Galicia, Vitovitch, who was known in the whole area for his cruelty . New police also came to Tuchyn. The situation worsened and it was necessary to bring gifts and again to bribe. The bribes and the gifts had to be presented without anyone seeing. It was forbidden that one clerk would know about the gifts his friend received. There was one policeman by the name of Petro from Glinsk who cooperated with the Judenrat and passed on all the important news. The punishments department would snatch people at random and in order to free them much money had to be paid. The head of the department would arrest Jews, put them in jails, and wait until they came from the Judenrat to ransom them.

With the entry of the Germans, food cards were distributed to all the residents. The food rations would be distributed in one store that in the days of the Russians had been the cooperative. The Jews would wait in lines [to receive the rations] and the gentiles would beat them, push them, curse them, and abuse them. At the time of receiving foodstuffs, every Jew had to pass through a path of torments until they arrived at the cooperative store, and even there they had to absorb humiliations and insults until the clerk would hand over the sparse portion. In practice the Jews received only bread and I do not remember what the size of the ration was. I only remember that each time they would reduce the portion of bread. In order to avoid all this, the Judenrat decided to receive all the rations for the Jews of Tuchyn in one concentrated lot. In one of the houses the Judenrat set up a center where they would distribute the foodstuffs.*^[16] Once in a while they would also get a bit of sugar and oil. A young woman, Miriam Vinshelboim, would distribute the rations.

One day Grabner called in the head of the Judenrat and told him: “In Tuchyn there is no ghetto and in order to know who the Jews are, from this day on, all the Jews must wear two yellow patches, one on the chest and the second on the back.” Until that day the Jews of Tuchyn had worn a white stripe on the left sleeve on which was stitched a blue Star of David. My father tried to reduce the evil of this decree. He spoke to Grabner's heart and a gift was also presented to him. The matter of the patches was forgotten for some time, until my father was summoned again to Grabner, who told him that this time it was impossible to delay the order any longer and the Jews of Tuchyn would wear the two patches. “You, of course, do not need to wear the patches,” Grabner consoled my father, but he replied: “I am a Jew and I will wear the patches like all the Jews.”

The Germans distributed work cards. A Jew who did not have a work card could expect to be expelled and sometimes

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worse than that. Every Jew from the age of 14 had to work. With the entry of the Germans, my two brothers, David and Liova, worked at repairing machines and bicycles for the Ukrainians and the Germans, of course without payment and always soaked in fear.

The Judenrat began looking for workplaces. It opened workshops: hairdressing, tailoring, shoemaking, metalwork, carpentry, welding, and so on. The organizers of the workshops were: my brother David Shvartsman, Yitzchak Portnoy, Sioma Sapozhnik. The accounts manager was Chaikel Fuks and working with him were Sara Sheinfeld, Shifra Sheinfeld, and others. The orders would be passed by the Germans to the management of the workshops. The Germans and the Ukrainians would also look after their own private orders: shoes, boots and clothes for themselves, their family members, their loved ones, and for ordinary acquaintances and friends. All the orders had to be ready by a date fixed in advance. In the workshops worked professionals and also ordinary Jews who did not have places to work.

The winter of 1941 arrived. The “passportization” began. Everyone from the age of 14 had to receive a passport^[17]. The order applied to the Jews too. A Jew without a passport was sentenced to expulsion. The Ukrainians who worked in city hall did not know German. They demanded from the Judenrat three people who spoke German and Ukrainian to assist in producing the passports. The Judenrat sent Yosef Rotenberg, Sara Rozenberg, and me. In producing passports worked the Ukrainians Vasil Trofimtchuk, Hritchik the lame, and Nadia, who was a Volksdeutsche^[18]. Her brother worked in the Gestapo and was known as a murderer. We the Jews were seated between the Ukrainians so that they could keep an eye on us. In the initial period, every Jew would present himself to collect his passport personally. We would try to write in every passport for a Jew in the section for occupation a trade of some kind, as the free professions^[19] and commerce would bring catastrophe upon their owners. In the beginning, the Ukrainians did not understand this and we succeeded in this, but they quickly learned the names of the occupations in German and began to supervise and check the passports. A second problem that we did not know how to solve was the problem of the Jewish refugees. They could not come to city hall to receive passports, because the Ukrainians knew everyone in the town. Hritchik and Trofimtchuk would torment the Jews at the time of handing over the passports.

Sometimes Germans would appear at city hall too, who would ask how it happened that in Tuchyn there were still so many Jews walking around. The Judenrat found an answer for this too. After an appropriate gift handed to the mayor, it was “explained” to him that, for the sake of the efficiency of the work, it was worthwhile for the passports to be prepared in the municipality and the head of the Judenrat or his deputy would come twice a week and collect the ready passports and distribute them to the Jews. The mayor agreed to the offer. Now a new era started in our work. The Judenrat would prepare lists for us, and among the names of the Jews of Tuchyn they would insert the names of the refugees.

In addition to preparing the passports, it was part of my job to fill out the personal details and present them to Trofimtchuk for signing and stamping. The arrival of Germans at the municipality would awaken panic among the Ukrainians. Trofimtchuk and his friends would go out to the neighboring yard for a meeting with them. Out of panic, Trofimtchuk would forget to put the stamp in a closed drawer. I would take advantage of hours like these and would stamp empty passports and smuggle them to the Judenrat. The rest of the work of filling out personal details and delivering them to illegal Jews would be done by the people of the Judenrat.

Apart from the refugees, there were also other illegal Jews in Tuchyn – those people who during the time of Soviet rule had been activists and had not managed to escape with the Red Army, and also the parents and relatives of young people who had fled. It was my duty to wrap up the bundles of passports. I remember the picture clearly: My father would come to collect the passports, his face pale and a cigar in his mouth. He would stand in front of me, always trying to control

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his demeanor and also to calm me. I would wrap a bundle and would push the non-kosher passports inside, everything at the speed of lightning. Father would take the money out of his pocket and pay the cost of the passports.

Sometimes when there was a lot of work I would also stay at work in the afternoons, and this was an excellent opportunity to act according to our need. Twice a week they would come from the Judenrat to receive the passports, once my father and once Himmelfarb. In a number of cases I issued passports with Polish nationalities to Jewish women who were refugees from Poland. As far as I know, thanks to a passport like that, Hanka Zilbershtein of Warsaw stayed alive.

The passportization chapter ended. Yosef Rotenberg and Sara Rozenberg returned to the city and I continued to work in the town according to the demand of Hritchik, who was deputy mayor and manager of the economy and the work. Basia Valdman was sent to work in the Ukrainian labor office. Her manager was Vitovitch. The Judenrat was interested in receiving news of what was being done there.

With the refugees who arrived from western Poland in Tuchyn in 1939 was a Jew from Lodz by the name of Gross, a specialist in textiles. The Judenrat turned to him and suggested that he renew production in the textile factory that had existed in our city before the war. Gross, together with a number of other refugees from Lodz and with the help of Leizer and Yosef Kupershtein, opened the factory, which employed several hundred Jews. Women and children also worked there. There they knitted socks, sweaters and gloves, all for the German army. In the knitting department the manageress was Nina Danzig, a teacher who was a refugee from Warsaw. In this department my youngest sister, Basia, also worked. A factory for skins [leathers] also opened. The professional manager was Yankel Karp and several dozen Jews worked there. In the office of the factories worked: Zilbershtein, Karpel, Yosef Rotenberg, Pera Karp, Musia Kupershtein, and others.

The winter of 1941-1942 arrived. With the beginning of the cold, the Germans issued an order to bring them furs. Jews handed their furs over to the German army and at the same time warmed their souls with news that came from the front about the large losses of the Germans. Once again hope awakened that we would be privileged to see the defeat of the enemy.

A group of young people began searching for a way to the partisans. In it were David Shvartsman (my brother), Yitzchak Portnoy, Aharon Marakish, Nissel Zilberberg, Ludvik Gross, Chaim Rozenberg, Mottel German, [and] Shmuel Shteingold. In the area of the village Richytsya, Russian paratroopers would sometimes parachute in. Their fate was mostly bitter. Many of them were caught and executed. The Ukrainians would hand them over to the Germans. One day, to my father came the Russian Varnitski, a well-known acquaintance of my parents, who did not place great trust in him. He said he had contacts with the partisans and was prepared to be the liaison between the young Jews and the partisans, on condition that the Jews had their own weapons. After much hesitation it was decided to take the risk. Every day about 50 young people would leave Tuchyn to chop down trees in the forests. Nachum Balinski was the head of the group. They spoke with Varnitski and one day the Judenrat doubled the number of people who went out to the forest. Both my brothers, David and Liova, also went out to the forest that day to chop down trees. It was agreed with Varnitski that someone from the partisans would wait for the young people and would lead them to their [the partisans'] camp. The young people went out to the forest, worked until the late hours, and no one came. Disappointed, they returned to their homes.

The situation in Tuchyn worsened. New refugees would arrive every day because about our city, legends were spreading: a town without a ghetto, Jews work and live. The number of Jews grew and reached 6,000 souls. The lawyer from Vilna^[20]

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Avraham Tsintsinatus began working as a secretary in the Judenrat. His deputy was Chaya Appel. I worked as secretary to the workshop management. It was winter. We were surprised that neither the Germans nor even the Ukrainians came to place the orders as they usually did. Silence prevailed in the workshops and fear attacked the Jews. Guessing began about what was going to happen.

A number of weeks passed. The Judenrat decided to contact Rivne and to find out what was being plotted there. My father and Chaim Glatshtein from the Judenrat traveled to Rivne. They succeeded in finding out, after bestowing gifts on those involved in the matter, that they [the Germans] wanted to send 200 Jews from Tuchyn to Kiev^[21] to work in jobs at the T.O.D.*^[22] company. After tortuous negotiations, it was agreed that only 50 people would be sent. At the same opportunity, they received permission to organize a separate labor office that would take care of the work matters of the Jews of Tuchyn. From that time on, the Jewish labor office would receive the orders directly from Rivne. From then on, we were not dependent on the local Ukrainians. Basia Valdman began working in the Jewish labor office.

From the mouth of the German appointee Grabner my father was informed that the Ukrainian representatives in the government institutions had sent a request to Rivne and demanded to establish a ghetto for the Jews of Tuchyn. Those requesting this were: Hritchik, Ostomenko, Polishtchuk, Prokoptchuk, Grishka from the mills, and also the paramedic Homaniuk. Homaniuk was the initiator. Ten signatures were on the request. Once I was walking with my father next to Bronik's bridge. Homaniuk came towards us. My father stopped him and asked: “Homaniuk, how are you not ashamed? You are demanding a ghetto for the Jews?” Homaniuk was puzzled: “Shvartsman, who said it was me?” “I saw your signature in the Gebietskommissariat.”

The Judenrat began to act, again brought gifts, and the matter of the ghetto was silenced. The young people began to assemble and to plan their actions. In our house would gather: Aharon Marakish, Yitzchak Portnoy, Nissel Zilberberg, Mottel German, Shmuel Shteingold, Chaya Appel, Basia Valdman, my brothers David and Liova, and me. The main focus of our thoughts was how to obtain weapons. It was known to us that the Russians in their retreat hid weapons and that this had not escaped the knowledge of the Ukrainians in the area. We found a connection with a Ukrainian fellow from Shubkiv, Vasil Klimtchuk. His nickname between us was “Itchke.” Slowly, slowly we prepared him for our intentions to obtain weapons with his help. In his time he had been conscripted to the Russian army and afterwards he had returned home. In the army “Itchke” had been together with my brother Leib. He knew our family, and now we dared to contact him. We told this to the Judenrat and they told us to buy weapons at any price. The Judenrat funded the purchase. We received from “Itchke” eight rifles and 17 grenades. In order to transfer the rifles in secret, their barrels had to be shortened. This labor was done by the mechanic Berkovitch, a refugee from western Poland, together with my brother David. They transferred the weapons to the basement of the Judenrat and hid them there.

The spring of 1942 arrived. The tension was great. The Judenrat would organize the work matters itself. The commandant Grabner would appear and bring orders. Some of the ordered products he would send to the “fatherland,” that is, the German homeland. His translator was Levitski, a Pole from Poznan who before the war was the head of the firefighters in Tuchyn. This Levitski would also order through the Judenrat assorted orders for his family, for his relatives, and for his friends. To Tuchyn arrived refugees who had escaped from the Hushcha^[23] ghetto when there was an aktzia there. The Ukrainian police led them all to the gendarmerie, in the village of Richytsya, which is next to Tuchyn. They shot all those Jews. Levitski helped the gendarmes in the murders.

In the Judenrat they felt that the establishment of the ghetto was inevitable. To Tuchyn came many Germans. The gendarmes

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were replaced and to all the public institutions came new commanders. The situation worsened. Commandant Grabner called my father in one day and placed a large order: “I am going on vacation,” he explained, “and I need to bring something for the family.” He explained, among other things, that his place would be filled by the commandant Weck [Veck] from the village of Voroniv^[24] . He added: “Shvartsman, I must tell you that tough times will now fall on you and on the Jews of Tuchyn.”

My father understood the hint and in the Judenrat they started planning actions. First and foremost, it was decided to order large quantities of kerosene from the cooperative. Working there at that time were Opanas the lame and Yakub the tall. They were told that the kerosene was needed for the workshops. For the kerosene the pair were paid as much as they demanded. The kerosene was hidden in the ghetto. The Judenrat made contact with the Jews working in Shubkiv and explained to them that they too needed to act to obtain kerosene and to transfer it to the city. Among those who brought kerosene from Shubkiv were the following people: Natan Samorzhov, Leizer Sondelzon, Avraham Gilman, and others. The commandant Weck not a new face in the city. The previous autumn he had come to Tuchyn riding on a horse together with a young Ukrainian woman, caused a commotion in the city, hit out with his whip, shot [his gun] in the air, and shouted: “Too many Jews are wandering around here in the streets!” My father went out towards him and invited him to the Judenrat. Weck said that clothing for men and for women was needed urgently to distribute to the Ukrainians ahead of the harvest festival. The people of the Judenrat collected clothes and presented them to him. Weck would visit Tuchyn frequently and demand all kinds of items.

In July 1942 the order came from the district commissar to establish a ghetto in Tuchyn. The order was signed by Dr. Bayer. The Judenrat tried in various ways to defer the implementation, but this time all the efforts and attempts were in vain. They began to set up a fence, the building of which took about three weeks. The Judenrat decided to delay the work as much as possible. They sent people to build the fence and it was explained to them that they should not hurry. Each time my father would explain that there was not enough material and therefore the work was not advancing.

From that period I remember one incident: Levitski, together with the new commandant from the Gestapo and his deputy, arrived at the Judenrat. “You must help the front,” opened the commandant. He presented a long list of things that included 150 pairs of men's shoes, 750 [pairs of] women's shoes, 150 men's suits, 150 dresses, coats, and a further long line of objects. The situation in Tuchyn already then was hopeless. Every day, new meters were added to the fence. It was impossible to delay the work any longer. The Jews understood that with the completion of the fence the ghetto would be established, albeit much later in comparison with other towns in the area, but from then on everything would advance with great speed towards the bitter end. The Judenrat was helpless and could not see another way out.

My father took the list of demanded items into his hands. The demands were great and impossible to fulfill. The Jews had already handed over all their property and had nothing more to give. They no longer believed that Tuchyn Jewry would be saved. My father said: “This time we will not be able to fill the order. Whatever we had to give we have already given and we have no more.” “Shvartsman, you do not want to help the front!” shouted Levitski, and the commandant beat my father. And then my father said: “Levitski, you swine, the day will yet come when you will be repaid for all your deeds!”

The commandant announced that if the order was not carried out within one hour, the head of the Judenrat would be executed. Himmelfarb, who was present at the meeting, went outside and told the Jews what was happening. Elderly Jews went out to the city streets and raised their hands in a cry to the heavens. The Jews of Tuchyn began to bring the remnants of their clothing to the Judenrat. Aharon Marakish and Shmuel Shteingold brought the objects to the Gestapo, but not in the quantity that had been demanded. Himmelfarb sent me to count [the items] and to inform them that the missing clothing would be brought later, but no more items were sent to them.

The crowding in Tuchyn was great. In every house already now lived several families, because all the Jews from the villages

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had been brought to Tuchyn. The fence was established and a gate was added. The fence was built of boards and on the top barbed wires were stretched.

The Judenrat was in the house of Berel Zaltsman in the ghetto. Two days before Yom Kippur the order was given to the Jews of Tuchyn to enter the ghetto. Over three days all the Jews had to move into the area of the ghetto. Our family entered the ghetto on Yom Kippur in the afternoon hours. We lived in the house of Shmuel Gitterman. In that house were gathered all of Shmuel Gitterman's relatives and also relatives of our family. Yom Kippur started that year on Shabbat*^[25] . Towards the evening Ukrainian police came to guard the ghetto. Already that evening it was impossible to leave. Once in a while shots were heard. On Sunday, the last of the Jews of Tuchyn moved from the city into the ghetto. On that day all the Jews still went out to their places of work in the workshops that were outside the area of the ghetto, escorted by Ukrainian police, and that was the way they also returned.

On Sunday evening, the day after Yom Kippur,^[26] the ghetto was surrounded by Ukrainian police and leaving it [the ghetto] was prohibited. At night we heard isolated shots. On Monday in the morning there were already Jews who had been killed. These were people who tried to jump over the fence to the other side and escape. All were caught and shot. On Monday already they [the Jews] did not go out to work. The ghetto was surrounded. In the area of the ghetto were all the synagogues. The Germans had turned them into grain storehouses. There was a huge supply of seeds there. Many Germans came from Rivne to Tuchyn. There was a great bustling around the ghetto, [and] in charge of everything was the commandant Weck.

Inside the ghetto, preparations began for action. People went from house to house and distributed cans of kerosene according to the instructions of the Judenrat. In this activity took part: the Shulman brothers, the Markus brothers, Vova Turok, Natan Samorzhov, Yaakov Varni, Aharon Marakish, my two brothers David and Liova, and others. Several fellows also had weapons. As well as this, they also distributed the weapons that had been prepared beforehand in the Judenrat. Everything was planned during the day. My father and Himmelfarb came in contact with these young men. On Monday night no one went to sleep. People sat in their houses and waited for the signal.

When the first house was set alight all the Jews went out of their houses. Everyone poured kerosene on their house and set it on fire. The ghetto went up in flames. The synagogues, which the Germans had turned into grain storehouses and filled with huge quantities of seeds, burned over their contents to the end^[27]. It is hard for me to describe the picture. The noise and the commotion were great. Women searched for their husbands, children for their parents. Bitter weeping and cries of “Shema Yisrael,”^[28] and in all this commotion the young people began to shoot towards the Germans and the Ukrainians and to throw grenades.

“Jews, save your souls!” I heard my father's voice. Young people broke the fence. Jews burst out at a run.

About 2,000 Jews managed to arrive in the forests. The Germans and the Ukrainians were confused, they shot at the fleeing people and many fell. Reinforcements for the Germans arrived. They did not enter the ghetto, they shot from the other side.

I fled from the ghetto together with my little sister, Basia. I did not know anything about the rest of my family. I was swept along with the flow of escapees and I held my little sister by the hand. I ran with my sister to our house in the area of the “Sands.” Zosia, our elderly nanny, was still in the house. She hid the two of us. At night she moved us to the house of our neighbors, the family of Russians Kriyevsky. They agreed to hide us in their house, in the basement. In the Kriyevsky family was a son and two sisters with their families. Kriyevsky the son was in his time a good friend of my brother. With our family he had a special relationship. He would come and bring news

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and tell us what was happening in the ghetto. Kriyevsky returned on Wednesday and told us that the Jews were still shooting from the ghetto and that there were injured and killed among the Germans and the Ukrainians.

It was from Kriyevsky's mouth that I was told the details of my father's last moments. My father stayed in the ghetto until the first day of the Sukkot holiday^[29] . On that day he went out of the ghetto to the Germans. Weck approached my father together with other Germans, offered him a cigarette and asked him:

“Shvartsman, who gave the order to set the ghetto on fire?”

“I did,” replied my father. “Know, Weck, the Germans will be defeated … Our blood will be avenged by others … You will not destroy the entire Jewish people … Never will you be forgiven for the blood spilled!”

Weck listened to my father's words and did not reply. He let him speak. Afterwards, he asked:

“Shvartsman, do you have gold?”

My father took out his gold watch and presented it to the German.

“What is your last request, Shvartsman?” he asked again.

“I ask that you shoot me in the Jewish cemetery.”

Weck and the gendarmes led my father to the Jewish cemetery. With his own hands, he shot him.

That night I left Tuchyn with my sister Basia. My mother Rivka and my two brothers David and Liova were killed in the ghetto. Out of all of our family members, including uncles and [aunts and] their families, there remained my sister Basia and me.

Translator's footnotes:

1. *First published in the yizkor book for Tuchyn, 1965. [This note with the asterisk is by the author, Avraham Sadeh. Note that the book to which he refers was actually published in 1967, not 1965. Also note that while he states that this testimony was first published in that book, it appeared in Yiddish there and was translated to Hebrew for this book, and there are a number of differences between the two versions. Therefore, the English translation here was done anew to accord with this book, and it differs accordingly from the English translation of the 1967 book.] Return
2. A sandy neighborhood on the outskirts of the town. Return
3. A Polish noble family. Return
4. Names rendered phonetically. Return
5. Probably Syniv, 15 kilometers southeast of Tuchyn. Return
6. A Polonization/Hebraization of the German word “aktion,” a violent operation to clear Jews out of an area and send them to their deaths or forced labor. Return
7. A Jewish council appointed by the Germans in towns and ghettos to carry out their orders. Return
8. Soltis – representative of the Jews in the municipality. In parallel there were soltises also for the other minorities, such as the Ukrainians, etc. [This note with the asterisk is the author's.] Return
9. The author gives the German name, which means “district agricultural supervisor.” Return
10. A play on the village name Shubkiv and the Russian word for an agricultural collective, kolkhoz. Return
11. German for “employment exchange” or “labor bureau.” Return
12. German for “area commissioner,” a district administrator. Return
13. German for “Reich commissioner,” the governor of a large region. Return
14. Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar of Ukraine from September 1941 to August 1944. Return
15. Polish, Russian and Ukrainian for “contribution.” Return
16. In the house of Shapira they would distribute the bread. [This note with the asterisk is the author's.] Return
17. The writer is almost certainly referring to a kennkarte, an identity document required by the Germans (not an international travel document.) Return
18. An ethnic German. Return
19. Such as law and medicine. Return
20. Now Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. Return
21. Now Kyiv, Ukraine. Return
22. *The department of public works. [This note with the asterisk is the author's. The writer is most likely referring to the Todt organization, the huge Nazi civil and military engineering organization responsible for numerous projects using forced labor.] Return
23. A town some 200 kilometers west of Tuchyn. Return
24. A village about 10 kilometers east of Tuchyn. Return
25. *An error appears to have been made here. As far as is known, Yom Kippur that year began on Monday and the ghetto was set on fire on Wednesday. [This note with the asterisk is the author's. In fact, Yom Kippur that year began at sundown on Sunday (20 Sept. 1942) and ended at sundown on Monday (21 Sept.).] Return
26. All sources agree that the Germans and Ukrainians made their move a day or two after Yom Kippur. Return
27. Grains are notoriously flammable. Return
28. “Hear O Israel,” the first words of the central Jewish prayer recited twice daily and before death. Return
29. Sukkot 1942 began at sundown on Friday, 25 Sept., so the first day was Saturday, 26 Sept. Return

[Page 160]

Translator's footnote:

1. It is unclear to what this is referring. Return

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