[Page 22]

Two dates are indelibly inscribed in the history of Polish Jewry: On September 1, 1939, the Germans invaded Western Poland; on June 22, 1941, the Nazi invaded Eastern Poland after 21 months of Soviet rule in that part of the country.

The conquest of Skala on July 8, 1941, by the Hungarian Army was preceded by two weeks of fear, anxiety mingled with groundless hopes and expectations of miracles that would never occur. Amid tearful scenes of parting, dozens of young men were drafted into the Soviet Army. Their families sensed that they would never see their sons again. Officials of the local Soviet Administration left the town. They were joined by those local residents who had served under them in official capacities or who had supported the regime and now feared the vengeance of the Germans and the Ukrainians. In the absence of any official authority, underworld elements came out in the open and looted warehouses, the brewery and other abandoned property. In their wake came the supposedly decent Ukrainian peasants who carried off anything that fell into their hands. Fearful, the Jews withdrew unto themselves and hid in their houses. In place of the Reisoviet (Regional Soviet Council), a local council of Ukrainian notables was established and its members looked forward to the arrival of the German “liberators” in order to receive their official appointments.

Skala was first occupied by Hungarian troops, who were then allies of the Germans. Immediately after the Hungarians arrived, trouble began. They hated the Ukrainians but utilized their services in order to round up the Jews for forced labour. An order was issued whereby all able–bodied Jews had to report daily for the disposition of various tasks, primarily the reconstruction of the bridge over the River Zbrucz, which had been destroyed by the retreating Soviet Army. On July 25, the Hungarians ordered 15 Jews, led by Rabbi Yehuda Drimmer, to appear before them. The names of the 15 had probably been supplied by the Ukrainians who knew the town's Jewish leaders quite well. The Hungarians demanded that the Jews deliver 50kg

[Page 23]

of leather for shoe soles, 10kg of boot leather, 10 pairs of boots, 10kg of coffee, 10kg of pepper, and other provisions – all within two hours. Hostages were taken and Jewish representatives were informed that the lives of the hostages would be forfeited if the demands were not met. The hostages were ordered to dig their own graves. Quickly the Jews proved that they would be responsible for one another. They voluntarily gathered and delivered the requested ransom.

During the last week of July, the Jews of Skala witnessed a terrible tragedy. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Trans–Carpathian region of Ruthenia had been ceded to Hungary. According to the Trianon Agreement, the Jews from this area were no longer considered Hungarian citizens. Thousands of Jews, young and old alike, were expelled from their towns and villages. They were herded by the Hungarian soldiers over the former Polish–Soviet border, across the river Zbrucz.

On the way, Ukrainian peasants and policemen abused them, stole the rest of their possessions and drove them mercilessly in the direction of Kamenetz Podolsk – in the Soviet Ukraine, a distance of 20㪶 kilometres from Skala. The Jews of Skala mobilized to aid their brothers in distress. They collected food and clothing and bribed the soldiers to give the exiles a brief respite from the march while they remained in Skala. During this rest period, hot food was provided, urgently needed aid was given to the injured and carts were rented from peasants to facilitate the transport of the exiles to their destination. Uziel Stock, a powerful Jew in both body and spirit, offered significant help to these exiled Jews. He was one of two or three Jews who possessed a horse and wagon which he used to collect and bring food to the refugees. He ferried the elderly and the ailing across the border and defended the Hungarian Jews from the assaults of Ukrainian hoods. The expulsions continued and for many days, refugees poured through Skala.

In the midst of this suffering, shocking incidents began to take place in Skala itself. A young boy from Budapest begged the Hungarian soldiers to treat the Jews with more compassion. As a punishment for his audacity, he was tied upside down to a tree in the town square for two hours. From time–to–time, he fainted but the soldiers only poured water over him and continued to abuse him. Another victim was an aged rabbi who had

[Page 24]

used the few moments of rest for prayer. When the order to resume the march was given, the Rabbi did not move immediately. He was reciting the Shemoneh Esrei prayer. The Hungarians beat him brutally. Only the imploring of his daughter and the offer of a bribe secured his life.

The fate of the exiles was sealed when the Germans relieved the Hungarians of their authority over the entire region. The Germans ordered approximately 3,000 Hungarian Jews held in Orynin to gather in a field under the pretext that they would be returned to their homes. Most of them were murdered by volleys of machine guns. Only a few escaped this slaughter. Three young survivors reached Skala and told of this massacre perpetrated by a unit of the infamous Einsatzgruppe. For a time, the three stayed in Skala. When the danger intensified with the approaching Holocaust, the Judenrat obtained forged documents for these three which enabled them to return Hungary. They hoped to go to an area familiar to them which was not under the direct control of the Nazi. In fact, all three survived. Today, two are in Israel; Zvi Zelkowitz is a member of Moshav Nordiya and Ya'acov Katz lives in Acre. The third survivor lives in New York.

The hostility of the Hungarian regime in Skala was mild compared to the one which followed it. Even the Hungarians, among whom were sensitive and civilized people, had hinted that we would long for them after their departure. At the end of July, the German Army and civilian administrators arrived. The Zollgrenzschutz – the border and customs police – was stationed in Skala, although the Soviet–Polish border had been moved far to the east as a result of successful German military conquests. The soldiers of this unit patrolled the old border, the town and the nearby rural areas. The headquarters of the civilian administration were located in the great estate of the Count Goluchowski, who had already fled during the Soviet occupation. The Germans established a Liegenschaftsverwaltung (Land Estates Administration) in the Count's castle. It employed Ukrainian peasants and imposed forced labour upon the Jews, whom the Judenrat had to deliver on a daily basis. Like the

[Page 25]

officers of the Zollgrenzschutz, the German civil administrators also demanded whatever goods and supplies came to mind. The Zollgrenzschutz included several officers who “distinguished” themselves by terrorizing the Jews of Skala. The senior German officer was Major Braun. He was rarely seen in the streets and maintained very little contact with the Judenrat. Most of the time he occupied himself with playing his violin. Eyebrows raised when he invited Mendel Bosyk, the talented violinist from our community, to accompany him. Braun's attitude toward the suffering of the town's Jews may be described as ambivalent. He personally did not utilize his authority to our detriment but he also did not prevent the officers under his command from abusing and persecuting the Jews.

Braun's deputy was Captain Hera and it was he who terrorized the Judenrat and the Jews. This cruel and ruthless officer served as local commander and governed all aspects of our daily lives. Hera had, however no authority over our deaths. That was the domain of the Gestapo, commanded by the Judenreferent (officer in charge of Jews), Kelner. Hera excelled primarily as a looter and blackmailer. He possessed neither conscience nor feeling. During frequent outbursts of anger, he would beat his victims cruelly, occasionally using the butt of his pistol. Other officers of the Zollgrenzschutz infamous for their abominable behaviour were Arthur Engel, Wilhelm Feiffer and Grauer. Engel frequently engaged in openly looting Jewish property and, usually accompanied by Feiffer, was a “permanent guest” in Jewish homes. While Engel regularly used dogs and a whip, or his fists, Feiffer was a rather light–hearted soul who never actually touched anyone. He was just a petty thief who desired everything he saw. All these thieves diligently remitted the properties they stole to their families in Germany. The Jews who worked in the backyard of the Zollgrenzschutz – in their horse stables, cowshed and chicken houses and as domestics in their apartments – often prepared the boxes for packing and shipping. They knew that Hera lived in Chemnitz, Saxony; Engel was a welder in Juterbog; Wagner was a resident of Troppau and Grauer was a pharmacist from Baden. Grauer was a violent and dangerous giant of a man who, for some unknown reason, was in the habit of attacking tall, sturdy Jews. He once attacked Motel Goldstein for no apparent reason.

[Page 26]

The enlisted men followed the example of these officers. Those who were not evil were simply not interested in our fate. Only a few treated “their Jews” who worked on the farm of the Zollgrenzschutz in a humane manner.

Even before the Germans were entrenched in Skala, the first victim fell – ironically not at the hands of the Germans. One evening, a hand grenade was thrown into the house of David Hersher who was my neighbour in Stara–Skala. His wife Rosa, née Weintraub, was killed. The murderers were Julian Struczinski, a young Ukrainian who lived next door, and Milko Skoroda, a blacksmith who lived across the street.

Immediately upon the entry of the Germans into town, the Judenrat^[1] was established. The local commander received a list, from the Ukrainians, of all those Jews who were known as leaders in the community. These people were invited to the commander's headquarters. Abraham Bilgoraj (the only surviving member of the Skala Judenrat) described this fateful meeting.

The commander welcomed the Jews with wild shouts, ordered them to stand by the door and informed them that no mercy could be expected from the Germans and as long as they were useful to the German people, they would live; otherwise, they would die. Bilgoraj was appointed secretary of the “Jewish Council” that was ordered to convene within two hours. The group of local leaders met at the house of the young Rabbi Yehuda Drimmer, and from their ranks, seven members of the Judenrat were chosen: Mordechai (Motio), Weidberg as chairman, Rabbi Drimmer, Meyer–Zusia Tabak, Nisan Olinger, Joseph Yaget, Abraham Bilgoraj and Eliezer Fish as secretary.

[Page 27]

The members of the Judenrat appeared before the German commander who defined their duties, presented his demands and imposed the first edicts on the Jewish community: The Judenrat would immediately organize an ordnungsdienst, a sort of police that would enforce the instructions of the Judenrat; every Jew had to wear a white armband with a blue Jewish start on his right arm and anyone failing to comply with this order would die. Quotas set by the commander regarding forced labour were to be met on a daily basis. Furniture, linens, kitchen utensils and china had to be supplied immediately and everything was to be of the finest quality. The Judenrat would meet these demands in their entirety and without delay. Failure to do so wold most assuredly result in death.

In order for the German administrators to know the precise number of workers, the Judenrat was required to prepare and submit a list of the entire Jewish population of the town which, at the time, numbered 1,424 souls. These Jews continued to live in their homes, in the centre of town, on the main streets and side streets and even in the rural suburb of Stara–Skala (Old Town). No ghetto or Jewish area (Judenviertel) was established. However, an order was issued which forbade Jews to enter non–Jewish areas. In August 1942, Jewish homes were marked with a large star of David drawn on the outer wall or hung in a window, for identification purposes.

Thus, the Judenrat began to carry out the orders for the Zollgrenzschutz Commander. In one day, he was supplied with all the articles and goods he requested. It should be noted that the majority of the community understood the wisdom of giving up

[Page 28]

these goods voluntarily. However, as the blackmail and demands increased, the Judenrat was faced with opposition from the community and turned to the Ordnungsdiesnt to confiscate the goods and articles required by the Germans. The Judenrat appointed a “Finance Committee” to assess the financial capabilities of every Jew in Skala, and on this basis, taxes were imposed on everyone in order to create a fund to pay for the confiscated articles and goods. In this way, the burden was distributed equally among the entire community. After Passover, 1942, Max Sternberg, Yehiel Schwartzbach and Sammy Hescheles were co–opted as members of the Finance Committee.

The Germans' relentless use of forced labour threatened the increasing instability of the community. The Judenrat was ordered to supply 40 to 50 workers every day for the Zollgrenzschutz farm and residences and nearly twice that number for the agricultural estate. The fear of forced labour that prevailed in the community was due primarily to the abuse and severe beatings by the guards which accompanied the work. Quite often, people hid to avoid the work. When the quota of labourers was not met, Hera and his soldiers would shower blows on the members of the Judenrat and the Ordnungsdienst. The Judenrat was thus caught between the threats of the Germans, on the one hand, and the suspicion and enmity of their own community, on the other. It was a long time before the people understood that there would be no escape from the demands of the Germans.

In the beginning of October 1941, the regional headquarters of the Gestapo was established in the city of Czortkow. One of the SS murderers was appointed Judenreferent for the entire district. Simultaneously, a German civilian administration began to operate and at their command, a regional Judenrat was established in Czortkow. The latter's primary task was the imposition and collection of taxes to meet the Nazi demands. The mass murder of dozens of Jewish intellectuals in Czortkow caused great distress. It was reported that they had been arrested, transported to a nearby forest and executed in masse before a large burial pit. The regional Judenrat was also

[Page 29]

Summarily executed and a new Judenrat was appointed and ordered to fulfil the demands of the murderers with more efficiency. Jews who lived in rural areas were expelled from their homes; poor and empty–handed, they joined their brethren in the neighbouring towns. Their property and possessions had been taken over by the Ukrainians who had collaborated with the Germans. In this way, the population of Skala swelled to 1,550 souls. The Jews who had joined us in April of 1942 came from the rural villages of Burdiakowce, Losiacz, Gusztyn, Cygany and Turyleze. Some Jews from the villages of Muszkatowka, Wolkowce, Niwra and Germakowka also came to Skala. As the town's population grew, the means of livelihood shrank. The continued blackmail emptied the coffers of even the affluent and starvation began to afflict the poor.

At the end of November 1941, the German Arbeitsamt (Labour Office) ordered that a list be compiled of all Jewish men and women between the ages of 16 and 60. Each Judenrat was forced to supply a contingent of people for forced labour at the camp of Borki–Wielkie near Tarnopol. Ostensibly, they were to be relieved every six weeks by another group. The Judenrat of Skala tried to evade this edict and argued that all able–bodied men in town were already locally employed at the farm of the Zollgrenzschutz or on the estate. The arguments went unheeded, however, and 50 people were selected by the Judenrat and sent to Czortkow on December 2, 1941.

At this time, there was still an atmosphere of gullibility or naiveté that pervaded the town. People didn't know what was meant by a labour camp. Thus, though people did not wish to go, they could be coaxed into volunteering. The fifty who prepared to go to Czortkow were under the impression they would have to work and then be free to go when their replacements arrived. As they approached their destination, the fifty met the labourers from other towns who advised them of the conditions of the forced labour. They suddenly knew that they were in danger and began to run in all directions. Twenty–two people from Skala also fled and hid. The Judenrat was ordered to find the escapees and return them to camp; otherwise, the Gestapo would go after them. The situation was serious, but fortunately, a tragedy was averted

[Page 30]

Along with their brethren from other towns, 28 Jews from Skala were imprisoned in Borki–Wielkie. These prisoners were assigned terribly difficult tasks. It was winter and they worked up to their knees in mud building a roadbed for railroad tracks. The work was usually accompanied by severe beatings, torture and murder perpetrated by Ukrainian policemen whose cruelty knew no bounds. The terrible conditions of starvation and dissipating strength threatened the lives of the camp inmates. Their families pleaded with the Judenrat to save them, but the long road toward their release was of obstacles. The Judenrat sent an emissary to Borki–Wielkie to establish some sort of contact with the camp commander. During his stay there he was able to help the needy and intervene occasionally on their behalf. Most essential was the distribution of regular weekly parcels of food, clothing and drugs. This actually saved lives. At the same time, all means were employed to secure the prisoners' release. Even as these efforts went on, the camp in Borki–Wielkie claimed its first victim from our town: Moshe Stock, son of Uziel Stock, was killed in a work–related accident. His father, daring as usual, was the one who was transporting food parcels to Borki–Wielki from their families in Skala. When he arrived at the camp, Stock discovered his son's death. He removed his son's body from the camp and alone, in the dark, travelled over dangerous, snow–covered roads to bring his son home to Skala for a proper Jewish burial.

The community had barely recovered from this blow when another edict was issued in February 1942. It demanded an additional shipment of slave–labourers for the Borki–Wielkie camp. This time, the Judenrat knew that in spite of threats and warnings no one would volunteer to go. Everyone had seen that those in the first group had fled and nothing had happened to them. The Judenrat tried to bribe the Arbeitsinspektor (labour inspector) into cancelling the edict, but all efforts failed. At the command of the Nazi authorities and with the aid of the Ordnungsdienst, the Ukrainian police first seized Jews from their regular jobs and later raided Jewish homes, seizing anyone they could lay their hands on. A few families of those captured bribed Ukrainian policemen and were able to secure their release on the spot. But the majority were transported under armed guard to the regional concentration centre for forced

[Page 31]

Labour in Borszczow. On the way, a few more prisoners escaped but 18 men were eventually sent to Borki–Wielkie. The Nazi authorities were not satisfied with this number and demanded still more people for forced labour. Fear gripped the community but at the last moment the regional Arbeitsinspektor was transferred and for the time being, the edict was postponed.

The winter of 1941㫂 brought with it another edict: All winter clothing made of fur was to be requisitioned and anyone evading the edict would be put to death. Some dared to hide their furs with Ukrainian acquaintances in the mistaken hope that at the end of their tribulations the furs would be returned. Other valuables were also hidden with gentiles for the “time being” – their owners were killed and the gentiles inherited everything. For some Ukrainians, the Biblical saying: “you murdered and also inherited” actually came true. In this manner the difficult winter passed – the Jews of Skala froze, starved and trembled with fear, but the spring would bring even more horrifying troubles.

On April 2, 1942, the first day of Passover, all the Judenrats were ordered to compile lists of men between the ages of 12 and 60. All those on the list were then ordered to report to Borszczow that same day in order to receive official “identity papers”. (The Nazi were notorious for planning their most loathsome deeds to coincide with Jewish holidays). The order applied also to the members of the Judenrat and the Ordnungsdienst. This fact, and the scope of the undertaking, aroused the suspicion of many but disobedience meant the death penalty.

On the morning of April 2, hundreds of people, most on foot, the elderly riding in carts, set out in the direction of Borszczow, a distance of 15km. (As the journey was necessary for the preservation of life, the Rabbi sanctioned the travel on a holiday). At the designated time and place, the first 160 people arrived and were received by the Ukrainian police. Those who had assembled were directed to large halls where “clerks” were waiting to process them. But when the Jews from all the neighbouring towns arrived, hell broke loose. They were

[Page 32]

Surrounded by Gestapo henchmen and Ukrainian police who, with the aid of dogs, brutally herded the Jews to the railway station and from there, to the Borki–Wielkie labour camp. Among the prisoners were 84 Jews from Skala – a relatively small number compared to the other towns. Those who had lagged behind were lucky. Thanks to Sera Kasierer, the bitter news of their brethren's fate reached them before they arrived in Borszczow. This brave woman had been sent by Abraham Bilgoraj to warn the latecomers to flee and save themselves. Indeed, we fled in terror through the fields and forests and reached our homes tired, depressed and mournful over the tragic fate of our brothers who were dragged into bondage so ironically during the Passover holiday, the festival of freedom.

Deep concern and additional financial burdens were thus placed on the shoulders of the affected families, the entire community and the Judenrat. The Judenrat redoubled its efforts to ease the pain and suffering of the camp inmates by supplying them with basic necessities and encouragement, but it simply was not in their power to save them. Chaim Brettler, emissary of the Judenrat, extended his help to the camp inmates by serving for months as the link between the inmates and the Judenrat. He also brought them money, food and other aid. On several occasions, he interceded with the cruel camp commander on behalf of inmates who were under the threat of death. During this period the Judenrat also succeeded in ransoming or exchanging weak inmates for relatives who had volunteered to take their places. All this, of course, through huge bribes.

At this time, a second innocent victim fell in Skala. A dreamer named Leib Schechter lived in our town. He was a learned and pious man but strange in his ways. With the arrival of the Nazi, Schlechter began to write letters to the regional authorities protesting the unjust treatment of the Jews. One day, an SS man named Bretschneider appeared at the Judenrat office and demanded to be taken to Leib Schechter. He took Schechter to a small wooded area near the cemetery, shot him, and ordered the Ordnungsdienst to bury him. This murderer was arrested several years ago and was brought before a court in Mannheim, Germany but he died in jail before the trial could be completed.

[Page 33]

Even under the terrible conditions which pervaded Eastern Europe at this time, there were still vibrant communal self–help efforts. One organization noted later by Holocaust historians was the “Yiddishe Sociale Eleinhilf”. (Social Self–Help Organization), which existed in the areas of the Nazi Conquest outside of eastern Russia. I turned to the central office of this organization in Crakow where a fellow townsman name Zvi Zimmerman (destined to be a member of the Israeli Knesset) worked and, as a result, I was appointed to head this organization in Skala. The Judenrat supported this activity, and its first tasks were the creation of a public kitchen in the basement of the “Port Arthur Synagogue”, distributing bread daily to the poor and collecting clothing for those interned at Borski–Wielkie. Helping me in my work were Chaim Hirsch and Chaim Meiselman. Initially, it seemed that we were to play an important part in the attempt to save our people from cold and starvation. But our efforts were not crowned with notable success, as a new outbreak of barbarity occurred in the middle of May 1942.

The Judenrat received another order to send men to the forced labour camps and it was clearly understood by all that the time, the Judenrat would not be able to comply. The people were no longer naïve or gullible. The Judenrat informed the commander of the Zollgrenzschutz that they could not meet the quota. The commander ordered all members of the Judenrat, the Ordnungsdienst and a few others to appear at its headquarters. About 50 of us assembled there. Suddenly, we were surrounded by armed guards and marched to the City Hall. Chaim Yaget, who had replaced his ailing father Joseph Yaget in the Judenrat, attempted to escape and Hera shot him in the leg. (Afterwards, in his of his wound, this brave young man continued to organize food shipments to the camps). Our group was kept in a large room of the City Hall. During the night, several of our number escaped. In the morning Hera took a head count of prisoners, freed about 30 and sent 20, including myself and my comrades from the “Yiddishe Sociale Eleinhilf”, to the Gestapo prison in Czortkow. The commander of the prison, an SS officer named Weber, treated us to murderous beatings with a large wooden stick. I absorbed most of the

[Page 34]

blows, as I chosen by my fellow inmates as their spokesman because of my knowledge of the German language.

For a few days we worked at back–breaking labour in the prison yard where two SS men, Martin and Kochman, ran their own reign of terror. Kochman had a huge dog named Bullo. Whenever he pointed his finger at one of us, the dog would leap at the poor prisoner's face. Martin had a different “hobby”: he would make us lie down on the floor and dance with his heavy boots on our backs. There were 120 Russian prisoners–of–war also incarcerated. Most of them had been commissars and many appeared to be Jewish. Every day they were compelled to walk in a circle with their hands over their heads for up to 10 hours. Those who failed to do so, or who fainted, were killed by the Ukrainian policemen with rifle butts or stomped to death by heavy boots. Within a few weeks they all died.

The Judenrat made desperate attempts to ease our sufferings by sending us food and by interceding on our behalf at the regional Judenrat level. Through bribes and the payment of a huge ransom, 11 people were saved from the Gestapo prison. The rest of our group and Jews from other towns were shipped off to a labour camp.

At the end of June, a new edict was issued. The Judenrat was ordered to send 75 young women to a labour camp near the town of Jagelnica. The Judenrat argued that there were no women available to work outside the town and only 6 women were provided instead of the 75 that had been requested. Hera organized a night raid and rounded up more women that were originally required. Again, negotiations had to be conducted and again, a ransom paid. In spite of these efforts, 20 young women were eventually sent to the labour camp.

On January 20, 1942, under the chairmanship of Reinhard Heidrich, the Wansee conclave convened. The minutes of this meeting were kept by Adolf Eichmann. Unknown to the free world, this group drew up plans for the “final solution” of the Jewish problem. The first stage of the “final solution”, due to begin during the summer of 1942, was the destruction of one–half of the Jewish population – those who had been crowded

[Page 35]

into ghettos and Jewish areas for more than a year. At the same time, the labour camps were to be kept fully supplied with manpower and new labour camps were to be built.

These two stages operated simultaneously: one for forced labour and one for death. Then the Arbeitsamt registered the Jews and divided them into two categories: those fit for work and those who were not fit. Accordingly, all men between the ages of 16 and 60 were ordered to appear in Czortkow to receive identification cards signed by the Gestapo's Judenreferent. As usual, the Jews of Czortkow were the first to fulfil this demand. Led by the members of the Judenrat and other institutions, they appeared before the authorities on August 18, 1942. Some of them received the “redeeming” documents but about 200 others were sent to the labour camp at Kamionka near Tarnopol. The Judenrats of all the towns in the district learned from this terrible lesson. A large bribe succeeded in having identity papers signed en–masse for people who were supposed to have appeared there in person.

Meanwhile, the machine–like efficiency of death–deportations, the so–called “actions”, had started to function. Shocking rumours spread about mass murders in every part of Galicia. During the “action” in Czortkow, thousands of Jews were caught and sent in freight trains to unknown destinations. Two names struck fear in the heart of every Jew: The camp on Janowska Street in Lvov and the death camp in Belzec.

The head of the “Jewish Section”, the Gestapo officer named Kelner, would often “visit” the Judenrat in Skala and usually leave laden with valuable articles and gifts that the Jews of the town had paid for in blood and money. On September 25, 1942, Nisan Olinger, a member of the Judenrat in Skala, delivered a “gift” to Kelner in his office in Czortkow, as Kelner had requested. That same afternoon, Kelner himself appeared in the Judenrat office in Skala to make sure the “gift” had been sent to him. While he was there, he wanted to know whether Skala could absorb Jews from neighbouring communities. The Judenrat replied that during the month of March, Jews from neighbouring villages had already settled in Skala and the Jewish area was now severely crowded. Kelner ordered two members of the Judenrat to accompany him on a tour of the Jewish area to verify this report. He also demanded additional gifts: a large

[Page 36]

amount of heavy shoe leather and 12 gold coins. After the tour, Kelner expressed his satisfaction and promised the Judenrat that “everything would be all right”. (We were informed later that Kelner had repeated this deceit in every town in the district). Upon his arrival in Czortkow where Olinger was waiting for him with the large “gift”, Kelner repeated his promise. That evening, when Olinger came home from Czortkow, he reported Kelner's optimistic words. The “good news” spread through the town and the Jews naively thought that this time they would be able to celebrate the festival of Succot with relative ease. Many felt so relieved, in fact, they did not take the usual precaution of sleeping in bunkers or in hiding places.

The “action” began at six o'clock in the morning on Saturday, the first day of Succot, September 26, 1942. We, the few Jewish families still residing in the rural suburb of Stara–Skala, were the first to glimpse the impending tragedy. Just before dawn, we heard the muffled roar of automobile motors on the highway between Skala and Czortkow which passed near our homes. We had already been warned by our neighbour Michael Jagendorf, who worked in the pig sty of the Zollgrenzschutz, that something was going to happen that night. He had been awakened by Wilhelm Feiffer, who had developed a liking for Michael, and told him to go immediately to the farm under the pretext of taking care of the animals. We sat near our windows in the dark and waited. From down the road came a long line of vehicles full of armed men. Their headlights were dimmed and the whole line was moving slowly toward the town. We fled and hid in nearby fields and bushes, each of us in a different spot. (My mother was saved for the time being, but I was later discovered by Ukrainian policemen who took me, badly bruised and beaten, to the town from which I eventually managed to escape).

The town was surrounded by 150 gendarmes of the “Schupo” (Schutz–Polizei), the “Kripo” (Kriminal Polizei) and Ukrainian policemen who were led by Kelner and three or four other Gestapo officers. When they entered the town, Kelner summoned the Judenrat and the Ordnungsdienst and ordered them to accompany the men who were carrying out the “action” and to supervise the collection of furniture and all movable goods from the raided apartments. The town was carefully combed

[Page 37]

from one end to the other. Door were broken down with axes and poles. Every house was searched from attic to cellar with the keen attention of hunting dogs. Well–camouflaged bunkers were discovered and dozens of people removed, beaten and taken to the barracks of the former Polish Border Guards, now surrounded by a barbed wire fence. (This fence had been erected by the Nazi earlier that spring. They had spread a rumour then that the camp was being prepared for prisoners–of–war or French labourers). The search parties were accompanied by Ukrainian peasants, who quickly packed the loot into carts and transported it to improvised warehouses. Ironically, these were the synagogues that had been abandoned for some time. The Ukrainians also looted for themselves. Kelner and two of his assistants, the Gestapo men Pahl and Frantz, directed the “action”. They acted like wild men – screaming, beating and shooting. Nearly 30 people were killed during the “action” – many of them elderly, ill or those who attempted to hide or refused to be led like sheep to slaughter. At that time, Pahl murdered an old woman who fled into a cellar of the Judenrat building. Abraham Bilgoraj saw Pahl commit several other murders of this nature. (This criminal is being tried in Mannheim and the court proceedings have been dragging on for several years). Pahl and his men also conducted brutal body searches on the prisoners in the barracks and robbed them of any remaining valuables.

The hellish fire of the “action” raged out of control throughout the day and into the evening. Only then did the “action” quiet down and a deathly silence came over the town, disturbed by an occasional shot, the shouts of the murderers as they discovered someone coming out of hiding or the sighs of those languishing in the barracks behind the barbed wire. It was a clear, moonlit night and heaven looked down on the murder of innocent people and was silent … On Sunday, the second day of Succot, the “action” continued but only a few people were found. Our Ukrainian neighbours once more showed their traditional hatred of the Jews when those who collaborated with the Nazi searched bunkers and turned in those who still hid there.

The “action” ended at noon of that Sunday and the results were devastating: nearly 700 people were captured or killed, yet

[Page 38]

Kelner's appetite was not satisfied. The dead and the living were gathered and counted and the Judenrat was ordered to bury the dead in a mass grave in the cemetery. At ll:00 o'clock, a final count was taken by the Nazi. Members of the Judenrat were lined up and informed that the number of those taken during the “action” was too small (less than 50% of the population); therefore, the Judenrat too was to be punished. Rabbi Drimmer, Eliezer Fish and Meyer–Zusia Tabak were added to the “shipment”. Tabak saved himself by paying a high ransom. However, Drimmer and Fish and two members of the Ordnungsdients whose behaviour did not please Kelner were taken away. At noon time hundreds of people of all ages were marched off to the railway station. Their guards severely abused them every step of the way. The Jews were loaded into crowded freight cars, 78 to 80 in a car, and transported to a then unknown destination. After a few days, a message was received from the Janowska Camp in Lvov. The prisoners had been taken there and the “selection” had taken place: the women, the elderly and the children were sent to their death in Belzec and the rest awaited their fate in Lvov.

The death camp in Belzec was shrouded in mystery. Very little that went on there filtered out and no record remained. The Nazi razed the camp to the ground and burned the skeletons of hundreds of thousands of corpses before the Soviet Army occupied the area in the summer of 1944. Half of our people from Skala perished at Belzec. Very few of those transported to Belzec survived. Except for those who dared to jump off the trains. (One who survived is our fellow townsman, Abraham Brandes–Trasawucki).

The tragic news from the Janowska camp was no better. The men were forced to run up and down a hill carrying loads of bricks. Those who stumbled or fell behind were killed. Rabbi Drimmer, Eliezer Fish and Joseph Meiselman were among the first to be killed and the others were murdered later or sent to the extermination camp of Belzec. But, as long as some of our people were still alive in the Janowska camp, they received some aid through whatever ways we could devise. A Polish woman who worked in the camp agreed to pass messages and requests from the inmates to the surviving Jews of Skala. There was also a young Polish man who, for a price, agreed to bring food once a month to the same Polish woman, who would then smuggle it,

[Page 39]

a little at a time, into the camp. It was later learned, from the few who succeeded in escaping, that these food deliveries sustained many of our tortured fellow townsmen who also shared the food they received with others.

Several attempts were made to escape from the Janowska camp. Moshe Bilgoraj attempted to escape but was caught by a “Kapo” (camp police) who brought him back to the camp but did not turn him over the murderers for immediate execution. He and Shlomo Schwarzbach were among the last victims to die in the camp.

The “action” ended and half our Jewish community was gone. The other half were hiding in bunkers, mourning in awful silence, awaiting an unknown fate. Only after a few days had passed did the survivors dare to come out of their hiding places in order to pick up the pieces, to somehow restore their plundered apartments and to face a life of terrible poverty and decline. After this great tragedy, there was no longer any doubt. More upheavals were ahead, and we were nearing our end.

At the end of the day's forced labour, some of our people would lock themselves in their hiding places or flee to a gentile friend's home for a restless night's sleep. Others succeeded in staying with their gentile acquaintances for several days and prepared hiding places for themselves should the hour of need arise again.

The “action” and the labour camps had already destroyed over 1,000 souls in the Jewish community of Skala. Very few families were spared. The survivors were lonely, broken people: widowers, widows and orphans who hoped merely to somehow continue their miserable existence. Who could have known at that time that a plan existed for the “final solution” – the total destruction of all Jews in occupied Europe within a specified period of time, and that by the middle of the summer of 1943, Europe would be declared “Judenrein” (free of Jews)?

Less than two weeks after the “action”, the next stage in the destruction of the Skala Jewish community began. Through the regional Judenrat, an order was issued to the surviving Jews of Ozieran, Mielnica, Korolowka and Skala to leave their home towns by October 22, 1942 and to move into the central

[Page 40]

“ghetto” that would be established in Borszczow. Anyone defying the order would be shot. Once more, the local Judenrat attempted to offer ransoms and bribes in order to cancel this edict, but without success. Every sensible person understood that the concentration in Borszczow was designed to facilitate further mass murders. Those who were left penniless, those without friends among the Poles or Ukrainians, those who were overcome by despair and accepted their inevitable fate – all packed their remaining belongings and moved to Borszczow.

Only a few dozen people remained in Skala and each one of them grasped at a different straw in the wind: one group worked as labourers on the farm of the Zollgrenzschutz and as domestic servants of the officers and soldiers; another group, the “veterans” at the estate, continued to work in the Liegenschaft (state farm): and there were individuals who did not belong to any group who, for large sums of money and through intermediaries, were able to obtain certificates issued by the Gestapo which designated them as: “important to the German economy” (Wirtschaftswichtige Juden) as collectors of rags, bones, scrap metal, etc. However, among these some had “hard” certificates which hardly promised the bearer any safety at all. In a short time, in fact, the latter proved to be of no value. Those Jews with the letter “W” (for Wirtschaftswichtige) marked on the lapels of their garments, could move around freely without being attacked by the murderous Ukrainian policemen or the Nazi. The fruit of their labour was meagre, however, and soon their German employers “forgot” to ask for the supply of collected materials. They simply became “protected Jews” but this too lasted only a short time.

Those Jews who stayed with gentile friends did so through the payment of large sums of money, the deposit of their belongings and the promise that all their non–movable property would be turned over to their protectors at the end of the war, when the survivors would disperse to distant lands to rebuild their lives. Several dozen Jews, most of them survivors of decimated families, took refuge in the forest where they prepared camouflaged hiding places underground. Under conditions of constant fear, the remnants of our Jewish community passed the winter of 1942㫃.

[Page 41]

On March 6, 1943, all the remaining Jews in Skala, except for the workers on the estate and the farm of the Zollgrenzschutz, were ordered to leave town and join the concentration of Jews in Borszczow. The last members of the Judenrat and others who, out of utter despair, accepted the edict, packed their meagre possessions and moved to Borszczow. Everyone else found hiding places in bunkers, in the ruins of houses, in homes of friendly gentiles, or in the forest. A deathlike silence fell over the town. The looted, empty houses stood staring through their broken windows like eye holes in the skulls of corpses.

The blood–thirsty Ukrainian police, many of them from “prominent” families of Skala, patrolled the streets and alleys by day and night in search of those still hiding. Ukrainian thugs and murderers assisted the police and all received encouragement from their “intelligentsia”, the priest Derewienko and Dr. Modna. Both incited the mob to complete the annihilation of the last remaining Jews. The Ukrainian murderers were joined by others who came from an unexpected source – some Uzbek deserters from the Red Army gained the confidence of the Germans and were added to the Zollgrenzschutz. During the summer of 1943, the hiding place of Dr. Steuerman and his family was discovered by the Uzbeks beneath the Strusover Synagogue. They were all shot on the spot.

The days and nights of the spring, summer and fall of 1943 crept by. From time–to–time, volleys of rifle fire broke the silence of the night. Again and again, Jews hiding in bunkers were discovered, brought to the cemetery and murdered in cold blood. Horror stories spread about the cruel deaths of men and women slaughtered by their gentile “protectors” when the latter had tired of hiding them. The bodies of these victims were found strewn over the fields.

One morning, the police raided the estate farm and killed all the Jewish workers. On the night of October 19, 1943, the workers of the Zollgrenzschutz were rounded up and sent the next morning to the Janowska Camp. All perished in Belzec except for one girl who hid in the attic of the Zollgrenzschutz building.

During the same period, the refugees from Skala who had been crowded into the ghetto of Borszczow, suffered enormous hardship. The hunger, crowding and poor sanitary conditions caused an outbreak of typhus which brought death – perhaps a

[Page 42]

charitable death – to many ghetto inhabitants. The outbreak of the disease was kept a secret from the Nazi, lest they use this as an excuse to kill everyone without distinction or delay. On the eve of Purim, in March 1943, the Ukrainian militia fanned out into the streets of the Borszczow ghetto, arresting scores of men and women of all ages. The prisoners were kept in a local jail for no “apparent” reason and were gradually released for ransom payments. Every one of the prisoners was exposed to typhoid and contracted the disease to which many succumbed.

In April 1943, on Passover Eve, another massacre followed in which several hundred Jews perished. During this so–called Passover “action”, the victims were first brought to the Jewish cemetery where they were brutally machine–gunned before open pits. Many were buried alive in mass graves, while still writhing between life and death. Their blood gushed forth from the graves in such volume and with such force that it was necessary to dig new graves and new trenches.

During the festival of Shavuot on June 9, 1943, the murderers attacked the remnants of the ghetto for the last time. They broke into even the most sophisticated bunkers and hiding places. They took the last Jews (about 800 souls) to the Jewish cemetery and murdered them all, among them the last remnants of the Jews from Skala. The ghetto of Borszczow, in fact the entire region, was declared Judenrein (free of Jews). Until the liberation of the area by the Red Army in March 1944, no Jew who had survived the slaughter could walk about freely in broad daylight.

During those nine months (June 1943 to March 1944) the Ukrainian policemen and their civilian accomplices searched out hundreds of Jews, caught them in the hiding places or while out at night looking for food and murdered them. Many who had sought refuge in the forest were killed by the Ukrainian fascist–partisans, who belonged to the infamous gangs of Stefan Bandera. His headquarters were located in a nearby forest. The sufferings and travails of the “Jews of the forests” was a bloody chapter, described in this book by one of the survivors. Another episode was the heroic but hopeless struggle of the Jewish partisans (among whom were a number of men from Skala) led by

[Page 43]

Yehoshua Cukier and Lonek Young from Borszczow. Their struggles and their deaths are described in Sefer Borszczow (The Borszczow Book).

There was literally no place where the pursued could hide for an extended period of time. Gentiles who harboured Jews were punished by the murderers, thus their hospitality turned to fear and the Jews were forced to leave these hiding places. They went to the forests where their chances of survival were dim. Some Jews went of their own free will to small agricultural work camps in the area, such as Dobraniowka, near Jezierzany. Others sought sanctuary at the camp in Lisowce, near Tluste, which had a good reputation thanks to two German officers who had taken pity on their captives and saved many Jews from the hands of the Gestapo. This was the only camp in which nearly 200 Jews survived the Holocaust. All the other camps were destroyed and their occupants murdered in July 1943.

The winter of 1943㫄 … . the forces of freedom and liberation are on the march toward certain victory. The grinding wheels of Nazi oppression and murder are being pushed back. Even the monstrous hearts and minds of the war criminals are filled with fear and anxiety for their own fate. Still, up until the last moments of their accursed lives, they are feverishly occupied with planning the destruction of any victims within their grasp. Even as liberators moved to free us, the suffering and death continued in the camps.

On January 13, 1944, Sarni, a city in the south–eastern part of pre–war Poland, was the first to be liberated. The Red Army advanced southward in the direction of Tarnopol and the river Dniester on the old Romanian–Polish border. By March 24, 1944, the chains of Soviet tanks clanked through the deserted streets of Skala. The Jews, dead or hiding, and the Ukrainians cowering in fear of the punishment they could now expect for their crimes. Within a few hours after the town was liberated, the survivors began to come out of their bunkers, their hiding places with friendly gentiles and out of the forests. They looked more like skeletons than human beings, dressed in tattered clothing with rags on their feet instead of shoes, some limping

[Page 44]

on their walking sticks. This is what remained of our community after 600 years of existence and four years of the Holocaust: Less than 150 survivors out of a total of 1,500 Jewish residents of Skala before the Holocaust. Moreover, this number was arrived at only after the return from the Soviet Union of those who had fled to the east at the beginning of the war or were deported there by the Soviets.

The last few days of March 1944 witnessed the beginning of a slow recovery from the shock of the Holocaust. There was, however, great concern among the few survivors over the small number of Russian troops in Skala. There were rumours that across the river Zbrucz, in the region of Kamenetz–Podolsk, an entire SS division had been encircled by the Russians but was still fighting. Early one morning, heavy fighting broke out and the small contingent of Soviet troops retreated to the north in disarray. Within a few hours, Skala was again occupied by hordes of Nazi SS men and dirty, hungry and disorganized German troops. Whoever succeeded in joining the retreating Soviet troops was saved. Other hid in every possible place; once more, people took to the forests. Four more of our people were killed by the Germans or the Ukrainians: Benjamin Gottesfeld, Finio Frenkel, Chaim Gottesfeld and the little girl, Bracha Tabak. A week passed and our liberators returned with reinforcements and pushed the Nazi divisions back in the direction of Buczacz.

The news of Skala's liberation reached our brothers in Palestine at the beginning of April. Upon our arrival there, several years later, we were shown a clipping from the newspaper Mishmar (sic) dated Friday, April 7, 1944, (14 days in the month of Nisan, 5704). Under the headline: “Skala Liberated”, the story read: “The complete destruction of the encircled German Divisions is expected. It is reported from Moscow that Skala – southeast of Tarnopol – has been liberated. Fifteen German divisions have been trapped in this area. In those battles, the Soviet Army has captured a considerable amount of war booty. Southeast of Tarnopol, the armies of General Zhukov have repulsed counterattacking enemy forces after heavy fighting in

[Page 45]

which the enemy has suffered heavy casualties”.

We read this news and shed bitter tears, remembering that even during this moment of liberation, four from our decimated community were killed.

Not for one moment did the survivors of the Holocaust consider rebuilding their lives on that blood–soaked earth. They did, however, deem it their moral duty to assist the Soviet military and civilian authorities in eradicating the nests of Ukrainian fascists in the forests, apprehending local murderers and giving testimony against them in their trials. Some survivors were drafted in to the Soviet Army and contributed to the defeat of the Nazi. The survivors also did everything they could to repay the kindness of those few gentiles who risked their lives to save Jewish lives.

In the meantime, another survivor of the Holocaust was murdered by the Banderovtzi (Ukrainian fascist terrorist). This was yet another reminder to the survivors that they must abandon this cursed land. Soon after, the dispersion began. Some moved to the liberated part of western Poland and concentrated in the area annexed from Germany, namely, Upper Silesia. Members of pre–war Zionist movements sought to re–establish the activities of their groups among the survivors. They formed kibbutz Aliyah groups in the cities of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Katowitz and in the towns of Upper Silesia.

Desperate efforts were made to gather Jewish orphans, including those who had already been absorbed by communist boarding schools, to bring them across the Polish–Czech border to Austria and southern Germany.

A number of survivors from Skala found temporary residence in the D.P. (Displaced Persons) camps in Germany and Austria. From there, they started out for all corners of the free world – some to the United States and Canada, others to the Land of Israel. According to statistics (see page 43) 13 survivors emigrated to Canada; over 60 settled in the United States; 4 stayed in Poland; 49 emigrated to Israel, and the balance are scattered in other countries.

Over thirty years have passed and our numbers have steadily declined. Some have passed away, physically and spiritually broken. The Holocaust – its aftermath and nightmares – shortened their lives and sent them to their graves before their

[Page 46]

time. In the United States and Israel, annual memorial meetings are usually held on the anniversary of the “action”. Now, fewer and fewer of our townsmen appear. We look at each other and discern the wrinkles of old age and the sorrow that has gnawed at our hearts throughout these years and will be with us until our times comes.

We, the surviving remnants of the Jewish Community of Skala, residing in Israel and in the diaspora, took upon ourselves the sacred duty of preserving the memory of our martyrs and assuring that the Holocaust of our hometown shall never be forgotten. A memorial tablet has been erected on Mount Zion and placed among the hundreds of name–tablets of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. The society of former Skala residents in New York contributed a considerable sum of money toward the erection of a Kupat Holim medical clinic in Netanya in memory of our destroyed community.

In the book Landsmanschaften in Israel, we published a memorial article about the history of our community from its beginning to its extinction. In the Holocaust memorial section of the Holon Cemetery near Tel–Aviv, a tombstone was erected in memory of the martyrs of Skala and the neighbouring villages. The Berl Katznelson High School of Kfar Saba “adopted” our community through a special certificate presented to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. A similar gesture was made by the Shabazi School in Moshav Even–Yehuda, where I was invited to give a series of lectures to the school children (most of them from Yemen) about Skala, its Jewish community, its life and tragic demise. These lovely children were deeply moved by the terrible tragedy that befell their brothers in the distant diaspora. They composed poems, wrote stories and drew pictures from their imagination about the town and its extinction. Before his untimely death, our unforgettable townsman, Shlomo Bilgoraj, himself a talented painter, saw and admired the children's work.

At the Katznelson School, Holocaust studies have been included as part of the course in Modern History of the Jewish People. All eleventh–grade students hear a series of 35 lecture–

[Page 47]

discussions and reminiscences about the Holocaust. I illustrate the horrors of the Holocaust through a description of the destruction of the Jewish community of Skala.

The students get to know our town with all its lights and shadows, its joys and sorrows, its personalities and leaders and every stage of its extermination. They write extensive term papers on the Holocaust and the authors of the best of these are given books about the Holocaust, awarded at the end of the school–year by the “Lachman–Weiss Foundation”. This Foundation was established years ago by my family to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.

Before I retire, I intend to tape–record the history of Skala to make sure that the coming generations of students in my school^[2] will hear the story of our town, its life and tragic destruction, long after all of us are gone.

Editor's notes:

1. At a special symposium of Yad Vashem held in Jerusalem in the spring of 1977, Professor Raul Hilberg defined the character and the functions of the udenrat as follows:
   “Jewish councils established under German authority were agencies literally charged with responsibility for carrying out the German will. In German eyes, the councils were an instrument to be used in the implementation of a policy in the course of which Jewish life was first constricted and then extinguished. The councils moved Jews into Jewish houses and Jewish districts, registered the inhabitants, supplied forced Jewish labour for German enterprises and projects, expended resources and money for ghetto walls, confiscated Jewish property for German use, and provided statistics required by German offices. There was nothing subtle or unconscious in these overt acts which often were demanded of the councils in peremptory fashion, and which were to be performed promptly and with exactitude.
   “The councils, however, were not only tools of the German administration. They assumed that they had to care for the Jewish population, especially its most immediate needs for food, space, education, or health. In fact, the Jewish leaders under the Nazi were not personalities newly arrived at the field of action; frequently, they were the pre–war chairmen of communities, or deputies and stand–ins for those who had fled from or ‘deserted' their posts. In many cases, the councils strove to do what they could in a nightmarish situation of uncertainties, violence and acute shortage. Their principal problem, however, was the basic contradiction between Jewish hopes and German commands. Ultimately, any benefits provided by the councils for the community were short–run; whereas those measures – however innocuous – that had to be taken in compliance with German directives were integral steps in a destruction process that spelled out eventual doom for the entire community. Return
2. For more than twenty years, the author has been the principal of the Berl Katznelson Regional High School in Kfar Saba. Return

[Page 48]

This document was written in Skala Podolska. The information contained here was provided in July 1944 by persons who survived the war and its horrors.

The Coordinating Commission^[1] for the verification and confirmation of the crimes committed by the German–fascist occupiers of the region of Skala Podolska in the state of Tarnopol, established and deposited the following:

Upon the entry of the German forces into the town of Skala Podolska, a local administration began to function carrying out the orders of the “Arbeitsamt” (labour bureau) of the “Kreishauptmann” (regional chief) and of the Gestapo in Czortkow, as well as of the German police in Borszczow and of the German border garrison in Skala Podolska. The main purpose of the orders of the above–mentioned organs of the German–fascist occupation authorities was to persecute, torment and destroy the Jewish inhabitants of Skala Podolska.

In July and August of 1941, between 28,000 and 30,000 Hungarian Jews – men, women and children – forcibly expelled from Hungary, were driven through Skala. The Germans and their collaborators led them across the river Zbrucz to the town of Orynin in the county of Kamenetz–Podolsk. In the dense stretches of forest between Kamenetz Podolsk and the town of Dunayowce, in the so–called “Las Czarny” (black forest), the Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators shot more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews. The remaining Jews of Orynin were told by the Germans that they could return to their homes. However, on the road between Orynin and the village of Poklaki, the returning Jews were shot and thrown into prepared mass–graves. This heinous, murderous act was perpetrated by the Germans and their Ukrainian henchmen.

Beginning in December 1941, the German invaders started to round–up able–bodied Jews and transport them to concentration labour camps in Borki Wielkie, Stupki, Kamionka in the county of Tarnopol, and Janowska in Lwow. Out of 400 Jews from Skala sent to those camps on 5 or 6 survived. All the others were shot, hanged or perished from starvation, disease and unbearable torture.

In the summer of 1942, the Gestapo assumed complete control over the Jews. Gestapo men, criminal police and local German forces, as well as their Ukrainian collaborators, surrounded the Jewish quarters of Skala and thus began the “liquidation” of the Jewish inhabitants. During this so–called “action”, buildings were demolished in order to detect hidden Jews. Those that were found were forcibly placed into freight cars and “shipped” to the horrible death–camps in the woods of the village of Belzec near Rawa–

[Page 49]

Ruska. There they were exterminated by SS men in gas–cells or through mass electrocution. On September 26–27, 1942, almost half of the Jewish population of Skala Podolska was thus exterminated. In addition, some 33 old and sick men and women, who could not be transported by railway to Belzec, were shot in their beds or in the streets of Skala.

On October 22, 1942, the remnants of the Jews of Skala were expelled to the town of Borszczow. From then on and until June 1943, most of them perished during the so–called “liquidation” pogroms carried out intermittently by the Ukrainian police under the direction of the Gestapo. A small number of Jews were hiding in subterranean “bunkers” that they built for themselves in the forests of Skala, Cygany, Zelince and a few found shelter among their non–Jewish friends.

From the beginning of March 1943, until December 1943, a Jewish resistance group was active in those forests. This group of about 65 men was under the command of Osias Zucker and Leon Young (both from Borszczow). They operated and fought under very difficult conditions of hunger, typhus and inclement weather and with very limited light arms at their disposal. At the end of December 1943, outnumbered and surrounded by heavily armed, large German army units, they all died in battle while inflicting many casualties on the Germans.

At the same time, the Gestapo turned over full authority over concealed Jews to the Ukrainian police who sought them out and murdered them with the help of informers and collaborators from among the local peasantry. The Ukrainian police and their accomplices carried out frequent searches in the homes of suspected non–Jews, looking for concealed Jews. Those found were led to the Jewish cemetery in Skala Podolska, stripped of their clothes, shot and buried in mass graves.

In the forest of Skala Podolska, 197 Jews perished in this manner. One hiding place was set on fire and 21 men, women and children choked to death or were burned alive.

All these crimes were well known to the non–Jewish population of Skala. They were investigated and verified by the county prosecutor of Skala. The perpetrator of the criminal act of burning and murdering 21 people – the forester Czepesiuk – was sentenced to death. The informer of the Ukrainian police, Lyczak, was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Others were exiled to remote labour camps. Many other crimes are still being investigated.

List of the crimes and of their perpetrators is hereby attached.

[Page 50]

No.	Crime	Date	Location	Deaths	Crime Perpetrators
1.	Citizen murdered with Hand grenade (1)	July 12,1941	House N°592 in Skala	1	Ukrainians: Struczinzinski and Skoroda
2.	Citizen shot to death (2)	April 13,1942	Street behind German Headquarters.	1	Gestapo man Bretschneider
3.	Two citizens shot to death (3)	May 22,1942	Main street Skala.	2	German border guards: Grauer and Schultz.
4.	Citizen shot to death (4)	Sept. 23,1942	At the entrance to the “liegenschaft” (state farm)	1	Gestapo man Bretschneider
5.	Half of the Jewish inhabitants of Skala including refugees from neighbouring villages were rounded up and transported to the death camp of Belzec, near Rawa–Ruska.	Sept.26–27, 1942	Skala Podolska	695	Gestapo unit under the direction of Pahl, Rosenhof and Fischer; German border guards and Ukrainian police.
5a.	Citizens shot to death during the above round–up.	Sept.26–27, 1942	Skala Podolska	33	Same as above.
1) Roza Herscher 2) Leib Schechter 3) Meir–Chaim Kohn (Dybuk and Hersch Schor–Trasawucki 4) Chana Grünman

[Page 51]

6.	Citizens of Skala murdered in concentration and labour camps.	Dec.1941 through July 1943	Borki Wielkie, Stupki Kamionka and Janow– ska (Lwow)	127	German SS troops and Ukrainian police.
7.	Mass murder of Skala citizens expelled to the Ghetto of Borszczow during	March 17, 1943	Borszczow Jewish cemetery (Makowa Mogila)	80	Gestapo men and Ukrainian policemen under the direction of Gestapo officer Kellner; the Ukrain– ian police–chief Semenczuk and his deputy Hawryszko.
8.	Mass murder of citizens of Skala during the so–called “Passover action” in Borszczow.	April 19, 1943	Borszczow Jewish cemetery	59	Same as above.
9.	Mass murder of citizens of Skala during the so–called “liquidation action” in Borszczow.	June 5–9, 1943	Borszczow Jewish cemetery	98	Gestapo men under the command of Rosenhof; Ukrainian police under the command of Semenczuk and his deputy Hawryszko.
10.	Citizens of Skala shot to death.	June 28, 1943	Skala Jewish cemetery	28	Ukrainian police and German gendarmes from Borszczow.
11.	Citizens of Skala shot to death.	June 29, 1943	On the streets of Skala and on the Jewish cemetery	14	Ukrainian policemen: Sirma, Jakowyszyn with the help of local Collaborators Lyczak and Duchinski.

[Page 52]

12.	Citizens of Skala shot to death. (5)	July 29, 1943	Hiding places in Skala	3	Ukrainian policeman Nakoniczewski and collaborators Petryszyn and Szczerban.
13.	Citizens of Skala shot to death (6)	Aug. 10, 1943	“Liegenschaft” (state farm) in Skala, back– yard of Synagogue and Main street.	31	Gestapo man Fischer; Ukrainian police under the command of Semenczuk with collaborator Podburaczinski.
14.	Citizens of Skala shot to death (7)	Sept. 3,1943	Market place Skala	3	Ukrainian policeman Nakoniczewski and collaborator Petryszyn.
15.	Citizens of Skala murdered (8)	Sept.18, 1943	Forest, 3km of Skala	11	Ukrainian police.
16.	Mass murder of citizens.	Sept.25, 1943	forest 3km north of Skala.	129	German SS troops.
17.	Citizens apprehended in the forest and deported To the death camp of Janowska (Lwow).	Sept.25, 1943	Skala forest 3km of	28	German SS troops.
18.	Citizens shot to death. (9)	Sept.30, 1943	Village of Berezanka	1	Ukrainian policeman Lesiuk.
(5): Motel Goldschein, Golda Leibart and daughter. (6): Families Bosyk, Herscher, Dr. Steuerman, Bloch, Leibowicz, Jaegendorf Wladzio, Kasirer, Badler and Segal from Borszczow). (7): Bretschneider Aron, Szejndel and Edzia. (8): Regina and Moshe Jaegendorf, Roza and Berl Blutstein, Rachel and Izak Steiner and son Moshe, Dvora Jaegendorf, Sheva Fuss and two children: Simcha and Nusia. (9): Mordechai Bosyk.

[Page 53]

19.	Citizens who worked for the German border police deported to the Janowska death camp. (Lwow).	Oct.19,1943	Skala Podolska	42	German border patrol.
20.	Citizens shot to death	Oct.30, 1943	Forest north of Skala	35	Ukrainian policemen, among them Jukubyszyn and Bezpaluk.
21.	Citizens shot to death (10)	Nov.6, 1943	Jewish cemetery of Skala.	1	Stach Mazur – collaborator.
22.	Citizens shot to death	Nov.18 1943	Jewish cemetery of Skala.	25	Ukrainian policemen among them Jakubyszyn.
23.	Citizens shot to death (11)	Dec.30, 1943	Jewish cemetery of Skala.	4	German gendarme Frizenwalde and Ukrainian policemen.
24.	Citizens burned alive in their Hiding place.	March 1,1944	Forest, north of Skala	21	Ukrainian policemen Jakubyszyn, Rembocha and the forester Czepesiuk
25.	Citizens tortured and Murdered. (12)	Dec.25, 1943	Village of Iwankow.	3	Ukrainian bandits in the forest.
26.	Citizen murdered. (13)	March 20,1943	Distillery of spirits In Skala.	1	German soldier.
(10): Motio Blutstein (11): Hersch Helman, wife and child and Yehudit Yusem. (12): Ben–Zion Gertler and family. (13): Eliahu Miller (Boserer).

1. Established by the Soviet–Russian military authorities. Return
2. Verification for all the crimes listed here was by eye–witness accounts. Return

  Skala Podolskaya     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 06 Apr 2021 by JH