Voices from the Holocaust

by Jon E. Lewis

  At present a camp is being constructed in Harku, in which all Estonian Jews are to be assembled, so that Estonia will shortly be free of Jews.

  After the first larger executions in Lithuania and Latvia, it soon became apparent that an absolute annihilation of the Jews was not feasible, at least not at the present moment. Since handicrafts in Lithuania and Latvia are for the most part in Jewish hands and many occupations (especially glaziers, plumbers, stove-fitters, shoe-makers) consist almost exclusively of Jews, a large number of Jewish craftsmen is indispensable at present for repairing installations of vital importance, for the reconstruction of destroyed towns, and for work of military importance. Although employers aim to replace Jewish labour with Lithuanian or Lettish labour, it is not yet possible to replace all employed Jews, especially not in the larger towns. In cooperation with the labour offices, however, all Jews who are no longer fit for work are being arrested and will be executed in small batches.

  In this connection it should be mentioned that some authorities in the Civil Administration offered resistance, at times quite considerable, to carrying out executions of large scope.

  The killings on 29 and 30 September were the infamous Babi Yar massacre.

  Escape from Babi Yar, 29 September 1941

  DINA PRONICHEVA

  Babi Yar is a ravine ten miles north-west of Kiev’s centre. Pronicheva was one of the few Jews to escape the mass shootings there. She later told her story to the Russian writer Anatoli Kuznetsov (A. Anatoli).

  All around and beneath her she could hear strange submerged sounds, groaning, choking and sobbing: many of the people were not dead yet. The whole mass of bodies kept moving slightly as they settled down and were pressed tighter by the movements of the ones who were still living.

  Some soldiers came out on to the ledge and flashed their torches down on the bodies, firing bullets from their revolvers into any which appeared to be still living. But someone not far from Dina went on groaning as loud as before.

  Then she heard people walking near her, actually on the bodies. They were Germans who had climbed down and were bending over and taking things from the dead and occasionally firing at those which showed signs of life.

  Among them was the policeman who had examined her papers and taken her bag: she recognized him by his voice.

  One SS-man caught his foot against Dina and her appearance aroused his suspicions. He shone his torch on her, picked her up and struck her with his fist. But she hung limp and gave no signs of life. He kicked her in the breast with his heavy boot and trod on her right hand so that the bones cracked but he didn’t use his gun and went off, picking his way across the corpses.

  A few minutes later she heard a voice calling from above:

  ‘Demidenko! Come on, start shovelling!’

  There was a clatter of spades and then heavy thuds as the earth and sand landed on the bodies, coming closer and closer until it started falling on Dina herself.

  Her whole body was buried under the sand but she did not move until it began to cover her mouth. She was lying face upwards, breathed in some sand and started to choke, and then, scarcely realizing what she was doing, she started to struggle in a state of uncontrollable panic, quite prepared now to be shot rather than be buried alive.

  With her left hand, the good one, she started scraping the sand off herself, scarcely daring to breathe lest she should start coughing; she used what strength she had left to hold the cough back. She began to feel a little easier. Finally she got herself out from under the earth.

  The Ukrainian policemen up above were apparently tired after a hard day’s work, too lazy to shovel the earth in properly, and once they had scattered a little in they dropped their shovels and went away. Dina’s eyes were full of sand. It was pitch dark and there was the heavy smell of flesh from the mass of fresh corpses.

  Dina could just make out the nearest side of the sandpit and started slowly and carefully making her way across to it; then she stood up and started making little foot-holds in it with her left hand. In that way, pressed close to the side of the pit, she made steps and so raised herself an inch at a time, likely at any moment to fall back into the pit.

  There was a little bush at the top which she managed to get hold of. With a last desperate effort she pulled herself up and, as she scrambled over the ledge, she heard a whisper which nearly made her jump back.

  ‘Don’t be scared, lady! I’m alive too.’

  It was a small boy in vest and pants who had crawled out as she had done. He was trembling and shivering all over.

  ‘Quiet!’ she hissed at him. ‘Crawl along behind me.’

  And they crawled away silently, without a sound.

  Motyn, the boy, was killed by the Germans as he fled.

  ‘It is impossible to live with this knowledge’: A Kiev Citizen on the Shootings at Babi Yar, Kiev, 2 October 1941

  LUKIANOVSKA FRIEDHOF

  A resident of Kiev, Friedhof confided to her diary:

  Everybody is saying now that the Jews are being murdered. No, they have been murdered already. All of them, without exception – old people, women and children. Those who went home on Monday (29 September) have also been shot.

  People say it in a way that does not leave any doubt. No trains left Lukianovska cemetery at all. People saw cars with warm shawls and other things driving away from the cemetery. German ‘accuracy’. They’d already sorted the loot!

  A Russian girl accompanied her girlfriend to the cemetery, but crawled through the fence from the other side. She saw how naked people were taken towards Babi Yar and heard shots from a machine gun. There are more and more rumours and accounts. They are too monstrous to believe. But we are forced to believe them, for the shooting of the Jews is a fact.

  A fact which is starting to drive us insane. It is impossible to live with this knowledge. The women around us are crying. And we? We also cried on 29 September, when we thought they were taken to a concentration camp. But now? Can we really cry? I am writing, but my hair is standing on end.

  ‘There are still Jews!’ Ukrainian Militia and Police Assist the SS in Mass Murder, Stanislawów, Galicia, 1941

  ANONYMOUS

  The Einsatzgruppen were willingly helped in their bloody work by Latvian, Ukranian, Rumanian and Lithuanian policemen and auxiliaries.

  I felt quite certain that my labour card would serve to shield and save me. So I went out and even took a pregnant woman with me in order to pass her through as my wife. (Her husband had fled with the Red Army.) According to the official announcement all forced workers and their wives were to be released.

  No sooner had I entered the street than I was attacked by a gang of Ukrainian young ruffians shouting wildly, ‘Look! There are still Jews!’ They whistled. The Ukrainian militia appeared and began dragging me along with all the other Jews.

  A blind old woman aged 104 who lived in my courtyard was also dragged along, and no attention was paid to all her entreaties to be allowed to remain where she was.

  I was ordered to carry the old woman on my back, while at my side strode two companions. One pushed me along with his rifle-butt and shouted that I was going too slowly and idly; while the other kept on hitting me for being in such a hurry.

  Beaten and bleeding, I dragged my way to the town hall square. Not a single Jew of all those I saw there were uninjured. They were wounded and bruised, and blood was running on all sides. From the square they were loaded on huge lorries which afterwards returned empty. Then the Germans and Ukrainians began to hurry up very much indeed and ordered them all to line up in three rows, each three men deep.

  These rows began to drag along, covering a length of three kilometres and containing many thousand Jews. We were driven to the road behind the town, towards the new Jewish cemetery at Batory. When we approached we understood the full horror of the situation. The sound of shots reached us from the cemetery.

  We were driven into the cemetery with cruel, brutal beatings. I saw that the Germans were driv
ing the people standing on the one side towards the graves, while those standing on the other were being permitted merely to stand and watch. Then came an order, ‘Hand over all valuables!’ I used the tumult and hubbub, and crossed over to the side of the watchers.

  The German stormtroopers together with the Ukrainian police took up their stations beside the machine guns. Fifteen of the stormtroopers shot, and fifteen others loaded the guns. The Jews leapt naked into the graves. The bullets hit them while jumping.

  Three graves had been dug there. The work of excavation had lasted for about a fortnight. It had been done by young Ukrainians who were members of the Petlura organization. The Germans then explained to the Jewish Council that the Ukrainians were preparing stations for anti-aircraft against Bolshevik air attack. Nobody even imagined that 6,000 Jews would meet with their deaths at this place.

  The graves were deep, the naked people fell one on the other, whether dead or alive. The heap of bodies grew higher and higher. I stood and gazed. Early in the morning the murderers had stationed a group of Jews to watch the scene. This was far worse than death, and many people of our group, who could bear it no longer, burst out with shouts, ‘Take us and murder us as well!’ And the murderers satisfied them, and began dragging people from our ranks off to the graves as well.

  My turn came. The only thing I had in mind was to reach the grave as soon as possible so that an end might be made of it all. ‘Take off your clothes!’ I was ordered, and quickly stood naked. Three of us approached the grave. There were shots. Two of us fell. Suddenly something strange happened. There came an order, ‘Cease fire!’ The stormtroopers standing ready stopped their shooting. I stood astonished and confused. One of the murderers approached me and said, ‘Jew, you are lucky. You are not going to die. Dress again, quickly.’

  The graves were filled to overflowing. All round lay the dead, strangled, trodden underfoot, wounded. Those of us who remained alive felt ourselves to be infinitely unfortunate. There were about 1,700 of us left in the cemetery grounds. We were afraid to move from the spot. One of those in command of the action announced that ‘the action was completed’, and that the survivors might return to their homes.

  Field Report, 1 December 1941

  KARL JAGER, COMMANDING OFFICER EINSATZKOMMANDO 3

  Einsatzkommando 3 was an extermination unit of Einsatzgruppe A, attached to Army Group North during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

  Today I can confirm that our objective, to solve the Jewish problem for Lithuania, has been achieved by EK 3. In Lithuania there are no more Jews, apart from Jewish workers and their families.

  The distance between [sic] the assembly point to the graves was on average 4 to 5 Km.

  I consider the Jewish action more or less terminated as far as Einsatzkommando 3 is concerned. Those working Jews and Jewesses still available are needed urgently and I can envisage that after the winter this workforce will be required even more urgently. I am of the view that the sterilization programme of the male worker Jews should be started immediately so that reproduction is prevented. If despite sterilization a Jewess becomes pregnant she will be liquidated.

  (signed) Jäger

  SS-Standartenführer

  It was estimated at the International Military Tribunal in 1945 that the Einsatzgruppen, aided by sympathizers in the overrun regions, shot some two million Jews.

  ‘I tried to get closer to the corpses to take a last look at my nearest and dearest’: An Eye-witness at Chelmno, January 1942

  SZLAMEK BAJLER

  Bajler was a young Jew from the village of Izbica Kujawska, north of Chelmno in the annexed region of Poland known as Wathgau. He was arrested in a round-up in Izbica in early-January 1942, and forced to work in Chelmno Waldlager, where he witnessed the murder of some 1,600 Jews from his village – including his own family – as well as local gypsies. After a week he managed to escape to the Warsaw Ghetto where he was persuaded to write a report on what he had witnessed at Chelmno. Bajler did so under the pen name ‘Yakov Grojanowski’.

  Tuesday, 6 January 1942

  We arrived at 12.30 p.m. We were pushed out of the lorry. From here onwards we were in the hands of black-uniformed SS men, all of them high-ranking Reich Germans. We were ordered to hand over all our money and valuables. After this fifteen men were selected, I among them, and taken down to the cellar rooms of the Schloss [castle]. We fifteen were confined in one room, the remaining fourteen in another. Down in the cellar it was pitch dark. Some Ethnic Germans on the domestic staff provided us with straw. Later a lantern was brought. At around eight in the evening we received unsweetened black coffee and nothing else. We were all in a depressed mood. One could only think of the worst, some were close to tears. We kissed and took leave of each other. It was unimaginably cold and we lay down close together. We spent the whole night without shutting our eyes. We only talked about the deportation of Jews, particularly from Kolo and Dabie. The way it looked, we had no prospect of ever getting out again.

  Wednesday, 7 January 1942

  At seven in the morning, the gendarme on duty knocked and ordered us to get up. It took half an hour till they brought us black coffee and bread from our provisions. We drew some meagre consolation from this and told each other there was a God in heaven; we would, after all, be going to work.

  At about 8.30 we were led into the courtyard. Six of us had to go into the second cellar room to bring out two corpses. The dead were from Klodawa, and had hanged themselves. They were conscript grave-diggers. Their corpses were thrown on a lorry. We met the other fourteen enforced grave-diggers from Izbica. As soon as we came out of the cellar we were surrounded by twelve gendarmes and Gestapo men with machine guns. We got on the lorry. Our escorts were six gendarmes with machine guns. Behind us came another vehicle with ten gendarmes and two civilians. We drove in the direction of Kolo for about seven kilometres till turning left into the forest; after half a kilometre we halted at a clear path. We were ordered to get down and line up in double file.

  An SS man ordered us to fall in with our shovels, dressed, despite the frost, only in shoes, underwear, trousers and shirts. Our coats, hats, gloves, etc., had to remain in a pile on the ground. The two civilians took all the shovels and pick-axes down from the lorry. Eight of us who weren’t handed any tools had to take down the corpses. Already on our way into the forest we saw about fourteen men, enforced grave-diggers from Klodawa, who had arrived before us.

  The eight men without tools carried the two corpses to the ditch and threw them in. We didn’t have to wait long before the next lorry arrived with fresh victims. It was specially constructed. It looked like a normal large lorry, in grey paint, with two hermetically closed rear doors. The inner walls were of steel metal. There weren’t any seats. The floor was covered by a wooden grating, as in public baths, with straw mats on top. Between the driver’s cab and the rear part were two peepholes. With a torch one could observe through these peepholes if the victims were already dead.

  Under the wooden grating were two tubes about fifteen centimetres thick which came out of the cab. The tubes had small openings from which gas poured out. The gas generator was in the cab, where the same driver sat all the time. He wore a uniform of the SS death’s head units and was about forty years old. There were two such vans.

  When the lorries approached we had to stand at a distance of five metres from the ditch. The leader of the guard detail was a highranking SS man, an absolute sadist and murderer. He ordered that eight men were to open the doors of the lorry. The smell of gas that met us was overpowering. The victims were gypsies from Lódz. Strewn about the van were all their belongings: accordions, violins, bedding, watches and other valuables. After the doors had been open for five minutes orders were screamed at us, ‘Here! You Jews! Get in there and turn everything out!’

  The work didn’t progress quickly enough. The SS leader fetched his whip and screamed, ‘The devil, I’ll give you a hand straight away!’ He hit out in all directions on p
eople’s heads, ears and so on, till they collapsed. Three of the eight who couldn’t get up again were shot on the spot. When the others saw this they clambered back on their feet and continued the work with the last reserves of energy ... The corpses were thrown one on top of another, like rubbish on a heap. We got hold of them by the feet and the hair. At the edge of the ditch stood two men who threw in the bodies. In the ditch stood an additional two men who packed them in head to feet, facing downwards. If any space was left, a child was pushed in. Every batch comprised 180–200 corpses. For every three vanloads twenty men were used to cover up the corpses. At first this had to be done twice, later up to three times, because nine vans arrived (that is nine times sixty corpses). At exactly twelve noon we had to put our shovels down and to climb out of the ditch. We were surrounded by guards all the time. We even had to excrete on the spot. We went to the spot where our belongings were. We had to sit on them close together. We were given cold bitter coffee and a frozen piece of bread. That was our lunch. That’s how we sat [for] half an hour. Afterwards we had to line up, were counted and led back to work.

  What did the dead look like? They weren’t burned or black; their faces were unchanged. Nearly all the dead were soiled with excrement. At about five o’clock we stopped work. The eight men who had worked with the corpses had to lie on top of them face downwards. An SS man with a machine gun shot at their heads.

  We dressed quickly and took the shovels with us. We were counted and escorted to the lorry by gendarmes and SS men. We had to put the shovels away. Then we were counted again and pushed into the lorry. The journey to the Schloss took about fifteen minutes. We travelled together with the men from Klodawa and talked very quietly together, so the gendarmes sitting at the back shouldn’t hear us.

  It turned out that there were many more rooms in the Schloss. We numbered twenty in our room, with fifteen more in the adjacent one. There weren’t any other enforced grave-diggers. As soon as we came into the cold and black cellar we threw ourselves down on the straw and cried about everything that had befallen us.