On the 7th of April I travelled on the steamer "Kazak" from Kiev to Chernobyl. Twenty-five Jews whom I knew were on board and about twenty Russians. There was a rumor that armed bandits were also on board. But we felt comparatively safe, as among the passengers there were fifteen members of the Red Army with machine guns and a whole chest full of firearms. As we drew near Meshigorye our steamer was fired on. THe military leader of Chernobyl, who was on the "Kazak," came out on deck and saw signaling from the shore with a flag. He thought it was a military signal for an inspection of the steamer, and ordered the captain to stop at the shore. When we reached shore about six or eight young men came on board armed with rifles and sticks, armed peasants wrapped in half-fur coats. Holding their weapons ready to shoot, they ordered, "The Russians step aside; the Jews hands up!" The Russian passengers and soldiers separated from us, and we were instantly surrounded by the bandits. We were searched, our bodies were pinched and our clothes torn from our bodies. They took away all our valuables, such as money, watches, etc., and earrings from the women. A few more men came in village dress and armed like peasants, who divided us in pairs and drove us to the bank. There we found almost the entire Jewish population of the village Petrovichi, young and old, girls and women with children in their, arms. We were all huddled together. We learned from the Jews of Petrovichi that all of the Jews who were on the steamer "Baron Giinsburg" had been drowned. The Jews of Petrovichi had been seized in the night and had just been brought to the bank, also to be drowned. They said that the peasants had had a meeting in the evening to determine what they should do with the Jews. The old peasants, who had often been in the Jewish houses and had grown up with the Jews, said that the village should not take such a sin upon itself, recommending that the Jews should merely be expelled from the village, that their fate should overtake them at a distance, out of the
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peasants' sight. But the young peasants insisted that now was a favorable opportunity, that they must not hesitate nor allow the Jews to escape them; that the Jews in the whole of the Ukraine were now being drowned and killed, and Petrovichi must not stand back.