An armed insurrectionary band came in like a flood, drove back the members of the Red Army, a part of whom ran to the station while the others joined the insurrectionists. One heard the cries of the people who were seized by a wild panic, and the furious and uninterrupted tolling of the bells, which struck fear into our hearts and announced a storm. I was seized by a terrible excitement and despair and hurried to the city. In the city the usual pogrom scenes were being enacted. From all sides men came running with arms in their hands. They robbed, they screamed, they scoffed, "Now where is your Red Army? Give up your arms or we strike you dead." This bacchanal lasted some time, until they began to pull out all men and boys, and beat them and carried them away. Some said they were going to be fined, others said they would be imprisoned and shot. In this way until evening almost all the men had been captured, except those who knew how to hide themselves well. The town was like dead. The men who had been collected together and a few fathers, brothers, husbands and wives who came of their own accord were taken into the building of the former Commissariat.
A frightful and anxious night descended upon the town. The stillness was as that of the grave, broken here and there by occasional shots and heart-rending cries. In the morning it became known that during the night the bandits had killed eighteen persons in their homes, among them two women.
UKRAINE
The following day the bands took up their pogrom activity in an intensified degree. They ran through the place, busied themselves with pillage and plunder, perpetrated a few murders, sought out concealed persons and took them to the building of the Commissariat, which together with the entire street was cordoned off from the town, so that no one could get in or out.
What fate was being prepared for the persons under arrest; what they intended to do with them; what they were preparing in secret when they began to dig that terrible grave of thirty-five "arshin" in length, which later received all those martyrs who had to spend thirty hours in the building of the Commissariat under the darkest forebodings, thirsty and in stifling air; what was going on behind the wall of the town — was veiled in deepest darkness. We only saw more armed men marching in from the neighboring villages. Besides, we all cherished the hope that surely they could not kill all those people who were taken to the Commissariat. No one had such horrible premonitions. That was a terribly sad mistake. The fate of the martyrs had been decided in advance. On the morning of the loth of May they began to dig their graves. The counter-revolutionists and monarchists of all stations and tendencies exerted themselves to the utmost on this unhappy day. They worked untiringly the whole night and the whole day, preparing the bloody events which began on the loth of May at five o'clock in the afternoon, and which will never disappear from the history of the people.
At two o'clock in the afternoon the people assembled in the community house to decide definitely what to do with the "little Jews." Various opinions were expressed. The numerous assembly was divided into several groups. Some cried, "Down with the Jews, with their wives and children, let not a soul remain." Others demanded that the young people alone should be done away with and the others should have to pay an mdemnity. The third group recommended that only those who belonged to the Red Army should be exterminated. Only a few tried to restrain the crowd from the disgraceful work on the ground that enough blood had already been shed. It came to a vote. The assembly, according to the testimony of a peasant, divided into two camps, which balanced each other, some having abstained from voting. Suddenly the bloody ambassador who played the decisive role in the tragedy rushed up on horseback and called out to the crowd, "Brothers, to the harness quickly! The Jews from Obodovka and Verkhovka are coming up behind us in armored automobiles." This hellish fiend was Drevinsky, a former Petlurist officer, who had just been declared commandant of the rebels. There was great excitement. Amid the tumult one heard cries, "Go on, brothers, we will kill them all and not leave a single one alive."
The two camps became one, and were transformed into a furious mob, who ran straight to the Commissariat, surrounded it and opened fire.
The unhappy victims, consisting of several hundred men and boys, fell on the ground in terror, begged for help, cried and wept, but in vain. The bloody watchword was announced to them, "No survivor."