On Saturday morning, May 17, two soldiers entered the house of Bielotzerkovsky, next door to ours, and started pillaging. Bielotzerkovsky succeeded in hiding. My husband went to them, opened the way to them, and tried to reason with them. They took away from us money up to 20,000, watches, rings, and other things. "But now what's to be done with you?" one of them asked my husband. My husband again began to argue with them, telling them that he and the others were not communists. "We aren't after communists, we are after Jews." Then they took everybody out in the yard and ordered the men separated from the women. A fearful outcry arose, Silberman's wife cried violently. At this moment there burst into the yard a gang of forty or fifty men with curses and cries of "What are you bawling for?" "They wanted a commune." "We'll fix them." Incidentally, one of them noticed an inscription in Jewish on a kindergarten sign, and said to another: "Here must be a Bund." Straightway they began to beat and torment the men, and took them away, as they told us, "to be examined," because there were a great many there and it was necessary to find out who they were. On the way to the station they took off their clothes and killed them near a dumping ground. In the yard a patrol remained, who would not let us pass, however much we struggled. When the patrol left, my daughter and another girl ran to the station. On the way they met Bondarev, who was shocked at what had occurred and consented to go with them to the station. They went by roundabout ways by his direction and on the way counted 28 corpses. At the station they asked where the commandant was. They were told that he was on the ninth road. They went thither. The commandant was not there, but some soldier or other came out and when asked if 17 Jews had been brought there replied that no such persons had been there. But when my daughter started to insist, saying that they had brought them there, he replied: "Your staff is in the field."
Among the 17 slain, whom they found, on the way back
UKRAINE
from the station, were: my husband and son Benjamin, the fiscal rabbi Silberman, Bolakhovsky, Kapitanovsky, Vimunsky, Vinokur, Polonsky, Eidelman, two Ruthman's, Chernobylsky, Bielotzerkovsky, and his son, a boy of 16 years, Brusilovsky, and two others unknown to me.
MARIAM DUBNIKOVA.
III. Testimony Given by M. T., Who Was at the Station
On May 18 at 11 A.M., there burst into the yard of Lurie's match factory a band of about 20 men, armed and in military uniforms. The first victim of this gang was Simon Antonovich Yakhnis, manager of the factory. The story of*his murder was told by the soldier B. E. Lurie, who went with them to the station. In the yard a bandit met Yakhnis and started to load his gun. The other seized the barrel and began to plead: "Don't kill me; here is money for you." The soldier took the money and killed Yakhnis. M. T., upon being questioned, communicated the following facts about himself.
I was sitting in the cellar. Hearing a voice, I came out and saw a soldier. I started to run away. In the yard blocks of wood and boards were lying around. I started to run around the boards. There I met Lurie, and we began to circle around together. About three soldiers met us. "Hands upl" We put our hands up, and were searched; they took our money and began to load their guns. The workmen and guards came out of the factory and asked them not to harm us. Then we were surrounded and taken to the station. On the way various gangs came up to the soldiers and asked them where they were taking us. One of the bandits who met us cried: "Why don't you cut off their noses?" On the Smolianskaya street we heard cries: a number of bandits were chasing a Jew. He was struck on the head with a gun-butt; some one fired, and he fell. The bandits rushed at the dead man and began to strike him with sabres. We kept going. Outside the city, along the road leading to the station, bodies of Jews were lying about. Everywhere were traces of blood and brains; papers and passport books lay around. We arrived at the station. I was no longer walking with Lurie, who had been taken away somewhere, but they put with me an old, tall Jew. We were led to a car. In the car were soldiers and a Russian woman with two children. A soldier came up to me and began to yell: "You want to rule!" Then the chief of staff, Uvarov, inspected my papers; though he thought they were not genuine, he nevertheless decided to spare me. "We were not spared, and we shall not spare you; but it is enough for
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