IV. Testimony of Srul Ber Burger, Aged 53 On Tuesday morning and through the day rumors began to spread in Slovechno that something wrong was in the air, that danger was threatening us Jews. With my whole family, my wife and children, I went to the border of the town, where the Jewish poor folk live; there also live the Jews who live together with peasants. There we spent Tuesday night. When peasants came into the house where we were hiding, the owner, a barefoot, disheveled, tattered Jew, went out to see them; and this took away the peasants' inclination to plunder and kill. Wednesday all day and night my family and I spent in this place. I went out to reconnoiter, and learned of what was happening in the town. My wife, hearing of the alarming situation, didn't want to stay any longer in that house and wanted to move to another place, that we might not all be together, but we nevertheless remained. We hid in a closet, and just sat still, holding our breath. From the city rumors of the murders arrived. So passed the day and night of Wednesday. On Thursday a meeting was held in the synagogue and money was collected to move the hearts of the peasants. They collected 50,000 rubles, and then invited the young fellows who led the bands to Ratner's house, gave them tea, and divided the money among them. Thursday night we again spent in the house of the Jew on the edge of the town. On Friday morning we came out of our retreat and began to see what we could learn. Alarm and confusion were abroad in the town. Apparently it was impossible to stay. We decided to leave the town. I set off in the direction of Ovruch with my wife and children (ten souls). We decided to let come what would. All the time rumors were being spread that the bolsheviki were no longer in Ovruch. That was why all the time until Friday we had not ventured to leave the town in the direction of Ovruch. Friday morning, as I said, we set out thither. But we were met by peasants with a volley, and started to run back (there were about eighty of us). We were driven into the house of Avrum-Ber, and there some of us were shut up in a bedroom, the rest stayed in the front room. The door into the house was closed. Immediately a company of peasants came and began to break windows and fire through the windows. We lay down on the floor, one on top of another, ten or fifteen people in a heap. A number of peasants entered the house with the peasant Kosenko at their head. Kosenko announced that he was going to kill all of us. Our money was taken away, and then the bandits began to cut down literally all, and to strike us with axes and sabres. Those who lay on top perished; those who lay underneath escaped. Blood flowed over the floor; groans and cries arose. I pretended to be dead, held my breath, and didn't move. At this
UKRAINE
time those who were in the other room, the bedroom, started to escape through the windows. I didn't know what happened to my wife and children. When the massacre ended I continued to lie there as if dead. Bandits came and investigated me to see if I was alive, and robbed me as dead. It was not until I heard Jewish words that I raised my head; it was Jews who had come to take away the corpses. I asked if I could get up. They told me to roll up my sleeves so that I could help in gathering the corpses. Blood everywhere, and all around the groans of the wounded. I went out with the corpses and laid them in the cart. I laid the body of my sister in the cart. As I did so, I saw with horror a dress I knew too well. I looked close, it was my wife's body. It turned out that she and my children had fled through a window, when they began to beat them, and at that moment a young fellow struck her in the side with a bayonet (so my six-year-old boy told me). My wife fell to the ground bathed in blood. The children sat beside her, the very smallest. My wife was still alive, and worrying for the fate of the children; she told them to go away, because they were killing even children. The children were frightened and started to run away, after first giving their mother a drink and laving her with cold water. She died from the severe wound, while the children ran along the road out of town. Jews fleeing from the town recognized my children and took them along. For a long time I did not know about the fate of my children, and only here in Ovruch were they brought to me by refugees from Slovechno. It was, as I just told you, my little son who told me how my wife suffered before her death, and how they gave her a drink and laved her with water.