🚀 go-pugleaf

Oct. 5, 1942 
Dubno, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. 
"... My foreman and I went directly to the pits. I heard rifle 
shots in quick succession from one of the earth mounds. The people who
had got off the trucks - men, women and children of all ages - had to 
undress upon the order of an S.S. man, who carried a riding or dog 
whip. They had to put down their clothes in fixed places, sorted 
according to shoes, top clothing and under-clothing. I saw a heap of 
shoes of about 800 to 1,000 pairs, great piles of under-linen and 
clothing.
 
"Without screaming or weeping these people undressed, stood 
around in family groups, kissed each other, said farewells and waited 
for a sign from another S.S. man, who stood near the pit, also with a 
whip in his hand. During the fifteen minutes that I stood near the pit
I heard no complaint or plea for mercy... 

"An old woman with snow-white hair was holding a one-year-old 
child in her arms and singing to it and tickling it. The child was 
cooing with delight. The parents were looking on with tears in their 
eyes. The father was holding the hand of a boy about 10 years old and 
speaking to him softly; the boy was fighting his tears. The father 
pointed to the sky, stroked his head and seemed to explain something 
to him. 

"At that moment the S.S. man at the pit shouted something to 
his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and 
instructed them to go behind the earth mound ... I well remember a 
girl, slim and with black hair, who, as she passed close to me, 
pointed to herself and said: 'Twenty-three years old.' 

"I walked around the mound and found myself confronted by a 
tremendous grave. People were closely wedged together and lying on top
of each other so that only their heads were visible. Nearly all had 
blood running over their shoulders from their heads. Some of the 
people were still moving. Some were lifting their arms and turning 
their heads to show that they were still alive. The pit was already 
two-thirds full. I estimated that it contained about a thousand 
people. I looked for the man who did the shooting. He was an S.S. man,
who sat at the edge of the narrow end of the pit, his feet dangling 
into the pit. He had a tommy gun on his knees and was smoking a 
cigarette. 

"The people, completely naked, went down some steps and 
clambered over the heads of the people lying there to the place to 
which the S.S. man directed them. They lay down in front of the dead 
or wounded people; some caressed those who were still alive and spoke 
to them in a low voice. Then I heard a series of shots. I looked into 
the pit and saw that the bodies were twitching or their heads lying 
already motionless on top of the bodies that lay beneath them. Blood 
was running from their necks. 
"The next batch was approaching already. They went down into 
the pit, lined themselves up against the previous victims and were 
shot." 
And so it went, batch after batch. The next morning the German 
engineer returned to the site. 
"I saw about thirty naked people lying near the pit. Some of 
them were still alive ... Later the Jews still alive were ordered to 
throw the corpses into the pit. Then they themselves had to lie down 
in this to be shot in the neck ... I swear before God that this is the
absolute truth." 
-- Hermann Graebe, quoted by a prosecutor at the Nuremberg 
trials, concerning the murder of Dubno's 5,000 Jews. 
From The Rise and Fall of the Third 
Reich, by William L. Shirer

 
"A thousand years will pass and the guilt of Germany will not 
be erased." - Hans Frank, governor-general of Poland, before he was 
hanged at Nuremberg.