Eyewitness Account of
Einsatz Executions
On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer and
manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, and his foreman,
came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of
Dubno in the Ukraine. He gave the following eyewitness account:
"My foreman and I went directly to the pits. Nobody bothered us.
Now I heard rifle shots in quick succession from behind 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 SS 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 undergarments. I saw heaps
of shoes of about 800 to 1000 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
SS man, who stood near the pit, also with a whip in his hand. During the
fifteen minutes I stood near, I heard no complaint or plea for mercy. I
watched a family of about eight persons, a man and a woman both of about
fifty, with their children of about twenty to twenty-four, and two grown-up
daughters about twenty-eight or twenty-nine. 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
ten 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 SS man at the pit started shouting something
to his comrade. The latter counted off about twenty persons and instructed
them to go behind the earth mound. Among them was the family I have just
mentioned. I well remember a girl, slim with black hair, who, as she passed
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 shot were still moving.
Some were lifting their arms and turning their heads to show that they
were still alive. The pit was nearly two-thirds full. I estimated that
it already contained about a thousand people. I looked for the man who
did the shooting. He was an SS 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 which were cut in the clay wall of the pit and clambered over the
heads of the people lying there to the place to which the SS 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 the 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."
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