•

Page Sixteen

THE JEWISH NEWS

LIDICE
PALES
BESIDE
KOSSO

T

Friday, December 3, 1943

EDITOR'S NOTE—All have heard of Lidice. Few have heard of Kossow, a town-
ship in Eastern Galicia, formerly Polish territory, where in the late Autumn of 1941 the Ges-
tapo was assisted by Ukrainians and Poles in exterminating the Jews. The facts about Kos-
sow have only now been revealed in a letter written to Jewish labor leaders in Palestine by a
correspondent who had escaped from Kossow. He is a well-known Zionist who fled from
Poland in February, 1943, and was last reported in Rumania in April, 1943. The following
are excerpts from the letter.

A Ukrainian
photographer,
living with the
Hartfield fam-
ily, was re-
sponsible f o r
the death of
15 :nembers of
that family.
Derszitsky, re-
sponsible f o r
many Jewish
Jewish deaths in Kuti, came to
Kossow to join the murder gangs
there. Three Jews, released by a
Gestapo man, were shot by him as
they were crossing the street .. .
Postmaster Piklus extorted money
from Dr. Shimchi on the promise
that he would protect the doctor's
family. Upon receiving the money,
he hurried to the Gestapo and
divulged where they were hiding.

HE GESTAPO
took over in October, 1941. That
is when the mass-slaughter of
Jews began. Three members of
the Jewish Council established by
the Nazis were called to the head-
quarters of the storm troopers and
were never again seen. The next
day scores of Jews were picked
d1111.
off the streets and they, too, failed
to reappear. The Ukrain-
ians outdid the Germans
..; Within three days 2,088
Jews had been shot • .
Entire families wiped out
. The Nazis ordered the
Jews buried on a hill and
named the spot "Jew Hill".
Nikolai Nafliuk, chief
of the public works sec-
tion of the Town Coun-
cil, confided to me that
he himself had seen a
written memorandum
from the Ukrainian Na-
tional Committee to the
German Commandant
requesting permission to
stage a pogrom. The sig-
natories were: Mayor
,Winitzky, hiS deputy and
a number of other town
officials. At a meeting,
Gestapo officials and the
Ukrainian members of
the Town Council • drew
up a blueprint for the
pogrom which aimed at
the extermination of six
to seven hundred Jews.
"Forsake us not in our old age" is a prayer
that touches the hearts of Jewish worshippers on
The Gestapo, with the
the Holy Days throughout the world . . . But to-
assistance of Ukrainian
day this is a prayer limited to the "forsake us
not" . . . uttered by millions who are suffering
youths, on the first day
under the heels of Nazism . • . This photograph
dragged off 1,200 Jews,
by Richard Weissenstein of Tel Aviv, Palestine,
of whom 900 were killed
symbolizes the story of Kossow depicted in the
immediately and 300 im-
accompanying graphic story of horror experi-
enced by Jews in the Ukrainian village.
prisoned . . . The local
Gestapo leader inquired
of his chief in Kolomai what to do
Peter Bavitch delivered to the
with the remaining 300, since 900
Gestapo the family of Joseph
Jews, 300 above the quota, already
Fuchs, consisting of 22 people.
had been shot. The Gestapo chief
Poles Aided Pogromists
advised that the decision was up
Nor did we receive assistance
to the Ukrainian Town Council.
from the Poles. Quite the contrary.
The Town Council decided that all
Some Poles obtained money from
imprisoned Jews be shot. The very
their
Jewish neighbors on the pre-
same night new arrests were made.
text that they would hide them in
Two thousand Jews were slaugh-
their homes, but drove them out
tered and buried on "Jew Hill."
upon receiving payment.
Among those slaughtered were 150
That is what revenue collector
qualified workers whom the Ges-
Stepniuk did in the case of Mrs.
tapo at first thought wise to spare.
Rand, a Jewish woman. Chased
However, the Nazis acceded to the
out, she hid in an attic and* over-
Ukrainians who had declared that
heard him tell his friends that now
the Jews could easily be replaced
by qualified Christians.
the Poles will have one job less,
because "the Gestapo did it for us
The non-Jews, with few excep-
by getting Jews."
tions, assisted the extermination
squads. I shall list here some of
Poles gloated as Jews were
the Ukrainians involved in these
dragged off by the Gestapo. Philip
mass-murders.
Niemkewitz, a wealthy Pole, deliv-
0
ered all his Jewish neighbors to
Murderers' Accomplices
the Gestapo. Marian Karpinsky, a
' The family Chibi, the wealthiest
Polish attorney of standing in the
in Kossow, led the group of plun-
community, who had received
derers and assassins in nearby
Jewish votes when a candidate for
Woskolowska. Ex-Communist
the Town Council, put the Gestapo
Balagureck and Councilman Kosh-
on the trail of an old Jew, A' ;-
ach•helped draw up a list of Jews
ham
Buld, who had been hiding in
to be exterminated . . . Madame
a garden.
Babiuk advised the Jewish family,
Fleischer, with whom she lived, to
Ukrainians Who Helped Jews
hide in the cellar. She locked
Some Ukrainians, however, aided
them in and then gave the keys
the Jews. S— placed himself in
of the cellar to the Town Council.
front of a house in which the Jew-
The Fleischer& 10 in all, were
ish families Marmoresh, Hausen-
dragged off to the extermination
frantz, Sofer, Frankel and Shapiro
grounds.-
resided. When the Gestapo arrived,

he announced that the Jews living
in that house already had been
dragged off by Ukrainian storm
troopers. A— acted similarly.
These two saved many Jews.
S
hid scores of Jews, and
was helpful in more ways than
one. B hid 10 Jews in the cellar
of his home. The wife of a Ukrain-
ian, C , had nine Jews. W-
and Miss B— were also of great
assistance to the unfortunates.
Jews, men and women, were un-
dressed, piled into trucks and driv-
en through the streets to "Jew
Hill", where the extermination
squads operated. Ukrainian and
Polish women rushed there to view
the spectacle. Two young Jews,
Schneider and Abraham Schatwi,
attempted to break away. A
Ukrainian youth, however, foiled
their escape. Schatwi's eyes were
pierced before he was put to death.
Three Jews managed to dig their
way out of the collective grave into

which were piled the bodies of the
dead and half-dead.
When the extermination squads
had let down a bit, the survivors
established a kitchen to feed 150
Jewish children. The Ukrainian
milk co-operative refused to sell
milk to the Jews. An appeal to
the Ukrainian clergy was ineffec-
tive. They refused to intervene.
November, 1941, the peasants of
the vicinity slaughtered all the
Jews of the town Ritschke. Rela-
tions between Jews and non-Jews
in the district had been cordial
until then.
Dec. 25, 1941, Polish students
participated in the extermination
of 1,200 Jews in Zablutov.
On my departure from Kossow
only 200 Jews were still among the
living. They, too, are probably
dead by now. Only 42 Jews had
managed to escape from Kossow
and vicinity. Of these-28 escaped
to Rumania and 14 to Hungary.

(Copyright, 1943, by Independent
Jewish Pregs Service)

Greeks Battle Nazis to Prevent
Deportation of 15,000 Jews

By VICTOR BIENSTOCK

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Correspondent)

CAIRO (JTA)—The fate of 15,000 Athens Jews rests on the outcome of a bitter?.
struggle being waged between the Greek population, which is concealing the Jews,
and the German occupation authorities who have ordered the arrest and deportation
of every Jew in Greece, it was revealed here by the Greek government-in-exile.

In. an 8,000-word report describing the situation of the Jews in Greece the gov-
ernment describes how the population snatched the Jews from under the noses of
the Gestapo and so far has concealed them despite an intensive search by the. Nazis.
The report confirms that at least 50,000 of Salonika's 60,000 Jews have been deported'
and that western Thrace and eastern Macedonia, seized by the Bulgarians, are corn-.
pletely "judenrein" today. .-

The report says that a few weeks after Italy's capitulation, members of the
special commission set up by Alfred Rosenberg, chief Nazi "race" theorist, to exter-
minate European Jewry, arrived in Athens and demanded that Chief Rabbi Barzilai...
turn over a list of Jews living in the capital. Pleading that he needed three days to
secure such a list, the Chief Rabbi utilized the delay to destroy records of the Jewish
community and then disappeared.

Prepare False Identification Cards for, Jews

The delay also gave patriots time to spirit away most of the Jews. Jewish.
families were dispersed and individual members were given shelter in homes of
non-Jews. Meanwhile, the patriots, aided by Greek civil and religious functionaries
and by Greek police, prepared false identification cards for the Jews.

The Rosenberg commission then issued a decree warning Jews to return to their
homes and to report to police under penalty of death. They also warned the heads
of families (non-Jewish) to notify the police of the identity of every non-member •
of the family residing in their homes. Only 300 families reported. Greek families
adopted hundreds of Jewish children, while entire Jewish families were given refuge
in homes in the countryside.

Question of Jews Becomes National Issue

The report of the Greek Government hails Archbishop Chrysostomos and other
members of the clergy for aiding the Jews and for intervening with the Germans in
their behalf. It points out that the question of the Jews became a national issue and.
even the puppet premier was forced to protest to the Germans.

It tells how in Salonika the Nazis succeeded in obtaining the Jewish coin-.
munity's lists and consequently were able to round-up most of the Jews. The
Baron de Hirsch center was used as a deportation depot . from which Jews were
loaded into freight cars for shipnient to eastern Europe.

10,000 Italian Jews Arrested in Milan, Turin

ZURICH (JTA)—Reports reaching the newspaper La Suisse from the Swiss
border town of Chiasso on the •Italian frontier state that: 10,000 Jews have been
arrested by the Germans in the industrial centers of Milan, Genoa and Turin, and
have been sent to concentration camps.
.
•
The Nazi news agency Transocean says that in the future anti-Jewish laws will
• apply to all Jews, without exception. Hitherto there have been "privileged Jews"
who were exempt from the anti-Jewish legislation, In addition, Jews will no
longer be regarded as Italian citizens and no passports will be issued to them. The
dispatch also says that all Jews will probably be sent to concentration camps.

Germans Sterilize Thousands of Dutch Jews

LONDON (JTA)—Thousands of Dutch -Jews married to non-Jews have been
sterilized in Amsterdam hospitals within the past few weeks, according to a report
"from the German frontier.'

The report said that the sterilization is performed by Gerinan doctors and the
patients are kept in the hospital for a week after the operation Persons submitting
to sterilization are permitted to remain in Holland and are not compelled to wear a
yellow Mogen David badge.

The search for fugutive Jews continues, the report says, with the Germans
estimating that there are 15,000 Jews at large. The liquidation of the NetherlandS .
Jewish community was speeded up after the visit to Holland of Gestapo chief
Heinrich H_immler, the information received here states, with 1,000 Jews being sent.
to eastern Europe weekly.