ГУЛаг Палестины

Thousands of people visited the place, among them the author of

these lines.

Other nations direct their talents towards the discovery of

better medicines, new materials, better means of communication to

make living conditions better. The Russian people are using all

their talents for the production of machines and new methods of

mass murder and torture. (P. K., The infernal device of the

Russian Communists (by an eyewitness), in The Black Deeds of the

Kremlin: A White Book, Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian

Communist Terror, Toronto, 1953, pp. 123-124)

(18) Some had nails driven into their skulls.

M. Kowal

BOLSHEVIK MURDERS

I am Michael Kowal, from the town of Kaminka Strumylova in the

Lviw Region in Ukraine. During the communist occupation of Western

Ukraine I personally witnessed three arrests in my native town on

June 22, 1941, those of Bohdan Mulkevich, and Michael Mulkevich who

lived on Zamok Street, and Michael Mulkevich's blacksmith

apprentice, presumably from the village of Rymaniw in the same

Region. They were suspected of disloyalty to the communist regime.

After the communist retreat from Kaminska-Strumylova they were

found in the town prison with 33 other victims, murdered in a

horribly sadistic manner. All the corpses were tied together with

barbed wire and all bore signs of terrible beatings. Some had

nails driven into their skulls. None of them had been shot to

death. Their bodies, nude and badly mauled, were practically

unrecognizable to their relatives.

Bohdan Mulkevish's wife recognized her husband, but, trying to

verify her identification by his gold teeth, found them missing.

All the bodies were taken away for interment.

That Same day 19 other bodies were discovered near the village

of Todan about 9 or 10 kilometers from Kaminka-Strumylova. They

were tied to trees and their chests were pierced with bayonets.

These were all identified by relatives and taken away for burial.

(M. Kowal, Bolshevik Murders, in The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A

White Book, Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian Communist

Terror, Toronto, 1953, p. 529)

(19) Shot the children in cold blood.

Andriy Vodopyan

A RAVINE FILLED WITH THE BODIES OF CHILDREN

I was serving in the Soviet Russian Army. Our artillery unit

was retreating before the Germans in the direction of Yeletsk. On

September 18, 1941, our unit came to a wide ravine situated about

14 miles from Chartsysk station, and about 60 miles from the city

of Staline. The ravine stretched from the station of Chartsysk to

the station of Snizhy. When we approached the ravine we were taken

aback by a horrible sight. The whole ravine was filled with the

bodies of children. They were lying in different positions. Most

of them were from 14 to 16 years of age. They were dressed in

black, and we recognized them as students of the F.S.U., a

well-known trade and craft school. We counted 370 bodies

altogether. All of them had been killed by machine gun fire.

This group of children was being evacuated from Staline when

the Germans neared the city. The children had marched 60 miles,

and, exhausted and unable to continue walking, asked for

transportation. The officers in charge promised to send them

trucks. Instead of trucks, a detachment of the Russian political

police (NKVD) arrived, and shot the children in cold blood with

machine guns. This ravine, filled with hundreds of bodies of slain

children, moved even the soldiers, accustomed as they were to the

sight of death. (Andriy Vodopyan, A Ravine Filled With the Bodies

of Children, in S. O. Pidhainy (ed.), The Black Deeds of the

Kremlin: A White Book, Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian

Communist Terror, Toronto, 1953, p. 529)

(20) Throwing hand-grenades into the crowded cells.

Rev. J. Chyrva was imprisoned in 1941 when the Russian Communist armies were withdrawing from the city of Riwne. He happened to be

cast into one of those jails in which the communists, fleeing from

advancing German armies, attempted to rid themselves of as many

prisoners as possible by throwing hand-grenades into the crowded

cells. When the first grenade was thrown into the cell where Rev.

J. Chyrva was kept, he was the first to fall - his foot shattered.

On him fell many mutilated bodies, covering him, thus saving his

life. Later, when people came into the cell, they found all the

prisoners dead with the exception of Rev. J. Chyrva. He is alive

today, a witness of that horrible manslaughter. (Rev. Lev Buchak,

Persecution of Ukrainian Protestants under the Soviet Rule, in S.

O. Pidhainy (ed.), The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book,

Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian Communist Terror,

Toronto, 1953, p. 529)

(21) Exhumed corpses were found without skin.

The Bolsheviks had arrested thousands of Ukrainian patriots, and

prior to their retreat, they killed them savagely. For some reason

even highly regarded Jewish authors understate the number of

Ukrainian victims of Bolshevik terror. Gerald Reitlinger gives a

figure of three to four thousand in Lviv alone. Hilberg speaks of