Then Blobel ordered
me to have the children executed. I asked him,
"By whom should the shooting be carried
out?" He answered, "By the Waffen-SS."
I raised an objection and said, "They are all
young men. How are we going to answer them if we
make them shoot small children?"
To this he
said, "Then use your men." I then said,
"How can they do that? They have small children
as we" This tug-of-war lasted about ten minutes
.. I suggested that the Ukrainian militia of the
Feldkommandant should shoot the children. There were
no objections from either side to the suggestion ..
I went to the woods
alone. The Wehrmacht had already dug a grave. The
children were brought along in a tractor. I had
nothing to do with the technical procedure. The
Ukrainians were standing around trembling.
The
children were taken down from the tractor. They were
lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that
they fell into it. The Ukrainians did not aim at any
particular part of the body. They fell into the
grave. The wailing was indescribable. I shall never
forget the scene throughout my life. I find it very
hard to bear.
I particularly
remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the
hand. She too was shot later....The grave was near
some woods. It was not near the rifle range.
The
execution must have taken place in the afternoon at
about 3:30 - 4:00. It took place the day after the
discussions at the Feldkommandanten. Many children
were hit four or five times before they died ..