The abuse of Jews in Ukraine began with the rise of the Nazis. During the German occupation of Ukraine, there were those who abused and murdered my family. Read and judge for yourselves: Can the Ukrainians say that their hands are free from blood?
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In 1939 Czernovitz was a developed regional center in southern Ukraine, with 88,000 residents. My mother's family, the Kostiners, owned a large corn-growing farm that was integrated into the life of the Jewish and Ukrainian communities.
With the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany and the cooperation of Romania with Germany, an evil spirit began to take root in Czernovitz. My cousin, Arthur Kostiner, who was then in first grade, said that the Ukrainian teacher sat the Jews on the back benches of the classroom and forbade them from receiving roles in the school. During their journey to school, and at school itself, they faced curses, spitting, and even beatings. Many of the Jewish children stopped going to school. However, despite these difficult conditions, my mother succeeded in completing her studies at the highest polytechnic in the city.
When the Nazis entered the city, the Ukrainian policemen told the Jews to gather in a small ghetto. They were told to take as few possessions as possible with them and to arrive within a few hours. They left most of their property behind; most of it was stolen by their Ukrainian neighbors. When the gates of the ghetto were closed on the Jews, the Ukrainian policemen gathered the community leaders, including the chief rabbi of the city, on the main road of the ghetto and shot them to death in front of all the residents. The situation in the small ghetto was insufferable, with terrible crowding and a lack of even minimal food. The shooting and murder of Jews was routine.
The Ukrainians suggested that the Jews move to Transnistria, over the Dniester River, and to receive an agricultural farm there. They organized a first transfer of thousands of Jews, according to where they lived in the ghetto, so that families were cut off from one another. My mother's family, which included her brothers and their families, assumed that the move would be temporary, and therefore accepted the offer. My grandfather and grandmother weren't permitted to join, and my mother's husband, who by chance was living in another street, was also left behind. After the Holocaust it was revealed that they had been murdered by the Ukrainians. Only after the first of the two transfers left the ghetto for the train station did the Jews understand they had been lied to, and thousands were loaded onto a dreadfully crowded cargo train.
The train continued to Marculesti in Romania [present day Moldova], where the entire Jewish community had been murdered and buried in a mass grave. From there the Jews crossed the Dniester River by foot to the town of Yampol in Ukraine. While crossing the river, they saw to their horror large numbers of Jewish corpses. From there they continued on a 200-kilometer death march, in snow, without food, and with Typhus raging, in the direction of Bershad, via the city of Svitlovodsk. During this journey, which took six weeks, many Jews died, including my mother's two children and her two sisters with their children. It wasn't possible to bury the dead so – even though it was forbidden – they placed stones on them instead. One of my mother's sisters was shot to death when she placed stones on her son's corpse.
The death march was managed and supervised by "Zachary the Ukrainian," who was known to be extremely brutal, with a number of Ukrainian policemen. They supervised the marchers on the journey with floggings and shootings. During the journey, the Jews tried to exchange clothing for food with the Ukrainians, but they constantly cheated them and robbed them of the little they had.
When they reached the city of Svitlovodsk, they concentrated thousands of Jews in a goat farm. At night "Zachary the Ukrainian" arrived and told them that the war was over and they needed to come to the center of the city and from there to return to Czernovitz. Some of the Jews headed to the city center, where Zachary was standing with a rifle platoon, who murdered them all. The remaining Jews were recruited for infrastructural work in exchange for bread, which was of course stolen from them immediately after they received it.
The march continued in the direction of Bershad. There they remained for around two years until the end of the war. In the city's ghetto, there was a war for survival, with great hunger, the tremendous cold, and great sickness. Many were murdered while trying to steal potato skins. My mother, who was an outstanding dressmaker, found odd jobs with the Ukrainians in exchange for a little food, and in doing so succeeded in saving her sister and her niece.
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When the Russians arrived and liberated Bershad, the journey back to Czernovitz began. During the journey, which took three months, many died from sickness and weakness as well as the ongoing shelling. Only 5,000 of Czernovitz's Jews survived the war. When they reached the city, they found their homes populated by Ukrainians, some of whom refused to return them, and the Ukrainians began murdering the owners.
The Jews, without a clear future, began to leave Czernovitz for Romania, and the Jewish community in the city was wiped out. In Timisoara my mother met my father, and the two of them married and made aliyah in 1950. My uncle and aunt, together with their families, who also survived the Holocaust, made aliyah as well that same year.
Can the citizens of Ukraine say that there were no murderers among them?
