The name of the witness is unknown. He was born in 1924 in Manivtsy. By the time Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he graduated the 9th grade (out of 10), so he was about 16. The conversation was difficult due to his poor hearing. His story and the questions he was asked are below.
Two Jewish families from his village were killed; there was only one boy who managed to survive. Germans entered his village two to three weeks after the war had started. Jews from the surrounding regions were forced to relocate to a ghetto, which was established at the military installation near Starokonstantinov. The people were not fed, and many of them died. Before the war there were no conflicts among peoples in that region, everybody was friendly, and treated each other like "brothers". The military installation prior to the war was popular among locals. That place often had public dances and musical performances. The commander of the Soviet garrison even once had dinner in the witness' house. Collective farm workers grew wheat and beans for the military installation. Jews did not work there.
Mass killings started in summer of 1942. The Jews were brought from Starokonstantinov and Antonin to a farm, which used to be at the location of the third grave. There was some sort of a store there as well. Those Jews who knew trades (blacksmiths, tailors, etc.) were separated from the others. The people were brought in in groups of about 50 by special trucks having tall trunks. You could only see the heads of the people in those trunks. In the corners of the trunk there were shootsmen with rifles. Before they were killed, people were forced to disrobe. Any gold crowns were pulled from peoples' mouths - alive and dead. Collection of the gold was exclusive responsibility of the Germans. People were then forced to go down into the pit. Those who resisted were thrown there. The pits were about 20 meters long, 5-6 meters wide and about 3 meter deep. The witness said they could fit thousands of bodies. The pits were dug out by the Jews themselves, surrounded by the policemen from the locals. The killings were done by local shootsmen - before that they would drink vodka or schnapps. They used automatic guns, not machine guns. The witness heard the sounds of the killings, but did not see the killings itself. Those locals who saw the killings shared terrible stories of massive amount of bloodied often still alive people with children crawling a top of them trying to find parents. Some locals who saw that would pass out. The clothes of the killed was searched for any gold. Bad clothes was burned, decent clothes was taken to the German command center. Only shootsmen knew the exact number of people killed, but asking questions was not allowed. In response to such a question, he could hit and say, "It's not your business". Layers of bodies in the pit were separated by lime and dirt. When the pit was full, blood would seep from the grave. Local policemen would finish burying. They were supervised by the elder chosen by the villagers. Germans forced locals to elect elders.  
The lime was brought from the sugar mill located in Starokonstantinov. The witness said that the sugar mill was built in 1905 by Pototsky. Around 2000, the mill was destroyed, the metal was sold abroad, only the smock stack remains. We Ukrainians are such sellouts, he said.  
The witness recollected some details of the killings. He remembers a family from Kuzmin whose son was in the Red Army. He survived, currently lives in Kiev and regularly visits the graves. Some young Jews upon realizing their fate would jump from the trucks, and were immediately killed. One of such young Jews upon realization that escape is not possible cut his throat with a blade. Germans were supervising the killings, but the policemen did the killings.
The witness answered some questions about himself. He was drafted to the army on March 5, 1944. He did not have a chance to enlist before Germans arrived. The young draftees spent about a month in a boot camp near the city of Ternopol. At first he was in the infantry, but later was transferred to antitank artillery. He shared his memories about fighting in Poland and Germany. Equipment of the Red Army at the time was good. In Germany his unit was stationed at Mauthausen. Americans were there before them and after themselves they left many graves with crosses on top of them. Soviet soldiers in turn discovered a lot of bodies and bones in the furnaces of the crematorium. The former prisoners of the concentration camp were cautious towards the Soviet soldiers. As for the soldiers themselves, they were terrified from what they saw.
The witness told a story about imprisoned Soviet soldiers who were killed by the Germans in the beginning of the war. They were killed with unbelievable cruelty in the ravine behind Izyaslav.
The witness confirmed that he was aware of some cases where Jews were rescued by the local population. He knows about such a Jewish family. They lived on the grounds of the cemetery in burrows. The family survived, and the children graduated from colleges. The children of that family are still in touch with the Ukrainian family who helped them at the time and support them now.

The video has two parts: the first part is the interview with the witness in his house, and in the second part the witness and the interviewers are at the grave site.
 
Part #1.
The witness is also from Manivtsy. We do not know his name; he is elderly, but it's difficult to estimate his age. He said he remembered the killings of the Jews well.
The details of his story about the killings of the Jews mostly match those given by the first witness [U624], however there are some differences. According to this witness, one of the two Jewish families living in Manivtsy was not killed since they were able to evacuate prior to arrival of the Germans. The Germans did not stay in Manivtsy, instead they would show up from time to time. Keeping the public order in the village was the responsibility of the policeman by the name Dmitry Dashchuk. When the Soviet Army returned, Dashchuk was drafted and later died in the war. One of the questions asked was, "Were Jews forced to evacuate or did they do it on their own?" He answered, “Anybody who was able to flee fled”.
The Jews walked from the ghetto to the place of killings on their own. Those who could not walk sat on trailers from tractors. Those trailers were pulled by other people. It was a terrible scene. The witness saw the graves right after the killings with bloodied bodies barely covered with dirt. He also remembers one child who was killed by his parents so that he would avoid the terror of seeing the killings. He knows it were mostly shootsmen who shot the people, but some Germans shot as well.
While the first witness said that the pits were dug by Jews themselves, this witness insisted that the first grave was not dug. According to him, the pit had existed there for long time and was a kagat [kagats were commonly used to store beats, potato, etc. during winter]. That kagat was cleaned up, but a second grave was round and dug with shovels by about 30 victims the day before the killings. The locals knew the purpose of the pits and were forbidden to approach them under the threat of death.
People were housed in two farmhouse buildings located near the third grave. There was also a two-story store nearby. The farmhouses used to store grain. During the days of killings, they were packed with people. There, Germans selected Jews-“specialists” [craftsmen] from the rest. The specialists were kept on the same farm, but not for long. The buildings were not surrounded by barbed wire, but were well protected. From the farm houses to the first two graves people were transported in trucks since the distance was rather long. The witness said that shootsmen allowed some young Jews to escape from the trucks, but such a permission was given on individual basis based on personal relationships. In one of such cases, a 27 years old guy escaped and managed to survive, but the rest of his family - parents, two sisters and another brother were killed.
Similar relationships existed between locals and Jews. To some Jews locals would bring food at night. As one group of people (around 50) was killed, another group would be brought in. The people were forced to disrobe near the first two graves. The locals could only hear the killings at the first two graves, but they could see the execution at the third grave, which was in the field. Those killed at the third grave were forced to disrobe by the policemen at the farmhouse, and then ushered to the third grave (about 20 meters from the farmhouse) with their hands raised.
Information given by this witness regarding clothes, lime, burying of bodies matches the story given by the first witness [U624]. The killings took place in summer. The witness remembers terrible screams of the doomed people.  
The witness also mentioned that the ashes from the burned clothes were still warm when some locals came to dig in them in search for gold.
The witness was asked if after the war there was any official commission investigating the events. He said that he did not know. He does know that after the war surviving Jews came to the graves and did what they could to ennoble them.
 
Part 2
The witness shows the graves to the interviewers. He once again explains why they are in the forest. He is not sure regarding the dimensions of the graves. Then he points in the distance to the third grave in the field and repeats that there was a farmhouse and a store at that place. The witness explains the exact orientation of the farmhouses and the store.

We don't know the witness' name. He was born in 1930. He stated that he was born and raised in that village [Manivtsy]. With time, the village has substantially grown.
The interviewers again ask questions about the killing of Jews. The witness describes the road on which columns of Jews went. There were whole families walking with their belongings loaded on horse carts. The people would walk on that road for about 20 days until the farm houses and the store were completely filled. The columns were escorted by the Germans on motorcycles. The locals were forbidden to approach the Jews. The witness stated that the farmhouses used to house the farm animals, which were killed by the Germans.
Examples of questions that followed: "What color was the Germans' uniform? The witness replied, "It was German, green in color." "Were the Jews wearing any patches or stripes?" The answer, "no." "Were the people screaming?" The answer, "No, they said it was their destiny".

Once again, several questions were asked about the clothes: where and when the people were disrobing, where the clothes was taken to, etc. The witness responds that the clothes was collected and hauled away by trains. Regarding the shootings – was everyone killed at once? The witness responds that no, at first people were brought in, and then it took several days to kill everyone. The “specialists” were killed last in field.
Other questions - who was digging the graves and for how long? How early did the shootings begin? When was the grave dug? The witness responds that the Jews dug the graves themselves, and then people were brought to it in trucks. Follow-up questions: When did the trucks arrive? Who ordered the Jews to board the trucks? The witness responded, “I don’t know, we were not there, but I am sure they found somebody to give orders.” Follow-up questions: Was the killings of Jews over by the time the Soviet Army returned? Amazed witness responds, “Of course”. “Did the Germans stay in the village?” The answer, “No, but during their offensive they did rest almost in any house. After the killings Germans left and had no security around the graves.”
The witness says that the locals came to the graves right after the Germans left. It seemed to them that the earth was moving as foaming blood was seeping from underneath. The bodies were barely covered with dirt. The locals put additional dirt on top of the graves. The witness said that local teenagers came to the place of killings to dig for gold in the excrement of the killed. They had a belief that many Jews swallowed their jewelry to prevent the Germans from confiscating it. In some cases, the teenagers actually found some jewelry. The interviewer asked a question, “How exactly did they look for gold in excrements?” The witness was confused, “Every person had his own way to do it”.

The witness was born in 1923. He has is poor hearing, which makes it difficult to communicate with him. For that reason on many occasions he gave answers which did not match the questions. Overall his speech is not clear, but very emotional.
The witness was born and raised in this village [Manivtsy]. His parents would grow grain. There were four children in his family including him. Two of his siblings died in the war. He was married by the time the war started. He does not remember Germans in the village, but does remember a policeman who was Polish. The policeman was very big and strong and he was carrying out the transfer of people from the surrounding regions (Krasilov, Manivtsy, Starokonstantinov, and Antoniny) to the labor camp. Nobody could get out from the camp. The witness hid in the attic to avoid being sent to the camp, however the policeman did send his wife and 1-year old child to the camp. After she spent two weeks in the camp the witness decided to go to the camp himself upon learning about terrible conditions there. Because of unbelievable unsanitary conditions lice were everywhere, including on his child. The wife was liberated, but, together with 30 other people, the witness was placed in what used to be stable. Later the Germans transferred them to the nearby railroad station, where they boarded cargo cars awaiting them. One man from the group said that he would try to escape and showed a saw blade, which his wife had managed to give him. With that blade he indeed cut a hole in the car’s wall, through which many people escaped. The policemen guarding them shot at them. The witness managed to escape only after the train reached Poland. From there, he returned to Manivtsy. According to him, the railroad tracks were guarded by hungry Hungarians. The Hungarians even asked whether the witness had any food, but he did not have any.
The interviewers asked the witness to return to the topic of what happened with Jews in Manivtsy. He remembers that the Jews were brought in trucks to the first two graves. They were from Krasilov, Starokonstantinov, Teophipol and other locations. They were placed in the farmhouses and the store. The both graves were completely filled with the bodies of the killed. He does not know who did the killings because he was not there. According to him, the killings took place in the fall, when it was cold outside. The Jews were guarded by policemen and the Germans. While speaking about some details, the witness referenced the stories he’s heard from his neighbors when he did not have first-hand knowledge. The witness remembers that there were two Jewish families in the village, but they managed to evacuate. One of the members of those families was in the army.
Series of another questions follows: Who was burying the people? Who forced the Jews to do it? Who was digging the graves? Who was guarding the people? The witness said that guarding was mostly policemen’s responsibility; the Germans just observed. He also remembers that one young guy managed to escape and hide in the gardens. He survived and now lives in Kiev.
Q: Where were police headquarters?
A: In Antoniny
Q: What color was the policemen’ and Germans’ uniform?
A: Green.
Q: Were the Germans drinking anything before the shooting? (Due to poor hearing the witness could not comprehend the question.)
Q: Were people coming to graves after the killings?
A: No, everybody was afraid.
Q: Was anybody looking for gold?
A: No, nobody did.
The witness said that he had been under arrest for three weeks, but the interviewer did not ask him about the reason for the arrest. He was freed thanks to his father who bribed a German officer heading the local Commandant’s office. Once again the witness mentioned the policeman and his cruelty. Before the war the policeman was working as a guard at the fruit garden, and after the Germans came he volunteered to become a policeman. Later he became the elder in the village. After the war he was imprisoned for five years, returned to the village and soon died.
Once again, the witness returns to the events of the war. When the Soviet Army came back, he was drafted and served in a reconnaissance unit. He participated in liberation of Poland and several concentration camps. The imprisoned people were crying and kissing the soldiers. He does not remember the name of the camp.
Q: Was the camp big or small? Were there any buildings on the premises of the camp? Were men and women kept together? What were the women wearing? What nationalities were the prisoners in the camp? What language were they speaking? Who was guarding the camp? Was the camp to the East or West of Krakow?
The witness got agitated after hearing those questions. “There were no buildings, people were living under the sky and rain was falling on them. There were many nationalities, and I did hear Russian”. While the Germans did not manage to kill all, he remembers seeing a draw-well completely filled with bodies with an inflated body of a dead horse lying on top. He recollects details of liberation of the camp. Germans on top of the guarding towers were killed, and then sappers cut the barbed wire and the soldiers entered the camp. The units which liberated the camps were part of the “Ukrainian” Army Group. He remembers heavy fighting for Warsaw and Krakow.
Q: Do you remember any monuments or beautiful places in Warsaw?
A: [angrily] We did not have to time for sightseeing. It was heavy fighting!
With his unit, the witness reached Germany, where he saw sealed train cars filled with people. He does not remember the name of the city in Germany where he was wounded in the leg. After that [wound] his military service was over. He then showed the interviewers his big scar on the leg. After being asked whether he would give his permission to use his story in the future, he answered, “Yes, your students need to know what happened here and the way the people lived here”.

Female witness born in 1928. She was 13 when the war began. At that time there was a colhoz [collective farm] in Manivtsy, but she does not remember the name of that colhoz. Her mother worked on the farm while her father worked at the sugar mill [most likely in Starokonstantinov]. The witness said that before the war there were two Jewish families in the village. One family was elderly. Their last name was Pin’. The last name of the other family was Vyner [Link1, Link2]. There were four children in that family – two beautiful girls Surka and Fanya, and two boys. She only remembers the name of one of the boys. His name was Misha, and she went to school with him. During the killings, the other brother escaped from the truck, which transported the people to the graves. He ran away and managed to hide in the grain fields. There were four shootsmen in the truck, but they chose not to chase the boy because otherwise the rest of the people they were guarding would escape as well. The boy managed to survive until the return of the Soviet Army thanks to the care of a woman who did not have children and who was the friend of his family. That woman has since died, but the boy grew up to become a police investigator. He now lives in Odessa. The witness said that the boy’s family was very good, kind and generous. They were friendly with their Ukrainian neighbors.
The witness said that there were no fighting in Manivtsy and Germans did not stay in the village, but showed up occasionally. Still, the locals did not feel safe, were afraid to be outside or participate in any celebrations. The village had a starosta [an elder in Russian] who was very cruel. He was not a Ukrainian, and she does remember his nationality. Besides starosta, there were also several policemen in the village. As the Germans were retreating, they stayed in villagers’ houses. They also installed an artillery gun at the threshing floor. There was no fighting in Manivtsy during Germans’ retreat. Starosta was killed near Krasilov as the Soviet Army was approaching.
Q: What happened to the Vyner family? Where were they killed?
A: They were kept in ghetto in Kul’chiny. Details are not known.
Some answers to other questions:
The witness explains that the Jews were walking in columns for several days. She could not tell how long the columns were because she did not see them. She said that the farmhouses used to house horses for the military. The farmhouses were empty by the time the Jews were forced to be there. The killings lasted for several days due to huge number of people. She thinks it took at least four days. People were not kept in the farmhouses for very long time. She does not remember how many times trucks were picking up people to be killed. “Poor things, they were screaming out of fear saying good bye to this world. Even though they were Jews, they were still people!”
There were so many bodies that blood was seeping from the ground. Two kagats in the forest were filled completely. She said that kagats previously were used to store straw for the farm animals for the winter season.
Q: Were the Jews killed by the time the Soviet Army returned?
A; Of course! The killings took place in 1942 while the Soviet Army came back in 1943.
Q: Was the farm guarded? By whom? Was it possible for the Jews to go outside and buy some food or ask locals to give it to them?
A (surprised): Sure it was guarded. Policemen were the guards. One of the policemen was from Manivtsy. The Jews could not go out and the locals were forbidden to approach the farm.
Q: Where were the “specialists” kept? Were they working on the farm? Were the Vyner’s among the specialists?
A: The specialists were kept in Kulchiny. Their families were with them. Vyner’s were not among the specialists. The head of the family used to work in the farm office. The specialists were not working on the farm. They were also killed and buried in the pit not far from the farm. It is far from here, near Rosolovtsy. She does not know who buried the people in that grave. “Our village has gone through terrible events”, she complained.
After the Jews were killed, Germans started bring the youth from the whole region to the farm to be later transferred to Germany. There were locals there as well as from Krasilov. Germans fed them poorly and the people were forbidden to bring food. “It was our turn to die”, said the woman.
The witness said that after the war surviving Jews came to this place to erect monuments to their families. After the Soviet Army returned, the policeman was drafted, and then he died in the war. The Germans retreated to Shepetovka, where they were surrounded. After that, Krasilov was liberated.

The male witness was seven by the time the war started. He remembers the killings since he and his friends saw them personally by managing to climb a tree growing approx. 300 meters from the graves and observing the events from there. They stayed on the tree for a short time, since they were afraid to be noticed and also be killed. His story is convoluted and not clear. Sometimes he calls the farmhouse "ghetto". He remembers that there were Jews in Manivtsy and he was able to recollect some names: Abram and Lyusya. He said that Jews were brought in from the ghetto in Kulchiny.
Some questions from the interviewers followed: "Were the Jews standing or sitting?" "How many people were in one truck?" How many truck trips there were?" "Were the trucks large or small?" "What were the Jews doing on in the farm houses?" What happened to those who fell to the graves?" "Who was digging the graves?" "How long were the killings last?" "Were the shooters standing or laying on the ground?" "Was the lime in liquid or dry form?”
The witness was surprised by the nature of the questions, "I was a child, so how can I remember such details? Plus, I was watching from a distance!" He saw a single policeman who was shooting with his assault rifle. Next to the policeman he saw a crate possibly filled with bottles of vodka. He does not think there were children among those killed, but he does not know where they were. He said that the Jews had realization that their destiny was decided. There were terrible cries, some pulled out their hair, saying goodbye to life. He does not remember who was filling the top of the graves with dirt. He remembers that the farm houses were guarded, but the graves after the killings finished were not guarded at all. After the killings he and his friends went to take a closer look at the graves. They found some items, and he remembers that the ashes of the burned clothes were still warm. He does not know what happened to good clothes. He remembers blood seeping from the graves.
Q: Were the Germans or policemen checking whether there were any survivors among the bodies in the graves?
A: I do not know.
Next, the witness shows the graves to the interviewers. It is winter, and the snow is deep. He shows the first grave located in the forest. Its dimensions are visible. They also ask how the Jews were standing – whether their faces or backs were turned to the executioners. Where exactly were the shootsmen standing? How exactly were the people pushed to the graves? How many people were killed at once? How the people were disrobing and where? Was anybody ordering to shoot? Was it possible to run away? The witness says it was not possible, but then he recollects that one guy managed to run away. The guy was shot at, but survived.
The witness then asked the interviewers whether they knew that about five years ago somebody had been digging in the graves. It was a terrible sight with bones poking from the ground. The interviewers asked whether it happened at night or during the day and whether there was any investigation. The witness replied that he did not know.

Another witness says that she was born in that village [Manivtsy] and never traveled outside. She is an orphan and had difficult life. By the time the war started she was a teenager and worked on the collective farm. She remembers everything well. She said that the Germans came to village, but did not stay there. Instead they moved on to take Starokonstantinov and Krasilov. There was no a police department in the village, but there were policemen. There were two Jewish families in the village. They were involved in trade.
The Germans did not arrest them at first, but later the Jews were identified by the policemen. She thinks those two families went to Kulchiny on their own since they knew their destiny. She says that the last name of one of the family was Pin’, and they were older people. The husband in that family was selling candies in the store. His wife Rivka was often asking for help in the house. The witness herself helped Rivka on several occasions. Answering the question whether the local Jews were observant, the witness replied that she did not know a lot about that, “Their religion is secretive”. She does know that they traveled to Kulchiny to pray. There was an elder in the village appointed by the Germans. His last name was Dyachuk [the first name was not clear]. There was also somebody by the name of Pudel, who was a Czech living in the village with his family. He was connected with partisans. That family no longer lives there.
The witness stated that killings of Jews did not interrupt the everyday work life of the villagers. She said that the exhausted Jews were brought to the farm house from Kulchiny. Some of them were like horses pulling some sort of a trailer. One elderly man fell, and he was immediately killed and buried in the ditch. The interviewers expressed interest in the details of that particular killing and asked to show the ditch. The witness is surprised, “It has been so many years ago, how is it possible to find that place now?” During the killings she and her friends were gathering crops in the field. She added that from where she was it was easy to see and hear what was happening.
The interviewers again asked details about the killings, the farm house, trucks, from where the trucks came, quantity and types of the trucks, the amount of truck trips, amount of people fit on one truck, who was digging the graves and buried the people, which grave was the first, who was bringing the lime, how was the lime brought in, how many locals came to see the place of the killings and whether there were any kids among them, was it possible for the Jews to leave while at the farm and how were they sleeping. The witness said that there were no beds on the farm, people were sleeping the way they could on the floor. She does not remember how many trucks there were, but they were big with raised trunk sides. People were put in the trunk like "herrings in a barrel". Those who were not able to get in the truck, especially the elderly, were hit with rifle butts. There were two shootsmen with automatic rifles in each truck. There were two shootsmen from Manivtsy who participated in the killings. The graves were dug by groups of 10 to 15 people. They were shot right after that. The graves were filled very tightly in layers (the witness crosses herself and says, “God have mercy on me”). Before the killings everybody, including children, was ordered to disrobe. The killings lasted for several days, and it took more than a day to fill one grave.
The woman recollects that one guy managed to escape from a truck, and nowadays he works as a police detective [this is probably the story about Vyner and the legend about his job as a detective Link1, Link2]. She also remembers a girl by the name Sonya, who was screaming from the truck to those in the fields, “People, good bye! Please forgive me if I have ever offended any of you”. “All of us were crying”, said the witness. She also remembers a doctor from Kulchiny who was working in Manivtsy. Somehow he turned out alive after the killings, extricated himself from the grave and came back to the village naked. The women in the village gave him clothes, and he walked away towards Kulchiny. The witness said that some locals would come to the place of killings trying to find gold, “The Jews had gold, some of the swallowed it.”
After the killings finished, the village elder sent some locals to the graves' site to bury the bodies well. “The smell was terrible”, said the witness.
Later, the farm was used as a staging place for the local youth before they were shipped to Germany. Germans were very cruel towards them. Some people were crying and screaming because they did not want to leave their native place. Answering the question on what happened to the homes of the killed Jews, the witness said, “Other people moved in instead”.