Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Mass Grave
Uh, let me take you back for a second to--there was a mass grave in the forest near the village.
Yes, it's still there.
When did you find out that everyone in your fam...the, the women and children in your family were killed?
When I came you know, when I came--joined my father...
Yeah.
...sometimes at that time, I found out.
So he already knew.
Yeah, because you see, there was this Klimchuk, this guy that I was supposed to contact...
Uh-huh.
...about a mile away or maybe two kilometers away from our hiding barn was his--another brother of this--there were two Klimchuks, one who had the field and one uh, over the hill over there behind, behind the forest.
Brothers?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Brothers. I went to school with these--with one of these Klimchuk boys. Smart kids, bright. I even--one--the guy I went to school with was Paul--named Paul. He was a bright kid even then. But you know, I could not associate with him because he was living so far away you know uh, when I was a kid, that's far to go.
Uh-huh.
Well, also, he used to walk to school. We had no buses. And uh, my father--we used to go there because we used to run out of water. Well, it was...
Oh, I see.
In the barn--we were sitting in this barn, we had no food. And we could not demand too much food from the Klimchuk--we didn't got the food through this guy.
Oh.
We didn't want to draw--in case somebody notices.
So you think that they told your father what had happened to...
Yes, yes.
Okay. And your father told you.
Yeah, that they--he said, "You know, they killed, killed them."
Have you been to the, to the grave?
No.
You, you haven't been back?
No, never--oh yeah, at the village? Yeah. I was part of uh, '41 and part of '42--I mean part of '44 and part of '43.
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