times. One woman had her face smashed with a chair, another had his head severed so badly, that his son (Dr. David Lands) did not recognize his body, taken along with them to the killing site. Several people died of suffocation in the building, when forced to bow down.
A year later, on 3 - 5 September 1942, the Jews got a warning message from the Judenrat of Drohobych that a murderous attack was ensuing. Several local Ukrainian residents decided to begin the massacre before the Germans arrived. Mostly children were caught in houses and thrown out a window. A women who was in the middle of giving birth was dragged out to the town square, forced to stand during birth, the newly born child was stamped to death, amongst laughing local residents. Many children were killed by kicks. The German Gestapo policemen bragged that they had killed 600 children, and one Ukrainian civilian said that he alone had killed 97 children. (Following the war, a son of this man, living in the US, and serving as a priest read about these atrocities and dedicated the rest of his life helping commemorate the Jewish community of Bolekhiv). A total of 600-700 children and 800-900 adults were killed that day. Two thousand others were gathered and sent to Be??ec extermination camp. While marching to the train station they were forced to sing, mostly the song "Belz mein shtetele Belz".
At 1943, various murders and atrocities continued. At one stage, when there were still 900 Jews left, working at a local "work camp", for a few days groups of 100 and 200 Jews were taken to the nearby forest and shot. Evidence was given by local residents that the shots were so close, that some of the people drowned out the sound with heavy machinery
