In the dreadful summer months of the year 1942, when the German
mass-murderers were each day shooting, burning and gassing
thousands of Polish Jews; in the fateful days - after the Yuden action
in Kittev - when I myself wasn't sure about the next day, I resolved
that as long as I still lived, to record the appalling events. I began to
write the record, the daily events and experiences of Kittev and the
surrounding cities and towns, according to the authentic reports we
received from those places.
One of the main reasons that moved me to record all these bloody
events was my then naïve belief that the great democratic world had
no idea of what was happening, because if they did know what the
Germans were doing, they would surely employ all means to stop
the horrible destruction-work of the Nazis, their murderous actions
against the innocent Jews. All Polish Jews shared this belief, as did the
Jews of our city, Kittev.
Since nobody believed that any Jew could be saved from the bloody
talons of the Nazi evil beast and the Ukrainian murderers, that he
might be able, after the war, to appear as a living witness and accuse
the mass-murderers before the world tribunal, I resolved to make my
modest contribution to the history of the German murder-actions
that they should not be forgotten. I employed every free minute
and wrote down every day what we experienced until the complete
destruction of Kittev and her Jews.
Eisig Husen
April 10, 1958
