The SS Officer

August Hafner was SS Obersturmfuhrer and Paul Blobel was SS commander in Einsatzgruppen C. This is August Hafner's testimony:

"Then Blobel ordered me to have the children executed. I asked him, "By whom should the shooting be carried out?" He answered, "By the Waffen-SS." I raised an objection and said, "They are all young men. How are we going to answer them if we make them shoot small children?"

To this he said, "Then use your men." I then said, "How can they do that? They have small children as we" This tug-of-war lasted about ten minutes .. I suggested that the Ukrainian militia of the Feldkommandant should shoot the children. There were no objections from either side to the suggestion ..

I went to the woods alone. The Wehrmacht had already dug a grave. The children were brought along in a tractor. I had nothing to do with the technical procedure. The Ukrainians were standing around trembling.

The children were taken down from the tractor. They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. The Ukrainians did not aim at any particular part of the body. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable. I shall never forget the scene throughout my life. I find it very hard to bear.

I particularly remember a small fair-haired girl who took me by the hand. She too was shot later .. The grave was near some woods. It was not near the rifle range.

The execution must have taken place in the afternoon at about 3:30 - 4:00. It took place the day after the discussions at the Feldkommandanten.

Many children were hit four or five times before they died .."