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previous: Chapter 7 This webpage reproduces a chapter of Abyss of Despair by Rabbi Nathan Hanover Bloch Publishing Company New York, 5710‑1950 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 9

 p70  VIII

The massacre in the holy community of Ostrog
and in the holy community of Zaslaw

After the enemies captured the holy community of Polannoe, and did what they would unto it, they proceeded to the holy community of Zaslaw. They robbed the whole community, and killed some two hundred persons, who had been unable to escape because of sickness. Some had placed their trust in their Ukrainian friends that they would save them, and therefore, hid in the forests until the fury would pass. There they lingered for a long time, and almost expired of hunger and thirst. They chose death to life and said: "Come let us go to the city, for we prefer to be victims of the sword than of starvation." When they arrived in the city they were seized by their "friends," the Ukrainians, to be killed. They implored them to be killed on the cemetery so they would be buried there. They were granted the request and were led to the cemetery. The Jews entered the chapel on the cemetery and were killed there. Afterwards they set fire to the house. The Jews were then condemned to two kinds of death; beheading and burning. The Catholic priests of the city of Zaslaw were skinned alive, while  p71 the dukes who had been interred for a long time, were removed from their graves and tossed aside. "As a carcass trodden underfoot."​1 The gold and silver mausoleums were desecrated. The Catholic monasteries as well as our synagogues were destroyed and turned into stables for horses. This they also did in the holy community of Ostrog, the capital, where they killed the six hundred persons who had remained there.

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The Editor's Note:

1 Isaiah 14:19.

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