In June 1941, Germany attacks its former ally, the Soviet Union, occupying much of the Soviet Union and the territories it had occupied.

“We had no radio and we received no news from the time the war broke out. When the German forces were passing close to Kortelisy through a little town called Mokrany (Mokran to Jews), many of the Christian Ukrainians from Kortelisy ran to Mokrany to look at and welcome the Germans. They all returned to Kortelisy excited about the Germans and talking about them with admiration: ‘Akh, taki krasyvi, akh khoroshi’—Oh, they are so handsome and so good-looking.”

Pinchas Eliyahu Blitt