the Germans arrived. After the Soviets left, but before the Germans arrived in July 1942, Ukrainian militia looted and murdered Jewish residents of the town. Then in August, the Ukrainians assisted the German police in a mass shooting of 400 or so Jewish professionals and craftsmen. After the initial mass murder in August 1941, the Jewish community remained relatively intact, living in a ghetto (the Buchach Ghetto), until October 1942, when the Gestapo, aided by Ukrainian and Jewish police, rounded up nearly 2000 Jews, shot hundreds, and sent about 1600 to Belzec. Some survivors report that the Ukrainian mayor was fair to the Jews until fall 1941 when control reverted to the German security police and their Ukrainian auxiliaries. In November, 2500 more were sent to Belzec and more were shot in Buchach. In February 1943, about 2000 were led to Fodor Hill where they were shot and pushed into mass graves. Megargee reports that there was so much blood that the city's water supplies were polluted. The final major Aktion took place in April when 4000 Jews were shot on Fedor Hill and others in the streets. In May 1943, Buchach was proclaimed judenfrei. During this time, some Jews were able to hide in the forests or join partisan bands. A few hid with Polish or Ukrainian friends. When Buchach was liberated by the Soviet army in March 1944, about 800 Jews were still alive. However, a counter offensive brought the Germans back to Buchach a few weeks later and the Germans hunted down the Jews. They were assisted by townspeople, many of whom were eager to point out hiding places. Property formerly owned by Jews was now in their hands and they feared Jewish revenge. When the Soviet army returned in July, fewer than 100 Jews had survived. Several of Buchach's survivors have published memoirs of this period, and a diary of Arah Klonicki-Klonymus who tried to hide in the forests with his wife and baby but was murdered is also well known. A detailed analysis of the murders of the Jews in Buchach in light of its history is told by Omar Bartov, Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz. In 1945, its Polish residents were resettled into the lands of western Poland that had previously been German, and Communist authorities closed the parish church, turning it into a storage facility.