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As many of the witnesses relate, the Jewish population of Volkovysk was severely disturbed by the sudden appearance over the city skies of German aircraft, in the middle of June 1941.

Dr. Yitzhak Goldberg tells, that on Thursday and Friday of June 19 and 20, 1941, he noted that aircraft reconnoitered the entire area around the city, and flying quickly, vanished. This was an alarm to the entire population, but very quickly, an argument ensued over what the meaning of this new incident was all about. The reason was that as recently as the prior week, many Russian troops and tanks had passed through the Ostroger (Kosciuszko) Gasse in the direction of the German border. It appeared that at that time, the Russians were already preparing themselves for war with the Germans, but in no way did they anticipate that it would come with such lightning speed. Meanwhile, in their haste, the Russians feverishly built a new airstrip.

On Saturday, June 21, 1941 all was calm, and life proceeded normally. On that Sabbath day, Dr. Goldberg was occupied with his patients in his office on the Wide Boulevard, and worked hard the entire day. No special occurrences took place on that day. The Jewish populace, which at that time had become acclimated to the Russian regime, was concerned about the Jews who struggled and suffered on the other side of the border under the Germans, and about other relatives and friends, whom the Russians had exiled to Siberia. Mostly, it was the influx of refugees that were sent to Siberia, but there were many Volkovysk natives among them, such as Dr. Matskevich, Shmuel Kaplan, Dr. P. Bebchuk, Yoss'l Ein, and many others.

The last night before the outbreak of the undeclared war between Russia and Germany happened to fall, indeed, on the end of the Sabbath of the 21^st of June. As was the usual custom, many people were attending various gatherings and other activities. The movie theater operated by Sioma Botvinsky was packed with denizens of Volkovysk who were enjoying the latest Russian films. Roitman, one of our witnesses, was also at the theater that night with some of his friends. Another witness, Shayna Lifschitz, spent the evening with her friends at her home on the Wide Boulevard.

At 5AM on Sunday Morning, Dr. Goldberg tells that he suddenly awoke, because he heard the sound of running down from the second floor of Botvinsky's building where he lived. The principal headquarters of the Russian General were located there, and when Dr. Golberg alighted from bed and went over to look out the

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window, he saw how Russian officers were running up and running down. Dr. Goldberg turned on his radio, and only then did the situation become clear to him, namely, that the Germans had attacked the Russian Army. The city of Volkovysk still slept quietly at that point. Dr. Goldberg was among the first people in Volkovysk to obtain the news regarding the new war.

At 7AM on Sunday, June 22, strong explosions were heard from the direction of the shtetl of Rosh. The residents ran out of their houses. The streets became dark with people, who stood about frightened, not knowing what had happened.

In a short while, a convoy of automobiles came from the direction of Rosh, filled with Russian officers, who related that a sudden attack had been made by German aircraft, who destroyed the large aerodrome at Rosh, along with the airplanes that were there on the ground. The disoriented residents still did not believe what the Russian officers told them, that this air attack was the harbinger of a Russian-German war. Finally, at 11AM, the voice of the Russian Foreign Minister [Vyacheslav] Molotov came over the radio, communicating to the Russian people that on Sunday, Russia was attacked by the Nazi armies, and called upon the citizenry to defend the fatherland. For the first time, the residents of Volkovysk believed that a state of war existed between Russia and its enemy – Germany. The doctors and nurses were organized with lightning speed, along with technicians, fire-fighters, and others.

The Soviet military contingents, however, began to abandon Volkovysk and retreat in the general direction of Minsk. This further increased the sense of unrest among the residents of the city.

Roitman tell, that early on the morning of Monday, June 23, he was quietly going to work, because the early morning looked to be peaceful. This, however, didn't last long. Suddenly, well-armed German aircraft appeared over the center of the city, over the Wide Boulevard, that began to drop bombs. The siren at the fire station began to wail, and people quickly began to hide themselves in the cellars of their homes, and those that didn't have cellars, ran to their neighbors.

One of the first bombs fell on the Schulhof, where the synagogues, the Talmud Torah and the Batei-Medrashim were found, a number of which had been taken over by Russian soldiers. Most of the synagogues were destroyed, but no fires broke out.

Another bomb fell on the Bet HaMedrash of Tiferet Bakhurim, on the New Street, and on the house of Nakheh Yud'eh's (he dealt in cheese and butter). His house was completely demolished. His wife and daughter-in-law, as well as A. Montiak of the Kholodoisker Gasse, lost their lives there.

Another bomb fell on Rakhmilevich's house on the Millner Gasse, which during the time of the Russians, had been transformed into an emergency ward. The building was completely destroyed.

At approximately 3PM, the bombardment was resumed, this time with incendiary bombs, which fell on may neighborhoods of the city. An incendiary bomb fell on Zamoscheh, at Leibeh Vinnik the shoemaker. Eleven people were incinerated by that bomb, among them the following: Rokheh the Baker, and her daughter, Leah Segal; Berg (A resident of Rosh, and a son-in-law of Dr. Velvelsky), and his son; Kreineh Gurevich from the Brzezker Gasse (Gottleib's daughter); Golda Vinnik, Leib Vinnik's daughter. Leib Vinnik himself later fell as

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a victim while walking on the same street. Also, Joseph Beckenstein, from the shoe business, fell that day as a victim, near Jesierski's factory.

On Monday evening, an incendiary bomb fell on the house of Khemeh the Hatmaker's house, near Shaliota's. The entire structure caught fire with lightning speed. At first, an attempt was made to put the fire out, but additional bombs fell, and the fire spread swiftly with vigor. People gave up hope and fled to the fields. Whatever could be saved was taken, and they ran in the direction of Karczyzna and Zamoscheh.

Dr. Goldberg tells that he also, along with the members of his family, fled to Karczyzna. There, he met up with both of my sisters, Rosa the Dentist, and Pes'shka, along with their families. They had brought along everything that they were able to bring, among which was certain dental equipment. Also, Berman from the laboratory had fled there.

The fire burned all night in various neighborhoods of the city from Monday night until Tuesday morning. On Tuesday morning, June 23, the Schulhof was still burning, along with houses on the Ostroger and Millner Gasse and on the Wide Boulevard. Also, the gymnasium up on the hill was completely enveloped in flames. During the entire day of Tuesday, bombs continued to fall on the city, and people hid out in the cellars. However, the bombs reached them there as well. A bomb hit Nakdimon's house in Karczyzna killing: Yaakov Goldberg (Shosh'keh Kvachuk's husband), the bomb decapitated him; Fanya Matskevich of the drugstore; Itcheh Falkovich the Tailor; Sholom Lifschitz (Falkovich's son-in-law); Berman from the analysis [laboratory] with his child, and others.

On the same day, Katriel Lashowitz tells that he found himself in a large cellar in Feinstein's house along with many other Jews from Volkovysk. The people sat pressed up one against the other, and frightened. Suddenly, Shykeh Levin knocked on the cellar door calling out: “Jews, come out of there, or you will be burned up!…”

The people didn't even feel or hear that an incendiary bomb had been dropped directly on the house. Exiting [from the cellar], they saw how the entire house was enveloped in flames. A large number of the people fled, and went to hide themselves in the Jewish cemetery. It was only on the following morning that they found on another.

There were no longer any attempts to put out the fire, rather one simply fled for life. The fire spread even further. It divided the city into three parts, and the people who lived on the Wide Boulevard were forced to run through side streets to reach the fields, and there find some safety from the fire that had ignited the entire city. Meanwhile, other neighborhoods of the city started to burn, and many people became entrapped, and only after great effort fraught with much danger, was it possible for them to find an escape route to Karczyzna or the fields. But many people did not have come to rescue themselves, and remaining behind in the cellars, they were buried under falling bricks and stones.

It was in this fashion that many people were killed in the cellars of Margolis, and Epstein the Agent. Among them: Mrs. Schein (Zhameh Schein's mother); Mrs. Blinderman (from the artists), with her son, Volpeh; Alteh Yunovich, the lady butcher with her son, Chaim; Levitt and his wife & children; Epstein's son; Miriam Press the dentist (wife of Shimon Press) with her two children. Also other families who had hidden themselves there from the bombardment, were buried alive.

Tchopper related the following episode concerning the dentist, Miriam Press: Her husband, Shimon Press, had left for Minsk a short while before the outbreak of the German-Russian war. When he returned several days after the outbreak of the war, he no longer found his family alive. Only his father-in-law survived the

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bombardment. Then, along with his father-in-law, he dug out the corpses of his wife and two children from Margolis's buried cellar, and gave them a proper burial. He was himself later killed in the roundup of the Jewish doctors of Volkovysk.

About fifteen people were at that time also killed at the house of Mordechai Moorstein. Among them: Abraham Aharon Manokh (Zadok's son); David Goshchinsky's wife & three children; Ziss'l Tchopper (the wife of Leib Tchopper and mother of our witness, Yitzhak Tchopper); Itkeh Zoyman, a widow; Two children of the Shammes from Piesk, who also lived in that house; and a few others.

Yitzhak Tchopper tells of the following episode concerning the Piesker Shammes and his mother: after the bombing of his father-in-law's house, he ran to see what had happened to his parents. On the way, he met his father, and not far from Moorstein's house, the Piesker Shammes approached them from the opposite direction, who with entreaties, begged for assistance to help extract his wife and two children from the rubble. When they came upon the destroyed house, they heard the cries of people buried: “Take off the door from over us.” They immediately threw themselves into rescue with all their might, but the door was covered by the wood from the house that had fallen down. Tchopper then ran out to the second side of the house to see if anything could be done from there for the unfortunate victims. Suddenly, he saw another buried body, and from the dress he recognized his mother. She was lightly covered, and seemingly not badly injured, but she was no longer alive. In the midst of this, the entire house was engulfed in flames, and the people were forced to back away from the place. Bombardment of the neighborhood resumed yet again, and Tchopper and his wife and child fled to the Russian cemetery (Mogilkeh's). The entire city, at that point, was already in flames. It was not until later that Tchopper found out that the Shammes had been able to get his wife out, but both of his children were burned alive. He and his wife were later killed in Treblinka.

When the airplanes detected the people hiding in the fields, they flew lower and began to shot at them with machine guns, and a large number of people were killed in this manner: Goshchinsky the Ironmonger, and his wife were shot near the priest by the swamp, near the mill. Yud'l Rubinstein the Locksmith, was wounded and died shortly thereafter. David Goshchinsky the Turner fell as a victim of a bomb that blew up the hospital building. Among the other victims were: Chaim Khvalitsky, the Tailor's son; The wife and child of Eliyahu Lifschitz; the horse-hitcher Tatkeh – were killed by a bomb that fell on their house; Ahareh Yos'keh Yudzhik of the gardens; Khasman's child, ( a grandchild of Shykevich's); Hertz Mostkov – was wounded coming from the Sejmikov Hospital and died shortly thereafter; also his daughter was wounded and died; Yaakov Lytus's wife; Nakhum Shalovich (a member of Betar); A son-in-law of Berel Epstein from the beer brewery, who was a teacher at the trade school, and an officer in the Polish Army; The Yunovich Family that had the general store, and others.

A bomb fell in Berel Klatchkeh's yard, and two children were killed there. The shrapnel from the explosion, which reached Sakhar's house, the director of the Tarbut School, instantly killed Sakhar's wife, and severed one of his hands.

Meanwhile, Volkovysk continued to burn, and the fire from the falling bombs continued to spread relentlessly. The nights were lit up by the fires, the days were darkened by the thick clouds of smoke that rose from the burning Jewish homes and places of business. The Germans paid special attention to assuring that most of the damage would be inflicted on the Jewish center and the heart of the city. P:eople, exhausted from the sleepless nights, ran from one street to another with their small children in their arms, in order to distance themselves from the flames and the suffocating smoke. The square with the Jewish stores burned, the Schulhof burned, all the Batei Medrashim were consumed, beginning at Kaufman's. All the streets from the river onwards were

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aflame. The entire Wide Boulevard was in flames. Flames shot out of Botvinsky's house reaching the heavens. The fire reached all the way to the Grodzhensker Gasse, encompassing part of the Tatarski and Ostroger (Kosciuszko) Gasse, leaping from one street to the next, and there was no place anywhere in the city where one could hide from the flames.

Entire streets were ringed with fire, like a burning torches. But the sadistic Germans did not satisfy themselves with this, and they kept flying through the skies, dropping new bombs on each house separately. People fled into the cellars of the burning houses in order to try and hide. People hid themselves in the potato storage pits. But the hand of the enemy reached even into there. Bombs fell even on the wrecked structures and buried people alive.

And the bombardment continued for the entire week, with bombs falling day and night.

The bombing reached its peak intensity on Friday, June 26. Near Shifmanovich's house on the Tatarski Gasse, which was encircled in flames, a new incendiary bomb fell on the cellar of the burned out house, and over thirty people were trapped there, men, women and children. Among those victims were: Leibeh & Tzipeh Schorr and their children; the entire Tuval Family, a family consisting of ten souls – they were Hassidim and lived on the Wide Boulevard near the movie theater; The entire Duner Family, that dealt in foodstuffs in the market square stores; Gittl Ein, and others.

Roitman tells about the incident, because he was also hidden in a nearby cellar. When he emerged after the bombardment of his hiding place, he saw a deep crater in front of him, which had just been formed by the most recent bomb, and a cellar near the crater, where there were concealed people, had vanished entirely. He heard the wailing of people: “Jews, save us!” Taking no heed of the danger from aircraft flying overhead, Jews young and old alike ran from their places of concealment with iron rods and poles, with crowbars, and even bare hands, digging with their fingers, in order to rescue the trapped persons from under the wreckage. [Dismembered] hands, feet, corpses, mothers with children in their arms – were all mixed up together with the earth. And those who were entirely covered by the earth suffocated, and their cries were heard no more. The feeling of commitment, the feeling of love for one another, was in conflict with the instinct for survival. The danger was great, the pilots kept up their machine gun fire, but paying no attention to this, the Jews who remained alive did not give ground – old Jews with gray beards, and the wounded, all dug in the earth and pulled out one body after another.

One of our witnesses, Dr. Yitzhak Goldberg, also tells the following about that Friday: At about ten o'clock in the morning, he left his mother in Levitt's shack, at the shtibl of the Hassidim near the river, where his family was found since the time his house burned down, and went off to his father, who at that time had hidden himself in cellar of Pelteh the Moditskeh^[1]. He brought his father some tea and returned immediately to his mother. Along the way, a bomb suddenly fell on Levitt's shack. He ran with his brothers in the direction of the shack, but sadly, their mother already was lying among the victims of that very bomb. A child of Breineh Minkovich (the daughter of the zhemshnik) was killed in the same bombardment. The child was killed by a shrapnel fragment in the arms of its mother. Only she remained alive. Goldberg's mother fell dead with a Siddur in her hand.

The death toll at that point reached one hundred fifty people. A large number of them were Jews who had taken

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up residence in Volkovysk at the time of the outbreak of the German-Polish War, and since then were living there.

Also, the bodies of Russian victims were found during those days in the fields around the Volkovysk vicinity. These were Russian officials, engineers, and other military staff, who during the first days of the German attack, seized all the wagons, horses, and automobiles in the city, and fled in the direction of Minsk and Baranovich. However, the Germans shot them along the way.

The full accounting of the streets and houses that were burned down is approximately as follows:

The entire Wide Boulevard was burned down, beginning in Zamoscheh and from the Gymnasium on the hill: the houses of Abraham Bayer, Issachar Lev, Leibeh Khananovich, Feitelevich, Kaplinsky the Baker, the white church, the houses of Kanoval, Smazanovich the Photographer, Sukenik the Teacher, Pelteh the [lady] Butcher, Rutchik from Zhelenevich, Bubliatsky the Locksmith, Travinsky the Bookbinder, Bialosotsky the Baker, Schein of the corn, Zuckerman from the paper business, Solkovich the Tailor, Gandz the Ironmonger, Shereshevsky from the bicycle store, Lifschitz who sold herring, Patsovsky the Hairdresser^[2], Zuckerman the Pharmacist, Kavushatsky, Shipiatsky the Garment Seamer, Motya Ginsberg the Hassid, etc.

In addition, all the side streets that went from the Wide Boulevard to the river were incinerated. Also the streets from the electric generating plant; and from the other side – all the streets leading to the Grodno Gasse, including in this the Mitzrayim Gessel. The entire Schulhof was burned down along with its Batei Medrashim, the Great Synagogue, the Wooden Bet HaMedrash, the Ein Yaakov, the Mauer, the Tailor's Synagogues, the old age home, the bathhouse and all the other houses up to the river.

The extension to the Wide Boulevard was also burned down: beginning with the houses of Alter Rossiansky of the hotel, Mordetsky the Artist, and going on through the houses of Lapin, Einhorn, Shiff, and Slutsky. Further, all the other side streets from the Wide Boulevard to the river: also the side street where Manya the Baker's house was located, and in this manner for the entire length of the Wide Boulevard, the houses of Pelteh the Moditskeh, which had once belonged to Tzipeh Katzin, Zelig Bartnovsky, Shykevich, Yanovsky, Finkelstein, the Tailor from Rosh, Press, Leib Weiss, Pin'iyeh Khomsky, Rakhmilevich – and continuing in this fashion up to the Millner Gasse.

The houses on the side streets leading to the shtibl of the Hassidim were also burned down, and also the Fabritchneh Gasse, which led to the cemetery, as well as the side street that led to Margolis's house.

Then the center of the city was burned down, where the marketplace stores were found along with the storage units; and from the other side of the stores – the houses of Shaliota, Novogrudsky, Klempner and the beginning of the Neuer Gessel, near Feinzilberg's house.

The Grodno Gasse burned down, from the Neuer Gessel to Volsky's pharmacy (Itcheh Botvinsky's house). The side where the houses of Kavushatsky, Rubinovich who sold herring, Rivka Einhorn's general store, Shustak and Yunovich (Tamara's) were located – was partly spared. Across the street, the other side went completely up in smoke, where the houses of Barash (formerly Tchopper), Yud'l the Locksmith, and Nachman

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Papa were found. Most of the houses at the foot of the hill were also burned down, among them the houses of Tchopkin (Palteh's), Leibeh Schein of the Hotel, and others.

Part of the Tatarski Gasse was burned, where the houses of Shifmanovich, the Linat-Tzedek, Shchupak from Hnezna, Davidovsky, Shifran the Shoemaker, Khatzkel Berel the Dancer, Yazhernitsky the Porter, Wiener the Butcher, Lev the Koshchilker, Milvansky the Horse-hitcher, Polonsky the Tailor, And so on, up to the Gymnasium.

Then, beginning from the Market to the Firehouse, including the houses of: Matskevich the Pharmacist, Koroshel (where the whiskey business of Rothford was located), Efrat the Lawyer, Mazover of the Wurst business, Galiatsky the Barber, Mazover from the Paper Business, Galai the Butcher, Kroll the Pharmacist (formerly Avromsky), the wooden church, and all of the large houses opposite to it – among them the houses of Poliachek, Marantz, Kobrinsky, and Galai of the Hotel.

All of the houses on the Ostroger Gasse also burned down (which was at the end of the Kosciuszko Street), beginning with the firehouse, the large magistrate's building, up to the white jailhouse, going through the houses of Gubar, Moorstein the Tailor, Neiman, Manokh, Podolinsky the Carpenter, Amstibovsky, Jesierski the lumber merchant, Herschel Ravitz, Berestovitsky, etc. From the Poritzisher Gasse. The entire corner from the Ostroger Gasse to the river burned down completely.

Then all the houses that were in front of the stored burned down, among them the houses of Stolovitsky the flour storekeeper, Boyarsky the hatmaker, and Yitzhak Bliakher. Also the street leading from the Market to the Millner Gasse burned down completely, where were found the houses of Epstein of the Beer Brewery, Galiatsky the Shoemaker, Benush the Carpenter, Stein the lady Butcher, Lev the Bialystoker Baker, Shakhnovich from the Wine Business, Epstein the Agent, and the houses that had at one time belonged to Matskevich and Aaron Lifschitz.

The Millner Gasse was burned down, starting from the houses of Milia Khirurg, and Berel Kaplan (Moteleh's), then the houses of Sholom Lev, Mintz, Schwartz, Solomiansky, Moshe & Ephraim Zilberman, Khmelnitsky (his former house), Dr. P. Bebchuk, Lev and Timinsky.

A large part of the Kholodoisker Gasse went up in smoke as well, where the houses of Khien'keh the Dyer, Farber, Lashowitz, the orphanage, the Kholodoisker Bet HaMedrash, Yaakov Solomon, and others were located. The houses of Levitt the Military Tailor, Khvonyik and many others on the Wilensky Gasse were also burned down.

Remaining intact after the bombing were: the Karczyzna neighborhood, where the Hebrew Gymnasium was located,; the Poritzisheh Gasse from the river to the railroad tracks, and also other streets that led to the Izaveliner Road. The white jail remained standing on the Ostroger Gasse, and the post office building. A part of the Kholodoisker Gasse remained standing, Itcheh Jonah's street, and the entire Neuer Gessel, except for a few houses at its entrance. A few isolated houses remained standing on the Grodno Gasse on the side of Kavushatsky and Yudzhik, among them the houses of Moshe Rubinovich, Movshovsky, Kavushatsky, and Wolsky's Pharmacy. On the Tatarski (Lazaretneh) Gasse and in the area at the foot of the hill, on the way to Rosh, a few houses survived. The Jewish hospital was partly destroyed.

Zamoscheh almost entirely survived, except for the corner where the Zamoscher Bet HaMedrash was located.

Barash's metal factory and Bloch's leather works also remained intact after the fire, as did the houses near the

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cemetery, among them the houses of Zalman Chafetz, and Pines.

It was in this fashion that the entire Jewish section of Volkovysk was destroyed by the German bombardment. The destruction was so great, that if one stood on that day in Zamoscheh , near the house of Moshe Koss – one could see the while jail!… The entire area that had once been built up with the houses of Jews, factories, synagogues, Batei Medrashim, Jewish institutions – where Jewish commerce and manufacture were carried on, and where Jewish life thrived – was transformed into a huge wreckage.

Because of this, the Jewish community was forced, after the bombing, to concentrate itself in and around the Neuer Gessel. In every tiny room – a Jewish family. And it was no longer necessary to drive the Jewish community into a ghetto – the “ghetto” sprung up “naturally” of its own accord.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Called this for her fashion shop in which she designed, made and sold dresses. Return
2. To be understood as also including those who were barbers. Return

As is well known, the Nazi strategy and tactic was to cut off entire cities and capture entire military divisions in one blow. They used this same tactic, that was then known as the “pincer tactic,” in the Volkovysk area, as they drew nearer. The Nazi armies had entered Slonim and Baranovich several days earlier, before they took Volkovysk. This cut off the entire area, and there was no possibility of escape.

The first detachments of German troops marched into Volkovysk on Saturday, June 28, 1941. Their arrival instilled great fear into the Jewish community of the city. The SS Division immediately distinguished itself for its barbarism, and shot at any Jew that they saw along the way. By June 29, Israel Tzemakh (Alibuder's son-in-law) had already been shot in the streets, whom it would seem was the first victim of Nazi bestiality in Volkovysk. The following were then shot: Yoss'l Feinzilberg (from [the] Boineh^[1]), Yoss'l Beletz, Berel the Shammes from the Ein Yaakov [Synagogue]. On that day, Nachman Papa the Ironmonger, Basheh Gurevich, Yaakov Jesierski the Lumber Merchant, and Yanovsky's wife (from the Tobacco Business) died. Herschel Uryonovsky, the son of the Rein Maker hung himself on that day. The Jews remained crammed into their partly burned out wrecked homes and in barns, three and four families crowded in at a time, waiting for further developments with fluttering hearts. Many families sent their children off to nearby towns – Svislucz, Izavelin, Lisokovo, Mosty', and other neighboring areas.

The largest percentage of the Volkovysk Jews, together with those who had saved themselves by going into the fields, and then returned later to the city, accommodated themselves anew on the Neuer Gessel, in Karczyzna, and in Zamoscheh, and in the few remaining houses on the other streets. Because of the shortage of housing stock, overcrowding became severe. Shortly after the arrival of the Germans, a severe famine began in the city. There was simply nothing to eat. The Christians had pillaged all the warehouses that remained after the Russians left, and they lacked for nothing. However, the burned out Jews suffered severely from a hunger that intensified day by day.

The Germans were unable to construct a ghetto as they had done in almost all other Jewish cities and towns. This was not because the Jews of Volkovysk were in any way ‘better’ than the Jews elsewhere, but rather because of the awesome and thorough destruction wreaked by the bombing of the city, there simply was no place where such a ghetto could be constructed. All of Volkovysk, and in particular, the Jewish quarter, looked

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like one big devastation. In order to set up a ghetto, the Germans would have had to drive the Poles out of that section of the city that had remained intact, from Zamoscheh, Volya, or Karczyzna – which they did not want to do.

Six German leaders were appointed to direct the security work of the city, and it was on them that the role fell of carrying out the systematic administration of the local Jewish population.

The first decree was that all Jewish residents were required to immediately affix a yellow badge to their right arms, and a Star of David on their front and back. A second decree was – forbidding the use of the sidewalks – the Jews were permitted to walk only in the middle of the road together with horses, cattle and wagons. The Jews were ordered to take off their hats in the presence of every German, an officer or soldier alike. Apart from this, Jews were forbidden to engage in any commerce. Jews were forbidden to own any property, no land, no cattle. Jews were even forbidden to purchase specific necessities, such as meat. Jews were not allowed to live under the same roof with Christians. At the entrance of every Jewish domicile, it was required to affix a large round yellow badge. All Jews were immediately require to register for forced labor. Jews were forced to work in clearing the brickwork from the destroyed buildings of their own homes. The bricks, after they had been collected by hard labor, were sold off to their non-Jewish neighbors…those Jews who were able to pay the German city account an amount of five marks daily, did not have to do this work. This, actually, was a probe by the Nazis to try and discover which of the Jews had money, and wanted to buy themselves out of performing the hard labor, in order to extort more money from them, before they would be sent to the gas chambers. The Jewish women had to act as servants for the Germans.

Jews were severely punished for even the smallest infractions. For example, when a Jew who had for his entire life been used to walk on the sidewalk, forgot himself, and walked there like everyone else, during the day, was beaten murderously. Jews were punished for the minutest infractions with monetary fines, beatings, incarceration, concentration camps, and death.

A Judenrat was established in Volkovysk a short time after the arrival of the Germans, but in reality this was merely a front in the hands of the Nazis. On one side, the Judenrat directed the internal and external lives of the Jewish community; and from the other side, it was tasked by the Germans to provide Jews for forced labor and carry out all of the cruel decrees of the Nazis.

The entirety of Jewish life became concentrated on the Neuer Gessel in those times. The seat of the Judenrat was found there, in a small building, on the left side of the street, which the Jews referred to as “The White House.” All the departments conducted their activities from a larger building to the right. At the entrance to the yard, was the Secretariat, and the management center of the “Ordnungs-dienst,” from where the Jewish Support Police were called. Not far from there, in a large room, people waited to be called. In the center of the yard was a temporary dwelling, where the former owner of the coffee house, Spiegelglass would sell lemonade with saccharine, fruit juice that had a peculiar taste, cookies, that nobody could tell what they were baked from, and black plums. This temporary structure was the one and only official Jewish “hall,” the one and only open Jewish place of business…

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The labor council was located in the Secretariat, which would receive the orders from the German command, which ordered the Jews to present themselves for forced labor. There, Jewish would wait daily for new orders.

The head of the Judenrat was Dr. Yitzhak Weinberg. He served in this position from the day the Judenrat was established up until the time that the Germans arrested him, and later killed him. After that, Noah Fuchs, who had previously been the Deputy Head, took over the position.

Dr. Weinberg's closest co-worker was Dr. Yaakov Sedletsky. Both of these doctors, who were so different in their character, nevertheless, joined together in a really harmonious fashion. Dr. Weinberg, previously an assimilated Jew, looked like a gentile, an aristocrat; Dr. Yaakov Sedletsky – a man of the people, was beloved by everyone, and was very popular. Both, however, were distinguished in their decent character, commitment to the community, diligence and unusual energy. Both worked ceaselessly, abandoning their personal interests, and because of this, both became very revered by the Jewish populace.

The director of the Secretariat in Dr. Weinberg's time was Noah Fuchs. He concentrated all the work of the Judenrat in his own hands. The head of the labor council was Sham'keh Daniel; The manufacturing representative – Mulya Kantor; the liaison to the city government – Berel Amstibovsky; the Treasurer – Moshe Krapivnik. The other members of the Judenrat were: Sonia Botvinsky, Dodzhkeh Botvinsky, Meir Pisetsky, Meir Farber, Nakh'keh Schein, Rachel Yaffa (a daughter of Sholom Lev). Eliyahu Motya Ginsberg and Clara Niemchik would deal with the Gestapo. Israel Pidtow would represent the refugees. Apart from these, Sioma Gallin, Pin'iyeh Khomsky and Israel Gurevich were also very active.

Because of the shortage of housing stock, the Judenrat also directed effort in this area. It allocated housing on the basis of family size, distributed food, organized free medical help, and had oversight regarding the hygienic and sanitary conditions. For a long time, it also concerned itself with the refugees from White Russia, providing them with the necessary papers and transportation to a variety of more distant cities and towns, primarily to Bialystok.

The Judenrat also had a Jewish Support Police, headed at the beginning by M. Khantov, and was later led by a Galician Jew by the name of Glatt.

The Jewish Support Police stood at the behest of the Judenrat and serve the interests of the Jews of Volkovysk. But in reality, it served an entirely different purpose. The reason for this, is that the police body was composed mostly of individuals from the underworld. They made use of the privileges given to them for their own benefit. In particular, one of them named Khiller, “distinguished himself” in this regard, and caused the Jews a lot of trouble. He could not even shame the worst of the Nazis in the way he related to and dealt with the Jews.

The arrests began immediately after the arrival of the Germans in Volkovysk. The following were the first to be arrested: Velvel Tzirulnitsky, Isser Grunem (Hoshea's son) and his brother-in-law (a stocking-maker), David Sarakshabel, Mendel Rutchik (a son-in-law of Moshe Bayer), Jonah Irmess (a shoemaker), Eliyahu Kvachuk and Munya Solkovich ('Niomka the Tailor's son) whom the Germans apprehended when he tried to run. The arrests were in reality carried out with the use of lists, which had been prepared in advance by the anti-Semites in the city. And this type of “good friends,” the Germans did not have a very difficult time finding among the Christians of the city. It was enough when a non-Jew would represent to the police that so-and-so,

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a Jew, was a communist during the Russian occupation, such a person was immediately arrested and shot the next morning. The arrests were carried on without stop.

Those arrested were brought to the “white jail,” which had remained intact after the bombing of the city, and from there, they would be conveyed by buses to the Mayak forest, where they were shot on the spot. In that small forest, ready graves had already been dug for them, prepared by Jewish slave laborers. When it happened that one of these unfortunate young people managed to get out of the clutches of German hands and try to escape, the Poles would catch them and again turn them over to the Nazis.

The arrest of the innocents cast a great terror on the Jewish populace of Volkovysk, because one simply was totally uncertain about one's own life. Before it was even possible to calm down from this most recent misfortune, the Nazis quite suddenly carried out a new aktion^[2] among the Volkovysk Jews. At that time they took over two hundred men to the Mayak forest and immediately, like their first victims, shot everyone.

The following names are known to us from among those victims: Kalman Bartnovsky, Leizer Bliakher (a lawyer) and his brother Anshel Bliakher, Yaakov Beletz (a son-in-law of Nishvitsky the Carpenter), Simcha Berg (from Zamoscheh), Itzel Berman (Kolontai's Bookkeeper), Elkeh Gass, Herschel Ditkovsky, Mikhal Zohn-Mazya (from the Magistrate's office), Zernitsky (of the dock), Koppel Khananovich, Itcheh Tkatch, Berel Tchistorozum-Narozimsky, Chaim Khvonyik and his wife, Mal'yeh (a daughter of Pelteh the Moditskeh), Liss (son-in-law of Kalir), A son-in-law of Hinde Lev, Daniel Leshchinsky, Mottel Lev (a son of Shlomo Lev from Kuzhnya), Shaul Markus (a son of Abraham Elie's), Abraham Markus (the leader of the Bund) and his wife, and daughter Manya, (a daughter of Fruma Movshovsky), with her husband the lawyer. Moskowitz the lawyer and his wife, Khatzkel Moorstein, Velvel Novick (the lumber merchant's son), Khatzkel Sidransky (from Zamoscheh), Khatzkel Savuolsky's son, Itzel Smeizik (from the Kvachuk family), Israel Panter, Dr. Feinberg, Yoss'l Frack's son, Herschel Zuckerman and his wife, Yehudit and son Misha, Kraselnik, and his son (a stone road paver), Berel Kaplan (Moteleh's), Shavson (the Gendarme) and his wife and daughter, 'Nioma Shevakhovich (the smith's son), Sidransky, son-in-law of Wilk, and others.

Shayna Lifschitz, one of our eye-witnesses, tells us the following: she happened to be at the house of Velvel Novick, when he was presented with an order to appear at the police station. As his first name was not indicated in the order, Shayna Lifschitz advised him to send his aged father, whom the Germans would likely send back home again. Also, the aged father was intent on going in the place of his son. But the younger Novick did not want to do this, and forcibly tore himself away from [the members ] of the household, and went off to the police, from where he never returned again. A few days later, his old father died from great sorrow. Other witnesses tell that it happens that later it turned out that they were seeking a different Novick and not Velvel Novick.

Shayna Lifschitz tells another episode concerning Pes'sha Gass (a daughter of [Kalman] Galiatsky the Shoemaker), who was married to Izzy Gass from the Pharmacy. After Gass ran off with the Soviet Army, his wife Pes'sha remained behind at home with her small son and mother-in-law, Elkeh Gass. When the police came at one time to inquire after Elkeh Gass, Pes'sha argued that she knew nothing about her. She did not tell the truth, even when the police threatened her life and that of her child. However, Elkeh, who had hidden herself in a second room and heard the threats of the police, understood the seriousness of the words of the Nazis, and came out of her hiding place, and voluntarily surrendered herself to the police, who took her away and murdered her along with the other arrested victims of those days.

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The observations given to us by Yitzhak Tchopper are also interesting, that when they came to arrest Chaim Khvonyik, his wife Mal'yeh (daughter of Pelteh the Moditskeh) did not want to be parted from her husband, and of her own free will, she surrendered to the hands of the Nazis and they both went to their deaths.

When they came to arrest Shliv'keh (son-in-law of Avigdor Taran), he had a heart attack and died on the spot.

The news of the fate of the innocent two hundred Jewish victims disassembled the entire Volkovysk Jewish community like a clap of thunder. Everyone felt totally worthless in the hands of the enemy.

Shortly thereafter, Volkovysk was incorporated into East Prussia, and in this manner became part of the Third Reich. Zelva was the boundary city and beyond that were the ‘Eastern Lands,’ meaning the land of the enemy. The fact that Volkovysk was counted by the Germans as part of the Third Reich, served as a positive influence on the circumstances of the local Jews. Because, it just happens that in those days, terrifying tales began to reach Volkovysk about mass-pogroms against the Jews in surrounding towns and villages, which were a part of the Eastern Lands, such as Dereczin, Slonim, the towns in White Russia, Lithuania and the Ukraine. In Volkovysk, the situation of the Jews was on average quiet at that time. One can say, effectively, that for that entire year – after the tragedy of the initial arrests and the slaughter of the two hundred victims, apart from those victims that were lost to hunger and a variety of other reasons – there were no unusual occurrences. The yellow badges were worn, one walked on the edged of the bridge, and in the middle of the road, and not on the sidewalks, one performed hard, forced labor, one complied with all the insane decrees of the Nazis, and took comfort in the hope for redemption and liberation.

In that time, there were still a number of Jews who engaged in small business, and principally in barter, being fearful more than most of the Polish police. A coin was exchanged for bread. The very last that had been rescued from the destruction was given away for a crust of bread. The last valuable, the last garment, a pair of socks, a shirt – for a bite of bread. And in this fashion, a little at a time, the last traces of any Jewish assets passed over into the hands of the Christian neighbors, for food only. Every couple of weeks, the entire city would be shaken up by a Gestapo search. News of their arrival would spread with the greatest speed in the Jewish neighborhood, and then no Jew would dare to stick his head out onto the street. At that point, the Jews were no longer able to comply with the fantastic demands of the Gestapo, because all of their assets went up in smoke during the bombing, and the Gestapo continued to threaten them with death. When the Gestapo left the city, the Jews would recite the blessing of redemption from danger, and breathe a little more freely.

One still had freedom of movement, and it was possible to travel as far as Bialystok, understand however, only under very specific authorizations, which the leader of the city would sell for money, and in special wagons, which were marked: “For Poles Only.”

Specifically, these regulations were vulnerable to being overlooked for monetary bribes, which the Germans and the Polish police would demand from the Jews. These latter, would tear into the Jewish center, and take bribes for the smallest consideration. The Jews would fulfill their demands with the assistance of the finance committee that existed as part of the Judenrat, doing this with the single thought that they will thereby prolong the status quo for as long as possible, until the storm passes over.

And this is the way we lived – some better off, some worse. We lived, and we continued to want to live. We lived in fear and in anxiety, but always with the certainty and the hope for a better tomorrow.

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There was also no lack of many incidents in which Nazi sadism found its fullest expression. In this connection, Dr. Resnick, one of our witnesses, tells of the following incidents, which at that time, took place in Volkovysk under the German occupation. On the corner between the East Street and the Grodno Gasse, opposite Lisitsky's house, there was a destroyed Russian tank. One time, two German gendarmes walked by, and coincidentally so did Reb Leizer Shaliota (a familiar and important one of the balebatim of the city, who was also an erudite man). The Germans forced this old and weak man to climb up on the wrecked tank, and dance there for them. In addition, they then beat him vigorously and wounded him.

For a while, Dr. Resnick tells, the Germans would pass through the Jewish houses looking for books – Pentateuchs, Gemaras, Mishnayot and Prayer books – and finding them, they would burn them, and would then beat the Jews who owned these books mercilessly. Such incidents occurred to Lipiak the Tailor, Leibkeh Patsovsky the Barber, and his son, Yisroel'ik (the books were not even his, but rather belonged to the houses where they lived), along with many other balebatim.

The huge levies and payoffs that the Germans forced upon the Jews, on the one side, and the hard slave-labor without cease, from the second side, literally dried out the blood and marrow of the Jewish victims that remained alive. Want and poverty grew from day to day. The Polish auxiliary police prosecuted the German decrees upon the Jews with the utmost severity. Every day, searches were conducted in the Jewish houses, and what ever was found was confiscated.

We were compelled to work by day. Every day, the Judenrat received a list of workplaces where the Jews were compelled to present themselves for work. Hundreds of Jews were compelled to present themselves for the hardest labor: to clean off grass from the wrecked houses, to dig foxholes and other military work. The girls had to clean off the wrecked houses. Groups of hundreds of Jews would present themselves for work each day in Petroshovitsa, not far from the Volkovysk center. This was the location of the rest and bivouac camp of the German soldiers, who would return from the front.

The Germans paid no salary for this work. It was exactly the opposite, we thanked God that they gave us the work. This was the sole comfort, that so long as they had a need for Jewish labor, they will continue to let the Jews live. The Judenrat was responsible to the Germans for providing workers.

In that time, the Germans began to build the railroad line to the rear of Volkovysk. The Jewish workers of Volkovysk were at that time mostly occupied in doing primarily military work, and the Jewish girls – with cleaning. At that time, the Nazis demanded about one hundred thirty Jewish girls be sent from the Bialystoker Ghetto. When the Judenrat in Bialystok received the order to provide a specific number of Jewish girls for forced labor near Volkovysk, it had to resort to a dramatic tactic. The Jewish police of the Bialystoker Ghetto suddenly surrounded the local where crafts courses were taught, and assembled the required number of girls from the students and workers of the school. They sent the girls to Volkovysk. In Volkovysk, their circumstances actually were not bad at the beginning. Those of the girls who had either relatives or friends in the city itself, stayed with them. The rest lived in barracks.

When the conditions of the Jews of Volkovysk deteriorated and became increasingly worse, and the risk of death greater, the Bialystoker Judenrat wanted to bring the Bialystok girls back to their homes, but this was no simple thing to do, and the Bialystoker Judenrat was able to bring back only a small number. Later, most of them on the Second of November, were driven into the bunkers along with all the Jews of Volkovysk.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The place where cattle were slaughtered. Return
2. The German spelling, aktion, will be used to describe the specific attacks and roundups carried out by the Nazis against Jews. Return

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In the summer of 1942, when the situation was already very serious, when a firestorm of pogroms and mass-murders had broken out all around, and the Germans would spill Jewish blood like water – in Slonim, Baranovich, Lida and in many other surrounding cities and towns (in Dereczin alone, three thousand people were burned on that Tisha B'Av)^[1] – on average, in Volkovysk the conditions were quiet. Despite this, a portion of the young people in Volkovysk grasped very well how serious the circumstances were, and independently took stock of the approaching danger.

It was decided to mount a strong resistance to any attack, whenever it comes. Work was done in secret, and the young people were organized and made ready for the approaching danger, which could already be felt blowing in the wind. There was success in establishing contact with a larger Russian partisan group, which was found in the Zamkov Forest, not far from Volkovysk. These partisans were all former soldiers from the Russian Army, who had concealed themselves in the forests in order not to fall into the hands of the enemy.

There were even a number of Jews among them. The partisans were very active in the Volkovysk area, and despite the fact that they consisted only of a small group, they shook up the entire vicinity with their terrorist attacks. They had a variety of weaponry in their possession, and a large store of food. From their standpoint, they conducted sabotage throughout the entire area. However, in order not to be captured by the enemy, they could not stay in one place for an extended period of time. They would carry out one of their tasks, and then flee to a different area, and from there, start anew with their work of disruption. Their objective was, wherever possible, to disrupt the communications of the Nazi Army.

The Partisan-Group was divided into two parts: One part was concerned with carrying out acts of terror. Not a day went by without some kind of an incident: here, they would blow up a rail line, here they would blow up a bridge, fall upon German aircraft, and carried out all manner of sabotage. By the amount of trouble that they caused in the area, the Germans thought that and entire army was active in the area, and not a small group of partisans. It came to the point, where the Germans needed to deploy peasants with sticks along the entire length of the rail line. However, even this didn't help. In the morning, the Germans would find the dead bodies of the peasants, strewn across the entire area, and the rail line blown up.

The Second Part of the partisans was dedicated to looking after food procurement, and consisted of a smaller group of people. They would come to the peasants in the night, and force them to turn over food.

Because the youth of Volkovysk succeeded in establishing contact with the neighboring partisan group, they also became very active, and played no small role in the above-mentioned activities of the partisans. The first ones to join up with the partisans were Sarah Rubin and her brother-in-law, who were active for the entire period. Many young Jewish people from Volkovysk actively joined the partisans in the forests, and the entire

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group grew significantly. Those who were not active in the terror-acts, cooperated very diligently in providing the partisans with all the necessary materials from the city, beginning with medical supplies, and ending with all manner of explosives. Among the most active and most committed in this undertaking were Bom Zuckerman and a Son of Lemkin the Smith, and others.

Once, on a dark and rainy night, an unfamiliar man came to Zvi Roitman, one of our witnesses, who was an electrical technician in the meat processing plant, and said to him, that he is an emissary from the partisans, who have a camp in the Zamkov Forest, not far from the city. The man requested that he come to the partisan camp, in order to repair his radio equipment, through which they were receiving their secret orders from the higher command in the Russian Army.

Roitman, who had for a long time wished to come into direct contact with the partisans, took up the request with elation in his heart, because of the opportunity to take a part in a campaign by an authentic partisan-group. He went into the forest with this unfamiliar man, not paying attention to the great risk that this undertaking entailed, in the event that the Nazis were to pick up even the slightest trace of this activity. The unfamiliar man conducted him from one secret post to the next, until the last secret watch post brought him to the Zamkov Forest, where he found himself in the camp of the partisans.

In that alone, he was already at risk of being put to death, because according to law, the Germans demanded that all Jews be shot on the spot if they were found outside of the boundaries of the city, and it goes without saying, for being in the forest. There, even non-Jews were forbidden to enter. The reason was, that the Germans believed that anyone that they found in the forest or its environs was a partisan, and they would shoot him on the spot. He arrived safely at the appointed place, where a watch detail of partisans waited for him. Roitman met a sympathetic young Russian there, with a light machine gun in his hands. He identified himself, and the latter escorted him deep into the forest, to the [partisan] group.

It took about an hour to get there, and went through many paths and by-ways. Coming upon many watch posts, he finally arrived at a well-appointed place, between heavy, low trees. There were a number of tents pitched on the spot, and in the middle, a fire flickered, and a happy group of Russian soldiers were carrying on a warm and lively conversation.

Roitman tells that he suddenly felt as if he were in a completely different world. The impression that unfolded before him, exceeded his wildest imagination and ideas that he had at one time conceptualized about the partisans. He was thoroughly taken by the sense of security, energy, and suffusing silence.

Shortly after he arrived, he made the acquaintance of the commander, a handsome young man with the rank of Lieutenant. His name was Grisha. He showed Roitman the radio equipment and asked him to repair it, because it had already been several days since they had any news from Moscow, and this cut them off completely from the outside world.

It took Roitman several hours, but the radio was restored to function. Everyone was very happy about this. The day was still long, and Roitman had finished his work, and because of this, he also had an opportunity to have a thorough discussion and to become more closely acquainted with the partisans and their work.

He became so inspired by the life of the partisans, that he no longer wished to return to the city. But this was not a question of personal preference. The partisans advised him to return to the city and to work with the Volkovysk group, whose mission was to organize the Jewish youth, to muster them to the extent possible, and

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to transfer the more capable ones among them to the forest. Apart from this, it was necessary to organize all of the young people in the city, in the event of a German aktion against the Jews, that they be able to put up a credible resistance. At the same time, the partisan group assumed the obligation to help the Jews of the city.

He left the partisans escorted by a sentry, and now, first late at night, re-entered the city. It was specifically deep in the forest, in the territory of the partisans, that he first felt a little bit of security, because in there, even a German soldier would fear to tread.

After his first visit to the partisans, Roitman became very active in the city. Thanks to his work in the machine division of the slaughterhouse, where he worked for the Nazis, he was able to provide the partisans with a variety of things that they needed. Roitman was the overseer of the electrical generating machinery in the factory. All the tools and keys to the entire technical equipment were under his control. At the command of his director, he would have to travel to the warehouse, and pick out all the required instruments and parts from there for the factory. You can understand, that at every such opportunity, together with the parts for the factory, he would provision himself with all those parts that the partisans required as well, for example, radio parts, pliers, electrical parts, oil, Vaseline, and many other necessities. He would bring all of these materials to the factory, and later, have them sent further on. He would often turn this over into the hands of Sarah Rubin, and she would take them to the right address.

In the meantime, the situation in the city grew continually worse. The slaughter in the surrounding towns continued without abatement. However, the Nazis in Volkovysk were seemingly not in any hurry to undertake the complete extermination of that local Jewish community. It was exactly the opposite: in their sadistic manner, they waged a war of nerves with the hapless Jews, in order to squeeze out their last bit of life, and keep them in a state of perpetual fear and anxiety.

Yet even in those days, there were many human victims in Volkovysk. The Germans took themselves to the handicapped children, the abnormal, the blind, the deaf and the crippled. At that time, approximately forty handicapped children were taken away from their parents. It was in this manner, tells Ida Mazover one of our witnesses, that the only crippled child of Mazkovsky the Photographer was taken away, paying no heed to the screams and weeping of the hapless mother, to whom the handicapped child represented everything that she ever had.

It is fitting to document here, the repulsive role and cooperation, that the Jewish Auxiliary Police of the Judenrat gave to the Germans in the execution of each new decree. They knew where the handicapped children were to be found, and they would enter the Jewish homes and forcibly tear the handicapped children away from their hapless parents. Among the others who were taken away at that time from their parents were: the blind daughter of Kleinbaum, a grandson of Duner (they lived at Galiatsky's), a child of Isaac Walitsky (the Shoemaker), Leibeh Yudzhik (Velvel the Gardener's son), and others.

At that time, Yitzhak Tchopper tells us, once twenty arrested Jews were brought from Berestovitz to Volkovysk, among them also being Shlomo Mandelbaum (the bank director). The charge against them was that

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they had cooperated with the Partisan-Groups in the Volkovysk vicinity. A Jew informed against them, and was brought together with them to jail. Dr. Weinberg, in the name of the Judenrat stood to defend the arrested Jews, and they were all released under the caveat that if their presence was required, the Judenrat would be responsible to produce them.

All twenty Jews were immediately sent back to Berestovitz. By contrast, the Judenrat kept custody of the Jewish informer in the jail, which was located in the yard of the Judenrat on the Neuer Gessel. At night, Dr. Weinberg came to the jail with a Jewish policeman. The informer was killed for giving out this information about the twenty Jews. Yitzhak Tchopper's father was immediately summoned, who was then the administrator for the cemetery and the Khevra Kadisha, in order that the body be interred. The body was taken that night in a wagon provided by the Judenrat and nobody knew about the incident.

In the meantime, the acts of sabotage by the partisans made themselves increasingly felt in the Volkovysk vicinity, and in order to locate their base of operation, the Germans strengthened their spy net.

In the middle of this, Roitman was again called yet another time to repair the radio equipment of the partisans as quickly as possible. He was once again taken into the depths of the forest, where the partisans had their headquarters. He did his work, and was immediately taken back by an escort to the edge of the forest, from where he went back to the city by himself. When he reached the city, it was already 5PM. One of his co-workers at the slaughterhouse told him that the police had inquired about him.

At that time, the Germans already had a number of spies among the partisans. It was in this way that a gentile from Rosh, had told the German command about the technician who repaired the radio equipment of the partisans. That same gentile was once designated by the partisans to be the scout for three Russian officers. He later turned over these officers into the hands of the Gestapo, who shot them immediately.

In that time, Katriel Lashowitz, another witness, tells of one of the acts of sabotage by the partisan group near Volkovysk when they blew up a taxi that carried a number of Germans, and a young partisan was wounded. The partisans had no first aid, and because of this, Lashowitz went into the city and described the situation to Dr. Berel Velvelsky (a former doctor of the Maccabi), asking him to treat the wounded partisan. Dr. Velvelsky, though, sent him to Dr. Weinberg, the chairman of the Judenrat who refused to send another doctor, and went himself to treat the wounded partisan.

The Nazis, however, later found the bandaged partisan in the forest. They saw that this was a doctor's handiwork, and they tortured the partisan in a frightening manner, in order to force him to reveal which doctor bandaged his wounds. But the young hero died from the torture and did not betray the doctor who treated him. Seeing that this incident occurred not far from Volkovysk, the Nazis, understandably, suspected the Jewish doctors of Volkovysk.

Since the Germans were unable to find the principal hideaway of the partisans, they sent out spies, and detained all former Russian soldiers who were very likely inclined to find an opportunity to join up with the partisans. After these detained Russian soldiers became cognizant of the exact place where the partisans were, they went and described this to the German command. This also happened with a group near Volkovysk. Two bribed Ukrainians went into the Zamkov Forest and there they ran into a sentry watch of two partisans. They befriended them, and expressed their wish, as former Russian soldiers, to join the partisan group. At this occasion, they also drank with the two partisan sentries, got them drunk, and extracted from them all of the particulars and details in which they were interested. The partisans also told the Ukrainians about the fact that

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a Jewish doctor that had given help to a wounded partisan, and that a Jewish technician had a number of times repaired the radio equipment that belonged to them. The Ukrainians immediately returned to the city, and told everything that they had found out. Also the gentile provocateur from Rosh had already described the above-mentioned incidents about the doctor and the technician to the Gestapo.

An complete detachment of SS troops, led by the Ukrainians, and with the help of tracking dogs, made a concerted effort to find the hideout of the partisan group. To the good fortune of the latter, who sensed the danger in time, the SS troops were greeted with heavy fire from the partisans. But the Germans had superior forces, and at the last moment, the partisans had to break through the ranks of the SS troops and flee into the depths of the forest. You can appreciate that they had to abandon a significant amount of goods and instruments, which the Germans examined during the following investigation.

Translator's footnote:

1. See The Dereczin Memorial Book, where this atrocity is documented in detail. Return

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