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[Page 550]
by Pnina Chayat nee Potashnik of Holon
Translated Jerrold Landau based on an earlier translation by M. Porat z”l
| “It is appropriate to shed tears for them like a torrential river without stopping, for the victims of the Children of Israel and the nation of G-d.” |
| (A sermon from Mahara'ch) |
The Germans met no resistance when they entered Volozhin, because the Soviets left the city while there was still time. The Germans parachuted in not far from our house. They were followed by the armed forces, which shook up the city. Airplanes dropped firebombs, and fires broke out.
We were immediately forced to engage in forced labor. The Judenrat was in charge of carrying out that decree. The principal workplaces were the sawmills of Rappaport and Polak. The women worked at cleaning the Gestapo residences. We walked to work in groups, equipped with a special permit. During work, they would start thrashing us with whips.
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After that, the edict was issues that every Jew must wear the yellow patch on their sleeves. With time, the patched changed to a yellow Star of David, with the word Jude printed on it. We were forbidden from walking on the sidewalks. An edict of confinement was also issued, through which the Jews were confined to their dwellings.
The tribulations increased after the Jews were confined in the ghetto. After about two months, they suddenly brought the Jews of the Olshan Ghetto to us along with their rabbi, Rabbi Reuven Chadash. The crowding increased greatly after they came, and the sources of food grew scarcer. We looked for various ways to bring food to the starving Jews in the ghetto, even though this was fraught with mortal danger.
From time to time, the murderers attacked the ghetto. On Kol Nidre night, the Gestapo men appeared in our house and demanded money and valuables. This demand was accompanied by cruel blows. From our house they went to the Weisbord and Brodna families.
I worked with my friend Batya Rogovin. Once, as we were walking along the length of the road, Polish police officers and Gestapo men attacked us, and thrashed us with whips. A great deal of blood flowed from Batya's nose from the beating. Her face became pale from the beating.
On 7 Cheshvan 5702 (October 28th1841), Gestapo men appeared in the ghetto and ordered the Judenrat to assemble all the Jews on the main street of the ghetto. The Jewish police officers went from house to house to ask the Jews to fulfil the edict. Since I was working in the police, I was exempt from the duty to appear. They chose two hundred people from among those gathered, including Yaakov (Yani) Garber, the head of the Judenrat, and the Jewish police officers. We knew that a day previously, they had dug pits. Those being taken to death were locked in barracks, and were taken out in groups of ten to be killed. The Jews were surprised and asked the murderers: Why are you not taking them all out at once? They responded in innocence that they are taking the belongings from the Jews, since they are commanded to do a “precise registration.” Therefore the “activity” is being carried out slowly.
My school friend Tzvia Lunin was among those being taken to death. She survived because of the German “precision.” They worked by “quotas,” and since Tzvia was beyond the “quota,” they returned her to the ghetto.
The area of the ghetto was reduced after this aktion. Shneur Kivilevich was chosen as the head of the Judenrat. Worrying rumors reached us that the Germans were preparing a new slaughter. Rivka Drotvitski played a significant role in transmitting this news, since her Christian husband was friendly to the Jews. He would come and go among the Germans, and knew their plans. Many people were saved thanks to this information.
Early in the morning of Sunday, 23 Iyar 5702 (May 10t, 1942), Shneur Kivilevich came to our house and informed us that the situation was very serious. The ghetto was surrounded, and we had to go immediately to our hiding places. The Germans began a siege of the ghetto. They searched for Jews even in hiding places, and paid attention to any rustle or whisper. They found a woman from Olshan in a certain cellar. They promised her that if she reveals the hiding places
[Page 552]
of the Jews, they would keep her alive. However, she refused this degrading offer out of disgust, and died a martyr's death.
Danger awaited us with every step. My brother Yehuda Yosef, Asher Perski, his son, and I, decided to escape from the ghetto. There was a river near the ghetto. We crossed it under a volley of bullets, and continued to run. We hid in a grove. The gentiles chased after us, and we heard their voices. I went to the Horodok Ghetto. My brother went to Lebedovo, and Asher Perski and his son when the Zabrezhe. When I arrived there, I found the Jews shaken up and frightened, for they had heard that a slaughter had taken place in Volozhin.
I remained in the Horodok Ghetto for several days. I received encouraging news that they were setting up the Volozhin ghetto once again. The Germans promised the surviving Jews that no evil would befall them. I saw that the ghetto had been made significantly smaller, for only a few had survived. I worked in the “guild” of carpenters. My supervisor was a Pole named Jezierski. Several Jewish girls worked along with me, among them Miriam Kagan and Rachel from Miejiki.
Once, before we returned to the ghetto, we saw that the Germans were surrounding the ghetto. The Jews broke through the gate and began to escape. When we saw this atrocity, we removed our Magen Davids and searched for a place to save ourselves. The Germans shot at us, and ten girls were killed. Only Miriam Kagan and I succeeded in reaching the field. We hid among the paths. At night, we set out in the direction of the village of Miejiki.
After much wandering and meandering, we reached the village of Kolodiki. We entered one house and requested mercy from a gentile, to give us a morsel of bread, for we were swollen from starvation. This was a family of poor people. Nevertheless, they filled us to satiety. We wound our way to the village, and approached a house. I told Miriam that we were in any case doomed, and there is nothing to lose – let us knock on the door, and what will happen will happen. A gentile answered. He brought us into the barn and closed us in.
After two hours of strong heart palpitations and nervous waiting – the gentile came to us and invited us into his house. There entire house was only one room. It had two large beds, a broken table, and an oven. A righteous gentile lived there, Ivan Kowalski and his wife, three daughters, and two sons. This impoverished family received us with a pleasant face and unusual warmth when they saw our unfortunate appearance. They all burst out in bitter weeping. We warmed our frozen bodies and ate warm food. After that, Kowalski returned us othe barn, and provide us with a warm blanket. This was on Saturday night, 5 Kislev, 5702 (December 14, 1942). In the morning, one of Kowalski's daughters brought us food.
We were happy, and we also saved some food for the journey, for we were sure that Kowalski would send us away. He came to us in the afternoon. When he saw the left-over food, he asked us the reason. We answered him: “We are sure that you will not want to hide Jewish girls with you, for you are endangering your life. Therefore, we have decided to continue along our way.” Kowalski was saddened by our response and said to us: “Dear girls
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my family and I have decided to keep you with us. Your fate is our fate, and our house is your house.”
The winter was in full force. It was extremely cold in the barn. Kowalski, the good benefactor, brought us into his house and hid us on top of the oven, where there was stifling heat, so we could “get some air.” Kowalski would bring us down to the potato pit for several hours. His children also concerned themselves with us. At times of danger, they would gesture to us with special signs.
Once, the Germans surrounded the village of Krazhina, which was about four hundred meters from us. They brought all the residents into a barn, poured kerosine on it, and burnt it along with everyone inside. It seemed that partisans were ambushing Germans near that village, and they had killed some of them. The partisans retreated through the village of Krazhina. Therefore, the residents of the village received their “punishment.” Even though Kowalski knew that he was liable to such a bitter fate, he nevertheless did not turn us away. On the contrary, he calmed us as a good, merciful father.
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However, it was a prophesy of the heart that it was dangerous to remain in that house. The partisans were operating in the area, and battles broke out between the Germans and them from time to time. Kowalski and his wife pleaded with us to not leave their house. Nevertheless, we decided to set out on the way. Kowalski, who concerned himself with our lives, scouted out several villages in order to discover the paths of the partisans. Indeed, he brought us to them.
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However, they behaved in a hostile fashion to us, because they suspected that we had come on a mission from the German scouting corps. Thy conducted a quick field trial and sentenced us to death. When the verdict was about to be carried out, a partisan from the village of Krazhina approached us and asked us who we were and from where we came. When I told him my name, he told me that my brother Yehuda Yosef was in a group of partisans. The partisan informed the commander that I am the sister of a very active partisan. Thus, the verdict was nullified.
The partisans transferred Mariasha Kagan and me to Baksht, where there was a large concentration of partisans. My brother took me to the Lidioyev Otriad, which was located west of Nolibok. After a few days, the Germans surrounded the entire area. We hid in pits and other hiding places. When the Germans left the area, we gathered in a remote area in the wilderness of Nolibok. We set up a winter camp, where we remained until the liberation of Volozhin.
After the liberation, we returned to the city. I immediately set out to visit Kowalski. Our connection was once again forged. He visited me daily. His son and daughter, who worked in Volozhin, lived with me.
In the year 5705 (1945), I left Volozhin and moved to Poland. In the year 5707 (1947), I made aliya to the Land. I constantly wrote letters to Kowalski, but did not receive a response. In the year 5625 (1966), I received his address. It became clear that he and his family were living in Ural. I immediately sent him a package of clothing. He confirmed receipt of the package with thanks and enthusiasm.
From that time, I have remained in constant correspondence with him, and I continue to send gifts to him and his family, as a token of thanks for saving us from death.
Note by M. Porat about the preceding chapter:Pnina Hayat, Born in Volozhin (as Peshka Potashnik), deceased in Israel 1974, VIB photo: p. 588, (seated, 1st, on right). Potashnik Menahem Mendl, Rabbi, Pnina's brother, born in Volozhin, Volozhin Yizkor Book committee member in USA., VIB Picture: p. 661. Potashnik Yehuda Yosef, Pnina's brother, born in Volozhin 1905, deceased in Israel 1965. - VIB Photo: p. 36 counted from left. I remember: Peshka and Mendl Potashnik were employed at our family business (Grind & sawmill) in Volozhin before the war.
Fruma Lifshits (Gafanovich) United States
Translated by Jerrold Landau incorporating extracts originally translated by M. Porat z”l
Before the entry of the Soviets, I served as principal of the religious Chorev School in Ivenets, near Volozhin. After the entry of the Soviets, I returned to Volozhin, where I had lived with my husband Yaakov Lifshits from the year 5691 (1931), in order to teach at the Hebrew school that had turned into a Yiddish school, so to speak according to the “demands” of the parents at a general meeting.
In the year 1940-41, that school turned into Russian School Number 1; the Polish school turned into a Byelorussian School; and the Polish Gymnasja into a Russian Gymnasium [high school]. All the students who had previously studied at the Jewish school remained there. The teachers who taught previously continued in their work, among them Rachel Kivilevich, Rachel Lop Avraham Yafa, and Shlomo Biekalski. Several teachers from Russia were added,
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as well as a Communist principal, a Jewess named Sara Azbel. (Noach Perski left teaching, as he refused to teach under the Communist regime.)
The Jewish teachers were treated with lack of trust. They were hired because there was no choice, either because of their high pedagogic level or because of a dearth of teachers. A teachers' seminary was also founded, in which Yaakov taught mathematics and physics.
We did lack food. Aside from the stockpiles that everyone prepared before and after the entry of the Soviets, it was possible to obtain everything from the “black market.” Our tribulations were primarily spiritual tribulations. We were afraid to utter a word within the walls of the school. We were forced to conduct publicity that was foreign to our spirit, foreign to the Zionist spirit and to the Hebrew language in which we had been educated. I recall a celebration in honor of the civil New Year. We gathered in the home of Shneur and Rachel Kivilevich, to celebrate, so to speak, the advent of the new year. However, due to our custom through the year, the Hatikvah song and other Hebrew songs emanated from our mouths.
Each of us prepared sacks in case the N.K.V.D. would come to exile us to Siberia – so that we would be able to quickly place necessities into them. We were listed in the “blacklist” of those designated for exile. People were exiled in accordance with an order. First, they exiled the factory owners (they were slandered for having helped the Poles).
I sent my daughters Chayale and Shoshanale, who were born in Volozhin, to a summer vacation with my parents in Radoshkovich, while my husband and I prepared for our entrance exams to the university that the Soviets had set up in Grodno – I in languages and my husband in mathematics and physics. However, our plans were for naught, for the Germans attacked the Soviets. As they invaded the Russian area, a panicked escape by vehicle or on foot of the Soviet citizens from the areas of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviets ensued.
We lived with Leibe Berman. We left everything at home. We took only two bags, in which was packed diplomas and permits of the oversight office of the schools, as well as some flour and water for are daughters. We escaped to Radoshkovich on foot. We walked all night. My husband became completely exhausted and remained near the town. I entered the town myself and met my father. My mother, sister, brother, and daughters had escaped to the village of Udranka, which had served as a recuperation center during normal times. The town was crowded with an influx of refugees from Lithuania and Poland. Fires broke out. I succeeded in removing some clothes from our burning house.
In the meantime, my husband regained his strength and came to Radoshkovich. We went together to my family members in Udranka. Along the way, we encountered many German paratroopers, but they did not treat us badly. We returned with my family to Radoshkovich, which for the most part had turned into a heap of ruins. We decided to move to Horodok where my eldest sister Cheina lived.
As I have stated, we went out on the journey with empty hands. We required clothes to be used as barter for necessary food provisions. A certain Christian agreed to travel with me to the Volozhin Ghetto, on the condition
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that I pay him for his effort with furniture, clothing, and other belongings. I lay down in the wagon, dressed in gentle woman's clothing (according to my husband, I was to be taken to the hospital in Volozhin). I reached the village of Miejiki in peace. I went to a Jewish woman who was married to a gentile in order to obtain directions as to how to get to Volozhin, and how I could enter the ghetto, which was under heavy guard. In accordance with her directives, I went to Pinchas the smith, whose smithy was located outside the ghetto. Through his good advice, I succeeded in sneaking into the ghetto without anyone knowing.
The family of my aunt (the Berkovich family[1]) lived in the house of their daughter-in-law Sonia Dubinski, the wife of their son Yaakov. When they saw me, they were astonished, because a rumor spread that they had killed my husband and me. I quickly took what I could and left the ghetto. It was necessary for me to return to Horodok before dark. The bag that I had brought with me was small. In exchange for it, I received bread and potatoes. We also salvaged the potato peels and fried them into “meatballs.”
Winter was approaching and I had to concern myself with warm clothing for my family. The Christian who brought me to the ghetto offered his services once again. However, he preferred to travel himself, due to the danger of travelling with a Jewish woman, even if she was dressed as a gentile, He entered the ghetto and took several belongings. The guards chased after him, but he succeeded in escaping from them.
The survivors of Maladechno and Volozhin reached us. The Germans did not liquidate the ghettoes immediately. There was a railroad junction from Poland to Russia in Krasno, and the Germans required workers. They drafted the Jews of the ghetto for work. There was also a small concentration camp in Krasno, in which the Jews imprisoned there worked for Tod Organizatzion (a brigade of German soldiers and captains whose job was to supervise the building of bridges and the laying of railway tracks), and in repairing roads and railway tracks. Jews from Volozhin, Lida, Mir, Novogrudek, Horodok, and other places were sent there. Several groups were sent from Horodok, including my husband. I parted to him with the following words: “My fate and the fate of our daughters is already sealed, but you will survive since you are a useful Jew.” (That is what the Jews believed in their naivety).
Every Sunday, several of the workers from Horodok were permitted to come and obtain food. In that manner, we also sent food from Volozhin for the Volozhiners in the camp. My six-year-old daughter became ill with scurvy, a serious gum disease. Mr. Ratzkin, the chairman of the Judenrat, with whose family I lived in the ghetto, had mercy and sent a different “number” instead of my husband (every worker was considered to be a number and not a person). He came to me on the Sabbath, and he had to return on Sunday. However, the bitter end came on that Sabbath, 26 Tammuz 5702 (July 11, 1942). The ghetto was surrounded all night by the Germans. The Jews did not sense the impending danger, and they slept their last sleep, as the sleep of the just.
The Gestapo men accompanied by police officered entered early in the morning to remove the Jews from their houses. Five people lived in our house. It had three hiding places. The hiding place in which I hid with
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my daughters was discovered by the local police after the aktion. Mr. Ratzkin, who was elderly, could not bear the stifling air in the hiding place and was forced to leave it. This led to a search for all those hiding n it. They shot and killed my husband. The murderers brought all the Jews to a yard and conducted a selektion. Those fit for work were transferred to Krasno, whereas the elderly, handicapped, and children were sent to death. Fruma, the mother of Tzvia Tzart, was among those taken to death. The Germans beat her until she bled, for she could barely stand up and was unable to walk. They brought them all into a threshing floor behind the town and shot them.[2]
As I noted above, there was a ghetto and concentration camp in Krasno. My older sister Chenya with her brother-in-law and oldest son lived in the camp. My younger sister and I lived in the ghetto. I met Volozhiners there, including Yosef Tabachovich (he served as a work supervisor) with his wife Beilka (nee Shaker). The Volozhiners lived with them in the barn. I took Tzvia Tzart with me on the plank. I took care of her along with my sister. There was no possibility at all to take care of minimal hygienic conditions, so a typhus epidemic broke out. My sister, Tzvia, and I were placed in the hospital that opened in one of the houses outside the ghetto. We “merited” the visit of a doctor. He was a Gestapo man, and with the wave of his baton, he determined that so-and-so was already fit to be sent to the “bathhouse.” I was very weak due to malnutrition. My father risked his life, making his way from the ghetto through fields to the camp, to bring me a bit of grain to strengthen my weak body a bit. We were brought to the “bathhouse.” The Germans looked at our emaciated bodies, but we somehow maintained our stand, and our fate was not sealed. From time to time, the Gestapo captain visited the camp. He did not leave the place without seeing Jewish blood. On one of his visits, a Jew who had been returned to the hospital appeared before him. We he saw this Jew, he did not hesitate at all – he shot him. If my memory is correct, Yosef Mordchovich was shot to death on one of those visits.
Thanks to the “special status” I earned in the Krasno Ghetto, I was freed from work, and I dedicated my free time to search for food for those who were starving. My strength of spirit urged me to leave the ghetto without any fear. The first time I went out, I went with my brother-in-law and Esther Rogovin from Horodok (she and her brother live in Israel). We reached a village, collected several loaves of bread, and returned in peace. The three of us left a second time as well. That night, group of partisans attacked a police unit, and a battle broke out between them. All of the police officers were killed in that battle except for one who was injured and succeeded in reaching the village.
Even though my brother-in-law knew all the paths, we still got lost and ended up in a grove. From afar, we saw guards who were wearing the clothes of the killed police officers. We did not notice the red band on their sleeves, and thought that they were German guards. To our pleasant surprise, this was a group of partisans. They asked us to remain, but we preferred to return to the ghetto. I told the Volozhiners that there is a partisan unit in the vicinity who are willing to accept Jews. We searched for ways to obtain weapons, for it was impossible to be accepted to the partisans without weapons.
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With unusual dedication, many people removed ammunition parts from the ammunition storage depot and hid them in secret places while they waited for hour zero – the hour of escape to the partisans.
One night, the Volozhiners decided to cross the railway tracks and join the partisans. Even before that, Hershel Lunin, and Chaim Perski (Nisan's son) left the camp. The typhus illness that sapped my strength prevented me from joining them. But I got a bit stronger, and we – my brother-in-law, I, and several other Jews – decided to escape and search for contact with the partisans. It was not easy to remove the two hunting guns that I had hidden near the camp. Risking my life, I went to the camp from the ghetto, and I helped three men leave the camp at night with weapons in their hands. They reached the nearby village in peace, and immediately informed me of their wellbeing via a farmer. Without wasting time, I left the camp the next day after work with two other Jews. We walked with Christians who also worked with Germans – for a fee of course. We equipped ourselves with various work tools, as if we were leaving work along with the Christians. Suddenly, shots were heard. We thought that they were directed at us. However, it became clear that the Germans were shooting Soviet prisoners who had escaped to the forests.
During the shooting, we approached the farmer's towing wagon. He loaded us aboard, took us away from the danger, and gave us directions to the partisans. We arrived at a village where we met the three Jews who had gone out previously. The partisans had not been seen on the horizon for ten days. News came that the Germans were about to arrive at the village in their pursuit of the partisans. We escaped to a nearby grove and waited until evening. At night, we left and came to another village, but there too we did not meet partisans. We finally succeeded in reaching them. We already had a horse, some clothing, some weapons, and some food. This made it easier for us to join the partisans. They brought us to a village that was full of partisans, including the Nakem Veshilem [Revenge and Payback] Brigade, whose aim was to cross to the side of Minsk. A difficult battle had taken place with the Germans on the evening before our arrival. They were very vigilant since they suspected a new attack by the Germans.
There was a strong guard of partisans surrounding the forest. They refused to accept us and ordered us to leave the area. They agreed to accept us thanks to the intervention of Eliezer Rogovin who served as a scout. We met several Volozhiners in the forest, including Feigele Perski, Hershel Rogovin, and Yeshayahu Liberman. All of them made efforts on our behalf, even though it took great energy.
At night, Pasha (Pesia), Simcha Perski's wife, arrived. She worked in the next village, disguised as a Christian. A new group was formed from us and several Soviet prisoners. It was named for the commander Staritski, and was part of the Tshkalov Brigade. After a few months, I moved from the Staritski group to the workshop for repair of weapons. I worked there until the liberation in July 1944. At times, there were battles between the partisans and the Germans. The fiercest attack of the Germans against the partisans took place in July 1943. At that time, there were already large brigades of partisans, from which the Germans suffered significant blows. To fight against the partisans, the Germans organized the Vlasovs,
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an army of hooligans named for their commander Vlasov – a Russian traitor. There were Russians, Byelorussians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Cossacks, and other murderers in that army. Their first deed was to liquidate the villages near the forests. The fate of those villagers was no different than the fate of the Jews. Many of them escaped to the forests. The Germans rained heavy fire upon the partisans to annihilate them. The partisans were forced to disperse and wander from place to place. My brother-in-law, Pesia Potashnik, Kopel Kagan, and I succeeded – literally in front of the eyes of the Germans – in arriving at a refuge next to the Staritski camp. We hid there. Fate was good to us, and we obtained a bit of flour, beans, dishes, and clothes. We squeezed water out of the mud near the refuge. We mixed it with the flour and consumed “the food of kings.”
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Every day, we awaited a major attack from the Vlasov troops. However, to our good fortune, the attacked at the front and not at the rear. They liquidated many partisan groups near the city of Smolensk. The time of the major attack of the Soviets arrived. The Germans escaped to the forests and fell into our hands. However, in accordance with the command of Stalin, we were forced to keep them as prisoners, rather than to liquidate them. I participated in a march in Minsk, and then I separated from my group and returned to Volozhin via Krasno and Horodok. I lived together with Pesia Potashnik and her brothers Yehuda and Yosef.
I decided to escape from Volozhin, for every stone there was saturated with the blood of our dear ones. I was recommended
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to teach in the Byelorussian school, but I refused to teach children who assisted the Germans in their murderous deeds. I decided to move to Poland. I wandered through various cities and towns for a period of time until they permitted me to cross the border. I reached Biał ystok, but I could not remain there because the A.K. (Armja Krajowa) ambushed Jews. We (four people) set out from Biał ystok in the direction of the city of Lublin. A group began to form, through the means of which we arrived in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania.
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Yosef Schwartzberg in the Heinering camp in Germany on 23 Iyar 5707 (May 13, 1947) Sitting (from right to left): a) Michael Polak, b) Binyamin Polak, c) Kopel Kagan, d) Yosef Schwartzberg (reading from the paper about the Holocaust), e) Shmuel Kagan |
The Second World War ended in May 1945. We did not want to remain under Soviet occupation. We arrived in Austria in groups. Some went in the direction of the city of Graz, and others went to Vienna. After a few days, we moved on to Italy, which was under British-American occupation. They transferred us to Hachshara in a village near Bari. We prepared for aliya to the Land of Israel. However, the Mandate government refused to give certificates. The illegal immigration began. We met with soldiers of the Jewish Brigade and Jews who served in British units. They sent a boat to the shores of the Land of Israel. I arrived in the Land of Israel in September 1945 with a group of 170 survivors of the sword.[3]
Translator's Footnotes
Translator's note: (as Fruma told me the evening I wrote it) In this barn together with the 900 (nine hundred) Jews of Horodok Fruma Lifshits's mother surrounded by her five grand children also found their tragic fate, among them Shoshanele and Hayele Lifshits.
Yakov had been shot by one of their gentile neighbors in Horodok. Fruma witnessed her husband's death and saw the bestial murderers throwing away his body.
Lifshits children: Both were born in Volozhin, Shoshanele on July 7, 1933; Hayele on April 24, 1936. Both of them were shot and burnt in Horodok on July 9, 1942.
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This memorial tombstone was erected in the nineteen nineties near the site where 900 Horodok Jews were slaughtered. The plate on the left side (written in Hebrew) is dedicated to Yakov Lifshits and to his daughters Shoshanele and Hayele.
We found in “PAMYAT' ”– “MEMORY” (published by the Volozhin Region Authorities, 1996), page 272, a German-SS officer reporting to his headquarters:
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General Commissar Office of the Minsk City
Department No 1 – PoliticsTranslated from German to Russian language,
The City of Minsk, May 31st 1943.To the head of Department No 1: I'm reporting to your knowledge about the events as follows. Dr. Valkovitsh, head of the Belarus Self-Help Organization notified me that on May 27th 14:00 Ukrainian units of the SS gathered all the inhabitants of Krivsk hamlet into two houses. They set fire the houses. The gathered people were burned to death. A similar event took place in Krazhino on May 21st. Both hamlets are positioned in the Volozhin region of the Vileyka district. Signed: Langer
by Sonia Puter (Perski)
Translated by Jerrold Landau
The Germans entered Volozhin suddenly. Several German airplanes appeared in the sky. Their appearance aroused a tumult, and everyone dispersed to their homes. During the first weeks after their entry, the Germans took several Jews, including my aunt Chasia (Chasha) Leahke Gordon, imprisoned them in barracks, and killed them.
At first the murders were “small.” The Germans were not interested in taking the Jews out immediately to be killed, because they wished to use them for work. The Soviets had burnt the marketplace during their retreat, and heaps of debris were piled up. We had to seal the pits and cellars in these ruins. Similarly, we had to uproot the weeds that grew among the clumps of rock. We worked from morning until night under the supervision of cruel guards who whipped us with the whips in their hands. The Germans imposed a strict blackout. At nightfall, they imprisoned us in the houses, and we were forbidden to go out. It was terribly suffocating inside because we covered the windows with thick blankets so that the light would not be seen from the outside.
I lived in the ghetto with my aunt Chaya Gita and uncle Hertzl Dubinski, my aunt Liba and uncle Dolgov, my grandmother Etl Perski, and the family of Avraham Berkowitz. My uncle Shalom Gordon and his children lived in the adjacent house. A shoemaker lived with us, who sewed boots for the gendarmerie. He was busy with his work until late at night. He regarded his toil as an advantage to protect him from trouble, for he was a “useful” Jew.
After the first aktion, the Jews began to build bunkers. There was a cellar in our house. We built a double wall in it. We went down to the bunker whenever we heard shots, and sat there cramped and oppressed. The only one who remained in his place was the shoemaker, for he was “useful.”
When they attacked out house, my father and Avraham Berkowitz did not succeed in going down to the bunker, so they went up to the attic. They were found and taken to be killed. Even the shoemaker was liquidated in that attack despite his “usefulness.”
Since we realized that our life was in constant danger, my mother, two sisters and I fled to Horodock. We returned to Volozhin when news reached us that the Germans were announcing that they would not hurt those that survived. I worked in the bathhouse. Once when I returned from work, I saw that the Germans were surrounding the ghetto and shooting. My niece Rachel Gordon and I looked for a hiding place. Along the way, we saw Shlomo Shuster running like a madman. A woman and her young daughter were running after him. We also ran behind them. My niece suddenly fell. A bullet hit her. I could not save her, and I left her to her bitter fate. I met Shlomo Skliot along the way. We hid in the forest. Jews from Volozhin joined us a few days later.
We decided to divide into small groups for security reasons. A woman named “Sara the
[Page 562]
Volozhiner” and I walked to Zabrezye, where my uncle Feivel Perski lived. We reached there towards morning. We entered the house of a gentile woman. She told us that the Germans had killed a Jewish woman yesterday (she was referring to my niece, who succeeded in reaching Zabrezye, where she died). We went to the workplace of my uncle. He was even afraid to talk to me. He gave me his breakfast and a fur coat, and advised us to immediately escape to Krevo for the police were liable to kill us.
We walked for an entire day over fields of stubble. My feet were bare and swollen. When I arrived in Krevo, I entered the first house in the ghetto, and immediately collapsed. My energy departed. I could not stand on my feet, for they were swollen.
I remained in Krevo for several weeks. From there, I wandered from camp to camp. I was in many camps, and my soul was sated with much difficulty, until the awaited liberation finally came.
by Mendl Volkovitch (Natanya)
Translated by Janie Respitz
Donated by Anita Gabbay
|
The 21st of June 1941 Hitler declared war on Russia. They beat, kill and spill Human blood for no reason. The murderer's army marches into Volozhin They shoot and slaughter. People fall like flies, They even drag babies from cradles. There is a commotion and noise, People are running and screaming, But there is no one to shout at.
The Germans demand the creation of a Judnrat |
[Page 563]
| Even when they speak to him with their murderous “melody”.
Approximately two months later,
Within a short time
Shneur is stunned,
In between there are horrific moments.
I saw with my own eyes |
[Page 564]
| Into a house And began to rob a beat the Jews.
They ran to the Judnrat
They began to laugh at him.
Shneur always walked with courage, pride and confidence
I would like to mention another terrifying moment,
They immediately took him to Volozhin |
[Page 565]
| So all the gentiles could watch and be pleased To see what they do to the Jew.
Shmuel's sister ran to Shneur
This is how the chain
The ghetto is surrounded,
Jews run into holes
Unfortunately: nothing helped. |
[Page 566]
| Shneur began to beg and argue For them to let everyone go. He defended the misfortunate with his coattails Like an eagle with its wings, When you come to steal his children.
This did not help,
They are thrown in heat and cold,
Hitler's murderers shout: “annihilate all the Jews”!
The angel of death in the likeness of
Shneur lifts his eyes toward the sky |
[Page 567]
| You, who sits above In the high heavens, Do not want to see or hear The Jewish tears and prayer? For this you chose us as a nation? “You chose us from among all other nations”? So our blood will pour over all seas? Are the gates of compassion closed?
The Hitlerites are bathing in our blood,
The Jews are happy,
However the murderers mock in their murderous hearts.
Shneur is with them, but he is not who he was. |
[Page 568]
| He can no longer fight, defend, comfort. Shneur could have escaped As he was free to move around in the ghetto, and out, But his pure conscious does not allow him to and says: No! I will not leave the Jews here alone!
And when their turn came like all the others,
But this is a lie,
He shudders and looks,
I go to you, with you, |
[Page 569]
| You have disappeared from us, Far, far away. Never t o return!
Gone and not here.
You left us when you were young |
by Lyuba Volkovich (Girkus), Netanya
Translated by Jerrold Landau
The second slaughter, in which most of the Jews of Volozhin were murdered, took place on 23 Iyar 5702 (May 10, 1942). When I saw that the slaughter was approaching, I went up to the attic with my husband Shmuel Berman, my brother-in-law Yaakov, my sisters-in-law Feigel and Chana, my nephew Avraham Eliyahu Baran, Hertzl Gurvich, and a lad from Krewo. I lay down next to one of the windows and saw what was happening to our dear ones.
We descended from the attic when night fell. Human voices rose up from the sewers. These were the voices of my nephews Eliyahu and Yona Kleinbord. We lifted them out of the sewer and fled to the forest. The conditions in the forest were exceedingly difficult, so we decided to return to the Volozhin Ghetto. There were approximately four hundred Jews in the ghetto who had gathered from the forests and other secret places. The Germans promised the Jews that from that day on, they would live in quiet, and no harm would befall them. However, this was a false promise. Next to this festive proclamation, Germans came from the Krasne labor camp to draft workers for the camp. They took approximately eighty people with them,
[Page 570]
including my brother-in-law Yaakov Berman (the son of Leibe Zecharia's). My husband Shmuel and I accompanied his brother, and we went out together to the Krasne camp. Our situation was unbearable.
During the month of Tammuz 5702 (June 1942), we escaped from there to Zabzhez [Zabyeraz]. Once, my husband and Asher Perski returned from work. On the way, the guards arrested them. They freed Perski because the recognized him from the Zabzhez ghetto. But they suspected that Shmuel was a partisan, so they led him to the Zabzhez police station. The guards informed the Volozhin police that they had a partisan in their hands. The police chief sentences Shmuel to death, and he was taken out to be killed at “The Mountain of the Priest.”
I toyed with the hope that Shmuel was alive, and that he was in prison. I disguised myself as a gentile woman and went to Volozhin to save him from death. When I arrived in the ghetto, they informed me that Shmuel had been taken out to be killed.
The third slaughter took place on one of the Sabbaths of the month of Elul 5702 (August 1942). The Jews went to the Mincha service. Suddenly, Gestapo men appeared from the road to Minsk, and started shooting at the ghetto. The prisoners broke through the barbed wire fence and began to run. I ran with Netanel (Saneh) Lavit to the village of Rudnik.
Suddenly, we heard a voice: “Saneh, I'm wounded!” This was the voice of Rachel Lavit, Shlomo's wife. A dum-dum bullet had had hit her hand, causing her a severe injury. She fell down in pain, and we did not have the means of calming her pain.
Only isolated people had mercy upon us. They threw pieces of bread from the window, as one throws to dogs, and ordered us to go away immediately. In the forests of Rudnik, we met several Jews of Volozhin, including Shmuel Berman, my sister-in-law Sara and her two children Rachel Tzart (sister-in-aw of Avraham Tzart) and her daughter, and the young daughter of Leibe Skliot. We went to the village of Manegurje near Volozhin, and approached the house of a gentile. He refused to let us enter his house unless we would give him gold and valuables. I gave him ten gold rubles and he opened the door of his house.
We requested that he go to Volozhin to find out if any Jews survived there. When he returned from the city, he told us that not one Jew could be found there. The rest of the Jews had been murdered, and their bodies had been incinerated in the lime pit of Avraham the Vafelnik. (The pit was on Poloczani Street on the way to Shapowel). The farmers had extracted the gold teeth of the corpses and stripped their clothes. He also visited Krewo and Vyshnieva. We learned from his reports that the most secure place was Krewo, for the commandant of the ghetto was lenient toward the Jews.
The situation with Rachel's hand became very serious. She pleaded with us to return to Volozhin. We did not accept her request, for we still believed that a miracle would occur, and we would survive. Rachel did not believe in miracles, so she got up and went herself.
We decided to go to the forests of Volozhin with the hope of connecting with partisans. We reached the village of Bielokorets. As soon as we sat down to rest, we heard human footsteps. These were
[Page 571]
Jews who had escaped from the Volozhin ghetto. Among them were Gavriel Brudna (his father's name was Kushke), Leizer Meltzer, and Yaakov Shuster (son-in-law of Shlomo Raphael).
After we despaired of connecting with the partisans, we decided to go to Krewo. Saneh refused to join us because he was afraid of going in large groups. Rachel Tzart preferred to go to Zabzhez, and others agreed with her opinion. Having no choice, I joined them, even though my heart prophesied terrible things.
We arrived in Zabzhez. Skliot's daughter and I went to the Judenrat to request that they accept us into the ghetto. They responded to our request with a definitive refusal. The Judenrat claimed that if the police discovered that they were giving shelter to refugees, they would kill all the Jews of the ghetto. When I turned to leave, “Yosef the Expeditor” of Zabzhez approached me and brought me to the Beis Midrash. He bent down behind the oven. He moved several bricks and told me to go down. As soon as I lowered my leg, I ran into Shlomo Shuster.
I found out that the Judenrat related to me with mercy and understanding, for indeed the police had entered the ghetto to search for refugees. They had captured Merke Rudnitzki, the daughter of Chasha Lea Perski, several other girls, and Saneh Lavit, and brought them to the village of Dajnowka. There, they murdered them and covered their bodies with a thin layer of earth. (When we returned to Volozhin in the month of Av 5704, July 1944, my husband Mendel and Saneh's son Leibe carried them to a burial place. They found several bones there, and brought them to eternal life in the Volozhin cemetery.)
I decided to go to Krewo on my own. There, I found Lea Paretzki and Freidel, the daughter of Yosef Yekutiel. After some time, Mendel Wolkowitz, Yehuda Yosef Putshnik Tovia Slyovski, and Yaakov Kagan arrived.
From Krewo, they transferred me to a labor camp in Zazmaria [Žiežmariai], Lithuania. There, I worked on paving the Vilna-Kovno Road. This work was even difficult for men, and especially so for women. My first workday in that camp was on Yom Kippur. I fasted and worked. Gestapo men guarded us. One of them (his name was Gyorgy), a veteran murderer, beat us with a belt made of thick, hard hide.
The autumn of that year was very difficult. Torrential rains fell incessantly. Later the harsh winter arrived. Snowstorms broke out in fury. The murderers did not pay attention to the weather, and chased us out to work daily. We were covered in worn-out rags, and we wore torn shoes. In truth, we were barefoot. Thus did we work for a certain time until all the people of the camp became ill with abdominal typhus. Approximately four hundred ill people lay in several small rooms, men and women separately. Most of the sick people died since there ere no doctors or medicines. Very few survived, and they did so in the merit of the camp director (who was a Volksdeutsche). He traveled to Vilna, incidentally at the risk of his life, and brought us medications, which set us back on our feet.
The epidemic lasted for about three weeks. Those who survived went about for about two weeks.
[Page 572]
deaf and blind. However, we slowly recovered, and they chased us once again to work. They brought surviving Jews from the towns close to Vilna to us and the crowding in the camp continually increased. We felt that tribulations were approaching. The frequent visits of the Gestapo men testified to this. A command was received that a portion of us should be transferred to a different place. The people whispered amongst themselves, and a tall mound of theories were proposed. Some believed that they were taking us to be killed, and others believed that they were hauling us to work.
I refused to go. I was together with Mendel Wolkowitz, Shmuel Berman, and Shlomo Rozen. Gyorgy the murderer broke into the bunk, dragged me out, and placed me together with the rest. They hauled us to the railway station. Wagons were waiting there. It seems that they had brought three more Jews there than the number that had been requested by the Gestapo men. Shmuel Berman approached the camp director and asked them to leave me behind since I was sick and weak, and there was no benefit in me. They freed me and I returned to the camp.
One day, a German from the Koshedar [Kaišiadorys] camp (eight kilometers from Zazmaria) came and asked that eight tradesmen along with one woman for cleaning services be given to him. They chose me for this task. Christian workers, including a Soviet citizen, also worked in this camp. I started a conversation with him. I told him that the fear of slaughter Is upon the Jews, and therefore we have decided to escape to the forest. He was prepared to help us. However, the escape plan did not take place, because they returned us to Zazmaria.
One Sabbath during the spring of 5703 (1943) two Jewish Kapos from Vilna arrived in the camp. (They had assisted the Germans in liquidating the Ashmina camp). They informed us that they had come on a mission from the Gestapo to take three hundred Jews to an aktion. The matter immediately became known to Dr. Yitzchak Elchanan Rabinovitch (the grandson of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan, the famous rabbi of Kovno), the representative of the ghetto to the Arbeitsamt (work office) in Kovno. He hastened to the Gestapo and informed them that the Zazmaria camp, there are young Jews who are effective workers. He requested that we be brought to work in Kovno, thereby thwarting the Satanic efforts of the Germans and their Jewish Kapo assistants.
The next day, many trucks with Jewish police officers and Gestapo men arrived from Kovno. They listed the tradesman. Each of them was permitted to take his family members along. Since most of the Jews of the camp were widows and widowers – the men listed other women along with their names. Mendel Wolkowitz listed me with his name.
They brought us to Slobodka Street in Kovno. They gave us several slices of bread and coffee, and we lay down to rest. Later, they announced that in the Koshedar they required workers to dig peat. I went there with Mendel Wolkowitz. The Koshedar camp was comprised of several bunks surrounded by barbed wire. They gave us spades, and we did our work in the place of bogs. The chief work director was a Dutch Christian. The guards consisted of Germans and Ukrainians who had given themselves over to the Germans willingly. There were also Jewish supervisors who treated us well.
We received one hundred grams of bread and coffee for breakfast. In the afternoon, we were served horsemeat and soup.
[Page 573]
Once, I watched how they prepared the food. They brought a leprous horse, killed it, skinned it, chopped it up, and placed the chunks into a large cauldron. They cooked the meat for a few minutes, and it was already “ready” to be eaten. Mendel and I did not sully ourselves with this disgusting meat, so the hunger afflicted us greatly.
Once, a great tragedy took place in the camp. Two young Jewish lads came to the camp and asked us to escape to the forest with them. The purpose of their arrival became known to the police. The police killed them, and left their bodies at the entrance gate of the camp. A general of the S.S. gathered us together and commanded us to make two circuits around the corpses. He delivered a hateful lecture in which he emphasized that if we would dare to escape from the camp, our end would be like theirs. We were commanded to bury the killed people at the entrance to the camp, so that their graves will remind us at all times of the bitter end that awaits us.
After some time, a reinforcement of Ukrainian police was brought to the camp. All of them were young and healthy, and they instilled fear and dread upon us. These police conducted an exacting search in our bunks to discover whether we have hidden weapons in them. At the end of the search, they commanded us to take our bundles of rags with us and go outside. We sat from morning to night. To our surprise, the police officer tossed pieces of bread at us with great caution.
When it got dark, we were commanded to return to the bunks. After a few hours, when we were fast asleep, a large number of shots woke us up. We crowded around the window, and saw people running around, raising a great tumult. A Jew approached us and calmed us. The time of revenge had begun: The young Ukrainian police who had been brought as reinforcements killed the Dutch camp director and all the guards. They took all the weapons and food, and opened the camp gate wide so that we too could escape. They all escaped to the forest.
In the morning, S.S. men arrived in the camp with transport trucks. They called the men and commanded them to place the bodies of those murdered on the trucks. The corpse of the camp director was cut into pieces. His head had been severed from his body. They piled up his body parts into a single heap and loaded them on the truck.
Our situation improved after this act of revenge. The Jewish workers whispered among themselves that they should escape to the forests. Working with us was a Soviet prisoner who also was preparing to escape to the forest. The Jews of the camp asked me to negotiate with him. He told me that the conditions for escape was receiving weapons. We obtained weapons in various manners. The prisoner hid and guarded them.
In the meantime, a frightful thing happened that thwarted our plan of escape. One day during the month of Nisan 5704 (March 1944), German troops and Gestapo men came from the direction of Kovno. They were armed with automatic guns and machine guns. The Gestapo chief entered the camp with several soldiers. They commanded us to go outside and line up in rows – women and children separately and men separately. The children stood next to their mothers. The children, who understood what was taking place, sobbed quietly, and cleaved to their mothers. The Gestapo men attacked the children and separated them
[Page 574]
forcefully from their mothers. The mothers fainted. The murderers dragged them to the bunks, but they jumped through the windows, ran to their children, held them close to their hearts, and shouted in a loud voice: “Our dear children, we will not leave you alone. We will go to the grave together with you!”
A woman from Olshan named Itka Rabinovitch was among these mothers. She had three lads. The oldest of them was aged twelve. She approached the chief and requested that he leave at least one of her children alive. As a response to her request, he beat her cruelly and pushed her to the side.
They imprisoned us in bunks and warned us to not dare to go outside. We placed ourselves next to the windows to find out what would happen to the children. A wagon hitched to two horses entered the camp. They placed the children on the wagon and took them to an unknown place.
The next day, they took us out to work as usual. The women whose children had been stolen from them were permitted to rest for several days. When we came to work at the railway station, the gentiles from the nearby villages told us that the children had been brought to the railway station. They were kept hungry and thirsty for the entire day. At night, they were placed on a railway wagon and transported to the German border.
After the Gestapo men had killed the children, we felt that we ourselves were in great danger. We decided to immediately escape from the camp. One group of Jews of the camp worked in the forest. Once they saw three men coming out from among the trees, dressed in Soviet army uniforms and armed with automatic weapons. The Gestapo men, who guarded the workers were certain that not one of their people would escape, turned aside, sat on the ground, and began to stuff themselves and smoke. At this unusual opportune time, two people from the groups of Jews rose up and walked along the surrounding paths to meet the partisans. They were asked to identify themselves. They responded, “We are Jews.” The partisans asked, “What are you doing here?” The two responded, “We are at a work camp close to here in the city of Koshedar.” “How many are you?” The Jews responded, “About four hundred individuals.”
After the questioning, the partisans identified themselves. They said that they were part of a group of four people: two Russian commanders and two Jews. They continued to inquire about the number of Jews working in the forests and the number of Germans guarding them. The Jews responded that their group consisted of fifteen people, guarded by four Germans.
Then the partisans replied, “We will kill the German guards and you can go with us.” “But,” they continued to ask with great worry, “What will be with the rest of the Jews in the camp? When the Gestapo men find out that your group escaped to the partisans, they will take out all the Jews to be killed.” Therefore, they advised us to wait until the proper time for this. They promised that they would come soon to free all the Jews. The sign of the action of liberation would be: A farmer will enter the camp riding on a white horse, and will throw a white note upon which will be written the time that we must all prepare for escape.
[Page 575]
The partisans went on their way, and we continued with our work. This took place approximately two weeks before the Passover festival of 5704 (1944).
On the eve of Passover, a farmer riding on a white horse appeared in the camp. (He was really a disguised partisan.) He threw the note of redemption on the ground, upon which was written that the time of escape had arrived.
The next day, approximately forty partisans went to the forest in which our forestry group worked. They surrounded the workers and removed the weapons from the German guards. They sent two Jews to inform all the Jews in the camp that they must escape immediately.
I worked in the railway station loading lumber. I saw that two Jews among the heaps of lumber sticking out, and telling us from mouth to ear that we must escape. We stopped our work, and we all began to advance slowly and cautiously toward the route lading to the forests. However, as soon as we began to run, the guards noticed and began to shoot. I ran together with Leizer Dniszewdski from Krewo. We heard the shots, but we continued to run on a long route until we arrived in the forest. There, we found four men and one woman. We looked for contact with the partisans. Along the way we met several Jews who told us that many of the Jews of the camp had been killed, and the rest had returned to the camp.
To our dismay, we did not find the partisans. We found out that they had taken a group of Jewish workers with them, as well as the Germans who were guarding them. In the meantime, the number of escapees increased, and the group reached about twenty individuals. A few of them were almost naked, for when they escaped from the camp, they took off their clothes to make the running easier. Our situation was hopeless One of our group, Yitzchak Ziskind, said that he knew the guard of the forest. He intended to approach him, and perhaps we could be saved through him. He took one of us with him and set out on the journey. The guard told him that a group of forty partisans had visited him a few days earlier, with a group of Jews and four Germans. They left notice with the forest guard that they would return in a few days, and if there were any Jews with him, they would take them with them.
And thus it was: The partisans kept their promise, and took us into the forest. We hid there until the time of liberation.
[Page 576]
Translated by Dr. Yosef Porat
| Number one murderer, who was the head of the extermination of the Volozhin ghetto on May 1942. Summary of the stenographic protocol, which was published as a book by the title “ The trial of the natzy invaders who committed acts of horror in Belarus” |
The trial started on January 15th 1946 and was finished on the 29th. In these days the martial court of the Minsk County was weighing the accusations against eighteen nazi officials who served in the German police and army; Among them – four S.S. and S.D. commanders, two chiefs of battalions, a Major, two Captains, two Uberleutenats and the rest of inferior ranks. Frantz Karl Hess, second lieutenant of the thirty second “ Zondercommando” stationed near the police and S.S. in Minsk was one of the eighteen convicts.
The following judges held the trial:
Chairman of court: General Kadrov.Lawyers nominated by the state represented all convicts, except Frantz Karl Hess who renounced the lawyer and preferred to represent himself. After some formalities, the hearings began.
Judge: Chief of Battalion Sacharov.
Judge: Chief of Battalion Vinogradov.
The prosecutors: Lieutenant Colonel Yatzanin and the Battalion Head Palachin.
The hearings on the 19th of January 1946 were dedicated to the investigation concerning the prosecution that was held against Frantz Karl Hess.
Given here is a briefing of the hearings and the verdict.
|
Chairman (addressing accused Hess): |
Are you confirming your testimony given in the early investigation? |
| Hess: | Yes I confirm it. |
| The chairman to the prosecutor: |
Comrade prosecutor, do you have questions to the accused? |
| Prosecutor: | Yes. Addressing Hess asks: Tell me Hess; on what year did you enter the ranks of the fascist party? |
| Hess: | In 1939. |
| Prosecutor: | What was your military rank and in any what regiment were you serving your duty? |
[Page 577]
| Hess: | I was a simple private in the S.S. army. |
| Prosecutor: | What is your family origin? |
| Hess: | I come from a working family. My father worked in a factory. |
| Prosecutor: | What office did your father hold in the factory? |
| Hess: | He worked as a simple worker. |
| Prosecutor: | Your father was a Nazi? |
| Hess: | No. He was apolitical and died in 1916. |
| Prosecutor: | How come that you, as a son of a working family, finds yourself in the ranks of the Nazi party? |
| Hess: | Because I am German. |
| Prosecutor: | Just because you are German? |
| Hess: | Yes. |
| Prosecutor: | What did you do in the army? |
| Hess: | I worked in a factory producing weights. |
| Prosecutor: | When did you come to the Zondercommando in Minsk? |
| Hess: | I came in the beginning of December 1941. |
| Prosecutor: | What duties were put upon you? |
| Hess: | I had to guard the offices and establishments of the army and the SS. |
| Prosecutor: | This is not true! You were trained in courses for commanders of the border police, in managers courses and in handling trained dogs – all these were done for house guarding only? Tell the court all of the truth! |
| Hess: | All right, I shall tell! Our work as house guards was only for deception.
Our main mission was the extinction of Jews. The orders were given from above and we were forced to commit them. |
| Prosecutor: | To where did you go on the first half of May 1942 with a shooting squad? |
| Hess: | We drove to Volozhin. |
| Prosecutor: | To which county does Volozhin belong? |
| Hess: | To Molodechna County I think. I am not sure. |
| Prosecutor: | What did you do in Volozhin? |
| Hess: | We exterminated the Jews there. |
| Prosecutor: | How many Jews did you kill there? |
| Hess: | Approximately two thousands. |
| Prosecutor: | Who was in charge of this 'actsia'? |
[Page 578]
| Hess: | Untersturmführer Grabe. |
| Prosecutor: | How did you gather the Jewish community in order to commit the horror acts? |
| Hess: | We took the people from their houses, they were locked in the cowshed, and there we shot them to death. |
| Prosecutor: | What have you done with the property and valuable objects of the dead? |
| Hess: | We sent the valuables to Villieka. |
| Prosecutor: | From whom were the two thousand dead, in the town of Volozhin of Molodechna County, composed? |
| Hess: | From men, women and children. |
| Prosecutor: | Why did you kill the people? Just because they were Jews? |
| Hess: | Yes. Just because they were Jews. |
| Prosecutor: | Were within the two thousand dead also other nationalities members? |
| Hess: | No. Jews only. |
| Prosecutor: | In what way did you execute them? |
| Hess: | We divided the Jews to groups of eighty – hundred people. Every group was entered into the cow shed, and there they killed them one by one- till the last one of them. |
| Prosecutor: | Within the two thousand were also people from Volozhin vicinity, or from Volozhin only? |
| Hess: | I do not know. |
| Prosecutor: | You took out all of the Jews from the ghetto? |
| Hess: | Yes, we took out all of them. |
| Prosecutor: | Who were the shooters? |
| Hess: | All were ordered to shoot, including me. |
| Prosecutor: | How many Jews did you kill with your own hands in Volozhin? |
| Hess: | I personally killed about one hundred and twenty Jews. (Noise in the courtroom). |
| Prosecutor: | In what part of the body did the bullet hit? Did you shoot the back of the neck? |
| Hess: | Yes, we shot the head. The Jews were kneeling on their knees and we shot the head, which means – the back of the neck. |
| Prosecutor: | Did the children also were kneeling on their knees and shot in the back of their necks? |
| Hess: | Yes, all of them – children, men, women, old and young. |
| Prosecutor: | From what weapon did you shoot? |
| Hess: | From a pistol. |
[Page 579]
| Prosecutor: | What kind of gun was it? |
| Hess: | It was a 0.8-mm army gun. |
| Prosecutor: | What have you done with the bodies? Buried them? |
| Hess: | No. We soaked most of the bodies with gasoline and burned them. |
The last words of Hess were that he regrets his actions in Belarus, but that he is innocent because he was forced to do it by his superiors.
He declared before the judges and the people whose sons have judged him, that fascism was the greatest curse that the world has ever known.
These ended the hearings on the 29th of January. In the late hours of the night, the court published its verdict.
The verdictThe court martial concluded, that Frantz Karl Hess, as an inferior rank officer of the eighth Zondercommando' by the security police of the SS and SD, took an active part.
In the December 1941 'aktion'. In this 'aktion' a hundred patients that were hospitalized in the Minsks' mental hospital were shot, as well as two hundred and fifty civilians that were temporarily arrested in Minsks' prison.
Many times Hess took part in the killings of soviet citizens from Jewish origin, among them old, women and children.
In December 1941, he took part in the killings of two thousand people in Minsk.
In 1942 he took part in the killing of the peaceful Jewish community in the city of Vileycky. In the small town of Ivia, Molodechna County, Hess killed sixty people with his own hands. In the cities Dolginova and Vishnieva, Hess participated in murdering three thousand five hundred soviet citizens of Jewish origin.
In the town of Volozhin, he took part in the execution of two thousand Jews, of which he himself killed one hundred and twenty. In the town of Trastenitz-Zutta he was a part of a company that executed in shooting and strangling eighteen thousand Soviet citizens of Jewish origin.
As a whole Hess participated in killing and strangling of thirty thousand people, most of them Jewish. He himself killed several hundreds of them.
According to a section of the order submitted by the superior court of the SSSR, on the day of 19.4.43, the German Frantz Karl Hess born in 1909 in the village of Kastill of Louatmaritz County in the Sudeten region, was charged to death by hanging.
On the 30.1.1946, on 1430 in the afternoon by Moscow time, the verdict was executed. Hess was hanged on the hippodrome of Minsk.
Over one hundred thousand people attended the hanging of the convicts.
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