[6] It is hard to imagine to what extent the release of the first hostages improved the mood in the city. The Jews (and who knows what motivated them) suddenly decided that it was the contribution that had been the misfortune looming over them for a week, and since it would be taken care of, the hosta ges would be released and everything would be fine. In addition, Hick, whe n asked by one of the officials of the Council if it was true that something was afoot for the Jews, yelled, “What? Who’s inventing such lies? Show me those who spread such rumours, and I’ll sort them out”. Thus, the city relaxed and overconfidence replaced the erstwhile uncertainty, and all those who stayed with Christians for the night returned – two days beforethe pogrom – to sleep in their own homes.
Before I talk about the Słonim pogrom, I would like to describe the circumstances and conditions under which it occurred.
For some time, a Lithuanian gang has been known to prowl the area (or rather “operate”, because they acted quite officially), touring villages and towns and killing all Jews without exception. The first pogrom, or rather carnage, took place ten kilometres away, in Żyrowice,207 where the sixty mur-dered people totalled almost the entire Jewish population of the town. It was as follows: at night the “punitive expedition” (as those Lithuanians responsible for pogroms in the area were called) came to the town in the companyof several Germans, and ordered the entire population to gather in the mar-ket. Then they instructed Poles and Belarusians to stand on one side and Jewson the other side of the market. The few Jews who realised what was hap-pening and went over to stand with the Christians survived, but the otherswere taken to the woods and disappeared without a trace. It was not until several days later that their bodies were found. All the Jewish residents weremurdered this way in a number of villages and towns, such as Lachowicze,208
