Poles from the General Government who volunteered). Some Germans refused to take part in the murder of defenceless people, and some of them – cavalry officers – were punished and sent to clean the stables for a period of two weeks. On the same day, all those working for the Germans, as well as thosewho lived in the “islands”, or those who had not yet managed to move there, received a yellow card with their names, with all the members of their fam-ilies listed. These were to be – according to the Germans – food ration cardsand no one foresaw what they actually would be used for. Before the evening,an order was issued that no one in the whole city was allowed to leave theirhouse the following day, and at approximately 11 at night the whole ghettowas surrounded by the army, who did not let anyone in or out.
The morning of the following day – 15 October – was cold (about 15 degrees) and sunny. Light snow was falling. At 6 a.m., the first pogromgroups appeared in the city, consisting usually of two Germans or Lithuaniansin the company of Polish policemen or “Todt” members. The whole city waswrapped in deathly silence – it was as if Słonim were dead.
They started from the centre of the ghetto, moving towards its bounda-ries – so they searched neighbourhood by neighbourhood, not everywhere atthe same time. Each such group went from apartment to apartment, taking allthe Jews they found without exception and delivering them into the hands ofpolice officers, who then escorted them to the assembly points. Most Jews didnot even try to hide, but packed bundles and backpacks, because they thoughtthat it was a deportation; hardly anyone, except the forewarned craftsmen,realised what would follow. However, some of them did hide and so most of those people survived because the Germans were not searching very thoroughly. A more detailed description of such an elegant, stylish pogrom I am unable to give, because very few of the participants remain alive, so I can only recall a handful of facts.214
[8] The Germans – except the Gestapo – searched houses cursorily. They simply entered, looked around (not very carefully), and left: many only took those Jews who had the misfortune to happen by. Hence, for example, the incident when at the moment at which the door opened, two boys standing in the middle of the room rushed to the side and hid – one crawled under the
