Soon after they arrived, the Germans took Jewish and Polish hostages whose whereabouts are still not known. They also soon established a Judenrat. All Jews and Poles had to register. They were given a residence permit for just one month and thus they had to repeat the process [22] of renewing it every month.
The second week an order was issued requiring Jews to wear “patches”. The patch had to be 10 cm in size, made of white material with a yellow “J” inthe middle. Failure to wear the patches on the front and back was punished by imprisonment and fines. In one case, a Jewish woman was sentenced to pay 3,000 roubles for not wearing the patches.
The greatest seizures for work occurred on the Sabbath. Jews who were taken were forced to do “gymnastics”, were beaten heavily, and had their forelocks shorn.
On 1 July they issued ration cards to the population. Poles received a quarter of a kilo of bread a day, Jews got half that amount. And thus it waswith all food products. Special shops were designated for Jews.
The deportations of Jews began on 10 July, and there has been no news of them to the present day. It was done as follows: Lithuanians, led by Germans, [22a] came at night and opened the courtyard gates. They entered the flats where Jews were living and told them to get dressed. Then they ordered them to hand over all their money and jewellery, including wristwatches. They told them that if any of those things were not handed over and were found during a search, the whole family would be shot. The Jews were frightened and gave them everything. Then the whole family was taken down into the courtyard, and when everyone was outside in the courtyard, they searched the flats and took everything they could. After that, they sealed the flats.
In the courtyard, they separated the men from the women and children. They took the men away to the Łukiszki prison.401 The women were given permits stating that any Jew whom the permit holder approached for lodging must provide such lodging or else incur the death penaltyfor sabotage.
