where the Bolsheviks had dug large holes for gasoline cisterns. Machine guns could be heard all day long coming from there, usually preceded by a single gunshot.
On 3 September, all the Jews of Vilna – without prior notice or warning – were herded into alleys, where once, in medieval times, the ghetto had been located. They were allowed to take only as much as they could carry. In those alleys, two ghettos were established, separated by a German street. The situation of the incarcerated Jews was horrifying. The larger ghetto was designed for professionals and therefore it was expected that it would be privileged. This is why far more people went there than to the other, resulting in an incredible density of population. In one room were a dozen people or more. For each of these ghettos, a separate Judenrat was established and militia units were recruited, composed mostly of “shady” individuals. If, however, the Jews hadbelieved that it would be the end of round-ups and executions, they were sadly mistaken, because these intensified even more. Under various pretexts regularly every few days, thousands and thousands of people were taken, regardless of their sex or age. Thus, for example, on the night of Yom Kippur493about 5,000 people, men, women, the elderly, and children, were led out of the ghetto for professionals under the pretext that they were being taken to a smaller one; they were, in fact, taken to Łukiszki prison. They were kept there for 36 hours, crammed into cells, standing one next to the other, without food or drink, not even able to change position. Later, they were all taken to Ponary. Earlier, German offices and institutions where some of the captured people worked, made an appeal in their names, and these interventions saved the lives of several hundred people (including members of HaShomer HaTzair). Thus the Jewish population of Vilna, around 70,000 souls in Soviettimes, in less than three months was reduced to 35,000, and over the following month – to 25,000. As a result of mass executions, the smaller ghettowas completely liquidated. Only a small handful of people were moved to the ghetto [14] for professionals. The panic and depression among the Jewish population are simply indescribable. Only some individuals managed to escape this ordeal, be it to other cities, or to Soviet partisan troops operating in the vicinity of Vilna.
