They are awaiting an answer in ten minutes. If not, then they themselves will
carry it out. An emergency meeting of the Judenrat. It was decided to accept
the proposal. The Landratura notes that it is forbidden to take licensed craftsmen,
members of the Judenrat and its officials together with their families.
The rumour takes wing. The city is buzzing like a beehive, but those who hide
are few. The naïve ones think that the transport will take them to Russian
Volhynia to work the land, after all that is what the Landratura officials said. . .
The Jewish police spread out in the streets and announce in each and every
house that everyone must be prepared at 2 in the morning with baggage
weighing [no more than] 15 kilo and five days’ food. The operation begins at 3.
They assigned to it the Jewish police who were under the command of the
German SD (Sonderdienst) garrison.²⁵⁹ The squads spread out across the town.
The SD shot in the air and shouted: “Out of the houses.” In a moment, the
streets filled with throngs. There was no need to search, to rummage around.
At the sounds of the shots, the Jews came out with their packs and suitcases.
They went like a flock to the slaughter. They led them to the train station.
Moans and screams filled the air. They already felt the disaster, but it led to
no action. A few people fled. Two of those who fled were killed and one was
wounded. The district head, the Landratura officials, and a few Polish police
were at the train station. The SD loaded the Jews into the railroad cars. Freight
cars with a small opening. They stuffed about 60 people into each car, bolted
them shut and sealed them. The last car was for passengers – there sat armed
Germans, to keep order and to prevent escape. At the train station, only those
with licences who had been swept up in the flow were released. Other workers,
even those employed in German workplaces, were captured and imprisoned.
2,700 persons were captured. And the surplus (yes, there was a surplus,
so conscientious were the Jewish police. . .) were sent back to their homes.
In the morning, official notices were posted in the city forbidding entry,
under penalty of death, to the emptied Jewish houses – to prevent looting.
{2}
2[?]. VI. In the evening. A transport from Dubienka. In the town [?] two Landratura
officials and the border police gathered the Jews. All the Jews reported to the
259 The Hebrew is unclear. Probably Gutkowski has inserted a [?] in the margin beside this sentence.
