arrival at the destination, every tenth person from the group would be shot.
The 10 selected people were separated from the group [2] and led away, and the
group received an order to continue marching to Grójec.
In the evening, in the fading light of the dusk, the group, hungry and
tired, arrived at Grójec. They were taken to the prison yard. In front of the
prison gate lay the 10 shot people, including 7 Jewish refugees from Kalisz
and Łódź, and 3 Christians. The entire prison yard was covered with people
lying on the ground. An order came that we, too, were to lie down on the
ground and not move from the spot; those who made the slightest movement,
would be immediately shot on the spot. Because many people had already
been lying in the yard, there was no room on the ground for our group to lie
down. There was no solution, and we squeezed in next to each other, greatly
cramped. From time to time, we heard several gunshots, and it was clear to
us that with each shot, one of us was losing his life. We lay like that all night.
When day broke, some people pleaded for mercy from the guards to permit
them to relieve themselves. The response was blows. Having no choice, the
people had to relieve themselves in their clothes.
About an hour after the rise of the morning star, on the first day of Rosh
Hashanah of the year 5700, all were led out of the prison yard and taken to
the Grójec pig market. There we again found several thousand men, Jews and
Christians, waiting. [3] Firstly, all the priests and bearded Jews, having been
designated as rabbis, were picked out from the crowd, they were given brooms
and ordered to clean the market and the nearby streets. At the same time,
the sweepers were mocked, ridiculed, insulted, and humiliated. They lifted the
Tarczyn priest and several Jews up in the air and suddenly dropped them
onto the ground, whereby they were badly injured. Then, an order came that
all those who were younger than 16 years of age and older than 50 years of
age were to stand to one side. All the persons concerned obeyed the order out
of fear. All the Christians from the group were immediately freed; the rest
were re-absorbed into the group. Then they started to distribute food. The
Christians received white bread. Jews, stale brown bread. No one received
water. Thirst was great.
An officer held a speech. A Polish interpreter translated, saying among
other things: the group would now be taken on a journey of several tens of
kilometres; therefore, anyone weak and ill should report. But everyone needs
to know that upon declaring oneself frail, one will be put before a medical
