They entered Nadarzyn on Friday, 8 September 1939. Shortly after their
entry, they shot a young Jewish man, Moyshe Hochman. Hochman had not
wanted to flee from the shtetl during the bombardment [2] because he did
not want to abandon his old mother. The martyr was horrendously and brutally
tortured and then put into a rubbish crate and shot in it. Later, they shot
the old 85-year old tailor Shakhne Ber with his mute, mentally retarded son.
In an orchard behind Nadarzyn, they discovered a Jewish couple, Avrom
Yechiel Skurnik and his wife. Poles informed the Germans about the Jewish
couple. They went to the orchard, beat the Jews up, then took them into town
and shot them both. Then, they shot a Jew, Yankev Moyshe Goldsztajn. Poles
disclosed where a Jew, Yechiel, was hiding. When they approached him, they
found him praying in his tales and tefilin.¹¹⁶⁶ They beat Reb Yechiel badly,
told him to take a spade and come with them. Yechiel took his tales with
him. Behind town, they told the Jew to dig out a grave. When the grave was
ready, Reb Yechiel wrapped himself in his tales, stood in the grave, and thus
he was shot.
Staying with Mrs Jas was a rabbi from another town and several other
refugees from different towns, who fled to Nadarzyn and hid at [the home of]
Mrs Jas. The rabbi and the refugees were also shot, before Mrs Jas was able to
find out who the rabbi and the refugees were.
[3] When Warsaw fell, the Nadarzyn Jews returned to the shtetl; they
found their homes completely looted, not the smallest thing left behind.
The Poles, neighbours of the Jews for generations, had taken all the
household items: bed linen, furniture, clothes, kitchen utensils, absolutely
everything. They even ripped out the flooring and windows, the jambs of the
Jewish flats.
Poles moved into other Jewish flats, as instructed by the German
authorities.
The returning Jews found the traces of the burnt down bet hamidrash,
which the Germans had set on fire during their absence. The walls of the synagogue had been taken apart. All the Jews who had stayed in Nadarzyn and
not fled to Warsaw were shot. Only 3 Jews survived who, having realised what
1166 (Hebrew, from tefila, prayer) two small leather boxes containing selected quotes from Torah handwritten on parchment. Adult males attach the respective boxes to their forearm and forehead during the morning service.
