eyewitnesses who miraculously survived, the occupier commenced mass
roundups of Jews and established two ghettos (the “small” one for Jews
employed by Germans and the “large” one for the remaining population) to
thoroughly “clear” the area.
The victims – men, women and children – were transported to Ponary,
where they were shot in pits which had been dug to serve as fuel reservoirs for
the Red Army. Mothers were forced to hold their babies at head level to facilitate
the killing process. Some “transports” were put in the pits, splashed with
petrol and set ablaze. Some pits, which were full of the tangled bodies of the
dead and the wounded, were covered up, thus becoming “moving” graves.
The Lithuanian šauliai blindly obeyed the German officers’ orders.
Throughout the month of November the number of Jews in Vilna dropped
from 70,000 to 13,000. According to cautious estimates, the number of victims
in Vilna totals 30,000⁸²⁸ souls.⁸²⁹
The bestial Hitlerite soldiery destroyed one of the most important centres
of Jewish culture in Poland.⁸³⁰
Massacres in the remaining cities and settlements in the Vilna area and
in the Lithuanian Republic [2] took place simultaneously with the events in
Vilna. According to various estimates, the total number of Jews who were
brutally murdered in Ostland-Generalkommissariat Littauen⁸³¹ amounts to
300,000 people.
Słonim
In September last year a Lithuanian gang began to prowl, or actually officially
operate, in the area of Słonim. It visited villages and small towns, murdering
every Jew without exception. Jews from Żyrowice, Lachowicze, Mir,
828 “50,000” in the 2nd copy and in Gehenna Żydów polskich.
829 The number of victims of the first stage of the destruction of Vilna Jews is estimated at
between 27,000 (German sources) and 48,000. In late 1941 there were 12,000 people officially
staying in the Vilna ghetto, along with approximately 15,000 “illegals”. See Accounts
from the Borderlands, 1939–1941, pp. 235–248.
830 A few testimonies regarding the first period of the German occupation in Vilna have
survived in the Ringelblum Archive. This note was probably based on testimonies of
Aryeh (Jurek) Wilner (he provides numerical data) and a delegate of the Betar Movement:
either Israel Kempner or Yehuda Pińczowski (he mentions the German provocation). See
Accounts from the Borderlands, 1939–1941, Doc. 22.
831 Lithuania was a part of Reichskommissariat Ostland as Generalbezirk Litauen.
