a married man and a woman. The man perished sitting inside his home, and
the woman on her way to the nearby shtetl of Raciąż. Four or five women
from Mława were also killed in our shtetl that day. They were buried immediately
in a separate section of the Jewish cemetery, because it was impossible
[3] to determine whether they were Jewish or Christian. The marketplace
and side streets were full of the carcasses of cattle and human body parts —
heads, arms, legs, etc. The shtetl looked like one big graveyard. The remains
of the burnt-out houses were still smoking, and only the chimneys stood out,
like tombstones commemorating the households they had once contained.
The next morning, Tuesday, the fifth day of the war, the first German patrol
appeared. For our shtetl, its arrival marked the beginning of a new chapter of
inhuman torment and suffering — physical, mental, and economic — that
utterly devastated the local population.
On the very first Saturday after their arrival, they drove the Jews out
of their homes, beginning with the rabbi, beat them brutally and dragged
them off to hard labour. That continued day after day. When more soldiers
arrived, the looting began. Jewish possessions were plundered mercilessly.
Jewish shops, and later houses, were systematically emptied. They ran like
devils from shop to shop, from house to house, and destroyed everything,
possessions accumulated over years of toil. Their wild behaviour struck mortal
fear into the hearts of the Jews. The one who suffered worst of all was the
rabbi, who from the very first minute was held responsible for everything
that happened in the shtetl. If they needed people for work, they went to the
rabbi, who had to supply a certain number, day after day, for various tasks.
And how much blood was sucked from him for every shortfall! This went on
and on, until we were suddenly forced to give up the dearest thing in life —
our home! We had to take a stick in hand and go… go….
6 January, 1941
ARG I 1020 (Ring. I/910)
Description: duplicate (2 copies), handwritten (MS*), pencil, Yiddish,
148×210 mm, minor damage and fragments missing, 8 sheets, 8 pages. The document consists of two parts of the same title. In the margins, a sign composed
of a horizontal dash with a dot under it (ink). On p. 1 (of both parts), the sign “+”
(red ink). The document was kept in a binder.
Edition based on first copy of duplicate, first part: 1 sheet, 1 page, second part:
3 sheets, 3 pages.
