is in the care of the writer of these lines. The ash was buried at the cemetery
according to Jewish law.
From Saturday onwards, that is, after 8 September¹⁷¹⁴ until 23 September,
that is until [?],¹⁷¹⁵ the Jews had no lack of troubles; they were captured for
labour. In the meantime, Jews were forced to take all the chopped up items
out of the bet hamidrash, such as benches, cabinets, a wall clock, etc., and
burn them in the bet hamidrash yard; and Jews were forced to take it all away.
At the same time, the Jews were beaten up.
On the morning of 23 September 1939, a squadron arrived and positioned
itself in the middle of the market. Their senior officer gave a speech to them,
after which they all scattered into Jewish houses, ordered all the businesses
to open. All the household members, from tiny children to the oldest men
and women and even the sick, were mercilessly beaten and all were chased
out into the middle of the market. In the meantime, all the houses and businesses
were openly and freely looted, hacked to bits, scattered about, stock
plundered. They said they were looking for weapons, although weapons had
already been sufficiently searched for during the first 2 weeks. During the
assembling of the Jews, a certain Jewish baker, Avrom Volf Holcman, was shot
dead on his way to a minyan to pray. Also a pious old Jew, reb Tzvi Miler, was
brutally murdered: when they came in to him to order him to [3] go out, he
was in the middle of praying, clad in a tallis, and as he is an old man, he did
not understand what they wanted from him, so ‘they’ threw all the household
goods at him (thus he was found lying dead under all the household goods),
and also shot him. All the Jews from the town, who were assembled at the
market, were led to a specific location, where they were all brutally and savagely
searched and all that was discovered was thrown away and destroyed.
Not even the tiniest baby or the oldest woman was spared. For the entire
time that this lasted, approximately 3–4 hours, from 8 till 11.30 a.m., everyone
had to hold their hands up in the air, and many old people, who did
not understand what this meant in German Hände hoch¹⁷¹⁶ were beaten until
they bled. The sickest people were not spared either, even those dressed only
in their underwear. Then, all the men were separated and arranged in a big
1714 See footnote 1712.
1715 In the original, an abbreviation, not deciphered. It was the day of Yom Kippur.
1716 (German) Hands up!
