The battle on the Narew lasted barely a week, and the first German soldiers
entered the town on 9 September. That same evening, a German soldier
was murdered in a Christian shop. The owner of the premises and [. . .]
neighbours were shot immediately. The following morning the Germans took
three Jews, among them a father and son, and ordered them to dig a grave.
The Jews were under the impression the whole time that they were digging
it for themselves, because that was what they had been given to understand,
but finally the three Christians who had been shot were brought and put in
the grave. The same day the whole population was taken out into the market
square. Not a living soul was left in the houses. An officer announced
that a German soldier had been murdered, for which the laws of war [2]
required the most important people of the town to be shot. He was nevertheless
taking pity on the people and releasing the women and children, whereas
men aged 18 to 45 years old were to be detained and sent to a concentration
camp. The men of that age group were taken straightaway to the synagogue,
which was turned into a camp for prisoners. It goes without saying that the
Torah scrolls had previously been desecrated and finally burnt. The march
to the camp was harrowing and cost the lives of 10 Jews, fathers of children.
100 per cent of the Jewish shops in the town were broken into and plundered by
the local Polish population, who helped in the destruction of Jewish property.
Jewish communal life came to a complete stop. The town was full of
troops, and Jews, both men and women, were seized for work on various tasks.
Privation among the Jews increased by the day. There was no trade and no
work for craftsmen. On the eve of Sukkot, some Christians passed on news of
the expulsion of the Jews from Pułtusk. It was not possible to verify that information
because contact between the two towns was not possible for Jews. A little
later the news was confirmed, and the Serock Jews started preparing for an
expulsion. In the meantime, winter drew near, the weather grew cold, and the
first snow and frost appeared. The Jews comforted themselves that there would
be no expulsion in winter. That was also the opinion of the Volksdeutsche,
who had been on good terms [with the Jews] until the outbreak of war.
At the beginning of November 1939, the Pułtusk Kreischef ¹⁷⁹² summoned
the Jewish representatives of Serock and announced that they had
1792 Pułtusk Landkreis was governed by Landrat Karl Böttcher, while Pułtusk Stadtkreis was governed by Oberbürgermeister Rudolf Reuter.
