Murder Story of Gorki Jews in Zadorozhye

... On October 6 at dawn a tall officer with a briefcase under his arm... came rushing into our house. He threatened everyone with a whip. He took my father to the other end of the house. He approached us. My daughter, who was lying in bed, saw the whip and started to cry. He threatened her with the whip. He stripped me in search of valuables. He turned the whole room upside down... Father had already been taken away; generally all those able to walk were taken away. He took us outside, we didn't have time to dress properly. I saw a whole line of people moving from Mstislavskaya Hill. My father must have been there too. We were taken along Malaya Internatsionalnaya [Street] - where a black truck was parked. He loaded us onto the truck and went to search for others. A policemen stood by the truck. My sister said: "Why should we stay [here], what's the difference whether we get a bullet in the back or in the forehead?" We were alone on the truck. We got out of the truck but the policemen didn't say anything. We headed toward the bathhouse and, suddenly, we again saw the same officer and were frightened. However, he entered one house and we continued toward our own. Where could we go: any Russians who helped Jews would be risking their lives? We crossed the river and approached the house of the bathhouse attendant. His wife was grateful to us because we had helped her daughter. We started to enter. The old woman said: "You cannot come in or we will be shot." We left, we had nowhere to go. We decided to enter their barn. The children were crying from hunger and the cold. I went to our house, looking for something for the children. When I brought something, my sister sent me again. I approached the house and in the courtyard across the way I saw the shoemaker Eyl Minin being beaten and forced to move on. Since it was dangerous to approach the house then, I returned with empty hands. Then the old woman discovered us in her barn and raised an outcry: "What are you doing to us, we are going to be shot!" We left and proceeded on our own. We saw a small private bathhouse on the street and decided to hide there. We looked - the bathhouse was locked so we started to crawl through the window. The [non-Jewish] children on the street saw this and shouted: "Jude! Jude!" and started to chase us so that we could not enter any of the houses....

... The shooting took place on October 6, 1941. It was a cold, cloudy day. The Jews - all of them - were taken out of the ghetto, led along the road toward Zadorozhye village, and were shot one kilometer from the lake.... It was said that the Jewish men were taken ahead to dig [the graves], and, at dawn, all the [rest of the] ghetto inmates were taken in a column. The men were probably shot after they dug the graves. Moaning was heard along the road as the people began to understand where they were being taken. People mentioned the names of Russian men who went along with their Jewish wives.... The people in Gorki heard the automatic weapon fire. They say the shooting was carried out by [local] policemen, Russian collaborators. The Germans only gave the orders....