Murder Story of Grodno Jews in Ghetto A in Grodno

... During the first days of November 1942, both ghettos in Grodno were suddenly closed and no one was allowed out of the ghetto to go to his daily work. In Ghetto B, which was located on the edge of Grodno, in Slobodka, announcements that were put up on the walls by the German authorities stated that the Jews were going to be transported for work to Upper Silesia and that they were to take with them their work tools, work clothes, and eating utensils. Most of the Jews did not suspect that the real intent [of the authorities] was to subject them to a horrific death in a gas chamber. They [the Jews] believed that they were going to work as the announcements had said. Because the tools of the ghetto workers had been left at their working places in the town before the ghetto was closed and [because] the prospects for remaining alive depended on their possession of the tools … about a hundred Jews gathered at the ghetto gate in the hope that their Christian fellow-workers … would bring their instruments to the ghetto gate.… Suddenly Wiese and Streblow showed up and, without any warning, opened fire from their sub-machineguns at the crowd. The crowd ran away in panic, but a dozen people remained lying in the street. Some had been shot to death, others were only wounded. Wiese and Streblow walked between those who had fallen down and shot to death those who had only been wounded. I carefully made my way to a safe place and saw everything clearly. There was a twelve-year-old boy near me who had been wounded in the foot. I went up to him and wanted to take him to a nearby emergency clinic. Wiese caught up with us and saw that blood was flowing from the boy's foot. He ordered the boy to stand against the wall of a house and shot him in the head. Then Wiese immediately entered the clinic and asked the people present whether there were any wounded peoplein there.… He saw that there was a little girl there with a bleeding wound; he ordered that the little girl be taken out of the clinic, had her put down on a stone staircase, and shot her to death … I was one of those who buried the victims in a nearby field; we counted 24 of them.... It is difficult to say precisely how many Jews were killed by Wiese, Streblow, and Rinzler during the major deportation of ten thousand, between January 18 and 22, 1943. Many people lay dead in the streets near the Great Synagogue; many lay dead in their houses; and many [of the bodies] were in the old cemetery, in the ghetto. The majority were shot in head; many of them had their heads shot through with dum-dum bullets. On those days there was a heavy snowfall, but even that could not conceal the traces of red blood. I was walking with my seven-year- old daughter between the murdered at the old cemetery. I asked her to remember, if she survived, to tell the world about the atrocities Nazi murderers committed against our people. I believe that between 200 and 300 Jews were killed in the ghetto, not counting those who took their own lives to avoid Nazi torture....

... First of all, I would say that every time Streblow and Wiese came to the ghetto, they would kill 40-50 Jews.… It was during the major operation, when ten thousand were deported. I remember that exactly, because when I was working in the unit that had to transport all those killed to the smaller Jewish cemetery and to bury them.… From my window I could see the following: across the small square, a group of more than 20 people was being taken. There were among them some American citizens who in 1939 came to Grodno to visit their relatives and were not able to return [to the U.S.]. The group also included several children between the ages of 4 to 8. Some one told me that these people had been found outside the fence of the ghetto. They were brought to the Gestapo prison and were lined up against the wall, facing it.… Thus, this group was standing only six meters from my observation post. Gestapo men were standing 4 or 5 meters from them. I recognized Wiese and also [Heinz] Errelis [the head of the local Gestapo].… He ordered some of the Gestapo men to shoot the Jews standing against the wall. Wiese and other Gestapo men shot them - men, women, and children - with sub-machineguns, while Errelis, I saw this myself, shot them with his own hand pistol....