Murder Story of Żołudek Jews at the Żołudek Airfield

In the first days of May, 140 (or, according to other sources, 200) able-bodied Jewish inmates of the Żołudek Ghetto were sent to the labor camp at the Skrzybowce railway station, 5 miles north of the town of Żołudek. On May 8, 1942, an SS Kommando led by Leopold Windisch and Rudolf Werner and accompanied by Lithuanian police came to the town from nearby Lida; they surrounded the ghetto. On the next day, a murder "Aktion" took place. The Jews were ordered to assemble in the market square, while the local police searched the ghetto for any inmates who had tried to hide. In the market place, a selection was carried out, and 81 craftsmen were transferred to Szczuczyn. Afterward, more than 1,000 (some sources put the figure at 1,400, 1,500, or even as high as 2,000) Jews from the Żołudek Ghetto were taken by guards to the local airfield, several hundred meters away from the town, and killed there. Their bodies were then buried in pits that had been dug by local peasants acting on German orders. According to eyewitness accounts, the killing went on for two hours. Only a few Jews survived, either by joining anti-German partisan units or by reaching the family camp of the Bielski brothers. None of the survivors returned to Żołudek after the war.