Murder Story of Wołożyn Jews at the Former Sports Ground in Wołożyn

"On the 7th of [the month of] Heshvan in the year tsh"b (October 28, 1941), Moka from the Gestapo entered the ghetto and demanded to be supplied immediately with a large number of boot-soles. When he was given the soles, we assumed that by this gift we had done what we had to do. However, he returned to the Judenrat accompanied by several SS-men. He ordered all the ghetto Jews to be summoned to a meeting where he would be delivered to them a lecture on various matters. In a frenzy the Judenrat members rushed to pass on the order of the rulers. Not everybody responded. My little daughter Shulamit begged me: 'Daddy, don't go to the meeting'. Her child's heart forewarned her. I obeyed and did not go. When all the people had assembled, Moka returned the majority of them to the ghetto and imprisoned the rest in the cinema hall. From there, he took them out in groups of ten to the nearby sport ground and murdered them. In this "aktion" more than 200 people were killed, including Yaakov (Jani) Garber, the head of the Judenrat. Yaakov Finger, Tsapin, and Zahariya Beyklin (sic!) succeeded in escaping this 'aktion'. They returned to the ghetto and told people about the slaughter they had witnessed. Immediately after the shooting, Belorussian policemen and neighboring peasants arrived, stripped the clothes off the dead bodies, took any rings and jewels they found, and pulled out gold teeth from the mouths of the murder victims. Then a group of Jews was brought to bury the bodies."