Murder Story of Ilja Jews on Revolyutsionaya Street in Ilja

… [O]n Thursday, March 17, 1942 (25 Adar), the Gestapo [sic!] arrived from Wilejka. They surrounded the shtetl from all sides, and the police, both Germans and local Christians, occupied the streets and prepared to carry out executions…. I was still lying ill when I heard shooting coming from the marketplace.… I finally decided to get dressed and to look out into the street. At that moment, I heard the door open and five people enter, three Gestapo men accompanied by two policemen. The children were still asleep but they ordered us all to get dressed and accompany them to the market. My wife woke the children and, because of the severe cold, dressed them warmly. This is the way we went on our final journey…. When we arrived at the marketplace, we saw more than 400 people standing in rows: men, women, and children. More and more people were coming. Later they even brought the infirm on sleds. This was how they assembled all the Jews of Ilja. Many of them wore talleisim and tfilin, wanting to die with "Shma Yisrael" on their lips. During this time, the police, which consisted of local young non-Jews, walked around and demanded that the unfortunate Jews hand over their last possessions, arguing as follows: "Jews, these are your last minutes anyway." Later they demanded their possessions using more "persuasive" measures. They beat and bloodied the Jews with sticks, demanding money and gold. They also used psychological measures, promising that every Jew who handed over his possessions would be allowed to live. When the Jews heard that they could remain alive, they wanted to buy themselves out of a frightening death. Almost everyone said that he had hidden certain valuables and asked to be taken home in order to hand over these possessions. Thus, the Germans escorted the Jews to their homes and there took away the last of their [the Jews'] valuable possessions. After that, however, they [the Germans] took those Jews back to the marketplace and, of course, did not fulfill their promise. Then the murder operation started. First, they not only shot the young children who were being held by their mothers, but they also forced the mothers to carry their dead children. Even though the blood of their children who had been shot was running down their mother's arms, none of the mothers even cried. Everyone's heart had turned to stone…. They kept us in this anguish-filled situation from 6 in the morning until 12 noon. Then the order came that we had to go somewhere else.… We were taken to an orchard, to a structure that the Soviets had built to store vegetables. However, instead of taking us via Minsk Street, they forced us to go through a field covered in deep snow; they had a specific order to shoot anyone who stumbled or fell on the way. … When we finally arrived at the selected location, we were ordered to remain standing. What was going to happen to us next no one knew, but we had the feeling that our lives were about to end. The murderers passed along the rows and put aside all the craftsmen: tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, and all other craftsmen, along with their families. This amounted to 40 men whom they separated from all the others. The rest were then ordered to undress and put down their clothing in front of them…. Groups of up to 10 naked people at a time were driven into the structure. The villains locked the door, doused the structure with gasoline, and set it on fire. Imagine the cries that were heard when the smoke started to choke them and when the fire consumed these holy martyrs.… My wife and three children were in there…. The murderers clearly recognized our anguish and locked us up in a shed until the cries of the victims ceased.