Murder Story of Minsk Jews in Drozdy

…When the German occupiers entered Minsk, they published a decree calling for the mandatory registration of all men aged eighteen to fifty. As it turned out, no registration was carried out; all those who reported to the place indicated for "registration" were marched out of town in formation by the Germans to an open field.… The thirteenth day. Ten o'clock in the morning. A car drives up. There is an announcement that all Poles should go to the left, all Russians to the right…an area beside the stream will be set aside for the Jews. It is cordoned off with thick ropes. The crowd begins to divide itself as ordered. Criminals seize the moment: from one Jew they steal food, from another a raincoat, from another a jacket or shoes. Things reach the point where people are standing in nothing but their underwear. The Germans stand off to one side and laugh. Germans stand around the field with rubber truncheons. Some of them drive the Jews toward the ropes and beat them with clubs. Criminals help the Germans to persecute the Jews. Anyone who resists is beaten to death or shot.… The seventeenth day in the morning. Toward ten o'clock, a car with a translator arrives. There is an announcement that all Jews who are engineers, doctors, technicians, bookkeepers, teachers, or have other intellectual professions must register themselves. They are releasing them from the camp and sending them to work. The registration begins. They sign up all the members of the intelligentsia, form them up and lead them away from the workers. It gets dark. Beside the Jews and the POWs, there is no one else in the field. The nineteenth day, before dawn. It is still dark. The roar of vehicles can be heard. Trucks drive up to the intelligentsia, load them, and take them off "to work". About twenty minutes go by after the departure of the trucks, then a burst of machine gun fire is heard. Fifteen minutes later, the trucks return and again take people away. In this way, they take away all the intelligentsia, leaving only the workers. An officer appeared, selected two hundred or so working men, and took them off on foot "to work"….

...In July 1941, on the orders of the German command, I was incarcerated in the concentration camp of Drozdy. The camp was divided into several sections: for military men, for Jews, and for members of other ethnicities. On July 15, the lists of specialists were compiled, [and] the Germans murdered these people….

…The German authorities issued an order for all men aged 16 to 60 to come forth to be registered. They were all ordered to come to Gospitalnaya Street. This was shortly after the occupation of Minsk. The Belarusians were released, while the Jews were taken to Drozdy. Here, tens of thousands of people were assembled. The place was cordoned off with ropes. There was a river nearby. Everybody was kneeling. Those who tried to stand up were shot. Jewish doctors, teachers etc. were registered. All those registered were taken aside and shot…