Murder Story of Minsk Jews at the Jewish Cemetery in Minsk

…On February 19 Ribbe [SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Ruebe, a security police official in Minsk] made the rounds of the factories where the German Jews were working and noticed several beautiful young women and girls. He selected the most beautiful women – twelve German Jewish women and one Russian, Lina Noy. Ribbe ordered them to report to the labor exchange at 6:00 PM. Ribbe arrived at the labor exchange together with Michelson [a translator at the Minsk Security Police office]. Ignorant of their fate, the victims were already there. The street was noisy. The columns of workers were returning home, and many stopped and waited. Everyone wanted to know why Ribbe had selected the most beautiful girls and women. Ribbe gave the order to take the women by the arm and lead them at a slow pace down Sukhaya Street. A groan went through the ghetto: Sukhaya Street led to the cemetery. It was a terrible procession: thirteen young, beautiful women walked slowly toward the cemetery gates. One German Jewish woman asked to be allowed to say goodbye to her husband. Ribbe granted permission for this, and the husband was brought to the cemetery and shot before his wife's eyes. Those animals stripped the women naked and mocked them. Then Ribbe and Michelson personally shot them….

…The fascists committed the same kind of atrocity on Red Army Day, February 23, 1942. On that day, the same methods of bestial abuse of a defenseless population as those of November 7 were repeated. The only difference was that, due to a shortage of trucks, the unfortunate people were formed into columns and driven on foot to the murder site [the Jewish cemetery]….

…There was a so-called ordnance camp near Minsk, where captured Russian guns, machine guns, ammunition, etc., were stored. Here, about 200 men and women were working, maintaining the weapons. The manager of this camp supplied the women with aprons to protect their clothes. Ten girls, the most beautiful ones from Bruenn [i.e. Jewish deportees from Bruenn, present-day Brno in the Czech Republic] put on these aprons without the prescribed Jewish stars. Only Miss Munk from Bruenn was careful enough to attach the Jewish star. Suddenly, SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Ruebe arrived at this camp, saw one girl without a star, ordered all of them to come to the office, and told them: "Well, this evening you have to report to the camp management office. You will spend a night in the bunker, because you did not wear the Jewish stars!" "A night in the bunker" meant imprisonment. In the evening, the girls, laughing and joking, came to the camp management office to spend the night under arrest. Ignorant of the situation, they "made themselves up" – i.e. put on lipstick – although such things were forbidden. Ruebe took the girls to the cemetery and shot them….