Murder Story of Lenin Jews in the Steblewicze Area

Early in the evening of Thursday, August 13, 1942, reinforced units of the Wehrmacht and the police came to our town from nearby localities – Starobin, Hancewicze, and others. The locals, who had been kept in the dark, wondered what these reinforcements were for. However, at dawn on the following day, August 14, which was a Friday, they realized what was going to happen to them. All the ghetto inmates, from the youngest to the oldest, were ordered out of their homes and assembled beyond the bridge across the lake, in the street next to the commandant's office. All the ghetto streets, as well as the gardens next to them, were surrounded by German soldiers and policemen armed with machine guns and other kinds of weapons. The policemen and soldiers combed through every corner. They made sure that everyone was present at the assembly and went after all the laggards and latecomers. When the entire population of the ghetto had arrived at the collection point, they were arranged in rows of four. Mothers remained with their children, trying not to get separated from them. Family members attempted to stay together.…They all knew what lay in store for them, and were ready for their inevitable death, since there was no way they could avoid it. Most of the people stood silent and still, their hearts petrified, unable to react in any way. Young mothers stood holding their infants, who were peacefully asleep at this early hour, and their lips whispered the prayer: "Sleep, my baby, do not wake; sleep, my child, do not wake." And then the murderers came. They removed certain people and families from the ranks of the doomed and separated them from the rest, intending to keep them alive for a while. Those were the professionals: tailors, shoemakers, and other artisans. Among those who stood apart, there were some young women who, as though guided by some instinct, mingled with the long rows and joined those who were to be left alive, pretending to be "their daughters". Thanks to their quick thinking and good fortune, they managed to stay alive. A total of 28 people survived the massacre: the professionals and their families, in addition to the girls that had joined them. Certainly, the murderers meant to keep them alive only for a brief while, as long as they needed their services – but, as will be told later, a miracle occurred, and these 28 people escaped from the clutches of the executioners and saved their lives. Our people stood in long rows. Helpless and hopeless, they were divided into groups by the murderers and loaded onto trucks. They were taken to a notorious blood-soaked hill on the way to the village of Steblewicze, across from the fruit garden of the Agarkov farmstead. There, a grave, in the form of deep ditches, had been prepared for them. On the edge of the grave, the evil murderers undressed the residents of our town and fired at them with machine guns. The voices of the victims terrified the Christian residents who witnessed the unbearable massacre. The corpses of the tortured martyrs rolled over and fell into the pit by themselves. Afterward, the murderers stacked the corpses in layers, one on top of the other. Their blood was all mixed. The blood of the little children and nursing infants was mingled with that of their mothers and grandparents. There is no doubt that many of them were buried while still alive. The truckloads of the doomed civilians kept arriving at the scene, and the horrible massacre was over in an hour.