Murder Story of Slonim Jews at the Pietralowicze Hill

…It was on July 17, [1941], at 4 AM. At this hour, a company consisting of hundreds of SS men entered and surrounded several streets, so that it was impossible to go out. They placed large trucks near the ghetto and started searching house after house. All men aged 15 and older were forced out of their beds and ordered to pack all their belongings into bundles and load them onto the vehicles. Having finished plundering, they beat the men savagely with rubber truncheons, drove them out of their homes, and forced them to run across the "Platz" in the direction of the square in front of the People's House (Narodnyi Dom). There, another group of SS men stood, and they forced the men to undress and emptied their pockets. They tore up all the documents and confiscated all money and valuables. Every 20-30 minutes, cars would arrive, taking dozens of men in an unknown direction. The pogrom went on until 11 AM; at this hour, the order to halt was issued. Only 180 men remained in the courtyard, and they were driven back to their homes with blows. This operation targeted only a certain isolated area of the ghetto; in its other sectors, no one knew or saw what went on there.… In the course of this raid, some 1,200 men were driven from the town. Most of them were young, but there were also some elderly individuals among them. None of the remaining inmates knew what had happened to them, and different hypotheses were advanced.… People said that one woman, whose husband was among those seized, had asked a German officer, and he said that there was no hope: Her husband would never come back. We refused to believe it. How was it possible to execute people for no reason, for no crime?... Zina Szpilkowska (née Suchodolska), whose entire family had been seized on that day, left the town with two other women to search for her missing relatives. Although it was forbidden to leave the town at this time, the women took the risk. Furtively, they kept moving along the roads, until they stumbled upon a mound that looked like a fresh grave. They began to dig with their bare hands, and soon exposed some buried human bodies. They covered the remains and returned to the town. People still did not believe them. Some said: "Let's not make the people panic; perhaps these were the bodies of runaways; perhaps only the elderly men were killed, while the young ones were sent to labor camps." …Weeks passed, and no news came.… People could not believe that the men who had been seized were no longer among the living.

At 4 AM, the ghetto was encircled by armed units that took up positions all along the perimeter of the fence. At 5 AM, there was a trumpet blast. From my window, I could see convoys of tanks and trucks full of gendarmes approaching the main gate of the ghetto. We felt trapped.… The fence wires were tough. A boy who tried to get through the wire mesh was killed by a bullet on the spot. Kwint, the head of the labor office [of the Judenrat]…, was standing guard near the ghetto gate, as was his custom.… All of a sudden, a car entered, and then a second one, in which the butcher Rithmeyer sat. He stepped down from the car, made several steps toward Kwint, and asked loudly: "How are you, Kwint?" Kwint stepped toward him. His hand rose toward his hat in order to remove it, but he failed to complete his movement: Two or three bullets shot by Rithmeyer from his pistol, at a range of several centimeters, cut his life short.… Hundreds of bandits swarmed into the ghetto, among them Germans, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians, armed with axes and other implements.… Those who had broken into the narrow streets of the ghetto did not find anyone there. They entered the houses and drove the Jews who had failed to hide into the street. But there was no one else. "Where are the Jews?" the murderers asked each other. The Germans rushed down the streets and yelled loudly: "Jews, get out of your shelters!" I witnessed all these things. I did not hide, and thus they dragged me from my house into the street. I stood there together with thirty or forty other people who had similarly failed to hide. We were handed over to a Latvian company, which led us through the main gate out of the ghetto.… At this time, a fire broke out in the section of the ghetto that stretched between the two bridges. The Fritzes went from house to house, poured petroleum on them, and set them on fire. Most of the ghetto buildings were wooden, and in 15 minutes they were all ablaze.… Those hiding inside were forced to leave their shelters, [which were located] mainly under the burning houses. From a distance, I could see them going out: dozens, hundreds of men, women, elderly people, and children. The Germans seized babies and threw them back into the flames.… [B]efore our eyes, the death march of the Jewish community of Słonim was going on.… The columns passed between the pillars of fire and smoke and walked eastward, toward the Pietralowicze village….

As Rithmeyer’s car drove up, [Gerszon] Kwint stepped forward out of line. Rithmeyer stepped out of the car. Kwint removed his hat, bowed, and said politely, "How is the Herr Stabsleiter?" Rithmeyer’s reply came from his revolver. Kwint fell backward to the ground. His hat rolled off his head and stopped near the limp, outstretched hand. Mimicking a Yiddish accent, Rithmeyer repeated, "Vos machn zi, Herr Stabsleiter?" Kwint was still shuddering convulsively as Rithmeyer barked: "Don’t you have anything else to say to me?" Another officer came up and shot Kwint again.… The bullet that killed Kwint made it absolutely clear to everyone that the last act of the Slonim tragedy was about to begin. The Jewish police, who all this time were standing at their posts, now fled in all directions…. For the waiting murder squads, Rithmeyer’s shot was a signal to begin their day’s work. With cries of "Raus! Raus!" they burst into the ghetto, firing from their automatic weapons in all directions.