Murder story of Troki Jews in the Worniki Forest

In the winter of 1942, I don't remember the exact month, the German [sic!] police arrested a group of Jews, along with two or three Roma. About 12 AM, as I was passing by the building of the prison, I saw a group of German policemen transporting the aforementioned Jews and Roma on two horse-drawn carts. They were taking them to the site across the lake, where the previous mass shooting of the Jewish population had taken place. At this time, I could see with my own eyes that [the prison warden] Petras Petrošius, who was standing in the courtyard, loaded his rifle and joined the aforementioned policemen. They came back an hour and a half later.… On the next day, I met Petras Petrošius and asked him what they had done to that group of Jews and Roma. Petrošius replied that they had shot all of them, and added: "One blow, and how well the brain is flying!" …One of the Jews had had a plush jacket; for some days after the shooting, Petras Petrošius wore this jacket.

In the winter of 1942, I don't remember the exact month, a group of German [sic!] policemen – including Petras Petrošius, who was armed with a rifle – took several Jews and two or three Roma from the prison, loaded them on two horse-drawn carts, and transported them to the site across the lake, where the previous mass shooting of the Jewish population had taken place. The aforementioned policemen and Petras Petrošius were drunk when they went to shoot the Jews and the Roma. I could see all this with my own eyes as I was passing by the prison building. These people shot the Jews and the Roma, as I would later learn from local residents.

In late September 1941, I lived in the village of Worniki in the Troki District. I don't remember the exact date. At about 5 or 6 AM, a policeman armed with a pistol came to my home and told us that no one was to leave the house; the cattle had to stay in the cowshed, and we had to cover our windows with curtains. Whoever failed to obey this order would be shot. However, after he had left, we did not cover our windows, but began to watch what was going on. Somewhere around 9 AM, I saw from a window that some people in civilian clothing, with sticks in their hands, were driving a group of people, young men aged 25-40, along the road from Bernardinu Lake [i.e., from the west]. The guards were beating them with their sticks and shouting at them in Lithuanian "greičiau" [faster!]. Three more such groups were escorted past our house. Each of them numbered several hundred people. The second group was made up of young women and girls; the third one consisted of elderly men and women; the fourth group included pregnant women and children (ranging from babies to 4-5-year-olds), who were being transported in horse-drawn carts. Judging by their appearance, I woud say that they were of Jewish nationality. After they had vanished from our sight, we heard the sounds of gunfire somewhere near our house. The shots rang out in volleys. The shooting began at about 10 AM, and it was over sometime in the afternoon. At about 6 or 7 PM, I took my cows out to pasture. In a ravine about a kilometer from my house, I saw a ditch full of dead human bodies. They were covered with a thin layer of sand, but one could see some body parts. The groans of the wounded emanated from the ditch. Not far from there, I saw a large heap of clothing, which was being guarded by two policemen and two men in civilian clothing. I could not recognize any of them.