Murder of the Nowa Wilejka Jews in Wieluciany

Wieluciany, twelve kilometers from Vilnius, was the place where juvenile delinquents had been held [before the war]. On the second and third days of Rosh Hashanah [September 23-24, 1941], the Jews from the towns surrounding Vilnius – Jaszuny [sic!], Andreliszki, Kiena, Miedniki, Szumsk, Nowa Wilejka, Rukojnie, Krzyżanowo, and others – were driven into the premises that used to house these delinquents, and into the nearby warehouses and stables. They were joined by the Jews, as many as 400 people, who had been working at the peateries of Kiena, and by the thirty Jews from Vilnius who had been held at the Komarowo estate near Szumsk. More than 100 Jews were sent to dig pits. They believed that these pits were intended for potato storage. In the morning, another group of Jews was called in to dig pits, and these ones were not allowed to return, but were shot on the spot. I tried to run away. A bullet hit me in the shoulder, close to the heart, and I fell down unconscious. A Lithuanian ran up to me, shot me in the leg, and pulled my boots off. When the area quieted down, I regained consciousness and crawled into the bushes, to a peasant [hut]. The shooters were ten-twelve Lithuanians. The people were shot in batches of ten, while standing on a special ladder leading into the pit.

In late September 1941, the town [of Nowa Wilejka] was surrounded by Lithuanian soldiers. They ordered us all to get out, taking only a few things along, and drove us to the barracks. We were 617 men there. At night, they drove us, under a hail of curses and blows, to Wieluciany, six kilometers from Nowa Wilejka, where, they told us, a new ghetto had been prepared for us. In about two hours, we came to Wieluciany, where we were housed in the remains of the former 'outhouses'. We were under a heavy guard. Before nightfall, they brought in a large number of Jews from nearby towns and villages. There were Jews from Szumsk, Jaszuny [sic!], Kiena, and other places – a total of more than 2,000 men. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, in late September 1941, some Jews were taken away. They came back during the night and said that they had dug a pit. Feeling apprehensive, we asked a Lithuanian lieutenant what it meant, and he replied that it was part of a new sewage system.… Early in the morning, the able-bodied men were assembled in two groups and led away. I was among them. After walking for half an hour, we found ourselves standing before unfinished pits. We were ordered to take shovels and finish digging them. An hour later, a Lithuanian Gestapo officer came and ordered us to work faster. After two hours of hard labor, the pit – twenty-five meters long, four meters wide, and three meters deep – was ready. At about 11 AM, the guard was reinforced. A Lithuanian civilian brought some schnapps and distributed it to the guards in large glasses. Afterward, a German ordered us to sit down along the edge of the pit, place our hands on our heads, and then climb down into the pit. He picked ten men – but, in reality, many more people went down into the pit. There was chaos, and many [Jews] tried to run away. The drunken Lithuanian soldiers shot at their backs. However, as I would later learn, some fifteen men were able to save themselves in this way. I lay down in a corner of the pit. Other Jews fell on top of me. And so, we lay there, waiting. In a short time, I could hear many shots. I couldn't see what was going on above the pit, but I realized that someone was firing upon the people in the pit from outside. Shortly thereafter, a stream of other people's blood washed over me. I heard a German instruct two Jews to check which of the men were merely wounded. Those who were wounded would immediately receive another bullet and fall silent. The two Jews asked the Germans to spare them, but the Germans, laughing, shot them, too. Then, the Lithuanians, like hyenas, searched the pockets of the dead for any valuables…. One of them stepped on me with his boot; another tried to check my empty pockets. However, I was covered with so much blood that they left me alone. Half an hour later, I heard new cracks. Dead bodies fell into the pit, and there were women and children crying. Elderly Jews recited the 'Shema Yisrael' and fell into the pit. An old woman cried at the edge of the pit: "My son, I have come to you!" – and was hit by a bullet. When it was quiet, I shook off the dead bodies pressing upon me, got out of the pit, and crawled on my fours into the forest.… My wife and child remained forever in the mass grave in Wieluciany.