Murder story of Nowe Swieciany Jews in the Baranowo Forest

On Tuesday, July 22, 1941, at 4 AM, the [anti-Soviet Lithuanian] partisans knocked on the doors of Jewish residences, and began to drive men into the street. It is difficult to describe the panic that gripped the Jews. Before driving the Jews out of their homes, the partisans ordered them to take food for three days, a towel, and some soap. The partisans promised the panicking Jews that they would take the men to work on the telephone lines. Some of the Jews were driven into the street barefoot and in their underwear. They drove all the men to the partisan headquarters [sic], where the SS thugs were waiting for them. The SS officers summoned the men to the headquarters one by one, and forced them to sign some document that had been drawn up beforehand. These degenerates asked the captives to give their names, dates of birth, and professions. After the document had been signed, they drove the men at a running pace into the basement of the headquarters building, which turned out to be a prison. In total, they locked up 48-50 men. One of these prisoners was the former chief bookkeeper of the Jewish People's Bank, Yankel-Velvl Shvarts.… He said that he was certain that they were being taken away to their deaths, rather than to work. His words made a catastrophic impression on the inmates. The people sat there, their heads bowed in despair.… Near the small, barred window stood the renowned Jew Yisroel Portnoi, the former owner of a flourmill.… They held the Jews in the basement for several hours. After that, the door opened, and the partisans selected a group of about fifteen men and led them out into the courtyard; there, a truck was waiting for them. They were ordered to get inside, and then driven away.… Half an hour later, they [the partisans] came back to take another sixteen men, who were also loaded onto the truck. Yisroel Portnoi was in this second group. The last nineteen men were taken out of the basement exactly half an hour after that, and they, too, were loaded onto the truck. Fayvl Khayet, the author of this eyewitness account, was in this last group. All the men were ordered to sit down in the truck, so as to prevent anyone else from seeing them.… The truck traveled 150 meters in the area of the "Poligon", and stopped on a track in a sparse forest. The partisans jumped down from the truck and ordered the captives to get down and stand in a line, one after the other. Near a hill, the captives saw a pit that had been dug a short time beforehand. Fayvl Khayet could see Yisroel Portnoi lying dead near the pit, his cap near him. Everyone understood.… Third in line was the Hassidic butcher from the town.… Suddenly, he yelled 'Shma Yisrael!' and ran away. The partisans gave chase, shooting at him. There was chaos. The one-handed cripple Shloyme Volfson also tried to run away in a different direction, and they shot at him, too. Fayvl decided to take advantage of the chaos and ran in a third direction, where the forest was denser. The partisans shot at him, too – but, fortunately, they missed.