Murder story of Dzerzhinsk Jews in the Dzerzhinsk Forest

… Along the main street there flowed a living “river” that also carried along our family. We helped father walk, he was praying and many others began praying too. Gradually a thick ring of people praying formed around him. Around them women and children were weeping. It was raining: the drops were small, frequent, and cold. Everyone was soaked to the skin but we didn’t notice it. Along the sides of the road, ten paces apart, in helmets and raincoats stood the fascists, with dogs. We continued walking straight ahead, as if along a corridor, no one was pushing us or touching us. What is surprising is that no one tried to break out of the “corridor.” The area of the army recruiting office was surrounded by barbed wire. Our family happened to enter a building that was so full of people you couldn’t even find a place to sit on the floor. Many people couldn’t get in and remained in the soaking rain. Very soon it was hard to breathe in the building; the moaning, crying, and groaning did not cease and many people continued to pray. I don’t know how long this lasted: it seemed that the light had gone forever and that we would not leave there alive. Suddenly a command rang out: all men capable of working were to come outside to be collected for work. I wanted to go outside with my brother but father stopped me. He ordered me to stay with my mother and sister, to take care of them. He took Gershko [Yakov's brother] by the hand and they left. We never saw them again. Later we learned that the men were forced to dig large pits into which, later, their bodies and the bodies of those who were shot after them were thrown. The shootings took place not far from the recruiting office, in a forest, while they took the young people into a field…. After getting rid of the men, they brought out the women - those with children and those without. They could either take their children with them or leave them behind in the recruiting office with good people. Most of the women left their sons and daughters and went to their deaths alone. Closer to evening it was announced that women with three or more children could go home, the others would be killed. Our mother had only two children left. And then a miracle happened: a girl we didn’t know approached Mamma and asked to join us as if she were our sister. She was our saving angel. Mamma took the girl by the hand, embraced her, and we went to the door. No one stopped us….