Murder Story of Nieśwież Jews in a Park near the Nieśwież Castle

... On October 29 a group of Jews was ordered to bring cattle from Nieśwież to the railway station in Horodziej. I was one of them. However, the order was suddenly canceled and a different one was issued: on October 30 at 8 a. m. the entire Jewish population was to assemble at the market square to have their documents checked. Their hearts quaked. The Jews thought of various possibilities: perhaps the Germans only planned to loot their homes and would release them when the "action" was over. Or, perhaps, once again, they would take hostages so that we would pay to redeem them. Or, who knows, perhaps they were planning to do the same horrible thing that they did in western Poland.... The Belarusian policemen maintained order with great cruelty. As carpenters, my father, brother, and I were made to stand to the right, with other skilled workers. Many families were separated, with some members being sent to the right and others to the left. Meanwhile, armed German soldiers surrounded the market. Machineguns were set up around the square. 585 Jewish specialists with their families were taken from the market to the yard of the gymnasium [high school]. We did not know what our fate would be.... Some time later a German came to the gymnasium looking for people to work. Zelda Damasek, who was taken for work at that time, later related the following: "We were ordered to climb into a truck that was parked next to the gymnasium. When the truck moved and crossed the square, we noticed that the driver was taking us to the square in front of the palace of Prince Radziwiłł. The whole way there we saw Jews being marched along or standing under guard with Germans soldiers on both sides of them. The truck came to a stop at a certain distance from the church. However, there was no possibility of getting through the people who were being marched along the middle of the street. While we were in the truck, we heard the voice of an infant crying bitterly because it could not cope with the hunger it was suffering from since it had been taken from its cradle early in the morning and had had no food in its mouth since. One of the German soldiers who were guarding the Jews became angry with the infant who was disturbing the quiet and cursed him. Since I was short and was standing in the middle of a truck I could only hear people around me saying: "The soldier grabbed the baby" and, then, a minute later "he strangled it." The crying ceased.... We were overcome by our feelings. Once again terror ruled our hearts and hope faded. After this the convoy [of trucks] continued and turned into one of the streets.... On that day approximately 4,000 Jews were taken from the market square to be killed, about 2,000 Jews - via Snów, and about 2,000 - to the Radziwiłł Palace. The children, who were shot to death or half shot to death, were thrown into a separate pit before their parents' eyes and, then, the Germans threw hand grenades into the pit.... The peasants said that they [the Germans] dug a trench next to the pits to collect the blood and that they had not heard the shooting. Eyewitnesses said that for some days the earth that covered the victims was heaving....