Murder Story of Slutsk Jews at the Former Mokharty Estate

... On November 7 the ghetto was already surrounded by a reinforced guard of Lithuanians and no one was let out to go to work. Early on the 8th Lithuanians entered the ghetto and started to take the Jews by truck out of town. They abused the Jews in various terrible ways - tore little children from their mothers' arms and shot them on the spot. Little children were [also] thrown to the ground and killed, etc. At that time some Jews, about 10 men, had weapons in their possession. They began to defend themselves and shot at the Germans. When they encountered this resistance, the Germans decided to burn down the entire ghetto,[containing] all the houses with Jews. They poured gasoline on all the houses and set them on fire. A large proportion of Slutsk's Jews perished in the flames. The rest [of the Jews] were shot outside the town, where special graves had been prepared in a swampy area....

...On Monday, February 6, 1943, the entire area was surrounded, and they began to load people onto trucks. Pinkhos was taken first. Then they took Mamma and the children. That was at 9:00 a. m. They took me at one in the afternoon. I can still hear the screams of our little sisters as they were taken to be shot. Roza was shot. Children and men who had been wounded when resisting [the killers] were with me in the truck. We were taken down the Bobruysk Road. The truck was covered with a tarpaulin. Two Germans sat with us. I decided to jump off. It was better to die on the road. The truck was moving very rapidly. I had a razor blade. I cut the canvas from the window down and jumped out....

... We lived in the ghetto until Purim 1943, we stayed together. The day before Purim, in the evening, some Jews who lived close to the fence noticed that there was considerable movement, that there were many Germans outside the fence. We understood that the ghetto had been surrounded by troops, which meant that something was about to take place. We had information from other cities, e.g. from Baranovichi [Baranowicze], Minsk, etc. that there all the Jews had been annihilated. This had somehow been transmitted to us and we were preparing for this, for something like this to happen to us also. Well, on the eve of Purim we realized that the ghetto had been surrounded, which meant that something was about to happen. On the morning of Purim we were all supposed to go out to work. When we arrived at the fence, there were already Judenrat [Judenrat members], representatives of the German command, and policemen standing around at the gates. We were already undergoing selection. Those who were to go to work were put in one column, in one place, those we were not - in another. We were separated, about 15-18 men, metal craftsmen, shoemakers, tailors, specialists and put on one side..., the rest, also workers, [were put] on the other side. We were taken away ..., put onto a truck and taken to prison. The rest were also taken away and also put into prison, but separately from us. When they began to liquidate the ghetto, when they began to load all the people onto the trucks, the tears and screams began, but it was too late, that was that. Those who remained were shot there on the spot, in the courtyard, in the ghetto itself, and the ghetto was burned down. Who burned it down I cannot say. In my opinion the ghetto was set on fire by the Jews themselves, they set it ablaze ....

... We lived under such conditions in constant fear until February 8, 1943. On that morning the ghetto was surrounded. The Judenrat ordered all the people to go to work, but at the entrance there were big covered trucks and people were pushed into them. I guessed what was going to happen. I had dug a secret hole under a fence and covered it with snow, but several girls were standing there. The day was cold [and] Germans and policemen were jumping up and down there to warm up; even they felt the cold. Sometimes they would run quite far away from the hole. I waited until such a moment and said to the girls: "I will go first and you after me." I hardly managed to get out [of the hole] when shots of automatic rifles were heard. I hid in a barn and, from my hiding place, I saw all the horror that was taking place in our town. On that day I became a grey-haired boy.