Kovno

The children in our camp was well looked after, they were never hungry, they were never short of food, they were looked after. They were sheltered as much as possible, and then on baby blessings all the time, our most prominent Rabbis blessed them and people were prepared to give their lives for them, but the prayer was, “Save our children”, the children must not be harmed, and there was a genuine conviction that there will be divine intervention where the children were concerned. On the 28th of March a detachment of Ukrainian militia walked in with orders to eliminate, not only the children, but anybody who was non productive, which means the old, the sick, the ill, the disabled, and that. We were at work, I don’t know what would have happened if we would have been there, if the able bodied bodies, men had been in the camp, but we were at work, and the most cruel, in the most cruel manner, the babies were separated from their mothers, some mothers were shot, some mothers went with their children, they were thrown into wagons, into lorries, the old and the sick were also forced in, it was a blood bath, and they were taken to a local spot where they were executed, and that was on the 28th of March [1944] by a detachment of Ukrainian militia.

How did you manage? We wanted to go on strike but the kapos said, “Remember what happened to the French Jews, what happened to the German Jews, what happened to the Russian prisoners of war, you will starve to death if you don’t go out to work.” So after a day we went out to work. It is amazing how much punishment one can take.