11 October 1942

Historical Events from the Holocaust

(Excerpted from Ostrowiec; A Monument on the Ruins of an Annihilated Jewish Community (Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Poland, translation of  Sefer Ostrovtsah: le-zikaron ule-'edut, Editor: Gershon Silberberg, Meir Shimon Geshuri, Tel Aviv 1971

Sunday 11 October 1942- The Day of Destruction: The Liquidation of the Ghetto
Sunday before dark, 1st of Heshvan 5703 (11th October, 1942) the town was surrounded by S.S. men, the Schutzpollizei, the gendarmerie, the Lithuanian and Polish police. The Jewish police went from place to place and compelled everybody to leave their homes; the employed ones were sent to the labour office located on the Florian Square, near the Town Council, while the non-employed were assembled in the market place. Suddenly shots range from all sides. Old people and children were shot on the spot, children shot in front of their parents, and parents in the presence of their children; sick people in the hospital were shot lying in their beds. The able-bodied were pushed with sticks from place to place. The employed ones could not reach their destination, as on both sides of the street stood S.S. men with whips in hand preventing them from continuing on their errand. The owners of the workshop, accompanied by the Jewish chairman of the firm, brought lists of their workers, and holding the lists in their hands assembled the workers in specially designed rows, where they were left standing the whole evening, to be later transported to their working places.

The non-employed were left standing the whole day on the market place, witnessing their kin and beloved killed and murdered cruelly. Later they were brought to the courtyard of the Polish elementary school in Sienkiewicza Street, and left there in the open till Tuesday without a drop of water or a spoonful of food to sustain them.