The War
The Mass Murders and Our Escape into the Forest
had a horrible feeling that this roundup was different from the oth - ers. I rushed to get dressed because in the past on such occasions, we quickly ducked into our hiding place to wait it out. My father immediately ordered us to slide into the cellar. I ducked into the entrance with my mother and sisters, and my father assisted Manya Zuker and her baby; David Zuker had already been arrested and killed by then. Asreal’s family of five — his wife, two older children, baby, and sister — appeared and slid into the shelter along with us. Thus, we were thirteen people in our small hiding space. There was barely room to stand, and breathing was difficult with so many people squeezed together. The shelter was not meant to accommodate us for more than a few hours at a time. Then we heard people being driven out of their houses and pushed and beaten toward the square. We heard pounding on doors, screaming from every direction, and the sound of heavy boots run- ning, then kicking and cries for mercy. It was terrible. We waited an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours. Usually, the people had returned to their homes by then. It was hot and the air was fetid, but we did not dare to move and hardly breathed. We were afraid that someone would hear us. No one returned. This time it was different. Then we heard shrieking, smashing, and yelling again, and knew that this was the final hour. We could hear many, many people — over a thousand of our neighbors and friends — being forced out of the ghetto. If they fell behind or cried too much, they were beaten or shot. The sounds became fainter, receding in the direction of the kasharan, and then it was quiet. But not for long, because the silence was broken by the wailing of people be- ing dragged from their houses and hiding places into the square. We waited and waited, but there was only the eerie silence shattered by screams and the sounds of people being dragged and beaten. In our cramped shelter, we had no food, no drinking water, and of course no sanitary facilities. It was pitch black and very hot. The smells of fear were nauseating. Some of us children slumped to the
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