Władysław Karol

"The Germans came, and what? We worked on our land and that’s it. The Germans would not take us. Some were taken to the police here and there were also Byelorussian battalions. I was still a little boy then. They wanted to take me away to Germany, but I ran away. (...) from Braslaw. In Braslaw we had to get on a train, and there was a long queue. From that queue they took people to Dūkštas in Lithuania. And we ran away. Nobody looked for us later on. And we stayed, as if we were in Germany. (...) we were already driven to the train. And in Braslaw, if you were in Braslaw, where there is a cemetery. There was a secondary school there. And they gathered us all at that school and led us to the train from that school. And there were buildings nearby, some pigsties or something. And we ran away. So, we stayed there and waited a little bit and in the evening it was already dark. And we came home and nobody was looking for us and, thus, we stayed. And they were already taking us away."

"Them, Jews! They were in real trouble, as people used to say. There were many Jews in Słobódka. There were Jewish shops. And they were right away... They would sew such pieces of cloth on them, the letter “J” for “JUDA”. With such a yellow stroke “Ju” at the front and on the back, and they were walking and then driven to the Ghetto in Braslaw and executed by firing squads there. They suffered such a fate. At the site where they were executed there is a Jewish cemetery now. Some of them ran away, that’s true. But, this way or another, they were caught later. People were hiding them, but they could be also executed, both the Jews and the hosts for keeping the Jews. Not in Słobódka but in the villages, there were such houses and in the forest. There were places they were hiding but they were finally executed, caught. There were various shops. There were various shops and materials, such various materials. They even sold them at that house, you could even have a nice suit made. Various materials, imported foodstuffs and spices it was called, seven or eight shops in Słobódka. And the Jews were in real trouble! They were executed by firing squads without trial. When you were a Jew, Jude, then, Jude kaput! O, gut gut and Jude kaput... Well pogroms. Who did pogroms? The Germans only did pogroms..."