Tag #116399 - Interview #78774 (Fania Brantsovskaya)

Every day men were taken away. At first they explained they were taken to work and men were ordered to take towels and soap with them. But people said they were taken to shooting grounds. On 11th July shootings in Ponary, a dacha [cottage] village 12 kilometers from the town began. It became a death factory. The Soviet authorities had built huge concrete pits to store fuel, but failed to ever get to use them. When those pits were full of dead bodies the victims were forced to dig graves before they were shot themselves. The Jewish population was to pay the contribution of 5 million Marks and we, just like everyone else, gave away all our money and valuables.