Aranovitch-Rozowsky report

TRANSLATION of Document in Yad VaShem Archives, Jerusalem

THE ANNIHILATION OF THE JEWS IN THE SMALL LITHUANIAN SHTETEL PAKROY

Joint evidence of: Pesach Aranovitch, born in Shavel 18.5.1913, father Shmuel, mother Freda. Between 1939 and 1941 lived in Shavel. Education: Physician, oculist. Gershon Rozowsky, born in small shtetel Shatuve on 15.4.1909, father Heshel, mother Rochel. Between 1932 and the outbreak of the war lived in Pakroy with his wife Leah and son Moshe. His parents then also lived in Shatzuve. Pakroy is in the Shavel district, 35 km from Shavel, 55 km from Ponevez. The river Kroya flows through the shtetel. It is on the narrow gauge railway line between Shavel and Birzh. At the outbreak of the war on 22.6.41 the total population was about 2,500. There were about 80 Jewish families.Most of the Pakroy Jews earned their living in commerce, a small number were artisans. Relations between the Jews and the Lithuanians were not bad.
The shtetel had the following large enterprises:

a. A flour mill owned by David Maisel.

b. A sawmill owned by Luria.

c. A few big lime ovens owned by Shenkman, Tray and others.

Big iron ware businesses owned by Kolitzman, Wolk, Kaplan. Big manufacturing businesses owned by the merchants Israel Kaplan, Aaron Schneider. Pakroy had a Hebrew primary school, a branch of the Volksbank, two libraries (Yiddish and Hebrew), three batei midrash. Most of the Jewish youth belonged to the local Zionist youth movements.

Up to1937 the Lithuanian attitude to the Pakroy Jews was not bad. However, Verslas did everything to damage these relations. With the arrival of the Red Army the anti-Semites intensified their agitation which did not have an inconsiderable influence. The Lithuanians could not tolerate a situation where Jews had equal status and held the same jobs as Lithuanians if they had the right qualifications. At the outbreak of the war Pesach was in Kovno. The following day, 23rd June 1941, he travelled by train as far as Beisegola. Here the train was bombed by the German air force. Many Kovno Jews, passengers, were killed and wounded. Pesach walked to Pakroy. Already on Monday Jews from shtetlach close to the German border had fled to Pakroy. On Tuesday many Jews started leaving Pakroy with the aim of reaching the USSR. On Wednesday and Thursday, 25th and 26th June, Jews from Shavel and surrounding shtetlach passed through Pakroy. On Friday, 27th June, almost all the Jews of Pakroy fled in the direction of Birzh/Riga; hundreds, including women and children, fled, by foot and by cart, all with the same aim: to flee from the German fascism to the Soviet Union.When these Jews approached the shtetel Yanishkel the partisans were already active and in control and stopped the Jews from fleeing. They arrested many Jewish men and shot tens of them. All this took place while the Red Army was still present in the district. There were no Germans yet in Yanishkel. The Jews who had been arrested in Yanishkel were imprisoned in the local prison and in a storeroom. Twenty four hours later they released the men after robbing them of everything. Gershon and his wife together with other Pakroy Jews were also in Yanishkel. On their return to Pakroy the Jews already saw some German military near the shtetel. The Germans entered Pakroy on Saturday morning, 27th June. The soldiers quickly marched through the shtetel. The administration of Pakroy was immediately taken over by the partisans.

The Virsheitis (similar to mayor) became the Raslausros of Pakroy. The leader of the Pakroy partisans was the Pakroy Lithuanian Indrulis. His chief was Advocate Pozela of Pakroy. The newly formed administration immediately introduced the well-known edicts against the Jews. Acts of revenge started against innocent Jews by inhabitants of Pakroy and the surrounding villages. A few kilometers from Pakroy in the hamlet Klovainiaui lived a Jewish family who owned a mill. The owner of the mill had been a volunteer in the war of independence of Lithuania and a member of the Sauliui (Riflers) Union. The miller’s name was Isserman. Five days after the outbreak of the war, Thursday, the partisans shot him, his sister and brother in law. The partisan who shot these people was Grigeliunas. A Jewish carter of Pakroy, Moshe Platzki, was a member of the Communist Party. Haim Eidelman joined the Party as a formality, he was a teacher by profession. A few days after the Germans arrived both were arrested, kept for a short time in the Pakroy prison and shot without trial and explanation. They had been transferred to the Shavel prison. In a similar manner they shot the Jew David Rubinstein who was a Communist. Yankel Epstein, Zundel Maisel and David Maisel were arrested, kept in the Pakroy prison and released after paying extortion money. In the mornings the Jewish men and women. They were ordered to report at a place near the partisan headquarters. From there they were sent out on various jobs, such as working in the fields of the estate of Baron von Rop, sweeping streets, scrubbing floors, and so on. There were no armed guards during work. After work the Jews went home. On the fourth day after the arrival of the Germans the partisans arrested 60 refugees from Poland. They had been living in Pakroy as a kibbutz hachshara.

On the fifth day after the arrival of the Germans the partisans arrested another 50 Jewish men. Both above groups, and 30 additional men, were sent to the Shavel prison. Amongst these were the undersigned, Pesach Aranovitch and Gershon Rozowsky. These 31 Jews were kept in the Shavel prison for one month and then released. For details see the report by Hirsch Schuster about the extermination of the Jews in Shavel. After their release from prison the Pakroyer heard from a Lithuanian from Pakroy, Eduard Usinskas, and his wife, about the annihilation of the Jews in the shtetel. They told them that there was a public notice ordering all Jewish men to report at the synagogue by a certain time. After the men had gathered, trucks drew up and took all of them away to Morkekalnas where they were shot. The partisans assured the distraught women that the men had been taken away to work.

Then the women and children and the few remaining men were expelled from their houses and concentrated in the area near the synagogue. This area was cordoned off by barbed wire. It was guarded by Lithuanian murderers. The women were kept in this ghetto for one week, and then were led by foot to Morkakalnes and all were shot. With the help of a Lithuanian girl Pesach smuggled a letter to the Jewish doctor of Pakroy, Dr. Schreiber. This was immediately after Pesach had been released from the Shavel prison. Schreiber sent a reply, in Lithuanian. In this note he wrote that Pesach’s parents were no longer in the shtetel and that they would never return…. …In the note Schreiber advised Pesach not to come to Pakroy. Eduard Usinskas told Pesach that his mother had been shot the day before Pesach was released from the Shavel prison. This means that the women and children were shot on Thursday, 6th August, 1941. Pesach’s father was shot exactly a week before, that is on Thursday, 31st July, 1941. He was taken away in the morning in the direction of the old cemetery and shot there. Together with Pesach’s father they also shot another nine men. The same day, 31st July, 1941, all Jewish men were expelled from their houses to Morkakalnas and shot there. The 19 year old youth Sheinkman evaded this massacre. Some time later he was caught and shot.

Dr. Schreiber, his wife and two sons, 14 and 16 years old, remained alive after the massacre. The population of Pakroy and the surrounding villages needed his services. The Schreiber family continued to live in the shtetel for some time (a few months). When they were being led through the shtetel to be shot the unfortunate sons cried out to the bystanders to save them. The Schreibers too were shot in Morkakalnas. The doctor had managed to stay on in the shtetel thanks to his acquaintance with Adv. Pozela whom at a later date the Germans shot too because he had appropriated too much of the property left behind by the Jews.

Gershon’s wife Leah and 5 year old son Moshe were shot in Pakroy. Gershon was taken with the Shavel Jews from the ghetto to a camp near Landsberg. Here he was liberated by the United States Army.

Pesach lost his mother and father in Pakroy. Together with other Shavel Jews he was taken to a camp near Muhldorf in Upper Bavaria. He was liberated there. Pesach and Gershon identify the following Pakroy partisans who stole Jewish property and tortured, beat and actively took part in the shooting of Jews:

The Lithuanian merchant Antonas Simkevicius,

His brother Simkevicius

The Pakroy Lithuanian advocate Pozela

Jonas Usinskas

His brother Eduard Usinskas

A teacher at the Lithuanian primary school, Grigas

The Pakroy teacher Poscericius from the village Singuleny

A forest official (girinink), Gegericius

A watchman at the mill of David Maisel, Simkunas

The bakery owner Antonas Indrulis

A Pakroy tailor, Yonas Savickas

A farmer from Klovainys, Grigeliunas

Signed: Pesach Aaronovitch

Gershon Rozowsky