. NMT04-T0187
Volume IV · Page 187
| In Latvia, Jews remained only in Riga
and Dvinsk [Daugavpils]. The number of Jews left in Riga — 29,500 —
was reduced to 2,600 by an action carried out by the Higher SS and Police
Leader "Ostland". In Dvinsk there are still 962 Jews left who are urgently
needed for the labor supply. In Lithuania, an effort had to be made to purge the rural districts and the small towns thoroughly of Jews. Apart from basic considerations, this was an urgent necessity also because Communist elements — in particular terror groups and parts of the Polish Resistance Movement — established contact with the Jews, instigating them to sabotage work and to offer resistance. The Jews in turn repeatedly attempted to work up anti-German feeling in the originally loyal and willing Lithuanian circles. Several times sentries were fired at from the Kovno Ghetto. The Jews were particularly active in Zagare. There, on 2 October 1941, 50 Jews escaped from the ghetto which was already cordoned off. Most of them could be recaptured and shot in the course of a large scale search which was carried out immediately. In course of the subsequent preparations for the wholesale execution of the Zagare Jews, at a prearranged signal they attacked the guards and the men of security police Einsatzkommando while on the transport to the place of execution. Several Jews who had not been searched thoroughly enough by the Lithuanian guards drew knives and pistols and uttering cries like "Long live Stalin!" and "Down with Hitler!" they rushed upon the police force of whom 7 were wounded. Resistance was broken at once. After 150 Jews had been shot on the spot, the transport of the remaining Jews to the place of execution was carried through without further incident. In several Lithuanian places, the Jewish quarters had become sources of epidemics owing to bad living and nutritional conditions. The spread of the diseases which had broken out in the ghettos was prevented by the thorough extermination of the Jews. In Lithuania, there are at present only 15,000 Jews left in Kovno who are urgently needed for the manpower supply, 15,000 in Vilnyus, and 4,500 in Shaulyai. In White Ruthenia, the purge is in progress. The number of the Jews in the area handed over to the civil administration is at present approximately 139,000. 33,210 Jews were shot by Einsatzgruppe A since it had taken over the official duties in White Ruthenia. |
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| Retaliatory actions In the village of Audrini near Rezekne 6 Russians had been |
