Details of the tortures inflicted upon the Jews of Kovno, capital of Lithuania, including the murder of 800 in a local fire station, were recounted here today by David Powolosky, one of the few Jews who managed to flee the city after the Nazi occupation.
Immediately after entering the city, Powolosky relates, the S.S. men began plundering Jewish homes, starting in the wealthier districts and working their way down to the poorer sections. One night three storm-troopers broke into the house of a Jewish doctor, M. Brook, and ordered him, his wife and their two children, aged 6 and 8, into a Gestapo car, although none of them were dressed. While the Jewish physician and his family waited outside in the car the Gestapo men looted their home of household furnishings and other articles. When they had taken their pick of whatever struck their eyes, the Nazis drove the family to a local fire station.
The Brooks’ were the first victims to be confined there. For the next two days a steady stream of Jews were thrust into the building by the S.S. men. Every Jew in the heavily Jewish-populated Slobodka district of Kovno was brought in as well as Jews from Yanaver and Butcher Streets. In all more than 800 people were finally confined in the fire station. They were left without food and water.
On the third day of their imprisonment some of the older Jews began to die. S.S. men stationed outside ordered the Jews to pile their dead one on top of another in one corner of the fire house since there war hardly room to stand. By the seventh day two hundred Jewish corpses were piled up and the stench from the dead bodies was overpowering. The cries of mothers and children had died down.
On the following day the Nazis placed soldiers with automatic rifles at the windows of the building and ordered them to fire into the huddled mass of Jews. When the shooting stopped, the guards opened the doors and called out: “Whoever wants to go home may do so.” Seven survivors of the massacre arose, but no sooner did they reach the exit than the Nazis started firing upon them. Four, including Powolosky succeeded in escaping.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
