A Guest at the Shooters' Banquet
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* “it was very seldom the [slave] huts”: “O. T. McCann’s response to H. C. Nixon’s questionnaire about slavery in Alabama,” December 5, 1912, file Q31586–Q31603, box LPR91, folder 1, ADAH Digital Collections, Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/voices/id/3729/rec/1.
* a complaint written from one Röhler: USHMM, RG-26-017M.
* I have a small timeline in my head: Arad, Ghetto in Flames, 37. For a further discussion of the German advance through Lithuania, see Richard Rhodes, Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust (New York: Vintage, 2002), 38–52; Prit Buttar, Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II (Oxford, England: Osprey, 2013); Erich Von Manstein, Lost Victories: The War Memoirs of Hitler’s Most Brilliant General (St. Paul, MN: Zenith, 2014); Ehrenberg and Grossman, “Part 4: Lithuania,” The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, 240–375.
* Their tanks are too light: Arad, In the Shadow of the Red Banner, 129–39.
A GOOD GET
* The handwriting: LCVA, f. R911, ap. 1, b.1, l. 193, translated by Viktorija Bourassa. A truncated translation of this document appears below.
Witness Interrogation Report
1942 April 27, Chief of the Security Police in Švenčionys Region, Pranas Puronas interrogated a witness from Ignalina:
I am Kazys Šuminas, son of Jonas, born 1900 February 15 in Šuminų village, Tauragė district. Nationality—Lithuanian. Religion—Roman Catholic. Literate. No crime record. Lives in Ignalina. In regard to the Town Market Square case No 161 I declare that in January 1942, I cannot remember the exact day, Miciūnas Juozas from Ignalina brought an American watch for me to mend, which in my opinion, was made from American gold. This same year, on the 25th of April, the same Miciūnas Juozas brought me a golden ring which was broken and asked to add the missing parts. I do not know where from did he get that watch and ring. Also, Juozas Miciūnas told me that he had a golden bracelet which he took to Vilnius to mend but it got lost. Where he gets those things, I do not know. He did not tell me. I have nothing else to add.
The subtext of this report was a belated effort on the part of the German Occupation Administration to stop the flow of Jewish goods into the hands of the locals, particularly the police, local headmen, and regional chiefs like my grandfather. To that end, the administration required that in every town a witness “voluntarily” step forward to give an accounting of where the belongings of vanished Jews (particularly gold) had gone. Men like my grandfather and other police chiefs made sure that the police—from a regular officer to a chief—were not implicated by the “witness.” Then the reports were submitted to the German authorities for review. Of course, goods, including gold, were also making their way into the pockets of Germans stationed in Lithuanian cities and towns, either through direct thievery or via bribes.
OUR ANNE FRANK
* Babita’s arrest files: LYA, f. V-5, ap. 1, b. 40373/5, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* file that lists the minimal contents: Ibid., l. 25.
* “Record of interrogation”: LYA, f. V-5, ap. 1, b. 40373, l. 12, translated by Geoff Vasil.
* Jewish family name Jakushok: For example, this 1920 census database shows 25 people with the Jakushok/Yakushok surname in the Žeimelis area: All Lithuanian Revision List Database 1, LitvakSIG: Lithuanian-Jewish Special Interest Group, http://www.litvaksig.org. Accessed December 31, 2014.
* baltaraiščiai and Germans gun down: Barry Mann, “The Žeimelis Jewish Cemetery,” LitvakSIG Online Journal, 2001–2009, http://www.litvaksig.org/litvaksig-online-journal/the-zeimelis-jewish-cemetery.
* paperwork on Babita and Senelis: LYA, f. V-5, ap. 1, b. 40373/5, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* 1,004 members of the Communist Party: Vladas Sirutavičius, “‘A Close, but Very Suspicious and Very Dangerous Neighbor’: Outbreaks of Antisemitism in Inter-War Lithuania,” Polin 25 (2013): 261.
* a thick book: The Last Days: Herman Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, ed. Benjamin Harshav, trans. Barbara Harshav (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002).
* Alfred Rosenberg, chosen by Hitler: William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Rosetta, 2011), Kindle edition, 48.
* Kruk and others, at great personal risk: Benjamin Harshav, introduction to Kruk, Last Days, xliv–xlv.
* “burned the soles of her feet with hot irons”: Julija Šukys, Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), Kindle edition, ch. 12.
* “The most accessible scapegoat?”: Edward Kuznetsov, Prison Diaries, trans. Howard Spier (New York: Scarborough, 1980), 110.
* “He who does not bow the knee”: Ibid., 203.
* distinguished himself for his brutal service: “Mikhail Suslov, Chief Ideologist, Is Dead in Soviet,” New York Times, January 27, 1982.
* The Witness of Poetry: Czesław Miłosz, The Witness of Poetry (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983). Although the entire book is remarkable, Chapter 5, “Ruins in Poetry,” contains a particularly relevant and profound discussion of poetry in wartime Poland.
* about her writing process: “About,” Official Webpage of Author Ruta Sepetys, http://rutasepetys.com/about/.
* the grown-up Lina returns: Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray (New York: Philomel, 2011).
* Kazimierz Sakowicz: Kazimierz Sakowicz, Ponary Diary, ed. Yitzhak Arad (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005).
* Approximately eighty thousand people: “Ponar (Ponary),” Yad Vashem website, http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205747.pdf.
* it was several weeks, not a year: LYA, f. V-5, ap. 1, b. 40373, l. 23, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina. This registration document for a transit camp in the village of Yeltsovka is included in my grandmother’s arrest records. Comparing the date of her arrival at this camp to the date of her arrest makes it possible to create something of a timeline directly after her arrest.
THE HUMAN HEART
* “torn asunder in all shapes”: Appian of Alexandria, The Roman History, 8.19.129.
EPIGRAPHS, PART II
* “The crime scene encompasses”: James W. Osterburg and Richard H. Ward, Criminal Investigation, 7th ed. (New York: Anderson, 2014), 85.
* “Of all the places I lived”: Yitzhak Arad, from personal papers given to author, translated by Irit Pazner Garshowitz.
* “Erev Sukes (Sukkot) 1941 returning”: Khone Zak, recalling events in Podbrodz in the Sventzion region; testimony submitted to the Jewish Historical Institute in Białystok, June 1948, Żdowski Instytut Historyczny, 2014. Translated by Elmar Miller.
YITZHAK ARAD
* A boy and his sister in the snow: Yitzhak Arad, interview by author, May 24, 2012.
* “The social elite of the Jewish community”: Yitzhak Arad, The Partisan (New York: Holocaust Library, 1979), 27.
ANIMALS
* “On the way to a small island”: Arad, The Partisan, 135.
* “This is the one place in all of Belorussia”: Defiance, directed by Edward Zwick, 2008.
* a Jewish woman living in Moscow: Karina Kavina, phone interview by author, July 9, 2012.
* a Lithuanian gimnazija: Naderda Spiridonovienė, interview by author, June 11, 2012.
* a watering hole for the local German command: For a description of the wartime use of the gimnazija, see chapter 42.
* Giedrė did interviews and archival work: Giedrė Genušienė, interview by author, June 11, 2012.
* Leib Koniuchowsky, a survivor: Ruth Horvath, “A Jewish Historical Commission in Budapest,” in Holocaust Historiography in Context: Emergence, Challenges, Polemics and Achievements, ed. David Bankier and Dan Michman (New York: Berghahn, 2008), 488–89.
* “History is by its nature retrospective”: Jonathan Boyarin, phone interview by author, November 10, 2011.
MIRELE REIN/HIGH HOLIDAYS
* in an interrogation on
June 19, 1952: Interrogation of S. Gineitis, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 23875/3, l. 97–103, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* Iozas (Joseph) Breeris: Interrogation of I. Breeris, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 23875/3, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “Suslov: Who and under what circumstances”: Gineitis interrogation, LYA, l. 101–2, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* Is she in one of the two isolation cells?: LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 23875/3, l. 32, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “Saugumas Puronas”: LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 23875/3, l. 101, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “I encountered the prisoners being led away”: Arad, The Partisan, 80.
* “stop by the prison”: LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 23875/3, l. 101, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “We did it!”: Joachim Tauber, historian at the University of Hamburg, interview by author, August 14, 2013.
* Bronius Gruzdys: Interrogation of B. Gruzdys, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 45561/3, l. 82–83, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “October 5, 1941, when the ditch was ready”: Ibid.
* “exactly two days”: Ibid.
* In 1925 a center for Jewish history and culture: “Brief Introduction,” YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, http://www.yivoinstitute.org/about.
* remarkable collection assembled by the late David Bankier: David Bankier, Expulsion and Extermination: Holocaust Testimonials from Provincial Lithuania (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2011). For a full collection of translated Koniuchowsky testimonials assembled by Bankier, see Yad Vashem, Record Group: O.71—Koniuchowsky Collection of Testimonies from Lithuania.
* Shokar had an iron business: Excerpt from interview by Binyomin Taraseysky and Yankl Levin, page 3, typescript on the extermination of Lithuanian Jewry, 297 pages (total), Folder VIA, Papers of Leib Koniuchowsky, Record Group 1390, YIVO.
* “I was a spoiled girl”: Lili Holzman, interview with author, May 24, 2012.
* The girl is the cousin of Fayve Khayet: Excerpt from interview by Fayve Khayet and Rokhl Khayet-Kramnik, page 140, Folder VIA, Papers of Leib Koniuchowsky, RG-1390, YIVO.
* Sukkot—a time of joy and deliverance: Arnon and Doucani, Book of Blessings, 55–65.
CHAYA PALEVSKY NÉE PORUS
* “This world today—unbelievable”: Chaya Palevsky, interview by author, February 15, 2012.
MESSENGER
* “All the Reins were beautiful”: Zinaida Aronowa, interview by author, June 7, 2012.
* Teresa was only seven: Teresa Krinickaja, interview by author, June 7, 2012.
* the Jewish girl with the peroxide-blond hair: Kavina, interview.
* Zinaida told us something else: Aronowa, interview.
LILI HOLZMAN
* his classic text on the investigation of unsolved homicides: Richard H. Walton, preface to Cold Case Homicides (Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis, 2006).
* sat down for hours with Lili Holzman: Holzman, interview, May 24, 2012.
* “J. Swirski (wojloki/feutre vegetal)”: “The 1929 Polish Business Directory Project,” Jewish Record Indexing—Poland, 2000–2001, http://jri-poland.org/bizdir/bd1929.htm.
* the list of those “employed” for duty at Poligon: LCVA, f. R-1548, ap. 1, b. 1, l. 211.
* “Mergaitė”: Holzman, interview, May 24, 2012.
POLIGON
* starvation and exposure was a purposeful tactic: Christoph Dieckmann, “Murders of the Prisoners of War,” The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, http://www.komisija.lt/en, 4–7.
* “You can feel the souls”: Giedrė Genušienė, interview by author, June 14, 2012.
* in the shtetl Ceikiniai’s necrology: “Ceikiniai Necrology,” trans. Beryl Baleson, on Shimon Kanc, ed., Svinzian Region; Memorial Book of 23 Jewish Communities, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/svencionys/sve1916.html.
* Švenčionys Yitzkor book: Kanc, Svinzian Region, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/svencionys/svencionys.html.
* “Poligony?”: Palevsky, interview.
* “Now we have taken the last path of the victims”: Genušienė, interview, June 14, 2012.
* “We ran like a storm”: Palevsky, interview.
DAY OF MOURNING AND HOPE
* to Lukiškės prison, where my grandfather spent ten days: LCVA, f. R-730, ap. 2, b. 168, l. 77.
* in a Kaunas newspaper office: Although I have been unable to document this information through outside sources, both my mother and aunt are certain of this version of events. The drive by the Ninth Fort is included in the narrative, showing he was aware at that time that it was a place to fear.
* the Ninth Fort: For details about the October 4, 1941, massacre at the Ninth Fort, see Rhodes, Masters of Death, 192–98. See also the many online testimonies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum website; for example, USHMM, RG-50.030*0660, “Oral History Interview with Uri Chanoch,” http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn47192.
* Jonas Maciulevičius, his boss: Breeris interrogation, LYA, l. 20, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* where prisoners scratched last messages: “The Einsatzgruppen: Massacres at the Ninth Fort,” Jewish Virtual Library, 2014, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/ninthfortpics.html.
* remanded into Lukiškės on October 11: LCVA, f. R-730, ap. 2, b. 168, l. 77.
ARTŪRAS KARALIS
* tried to throw their voices over the walls: “I have now learned that many of those who were snatched … were sent to Łukiszki jail … Many women gather in front of the prison.” Kruk, Last Days, 51.
* Karalis speaks rapidly: Artūras Karalis, interview by author, June 14, 2012.
* “the country is one big cemetery”: Rachel Kostanian, director of research at the Green House Museum, Vilnius, interview by author, June 4, 2012.
* “The spirit of the old times”: Karalis, interview, June 14, 2012.
LOST
* Heida Lapido: Testimony of Michael and Hirsh Rayak, Yad Vashem Archives, O-133/4076.
* in the necrology for Švenčionys: “New Švenčionys Necrology,” trans. Steven Weiss, on Shimon Kanc, Svinzian Region, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/svencionys/sve1903.html.
* Hoduciszki necrology: “Hoduciszki Necrology,” trans. Beryl Baleson, on Shimon Kanc, Svinzian Region, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/svencionys/sve1929.html.
* In 1920 my grandfather joined the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union: LYA, f. V-5, ap. 1, b. 40373, l. 22, translated by Viktorija Bourassa.
* who took to the woods as anti-Russian partisans: Buttar, Between Giants, Kindle ed., ch. 4.
* vigorously campaigned for his reinstatement: LCVA, Army Service File of Pranas Puronas, 1926–1940, f. 930, ap. 2P, b. 156, translated by Viktorija Bourassa.
* Bronius Gruzdis … also a Shaulist: Interrogation of B. Gruzdis, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 45561/3, l. 54.
* “To His Excellency the Minister of National Defense”: First Lieutenant in Reserve Puronas to the minister of national defense, January 31, 1928, LCVA, f. 930, ap. 2P, b. 156, translated by Viktorija Bourassa.
* “In 1927, after the uprising”: Ibid.
* “It is an honor for me to ask”: Ibid.
* “Currently I am serving in the 7th category”: Ibid., December 6, 1928.
* A Captain Stakonis vouches: Ibid., August 27, 1930.
* would be reinstated, but for a dearth of positions: Ibid., April 16, 1931.
* has lost the edge of a military man: Ibid.
* June 28, 1941, the Lithuanian Colonel Jurgis Bobelis: Yitzhak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 142–143.
* Chief of the Gestapo in Švenčionys: Gruzdis interrogation, LYA, l. 54, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* Arunas Bubnys: Bubnys, interview by author, June 5, 2012.
* Mykolas Kukutis: Instytut Pamęci Nardowej (hereafter IPN), OK.Gd, S 96/01/Zn, vol. 1, Investigation Commenced o
n 18.08.1997, 10–11, translated by Maciej Bulanda.
* “the punitive unit which ran rabid”: Masines zudynes Lietuvoje (Vilnius, Lithuania: Mintis, 1973), 215. Selection translated by Geoff Vasil.
* “Now I’m going to speak as a historian”: Arad, interview, May 24, 2012.
* twenty-four-year old Ķlarah Gelman: Ķlarah Gelman, Israel, September 12, 1995, Visual History Archive, 2011, USC Shoah Foundation, accessed February 16, 2014. Translated by Mor Sheinbein.
* the taking of his uncles and the cleaning: Arad, The Partisan, 35–36.
* Ķlarah Gelman’s testimony: Ķlarah Gelman, September 12, 1995, USC Shoah Foundation. Translated by Mor Sheinbein.
PLANNERS, DIGGERS, GUARDS, SHOOTERS
* “In the beginning of August”: Arad, The Partisan, 38.
* “ten men working for the security police”: Excerpt from Interview by Binyomin Taraseysky and Yankl Levin, page 19, Folder VIA, Papers of Leib Koniuchowsky, RG-1390, YIVO.
* “his assistant, Feliksas Garla”: Gruzdys interrogation, LYA, l. 55, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* hiring thirty employees: Breeris interrogation, LYA, l. 19, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “different billboards and propaganda”: David Katz, interview by Bina Kutner, Rishon LeZion, Israel, May 21, 1997, Visual History Archive, 2011, USC Shoah Foundation, accessed April 4, 2014. Translated by Mor Sheinbein.
* “My son, you carried that dagger”: Robert Jordan, The Dragon Reborn: Book Three of the Wheel of Time (New York: Tor, 1991).
* commented that cemeteries are vandalized: Arunas Bubnys, interview by author, June 13, 2012.
* In 1926 a thirteen-year-old Lithuanian boy: Interrogation of E. Genaitis, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 10712/3, l. 71–74, 97–103, 225–228, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* “on a phone line”: Excerpt from interview by Fayve Khayet, p. 127, Folder VIA, Papers of Leib Koniuchowsky, RG-1390, YIVO.
* “head bookkeeper of the Jewish community bank”: Ibid., 128.
* driven perhaps by Bronius Cieciura: Indictment, Feb. 27 1945, LYA, f. K-1, ap. 58, b. 10712/3, l. 289, translated by Anastasia Kurochkina.
* Among them is the baker’s son: Excerpt from Interview by Fayve Khayet, page 130, Folder VIA, Papers of Leib Koniuchowsky, RG-1390, YIVO.