Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941

[5][6] Ghetto survivor Alex Faitelson, who later escaped from the killing site at the Ninth Fort, described the separation:"The elderly, the apparently ailing, and the large poorly dressed and unclean families, and those who had no connection to a working group, were directed by a movement of Rauca's whip to the right where the Lithuanian police forces were standing...There they were lined up in columns, surrounded by the Lithuanian police and taken to the former small ghetto.

[1] Kaunas Ghetto inmate and survivor Abraham Tory described the return of the remaining Jews to their homes that evening:"About 17,000 out of some 27,000 people slowly left the vast square where they had been standing for more than twelve hours.

Hungry, thirsty, crushed and dejected, they returned home, most of them bereaved or orphaned, having been separated from a father, a mother, children, a brother or a sister, a grandfather or a grandmother, an uncle or an aunt.

"[9]The forced march of Jews to the Ninth Fort lasted from dawn until noon, while Lithuanian spectators watched from the sides of the road.

[11] On October 29, Gestapo agents led by SS Colonel Karl Jaeger, and Lithuanian policemen, occupied machine gun positions alongside the pits and guarded the fort's perimeter.

Ignas Veliavicius-Vylius, a Lithuanian commander, described the massacre on October 29th: People were lined up in columns of four abreast and taken from the gate of the fort towards the pits.

They were then pushed into the pits and forced to lie down while being shot...Throughout the day one could hear the sound of the victims' groans and shouting as well as the weeping of women and the cries of little children...At the same time, there was a sort of rally in the courtyard.