[5] Judenrat president, Wolf Berman, an 80-year-old former bank director,[11] was forced to collect a ransom of 2 million roubles in gold.

All Jews living around the city centre were evicted,[5] and moved across the bridge over the Szczara River to a brand new ghetto in the Na Wyspie (literally On Island) neighbourhood, surrounded by barbed wire and guards at both gates.

On one occasion, Oberleutnant Glück sent a full boxcar with Jewish valuables to his hometown of Rosenheim under armed escort, particularly fur coats and articles made from precious metals.

[10] A Belarusian auxiliary policeman, Stanislaw Chrzanowski (died 2017 in England), is alleged to have been involved with the Slonim ghetto and to have been a postwar spy for MI6[13] The first large-scale extermination of Jews in Słonim took place on 17 July 1941, as soon as the EG-B's Einsatzkommando 8 under the command of Otto Badfisch arrived in the town along with the Order Police battalion stationing in Minsk.

[5] The role of the collaborationist Belarusian Auxiliary Police (established on 7 July 1941) was crucial in the totality of procedures, as only they – wrote Martin Dean – knew the identity of the Jews.

The workers were issued Kennkarte and moved; in October 1941 a special ghetto zone was set up for them at the 'Na Wyspie' neighbourhood.

[7] In the so-called second sweep, the ghetto was cordoned off and 9,000 people were taken by lorries to the village of Czepielów, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) distance, where they were shot in the pits by rifle fire.

[5] During the course of the operation, the Belarusian Schutzmannschaft-Einzeldienst (formed by Max von Schenckendorff) forced the Jews out of their homes and convoyed them to Czepielów under armed escort.

[7] By 13 November 1941 only 7,000 skilled workers remained alive inside the ghetto, all bound into the forced labour process.

[11] Members of the underground led by David Epshtein shot at the arriving troops using stockpiled firearms refurbished at the Beutelager.

For two weeks, the fugitives were hunted down and trucked from Słonim to the killing fields near the village of Pietrolewicze by the SS, Orpo,[10] and Belarusian police.

One month later, on 31 July 1942, Generalkommissar for Weissruthenien Wilhelm Kube, delivered a report to Hinrich Lohse summarising the ghetto liquidation action and subsequent "Jew-hunts".

[5][15] The fourth and final ghetto extermination action took place on 20 August 1942,[1][20] during which the last 700 men and 100 women performing various tasks (such as clean-up as well as mass burials) were rounded up and murdered.

[21] Many Jews had fled into the woods;[15] 30 people formed an autonomous Jewish fighting group called Schtorrs 51 (Shchors) in the vicinity of Kosovo,[22] helped by Pavel Proniagin in defiance of Soviet orders.

[23] Four months after the last ghetto massacre, during the night of 18 December 1942 Nazi forces raided the Catholic church and Monastery of the Sisters of the Poor, among other locations.

The Germans had obtained information from the collaborationist Belarusian Central Council, regarding Christian Poles harbouring Jewish fugitives who had managed to escape.

[25] The next morning, a priest, Adam Sztark, posthumously recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, and two nuns that helped him shelter Jewish children, were trucked to Pietrolewicze, on the outskirts of Słonim, and executed by the Germans.

[29][30] Two of the beatified were Polish nuns from Słonim, executed at Górki Pantalowickie hill on 19 December 1942: Bogumiła Noiszewska [pl],[31] and Maria Marta Kazimiera Wołowska.

He also issued false certificates, personally sheltered Jewish refugees, and called upon all his parishioners to help to save the ghetto residents.