Small Riga Ghetto

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Their stay in the ghetto prison was not long. A few days later they were led
to the place of their schchite (execution). They made their last walk with their
hands in chains, accompanied by Haar, Perl and others. Behind them walked
the murderer Krause with his gun cocked.
The streets were blocked off, as was always done in such cases. According
to the rumors, Machtus said to the Commandant at the wall of the Jewish
cemetery, where the execution took place: "Bloodhound! Don't think that the
Jewish people will be destroyed through our execution!" Then all three of them
sang the "Hatikva". With our national hymn on their lips the martyrs went to
their death.
The loss of Machtus and the others made a horrible impact on us. I myself
had known Machtus for many years. At that time he was still a student in the
Hasmonea fraternity and was a very good friend of my relatives.
XXIX.
At first we heard practically nothing from the new Kommandant. There were
some arrests but no executions – until one day he signed and carried out the
death sentence against seven people. Now he had tasted blood, and his sadistic
and murderous instincts emerged from this moment on, just as Krause's had.
Accompanied by his comrade Gymnich and his big dangerous dog, he often
strolled through the ghetto unannounced. Entirely unexpectedly he entered
apartments, inspected the kitchens and looked into the cooking pots. As soon
as people heard he was walking through the ghetto they had to immediately
throw into the latrine all the food they had laboriously gathered at so much
risk.
On these walks he amused himself by shooting cats or pigeons with his gun.
And if a bullet hit a Jew instead of a cat or a pigeon, that didn't matter to him!
He even monitored the hospital to see whether individual Jews really were
"legally" excused from work. He dealt with the German ghetto in exactly the
same way.
Only too often, the Kommandant and Gymnich were standing at the ghetto
gate when the work crews returned. There they monitored us, beat us and
frisked us. If even the smallest thing was found on one of us, that unfortunate
individual was instantly sent to the bunker and from there to the cemetery
wall.
As soon as the Kommandos approaching the gate saw the two murderers
standing there, everyone simply threw away as soon as possible whatever he
had on him in the way of food or money. Thus mountains of things that be-