Small Riga Ghetto

62
Wi dajne kinder plogt man
Man macht fun zei a teil!!
(Look down from heaven and see!
Look down from heaven and see
How they are beating your children
How they are torturing your children,
They are being destroyed!)
Suddenly, late that evening the bloody evacuation began. Thousands * of uniformed
Latvians and Germans, all of them absolutely drunk, streamed into the
ghetto and began to literally hunt down the Jews! It was a hunt to the death!
Like wild animals they broke into the Jewish apartments and searched everywhere,
from the cellars to the attics.
People tried to hide, but these "wild beasts" dragged and tore everyone away
from the most secret hiding places. They beat the people and shot wildly in all
directions and drove the defenseless and wounded Jews out of their houses.
They tore children away from their mothers. They grabbed them by the feet
and threw the poor little children out of the top-floor windows. Like tigers, the
murderers ran from house to house and from room to room.
They ordered people to get dressed as fast as they could and take only the
bare essentials with them. Shuddering, mothers looked at their small children
whose hands had been broken and who could only moan in pain.
The columns of people were driven from one side toward Sadovnika Street,
and from there they were forced to march toward Maskavas Street. From the
other side, the commandos were also moving toward Maskavas Street down
Ludzas and Lauvas Streets.
The columns of people were closely surrounded by Latvians, but each column
was led by a German. Mounted policemen were also present. The large
blue city buses were used to transport sick and weak people. They took people
out of the Linas Hazedek hospital and the shelter on Ludzas Street. These vehicles
drove back and forth all night and all morning.
The ten Jewish drivers of the ghetto were also mobilized to transport the sick
people. Only one of them, the driver Sjamka, was lucky enough to come back.
He too reported ghastly and nearly inconceivable events.
* [Ed.: Between 100 and 150.]