Jacob Raykin, b. 1922, Vilna, Poland. Immigrated to Australia 1950.

“…And they created a place called Ponary, it’s not far from Vilno (in Poland) and there they used to shoot children, women, men.

Jacob Raykin shortly after the war

Jacob Raykin today

I was 16, not quite 16 yet. One day, it was Yom Kippur (holiest day of the Jewish calendar) time and they took us to Ponary. And we knew where we were going, but it was impossible to escape. Anyone who fell, or tried to escape, they shoot them on the spot. They marched us to Ponary. There were women and children. They brought us to Ponary and they separated us into groups from the different ghettos. One group they fixed up, they shot, then another group they brought, you know.

Everybody had to get undressed and they put them around a pit. And I could hear ‘Fire!’ and then it went ‘drrrrrr’. I must have fainted just a second before that bullet went through. I might have even just bent down and a bullet went through, you know and I fainted. Whether I fainted or I died I didn’t know at that moment.

I fell and a lot of bodies of course on top of me and I thought: ‘That’s dead; that’s how it feels when you die.’ I was covered in blood and I was lying there in that pit and suddenly it became quiet. While (I was) lying in that pit, one of the guards came and shoot the ones that weren’t still, dead. Some are still moved or something. I didn’t know how come he didn’t shoot me. I can’t understand that. That is always is sort of in my mind: why and how come he didn’t put another bullet into me. I must have been very quiet or didn’t move, I don’t know.

Then it was quiet. They all left and I started trying to get out. And I was so tangled up in the bodies and covered with blood that I had to struggle for quite a while to get out. I could get out one foot, I didn’t know if it was the right or the left and I couldn’t get out the other one. And my foot was bent up under some other bodies and I struggled and I got out.

And I don’t know how long it took but it took a while and I had to rest. You can imagine that it wasn’t very easy to get up with all that experience. But I did get out and when I did I was covered with blood as I said, and I started looking for my clothing, my shoes. And there was really a lot; a big heap of clothing, boots and shoes…it was impossible to find (my own things) and so I put on whatever I could find.”