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Leonas Stonkus, whose Nazi-led Lithuanian battalion shot the Jews...
patrick p@ppow84
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Oct 27, 2026
~1 min read
Leonas Stonkus, whose Nazi-led Lithuanian battalion shot the Jews of Kopyl in Belarus:
Interviewer: “Were they shot lying on the ground, or in the pits?”
Stonkus: “The women knelt, I think. The children were jumping about. They had no idea this was a death zone. [...] The children stood in front. Behind them, all were already shot. They did not realize their parents were dead. The older boys or girls understood. The little ones just carried on fooling around.”
Interviewer: “So how were the children driven to the pit?”
Stonkus: “The women led the children. The order was that a mother must not leave her child behind. You must take your child with you. If you don't have the child, give it to a neighbor to lead.”
Interviewer: “Mothers and children?”
Stonkus: “Together. They crammed them into that pit, one on top of another. No one paid any attention. They fired, and that was it.”
This comes from USHMM’s interviews with Lithuanian witnesses (Leonas Stonkus interview, 1998, RG-50.473.0023). English captions translated from USHMM's transcript of Stonkus’s Lithuanian. Cut and captioned by me.
Interviewer: “Were they shot lying on the ground, or in the pits?”
Stonkus: “The women knelt, I think. The children were jumping about. They had no idea this was a death zone. [...] The children stood in front. Behind them, all were already shot. They did not realize their parents were dead. The older boys or girls understood. The little ones just carried on fooling around.”
Interviewer: “So how were the children driven to the pit?”
Stonkus: “The women led the children. The order was that a mother must not leave her child behind. You must take your child with you. If you don't have the child, give it to a neighbor to lead.”
Interviewer: “Mothers and children?”
Stonkus: “Together. They crammed them into that pit, one on top of another. No one paid any attention. They fired, and that was it.”
This comes from USHMM’s interviews with Lithuanian witnesses (Leonas Stonkus interview, 1998, RG-50.473.0023). English captions translated from USHMM's transcript of Stonkus’s Lithuanian. Cut and captioned by me.
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