FRITZ GUSTAV FRIEDL — MASS MURDERER Fried! — tiny, his eyes always darting, the eyes of a bandit, the terror of the Bialystok ghetto. Friedl is com- ing! The Jewish police begin chasing everyone from the streets. It is forbidden to stand outside while the mon- ster is passing through. Some Jews had planned several times to assassinate him, but the more moderate ele- ments argued against such a course. After all, it could lead to the destruction of the entire ghetto. So Friedl lives on. On the morning of August 16, the Nazis rode into the ghetto in their cars. The bloody SS staff comman- deered the spacious quarters of the Judenrat. The last to arrive was Friedl with other top officers. But he did not remain outside, preferring to give orders from inside the building. Then the heroic Jews of Bialystok began to fight back, and the mass murderer and his bodyguards were seen trying to sneak out of the ghetto at all costs. Then a loud report. Not far from Friedl, a grenade fell. Of all the rotten luck, he escaped unharmed! After German soldiers secured the area, Friedl appeared once again with his sarcastic smirk. Now he is the hero once more, the strongman around the helpless Jewish children. Gathering together the small toddlers with their frightened eyes, Friedl tore them away from their weep- ing mothers, whom he reassured they were being sent away for “‘labor.”’ He lined them up חו‎ groups on Juro- wecki Street, gazing at them with his sadistic smile. Suddenly he took an automatic weapon in his hand and shot down the screaming babies. Fried] laughed. Then he walked over to inspect the results of his murderous act. Afterward a group of young girls, captured during the resistance, was brought to him. His penetrating stare stunned them, but the young girls scowled at him in contempt. He ordered them to sing, but no one would comply. He repeated his command; no one moved. The “hero” aimed his gun, but the children The Bialystoker Memorial Book The executioner of the Bialystok Ghetto, F. G. Friedl, on trial in Bialystok in 1949. The courtoom is filled with eyewitnesses to his murders. remained silent. Then a volley of gunfire was heard and our young heroines fell. But the murderer kept on shooting in rage, although everyone was already dead. Dashing from house to house with a group of Ukrainians, Fried] captured more victims slated for a quick death. Abruptly an idea came to him and he quietly issued an order to take everyone to the Jewish cemetery called Zabia, the new burial ground in the ghetto. Large pits were dug and then Friedl com- manded all the elderly men, women and young children to descend into the excavated earth, in keeping with his diabolical plan. He ordered the Ukrainians to bury the victims alive. Polish observers recounted afterward that the earth moved above still-groping hands for many hours. That was how the ‘civilized’ German nation under Nazi rule treated the Jews. = = The top layer of the ditch into which the murdered victims were thrown. 103