Upon entering the town, the Germans began drafting for labor and harsh persecutions. Not far from the town were the military barracks, and they brought the Jews there to clean the stables. They harnessed the Jews to wagons as though they were horses and accompanied them with harsh blows with rubber sticks. Young men who did not present themselves for labor or who hid and were caught were taken out and murdered. The local commanders, S.S. officers Koch and his lieutenant Neuman, treated them with sadistic cruelty. They would melt from the pleasure of Jews' suffering. They used to visit the labor sites and beat men until the victim's soul left his body. [3]

The eve of Rosh Hashanah the Germans decided to break up the square of shops in the central market plaza. Some seventy five Jews were employed in this work. Every day this group left from the Bikur Cholim building, where the Jewish Council was located. Koch and Neuman used to make frequent visits to the place and beat the workers mercilessly. The dismantling of the shops became a bloodbath. The Jewish council attempted through negotiations and offering gold and jewels to mollify the two Germans and to stop their frenzy. They took the present, but after a time they renewed their cruelties.

A special murder was carried out on a woman who forgot to sew on the yellow patch. She was brought to the police station and from there taken by Neuman to the sandpits outside of town, where most of the townspeople were later murdered. Gentiles nearby related that she resisted and struggled with her executioner, Neuman, until he overcame her and shot her.

The Germans established a local police force and drafted Belorussians and Poles into it. They received a free hand to move against the Jews. The Jews' situation worsened. All the food they had was eaten and there were no possibilities to obtain more. In the course of the first three months, they received nothing from the authorities and every one was compelled to find ways to obtain what they needed. [4]