Dov Bar: During the year that the Volchin ghetto existed, mortality from malnutrition and disease was high. Only old people, women and children were lodged in the ghetto. The young Jews of Volchin were sent to Brest and were lodged in the small ghetto and from there were sent to hard labor, constructing the Brest-Chernevchich road. Every day, 3 Volchin Judenrat people carried the dead upon carts and led them to the ancient Jewish cemetery, where graves had already been dug by Gentiles hired by the Judenrat. The relatives of the dead were allowed to accompany them to the gates of the ghetto, which were locked after the dead had passed through them on their last way.

Under the Soviet occupation, after the liberation, the grave-stones of the Jewish cemetery were shattered. They were used as building material for a stone wall that surrounds the courtyard of the house owned by the Provoslav priest of Volchin, and for the Silo House, a visible sign of eternal disgrace on the main street of Volchin.

Most of the Jewish houses in Volchin were pillaged while the ghetto was still in existence, and when the ghetto was emptied, the houses in it were also pillaged by the local Gentiles and by villagers of the neighborhood. They took whatever they could put their hands on: doors, windows and all articles, demolished walls and dug into the floors to uncover valuables they suspected the Jews had hidden.

Three men were appointed by the governor of Volchin, the Nazi Krauze, to serve in the Judenrat: Abraham Kupershmit, the leader of the Jews of Volchin, brother of my grandmother Mindl, who passed away before the war broke out. Tzuprik, of the southern flour mill of Volchin. And Berenzon of the northern flour mill of Volchin. They were appointed against their will. According to the testimony of the Gentiles, they were good people and took care of the inhabitants of the ghetto to the best of their ability.