[Page 1]
With a Rifle in My Hand
and Eretz Yisrael in My Heart
by Dov Levin, Jerusalem
Translated by Shalom Bronstein
Chapters of Reminiscence: Kovno (Kaunas); The Partisans' Forests; Illegal Immigration to Eretz Yisrael
[The events related in this account are far from describing all that happened to me in my first 20 years, but I have attempted to re-enter the shoes of those years.]
I. Before the Nazi Conquest
My twin sister Batya (Bassia) and I were born on 27 January 1925 in the city of Kovno – the capital of independent Lithuania between the two world wars. My father, Zvi-Hirsch Levin and my mother, Bluma nee Wigodor, maintained a traditional religious Jewish home that was infused with the Zionist spirit. They made every attempt to provide us with a national Jewish education beginning with nursery school and eventually the Shwabbe Hebrew gymnasium [high school]. From the age of twelve, I was a member of Hashomer Hatzair, the socialist Zionist youth movement. The activities and very being of the movement were Hebrew oriented with the goal being Aliya to Eretz Yisrael in fulfillment of the words of the song, “To work, to train as pioneers, to the kibbutz, to defend.” Our attraction to socialism and the Soviet Union were expressed on the romantic level expressed in the words of the song 'Tulips' – “You will be a red commissar and I will be a compassionate nurse …”
|
|
|
The author and his twin sister, Bassia, age 5 (1930)
|
|
|
The author's parents:
Bluma nee' Wigoder
and Tzvi Hirsh Levin in 1923
|
|
|
|
The author (eighth
from the right, top row) among 4th grade students in Shwabbe's
|
On 1 September 1939 when World War II broke out, our literature and Jewish history teacher, Meir Kantorovitz, devoted his lesson to preparing us for the anticipated dangers that awaited us as the war proceeded and called on us to always remember to act as proud Jews. Indeed, I always remembered his directive to us.
In my family, it was understood that after I completed my high school studies in Kovno, I would go on Aliya to Eretz Yisrael in order to study engineering at the Technion in Haifa. However, this dream evaporated with the take-over of Lithuania by the Red Army (the Soviets) on 15 June 1940.
Under Soviet Rule
That day, it was a Shabbat; I was participating in the Shomer Hatzair summer camp that was held in the village of Klibanishok, near Kovno. Our counselor in this camp was a young woman named Haika Grossman who became well known as the person who was second in command in the Bialystok Ghetto. She arrived in Lithuania at the end of 1939, when it was still an independent country and Zionist activity continued as usual.
This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc.
and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our
mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and
destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied,
sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be
reserved by the copyright holder.
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
With a Rifle in My Hand and Eretz Yisrael in My Heart, Dov Levin
Yizkor Book Project
JewishGen Home Page
Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
This web page created by Max Heffler
Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 27 Aug 2005 by LA
