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[Page 35]

On a summer day in 1918, when there was no ruling authority in Braslav, hooligans and bandits burst in, beat up Jews and stole their property. There was tumult and a great outcry in the town. Everyone was afraid. Many hid in their homes, attics, stables and the like.

Then the group of defenders went to attack the gang and drive it away.

On that day, Shmuel-Yosef Milutin excelled in heroism and beat the leaders of the bandits. Avraham Lubovitz [Lubowicz], a member of the group, was injured in the leg and remained crippled for the rest of his life. More Jews joined the defenders, struck the bandits with fierce blows and chased them out of the town. But during the clash between my uncle and the angry bandits who came to rob the store of Zalman Ulman, my uncle [Yerachmiel-Mendel Meirson] was shot and killed. My uncle was a good man, well liked by all, especially active in working on behalf of the Yiddish school.

Years went by but Yerachmiel-Mendel wasn't forgotten, and on the 10th anniversary of his death a tombstone was put up for him. The schoolchildren and their teachers attended its unveiling. Merchants, tradesmen and storekeepers closed their businesses and joined in; housewives and others joined in. We marched in rows to the rhythm of the mourners' march played by the band, followed by the schoolchildren. They carried wreaths, and many held flowers to put on his grave.

There were speeches, Yerachmiel's mother unveiled the tombstone (his father was no longer among the living). At the top of a canopy made from red bricks, there was a plaque of black marble on which was engraved

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in golden letters: “Here rests Yerachmiel-Mendel Meirson, who fell while defending the Jewish community at the age of 18” [in Yiddish, followed by the same sentence in Hebrew]. There was a religious ceremony, and Kaddish was said.

May the name of this Jewish fighter be exalted and sanctified.

As is known, the old Jewish cemetery in Braslav was later vandalized, and the tombstones were removed for various purposes.^[1]

May these words serve as a tombstone and candle to his memory.

The [old] Jewish cemetery in Braslav, before it was vandalized and destroyed [This photograph shows the tombstone not of Yerachmiel-Mendel Meirson but of Esther Kremer, who died on October 26, 1929. Standing next to the tombstone in Braslav are Feiga/Fania (née Kremer), who was the daughter of Esther. With Feiga are her husband, Rafael Fisher of Braslav, and their daughter Yetta. Yetta survived the war; her account is on pages 117-119 of this memorial book.]

1. This refers to the old Jewish cemetery that was in the western part of Braslav, number 11 in the map on page 21 of this memorial book. This cemetery was destroyed during World War II, and after the war the area was turned into a park. The newer Jewish cemetery of Braslav lies north of the town, where the Jews of the town were killed on and after June 3-5, 1942 and on March 19, 1943. Return

[Page 37]

Until World War I Braslav [Braslaw] belonged to Russia as part of Belorussia, but after the Polish-Russian War in 1921^[1] the town and entire region were annexed to Poland. The residents of the surrounding villages were all Belorussian and spoke it [the Belarusian language] as their mother tongue, but the official language was Polish.^[2]

Braslav was one of the most beautiful towns in Poland. Because of its unique climate and geographic location [in what was then the nation's northeast corner], people called it the “Polish Siberia.” In winter, severe cold and snowstorms were very common.

Two lakes surrounded the town --- the large Lake Driviata [to the south] and the small Lake Noviata [to the north]. In the center of town, the lakes were joined by a river, over which there was a wooden bridge. The lakes were full of many kinds of fish. Many residents earned a living from fishing, marketing and selling the fish. For young people these lakes were an excellent place of recreation, in both summer and winter. They were a wonderful place for sailing, skiing and skating. On summer days, students from the center of Poland came to Braslav from the universities of Warsaw, Krakow and other cities. They'd organize parties of bonfires (ogniska) in the evenings, and many of the townspeople would gather and enjoy plays and entertainment under the starry skies until the wee hours of the night. The authorities sought to instill the spirit of Polish nationalism among both the Belorussian population and the Jews, residents of the country's northeast region.

On both sides the town was surrounded by thick forests, most of them trees of pine and fir. To the southeast--- the Dubki [Dubkes] forest, and to the west --- the Karpovitz [Karpowicz] forest. The forests served the residents of the town as a place for hikes and meetings, mainly on the Sabbath, when large numbers of young people and children would go out to relax and play.

In the town center stood Castle Mountain.^[3] Around it

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the wooden houses of the inhabitants lay scattered like mushrooms. At the western edge of the mountain was a monument at the grave of the physician, the supporter of the Jews, Dr. Narbutt.^[4] The Jews of the town loved and respected him, because of the warm feelings he showed toward the Jews and especially to the locals. A street was even named for him --- Narbutt Street.

On each side of Braslav stood a flour mill. On one side of town was the windmill, which stood silently for many years; only its arms projected into the blue sky. In a strong wind, the arms would turn slowly, as if they lacked will to do so. On the other side of town was an active flour mill, which belonged to a Jew and operated day and night.

There were four synagogues in the town. Three of them stood in the heart of Braslav, on the main street, and one synagogue (the Sandy Synagogue) stood on the other side of the mountain.

Next to the [three] synagogues was a fire station. In the station was a large hall used for shows, plays, meetings and ceremonies for celebration. Nearby, on the shore of the large lake, stood the ruins of a house. This was the community bathhouse, which served the Jews of the town on Thursdays and Fridays.

There were also a Jewish bank and a Gemilut Hesed [Free Loan Fund] in Braslav. Locals in need could receive loans from it without interest.

In our town were three schools: one for the Yiddish language [the Folkshul, with education in Yiddish]; the second one, Yavneh^[5], based on the purity of Hebrew; and the third, a Polish school.

Important offices were concentrated in a new, exclusive neighborhood, green and well looked after, that was built near the Karpovitz forest [in the western part of the town], especially for the Polish officials.

Braslav was a regional town (powiat^[6]), and the nearby settlements and forests belonged to it: Druysk [Drujsk], Yod [Jod], Miory, Dubina [Dubene], Slobodka, Yaisi [Jaisi], Opsa and smaller places.^[7] Braslav belonged to the Vilna district; the major city of Vilna had a large concentration of Jews and served as not only a cultural and Jewish spiritual center (the Jerusalem of Lithuania) but also a trade center.

There were no factories in Braslav. The main business of the residents was trade: small stores, small workshops of shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths and the like. In the town were several guest houses, hostels that were called “hotels,” bakeries and processing houses for leather. There were two markets. For some reason the first was called the “bread market,” even though everything that came to hand was traded there. The second was called the “horse market.”^[8] The means of transportation indeed was mainly horse and wagon, in which merchandise would be taken to and from Braslav from other towns.

In the years before World War II --- due to unfair competition by the Poles, mainly the government --- the economic situation of the Jews worsened. During these years, with the help of the authorities the Poles opened a giant department store with a varied inventory and engaged in extensive anti-Semitic propaganda about not buying from the Jews. Despite this, they couldn't defeat the Jewish shop owners, mainly because of the credit that these shop owners gave to farmers. Because of the good relations between the Jews and the Gentiles from the surrounding villages, the authorities failed in their attempt to oppress the Jews.

And so life went on in the town, amid work, problems and worries. Each day of the week, people were busy and troubled. On Fridays, all the tumult stopped and it grew quiet. From every window the Sabbath candles winked and capered, candles of rest and tranquility.

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I can remember my town many, many years ago: without electricity, without roads or sidewalks, in deep mud on dark nights . . . Most of the Jews lived in poverty. Even the small children tried to assist their families, through handwork or by helping in the house. Because of this, many children were unable to finish primary school.

Especially difficult were the lives of the women. They were always busy next to the stove, cleaning the house, caring for the children, and helping the head of the family earn their daily bread.

In those [very early] days, the school had lacked a building; lessons took place in the women's section of the synagogue. The overlapping boundaries that resulted caused arguments between the praying congregation and the teachers and students of the school. These problems ended when a nice, large building was constructed, one with comfortable classrooms and an exercise hall. A real school.

The years of study are engraved in my consciousness forever. I'll never forget the dedication and sacrifice of the teachers, who always treated us as if we were members of their own families. Despite the tiny salary, which they [often] didn't receive on time, despite the freezing cold in the classrooms and the lack of teaching aids and books --- they always carried out their work as if it were a sacred mission.

I remember how on cold winter days we --- all the children of the class --- decided to “drag” wood for heating from our parents' homes to warm the classrooms. The Polish government didn't support the Jewish educational institutions or set aside funds for them, and these schools existed on tuition payments and donations. Next to the school was a large library, with whose help we enriched our knowledge and formed our outlook on the world. Sometimes, when a teacher was sick and couldn't come to class, we --- the children of the higher grades --- took the initiative and taught the children of the lower ones. After completing school (seven grades), some of the young people would leave for other places, mainly to the district city, Vilna, to continue their studies. Of course this depended on financial support that only a few families could manage, but several young people did succeed in gaining knowledge and a profession at the ORT^[9] school, an abridged technion [technological institute], teachers' seminary, and the like.

A few of the young people studied at the Jewish [teachers'] seminary in Vilna, the only one in Poland.^[10] But to their great dismay, its gates were closed some time before the end of the last semester, and the students attending supplementary courses didn't receive their completion certificates and were unable to work as teachers.

Next to our school there was a drama club, whose purpose was to help the teachers financially, by means of plays, parties for entertainment and so on. At the head of the club was a very talented young man who guided and taught us. We presented mainly classic plays. We also organized Purim and Hanukkah parties for other institutions, and with this we filled gaps in the school's budget. I'm writing about this in detail because the school was the center of our life and experience.

Sometimes there came to our town [Jewish] preachers and speakers of all kinds and from differing political parties. A large crowd would gather and each orator spoke on the importance and superiority of his party. Usually these gatherings were accompanied by interruptions, shouting and even an exchange of blows between the righteous of one party and its opponents . . .

I loved our holidays, especially Hanukkah. There were parties, our father, of blessed memory, would light

[Page 40]

the holiday candles and we, the children, would enjoy the tasty special foods for each holiday.

At the end of the 1920s [or the early 1930s], a power station was built in the town. The houses and streets were lit with electric lights. The roads were [finally] paved, and this brought an end to the ever-present mud. At this time, several Jews established a printing press that gave employment to a number of young men of the town. Sometime later, a bulletin appeared --- a local newspaper.

At this time, anti-Semitism and hatred of the Jews grew stronger in the town. The Poles, mainly from the racist-nationalist party, the N.D.^[11], established hooligans as guards [in the town], and these prevented buyers from entering Jewish stores, broke windows and so on.

Such events caused agitation among the Jewish young people. A not-insignificant part of them saw a solution to the problem in aliyah to the Land of Israel. Another part searched for redemption in the socialist idea of Soviet Russia. In this way, the social situation worsened. Many young people stood at a crossroads. The Communist youths weren't able to do much; occasionally the police would arrest many of them.

A few of the Zionist youth received certificates and made aliyah to the Land of Israel.^[12] For a time, there was also in our town a preparatory kibbutz of the General Zionists.^[13] The period was filled with events, and we felt that something important was about to happen. Newspapers printed editorials, men in the street talked and argued, but the situation wasn't completely clear.

The drama society of Braslav [Handwritten in Yiddish at the top of the photo are the words “At the departure of member Shayke, Braslav, May 11, 1935.” This refers to Shayke [Shaya] Deitch, who was from Braslav but is said to have worked as a theater actor in Vilna. Shayke, marked by the arrow in the photo, is also pictured on pages 41 and 229 of this memorial book. Yiddish caption translated by Aaron Krishtalka and Jerrold Landau.]

[Page 41]

With the rise of Hitler to authority in Germany [from 1933], persecution of the Jews had begun. Several refugees reached us, telling of the troubles and suffering of the Jews under the Nazi regime. At the time, we didn't fully understand the seriousness of what was being said. Warnings were heard from Jewish leaders, but people didn't take them seriously.

In late 1939 [September 1], Germany attacked Poland. A few days later [sic], the country surrendered.^[14] Many of our young men had been drafted into the Polish army, and we didn't know what was happening to them.

I remember the day the Red Army entered our town [in late September 1939]. The soldiers marched in all their strength; they stood up straight on the backs of cars and tanks, waved to us and announced they'd come to free us from the yoke of the Polish shliachta [szlachta].^[15] The Jewish population received them with satisfaction, thinking it was better to live under Russian rule than to be persecuted and oppressed by the Germans.

Members of the drama club after a performance in 1937 Standing (from right): Hirshke Chepelevitz, Mariashka Reichel, Tzipka Levin, Perke Charmatz [the author of this account] and Daniel Karasin Sitting (from right): An unidentified man with glasses, Shayke Deitch and Shimon Viderevitz [Handwritten in Yiddish on one side of the photo is a hard-to-read caption with the words “Producers of the revue evening of [19?]37, direction Shayke . . .” Yiddish words translated by Aaron Krishtalka and Jerrold Landau.]

[Page 42]

There were no bounds to the excitement of the local Communists. Many people who'd spurned Communism until then now changed their faces overnight and joined the sycophants. Immediately after entering, the Russians began their system of propaganda with the help of films, presentations, songs and other forms of communication.

I belonged to no party. In addition, after the [Soviet] occupation I wasn't tempted to register with the youth organization, the Komsomol.^[16] I remembered all the trials and confessions of senior [Soviet] officers and leaders [in the 1930s] who'd admitted to being capitalist agents and traitors with the evil intention of attacking the Soviet “Garden of Eden” and establishing a fascist state in Russia.^[17] I couldn't understand how it was possible for these people, who'd dedicated their lives to the Revolution and suffered so much for the socialist idea, to suddenly reverse course and turn traitor.

Immediately with the coming of the Russians, we began to feel a shortage of food. The shops emptied out. We began to stand in line to buy bread and other food products. Once, in a line for bread, a woman made scornful, derogatory statements about what was happening. For this, she was immediately arrested. She was only freed thanks to the efforts of several respected men of the town, who managed to convince the authorities of her apparent insanity.

This was how we lived under Soviet rule, until the coming of the terrible loss and destruction of the Jews of my town of Braslav.

1. This war between Poland and the Soviet Union began in 1919, when Poland invaded Belorussia and parts of the Ukraine in an attempt to expand its eastern border. A peace treaty signed in 1921 gave Poland territory about 200 kilometers east of the prewar border. This new Polish territory included the Braslav region, which was part of Poland between 1921 and 1939. After World War II, most of the territory won by Poland in 1921 became part of the Soviet Union again, the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Belarus. Return
2. Like Russian, Belarusian is an East Slavic language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, while Polish is a West Slavic language that uses the Latin alphabet. It's estimated that Belarusian has 75% mutual intelligibility with Russian and 55% mutual intelligibility with Polish. Return
3. Schloss Berg, also known as Castle Hill and the Zamek. It was called a mountain by locals, even though it stood only 15 meters or so above the town. Return
4. Dr. Stanislaw Ostyk-Narbutt (1853-1926) was a prominent resident of Braslav. In 1906, he opened a hospital in the town that he managed until his death. There he treated the poor for free. In addition to his hospital work he led a volunteer fire brigade, supported an insurance fund, published a newspaper, and directed and acted in an amateur theater. For all his efforts he was loved and respected by town residents, and a street was named for him (later renamed Kirov Street under the Soviets). After Narbutt's burial at the edge of Castle Hill, town residents paid for an obelisk to be erected on the hill at his grave. His hospital remained in use until 1994. Return
5. The Hebrew-language Yavneh school was part of a network of more than 200 schools established throughout Poland by Mizrachi, the Religious Zionist movement that had been founded in 1902 in Vilna to promote Zionism among observant Jews. Yavneh schools emphasized modern Hebrew (in place of Yiddish), religious education and reconstruction of Jewish life in Palestine. The flagship of the Yavneh school network was the Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary in Warsaw. Return
6. Powiat: County or district. In Poland, it was a larger unit of administration than a gmina (commune or municipality) but smaller than a województwo (voivodeship or province). Return
7. In relation to Braslav: Druysk was about 19 kilometers northeast, Yod was 25 kilometers southeast, Miory was 40 kilometers east, Dubina was 16 kilometers northwest, Slobodka was 11 kilometers northeast, Yaisi was 7 kilometers east, and Opsa was 18 kilometers southwest. Vilna was about 165 kilometers southwest of Braslav. Return
8. Mrs. Fisher here wrote “bread market” and “horse market,” while the map of Braslav on pages 20-21 of this memorial book, made by Chaim Band, referred to these two places as “food market” and “cattle market.” Return
9. Obchestvo Remeslenogo Truda (Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades), a Jewish organization founded in Russia in 1880 to provide professional and vocational training for young Jews. Return
10. Presumably this refers to the Yiddish Teachers' Seminary, which had been established in Vilna in 1921 to produce teachers for the TSYSHO network of secular Yiddish schools. TSYSHO was led mainly by the left wing of Poale Zion (the more radically socialist wing of the Labor Zionists) and the Bund (the Jewish socialist party in Poland), which was anti-Zionist but supported the use of Yiddish. Although official state recognition was granted to the Yiddish Teachers' Seminary in the 1920s, later governments in Poland proved less supportive and in 1931 the seminary was forced to close. Return
11. Narodowa Demokracja (National Democracy), also called Endek: A Polish political movement founded in the late 1800s initially to champion Polish sovereignty against the Russian, Prussian and Austro-Hungarian regimes that had partitioned Poland. Following Polish independence in 1918, the party's right-wing nationalism and anti-Semitism become increasingly pronounced. Return
12. In Palestine under the British Mandate, immigration was strictly controlled; the British allowed in only those with official permission, in the form of the certificate. Such permission was difficult to obtain. Return
13. General Zionism: A center-right Zionist movement, established in 1922 within the Zionist Organization, which had been started in 1897 on the initiative of Theodor Herzl. The General Zionists' establishment in 1922 took place around the time that Zionism was becoming polarized between the Labor Zionists on the left and the Revisionist Zionists (led by Vladimir Jabotinsky) on the right. General Zionists were identified essentially with liberal, middle-class supporters of capitalism. Return
14. The fighting lasted from September 1 to October 6 and the Polish government went into exile instead of formally surrendering. After Germany invaded Poland from the west on September 1, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17. The two aggressors then divided Poland between them, in line with the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed before the outbreak of war. Polish attempts at armed resistance led eventually to the creation of the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army). Return
15. Szlachta: Literally “nobles,” the Polish land-owning class of hereditary nobles that enjoyed many legal privileges and political/economic power until 1795, when its position was significantly eroded by the third and final partition of Poland. Presumably the Soviets used szlachta as shorthand for feudal oppressor. Return
16. The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Return
17. This refers to the wave of purges by Joseph Stalin of rival power centers in the Soviet government in 1936-38. The purges included a series of trials --- which received great publicity abroad --- at which the Communist defendants confessed to treason against Stalin and the Soviet state. Return

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