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In the Forests

Eliyahu (Elik) Lifshovich ז”ל as a Polish soldier

Elik ז”ל after coming out of the forest

Chaim-Yehoshua Lifshovich ז”ל

Once again, we lay in the field for an entire day, giving sustenance to our famished hearts with a couple of ears of corn. When the second night fell, Abraham [-Hirsch Kulakowski] went to a Christian whom we knew, and obtained a loaf of bread. It was by this means that he learned that his brother-in-law Isser Lev had remained alive.

We agreed among ourselves to enter the forest to seek the partisans.

We walked the entire night, and by morning, reached the village of Dubrovka. We ran into several Jews from Dereczin in the Dubrovka forest who had already been in a partisan group headed by a Christian from Ostrovo, Bulak. He received us warmly and gave us several days in which to rest and eat. Afterwards though, he said he was no longer able to support us, and from now on we would have to fend for ourselves, and first of all procure some weaponry.

But how does one procure weapons with empty hands and pockets? As the leader of the partisans, this question did not concern him: “Go, buy weaponry with your money…” – and we didn't have so much as a cent over and above our skin and our lives, excepting the torn clothing that we wore.

This was how our life among the partisans began. Approximately 300 souls saved themselves from the slaughter in Dereczin, among them quite a number of women and children. In order to procure weapons for those who were able to fight, we needed to do something. We appointed a committee of three people to devise a plan one way or another to procure weaponry. It was decided to make a raid on Dereczin, attack the Germans and the police, and in this way obtain some amount of weaponry.

After extensive discussions, we were impelled to present the plan to the Russian commander, in order that he lend us the use of a little weaponry to be able to carry out the attack on Dereczin.

In the meantime, we arranged a contact with a number of young people from Dereczin who belonged to Dr. Atlas's partisan group. After a discussion with them, we decided that we would carry out the assault on Dereczin together.

Much has already been told of Dr. Atlas and his service on behalf of the Jewish partisan movement in the forests of Byelorussia. One of his greatest accomplishments was – procurement of weaponry for the Jewish partisans, for those who already were in the forest, and in anticipation of those who would yet arrive. As a doctor who was beloved by all in the surrounding villages, with the help of the peasants, and a variety of different means, he was able to uncover a variety of ammunition dumps and caches that had been left behind by the retreating Red Army. Dr. Atlas provided arms to any Jew that came into the forest with the will and capability to exact revenge from the Germans. For hundreds of young

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Jews, [Dr.]Atlas served as a role model of an energetic, serious and committed warrior.

Approximately 200 men, of which only a small percentage were armed, and the majority with sticks or just bare hands, attacked Dereczin less than two weeks after the slaughter.

The attack caught the Germans unawares – and was a victory for the partisans! After a two-hour battle, 50 police and 2 Germans were killed. Thirteen police were taken prisoners. The content of all the powder magazines and ammunition dumps fell into partisan hands.

On our side, five fighters fell: David Dombrowsky, who before his death, exhorted his brother to avenge the spilling of Jewish blood; Chaim Shelkovich, Hanan [Elkhanan ?] Kresnovsky, from Kolonia [Sinaiska], and two refugees.

We had control of the town and its entire environs for four weeks. We burned almost all of the houses, and we shot all those who participated with the Germans in the annihilation of our fathers, mothers and children. A terror fell upon all our enemies in the Dereczin region.

Partisan activity in our area was invigorated by the assault on Dereczin. [At this point] a series of daring exploits begin under the leadership of Dr. Atlas, Bulak, and our own Dereczin resident, Eliyahu Lifshovich.

The circumstances of the Jewish partisans after the attack on Dereczin eased a great deal. The aggressive attack on the German garrison awakened a respect on the part of the Christians, who began to show a sense of cordiality and respect for the Jewish partisans.

The Jews perceived that it would be much better to disperse the Jewish fighters among several Russian partisan units. It was in this way that several mixed groups were formed. Only one group, the one of Dr. Atlas, remained as a Jewish unit.

In the forest, there remained a group of a couple of hundred older men, women and children, who could not participate in fighting, who constructed a family compound.

Four weeks after the assault on the Dereczin garrison, a German division arrived and retook control of Dereczin. This only slightly disturbed the partisans, who still, from time-to-time, would enter Dereczin for the purpose of paying a short “visit” and cause the occupying Germans much grief.

It was only then that the Germans took to the forests where the partisans had free rein. The German military apparatus had concentrated a formidable force, which put the forests under siege, and after a short skirmish enabled them to penetrate its interior.

The fight in the forest lasted an entire day. Many victims fell on our side. About 20 partisans and 70 residents of the family compound fell into German hands, and it is easy to imagine the terrifying death that they had. The Germans lost many more, they literally filled their autos with the corpses of their dead.

Just at the point when the partisans had run out of ammunition, they broke through a German wing, and escaped into a second forest.

A couple of days later, we returned to our original forest and took up our task as partisans with even greater ardor. It was then that we began to “go at the trains,” meaning: we would lay charges under the rails, in order to blow up the German trains which largely carried soldiers and ammunition. The same fate befell the larger factories, those manufacturing facilities that produced materiel for the Germans. We would not permit the Germans to extract any tribute from the peasants, and the Germans never got a single Mark from any of the villages that were close to the forests.

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Our Inventory of Munitions Grows

One day, while going along the banks of the Shchara River, our partisans came upon an armored vehicle that had been abandoned by the retreating Soviet army. We examined this armored car carefully, and decided that we would repair it, so that it could be used. And it was so. In a short time, the partisans would go to battle accompanied by an armored vehicle. The first test of this armored car was made in Halinka. There too, the partisans wiped out the Germans and the police force, burned the houses and settled the score with those who helped the Germans carry out their murderous agenda.

It was in this fashion that the partisan movement grew in our area, and strengthened itself from day-to-day. In time, Soviet prisoners [escaping] from German prison camps came to us, and in increasing numbers, more Byelorussians abandoned their villages, leaving behind their meager assets, and fleeing into the forests.

No more Jews came into the forests. There were no more Jews left in our area.

Our inventory of munitions grew, as a result of our planned attacks on German garrisons and police stations.

We decided to attack Kozlovshchina on a specific day, where a large strongly armed German garrison was stationed.

We really pulled out to go to Kozlovshchina.

As it was worked out by our planners, the attack came out on the eve of Rosh Hashana 1942. We concentrated our forces at a point about 10 km from the town. It was a cold, dark fall night. A cold rain wet us clear through to the bone. We initiated our march to the town.

We stopped a kilometer from Kozlovshchina, and the commanders gave their final instructions. A single shot fired from our cannon was to be the signal to open the attack.

At exactly 2AM, the first shot was fired. With shouts of “Hurrah!” we fell on the enemy positions. The battle lasted from 2AM in the middle of the night, until 8AM in the morning. The enemy fought bitterly. Despite this, the town remained in our hands, but not for long. The Germans received considerable reinforcement, and the partisans were forced to retire from the battlefield. In the retreat, a large cannon and a mortar remained with the enemy. A group of Jewish fighters decided to wrest this precious weaponry from the enemy's hands – and they accomplished this. This cost the lives of three, young 16-year-old Jewish partisans. The rest, who remained alive, brought back the cannon and mortar from the battlefield. For their daring behavior, the partisan leadership cited the fighters. These were the Dereczin fighters, Gedalia Bosak and Chaim-Yehoshua Lifshovich ז”ל, and the Warsaw refugee, Krimolovsky.

At this point we also need to recall the Jewish partisan from Kozlovshchina, Abraham Kozlovsky, who personally shot 11 policemen, until he was brought down by a bullet from a twelfth.

Winter is drawing close. A fright falls on the partisans. They are already used to fighting against the Germans, but against the frost!? Who can guess at what difficult battles lie ahead of us? People engage in debate, bringing forth the various alternatives: we should try to break through the front, which at that time stretched somewhere from Moscow to Stalingrad; and perhaps, to go in the direction of the west? The Jews, along with the Christian partisans decide to winter in the forests. We begin preparations for the winter. We create dwellings, salt meat and fat, and prepare for the battle with the winter.

But before this, we have the opportunity to fight the Germans. In the very heart of our forests lies the village of Ruda Jaworska. In order to weaken our

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forces, keep them fragmented, and deny us the ability to make contact between our various partisan groups, the Germans stationed a well-armed garrison at Ruda at the beginning of November. The garrison had barely arrived to arrange its new quarters, when the partisan command became aware of it, and already on the following morning before dawn, partisan forces stood waiting at the entrance to the village.

The attack caught the Germans by surprise. They were almost all still asleep. The partisan victory was substantial: the Germans and Ukrainians fell in the battle. Magazines of clothing, food, and ammunition fell into partisan hands. In this planned attack, the Dereczin partisans excelled, at the head were the brothers, Chaim-Yehoshua & Eliyahu Lifshovich, together with their sister, Taibl, ז”ל.

This took place on November 7, the anniversary of the October [Russian] Revolution. Our partisans sat around on boards and thought as to what sort of present we could present to the Soviet Motherland in honor of this holiday. Suddenly we hear a droning noise above us, and an airplane appears over our heads, of course, a German plane. How nice it would be if it was given to us to shoot that accursed airplane down – the partisans thought. But before anything could be done, the plane vanished far over the forest.

With lightning speed the news spread the following morning throughout the forest, that because of a mechanical defect in its motor, the plane had gone down not far from the edge of the forest, into a bog. Not thinking very long, Dr. Atlas sent a group of Jewish partisans, led by our Eliyahu Lifshovich from Dereczin, in order to carry out this mission. After a short engagement, the German fliers were killed, and the plane was burned. Once again the Jewish partisans demonstrated their heroism.

That same month, the Germans sent a punitive expedition against the peasantry of the forest villages, who had not paid any taxes. About 300 Germans drew near to the village of Volya. The first to greet the Germans with a hail of bullets was Dr. Atlas and his group.

On the other side of the river, Dr. Atlas's group stood alone, a detachment of only 30 men. The battle was, naturally, not evenly matched. This did not intimidate or deter the Atlas partisans. Atlas divided his group in two, one he took under his own command, and the second – under the command of Eliyahu Lifshovich. When part of the Germans crossed the Shchara [River], the partisans opened their attack. The battle was fierce. The river ran red with blood. Hundreds of Germans and Ukrainians were shot.

The Jewish partisans then received support from the second side of the Shchara, and it was in this fashion that the Germans found themselves trapped in a vise between two cross fires, their retreat was cut off, and many of them jumped into the river and were drowned.

The partisans won the battle, but they lost the best and most loyal heroic figure and organizer of the Jewish partisan movement, Dr. Atlas. He was wounded in the foot, and before the necessary help could be administered, he lost too much blood, and gave up the ghost.

The death of Dr. Atlas elicited a tremendous outpouring of sorrow among the partisans, but the loss was felt most strongly by the Jewish partisans fighters in the forest. After his death, a strong wave of anti-Semitism arose from the side of the Christian partisan allies, which despite the heroic exploits of Eliyahu Lifshovich, did not let up for a single day and even grew stronger. The partisans threw themselves into their diversionary work with even greater fire and fierceness. All the train lines in our area were blown up, and not a single transport could get through on those lines to the front. A fright seized the German garrisons, and they began to alert the higher military command to the need for help. And the help was sent to them.

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Bitter Fighting in the Forests

On December 24, 1942, five divisions of German front line forces, armed with the latest technology, drew near the forest villages. They surrounded the forest. Our forces then numbered about 800 people. A life and death struggle began. For three consecutive days and nights, we fought for every patch of ground, for every tree. We threw ourselves on the Germans like wild animals, and literally demonstrated miraculous behavior. We blew German v\tanks and cars into the air. Hundreds of Germans were killed. But we could not long hold out against so large an enemy force. So we decided to retreat into a different forest. We broke through the enemy lines, and went several tens of kilometers away, into a second forest.

The [fighting] partisans did not take heavy casualties, but the toll among the family groups and the village population was high. The Germans sated themselves on human blood, and retreated from the forest.

A couple of weeks later, we returned to our former forest location. And as usual, when Christians look for the reason misfortune befalls them, and find the Jew, so it was the same thing in the forest. A strong anti-Semitic incitement was initiated, which caused special suffering in the family camps. The Russian command did not want to let them [sic: the Jews] remain with them, and drove them from one place to another. Because of this, the Jews had to bear much trouble from all sides. The partisan groups stopped supporting them, in part because after the bloody engagement with the German divisions, they themselves were critically short of supplies, and for this reason, they didn't want to permit the Jewish partisans to assist their own family groups.

The first winter of life in the forest was a severe one for the partisans, because they did not have adequate provisions yet. The non-combatant family groups suffered especially badly from the cold. They dug themselves shallow trenches, and spent the winter days and nights lying in them, mostly naked and hungry. They had no means to dig any deeper cellar-like shelter, so together, a couple of families would dig out a bit of the frozen ground, and cover it with a scrap of lumber to provide some sort of roof. A lot of people lay in this sort of beastly shelter, crowed, hungry and filthy. It is no wonder that their exhausted and starved bodies could not withstand the onslaught of various bacteria, and many perished in various epidemics of disease. Not a few expired from hunger and cold. A frozen potato was considered a holiday meal. Very often, entire families would expire together in one of these winter pits, and they would together be covered with the earth in their common grave. As if to spite us, that was an unusually severe winter, with temperatures falling to 30 degrees below zero.^[1]

Everything around them was working against these unfortunate people, and only a small portion of them survived all these tribulations.

In February 1943, when the news of the victory at Stalingrad reached the forests, conditions changed a little, and once again, support for the Jews in the forest was renewed. Notwithstanding that many had already departed to another world, and others were permanently crippled with frozen feet and hands. It was not only once that the partisan doctors had to perform an amputation of a foot in order to save the individual in question from gangrene.

We could really take pride in our partisan hospital. It was organized in a far-flung location deep in the forest, with a secret entrance. Only a limited number of partisans knew the location of the hospital. In large earthen bunkers, the Jewish doctors Myasnik, Rockover & Rosenzweig worked with complete commitment, and the nurses, Manya Manikov and her mother ז”ל, along with other medical workers. The various medicaments were provided from the attacks we made against various German garrisons. Only later, when we succeeded in establishing contact with Moscow, the hospital began to receive medical supplies dropped from the air by parachutes.

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Patrols and Sorties

We rarely had a quiet day in the forest. Almost every day we went out on patrols, and very often we would clash with German search patrols. But wherever there was a German garrison in the area, we went to attack it and to disrupt its operation.

In the summer of 1943, the Germans carried out several sorties against us, but were met with strong resistance on our part. At the time the partisans repaired and were able to deploy a large tank, which was left behind by the retreating Soviet forces in 1941, the Germans entered the forest with a large force of their own.

About September 3, 1943 the Germans clashed with us in the forest. They were supported by airplanes that bombed the forests continuously for two days in advance of the attack. The partisans did not surrender, they fought the Germans for a couple of days, and then left the forest. Many Germans were killed in the forest battles. In one of the battles, our own Taibl Lifshovich from Dereczin was wounded. As it was not possible to provide her with the needed help, she became seriously weakened, and afterwards got blood poisoning, and died in our forest hospital. She was brought with great honor before the partisan brigade command, and interred in the partisan cemetery.

In the meantime, an opportunity came along for us to establish contact with Moscow. The partisans organized a radio station, and special radio operators transmitted details about everything that transpired in the forests. Our partisan command received orders from Moscow. We would hear the news by radio. Our isolation in the forest came to an end, we were connected to Moscow, and received news from all over the world. Apart from this, we would often be visited by Soviet aircraft in the night, who in accordance with pre-arranged signals, would parachute down to us ammunition, newspapers – and people. Special sabotage groups were established in our ranks, who occupied themselves with diversionary actions.

It was in this manner that the second winter came upon us. The partisans had made preparations from the prior year. It was no longer necessary to dig shallow holes, instead, large spacious earthen bunkers had been created, with windows and doors, often with curtains for the windows, and also with ovens. It was in this way that underground dwellings were put in place in the forest, which ran on for kilometers. A sports and dance hall was even put in place. This was how our quality of life rose.

The fighting against the Germans continued. We once again attacked Ruda and Ostrovo achieving a great victory. Once again, Jewish partisans distinguished themselves in the fighting, and once again, the instigation of anti-Semitism intensified. A significantly large percentage of Jewish fighters from the mis-directed bullets of their Christian colleagues. That is how life in the forest went, until –

Entirely unexpectedly, we received news on June 4, 1944 that large military forces of Germans were drawing themselves into our area. This time, it seems the Germans did not stint, and had pulled about 85 thousand Cossacks off the front, armed with the latest and best and most powerful weaponry, and turned them loose on the forest. It took them several days before they reached the Shchara [River]. At the river, they were confronted by Bulak, the hero of the partisan forces in our area, and his fighters, among whom the Jewish Dereczin partisans had distinguished themselves. For a couple of days without letup, our partisan howitzers and mortars fired continuously. German artillery responded from the other side. Many of the enemy fell in those battles, but this only incensed them further. However, the partisan forces could not hold out for very long against so large a force, which had surrounded all our groups. No help arrived from any quarter. Commander Bulak then decided to use his brigade to pierce the German forces and traverse the so-called “Vilna Tract.”

During these couple of days of fighting, the

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Germans dug themselves in very well, but having no place to go, our forces fell upon the Germans. The battle lasted for a couple of hours and it was the most terrifying and bitterest fight of our entire partisan era. It was a battle between thousands of partisans and tens of thousands of the enemy. It became such a mish-mash of fighting, that it was impossible to use firepower. We fell back on bayonets, and the Germans and Cossacks were stronger.

Many partisans were killed in that merciless battle, and that many more on the side of the enemy. Along the sides of the ‘Tract,’ the Germans had dug out pits and hidden them by covering them with the branches of trees, and many partisans fell into their hands alive.

Our own Chaim-Yehoshua Lifshovich was killed on that day. He was wounded in both legs, and not wanting to fall into the hands of the murderers, shot himself with his own revolver. Sima Shelovsky also died a heroine's death, who had worked as a nurse. Not willing to leave a wounded Soviet Major behind, she was felled by the enemy's bullets. Moshe-Chaim Ogulnick also fell that day, who during his entire time in the forest had distinguished himself as one of the most important of the partisans. On that same day, Vitya Shelovsky was killed also, and also many others from Dereczin.

Despite the heavy losses, a very large portion broke through and joined up with partisans on the other side of the river. From Moscow an order came not to abandon the forest, and not to engage the Germans. The partisans then stopped shooting, and did not return the German fire. They circled around from one forest to another. Our silence only served to provoke more unrest among the Germans. And then began to enter the forest and occupy our campsites.

In the meantime, the food situation got more severe. It was impossible to get to the bases where food was stored, because they had been occupied by the Germans. It was not possible to exit the forest as well, because all the surrounding towns were occupied by German garrisons. All the passages were cut off, and the forest was placed under a heavy, onerous blockade so severe, that we had to eat horse flesh and suck on old bones [for nourishment] that we found in the forest. Our outlook looked bleak.

Through the radio, we then received fresh, heartening news from the front. Marshall Rokossovsky had opened his victorious offensive on the northern front. This raised the morale of the partisans: if we would only suffer a little more, we will be relieved.

Unmindful of all these difficulties, we had a chance to break through the German blockade, and to confiscate 60 cows, and other foodstuffs. You need to understand that this planned action immediately called out a reaction from the enemy's side. The Cossacks spread themselves throughout the forest. They were on all roads and paths, and they pursued the partisans through mud and water. Despite this, hope grew in our ranks from day to day.

You can imagine our joy when we heard on the radio that Baranovich had been liberated by the Soviet military. We started to count the minutes. We no longer paid attention to the continuous German cannonade – we listened for the more distant thunder roll of Russian Katyushas. And the Katyushas drew ever closer.

And suddenly – what happened? The sound of the German guns fell a bit, true the bombardment goes on day and night, but we sense that this is something different. The thunder of the Katyushas overpowers the German howitzers, shells and mortars.

The day has come! The Germans retreated from the forest, and they set up a front line at the Shchara [River]. The Germans are now fighting directly with the Russian Army, the Soviet soldiers are filling the forest, and the entire area. The Germans retreat in an unorganized panic, leaving behind thousands of

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their dead.

Finally, after a five-week blockade, we are liberated.

Yes, the joy was great, but the grief was also deep. We had been freed, but our nearest and dearest – where were they? To whom can we go back?

Our initial time in the forest was very difficult. Dr. Atlas did everything he could for us, supplying us with ammunition, giving us guidance on how to conduct ourselves, where to obtain food, etc. We were already at that time a group of 18 men. The brothers 'Nioma^[1] & Velvel Dombrowsky , Chaim Shelkovich, Yisrolik Kwiat and others joined us.

The Doctor [Atlas] told us that we would have to take foodstuffs from the neighboring farmsteads. Five of us went off, myself, with Alter, Elik, Nioma, & Gedalia Bosak, to the farmsteads, and were able to obtain a small amount of food. We had expressed our gratitude everywhere. But we were constantly pressed to bring more food, because our remaining comrades waited for us in the forests, hungry.

Once we came to a peasant in Dobrovshchina. He began to shout and ridicule us: “It is impossible to get rid of these Jews! No matter how many of them we kill – there are still more of them, and they come demanding food from us!” And the peasant grabs me by the collar, in order to throw me into his shed so that he can later turn me over to the Germans, because the Germans paid well for having a partisan turned over to them, and a Jewish one on top of that. The peasant's son was a member of the police force.

Elik immediately discharged his weapon into the air. A commotion arose among the peasant and his neighbors, and they immediately began bringing us bread and cheese. Despite this, it was insufficient for all of our comrades. And when we later related what had happened to us, Elender from Suwalk began to carry on heatedly: “You are tying yourselves to these peasants, and they will betray us all and turn us over into the hands of the Germans! I don't want to die for a small piece of bread that doesn't satisfy my hunger in any event!”

So we sought an alternative. Alter, Moteleh Bosak and I went off to a potato field and began to uproot potatoes, taking the root and putting the top of the plant back into the ground. We baked the potatoes, and managed to get by this way for a while.

This condition prevailed until the Doctor came to us one day with two partisan commanders. From that time on he remained in the forest, and it is quite difficult to describe everything that he accomplished, and how beloved he was, both by the partisans and by the village peasantry. The latter would kiss his hands, because he would heal them when they were sick. They paid him not with money or produce – but with ammunition! They had their own ammunition, and knew who possessed it. Every night, one of us would accompany the Doctor, in order to deliver firearms somewhere, machine guns and ammunition.

The two Russian commanders, Kolka & Vanka, immediately organized an expedition against

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Ozhorki, taking a horse and wagon there, and bringing it into the forest along with a well fattened pig, bags of flour, and a variety of [other] products. Slowly, the life of our partisan group fell into a routine.

On the other side of the Shchara [River], there were tens of survivors to be found, who had rescued themselves from the slaughter in Dereczin. Along with Yisrael Kwiat & Elik we set out to make contact with our fellow townsfolk. There we heard wondrous tales about the commander, Batka Bulak, who zealously guarded the family compound. Bulak was a peasant from Ostrovo, and during the time of the Soviet regime, he was the [sic: communist] party secretary, and when the Germans arrived, he went into the forest. He was a simple and decent Christian man, always cheerful, on horseback accompanied by other riders, visiting the surrounding villages, carrying on conversations with the peasants and their wives, obtaining news from them about the Germans in the surrounding villages and towns. Young people followed him both as a leader and a friend.

He was like a father to the Dereczin remnant.

* * *

We returned to our base, and took three Dereczin people with us from the family compound. As a result of a conversation with the Doctor, Shmuel Borenstein joined us at that time. Shmuel had left to join the partisans earlier, before the slaughter. He wanted to join us, because Bella was with us, along with several other of his good friends.

And I cannot forget how I was sent to a second base camp in order to receive a letter from them to bring back. I followed the commander who took me there in bare feet. At nightfall, I began to return with the letter, and I couldn't find the right way. I stopped off in some woods, and waited until dawn started to break. But when I arrived at the place where our group was staying, I found no one there. Like someone bereft of his senses, I blundered around in the forest, looking for my partisan comrades. A peasant who knew me ran into me, and brought me bread and milk. I searched for my group for so long that I eventually ran into two partisans from another base, and they took me back to their commander. He interrogated me, until it became clear to him that I was one of the Doctor's partisans. He asked me to wait, because the Doctor was expected there soon.

In the end, Doctor Atlas did arrive, took the letter from me and told me that our group had abandoned our original location, because preparations were being made to attack the Dereczin military and police garrisons.

* * *

Much has already been told about the partisan attack on Dereczin. I also had a part in it with a machine gun. That night I was able to partially slake my thirst for vengeance.

We brought back three severely wounded troops from Dereczin. The doctor, Bella, and Sima Shelovsky did everything they could to save them, but they expired in the forest under the trees, and we buried them with the oath to exact vengeance yet again from the murderers.

We also brought out a lot of weaponry and ammunition, medical supplies and various products.

I also brought out a pair of good boots. I was no longer a barefoot partisan.

* * *

The Germans wanted to even the score with the partisans over the Dereczin incident, and they launched a sortie against the family compound, because Batka Bulak, who commanded the groups that had attacked Dereczin, had ordered us to disperse to other places in the neighboring forests. The Germans prosecuted a terrifying pogrom in the family compound.

The Doctor did not rest. He continued to plan even more daring feats of attack against the Germans. It

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was in this fashion that the attack was carried out that destroyed the train trestle across the Neman [River], at the precise time that a train full of German soldiers who were being taken from the front back to hospitals in Germany was caused to fall into the river. I took part in this action along with the Doctor, Elik Lifshovich, Gedalia Bosak, Kolka the commander, and a new partisan, Shubin, who came to us from the German sector, and did the most important work in preparing the bridge to be blown up.

I cannot forget how we gathered all the necessary parts and materials for the mine and the battery materials that were needed to bring about the explosion: and then when everything was assembled, we thoroughly analyzed the object of our attack, the bridge across the Neman; we had a long and difficult way to go, until we reached the bridge; once there, new difficulties surfaced – we needed to mine the bridge in a way that the German patrols would not see the mine; and one brings to mind the long hours of waiting for the military train, until it arrived, in order to bring it down with that mine, and cause all of its cars to fall into the river; the wild shrieking of the Germans rang in our ears at that time like the music of revenge; the way back was not any easier, but we were suffused with the elation of victory.

* * *

The Germans perceived that partisan might was growing, and its feats were causing them trouble and costing them in material loss. They decided to station a punitive garrison in Ruda [Jaworska], in the center of the forest, manned with 300-400 well-armed soldiers, in order to be able to fight the partisans. We found out about this in good time. [However] we were also well-armed by this time, having even an armored vehicle, with artillery pieces of various calibers and machine guns. Several of our partisan fighters were specialists in the use of all sorts of machine guns. Dr. Atlas's group was already well known in our vicinity. We receive explosive materiel along with saboteurs who were sent to us from the other side of the front.

We attacked the German forces immediately upon their arrival in Ruda, and before they had a chance to unpack their ammunition and materiel. I remember that battle quite well, during which we wiped out the entire German force, and took all their assets back into the forest with us, as yet unpacked.

The saboteurs saw that we fought well, And showered us with all manner of equipment, such as rifles, revolvers and automatic weapons. The local commanders began to quarrel over possession of the captured booty – and it was we, the Jews, who suffered from their quarreling, whom they singled out for every little matter.

* * *

Our attack on Kozlovshchina was not well planned, and we suffered a defeat, a lot of us were wounded, and several were killed in battle. I was hit in the left hand, and it took a long time for my wound to heal.

Meanwhile, we received word that not far from the village of Riniki, a German plane had put down, and remained stuck there. It appears that something mechanical had gone bad, but it was said that repairs had been effected, and it was to take off soon.

Our group volunteered to attack the plane. A peasant, who had been thoroughly interrogated by Shmuel Borenstein & Monyek (Monyek looked like a gentile, and spoke exactly like a gentile), guided us to the location of the airplane. We got to that place with the greatest of difficulty in pitch darkness. We opened fire on it, and the Doctor demanded that anyone inside come out. No answer was forthcoming.

I volunteered to enter the airplane, to determine what was going on inside and to appropriate the fuel for use by our tanks. Just as I approached the airplane, a man jumped down from it and vanished into the darkness. I girded myself with courage, and let myself inside. I looked for a long time, but found no fuel. In the end, the Doctor ordered the German flying machine to be put to the torch.

* * *

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Our group carried out many more acts of sabotage until the great German sortie was launched [against us]. In the distance, we heard the sound of gunfire, so we left, dividing ourselves up into small groups, to determine where the gunfire was coming from, and to respond if need be. I went with the Doctor's group. On the way, we spoke with optimism about our long-range fate and goal. When we drew near to the Shchara, we could already see the Germans firing at our positions. The Doctor took us out, even though the danger was great, and the field between us and the enemy was open and exposed. Suddenly a hail of bullets rained down on us. We fall to the ground, asking one another if anyone was hit. All answer, except the Doctor. I ran to him with Bosak. The Doctor lay severely wounded. We tore open his clothes and began to massage his heart, upon which he opened his eyes and said: “Take revenge!” We both picked him up and carried him over to the second side of a small hill and attempted to help him, trying to do something, to stanch the streaming blood. But I was called back almost immediately to my machine gun. The Doctor was taken back to the camp by a tank. We fought until nightfall. We, the Jews, gathered together at the time the gentiles sat down to eat. We buried our beloved Doctor Atlas and swore that after the war, we would see him properly interred in a Jewish cemetery.

In the meantime, the order came to abandon the camp, and transit to another part of the forest. We said our farewells at the grave of the great Jewish warrior Doctor Atlas with tears in our eyes.

* * *

Hard days arrived for the partisans. At this time I began to work in the bakery, which had been established in the forest, in the center of the various base camps. The demand for bread was filled during those years in the forest, foodstuffs, both dairy and meat, were possible to procure from the peasants, but they had no bread. The bakery produced good bread, and we the Jewish partisans were able, with great danger, to supply the family compound with a little bit of bread.

So I am standing in the bakery one day, getting ready to knead dough for some baked goods, Bella who was the chief cook was in the bakery also, when suddenly a tall, vigorous looking gentile enters the premises and asks for the way to the commanding officers. He wants to tell them that the partisan troops are not treating the village gentile girls with courtesy. There was something about him that seemed put on. In the meantime, Herschel Zlotagura arrived, and taking me aside, inquired as to who this unknown Christian might be. When I related what the gentile had said his business was, Herschel advised us to keep our arms at the ready, in the event that he attacks us, because we anticipated a sortie against our camp by the Germans, and it was really unclear as to what this unfamiliar person was doing here. Herschel personally transported some ammunition to the family compound, in order to give them the capability to resist an attack during a sortie.

Herschel returned sometime later, and ordered the stranger to leave and go into the forest with him. Bogdush waited for them already outside. Later, it was discovered that near the bakery, a white horse had been tethered with a sign – apparently intended as an indication to the Germans, who had sent this vigorous peasant to act as a spy and to convey intelligence to the Germans.

Shouts were heard from all around: “The Germans are surrounding us!” We ran outside and began to run. The Germans spotted me when I was about one hundred meters from them, and they opened fire on me. A bullet hit me in a finger on my left hand. Blood flowed from me and the pain was sharp. I ran on further, but could not find the way to our camp, and met up with a second [partisan] group. They bandaged my finger and I went off to my own camp. On the way, I heard shooting coming from the direction of the camp I had just left. It was later determined that the Germans had been following the trail of blood that had come from my wound, and had in this manner stumbled into an ambush that had been set for them at that camp. Several tens of Germans were shot as a result of that ambush.

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After spending one night, along with other wounded in the earthen bunkers, we were taken to a second location that had already been prepared to receive sick and wounded.

That night in the earthen bunker was a frosty one. Many of the sick had either their feet, hands or fingers frostbitten. I made my way to the new field hospital on foot, and on arrival in this new location I was running a fever of 41.5 ^oC (106.7^oF). Dr. Rosenzweig determined quickly that I had typhus. He undertook to heal me, looked after me, and felt fortunate when I [successfully] got through the crisis.

When I regained my strength, and was preparing to return to my camp, he asked me if he could have my boots, because he was practically barefoot. I gave him my boots gladly, even though I caught a scolding from Elik, our commander, for this.

It didn't take long before we enfiladed a German provisioning transport consisting of about twenty vehicles. I did a good job with my machine gun, we took a lot of booty, and I got a new pair of boots.

* * *

Around Passover of 1943, the Germans again launched a sortie against our forest. Our camp was alerted in a timely fashion, and everyone removed themselves very quickly to a second location. Everyone – except me and another couple of our comrades who were on watch at the time, remained in the forest. We hid ourselves for a couple of days, and having nothing to eat, we set out wandering about the area, and ran into a group of the Orlansky Brigade.

A peasant from a nearby village brought us a group of Jews from the Lida ghetto, whom we hid in the forest until the return of our [own] partisans.

* * *

New troubles started for us, the Jewish partisans. Rumors were spread throughout all the forests that the Germans had especially liberated Jews from Minsk and had sent them as spies into the partisan brigades.

The suspicion that was thrown upon us by the Christian partisans created such pressure on us that we began to intensely watch and scrutinize one another. This continued up to the point that it was discovered that young gentile women, who were consorting with the Christian commanders, had been sent as spies into the forest. These women were shot, but the distrust of the Jewish partisans lingered on for a long time, despite the fact that our Jewish groups carried out difficult and important missions, which other groups were not capable of handling.

I am reminded of the sabotage of the German train that I carried our together with Monyek. The lines and stations were heavily patrolled by the Germans, along with watchdogs and Byelorussians. It was very difficult to get close to the train tracks. The trains took a long time to come. When we finally spotted the train, Elik was afraid that we would be spotted from the locomotive, and they would open fire on us, but Monyek and I quickly placed the charges and hid in a pit. A large part of the train was destroyed.

I was called to the partisan command. There I met Moshe Kwiat & Simkha Kresnovsky, and I was told that the Head of Command wanted to meet the heroic partisan, Jekuthiel Khmelnitsky. After the war, I was in Minsk, received the partisan medal, and I was promised that I would receive my official recognition from Moscow, but I didn't want to wait for it.

Other exploits of our Jewish partisans come to mind, as for example, the ambush attack on a German transport, consisting of vehicles and armored cars, which we allowed to get between two mined locations that were then discharged remotely, and then we shot up the Germans and their allies for several hours. There were extensive swamps on both sides. The Byelorussians and Ukrainians who attempted to escape through the swamps were apprehended and taken off to the forest. They fell to our feet and begged for their lives. Resha screamed

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at them: “When our mothers begged for your mercy, you killed them – now you beg us to have mercy upon you?!” – and Bulak dispatched about twenty of these traitors on the spot with his machine gun.

* * *

Then, the last German sortie against the forest came. It was in the month of March 1944. The enemy had decided to wipe us out, and had surrounded the forest. We couldn't even find food for ourselves and went out on missions.

Once, on a Saturday, we were all gathered together in one location – many of us, entire camps of partisans, all of the brigades from the surrounding forests, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.

Commissar Ivalev gave a speech, telling us that we are totally surrounded by the enemy, and our only way out is – to break through the German line and enter the Pinsk swamps, or to the Red Army. He called upon us to hurl ourselves at the enemy with the Russian battle cry, “Hurrah,” that would then take us on to victory.

Night fell, and the great mass of partisans made its move toward the line of the German encirclement

With a cry of “Hurrah!” we began to run at the line – and immediately this attracted a hail of fire from all sides; Those running fell like cut corn. German rockets illuminated everything around us. Where was one to go?

I am lying with my firearm, and with me is Joseph Blizniansky & Gershon Lifshovich. They look to me for my advice and help, because I am older than them. I shout to the commander, Abramov, that we have to stop shouting “Hurrah!” because we are giving away our positions to the Germans. It would be better to quietly try and penetrate the line. But Abramov no longer responds. He is in a sitting position, his body up against a tree – and is silent.

I look about. To crawl out, it is necessary to ford a small stream, and afterwards drop down a high bank. And it is at this spot that the German tanks are patrolling. So the three of us made our way backwards. There are dead and wounded all around us. The latter beg us to shoot them, and not let them suffer. We went off to a peasant, obtained bread and milk, and headed for the great forest of Dobrovshchina, along with many other partisans.

Then German airplanes began to bomb the forest. We can hear shouts: The Germans are coming! And then a political officer called us together and directed us to conceal our weaponry and disperse among the villages, to those families and acquaintances, [to hide] until it quiets down, and then return to reclaim the weaponry...

This was good advice for the gentiles, but not for us Jewish partisans who had remained alive. Under no circumstance was I prepared to relinquish my firearm, because only with it can I fulfill my prime objective – to exact vengeance from the German murderers. The political officer demanded, cajoled and then ordered – but to no avail, I did not surrender my weapon, and eight other partisans stood with us. We did not know to which area we should go, until Joseph Blizniansky began taking us in the direction of a large bog, behind which there was a wooded area. We spent the night there, and the following day, without food, without drink, and with no hope of reaching a safe place where we could hide from the Germans and their tanks and airplanes.

On the second night all eleven of us went to find out what the status of this sortie was, and to find a little food. In the surrounding farmsteads we are told that there are no Germans in the area any longer. We approach the German line, nearing the bunkers with their slit windows from which only a couple of days before we were fired upon – now it is quiet all around.

Henokh, the blacksmith from Kozlovshchina had Christian acquaintances somewhere in the area, so we headed toward them to obtain bread and milk. A peasant tells us to show ourselves and to take us where the other partisans are. Meanwhile, he took us to spend the day in a nearby wooded area. We can't stay

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there very long. Germans are patrolling the area.

So we returned again to the swamps, after having found out that the Russians had broken through the German front and are drawing near to our area.

After additional searching, we finally were reunited with our unit, from which not even half the people survived. We know that any moment now, the Russians will arrive and liberate us, but in the meanwhile, the Germans continue to shoot. Until they began to retreat.

It was on a Saturday. We are lying in the forest, suspecting that there are no more Germans – and we wait.

And then a mine caught me. I woke up in a Russian army hospital. My head was bandaged. I was told that I was dug out of the debris. That is how I came to remain alive.

Translator's Footnote:

1. Yiddish diminutive for Benjamin. Return

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Slowly the light of day appeared, even if it was dark for all of us, black and lightless. From there we went into the corn field and then on to the Lipover forest, and met many people at that place.

The first question that was put to us was: you want to save yourselves with such small children?

That same night we went to the forest of Ostrovo. My husband and I, and our small children were consistently the last ones. My dear sister was fearful that we would be left alone in the forest. It was Herschel Lobzovsky who led us, and waited for us, and did not let us remain behind and God forbid, get lost. And this is how we straggled along with our three small children: the oldest, Lizinkeh, a doll at age 6, our older son, Moteleh age 4, and the youngest, Yankeleh, 18 months old. Try to imagine the position of the parents, with three young ones, when you are asked: do you really want to save yourselves with such small children?

It is impossible to document what we suffered. Those not capable of fighting, along with women and children, found themselves in a family compound. We were constantly hungry, sick, broken and frightened. A terror would seize us at every movement, from every rustle of a leaf. We immediately were struck with Pharaoh's third plague: lice. The filth alone could have easily consumed us.

A month after we entered the forest, the Germans decided to launch a terrifying reprisal against us for the partisan attack on Dereczin. The Germans launched a sortie against the Ostrovo forest, and about 80 innocent people were shot, many of them were taken alive, and one can only imagine what sort of terrifying death the German murderers arranged for them.

For every day that we managed to live through, I thanked God: Blessed be God each and every day.

And so we made the time pass in a state of fright and hunger. Not only once did I think that it would be better to be dead already, because often death often seemed a much easier and better alternative than our dreary existence.

During the cold season, we lay in shallow small trenches, full of people, exhausted and starved, and

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it was from this that a typhus epidemic broke out in the camp. Entire families would expire in the trenches, which constituted their [only] 'residence,' and were transformed into their common graves. Only a small portion of the Jews survived this entire ordeal.

My two sons and I contracted typhus. It was in the month of March, on the eve of Purim. There wasn't even a thermometer with which to take temperature. We had no form of food. The snow began to melt in our trench, and we lay in the watery melt. My husband, Moshe-Zvi Kamenetsky went off to a nearby village to obtain a small amount of potatoes, literally risking his life to do so. God helped him, and he succeeded in getting some potatoes and a little bit of salt. My children and I each received two potatoes to help stave off the hunger.

After such a frightening illness, I was left without strength, and I could not stand on my feet. I was literally carried out of the trench by hand and brought to the fire. The fresh air revived me somewhat. Sitting this way by the fire, I see a Jew who had just arrived from the village of Volya, bearing bitter tidings: military forces had ridden in and surrounded us from all sides. I wept bitter tears the entire night. What is going to happen now? Will I never again see my husband and children? It was necessary to run away from this place, and I did not have the strength to keep up with everyone else.

At daybreak, one could already hear the sound of shooting coming form all corners of the forest. It was necessary to flee as quickly as possible from our current location, with its well-marked pathways. I took my leave of my husband and children, begged their forgiveness, asking them to go with the others, while I would stay behind alone. We all knew that staying behind meant certain death.

In the middle of this, a howitzer shell whistled over our heads, and I suddenly began to run. We were literally almost in German hands. We ran through a large swamp, and I remained stuck in the muck. We even heard the voices of the enemy behind us, who raced through the forest searching for the innocent victims.

To this day, I do not know what sort of a miracle was wrought. My husband took me and the little baby on his back, and with all his might, pulled us out of the muck, and brought us back into the forest. We no longer saw any Jews around us, we only heard the sound of the racing German murderers. They ran from the right side, and we hid ourselves to the left, digging ourselves into the ground, and literally not breathing.

It was not only this once that such miracles occurred in the forest.

The first winter in the forest was a hard and bitter one. We had no tools with which to try and dig ourselves the deeper earthen shelter bunkers. We fled even in this great cold, at the time of a great sortie against us, naked and barefoot, in deep snow from the Volya forest to a second forest. I carried one of the children. The cold and the snow cut through to the heart. Peasants and their womenfolk, who saw us fleeing this way from one forest to another, would cross themselves out of fear of what we looked like.

That was the occasion of the great sortie against us, when the partisans fought an heroic life-and-death struggle. Dr. Atlas fell in that bitter struggle, a dear Jew and a friend to the family compound. Not only once did he protect us from the Christian partisans.

We survived this sortie as well. We returned to our old location in the Volya forest, and we encountered a veritable destruction. It was the family residents that suffered the most.

On the 12^th day of Shevat, the shooting broke out again on all sides. People ran straight into the hands of the Germans. Not knowing that the Germans were attacking the partisans, many of us ran to seek protection from our partisan fighters, but instead of protection, they ran into heavy German gunfire.

Many of our Dereczin comrades were killed on that day, and I will never forget that 12^th day of Shevat: my dear daughter Lizinkeh was killed, along with my sister, Hannah Friedman, along with the families of Shmuel Butinsky, with his wife and child,

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Yochi Butinsky with her son, Israel Salutsky with three children, – the Yahrzeit for all of these people falls on the 12^th of Shevat. May their souls be bound up in the bond of life.

It is hard to describe everything that we lived through in the forest, until the onset of summer in 1944.

At this point new sorts of trouble materialized. The Russian commanders began to pick a bone with the residents of the family compound, not wanting to support or protect us any longer. They literally abandoned us to God's will.

That summer we were cut off and separated from everything and everyone. We remained a group of 22 souls, and so made ourselves a camouflaged earthen bunker, deeply dug into the ground. Hungry, exhausted, without enough strength to even utter a word, we sat all day in this pit, listening to the shooting all around us.

We had no idea of who was shooting or why. At this point we no longer knew where the partisans were to be found, and had no idea of where we ourselves were. At night we would sneak outside, but we could not permit ourselves to make a fire.

I personally was so weakened from hunger and exertion that I barely could see with my own eyes.

We were sitting this way in the bunker, when suddenly outside we heard a shout: “Kamenetsky! Kamenetsky!” And the shouting did not stop, repeating itself and echoing through the forest.

My husband did not answer, and also did not let me answer. But I thought: there is nothing left to lose, – and I responded. It then became clear that these were two peasants who knew us, the Karenko brothers who were looking for us.

When they saw us, they made the sign of the cross out of sheer fright. One can only imagine how wild and disheveled we must have looked to them.

To my question as to what it was that brought them to look for us, one of them told the following to everyone who was in the bunker with us, that his wife Stepka had a dream in which long-bearded Jews came to her with staves in their hands, and said to her that we are to be found in a birch-wood, and that my children are dying of hunger. If they personally would not bring food for our children, then all of the Karenkos would be put to death. The gentiles were terrified by this dream, and brought us a loaf of bread and a jug of milk, which you can understand, we divided up among all the Jews in the earthen bunker.

From them we received the gladdening news that our redemption was drawing closer, and that the Germans had suffered the most substantial of downfalls, and are retreating through the forests.

The peasants took pity on us, and we went with them to their barn. In the distance, we could already hear the Soviet Katyushas.

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