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commander. To be sure, the committee thanked the commander with gifts and presents. At every opportunity, he had his photograph taken together with the members of the Jewish committee, and would send the photos to Berlin to show how "beloved" the German occupation government was among the Jews. Our committee continued its work until the Germans left Drohitchin.

[Photo:] The Jewish committee gives a gift to the German commander in 1916. From right: Zechariah Schmid, mayor (holding the flag), Hershel Chaim Lev, Rabbi Mordechai Minkovitch, Lipman Feldman, Yirmiyahu Grossman and Itsche Mishovsky (last three: policemen).

L.

German iron discipline

        Slowly but surely, we started getting used to our way of life. The only thing that negatively affected us was German military discipline and forced labor. We felt like prisoners, even worse than slaves: you can't go here, you can't do that, etc.
All Jewish young people had to spend months chopping trees in the forest that were then transported to Germany. They took apart the peasants' huts in the villages, and used the wood to pave the roads and build sidewalks. The Jewish youths slept in barracks under torrid rainfalls and frost. It was no surprise that after a few weeks of forced labor, they returned home broken down and ill.

        No resident of Drohitchin was allowed to go beyond the bridge. If someone wandered a few steps beyond the bridge, the German patrol would tie him up to the bridge and leave him there until nighttime. A German decree allowed each house to light only one oil lamp after dark. On the first Friday night after the decree, when Jewish women had lit Sabbath candles in addition to their oil lamps, German soldiers went from house to house, jotting down people's names. The next day, on Sabbath morning, the Germans brought all the women on their list to the town marketplace, put them in a line and marched them to the bridge; as punishment, made them stand in front of armed German guards for four straight hours. The women stood there, terrified that their husbands might eat up all of the Sabbath cholent stew and leave nothing over for them.

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M.

Jews involved in agriculture

During the war years, the majority of Jews were involved in agriculture. Every person took over a portion of a field that was abandoned by fleeing peasants, and developed the land as if they were experienced farmers. Many of those Jews had enough bread and potatoes for their own needs, and surplus to sell. Others, who weren't suitable for farming, had to pay high prices for a pud [40 Russian pounds] of rye, and would often go hungry.

The Jews who cultivated the land also had cows, and therefore had supplies of milk, butter and cheese. There was no shortage of pastureland for the cows, but the problem was the shortage of shepherds. There weren't any gentile shepherds, but two Jewish young men took the job of watching the "Jewish" animals.

        One Friday I went to take a look at my planted fields, near where our animals were pasturing. I started wondering what a Jewish shepherd was supposed to do on Friday afternoons before the Sabbath. I sat down among stocks of rye and saw the shepherds in the distance. Since the animals were grazing happily and lying on the grass, the shepherds pulled out prayer books from their sacks, and started chanting Song of Songs with a melody that penetrated every limb. That was what Jewish shepherds were like.

N.

Private businesses

        In the second year of German occupation, life began to get back to normal, and the epidemic began to diminish. Jews slowly started getting involved in business, and people began buying and selling illegally. Jews would bring assorted merchandise – such as leather, produce and dishes – to Drohitchin from Pinsk with a permit from the commander and with a German escort on their wagon. With the silent approval of the escort, they would barter these items for a bag of rye or a few pud of potatoes, which served as the favorite produce for hungry Pinsk Jews.

        People would smuggle mostly produce in wagons from Brisk, Biala, Mezeritch and other cities to Drohitchin, and barter it for grain or other merchandise. Once it was rumored that there was produce available for purchase in the city of Slonim, and Jews, who never knew the meaning of manufacturing, went off to Slonim, bringing back bundles of manufactured goods to Drohitchin. Nobody asked about prices, and paid whatever the seller asked. They continued to go to Slonim until supplies there were exhausted.

        Later on, the whiskey business started to grow. With a permit from the German commander (in exchange, of course, for nice gifts), some Jews started producing alcohol, which the Russians left over in their distilleries before their retreat. In particular, the whiskey business grew significantly in Zakazelia, and special large machinery was installed there to produce whiskey. Jews from both Drohitchin and Valevel were involved in that, and many Jews became extremely wealthy in the whiskey business.

        During the three years of the German occupation, both the German mark and the Russian paper rubles were recognized currency. The Germans had immediately withdrawn the Russian gold rubles from circulation through the use of a trick: they imposed penalties against the civilian population that were payable in Russian gold rubles. Afterwards, new fresh Russian rubles were in circulation, and then later on, the old Russian rubles were no longer usable, and many Jews lost alot of money because of this. Ultimately, however, people started rejecting the new Russian rubles, and Jews started losing money again. No one knew where the hatred of the Russian rubles came from.

O.

The town starts getting built up

         When Jews saw the Germans chopping down trees in the forests and shipping them off to Germany, the Jews figured they could do the same thing. After making sure to provide "gifts" to the commander, they started going into the forests, chopped down trees, and brought them into town. Whoever had a horse and a wagon did it himself, and whoever didn't have

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