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You lost everything!" This was all we "earned" for a whole day's work. When I went home, my foot felt frostbitten, and I had to spend five weeks in bed.

        In the summer of 1917 our situation worsened. Commander Romm left, and he was replaced by the horse hospital veterinarian serving at the military headquarters. He turned over power to the low-level Germans, who did what they wanted.

        The commander in the village was the ruler over the whole village. The Jews got him used to accepting bribes to exempt them from working. Later on, he began demanding butter, eggs and cheese, and would persecute anyone who refused his request.

        The so-called representatives of "culture" around the world had the impression that Germany was greater than any country, and the Germans were better than anybody else, especially the "damnable Jews," who turned into slaves for those representatives of "culture," and who performed all types of slave labor in the forests and fields. Jews built wagons, sidewalks, all the while suffering from cold and hunger. We were tortured like slaves for months and years. Just like in Egypt! The Germans forced both young and old into slave labor, even small children. When someone would try to encourage the children to go to school, he would get this answer from the Germans: "It's wartime, they don't have to study." The so-called representatives of "culture" would call us the "damnable Jews" "lazy bunch," etc.

XIII.

The Peace Treaty in Brisk [Brest-Litovsk]

Winter 1918. When the Germans and the Bolsheviks began their peace talks we hoped that slowly but surely we would be liberated from the Germans and our troubles. However, what turned out was that the Bolsheviks retreated from their front, and allowed the Germans to go wherever they wanted. The Germans penetrate Ukraine, and were in a rush to take out of Russia whatever they could. They made sure to carry off timber, using civilians as slaves who worked without pay under the worst conditions.

        Nevertheless, even the iron discipline of the Germans loosened up a bit, and we were able to breath easier, but we were then faced with a new threat on the horizon – hunger! After the Germans invaded far into Russian, the fleeing peasants started returning to the villages. We learned that hunger started to spread in Russia, and we too started to experience hunger. The Germans grabbed the last drop of milk from our children, and took eggs and fowl, and demanded cattle as well. The Jewish families gradually returned to town from the village in order to make room for the arriving peasants. We left the village of Horbacha and returned to Drohitchin.

XIV.

The Germans Depart Drohitchin, and the Ukrainians Arrive

        Summer, 1918. The Germans were finally defeated by the Allies, and began retreating from Russia.

        The German withdrawal proceeded slowly and methodically. Whatever they could take along with them, they took, and whatever they couldn't, they sold. Every German tried to make as much money as he could.

        In Poland Pilsudski had already organized his legions to repel the German retreat through Poland. The Germans therefore did everything possible to evacuate through Lithuania to West Prussia.

        Even before the Germans had lost Ukraine and Byelorussia, they had already arranged a successor to take over their government, which allowed for an independent Ukraine. As far as possible, they appointed Ukrainian commissars in every city and town

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to take power immediately after the German withdrawal. A Ukrainian commissar was also appointed in Drohitchin. As soon as the Germans left town, he organized a militia-police made up of village peasants, and proclaimed himself the head of the Ukrainian government. He ordered storeowners to obtain licenses for their stores, and began distributing Ukrainian currency, called karvontsas [I think the correct term may be the same term used in the 1990s, karbovantsi].

        His government didn't last very long, however. Rumors circulated that the Poles were moving from the west, and the Bolsheviks from the east. Suddenly, on one fine morning, the Ukrainian commissar disappeared.

        For a brief time Drohitchin was without a government, and the people were in great peril. A local committee was established and organized a militia of Jewish young men, who were required to maintain order in town, and to serve as a defense force against any outside attacks.

[Photo:] From right, Menachem Auerbuch, Moshe Mendel Milner and Avraham Kravetz.

XV.

The Polish-Bolshevik War

        The rumors that the Poles and Bolsheviks were going to face each other was confirmed. The Poles were in Kobrin, and the Bolsheviks were in Pinsk. One day, a horseman - a Bolshevik military scout - arrived in Drohitchin. He gave a speech to the assembled crowd in the marketplace, and explained that the Bolsheviks would be arriving shortly and would bring freedom and justice for everyone. As soon as he finished speaking, he rode off.

        Shortly thereafter in the middle of the night, a group of Polish soldiers arrived in Drohitchin and created chaos in town. They cursed out the town committee and went off to Kobrin with the militia leader in custody. They made their way back to Kobrin, and things were again quiet in Drohitchin, though not for long.

        The Bolsheviks kept their word. A few days later they began marching from Pinsk to face the Poles. The traveled on Polish wagons that they obtained from nearby villages. It wasn't a regular army, however, and were composed of several hundred men and young men dressed in civilian clothes with rifles over their shoulders.

        When they got to Horodetz-Antopolia, on the way to Kobrin, the two hostile camps faced each other. The Poles, with an organized army and supported by the Allies attacked the Bolsheviks with the newest weaponry, and outnumbered the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks concentrated their forces on other fronts against the Byelorussian gangs that were supported by the Allies.

        The retreating Bolsheviks stopped in Drohitchin. One officer, who fell in battle, was buried in the middle of the marketplace with a military parade. The Poles, who came into town afterwards, covered the grave over with dirt to remove any

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