[Page 318]

Eisenstein's house. The beasts then took Shifra Schwartzberg, Sarah Lindman, Litman and other Jews, tied them to a horse and let the horse run down the cobblestone street with its victims, who were broken and torn to pieces. The voices and screams of those poor Jews reached the heavens, and I can still hear them to this day. The German murderers took the surviving Jews to the Rovno estate and shot them with machineguns.

        A couple of days later the murderers came to my house, where the Russians had had their alcohol storehouse, and demanded we give them alcohol. I cried with bloody tears and told them that the Russians had taken everything along with them. The Germans whipped me and broke my husband's body. Finally, the Judenrat told my husband to take horses to the SS, but he never returned.

[photo:] Nechemiah and Mirel Zishuk, their daughters and sons-in-law: Yospa, Ethel, Henya, Leiba, Moshe and others. All perished. May G-d avenge their blood!

[photo:] The Christian priest's house and garden, behind which the Germans murdered the Jews from Ghetto A, and buried them.

The priest and a Russian save the rabbi and 30 Jews from death

        Shortly thereafter, the Germans imposed a second contribution on the town. However, since there was no more gold or money, the murderers took 35 Jews and the rabbi of the town as hostages. If we didn't give them the demanded sum of money, they would kill the rabbi and the 35 Jews. The mayor of Drohitchin interceded on behalf of the rabbi and the Jews, but it did no good. The wives of the arrested men and the rabbi went to beg the priest Palevski to save their husbands' lives. The priest Palevski quickly went

[Page 319]

to the SS commander and convinced him to release the rabbi and the 30 hostages. Five Jews were kept as hostages until the contribution was paid.

[photo:] Standing from left: Liba Kir, Mordechai Kolodner, Chana Schmid, Kraina Poritsky, Hershel Goldman and Feigel Salever. Seated from left: Tsipka Salever, Asher Meshchanin and Sheindel Zitch. Except for Asher and Hershel everyone perished. May G-d avenge their blood!

        The murderers then ordered the Jews to move from their homes to the ghetto. Many Jews didn't want to leave their homes. At that time I was home because I had paid a lot of money to be included in the group of agricultural workers. On the night when the Germans herded the Jews into the ghetto, I was hiding in the stable in the attic. Late that night I heard the frightening voices of my neighbors: Chasha Isaacs (Vlodavsky) didn't want to leave her house so fast, and a gentile policeman from Lechovitch stabbed her to death with his spear. He did the same thing to Chasha's daughter, Hinda, who also died from being stabbed. A while later, I heard the groaning of the daughter of Alter from Socha who was also stabbed. That gentile murderer from Lechovitch remained in town and did whatever he wanted with the Jews, because he got a salary increase for each dead Jew.

        Before the Jews of Drohitchin were transferred to the ghetto, the Germans brought into town the Jews from Maltsh and Shershev. They arrived hungry and barefoot on two successive days. The Germans shot the small children and the weak along the way. Each person in town gave away his last piece of bread and cushion for the Jews from Maltsh and Shershev who were terribly hungry and exhausted. I myself took in a family of five into my barn (they were the Arinovskys of Shershev) and provided them with food and clothes until people were transferred to the ghetto.

        The ghetto was divided into two parts: Ghetto 1 for the healthy, and Ghetto 2 for the weak and ill. In Ghetto 1 there were more than three thousand Jews, and in Ghetto 2 there were around 1,600 people. Every day people were sent from Ghetto 1 to work in Lipnick or Radestov. I once pretended to be a gentile and wanted to escape from the ghetto. The Germans, however, recognized me because of my Jewish appearance, and brought me back to the Judenrat, which, after the payoffs I made to them, assigned me to work on rope. Upon my return, I asked the Judenrat to give me some help in my work. I chose Yehudit Vinoker, Kreina Poritsky and other Jews, hoping I could survive this way since the Germans allowed me to take fifteen people from the ghetto to work. However, my hopes ran out.

Germans send Ghetto B to their deaths, but she saves herself
[photo:] Dina Milner, may G-d avenge her blood!

        Once in the middle of the night, around 12 am, the SS invaded the ghetto and took all the Jews, including the Judenrat, to the Broma. I succeeded in escaping and hid out in our barn. I then escaped to the new gardens, from where I returned to the house of Dina, Shmuelik's wife who had a hiding place. Unfortunately, the Germans found the hiding place, and I was save from there. I fled from Dina Shmuelik's house, but a policeman caught me. Thanks to the fact that I had hid a little money, I bought off the murderer and continued fleeing along the dirt road to Socha, where I hid out with a Christian, Marusia Zatanska.

        On the second night I went in the direction of Dubovay to a hamlet where I had already hidden my possessions. The Christian woman, Balebushka, who kept my possessions gave me a place in her barn to hide. She also told me that Kraina Poritsky

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