[Page 359]

[continuation of poem]

To large mountains, to a flying eagle,
To endless spaces in transparent light,
Then suddenly I hear the sound of trumpets,
“The Red Army has entered Drohitchin.”

Scornful words glow and are believed,
And everything that was dusty, now becomes pure,
I see Yanova, Bereza, Khomsk and Kobrin,
The little houses of straw, and others of lime,
My grandfather's, my grandmother's, my father's home,
It seems as if my grandfather had risen from the grave
With his pipe moving around in his white beard,
And it seems as if I see my grandmother in her old clothes,
There she stands, next to him, as if hypnotized in her place.
There's the rabbi in his white garment, with his hands giving a blessing,
His beard and sidecurls ecstatic, his eyes aflame,
The rabbi's wife, a pure woman with extra charm,
Wraps herself in burial shrouds to go dance at a wedding.
In my fantasy I see under a linden tree
The march of the Red Army. I can see the martyrs,
The fighters, with fluttering flags,
Who died to sanctify G-d's holy Name,
Drohitchin – Berlin. The clouds move away,
The sun comes out,
“The Red Army has entered Drohitchin.”

Is this what I see now, an illusion that will pass
And disappear like the winds?
Or is this reality that ignites, where magical beams pass,
With sparks of hope, to be reunited with my loved ones.

(Printed in Tog, New York, 1944. See p. 283)

(We have all felt what Yoel Slonim did, but, unfortunately, when the Red Army arrived in Drohitichin, only the “rabbi in his garment,” his wife “in her shrouds” and thousands of martyrs wept in the streets. W.)

[photos:] An eternal memorial to our dear parents and brothers.
Aharon, son of Yisrael, Sirka (daughter of R. Moshe Goldman) Lev, (top) and son Yaakov (right) and Avraham. The Levs were married in 1899, R. Aharon died on March 3, 1928 in Drohitchin. Sirka, Yaakov and Avraham perished. May G-d avenge their blood!
Relatives:
Chaim Moshe Leizer's and Sarah Epstein and children: Eidel, Berl, Chaytsha, her husband Berl and child perished. May G-d avenge their blood! Yitzchak and Sarah Epstein (of Tcheromcha) and children all perished. May G-d avenge their blood!
The Lev children: Leizer, Mordechai, Khamka Kahn (Chicago), Shepsel and Yitzchak (Haifa).

[photos:] Khlavna and Leitcha Pisetsky and children, Yisrael-David and Shmuel-Yudel (left). All perished. May G-d avenge their blood!

[Page 360]

< a name="survivors"> SURVIVORS OF DROHITCHIN
They survived after being sent off to Russia

        Rabbi Yehudah David Goldman received a letter from his brother-in-law Shlomo Goldman from Liefheim, Germany dated August 10. In that letter Shlomo wrote that on the 11^th of Av a meeting had been held of survivors from Drohitchin and nearby areas. This date was the yahrzeit of the murders of their loved ones in Ghetto B in 1942 at the hands of the executioners. The people in Ghetto A were killed on October 15, 1942 – a total of three thousand Jewish martyrs.

        Following the recitation of chapter 79 of Psalms and a memorial, cantor Yosef Kaplan and Shmuel Eppelbaum, both of whom had survived the gruesome days in the ghetto of Drohitchin, provided all the details of their experiences and suffering. It was decided to make contact with émigrés from Drohitchin in the United States to request them to assist in the construction of the building in Israel to be called the Drohitchin Emigrés Building, where anyone from Drohitchin, Khomsk and other nearby communities could rest up until he obtained a job and an apartment.

        A committee made up of Shlomo Goldman, Hersh Greenberg of Liefheim, Shmuel Eppelbaum from Munich and Shepsel Warshavsky from Einbing was elected to get in touch with the émigrés in Chicago and New York. The plan is to contact the appropriate Zionist institutions in the United States and Israel.

        Here is the list of the Drohitchin survivors who participated at the meetings. The following are in Germany: Shlomo Goldman, Rachel Goldman, Hershel Weingarten, Yenta Weingarten, Perl Weingarten, Mordechai Goldman, Regina Goldman, Yitzchak Goldman, Shmuel Eppelbaum, Moshe Gingold, Leah Gingold, Malka Gingold, Motka Gingold, Berl Lev, Tsirel Lev, Eliezer Lev, Michela Lev, Meir Gendler, Esther Gendler, Chaim Gendler, David Gendler, Pesach Sandiuk, Zelda Sandiuk, Shepsel Warshavsky, Chaytcha Warshavsky, Avraham Warshavsky, Yitzchak Pisetsky, Rachel Vinayoker, Yaakov Levin, Elka Levin, Yosef Levin, Lida Falk, Ignatz Falk, Feigele Falk, Alter Mazursky, Slava Mazursky, Chaytcha Mazursky, Chaim Mazursky, Pelta Mazursky, Ephraim Mazursky, Leah Mazursky, Mazursky [sic], Adele Zissman, Zissman [sic], Zissman [sic], Pinchas Bider, Rachel Bider, Aharon Bider, Adel Bider, Nachum Bider, Hodem Bider, Shmuel Bidr, Paya Bider, Chaytcha Bider, Yenta Bider.

        The following are in Poland: Avraham Averbuch, Sima Averbuch, Chaya Averbuch, Beila Averbuch, Zisha Warshavsky, Berl Warshavsky, Rachel Warshavsky, Avraham Warshavsky, Bashka Warshavsky, Yeshayahu Warshavsky, Zlata-Miriam Warshavsky, Breindel Warshavsky, Eliyahu-David Warshavsky, Nachum Spevak, Sarah Spevak, Sonia ?.

        In Italy are Shepsel Zaretsky and ? Kravetz. In German are Yehuda and Opeda Feldman, Leah Eisenberg, Theodore Eisenberg, Moshe Bakaltchuk, Tsirel Bakaltchuk, Motel Dabrovsky, Nachum Eisenstein.

LIST OF SURVIVORS FROM KHOMSK NOW IN GERMANY

        Leibel Kahn, Hersh Greenberg, Pelta Greenberg, Chana Greenberg, David Greenberg, Greenberg [sic], Meyers [sic], Meyer Podorvsky, Paya Poderovsky, Chaya Poderovsky, Moshe-Aharon Poderovsky; Moshe-Hersh Simanovsky and Feiga Simanovsky are in Poland; Yitzchak Herlov and David Buff are in Italy.
        
[photos:] Avraham and Sema Averbuch (top) and children: Chava and Bella (left). They were sent to Siberia by the Soviets, and returned in 1945. Today they live in Israel. The photo was taken in Vraclaw, Poland in August 1949. See pp. 187, 188 and 211.

[photo:] Rivka Rosenzweig-Karolinsky, husband and child survived.

[box:] An eternal memorial to my dear sister and brother-in-law
        Feiga-Rachel (daughter of R. Betsalel), and husband Moshe Garbuz
        and five children. All perished. May G-d avenge their blood!
        Louis Horsch (Miami Beach)

[box:] An eternal memorial to our dear parents
Leiba and Chaya-Sarah Sapir and children
They perished. May G-d avenge their blood!
        Esther and Avraham Zelig Shedrovitsky

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