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Sheinke Chaitowitz in her youth

Sheinke Zeidel (Chaitowitz):

I remember my shtetl very well...
There we laughed, and spent enjoyable times with our parents…
There, unwillingly, we left behind our wonderful childhood…
Ah! Ah! Ah!
The mind remembers, and the heart yearns …

In The Forest In Dusiat Back row, from right to left: Chaim Slovo, Sheinke Yosman, Nechama Yudelowitz, Iska Zeif, Rivka Pores, Sarka Melamed, Libka Kasimov 2nd row: Belke Pores, Zeldka Charit 3rd row: Mirka Karanowitz, Itale Orlin, Chava Shub, Belke Krut, Masha Slep (daughter of David-Mordechai and Sara nee Bogort), Mirka Slep (daughter of Emanuel and Haya-Tzipa nee Chatzkel)

Sheinke Zeidel (Chaitowitz) during her visit to Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet Standing, from right to left: Chaim Slovo, (-) Chanka Fisherman (Pores), Rivka Shteinman (Shub), Sheinke Zeidel (Chaitowitz), Rivka Klass (Pores) Kneeling: (-), Rachel Vitkin (Shub), Elka Slovo (Melamed), (-)

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Nechama's mother, Alte Yudelowitz (nee Burkin)

I was a member of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in Dusiat. Ah, what a lovely shtetl it was! Most of the Jews there spoke Hebrew!

I frequently recall the movement experience and the time that I was the “director” of the “ken” (branch).

My brother Beinish and I thought about immigrating to Eretz Yisrael, but our father was already in South Africa, and we didn't have the courage to leave our parents. Together with our mother, we followed our father to South Africa.

I have visited Israel several times. I live in South Africa, but my heart is in Israel. I love the Hebrew language and Hebrew culture. Regular correspondence with my friend Rivka Shteinman (Shub) helps me not to forget the language and not to become cut off from Israel.

Israel is the only country for the Jewish people. The fact that Israel exists is good for the Jews in the Diaspora. If I had the courage to leave South Africa, I wouldn't think of going anywhere but Israel. My brother Beinish immigrated to Eretz Yisrael in 1938 or 1939, but returned after a short while. Actually, he had recently seriously planned to immigrate to Israel with his wife Sylvia, but he suddenly passed away.

I look at photographs from the shtetl again and again, and I remember all the people, even their names, and recollections of childhood float up in my memory.

Rivka Shteinman (Shub): I have just also recalled far off days. Beinish sat beside me at school in Dusiat. Unlike me, he was brilliant at arithmetic and used to solve problems quickly, and when I tried to peek, he always covered his notebook and didn't let me copy his answers. When he came to visit me in the kibbutz, I told him that I had “an account to settle with him”. [In Hebrew arithmetic and account are the same word, so that is a play on words.]

Masha Gershuni (Slep): I remember their home in the shtetl, which was very hospitable, a house in which everyone was welcome.