Mezirich, Ukraine

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Dear Grandfather and Grandmother!
Brothers, dear countrymen.

55 years have elapsed since the Nazi AMALEK took your lives - the life of a glorious Jewish community.

And now, after 44 long years, I finally can come here and say Grandmother... Grandfather... Today, on this foreign land, I pay a debt to you, but the circle has not closed!

We have not forgotten - we have not forgiven!

This is definitely no usual encounter. This is not just another search for roots. We have come here to catch up with a gap of 55 years. I want you to know, my dearest ones, that it is as if I came back home, bringing with me the warmest greetings for our homeland.

Here, in the place which was your home, you were forced to wear a white arm-band with a blue Star of David, which was later replaced by the notorious Yellow Star. They wanted to humiliate you! But behold, that same white arm-band bearing that same blue Star of David now waves, but not on people's arms and not as a humiliating gesture! It now flies as the national banner of the Jewish state!

From a dreadful Holocaust we slowly, painfully resurrected and founded our own state. We have avenged your assassination and now there is a home for the Jewish People in the State of Israel.

No more being brought like sheep to the slaughter!

And the chain of generations is very much alive, both in Israel and in the Diaspora!

Many kingdoms have attempted to annihilate us - whether by murdering our spirit or by killing our bodies - but we have always prevailed.

Dearly beloved, I have come to tell you that Mira, Bella and Sheilik are not the proud bearers of our family tradition.

I want you to know that you can rest in peace and be proud for your great-grand-children are serving in the best units of our Israel Defense Force, with many more young people from their generation, to make sure that we shall never more be brought like sheep to the slaughter.

The suffering, the atrocities, and the terrible crimes you endured will always be remembered as an eternal dreadful disgrace, the vilest crime ever committed on the face of this earth.

The evil you have endured, the terrible Holocaust the Jewish people has gone through, have eventually made us stronger. It is you who gave us our strength.

It is true that we are having some rough times in our homeland and that the times are generally tumultuous - and our only crime is that we are Jews - but I know for certain that if we can maintain:

Social unity - political wisdom - and military strength.
Then we shall be safe in our own country.
My heart breaks and hurts at being here. I part from you physically, but not with my soul.
Do not be concerned. You are the source of our strength and we follow your footsteps and raise and educate our children in your spirit.
Beloved Meziritch families - Dear Jews of Vohlin, I salute you with all my heart and soul.

Margalit Lempel-Fershtman

THY BEAUTY O ISRAEL UPON THE HIGH PLACES IS SLAIN!

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN

Words spoken at the ceremony of the unveiling of the memorial in the ancient cemetery of Mezerich:

Sons and daughters of the survivors of the town of Mezerich, our children, descendants of the inhabitants of greater Mezerich:

We have come from Israel to visit the graves of our forebears who are buried here in the ancient cemetery of Mezerich. Today, the 29th of Av 5755, August 25, 1995, we have removed the covering from the memorial monument that we have erected in this ancient cemetery of Greater Mezerich, bounded by the holy hill of the cemetery which has been a silent echo through hundreds of years of pogroms, - persecutions and historical events. And it has witnessed the final destruction of our community during the course of Shoah, 5702-5703, 1942. The cemetery was completely destroyed at the hands of those evil people who strove to erase the historical past of Mezerich, and every remembrance of a Jewish community in this place.

Three years ago, in 1992, after 50 years had passed, we came, a delegation of Mezerichers, from Israel and Canada, and we redeemed the desecration of the graves of our great brethren, members of the community of Greater Mezerich and its surroundings, who were consumed in the Shoah. And, in their memory, we established a memorial monument at the memorial of Nevirkov, the burial place of our dear ones, may their memory be blessed. At that same time, we decided to preserve the sanctity of the ancient cemetery of Mezirich in which are forefathers are buried. To this end, we requested, and received, authorisation from the head of the local council of Mezerich, Mrs. Galina Dematzuk, and we therefore, express our thanks and appreciation to her. We believe, and request of all the residents of Mezerich and surrounding areas to preserve and respect the sanctity of this place.

Mezerich, the place and its significance; at the centre of the Vohlin district in western Ukraine, there is the town of Mezerich, which in Slavic, means "between the rivers" -The Slutch on the east and Horin to the west, the rich black earth between the rivers provides the fertile ground to sustain human existence. It produces wheat, rye, barley, oats, beets, potatoes, and flax. The region is also rich with fruit orchards and herds of cattle.

Since the beginning of the 17^th century, certainly for 300 years, there lived in Mezerich, scribes, scholars, rabbis, saintly Jews who disseminated Torah, In their merit, the name of Mezerich became well known in the Jewish world. Among the most famous of these was Leb Yaakov Kopel Lifschitz, the author of many books, who was known in the literature of the Kabbalah as "Kopel of Mezerich". He died in 1740 and it is almost certain that he was buried in one of the graves in this cemetery that was entirely destroyed by the most wicked of people at the time of Nazi rule during the Second World War.

At the same time, the fame of' Reb Dov-Ber, the disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, spread. He chose Mezerich as his home and transformed it into the centre of Chassidim. The great Maggid, Reb Dov Ber lived and flourished in Mezerich during the first half of the 18th century, some 250 years ago. In the merit of his dwelling here, the town acquired the name "Mezerich of the Maggid". In his last years, he lived in Anapoli, where he died, and was buried in the ancient cemetery of Anapoli.

I could speak about the Bet Midrash of the Maggid, its location was next to the great synagogue that was completely destroyed, and about the ancient Mikveh that stands on its foundations to this very day. As children, we went with our parents to immerse in the Mikveh and to pray in the Bet Midrash that was burned down in 1945 and whose foundations are now covered with agricultural earth. Last Wednesday, August 23, 1995, we visited the place and we heard the story from one of our locals of Mezerich who showed us the location of the foundations of the Bet Midrash.

From the hill of this cemetery, we can look down upon the first public school that was built under Polish rule, and in which we studied even during the period of Russian rule, until the outbreak of the Second World War. Nearby, there is the Polish church that remains in its desolation. Only the great synagogue of Mezerich, that stood out in its greatness and splendour, has disappeared from our eyes forever. Opposite what was the great synagogue, at the end of Hoif street, the palace of the "Paritz" (Polish landlord) Statzki stands in its original place.

From the standpoint of topography, the town was divided into two sections, the old city and the new city, and the street which joined them was known as "Brikgass", from which streets and side alleys branched out. These were populated by Jewish trades people, merchants and storekeepers. Here were all of the synagogues, the "Tarbut" school, "Or Torah", the "cheder of the m'lamdim", the post office, the bus station, the old flour mill and the brook that babbles to this day, and the new flour mill that provided electricity to every house in Mezerich.

I remember every house, every building, every corner, every valley, every man and woman, every boy and girl, my friends in kindergarten, in school, in the various youth movements. They all stand before my eyes as I speak these words. All of Mezerich that was decimated and destroyed in the dark years of Nazi rule will remain engraved in our memories forever.

After many decades during which we were unable to do so, we have come today to visit the graves of our ancestors. We have blessed and sanctified this place of eternal rest. Until World War Two, many hundreds of gravestones stood here in the shadow of trees and green bushes. At the entrance, from the area of the houses of the new city, there were tens of "Ohalim" of Tzadikim (saintly Jews). Always, before the High Holy Days, the mothers and grandmothers of Mezerich came to light candles in the "Ohalim" (structures built over the graves of Tzadikim). I remember the grave and the monument of Shoshana Gherman, whose was a victim of the anti-Semitism in 1935, of the Polish regime. There, near the gate of "Trobitzeh" we played soccer and the ball would roll among the gravestones. I remember my standing on the road below. I could see the gravestone" of my grandfather, Chayim Hirsh Apple. On every yahrzeit, I accompanied my mother, Bracha, to visit this grave. While we were confined in the ghetto of Mezerich during the period of Nazi rule, they brought here the Smuleh of Mezerich, the husband of Rachel the midwife, and they beat him to death among the tombstones.

Despite the fact that 50 years have passed since we left Mezerich and all that is dear within it, it remains, and will remain, an integral part of our lives.

By Israel Zinman

Communion for the memory of our dear ones, the Congregation of the Jews of Meziritch and its region, on the 55th anniversary of the Holocaust, held on October 20th, 1997 in the Hall of the Jews of Wohlin, in Givataim, Israel.

Words delivered by Israel Zinman

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