[Page 133 - English] [Page 401 - Hebrew]

September 1939. Our town Pruzana fell into Russian hands and was saved from the Germans. In a short time, everyone adapted to the new regime. Life continued in this fashion until 1941 when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. Our town sank from this year onward. In the first days of the war, the Germans gained control of our town. At the start of their rule, we found out that their hands were covered in blood. Jews were press-ganged off the streets for work and those people who were well clothed and appeared well, were sent to the filthiest jobs. The Christians informed on the Jews who were sympathetic to the Soviet regime.

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Our losses increased in the first few days. They shot 18 Jews by the Elegance wood without distinction between rich and poor or babies and old people. The Germans tried to speed up our end. In reaction, we united in order to continue our wretched existence. Thanks to this and to our awareness of the fate that awaited us, we were able to serve as an example for many Jewish communities in Poland.

Black and heavy clouds increased daily over our heads. We saw that around Pruzana, the towns of Scherschev, Hajnewke, Malch, Bereze, etc., became “Judenrein”. These facts made it clear that none of us would redeem his life from the bloodthirsty murderers.

Most horrible was the sight of Scherschev Jews on the road, by the saw mill of Zeidl Krutzel. The Germans made them run in rows of five, like a heard of cattle, on the roadside. The Germans stood with canes in their hands and beat them mercilessly until their souls expired. The survivors told us that at midday, the Germans expelled them from their homes and did not allow them to take anything with them. The road to Pruzana was full of victims. The Germans made the Jews do “gym exercises”, such as: crawling on all fours, on the stomach and running while raining blows on them. The survivors reached Pruzana in tatters, with open skulls and wounds all over their bodies. The Pruzana Jews wanted to receive them, but the Germans made them run up to Antopol. Later, a few survivors managed to reach Pruzana.

The Germans agreed to transfer Hajnewke Jews to Pruzana on condition that the local Jews agreed to accept them. The reply of the Pruzana Jews was most positive. Everyone took a refugee family into his home and fed them, while the Judenrat treated all with love and friendship. The organization in the ghetto was wonderful, like in a small country, as it were: they organised groups of workers who went to work every day outside the ghetto and they included hundreds of men and women workers. They organised various workshops, bakeries, supply systems, etc., in a collective form. As a result, the Judenrat was able to meet German demands and even earn a good name as a ghetto of efficient workers.

The factory for warm boots (wolikes) which was organised at the home of Yudkovsky, the shoemaking workshop, the tailoring workshops, etc., aided us. All the produce was meant for the German army. There was only one thing the Germans did not like: the fact that we were still alive and suffering, in all the towns and small towns, the Jews disappeared without trace. The conclusion, therefore, was that the Germans had to liquidate the last Jewish Island,

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the stubborn and stiff-necked bridge that still existed after the huge flood in East Poland, between Beranovitch and Brisk.

The young people knew well what awaited them. They organised in groups and took pains to buy tools and appliances that would enable them to live in the forests and marshes. Indeed, many succeeded in slipping through the iron ring. They organised in groups and went into the forest to fight the enemy from behind the front. They blew up railway lines and sabotaged bridges, convoys of armoured cars and ammunition. Many fell in the fighting and few had the pleasure of revenge over their enemies.

The bloody hand reached us too. Our day came. On January 28, 1943, they surrounded the weary Jews of the ghetto with the call: “the German God has no further bread for you Jews”. The day of command came. The order was to make Pruzana “Judenrein” in four days. Since there were 10,000 Jews in the town, there had to be a daily evacuation of 2,500 Jews.

My evacuation was on the last day – January 31, 1943. I will remember this day until my death. The heavens were covered with black and heavy clouds. They were a cover above us, spreading cold and whispering things in our ears that as human beings, we were incapable of imagining. On this frosty day, our town was wrapped in gloom on its few mansions and many wooden homes which were covered in snow and locked. It seemed as if the houses were crying and participating in the bitter fate of their inhabitants.

As dawn broke, our hearts went out. Not a living thing was to be seen in the streets apart from the guards and the dogs who marched up and down continuously because of the severe cold.

Desperate human voices were heard near and far and were answered by the echoes of the frozen air. The gates of the ghetto opened and the groups of German murderers moved in carrying machine guns. Lorries and winter wagons were brought into the ghetto. The officers barked orders. In all the streets, they summoned the sheep to slaughter … Many marched in silence, withdrawn within themselves; others whispered a prayer; some wept and the heart winced. All the seven firmaments should have been rent and spat fire and brimstone to destroy the “cultural” world …

The wind whistled, the snow rained down on faces and the cold seared our bodies. Long convoys of winter carts lined up behind the town. Each cart containing 8-10 living-dead. We travelled to Lineve, 12 km away from Pruzana. A German “insect” stands every 20 metres! Every glance of his suck blood like a leech. Suddenly, firing was heard from the direction of a small

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wood: three men escaped zig-zagging. They ran and fell. Several more ran and fell. A soldier riding a horse galloped after them. They fired a machine gun. The bullets hit the target and the man fell. He got up and went on running! Snatches of voices were heard. A rain of bullets. The German rider ran forward. A voice was heard: “Is the man still alive?” The white snow was full of bloodstains. The blood-thirsty animal fired the machine gun and directed the bullets to the head of the fleeing man.

The convoy of winter carts continued its journey. The air became more oppressive as the cold increased in the afternoon. In the distance, the small lights in the frozen windows of the peasants' huts flickered.

Thoughts rushed in and the desire to live intensified. The deathly silence was broken by the steps of the guards and the crunching of the snow under the winter carts. Suddenly, the call of the commander of the convoy spliced the air: “Halt! Everyone gets down”. The order was passed on silently. The silence that had existed until then was replaced by whispering, weeping and screaming … the babies froze to death! Many old people did not get down from the winter carts. They froze to death!

They loaded us into horse wagons, 120 people per sealed wagon. The winter carts returned. The snow and the wind helped them eliminate the traces of destruction. Inside the carriage, it was impossible to sit or stand while lying down was out of the question. The train moved late at night in the direction of Brisk. The congestion and the stench increased hourly and made things even more difficult. People shouted: “Water! Water!” A few people had bottles full of water. In the first few hours, every person fainting received a few mouthfuls of water. People pleaded: “Jews, help, more water”. However, the acquaintance holding the bottle did not provide any more. The reply was: “There are other people in the wagon”.

The train travelled slowly … the first night passed. Our faces changed. Every moment, we felt that our limbs were becoming paralysed. Every individual wanted to die. Old people sat without having the strength to move. They were stuck to the walls of the carriage. They made a moral stock-taking: once they were people who had their own way of life, they lived for themselves, their children and grandchildren. They took care to raise them and maintained a Jewish way of life … The lips whispered: water, water, water …

The train stopped at a small station. Outside the window bars, I saw life going on as usual. In the distance, I discerned two railway workers. I asked that they throw us some snowballs through the window. One was ready to fulfil my

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request. But the other said to him: “For Jew?” I said: “We'll pay you”. A woman pulled at my coat and gave me a watch which I threw out of the window. The man began throwing snow at us. Similar occurrences happened all along the route. People died in the carriage. Everyone wanted to die. Some young people understood their situation and decided to cut through the window bars and jump out. We tied some towels together and raised a young man close to the window. As it was narrow, we first had to push his legs and after his body was already outside, he let go of the towel and fell below. Luckily, he fell on the side of the track and immediately began running away. At that moment, I heard machine gun firing: ratatat... Apparently, the young man managed to get away and I could not determine if the bullets had hit him. The train continued its journey. More young men followed in his footsteps, but several fell directly between the wheels of the carriage. It was difficult to evade the German bullets … very difficult.

Three days of our journey had already passed. We were congested and pressed together like sardines in a barrel in sealed carriages, without food and water. In addition, people urinated and defecated on the spot. After three days and three nights, the train halted. The doors were opened and we saw rows of S.S. soldiers standing in front of us, armed with machine guns. An officer riding on a magnificent horse ordered us: “Everyone, get out. Leave the packages on the ground”.

Each person left his belongings with complete indifference. The cannibals moved about with sticks in their hands, beating left and right, and then another order: “Men to the right, women to the left”.

The murderers did not allow families to say goodbye in the last moments of their life. It was impossible to give a last kiss to a wife and child, father, mother, sister, brother and even a new-born baby. The women and children were placed on trucks together with the old people and young adults whom the murderers disliked.

Screams and wails rent the air. The last glances were directed at us … even today, it all echoes in my ears! We, the healthy men, stood and watched these atrocities. Our hearts wept and our eyes were silent. The horror penetrated our souls very deeply. We were led to the infamous Auschwitz camp and placed in a hut. There were about 400 of us selected for work out of a transport of 2,500 people. The others went to their last resting place. It seemed to me that we had sinned and had to work hard in order to earn our eternal sleep, that most of us had already attained.

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We were taken to the bath house. Our heads were shaven and we were beaten up. We got a “cultured” bath according to the German system. When we left through the other entrance, we no longer looked like human beings. It was impossible to recognise us. We looked like clowns in a circus: one wore a woman's nightie, another, wide and large trousers, although he was small; a third person who was tall got small trousers. The same was true of the wooden clogs. A piece of cloth stuck between two pieces of wood which were called shoes. These shoes brought about the end of many in our group. Our number was tattooed on our left hand. The number replaced a name. We were placed in open huts, full of snow with the wind whistling through them. The beds were wooden boards laid out in three storeys. 10 people lay on each storey. One next to the other.

Food: in the morning, black coffee that hardly served to wet the lips. At lunch: a half litre of water whose colour was different and 150-200grs of bread. There was no drinking water. We used to drink the puddles in the ditches. The water caused dysentery. Every night, five to ten people died in the block. We lived like this for six weeks at Birkenau. It was called quarantine. During the six weeks, half of the Pruzana group died. Those who stayed alive were examined and sent to the main Auschwitz camp. Here, we were organised in work battalions: tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, etc. A few succeeded in getting easier work. Many of us ended our lives at hard labour. The Auschwitz camp did not give an impression to outsides of being a camp where people ended their lives, but of a convalescent home: nice avenues, well-painted blocks, a swimming pool …an orchestra played when we left for work and when coming back …but on return, there were always a few people less. Each group brought its dead with it. The Germans replaced them daily from the transports which came from all over Europe. It was all accompanied with music. The same fate awaited the newcomers as the others.

The smallest offence was punished with 25 lashes. A roll-call was held twice a day. We used to spend many days standing out in the cold and rain. There were “selections” every month. Weak people, “Mosulmaner” as the Germans called them, were sent to the gas chambers. In this way, the Germans thinned out our ranks and insured that the ovens did not remain empty.

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Auschwitz all of a sudden ended! The guns began pounding and the armies of the Allies announced their approach. On January 17, 1945, the camp was evacuated into Germany. It is hard to describe what I saw on the evacuation march. We walked scores of kilometres. We slept in the snow. Thus, we were dragged two weeks in the bitter cold. Whoever failed on the way was shot by a German riding a motorbike. The bodies of men and women were strewn densely on the roadside, like trees growing on the kerb. The victims were cleft with dum-dum bullets. The more dead I saw and the more I trod on them, the more I wanted to live and see the defeat of the Germans, revenge the split of blood of our dear ones and serve as a living witness to all the atrocities that the Germans had carried out.

We reached the Matthausen camp on January 30, 1945. Very few of our people got there.. The same story began all over again; a bath and running naked in the snow to the block. Here we slept on the floor, pressing against each other. After three days, they sent us to another camp: Melk, 60 kilometres from Lintz in Austria. Our work was to dig tunnels in the mountains. The Germans brought machines to make airplane parts.

Dark days and nights passed without sleep, in hunger and cold until April 20, 1945. The front line approached and they transferred us in coalers over the Danube in the direction of the Alps. After a five-day journey on the river and two days walking, our ranks became even thinner. I could not stand on my feet. But I knew what awaited me if I did not march. My legs would no longer work! My friend Moshe Krassner of Pruzana walked by my side. He took me by the arms and dragged me until I recovered. I will never forget this kindness which he did for me. Today, he is in Cuba. After hellish torment, we reached the Ebense camp in the Alps. No human eye was capable of seeing the hell that had occurred there. I stayed there for three weeks. However, if the Americans had arrived one week later, they would not have found anyone alive at that camp!

On May 5, 1945, I was liberated by the victorious American army. The greatest joy of all the survivors was to sit beside a whole loaf of bread and eat as much as they wanted …

However, my joy did not last long. I saw that I was alone and isolated in the world. Everything appeared strange in the empty world around me.

[Page 140 - English] [Page 459 - Hebrew]

The Germans entered the town on Monday, June 23, 1941. Part of the Jewish population fled. The Christian population received the Germans as liberators. After a few days, many Jews returned to the town, after wandering in the fields, forests and villages and fleeing out of fear from the peasants who threatened them. A part of the town, Ulany Street opposite the post office, the saw mills and houses close by, were destroyed during the bombing.

On June 26, the Germans set fire to Hevra Kadisha's synagogue. The fire destroyed one side of the market place and the nearby streets. When the inhabitants tried to save their property, the Germans threatened they would open fire on them. The Germans assembled the Jews in Ulany Street. The road was empty and the Jews were forbidden to live on it.

When the Germans entered, they set up a Judenrat composed of: Nissan Zackheim, Naftali Levinson, Fishel Beiser, Hanoch Liskovsky, Meir Roshinsky, Yaacov Moscovitch, Binyamin Shapira, Yaacov-Asher Fridenstein, Gotel Pisetzki, Yaacov Shlosburg, Leibe Danzig and Leibel Molodowski, who served as translator.

A Jewish police was set up to help the Judenrat. Its commander was Shmuel Geberman. The policemen included Rogolsky, Yaacov Zakheim, Yosef Shushan, Kalman Epstein, Yaacov Glezer, Eliezer Schtucker and others whose names I do not remember.

The task of the Judenrat was to execute the orders of the German authorities, i.e. the supply of Jewish workers aged 16 to over 50. They had to fulfil German demands and supply of “gifts”. The Jewish police had to translate the orders into practice.

During the first few days of their arrival, the Germans ordered every Jew to hand over the gold he possessed. Afterwards, they confiscated radios and other valuables. Non-fulfilment of orders presaged the death sentence. The Jews fulfilled the sentences which became more difficult daily. In the initial months, there was still some contact with the outside world. Peasants of the area came to town and sold food in return for materials and domestic objects. As yet, there was no starvation. The Judenrat distributed 250 grs of bread to everybody.

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All the Jewish inhabitants aged 16 to 50 or more (apart from mothers of babies) turned up standing in rows outside the home of Matya Berman, where the German command was situated. The Jews wore yellow patches, one on the chest and one on the right side of the back. The Germans would select work groups and drive them off to work camps. One of the local Christians acted as supervisor of the groups. They derived enjoyment from the afflictions of the Jews.

The jobs included repairing roads, cleaning in camps: at Bludnic railway station, trucks were loaded and unloaded. They also did construction work. The Germans ordered the reconstruction of the house wall of Hananya Eisenstein, Lochovitsky and others. The shoe cooperative, set up during Soviet rule, continued working under the Germans.

Occasionally, the workers would return from work beaten and injured. The Germans claimed the Jews were responsible for the war and should be beaten. The Jews hoped the Germans would soon be defeated by the Russians. In the first months of the German conquest, a group of S.S. commanders arrived at Chomsk and killed nearly all the Jews there. From there, they went on to Sporewa, Olszewe and Nauke as well as other villages, killing all the Jews. A few Jews survived and reached Bereze. The Jews of Seltz Bludnic and from Malch were also expelled to Bereze. The Germans also rounded up Jews living in small villages to make the work of destruction easier.

After it became clear that the Jews could not meet the contributions imposed on them, the Germans gave them licences to travel to nearby towns to raise the required sums. The Jews of Bereze survived between one slaughter and another in this way.

Life became more difficult each day, without hope of expectancy. If the Christians had wanted to help the Jews, many Jews could have survived. However, as long as they did not suffer from the Germans, they watched the Jews suffering with indifference and enjoyed their torture. Some of the Jews had opportunities to escape from the ghetto to the forests, those who worked outside the ghetto. But every Jew knew that if he escaped, the Germans would take revenge on his family and other Jews. Each individual was linked in life and death with the destiny of Jewry.

One day, the Germans divided up the ghetto in Ghetto A and Ghetto B. They held a census of Bereze Jews beforehand and assembled them in two ghettos. Ghetto A was situated in Ulany Street from the home of Shlomke Weinstein to the home of Moshe Potack, and it included several peasants' huts

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In Pruzana street, which bordered on Ulany Street. The Jews who worked for the Germans, the “productive” Jews, lived in Ghetto A. All the rich people who succeeded in bribing the Germans, lived there. There were families that were split up between the two ghettos. The borderline was the street where Rabbi Trop lived, by the river.

In Ghetto B, Jews lived who did not manage to get “productive” work for the Germans. The two ghettos were surrounded with barbed wire. Workers had permission to leave and enter under the supervision of a Christian resident. In the month in which the ghettos were established, July 15, 1942, the two ghettos were surrounded by German and other police. The Germans told the Judenrat that the Jews in Ghetto B were being sent to Bialystock for “productive” work. Jews destined for Ghetto B who were still living in Ghetto A, were transferred.

In Ghetto B, the Germans went from home-to-home, assembling all the Jews in the street and marching them off to the railway station at Bludnic. The old and sick who were unable to form up outside, including Rabbi Trop, were shot on the spot. On the way to Bludnic, a few Jews tried to escape but were shot by the Germans. The people were placed in train wagons and taken to the station at Bronna Gora, in the direction of Baranowicz. There, they were all killed by the many ditches dug for their burial. At Bronna Gora, there was a mass grave of Jews from many small towns. Yitzhak Orlovsky, the son-in-law of Hanna-Gitel Lieberman and Elimelech Tuchman, were miraculously saved and reported back on the murderous cruelty of the Germans.

After the destruction of the Jews in Ghetto B, the Germans promised they would not harm the other Jews who were of advantage to the German army. Many young people did not believe the Germans and began escaping. Many fled to the forests and others to Pruzana. There, they lived in the ghetto in better conditions, because Pruzana belonged to Prussia and was included in the “Third Reich”. Since the Germans did not have detailed lists of the Jews who were killed, Jews escaped to the forests. But the Christian population in the villages and on the roads threatened them and endangered their lives. Russian gangs wandered in the forests under the guise of “partisans” and every Jew who fell into their hands was killed. Thus, it happened that Jews came back from the forests to the ghetto.

The Germans began suspecting many Jews of maintaining links with the partisans. One day, 21 Jews working in the saw mill were arrested on suspicion of holding contacts with the partisans. They were arrested at the

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home of Yosef Chomski and on the morrow, were all shot in the church garden. The Jews in Ghetto A were once more frightened to death.

On October 15, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by S.S. men and the police. The Jews realised their last hour had come. They collected all their valuables, sewing machines and clothes still in their possession and brought them to the home of the tailor, Avraham Greenberg, and set he house on fire. The blaze spread to more homes in Getto A. The members of the Judenrat gathered at the home of Eliyahu-Moshe Epstein and committed suicide by hanging. There was also an underground canal leading from Ulany Street to Pruzana Street and some Jews fled into it. All were choked to death, but nobody knew how this occurred.

On October 16, the Germans entered the ghetto, rounded up all the Jews that were still there, took them in vehicles to a hill, five miles away, and killed all of them in pre-prepared ditches. Henach Liskavsky, Shmuel Goberman, Mayrim Savinsky and Shmuel Nodel survived the slaughters. They worked as tailors and shoemakers for the Germans, but after a week, they too were killed.

Eliyahu Matya Bockstein provides further details about the bitter end of Bereze Jewry.

The first Jewish victim of the German conquest was Shaul Rashinsky. A farmer accused him of profiteering. The Germans placed him, his wife and child, up against the church wall and shot them. 24 Jews worked in the saw mill. All were shot on suspicion of links with the partisans. These events threw the Jewish population into panic. The members of the Judenrat calmed people down.

There was one case of resistance. Lejzer Berman, who worked at the power plant, set the saw mill on fire after the slaughter of Ghetto B Jews, and escaped. The Germans pursued him and he wrested a rifle from a German's hand and killed him but Berman was also killed.

At Bronna Gora, at the place where the Jews of Ghetto B were killed, about 90,000 Jews from the area of Brisk and Bialystock were liquidated. Shlomo Weinstein and Godel Pisctzki, Bund members who refused to participate in the Judenrat, were also killed there. They marched at the head of the Jews as they were led to death.

After the slaughter at Bronna Gora, the wagons returned full with clothes

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of the dead. The S.S. sat down to drink and distributed the blood-soaked clothes of the Jews to the peasants. The floor of the carriages was littered with Polish banknotes and torn dollars …

On the night prior to the liquidation of Ghetto A, the Judenrat members and their families and Dr. Lichtiker and Dr. Shaira and their families, committed suicide. 1,800 people were killed in Ghetto A. Before the war, the spot where they were killed was used by Bereze children for Lag Baomer walks.

A few Jews prepared an underground channel that led to the Aryan side and tried to escape. Later, the peasants found the bodies of 180 Jews, some of whom had been choked and some burnt to death. A few were saved and are in Israel. Most of the survivors fell in the forests at the hands of “partisan” groups or the Germans.

When I returned to Poland in 1946, I visited Bronna Goa where the Germans murdered about 100,000 Jews. At the end of 1943, the Germans dug ditches, took out the bodies and burnt them. The Russians surrounded the spot with barbed wire and pointed out that there was a mass grave at the site. The place where 1,800 Jew of Ghetto A were killed, was covered with weeds. There was no fence, no inscription nor anyone coming to weep. The Jewish cemetery was destroyed. The gravestones were uprooted and served as steps for streets of the Goyim. There was no sign of any Jewish life in Bereze.

[Page 144 - English] [Page 477 - Hebrew]

On the night of the German attack against the Russians in our area, I was with Hershel-Eliezer Pomeranice in Zhabinka. We had been sent to work there as carpenters. We woke up and saw the Russians leaving the town and German aircraft sowing death and destruction all around. We got into the train travelling in the direction of Tewle and Linewe, but the Germans bombed the train. We continued our journey by food and reached Malch on June 23 at noon. It was quiet at Malch. The following day, fighting began in the area and one woman, Hanna-Reisel Unterman, was killed and her two children wounded. On the same day, a group of German patrols passed through the city. They interrogated and demanded to know if any Russians were in the town. They also requested eggs and butter and then departed.

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That same night, the Germans entered Malch. They banned movement in the street after 21hr and ordered every Jewish home to be marked with a Shield of David. All Jews were made to wear a yellow Magen David patch and ordered to hand over radios to the Germans. The Jews were frightened to go out. They hid in the orchards and prayed alone. Occasionally, Gestapo men came to the town.

On one Sabbath, they entered the Caucasian Synagogue and destroyed it. They were helped by the police recruited from the local non-Jews. The Germans would recruit Jews for various jobs such as: repairing roads and bridges, etc. The Jews organised their own committee made up of Yehoshua Niselbaum, Yaacov Appelboim and Shmuel-Mordechai Rubinstein to organise the supply of goods in accordance with the German demands and to prevent arbitrary action by them. Night guards were also organised to prevent fires and unexpected mishaps.

Meanwhile, the bad tidings of the events in nearby communities reached Malch. One survivor from Chomsk reported on the slaughter of the Jews there. We understood that we faced a similar fate. Close to Rosh Hashana, a convoy of Jews from Bialystock and Shershev arrived after taking the road coming from the direction of Chwojnik. They were assembled at the steam plant. We accepted them and dispersed them among many homes and the large synagogue, supplying all their needs. There were about 200 people, a third of the whole Jewish population of Malch. They prayed in Minyanim during the High Holidays.

On the Sabbath of Parshat “Lech Leka” the Gestapo and local police surrounded the town. The Jews were massed in the market place and knowing the fate of the Chomsk Jews, they unsuccessfully tried to escape. That day, Sima Pomeranice was shot and killed in Samaravka wood by Shura Mandabei, a local policeman and so were: Taybl Kaplan, Avraham Buchalter, Bobel Tsherniak and a young man who was the son of a Pruzana baker who hid in Malch because he belonged to a political party. Meir Rabinowitch was removed from the rows of Jews in the market and shot. The survivor from Chomsk was wounded in the finger. All the Jews were taken to the school building. The Gestapo arrived at Chwojnik and killed Matiyahu Miskin and his daughter, Maryasla.

The Germans tortured an old man before he died. Shmuel Meltsher, who came from Lodz in 1939, lived in the same house. He succeeded in escaping. The same murderers in Chwojnik arrived at the Koty estate and killed Yaacov

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Vinograd and Yisrael Sheinberg. Yosef, the son of Moshe the tailor, was wounded by two bullets and lay until night in the marshes. He succeeded in reaching Bereze where he died.

The Jews were allowed to leave the school and were ordered to get ready to leave their homes the next morning. On Saturday night, the Jews buried their dead. The following morning, the Germans issued the Jews documents and ordered them to leave Malch for Bereze. We hired carts, loading them up with articles and food. The Germans were so sure we would go to Bereze that they did not accompany us or place any guard on us. They delayed the blacksmiths for one day in Malch, but they too left for Bereze the next day.

All the roads leading to Malch carried grave German warning notices threatening death to anyone touching Jewish property. However, the non-Jews immediately entered Jewish homes and some old ones were dismantled by them for use as heating materials.

At Bereze, the Jews received us well. A special committee was set up to ensure housing for the refugees and supply their needs. They sent us to do various jobs and thus, six weeks passed.

In Bereze, they were afraid of a final liquidation on the lines of Chomsk Jews. We heard that the situation in Pruzana was calmer. Since Pruzana was incorporated in the “Third Reich”, they hoped the Jews of the town would be saved. We began to move to Pruzana. About 60% of Malch Jews were absorbed in the Pruzana ghetto.

The ghetto in Pruzana was organised and headed by a Judenrat which did all in its power to ease the distress. The members of the Judenrat took pains to house us in flats and supply us with food. They also looked after Jews who reached Pruzana from other remote places. Thus, we linked our fate with the destiny of the Pruzana Jews.

[Page 147 - English] [Page 491 - Hebrew]

When the Germans entered Shershev in June, 1941, the first 13 victims fell, both Jews and Gentiles. Panic fell on the Jews. It was not long before the Germans ordered all Jews between 16 and 70 to gather at the market place and wear warm clothes for going out to work. Whoever did not turn out would be killed.

I was 15 and exempt from the call-up. However, my father was weak and I couldn't agree that he go alone. We said goodbye to our family, lined up in rows of three. Thus began the death march.

When we passed by our homes, we did not notice a living soul. All our relatives had been led away by other murderers. Laughing faces could be seen from the windows of the Gentiles' houses. Soon, they would take over the home and all of the Jews' property. The Germans beat people up with thick sticks. 18 of us fell before we reached Pruzana. The Pruzana Jews tried to help us but to no avail. They were not even allowed to bring us some water. We rested by the Krutzel steam plant because the murderers had tired of beating us and they sat resting.

Then we continued in the direction of Linewe (Oranczyce). Again, people fell on the way. The Germans locked us up in the cowshed together with many cows. We were like herrings stuffed in a barrel. A few hours later, we heard shouting in Yiddish. It was our relatives who had been brought on carts and left outside the cowshed.

I saw how the Germans shot Moshe Shucherman, who could barely walk and was holding his son's hand. His son asked the assassins to kill him too after they shot his father, and they duly complied. 20-year-old Lejzer Rotenberg was severely beaten. He was covered in blood, but tried to escape. The Germans shot and missed. He disappeared into the nearby wood. The Germans killed 15 Jews on the spot as punishment for Rotenberg's escape. We experienced two more days of hardship until we reached Antopol, where we met our relatives. We are dispersed in the towns of Drohiczyn and Chomsk and our fate is the same as the other Jews, doomed to destruction.

I and a few other Shershev Jews succeeded in escaping to Pruzana. There, I learned of the killing of my parents and relatives. I became an orphan. But

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I had o suffer three more years of hunger, want and hard labour in concentration camps. All that time, I was tortured by the thought: “how am I better than my parents who were killed while I stayed alive?”

[Page 148 - English] [Page 495 - Hebrew]

All the regulations cited below come from the “State Pinkas or the Pinkas of the Main Kehila Committee in the State of Lithuania”. Edited by Simon Dubnow, together with introduction and comments. Eynot. Berlin, 1928.

Among the Vaad of the Four Countries which included Greater Poland, with Mazowsze, Little Poland, Raisen and Lithuania, and existed between 1581 and 1764, there was a special separate body called “Vaad Medinat Lita” – The Lithuanian State Committee, which existed during the years 1623-1761. In the beginning, this committee included the large kehilot of Brisk-Dalita, Horodne (Grodno) and Pinsk, with the small nearby kehilot. Later, Vilna and Seltz joined the kehilot committee together with their satellites.

A lot of research and literature has been produced on the “Vaad Medinat Lita” that has illuminated its importance and work as an autonomous Jewish body in the state of Poland. The reason we refer to it is that 13 of its 33 sessions were held in towns included in the pinkas: we have: 12 in Seltz and 1 in Pruzana. The mother meetings were held as follows: 5 in Chomsk, 4 in

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Brisk-Litovsk, 2 in Grodno, 2 in Zabludove, 1 in Misteezki, 1 in Krinki, 1 in Olekniki, 1 in Amdur, 1 in Mir, 1 in Sluck and 1 apparently in Wisokie Litevsk, although we are not quite sure. We, thus, see that the most meetings were held in Seltz. Moreover, 395 regulations were made at sessions in Seltz, more than one-third of all the 1,010 regulations issued in the committee's 33 meetings.

Seltz did not gain this pre-eminence because of its importance and status among the kehilot: Seltz could not compete with the large kehilot: Brisk, Grodno, Pinsk, Vilna or Slutzk. It even lagged behind Pruzana, Zabludove or Mir. There were other reasons why the Vaad held 12 sessions in Seltz. Apparently, committee members felt safer there and could do their work without the interference of outside parties, which was vital.

Among the minutes of the Vaad, we find hints and regulations about the intervention of external and internal parties. This was the reason that forced the Vaad members to change their venue. There were quarrels during the discussions and informing. It was, therefore, essential to find a place protected from the “evil eye”, to prevent any harm to the participants. At first, it was decided the meetings would be held in Brisk-Litovsk and the sessions in 1623, 1626 and 1627 were held there. In regulation 68, it was explicitly stated that it was decided to meet in Brisk-Litovsk because the leader, Rabbi Meir, was very old and was not able to participate in meetings held outside Brisk.

Rabbi Meir was the son of Shaul Wohl, who, in the legends of Polish Jewry, was known as the “First Polish King”. Rabbi Meir Wahl apparently died between the 3rd and 4th meeting and the Lithuanian State committee decided to meet in other towns. The most important and largest session from the viewpoint of number of participants and regulations, was in Pruzana in 1628. It was even decided that the Vaad's meetings would always be held in Pruzana.

However, in the next 20 years, the meetings were held in Seltz and in Chomsk, alternatively. Then, it happened that the Vaad sessions in Zabludove (Grodno area) were stopped (for unknown reasons) and transferred to Krinki. After this meeting, we find regulations hinting libels and about informers. It was stated that silence should be maintained and decisions kept secret including the need to be prudent when travelling to and from the sessions. This insecurity and concern undoubtedly caused the committee to meet in Seltz, because of the calm atmosphere at this tiny place. The 12 sessions at Seltz were held on the following dates:

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1.	Elul	5392 (1632)	the number of regulations passed were:	256-271
2.	Elul	5394 (1634)		272-305
3.	Elul	5397 (1637)		306-349
4.	Elul	5399 (1639)		350-401
5.	Elul	5404 (1644)		402-422
6.	Elul	5407 (1647)		423-450
7.	Adar	5415 (1655)		502-526
8.	Heshvan	5422 (1662)		527-555
9.	Av	5430 (1670)		629-678
10.	Tamuz	5433 (1673)		679-706
11.	Tishrei	5444 (1684)		774-799
12.	Nisan	5460 (1700)		906-909

It is worthwhile mentioning the matters discussed at Seltz and the regulations. In 1632, 1634 and 1684, the committee's budget was approved. Were we to mention all the regulations, there would emerge a full picture of Jewish life, its customs and patterns, relations between man and his neighbour and with the community in general; the relations between kehilot and between kehilot and the Gentile world. In addition, regulations were issued at the sessions concerning religious law and verdicts were handed down on important issues which local rabbis did not discuss because of their importance. The verdicts were recorded in the minutes of the Vaad, as in the meeting at Seltz in 1670.

[Page 151 - English] [Page 499 - Hebrew]

Berl Blustein was a resident of Lineve (Oranczyc), the railway station near Pruzana. He was a survivor of the Nazi hell. He and his family were expelled to the Pruzana ghetto and to Auschwitz where he lost his family. After the hell in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, he arrived in Philadelphia in the United States. Blustein recorded his story in a long essay which constitutes historical material on the fate of the Lineve Jewry and the whole area. We are reprinting a few sections that include stories published by him in the Jewish weekly “Kamader Odler” which appears in Montreal, Canada.

…It was at the end of Tammuz, 1942. I was going to work in Pruzana and met Berl Brakowski, travelling in a cart to Lineve. 5 carts were going there bringing workers to their jobs at the railway station. I offered to join him to find out the fate of the Jews in my town. At first, he refused. He claimed that Judevitch of the Pruzana Judenrat would dress him down. In the end, he agreed, but I refused.

When I arrived at my place of work, Judevitch told me there was no work for me and sent me to the food warehouse. The bookkeeper was Avol, a refugee from Drohiczyn near Bialystock and Yosef Helman, the ware-houseman. My job was to help him. Yosef Helman was the brother of Berl Helman who served at the home of the German mayor in Pruzana. (The two Helmans were among the partisans who were in a camp in Austria). They came out alive from the camps and reached France. I knew them beforehand.

At 14hr, the rumour spread in Pruzana that the Jews in Lineve had been shot before dawn. My wife and I broke into tears, but we hid our grief from the children. Towards nightfall, the workers who returned from Lineve told me the details of the slaughter. The workers arrived at their jobs at 6.30 in the morning after the slaughter had ended. The murderers were still “on heat” and asked the workers if they were Lineve Jews. When they answered that they came from Pruzana, the Germans did not harm them. The order was to kill Lineve Jews only … German precision! The workers reported that apart from a few Jews who escaped, all were killed.

The following night, Zalman Burak reached the Pruzana ghetto from Lineve. He told me tails of the last ten days preceding the slaughter. The next day, two young Lineve women reached the ghetto – Chajke Lejzerovitch and Havah Meister. They fled at the last minute, wandered around outside the town and

[Page 152]

met a Gentile who told them the details of the massacre. He was one of those recruited by the Germans to cover up the mass grave of the martyrs.

Lineve was part of Ukraine and there were Ukrainian police there. But in fact, Poles, Byelorussians and Ukrainians served in it. The commander was Sotnik, a Gentile from Lineve. In the Ukraine, the Jews had to go out to work, which was hard. They cut down trees in the forest close to the railway station, to prevent sudden partisan attacks. They cut down the trees in the direction of the Tewle railway station on the way to Brisk-Litovsk.

Apart from the Ukrainian police, there was also a German commissar and his deputy, who constituted the local authorities. Lineve belonged to Kobrin, where the district commissar, the Gestapo, the German gendarmerie and the Ukrainian police sat.

Two weeks before the massacre, two Gestapo men came to Lineve, met with the leader of the Jews and registered all the Jews in Lineve. The list included several Jewish families living in Oranczyel village, a kilometre away from Lineve.

Before they left, the Gestapo men ordered all Jews to pack their belongings and pass through the oil zone, 1.5km from the town. From there, they would be transferred to the Kobrin ghetto. Meanwhile, they sentenced a Jew accused of spreading anti-German rumours. The protocol was signed by a non-Jew, Kostikevitch from Oranczyel. The Jew, Levi Mankevsky, his wife Rahel and their six children, aged between 12 and 26, were shot to death. Lineve Jews continued sitting at home and working. It was impossible to reach Pruzana, which was only 12km away. Pruzana belonged to East Prussia and Lineve in Ukraine. The Jews waited for their transfer to the Kobrin ghetto.

Two days before the slaughter, 4 S.S. men came to Lineve. The Jews unsuccessfully tried to fathom the meaning of their arrival. However, stricter supervision of the movement of Jews began. One day before the massacre, Chajka Lejzerovitch told the Kronshtat family that there was a rumour that a large ditch had been dug by the oil depot. Mrs. Kronshtat told her the rumours were false and were repeated, from time-to-time. She added that on that day, the head Jew, Avraham Zuckerman, had travelled in the wagon of the German commissar to Pruzana with his permission in order to supply him something. The German commissar treated the Jewish leader well and were some plots afoot, would surely have told him …

[Page 153]

The chairman of the Jews in Lineve visited Pruzana from time-to-time on errands for the German commissar. That day, he visited the ghetto with Pinhas Orlovsky, and I spoke to him. He told me they were waiting for transfer to the Kobrin ghetto and that they did not know they were only a few hours away from death. They left Pruzana at 20hr and by 4 a.m. next morning, they were already dead.

Chajka Lejzerovitch added she was not calmed down by Mrs. Kronshtat and she went to her friend, Havah Meister. She had a premonition of impending disaster. At 2.a.m. there was a commotion in the town: vehicles arrived and the Gestapo and the police woke up the Jewish chief and the other Judenrat members and told them the Jews had to get ready for transfer to the Kobrin ghetto. The Gestapo men went to Jewish homes according to pre-prepared lists and removed the Jews from their homes.

The two young girls, Chajka Lejzerovitch and Havah Meister escaped and hid in the grain fields. They lay there until nightfall and heard the screams and shooting. Later, they walked by the roadside to Pruzana and reached the ghetto.

This is their story and that of Zalman Burak: At 3.a.m., after they expelled the Jews from their homes, they placed them on vehicles. They told them they were being driven to the Kobrin ghetto. Everyone took his most important possessions with him. The Jews were calm because they had expected this … After they had travelled the first half kilometre, the Jews noticed that the direction of the journey was not Kobrin but the oil area. Shouting began and the Jews understood they were being led to their death. Moshe Zydewicz died in a vehicle from a heart attack. The brothers Ephraim and Yudel Monkavsky jumped off the vehicle. Yosef Samuels jumped after them. The Germans shot them to death. The oil area was fenced with barbed wire and nobody could get out of there. The Germans massed the Jews in a large warehouse in groups of 15. They told them to undress and prepare themselves for death. The others waited outside making expressions of despair. The children were not killed by shooting. They gripped them by the feet and smashed their heads with a steel bar, or by banging skulls on the ground. Zivia Orlevsky hung on to her child by force and the S.S. man did not succeed in wrenching the child away. This was Lineve Jewry died.

[Page 154 - English] [Page 513 - Hebrew]

Pruzana Jews began arriving in America in the 1870s. Most of them settled in New York or Philadelphia. About half of them intended to earn money and return home, and even in the 20's, many emigrants had similar intentions. The immigrants (to America) worked hard seven days a week in sweat-shops. They suffered from loneliness and in their spare time, they maintained contact with their fellow townsmen.

At the end of the 1880's, their number increased and in 1887, the first organisation was set up: The Pruzaner Charitable and Benevolent Association, whose members were workers and petty traders. This association still exists and is the richest and largest of all the organisations set up later.

Like all other immigrants, the Pruzana Jews settled in the oldest and poorest part of New York. The religious Jews founded their own synagogue made up of Jews from Pruzana, Malch and Shershev and it is still in existence.

At the end of the 19th century, a similar religious organisation was set up called the Pruzaner Society. It only had a few members. In Philadelphia and nearby towns, an organisation with a lot of members was established in 1898. Later, a similar organisation was set up in Chicago, which included Pruzana Jews living in nearby places.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, immigration increased until 1923 when the American authorities limited it. The restriction of immigration reduced the numbers of members of the organisations. The older generation gradually dwindled; the younger American-born generation was not interested in the Landsmanschaften. Families expanded and people were no longer isolated. Among the immigrants were progressive workers who set up a club of “Bund” members in 1906. Two years later, the Club joined the “Arbeiter Ring” as branch 244. In 1929, a woman's organisation was set up in the same branch. They were the last two organisation set up by Pruzana Jews. Each organisation had its own cemetery and held funerals at its expense. Each organisation provided medical aid, life insurance and a charitable-loan fund. The organisations were founded by Jews from Pruzana and the nearby towns. The organisations containing the name Pruzana were: The Pruzaner Charitable

[Page 155]

and Benevolent Association; the Pruzaner Arbeiter Ring Branch 244 and the Pruzaner Arbeiter Ring Branch 244b. All these organisations were set up for the use and benefit of their members. If they sent aid to Pruzana, it was done on the initiative of individuals and groups.

Immediately after World War I, several members of the Pruzaner Charitable and Pruzaner Branch organised a project for our town but it did not last long. Several Pruzana Jews such as S. Halpern, M. Averbuch, A. Berenson and others would send money to the Rabbi in Pruzana for distribution among the needy. The author used to collect money for the orphanage. Thus, individuals and groups operated on their own behalf and not in any organised way.

The only organisation in New York that budgeted aid for Pruzana institutions was the Branch, but as most of its members were workers, its operations were limited. In the 1920's, Gershon Urinski, the headmaster and founder of the Yiddish school, appealed for help several times. In 1925, Pola Perelstein-Neidus came to New York. She told a Branch meeting about the school's difficult situation and an Aid Committee was set up to help the school. The committee was made up of branch members and later, non-branch members were added. The organised balls brought in apparent income.

I must mention in particular, Max Kronshtat, the chairman of the school aid committee. His help was provided in the best possible way. He had a lot of financial opportunities and set up a fund in the Ort company for building a factory in Pruzana for providing employment to Pruzana for poor people. The money was later used for the school's benefit. In 1935, he contributed $1000 of the fund's money for buying a field for the school. He died in 1940 and the two branches immortalised his name by calling themselves the Max Kronshtat Branch 244 or Max Kronshtat Branch 244b.

After the success of the balls, I proposed that the Aid Committee should help all public institutions in Pruzana and not just concentrate on the Yiddish school. Income would increase as not only the Arbeiter Ring public would be involved. Although I was the only member of the committee who did not belong to the Arbeiter Ring, all the members agreed to my proposal. It was

[Page 156]

decided to send the money to Gershon Urinski with an instruction to set up a committee that also included the Rabbi which would distribute the money in accordance with the budgets of the institutions.

Thanks to this decision, I brought in additional members outside the Arbeiter Ring circles. The work expanded and income increased and was distributed between all the needy institutions. When the war broke out and contact with Pruzana was lost, the money was handed over to the Joint, which was known for its extensive help to war victims.

Immediately after the war in 1945, the Joint announced that they knew there were a few Jews in Pruzana, but that they were not sure if money could be transferred to them. We immediately held consultation and the participants lent $1,700 of their own money which was handed over to the Joint. Later, we received a report that the Joint's money was received. However, we did not receive any further information.

In August, 1945, we received a letter through an American soldier that detailed a list of survivors at the Feldafing camp near Munich. The letter was signed by Zalman Uriewicz, Sender Zakheim and Yitzhak Janowicz. The list included 140 names of survivors out of the thousands of Pruzana Jews. Later, further lists were received and it emerged that 300 Pruzana Jews had survived the Holocaust.

When the second letter was received which included details of the destruction of Pruzana Jewry between January 28 and February 3, 1943, we decided to fix the Sunday of that week as a day of mourning and remembrance for the martyrs. At the initiative of Zalman Uriewicz, a delegation of survivors started looking for others who had survived and assemble them at the Feldafing camp.

The aid committee convened a meeting of all the organisations and proposed concentrating all the aid jointly to the survivors from Pruzana and nearby towns and send immediate help through the Jewish Workers' Committee, the Joint Young Agudat Yisrael and the representatives of large organisations permitted by the Occupation authorities to work in Germany. The first consignment of 150 food and clothing parcels was sent to the address of the main committee of survivors in Munich. The Pruzana survivors at Feldafing elected a special committee headed by Zalman Uriewicz, who distributed the parcels among the survivors.

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I must make particular mention of the conduct of Zalman Uriewicz in the concentration camps, his concern for his brethren and his devotion after liberation. After we received confirmation that the first consignment had reached its destination, we sent a second consignment with money as well which amounted to between $1,000 and $1,500.

We received letters from survivors in Austria, Italy and France. We put them in contact with their relatives. The aid committee was an address through which survivors found their relatives and friends. We also influenced relative to speed up help to survivors. Among them were tuberculosis patients to whom we gave special portions of food, medicine and monthly financial support. The American immigration laws laid down that every immigrant must produce a letter of commitment from his relatives or friends that they were affluent and a promise that the immigrant would not become a burden on the public. The aid committee searched and found relatives and influenced them to issue the appropriate commitments for their relatives. For those immigrants who did not have rich relatives, the members of the aid committee took pains to issue the necessary papers. The committee gave guarantees to two large organisations dealing with immigration of Pruzana survivors. A special committee of members of the aid committee looked after immigrants who did not have relatives or whose relatives were not wealthy. When the State of Israel was established and survivors announced their desire to immigrate to Israel, they were sent money so that they could buy clothes and appliances. Over $50,000 was raised for the survivors, apart from food, clothes and medicine. Most of the money came from New York, but also from other cities and nearby states. In Philadelphia, an appeal brought $1,000. A similar sum was raised in Havana, Cuba. Several times, money was sent from Chicago to New York.

The Pruzana survivors mostly live in the United States but some live in Israel, Canada and Latin America.

The Aid Committee made an agreement with the Histadrut to set up a Kupat Holim clinic at Kiryat Ata, near Haifa, in memory of the Pruzana martyrs. The building was established with a memorial copper plaque at the entry.

Editors remark: The Pruzaner Charitable and Benevolent Association existed until the beginning of the 80's in the century.

[Page 158 - English] [Page 511 - Hebrew]

On June 14, 1888, the Pruzana-born Jews in New York set up the Pruzana Charity and Benevolent Association which included Jews from Pruzana and the surrounding area. They even bought a special cemetery in New York. The organisation was headed by my uncle (brother of my father), Moshe-Aharon Averbuch and he was joined by several relatives called Halpern and three more Pruzana Jews. In 1920 or 1921, Moshe-Aaron came to visit his family and brought gifts with him – money and regards to the inhabitants of Pruzana from their relatives in the United States.

From morning to night, people came to my grandfather's home (Hananya Averbuch). He lived on 12, Sherschev Street where my uncle stayed and people came to receive greetings and money from their relatives in New York and its environs. My uncle visited Rabbi David Faygenbaum, may his blood be avenged, to clarify what the Pruzana organisation could do to help residents in need of financial aid. When my uncle returned to New York, he reported to the organisation about his talk with the rabbi. It was agreed that a sum of money be sent each year to the rabbi for the purpose of “Passover charity”. My grandfather and father and a few more inhabitants would divide up the money to poor families, according to the need.

It is very hard to believe that there are no more than three Jewish families in Pruzana. This is what my brother told me when he visited my home in Atlanta, Georgia in 1969.

[Page 158 - English] [Page 516 - Hebrew]

In 1949, Holocaust survivors began arriving in the U.S. Most of the survivors requested, after all the hardships and tribulations they had suffered in the ghetto, in Auschwitz, the forests and the Soviet Union, to reunite with their families, that had immigrated before the war. Most settled in New York, the state of New Jersey, Philadelphia, Connecticut and Florida. The pangs of absorption – the ignorance of the English language, the lack of an appropriate profession,

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difficulties in initial arrangements and the conditions of adaptation to a new reality – were not easy. The survivors not only had to adapt to the American way of life, but to rehabilitate themselves and find their place in society after the Holocaust years and the killing on “the planet” of Auschwitz.

As time passed, the survivors learned to find work and an occupation, penetrating into the economy and finding status and a livelihood. They established families and too care to educate their children. Among the young generation, there are members of the liberal professions: doctors, lawyers and engineers who occupy a place in American society and culture. The survivors have a deep Jewish feeling that leads to their involvement in Jewish life and work for the State of Israel. They visit the State of Israel from time-to-time and draw inspiration from Jewish independence. Perhaps it is they in particular, the remnants of the destruction of Europe, who know how to feel the special taste of the freedom of Israel more than other Jews, whose destiny saved them from the divine justice meted out to European Jewry. The survivors find much interest in meeting other towns-fellows in the framework of Landsleit of Pruzana, whose organisation did so much for them. They remember the impressive meeting of comrades in 1950 when the Pruzana Jews living in America first met the survivors. The latter do not forget the great help they received while in the camps in Germany and in other countries.

The memorial meeting held annually for the martyrs of Pruzana, Shershev, Malch, Seltz, Linewe and Bialystock Jews who were in the Pruzana ghetto, not only serve the survivors as a memorial meeting, but as an encounter of friendship with their brethren. The memorial meeting is one of the activities of the Special Aid Committee of Pruzana Jews and District in New York. The other activities include maintaining links with Pruzana Jews everywhere and help to the needy.

As the memorial meeting approaches, the members raise their contributions to the committee and enable it to carry out its tasks. The committee raised money for the establishment of a Kupat Holim clinic in Kiryat Ata in Israel and for a wood in the Martyrs Forest near Jerusalem, thanks to the initiative of Lena Neidus-Judewicz. The work of Zalman Uriewicz, who headed the committee from 1950 until his death, should not be forgotten. His place was taken by Hershel Moravsky, may he enjoy long life. After he retired, the author and Yitzhak Janovitch took over the job.

Sara Rozansky as secretary of the committee is very active. The branch in

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Philadelphia, founded by Yitzhak Rogovitch, is also active and is headed by Berl Blustein who originated from Linewe. The members of the committee are: Irving Janowitz and Morris Sorid – chairman; Sarah (Shirley) Rozansky – financial secretary; Moshe Rudnicki – secretary; Hershel (Harrod) Morrow – treasurer and Berl Blustein.

The figure of Lena Neidus-Judevicz, the famous dentist in Pruzana, should not be forgotten. She came to America in 1939 to visit her family and stayed in New York. After the war, when she discovered the list of survivors, she helped with devotion and activated others, working wonders with her energy and sacrifice. She was one of the first to visit Israel and marvelled at what she saw and heard.

Lena was an intellectual and wise. She was a loyal Zionist from her youth and helped her husband in his national and Hebrew activity. She always helped the poor and returned the treatment fee they paid for dentistry. Due to her love of Israel, she was called “the mother of the Pruzana Jews”. Lena spent her last years in an old-aged home and until her death on January 13, 1976, she showed an interest in public and individual needs. May her memory be blessed.

[Page 160 - English] [Page 517 - Hebrew]

Among the active people of the United Pruziner and Vicinity Relief Committee in New York and Philadelphia, is the striking personality of Harold Morrow who won his renown as a result of his good deeds for the benefit of his fellowmen. Committee members marked his wonderful work for our townsfolk at a special party held in New York on May 24 1981 and awarded him a bronze memorial plaque. On that occasion, memories were recalled and evaluations of his character, which are referred to in brief here.

At his parents' home at the “Yavneh” school and the Zionist youth associations, Harold completely absorbed the moral principles of aid to his fellowmen. He developed the enlightened characteristics of love of people, loyalty, patience, good natured, keenness and love of the Jewish people and its homeland. His distinguished qualities helped him in the Holocaust years to aid his friends and acquaintances, as has been related by his friends who were in the Pruzana ghetto, at Auschwitz and in the camps in Germany. Thus, a picture was built up of a man who redeemed and rescued, who knew

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how to advise himself and others in hours of mortal danger, encouraged and influenced those being taken to death not to lose hope and continue to overcome all the terrible things that befell them.

Inter alia, reference was made to the Ghetto period when the Germans confiscated the radios of the Jews and declared that the death penalty would be imposed on anyone listening to news and disseminating it. Harold got himself a wireless and despite the great risk to himself, he hid it in the spiral staircase of the former “Tarbut” high school building. At night, he stole in, listened to the news and in the morning, reports spread through the ghetto and encouraged the Jews when they heard about German defeat on numerous fronts. Only a few select people knew Harold's secret and the origin of the good and reassuring news.

At Auschwitz, Harold succeeded in maintaining contacts with non-Jewish prisoners in order to “organise” a little food, a loaf of bread, some margarine, a little fat, sugar, etc. He did not “store” these treasures for himself alone, but distributed them between close and remote sufferers like himself. Others in his place would have bartered or been careful not to be caught for a grave offence, who punishment was 25 lashes until bleeding occurred. Harold was not afraid of this. He was completely caught up in the work of organising goods to supply them to women in the special women's' quarters and the sick in the camp hospitals.

During the selections of the Muzzelmans (who were due to die), Harold noticed Mendel Bodgas (Milton Steinberg) standing in the row of prisoners selected by the demon's henchmen to be sent to the furnace. Harold hastened to bribe the kapo in charge of the unfortunate victims and saved Mendel from the clutches of death. Together with other prisoners, he founded the bread bank in which every participant contributed their daily bread portion once a week for the hapless brethren in the hospitals in order to save them and prevent their transfer to the furnaces.

Harold Morrow behaved thus in the awful Auschwitz years when every prisoner was wholly concerned with saving his life, hourly and daily. Harold cared for his fellowmen and did wonders in almost impossible circumstances and out of the greatest danger to himself on the Auschwitz planet.

After the liberation, Harold continued his work by organising the survivors and assembling them at the Feldafing camp in Germany. His good nature and concern for our townsfolk, which received expression in the conditions at Auschwitz, again operated for the benefit of the few survivors.

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In America, Harold was active in the United Committee for many years and invested a lot of work in planning and carrying out activities. One of these was organising the memorial meeting for the martyrs of our town, which is held annually to remember the community destroyed in the Holocaust and unite those of our town who came to America both before and after World War II by continuing the chain of our forefathers. Harold was an enthusiastic supporter of the Pruzana Jewry memorial volume project in Hebrew and English. He is married to Leah Amiel, who was expelled with her family from Bialystock to the Pruzana ghetto. His wife studied at the Tarbut Hebrew high school in Bialystock and was a Hebrew teacher for a few years in Canada and New York. They have a son and daughter. Harold and Leah are active in the Bialystock Committee in New York.

[Page 162 - English] [Page 519 - Hebrew]

We do not have information about the Jewish immigration from our area to Argentina at the beginning of Jewish settlement. However, undoubtedly, the settlement work of Baron Hirsch aroused an echo in our area, similar to that in the general Jewish Pale. Evidence of this can be found in the letters of appeal to the Central Committee of the Settlement Company in Petersburg and to Noah Katzovich, that were sent by the ICA company in Argentina to Russia in order to recruit Jewish families to settle in ICA farms in Argentina.

Pinhas Leib Elkon wrote a letter in Hebrew from Seltz in this vein: “I am a Hebrew teacher, married with five children, the oldest a boy of 17 and the youngest, a boy of 5, all of them healthy. My wife looks after the garden and is helped by the children”. He asked the central committee in Petersburg to settle him on the land at the same time allowing him to go on teaching … Nisan Kronshtat of Pruzana wrote a letter in Hebrew mingled with Yiddish during the week of the “Vayeshev” portion, 1902. He said that as he had become poorer in recent years, the only solution for him was to immigrate. He was ready to travel to Argentina, not America, because America was “an unclean land” and he was not prepared to stray from the right path … In that same year, Yosef Starovolsky of Pruzana asked about the possibilities of emigrating to Argentina.

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In contrast to the requests of Jews from Seltz and Pruzana, a whole group of Jews from Shershev asked to emigrate and from their letter, it emerges that some residents of that district of Grodno had already emigrated. The post office frank was dated January 25, 1901. The letter was written in Russian:

“To the Central Committee of the Jewish Settlement Society in Petersburg. Re: Request of the undersigned, Third-Class Citizens of Shershev in the Grodno District.

We, the undersigned, together with our families, wish to emigrate forever to Argentina to work in agriculture and buy farms, as other settlers in our district have done. In this connection, we wish to ask the committee the following questions:

1. What are the conditions of emigration at present?
2. Do the emigrants have to deposit a “guarantee” with the Committee and if so, will it be returned in Argentina?
3. Who finances the expenses of the journey? And how much money does each settler have to take with him?
4. What farm in immovable property and what movable property does the settler get?
5. Which place in Argentina is designed for us?
6. Will you enable our representative to go to Argentina to investigate the conditions of the place and thus save us bother and expense?
7. Which route can ben taken from Shershev to Argentina so that the Russian authorities will not make difficulties for us?

Signed by,

Zussel Abramov Feirberg”.

We enclose two 80 kopek income stamps. January 17, 1901. There were three other signatories in the name of 20 more inhabitants.

It is not known if all or some of the signatories emigrated to Argentina, but the letter undoubtedly indicates that wide circles showed interest in emigrating to Argentina. In any event, not many Jews left for Argentina as compared with the large waves of emigration to the United States. However, several

[Page 164]

Individuals and groups reached Argentina, settling in Buenos Aires, the provincial towns and the colonies. The descendants of about 15 families are still alive. Some of them played a role in social life. However, it is not known if contact was maintained between them, whether because of their small number or due to the geographical separation. Until 1921, there was no sign of any organisation.

After World War I, emigration to the United States was resumed. It was only in 1921 when the American authorities began making difficulties for the immigrants that they turned to Cuba, Canada, Argentina and Palestine. Some of the emigrants intended to reach the United States sooner or later in accordance with the American law that every European emigrant is eligible to enter the United States after a one-year's stay in one of the American continent states.

Only a small minority of the emigrants to Argentina left for the United States. Most of them remained. In 1923, there were already a lot of people from our area who had settled in Argentina, mostly young bachelors. They would meet in Kan's restaurant and when they heard new immigrants had arrived, they would welcome them and host them in their dingy rooms. The old-timers cared for the newcomers, looking for jobs for them and other livelihoods. Until they settled down, they would share their meagre food with them. In 1924, a need was seen to organise the help to their brethren and create a homely atmosphere for them. In March 1924, a meeting with 40 to 50 participants was held. On the initiative of the teacher, L. Yelsky (who returned to Pruzana in 1925 and together with his family, met his death at Auschwitz) and an organising committee was set up. It may be assumed that one was that Jewish workers with socialist and progressive Jews could not sit down together with bourgeois, even if the “bourgeois” in question were without livelihood and penniless like the workers.

Nevertheless, the idea of organisation did not disappear. In the next two years, collective Passover Sederim that were not traditional were held. The Landsleit would help each other in giving advice and in special cases, especially illness, would support the needy with grants. This was as far as the inhabitants of Buenos Aires were concerned. Those who lived in the colonies or provincial towns, were, of course, remote and cut off from any social activity.

[Page 165]

One immigrant who became ill with tuberculosis was forced to return to Poland. His friend helped him and raised the fare.

There was also interest in Pruzana institutions. A committee was set up to help the Jewish library and money was raised for this purpose. On June 18, 1926, a sickness fund for Pruzana Jews, which operated according to regulations, was set up. The intention was to supply means and medical help in cases of sickness from membership fees and special enterprises. The fee was 50 cents a month. Five elected members formed the fund's management. There were 58 members. One year later, the regulations were changed. Employees alone could be elected to the management. The interest of the members in fund diminished and the executive which was often changed, tried many means to bring the members closer together, one of which was the abolition of the regulation under which employees alone could be elected to the management.

The executive participated in the protest against the pogroms in Romania and joined the committee fighting against trading in women. In the years 1929-1931, the executive raised money for the “Pruzana Pinkas” which appeared in Pruzana in 1931. In 1936, an appeal fund was held for the orphanage and the Yiddish school in Pruzana.

Officially, the sickness fund was wound up in 1937. Thus, the only organisation of Pruzana Jews and the surrounding area, ended its existence. However, in urgent cases, the fund's functionaries would recruit help for their members or for public institutions in Pruzana. In 1939, an appeal was organised for the schools in the hometowns, but the war broke out and the money was used for local purposes. There was no organisational activity until the end of World War II.

In September 1945, Moshe Nitzberg received a newspaper cutting from his brother Asher in New York that included a list of 331 survivors from the home towns. These included 270 from Pruzana, 10 from Bereze, 28 from Malch and 23 from Shershew. Most were in Germany but some were in Poland, Russia, Pruzana, Italy, France, Austria, Sweden and Belgium. Already there were survivors who had reached Palestine and America.

On reception of the report, an Aid Committee for the survivors of Pruzana, Bereze and the surrounding area was set up in Buenos Aires. The committee convened a meeting of all Jews from the area and 12,480 pesos were collected

[Page 166]

on the spot. The Committee contacted the organisations in New York, Canada and Tel Aviv and transferred money and food parcels for the survivors in Pruzana. Committee members held further fund appeals in Buenos Aires and La Plata and issued a memorial pamphlet whose content was copied from a similar pamphlet in Tel Aviv. At the first meeting of the editorial committee, D. Forer proposed issuing a Pinkas in memory of the destroyed communities.

At the initiative of the Aid Committee for Holocaust Survivors in Buenos Aires, the Organisation of Pruzana, Bereze, Malch and surrounding area Jews was set up in June 1946. In April 1947, the first survivor of the Pruzana ghetto arrived - M. Eisenstein and a reception was held for him, which brought in considerable sums of money for the appeal fund. Links were established with the Jews from the above towns in Rosario, La Plata, Sarate and Montevideo. The organisation sent money, food parcels and clothes and also demands for immigration and ship tickets. Many packages were sent to Italy, Germany, France and Palestine, Poland and Pruzana. 3,200 pesos were sent to 24 survivors in Palestine. $100 was sent to the Feldafing camp and another $1,000 to the aid committee in New York for transfer to Germany. Loans were given to the needy in Argentina, but most of the money was devoted to immigration requests and ship tickets.

The organisation contributed money to the Central Jewish Appeal, the Jewish Hospital, Magen David Adom, the delegation for the tombstone in memory of the Warsaw ghetto, the consignment of Jewish books to Poland, to printing workers and the Haganah in Palestine.

With the establishment of the State of Israel, it was decided to send financial aid to Israel, instead of the camps in Europe. Contacts were continued with people in the camps. In 1949, the organisation merged with the separate organisation of Shershew Jews. As a result, the name of the organisation was changed to the “Organisation of Pruzana, Bereze, Malch, Shershew and Surrounding Area Jews”. The united body was known by many through its work and many Jewish institutions offered its members cooperation. When differences of opinion broke out between the United Jewish Appeal for Israel and the Federation of Landsleits, the organisation adopted an unequivocal position in favour of the United Appeal and opposed the stand of the Federation

[Page 167]

which wanted a special appeal of the Landsleit organisations. In 1949, the institutions of the organisation discussed a proposal to issue a Pinkas in memory of the destroyed towns and a leaflet was published signed by Meir Walensky of the Pinkas Committee and D. Forer of the executive. It called on members to supply material for the Pinkas.

In March 1950, the organisation decided to break off ties with the Landsleit organisations. The organisation expanded its work, including help for the Writers Association members to publish their books. The first person to receive support was M. Wolensky, who translated “Famfilow people” to Yiddish. The organisation held receptions for Masha Shtuker-Payuk and Zelig Mazor when their books appeared. In 1950, the organisation set up a cooperative for loans called Friendship.

The preparation work for the pinkas continued and after M. Wolensky and M. Payuk resigned and David Forer alone remained, it was decided to give editorship of the pinkas to M. Bernstein.

An appeal was held for the establishment of a wood of 1,000 trees in the Martyrs Forest near Jerusalem, in memory of the communities that had been liquidated and for the benefit of the JNF. At the end of 1952, the printing of the pinkas began.

A youth organisation called “Atsha” was set up (Addociation Culturelle Hebraia Argentina), which dealt in cultural and informative activities. Over the years, the organisation moved to bigger and more pleasant offices which facilitated its work. In its 12 years existence, about 300 members participated in its activities, or 90% of Jews from the towns. There is also a group of women working alongside the organisation who are active in many committees.

The Friendship cooperative established in 1950 has 44 members, who bought shares worth 55,700 pesos. At the end of 1957, the number of shareholders grew to 738 and the cooperative expanded, gave many loans and greatly increased its capital resources, reserves and general turnover.

[Page 168 - English] [Page 524 - Hebrew]

Most of the Jews of our town were members of the Zionist movement and educated in Hebrew institutions. Some immigrated to Palestine and the beginning of the century in the Second Aliya. They were absorbed in the towns and in the pioneering settlements and not only maintained contact with their home town but also among themselves. However, they did not maintain any real organisation until they received the reports about the fate of Pruzana Jews in the Holocaust. They were aroused to action to help the survivors, and established an organisation of landshaftsmen in Palestine for locating survivors and providing them with organised aid in all possible ways.

On March 1, 1945, all our townsmen met in Tel Aviv and discussed how to take care of the remnants of the Pruzana Kehila. The conference decided: to distribute a report of the discussion to all Pruzana landshaftsmen; immediately send food and clothe parcels according to the addresses already located; maintain contacts with landshaftsmen in the United States and other countries, and organise all aid work through volunteers. A committee was set up that included: Eliyahu Gelman – chairman; Aryeh Hadar – secretary and Zvi Luboshitz – treasurer. The other members were: Reuven Vinograd, Yehiel Zuta, Asher Pomeraniec and Zorah Rudy.

The committee members sought ways to make contact with the survivors in Europe and used all the possibilities for getting information about their location and condition. The committee also appealed to Pruzana men serving in the allied forces to located the survivors and submit all possible help. The first survivors were located in this manner: Avraham Bresky, Ephraim Zeidman, the Mandel brothers and Baruch Auerbach, Yaacov Volovelsky, Yosef Brestovicky, Dr. Olga Goldfein and others.

The second conference was held on October 11, 1945 with the participation of the first survivors, Avraham Bresky and Yaacov Volovelsky. They reported the whole story of Pruzana Jewry, told about life in the ghetto and the camps, the exemplary organisation of mutual help mainly to the weak and the organisation of groups of partisans among our townsfolk. The descriptions of the survivors shocked all those present.

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The meeting decided: to convene Pruzana landshaftsmen annually on the Memorial Day of the destruction of Pruzana Jews; publish a Pruzana pinkas for immortalising the life and death of the Jews of our town; extend help to the survivors everywhere; help the survivors who wanted to immigrate to Palestine and ensure their placement in work. Since that year, memorial meetings are held for the martyrs of Pruzana.

Landsmen in Israel gladly contributed funds to the committee which continued sending money and parcels to all survivors of the Holocaust whose address was tracked down. The flow of survivors who immigrated to Israel increased and the committee was fully employed in providing help to the new immigrants. The help was not only financial or finding sources of work and livelihood, but also social and moral to encourage the survivors after they had been liberated from the terrors of the ghetto and the death camps. The number of immigrants reached several hundreds.

Over the years, new members joined the committee: Yaacov Schreibman, Avraham Bresky, Dov Kirshner, Yitzhak Zutta (Kleinerman), Kalman Gochman, Asya Luboshitz, Zvi Ben-Dov and Avraham Harshalom. Eliyahu Gelman (Galin) served as chairman until his death in 1979. Yaacov Shreibman fulfilled the role of secretary and treasurer until the day he died.

As the years passed, the committee established several enterprises in cooperation with landshaftsmen in the United States: a clinic of the Histadrut Kupat Holim in Kiryat Ata; a memorial late in the Holocaust chamber at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the planting of a wood in memory of the Pruzana martyrs in the Martyrs Forest.

The committee maintains strong links with Landshafts in New York and Buenos Aires in Argentina. The committee also helps needy Pruzana people in Israel. The main activity in recent years has been to publishing the Pruzana Pinkas in Hebrew and English, with the participation of our townsmen in New York and Philadelphia.

The members today of the committee are: Yitzhak Zuta – chairman; Asya Luboshitz – secretary; Kalman Gochman – treasurer; Zvi Ben-Dov, Avraham Bresky, Avraham Harshalom, Zvi Luboshitz and Dov Kirshner.

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