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Translated from Hebrew by Miriam Bulwar David–Hay
Donated by Anne E. Parsons – Department of History, UNC Greensboro
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Avraham, son of Rachel and Yerachmiel Elbert, was born in Tuchyn in 1930. At the time of the invasion by the Germans into the Soviet Union in June 1941 he was aged 11. He related his memories in 1989. Avraham Elbert lives today in Ramat Aviv. |
I was born in Tuchyn. Our street functioned as a main road from the town to the cities Rivne and Kostopil and to the many villages in the area. The houses were surrounded by gardens and fruit trees. The population in our street was mixed and the Jews were the majority in it. Between the Jews and the Christians there were commercial ties and neighborly relations that were generally orderly.
We were three sons in the family. Yitzchak born in 1927, Aharon born in 1931, and I, who was born in 1933. My brothers learned Torah from a young age from a teacher. At the age of seven they began studying in a folk school[1]. I had not yet managed to study at a Polish school [being still too young] and the three of us attended a school that was established by the Soviets in the winter of 1939.
We had a grocery store that was managed most of the time by my mother, who also grew vegetables in the garden next to our house. Father was occupied in the cattle trade, especially in the summer. We had many relatives in the town. Almost every evening uncles or neighbors would gather together. The hot water urn stood on the table and all those who gathered drank tea and told stories. I remember that on the Sabbaths, uncles and aunts and their children would come to us, or we would go visit our relatives. There was in the town a familial atmosphere. Sometimes a [female] neighbor would come in to borrow a dish from my mother, or a loaf of bread my mother had baked, and she would stay for conversation for a long time.
With the entry of the Soviets in 1939, my parents reduced the dealings in the store. Those groceries that were hard to obtain were transferred from the store to our home and were sold only to acquaintances.
Mother continued to take care of the garden with great success. It was a well looked after garden, and every summer and fall we had fresh vegetables. Father bought two cows and we would sell milk and milk products to the neighbors. From this even during the time of Soviet rule we were comfortable from an economic perspective compared with others.
In the winter of 1939-1940, the Germans transferred residents of Ukraine to Germany according to a Soviet-German agreement, and it was announced that residents [in Tuchyn] who were interested in a plot of land to work would be able to receive one from the German lands. Father and my uncle Yerachmiel Elbert received a plot of land not far from the house of my uncle and there grew vegetables and grains.
Our family indeed passed the period of the Soviets with grace, but many Jews were severely harmed at that time. The main casualties were the merchants, whose source of livelihood was broken, and also those who were known as active
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in the Zionist movement. Former merchants searched for work because bread was not sold to people who did not work. In general, there were not many places of employment and the people were prepared to work at any work and only so as to have the “stain” of merchant removed from them. Older people were found who went to work at producing peat by primitive methods.
My uncle Shmuel Zilberberg, the owner of a wood warehouse and wealthy by the standards of that time, and also the owner of experience in life, anticipated the change that would come. “It is clear that a change for the good must come,” he would say to my father, and would add that at the moment he saw Germans bombers in the sky, he would raise his hands [in surrender] because then it would be proved to everyone that there was a God …
Of course, this was the opinion of a few only. The change indeed came, but to our sorrow not for the good.
In the spring of 1941, rumors spread about tensions between the Soviets and the Germans. People knew [enough] to tell that the Soviets had brought down a German airplane. There was a feeling that the situation would not continue for much time as it was. When the Germans attacked the Soviets, most of the Jews of Tuchyn were struck with a terrible panic. They saw how the Soviets were retreating in the face of the approaching Germans.
There were those who thought of fleeing to Russia, but the Jewish refugees from western Poland who had arrived in Tuchyn in 1939 calmed them by saying that they were receiving letters all the time from their families in the areas conquered by the Germans, and it seemed that the situation there was not so bad. They [the Germans] had indeed killed Jews who were Communists, or wealthy, but the simple Jew could manage with the Germans. Apart from this, the refugees said, they had learned from their experience that if we were to be sentenced to death, it was better at home and not to be tossed about as a refugee. Their words were absorbed and therefore only a few escaped from Tuchyn to Russia. Perhaps tens of individuals who were young, and some families. Our neighbor Shlomo Mekel the blacksmith ran away with his wife and his five sons. They returned to Poland after the war. Those who hesitated and did not escape regretted it later, but by then it was already too late.
When the front approached and close to Tuchyn there were battles, Father loaded the wagon with the most essential groceries and we left the house for a number of days. We stayed in the wood not far from the town. There were many other families from Tuchyn there. When we returned, the Germans were already in the town. They questioned us. Father said we had run away from the house when shots were exchanged not far from our house and now we were returning. The Germans allowed us to go back home.
About two days later, a German officer appeared. He had heard from Ukrainian neighbors that we had a horse and cart and it was incumbent upon us to hand them over to him for a number of weeks. The officer behaved politely and gave Father a written confirmation signed with his own hand. Not much time went by and other Germans and requested our horse and the cart, and it was only the confirmation from that same officer that saved Father from many troubles. The other Jews whose horses were not found on the spot received murderous beatings.
There was a terrible shortage of food necessities. Next to the bread store long lines wound. Ukrainian bullies would take Jews out of the line and in the name of entertainment would beat them with blows. Jews were forced to give up on [obtaining] bread only so as not to endanger themselves by standing in line.
A few days passed and a gang of Ukrainians organized themselves for the purpose of carrying out a pogrom against the Jews. They came at night to the houses of the well off and it seems they went according to a list that had been prepared in advance. They would break inside and hit with sticks studded with nails. They robbed property and left behind them killed and injured. Fear and grief descended on the Jews of Tuchyn. The next day the Jews took care of burying the dead and of presenting medical help to the many wounded. The Ukrainian paramedic Homaniuk did not want to provide help to the Jews.
The Jews who had considered running away from the Germans and remained in their place had already realized that they had made a serious mistake, but
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they were late for the deadline. There was already no possibility of moving on the roads. The Ukrainians knew that it was possible to torment the Jews without any hindrance. There were Ukrainians who in the not-distant past had been active in the Soviet administration and in the time of the entrance of the Germans were among the leaders of the rioters. They also saw in the Germans a trustworthy ally that would give them an independent country.
In our house we lived in fear like all the others, but in terms of provisions we did not feel a lack in the initial period, especially thanks to Mother's vegetable garden. I remember that a German officer would come to us to ask for fresh vegetables from the garden. He displayed a humane attitude. It even seemed to us that he had feelings of guilt. He said to Mother: “You are Jews and it is hard to be a Jew in these times and despite that also in Germany Jews live.” That officer was from a combat unit.
Mighty military forces streamed eastwards. In the beginning the Jews shut themselves inside their houses. At the sight of the tanks, the half-track vehicles, the trucks full of soldiers and equipment, and behind them wagons harnessed to horses, their spirits fell. The journey of the convoys continued day and night for a several days. It seemed that there was no force in the world that would be able to stop such power.
In Tuchyn a local government was organized of Ukrainians with a German commander at their head. A Ukrainian police force was established. The Gestapo was in Rivne and when its representatives came to Tuchyn fear fell upon the Jews. Every visit of theirs would end in a decree.
A Judenrat was established and at its head Getsel Shvartsman, with Meir Himmelfarb as his assistant. I do not know how the members of the Judenrat were appointed. There were also Jewish policemen. The main role of the Judenrat was to satisfy the demands of the Germans and the matter was expressed in groceries and in money and especially in people for labor. There were those who went to work and did not return. It was natural that the Judenrat would determine who would go and who would stay in place.
At the same time the Germans gathered up 20 Jews and perhaps more, most of them from the intelligentsia. Among them was the dentist Gamer. His son asked if could accompany his father and they allowed him to. They went and did not come back. The Jews were compelled to hand over the cattle they had in their possession. An order was issued for the wearing of a yellow patch on the chest and on the back.
I am reminded that I did not appreciate the danger in any meeting with the Germans. We were children and we played next to the dwellings of the Germans. They would throw cigarettes out in a bucket and we collected them and brought them to Father. One day I went to collect strawberries that would fall from a tree that was next to the house of a Ukrainian. The daughter of the Ukrainian came out to drive me away. I ran away and she ran after me, fell, and was scratched. She shouted that I had beaten her. Her friends gathered together and hit me with blows. They could have finished me but to my good fortune the mother of the girl came out. She rebuked me for all to see, dragged me away by the hand, and shouted that she would punish me, and in fact brought me to our home. Until today I remain convinced that she saved me.
That same fall we collected the harvest from the plot of land that we had received from the Soviets. Father was told that a representative of the local authority would come to allocate to us our share of the harvest. Father stored the potatoes and a bit of wheat and that served us for a long time.
There was a lack of food necessities. Many Jews were hungry for bread. An exchange trade developed. Whoever had an object of value exchanged it for food from the villagers. Whoever was not able to manage a negotiation with the villagers, or who did not have any objects of value, was sentenced to starvation. In practice the exchange trade was also prohibited according to the law. It was forbidden for a Jew to come in contact with Christians.
Rumors spread that in Rivne they [the Germans/Ukrainians] had collected the Jews who did not have regular employment. They said they would send
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them and their families to work outside the city. They allowed them to take a limited quantity of their belongings. When they left the city, they ordered them to undress and to enter pits that had been prepared in advance. They shot them when they were inside the pits.
The information from Rivne caused the Jews of Tuchyn to begin searching for work. A group of woodchoppers organized in the forest. The tanneries were activated, and the wool factories, a workshop for the knitting of sweaters was established, and more. Production was transferred in its entirety to the Germans. The same Jews who worked received work cards, which in practice became life cards (“lebenschein[2]”), and many Jews sneaked into the town from nearby towns. Through the giving of a bribe it was possible to organize work for them too. The illusion grew that it would be possible to “stretch” things in this way until the coming of salvation.
My father and my eldest brother began to work in a carpentry workshop. They did not receive a wage. If I am not mistaken, they paid from their own money in order to be accepted for work. My mother wanted to work in a factory for the production of cloth. In order to be accepted she had to pass a test. She bought a spindle from a Ukrainian and practiced at home for two weeks to produce threads of linen. And indeed she passed the test successfully and was accepted. Mother gave her spindle to her workplace and was happy with the work card she received.
There was no wood for heating the house and we all crowded into one small room. Father obtained a stove that enabled a saving in wood. Every day we would find a plank from the walls of the cowshed, which stood orphaned, and we would use it to warm the little room. On this stove top Mother would cook our sparse meals.
In the surrounding towns there were aktzias[3]. They caught Jews and committed mass murder on them. Rabbis read passages from Psalms and decreed fasts. In any case there was nothing to eat. In the end people began installing secret shelters, each one according to his imagination. Father also built a bunker between our house and the house of the neighbor. We made an opening in the floor and through it we would go down into a niche that was under it. Afterwards we built a more spacious shelter in the cowshed, to which we would arrive through a tunnel from the first shelter. When there were rumors of an aktzia, we would spend entire nights in the shelter.
My parents and my eldest brother would go to work, and I would shut myself with my brother Aharon in a room, the two of us gripped with a terrible fear. We were happy when our parents would come back safely. On the Sabbaths Mother would present us with cold food and would utter words of encouragement that good days would still come and that we would celebrate Shabbat properly and religiously. That was how the winter of 1941 to 1942 passed for us.
When the Jews of our street were ordered to vacate their houses Father collected the most necessary items and we uprooted ourselves to the center of the town as demanded. We lived in the house of a relative, I do not remember his name. My parents and my eldest brother continued to work at their previous jobs. We stayed in the new place for a number of weeks. After some time, Father was informed that in the streets next to our street the Jews had remained in their homes, and consequently we moved to the house of our uncle Elbert.
Father began to go out of the town despite the prohibition. He worked as a glazier and at any job that was available. He would leave in the morning and come back in the evening and bring food necessities. Not far from the Elbert house lived a brother-in-law of my mother, Yitzchak Glatshtein from Risbinka. Mother would go there to launder our clothing. We would light a fire in the yard and would boil the clothes in order to get rid of the lice that swarmed in them. Once when the wood for the fire had run out, my uncle broke up one of the cupboards. When Mother commented that it was a pity to burn a cupboard, he replied that in any case all was lost and there was no more need for furniture. “If a miracle should happen and we should survive, we will buy new ones. At this time the situation is sad and it seems that it will only become worse.” Our aunt Tzirel Glatshtein had a mortar and pestle made of wood in which in the past they would grind matzot[4] for matzah flour. Now we would grind wheat seeds that Father would bring from the villages, cook them, and consider ourselves blessed for this food of angels.
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The rumors of aktzias in nearby towns did not cease. According to the stories, the Germans and the Ukrainians would surround a town, grab men, women and children, and lead them to their deaths. The Germans would set in advance the time that the operation would end. Jews who were brought after the designated time would be released. The operators in the field were angry about the release of the hunted. But the Germans were loyal to a principle: “There must be order.” After a number of such aktzias, when only a few Jews were left in the town, they would murder them and hang up a sign: “Clean of Jews” (“Judenrein”).
In this atmosphere, Jews saw ominous signs in every phenomenon of nature. To one it seemed that the moon was red like blood, while another prophesized evil because of the strong winds. There were those who tortured themselves with fasts and cried out to the skies.
In Tuchyn there were murders but there were no aktzias in the wider sense. When rumors spread of a suspicion of an aktzia, we fled to the woods that were next to the town. My father gave a Ukrainian from Pustomyt[5] a large quantity of property in return for a hiding place that he would give us when the bitter day came. Once we arrived at his house and we hid in his attic. On the same day a number of German soldiers arrived in the village. The daughters of the peasant began to shout that Jews had invaded their home against their will. To the sound of their shouts joined the neighbors. Through lack of choice, we fled for our lives into the light of day.
Father made contact with a Ukrainian from the same village who had worked for him from time to time, and he agreed to hide us in his house. We moved to his house and hoped for good. The children of the Ukrainian boasted to the ears of their friends that a Jewish merchant was hiding with his family in their house. Many children came to see us as if to a zoo. The rumor spread in the village and again we were forced to flee. In the end Father made contact with Anton Ozertchuk, who had commercial connections with us. Anton was an orderly Ukrainian who belonged to the Baptist sect and knew how to keep a secret. Father spoke with Anton that he should come to take various objects as payment in return for our stay with him. My uncle Shmuel warned Father not to believe the gentile. He himself had given a villager wood to build a new house with a basement for him in a relatively isolated spot and paid him with a large amount of property, and in the end the man did not allow him to set foot in his house. Father was influenced by the story and when Anton came to take objects as agreed, Father gave him things that were less valuable, so that he would not cut off the relationship.
In August 1942, they started in Tuchyn to fence off a quarter designated for a ghetto. We knew about the murder of the Jews of Rivne and the towns in the area. Survivors who fled from the slaughters would arrive in Tuchyn, where the Jews still lived in their houses, continued in their jobs, and hoped to outlive their oppressors – “Meh zol zei iberleben[6]” – as they expressed it. The Jews of Tuchyn absorbed the refugees of the destruction from the surrounding area.
There were those Ukrainians in the town who raced against the Germans to exterminate the Jews. The German commander justified the matter in that the Jews were producing goods that were important for the Reich, and in reply the Ukrainians promised to work in their [the Jews'] place only so that they would be exterminated. In those days many Ukrainians were found who came to work by the side of the Jews and to learn their trades in order to replace them when the day came.
On Erev Yom Kippur[7] the order was given to enter the ghetto. It was a Sunday and we decided to leave the town while the Poles from the villages were returning [to their villages] from the church, and to mix in among them. It was dangerous then for Jews to wander on the roads, and in truth we left and they did not notice us. Father was delayed a number of times on the way and considered whether to return [to the town] for the Kol Nidrei[8] prayer. He had a yearning to pray in the house of Yaakov the shochet[9]. In the synagogue it was prohibited to gather, so prayers would be held in private houses. In Yaakov the shochet's house, they would enjoy his voice tonight and his impassioned prayer. They said: If this prayer does not nullify the evil decrees, then the situation is indeed the worst possible.
After many hesitations, we decided that it was forbidden to endanger ourselves. If we had left, there was no way back. In the evening we arrived at the wood
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not far from Anton's house. Father wrapped himself in his tallis[10]. We prayed in the wood and we wept out loud. There was a feeling of depression. Father went with Aharon to Anton's house. They stayed there and Anton came to call us. He housed us in the hayloft in a pile of straw. The next day my brother Aharon drove with Anton to Tuchyn to take our objects that had remained with our aunt Tzirel. According to Father's request, Aharon visited our uncle Shmuel and told him that we had organized ourselves in Anton's house. Father used to take into account the opinion of Shmuel, who possessed experience in life. And indeed our uncle saw in our departure from the town a wise step. There was no other way out.
Our uncle Shmuel himself stayed in Tuchyn and his end was like the end of all the Jews of the town. Two days after Yom Kippur Anton informed us that they were burning the ghetto. We saw a red sky. Chills took hold on us. We did not know who had ignited it. One thing was clear to us. Our brothers and our friends were losing their lives in fire. There was a feeling that this was the end.
After a number of days passed, Anton told us that together with us in the hayloft was another family from Tuchyn, who had arrived at the time of the burning of the ghetto. This was the family of Eliyahu Shteingold. We pulled down the divider of straw that was between us and them, and together we were nine souls. From Eliyahu we learned details of the night of the fire in the ghetto.
When the cold grew we could not hold out any longer in the hayloft. Anton offered to dig a shelter under the cowshed. Father, Eliyahu and my eldest brother worked together with Anton during the nights. It was a pit of about two meters by three meters and about 150 centimeters deep. Above the pit a ceiling of wood was installed that was covered with straw and with garbage, and it was not noticeable that under the floor of the cowshed people were living. The walls of the pit were covered with straw in order to reduce the dampness. The floor we padded with straw. They also put in a bunk [or bench] on which the women and the little children slept. My father, Eliyahu and my eldest brother organized themselves under the bunk. For my brother Aharon they organized a board hung above the large bunk. They also installed a type of chimney on an angle that was supposed to supply us with light and air. The idea was indeed pleasant, but the next day Anton came in a panic and said that from the chimney steam was coming out that looked like smoke. We blocked the chimney from the inside with a window of glass and at least we had only a little bit of light in the afternoon hours. And with regard to air, we made an opening into the cowshed but not outside. The exit from the pit was through the cowshed. Over the opening was a wooden cover hidden in a pile of straw. In the corner was a bucket that was used to relieve our needs.
In the summer a sense of suffocation prevailed in the pit. Most of the time we sat or lay doing nothing. When the heat grew we would remove our outer clothing. When a little light flickered in the afternoon we would all crowd together next to the source of light and delouse ourselves. We relieved our needs in front of everyone. And as if we had any choice?
Anton would come to us early in the morning, before it was light, and would bring us soup, bread and water for the entire day. At the same opportunity he would take the bucket, empty it, and return it clean.
The bread would be divided by Eliyahu into nine equal portions. Each one would receive a thin slice for the whole day. In the evening Anton would appear again with soup or with potatoes. I would keep my portion of bread for two days and even three days. The dry bread I would suck like a sweet. The slice of bread kept me occupied endlessly. When the bread crumbled completely, I ate it delicately, crumb by crumb separately.
The sitting there doing nothing weighed on us, but over the course of time we grew used to it. We would sit for hours and tell the same stories again and again for who knows how many times. Especially often were told the stories of the good days, of the plethora of delicacies that would be prepared for a holiday, so that even half of them no one could succeed in finishing off. I was not able to understand how food could be within arm's reach and not be eaten. There were hours and days when the despair took control of us.
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My parents and the Shteingold couple would discuss our situation-without-an-exit. To them it was clear that we had no chance of surviving. So in the name of what was all the suffering? And what if the Germans were to win the war? My parents were envious of those who had died at the beginning of the war and who were rid of the hardships that had struck us. They were especially frightened of a cruel death by torture, “a strange death.” My parents' view was that a natural death and [burial in] a tomb of Israel[11] were earned only by the completely righteous.
All these conversations caused disturbances to my sleep. I lived in constant fear that they would murder my parents in front of my eyes. Nightmarish nights passed for me. My mother would make efforts to calm me. She whispered different stories in my ears to encourage me out of my depression. The adults were suspicious of the whisperings between me and my mother and would ask to stop them so as not to disturb their rest and not to create any noise outside. I made efforts not to doze off by day. Our neighbors helped me with this. It offered the chance that perhaps I would sleep at night.
Anton was a quiet and responsible man. He did not speak of us to his [younger] children and to his adult daughters he only revealed the secret after some time. Even with his brother-in-law who lived nearby he was cautious and did not tell him. We did not imagine that we would spend a year and a half in the prison that was underneath the cowshed. In the beginning we thought that it was a matter of a number of weeks. But the weeks passed one after the other and our powers of endurance seemed to be running out. To our good fortune came the constant encouragement of Anton. He would appear every evening and tell of the defeats of the Germans.
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| Anton Ozertchuk, his wife, their daughter Lydia and their son Piotr |
Until today I remember for the good Anton's wife. She too encouraged and comforted us. She trusted in supervision from above and did not even oppose our moving to live in their house. In contrast with her, Anton, who stuck to his mission, was very strict about being careful. He forbade making noises and demanded that we speak in whispers. We grew used to whispering. When we emerged from the pit I marveled that people were speaking out loud. In the winter of 1942 to 1943, Anton was struck by a crisis. He would come to us frightened. There were rumors that villagers had been executed, together with the members of their households, because they were hiding Jews on their farms. He was extremely religious and he did not understand how such terrible things could happen and the world could behave
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as usual. Once he told Mother that it was not the fear of his own death and that of his wife that frightened him, but the small children, who did not even know that he was hiding Jews, how were they to blame?
I am reminded of a terrible incident that broke out between my parents and Anton. This was in the spring of 1943. Anton had been ordered to bury a family of Ukrainians who had been executed for the crime of hiding Jews. He came to us agitated and ordered us to come up out of the pit into the cowshed. He told us of the incident, spoke and wept. It seems he felt the terrible responsibility that he had taken on when he brought us into his house. He ordered us to kneel and to pray with him for the peace of those killed and to ask God to bring an end to the troubles. My mother explained to Anton that for Jews it was forbidden to kneel. Anton did not understand and was severely offended. He was endangering the lives of his family and his neighbors who had helped Jews had been murdered, and we were being stubborn about an insignificant thing! … And his mind could not rest until he ordered us to go back down into the shelter and to leave [his property] at night. He left and now an argument broke out among the adults. There were those who said that in a time of danger it was even permitted to kneel for a short time and only so as not to sour relations with our panicked benefactor. It was clear that if Anton would expel us, this would be a certain death. My mother was determined in her view that in any case there was no certainty that we would come out of the war alive, and therefore there was no point in both kneeling and also dying afterwards. She saw kneeling as being in effect conversion and she was prepared to die as a martyr. At night Anton came. And again there was a conversation between him and Mother. Mother argued that there was one God in heaven and that we all prayed only to Him, each one according to the customs of his forefathers, and there was no need to change the sacred customs of each group. We had not even tasted meat out of the strictures of kashrut[12]. It seems that Anton thought a lot that day. In the end he became reconciled and left us alone to stay on. I think the Russian prisoner who worked for Anton helped us greatly by softening Anton up.
Anton was skilled with his hands and knew how to perform every trade. He was a tailor and a shoemaker. Sometimes he was also occupied in teaching and as a veterinarian. After the murders of the Jews, there was a demand for various skilled tradesmen and Anton did not miss an opportunity. He was always busy and really became wealthy. He was convinced that because of us God had sent a blessing in his handiwork.
At the same time the activities of the Bandrovists[13] grew. Once the gangs visited the village of Pustomyt. It happened that the gangs housed their headquarters on Anton's farm and Anton then demanded of us to be doubly cautious. He would bring us a large amount of bread and water and would say that he could not know when he would be able to visit us. We were forced to reduce our portions of food then. Anton was strict with us and did not endanger his family and that was for the good. He had signs that told of danger. The strong barking of dogs at a distance would tell of the coming of German soldiers or gangs and then he would hurry to equip us with bread and water in large quantities and warn us not to let out even a murmur.
One day Anton brought millstones to the pit and we began to grind wheat seeds for flour for him. For us it was an occupation and for Anton it was a great saving in work. Once Germans appeared at the home of a Ukrainian who had been informed upon that he was grinding the grains in his house and was not paying the tax quota that the authorities had imposed. The Ukrainian fled and the next day there came to the village a penal military company. They surrounded the village and caught all the residents who had not managed to flee. They placed them in a number of houses, poured fuel on the houses, and burned everyone alive. Among them was the married daughter of Anton and her family. Anton was under great tension: He was hiding us and at the same time his daughter and her children were murdered in a collective punishment.
The Ukrainians hoped that soon they would have their own independent country, and for this reason they pestered the Poles. Many Poles ran away from their homes and the Ukrainians robbed their property. They spread a rumor that from now on the Jews would be able to walk about freely and they would not trouble them. They announced their war against the Germans and the Poles in order to free
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their land and the Jews were not an obstacle on the way to their independence.
From the neighboring village Kodrinka, Poles fled from the threat of the Ukrainians. And then many Jews came out from their hiding places in the forests and settled in the houses of the Poles. They indeed wandered around freely and carried on ostensibly normal lives and even established commercial connections with the Ukrainians and also worked for them.
There were those who also came to the house of Anton and among them were our relatives. There were Yeshaya Shef, may his memory be for a blessing[14], and Uri, may he live long[15]. Father, who saw them through a crack in the wall of the cowshed, asked Anton for permission to go out one night to meet a number of Jews. Perhaps from their mouths he would hear important things. Anton opposed this strongly. He said one could not trust in snakes and by this he meant Ukrainians. One day they would exterminate all the Jews. When Father stood firm with his request, Anton told him that if he insisted we should all go out and not come back again. We had stayed alive thanks to his carefulness and if we would ease up on the strictures it would become known that there were Jews in the area. It would be a pity to die after so much suffering.
At the end of the year 1943 it was already known that the Germans were being defeated. It was told that the Soviets were landing heavy blows on the Germans and that the war was approaching its end. At nights we heard the echoes of shots. When we heard explosions nearby, we were happy. After a number of days passed, it seemed that the thunder of cannons was growing more distant. Anton calmed us and said that the front was wide and that battles were taking place along its entire length. When the front came near to our village, the villagers ran away from their houses to the nearby woods. Anton and his family also fled. The Russian prisoner stayed in the house. He invited Father into the house. That was the first time since we had entered the shelter that Father spent time inside Anton's home. Father returned to the pit and told of the foods he had seen in Anton's house. It was hard for us to grasp that people were eating eggs, meat, milk, and more. This was a year and a half that our menu had been composed of a thin slice of bread, soup, or potatoes. We had forgotten about the existence of other food items.
At the beginning of January 1944, the Russians entered Pustomyt. The joy was great. Anton and his household members returned home. We came up out of the pit but we did not go out of the cowshed. Despite the joy of the salvation, Anton demanded that we stay in the shelter until a stable local government would be established. He was always careful and measured in his actions. In the end it became clear that he was right. The Soviets were already in place but the chaos was terrible. The gangs did not put down their weapons and every day there were people killed. There was no point in losing one's life because of a careless step.
Two weeks passed and my mother and Mrs. Shteingold decided to visit Tuchyn. They made their way there on foot. The cold was harsh. In Tuchyn they did not find even one Jew. Everything had been destroyed. They hurried to return to the village, frightened by the furious looks of the Ukrainians. On their way back they met Russian soldiers who asked what they were doing. When they heard Mother's story they allowed them to continue on their way. They arrived home at the end of their strength.
After a number of days we were informed that in Mezhyrichi[16] Jews had concentrated. We decided to go there. It must be noted that we were all weak and we found it difficult to walk as a result of our sitting for so long in the shelter. My brother Yitzchak suffered especially. We decided to drive. We found a Ukrainian woman who agreed to drive us [in a horse and cart] in return for a fair payment. A number of kilometers before Mezhyrichi the gentile woman became ill. Perhaps she was frightened to continue the drive and pretended that she was sick. Our requests [to continue] were not effective. We got down off the cart and continued on foot.
In Mezhyrichi there were tens of Jews who had crowded into a number of houses. There we met up with Yossi Zaltzman with his family. He invited us to come in to live in his room, even though there were already two other families there. We could have taken another room in the same house but we felt more secure in the crowdedness. After a year and a half in the pit, the corner in the room together with three more families was in our eyes a spacious dwelling. We all slept on bunks
[Page 39]
of two levels. No one complained.
It is interesting that it was actually after we came out from the pit that we fell ill with typhus. Father became sick first. Mother looked after him with dedication until they took him in a cart to the hospital. I and my brother Aharon also fell ill and we stayed at home. Also Eliyahu Shteingold, our neighbor in the shelter, fell seriously ill. There were no medicines. He died and his widow remained with the children.
There was no food and we did not have money to buy on the black market. Mother turned to the local government and there received the reply that there was no possibility of presenting assistance to the Jews. With a heavy heart she began to go begging door to door to ask for food for the family. She would return home and in her basket there would be slices of bread, potatoes, a little bit of flour or barley. Unfortunately, Mother broke an arm. Out of her feeling of responsibility for the family she continued with her broken arm in her efforts to obtain food.
Together with Father in the hospital room, Ukrainians were also lying. To them was being brought such an abundance of food that they could not eat it all. Father would pilfer food from them and would hand it to Mother to bring to us. This thing caused us great joy.
Anton came to visit us. When he saw our miserable situation he hurried home and brought us a large quantity of food. I will never forget Anton's beautiful treatment. After we had caused him stress and suffering for a year and a half, he felt the need to see how we were managing. And indeed he appeared at the right moment and saved us from starvation and also encouraged us.
Father recovered and returned home. In the beginning he did not know how he would support the family. He noticed that the Russian soldiers were searching for vodka. Father, who knew how to produce vodka from rye or from flour, set up a still and began to operate. The merchandise was snatched up and the money flowed. Our financial situation improved immeasurably. The military governor was informed of Father's industry and he wanted to become a partner. Father, who was not interested in a partnership with him, promised him that he would supply him with the beverage in any quantity that he was to request. Mother began to manage an orderly house, with meals on time, and more. We began to return to a normal life.
One day partisans passed through the town and among them were many Jews. Father went out to take an interest in them and met two sons of his sister: Uri and Shayke[17] Shef. There was great excitement as they had been sure that we were already in the next world. Shayke saw Father's torn shoes and gave him his. The two brothers departed and hurried to catch up with their friends. Our aunt Leah, the mother of Uri and Shayke, who was then in Rivne, moved to live with us. The spring approached and towards Pesach[18] Father decided to bake matzot for the Jewish public. I estimate that there were then in the town about 50 Jews. They began to organize a minyan[19] for the Sabbath prayers. Among the survivors were found also a cantor and a slaughterer. Father would bring yeast, for which there was great demand. We bought a cow and I obtained chicks and a subsistence farm quickly developed.
We the boys began to study at school. According to my age, I was registered for the third grade. The teacher was not satisfied with me because I had never learned in my life. But there was no limit to my ambition and I finished the year as an outstanding student.
The summer went by and Mother prepared for the holidays with a generous hand. The bad years had passed and now it was possible to live like ordinary people. Towards the winter we moved to Rivne. There were hundreds of Jews there. We found a proper dwelling. With us lived the family of my cousin, the daughter of my father's brother. Towards Pesach 1945, Father again organized the baking of matzot and came out with a handsome profit.
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I will conclude with a few words about Anton the good and the beneficent. The war had finished but Anton had sufficient reason to fear for his life in his village because he had saved us. He moved with his family to live in Rivne and the ties between us were excellent. He worked as a shoemaker. Now Father had the opportunity to reward Anton and from time to time would help him with sums of money that were needed by him.
There was in Rivne then a Jewish senior officer in the Red Army who greatly helped his brothers the Jews. Father told him, among the rest, about the Ukrainian paramedic Homaniuk who had cooperated with the Nazis, and Homaniuk was arrested. Anton and the officer joined us in the Pesach Seder[20] and Father told the officer about Anton's good deeds.
After the end of the war in May 1945, we moved to Lodz. My father received an offer to travel to America but he rejected the idea. His wish was to live among Jews. To this end, we set out on the routes of the “Bricha”[21] and illegal immigration to the Land of Israel.
Translator's footnotes:
Translated from Hebrew by Miriam Bulwar David–Hay
Donated by Anne E. Parsons – Department of History, UNC Greensboro
|
Joint testimony that was collected in Lodz by the Central Jewish Historical Commission[1] in Poland and was committed to writing by Beti Aizenshtein. The original (in Polish) is kept in the archive of the commission in Warsaw (a copy of it – in Yad Vashem). At the time of the collection of the testimony also present were Leah Shef and Yozep (Yosef) Elbert. In the original it was said that the two of them confirmed the truth of the utterances and also completed them with various details. The testimony was collected in Lodz in 1945. | ||
| Asi Zilberberg | |||
On Thursday, July 4, 1941, the Germans conquered Tuchyn. On the Saturday evening a group of Ukrainian policemen organized a pogrom in the town. They were armed with knives, axes, and boards studded with large nails. They went from house to house. With the nails they tore the skin from bodies, tore out tongues, poked out eyes, dismembered bodies. On Sunday in the morning people began to collect the bodies and to take them to the cemetery, and the injured to the hospital or to doctors.
Those same policemen who took part in the pogrom the previous night had roles in the police force the next day. They sent the wounded home, pretended [not to know anything] and asked in wonder: From where were all these people killed and so many injured? In the pogrom 60 Jews were murdered and a further 10 died [from their injuries] after suffering that was long or short. Tens recovered from their injuries. The Ukrainian paramedic Homaniuk did not want to offer medical assistance to the injured. In his view, the Jews had lived more than enough …
A few days after the pogrom the Ukrainian police demanded of the Jews that they bring, without delay, bedding, kitchen utensils, and various housewares. They took everything for themselves. In each house there was allowed to remain only one plate, a spoon, and other elementary utensils. The Jews handed over some of the utensils and hid most of them. In the first days after the entry of the Germans they ordered us to wear a white band with a Star of David and to report every day for forced labor. In those same first days Jews were expelled from the main roads and from nice houses. Jews were prohibited from moving around the city.
After the pogrom the police took 60 Jews to the village of Shubkiv[2], where there was a kolkhoz[3] from the days of the Soviets*[4]. They made them work there for a full week at weeding a field of sugar beets. After
[Page 43]
a long day of work, without a break and without eating, they were ordered by the Germans to run, to crawl, and to dance. A Jew who did not have the energy to run quickly was shot to death.
One Shabbat the Germans took the Torah scrolls out of the synagogues and forced the Jews to burn them[5]. The Germans beat Jews if they did not remove their hats before them. The Ukrainian police also abused every Jew who did not greet them to their liking.
On Friday, which was the second day after the entry of the Germans, the Ukrainian police came with a list of names, signed by the head of the police, Shetcherbaniuk. On it were 25 names of the most notable Jews. They took them outside the city, ordered them to dig pits, and shot them. After the deed the police denied that the Jews had been murdered. In their words, the Jews had been sent to work.
Jews from Tuchyn began to run away to Rivne. They assumed that in the big city the Ukrainians would not run wild in that way. On the way, Ukrainians would stop the fleeing Jews, exploit them, and murder them in cold blood. There was an incident in which shepherds, young louts, murdered two Jews with sticks and disposed of their bodies as prey for their dogs.
A month after the entry of the Germans, the commandant Grabner came to Tuchyn. His first action was the imposition of a “kontributsia” (tax) on the Jews. He ordered [the Jews] to hand over the cows, the horses, the bicycles, furniture, clothing, and so on. From that point on, throughout the entire period of the occupation, the Germans and the Ukrainians who held positions in the local government, and also Ukrainian civilians who had no connection at all to the government, would present, without any break, “orders” for the Jews. The Jews, who wanted only to live in peace with everyone, made efforts to supply these “orders,” only so as not to cause any provocation, not to annoy the oppressor, to defer the threat of the aktzia[6] that was hanging over them all the time.
Germans also came to Tuchyn from other towns, with demands for clothing, underwear, boots, and so on. Every Ukrainian policeman would regularly receive bribes in return for the promise that he would be restrained [in his response] if he was to catch a Jew trying to smuggle food into the ghetto. In practice, the more bribes they received, the more their cruelty grew towards those same Jews who brought foodstuffs into the ghetto.
It was prohibited for a Jew to come in contact with a non-Jew. And there were those who starved despite having managed to hide objects. They simply could not sell or exchange their objects for food. Those who were caught red-handed, when they were laden with packages, or in conversation with a peasant, were murdered on the spot.
The daily portion of food for a Jew who was working was 400 grams of bread.
The Judenrat was established in the first days of the occupation. The Ukrainian local government appointed [Getsel] Shvartsman as head [of the Judenrat]. In the years before that he had been head of the community. As deputy head of the Judenrat, Meir Himmelfarb was appointed. The Judenrat acted for the benefit of the Jewish public. Its main aim was to defer the aktzia. Everyone believed, and no one knew on what basis, that salvation was near. Into the air were launched dreams and prophecies of rescue that would come by surprise.
Before the war there were in Tuchyn about 3,500 Jews. After the war broke out in the year 1939, many refugees from western Poland came to Tuchyn. In the time of the German occupation they were all registered and were considered residents [of the town] for all intents and purposes. The movement of the Jewish population was constant. After the pogroms in the surrounding towns and after the “Judenrein” (“purification from Jews”) aktzias in the towns, Jews streamed into Tuchyn as if it was a haven of safety. But after the pogrom in Tuchyn departures began from the place.
Jews were prohibited from changing their place of residence. Many who wandered on the roads were robbed and murdered. All the Jews of the town
[Page 44]
were held responsible if a foreign Jew was caught in the place. The Judenrat ransomed, as much as possible, those Jews who fell into the hands of the police or into the hands of Ukrainian civilians. They would hide those who managed to filter into Tuchyn. In the end there were 4,000 Jews in Tuchyn.
The constant tension between the Jewish population and the local government was because of the fact that the Jews did not want to pay taxes in money and in objects. Much property was hidden by the Jews in secret places. It should be noted with satisfaction that among the Jews of Tuchyn there were no traitors and informers.
Throughout the time of the occupation there were no epidemics in Tuchyn. The percentage of incidents of suicide was negligible, three to four incidents during the entire time. During the entire period of the occupation only a few children were born. Marriages also did not take place. There were women who were unmarried or widowed who registered fictitiously as being married to men who held “good certificates[7].” There were no orphanages, schools did not operate, and neither did children attend “chedarim[8].” The children were scared to go out into the street because they had received beatings from Ukrainian children. Youths aged from 14 and up were forced to work.
The Jews of Tuchyn would conduct the holidays and hold Shabbat services. Before leaving for work [in the mornings] they would gather in private houses to hold prayers. The synagogues were used as the grain storehouses of the Germans.
In Tuchyn industry was more developed than in other towns. The Jews created places of work so as to be “useful” and in this way to defer the aktzia. In Tuchyn there were tanneries, spinning mills, small factories for the production of wool, a factory of sweaters and socks[9], shoemakers, and so on. Clothing and boots were produced from materials that were processed in the place. Tuchyn was considered a town of laborers. There was a certain confidence that useful Jews like these would not be executed. Every Jew took care to obtain a work card.
In the summer of 1942 aktzias were carried out in most of the towns in Volyn. The aim of the Germans was “purification” of the settlement from Jews and making it “Judenrein.” After they would murder all the Jews they would hang a sign in the town saying “Judenrein.”
In that time rumors spread that in the forests there were partisans. The Jews of Tuchyn searched for ways to make contact with them. A Pole appeared who informed [the Jews] that the partisans would not accept volunteers without weapons. He said he could sell weapons to the Jews and also that he could connect them to the partisans. For this purpose the Jews collected a large sum of money and gold. The Pole took the money and disappeared.
In July 1942 a Jewish quarter was decided in Tuchyn. The quarter was not fenced, but the Jew was prohibited from stepping outside its boundaries. To work outside the quarter they [the Jews] went in groups. Two weeks before Yom Kippur they [the Germans/Ukrainians] began stretching a high fence around a small part of the Jewish quarter. They gave an order that up until Yom Kippur the Jews, 4,000 souls, had to move with all their property into the fenced area, into a ghetto, and to crowd into 60 small houses. Belongings were scattered in the street and people lived under the open sky.
On the third day, a day after Yom Kippur, they brought to the ghetto Jews who had been caught in the villages. Peasants brought to the ghetto children whom they had employed on their farms as shepherds and in every available job. The children knew to tell that outside the city Russian prisoners [of war] were digging ditches. Everyone understood for what purpose the ditches were being dug.
On the fourth day they locked the gate of the ghetto. The commissar demanded that a list of the workers be prepared. There were those who hoped and believed that they would not kill everyone and that it would be possible to ransom some of the Jews. They began to collect gold. Craftsmen said that without their families they would not choose to live either. In the meantime, numerous Ukrainian policemen gathered around the ghetto. We heard voices singing German songs. A rumor spread that an S.S. unit had come to the town. It was clear that the game was lost.
In the afternoon Meir Himmelfarb, the deputy head of the Judenrat, invited the public
[Page 45]
to the synagogue and made a speech in emotional words: “Jews, the last moments of our lives have arrived. We have nothing to lose. The enemies ordered us to bring all our possessions to the ghetto, [and] surrounded us with a high fence with the aim that all our property would be concentrated in one place, protected from the local population. The intention is clear: They want to win our property and to execute us. We will not let our enemies inherit from us. Every Jew will prepare flammable material, and whoever does not have any can come to me and receive a bottle of kerosene. When the suitable moment comes, everyone will set his house on fire.”
There were a few Jews who committed suicide. Aharon Kaplan, Shaike Zeitchik and Shmuel Markus dropped themselves down a well, Mottel Kashtan poisoned himself, and Mottel Vizlech cut open his own veins.
Towards the evening Germans and Ukrainian police entered the ghetto. They ordered the Jews to disperse to their houses. Meir Himmelfarb went into his house and set the house on fire. After a few minutes the whole ghetto was in flames. The police who were guarding around [the ghetto] began to shoot. The bullets were fired from all directions and the impression was as if there was shooting from the ghetto. The police scattered. At the same time the Jews broke through the fence in numerous places and fled in every direction.
In the morning the local residents caught the Jews who had escaped into the gardens, the fields and the barns, and turned them in to the Gestapo. The villagers also did the same thing. They robbed their property and murdered them or handed them over to the Gestapo.
On the night of the fire hundreds of Jews were killed in the ghetto. The rest escaped from the town. Throughout Thursday and until midday Friday the murderers collected 1,000 to 1,500 Jews. They led them out of the city to ditches that had been prepared in advance for this purpose. There they shot them.
The Jews who were brought on Friday afternoon were released by the Germans. They were told that a “mistake” had occurred: “The Jews of Tuchyn are a useful resource and it was prohibited to kill them,” and from that moment on, the Jews were permitted to live and to work. Those who had scattered in every direction and were wandering in the forests hungry and without any place to rest or shelter from the cold and the rain returned to Tuchyn. In particular, families with small children returned.
Within a week there were again 300 Jews in Tuchyn. They were given three houses. On Friday early in the morning the Germans and the Ukrainians surrounded the dwellings. They caught their inhabitants, led them to the cemetery, and shot them.
The Jewish [female] pharmacist was accepted back to work. From a distance she saw her daughters among those being led to the cemetery and ran in order to join them. The police tried to drive her away but she fought with a policeman and went to her death with her children and with the rest of the Jews*[10].
Even after that Friday, after it was clear that the authorities were brazenly lying to tempt Jews to return to the ghetto, there were still Jews who came back. They returned in the clear knowledge that they were going to a certain death. They returned with children, with feeble parents, because they could not find shelter. The peasants did not allow them to enter their yards, did not give a slice of bread or a sip of water. More than this, there were those who carried out hunts on the Jews for the purpose of plunder. In the best case they handed their captives to the authorities. Many killed their victims with knives and with axes.
Thus it happened that a number of times there were assembled in Tuchyn hundreds of desperate Jews and the Germans would kill them in large groups. My family**[11] fled on the night of the fire. We scattered and in the panic no one could find each other. On the roads were many lone children who were crying bitterly. They had survived after the death of their parents, became lost in the panic, or
[Page 46]
were abandoned by desperate parents. Babies crawled on all fours on the roads and in the forests. With me was my three-year-old son. It was hard for me to run with the boy in my arms, and on foot he could not keep up with us. The boy cried and begged me not to leave him behind. He shouted: “Mother, throw away your shawl and it will be easier for you to carry me.” I overcame [the difficulties] and took him. I met up with a cousin. We gathered into a group of 20 people. We decided to walk far into the forest until we would run into the partisans.
In that group I was with my son aged three, and another woman with a baby aged eight months. To that woman they presented a condition: either her or the baby. They said that the baby with his crying was likely to turn in the whole group. The mother stole over to another group and left the baby with them. There was someone there who noticed her deed, chased after her, hit her with blows, and forced her to take the baby, and then her brother, who was a mature man, took a shaving knife and cut the veins in the arms of the baby. They put him on the ground and covered him with leaves …
The whole time we walked in the forest. On the way other Jews joined us. We were already a group of 50 to 60 people. The young and the strong tried to convince us that it was not desirable to walk in large groups. It would be safer to walk in small groups.
Translator's footnotes:
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