[Page 538]

A Last Word

I visited Vishnevets in 1956, after the extermination. After the destruction, I was in Valbezhikh, ready to travel to Israel, and I decided that before I abandoned Poland forever, I would visit our little town.

I also wanted to visit my poor, unfortunate sister.

I procured a tourist visa, and arrived in Kremenets in the afternoon. I did not travel to Vishnevets right away because the whole area was full of gangs, and it was very dangerous. I had to calculate my every step very carefully.

I was in the area for three months. I was in Vishnevets for a total of three days; I stayed there only one night and slept there.

Our house was between the rabbi's house and Yakov Chachkis's, which was already gone–all the ghetto streets were destroyed, the houses all demolished, totally destroyed. I found only three families in the town: Avraham Rosenberg, Duvid Gnip, and Zev Sobol; the first two are still there today.

A few houses that remained were occupied by Ukrainians who had collaborated with the Germans. Where Shapiro's house had been, Ostrovski, the well–known pig farmer, had put up a house with a brick wall, made of bricks he had collected from Jewish houses. Lerner's house was completely sunken into the ground, why I don't understand, but the windows were blown out and covered with pieces of wood. The house was not usable, yet a local Ukrainian was living there.

The Tarbut school building, which had belonged to Shmuel Melis, was whole and being used as a government hotel.

The Great Synagogue remained whole. Changes had been made so it could serve as residences and for offices. It was all just divided spaces and doors. It was hard to imagine that this was where Jews had united and gathered together with their entire soul and faith.

My purpose in coming was to go to the graves of the unfortunate. I was afraid to go alone, so Zev Sobol went with me, and together we arrived at that holy place that so sacred to us in our hearts.

[Page 539]

The grave was in a valley along the road to Zbarazh. Going into the valley, I could see human bones strewn about, skeletons taken apart, without attachments between one bone and another, bones from thighs, parts of skeletons scattered like toys in the wind; all the bones that were so precious to us were strewn all over.

I wanted to cover the bones with earth, but I did not have any tools, and there were too many bones scattered around–I put earth over as many as I could, and my heart burst …

Who knows whose bones I covered with that unholy earth? Who knows whose body they belonged to? At that moment, it seemed to me that they might be the bones of my dear father or of my good mother, brother, sister, and maybe my friends from school, I had an attack of hysteria and, wailing in lamentation, I went around collecting the bones, and each bone cut into my heart.

The valley with the scattered bones stretched on for more than a kilometer.

I was told that every time someone comes to the valley, they cover the bones, but the water flows strongly through there, and it rinses the earth away and uncovers the bones again and washes them from place to place. After death, they still have no rest.

To our great woe and shame, the Germans did not trouble to cover this mass grave, and the precious bodies lie freely one atop the other, without protection from wild animals and violent storms. It makes the blood run cold to see the bodies violently pulled apart for eternity.

Across from there, Zev showed me the hill from which the murderers fired on the unfortunate victims and killed them wholesale; according to what Zev told me, they lined up our dear ones on the brim of the valley in the dust and then threw them into their common grave, which waited openmouthed.

On the road back, I recognized familiar faces of Ukrainian neighbors and acquaintances, and I had to pretend I did not see the expressions of joy at our tragedy beaming from their eyes.

[Page 540]

In 1935, she was trained at the kibbutz in Kovel, and despite her physical weakness, she endured all the hardships of training well.

In summer 1939, she immigrated on the famous ship “Colorado.” The ship was detained by the British, and the people were put into a detention camp at Shemen Beach in Haifa. After a month's stay and many investigations, the pioneers, including Shoshana, were liberated.

When the people were released, Shoshana's health was very poor. She accepted her relatives' request and went home with them to recover. After recovering, Shoshana went to live in Kibbutz Plugat Hayam.

For many years, Shoshana was devoted to working hard in the laundry, at headquarters, in the children's home, and in clothing stores, and we were surprised when illness overtook her.

It was in 1958, the day before the Fast of the Firstborn, that Shoshana was working at headquarters to prepare baked goods to serve to guests at home during the holiday, and in the middle of her work, she kneeled and fell. The hospital determined that she had had a cerebral hemorrhage.

For two weeks, Shoshana struggled for her life and remained paralyzed. She asked that she be allowed to heal and rehabilitate at home, not in the hospital, and her request was granted

It was pleasant to take care of Shoshana–she was grateful for any help. The hours spent in the library at Shoshana's were hours of conversation about world events, literature, art, politics, etc. She always had something new to say and shared her impressions of others.

Medicine could not save Shoshana. She had come home 3from the hospital to continue to get devoted, complete care at home. And now the day had come for her to be transferred to the hospital. Those were her last days. And the thread of her life was cut off.

[Page 541]

 

Page	Line	As Read	As Meant
22	2 from top	משני [second]	משי [satin]
26	13 from top	Mernovski	Gernovski
59	8 from top		Repeats line 10
70	8 from bottom	העמק [the valley]	העמוק [deep]
84	3 from top	אדים [steam]	אדם [person]
97	9 from top	Tsetsko	Chatskis
112	11 from bottom	ברדחתי [I fumed]	ברחתי [I ran away]
129	18 from top	עצם [closed]	עצים [trees]
166	1 from top	Chayim	Nachum
168	5 from bottom	Bak	Barbak
213	13 from top	השהחר [the delay]	השוחרר [loosened]
213	15 from top	משוחר [released]	משוחרר [loose]
214	7 from top	לסיומו [end it]	לגיומו [to its height]
238	9 from top	ידיוותי [my hands]	ידירותי [deliberate]
273	2 from top	והח [and]	והחלית [and you did]
273	4 from top	בצעיק ה [shout h]	בצעיקה [with a shout]
273	15 from bottom	נסתן [hidden]	נסתן [endanger]
283	1 from top	הדוד [the uncle]	הזוג [the couple]

Page 129–line 6, “needless,” should instead be “And when we got to a certain point” Page 185–With his sudden death, the General Assembly list was replaced by words about Leybtsi's (of blessed memory) death. Page 229–In the last row, the words “a year ago” are superfluous. Page 231–The caption on the photograph should read, “Yehuda Rozental and Sore Roynik.”

Page	Line	As Read	As Meant
383	15 from bottom	Shteres	Shtarozh [starosta]
410	Heading	Valen	Volin
430	3 from bottom	Chayim Zev [Segal]	Chayim Aba [Segal]
463	5 from top	Prokorov	Proskurov
464	14 from top	סועמא	סיעמו
464	15 from top	באַליידיקן [insult]	באַליידיקטע [insults]
464	5 from bottom	זולבסט	זעלבסט [self]
486	2 from top	56	73
499	7 from top	Dermarimdiker	Derbarimdiker
499	5 from bottom	מוז [must]	אז [that]
500	13 from bottom	Ezrya	Ezra

Page 387–Throughout, instead of Boytener, read Betener. Page 489–The third and fourth lines are repeated in lines 5–6. Page 534–This message from the organization was written by Meir Averbukh. * * * Makhlye Vaynman (Kremenetski), of blessed memory page 515 Shoshana Agsi, of blessed memory page 540

  Vishnevets, Ukraine     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 05 Feb 2018 by JH