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In memory of my sister Shayna, brother-in-law, Chaim Ze'ev, and children Miriam and Aryeh, who were murdered by the Nazis

The little town of Lisokovo could be found thirty-five versts from Volkovysk, thirty versts from Pruzhany, and eighteen versts from Ruzhany. In the distance, along a straight line, one could see a forest, which led to the road to Pruzhany, and the Polieser swamps, which were only ten versts from the town.

The usual evening and Sabbath stroll used to be to the pine trees, which was a new small stand of trees on the way to Ruzhany. The Jewish community of Lisokovo was quite old, counting a history of about six hundred years, which was testified to by the gravestones in the old cemetery in the center of the town. Later, a new cemetery was constructed on the way to Boriva^[1] and Novy-Dvor. Primarily, Lisokovo was surrounded on all sides by forest – the well-know Bielovezer Forest was only a few tens of versts from the town. During the time of the First World War, in the wintertime, the Germans secretly brought into town a zebra they had trapped and shot in the forest.

Because of this, the principal means of livelihood of the Jews of Lisokovo was – the forest trade. Several Jews would get together in a partnership, and buy sections of the forest from the nobles. They would cut down the trees, and during the wintertime they would transport the wood on sleds to the surrounding towns. These forest merchants would spend the long winter evening playing cards. Other Jews would buy grain, the hides of cattle, sheep, foxes, hares, and similar articles and trade in them. They would buy fish from the peasants in the area, who would catch them in the small streams not far from the town.

The Jews would also wash their laundry in those streams, bathe in the summertime, and draw good water for tea, which they would carry into town on their backs. They would also go there on Rosh Hashanah for the Tashlikh service. They would also bring drinking water from those streams, because until after the First World War, Lisokovo had no water system. Water was drawn from these streams in a very primitive fashion, as well as from the wells in town. The scraping of the pails could always be heard for long distances.

Since Lisokovo had a large percentage of Jews engaged in forest trade, most of the Jews there made a living from small business. They had small establishments for general merchandise, manufacture, finished clothing. They also maintained fruit orchards, and leased land. There were also a number of tradespeople, such as shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, beer bottlers, shingle-makers, etc.

The houses in which the Jews lived were small wooden structures, covered with straw, and only partly with shingles. There were a few houses built of stone and brick.

The Jews always awaited Sunday, the market day, impatiently. The market days were very active. The gentiles would come to buy and sell. They would get good and drunk with the money that they received, and the fights

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in the restaurants and streets were a common occurrence. Quietly, the Jews would thank God if a market day went by peaceably without a pogrom.

The Town of Lisokovo

Before the First World War, there was a large stone-constructed synagogue on the Schulhof. It was a very tall and beautiful building. Pigeons were in the habit of building their nests there, and during prayers, one could hear them chirping as they flew from one place to another. It was very cold there in the wintertime as a place to pray, but for the same reason, it was a cool place during the summer, literally a place that could revive you! The Bet HaMedrash on the Schulhof was a building of wooden construction. There a shtibl for prayer was also to be found. For this reason, it was well-heated during the wintertime. Life in the Bet HaMedrash would first start to pick up after midnight, when old Chaim Novick and Nehemiah Kaplan would go for midnight prayer. Shortly afterwards, the first minyan would begin its prayers, and then the second minyan would arrive.

On the Sabbath, all the Jews without exception, would gather either in the Synagogue or in the Bet HaMedrash. On Friday night, everyone wanted the privilege of fulfilling the mitzvah of entertaining guests, and right after services, they would seek to invite a guest home – an itinerant preacher, a pauper, etc. When a Lisokovo native would return from a visit to Volkovysk, Bialystok, or even as far as Warsaw, all the Jews would gather at his house, in order to hear the latest news from the larger world.

Sabbath in the morning, at the timed of prayer, one could see all the Jews, from the surrounding nearby villages and estates, on the roads hurrying to the Bet HaMedrash in Lisokovo. They would gather together from the smallest of the Jewish settlements, such as Masziewicz, Adamkova and come on the Sabbath to pray.

Frequent worshipers who would come to Lisokovo from the environs were: Reb Menachem Bayzer, tall and lean with a combed beard; Reb Shmuel Leib Kravchik, with his prayer shawl on his shoulders under his coat; whose worship was suffused with faith and great devotion; he was also a good Torah reader. This Reb Shmuel Leib was a formidable grammarian, and an outstanding scholar of the Tanakh and the Talmud. At a later time, he moved into Lisokovo and opened a modern Heder, which became very popular in the town, and earned a good reputation.

At the eastern wall of the Bet HaMedrash, one regularly found the following worshipers: Reb Abraham Yaakov Shiff, his mekhutan^[2], Reb Mordechai Resnick, Reb Alter Rappaport, and Joseph Goldman, the Feldscher.

The Jews who attended the first minyan studied the Mishna with Reb Joseph Khaiman. On the Sabbath, before evening, between the afternoon and evening prayers, a goodly number of the Jews went out for a stroll, but

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most studied the Gemara. As soon as it became dark, they made a transition to reciting the Psalms. The Jews knew the Psalms by heart.^[3] The young boys would then make sport with one another in the Bet HaMedrash. They would throw around wet towels; their principal target was the elderly Shammes, Reb Gershon.

The Cantor of the town was Reb Reuven Gotthielf, he was an inspiring man, a good natured Jew with a good voice. Right after the Ninth of Ab, he would get his choir together, and conduct rehearsals for the High Holy Day prayers. This would take place every evening at his house. Both the old and the young would then gather under the windows of his house, and enjoy the choir immensely. On the High Holy Days, everyone made a strenuous effort to get to the synagogue to hear the Cantor. The following would lead the services at the Bet HaMedrash: Reb Yosh'eh Yatskevitzer, Reb Tuvia Rabinovich, Rabbi Yaakov Berestovitsky^[4], Reb Yaakov Kontsepolsky, and others. They would lead the Kol Nidre service and the Musaf services. The morning (Shakharit) services were led by: Reb Tuvia Resnick, Reb Katriel Lieberman, Reb Shimshon Novick, and others. Residents of the towns of Kuklitz, Krupa, Zelenevitz, Mogilovtzeh, and other surrounding towns, would come for the High Holy Days, and in general, community live concentrated around the Bet HaMedrash. It was there that an understanding was arrived at with regard to complaints relating to the question of reporting for military conscription. The poor people would always complain, that the sons of the rich would buy their way out of military service with money. The young men of Lisokovo were required to present themselves to the military authority in Volkovysk right after the Sukkot holiday. The Jewish community leader of Lisokovo was Reb Shlomo Mezheritzky, a wise man, who by occupation was a forest products merchant. He was always approached with complaints about military service. The Torah reading would then be halted on the Sabbath, and the complaints were then all straightened out. As was usually the case, this ended with giving some money to the aggrieved poorer young men, and in this fashion the matter was set aside for a full year.

Shlomo Mezheritzky was a good-hearted Jew, who always strove on behalf of his community. At the time of the German occupation during the First World War, many Jewish and Christian boys were released from hard labor thanks to his efforts, for which they were being sent to Lamsdorf (Upper Silesia). Of his family, the following survived the last war: his son, Joseph Mezheritzky the Lawyer, his sister Pes'sha, and her little daughter. They were partisans in the Ruzhany forests.

There were a number of prominent scholars in Lisokovo, about several of which it is appropriate to pause and take note: Reb Yaakov Zalman Finkelstein, tall and with a blond beard, a butcher by trade, who dedicated every free hour to Torah study and to discussions about the Talmud, Yoreh Deyah, or Hoshen Mishpat with the town Rabbi or Rabbi Yaakov Berestovitsky, a local manufacturer and merchant; Reb Yitzhak Klietsky, a tailor of ladies clothing, and a unique Torah reader and Tanakh scholar, and a clever Jew in general; Manes Kontsepolsky a Jew who was suffused with Torah and fear of God, and in addition was a steady reader of

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Hatzefira.^[5] Reb Yaakov Kontsepolsky – the town magnate – who was a great forest products merchant and iron goods handler, who studied at the Yeshiva during his youth. He was an able scholar, and in addition was familiar with worldly issues and also published a book titled, “The Book of My Life,” which appeared in 1935.

We also need to recollect Leibeh Beckenstein, the postman, who would provide wagons to deliver the mail from Volkovysk to Ruzhany, and was a good-hearted Jew. He considered it an obligation to give charity, and during Yom Kippur, he had a claim on the chanting of the haftorah of the Book of Jonah, because he believed this to be a reward for good works. The families of the Resnick brothers, especially Reb Mordechai Resnick, who was always at the ready to go into fire and across water in order to do a favor for a fellow Jew, and also was prominent in taking in of guests; Reb Yitzhak Bliakher – who was also known by the name Itcheh Benjamin Bezalel's – who was a quiet and modest person, always with a smile on his lips and ready and willing to do a favor for someone, and would be of great help to the sick and suffering; Reb Shimshon Novick, a blacksmith by trade, was an intelligent Jewish man, well read, and always ready to tell a joke.

Lisokovo also had good Rabbis. After the death of Rabbi Lipa Meyerson, who was mourned by the entire town, it was decided to turn over the town pulpit to his son, Rabbi Aryeh Leib. A delegation of the most important Jews went out with musicians and dance to greet him, and the joy in the town was unusually high. Apart from wages, the Rabbi in Lisokovo had a monopoly on the sale of yeast. Despite all this, he barely made a living from all sources of income. Rabbi Aryeh Leib Meyerson was a great sage, and in addition, he was well acquainted with the Hebrew literature and was an ardent Zionist. His son-in-law became the Rabbi of Lisokovo after his death.

In those years, about forty years ago, on a midday Friday in the winter, a wagon arrived from Volkovysk carrying a Jewish political prisoner. The wagon drove up to the jail in Lisokovo, where the prisoner was interred. His guards, two Russian policemen, immediately left to grab a drink of whiskey in town. The prisoner remained under the guard of the permanent Lisokovo jailer, a tall old gentile, with wild unkempt mustaches. Two young Jewish boys approached this gentile: Shmuel Kontsepolsky and Moshe Rappaport (both today in America). They talked the gentile into taking a shot of whiskey, and then another, and another, until he became totally inebriated. The boys then released the imprisoned Jew, the political miscreant, and they hid him in the attic of the Bet HaMedrash. He was supplied with warm things, and with good food, and Sunday in the morning, Reb Issachar Yellin earned the mitzvah of taking him away to Ruzhany, and in this manner, rescued this young Jewish fellow from terrible suffering.

A stream of emigration of the young people out of Lisokovo to America began in the year 1905. A specific number of young people left their home town and settled in that new land.

It used to be a great holiday in town at the time of the elections to the Duma.^[6] For example, at that time, the great magnate from Volkovysk Heller, desired to see his son become a Deputy of the Duma. He ordered wagons, and had many Jews from Lisokovo driven to the polls. As an aside, he also provided them with all

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manner of good refreshments. These ‘perks’ were made available over a period of seven days.

Life during the winter months always was more subdued than usual. The Jews would slaughter sheep, and prepare full barrels of mutton which they would keep frozen in cellars. Also, geese and ducks were slaughtered and the meat was kept frozen. Entire pits were filled full of potatoes and bread was baked for personal consumption. Jews would study the Gemara and Mishna, and when the time of completion of a tractate would arrive, it was customary to have a small celebration with good things to eat, such as marinated herring, cooked veal covered in rice, washed down with beer.

A dark pall fell over the town with the outbreak of the First World War. Jews went off to military service, and many of them never returned. Commerce was disrupted. The connection to America, from which regular support would come, was severed. The rule of the Cossacks began at that point, under which the Jews suffered mightily. Before the Cossacks retreated from the town, they plundered the Jewish stores and homes. The daughter of Ginter the Thief showed the Cossacks which of the Jewish houses to approach, and carry out their robbery. Joseph Goldman the Feldscher, on that day when the Cossacks left town, literally put his life on the line by virtue of hiding those who fled the home of Chaya-Taiba Salutsky, out of fear of being murdered by the Cossacks.

Also, the plight of the Jews did not improve very much under the German occupation during the First World War. A shortage of all necessities reigned throughout the town. The Germans impressed the Jews into forced labor, and they promoted the plunder of Jewish homes. But at that time, they did not kill any Jews. They even established a Jewish school in town at their own expense, and the children received a Jewish national education. During the time of the German occupation, a serious fire broke out in town. There was a fire-fighting command at that time in Lisokovo, but despite this, the fire could not be controlled in time, and many houses went up in smoke. Immediately after the fire, those Jews whose houses were spared, took in those who were burned out, and helped them with every possible means down to the last slice of bread. The German authorities then permitted the Jews to bring lumber from the forests to construct their houses anew. Thanks to the vital energy of the Jews, the burned down Jewish property was re-built in a fairly short time The Bet HaMedrash and the Synagogue were re-built by the Jews after the war, with the help of Lisokovo landsleit in America.

The bath-house was an important institution in town. From the very early morning hours on Friday, visitors would start heading there already. The bath-house manager was a Jew who had a fondness for the gargle. He would take the people according to how well they were connected, or in accordance with the amount of money he would collect from them, but in general, it wasn't possible to get around him. The bath-house was really a sort-of community club, where one would meet people one knew, and even guests from Volkovysk, Pruzhany, Ruzhany, and other towns. One would learn the latest news from them, one would get into discussions, mostly about politics, and also carry out commercial transactions. Among the visitors to the bath-house, one could find a type of strong and healthy Jew, who in the wintertime, would run out of the heat, and cool themselves off in the corridor, or altogether in the street. They would then drink down a lot of cold water,, and immediately re-enter the bath-house on the run, yelling: “Steam! Ye-gods Jews, provide some steam!” On the way home from the bathhouse, the Jews would drink boiling hot tea from the samovar, eat some taygakhtz from flour made of cereal grain or potato, and get themselves ready to go to the Bet HaMedrash.

Connection to the outside world was maintained by various means. First there were the wagon drivers: Yekhiel Edelstein and Yaakov Friedberg, who traveled to Volkovysk twice a week. They were waited on as if they were the Messiah. They would bring people, merchandise and mail from the big city. Apart from this, Herschel Yellin would travel to Pruzhany once a week. Then, the postmaster would also arrive with the mail he got in

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Ruzhany. In distributing the mail, the postmaster would call out the name of a family member to whom the letter was addressed, and hand it over with a flourish. For this, he received a gift from his clients – matzos and wine for Passover.

The first record player came to the Graf^[7] of Lisokovo, and in order to give the Jews some satisfaction, on Friday evening he would play Yiddish records, such as ‘Oy gevalt, a ganef’ and others like it. The Jews would gather under the Graf's window, and enjoy the music – and also to marvel at Edison's invention.

News of the Balfour Declaration reached Lisokovo by newspaper. A youth then ran through the mud in town, late at night, to communicate the good news to the Jews.

At about that time, new sanctions began being applied by the Polish regime to the Jews, in connection with the professions and commerce, etc., and the young people of Lisokovo used all their might to find ways to emigrate to America, Argentina, or the Land of Israel.

There was no highway or railroad line then in the Lisokovo surroundings. A few years later, an autobus began to run between Lisokovo and Volkovysk. Yaakov Friedberg's son was one of the partners in that bus company. Sorrowfully, he was one of the first martyrs of the town, and he was shot by the Nazis in the middle of the street.

I visited Lisokovo for the last time in July 1938. The danger of war was already in the air. The Jews were concerned and disturbed. When I would come to the Bet HaMedrash for afternoon and evening services, I would barely find a minyan of Jews. Yekhezkiel the Dyer, pointed with satisfaction to his son, the Rabbi, who was getting ready to emigrate to Australia. Eliezer Kravchik drew my attention to the young boys who were gathered at the time of Mincha at a spot near the Schulhof where they were playing soccer.

During this time of my last visit to Lisokovo, I met with many people, balebatim of Lisokovo, who in the hot evenings would sit in the gazebos of their houses taking respite form the heat of the day. I would stroll to the brook on the way to Ruzhany in the company of friends, and I would visit various families in the evening.

Early in the morning, at about 4AM, I went out into the street. Notteh^[8] Eliyahu's was leading his horse to the well and set out on the way to the villages. Heschel, the old gravedigger, with his heavy step, was on his way to pray. Joseph Yellin the blacksmith was astonished to meet me on the street in Lisokovo. We were once neighbors. He poured out his bitter heart to me, and told me of the death of his daughter Chana, who suddenly died and left five orphans behind.

I then went to the Juridzhiker Gasse, where as children, we would go out to the Boriver Forests, and gather wild berries and mushrooms there. The Mendelevich family, that was known to me, lived on that little street, out of which only one son, who was my pupil survived the Holocaust. Today he is in Italy. The Kvassnitseh family (Beckenstein's aunt) also lived on that same street. The son-in-law in that family survived in Russia, and came to Israel in 1947. Abraham Bakonovitsky lived right at the head of the street at one time with his family, Novick's family and their son-in-law, Eliezer Kravchik. The latter was an intelligent Jewish man, and an ardent Zionist. Sadly, he died on his way to Israel, and was not privileged to join his brothers and daughter.

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From there, I went to the marketplace, where Moshe Kontsepolsky, a Torah scholar, used to live. His family emigrated to America. At the market, I met Zaydl Salutsky and his younger sister. The older sister and mother were no longer alive. Zaydl was a student of [Chaim Nachman] Bialik at the Yeshiva in Odessa. He had mastered much Torah scholarship and the discipline of the Enlightenment. He dreamt of many things, but unfortunately never developed any of these dreams into a reality in his lifetime. I also met Yeshayahu Mikholeh's there, who was a member of the fire-fighting brigade and a well-known benefactor of the public interest in Lisokovo. He took me to his father, who was already gravely ill at that time.

A large number of Jews were standing in a group in the middle of the marketplace, engaged in animated conversation. Tonya Resnick, the 84 year-old senior, stood to the side, listening to the conversation.

I left my home town with a heavy heart. The autobus conveyed me speedily, riding by Podoroisk and Izavelin, in the Volkovysk district. I felt the strong connection between me and my dear and beloved brothers in the beautiful little town. However, I did not know that this would be the last time I would ever see them.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Possibly the town of Boiary, which was near Novy-Dvor. Return
2. Father-in-law to the child of the subject. Curiously, there is no good English equivalent for this. Return
3. The significance of this lies in the fact that no illumination was available. This still being the Sabbath, it was forbidden to kindle a light, and it had become too dark to continue reading the Gemara. Hence the reversion to a different form of study and worship, where the participants didn't have to rely on sight, but rather on their memory. Return
4. Later the last Dayan of Volkovysk. Return
5. A prominent Hebrew newspaper of the Enlightenment era, from Warsaw Return
6. The name of the Russian Parliament under the Czars. Return
7. A nobleman. The title is German in origin. Return
8. Nickname for Noss'n or Natan in Hebrew. Variants include Nott'l, Notkeh Return

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What happened to the Jews of Lisokovo, as described in this article, is based on the testimony of Dr. Yitzhak Goldberg and the Partisan, Jonah Borukhansky.

Dr. Yitzhak Goldberg himself is from Volkovysk. After the Germans entered Volkovysk, he went to Ruzhany and then later to Lisokovo, where he settled along with his family at the beginning of the summer of 1942. He lived there in Resnick's house until November 2, 1942, at which time all the Jews of Lisokovo were driven to the bunkers in Volkovysk.

Jonah Borukhansky is from Lisokovo. He was in Lisokovo up to November 2, 1942, the day the Jews were taken out of Lisokovo. He then fled to the forest, from where he fought as a partisan. Now he is in Israel. His testimony was sent through Azriel Broshi (Berestovitsky) – Dr. M. Einhorn.

The news of the German-Russian War that broke out on Sunday, June 21, 1941, became known among the Jews of Lisokovo on that same day. The entire Jewish population of Lisokovo was gripped by a panic on that morning. Those who had radio equipment at home did not leave their sets and received each new bulletin about the war with anxiety. Most of the Jews were gathered at the marketplace where they received all manner of notification about the war.

A member of the magistrate's office came outside and declared that at 3AM that day, the Germans had declared war on Russia and a number of cities, such as Kiev and Minsk had already been bombed by the enemy. He appealed to the Russian citizenry to join the army in the defense of their fatherland. On Sunday evening, German airplanes were heard in the skies above Lisokovo, giving late notification of the outbreak of the war.

On the following day, Monday morning, placards were posted in the streets concerning the mobilization of all men aged 19 to 29 years of age, demanding that they gather on that very same day at the magistrate's building, where they will be transported by wagon to the designated military registration points. A shudder immediately coursed through the town. Wives came to bid their husbands farewell, and mothers their sons. Most of the men were placed aboard wagons, and part of them were taken away on foot. A silence fell on the town. On the same day, after the noon hour, single detachments of the Russian military began to appear in town. The soldiers appeared to be in disarray. There were many wounded among them. They merely drove through the city streets, retreating in the eastward direction. Many civilians in automobiles were also traveling in that same direction, apparently in an attempt to save themselves by going deeper into Russia. According to the news that was reaching Lisokovo, the Germans had already taken Brisk while continuing to proceed further.

Tuesday morning the men who had left the prior day to be taken into the Russian military began to return. According to what they told, they were released by the Russian commanders because all the roads in the area were already cut off by the enemy, and contact with the higher echelons no longer existed. The men had spent the entire day of Monday in the Janiner Forest, and the following day had returned home on foot. One could see a satisfied smile on the face of the Christians, as opposed to the Jews, who were greatly concerned about the fact that the Germans were drawing near. A short while later, the first two German motorcycles appeared in the town. A Russian soldier, who was stationed in the marketplace with a machine gun, raised his hands in fright. The Germans took him away from his post, put him on one of the motorcycles and took him away. A

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couple of hours later, gentiles began to come in from the villages, carrying sacks in order to plunder the Russian magazines. The Jews stood at a distance and watched on. In between, two Russian officers appeared on horseback. They approached the gathered crowd, and proclaimed a warning in a loud voice, that anyone who would attempt to rob Russian assets would be shot on the spot. It appears that they were not aware of the fact that the Germans had already entered the town. The gentiles however, were not intimidated and they began to attack the Russian officers with staves and iron rods. The officers fired on their attackers, but the gentiles were in the majority, and they tied up the officers and threw them in the magistrate's building. Then the gentiles began to plunder the magazines, taking whatever came into their hands.

On the same day, Tuesday morning, individual Jews of Lisokovo, who were known to be communists, fled the city. Among them were: Zechariah Khvonyik (Shmuel's son), Abraham Lev's son, Avreml Pintelelvich (Israel Rakhmiel's son), David (Ovadiah the Shingle maker's son), Hinde Kravchik, Joseph Trumper's son, and others. Regrettably, nothing has ever been heard from them to this day. There were notifications given that they were all killed near Zelva.

Tuesday before nightfall many German tanks and artillery had already appeared. The principal battle that took place between the Germans and Russians in that area was not in Lisokovo, but rather around Ruzhany. The battle there lasted several days. The Russians mounted a strong defense, and fought practically to the last soldier. Were it not for the German aerial bombardment, it is possible that the Russians might have been able to break through the German front line.

Immediately on the first day, after capturing Lisokovo, the Germans had already shot several Jews who had been fingered as being communists. Among these first martyrs was Ovadiah, whom Yosh'keh Zhinovich found in an attic and turned over to the Germans.

After they took control of Lisokovo, the Germans left behind a military command and a small number of soldiers, and took off in further pursuit of the Russians. In this manner, Lisokovo ceased to play the role of a battlefront. A couple of weeks went by where it was quiet and peaceful in the town. Were it not for the report of gunfire in the distance, it would be hard to sense the conduct of war. In the town proper, indeed, single members of the German military command would be seen, and this alone would cast a fear upon the Jewish populace.

Then the Germans ordered Jews of age 14 and over, to affix yellow badges [on their clothing], and wearing this symbol, assemble in the marketplace. When the Jews arrived their, they found soldiers in ranks with machine guns. A terror gripped everyone, because they thought that from there, the Jews would be taken to their slaughter, and it was demanded of the Jews that they line up in rows – men women and children separately. Then, a number of armed soldiers went by the formed ranks of Jews, and investigated if everyone was wearing a yellow badge. The neighboring Poles stood around and around, looking upon this scene with pleasure. The chief of the military command strode out into the center, in order to read aloud the main points of the famous anti-Semitic decrees of the Nazi regime. Among the decrees were the well-known restrictions, such as, that a Jew was not permitted to appear in the city without a yellow badge, etc. Jews were not permitted to walk on the sidewalks, and were forbidden to address a German soldier in the street. The Jews were required to form a Judenrat, which would be directly responsible to the Nazi military command in the city, for the entire Jewish population. The following were selected to be in the Judenrat, among others: Abraham Kuzhevsky, Moshe

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Resnick, Yitzhak Mendelevich, Yeshayahu Schwartz (a son-in-law of Tonya Resnick the Tailor), Zaydl Salutsky and Joseph Mezheritzky.

The Germans immediately began to squeeze everything out of the Jews that they could. They imposed demands for heavy financial contributions on the Jewish populace, which the Judenrat was compelled to meet, and turn over to the military command by a specified time, often within the span of two or three days. In this manner, for example, they demanded a specific amount of soap and toothpaste and other articles. As quickly as they received this, they demanded of the Judenrat that they produce a specific amount of gold and silver in the course of three days, threatening, that if they didn't receive this in the specified time, that they would burn down the Bet HaMedrash and kill 150 Jews. You can appreciate that this instilled an enormous fear in everyone. The Jews began to assemble money and gold, whatever anyone had. But when this was not enough in order to meet the demands of the German command, the Rabbi levied a demand on everyone, rich and poor to give their share. Those who had no money, sold their belongings and bedding to the gentiles in order to generate their share of the contribution.

Then the Germans began to demand that the Judenrat provide a daily quota of workers for forced labor, most of whom were sent out of the town to build roads.

In between, the Germans carried out mass arrests of communists, Jews and Christians. In one week they shot about 200 people, a number of them from Mogeluvtsa. They then demanded that the Jewish workers dig pits near the Polish cemeteries, and after they threw the murdered people into the pits, they used tanks to tamp down and smooth out the recently turned earth.

The plight of the Jews in Lisokovo worsened. A little at a time, the Nazis extorted all their possessions. Even furniture, beds and bedding was taken out of the Jewish homes. Whatever they demanded of the Judenrat was provided to them in the specified time. Their demands were met with the greatest speed, hoping that by doing so, we would be able to buy our way out with our lives in a given time. Fortunately, Lisokovo and its environs were counted in the East-Prussian zone, where the Nazi regime had delayed the implementation of its extermination program to a later date. By contrast, the farther towns, such as Slonim, Kosovo and others, were incorporated into the Byelorussian ambit, and from there, even at that time already, news began to reach us about pogroms and the slaughter of Jews. The Jews from that area, who were saved from the enemy's sword, fled to the forests. There, they found out that the Jews in Lisokovo and in its nearby surroundings, Jews were on average, still living peacefully, and so by the hundreds, they began to arrive in Lisokovo, Ruzhany, and the other surrounding towns. The Judenrat settled all the fleeing refugees in the town.

This is how the Jewish populace in Lisokovo lived for another half year, until November 1942, under the German occupation, in poverty, weakened and in constant fear, that in the end, the noose would be tightened around their necks as well, as it had already happened to all the Jews of Byelorussia.

The dark day finally came to the town with the arrival of a complete SS Division. On the night of the 1^st and 2^nd of November, the Jews of Lisokovo were ordered to assemble at 7AM in the marketplace near the magistrate's building. Prior to this, the Germans had issued an order to the peasants to provide a number of wagons on that morning. The peasants immediately understood what was going on, and many of them ran off to Jewish craftsmen and reclaimed even their unfinished work and belongings. This threw the Jews into a panic.

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The president of the Judenrat, Abraham Kuzhevitsky, even went to the commandant to see if he could find out something about the new decree. However, the commandant received him in the usual fashion, and Kuzhevitsky was unable to find out anything about the new situation. The order, that the Jews assemble in a specific place and at a specific time, accompanied by the warning, that if even a single person from a family was missing, that the entire family would be shot – something whose meaning could even at that time not be mistaken. The men understood very well that this was the last mile before the slaughter. For this reason, a number of Jewish men committed suicide on the nights of November 1^st and 2^nd, and others, the younger and more daring, fled the town to the surrounding forests. Among the suicides were: the pharmacist of Lisokovo, Kagan (son-in-law of Goldman the Feldscher), his wife Babel, and her son Fredek, the lady doctor and her mother (both had been in Lisokovo only a short while), a lady dentist who lived at the home of the Jewish pharmacist, and others. Among those who fled to the forests were: Jonah Borukhansky, Pesach Benditovich, Joseph Mezheritzky, the Kravchik Family, Boruch Volpovich, Shlomo'keh Kravchik with his family, Gershon Mezheritzky and his wife and two daughters, Joel Pomeranietz^[1], Berel & Yankel Kuzhevitsky, Tzivia Kobrinsky and others.

In the marketplace, the old and the children were put into the wagons, and the remainder of the Jewish inhabitants of Lisokovo as also those of the surrounding towns, were set out in rows of ten, and everyone was ordered to head in the direction of Volkovysk. The convoy of people numbered between 700 and 800 souls – men, women and children.

The entire town was in the meantime surrounded by German soldiers and Polish police, in order to prevent the Jews from fleeing. A number of Jews who had decided to flee, but out of fear of being captured by the enemy, returned the next morning to the town, and joined the convoy of their brothers and sisters in their last journey away from their home town. The Christians of the town immediately fell upon Jewish assets and belongings and robbed everything that came to their hands.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the march began, surrounded by the military. In the evening, after a long day of trekking, the Jews of Lisokovo arrived at Podoroisk. There, on the marketplace, where they stopped, they met up with the Jews from Ruzhany, who on the same day were driven out of their town in a similar fashion. The Jews of Ruzhany, among whom were a number of Jews from Volkovysk who had married spouses from Ruzhany and lived there, related instances of the brutality with which they were handled on their way to Podoroisk. The Ruzhany residents were forced to march for two days, a distance of 50 kilometers. The children were separated from their parents, and they were not permitted to be with one another for the entire time. About a hundred of the weaker and older people were shot along the way, because they could not keep up with the pace.

The night of the 2^nd and 3^rd the Jews spent out of doors in the cold on the marketplace of Podoroisk. A number of the Jews committed suicide.

Very early on the 3^rd of November, the people were again ordered to form ranks of ten and they began again to drive them along the way – in the direction of Volkovysk. This part of the trip was much worse for the Jews from Lisokovo. The soldiers drove the Jews mercilessly, and whoever couldn't keep up with the pace was shot. Many fell.

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We finally reached Volkovysk at three o'clock in the afternoon. The line of Jews was taken on the Slonim Highway, led past the old railroad station and barracks, in the direction of the bunkers.

On arrival at the bunkers, the Jews of Lisokovo and Ruzhany were driven into one bunker, where the overcrowding was indescribable. There they were subjected to the same fate as befell the Jews of Volkovysk, until in the end, the order came to liquidate the entire Volkovysk camp. The Jews of Lisokovo and Ruzhany were among the first on the transports that left the Volkovysk bunkers on the way to the gas chambers of Treblinka.

According to the report of the former young partisan, Jonah Borukhovsky, one of the few surviving partisans from Lisokovo, many of the Lisokovo Jews who fled into the forests died from hunger and cold, or from being turned in by Christians, before they were able to establish any sort of contact with the partisans in that area.

Jonah Borukhovsky tells of the difficulties he lived through in the forest. He, Pesach Benditovich, Joseph Mezheritzky and a number of others of those who fled from Lisokovo, decided when they had heard of the forced expulsion of the Lisokovo Jews, that they would go through anything not to fall into the hands of the Nazis, and finally, attempt to make contact with the partisans in the forests. The Kravchik family, which found itself in the forest, knew a forester in Kupi_y that helped them construct an earthen bunker^[2] in the ground where they hid themselves. They dug a pit which they covered with branches. Inside, they spread sand, and put up a small fireplace. The pit had two holes. One was an entrance, and the second was a flue to allow the smoke to go out. The pit was small, and the people slept there severely stifled and crowded together. Their friend the forester helped them out the first time with potatoes, four potatoes a day for each person. They had no bread at all, and they found water not too far from their bunker in the swamp.

After their fifth day spent in the forest, they were surrounded on all sides. Armed men ordered them to remain in their places. Fear fell upon the people, and only when the armed men addressed them in Russian, did the Lisokovo people calm down a bit. The armed men demanded wither money or gold. They ordered the people to produce all their valuables by nightfall, at which point they would return with wagons and take everything away. As the Lisokovo Jews found out later from Joseph Mezheritzky's brother, who with his family had hidden out with a friendly Pole in Janina, this same group of armed bandits had been at their place that morning and took everything of any worth that they found. Out of fear of these bandits, who threatened to molest the women, a number of Lisokovo Jews had to leave their hideouts in Janina. Gershon Mezheritzky, his wife and two daughters, as also Joseph Mezheritzky and his sister, and Joel Pomeranietz's brother-in-law decided to go from Lisokovo to Janapolia to a gentile that they knew. On the way, however, Joseph and his sister altered their plan and they decided to remain in the Bazalianer Forest. With Joseph was also his niece, Enya, and a friend of Gershon's, a girl from Kosovo. As was later discovered, the gentile whom they knew in Janapolia informed on the Jews from Lisokovo that came to him looking for protection. It was in this fashion that Gershon Mezheritzky, his wife Bobeh, and his little girl Fanya were killed by the Germans, as also was David (Joel Pomeranietz's brother-in-law). The band of outlaws kept their word, and late in the night they came to the earthen bunker. They ordered the people out of the pit, they went inside, and took whatever they found, and then they tore the clothes off the people, and took the shoes off their feet – and vanished with their booty. Berel Kuzhevitsky (Mikhlah's son) and Yankel Leib Kuzhevitsky killed the bandits and retrieved the things they took.

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They remained barefoot and hungry in the forest. The forester from Kopichka that was known to them stopped bringing them potatoes. They were left with only one alternative – to steal into the storage bins of the gentiles in Lisokovo at night, or into the abandoned Jewish homes, in order to find food. A group of them took off for Lisokovo one night. Among these were Joel Pomeranietz, Pesach Benditovich, Boruch Volpovich, and Shlomo Kravchik's two daughters. Not far from the potato storage pits, Jonah Borukhansky proposed that he and Pesach Benditovich should go first, in order to be safer. Boruch Volpovich did not agree, and he went first with Shlomo Kravchik's daughters. It was a bright night, and on top of this, the snow glistened strongly. They reached the potato storage pits near the Bazalianer Gasse, and as quickly as they started to throw potatoes into their sack, they suddenly heard whistling coming from the bridge, and at the same moment, bullets started to fly over their heads. Jonah and Pesach, who were together, left the potatoes and began to crawl on all fours back in the direction of the earthen bunker. The night passed, but the rest of the people did not return. In the morning, they learned that Boruch Volpovich had been killed in the volley of bullets 50 meters from the potato storage pits, and both of Shlomo Kravchik's daughters were captured alive by the Germans. A few days later, the Germans shot both of the girls at the Jewish cemetery. Two days later, Gershon Mezheritzky also fell as a martyr at the hands of the German murderers.

It was in this fashion that the group of Jews from Lisokovo grew smaller. Those that remained alive, went around in the cold winter days, barefoot and hungry looking here and there for a potato with which to sustain life. The gentiles of Janina related sympathetically to the hungry, and one or another of them would give them something to eat. By contrast, the gentiles of Kopichka continuously warned them that they would reveal their whereabouts to the Germans. One of the Kopichka peasants took them into his barn where he had his stable. He and another gentile grabbed the hungry young people by the throat making to choke them, and they wanted to turn them over to the police. And when it became possible for the Jews – miraculously – to get out of the talons of these gentiles, they sicced their dogs on them, who bit them to the point of drawing blood. When the gentiles of the nearby black forest found out about the earthen bunker, they would come to the Jews and demand money, threatening them that if they didn't receive money, they would inform on the Jews. Among this group of gentiles were several that were known to Joel Pomeranietz, and he warned them, that if the gentiles won't leave the Jews alone, they would surrender themselves to the Germans, so that everyone would know that it was because of them that the Jews martyred themselves. This made an impression on the Christians that Joel knew, and it influenced them to leave the Jews in their earthen bunker alone.

The hungry Jews had to forage farther and farther away to seek nourishment for their emaciated bodies. They would range as far as Rozalin, a trek of about 15 kilometers. There in Rozalin, they met up with Tzivia Kobrinsky from Lisokovo, who had hidden out with a Christian woman that was known to her. They took Tzivia back with them, and with the potatoes slung over their backs, they returned to the earthen bunker.

Periodically, the Jews in the earthen bunker were visited by the bandits in the area, who warned them not to come into the villages for foodstuffs. Also, the Germans threatened the peasants with execution if they help out Jews in the forest. The plight of the hungry Jews became much more serious as a result of this.

They survived under these conditions until the new year, when finally, at the beginning of January 1943, a miracle happened. Two men came into the earthen bunker, dressed in fur coats and felt hats, with machine guns in hand. It was dark in the bunker, and Joel Pomeranietz was sitting and reciting the Psalms. The two men interrogated the residents of the bunker discovered the entire story of their struggle to survive. They explained in Russian that they were partisans. The fear immediately vanished from the pale Jewish faces, when the men ordered a guard be posted near the earthen bunker, and they then left the place. Immediately in the morning, the partisans returned with a doctor. The doctor tended to their frozen wounds, and bandaged them. They were

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brought together with a group of about twenty Jews from Pruzhany, and all of them together were taken by the partisans from the black forest to their command headquarters, where they joined the organized partisan movement. They survived difficult conditions of hunger and cold, and most eventually fell into the hands of the enemy or fell in battle with the enemy. Only a single few remained alive, and among them was Jonah Borukhansky, our witness, and Joseph Mezheritzky. Both today are in Israel.

David Kahana (Yakhvidovich), the Slonim teacher and partisan, whose articles about his experiences living with the partisans in the forests were printed in the New York Der Tag, was one of the first of the living Jews who survived that visited the areas around Bialystok and Volkovysk after the liberation. What he gleaned from his stop in Lisokovo during his visit is described by him in the following words:

“After the area was liberated by the Red Army, only 12 people returned to Lisokovo from the forests; among them, seven men, four women, and one child, a six year-old girl. They took up residence in Mezheritzky's house. There, they established a collective on a cooperative basis, headed by Reb Joel the Tailor. Reb Joel sat a whole day, and tailored for the peasants, for which he received food as remuneration, as well as dairy products. The women were occupied with the washing and cooking of the food. Reb Joel, a man in his sixties, being in the forest with other partisans, was unable to observe the Jewish laws of Kashrut, but now he abides by the old tradition fastidiously, he is observant, and prays three times daily. When he found out that a gentile in a nearby village had a Torah scroll, he investigated how to rescue the Torah scroll from gentile hands. His disappointment was monumental when he discovered that the Torah scroll had been torn into shreds.”

Translator's footnotes:

1. See prior note regarding Pomerantz family in Krzemienica Return
2. Called a zemlyanka in Russian. Return

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