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I am 35 years old today, and I was born in Zhetl, in the Slonim District. Sixteen years ago, I was taken into military service, and as a soldier, I entered the third regiment, Sluzhb Konyikh^[1], that was stationed in Volkovysk. At the end of my military service, I remained in Volkovysk, and I married a daughter of the Kraselnik family, known by the nickname, ‘Die Brukirer^[2].’ I arranged for independent domicile, and lived all the while on the Neuer Gasse. As a first class craftsman^[3], I had a good living, and was able to amass a good amount of wealth, and I had the plan of buying Feinstein's house, whose plan was to emigrate to the Land of Israel. I had a good life with my wife, and derived much nachas from our wonderful children: from our daughter – who was beautiful – literally like a doll, and from our son, who was already eight years old, and excelled in intellect and appearance. All fathers are proud of their children – but this boy enchanted all the neighbors, acquaintances, and the schoolteachers, who were quick to round out the praise for his many talents.

I was a member of the fire fighters, and on the last day of the Polish regime, we, the fire fighters, with Khantov as our head, received control of the city; – the Polish Army did not stop retreating. The last to leave were a cavalry detachment, who burst into the city at night, with sabers drawn, and for the entire night, “retreated” from the city, amidst plunder and abuse, killing seven Jews – among them – Makov, Itcheh the Dancer, Yos'keh Galiatsky, and other innocent victims. By “fortunate circumstance,” the pogrom didn't last long, they were forced to flee quickly for their skins and their lives: – The following morning, there wasn't a trace of them left. The tanks of the Red Army began to roll into the city. The impact made by these tanks was as if they had fallen from heaven, and will never leave me forever. Menaker the Shoemaker (the head of the communists) climbed up on one of them, and rode through the city like a ‘conqueror.’ On that same day, this seventy year old Jew, with a rifle on his shoulder, went to the notorious anti-Semite – Timinsky – who had organized the pogrom, arrested him, and turned him over to the Soviet regime.

A Soviet way of life was introduced, with all of its virtues and shortcomings; – Jews became used to this new life, assumed positions, worked and lived. There were ‘purges,’ arrests, the rich were exiled to Siberia (among them Yoss'l Ain, Bogomilsky, Dr. Bebchuk, Meir Seletsky), but in general, you could not say that the Jews were without rights. – It was felt, that we could survive the dark war under these conditions, and we will get to better times. But this was just a dream. On June 24, 1941, the bitter and harsh day arrived: – over Volkovysk, a row of German planes appeared, and they began to bomb the city mercilessly: there were air battles that lasted for six days. Volkovysk was bombed not only as a city that had military targets, but as the fortress of Verdun! Day and night, without surcease, and all of their targets were in the Jewish quarter. Only the Jews. They were killed, buried in cellars by the hundreds. In the cellar of Moshe Margolis, so many people were killed, that it took three consecutive days to bury all the dead, without being able to identify who

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was killed. The entire city, the entire Jewish center, the Wide Boulevard, the Schulhof, the circle of stores, Kosciuszko Gasse, Grodno Gasse, The Train Station Gasse – all went up in flames; – Only the Neuer Gasse remained, part of the Novogrudsky Gasse, part of the Grodno Gasse, the part at the ‘foot of the hill,’ a large part of hub of the city – in particular the Christian – and the Jewish – was completely destroyed; – to the extent that if you stood in Zamoscheh at the soda store of Nye'cheh – you could see the white jail house! … this entire area, made up of Jewish homes and businesses, synagogues, factories, establishments – a place where Jewish commerce and labor flowered – was transformed into a islands of wreckage. In this manner, the situation was created by which the entire Jewish population concentrated itself on the Neuer Gasse and its environs. Every little room – a family, and there really was no need to drive them into a ghetto. The ‘ghetto’ came about ‘naturally.’…

Immediately after the Germans entered the city, a severe hunger set in, and there was nothing to eat. The gentiles plundered the stores abandoned by the Russians, and they had their pick of everything, and the Jews, scarred by fire, missing everything, would go to ask for foodstuffs from the gentiles. Many young people were arrested immediately on the excuse that they were communists – and they were taken outside the city and shot; – if it became possible for one of these young people to get away and flee – the gentiles apprehended him, and turned him over to the Germans. All Jews over the age of six were forced to wear a white band with a blue Star of David on their arm. – afterwards, they were changed to yellow badges; a prohibition to walk on the sidewalks was enacted, only in the middle of the street with the horses, cattle and wagons. Commerce was forbidden, it was forbidden to own a horse, cow, etc. A l was established, which had as members, Dr. Weinberg, Dr. Seletsky, Noah Fuchs, Berel Amstibovsky, Sham'keh Samiel, and Israel Gurevich. The office of the Judenrat was also on the Neuer Gasse, opposite the house of the rag merchant. Its job was to provide conscripted labor to fill the various filthy orders of the German regime. Beside the Judenrat, there even was an auxiliary Jewish police, initially with Khantov at its head, and afterwards headed by a Galician Jew named Glatt. Clouds of darkness spread over our heads, as they began to abuse the Jewish populace and specific individuals. They used Jews to punish Jews, and with the help of Jews. Only God to take pity on us. But he was far from us – very far!

On my street, on the Neuer Gasse, a bomb fell, and the children were covered with shards of glass. I extracted the children, and fled with them in bare feet to a field in Karczyzna. In my haste, I took only the bicycle. The house was on fire. I also had a cow. She was in the pasture. Towards evening I waited for her on return from the meadow, and I took her with me into the field, in the place we had bedded down in Karczyzna. There, one of the employees of the railroad approached me, and proposed that I sell him the bicycle. I did a deal with him. I gave him the bicycle in exchange for a blind horse and wagon. I tied the cow to the wagon, and together with my wife and children, we set out in the direction of Zhetl, where I had a father, four brothers and two sisters. The Germans were there already also, however they hadn't handled people badly. And after the tribulations of Volkovysk – I breathed easier here. In this way, about a week went by. On the eighth day, they ordered all the Jews from age seven to seventy to gather in the marketplace square, to form rows, and they told them to sing and dance. This went on for three hours. The Christians stood beside their houses, on their balconies, holding their hands to their bellies and rolling with laughter. After three hours of this, they chose 120 men (from what we learned later: they were sent to Novogrudok and shot them to death), ordered everyone to put on yellow badges, and to return home. After a short while, another order was issued to turn over gold, jewelry and money: – and when the Jews were brought together on the market square, for purpose of turning over their assets and what they had worked for so hard – a German felt around in the pocket of one woman, and found a gold ring, and he then shot her to death in front of everyone else. At the same time, they organized work details that worked for the Germans, and in this way, 8-9 months went by. We had already heard about the massacres in Slonim, Kozlovshchina, and in the towns of the vicinity, but we thought the evil would pass us by: we worked for the Wehrmacht, and our ‘Overseer,’ was not all bad. In the meantime, a ghetto was put into the town. They assembled the Jews into

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two streets, fenced them off with barbed wire – at the height of a man, with a gate, and we would have to pass through it on our way to work, under police guard.

On May 1, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded, and they ordered everyone to go out to the old cemetery for the purpose of receiving new ‘papers.’ Part of the people hid themselves in ‘hideaways,’ that everyone had prepared individually in the ghetto. At seven in the morning, when the Germans reached the place, and saw that very few people were coming – they went to the houses and took them out of their hiding places and gathered together three thousand people. My family and I lay in a hideaway, and they didn't find us. On the square they ordered that people form up in rows, and they began a selection: right, left! It became clear that this was a matter involving death – but they didn't know which way was death – to the right side, or the left side!… they gathered 1800 people together, and took them for a distance of a kilometer – to the outskirts of the town – and there they saw huge pits, ready. Gentiles from the two villages had dug them during the night, and machine guns stood not far from them… they started to bring twenty people at a time.. They shot them – into the pit… except for the last 60, there was no room left in the pits – so they sent them back to town, and they told how people tore their hair out, pulled out their teeth, went crazy, how the air was shaken with the screams and wailing, how the elderly Rabbi of Zhetl did not stop praying, reciting verses of the Psalms from memory, the confession of Avinu Malkeinu, and of Ashamnu, Bagadnu; But when he saw with his own eyes, that they were killing people by shooting them, and tossing them into the pits like slaughtered cattle, he had a change of attitude, and began to rail against the heavens, shouting with his last strength: here, is this the justice of the Law, here, merciful and considerate God, what has my precious and pure congregation done to deserve this?!… he pulled out the hair of his beard, tore the shirt on his back, and with hands outstretched to the heavens – was taken to the slaughter!

My uncle Leizer Kovensky, a jolly and alert Jewish man, one of the people from whom advice was sought in the city, and my uncle Shmuel Kovensky, with his father – had a bottle of whiskey. They drank the whiskey, recited their confession, lay down together, and were shot. The entire process didn't take more than two hours!

The survivors returned to their homes with broken families, without husbands, without wives, without children; those that were in hiding came out, and were forced to go back to work.

Eight weeks had not gone by, when they again surrounded the ghetto, and ordered everyone out onto the market square. My family and I, and 50 other people, were hidden in a bunker, but this time they found us, and took us all out to the marketplace square. When we arrived at the marketplace square, we met five hundred people already there, who lay with their heads on the ground, with boots off, they also made us get down on the ground, telling us to take our shoes off as well, and let us lie there for a half an hour. Afterwards, they ordered us to get up, arranged us into rows, and told us to go in the direction of the pits. Along the way, wives became separated from their husbands, their children, struggling, screaming, insanity… trapped together, we were led along the street to the cemetery… on our way, we ran into those who were already killed – men and women – lying in the gutters. At the corner of the street stood the SS commander – the overseer of the slaughter, with a detachment of Germans, and they chose a quantity of people from the rows. When he saw me – he said snappily: – Rimmermeister! – Kopf hier! My wife and children held onto me, and didn't want to let me go… and at that moment, they shot my wife… she fell at my feet like a sheaf of grain… the boy begged – don't shoot me, I am only 8½ years old! A bullet ended his begging. They dragged me and threw me into a stable, a place where there were already several hundred people – and they locked us in for two days. The rest of the people were taken to the pits, and they killed every last one of them. The ground heaved for three straight days, and the blood did not stop from running out of the pits – that's what the peasants told us. In the town, not a single Jewish soul remained alive. I, along with 212 people who had been detained in the stable, were sent to a camp in Novogrudok that had approximately 4000 people in

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it, who were divided up int detachments and did a variety of work for the army. After being there for eight days there – and seeing that the whole deal was leading to oblivion – they gave no food, and treated us with cruelty – 14 of us organized ourselves, and we escaped into the Zhetl forest in the middle of the night, from behind the wires.

When we escaped, we had only one pistol among all of us. During the day, we would sleep in the forest, and with the night, we would get up and go to look for bread and anything else in addition to it. – because we knew the area well, we knew which of the peasants had Soviet arms; we would come at night, wake him up from his sleep, and ask him to give us his rifle, – and if not, we told him to grab a shovel and start digging a hole for himself. In regards to food, we didn't run into difficulty, but regarding armaments, we had to deal pretty harshly with them, to the point where the children would start to cry and beg: father, give them the rifle – so that they don't kill you… in this manner, we accumulated arms for 14 men. After being 12 days in the forest, we decided to send 5 men to make contact with the larger groups of partisans, about whom we had heard, and who were partly composed of Jews who had fled the massacres, and Red Army personnel who had stayed behind. I and four others went out on this expedition to a certain village, and asked a peasant who was known to us, whether anyone from the partisans comes there at night; the peasant showed us a path, and according to the tracks, we entered the forest, and after a few hours of wandering around the forest, we ran into the watch – a Jew with a rifle.

When he saw us approaching, he aimed his rifle at me…

Hold on there, my fellow Jew, I rebuked him. After so many slaughtered Jews – you're the first Jew ready to fire a bullet! Blessings upon you, and please tell us, how can we reach your commander? – I related to him who I was, and he gave me a password to the commander. Deeper in the forest, around a campfire, there were several hundred armed men, Jews and soldiers, with the commander in their midst – a Russian Lieutenant. I came up to him, and explained to him where I had come from, and that with me there are fourteen men, all armed. He told us to come, and that we would be together. I sent 2 men and they brought the nine others. Once we were together, we decided what we have to do from now on: we sent people into the forest, and gathered together all the small groups, and in a short time, we had organized about us a complete brigade of 1000 men – all of them armed from head to toe. – The Russian Army had sunk a great deal of weaponry in the Shchara River – so we dragged a great deal of weaponry out of the river, including even a couple of tanks. In our area, another group of Jews from Dereczin were active, headed by the well-known Dr. [Yekhezkiel] Atlas. They did not want to join us; they were beautifully organized, and operated their own forces. The name of the group was: The Atlas Battalion. Once, Dr. Atlas came to us with five men, and proposed that we go blow up the bridge across the Neman River. Our commander agreed, and appointed me to go with another person from Zhetl – Medvetsky – to support Atlas. We fished out underwater shells from the river, dried them out, and from the villages, we obtained from the peasants gunpowder and six bottles of turpentine, and in the middle of the night, we went to the Bilitz Bridge. In our stealthy approach, the first thing we did was roll the German sentry into the river, he should only be known to the wolves living in that river, and then after the blessing of ‘Bowray Me-owray HaEsh,^[4]’ we blew up the bridge. This sort of work was very pleasing to Dr. Atlas, who came to ask the commander to transfer me to him as a battalion commander. With his consent, I transferred to Atlas, and became head of the battalion. It happens that in that battalion, there were many Jews from the town of Kozlovshchina. When all the commanders got together, we established that we had forces required to launch an attack, and on one clear morning, we fell upon the town, and fought the Germans for four hours. I used a ‘Maxim,’ the machine gun with 259 cartridges of 13 caliber. The Germans put up a stiff resistance – but we broke into the center of the town, set fire to it on all sides, we

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killed 30 military police, and we captured the SS commander who had conducted the massacre, and brought him alive into the forest. In the forest, we untied him, and from the same rope, we fashioned a stout noose, and hung him like Haman from the first tree we could find that was suitable… it was in this fashion that the Jews of Kozlovshchina took revenge for the spilling of the blood of the Jews in Kozlovshchina, and the aging Rabbi of Kozlovshchina, whom they dragged behind a wagon, and afterwards was buried alive. This attack was lead by a Russian Lieutenant Bulat, who was missing one hand.

In the meantime, the groups grew daily, and in time, the strength of the partisan forces grew substantial in the forest, and it created earthen bunkers, equipped itself with horses, cattle, a great deal of weaponry and cannons. After a time, an attack on Dereczin was organized. We surrounded it on all sides, and we set the streets on fire, we killed many Germans and took them prisoner, we captured horses and armaments. Towards the end of 1942, the Germans sent a very strong force against us. They surrounded the forest, and we carried on a battle with them for three straight days. We lost many men, among them Dr. Atlas, the Jewish Hero with such a gentle soul, the fearless warrior commander. May he rest in peace! He died beside me, and his last words were: be strong and take courage, my brother, take vengeance for the spilled blood of our brethren, of our unfortunate people! We brought him to final rest on a hillock in the forest, and we honored him as a partisan, and we surrounded his grave with shell casings – the Jewish partisans knew where the final resting place of their commandant was – and perhaps some day, they will bring him to be buried in Israel. Seeing that the German forces were superior to ours, we set ourselves a course, and retreated back into the forests of Slonim.

During the siege, we sustained ourselves with a few potatoes, or from small handfuls, and the people were ravenously hungry. The Russian officers sent [troops] into the surrounding villages to bring food – however, little was given to the Jews. Then I sent several men from my group to bring food. However, along the way, the Germans rained down a hail of bullets on them, and they returned empty-handed. Out of intense anger, I returned to the forests we came from with my group. The following morning, the commander came to me all heated up: who gave you permission to leave the battalion!? I answered him, that when I saw my group was hungry – therefore, I could not be with him. Meanwhile, he sensed that two of the women partisans did not have their arms. – Where are the rifles? – he turned and asked. They explained to him, that in their escape from the siege, they threw their rifles away. He took down his rifle, and shot the two girls on the spot^[5], and pointed his rifle at me. – Shoot, I said to him, if I deserve it! He relented from using the rifle… – True, he said – you don't deserve it, and just remember that this time I forgive you!

We returned again to the brigade.

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In a short while, a group of paratroopers reached us – 112 men, directors, officers and troops. They took over the leadership of the partisan movement completely. They asked the leadership for four people who know the area very well, the roads and the rail lines. The leader designated me as one of their escort. In this manner, I was transferred tot he paratroop battalion, in which I participated in various partisan actions, I blew up 19 German trains, I destroyed rail lines, and when the Red Army crossed the border into Byelorussia, we delayed the German trains for two straight weeks between Minsk and Baranovich. Under the command of the paratroopers, a standing partisan army of approximately seventy thousand men was organized, in the wastes of [the] Naliboki [Forest], between Baranovich and Stalovičy, that encompassed entire districts, that would regularly receive arms and tools for sabotage from the air, directly from Moscow, and transport the wounded to Moscow, where they could be treated in Russian hospitals.

In 1943, the Germans launches a mighty siege against the Naliboki wastes. Through espionage, they discovered the extent of our forces, and on one bright morning, a full German Division surrounded the forest, with tanks and planes. They went through the entire forest, and we fought them for fifteen days. Being a good fighter, I excelled in many of battles, and I was awarded with the Medal of Honor, First Class of the partisans, and the Red Star, and an Order of Battle for the Fatherland, Second Class. In 1944, I was awarded the Order of Lenin.

On July 19, 1944, during a battle with the German guard near Stalovičy, I was designated with storm troopers to blow up German bunkers of concrete and steel. After exchanging fire for four hours, we could not get the upper hand over the Germans, who dug themselves into their bunkers, and rained heavy fire down on us – we received an order to attack the bunkers frontally with hand grenades. We stormed the bunkers and succeeded in getting two grenades inside, against the tanks that were inside the bunkers, where 18 Germans lay. All of them were blown into the air. In running from this bunker, I was fired upon with a machine gun from a second bunker about five meters away, and the fingers of my right hand were shot off. Because of swiftness, I was able to mount my horse (I was a horseman), forded the Neman, with a boot full of blood – and I swam to the rapid aid provided by the partisans, which was on the second side of the Neman. They bandaged my hand, and brought me 10 kilometers deeper into the forest, where there was a sanitary station. My fingers were supposed to be amputated, and there was no anesthetic to put me to sleep. Out of great pain, I gritted my teeth to the point where they broke slightly. Then, my partisan comrade Boruch Levin came over to me, and with a fist placed near my mouth said: take and bite my hand – and to the doctor – cut!….

When I got a little better – they sent me to our aerodrome station in the forest, and from there, by plane to Moscow. There, I lay in various hospitals for eight months. My hand was operated on twice. As a Hero of the Soviet Union, I enjoyed the best attention and care. After my recuperation, I returned to my home areas, which had by them\n already been liberated. However, I met not a single person, only one grave after another. I came to Zhetl with a cluster of the partisans that remained, and we erected a memorial to our exterminated brothers and sisters, above their common grave. From Zhetl, I walk to the city where I had spent the best of my years, where I had married my wife, and where my beloved children were born, who were so dear to me. The heartwarming city of Volkovysk. But there, I did not even find graves! All the Jews of Volkovysk had been turned into ashes in the crematoria of Treblinka and Auschwitz… It was in my heart to simply spread myself out, down on the ground, and weep without end… A familiar gentile (Bulyash Sharyika) ran into me, and asked me into his house, to sit down, and asked if I wanted something to eat? No, I said, I am full, you're welcome; but out of our friendship, give me a little ashes!… I took the ashes, and spread them on my head, I went out to the street and sat on a rock. I sat Shiva for my wife, my children, and the dear Jews of Volkovysk… The gentiles looked at me in sympathy for my sorrow. Well, I said to them, now you have it good, there are no more Jews – will you now live forever? They attempted to justify themselves: we are not responsible for this thing, we did not get involved… in the place where the hammer and sickle reign – there is still some respect for the Jew, and his life is not entirely forfeit!… I went out to look for the solitary Jewish

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partisans, who had remained in the city, I took my leave of them, threw my knapsack over my shoulder, and went out on the road. Through cities and towns that had been destroyed, towns without Jews!…It was like Yom Kippur – as if all the Jews were at synagogue during Kol Nidre – east to the Alps, through the Alps is the way to Israel!

The partisan Eliyahu Kovensky at the time he left the forest

1. This is a cavalry regiment. As a Rimmer, this was a logical assignment for Kovensky. Return
2. Derived from the trade of laying stone bricks to make a roadway. Return
3. From what we see later, we can deduce that Kovensky was a Rimmer, or a fashioner of leather harnesses and reins for horses. It may also account for the fact that he was a capable horseman as well. Return
4. From the Saturday night Havdalah Blessing prior to lighting the ritual candle. Return
5. Shelovsky, Feyge - (Fanya), Daughter of Yitzhak & Rachel. Born in Dereczin. Fled with her family into the Lipiczany forests, and joined the Pobeda Brigade.
   During the sortie, she participated in all battles. When the pressured partisans were surrounded, many hid their weapons, lest they fall into German hands. When her unit returned to its base, she was asked for her weapon, and she explained where she had hidden it. The commander, Bulak sentenced her and her companion, Bella Becker to death, while other non-Jewish partisans, who had left their weapons behind, were held free from harm.
   The Dereczin Memorial Book, p. 317 (see also, p. 310)
   The account by Kovensky varies from that found in the DMB. In a conversation with Gutka Boyarsky-Salutsky on 27Aug01, she favors the DMB account, which states that the girls were first taken back to camp and then shot. Gutka remembers Kovensky very well as one of her partisan comrades in the Naliboki Forest. Return

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Enough has been told about the tragedy of Volkovysk, and there are more important people than I to write about the different details; but I think that what is appropriate beyond the sorrow, is to remember our martyrs, and to memorialize a different set of fact, that the Jews of Volkovysk, wherever they may be found, need to know about the measure of faith and the gentle feelings that their brothers and sisters revealed particularly on the doorstep into oblivion, under the sword of the murderers, the low, bestial Nazis.

The first war objective of the Nazi beasts in Volkovysk was the Jewish population; even before a Nazi foot stepped into the city, they bombed, burned, wiped out and murdered specifically Jews, Jewish houses, the Schulhof, and everything that belonged to the Jews.

From the first day of their conquest, they assured that there would be no help from our “good friends,” in the non-Jewish populace, and from previously prepared lists, they ordered daily arrests of alleged communists, as it were.

They would incarcerate the arrested people in the white jailhouse, that remained intact after the bombing, and when a set number of people were accumulated, they would take them out to the Mayak groves and kill them by shooting. There were previously dug graves there, prepared by Christian workers, and afterward by conscripted Jewish labor, who were forced to dig graves, and bury our martyrs afterwards.

Among the victims were: Leizer Bliakher, Shaul Markus, Elkeh Gamm, Michael Mazya, Panter, Tzirulnitsky, Khvonyik, Manya Movshovsky and her husband, Berman (who was a bookkeeper in the Kolontai company), Kalir, Novick and others.

By coincidence, I happened to be present when Novick received an order to present himself to the police. Seeing that his first name was not on the order, I suggested that he should send his father, because it was possible that the Germans would send an older man home. The elder Novick also thought this was the case, and he requested that his son give him the “invitation,” but he didn't want to hide behind his elderly father's ‘apron’ and forcibly made his way out of the house and went to the police, and as you can understand, he never returned from there; and not many days went by before the elderly Novick, ע"ה died from sorrow and anger.

Pes'sha Gamm (Galiatsky). After Gamm fled with the Soviets, she remained in Volkovysk with her darling wonderful child. Her sister-in-law Elkeh Gamm lived with her. When the police came to ask for Elkeh Gamm, Pes'sha argued that she didn't know anything about her, and when the murderers threatened her and her child with death, if she doesn't reveal the whereabouts of Elkeh, even then, she did not stop denying any knowledge of her whereabouts… but Elkeh was in the second room, and listened to the entire conversation; she understood the seriousness of the Nazi threats, came out of the room, and turned herself over to the hands of the murderers…

In one of the transports that they were in the custom of taking from the jail for purposes of shooting executions, there were less than a full quota of people. The murderers, it seems, wanted to save themselves some work, in handling prisoners for this purpose. In this connection, they notified the Judenrat that by a given hour, they had to provide a specific number of people… after a tragic meeting, the Judenrat decided to provide a number of insane and crippled people, and it was in this way that they filled the order…

I must add here, that during the time of the worst of these troubles, when it was sufficient for a Christian to utter the name of a Jew, and that would immediately cause that Jew to be thrown in to Jail to await his fate; after the decree to wear yellow badges, the prohibition to walk on the sidewalks, and all the other perverted

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rules that were in full force, and when forced German [house] searches were conducted, despite all of this, Volkovysk was like a “Garden of Eden” compared to other cities in Byelorussia, Lithuania and the Ukraine.

The first death blow that Volkovysk received by the standards of the times, came with the murder of the Jewish doctors. I will not dwell on the details of this murder, which has been covered adequately, but to relate the incident of the tragic end of Fanya Tropp, the wife of the refined and quiet Dr. Tropp ע”ה: After the murder of the doctors, Fanya Tropp was left with two lovely children, twins. She didn't rest or relax in her sole desire to get her children settled, and to end her own life, which had no value to her without her husband.

The murdered Tropp had developed a good relationship with a former municipal official named Falko, a Christian. This Christian had been killed by the Germans even before the murder of the doctors, because he had been informed upon that he was a high official under the Soviets. After Fanya Tropp remained in the same situation as Falko's wife, the Christian woman was willing to take the Tropp children to her, because they had already announced the transfer of the Jews to the bunkers near the barracks. However, it seems that this Christian lady could not stand up to the objections of her Christian neighbors, and she was forced to return the children to their mother. The latter, did not, under any circumstance, want to allow herself to be relegated to the bunkers and simply wait there for death. She then grabbed her children and went up to a German policeman and begged him to shoot them all. However, the German forcefully told her that he would not do so without an order… in the midst of a resolute conviction to put an end to this sort of life, Fanya Tropp hurried home, took three doses of poison from the medicines that belonged to her husband, and took her children to the destroyed Schulhof, where she herself swallowed a does of poison, and quickly wanted to give doses to her children, but the children, aged 6-7 wanted to live, and thought their mother had gone mad… they tore out of her half-dead grasp, and ran to tell the neighbors about the poisoning of their mother, and that she wanted to poison them as well… Mrs. Shalakhovich, the aunt of the children, was forced, to her great sorrow, to take the children, and bring them to the bunkers… how terrifying it was to see how good people, hungry and in a state of exhaustion themselves, nourished the orphans of Dr. Tropp, from their own rancid remnants of bread…

Apart from a few incidents of egotism and selfishness, the Jewish Volkovysk populace conducted itself with dedication and self-sacrifice in the highest degree, in particular during the most terrifying times of the transports, in the compilation of the lists of the ‘unnecessary’ Jews that were supposed to be loaded up to be taken to Treblinka…and the able-bodied Jews, capable of work, who were to remain behind to do work…

Strong, and healthy young men, like the Gandz brothers, Avreml Yunovich, and many others (because of my own bitter experiences later in Auschwitz, I have forgotten their names) were, according to the rules, able-bodied, and could remain in the camp, but their courageous position from which they could not be dissuades was: we are going together without wives and children, or without parents. Even those who remained behind, did so only because of the intense pleading, the weeping and begging of their families, who out of the great love for their husbands, sons or wives, did not want to drag them along as well to death, so long as the murderers themselves did not demand it.

Yes, there once was a city called Volkovysk, in which lived a variety of people, good, better, bad, etc. But the end was the grave, the crematoria, and despite all other manners of death, fate had demanded of us, the few survivors, to witness their willingness to give, the selfless personal sacrifice of our martyrs from Volkovysk.

May their memory be for a blessing.

Tel-Aviv, Passover Eve 5706 (1946)

Lag B'Omer in Volkovysk

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Today is the first day of Khol HaMoed of Passover. One meets with acquaintances, shakes hands, exchanges ‘Happy Holiday’ blessings, and ‘Festivals for Happiness’ greetings, and the question immediately arises as to how the Seder was conducted, and how was the Haggadah recited, did the knaidlach turn out well, etc.

And here comes Joseph Kotliarsky, the first one to tell us exactly about the destruction of our city, and its dear Jewish residents. He comes now from Kfar-Saba, where he conducted his first Seder in Israel together with his family.

Him I do not ask how the Seder went this time around. But I am eager to find out how the Seder was conducted beforehand.

Yes, he says, last year I was in Dachau for Passover, but you won't be interested about the Seder in Dachau, because like on all other nights, also on “this night,” we looked through the garbage for a potato peel, and if two or three of us saw such a peel, every one of us wanted to have this great find.

Probably not of you thought, that in conducting the Seder, and in eating the knaidlach, that especially now, as you carry out the Seder ritual, and recite the prayer, ‘let those who are needy [come and eat]…’ that you preserve the names of the Jews on a piece of potato peel.

Two years ago, during Passover, I was in Auschwitz, and I don't have anything to tell about the Seder, because in place of Matzo, knaidlach, a Haggadah, and related items, we received beatings, hard labor, selections, and the recognition that sooner or later all of us would serve as fuel for the huge crematoria, and this recognition was so deeply instilled in us, that we didn't have the will to think as to whether we had any relationship to life. However, in the Passover of three years ago, the first Passover in Auschwitz, after Volkovysk, I sat at the Seder and didn't even eat any leavened food for all the days of Passover…

The first day of Passover at that time fell on a Monday, and on Friday, the eve of Shabbat HaGadol, a larger transport of Jews was brought from Greece. As you can understand, the Jews brought Matzo with them, raisins, and other Passover things.

On that same Shabbat HaGadol, the murderers had already brought the Greek Jews to the crematoria, and among their possessions that the Jews counted, there were those who managed to snatch a little Matzo, and some raisins…

There were 8 of us people, who were designated to run a Seder in our block….

As usual, everyone was forced to go to bed and to put out all lights by nine o'clock in the evening, and heaven help the individual that the block supervisor, the Pole Leon, found [even] a couple of minutes after nine, and not lying down in his bunk…

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And so, at precisely nine, we went to lay down on our bunks, and with an excited heart, we waited for the appointed hour. At ten o'clock, when there was nobody was around that would cause someone to endanger their lives by leaving their bunk, we all came down, and with great care, slipped several sticks into the stove – so that in the worst case, we could justify our presence by claiming we were trying to warm ourselves up near the fire – and we started the Seder… We had succeeded in obtaining two Matzos and some raisins that we had soaked in water in place of wine, and an old worn out Haggadah that we had managed to secure in advance, that we had rescued from amongst the books that used to be thrown about after their owners were incinerated…

When we sat down to the ‘Dinner Table…’ on the ground…. we looked at on another, and we all burst out into bitter tears… However, even this was a form of luxury for us, because our crying was likely to attract the attention of the brutal Pole, Leon.

We remained sitting silently, and mumbled a blessing over the Matzo and wine, quietly to ourselves…

And so we sat until half past midnight, and the subject of our conversation was about life in Auschwitz. One asked the other, what they were willing to pay to get free. One would say he was prepared to let them take a had, or a foot, while others said that they were prepared to give up their lives, so long as they would be allowed to die like human beings, and not to have to die by such macabre means, along with tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters, that are being brought on a daily basis from all corners of the earth…

The transport of the Greek Jews was a large one; and they did not manage to incinerate all of them on Shabbat HaGadol, and Sunday was a holiday for the murderers, and literally in those same moments when we were arranging our Seder, we saw the bright flames of the furnaces in the distance, where the Jews from Greece were being burned, who because of their Matzo and raisins, we were able to perform the mitzvah of eating Matzo…

Before dawn, at approximately five o'clock, we went out to work as usual, and we tried hard for them not to detect any tiredness in us from the sleepless prior night of the Seder.

On that Passover, I conducted a great many transactions in the camp; I traded my bread for potatoes with various people, and with great difficulty, managed to fulfil my decision not to eat leavened food.

Tel-Aviv, 1946
Sh. B.

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Is this all true?… Can it be possible that such a thing happened? – Yes, 10, 20, 50 Jews, but all of Volkovysk without an exception – the Dayan, the Shames, the Shokhet u'Bodek^[1], the Rabbi, the Zionist, the communist, the old, the young, grandmothers and grandchildren, and the cream of Volkovysk youth, all of them without exception?… Yes, yes, it did happen, everything and everybody were massacred by the uncivilized accursטd murderers, who trod on them with their bloodstained boots. In an accelerated short time, and with a deliberate speed, starting with November 2, 1942 on Monday morning, when the wild shout reached our ears in Volkovysk: Everyone is going to the bunkers, (special pits dug out of the ground without a window or door), we understood that this was the beginning of our slaughter. Our hearts did not permit us to believe that it would happen in the way it finally did, but we did suspect that something of this nature would occur. I “saw the Slonim Massacre,” these are strange words, “to see” a “massacre?” What did you see with your own eyes? – By what means did you get there? The truth of the matter is, that I don't really know how I got there, apparently by mistake, but when I cast a glance at my left arm, and I see the number tattooed there, I begin to understand myself a little, and I begin to recollect what I saw with my own eyes, impossible things, that took place there in a routine manner, they distinguished between the young and the old, between men and women, that is to say, between those who could perform work, and those who could not, the divided up and deceived the congregation, and the congregation deceived itself because the will to live did exist, and life seems to be hateful to you, and is being stripped from those around you and from yourself. It was perceived that the area in the ghetto was better, more secure – and because of this, some fled there. Others [ran] from there to here, thinking it was better here – rushing to get here. Making themselves a source of mockery and derision to the murdering Germans, because they know that there is no escape from them, because wherever they are found you are, Jude – his religion is to be put to death, and in order to deceive us, they turn a blind eye, and let us flee, and in exchange for this, they take bribes, several kilograms of gold, jewelry, suits, boots – this is openly; and secretly, they take everything from women's stockings to Singer sewing machines. All of this takes place in the context of an ongoing ‘action,’ and not the result of isolated incidents, until the energies of the people are sapped from running about and over-exerting themselves – then they approach their final goal, they load all these goods on buses … and send the Jews to do work… ‘In himmel commando…’ that is how they would express it.

In Volkovysk, which was in the occupied German territory that was part of the Third Reich, they did things differently, that is, they plundered and abused the Jews in a different way, people deluding themselves, because they wanted to live… they tell us that the Jews of Slonim, with the Rabbi at their head, were all communists, and that is why they were sent off to work … far away… but you, from Volkovysk, are counted in “Our Third Reich,” and we need you here, and you are only required to gather into the bunkers adjacent to the barracks, and from there, we see how to get you settled… and people are taken in by this deception…because the will to live is powerful, yes, the reader will find this totally incomprehensible: how could one place any faith in murderers like these, and why could they not see that their intention was not to provide work, but something else entirely? But, the old maxim applies: ‘Don't judge your neighbor until you have stood in his place.’ Indeed, I was in this condition, and I suffered through all of it, consequently, I am

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afforded the privilege of making an assessment; not to pass judgement, but rather to cast some light on the circumstances, and what happened there. People, parents of little children, and the grown children of aged parents, if something bad happens in the family, then everyone gets together, and one participates in the sorrow of the relative, even if not in a large way, then at least with a good word, or advice; if something more serious occurs, then the needed task unifies everyone. Now let us examine what took place there. I am reminded that very morning, the weather was actually quite pleasant, the fall was constantly rainy, but this day was nice, as if to frustrate the sun from breaking through the clouds, in order to watch how they were driving us into the bunkers; she is not ashamed at all the sight of what is being done to “The Chosen People,” on the contrary: she is an ally to the Poles, Byelorussians, and those watching the expulsion. All of us are walking, without any purpose of sense, all together, being driven, complete families, elderly and infants, and even the residents of the Old Age Home, if they are only capable of walking; they are walking to the bunkers, hugging each other, and calling out, Oh, how good! At least [we are] together. Look father, give me your hand, and we will go together, where?… for what purpose?… to whom?… no man knows, just everyone together. The grandfather exchanges kisses with his grandson, Ber'eleh, are you here too – and a tear falls from the grandfather's eyes, as he thinks: well, I'm am after all old, I have already lived out the skein of my life, and is not life a struggle on the face of the earth, what to do, my life is pushing on, I saved penny by penny, I raised my sons, I was privileged to see grandchildren, Ber'eleh goes to Heder already, and can read Hebrew properly already, and is beginning his study of the Pentateuch, it was perhaps the time to enjoy a little nachas, and suddenly, there is a war, the Nazis invade, they tell us to go, and here we are going. The heart of the old man does not foretell of any good to come of this, and his pity is totally for his young daughter with her dear infant, the little pure and unsullied cherub. But there is no time to contemplate the doings of the Almighty, don't probe that which is beyond you, and the grandfather and grandson walk on. The Nazis hit us with their truncheons, but despite this, there is a good feeling for being all together, because, if we are all together, they won't assault us as an entire group… or so we try to tell ourselves, because we yearn to live.

But when we arrive at the rancid bunkers, and encounter approximately 20,000 Jews, that is to say from the entire Volkovysk District, entire towns, with their officials, rich and poor alike, relatives meeting one another, in-laws one has not seen in a while. The pious see a sign from heaven in this, ‘the world is like an island,’ and if the forced travel requires separation from one's in-laws…The groups of young people look at one another ashamedly, young health and able young people, with no hope, everyone from our city was someone capable of doing anything, but here, they are paralyzed; What had essentially happened. At that moment, nobody took stock of the situation, because we weren't disposed to do so, because all our thoughts were focused on how to obtain some potato peelings and keep the infants alive, or a little bit of water to wash one's hands. A buyer is sought, perhaps a gentile, who would be willing to take a pair of boots for two glasses of milk and an egg, and when the boots are already in his hands, he doesn't give the egg, crying out that he had already given it; the Jew is not as willing to raise his voice, because this ‘transaction’ requires a bullet in the head. Despite this, the man walks off with the half bottle of milk in his hand, barefoot, but satisfied: – his young wife has a frail young boy, and such an item is nowhere to be found. The milk is looked on as if it were a remedy sent from heaven, and then we think: hey, only together, it is good that we are together. Not like in other places. And this is a sign that they need us. And once again, they allow themselves to be deluded. Until the end of November and the beginning of December, slowly, but surely, we extract this stupidity from our minds, and we begin to change our view, we start to understand that we are fooling ourselves. Nevertheless, entire families are together, with in-laws and relatives, and after all, they tell us we are all traveling together, going to work. And this is a bad sign. All of us going to work? – Eighty year-old women, little children, pregnant women, and women with newborns, to work? This is paradoxical, impossible, there is no more desire for self-delusion, and the depressing future is now perceived with open

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eyes. Rumors start spreading through the bunkers that they are first taken to Bialystock and then to ‘Treblinka,’ and what was there, nobody knows, except there is a feeling that this is somehow connected to the work, called ‘himmel commando.’ We were lodged in the bunkers for a total of 3-4 weeks, and no one was able to recognize even his own neighbor. And there is no wonder at all in this: Has any one of you tried to live in an earthen cellar for four weeks along with 600 people, that can only hold 80-90 people, without air, water, in hunger and cold, in a constant war with lice and crawling vermin… and it was no wonder that we didn't recognize one another. And with the trip, our gladness increased, because we were making the trip together in one train (even though these train cars were for horses and had no windows). Nobody knows how long the ride is, but despite the travails of the journey, we hoped it would go on forever. There was a perception, that with this trip, we were escaping something bad, and going on to something better. I have to tell you, that the minute that the train stopped, hearts stopped for a moment. We held on, and began to look at one another, as if this were the last time, with the faces of people who did not expect to be alive in another half hour. But everyone was afraid of this idea, afraid to utter a sound. The looks everyone gave each other were communicated suspicion, we look and keep quiet, through the cracks in the train car sides, we see a clear, bright world, and how dark it is for us. How did we sin, what was our transgression, and if we indeed did sin, what did these children do? There is a great desire to scream, to overturn worlds: why are you silent there, why is no one paying any attention to the mother who is kissing the little child, how an elderly grandfather is taking leave of his grandson; but we are afraid to breathe too deeply. We are too afraid to even cry, we believe that if we behave more normally, it will be better for us. The silence lasts only an hour. We hear the footfall of soldiers, and suddenly the train cars are thrown open, and with a marauding wild shout, ‘Alles Raus!’, we see before us an SS camp of young plundering murderers, with machine guns, and in addition to that they are holding truncheons with which to urge the people on to move more quickly, and a rain of blows descends upon us, one does not see family, one does not recognize if we are together or not, the only thing one sees are the truncheons and beaten heads and blood; The SS troops are running through the trains, creating mayhem, searching about to make sure that no Jew remains behind, or an elderly woman, they need everyone, and after they have determine that all the cargo is off the train, empty, they line them up in rows, and indicate with a finger, who shall remain alive and who shall go to death. The person doing this designation was a Gestapo doctor, with senior army officers. This was more important to them that the front at Stalingrad. Because the Jewish Front was top priority… And it served their purposes that 280 people are selected from the Volkovysk District, that is to say, less that 1½ %, and 98½ % can ride on the buses! We do not know which among us are the fortunate ones, and who is not, there is just one thing I recall precisely, that behind the buses came a Red Cross ambulance, which caused a doubt to enter my heart that maybe they are really taking them to work, and the evidence is that first-aid is accompanying them. But to our chagrin, we discovered later that this ambulance was carrying the ‘gas’ to poison the Jews. Yes, they deceived us in the most appalling fashion. Our eyes grew dark when we saw the giant flame 200 meters from the camp, and those that had preceded us pointed to the fire and said: There, look, there your dearly beloved and best are being burned. We didn't grasp at all that this was the case. We thought we were on the planet Mars, at the end of the world, that does not belong to this world. It was difficult to believe that in our world, there were to be found people in normal circumstances that were unaware of what was going on here, because if they did know, it didn't seem reasonable that they would remain silent. We cannot demand anything important from others when we are not completely settled within ourselves. Because in order to address the chapter of history that resulted in the extermination of a third of our people, we have to gird our loins, and to read the stories and the facts that have been transcribed. These are not the sort of stores that one reads and then sets aside. The Mandate of the Hour is to ‘tell them diligently unto thy children,’ the responsibility of those smoking embers rescued from the worldwide conflagration, to pass on the facts, episodes “for a complete accounting,” – to learn and understand, as reference tool to help maintain vigil, that what happened here will never be altered in the slightest, forever, in the history of our people.

Translator's footnote:

1. The ritual slaughterer (Shokhet), who was also the inspector of the resulting animal parts (bodek) to assure suitability for consumption under the rules of Kashrut. Return

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Visit of [Vladimir] Ze'ev Jabotinsky to Volkovysk

The community of Volkovysk was renown and distinguished in glory, because of the great Rabbis who were Gaonim of great repute throughout Jewry, and from the mouths of the city elders, who were still alive when I came to live there, more than twenty years ago, I heard much about the great Rabbis from the generations that came before me. One who excelled especially in the telling of many stories was my good friends and close confidants, the venerable elder, Reb Yitzhak Novogrudsky, ז”ל, who was called Reb Itcheh Shmuel Jonah's. He was a highly respected many, “Of pleasing appearance, with a long beard, sweetened by his knowledge of the world,”^[1] and being a neighborly man, quick to be stimulated, with a strong sense of community, he always took a major part in all community endeavors, and with a playful smile on his lips, he loved to tell about all that he had seen or knew from his life. He was a close neighbor to me at the Bet HaMedrash, and at frequent intervals, spoke at great length about the great Rabbis of the past, and I learned many details about them from him. I do not remember all of them right now, but this I do know from him, that before Rabbi Borukhov זצ”ל, the Gaon Rabbi Jonathan Eliasberg זצ”ל, who died prematurely young, was the Rabbi of the city, and his seat remained vacant for seven years, until Rabbi Borukhov זצ”ל came to take his place, and to serve in his stead with honor. Apart from being a formidable Torah scholar, Rabbi Jonathan זצ”ל was one of the Gaonim of the past generation, wise, a scholar and a man of reason, and all of the wise people of that generation, the exponents of Torah scholarship and the Enlightenment, corresponded with him, and his word was heeded by all of them. Between the pages of one of his books, that came to me from the landlord of the house in which he lived, I found a letter written to him by the Rashi Fin of Vilna, one of the very few of the members of the past generation who followed the Enlightenment, and one of the Zionist leaders of that time, who were known by the name, Hovevei Tzion, and in that letter, there were some very interesting things in regard to one important meeting that was called prior to the first Zionist Congress in

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Katowice, nearly sixty years before. When I received a visit from my colleague and friend, Rabbi Moshe Berlin, שליט”א, the head of the Mizrachi in Israel, I gave him this letter, to be turned over to the care of the international library in Jerusalem. Rabbi Jonathan Eliasberg זצ”ל, inspired the people in his city, through his spirit, to cherish the noble idea of a love for Zion among themselves, and Rabbi Borukhov זצ”ל maintained this perspective, and thanks to the influence of the two of them, the Volkovysk community was among the ones who stood from the remaining cities in the area for its dedication to this nationalist ideal. This caused a large proportion of the people to make aliyah to our Holy Land, and they settled there many years before the great calamity in Europe, and in this manner, were saved from death and destruction. Before Rabbi Jonathan זצ”ל, the Rabbinate of the city was held by the Rabbis and Gaonim, Rabbi Abraham Shmuel Diskin, זצ”ל , Rabbi Boruch Mordechai Lifschitz זצ”ל, Rabbi Yekhiel Heller, זצ”ל, and Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Khaver, זצ”ל, the author of Bet Yitzhak, which was published in Siedliska in the year 5596 (1836). I do not remember the order in which they served, or the length of their service, and it is possible that I have them out of order, and for this, I beg a thousand pardons from their sanctified remains. It is possible that there were several other Rabbis among them, whose names have escaped me over time, and I ask for those who are familiar with these details to come after me, and fill in what I have omitted, and I will recognize them with my thanks and blessing.

There always was a distinguished Yeshiva in Volkovysk, headed by leading Torah scholars, and many students were drawn there from the cities in the area. The many Batei Medrashim in the city were filled with boys and young married men, who concentrated on their Torah study, and the townsfolk supported them in a respectable fashion, since the love of Torah was deeply rooted in their hearts. Many great exponents of Torah scholarship came from the Batei Medrashim of Volkovysk, that became beacons of Jewry, and it is especially worth mentioning the name of the Gaon of Israel and its leader, the Gaon, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor, זצ”ל, who went from a bench in a Bet HaMedrash in Volkovysk to rule Jewry, and from Izavelin, the little town near it, to Kovno, to be the Leader of the entire Diaspora and the Leader of his generation, and his glory reflects on Volkovysk!

Many great people in Jewry came from there. Great in Torah scholarship and wisdom, and great in deeds, whose names remain forever in the annals of the Jewish people. It is especially worth recalling the two distinguished families from Volkovysk, the Einhorn family and the Heller family. The first produced among Jewry, great Torah scholars, and great scientists, and on his mother's side, the last Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzhensky זצ”ל, was related to them, whose great name lives with us even to this day, and his memory will remain forever in the chronicles of our people, as a leader of the Jewish people, and an outstanding Torah scholar. And the second [family] that produced the Gaon Rabbi Yekhiel Heller, זצ”ל, produced tens of distinguished people, who pursued the giving of charity and goodwill, who gave generously from their wealth to the various charitable institutions of the city, and even after they left her because of their large scale businesses, and went to live the great capitol cities, Warsaw and Berlin, they did not forget her, and continued to support the institutions of their birthplace city with a spirit of charity, venerable institutions in which they took great pride to their glory, until they were destroyed in our suffering at the hands of the Amalek of our generation, may their name be forever erased.

A glorious Jewish community existed in Volkovysk, with a sizeable population of great worth, with synagogues, Batei Medrashim, and a variety of educational institutions, and its residents were largely important people of precious value. Understandably, I cannot detail everything about each and every scion of this city, but in these few words, I want to present a permanent memorial to a few of those of my friends and relatives there, whom I found there on my arrival to take up residence there, and the memory of them

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is permanently etched into my heart, despite the distance in both time and place. From them, there are two from the world of Torah, and two from the practical world, and they are the Dayan, Rabbi Yaakov Berestovitsky, and the Rabbi, Reb Yerachmiel Daniel, the Headmaster of the Yeshiva; Rabbi Israel Efrat the Lawyer and Reb Eli Abraham Markus, the owner of the leather factory. May all their memories be for a blessing!

The first was a man whose Torah was his faith. A man who occupied himself with Torah with great diligence, and didn't vary from it in the slightest. Being full and brimming with what he learned and saw in different books, and having a prodigious memory as well, literally a container that doesn't lose a drop, he became an accomplished facilitator. He was appointed as Dayan of the city by my predecessor, The Gaon Rabbi Abba Yaakov HaKohen Borukhov זצ”ל; and when I came to occupy the pulpit there, to my great elation, I found in the Dayan Rabbi Yaakov זצ”ל, a loyal, dedicated friend, who was literally my right hand for all the days that I lived there. Together, we did all the religious work of our community, and we were bound to one another with bonds of loyal friendship. When I left the city towards the end of 5793 (1933), he remained in residence, to handle the affairs of the city, until his passing a few years later. May his memory be blessed!

The second, Reb Yerachmiel, the Headmaster of the Yeshiva, was a prodigious scholar, possessed of a sharp mind, alert and diligent, and apart from being very busy with his Yeshiva, in which he inculcated Torah into many students, he was almost always occupied in matters of dispute between people, that is to say, in matters requiring mediation and in Torah rulings, because he was the one selected by protagonists to adjudicate and mediate their disputes. Apart from this, he was by nature a very community-minded person as well, a person who took part in community affairs; his manner was pleasant, and his words were heeded, because everyone saw in him a man of established and seasoned knowledge, and related to him with the proper respect. These two, Rabbi Yaakov and Rabbi Yerachmiel, the Headmaster, were those left from the prior generation, educated in the great Yeshivas who were raised with Torah, and their work was in Torah, and passed away leaving behind a good name, without leaving anyone behind to take their places, and even before the destruction of the entire Jewish community in Poland and L:ithuania, the centers of Torah learning in Jewry, their loss was irretrievable. It is of them that it is said, “Woe, woe is our loss, and we will not forget them!”

The Lawyer, Reb Israel Efrat ז”ל, was an excellent example of an enlightened Jew of the prior generation, the type of person who has practically vanished from the ranks of the enlightened in our generation. He also was full of and brimming with Torah and wisdom, a man, who although he had never studied at a university, and not even a gymnasium, he nevertheless surpassed all those of his age in his knowledge of the law. He acquired his common sense and comprehensive knowledge through his own energies, working tirelessly and diligently, and thanks to his outstanding intellectual capabilities, attained the position of ‘Certified deputy lawyer,’ and secured a very important position among the ranks of lawyers and judges of that time. Were it not for the restricting decrees of the malevolent regime of the Czar in Russia, before the First World War, he would have achieve the rank of Certified Lawyer, and could have even obtained an important government post, but he was handicapped by being a Jew. Despite all this, he was a Jew who was loyal to his faith and his people, and would take part in all community affairs, not only in his city, but for Jews throughout Russia in general. He was an ardent and dedicated Zionist, and stood at the head of the Zionist work in his city and that area, and at all major gatherings in which he participated, his words were always accorded the proper respect. Together with this, he took part in all municipal matters, and after the Rabbinate of the city was vacated, with the departure of the Rabbi Gaon Borukhov, זצ”ל, when he made aliyah to our Holy Land in his old age, and the people of the city appointed a Selection Committee, Reb Israel Efrat was selected to be the head of this committee, and thanks to his influence, and extra patience, the committee carried out its work

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smoothly, and to the satisfaction of most of the members, most all who saw in him the right man, suitable to head this community endeavor in their important community!

For all the time I resided in Volkovysk, Mr. Efrat, ז”ל, was a frequent visitor in my home, and I always took great pleasure in his pleasant company, to discuss matters of Torah and wisdom with him. And when it came time for me to leave the city, my parting from him was very difficult, and when I found out two years later, that Mr. Efrat k”z had passed away, (I do not remember the exact day he died, and that is a shame), I was saddened deeply in my heart, and I mourned for him a great deal, because he was truly a man that stood above the common folk, and he was as his name proclaims, Efrat – ‘An Efrati, Adorned with good manner,’ (Yalkut).

I knew Reb Abraham Eli Markus ז”ל, well even before I set foot on the threshold of that city, because he was one of the two distinguished delegates who came to the city in which I was then living (Yagustov), at the beginning of the year 5785 (1924), to offer me the invitation in the name of the committee to come and serve as the Rabbi in their honored community, and I immediately recognized the attribute of this man, imbued with the spirit of Torah, that is not found in ordinary balebatim. And after I came to settle in the city, and became familiar with its distinguished residents from up close, I found Reb Abraham Eli Markus ז”ל, to be a man of outstanding good among the distinguished people of that community. His place was not among the wealthy, and he was constantly busy to earn a living for his household, and despite these many busy things, he always set aside time for Torah study, and he had a regular lesson in which he studied seven pages of the Gemara each week, in order to complete the entire Shas in seven years, and he would have a large holiday feast on the occasion of finishing the cycle of the Shas. And whatever was missing due to his business during the middle of the week, he made up for on the seventh day. The Holy Sabbath for him was set aside for Torah, and he would sequester himself at home, and study through the night, and then all day with enormous diligence, without going outside, and without involving himself during that day, in community matters, which he attended to faithfully during the remaining days of the week, being one of the important community leaders, whose word was listened to with the appropriate respect at all public gatherings.

He was gifted with a pleasant voice, and when he would lead the congregation before the Ark (not as a cantor, who makes his living this way, but rather as one of the balebatim who volunteer), he would literally capture hearts with his pleasant mode of praying, that would come out of his mouth in a manner that caused wonder. During the Musaf service of the High Holy Days, he would lower his prayer shawl over his face, and would pray with enormous conviction, closed eyes streaming tears, when he would read all the prayers and poetry by heart, and it was a source of wonderment to everyone who watched him, and listened to him, and they were greatly moved by his prayer. As I recollect the man and his conversation after these many years – and his praying, his great conviction in leading prayer at the Ark, I quickly sense the great loss sustained by our people, after they did away with having lay people lead prayer, and replaced them with professional cantors and their choirs! He was privileged to make aliyah to the Holy Land in his old age, before the war broke out, and he died there at a ripe old age. May his memory be for a blessing!

These are but a few lines from this distinguished congregation, the congregation of Volkovysk, which was a wonderment for all Jewry in its distinguished people and institutions. What an enormous calamity has befallen our people with the loss of these sacred communities, for which there are no replacements. We have been orphaned and turned over in a manner as terrible as death itself, in losing a third of our nation, and of even greater tragedy, in the taking from us of that part of our people that was the strongest in spirit, the settlement in Poland and Lithuania, that was a bulwark and crown of Judaism and Torah, woe is unto us, for we have been plundered! Our misfortune is as great as the sea, and who is to comfort us, and we have no one

[Page 73]

to lean on but our Father in Heaven, for it is He would will avenge the spilling of our blood, and say to our oppressors, enough; he will bind up our wounds, and mend our fences, and in comforting all Zion and Jerusalem, he will comfort us all speedily, as it is said, “For the Lord has comforted Zion and all that is destroyed about her!”

Translator's footnote:

1. A quote from a line in the Hineni prayer from the prologue to the Yom Kippur Musaf service, when the Cantor beseeches the Almighty to look upon him as someone with these virtues. Return

The glory days of Volkovysk past, that of great and famous Rabbis, and scholars who later became great Rabbis outside of her, was for me also a thing of the past. I know about this only from word of mouth. Those who were there at my time, were not from the level of the ‘originals.’ Despite this, Volkovysk was a city full of Torah even in my day.

Volkovysk was also a city that brought up or produced from her Batei Medrashim, enlightened people and writers as well, and famous writers that maintained contact with her from many sides.

She was also full of charity. There were marvelous incidents of this nature. Yeshiva boys that studied there, and Jewish soldiers that worked there – valued its generosity and character.

She was then also a working city. In essence, the entire district was a working area. In my youth, there was not a single craftsman in the city who was not Jewish. There were also Jewish smiths. The maids in Jewish homes were all Jewish. There hardly was a form of work in which the Jews of the area did not engage in. After the great fire of 5646 (1882), Volkovysk was re-built from scratch with brick houses, and all the construction was done by Jews, in which practically no stranger had a hand.

In a transition period, there was still Torah there, even though the attentions and the inclinations of the younger generation had changed. At the beginning, the children from the better families learned to work out of idealism, and those generally went to America afterwards. After that came a time when the city filled with the Bund and Yiddish, even while work was declining more and more. A time finally arrived when not only were the gentile stores in the majority, but there were also gentile craftsmen. The emigration to American and to the Land of Israel took workers out [of the city], and even the houses were full of Polish and Russian maids. There practically were no more young Jewish women [for this work].

And yet once again, after the prior war [sic: World War I], there was again a change in mood. Zionism grew strong, together with connections to the Land of Israel, and the education took place mainly in Hebrew. A Hebrew Gymnasium, including Polish subjects, a Tarbut High School, and as a result – a generation was raised that knew Hebrew, even though most of the teachers were from Galicia Volhyn.

When I visited in 5785 (1933), after having been absent for 26 years, I found great changes. The community was standing as if on the exit threshold, especially the young people. While the pioneering spirit could not be sensed in the city, the inclination to go to the Land of Israel was widespread. There was not a family who didn't have someone in Israel. And the will to emigrate to Israel engulfed Bundists and non-Zionists. I happened on an interesting phenomenon: Bundists, simple ordinary people, were sending their children to Hebrew schools, while the intelligentsia preferred a Polish education. I had the impression that even in the Yavneh school, there was more Polish than Hebrew.

[Page 74]

The use of the Polish language spread among the Jews more so than Russian had in the prior period. In my letter to the newspaper, Davar, I dwelt on this phenomenon in connection with the Polonization of the Byelorussian base – Polonization of the entire youth.

In the Jewish section of the city I didn't recognize any buildings or extensions. In this location, the city was built practically as a new Polish city, and parts of it were beautiful indeed.

Despite all the changes that had come that were not good, nevertheless, there was a feeling of a Jewish settlement. A city with a Jewish legacy, with Hebrew education, with Zionism, with charity, and in general, like most of Poland, and especially like Polish Lithuania, and Volhyn – Judaism with a clear desire for a Hebrew-based culture and the Land of Israel. The older generation, even if the Rabbis fell under the influence of the Agudat Israel, were not jealous of their prerogatives, tolerant, pleasant and inclined to the Land of Israel.

The heart tightens when one remembers both the cemetery with all those dear Jews would find their resting place there. What was its fate? It is difficult to think about all this. I spent some good times in Volkovysk, even in these last hours. It is hard to speak, and it is not easy to write. The pain is very great.

To: The Committee of the Organization of Emigrants from Volkovysk in Israel
Tel-Aviv

My dear friend, Shlomo'keh!

I received your letter of 4.1.1946, and Mulya's letter of 4.2.1946 together, yesterday, on the same day: also Zapoliansky and Kossowsky both received their packages in good order. I received my package four weeks ago, about which I have already notified you. We thank you very much.

Imagine what our yesterday was like, how great was our celebration. It was like a brightness coming into our dark lives; two letters in one day, and the packages! We read the letters during the whole day, and our pride on that day knew no bounds. Because whoever came in to see us, we told that we had received two letters that day from those who are nearest to us, and who today is closer to us than you? You today serve as our brothers and parents. We do not need to describe our condition, which we have already explained previously. Even the circumstances in which we find ourselves today, without seeing an end to it, at least for whatever years we have left allotted to us, we will live in our own area. We so much want to come to you and to cry without stopping, because here, the heart is like stone, and we only wish that we could speak from the heart, perhaps that will make it easier for us. And there is a great, great deal to talk about. I am perhaps one of the very few, who remembers in chronological order, what happened to our community, and I remember the dates that are significant in the extermination of our beloved ones. I would like to preserve the days of their years, but I think I will do this when I get to my proper location. And any scion of Volkovysk that wishes to know details about his family, let him turn to me, and I will respond to him.

Yes, now the writer is girded with patience, seeing as how we managed to survive those “good times.” It is true, but the fact of the matter is different. Originally there was only one concern, and that was, how would we reach the day that we could leave the camp, and there, the need was to fight hunger, and all manner of

[Page 75]

other things, such as selections, and like things, stemming from the Nazi hatred in the camps, especially towards the Jews, was of such a nature that there was no time to think; each day brought its fresh decrees; Kotliarsky can tell you about this, he knows exactly where I was in the camp. He was in the habit of saying to me, that I was the only one who mad a stand in the camp in the face of trying conditions, by going all the time to the ‘Command.’ But, I had much more nerve in those days than now. How did this all happen? However, now that I am ‘free’ and when I think to myself, all the thoughts float around in my head. I see how I was lost, and to what level we came to. And this caused the most intense suffering. Because in the camp, there was no real opportunity to stop and think about it. But there is a folk saying that man is stronger than steel, and we can overcome anything. I think that now, you will understand our state of mind.

You write to let you know if we have received any added material. To this day, we have received nothing except the packages and the newspapers [that you sent us]. When we receive the balance, we will let you know immediately. We received the packages that contained shirts for everybody, socks, new underwear, razor blades and cigarettes. You are writing to Shipiatsky. I heard that he is in Lodz. Itcheh Botvinsky is new to me, because it is some time since I received a letter from America from his murdered father, that I have written to him. I have heard about the rest.

Shlomo'keh, you ask that I write immediately, and I am doing that. In this connection, I ask that you do the same, because it encourages me. It is then that I see that I am not alone by myself, that I still have good friends. Yes, write to me about everything and about everyone. Write to me about the questions that are of greatest interest to you, and I will reply in future letters, and I will give you a specific accounting of the losses to our community. Please send our best regards to our comrades who were with us in Auschwitz. They also can write to us. All those from Volkovysk that reached Israel, especially Lashowitz, he owes me a letter. Please convey regards to my aunt, and tell her that I never received more than one letter. Also, my cousins the Lifschitzes, tell them not to refrain from writing. I thank Mendel Green, and Yehuda'i (I don't know which one) for the newspapers. I have just received the dictionary.

I will write a separate letter to Mulya Schein this week. Altogether, I have received only two letters from him. Kossowsky asks for the address of his cousin, Fruma Kavushatsky. Zapoliansky asks to convey the special letter to Ahar'itchkeh and Shlomo'keh Markus.

A hearty regards to all those from Volkovysk. Write about everything.

In the name of our fellow townsmen Shmuel Zapoliansky, and Joseph Kossowsky
Your townsman and friend,
Itzel Tchopper

Three survivors from Volkovysk in Italy Left to right: Chaim-Itzel Tchopper, Shmuel Zapoliansky, Joseph Kossowsky

[Page 76]

Our dear brothers, much peace be with you,

There are five survivors from Volkovysk here: Benjamin Bashitsky, Daniel Lemkin, Malka Polonsky^[1] (granddaughter of Shalakhmones), Zvi Epstein (Chas'sheh-Leah's granddaughter), and Shmuel Rosenbloom. We are recollecting the past, and we are telling details of the great calamity that befell our people in general, and the residents of our city in particular. We are few who have remained, a small number of people to be counted. We are writing this letter from the home of a young woman from our city; she is married already, and her name is Reizl Plotnitsky (a relative of Gurevich) and used to live on the Svislucz Gasse.

In the coming days, Tcherneh Rusianska-Shereshevsky is supposed to reach Poland from Russia.

The following still remain in Volkovysk: Mottel Shifran, Malka Rutchik, Zelig Kryer, Eliyahu Bayer, Isser Rosenbloom, Yitzhak Botvinsky, one of the Perekhodnik daughters, Mordechai Gamm, Malka Kaplinsky, Raphael Geller, Yitzhak Gallin, Zlata Rubin, Chava Rubin. It appears that there are other survivors, but there is as yet, no news of them. Chaya Pisetsky has remained in Moscow. In Otovchik, Dr. Shlackman, Dr. Bebchuk, Izzy Mazya, In Szczucin, can be found: the wife of Berel Kaplan, and her daughters, Sholom Zlotnitsky, Vinogradsky-Lemkin, Chaim Brichbach, Lazarovsky, Sholom Galai, the Reznitsky brothers, Hanokh Pick, Jedediah Katz. Rivka Rothford is found in Belsko.

Malka Polonsky asks if her aunts and relatives can be located: Malka, Rachel, Ronya, Ephraim Polonsky from Kobrin.

You are probably aware of the conditions in Poland, and the desires of our landsleit are known to you as well. Very shortly, there will only remain a handful of Jews.

Dear brothers, you realize how difficult it is to write and tell everything; the heart aches, and there are simply no words to convey everything that we think. First we want to offer you our encouragement that you will keep strong, and that you will succeed in your war to free the homeland, and that you will soon see us, the survivors of Volkovysk in your ranks.

In the name of all the people here from Volkovysk, we thank you for the help you have sent for the scions of our city, and we sent you are best regards for all that is good, with the hopes of seeing you in the Holy Land.

In another couple of days, Daniel Lemkin and Zvi Epstein will be leaving for Vienna, and from there with some measure of probability, to Israel.

Signatures

In the letter of Chaim Lemkin of 5.8.46 a list of those from Volkovysk found in Poland is conveyed:

[Page 77]

Sholom Zolotnitsky, Izzy Zohn-Mazya, Lazarovsky, David Falevado, Rivka Rothford, Eliezer Sukenik, Be'ereh Shalrovich, Hirsch Volsky and his family, Gershon Resnick, Sholom Galai, Riva Rubinovich, the wife of Chaim Rubinovich, Shmuel Kaplan, Meir Melamed, Beileh Kaplan, and the daughters, Nota and Paulia, Eliyahu Lemkin and his family, Herzl Epstein, David Lifschitz, Katz, 'Nioma Bashitsky, Polonsky (Shalakhmones), Bebchuk, Shlackman, Joseph Ain, Tzila and Nechama Schein, Vena Bogomilsky, Volodya, and their sister Genya and her children.

The Committee with two of the survivors and the guest, Dr. Moses Einhorn, New York Right to left: Standing: A. Kalir, H. Roitman, A. Broshi, J. Kotliarsky, Sh. Schein Sitting: Sh. Bereshkovsky, Y. Yehuda'i, Dr. M. Einhorn, and the Chairman, A. Shykevich

1. In this volume, the name seems to be rendered Malka Polonskit, which is a Hebrew feminization of the name Polonsky. Return

	Income	Expense
1.	According to the list of contributors #1, published in The Volkovysk “Pamphlet,” July 1945	188,000
2.	According to the list of contributors #2, published in The Volkovysk “Pamphlet,” August 1945	34,000
3.	According to the list of contributors #3, published in The current edition	145,200
	Donations from Abroad:
5.	Dr. Moses Einhorn, New York ($100)	24,680
6.	Rabbi Gaon I. Unterman, Liverpool (STG 8)	7,875
7.	Mr. M. Moorstein, New York	9,820
8.	Rabbi Gaon Y. Kossowsky, Johannesburg	5,000
9.	Rabbi Gaon M. Kossowsky , Johannesburg	2,000
10.	Volkovysker Verein of Philadelphia ($300)	73,740
11.	Mrs. Chaya Kass, Elkeh Ogulnick, Mereh Karashinsky, Fanny Birnbaum, and Elkeh Ben-Zvi from Montreal (Canada) through the Bialystock Center ($C300)	66,420

[Page 78]

12.	The Volkovysk Center, New York, via Saul Barash (Shlomo Bereshkovsky) ($1000)	246,590
13.	Volkovysker Friends, New York, via Mrs. Sima Lev, Zanitz, etc.	18,485
14.	Abraham Ain (of Svislucz), New York	12,179
	[Expenses]:
1.	Packages sent to Volkovysk 92,500 Packages sent to Russia, Italy and Belgium	63,953
	Monies sent to Poland	20,000
2.	Assistance to Volkovysk refugees for Initial Settlement	145,000
	Assistance to the above for finding work, domicile, furniture, etc.	249,085
3.	Loans for constructive purposes	25,000
4.	Telegrams and mail expenses	22,265
5.	Expenses for the first meeting of Volkovysk émigrés Tel-Aviv, on 24.4.1945 (Hall, notices, etc)	9,240
	Expenses for the second meeting of Volkovysk émigrés Tel-Aviv 30.8.45 (with the participation of Dr. Einhorn)	9,580
6.	Expenses for publication of the Volkovysk Pamphlet #1 - July 1945	20,750
	Expenses for publication of the Volkovysk Pamphlet #2 - August 1945	4,500
7.	Expenses for publishing this folio[ Hurban Volkovysk]	30,000
8.	Various small expenses	4,566
	Bank Account as of 31.7.46	137,860
	Totals	834,299
Yitzhak Yehuda'i Treasurer
Note: This accounting does not reflect expenses incurred after 31.7; [this includes] transfer of 65 Israeli lira to Poland, in connection with the return of our townsfolk from Russia; the printing of this folio, and its distribution.

In our first pamphlet of July 1945, we gave an accounting, in summary form, of the activities we had done to that date, with an outline of our plan for future activities. We provided additional details in our second pamphlet of August 1945.

At the end of August 1945, the second meeting of our townsfolk in Israel took place in Tel-Aviv, with the participation of our distinguished guest, Dr. Moses Einhorn from New York, who arrived by air, in a special way, for the purpose of gathering news about Volkovysk here in the Land [of Israel].

[Page 79]

At this meeting, Dr. Einhorn spoke at great length, and conveyed regards from our landsleit in America. In the process, he recalled interesting facts about Volkovysk during the period of the First World War, and afterwards, when he got there several times as a representative of American Jewry.

At that meeting, Messrs. Joseph Kotliarsky and Herschel Roitman also spoke, who were in Volkovysk from the beginning of the Nazi conquest, were sent with the last transport to Auschwitz, and were among the first to reach the Holy Land after being saved from the Nazi dragnet. These latter talks are recorded in this document, in the form of eye witness reports.

The principal activities of the Committee centered about the following:

1. Packages. Packages were sent by mail and other means, such as via the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, etc. to Volkovysk, Russia (to addresses of our townsfolk that had reached us), Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Poland. In a like manner, we sent packages to Lisokovo, from where we had received a letter asking for help with a few addresses of Jews that survived there.
   The Packages included clothing, foodstuffs, underwear, sewing tools, razors, soap, etc. We received confirmation from every location that the packages were received, but to our sorrow, we have not received such a reply from Volkovysk or Lisokovo as of this time.
2. With the return of the Polish Jews from Russia, lately, several tens of our townsfolk arrived in Lodz, Lower Silesia, and other places in Poland, and according to the information in hand, a committee of Volkovysk townspeople was established in Lodz, due to the efforts of Mr. Chaim Shipiatsky and others.
   Because of the bitter experience we had in sending packages to Volkovysk and Lisokovo, and after we researched the matter of sending packages to Poland, we received a reply from the scion of our city, Ch. Shipiatsky, telling us that it was not worth doing this, we did succeed in transferring specific sums of money to our landsleit who had arrived from Russia, and it is understood that given the condition they were in, this required larger sums of money to alleviate the terrible suffering they had endured.
3. Communication by Mail and Telegrams: A very important objective was to arrange contact by mail and telegrams and were necessary by telegrams, with the survivors from Volkovysk and its vicinity. Hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent and received by us, and from this, it became evident as to how important this connection to the unfortunate ones was, who by this, were able to see a ray of light penetrate their terrible suffering, in the receipt of news from their townsfolk who had decided to encourage them and extend them help.
4. Assistance to the Refugees from Volkovysk in Searching for their Relatives: With the initiation of our work, we understood that there would be a need to search for the relatives of our refugees, for most of whom, all they know is that they have a relative either in Israel or in some other country, but they usually do not know an address, and in a number of instances, not even a name, because most of the survivors are from the younger generation who had never even seen their relatives.
   To this purpose, we created a complete list of our landsleit in Israel, and sent a copy to the Volkovysk Center in New York, and with the help of Dr. Einhorn and Mr. Nakhumovsky, we received a folder with the addresses of our landsleit in New York.
   Because of this, we have the capacity to frequently convey the address of relatives to one refugee or another, and immediately after receiving any sort of response from him, at the same time to immediately notify the respective relative about his surviving relative.

It is worth saying that our landsleit, who are long-time residents in Israel, are in the habit of frequently assembling our address lists here, and in America, family matters and things of this nature.
5. Aid to Refugees Who Reached Israel: A special responsibility, no less important that other responsibilities, was to assist those survivors who succeeded in reaching the Holy Land, especially at a time when we are able to see more precisely the results of our work in this area. In our first desire, even before they got themselves settled, and on occasion to help them get settled. In the financial accounting, it is necessary to add only that apart from financial assistance, which undoubtedly has its own importance, it was very important to give emotional support, so that they see that they are not abandoned to their own devices, and that they have an address where to go regarding all the issues that burden them, and by this means, to ease their loneliness, and their difficult emotional state at the outset. This approach gives them encouragement, and arouses them to rebuild their lives anew in the homeland.
6. Arranging for Work and Making a Living: A lot of effort and initiatives are undertaken by a number of the Committee Members of the Volkovysk Organization to find work and a living for our survivors, and we can state with confidence, that all the survivors that have arrived in Israel to date – are properly taken care of.

Dedication of a Kiosk for the Partisan, Eliyahu Kovensky in Petakh Tikva Right to left: A. Kalir, Abraham Shapiro, one of the founders and defenders of Petakh Tikva, E. Kovensky

[Pages 81-82]

Joseph Kotliarsky, Tel-Aviv, 9 Pines Street Zvi Roitman, Tel-Aviv, 9 Pines Street Shayna Lifschitz, Tel-Aviv, 9 Nachmani Street Katriel Lashowitz, 9 Arnon Street Eliyahu Kovensky, Petakh Tikva, Chafetz Chaim Street Eliyahu Kushnir and his wife, Holon a new settlement near Tel-Aviv Dr. Noah Kaplinsky, Mikve Israel Esther Yerushalmi, Tel-Aviv, Maon Ha'Ishah

A Maccabi Celebration in Volkovysk in 1933

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