[Page 18 - Yiddish] [Page 15 - Hebrew]

Meyshe Kaganovitsh

It is with holy tremor and awe that I close this memorial book on the destruction of the former, holy community of Ivye, and turn it over to you, Ivye landslayt in Israel, in the Diaspora, and to the future historian who will certainly use it to research this bloody era.

The work of concentrating and editing the materials was difficult enough. But much more difficult were the agonies of the soul in “reliving” the horrible tragedy, to see once again the landscape of the town of our birth, where we lived the best years of our lives, the childhood and youth years; to see once again before my eyes the luminous, dear persons who were cut off from the tree of life.

Jews lived in Ivye for many generations, until they became an inseparable part of the surrounding landscape. For more than 400 years the Ivye Jews, within a hateful environment, spun and wove a way of life, customs, traditions--in short, a communal life. Despite angry storms in every era, they put themselves in the fortress of their beliefs and found in them comfort and rest for the soul. They lived a complete Jewish life, and found in that life reason and sense. They were poor and oppressed, but not unhappy. They rose above the surrounding non-Jewish population with their moral and virtuous life, with the good education they gave to their children, and with their close family ties.

It is difficult to remain impartial while reading the memoirs which relate how they -- in abnormal circumstances and without real authority -- built a many-branched network of social and cultural institutions rooted in the consciousness of collective responsibility and mutual help and changed the little town into one family that shared the joy and shared the sorrow of the individual. They did not leave those unlucky in their fate to be abandoned, despite the generally difficult economic situation.

Generations of Ivye Jews look out from this book: learned Jews who suffered their whole lives on the path of Torah; artisans who worked hard indeed to earn a piece of bread for their families; peddlers who wandered through the rain, snow and cold over the roads and highways; shopkeepers, who looked forward to market-day and fair; and later, youth, who dreamed and struggled for a better tomorrow for their folk, or for a better and more just world for all of humanity. The book reflects the life of the shtetl, happenings and events, customs and traditions, life-styles and folklore, activities and initiatives of various patterns -- in short, a fermenting and fruitful community life. With this book we will acquaint you with the life and tragic death of the last generation of Ivye Jews. We will also make known the fight for revenge of the Ivye youth in the forests and on the battlefront against the exterminators of our people.

How poor human speech is, in its effort to properly express the terrible tragedy that was so unjustly unleashed on the Ivye Jews! Tears are too limited, for there to be enough weeping for the enormity of the catastrophe.

The injustice and the enormity of the misfortune has so completely shaken and unbalanced us that we have not even mourned our own dear ones, who were not separated in their lives or deaths. We have not even had an opportunity to set a marker on their grave -- the pits. May this memorial book be an eternal gravestone for all generations for the holy Ivye community which was wiped off the face of the earth by the German murderers, may their names and memory of them be blotted out. The Ivye Jewish community has disappeared forever ... there remain only the mass graves in Stonevitsh ... all that will remain is this memorial book, this book that unites their hallowed lives and death...

The preparation of this book took several years.

{There follows a description of the difficulties of dealing with the materials, both in collecting and then in trying to write. Who helped. How facts were checked, and how that was difficult as well. The editor hopes that he has nonetheless been at least partly successful in presenting the community of Ivye in this book.}

[Page 23]

Bernardina Street during the First World War

Appearance of Horse-market Street during the First World War

[Page 24]

The market square with a characteristic well, during the First World War

A row of masonry shops on the market square during the first World War

[Page 25]

A panorama of the town after the Great Fire

“Ha'shomer ha'tsair” march for lag'boymer with the burned-out Vilne Street in the background (1929)

[Page 26]

How the Great Shul looked after the Great Fire in May 1929

Bernardina Street after the Great Fire with the temporary “pavilions”

[Page 27]

Bernardina Street after reconstruction (1934)

Vilne Street after reconstruction (1934)

[Page 28]

Panorama of both sides of the market square after reconstruction

Market Street after reconstruction

[Page 29]

Map of the north-east part of Poland (1939) [Map of the region; famous Vilne (Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius) is at top center. Ivye is the bold six-letter town to its southeast.]

[Page 31]

Map of Ivye 1932 Arrow points to North Small shul Old Study-house New Study-house Wooden shul Jewish cemetery Community house “Libus” shul Christian mogilnik Church “Mige” - the well Bath house Mosque Police station Fire-fighters station The ludovoy Mill Key: Heavy double parallel lines = street Dotted double parallel lines = side street +++++++++ small-gauge train line Wavy lines = river Heavy type in center of page is the market street with a long row of shops down the middle.

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