[Pages 627-628]

We are already living for fifteen months under the teeth and nails of the bloodthirsty animal, there is not one person in the ghetto who has not suffered a terrible fate; children – orphans, lonely parents without their children, widowed women. People who have become shadows of themselves walk around and are petrified of the sunlight. There is not one sliver of hope to remain alive – everything and everybody is against us.

News from the surrounding villages is received that they are already Judenrein. We were also informed how terrible the liquidations transpired; (in a certain) place they tied the hair of pretty, young Jewish girls to the tails of horses, and made them (the horses) run, dragging their victims along; here the earth was still trembling from the bodies of innocent children, women, men and the elderly, because the murderer did not want to waste the bullet. Elsewhere, the location of the ghetto was located in the synagogue, (and the people) were terribly tortured and burnt alive.

We no longer ask the question that perhaps once again a miracle will occur. No – each one knows that he carries the fate of his people (on his shoulders) and that he has been sentenced to death.

Women are groaning quietly, with uplifted eyes to the sky and begging “Dear G-d, an easy, easy death, the bullet should hit its mark”. We hear a quiet plea from a child to his mother “I have hardly lived, and I really want to live” and again we hear; “No, I do not want to go to the massacre, I have poison”, and the second one (says) “I will slit my veins”. Here quietly stand the heartbroken parents, holding tightly onto their child, not wanting to part from them. A woman rushes past, throwing her last golden ring; possibly one can still bribe the murderer with this gold. In a corner there are elderly lonely men defiantly waiting for death, while death is the only way that will unite them with their already deceased families. Further on, young, healthy girls and boys stand and mourn their young lives, which will be cut short in the full bloom of their youth, only because they are Jews.

Each one is drowning in his own thoughts, but they could not focus their thoughts; they are shattered by fear and fright, and they look to the future without any dash of hope. They look at each other with great pity, because they are bound together in the same fateful death.

Suddenly there are quiet whisperings; everyone whispers secrets into the other's ear – tonight a group is leaving with weapons and small groups are gathering. They start discussing, as all hope is now lost – and, here, suddenly, there are weapons in Jewish arms! Do we really know what a gun or a bullet really is? Yes, this is one's own life, this is a struggle for oneself with close friends, this is survival, this is an instrument to take revenge for the innocent, spilt Jewish blood – and, at the end, the last bullet will be in our possession, in order not to land alive in the hands of the enemy.

We notice a quiet movement in the ghetto, groups of young people and families are formed, there is an awakening of a desire and thoughts of escaping, but where?

The group that possesses the arms is organized – the others are like sheep without a shepherd.

Hopeless opinions are being expressed; we shall fall in the forest, animals will consume our flesh. The front is far away. Once again, a person remembers the event that occurred a few months before, when four people left the ghetto

[Pages 629-630]

and were cheated by a White Russian peasant, that instead of putting them in touch with a group of partisans, he murdered them in a terrible way. Once again, we hear; this is an exception and not a general matter; many know to tell how Gentiles protected them.

The mood is extremely strained; we have to decide quickly; the days are short, soon it will be nightfall. A concerned mother, who has been left with one child, is running and looking for a pair of solid shoes with a warm garment in order to leave, it is already autumn, and she is concerned about her child. One hears quiet sighing of an old father; “children, escape, escape, G-d will help you, live your life, it is the time of war, one can see the beginning, but not the end result. The world is large (with many opinions); the murderers will not be forgiven for their committed crimes against innocent people”.

Many more announcements are heard, “dear children, escape! Revenge our spilt blood, revenge!”

A young, concerned man is walking, he wants to escape, but next to him is his child. In a weeping tone the child asks; “Father, you want to escape and leave us behind?”. His parental feelings are aroused, the father lowers his head; “I am staying”.

Mass grave of the victims in Mir, 1959

A group decides to escape, wherever their eyes will lead them. However, unfortunately, most of the people are resigned (to their fate); - “we remain (here)”.

[Pages 631-632]

A group decides to hide themselves in the underground road, which – according to the old legends – is located under the castle.

The people who have decided to escape are nervous; they are not thinking ahead; parents leave children behind, children leave parents, sisters leave brothers, and are running to search for an exit. People are running forward, congested amongst the big crowd to a small window, that leads from a cellar to the fields. No-one looks behind, and one does not glimpse to the side, at the remaining (people). One does not know if there will be a time when a human being will behave as a human being, and one's conscience will not allow any peace, and the sadness will constantly be heavy within our hearts. Why did our closest, loving and dearest, childhood friends from our hometown, not join us?

[Pages 632-633]

On June 26, 1941, the German army entered our shtetl. Within one month the first ten Jews were murdered by the Gestapo, who issued a (false) protocol that the Jews burnt the town down after the Russian retreat.

On the November 9, 1941, the first massacre occurred, 1,500 victims were massacred.

Moshe Reznik, partisan

I renewed my previous connection with him and introduced my cousin, Israel Resnik as well as Shlomo Charchas to him. He advised us about actions against Jews, as he had access to the radio. We would receive information from the front, from the land of Israel and other news.

850 Jews remained in the shtetl after the first massacre, and for whom a ghetto was provided, but was not fenced in. Shmuel would often come to me at home and ask me, under the ruse, to repair the electricity; there he would pass on all the information. Our intermediaries were Rasha Rabinowitz and Shifra Charne who worked as cleaners in the Gendarmerie and the police headquarters.

Once Shmuel informed us that on Sunday the Germans will enclose the whole town, in order that no one should escape, and there is to be no trading, otherwise they will shoot, and that is exactly what happened

[Pages 633-634]

and the Jews knowing about this through the Judenreit, remained calm, there were only four incidents against innocent people, and there were four victims.

The second incident; Shmuel informed us that the complete Gendarmerie are going on patrol, accompanied by police, in the shtetl of Berezhno^[1], in order to cause a massacre. The Jews should flee to the town, we told the Judenrat, and their usual question was; “tell us, who informed you about this, and how do you know?”. We did not inform them, and the Jews did not believe that this would happen; only two escaped, and thankfully they survived.

The same incident occurred in the shtetl of Dolmatovshchina^[2]; the Jews refused to believe, because they knew the local police very well. Out of the total Jewish population which numbered thirty people only one girl survived.

Israel Reznik, partisan

In the fifth month of 1942, all the Jews of the shtetl were transferred to the famous Mir Castle. The entrance to the castle was through one large gate, surrounded by large walls on the one side and a river on the other, all this, was fenced in with barbed wire that was two metres high, and there was one small door. We were especially brought here, in order that we should be in one location. We started organizing our friends, the majority who were members of the “Hashomer Hatzair” (youth movement), because we trusted them. We organized eighty youngsters in groups of five, the intention being that if the Germans invade the Ghetto, we have to resist. Each group of five had its task, in one of the towers. There were a total of six towers.

There, rocks, metal bars, sticks and other such cold arms were prepared, as proper weapons were still not available. There was an incident when one of my friends bought a weapon from a Gentile who went to the police and informed them of this. The Germans did not understand him, and Oswald had to be the translator. Shmuel, immediately, advised through Israel Reznik that they should not allow anyone to enter the ghetto, and, if the Jew will be shot, the Jew had asked for arms for another thirty people and they would also be shot. Therefore no one must be allowed into the ghetto. Shmuel advised that he would come in the evening to the Jewish barber and would inform us of the exact information. We immediately arranged a meeting of the committee and the following were present: 1. Berel Reznik 2. Israel Reznik 3. Shlomo Charchas (Hashomer Hatzair) 4. Hershel Pernikov (The Bundt) 5. Idel Pecker (Communist) 6. Chaim Lis (Freiheit}.

We agreed to the request that Shmuel provide us with arms. My cousin Charchas and I entrusted the other members with the information that Shmuel is a Jew and a personal friend of ours. In the evening Shmuel came, officially dressed in a policeman's uniform, and he informed us that coincidentally the German Commandant had a foot injury, and was taken to Baranovichi^[3], and Shmuel became the Commandant in his stead.

We informed him about our organization, and that we did not wish to perish like our parents at the gravesites; we wish to create a resistance and that he should provide us with weapons. He burst into tears in front of us, and promised to help

[Pages 635-636]

us with whatever he could. He also promised to send and bring rifles, of which they have an unlimited amount.

We agree on a place where we would wait for him, in order to receive the weapons and to take them to our previously agreed (hiding) places.

Isser Koch, partisan

We agreed that every night five members of our group would guard the ghetto, and simultaneously the Judenrat added one of their guards. We were informed from the surrounding shtetls of Mir, massacres had taken place. Furthermore, we heard that the Jews of Nesvizh^[4] set fire to the ghetto and a few escaped. We understood that the day would arrive when it will be our turn.

The local Judenrat approached my cousin Charchas and me, and informed us that we should give the Commander (they still did not know that he was a Jew) money and goods, which we categorically refused to do.

On a certain day, Shmuel came to us and informed us that on August 13, 1942 the massacre of all the Jews has been decided in our shtetl, and he advised us not to organize a resistance, because this is senseless, as we are too weak, and that we should instead join the partisans. And this is the beginning of our terrible tragedy. He promised to come on Thursday for the last time and to inform us exactly of everything. He advised that only young people should leave, as it is possible that we might have to do battle with them, and now I try to convince my mother and sister that a certain policeman wishes to create a career for himself by exploiting the Jews, and certainly the arms are rusted and he will inform the police. My mother told me, “children, do not join the group”. That night we met with Shmuel, he came to bid us farewell. He was leaving for five days with the police to search for partisans, and he informed us of the directions that they would take and we should follow in their footsteps. He advises us to leave on Saturday or on Sunday at the latest. On Friday and Saturday there is an upheaval in the ghetto, people are speaking openly about a massacre; however, when it will occur, was still unknown.

On Saturday we were summoned by the Judenrat and we declared that we were are leaving, and that a massacre would occur. Whoever wishes to go should go, as we do not have an exact plan of action. Each one of us then took friends. I had to disclose to certain responsible Jews, as well as to my mother, that Oswald is a Jew and he knows everything, even where the graves will be.

My mother, as well as my sister, wished me a successful journey, while they remained awaiting their destruction, together with all the remaining Jews. They prepared a package for myself and for my girlfriend at the time, Pesha Sklar.

Each group had their exit location “arranged”: a rope from high windows, also through tiny windows: that was how we left the ghetto. We arranged to meet in the nearest forest on August 9, 1942 which was Sunday night, we spent the day in the little forest. In the evening we split into five groups, and proceeded further, not knowing our destination.

There were moments when Jews demanded to know: “why did you lead us out without providing a destination?”. On the second day, we were excited to meet the first Russian partisans,

[Pages 637-638]

and started to learn about the beginnings of becoming a partisan. Subsequently they started requesting watches, alcohol as well as money. This did not impress us at all.

Amongst the partisans we met the Polish commander, known as Juzik, and he immediately formed a connection with us, and every day they would send us from one place to another, and a struggle began amongst the partisans about which group would absorb us.

Through the partisans we learnt about the massacre that occurred on August 13, 1942, and in which our remaining families in the shtetl were massacred.

The first revenge that we participated in together with the partisans was a mission to take the cattle from the peasants that were being led by them into town, but basically, we Jews were only upfront, where I was wounded in my foot by the village police. At the end of the shooting, I had an opportunity to escape.

We subsequently gathered together once again, and every two days we would send people in pairs to obtain products, with which we managed to support all the other remaining Jews.

The Russian partisans would continuously criticize us, saying that we were not good partisans, because all we were concerned about was food and taking it from the peasants and, therefore, we stopped them (the Russian partisans) from taking from the peasants. They wanted us to depart and go to the other side of the Nieman River.

We did not agree to go (to the Nieman River), as we felt that something bad may happen to us there. Myself as well as my friend, Charchas were requested to surrender our arms and to reject our Zionism, (Zionism is in opposition to the Soviet regime). We had to refuse, as we saw what the result of non-rejection could be, and this is where we experienced the first incident involving police in our encampment. The Russian partisans, who were nearby, did not come to assist us, and those that were actually with us immediately ran away. We subsequently had casualties and we had to retreat, and the police set fire to the forests.

Many of our friends formed various groups and went to the other side of the Nieman River. Having been wounded, I had to remain where I was, and we formed a group of seventeen comrades, including three women and two children.

Israel Dobrin, partisan with unknown partisan

[Pages 639-640]

Two members of our group went out to the nearest village; my cousin Israel Resnik and Goldstein were killed by the group of parachutists. When we came to their encampment, they told us that they will survive without the Jews. We realized that in these groups we will not survive, so we asked that we should be accepted to a partisan detachment, and this request was categorically denied. If they would agree to take us, it would only be young people and men only. In the end our group joined the Russian partisans as a Jewish section.

The first battle that we had with the Germans was when they came to kill partisan families, who lived in the villages around the dense primeval forest. The well known Kalinin detachment under the command of the heroic commander Mit'ka ([Dmitri Denisenko was a commander of the first Cossack cavalry division).

Many Germans and police were killed, as well as the German chief. Our detachment suffered more casualties and the Commander known as Juzik was wounded and also several were killed. When we returned to the camp, the opponents of the Commander, with the well known Danilov Commander, declared that they wish to be separated from the Jews. They fabricated the story that a specific Jew killed a partisan, and then they shot this Jew. We then had to leave the detachment with approximately forty Jews together with our Commander Juzik and we went to the Volozhin and Iveniets forests. Our group was attached to the Chkalov brigade, which was then being created within the Detachment of Kirov and was led by Commander Vasyutin.

Our group was scattered along the Rutas. The first time our brigade marched out, there was a siege, near the village of Horodok, together with a group of parachutists who had arrived from Moscow. Our Jewish group excelled in the battle, and a large number of Germans perished. We also had a certain number of victims, and the leadership complimented us.

Our comrades split up into several groups and were successful.

At that point, the Starasyel'ski detachment was being created; we immediately ensured that our comrades should be transferred to them. A small group agreed to join the new detachment. A group of eleven comrades went to scout for new members, and, eight comrades were murdered in the month of June 1942, by the criminal partisans from the Danilov's Detachment.

We requested from the partisan leadership, that the murderers must be prosecuted. They refused to prosecute the murderers and did not even return the weapons of our innocent comrades.

At that point, the Jewish Bielski detachment arrived, being closer to us and the Naliboki forest. All the remaining Jews joined the Bielski detachment.

For us in the forest it was more difficult to survive the Russian partisans during the days of the first, huge advance of fifty five German divisions and police, against the partisans. Our detachment formed a siege at the Eremichi, where we campaigned for five days in order not to allow the Germans to enter the forest. We killed many of them and we captured a tank, as well as many mortars, rifles and cartridges, and then we had to withdraw.

We organized ourselves in groups and, while starving, we survived the blockade. While crossing the blockade, we all had an opportunity (and, myself especially) to take revenge upon the Germans. Thereafter, a few of our comrades were drafted to a newly created detachment, which was under the command of Lednev, and our brigade was divided into two, our commander Vasyutin became the head of the newly created brigade, which was known as Za Sovetskuyu Belarus. Our detachment was also known by this name.

Here, we met up with surviving Jews from various towns. We then survived two more attacks by Germans and police, directed especially to our encampments

[Pages 641-642]

which we strongly and successfully counter-attacked. Two of our comrades fell heroically in the battle.

There was an increase in machine guns, cartridges, mortars in our detachment.

In the summer of 1943 our brigade participated in the capture of the village Ivenets, and we held the village for three days. I was informed that Oswald had arrived to the partisans and was not far from our Jewish detachment. I travelled to their detachment, where I met up with Oswald Shmuel Rufeisin, and I was very excited to meet him alive and well; that evening we stayed together and he told me about his experiences after we escaped to the forest. The Commander of the German Gendarmerie did not believe in his admission that he was a Jew. They wanted to have him shot. However, he had an opportunity to escape, and he was in hiding for a whole year with the Holy Sisters in the stable and cellar and a year later he arrived to the partisan encampment. The partisans wanted to shoot him, clearly because he was a Jew and a former Commander. Our comrades were able to overturn the accusation, and he remained alive in the detachment.

I discovered that Oswald Shmuel joined the Catholic beliefs, while in hiding with the Holy Sisters, and he abandoned our Judaism.

As 1944 began approaching, the Red Army was moving closer to us. Many times at night we heard the heavy artillery fire from the front. Soviet planes are often seen. The peasants are openly speaking about the fact that the Red Army is now very close. We receive an order from headquarters to deliver barrels with products to the dense primeval forest because the front is now close, and when the battle will move towards us we shall have to remain where we are.

In the fifth month of 1944, we received an order at night to march into the town of Volozhin, which had been occupied for three years and was dreadful for all the surrounding population.

The police, seeing groups of partisans, deserted together with the remaining Germans. We were in possession of the town for a whole day. I had, for the first time in two years, together with other comrades, had the opportunity to take revenge on the peasants, beating them to death and take all their possessions to the dense primeval forest. In the evening we had to withdraw, as we began to see the retreat.

The Red Army is marching in our direction, we set traps on the roads and we caused them to flee. Many of them go through the dense primeval forest, trying to reach Lida, Vilna, Lithuania and Pomerania towards Germany.

Our detachment was ordered to clear the Germans from the dense primeval forest and while being at the post on duty with my group of ten men, there was an opportunity to make eye to eye contact with Germans. The first two that I met were unarmed; one of them even, having heard that I am a Jew, and I told him that I will take revenge upon him for my parents and my wife's parents as well as brothers, sisters and friends, and all Jews. He claimed that he was of Jewish descent. The commander gave me permission to get rid of him. In a few hours later, I was informed by the partisans on guard, that once again they see movement of the Germans in the mud. I take four comrades as well as a Jewish girl, of the Gurevich family, and we begin to approach them. We hear a number of pistol shots towards us. We surround him and he immediately surrendered while throwing away the pistol. He gets a few beatings because he had the gall to shoot us. He was a well dressed senior officer and carried many documents as well as medals, later we discovered that he was a former member of the Gestapo of Minsk.

[Page 643]

I took him to the headquarters, where he was questioned and two pictures were found, where he was standing next to the graves with a whip in his hand, of innocent, murdered Jews with the yellow patches. A girl from Minsk recognized him as the one who beat her in the Minsk Ghetto. We requested of the Commander that the Jews should be the ones to shoot him, he was handed over to us and he was shot.

During the battles, the following comrades fell: Israel Dobrin of Mir travelling as the go-between of the Brigade and the headquarters of Dubov. Also in our detachment Shklot Mottel was killed at Smargon. A few days later we received the order to evacuate the dense primeval forest. Two years later, longing for freedom, and for the first time we see this on the roads of the towns and villages and we then meet up with the Red Army, and at this point we feel that we are the only the ones remaining. All our closest and dearest are missing, and the commanders decide that we will immediately go to the front lines, but our disappointment was very great, because the majority being sent were Jews. We are not even allowed to take revenge upon the local village murderers in our shtetls. I was fortunate to arrive in the shtetl of Mir, where I met up with a policeman who had injured me. I handed him over to the representatives of the NKVD.

[Page 644]

Michel was born without a right arm, but ignoring this he was physically and mentally healthy. He studied in the cheder, the Talmud torah and after that in the Polish school. He simultaneously studied Hebrew and attended a teachers training college in Vilna.

He found the studying very difficult as he had to give lessons in order to support himself financially, suffered hunger and cold. He became a teacher in Der Mir and used to give private lessons, as he was unable to obtain a government posting. Only when the Bolsheviks occupied the town, did he receive an official government posting in a local school, there, he met the teacher Rachel Feld from Warsaw. They married in 1941.

After both the massacres in the ghetto they had an opportunity to escape into the forest to join the partisans in August 1942.

In April, Pesach, 1943, the partisans of the Komsomolski otriad murdered Michel Kopelowicz and his wife Rachel. One of the murderers was a peasant from Berezhno.

Note - Michel Kopelowicz was the uncle of the translators of this document.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Berezhno is 8.3 miles north north-east of Mir back
2. Dolmatovshchina is 9.7 miles west of Mir back
3. Baranovichi is 28.2 miles south west of Mir back
4. Nesvizh is 18.1 miles south south-east of Mir back

[Pages 645-646]

On a starry night during Sunday the 9^th August, 1942, two hundred people left the Mir Ghetto in order to fight the murderous Germans. Everyone's dream was to survive until the revenge; however, one did not know how to escape from the shocking ghetto, which was surrounded by high walls of the Mir Castle. The well armed murderous Germans were constantly ready to beat and to murder, waiting for the opportunity to notice that someone was moving towards the exit. Despite these dangers, the fear did not stop us; one after the other, we managed to drag ourselves through the narrow hole of the thick wall of the Mir Castle, going into the unknown and not knowing what we were about to do, however we all experienced was the fresh air of the summery evening upon the fields of Mir, which was covered with our spilt blood. We secretly crossed the Stolpce highway, passing the large graves near the road, where sand used to be dug. We moved into the Miryanker forest, thus we wandered through the surrounding forests, fearful of raising our voices, without having a drop of water, licking the little leaves in order to quench our thirst, but, nevertheless, I was very sad that I was unable to convince my four sisters, Chaya and her husband, Kunye, Sarah and Beila, who encouraged me to leave, but they themselves remained behind. Sarah, Kunye and Beila, as well as Sonia, Chatzel's the butcher's (daughter) and Tzila, the daughter of Chonye the blacksmith, hid in a cellar in the ghetto, where they stayed nine days in the darkness, and then on the 25^th August, they encouraged themselves and secretly escaped to the forest, when all the remaining people in the ghetto were massacred. I was very happy but not for long. On a sunny morning of 30^th August, 1942 sitting around the fire and roasting potatoes, when Chaim Lis was on guard duty with his rifle, we heard some twigs being broken, the murderous Mirrer police, had secretly approached close to us, and Chaim Lis shouted “stand still!'', he shot at them but they immediately covered us with a hail of bullets and we all dispersed in different directions. The two victims which the bullets did not miss, remained lying at that place, this was my sister Beila Kagan as well Chaim Lis.

Notes:

1. Tzila, the daughter of Chonye the blacksmith, did not hide in the cellar. She escaped that night to the forest.
2. The author Simon Kagan, his two sisters, Kunye and Sarah, and Tzila all survived the war and were together in the DP camp in Landsberg, Germany.

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Updated 21 Jan 2025 by JH