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[Pages 327-335]

From the Publisher:

Bursztyn was one of the towns in the region known as the Rohatyn district, which included Strytyn, Podkamien, and Knyhynicze. Strong ties existed between Bursztyn and Rohatyn. In civic matters, the population of Bursztyn was subject to the authorities in Rohatyn. The Hasidim of the two towns intermingled in the Rohatyn “court.” The fair in Rohatyn was a serious meeting place for Jews from all over the region, a place where trading relationships and solid partnerships were formed. (For example, Shimon Meltzer's father, from Bursztyn, was a partner in the “American Mill” in Rohatyn.) Rohatyn had two high schools, one Polish and the other Ukrainian, which the youth of Bursztyn attended. This led to contact and fast friendship between the young Jews of the two towns. The two towns assisted each other in staging Zionist activities, in both the first and second generations of the movement.

In addition, Jews of the two towns were united through bonds of marriage, and members of the same family could be found in both places.

The same cruel fate befell the towns of Bursztyn and Rohatyn. In the time of the Shoah, Bursztyn Jews were first transported to the Rohatyn ghetto, where they were destroyed or sent to the death camps. Thus, it can be said of Bursztyn and Rohatyn: “United in death as in life.”

Many are moved along with me to pick up the pen and dedicate pages of testimony to the town of Bursztyn, for the sake of out book of remembrance. Only sixteen kilometers separated this town from the regional city of Rohatyn. It is therefore no wonder that relationships, sometimes intimate, were forged between the Jews of the two towns: trading partnerships, marriage bonds, agricultural collaboration, and joint youth activities. Jewish students attended high school in Rohatyn, and the two towns were even connected by a single river, the “Gnila Lipa.”

Hasidism took root in Bursztyn in the early 19^th century, under the influence of Reb Yehuda-Zvi-Hersh Brantwine, from Strytyn. Grand Rebbe Nahum, who sat on his throne till 1914, was a learned man and a cabbalist. He published four books on the cabbalah: Imrey Tov, Imrey Chaim, Imrey Bracha, and Imrey Ratson.^[1] He set up a magnificent “court” in Bursztyn, and his many followers came from all over, bearing contributions for the upkeep of the Bursztyn community. In 1914, vacation time in the mountains, a fire broke out in Bursztyn and consumed half of the city, including the Rebbe's court. Consequently, Reb Nahum relocated to Stanislawow, where he died in 1915, leaving an only son, Eliezer, and four daughters. This son took his father's place in Stanislawow. In 1935, Reb Moshe, son of the above mentioned Reb Eliezer , reestablished his grandfather's court in Bursztyn, and was the Grand Rebbe till he perished with his wife and three children, in the time of the Shoah. Reb Mosheleh's leadership was renowned, and he had many followers. The Nazis seized and tortured him, and he died in 1942, in Stanislawow.

Slowly but surely, an aspiration toward enlightenment and the education of children penetrated into Bursztyn, according to the spirit of the times. In 1898, apparently through the intervention and leadership of the intelligent and cultivated academician Dr. David Maltz, a Jewish school for young people opened in Bursztyn. It was established with the assistance of the “Baron Hirsch Fund.” The founding of this school aroused the opposition of the Hasidim and the pious. Nonetheless, they had no choice but to accept it. Adult courses were held in the evenings, attended by fifty-two people. The school grew to the point that it required its own building, which was purchased in 1904 by the “Baron Hersh Fund.” In 1906, sewing courses for young women were established under the auspices of the “Baroness Klara Hersh Jubilee Fund,” led by Mrs. Fogel. In the first year, fourteen young women studied sewing and tailoring. In 1914, the school building passed into the hands of the community, and was transformed into a cultural center, named for Y.L. Perets, complete with its own popular library. In 1905, the “Ika” loan-society was founded. In addition, a “cooperative bank” also began to operate, and the two were in business till the outbreak of World War One. In 1918, they merged under the name “Cooperative Loan Society.”

The founding of the Zionist association “Chovevey Zion,” by Bunem Shapiro, ushered in a period of energetic national life. Zionist-Jewish personalities began to assemble in Bursztyn following the arrival of the attorney Dr. David Maltz. He was the educator of a group of Zionist students led by Dr. Avraham Kurk. Together with others, including Dr. Yehoshua Ton, he founded the “Zion” society in Lwow, which was the cornerstone for Zionist activity in Galicia, a number of years before the emergence of Dr. Theodore Herzl. He was counted among the Zionist writers of quality. In 1909, a Hebrew school was founded, with a teacher and nine students. During World War One, Dr. Wolf Shmeruk (brother of the well-known Dr. Shmeruk) settled in Bursztyn as an attorney.

The livelihoods of the Bursztyn Jews were similar to those practiced in Rohatyn. The overall character of the city was actually quite Jewish. Even the postman, Reb Ephraim Schneider, wore a beard and sidelocks.

Most of the Bursztyn Jews were Hasidim. Even though the Grand Rabbis of the Brantwine family “ruled” Bursztyn, most of its Jews were actually Belz or Tchortkov Hasidim. Zelig Hammer sat at the head of the communal board.

Dr. M. Haber writes: The Jews of Bursztyn were quiet people, but by no means cowards. In times of danger they were always ready to rise to the defense of their lives and honor. In the days of Prince Yablonovski, a fight broke out between the Tatars and the Jews. The fiery Tatars, together with the Poles and Ukrainians, ran about the town streets like wild men, shattering windows. The Jewish workmen went out to meet them immediately, butchers with their knives and hatchets in hand, and the Tatars quickly retreated. The courage of the Bursztyn Jews fell upon them like blows. For the first time, the rioters felt that danger was upon them, and they fled in a panic. The town escaped without injury. Meanwhile, officers had arrived from Rohatyn, and the winds soon died down.

In 1917-18, after the end of World War One, battles raged on in the Bursztyn region between the Ukrainians, Poles, and Bolsheviks. The Jews, of course, were left dangling in the wind, victims of robbery and murder, women raped before the eyes of their husbands and children.

Harder than all others were the blows of the men of Ptlura. Even General Heller's band could not best them. If not for the assistance of the Joint, the Jews would have faced certain destruction. The Joint set up a public kitchen and cabins for the homeless.

M. Nochvolger adds: Who can forget the Hebrew teachers: Sobel, the girl from Borislav, Shorets, Shtruweiss, and others? Each of them individually, and all of them together, devoted their time, even after the fixed lesson hours, to kindling the Zionist spark and love of the homeland in the souls of the youth. The Zionist spiritual centers were the “Poaley-Zion Union” (right), “Betar,” and “HaNoar HaZioni.” Hundreds of young men and women were members. Youth activities and debates on Zionist issues were held in the “Union” hall. The young people received instruction in Zionism, literature, and communal life, and would attend the lectures and theatrical performances that came to town. In 1925, Chaim Ginsberg (son of the instructor) founded the “Gordonia” association.

Y. Fenster adds: In 1908, elections were held for seats in the Austrian parliament. The Zionist movement participated in the campaign. Adolf Shtand, the Zionist leader, came to speak in Bursztyn, although the authorities, siding with the Polish candidate, had forbidden him from speaking in the synagogue. But the Zionist youth rose up and threw open the doors to the synagogue, and Dr. Shtand strode in before them and delivered a stirring address on the Zionist cause.

Monye Cohen adds: When the teachings of Jabotinski began to make inroads into the cities and towns of Galicia, his movements also came to Bursztyn. On Shavuot in 1927, the founding committee of Betar was established. Its delegates participated in all of the regional and national meetings. Members of the cell also played roles in the central leadership of Betar. Gershon Ginsberg (the Dayan's son, who parted ways with “Gordonia,”) was a district officer in Lwow, and afterwards in Lwow and Cracow. Betar was active until World War Two. (The son of Reb Yoel Ginsberg, Gershon was imprisoned by the Russians in 1940, in a jail in Lwow. In 1941, before the Nazis overran Lwow, as the Russians were fleeing the city, this well-known jail was set on fire, and the soul of Gershon Ginsberg, of blessed memory, was carried upward on these flames. –Y.S.)

In the first days of the war, as the Germans drew near, and the Ukrainians began to menace the Jews with plunder and murder, the commanders of Betar joined forces with the Polish youth of the city, and together they formed a self-defense force. In this hour of tension, the Jewish youth gained the opportunity to protect their people from the onslaught of robbery and killing.

Lusha Freiwald (Rozen) adds: I recall one friend of mine, a Christian girl named Renye Gvodowitz, through whom my life was saved from the whims of the Nazis. She hid me in her home. Perhaps this can be slight consolation, that in this great sea of suffering and torment, in those days of destruction and annihilation, there were a treasured few among the Gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazi inferno.

Pinchas Gelernter recounts: Dov-Ber Gelernter was exceptionally learned in Torah, Talmud, and Rabbinic judgments. He had the authority to teach, but chose not to make Torah a tool for his own service. He was a Zionist all of his days. He was a dear friend of the attorney Dr. David Maltz, who was one of the earliest Zionist leaders in Galicia, a gifted speaker and shrewd publicist, an intimate acquaintance of Natan Berenboim, and a follower of Herzl. Reb Dov-Berish Gelernter and Dr. David Maltz were friendly with Reb Sholem Meltzer, one of the early founders of the “Mizrachi” organization, and a driving force behind the Hebrew school and the “Safa Brura” organization in Rohatyn.

Mordechai Nachvolger adds further: “HaNoar HaZioni” was founded in Bursztyn in 1928. 164 cadets passed through its program. This organization strove to be the next link in the chain that began with the regional branch of “Poaley Zion,” which had sent the town's first pioneers to Israel in the third era of aliya (Sarah Kessler and Bina Briter.) On the eve of Sarah Kessler's departure for Israel, they held a party that went on well passed midnight. (By the way, she is a relative of the Klarnet family. She is involved in the Survivors of Bursztyn organization, and continues to be an active socialist. –Y.P.K.) “HaNoar HaZioni” in Bursztyn received aid and encouragement from Yehuda Hadar and Dov Kirshen, members of the Rohatyn branch.

Dr. Lipa Shomer, the town doctor of Bursztyn, testifies: On September 17, 1939, there was no discrimination practiced toward any segment of the population. In contrast, the Ukrainians started inciting against the Jews, and began informing on them to the Soviet authorities. At that time, bad tidings had already reached us from central Poland, pertaining to the suffering of the Jews under Hitler's conquering army. 2600 Jews were then living in Bursztyn. At the same time, the authorities had jailed the young Jewish leaders of the Zionist youth movements. Those arrested and imprisoned were transported to Lwow, where they were executed alongside the Ukrainian nationalists, or sent to Siberia. For the time being, the authorities did me no harm, because, as a doctor, I was necessary to them. The situation changed on June 22, 1941, the day war broke out between Germany and Russia. The Red Army fled in a panic. At the city limits, they abandoned their battle with the advancing German army, and blew up the bridges. A certain number of local Jews, mostly from among those who had found positions in the Soviet administration, joined the Russian retreat.

Then the many troubles and sorrows began to fall upon the Jews, inflicted by the Ukrainians as well as the Germans, and as an eyewitness Dr. Shomer will describe them:

The best men of the city, among them Rabbi Hertz Landau and Reb Yoel Ginsberg, an old and honored teacher, were beaten and maimed in the town office. One of the Ukrainians came up to the old Dayan, shaved off his white beard and threw the hairs in his face. As he was doing so, he said to the old man, “Leprous Jew, the time has come to be rid of all of you, and to pay you back what you have coming.” The old Dayan's eyes filled with tears, but he did not say a word in response. As we left the room, we saw the Ukrainians tying ropes around the necks of the Rabbi and the Dayan, and fastening them to the iron lattice of the window. I begged the German sub-lieutenant not to allow them to be tortured. The German commanded me to go, saying, “The Rabbis will not be tortured to death.” Meanwhile, the respected Ukrainians of the town, among them judges, lawyers, and regular townspeople, had assembled to riot against the Jews. The next day I went to see the Rabbi and the Dayan. I found them both in their quarters, lying on their beds bruised and wounded, wrapped in talis and tfillin. I examined their wounds and showed them mine.

In the beginning of August 1941, the order came down to establish a “Jewish Council” of eight people. I was numbered among them, and was forced to serve as chairman. The body also included the attorney Phillip Tobias, Mina Tobias, Yehuda-Hersh Fishman, and others. We received word from the Judenrat in Rohatyn that the German authorities had ordered three representatives from every town in the region to appear before the Rohatyn council. There Shlomo Amarant read an order from the German authorities that a compensatory tax of eight to ten million rubles was being levied on the Jews, as it were, for the damages that we owed.

Our lives hung before our eyes. People lived twenty to a room. Jews were permitted to walk only in the middle of the road. The people, swollen with hunger, were terrible to behold, and the children with spindly-legs and bellies inflated by starvation. As a doctor, I had permission to go outside the Jewish zone, but I continued to wear the light-blue and white band bearing the star-of-David on my arm, according to the law.

The Germans demanded that the Judenrat supply them with quotas of Jews for labor. These were brought to the railroad station in groups of 120, pressed into railcars and sent on their way. Many of the deportees died of suffocation in the overcrowded wagons, or perished of hunger and thirst. They were transported to Belzits, were they were murdered in the crematorium.

On October 15^th, the Germans ordered all Jews to relocate to Bukaczowce. Only thirty Jews remained in Bursztyn, working on the roads. Two doctors were among them, Dr. Shmuel Katz and myself, as well as the head of the Judenrat, Phillip Tobias, and two of his friends. A month later, the Gestapo came to the camp and transported all thirty Jews to the ghetto in Rohatyn. We fled into the forest to hide. On July 9^th, 1943, we heard loud gunfire. The Germans were liquidating the Rohatyn ghetto, shooting all of the Jews that they found. We built bunkers in the forest and hid in them, changing out location often, so as not to fall into a trap. We endured hunger and thirst, slept in damp, and ate lice, till farmers that we knew began bringing us things to eat. For the most part, these were members of the Christian Baptist sect (living around the village of Tsrov.) We hid in this manner until May of 1944, when the Russians came and chased the Germans away.

Ya'akov Feldman continues the account:

On Yom Kippur, 1942, the “action” began in Rohatyn, where very few Jews were still living. It was announced in Bursztyn that two railcar loads of Jews would be transported to their deaths. I will never forget this Yom Kippur. Reb Yoel Ginsberg, of blessed memory, the religious instructor of the town, requested the people nonetheless to pray as a community on the holy day. The Dayan prayed all day through his tears and sobbing, calling out to the assembly to accept the judgment without fear, to walk with heads held high to meet the bitterness of death. It was amazing that this man, suffering the effects of torture and hunger, had the force and courage to preach these words of consolation.

The Germans entered the city on the day after Yom Kippur and began shooting at Jews in the street. Most were seized and transported to Rohatyn. The members of the Judenrat knew that the action was coming, and had hidden their wives and children. Soon Bursztyn too was emptied of its Jews, who were taken to Bukaczowce, were they were loaded into railway cars and transported to the death camp of Belzits. Reb Yoel the Dayan was shot to death in Bukaczowce, as he was passing among the Jews, offering words of comfort and reciting the deathbed confession with them. The remaining Jews of the region were driven into the Rohatyn ghetto, among them many Jews from Bursztyn. One of them was Shlomo Mendelberg, who, when we were separated, said to me, “I know that I am going to meet death. How strange it is that I came back from the Land of Israel to fall at the hands of these murderers.”

The Rohatyn ghetto was liquidated in June of 1943. Even after Bursztyn was “Jew free,” there remained a few isolated Jews in the area, hiding with farmers or in the forest. Mundze Fishman, Wolf Ostrover, and Loti Bronstein dug themselves a bunker in the stables of the prince's palace. They had a revolver and a number of bullets. Rafel, the lame cobbler who guarded the courtyard, helped them and found them a little food. One week, the Ukrainian police fell upon the bunker, by order of the Germans. The bunker was well concealed, but the son of Pad Bober the chimney sweep had informed the Germans of its existence. The officers called on those hidden to come out of the surrounded bunker. When Mundze realized there was no escape, he came out with the revolver in his hand and shot the German commander, injuring him severely. His shots also hit and wounded the officer firing the machine gun. Mundze and Loti fell as casualties. Wolf grabbed the gun, went back down into the bunker, and came out the other side. The murderers pursued him, and Wolf Ostrover fought like a hero. He hit another Ukrainian policeman, not far from Dr. Shmeruk's house. Wounded and loosing blood, he still managed to fire on his pursuers. He fell outside the city, hit by Pad's son.

Honor to their memories! Their heroic deaths kindled a ray of light in the darkness of the Shoah and the destruction of our town.

Our Revenge

We, a group of Jews in the forest, decided to take revenge against our oppressors. We dressed in farmers' clothing and entered the town at night. We then grabbed the night watchman and forced him to accompany us to the house of Ped ordering him to knock on the door and call him to come out. Once Ped came out, we grabbed him and killed him on the spot. His wife followed him and she too received what she had coming. Unfortunately we did not catch their murderous son. We found out later that he had been hiding in the chimney. For this we were indeed sorry. Those who took part in this foray included Kalman, the son of Sarah the baker, and two Jews from Bukaczowce.

Kalman had begun fighting the Nazis with live ammunition when there was still a ghetto in Rohatyn. He and a group of other Jews attacked Germans on the way to Knihynicze. Some of the Germans were indeed killed, but they were numerous, and the four of our attacking group were killed and their bodies were returned to the Jews for burial. Kalman had been included with the bodies. However, the Jews noticed that Kalman was still alive, but he had a very serious injury to his head, and they buried someone else in his place. There was no shortage of bodies to be buried. Kalman eventually recovered from his wounds and again ran away to the forest where he stayed for a long time. However, as the time of liberation from the Nazis approached, the Germans sent Kalmucks - Russian prisoners from the army of Vlasov^[Ed1] who had gone over to the German side - with orders to kill the Jews who were wandering in the forests. By that time the Jews had acquired some weapons and stood up well against the murderous attacks on them. In one of those attacks Kalman died a hero's death, gun in hand. All honor to his venerable name!

Long before the destruction of the Jews of Bursztyn we learned about the Germans' evil plans to destroy all the Jews of Galicia. Successive trains filled with Jews passed through the train stations of Bursztyn on the way to the crematorium camps. One time 11 Jews jumped off the trains, were caught and brought into town. At that time there was a German stationed there who had a hobby of shooting helpless people. He was particularly cruel to children and it was he who received these 11 Jews as his targets. First he shot nine of them and there remained a mother and her seven-year old child. The murderer ordered the child to turn around and face him as he took out his pistol to shoot him. Then a remarkable thing happened. The boy faced the German with an innocent smile on his face. The murderer was stunned and remained standing as if he had been turned to stone, his gun falling from his hand. This murderer, who had killed hundreds of people, many of them children, this animal in the form of a human, who never before had shown pity to any child who may have crawled before him and begged for his life, was completely overcome by the smile of an innocent child and he fell in a dead faint. When he was revived, he ordered the Ukrainian policeman Schtick, the one who had shot the first ten Jews of Bursztyn, to bring the child to the Judenrat making him accountable for the boy's life. This German lay in the Tanka Moskeviten house for many days and would command that the boy be brought to him from time to time because he felt better when the boy was there. When the Jews of Bursztyn were killed, the boy and his mother disappeared and no one knows what happened to them.

Ilana Mischler Szmorak tells this story about Ze'ev Szmorak. She recalls his initiative and Zionist dedication all of his life until the period of the Holocaust. When the important members of the community suggested that he preside over the Judenrat, he refused to accept the position, explaining that only a criminal could be capable of cooperating with the Nazis. On October, 1942 he, his wife, his mother and the rest of his community were driven out of town to Bukaczowce and from there to the concentration camp in Bel¿ec. A short while afterwards his daughter also died, as did his brother Dr. Szmorak, a staunch Zionist, who was murdered during the first weeks of the German conquest. May the Alm-ty avenge their deaths.

Fenster relates hearing from Yaakov Feldman that at one time the German murderers gathered up hundreds of Jews in Rohatyn and informed them that at a given time bread would be distributed to the children, and hundreds of children gathered there; the bestial murderers shot them all to death. Once a German spy came to us and pretended to be friendly to the Jews. When we saw that we had fallen into his trap, we grabbed him, stabbed him to death and buried him on the spot.

Y. Shmulevitz, New York, as heard from Yaakov Glotzer: Together with my wife and three children, I came on the 22^nd of October, 1942 to Rohatyn, where the remainder of the Jews of Rohatyn, Bursztyn, Bukaczowce, Knihynicze and Zurów were in hiding. While we were in our room where we were hiding, a Jew by the name of Skolnick, a printer who lived in our proximity, came to me and warned us, “Prepare yourselves. You may be killed at any moment.” Knowing that every week the Judenrat of Rohatyn was required to present the Germans with 100 Jews to be shot in their own basement, we began digging a tunnel that night lead from the side of our room to the river Gni³a Lipa. Working only at night, the process took three weeks. While we were in the house, we constantly heard the groans of Yisrael Schtander of Stratyn who was hiding in the attic and was dying of thirst, and we were unable to do anything for him. When we reached the forest where the partisans were stationed, I was given a rifle and I took part in their activities. At night we went out to the farmers of the villages to get food.

The partisans started their attacks by breaking into the police station of Bursztyn and taking nine rifles. Then the Jewish partisans went out of the forests into the roads that led to Bukaczowce and fell upon German drivers, whom they shot, taking their rifles and boots. In this way they collected weapons, clothes and food.

He also heard a similar story from Paula Tichover: “When we came to the ghetto of Rohatyn, someone from Rohatyn by the name of Shmuel Acht accepted us into his room. After eight days the “Akcja” began. Shmuel Acht had prepared a bunker before this, and about 20 people hid there. I used to sneak out of the ghetto to bring wood. A Jewish policeman caught me, took away the wood and beat me, but G-d punished him. When the ghetto was liquidated, he hid in the attic of a farmer and there he rotted to death.

By contrast, she praises a Ukrainian farmer Miko³aj Maækio (Yiddish: Matskie) who enabled them to stay alive. She describes life in the forests. One time the Germans came with their dogs that led them by scent to the bunker which was empty. When a German bent down to look into the bunker Mordechai Blumenfeld shot him with his rifle. The other Germans were frightened and retreated from the forest. They became angry with the Ukrainian militia for not informing them that the partisans had weapons. Upon leaving, the Germans shot Mordechai in the arm and leg. We were able to treat the arm but not his leg and he limped. Mordechai was shot and killed during another attack by the partisans in a different place. May he rest in peace!

Miriam Ginzburg(Gintzburg) Allerhand recalls the stories of her father-in-law Rabbi Yoel Ginzburg, about his son and her husband, Chaim who worked as a reporter for the Nowy Dziennik^[Ed2] and the Haolam^[Ed3] in London. He was also a teacher of Greek, Latin and Hebrew in the Jewish high school of Cracow (Kraków) and he received from Dr. Yehoshua Tahon, of Blessed Memory a citation for excellence, which is displayed in the book of Bursztyn. She relates how they spoke Hebrew to their son Amram from the day he was born. By means of an “Aryan” document under the name of Marja Yowserewsky, she succeeded in escaping to Warsaw. She had a miracle, that when the Germans were beating her with a pistol, her child broke out in uncontrollable tears and one of the Germans said to the other, “I can't shoot this child. He reminds me too much of my own children at home” and left them alive.

Yosef Schwartz of New York cites, among other things, the worthy behavior towards Jews of certain Gentiles, among them a priest, who supplied Jews with food in the area of Tarnopol. While they were hiding in the grain fields, Russian soldiers came there and took them to headquarters on suspicion of spying. The interrogator was a Jew from Kiev. “When I started to tell him what we went through and what others are likely to go through, he broke into tears like a child. When it became dark, they wanted to return us to town, but the commanding officer, a Jew, ordered us to remain in the room. He then accompanied us to Brze¿any where we met other Jews who had succeeded in running away.”

Bella Ehrenberg Zinger recounts that the inhabitants of Bukaczowce and the Poles and Ukrainians of the village of Czarów did not usually bother Jews, except in some specific instances. There were some who actively helped Jews. For instance, Marja Lubinic (Loubinitz) and her son Ped hid me and my first husband Mordechai Blumenfeld for a period of between four to five months. From there we went to the forests, where we built a bunker and joined other escapees. Mordechai, who was born in Czarów, was the chief organizer of the rescues. He took revenge on the Banderowcy, the Ukrainians who grabbed Jews when they left their bunkers and delivered them to Rohatyn. On the other hand, the farmers of Koniuszki and Obelnica were big terrorists.

Shmuel Shapira of New York - He remembers the teacher, Rabbi Yoel Ginzburg (Gintzburg), and his three children - Zimell, Chaim and Gershon - all three of whom influenced Jewish religious and national life in the area. Two of them, Zimmel and Chaim, were teachers in Hebrew high schools. He (Rabbi Yoel) was a very pious, an enthusiastic Zionist, and a member of the Mizrachi.^[Ed4] It is interesting to note that Rabbi Yoel enjoyed speaking with Mina Tobias, the leader of the awakening youth. These two personalities brought light to the town during the dark period of the Holocaust. Mina Tobias was appointed head of the Judenrat, but when the Germans wanted him to cooperate, he resigned.

Yosef Schwartz relates that, on one winter night in the year 1915, a Russian officer entered the Beth Hamidrash. He was tall and strong, with a gray beard and very dignified. The congregants were frightened and rose from their seats, but the officer began to speak to them in Yiddish and shook hands with all of them. He looked at the open Gemara volumes on the book stands (shtenders), then took out a small notebook and turned to Reb Leibish Kletiffer with questions. How many Jews left the town? How many remained? How do they support themselves? Before he left he said, “If the Russians try to bother you, come to me. My name is Shloime Rapaport and I live on the grounds of Count Jablonowski (Yablonowsky).” This was S. An-ski.^[Ed5]

Yisrael Fenster in explaining Mina Tobias' outlook on life, tells the following story. During World War I, he (Mina Tobias) became acquainted with a learned Russian Jewish prisoner, who was knowledgeable in Yiddish and modern Hebrew literature, and had become an aide at that time to the then Austrian officer M. Tobias. This prisoner began to read with his officer a variety of Yiddish and Hebrew literature that included Bialik, Peretz, Mendele, Sholem Aleichem. The reading sessions with this Russian Jew had a notably strong effect on Tobias. Thus, during the years 1918-20, when there were altercation between the Poles and the Ukrainians and battles between the Poles and the Russians, the town passed from hand to hand, and the honor of Jews in the town was non-existent, Tobias happened to see a Polish officer trying to cut off the beard of a passing Jew. Tobias stopped him and said to the hooligan, “I am also an officer.” The Polish officer slapped him in the face. Mina Tobias told this to the army authorities and resigned as Polish officer, with all the privileges this meant. The Polish army authorities were highly insulted. The survivors of Bursztyn relate that he was quick to discern the wicked trickery of the Nazis and refused to cooperate with them and act as head of the Judenrat. Because of this he was sent to the ghetto of Rohatyn and died there.

In 1943, in the midst of the flames of World War II, the world was very upset by the announcement of the discovery of the mass grave of thousands of Polish officers who were murdered in the forests of Katyn. It turns out, however, that among those murdered were many Jews, including three people from Bursztyn.

The story of the Sefer Torah - Pinchas Haber, the son-in-law of Avrumtsie from Bohorodczany, brought a Sefer Torah with him when he settled in Bursztyn and put it into the Stratyner kloiz (Stratyn small synagogue) where he prayed. When the murderers began to cause riots in town, Pinchas hid the Sefer Torah and no one knew where it was. When Bursztyn was liberated by the Russians in 1944, the Jews who had been in hiding returned to their town to weep over its destruction. One time an old Ukrainian lady came to Yaakov Feldman and said to him that she had a secret that concerned him. She related that at the end of 1941 Pinchas Haber and Mordechai Bernstein gave her a Sefer Torah to hide. They knew this old lady, whom they called “Stepanke,” and trusted her. She belonged to Sabbath Observers.^[Ed6] and would probably care for it. She took the Sefer Torah from them and set up a special “bunker” where she placed it in straw to protect it against dampness. The old lady gave him a hat to cover his head and he went with her. The Sefer Torah was still in its hiding place, as she had said, and she handed it to Yaakov Feldman, the husband of Dazi, the daughter of the above named Pinchas Haber. After years of wandering, Dazi and Yankel Feldman came to Israel in 1948 and brought with them the Sefer Torah that was rescued.

Footnotes

1	Good Words, Words of Life, Words of Blessing, Words of Favor back
Ed1	A. Vlasov (1900-1946), Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, McMillan Co., 1990, Ed. I. Gutman Vol. 4, p. 1579 back
Ed2	“The New Daily”, first Zionist Polish-language journal. It appeared daily in Cracow beinning in 1918. back
Ed3	The central organ of the World Zionist Organization, published as a weekly from 1907 to 1950. back
Ed4	The term means “eastern” and is derived from “Merkaz Ruchani,” spiritual center. A religious Zionist movment, whose aim was expressed in its motto: “The Land of Israel for the people of Israel for according to the Torah of Israel” (coined by Rabbi Meir Berlin-Bar Ilan). back
Ed5	Pseudonym of Solomon Zainwil Rapaport, Yiddish playwright, author of The Dybbuk back
Ed6	Shomrei Shabbat (Subbotniki) back

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