[pp. 63-64]

There once was a Bursztyn community and it is no more.

At the hands of Ukrainian German killers, it was cut short of the multi-branches of Polish Jewry.

Its memory remains in the hearts of dozens of its remnants who have been scattered all over the world, most of whom have been acclimatized in their homeland, in the country Israel.

Where is that piece of soil that soaked up their blood and in which their sacred ashes lie?

Where is the gravestone that points out that they were buried here?

Here are two rows of densely built black houses, surrounding the market square and a number of streets and alleys branch off from them to the sides. This is the town that grew slowly over hundreds of years, from a tiny settlement in ancient days, which was built next to the palace of Prince Jabłonowski.

One of the many Jewish settlements that took root on the banks of the Gnila Lipa River in eastern Poland, surrounded by villages of peasants eager for Jewish blood and property.

In the last decades before its annihilation and destruction, the Jewish community in Bursztyn reached a period of national and collective activity in all the light and shadow in which, on all the positive and the negative, which engaged in the effort for a Jewish life in the diaspora and abroad.

In this Jewish town, which was apparently dormant and silence in the great body of Polish Jewry, were reflected the sparks of our people's life in the period before the Holocaust.

Here is the wonderful figure of a typical Jew, the likes of which could only be seen hundreds of years ago in the centers of Jewish Kabbalah, in Spain or France, and here is the passionate Chassid who does not differ in his way of life from the Chassidim of the period of the Baal Shem Tov, and the fierce Mitnaged and the well versed in Shas and Poskim who are as though copied from HaRaga's time.

Who among us does not remember the small town of “Bursztyn” within its borders? On Rohatyn's side was the court, on the Demianow side – the Christian cemetery, on the Korostowice side – the beautiful Gnila Lipa River, and then the Jewish cemetery and the Catholic monastery. On all the outskirts of the city and in the center, stirred the life of Jews who were engaged in trade, crafts, and the work of the Creator.

Most of the town's Jews sometimes met in the synagogues, at celebrations, in youth organizations, in the Y. L. Peretz Cultural Center, etc., and in those meetings, they found a vent for their souls in the Diaspora. Who will not remember the Hebrew teachers: Sobel, the girl from Borysław, with energy and dedication to the teaching of the language Hebrew; Schwartz, Strohweiss and others? Each of them and all of them together, devoted their time after their hours of teaching to sow the seeds of Zionism and love of the homeland in the youth. The centers of the Zionist spirit were in the Histadruts: Hitachdut, Beitar and HaNoar HaZioni, of which hundreds of girls and boys were members. We should note the constant concern of our parents for learning Torah, with a private “rabbi” (Hershele Strelisker and his son-in-law, Yudel Purim, the Weitz brothers, and others) or in the classes of rabbis and Torah scholars in synagogues: the Dayan Ginsburg, the Weba brothers, Yankel Shohat, Itche Gutstein, the Leibale brothers, Yeshaya Ostrower, and others. The ultra-Orthodox would gather in the house of Rabbi Landau, the Dayan Ginsburg, in the beautiful synagogue, on the walls of which pictures from the Bible shone in a pattern of colors; in the Beit Midrash, and in the “Kleislech” of the Chassidim, around the table of Reb Moshe, Baal Mofet, whose reputation preceded him.

The youth would also teach according to their spirit: Zionism, Literature, social life in an organizational framework. The youth would also attend lectures and visit the theater, which came to the town: the Goldfaden troupe, the charming troupe, as well as the foreign theater “Bestednik.” There were also local play groups that presented plays directed by Mina Tobias. The youth also met at the “Sokol” building to watch films that were accompanied by the play of the Jewish violinist, Wahl.

There was a community and a “Gmiluth Chassadim” bank at the Neuberger house. The community's income came, mainly, from the slaughter

[pp. 65-66]

of poultry and beef, the slips were sold to consumers at Nachman Breiter's [business]. In the course of time, the youth, who could not afford studying at schools outside the area, studied in courses in the town, a clerkship course (run by Reinhard), lessons at the Tobias brothers' [home], etc.

People with an education and degrees also lived in the town, doctors (Schumer, Katz and Sussman) lawyers (Shmarak, Ziering Klugman, Rohrberg, Hecker, Rosen, and others), veterinary doctor (Wattenberg), teachers (Landau, Rothenstreich and others), but they, except for a few, considered themselves “privileged,” assimilated with the gentiles in a general “casino,” and did not devote their knowledge to Hebrew culture.

In the last decades, all currents in the broad spectrum of the Jewish population in Poland, from the national social and political movements, stirred amidst the Jewish population in Bursztyn. As in the entire Polish Jewry, there were in Bursztyn factions of every movement, from ultra-orthodox, through assimilated and even active Zionists.

A series of characters and figures of the small and diverse group pass before our eyes. Here are the community leaders and its activists, rabbis and judges, Hovevei Zion and Zionists, scholars of the Beit Midrash on the one hand and students of the Polish high school on the other, the “rabbi” and the court, the reformed Hebrew teacher and language learners of New Hebrew in the circles of youth movements, including socialists and communists seeking redemption among the gentiles in the foreign world, as well as pioneers and immigrants who sought their redemption in their homeland, Israel.

Many of Bursztyn's Jews were clerks, merchants, coachmen, porters, craftsmen: shoemakers, tailors, hairdressers, carpenters, tinsmiths, bakers; cattle breeders, land leasers, brokers, and laborers, who subsisted by their hard work.

In Bursztyn there were “Kloisen” institutions: we already mentioned the rabbi, the Beit Midrash, the magnificent synagogue; charitable and Gmiluth Chassadim institutions, the community, the Zionist Histadrut and its parties, youth organizations that fulfill the aspirations and ideas of national public revival.

This magnificent gallery of figures and institutions grew amidst the colorful backdrop of all strata of the community, from the impoverished people to the rich and wealthy.

Such was life within the town: seemingly quiet and sleepy; however, as a matter of fact, it was vibrant and eager for human redemption.

And our town was completely destroyed along with the rest of the holy communities.

May this memoir book be an eternal noble monument of the life and struggle of the holy Bursztyn community, so that its sons and their descendants will remember this town.

[pp. 71-72]

In the years following the First World War, most of the Jewish youth in our town joined the youth movements, “Gordonia” and “Hechalutz.” Once the doctrine of Jabotinsky, for whom the ultimate goal of Zionism was the establishment of a Hebrew country, [and for whom] the youth in the diasporic lands also needed to prepare itself from a military perspective, penetrated the cities and towns of Galicia, the movement also penetrated our town of Bursztyn.

One Sabbath, when the leader of “Gordonia” was leading a discussion about the history of Zionism, and attacked and besmirched the name of Zev Jabotinsky, a portion of the people in the group, which was headed up by the young member, Gershon Ginzburg (the son of the religious law adjudicator), brought its objection/protestation, and abandoned “Gordonia.”

In this group were: Gershon Ginzburg, Velvl Ostrower, Leib Schwartz, Lipa Mandelberg, Shaike Kletter, and Munye Cohen (presently in Israel), and they began right away to request a way of actualizing/realizing the ideology of Revisionism. They corresponded with two comrades/members on the spot: Yosef Kletter (today in Russia) and Hersh Breiter (resides in Vienna), who joined the youth federation, “Menorah,” in Stanislawow, and through them, a connection was maintained with the headquarters of Beitar, whose moshava [i.e., agricultural colony] was then in Stanislawow, under the leadership of Adalbert Bibring.

During Shavuot of 1927, a gathering of the foundation of Beitar was held. As the overseer of the nest [or lodge] Velvl Ostrower was appointed, and as members of the headquarters: Lipa Mandelberg, Leib Schwartz, Shaike Kletter, and Munye Cohen [were appointed]. In the beginning, in the group there were [see note at end, p.10] a small number of members, only adolescents, although after a brief time, many youths joined them, male and female adolescents of every stratum, merchants, artisans and laborers, and Beitar became/turned into the largest youth movement in the city.

In the summer of 1929, 3 of the nest's members departed for the first summer camp, which the headquarters of the Lwow region in Mikulince organized. After they returned to the town, they stood at the head/helm of the physical education movement.

Group of Beitar at the time when they were founded

[pp. 73-74]

male and female members from the Bursztyn nest participated in this. The delegates/envoys also participated in all the national and regional conferences. With the effort of nest headquarters, nests were also established in towns in the area, such as: Bolszowce, Bukaczowce, Halicz, Voinyliv, Lipica, and others. A conference was also organized in Bursztyn with the participation of 400 youths from the adjoining towns, who paraded in their uniforms through the streets of the city and made a huge impression on the city's Jewish and Christian populace. The members of the Bursztyn nest also filled positions within the central leadership of Beitar. Gershon Ginzburg was the regional leader in Lwow; and afterward, in Krakow, Velvl Ostrower – in the Stanislawow region, and Munye Cohen – in the Lwow region.

The members of Beitar were mere youths, and nonetheless, Beitar was represented in all the Zionist and general institutions in the city. During the first years, Beitar had representatives of all the political parties at the local Zionist council, and they participated in an active manner in the work of the Jewish National Fund; the representative/delegate of Beitar was the authorized deputy of the Jewish National Fund. Beitar also participated in all the Zionist enterprises, such as: the Chanukah ball/reception, Herzl festivities, etc. Beitar was also involved in elections to the Polish “Sejm” (Parliament) and fought for the election of a Zionist candidate. The members distributed Shekels to the Zionist Congress, and the Revisionist list merited second place in the Shekel enterprise.

The Beitar club/clubhouse was held in one of the rooms of the former “Baron Hirsch School.” In the large [school]yard it was possible to conduct physical and intellectual education activities amongst the youth. And a great deal of attention was devoted to cultural activities. The organization was divided into units, according to age; within them, classes about the history of the [Jewish] nation and Zionism, the geography of Israel, [and] Hebrew and Yiddish literature were conducted. Every Sabbath evening there would be an evening of reading works by writers in Hebrew and Yiddish. On the Sabbaths, following lunch, there would be lectures about the events of the day concerning Jewish and Zionist issues; Saturday nights they would organize “Question Evenings,” with the participation of the youths who were members of other movements. Every holiday they would organize parties with artistic programs. Once a week, they would issue a wall newspaper, whose lists that were contained therein, were written by members of the nest. A special task within the realm of cultural work was conducted by Gershon Ginzburg, who saw to this on his vacation days and on holidays; and when he was full of information about all the issues, he successfully conducted his work within this realm.

Beitar invested a great deal of toil in spreading the Hebrew language amongst the youth. The organization established a Hebrew speakers' club; and when they liquidated the Hebrew schools in the city, Beitar brought the Hebrew teacher, Strohweiss (now in Israel), and afterward, the teacher [named] Weinryb, who developed classes in Hebrew for Hanoar Haivri [i.e., a Zionist youth organization] in the city. At the same time that the danger of assimilation and of Polish literature was perceived for the Jewish youth, Beitar actively helped the I. L. Peretz Library Jewish library (which was also affiliated with the “Bund”), and also had a representative in the administration of the library. A dramatics club was also established near Beitar, which performed, among other [performances], the play, “Hard to Be a Jew” by An-ski, under the direction of V. Tobias and Y. Leib Fenster (now in Israel). The dramatics club would also frequently appear in the cities in the area, such as: Rohatyn, Bolszowce,

Bursztyn's Beit Midrash

Much attention was given by Beitar to physical and military education. After one of the people from the nest completed a course for leaders in Zielonka under the guidance of the commanding officer, Jeremy Halperin, most of the nest's members passed military preparation courses. Members of the nest also participated in summer camps, and in courses that took place in the Lwow region.

Beitar began, already in 1929, to prepare the youth for Aliyah to Israel, and a portion of its members left for different Hachsharah points in Poland. On account of this, there were those from [among] them who survived, and they reside today in Israel: Yonah Bernstein, Aryeh Wieselberg, Hersh Teitler, Devorah Kimmel, Batyah Weissmann, and others. The rest of the members did not merit to make Aliyah. In 1931, a Hachsharah was founded in Bursztyn under the supervision of M. Cohen, and there, youths from towns in the area went through the Hachsharah.

[pp. 75-76]

Member, Dr. Natan Meltzer, of the central Israeli office, who organized the oversight of and education at the Hachsharah point, visited there. When Beitar Aliyah permits were revoked, they began to send its illegal members “nonetheless,” and this provided members of other political parties the opportunity to make Aliyah; among those in Israel, today, are: Yudel Krochmal.

Beitar raised a great deal of attention, also, among the non-Jewish populace, and brought much honor to the [Jewish] nation. At all of the national Polish celebrations, such as the 3^rd of May (Polish Constitution Day), the 11^th of November (the day of Polish liberation), and so forth, Beitar would march beneath the blue-white flag to the synagogue; there, they would conduct prayers, and speeches of the rabbi or the religious law adjudicator of the city, as well as the government delegate, would be delivered. The Christian populace saw that a new Hebrew [i.e., Jewish] generation had increased and proliferated.

In the later years, academic youths joined Beitar; among them was Hertz Weinert, who was a member of the Beitar administration. Nearly a majority of the Jewish youth passed through the Beitar lines/rows. Some of them who were unable to adapt themselves to the severe Beitar discipline went over to other organizations, such as “Hanoar Hatzioni” [The Zionist Youth], and these are the adult members who founded the Hatzohar [Revisionist Zionists], under the leadership of Hertz Weinert, who stood at the helm/head of the political revisionist activity in the city. Following the split/rift of Katowice, in 1933, most of the Beitar political party remained loyal to Jabotinsky; only a small portion from the Hatzohar, led by Hertz Weinert, joined the political party, “Medinat Yisrael” [the State of Israel]. From among those, Devorah Ebert and Yosef Marburg today reside in Israel.

Beitar conducted its activity up until World War Two. During the first days of the war, when the Germans began to advance toward our city, and the Ukrainians began to threaten the Jews with robbery and murder, Beitar headquarters contacted the Polish youth in the city, and along with them, established a self-defense [entity]. The Jewish youth was given a means by which to protect, during the hour of emergency, the Jewish populace in the face of attacks, murder, and robbery. When the Polish Army began its escape/flight en route to Sniatyn, and it became apparent that the end to the free lives of the Jews had been awakened, the Beitar headquarters burned, one night before Rosh Hashanah, all of its property/assets [indicated] on the lists.

After the Soviet Army had entered town, they liquidated all the Zionist political parties, and included among them was Beitar. Most of the Jewish youth perished in the hands of the Nazis, some of them were murdered by the partisans in the forests, and some of them fell in the Red Army; among them was headquarters member, Shaike Kletter. A rather small number [of them] reached, through different channels, Israel.

Members of Beitar

[pp. 77-78]

In the course of time, with our growing older, we return in our thoughts to our childhood days, and to the places in which we were born and saw the light of day for the first time.

The town in which we spent our childhoods, in which the house of our parents stood, the school, in which we had our first friends, this town became very dear to us.

Bursztyn, my town, in which the Jews numbered the majority of residents, and gave it the special appearance of a typical Jewish town, this Bursztyn was erased from the face of the earth by the hands of the Nazi troopers. The Jewish community was destroyed along with the synagogues and the religious houses of study, with the home of the rabbi and religious law adjudicator, the cheders, and the schools. The Jews, with their elderly, women, and children, were wiped out; only the name of the town, alone, remains. And in our heart there only remains a huge ache and memories of days past and of a world that was and is no more.

I was eight years old when my parents moved to Bursztyn to set down roots there. My father, Dr. Elisz Rosen, completed his course of studies in Vienna; and in 1932, he founded a law office in Bursztyn.

When I was still a little girl, I loved to observe through the small window of our house's attic, the town, and its surroundings. And this picture that appeared through the small window, remained in my memory until today.

Here is the main street, Stanislawow-Lwow. On both sides of the street, homes, and stores. In the center of the large square is the marketplace, the town's central place. Farmers from the area would come there every Tuesday of the week to sell the ground's produce.

Here is the old synagogue and the rabbi's house, and the ritual bath. From the other side, somewhat removed from them, the two churches, the Catholic one and the Protestant one, the monastery, the school, and the courthouse. In their midst rose the palace of the Polish nobleman, Jablonowski, and surrounding it, a large and pleasant garden.

From the distance a narrow and long strip could be seen; this was the “Gnila Lipa” River. The river was the boundary between the town and the adjacent villages, the single place in which we were able, during the heat wave days of burning summer, to tan in the sun, and to swim in the chilly water, to our delight.

Close to the river was a lake, and in it were small rowboats. From time to time, we sailed off in rowboats; and it appeared to us as though we were traveling far away from the town and forgetting the world and all that is in it.

Surrounding the town were fields of grain and eternal forests. The town was small, peaceful, and full of charm.

I was used to sitting for hours upon hours on the riverbank and delving into a book; there, I wove my dreams for the future. And so pleasant and beautiful were the dreams of a life of freedom and wealth, “of truth and glory, which are no more.”

And here, the truth came along and removed/displaced all the pleasant dreams; and thus, it was bitter and cruel: robbery and calamity, ghetto, and concentration camps, suffering and torture, and lives of endless fear.

There is no father or mother, there is no family, an end to my childhood friends; the good and pleasant Jews of the town of Bursztyn went to their eternal resting places. All of them were killed and slaughtered, suffocated, and hanged, drowned, and burned in the concentration camps and in the gas chambers of Majdanek and Treblinka, Auschwitz, and Dachau. From the small and quiet town remained only a dream, a dream about times that had passed and would no longer return.

One of my friends, a Christian [girl] comes to memory, and her name was Renia Gwozdowicz, in whose merit I was saved from the Nazis' claws and I survived.^[2] She hid me in her home, and also obtained work and papers of a non-Jew [i.e., Aryan papers] for me. May this perhaps be a small comfort that in the huge sea of suffering and torture during the days of destruction and annihilation, there were a few select individuals among the Gentiles who endangered themselves in order to rescue Jews from the Nazi inferno.

May this be a humble headstone upon the unknown graves of my beloved parents, relatives, and the entire Bursztyn Jewish community, who were annihilated, along with the rest of the Jews in Poland, not having committed a crime/an iniquity.

How good is our portion that after we had passed through the seven compartments of hell during the period of annihilation, and we had lost everything that had been dear to us, we, the children of the generation of annihilation, had merited to find our inheritance/legacy and our serenity in our renewed homeland.

Translator's Footnotes

1. These words, which appear in Polish in the original text, are extracted from “Miasteczko Belz,” the Polish version of the Yiddish song, “Mayn shtetele Belz” [“My Little Town of Belz”] written by Jacob Jacobs and composed by Alexander Olshanetsky. Return
2. There are multiple English and Polish language articles about the author's rescue with reference to Irena (i.e., Renia) Gwozdowicz, her mother, and sister. All three women helped rescue Jews during World War II and were subsequently granted recognition for their upright actions by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. See for example the following English language article: https://jfr.org/rescuer-stories/gwozdowicz-kowalewska-helena/ (accessed 1-15-24). Return

[pp. 79-80]

R' Dov-Berish was the son of R' Shraga-Feivel and Chava Gelernter; from the family of Avraham Sharon, one of the first Zionists going back to the period of Herzl.

R' Shraga Feivel was a religious scholar of the Stratyn Chasidim, one possessing good manners and insistent upon/strict about matters concerning the interactions of people, [and] among the affluent people in the town of Bursztyn.

R' Dov-Berish Gelernter was an enormous scholar of Torah, the Mishna, and in matters of Jewish law; he was ordained as a [rabbinic] instructor but did not use the Torah as something for his own personal gain/profit, since he owned a spirits refinery. Aside from his learnedness, he acquired for himself a great deal of education in secular wisdom; he delved into Jewish philosophy and knew the German literature of his generation.

He was one of those possessing lineage in the city and within the area; his face expressed aristocracy/nobility. He was upright in his ways and little in speech; he insisted upon/was strict about the way [in which he conducted] his life and in his merchandise; his splendid clothing that never had a stain/spot – everyone would say that this was the honor of a Torah scholar.

His wife, Dreizi, the daughter of R' Yossi Lindner, the owner of a factory and refineries for spirits in the suburb of Pasieczna, nearby Stanislawow, gave him a reputation in the city and in its surroundings, on account of his uprightness, devoutness, and virtuous deeds.

R' Dov-Berish Gelernter was a Zionist all of his days. His close friend was Dr. David Maltz, a lawyer; one of the first Zionist leaders in Galicia, a gifted speaker, and sharp publicist, among those who were close to Natan Birnbaum, and among those who were devoted to Herzl (in 1900, he moved from Lwow to Bursztyn, and was a lawyer there until 1914).

R' Dov-Berish Gelernter and Dr. David Maltz were connected by ties of love that were not dependent on a [single] thing. Over the course of many years, they would meet every day to talk, and the influence of the reciprocity that existed between them, this one, from his strength in Jewish matter, and that one – from his knowledge of policy matters. They befriended R' Shalom Meltzer, the father of Dr. Natan Meltzer, one of the first founders of the “Hamizrachi” organization. From those who prepared the Hebrew school and the organization “Safa Berura” [Understandable/Clear Language] in Rohatyn.

In the year 1898, the year in which the “Treasury for Jewish Colonization” (“Jewish Colonial Bank” [in Yiddish]), R' Dov-Berish Gelernter was among the first ones to purchase stocks from it, something that was considered a very daring act at that time.

When World War I broke out in 1914, R' Dov-Berish fled with his family members to Vienna; in 1919 he returned to Bursztyn, and after a few years, he uprooted his residence from there to Lwow.

He died in Lwow in 5698 (1938).

His wife, Dreizi, [and] his daughters, Hendzi, Koina, and Esther, may God avenge their blood, perished in the Shoah [Holocaust].

[pp. 81-82]

The development of the Zionist movement in Galicia aroused the youths in the town to act, and they decided to prepare themselves for a national achievement, and for their goal of making Aliyah to Israel, and joining the state's builders. The organization for Hachsharah [i.e., the preparation or training for Aliyah] began in the adult clubs, of those who were 20 and above, and expanded at a fast pace, until it reached and surpassed the [number of] students in the elementary schools.

The youth movements that absorbed the students and adults

Chaim Nachwalger and his son, Yaakov Z”L

The goal of the organization was to educate the youths about the purity of the scouts' education (the Ten Commandments) in conjunction with the Zionist idea and the Hebrew culture of Jews in the diaspora and in Israel. The “Hanoar Hatzioni” aspired to continue its activity within the chain of branches of the “Poalei Tzion Association,” which sent the first pioneers to Israel during the period of the Third Aliyah (Sarah Kessler, Bina Breiter). On the evening prior to Sarah's Kessler's departure on Aliyah, there was a party that lasted past midnight; and at dawn, all of her friends departed in song and in dance to the train station to accompany the first pioneer along the way. My young friends and I in the Noar Hatzioni were in the corridor during the party, and on that same evening we decided amongst ourselves that we would go in the paths of the pioneers: we would organize a group of youths and all make Aliyah to Israel.

The “Hanoar Hatzioni” movement brought tremendous changes in the perspectives on education. The traditional cheder could not sufficiently provide for the spiritual needs; in the “Hanoar Hatzioni” nest, another spirit prevailed; its aspiration was to provide information and knowledge in a Zionist spirit, education instituted with love of the homeland, and an aspiration for a new life, and an aspiration to reach these [goals] with forward movement, and in every way. In the nest, Hebrew classes [and] conversations about Israel were conducted; they celebrated every event in the Zionist world, and with dedication, they engaged in the collection of donations for the country's redemption, the Jewish National Fund, the United Israel Appeal [Keren Hayesod], and preparation for the Hebrew [Jewish] settlement.

In the beginning, leaders/mentors for the branch activities were lacking, but after the centers were readied and new members were brought in, this void was filled. The youth group members found them a home within the branch; they prepared to teach social studies and culture among groups. On the Sabbath they would have parties, which were a release for them from the emptiness in their life prior to their entering the nest. Aside from the activity in the local nest, members were dispatched to summer camps, to instructional courses, to regional conventions, and to farewell parties of the first pioneers from the Noar Hatzioni movement. On Sabbath evenings we would sit complete hours with open eyes, and we were like dreamers: in the beginning we read and heard stories about the events of the day. We played, sang, and danced the “Hora,” and we shall not forget these experiences.

[pp. 83-84]

In a race [against] time, the mature youth made Aliyah to Israel or left the town, but the strong connection with the nest and the movement remained and was lasting. During the Shoah period, the “Hanoar Hatzioni” branch was also destroyed, but its soul and spirit did not die out among its survivors; the movement opened a new period before them.

May we always recall for good and with veneration the mentors: Dr. Wolf Shmarak and Dr. Ziering Z”L, who dedicated their valuable time to the activities of the nest. We shall remember and not forget Sholo Weinert and Kuba Bleiberg Z”L, who energetically led group activities within the branch, once a week.

The “Hanoar Hatzioni” nest in Bursztyn also received help and encouragement from the branch in Rohatyn, and it is worth praising the dedication of Yehudah Hadar and Dov Kirshen (both of them are in Israel, in Haifa); and from the members of the chief administration in Lwow – Yitzchak Steiger Z”L (who died in Israel); and may they be set apart for long and good lives: Yitzchak Golan (Goldstein), member of the Fourth Knesset [i.e., Israeli Parliament], member of Kibbutz Usha^[1] David Ciment, the “Oved Hatzioni” [i.e., Zionist worker] representative at the executive committee of the Workers Organization in Israel; Shimek Bergman, chief clerk of “Malben” [i.e., Institutions for the Care of Handicapped Immigrants in Israel]; Artek Klarer, member of Kibbutz Tel-Yitzchak, and many others whom I did not mention here.

From among 70 Bursztyners in Israel, many passed through the lines of the “Hanoar Hatzioni,” and in the merit of the movement, they reached this point.

These are the excerpts of memories about those days, of one the members of the institution and administration of the nest, “Hanoar Hatzioni,” in Bursztyn.

Translator's Footnote

1. The Zionist Youth Return
2. This was a kibbutz founded by members of the Noar Hatzioni movement and located in the western Galilee area of Israel. Return

[pp. 85-86]

I grew up and was educated in my hometown of Bursztyn, in eastern Galicia, and lived there until the outbreak of World War II. I graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna, became a doctor in Bursztyn and was accepted by both the Jewish and Polish residents, my wife and daughter were also with me in Bursztyn all those years.

When the Russians invaded Bursztyn on September 17, 1939, they did not discriminate in their treatment of the city's residents, Jews, and non-Jews. On the other hand, the Ukrainian residents caused incitement against the Jews, and immediately began to inform on them to the Soviet authorities: they slandered things that every Jew is a “bourgeois,” that the Jews had a connection with the Polish “Pans,” etc.

The late Dr. Lipa Schumer Passed away on 18 Cheshvan 5720, in the United States

Officially, the Soviet authorities did not adopt an anti-Semitic attitude in their actions, but regarding Jews they instituted special laws and orders. Many of the town's Jews, and Zionists among them, would say that, after all, the Red Army is a kind of salvation for Israel, and how blessed they are that they did not fall into the hands of the Nazis. In those days, bad news had already reached us from central Poland about the troubles that befell the Jews in those places by the Hitlerite occupation army. After all, it was nothing but the beginning of the persecutions. At the time, there were approximately 2,600 Jews living in Bursztyn. Only about sixty of them (and the children accompanying them) were issued “bad passports,” because Bursztyn was considered a slum town, that most of its Jews were poor and destitute with only a few rich and wealthy among them.

While the Russians were in the town, the Jews were afraid to engage in trade, which involved the risk of imprisonment. In those days, the authorities banned young Jews who were the leaders of the Zionist youth movements. Those who were caught and imprisoned were taken to Lwów, where they were executed together with the Ukrainian nationalists, or sent to the Siberian steppes. Wealthy Jews and public activists were also banned and sent away. At that time, I worked as a doctor at the hospital established by the authorities. There was a lot of work to be done each day, about 20 hours a day, and my pay was little, but I was content with my lot and that I was not harassed. My wife and I sold all the items that were left in the house and that was our livelihood. Before the war, I also had a flour mill and the authorities confiscated and expropriated my property, and I even had to sign a certificate, that I give them everything as a gift, voluntarily.

The Ukrainian informants would hand over to the authorities wealthy Jews, who would be sent to Siberia, so that they could rob their property, since those who were dispatched were not allowed to take any property with them on the road. The Ukrainians slandered me that I collaborated with the Poles and advised them to oppress

[pp. 87-88]

the Ukrainian population. Indeed, for the time being the authorities did not harm me, because I was needed by them as a doctor. And the situation did not change until June 22, 1941, the day the war between Germany and Russia broke out.

The Red Army left our town in great panic. On the outskirts of the city, the battles with the Germans' vanguard took place, and the bridges were bombed. In the retreat of the Soviet army, some of the local Jews joined it. Most of them were people who served in jobs in the Soviet government, and they were afraid to stay in the town out of fear of both the Ukrainians and the Germans. During the battles, German pilots were hit by Russian bullets, and they were brought to me, and as a doctor I treated these wounded.

From the time the Soviet troops retreated, and by the time the Germans arrived in the town, a Ukrainian militia had been established there. The Ukrainians were waiting for the arrival of the Hitlerian soldiers. In the Ukrainian militia there were also people who had been with them during the Soviet occupation and even cheered: “Long live Stalin.” However, after the withdrawal of the Soviet army, those Ukrainians turned their backs and cheered: “Long live Hitler.”

Few of the Jews who joined the Soviet army during its withdrawal returned to the town. The Ukrainian militiamen hit them on the way, robbed and beat them, and many of them were killed and did not reach their goal. Even before the Hitlerian soldiers entered Bursztyn, the Ukrainians sent a delegation of twelve dignitaries to the district governor in Rohatyn and told him that the Jews of Bursztyn were rich, and that their houses were full of silver and gold and stores of food, tea, and coffee, which were not available. The delegation also informed the district governor about the Jews of Bursztyn, that they hurt Hitler's honor, and something should be done to prevent this insolence of the Jews.

The next day, on Tuesday, July 20, 1941, while I was at the clinic, wearing a white robe and taking care of a sick Ukrainian, a Jew named Mina Tobias, from Bursztyn, approached me, his face was as pale as plaster, in his hand he held a note, and he turned to me: “Doctor, I am very sorry, you must come with me to the public office, people are waiting for you there, this is an order.”

The same Mina Tobias was one of the city's activists, and he had a small estate and a bakery. The Ukrainian militia appointed him as a liaison between them and the Jews and through him they arranged all matters and he was considered the representative of the Jews in the city.

I was rather surprised at the news he gave me and I followed him. Several militiamen were standing in front of my house, and one of them approached me and ordered me to run fast. At the moment I tried to run from the place, he attacked me with a broom, in front of my wife and daughter. My daughter screamed towards the policeman:

- Aren't you ashamed to hit an old and devoted doctor, who saved thousands of Ukrainian mothers from death in childbirth?

The Ukrainian immediately pulled out his gun and wanted to shoot her, but my wife managed to bring my daughter into the house and close the door behind her. When the Ukrainian began to beat me with his whip, I tore off my shirt and begged him not to torture me but shoot me. He repeated his order to run and continued beating me. And while running and [receiving] beatings I arrived at the town hall.

When I entered the municipal office, I found there the dignitaries of the city, judges and lawyers, and the notary, whom I used to heal in sickness and who were my friends. They pretended as if they did not see me. I was forcefully pushed into one of the rooms, and immediately I heard screams of terror emanating from it. The door was opened and Bursztyn's rabbi, Rabbi Hirtz Landau, was rushed in, beaten, and wounded and bleeding. Only a few moments passed and into the room was thrown Reb Yoel Ginzburg, an old and respected teacher in the city. The scene repeated itself in front of us several times, about eight to ten of the city's dignitaries were thrown forcefully into the room at the municipality office.

Seeing the number of beaten and wounded Jews, I turned to them and said to them:

- Jews, behave as Jews would behave in Kiddush HaShem; do not give pleasure to our haters!

The Jews huddled around me, as if I had the strength to protect them; however, I felt my helplessness.

The door opened and into the room entered a German lieutenant officer who was in charge of the Ukrainian militia before the regular army arrived in the city. He was accompanied by some Ukrainians, and all of them were armed with whips.

One of the Ukrainians approached the elderly Dayan, cut his white beard, and threw the hair on his face, and in doing so he said to the old man: “Leprous Jew, the time has come for us to get rid of you and pay you your reward.” Tears flowed from the elderly Dayan's eyes but he did not answer. At that time, I approached the German officer and told him:

- I studied at a German university; I am Jewish, but

[pp. 89-90]

I was educated in the spirit of German education and all my teachers were German. In the First World War I fought together with German soldiers, worked with German doctors, and treated German and Austrian patients. I address you as a German and I do not speak to the Ukrainians; do not torture innocent people. As a doctor there are useful things in my house and I also know what is in the houses of the Jews, and all these things are no longer worthwhile to us. We will give you fine liquor and a good Leica camera. Everything will be given to you but let me go out and bring it to you.

The German pondered a bit and said that I was free to go out and bring the things I promised. I answered him that I could not do anything on my own, and I could not leave the rest of the Jews. Please let them also go out with me and collect all the things. The lieutenant officer answered me that the other Jews were also allowed to go with me, but that I must guarantee them with my life; if one of them was absent, he would kill me, and he added that we must return one hour later with all the things I promised to bring. Then he would search my house and the houses of the other people, and if he found anything, he would shoot us. The rabbi and the Dayan were not allowed to go with me, and he banned them until we returned.

When we left the room, we saw the Ukrainians tying the rabbi and the teacher with ropes around their necks to the iron bars of the window. I asked to go back to the room, but the people begged me not to leave them, because the Ukrainians would kill them when they were alone. I told them to stand in one place and I promised them to come back right away. I returned to the city hall rooms, approached the deputy German officer, and begged him not to let the rabbi and the teacher be tortured. The German ordered me to go, “the rabbis will not be tortured to the point of death.” I asked the young man to allow me to approach the two Jews and talk to them, and he agreed. When I approached the corner of the room where the rabbi and the teacher were tied to the window bar, I saw that they were terrified and praying silently. I told them: “May God be with you, in a little while I will return to you.”

My friends and I went to the city. I went into my apartment to collect all the rest of my possessions, and I sent the rest of the Jews across the town to inform all the Jews, that they should bring to the municipality everything they could find: jam and liquor, sugar and pickles, coffee and tea, and anything edible. The Jews followed my advice and the young men as well as the elders went to the municipality and brought the groceries. However, on the way, they were attacked by the Ukrainians, who beat and wounded them brutally.

When I was at home, I took a sack and filled it with all [sorts of] good things, a camera, bottles of good wine, jam, sugar, and tea, etc., until the sack was too heavy to carry. I loaded the sack onto my shoulder and turned toward the city hall. Ukrainians and Poles stood on the side of the road, my patients for years, teenagers at whose birth I was present, and they laughed at me. They looked at me with joy, as if they did not know me at all. The other Jews and I took the luggage to the municipality office and I asked the German officer to stop beating the Jews.

In the meantime, the Ukrainian dignitaries in the town, the judges, lawyers, and common residents, rioted against the Jews. This was on July 20 or 21, 1941. At that time, I was standing near the city hall, and a Ukrainian doctor, the son of a pastor, my longtime neighbor, his name was Dr. Komariatsky, came to the city hall in a yellow-blue car. Along with Dr. Komariatsky, there was also judge Kalisz, who was my friend and a patient of mine, and a few other dignitaries of the place. The car in which they arrived parked next to me and they came out happy and cheerful.

A young Ukrainian from the militia approached me, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a whip in his hand. I was dressed as a doctor, in a white robe. When I left my clinic that morning, the young Ukrainian turned to me and said: “Cursed Jew, what are you doing here?” I answered that the German officer's lieutenant had ordered me to make sure the Jews bring the necessary items. The young Ukrainian took the whip and started beating me. He whipped me five or six times. I stood upright, without moving. This probably surprised them, and he left me.

My former friends, the educated Ukrainians, stood there and watched the incident. I approached Dr. Komariatsky and said to him: “Maybe you know why I'm being beaten?” He replied that he did not see that I was beaten. I left the gang and went home to see what happened to my family.

My daughter went to a place far away from Bursztyn and hid there among Christians. When I entered the house, I found my wife crying, she prayed for my safety and did not know whether I was still alive. I never returned to the community office. I went up to the attic of a Christian neighbor's house, without him knowing it, and huddled in a corner without knowing what would be done to me. I lay all night in my corner, and my ears hurt from the sound of the shots and the shouts

[pp. 91-92]

of the Jews being tortured. On the other hand, I heard the sound of laughter and melodies of the reveling Ukrainians.

The next day I went to see the rabbi and the Dayan. Both of them were in their apartments, they were lying in their beds, wrapped in tallit and tefillin, beaten and injured. I looked at their wounds and showed them my wounds. They told me, and I even heard it from others later, about what was done on the night of the terrors, while I was in hiding. They rioted against the Jews, they ordered everyone to gather in the synagogue. They were chased to the synagogue like sheep to the slaughter. On the way, they were brutally beaten. The German lieutenant officer, together with twelve to fifteen Ukrainian militiamen, were armed with machine guns, and they ordered the Jews who had gathered there to pray loudly. The Jews prayed Maariv, and the German and his assistants beat them because they did not pray loudly enough; they began to raise their voices in prayer and were ordered to raise their hands. Some of the Jews who gathered were weak, tired, and broken, and asked to lean against the wall. The Ukrainians beat them brutally and did not let them lean and hold on. The rabbi was ordered to go up to the stage, and if someone in the crowd did anything that was not to the liking of the German officer or the militiamen, both he and the rabbi were beaten severely.

At that time, the deputy officer noticed that I, Dr. Schumer, was absent from the crowd gathered in the synagogue. Immediately he was filled with murderous rage and ordered that I be brought before him. One of the militiamen told him that a Ukrainian woman was about to give birth and her life was in danger, so he sent me to the village to rescue her. The deputy officer issued an order that I be brought to him immediately upon my return. Indeed, as mentioned, I then hid in the attic of the farmer's house, and yet he did not know this.

At the same time that they were torturing the Jews in the synagogue with severe anguish, the Ukrainians celebrated in the town. The ball was attended by educated Ukrainians, officials, peasants as well as common people, old and young, they danced and sang and sipped from the liquor that the Jews brought that day to the municipality office. Late at night they sent the Jews out of the synagogue and ordered them to return home. While on the way, the gentiles attacked them and beat them brutally. The Jews, therefore, were forced to return to the synagogue and wait there until morning. In the meantime, the Ukrainians robbed and looted the empty houses.

The Ukrainians in the town started talking amongst themselves, that an injustice was done to me when they beat me, because I had never done harm to a person, and everyone knew me as the doctor of their patients. The next day, two representatives of the educated Ukrainians in the town, the attorneys Sokolsky and Taratash, came to me. They apologized to me and said that I was beaten “by mistake.” The two asked me not to flee from the town and said they would protect me.

The Ukrainian priest Vatsov, from the nearby village of Bouszow, heard about the beatings I received and in his sermon at the village church he said that I did not deserve such treatment, and that he wanted to bequeath his share to me after his death. The priest's words made a strong impression on the farmers.

About two weeks passed, after the Ukrainians had behaved in such an unrestrained manner in the town, and the regular German army companies arrived. In the meantime, until the Germans came, the Ukrainians expelled the Jews from the villages to Bursztyn. Many of them were killed on the road, and only a few of the deportees reached the town. They arrived naked and barefoot, everything was robbed and looted from them on the way. We learned that the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, Bandera, issued an order to kill and exterminate the Jews, as much as they could, before the arrival of the Germans, to occupy their towns.

The Nazi occupiers entered Bursztyn at the beginning of August 1941. An order was immediately issued, that all Jews must be counted and registered. They were ordered to wear light blue and white bands with a Star of David on their arm, they were forbidden to leave the city, the Christians received instructions to avoid any negotiations with Jews. An order was given to establish a “Jewish council” (Judenrat) of eight people, who would be responsible for fulfilling all the instructions of the German government. I was also one of the eight members of the “Judenrat” and became chairman of the council. I received the appointment by force because I was threatened with expulsion from the town. However, I stayed in my position only for a short time. I ran away, as I will describe later. Other participants in the “Judenrat” were: attorney Philip Tobias, Mina Tobias, Yehuda Hersh Fishman, and other dignitaries of the town.

Three days after the founding of the “Judenrat” in Bursztyn, a message was received from the “Judenrat” in Rohatyn, according to the order of the German authorities, that three representatives from all the towns in the district should come to the council in Rohatyn. Philip and Mina Tobias and I were members of the Judenrat's delegation in Bursztyn. When we arrived in Rohatyn, the representatives of the “Judenrat” from each town within the Rohatyn district, were already there.

[pp. 93-94]

At the assembly of representatives of the “Judenrat” from the surrounding cities, Amarant, the elder of the community in Rohatyn, spoke and read an order received from the German authorities, who imposed a compensation tax of eight to ten million rubles on the Jews, for the damage they caused. The order did not explain to whom and how the Jews had caused damage. A quota of two to three million rubles was imposed on our town of Bursztyn. Depression fell upon me when I heard this, because our town was poor, without any means, a potato was priceless, if found. And how could I go and tell the poor and destitute, to collect millions! I cried and begged to reduce the tax quota from the unfortunate Bursztyn Jews. However, I was told that the decision was final and if the amount imposed on us was not brought, all the Bursztyn Jews expected to be killed and exterminated.

Broken and devastated, Philip and Mina Tobias and I returned home on the same day. We gathered all the Jews into the Beit Midrash and brought them this bad news. The next day, a committee was appointed and a list of all the Jews in the town was compiled, and an appropriate amount to be paid was imposed on everyone according to their financial status.

The list of amounts imposed on everybody made a terrible impression on everyone, because all the Jews were extremely poor. The Jews sold everything they owned in order to collect the money imposed on them. The gentiles were happy to buy the Jews' property for a few pennies, and the Jews still thanked them because according to the order of the Nazi authorities, it was forbidden to buy anything from a Jew. We passed from house to house several times to collect the full tax quota, and then we sent it to the council in Rohatyn.

However, day by day the decrees and persecutions increased. One day, on Saturday, two Gestapo officers came to the town and issued an order to bring them within two hours: one hundred silver spoons, silverware, silver teapots, two hundred liters of coffee, one hundred liters of tea, one hundred and fifty blankets, sheets, pillowcases, and maps. And once again the Jews parted with the rest of their possessions, accumulated the few jewels and money they had left, and bought from the gentiles all the supplies that the Gestapo demanded be brought to them. Besides the farmers, the Russian priest, Gutkowski, also sold supplies looted from the Jews that the farmers gave him and that he had in abundance. The same Gutkowski was known as a quintessential hater of Israel. The required supplies were handed over to the two Gestapo men. The visits and demands of the Gestapo men were frequent in Bursztyn.

Our lives were unstable. The Germans did not establish a ghetto in Bursztyn, but all the Jewish neighborhoods became one ghetto. The Jews were ordered to leave the houses on the main streets and were forbidden to live among Christians. In their places of residence, there was little room for the Jews, and about twenty people lived in one room. The Jews were not allowed to go outside their area, they were forbidden to walk on the sidewalks and were ordered to walk in the middle of the street like cattle, they were not allowed to enter the stores in the town, even if they were owned by Jews, and gentiles came into their stores. Horrible and terrible was the sight of the Jews bloated with hunger, the children with skinny legs and stomachs from hunger. I was the doctor for both the Jews and the gentiles in the whole town, and I was given permission to leave the area where the Jews lived, and even travel to the villages to visit the sick. However, on my arm I wore a light blue and white band with a Star of David, by law.

When I would come to sick farmers to heal them, I would not take money from them, but food that I would distribute among the Jews. The Germans would often send Jews out to work in the camps, but none of those who left returned home. The camps that the Jews were taken to were in the vicinity of Zborów, near Lwów, and no one could live there for more than two or three weeks. The Germans sent demands to the “Judenrat” to send Jews to work for them, in groups, women and children. At first it was believed that the Jews were actually going to work; they were brought to the train station, placed inside the cars in groups

Dr. Eliyahu and Zhenya Rosen and daughters Mila and Lucia

[pp. 95-96]

of 120 and set off on their way. Many of those going to work suffocated and died amidst the stress inside the cars or died of hunger and thirst. The Jews were taken to the Bełżec camp, where they were killed in crematoria.

In one of the convoys that waited at the Chodorów station, a Jew handed a gold watch through the rail of the car to a gentile who passed by, in exchange for a little water. That gentile took a bottle that had been emptied of oil and filled it with cloudy water from the gutter and served it to the Jew in the car. The Jews gathered in the car and fought over the bottle with cloudy water, and many of them were killed on the spot.

The next day, after the train with the shipment of Jews left the station, Drucker, the Jewish tailor in the town, came to me and told me that in the attic of his house there was a naked Jewish doctor from Kosów who had jumped from the car on the way. The Jewish doctor arrived in the morning from the village naked, without clothes. I sent a suit with the tailor and went to visit the doctor. He told me that he jumped from the car on the way because he wanted to die, and thought he would be killed by jumping, but he fell on the grass, licked the dew with his thirst, got up and walked until he reached the town.

On October 15, 1942, the Germans issued an order that all the Jews in Bursztyn must leave the place and go to Bukaczowce, a town near the train station. All the Jews went there and were placed inside the huts of the farmers. Only about thirty Jews, who worked on the road, remained in our town. A camp was set up for them and they were all together, including two doctors: Dr. Shmuel Katz and I, as well as the head of the “Judenrat,” Philip Tobias, and two more of its members. A month later, Gestapo men came to the camp and led all thirty Jews to the ghetto in Rohatyn.

On October 26, the Germans gathered together the Jews of Bursztyn, who were sent to Bukaczowce, the residents of Bukaczowce themselves and the refugees who came from Bołszowce, loaded them onto wagons and sent them to the Bełżec camp. Many of the Jews managed to escape and sought to hide, but the Ukrainian militiamen searched and found the escapees and killed them on the spot. The Germans pursued the Bursztyn Jews and brought them to Bukaczowce with the other Jews of the nearby towns, because there was a train station there, and it was easier to load them onto wagons and send them to Bełżec.

After the Gestapo evacuated the camp with the thirty Jews from Bursztyn and deported them to the Rohatyn ghetto, my daughter hid at the house of a Christian family. I was not at home at that time, and one of the boys came to tell my wife that they were preparing to evacuate the camp. My wife immediately left the place and went to the village, where she hid in the home of a Christian family, our acquaintances.

The Gestapo men came to me and asked me about my wife and daughter who had disappeared. They came to take me because the camp had been evacuated. I asked them to wait for me until I got dressed and went out, because I was wearing a white robe. When I entered the next room, I took a bottle of liqueur and handed the drink to the Gestapo people who were waiting for me until I changed my clothes. They sat and sipped the drink, and at that time I escaped through the other door, and entered the home of my neighbor, a Ukrainian, and asked him to hide me in his house. He was afraid to hide me in his home. I hurried and went up to the roof, curled up in a pile of hay, the cold was extraordinarily strong, and I stayed there for eight hours, until the day dawned.

At night I crawled and came down from my hiding place to find out what had been done to my wife. I came to the garden of my house, crawled, and entered the house of a Ukrainian farmer named Berla, who was known as a hater of Israel. I asked if my wife was still alive and he told me to run away quickly. I went up to the roof of his house and hid there and he did not know about my hiding place.

The participants in the “Mendele Ball” First from the left, the seated – Mundzia Fishman – who fell with his weapon in hand, in a heroic battle with the Germans and the Ukrainians in the streets of Bursztyn

[pp. 97-98]

where my wife was, or else he would kill me on the spot. I said to him: Please, do me a favor and kill me!

The Gestapo man put his pistol back in his holster and slapped me forcefully on the cheek. He took me to prison. There I found a Jewish woman, her name was Fishman, who was in hiding and the Germans captured her. I asked the Gestapo people to shoot me because I preferred death.

While in prison, I knocked on the door, hoping that by doing so I would annoy the guards and they would shoot me and free me of the tortures. However, they did not respond to my knocks. They sat in the rooms above me and engaged in conversation. For a moment I leaned against the door, and it opened, and the lock fell to the ground. None of the guards came toward the noise. I passed the narrow prison corridor and there was no one in sight. I went outside and started running along the road. It was night, and on the way, I went to the house of a Christian miller I knew, where I hid for three consecutive days, and I was also given food.

I lay in the attic, and asked the miller to inform a Polish acquaintance, Staborowski, a former policeman, about me. He came to me, to the attic, took me out and led me to the house of his brother-in-law, Josef Lask, where my wife was hidden in a flower nursery, in Bursztyn proper. The farmer's situation was extremely dangerous, because the Gestapo men were angry about the disappearance of the Jewish doctor from their hands twice in one day.

The night I escaped from prison, the Gestapo sent soldiers to search the roads, they looked for me everywhere, and an announcement was made that the house in which I had taken refuge would be destroyed and its occupants killed. They even promised anyone who brought me before them, dead or alive, a reward of 25,000 gold and two logs of liquor, which in those days was priceless.

Indeed, despite the danger, he hid my wife and me in his house for many months. We were in separate places, my wife and I, until we left and went to the forest to hide in it.

We entered the forest near the village of Czahrow on July 9, 1943, and there we heard loud shots. The Germans liquidated the ghetto in Rohatyn and shot every Jew, wherever found. We built caves (bunkers) in the forest and hid there, and even changed places every time, so as not to fall into the trap. Finally, we dug a hole in the field, in the grain, and hid in it. We were hungry and thirsty, we lay in the moss and were full of lice, until farmers we knew started bringing us food. They were, for the most part, people of the “Baptist” Christian faction.

We lived in the forests and fields for about two-and-a-half years. The farmers who brought us food told us that another group of seventy-six Jews were hiding in those forests, we knew about them and they also knew about us, but we never met. Later, those Jews were caught while they were on the way to the villages to find food and water.

We gave everything we had, even the shoes and clothes we wore, to the farmers who brought us food. With us was a Jewish butcher from Bursztyn, Yekl Feldman, whom we met in the field where we were hiding, and he helped my wife and me a lot. Knowing the roads in the area and being bold and brave, he would go to the farmers and exchange things with them for bread. The farmers knew he was hiding with us, and therefore they protected him and did not inform on him.

We hid until May 1944, when the Russians arrived and expelled the Germans from that place.

After the liberation, my wife and I, and also my daughter, who lived as a Christian throughout the years of the war without us even knowing that she was alive – went to Poland, from there we moved to Germany and arrived as far as Ranshofen, near Braunau, where we lived in a Jewish refugee camp until we immigrated in 1946 to America. We arrived in New York in July 1946, on the ship “Marine Perch,” and we have lived here ever since then.

We are content with our lot, even though at first, we had hard times in America as well, as we came here without anything. I passed the exams, and I am engaged in medicine, as an independent physician.

My wife and I are sick and broke, and we have no free time to deal with public needs and to belong to parties, except for the “community center” in our neighborhood. From time to time, we gather with the people of our town, and they come to our house. They know that it is difficult for us to come to them.

Our daughter is married and lives in another city; she is a social worker and her husband is studying medicine. I read the newspapers the “Forverts” and “Times” every day. In my spare time I read the books of the Zohar, Talmud, Gemara and Kabbalah.

[pp. 99-100]

I will not tell you all the adventures that befell Bursztyn in the first days of the occupation of the town by the Germans, as Dr. Schumer and others have already described them in their records. I would like to mention here the “Judenrat” people of Bursztyn, the cruelest of whom were Philip Tobias and Yehuda Hirsch Fishman.

I want to mention some events that happened in those terrible days in the town, and it is appropriate to record them.

Our portion of bread was given to us in a ration by the “Judenrat”: a quarter of the loaf. Those who worked hard received the portion of bread, and the rest would wait for a slice of bread near the office, until they almost died. They gave bread to those who pleased them and those who did not please them, starved. They treated us like dogs. The director of the labor camp was Yehuda Hirsch Fishman, and those who did not go to work as he wished were beaten until they collapsed. And if he fell and got sick, he was carried to work. Few escaped safely from the hands of the oppressors; I experienced it myself.

Yakov Feldman and his wife Dazia

Those days were terrible for the tortured Jews of Bursztyn: many of them died of hunger; what remained of their possessions after the Germans robbed them, they sold for a slice of bread or some potatoes; they would go out into the forest, a walk of four to five kilometers, to gather twigs to burn to warm themselves a little, and usually the gentiles would snatch the twigs from their hands on the way, and even beat them. When everything ran out, the Jews of Bursztyn were hungry and they would fall down with their bloated bellies and die. The dead would remain in the streets for days, as there was no one who could bury them, and the rest were exhausted with no strength at all.

At the time of Yom Kippur in 1942, an Aktion broke out in Rohatyn, where there were no longer many Jews, and Bursztyn was ordered to send two cars full of Jews for extermination.

I will never forget that Yom Kippur. Rabbi Yoel Ginzburg of blessed memory, a teacher of the town, asked the people to pray together on the holy day. A number of Jews gathered at Shmuel Mastel's house. The Dayan prayed all day while crying, he comforted the congregation to accept the judgment against them without fear, to walk proudly towards death. It is a wonder that that tortured and starving Jew had the strength and courage to exhort consolation.

A day after Yom Kippur, the Germans entered the city and began shooting Jews in the streets, and many were caught and taken to Rohatyn. My mother, Pearl, was also taken from me that day. The “Judenrat” knew about the Aktion, and they hid their wives and children.

[pp. 101-102]

At the same time, Bursztyn was emptied of its Jews and they were taken to Bukaczowce, where they were loaded into cars and taken to the extermination camp of Bełżec. Reb Yoel, the teacher, was shot to death in Bukaczowce while marching among the Jews, trying to comfort them, and saying confession with them. He was buried in the cemetery. The rest of the refugee population of the district's Jews were deported together to the ghetto of Rohatyn.

In those days, Baranowski's work department still existed. The few that remained were kept in Yossi Pepper's house. Once, Germans entered the house, expelled us, and started shooting at us. I suffered minor injuries and escaped with my life. Shimon and Shlomo Pepper from Sarnaki were among the dead.

I spent the night at Sokolski's house, where I left behind some belongings. I moved to the Rohatyn ghetto, where my wife and daughter were still alive. They immediately gathered all the young men and sent them to the labor camps of Brzeżany and Tarnopol, from which not a single person returned. Many of Bursztyn's people were led there; among them was Shlomo Mandelberg who left while saying to me: “I know that I am going towards death; how terrible it is, I returned from the Land of Israel to fall into the hands of the murderers.”

The Jewish police offered me to join their ranks and save my life. I absolutely refused, just as I also did in Bursztyn, even though I was brutally beaten and they took everything I had.

They placed me in the supply department. The Jewish police in the ghetto secretly sold meat, for which the death penalty was expected. Indeed, even here they looked for ways to make money, in the hope that there would be salvation in this. I worked in the meat business and helped many people from Bursztyn.

Once a detective came, a German resident (Volksdeutscher) who wanted to investigate and know where our meat came from. Seeing that we had fallen into a trap, we caught him and stabbed him, and that was his burial place.

At the edge of the ghetto stood a house, where some of Bursztyn's people lived: Pitziye Schneeweiss, Feier's wife, Rivka Haber, and Dazia, my current wife, and other people lived there. In the opposite house, across the street, lived the Gestapo men's girls, who would stand and shoot every Jew who came out of the opposite house. At night I would bring our people everything I could.

One day the murderers deceitfully assembled hundreds of children and murdered them. They announced the distribution of bread to the children at a set hour. Because the children were hungry for a loaf of bread, they came in masses, and all of them were murdered with savage cruelty.

After the liquidation of the Rohatyn ghetto, I got myself a weapon. I dug a cave (bunker) near a gentile's house in the forest, Jankiv was his name. I set out to look for my wife and children, who had escaped from the ghetto. They went to the fields, but unfortunately were not found anymore, they were killed by the murderers.

On my return to the bunker in the forest, I found Dr. Schumer and his wife there. They were broken and devastated, and wanted to commit suicide, and I had a hard time dissuading them from it. Together we expanded the hidden cave, where we lived for about half the year. At the risk of my life, I would go out at night to Bursztyn, to Lask, to bring some food. Lask was the photographer from Bursztyn, who also received letters from Dr. Schumer's daughter, who survived and had “Aryan certificates.”

After the killers discovered many of the hiding places of the remnants of Bursztyn Jews – among them: Mundzia Fishman, Wolf Ostrower, Loti Bernstein who died a heroic death, and also Berel Lundner – Jankiv came to us and expelled us from the domain of his house.

We moved to the Polish village of Ludwikowka, where we found shelter in the home of the Polish Kochman, where we dug a bunker. After a while, that gentile was saved from death because of us, and here is the story: In February 1944, the Ukrainian nationalists attacked the village of Ludwikowka and set it on fire and did not let the residents of the village escape from the burning and killed everyone who tried to flee. A few of the “Mausers,” as they were called in Bursztyn, remained alive. We, Dr. Schumer, and his wife, as well as the Kochman family, stayed inside the bunker. The Germans came and gathered all those who remained alive and led them from the village. It was extremely cold; we all wrapped ourselves in rags, and together with the Poles who remained alive, we were also led from the village, and they did not recognize us.

It was evening; we dropped into the snow and lay down. At night we went to the priest Maricki in Korostowice, and he let us spend the night at his home. After severe hardships, I returned to Jankiv's house, at the edge of Bursztyn's forest. In the forest were more Jews from Bursztyn with whom we established contact.

We received a letter from Dazia Haber, to come and save her. She was hidden in the ruins, on the way to Demianow. Her clothes were worn out, and she looked terrible. Unfortunately, German soldiers roamed around the house; at the same time their withdrawal from Russia began.

[pp. 103-104]

With great effort I was able to get her out of there, and bring her back to the home of Jankiv, the good gentile, our savior.

The horrors of life in the forests and fields, in the attics of gentile houses, in caves and cellars, came upon us. It was terrible to go out at night to ask for food, to be in constant danger that the gentiles would hand us over to the Germans; however, the will to live prevailed over everything.

My wife Dazia, the daughter of Rivka and Pinia Haber and the granddaughter of Avraham Yosel Yona's, remained alive after the Jews of Bursztyn were taken out and brought to Bukaczowce for extermination. She was hiding there. Her parents were taken to the ghetto of Rohatyn and they left her money as well as gold. She went to Lwów and bought her “Aryan certificates.” However, in Lwów at that time they would catch Christian women and send them to Germany to work. One day she was also caught for work, and they immediately suspected her of being Jewish, and took her for questioning. She managed to jump from the tram car, and arrived in the Lwów ghetto, where her uncle, Itzik Feldboy, was still alive. At the same time, her father died in the Rohatyn ghetto. Her mother sent one of the farmers from the village of Martynow, and he brought her to the Rohatyn ghetto, where she remained until its liquidation, in June 1943. She hid in a cave, returned to Bursztyn, and hid in the houses of the gentiles Wynski, Jankiv and other familiar gentiles. I helped her as much as I could, and only God helped us both, saved us from the murderers, and brought us to Eretz Yisrael. We had three children, and we live a comfortable life.

Indeed, I will continue to talk about a number of events: the heroic deaths of Mundzia Fishman, Wolf Ostrower, and Loti Bernstein.

When Bursztyn was already “free of Jews,” there were still in its surroundings several Jews who hid at farmers' houses and in the forests. Mundzia, Wolf, and Loti dug a bunker for them in the stables of the prince's palace. They had a gun and several bullets. Rafał, the lame cobbler, who was the yard keeper, helped them, and gave them a little food. This was in the summer of 1943.

I often met with Mundzia and Wolf, and Mundzia told me that Wolf had a lot of money.

One Saturday, the stable was raided by Ukrainian policemen under the command of a German. The bunker was strong, but the chimney sweep's son, Fed Boban, tipped them off. The policemen called to the people hiding in the bunker to come out of the bunker as they had surrounded it. When Mundzia felt that there was no escape, he came out with his gun in hand and shot the German commander and seriously wounded him. He also shot and wounded the policeman who shot with a machine gun. Mundzia and Loti were killed. Wolf grabbed the gun, went back down to the bunker, and came out the other side, facing Deiksler's garden. The murderers pursued him, Wolf Ostrower fought like a hero; not far from Dr. Shmarak's house, he also hit a Ukrainian policeman. Being wounded and bleeding, he continued to shoot the murderers who pursued him. He was killed out of town, Fed's son hit him.

Honor to their memory! In their deaths, the deaths of heroes, they brought a ray of light into the darkness of destruction and the Holocaust of our entire town.

Fed Boban, the chimney sweep, was a cruel accomplice in the extermination of Bursztyn's Jews. His son was a collaborator of the Germans. They handed over to the slaughter many of the Bursztyn Jews that were hiding in the forests, and they also killed Jews with their own hands, among them: Shmuel Mastel and his son, and Yeshaya Granaviter.

We, a group of Jews in the forest, decided to take revenge on them. We disguised ourselves in peasant clothes and at night we came to the city, caught the night watchman, a gentile we encountered on the street, and forced him to accompany us, until we came to Fed's house. A night guard was ordered to knock on the door and call for Fed to come out of the house. And so he did. As soon as Fed came out of the house, we caught him and killed him on the spot. His wife also came out of the house and received what she deserved. We did not find the murderous son at that time, and after a while we learned that he was hiding in the chimney. And we greatly regretted that. Kalman, the son of Sara the baker, and two Jews from Bukaczowce, also participated in their killing.

Fed's son left Bursztyn. The gentiles in the town learned a lesson from our revenge. Our situation in the forests improved, and they stopped harassing us after that act.

Even during the existence of the Rohatyn ghetto, Kalman fought with weapons against Germans. He and a group of Jews attacked Germans on the way to Koniuszki. Some of the Germans were killed, but they were outnumbered. They caught Kalman and three other Jews with him and brought them to the ghetto in Rohatyn, and all of them were killed. Their bodies were given to the Jews for burial. The Jews noticed that Kalman was still alive and was only gravely wounded in the head. They took him and hid him, and in his place, they buried another deceased person;

[pp. 105-106]

there was no shortage of deceased individuals. Dozens died of typhus every day in town.

Kalman recovered from his wounds, fled to the forests, and lived there for a long time. As the days of liberation approached, Russian prisoners, who went over to the side of the Germans, attacked the Jews in the forests. The Germans sent them to kill the remaining Jews who were running around in the forests.

In those days, the Jews bought some weapons and resisted the brutal murderers. The Germans did not want to risk themselves in battle and sent the Russian prisoners into the forest. In one of the battles Kalman was killed with a weapon in hand. He died a heroic death.

Honored and revered be his name.

A long time before the extermination of the Bursztyn Jews, we learned about the Germans' plot to exterminate Galician Jewry completely. Trains full of Jews who were close to death, who were taken to the cremation camps, often passed the Bursztyn station. Many Jews jumped from the cars as the train sped by, some of them were killed on the spot, some of them were captured. Few among them managed to escape and reach the forest or to a place where Jews still lived.

The Jews who were caught were shot and killed. Once, eleven of the Jews who jumped from the cars near Bursztyn were caught; they were brought to the city. There was one German whose hobby was to shoot those unfortunate people, and he showed extreme cruelty towards children. And he chose the eleven Jews to be shot. He killed nine of them and left a single mother with a seven-year-old child. The killer ordered the boy to turn his face, and pulled out his gun to shoot him, and here a wonderful thing happened: the boy stood in front of the German and smiled. The killer remained standing, gun in hand, as if petrified. The same executioner who murdered a hundred people, among them many children, the same beast who did not have mercy for children who knelt before him and begged for mercy, and his hand did not tremble when he killed them, suddenly stood embarrassed at the innocent child's smile. His gun fell from his hand and he fell to the ground and fainted. When he recovered, he ordered the Ukrainian policeman Shtyk, who shot ten Bursztyn Jews, to take the boy to the “Judenrat,” and he made him responsible for the boy's life. For many days, the German lay sick in the house of Tenka Moskvitin, and he ordered the Jewish boy in whose presence he was comforted, to be brought before him.

When the Bursztyn Jews were exterminated, the child disappeared together with his mother, and it is not known what happened to them.

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