[pp. 357-358]

I was born and raised in the town, Bursztyn, East Galicia, where I lived until the outbreak of the Second World War. After completing my degree in the Department of Medicine at the University of Vienna, I was the popular city [town] doctor among Jews and non-Jews. I lived in Bursztyn with my wife and daughter.

When the Soviets entered Bursztyn on the 17^th of September 1939, they dealt with the populace without [making any] distinction between Jews and non-Jews. The local Ukrainian opponents began to stir up an incitement against the Jews. The Ukrainians began to inform on the Jews to the Soviets that every Jew was a bourgeoisie, that the Jews were connected to the Polish “Pones,” and so forth. As a result of this, the Soviets began to issue passports with paragraph 11 to the Jews; that they were not permitted to live in certain cities, they were not to travel from place to place, and that one was, in general, a harmful/destructive element. These passports were issued mostly to wealthy Jews. Wealthy Ukrainians, in contrast, received good passports because they were informers for the Soviets. The Jews who received passports with the paragraph nr. 11 were also the first on the list to be sent to Siberia.

Officially, the Soviets did not run an anti-Semitic course in the town, but Jews received separate laws and orders. Many Jews from the town, among them Zionists, said then that in spite of everything, the Red Army was a salvation for the Jews, and it was fortunate that one had not fallen under the Nazis. At that time, we already had greetings from Central Poland regarding troubles, which the Jews there had to bear from the Hitlerists; and at that, we must remember that this was just the beginning. In Bursztyn lived close to 2,600 Jews. Only 60 Jews received bad passports (one must remember that there were also many underage people), because our town was a poor town. There were many impoverished people, and only a small number of wealthy people.

When the Soviets were by us in the town, the Jews were afraid to barter/conduct business; they were threatened with jail [i.e., with a jail sentence]. Indeed, in Bursztyn, the Soviets also arrested Jewish

[pp. 359-360]

youths, the leaders of the Zionist youth organizations. These [individuals] were taken away to Lemberg and killed there, together with the Ukrainian nationalists, or sent to Siberia. They also sent away wealthy Jews and former community activists. I, indeed, worked as a doctor in the hospital, which the Soviets had created. I worked nearly 20 hours during a twenty-four-hour period, and thereby received a small salary; however, I was happy that at least nobody bothered me. My wife then sold off everything that we had from before in our house and lived on this. I also had a mill before the war, [so] the Soviets confiscated the mill from me, and I still had to sign off [on the fact] that I was giving this away to the Soviet government.

The Ukrainian informers at that time specially informed on wealthy Jews; that these [individuals] should be sent away to Siberia, so that they, the Ukrainians, would later be able to steal the possessions that the Jews had left behind, since indeed, the Soviets did not allow one to take too much with one when leaving. The Ukrainians informed on me to the Soviets that I had collaborated with the Polish government and had given advice to the Polish government as to how to oppress the Ukrainian populace. In the meantime, however, the Soviets did not bother me, because they needed me as a doctor. This is how it proceeded until the 22^nd of June 1941, when the German-Soviet War broke out.

The Red Army retreated from our town in great panic. Around the town, major battles took place with the first German patrols. The bridges were also torn up. When the Soviets retreated, certain Jews also left with them. This was mostly Jews who had positions with the Soviets, and they were afraid to remain [behind], on account of the Ukrainians, and also because of the Germans, who needed to enter. During the fights around the town, German pilots were shot down by the Soviets, and they were brought to me, as a doctor, and I healed them.

Just as soon as the Soviets left the town and the Germans had not yet entered, they created a Ukrainian military. The Ukrainians were looking out, in general, that the Hitlerists should already enter. Among the Ukrainian militiamen, there were those who had been big shots under the Soviets, and they shouted: “Long live Stalin!” When the Soviets retreated, these same Ukrainians became big shots with the Hitlerists, and they shouted: “Long live Hitler!”

Certain Jews who had left with the Soviets returned to the town. The Ukrainian militiamen detained these Jews along the way; they robbed them, beat them, and many of them were killed. Even before the Hitlerists had entered Bursztyn, the Ukrainians sent off a delegation of 12 distinguished Ukrainians to their captain countryman in Rohatyn, and related to him that the Jews from our town were wealthy; that in their residences they had silver, gold, and reserves of produce, coffee, and tea, which was difficult to obtain then. The delegation also told the Hitlerist captain in Rohatyn that the Jews in Bursztyn were laughing at Hitler, and that something should be done about it, that these Jews should not behave so impudently…

Right away, the following day, it was Tuesday, the 20^th of July 1941; I was standing in my medical office, dressed in a white apron, and tending to a sick Ukrainian, [when] a Bursztyn Jew approached me, [it was] a certain Minne Tobias. He was pale as the wall, he held a slip of paper in his hand, and said to me: Listen, doctor; unfortunately, you must

[pp. 361-362]

go with me into the community [building]; they are waiting for you; it is an order.

The Jew who had come to me, Minne Tobias, was a community activist in our town, and he had some good, small assets in a bakery. The Ukrainian militia had approved him then as their liaison with the Jews, and whatever they wanted taken care of with the Jews, they achieved via Tobias, considering him the representative of the Jews.

When he told me this, I was stunned, and went with him. When I came out outside, there were several Ukrainian militiamen standing in front of my house. One of them came over to me and ordered me to start running. When I began running, the Ukrainian began to beat me with a whip. My wife and daughter witnessed this. My daughter then cried out to the Ukrainian – You are not ashamed of beating an old, devoted doctor who saved thousands of Ukrainian mothers when they needed to give birth?

The Ukrainian grabbed his revolver and wanted to shoot my daughter, but my wife still managed to drag my daughter into the house and closed the door behind her. As the Ukrainian was beating me with the whip, I tore open the shirt upon my body, and said to him that he should not torment me; rather, it would be better if he shot me. So, he ordered me to run, and he beat me further. As I ran and received beatings, I ran to the town's community [building] (magistrate).

When I entered the community [building], I encountered Ukrainian members of the intelligentsia, judges, lawyers, and those notaries whom I used to heal and who were good friends of mine before the war. When they saw me, they pretended that they did not recognize me. As I was standing there, somebody pushed me into a room. Just as soon as I entered that room, I immediately heard a lamenting shout. The door opened, and the rabbi of Bursztyn, Rabbi Hertz Landau, who had been beaten and bloodied from the beatings of whips, was thrown in. A few minutes later, under the same scene, the old religious law adjudicator, R' Yoel Ginzburg, was thrown into the room. This picture was replayed several times; 8-10 distinguished Jews from the town were in this manner thrown into the room in which I was, inside of the community [building].

When I saw in the room that Minyan of beat-up Jews, I said to them:

Jews, do what Jews did when they underwent fire and water; do not give the enemy any pleasure!

The Jews in the room began clinging to me, as though I had some power to protect them, but at that time, I felt a great deal of powerlessness within myself.

The door opened, and a German sub-officer who was the commandant over the formed Ukrainian militia in the town; the regular German army had not yet entered. The German officer entered, accompanied by several Ukrainians. All of them were armed and with whips in their hands.

One of the Ukrainians went over to the old adjudicator, cut off his grey beard, and threw the hair in his face. At that, the Ukrainian said to the adjudicator: “Damned Jew, now the time has come when we will be rid of you and pay you back for all times.” The adjudicator's tears poured over his face, and he said nothing. At that moment, I went over

[pp. 363-364]

to the German sub-officer, and said to him:

I studied in a German university, I am a Jew, and I benefited from the German education; all my educators were Germans. During the First World War, I fought together, shoulder to shoulder, with Germans, worked with German doctors, and treated sick Germans, along with Austrians. [And so] I am appealing to you now as a German, and I do not want to speak to the Ukrainian; do not torment these guiltless people. As a doctor, I have good things at home, and I also know what other Jews have; we do not need these things. You will receive fine schnapps from us; I have a good camera, a “Leica”; you will have everything, but let me out, so I can bring it to you.

The German contemplated this for a minute and then said that I was free [to go], that I should go bring him the promised goods. I responded to him that alone, I would not be able to procure/access anything; I could not leave behind the other Jews, so they should go with me to procure/access all these goods. The German sub-officer said to me that the other Jews may go with me; however, I was responsible with my head [i.e., it was on my head] for them; if one of the Jews did not return, I would be shot. The German said to me that we should return within an hour with the promised goods. Later on, he would search us, me and the Jews who had gone with me, and if he found anything, he would shoot us. The sub-officer did not want to let the rabbi and the adjudicator out.

When the other Jews and I went out of the room, I saw behind me how the Ukrainians had bound twine around the throats of the rabbi and the adjudicator and bound them with twine to the iron grates of the window. I wanted to turn around and go back to the room, but the other Jews begged me not to leave them alone, because they would be killed. I ordered the Jews to stand together in one place and promised them that I would soon be back together with them. I returned to the room of that community [building], went over to the German sub-officer, and begged him to not allow the rabbi and adjudicator to be tormented. The German said to me that I should get away, “The rabbi and the adjudicator will not croak [die]” – he shouted at me. I begged the young German that he permit me to go over to these two Jews and say something to them. The German allowed me [to do so]. When I went over to the corner in which the rabbi and the adjudicator stood, bound to the window grates, both of them were terrified and saying Viddui. I said to them: “God is with you; I will return soon.”

I left with the other Jews for the city [town]. I went back to my residence, gathered together whatever I had there, and sent the other Jews off, across the town, and told them to announce to the Jewish populace that they should bring preserves, schnapps, sugar, conserves, coffee, tea, and other items to the community [building]. The Jews heeded my call and Jewish women and girls and men began to carry these items into the community [building]. On the way, however, Ukrainian attacked these Jews and beat them up murderously.

I, alone, took a sack from my home, filled it with costly goods, with a camera, several bottles of good wine, comfitures, sugar, tea, and so forth. The sack was heavier than I. I took the full sack upon my back and went like this into the

[pp. 365-366]

community [building]. On both sides of the street stood Ukrainians and Poles who had been my patients over the course of [many, several] years, Gentile men and women whom I had delivered to their mothers, and they laughed at me. They looked at me with a [look of] joy on their faces, as if they did not know me at all. The other Jews and I brought in the goods to me in the community [building], and I begged the German sub-officer that they not beat the Jews.

In the meantime, the Ukrainian members of the intelligentsia in the town, judges, lawyers, and simply well-to-do people, organized a pogrom against the Jews. It was at the same time, on the 20^th or 21^st of July 1941. I was then standing before the community [building], and a Ukrainian doctor arrived, the son of a priest, a former neighbor of mine, Dr. Komoriacki. He arrived at the community [building] in an automobile, upon which were the colors of yellow-blue. Along with Dr. Komoriacki, the judge, Klysz, a former patient of mine and a good friend, and several other local intelligentsia [members] arrived. The automobile in which they had come remained standing beside me, and they came out and happily amused themselves.

Then, a young Ukrainian militiaman of 16-17 years [of age] came over to me with a whip in his hand. I was dressed in the white doctor's coat, just as I had been when they had taken me that same morning from my medical office. The younger Ukrainian said to me: “Damned Jew, what are you doing here?” I responded to him that the German sub-officer had ordered me to stand there and see to it that the Jews brought the demanded goods. The younger Ukrainian took the whip and began to beat me. He gave me 5-6 whippings. I stood straight, calmly, not moving from my place. This, apparently, surprised him somewhat, and he left.

My formerly good friends, the Ukrainian [members of the] intelligentsia who were standing next to the automobile, witnessed this scene. I went over to Dr. Komoriacki and asked him: “Perhaps you know why they are beating me?” And so, he responded to this that he had not seen anybody beat me. Then, I left the community [building] and went home to see what had happened to my wife and daughter.

My daughter had gone to another place, far from Bursztyn, where she had hidden herself among Christians. When I entered the house, I met my wife, who had been crying, praying; and she did not know whether I was still alive. I no longer returned to the community [building]. I went up to the attic in the house of a Christian neighbor, who did not know about this; there I sat, like in a hen pen, not knowing what was happening with me. I sat like this an entire night until the next day, nearly deafened; lying at night in that attic, I heard shooting, and simultaneously, the shouts of desperate and tormented Jews. On the other hand, I once again heard laughter, music, and the Ukrainians' amusement. The following day, I went to see the rabbi and the adjudicator; both were at home. They lay in bed, clad in their Tallit and Tefillin, battered and beaten-up. I looked at the wounds that they had upon their bodies, and I showed them my [own] wounds. The rabbi and the adjudicator told me, and I heard the same thing from other Jews, what had been perpetrated the previous night, when I lay hidden in the attic. A pogrom was carried out against the Jews. They ordered all the Jews from the town to gather together in the synagogue. They drove them into the synagogue, as one drives sheep to the slaughter. On the way, they murderously

[pp. 367-368]

beat them. The sub-officer and the Ukrainian militiamen, who consisted of 15 men, were armed with machine guns, and they ordered the assembled Jews into the synagogue to pray. The Jews said the evening prayer. So, the German officer and the Ukrainian beat them, because they were not praying loudly enough. When the Jews began to pray loudly, they were ordered to pray with their hands raised upward. Since some of the Jews were weak, tired, and broken, they wanted to lean a bit on the wall. So, the Ukrainians murderously beat them, because the Jews were leaning on the wall. They told the rabbi to go up onto the podium; and if a Jew did something that did not please the German sub-officer and the Ukrainian, they would beat that designated Jew and the rabbi.

At a certain moment, the German sub-officer noticed that Dr. Schumer, I, was not among the assembled Jews in the synagogue. He grew wild with murder and ordered that I immediately be brought into the synagogue. One of the Ukrainian militiamen then said to the German sub-officer that there was a Ukrainian mother in grave danger in the process of giving birth; so, they told me, as a doctor, to go to this woman in the village. The sub-officer gave an order that when I returned from the sick [woman] I should report to him; but as I already related, I was hidden at that time in the peasant's attic, about which the peasant did not know.

At the same time that they were tormenting the Jews in the synagogue, the Ukrainians in the town were carrying out a huge ball. The Ukrainian intelligentsia, officials, peasants, common folk, young and old, were there. They danced, sang, and reveled in the schnapps and drinks, which the Jews had turned over during the day, inside of the community [building]. Late at night the Jews were allowed out of the synagogue, that they may return home. When they returned home at night, the Jews were attacked on the streets by Gentiles, who took to beating them murderously. Thus, the Jews returned to the synagogue, and remained there until dawn. In the meantime, the Ukrainians robbed the Jews' abandoned homes.

The Ukrainians in the town began to say amongst themselves that it was wrong that I had been beaten, since I had never done anything bad to anyone; everybody knew me. I had healed thousands of Gentiles. The following day, two representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the lawyers, Skolski and Trocz, came to me. They apologized to me and said that my getting beaten up had been a misunderstanding. The two said that I should not flee from the town, I should stay, that they would protect me.

When the Ukrainian priest, Jaciew, from the nearby village of Baszow heard that I had been beaten, he said in church that were he to die, he would want to lie beside me, that I had not merited being beaten. The priest's words made a major impact on his community's populace.

Fourteen days later, after the Ukrainians had partied in the town, the regular divisions of the German Army entered. In the interim, before the Germans had entered, they drove the Jews out of the surrounding villages into Bursztyn. On the way, many Jews were killed; only a small number of Jews that had been driven out of the villages reached Bursztyn. These Jews arrived in the town naked and barefoot, having been robbed along the way. We then learned that Bandera, the main leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, had given an order that they murder as many Jews as possible, even before the Germans took over the places in which Jews resided.

The Hitlerist occupants came

[pp. 369-370]

into Bursztyn in the beginning of August 1941. An order was issued that all Jews should register immediately. Jews had to don white-blue armbands with Stars of David on their arms, a restriction was issued against Jews leaving the city, [and] an order [was issued] to the Christian populace against buying from or selling to Jews. An order was also issued to create a “Judenrat” of eight people, which would need to oversee all the orders and be beholden to the Germans. I also joined this “Judenrat,” and became the chairman. I joined the “Judenrat,” because I was also forced and threatened with deportation. I was, however, [only] in the “Judenrat” for a short time. I fled, about which I will relate, later on. In the “Judenrat,” were also [present]: lawyer, Philip Tobias, Minne Tobias, Yehudah-Hersh Fishman, and other distinguished Jews of the town.

Three days after the “Judenrat” had been created by us in Bursztyn, the “Judenrat” of Rohatyn, upon the order of the Germans, ordered the “Judenrats” from all the towns in the region to send up to three representatives to Bursztyn. Philip and Minne Tobias, and I were the delegation of the Bursztyn “Judenrat.” When we arrived at the “Judenrat” in Rohatyn, there were already assembled representatives of the “Judenrats” from all the towns in the region, which belonged to Rohatyn.

At the gathering of all the representatives of the “Judenrats” from the towns, the leader of the “Judenrat” in Rohatyn, Amaranth, spoke. He presented an order of the Germans, in which had been calculated that the Jews must pay a compensation of approximately 8-10 million rubles for the damages that Jews had caused. It was not demonstrated to whom and how about the Jews had caused damages. Upon our town of Bursztyn was placed [an order] to pay the sum of 2-3 million rubles. When I heard this, I became depressed, because our town was impoverished, squeezed out like a lemon. For a potato one needed to pay with gold, if one could get such a thing, and then here [I was to] go to our impoverished Jews and say that we needed to have millions! I cried and begged that they decrease the contribution [amount] for the Jews of Bursztyn. However, they told me that I should not needlessly lose my [right to] speak; should we not donate the proper sum, the entire Jewish population of Bursztyn would be slaughtered.

Philip, Minne Tobias, and I returned home that same day, broken up. We called together the Jewish populace in the religious study house and conveyed the sad news to them. The following day a committee was formed, and a list was put together of all the Jews, how much each individual needed to give for this contribution, which the Germans had placed [on us].

The put-together list with the submitted sums that everyone needed to contribute had a terrible effect on the Jews, because they were very poor. But the Jews began to sell off everything they had, until the last [item], so that they could put together the money that they had to give. The Gentiles were happy that they could purchase everything from the Jews for groshen; furthermore, the Jews were still grateful to the Gentiles, because according to the Hitlerist law, they were not supposed to buy from any Jews. Over two-three times we assembled the demanded sum and turned this over to the “Judenrat” in Rohatyn.

Every day, though, new laws were issued. Once, Saturday during the day, two Gestapo officers came to Bursztyn and ordered that in the course of two hours the Jews should amass for them: 100 silver coffee spoons, a certain number of silver tea pitchers, 200 pounds of coffee, 100 pounds of tea, 150 covers,

[pp. 371-372]

sheets, blanket covers, and tablecloths. Once again, the Jews took out the last of what they had, a bit of jewelry or a bit more money that one had, and one purchased from the Gentiles all the goods that the Gestapo men had demanded. Aside from the Gentiles, one also purchased these goods from the Russian priest, Gutkovsky, who had [already] stolen for himself many Jewish possessions, which the peasants had brought him. Gutkovsky was a well-known anti-Semite. We assembled the demanded goods and handed them over to the two Gestapo men, and such demands of the Jews were then made in Bursztyn every couple of days.

We always lived with troubles. The Germans did not create a ghetto in Bursztyn, but the entire sector where the Jews lived was converted into a ghetto. The Jews were ordered to leave their residences on the leading thoroughfares; they were not permitted to reside among Christians. In the neighborhood in which the Jews resided it was very congested; up to 20 people lived in a single room. Jews were not permitted to leave the neighborhood; one was not permitted to walk on the sidewalk, but rather, in the middle of the road, like the horses. One was also not permitted to enter the town's shops, not even one's own shops, in which Gentiles had been placed. It was a terrible picture to see the Jews swollen from hunger, children with thin legs, and bellies swollen from not having eaten. I was then the doctor among the Jews, and also for the sick Gentiles, for the entire town; and therefore, I had a right to leave the Jewish neighborhood and also go to sick peasants in the villages. I, however, had to wear the white-blue armband with the Star of David on my arm.

When I would go and treat sick Gentiles, I would not take any money then from them for this; but rather, produce, various foods, which I would later distribute among the Jews. The Germans then sent many Jews to the camps to do [forced] labor, but none of these Jews who had been sent out ever returned. These camps to which they sent the Jews were situated near Zaborow, near Lemberg, where one did not last more than 2-3 weeks. The Germans sent demands to the “Judenrat” that they should be sent Jews in groups, men, women, and children, to do [forced] labor. We really believed that Jews were being sent to do various [types of] labor. These Jews were led to the station; up to 120 men per wagon had been demanded, and after having been sent off, many Jews suffocated along the way in the wagons from the crowdedness or died from hunger and thirst. These Jews were sent to Belz and burned there, in the crematoria.

Once the transport had left, it stopped along the way at the station, Chodorow. A Jew then extended a gold watch through the gratings of the wagon, and begged a Gentile that if he gave him some water, he would give him the watch. The Gentile then took a petroleum/kerosene bottle and drew water from the gutter [that had] mud and handed it to the Jew inside of the wagon. Around the bottle of dirty water, the Jews in the wagon beat each other. Many Jews were even killed during this beating.

The following day, in the morning, after the transport of Jews had been sent out, the Jewish tailor from the town, Drucker, came to me and told me that up in his attic sat a naked Jewish doctor from Kosow, who had jumped out of a transport wagon. The Jewish doctor had come in a naked condition from the village into the town, at dawn, walking in this manner four kilometers. I sent a suit with the tailor for the doctor, and went at once

[pp. 373-374]

to visit him. The doctor related to me that he had jumped from a transport, because he wanted to die; he had thought that he would be killed when jumping. Jumping from the wagon, he fell on wet grass, began to drink the dew, and in this manner, recovered and reached the town.

On the 15^th of October 1942, the Germans gave an order that all the Jews from Bursztyn must leave for Bukaczowce, a town that was situated next to the station. All the Jews left for there, and they were placed in peasants' houses there. By us, in the town, there only remained 30 male Jews who were working on the road. With these Jews, by whom a camp was created and all of whom were situated in one place, there also remained two doctors: Dr. Samuel Katz and I, as well as the primary [figure] of the “Judenrat,” Philip Tobias, and two other Jews from the “Judenrat.” Four weeks after that, Gestapo men arrived at the camps, and they sent these 30 Jews away to the Rohatyn ghetto.

The Jews of Bursztyn who had been sent to Bukaczowce, as well as the Jews from Bukaczowce proper, in addition to Jews who had been brought from Bolszowce, were loaded onto wagons on the 26^th of October 1942, and sent to Belz. Many Jews then fled, and wanting to hide, were later found by Ukrainian militiamen, and these Jews were killed on the spot. The Germans drove out the Bursztyn Jews together to Bukaczowce, and also brought Jews from other surrounding towns, because there was a train station nearby where it was easy for the Jews to be loaded onto the wagon and sent off to Belz.

When the Gestapo had liquidated the camp of the 30 Jews in Bursztyn and sent them off to the ghetto in Rohatyn, my daughter had already left for another place outside of Bursztyn where she hid at [the home of] Christians. I was not at home at the time, and a Jewish boy came running in, who told my wife that the camp was being liquidated. My wife immediately left for a nearby village and hid at [the home of a] a Polish peasant acquaintance.

The Gestapo later came to me and asked me where my wife and daughter were. They then came to take me at the time that the ghetto was being liquidated. I told them to wait and said that I was going into the other room to change, because I was wearing the white smock. When I went into the other room to change, I took a bottle of rum (alcohol/liquor) from there and brought it in to the Gestapo men. I gave this to them to drink, until I was done changing. The Gestapo men sat and drank the rum, and I, in the meantime, exited through the back door in the other room. I went in to the [home of the] closest neighbor, a Ukrainian, and begged him to hide me. He, however, was afraid to hide me at his place. I then quickly went up to the roof and into a stable, crawled into the straw; there was then a terrible frost. I lay there for nearly eight hours, until the morning.

At night, I crawled out of the hiding place, so as to find out what had happened with my wife. I went into the garden that belonged to my house, crawled around there, and went in to the [house of the] Ukrainian peasant, Bilo, who was a big anti-Semite. I asked him whether my wife was alive, so he told me that I should run away, quickly. I went up into the attic of his house and hid myself there. The peasant did not

[pp. 375-376]

know that I was hiding there. Gestapo men immediately entered and said that they had seen somebody creeping in the garden, that this was a Jew, and that he should turn me over [to them]. The peasant responded that there was no Jew in his home; perhaps in the attic – he said – but he did not know anything about this.

The Gestapo men went up to the attic and found me. When they led me out of the attic, they asked me where my wife was. I responded that I did not know. I genuinely did not know. So, one of the Gestapo men took out a revolver, pointed it at my heart, and ordered me to tell where my wife was – if not, he would shoot me on the spot. I said to the Gestapo man: Please, do me the favor and shoot me!

The Gestapo man returned his revolver and slapped me, such that I had stars before my eyes. He took me away into custody. In custody, I encountered a Jewish woman, Maltche Fishman, who had been in a hiding place, and the Germans had caught her. I asked the Gestapo men to shoot me.

Sitting there in custody, I knocked at the door, with the hope that the Gestapo men would thus come and shoot me; I wanted to put an end to the pain. But they did not respond to me; the Gestapo men were sitting high up in other rooms, amusing themselves. At a certain point, I leaned against the locked door, and the door opened; the lock had broken. Even then, none of the Gestapo men came. I went through the narrow corridor of the custody [area] and did not see anyone. I was outside and began to run down the road. It was nighttime, and along the way, I went in to [the home of] a Christian acquaintance, Milner, where I lay hidden for three days and they gave me to eat.

Lying at Milner's place in the attic, I sent word to a Polish acquaintance of mine, a former policeman, Stowarowski. He came to me in the attic and later took me away to his brother-in-law, Jozef Losek, where my wife was hidden, in a flower greenhouse, in the town of Bursztyn, proper. The situation of the peasant was then a dangerous one, because the Gestapo men together contended that it had never before happened that a Jewish doctor should escape from their hands twice in one day.

The night that I fled from custody, the Gestapo men sent out patrols along every road; they searched for me, and an order was issued that the family that hid me would be annihilated, along with all of their possessions. The Gestapo men also promised that whoever brought Dr. Schumer, me, living or dead, would receive 25,000 zlotys and two liters of genuine spirits, which was difficult to obtain then.

But notwithstanding the danger, the peasant hid me and my wife at his place, over the course of several months. My wife and I were in separate places, and later on we left to go hide in the woods.

We went into the woods next to Czarow. On the 9^th of July 1943, when we were in the forest, we heard strong shootings in the distance. The Germans had liquidated the ghetto in Rohatyn then and shot every Jew whom they found somewhere. In the woods we made bunkers, in which we

[pp. 377-378]

hid ourselves. We also went from place to place, so as not to be caught. In the end, we dug a bunker in the field amidst corn, and lay hidden there. We suffered from great hunger and thirst, lay in wetness, and were eaten up by lice. Later on, peasant acquaintances began to bring us food; these were mostly followers of the “Jehovah's Baptists” [i.e., Jehovah's Witnesses].

We were in the woods and fields for nearly two and a half years. The peasants who brought us [food] to eat told us that in the same woods there was another group of 6-7 hiding Jews. We knew about these Jews, and they knew about us, but we never saw each other. Later on, these Jews were captured by the Ukrainians and Germans when they went into the villages for water or to procure food.

The peasants who brought my wife and me [food] to eat gave me everything that they had; the shoes and clothes that we still had on; later on, a Jewish butcher from Bursztyn, Yankl Feldman, whom we encountered in the field in which we were hidden, was also together with us. He helped my wife and me a great deal. He knew all the paths well, and he was bold, [so] he would go to the peasants, carry off goods for them, for which they gave him produce. The peasants knew that this Jew was with me in my hiding place, and therefore held him in esteem, and did not do him any harm.

We were hidden in this manner until May 1944, when the Soviets entered and pursued the Hitlerists. Following the liberation, my wife [and] daughter – who had survived the war as a Christian, and we did not even know whether she was alive – and I, left for Poland, and from there, for Germany, and arrived in Ranshofen, near Braunau [Austria]. We were in a camp of liberated Jews there, and in 1946 we immigrated to America; in the month of July 1946, we arrived with the ship, “Marine Perch,” in New York, where we have lived the entire time [since coming here].

We are happy with our life in America. In the beginning, we went through difficult times, because we arrived here broken and hungry. I passed an examination, and now, as you can see, have my own medical practice.

My wife and I are sick people, and furthermore, we do not have time to belong to and devote ourselves to certain Jewish organizations. We belong to the community center in our neighborhood. From time to time, we visit with our kinsmen. They come to our home; they know that it is difficult for me to come to them.

Our daughter is married and lives in the province [area]. She is a medical social worker, and her husband is studying medicine. I read the “Forward” and the “Times” every day. In my free time, I read religious books, I study the Zohar, Talmud, Gemara, and Kabbalah.

New York, 23^rd March 1955

Dr. Lipa Schumer, unfortunately, did not merit to see this Bursztyn “memorial book.” He died on the 18^th of Cheshvan 5720 [19^th of November 1959]

[pp. 379-380]

The family: My father, mother, and 9 children lived in the village of Kuropatniki; after the Germans arrived, we lived for another 3 months in the village. The young Ukrainian Gentiles often threw rocks at our house. During the time that we lived in the village, the

Hersh Weissmann

The village head, as well as other older Ukrainians, did not coerce us to leave the village until there was an order [issued] by the German commander. When we still resided in the village, they once held an inspection by us and found a piece of butter. Given that there was already an order to supply butter-goods we were threatened with a very extreme punishment for this. They dragged all of us to Bursztyn, to the Ukrainian police, and they would surely have turned us over to the Gestapo. The Judenrat, however, bribed the Ukrainian police commandant, and they let us go free.

In 1942 I worked in the Kuropatniki courtyard, where the manager was a Volksdeutsch. Moshe Blecher's two sons, Shlomo and Lantzi, also worked there. In the interim, an order came from the Judenrat that we should be presented for the transport, which was going to Tarnopol, and to the labor camps. I managed to flee to the woods, and in this manner, remained in the village with small interruptions. Given that I knew the peasant [lines of] work well, I would work illegally for peasants in the village, here by one, there by another. Once, two neighbors got into a fight. I worked for one of them. So, a small Gentile singled me out/identified me. Right away, 2 Ukrainian policemen came, [as did] one German. I was in the middle of doing farm/day labor. Having seen that they were coming, I left behind my work and went to the woods. The peasant woman for whom I was working was called Faranka Sarncka. When I came [back] in the evening, I found her in bed, sick [and] beaten up. She had been beaten because I had fled.

My sister, Mani, worked at cleaning

[pp. 381-382]

the Gnila Lipa, and my sister, Eltzie, worked illegally like me, for peasants.

When they had already liquidated Bursztyn, and it was no longer possible for us to remain in the village, we went by our own volition to the Rohatyn ghetto.

Once, during an action in the Rohatyn ghetto, I, and another 20 people, approximately, hid ourselves in a bunker, which we had previously prepared. The day after the slaughter, they took us to bury the dead and collect all the remaining items [belongings]. Two weeks later, they caught me and sent me away to a work camp, Gleboczek Wielki, near Tarnopol. My brother Simcha, who was still living with my two sisters in the Rohatyn ghetto, lured the militant Shaike Granawiter (Wolf's son) during an action into a house/room, supposedly to give him bread, and he was shot, along with us Bursztyn Jews, by the Gestapo.

Following the liquidation of the Rohatyn ghetto, my two sisters, Eltshe and Mani, fled to a village. They hid the entire time in the forest, where male and female peasant acquaintances would bring them food from time to time.

In Gleboczek we worked in stone quarrying. With me were Yaakov Stryzower (Chaim's son), Mendele Schurtman, David (Strelisker's son-in-law), and 40 other Bursztyn Jews. Following 3 weeks of hard labor, a few of us Bursztyners discussed fleeing. Somebody informed [on us] to the Gestapo. They right away made all of stand in a row, and every tenth [person] they shot. The camp commandant was an S. S. man [named] Frommer.

One day, a German overseer, Hammer, took me and others to another [form of labor] in the village. Over the course of 6 months, during which I was in the labor camp, people were punished every day. For the littlest thing that did not please the camp overseer, they would hang or shoot. If they found money on somebody during an inspection, or they caught somebody speaking to a Gentile, that person would be shot right away.

After 5 months, the camp overseer, Frommer, was taken away. In his place came an S. S. man [named] Tomanuk. When Tomanuk took over the camp, he sorted the people. Whoever did not please him, he ordered to go to the left – to be liquidated. He would send in the Ukrainian police, and they would advise the Jews: If you can't, you may go more slowly. Jews believed [them] and would go slowly. At the gate stood Tomanuk, [who] detained nearly 100 slow moving Jews, sent them away, and liquidated them. This is what he did a couple of times. Once, from the middle row, once from the back, he took them away and liquidated them, not far from the camp.

From the 22^nd into the 23^rd of July 1943, a Thursday, during the night, the increase in liquidation of the entire camp, began. At first, the Jewish police came in. [They] right away awoke us and shouted: “Jews, move more quickly, let's save ourselves; they are going to liquidate us.” We were approximately 1,600 souls.

We grabbed whatever we could get our hands on, and made for the closed gate, where the camp overseer, Tomanuk, and armed Germans and Ukrainians stood. They began shooting at us through the wires, which resulted in a few hundred dead Jews. Later on, they brought in a few hundred women from a not [too] distant women's camp. Then, Ukrainians arrived with wagons, and right away, they loaded up all the dead and wounded, and sent them off to the mass grave, not far from the camp. Then, they made us stand 4 in a row. From both sides, armed Gestapo and Ukrainian police guarded us. [They] sent us to already previously prepared large graves and began to shoot at us. I began to run. I received two shots. One in the cheek, and one in my foot, and in this [condition] I entered a field

[pp. 383-384]

among grain. A few other boys also managed to flee. We moved about next to Tarnopol for close to 6 weeks. During that time, we encountered good Gentiles, including a priest, who would give us food.

In the interim time, they apparently identified/singled us out. They perpetrated attacks, but every time, we managed to run away. Autumn approached, and each of us began to go into his [own] neighborhood/area.

I took a sack on my shoulder, a so-called peasant, and greeting peasants in the local manner, “Slowo misusy Krysto,” and 4 days later arrived in my former Kuropatniki. They also detained me in Brzezhany regarding documents. But not being able to communicate with the German, as a “Ukrainian,” he shouted: You damned Ukrainian, and let me go free, after having hit me. Walking nearby, next to a village, already not far from my goal, I encountered a Ukrainian with a cashbox on his shoulder, and he asked me who I was. So, I told him that I was a Ukrainian. This mobilized me. Now I was running back home. You! He shouted: You want to fool me? You are indeed Moshe Aaron's son from Kuropatniki. They killed all the Jews, and you want to live?! And he took his cashbox to my head. I deftly bent down and began to run into the woods.

Even before I had left the ghetto, I had conversed with a familiar Ukrainian in the village, [saying] that if anyone from our family should survive, someone should let him know and he would already be able to say whether another family member would appear/show himself. I came at night into the yard of this very Ukrainian. I noticed two shadows shifting about in the garden, and since they had apparently heard steps, they bent down. I went into [the home of] the Gentile, [and] he gave me a piece of sugar and said to me: Yours sisters are alive. They are here, by me, in the garden. Right away I went out and met my two sisters. I then dug bunkers in three separate places in the woods. At night, I stole potatoes from the gardener, which I carried to the bunkers. I also managed to steal 2 sacks of wheat. I built a kitchen in the bunker in which to cook, and in this manner, I persevered until April 1944; after we covered up the bunker in which we were living, we went into another bunker, until the end of spring, when the grain began to grow. Once, small Gentiles detected me in a potato ditch. I began to flee. But an entire horde of adult Gentiles with hammers and knives chased after me. I entered a pile of trash in the field (like a mouse), and in this manner saved myself from my pursuers, who had lost sight of me.

Later on, I sustained/provided for myself and my sisters in the field, among the grain, until the Russian military had encroached upon us. They, the Russians, at first, took us to be spies. They took us to their headquarters, where the investigator was a Jew from Kiev. When I began to tell him how we had survived and what had happened to the other Jews, he sobbed like a small child, and could not write any more. They called another [person], also a Jew, and he recorded it. Night fell, and the peasant of the house in which the commando had interrogated me, wanted to take us up to the attic to sleep. The Jewish commander ordered: You [word unclear, but seems to connote something quite negative, such as “low-lifes”] will sleep over there, and they will sleep here, in the house [or room]. The same Jewish commander took us to Brzezhany, where we encountered other Jewish survivors. From there, we rode to Bursztyn. Sometime later, we left for Poland, [and] from there, for Germany.

[In] 1951 I came to America, [in] 1955

[pp. 385-386]

I was called as a witness to Germany, for the trial of the first camp overseer, Frommer, who was sentenced to a life sentence in jail. At that same trial, I encountered the S. S. man, Tomanuk, the liquidator of our camp in Gleboczek, as well as other Jewish camps, approximately 20 in number.

[In] 1957, I was called to Germany for the trial of Tomanuk. He received 15 years.

I am married. My wife is from Krakow. We have a child of two years. My sister, Mani, resides in Paterson, not far from New York, [and] is married to a weaver from Lodz. They have a girl of 9 years. My sister, Eltzie – [is] married, has 3 children, [and] they live in Israel.

[pp. 387-388]

After the arrival of the Red Army in Bursztyn, all the shops were emptied out right away. An order was issued to buy up all the merchandise within a short time. Indeed, the shopkeepers remained seated in their stores right away, with empty hands, with heaps of empty boxes and paper. They did not sit like this for long, because they, the “bourgeoisie,” were also driven out from their empty stores.

Right after that came denunciations/reports – at the merchant, at home, one found two pairs of shoes for a child, at this [other] one's [home], a piece of metal, and so forth.

The first victims were: Yitzchak Cohen, his brother-in-law, Moshe Hauptmann, Baruch Bien, [and] his brother-in-law, Yitzchak Baumring. They were sentenced by a “peoples' court” to 7 years of camps. Later on, Baila Brodman, Leizer Deichsler, Minter Velvl, and Volke Haber were deported.

Also deported were: Shike Kletter, Munye Cohen, Izye Hammer, and Yisroel Leib Fenster.

Our townsman, Yosef Schwartz, a former supporter of Soviet Russia, a contributor to the leftist Ukrainian journals, was sentenced in Moscow by a military tribunal to 8 years of camps for [being a] “counter revolutionary.”

In 1948, he and many Polish citizens were handed over to the Polish powers that be.

The youngest son of R' Yoel Ginzburg, Gershon, was arrested by the Russians in 1940; they kept him confined in the Lemberg prison. Before the occupation of Lemberg by the Nazis in 1941, at the time that the Russians abandoned the city, the prison was set afire. Gershon Ginzburg Z”L ended his young life in the flames.

Yosef son of Yisroel Schwartz, Hershele the butcher's grandson

In Russian [the following] perished: 1) Moshe Hauptmann, 2) Levi Yitzchak Baumring (Baruch Bien's brother-in-law), 3) Leizer Deichsler. 4) Baila Brodman. 5) Shike Kletter (fell in the Red Army).

[pp. 389-390]

After having been liberated and left Russia, [the following] died, exhausted, en route to Israel: Yitzchak Cohen and his wife.

3 of the Bursztyn intelligentsia perished in the Katyn woods: 1) the pharmacist, Greenhut, 2) the veterinarian, Adolph Wattenberg, 3) the physician, Dr. Zusman.

We do not want to be investigators, we do not wish to quibble about the souls of those who lived during that terrible time in the woods, pursued like animals, concealed inside of lairs, ditches, bunkers, the people who looked death in the eye 10 times a day.

We only wish to convey a few facts here that truthfully should and must be recorded. There were instances during those dark days when simple common folk reached the highest height of morality. They revealed in themselves everything beautiful in human beings: good-heartedness, feelings for helping another person, the willingness to make sacrifices, and belief. But also, the opposite [was true] --- people sank to the lowest abyss.

This happened among the tormented Jews in the woods, camps, ditches/dug outs, and precisely the same thing happened on the Aryan side. Among the sea of hatred, loathing, murder, and theft, which engulfed huge segments of the Polish and Ukrainian population. Among these very human snakes, there were a few Ukrainians or Poles, who, with their good deeds, saved not only Jewish lives, but also the honor of their people.

In the Bursztyn woods approximately 10 Jews remained alive, but earlier on, there were many more [of them] there. They were murdered when they came out to search for food; the peasants caught them and murdered them in a cruel manner. The Germans and the Ukrainian militia; also, oftentimes, the Russian prisoners, Vlasovites, [and] Kalmuks would conduct actions [i.e., in the German-Nazi sense of the word], during which many Jews from Bursztyn and the surroundings fell. The Jews frequently staged uprisings and fell with weapons in hand.

It is worth mentioning Kalmen Streger (Sarah, the baker's [husband]), who demonstrated the highest courage, purity of spirit, and willingness to sacrifice [himself]. He did not want to collaborate with the Judenrat, went into the ghetto, fought there, fled to the woods, aided people; and while protecting others, he fell with weapons in hand.

Mordechai from Czarow protected a bunker of Jews in the forest. When the bunker was surrounded by Germans and Ukrainian militia, he exited the bunker, and as the first group of Germans approached, he killed a German and wounded another. He himself was badly hit in one of his hands, which they later amputated in a bunker.

During another attack on the woods, he was killed. May these very valiant Jews be honored!

Among the survivors, Yaakov Feldman, who helped many Jews at that time, exemplified himself. This was also confirmed by our Dr. Schumer in his testimony.

This must also be stated: When the first survivors emerged from the woods, the name Yehudah-Hersh Fishman was right away mentioned for the bad. Everyone related the most dreadful acts, which he did to the harassed, tormented Jews of Bursztyn. Y. H. Fishman had previously been a distinguished resident of Bursztyn. His wife was the daughter of Avrahamtshe Breiter. He had 3 talented children. He was a calm, stable person, and successful merchant. Our kinsman, Loncia Feffer, who lives in America, said in his testimony, [something] that was a

[pp. 391-392]

heavy accusation against Fishman – that upon his orders, the Ukrainian police and Germans beat and murdered Jews; and he, too, Loncia Feffer, was himself murderously beaten.

Fishman also collaborated with the Germans in deporting the Jews to labor camps and death camps.

The residents of the woods at that time, with whom Fishman was together, following the liquidation of the Jews of Bursztyn – his wife and children were then in the Rohatyn ghetto. He, alone, was then hidden under the protection of the Ukrainian police.

Once, at night, his wife and children escaped from the Rohatyn ghetto and came to Bursztyn. They went to the militia; from there, Fishman was notified that his wife and children were there. He did not want to leave his hiding place. He did not go to help even his [own] wife and children. They were deported and murdered.

We posed a question to the people who related all of this to us, and who had been together with him at that time in the woods: If you knew his deeds, you knew what this person had on his conscience, why did you not sentence him there, in the woods? The response was: We wanted to do that many times, but the decision was always made that we should wait until after the war, and at that time, all the Bursztyn survivors, wherever they might be – should sentence him.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, when the Hitler hordes attacked Poland, the Polish government in haste and in terrible disorder, mobilized the military reserves; they called the officers and tradesmen; many Jewish physicians were mobilized, [as were] veterinarians, engineers, and so forth.

From among the Jews, they called several young people, as well as officers-tradesmen, into the Polish Army.

Most of them returned after a few days because the Polish Army had broken up during the first days of the war.

A portion of the Bursztyn youths fell into German captivity, from which only individuals managed to escape.

The officers fell into Russian captivity – the Polish Army was disarmed in conjunction with the Germans and Russians.

A short time after the Germans had overtaken the town, they began to call up young people to the military, and before the outbreak of the war between the Russians and Germans in 1941, a significant number of Jewish youths left Bursztyn for the Soviet Army. The youths participated in many battles against the German enemy. Some of them fell on the battlefield, some remained in Russia until today, [and] a few came to Israel.

Reference should be made here to Shike Kletter, who was deported to Siberia. Following his liberation in 1941, when the majority of liberated Jews migrated from the far north to Middle Asia, with the hope of getting out of Russia, Shike Kletter did not want to hear of this. He went of his own volition to the Red Army in order to fight against the bloody Nazis.

He fell in battle at Stalingrad.

At the time that the Jewish state was declared, Itzik Ben Shlomo (Prochniker), a healthy young man, full of hope and desire to begin a new life here, arrived in Israel with an illegal ship. He took part in

[pp. 393-394]

various fronts in Russia and Europe and received a series of awards.

At that time, Arab bands were rampant on all the roads in the land. In the cities fights took place between the Jews and Arabs. He was then in Haifa. Itzik aspired to participate in the fight. We only begged him that he stay in Haifa; he did not want to hear this. At such a time, one ought not to sit [idly] with folded arms, he said. He left – we never saw him again.

In Tel Aviv, during an attack by Egyptian jets, he was killed while standing at the bus station.

All the young people from Bursztyn who were in Israel during the time of the War of Independence, took part in the liberation of the country.

1943, in the very heat [fervor, zeal] of the Second World War, the entire world was shocked by the news that mass graves of thousands of murdered Polish officers had been found. The site: in the woods of Katyn.

During the collapse of Poland, when the Russian Army cut off the roads for the split up

The pharmacist Grinhoyt

After the Sikorski-Stalin agreement of 1941 was signed, Moscow freed all the Polish citizens from the camps and prisons. Only missing were the [previously] mentioned thousands of officers. The Polish Government-in-Exile in London began demanding them. For a long time, the Russians said that they would release them, [but] were later entirely silent [on the matter]. – Until the Germans came along and said that they had found significant mass graves in the woods of Katyn, and according to all the signs, these were the lost murdered Polish officers.

The Germans said that the Russians had murdered them.

The Russians, in opposition, claimed that the Germans had shot them.

Among these very thousands of [the] Polish intelligentsia, who had been so cold-bloodedly annihilated, were many Jews.

Our town of Bursztyn contributed 3 victims to the woods of Katyn:

1. The veterinarian, Adolph Wattenberg, was an active Zionist, an alderman in the Magistrate, and for a while, also chairman of the Jewish community. At first, he wrote about Russian captivity; later on, the Russians also sent away his wife.
2. The pharmacist, Greenhut, an energetic [person], full of life, socially active. For a long time, he was the chairman of the Peretz Association; more recently, he had resided in Krakow. His wife and two sons live in Israel.
3. Dr. Zusman, an able physician; he was known for his good-naturedness and humor.

[pp. 395-396]

The remnants of Jews from our town of Bursztyn, the She'erit Hapletah [literally, the surviving remnant] spread out and dispersed across Poland, following the end of the war. From there, to Austria, Germany, off to America; some came to Israel.

The synagogue as it appears today – it serves as a grain storehouse

At the end of 1957 Shmuel Zusman and Moshe Schechter left Stanislawow with permission from the Soviet authorities. S. Zusman arrived in Israel in 1958. He relates:

Before leaving, I was in Bursztyn, I wanted to take a look at the town. Have a glimpse at the few remaining Jewish houses, at the synagogue and the religious house of study, which remain intact, said goodbye to the lone Jew who remained in Bursztyn.

How does our town appear now?

How does the place in which we first

[pp. 397-398]

saw God's light [i.e., the light of day], spent our youth, enjoyed ourselves, laughed?

Right after Hitler's downfall, when the Soviets took over our regions, when the Bursztyn Jews were at that time no longer living, they soon ruined most of the Jewish houses, and left behind only those that were in good condition.

The remnants of the [Jewish] cemetery

The [Jewish] cemetery was desecrated and destroyed by the Gentiles. They tore out the headstones, and from the burial grounds, made a vegetable garden.

The Jewish houses on the street with the courthouse have remained intact. In the marketplace stands the pharmacy, the houses of Zelig Hammer, Chaim Nachwalger, Davidzshe Breiter, and others. On the street of the Christian cemetery stands the house of Elka Halpern.

The palace of Prince Jablonowski was ruined and razed. In a ruin that remained in that spot lives the only remaining Bursztyn Jew, Ulke the

[pp. 399-400]

Shoemaker. He frequently gets drunk and is made the laughingstock of the Bursztyn Gentiles.

There are a few Jews from Russia living in Bursztyn; those are the pharmacist, the physician, and so forth.

How do the Gentiles in the town live now without Jews? Are those who satiated themselves with the robbed possessions happy? Are they content, those who watched and helped annihilate their one-hundred-years'-long neighbors? In general, they hate to speak of that time, but once one is already talking, they all relate, without exception, that they helped and rescued Jews.

The older generation is not content and not happy, “It seems to me that were someone to take them back to those old times – even with the Jews! – they would be content.”

[pp. 401-402]

One alone, the remnant of an established Jewish family in Bursztyn, she survived death, living on Aryan papers.

For a certain [period of] time she hid in the village of Kozari, in which the largest number of Jew killers in the region, lived. From there, many

Maltche Erdstein-Feffer

When the ground began to burn under our feet, she left to do labor in Germany. There, too, lurked danger at every step, until she lived to see the liberation, the end of the war, and

The German Ausweiss [i.e., identity card] of Maltche Feffer

[pp. 403-404]

Yocheved Rudy

Yocheved Rudy^[1] is the child of a distinguished family in Bursztyn. Her grandfather, R' Yankl Rudy [Rude], belonged to the Jewish landowners, had fields, and was esteemed for his honesty, not only among the Jews, but also, among the Polish and Ukrainian peasants of the region. Her father, R' Berl Rudy, went down the same paths of honest efforts and sincere, friendly relations with the people with whom he came in contact.

Yocheved Rudy

The German “Ausweiss”

Translator's Footnote

1. This surname has been spelled alternatively, elsewhere in this text, as “Rude,” and may also be spelled “Rudi.” Return

[pp. 405-406]

Pinye Haber, the son-in-law of Avrahamtze Yossel Yonah, hailed from Bohorodyczyn. When he moved to Bursztyn, he brought with [him] a Torah scroll, and donated the Torah scroll to the Stratyner synagogue. That was where he prayed.

Bedecked Torah scroll

After the liberation of Bursztyn by the Russians in 1944, when the few surviving Jews came out of their hiding places, they came to the town and cried over the ruins.

Once, an old Ukrainian woman came to Yaakov Feldman, and said: I want to tell you a secret. And related to him that at the end of 1941 Pinye Haber and Mordechai Bernstein had handed over [to her] a Torah scroll to hide. They knew the old woman; she was a “Subotnik” [i.e., a Christian, Saturday Sabbath observer, or Seventh Day Adventist]. She was called the “Stepanka.”^[1] She took the scroll from them, made a special bunker, and therein hid the Torah scroll, surrounded by hay, so that it would not be touched by any dampness. The old woman asked Feldman that he put on a cap [possibly a yarmulke or kippah] and go with her.

The scroll was in the hiding place, just as she had related. The woman gave the scroll to Yankl Feldman, at the time, the husband of Dosia, the daughter of Pinye Haber, who had given the scroll to the old, good woman, to hide.

Following long wanderings, Dosia and Yankl Feldman arrived in Israel in 1948; they brought with them the rescued Torah scroll.

The scroll is located today in the best condition in the synagogue in which Feldman prays.

Translator's Footnote

1. It is unclear exactly what the meaning of this nickname is in this context. It is possible that this is an allusion to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist leader, previously mentioned in this text. However, Bandera was also not considered favorable toward Jews, which leads me to question whether this apparently Philo-Semitic woman had any connection whatsoever to Bandera. Return

[pp. 407-408]

Yitzchak Cohen was the son of the well-known merchant of manufactured goods, Malka Cohen. He returned to the town following the end of the First World War. Along with his wife, Reizel, both of them lived quietly and modestly. Over time, Itzig was considered to be one of the wealthiest merchants in Bursztyn.

But not only was Yitzchak Cohen absorbed in merchandise and purely personal matters. He distributed his time broad-handedly among various communal and philanthropic establishments.

Even before the First World War, Yitzchak Cohen joined the Chovevei-Tzion movement. Right after the war, he, as a religious Jew, was elected to the position of chairman of the national-religious party, “Mizrachi.” In the later years [prior to World War II], he was particularly active in the local institutions.

Some of his activities within the institutions are worth mentioning:

Yitzchak Cohen stood at the head of the committee, whose task it was to build the great religious house of study. The study house was completed, and Yitzchak was elected one of the trustees. Being in this position until the outbreak of the Second World War, he was always only concerned with beautifying, improving, and making the religious house of study more comfortable.

He placed himself at the head of the Talmud Torah Committee and ran it. This institution was concerned with and enabled children of poor parents, or orphans, to learn free-of-charge.

In addition, his philanthropic work was multi-hued. So, for example, he always, along with other proprietors, joined the Kimcha d'Pischa [literally, “flour for Passover”] action, [which was] a fund that had to insure that not a single Jew in the town, heaven forbid, would remain without Matzot, wine, and so forth, during the holiday [i.e., Passover].

In our region there was a pressing problem [concerning] caring for the impoverished populace with heating materials. For this purpose, Yitzchak Cohen established a special fund, whose task it was to provide poor people with wood to heat [their homes] during the winter months.

He did not mind dedicating his time to all of this, so as to represent the Jewish populace and various general institutions. In this manner, he was, for example, elected several times as an associate of the Magistrate, where he worked for the populace's good. At the same time, Yitzchak Cohen belonged to the administration of the Peoples' Bank.

Yitzchak's wife, Reizel, helped him a great deal in his communal activities; she stood out for her good-hearted character and readiness to help [others]. She did this modestly and discretely.

When the Soviet Army entered the town, one strike after another was meted out against the Cohen family. Munye, their only son, was immediately arrested for Zionist

[pp. 409-410]

activity. Later on, Yitzchak was also arrested, and his property was confiscated. His wife, Reizel, was sent to Uzbekistan.

Following the war, fate reunited Yitzchak with his wife. They returned together to Bursztyn and found the town entirely destroyed. A few other Jews also returned. Together, all of them went to Poland with the repatriation stream, and settled in the Lower Silesian town, Richbach, whose name was later changed to Dzierzoniow.

Already at that time, they received news from their only son, Munye, that he was living somewhere, under arrest, in Siberia. They were permeated with the hope that little by little he would be returning, and the entire family would leave for Israel.

Yitzchak Cohen, having received the long dreamt of telegram from his only son, Munye, that he was returning and was already on his way, could not withstand the immense joy, and while holding the telegram in his hand, expired. [He] did not merit seeing his only son and did not live to make Aliyah to Israel. Tragic! Reizel, his wife, a broken and defeated woman waited for her only comfort, her son, Munye, who in the meantime returned, and together, they made their way to Israel. But her fate was also a bitter one: Along the way, Reizel took ill and died in Vienna.

There are no remaining pictures of this noteworthy pair. There are only two headstones along the way to the fatherland, which they did not merit to see.

Yitzchak was buried in Richbach, in Poland.

Reizel Cohen – in Vienna, Austria.

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