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(This photograph was found in the possession of a German soldier)
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[Pages 521-533]
by Dora Galperin
(From her letters to Leah and Dov Aloni)
Translated by Allen Flusberg
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| A group of Jews just before their execution (This photograph was found in the possession of a German soldier) |
Translator's Footnotes
by Yitzhak Portnoy, Kfar Saba
Translated by Allen Flusberg
At the end of 1942, the Germans gave an order that everyone from Kamenetz had to move into the Ghetto of Pruzhany[2], but a few days later we found out that not everyone would be moving at the same time. When Kamenetz residents began arriving in the Prozhany Ghetto, I met the following: (1) Sholom Kaminski. (2) Yitzchok the shochet [ritual slaughterer] (Yitzchok Stupicewski), with his family. (3) David Bash with his family. He perished in Auschwitz. His wife had died in the Pruzhany Ghetto; his oldest son had been sent to the Bielowieza Forest[3] to do forest work, and from there he vanished to this very day. (4) Kaufman (a bagel baker), who had a son Shlomo (a shoemaker); and his son–in–law from Chernovchytz[4], Shiya Fishbein, with his wife and daughter. Later they illicitly went back to the Kamenetz Ghetto. (5) My friend Bentze Sorkes (who was called Bentze Kashemachers) with his children; they lived on the small street that Shepsel's beis medrash[5] was on. They had a shop in Rad[6]. His wife was named Sara[7] (the daughter of Itzel the butcher; she was an aunt of Berchyk Schmidt[8]). They, too, illicitly returned to the Kamenetz Ghetto several weeks later. (6) Leibel Pomeranczik with his family (his daughter lives in Tel Aviv); he was a rebbe[9] in Kamenetz. They had a linen shop in Rad[10]. They went back to the Kamenetz Ghetto, as well. (7) The family of Noske (the melamed[11]), who were seized as he fled back to Kamenetz; they brought them to the Pruzhany Gestapo. (I don't know what became of them.) (8) The family of Saperstein (the teacher) was also there.[12] (9) I also knew a very young man from Kamenetz, who was called Yosl Katchkele (I think he was a tailor). I don't remember his family. He perished somewhere.
Within the ghetto people did not speak to one another; they only gazed into each other's eyes.
[Page 535]
My brother Shmuelke Portnoy also came to me from Kamenetz, bringing along his pregnant wife, as well as his father–in–law (Koppel the tailor) and mother–in–law. A few weeks later they illicitly returned to the Kamenetz Ghetto. She gave birth to a child there, and after that she went to the mother–in–law. Koppel remained in Pruzhany for a longer while, and in the end went to the Kamenetz Ghetto.
My brother Shmuel also told me that the son of Koppel the tailor, whose name was Leizer Dulinski, happened to be in Brisk[13] during the period when Kamenetz was taken. There he was taken together with the first group of Brisk residents that were seized, and on that very day they were executed in the vicinity of Brisk.
When the Germans entered Kamenetz, they seized 100 Jews and shot them somewhere near Kamenetz[14]. Nachman Olshanski (son–in–law of the butcher, Nisl) was in that first group seized.[15]
When my brother saw that they were seizing people and killing them, he hid behind a gravestone in the old cemetery in Adolina.
My brother told me that Gedalia Shostakowski and Boruch Leib (the son of Nisl the butcher) were members of the Kamenetz Judenrat[16]. I met Boruch Leib in the Pruzhany Ghetto. He told me that he had illicitly[17] come to conduct business with the Pruzhany Judenrat on Jewish interests, to aid the Kamenetz and Pruzhany ghettos.
Bertzik's father, Chaim Novitzkevitcher[18], was hidden away by Gentiles of Novitzkevitch.[19] When he heard that all the Kamenetz Jews were being taken away, he went back to his family in the Kamenetz Ghetto, and he perished with them and with all the other Kamenetz Jews.
In the Pruzhany Ghetto there was a young Kamenetz boy who was working in a bakery. When I got to Israel and met up with people from Kamenetz, it turned out that that young boy was Rappaport[20], and that he had been sent to Auschwitz together with the Pruzhany Jews and had survived. He returned to Kamenetz[21] and then[22] went to Israel, where he died several years ago.
From Pruzhany the Jews were taken away in groups, 3000 people in each group. In my group I didn't meet anyone who was from Kamenetz. They brought us to the Linova[23] train station in wagons belonging to Gentiles from the surrounding villages. Just as we got off the wagons in Linova, the Gentiles gave the horses the whip and rode away, to make sure that the Jews should have no chance to take their belongings off the wagons.
[Page 536]
In Linova they put us in train boxcars, packed together and without water. Along the way many people gave the SS men gold watches and other valuables in return for a glass of water. Some gave their children urine, mixed with a little sugar, to drink. No one knew what kind of death we were going to. This trip lasted three days. Along the way many died of anguish, unable to take all that was happening to them. Some jumped out of the boxcars at the edge of the forests around Tchenstochov[24]; their fate is known.
When we got to our destination, the SS men opened all the boxcar doors and cried out: “Everyone out without luggage!” This was in Birkenau, where I spent six weeks. There people were dropping like flies. Whoever was not able bodied, and also women with small children, were immediately brought in buses to the crematoria[25]. There were incidents in which grandmothers took their grandchildren so that their daughters could be among those able to work.
From Birkenau I was sent in a group to the Kabier Camp[26], not far from Auschwitz. There I worked in the forest. There were four work teams in our group, each of which consisted of 40 to 50 men. I didn't see anyone from Kamenetz in my group. In Kabier my job was felling trees. The four teams had four kapos, Germans who were former criminals. They were our bosses. There was also a fifth kapo who was in command over them. My kapo was a real murderer.
Every day they would take away one or two Jews and shoot them dead. In this manner I saw them shoot my brother–in–law, Velvel Ragovitch, as well as Velvel Goldberg (a son of Reuven the butcher of Pruzhany). I was there for five months.[27]
[Page 537]
At the end of these 5 months they liquidated the camp and brought us to Auschwitz. When we arrived in Auschwitz they assigned us to the “Rasko” Kommando [slave–labor detail], near the main road that led to a park entrance. The work day lasted from 7 AM to dusk. At noon we sat down wherever we were. Few of us had anything to eat and all of us were under guard. After having been in Birkenau, we noticed a strong odor of burning human flesh.[28] In Auschwitz, where I spent 6 weeks, I met two brothers–in–law and nephews (few of whom survived).
In the Appellplatz[29] they began rounding up the stronger men for work. I wound up among them, and they sent us to Buna–Werk (I.G. Farben Industries)[30], a few kilometers from Auschwitz. There they had central heat; the food was much better, because work there was hard[31]. I lost the middle finger of my right hand there; the hospital there was called K.B. The physician was a Polish Jew. After four weeks they sent me back to my work Kommando. My kappo was named Karol (a German Jew from a Dutch transport); he was good to everyone. We received our food according to the numbers tattooed on our arms.
Once when they noticed that I had two sweaters, I was punished with 25 lashes.
I remained working in Buna–Werk until the Russian army approached, after which I was evacuated to a nearby camp.
We arrived in Buchenwald[32] in January, 1945. I was in Buchenwald for two weeks; from Buchenwald they took us to the Zweiberger camp that was near Halberstadt. In Zweiberger I spent barely three months, under very difficult conditions. There people were dropping like flies because of the terrible hunger. Mornings they gave out coffee, one portion for three or four people. Often the man in charge of the coffee (a German) would knock over the coffee pot with his foot, and then order us to go to work. We would sleep on the ground. When we got back from work, we had to grab a blanket. The lice would feed on our bodies, making us itch. 90% of the people perished. We dug large pits, and every night after the count we had to toss the dead into the pits and carry the caskets back. We had no strength left after having carried the caskets, two men carrying each. We used to put disinfectant on the corpses.
[Page 538]
On the Road, After Escaping
On the road my friend Budgash said that we should stay, and it was no longer important where we went, as we could die anyway.[33] But I encouraged my friend, and he came along with me. Along the way we came across a pile of potatoes, and there lay nearby the dead body of a concentration–camp inmate. We continued on and saw a strong military force moving in disarray on the main highway, so we went back some distance along a side road leading to a river near a village. When dogs began to bark loudly in the village, we crossed over to a different street; we lay down in the grass next to a fence and fell asleep.
When we woke up it was light out. It was at the beginning of April, 1945. Not far from us a German civilian holding a stick was taking a walk. I wrapped my blanket around me and went over to him, asking for a piece of bread. The German pointed in the direction of our transport and told me to go there.[34]
We started off on the same road and in a few minutes came upon a group of Ukrainian women, who advised us to get ourselves into the forest, for very soon we would be liberated. We asked them for some food, and some of them gave us pieces of bread with boiled potatoes. They warned us of the bad foreman[35] who would be coming along right away, and they went off into the field…
We sat down to eat. Later another man who had escaped from the same transport, a French Jew, joined us. I gave him a piece of bread. He told us that he was going to a Polish acquaintance who was working for a German, and promised he would be back to join us as we headed into the forest. Right away we saw the work foreman, who started making us go back with him[36]. Along the way the French Jew was caught, too. He [the foreman] brought us to a group of about 100 men, who had also escaped from a transport; here we met up with four friends who had escaped with us and had gotten separated along the way. They were starving. The SS men in charge of us handed us over to civilian guards[37]. From this we understood that we would soon be liberated. Right away a German woman came with a sack of bread to distribute to us. We all pounced on the sack, each of us trying to grab it for himself. One or two men got into a fight, and as a result one man fell down and died.[38]
[Page 539]
Afterwards a few buses came with[39] civilian forces and picked us up. A bit later we were stuck on the road because of intense bombardment by the American artillery. The drivers and guards fled into the woods, with us behind them. After the shooting ended we drove on, but right away there was another bombardment by the American artillery, and we stopped not far from the town of Fanderslebn, next to a large barn. Our guards scattered and we ran over to another shed to look for potatoes. When the shooting quieted down we entered the town without any guards and spread out to look for food. A few residents of the town were walking through the streets carrying white flags. Right away the Americans arrived and gave us some bread, chocolate, cigarettes and boiled potatoes. We noticed a camp of Yugoslavs and went in; there we got some more food. At night we slept in a barn.
A few days later they put us up in a movie theatre where a sign at the entrance read: “For Jews and Poles only. No Germans allowed.” We were already completely free, but I felt lonely without my family.
When I heard that the Americans were pulling out and the Russians were going to be coming in, I left on a train headed for France. In Nordhausen they asked everyone where they were from. As a Polish Jew I was detained in Nordhausen, and then later I left for a camp in Bergen–Belsen. There we met a young man from Kamenetz who had been rescued from the camps; I don't recall his first or last name. He is living in Israel[40] now. In the camp he was with Averbuch (Baruch Averbuch, a friend[41] of Bertzik Schmidt). From Bergen–Belsen I went to the camp near Munich, and from there to Italy with the Bricha[42]. From Italy, landsleit [fellow–townsman] brought me over to Argentina in the year 1948. In 1954 I came to Israel as a tourist; here I got married to a woman from Kamenetz, Sara Harle (who perished in an automobile accident), and I have remained in Israel since.[43]
Translator's Footnotes
[Pages 540-549]
By Dvora Rudnitzky-Singer (New York)
Translated by Allen Flusberg
Note by translator: The original Yizkor Book contains 3 versions of this article: the first in Yiddish (the present article, pp. 540-549); a translation into Hebrew (pp. 174-182); and an English version (pp. 105-116 of the English section). The three versions are essentially identical. One discrepancy is the date on which the 3rd transport from Pruzhany arrived at Auschwitz. According to the Yiddish version (p. 544) and the Hebrew version (p. 177), it was February 23, 1943; the English version (p. 110) gives the date as February 3, 1943.
The Yiddish version begins with the following dedication, not present in the other two versions:
For the remainder of this article, see the original English version on pp. 105-116 of the English section.
[Page 550]
by Dora Galpern
Translated by Allen Flusberg
Before the German occupation of Kamenetz began, we had no inkling that such a great calamity was in store for us, that they were going to put all the Jews to death. We could have run away with the Soviets [when they evacuated the town], but no one did.
The Germans entered Kamenetz on June 22, 1941, around noon. At that time people were still walking around in the streets freely. The first night they did not rob or beat anyone, nor were there any rapes, since the soldiers had continued onward right away. And at first, we had enough food.
But on the second day SS men arrived in an automobile and staged a lapanka [roundup] in the street: whichever Jews they happened to come across were put to death. The first victims were: Sholom Galperin, Simcha–Layzer Gewirtzman, Shimon Buchgalter[2], Reuven Mandelblatt (Shloimke Mandelblatt's son), Samek Rosenstein, Shmerl Jaffe and many others. So immediately we were overcome with great fear.
On the third day a German commissar [administrator] named Wisozik was already in place, as well as a commandant: a Ukrainian from Brisk[3] (Michal Akimov). They didn't treat us very badly at first, but that did not last very long. A second commissar (Neumann) arrived, as well as a second commandant (Stanislav Reisky). These two stayed on until the very end.
Commissar Neumann was a mad dog who beat people everywhere, wherever he turned. From the very beginning, from the day he had first arrived, he beat every passerby in the street, Jew and Christian alike. He did his beating with a whip. He got around riding in a bryczka [chaise carriage] drawn by two fine horses. One time he was riding very fast while forcing Alter Khasanovich to run behind him, running and falling, all the way to Zastavya[4] and back. By the time Alter Khasanovich got home he was more dead than alive. I was there and saw him. After this occurrence no one dared to let himself be seen by the commissar; the main streets became as deserted as a cemetery. The bryczka had iron wheels, so you could hear the commissar coming from far away; and whoever heard him coming would hide wherever he could.
[Page 551]
Every day the commissar would give everyone orders where to go to work. He also demanded many items: jewelry, fur coats and other valuables.
An order was given that all Kamenetz Jews would have to leave for Pruzhany[5]; but then the order changed a bit: whoever was a skilled worker would be allowed to stay. And so everyone began trying to find a way to stay. In Kamenetz there was a technician named Michalkevitch. He registered laborers in Stolarnia, Kachlarnia, Cegielnia, and in other workplaces. Whoever could arrange it stayed put. Back then everyone still had something they could give [in exchange]. At that time Commandant–Mayor Akimov was still there, and with him you could arrange anything. Not many Kamenetzers went to Pruzhany. I believe that 70% remained in Kamenetz when you include those who had gone to Pruzhany but came back afterwards.
With respect to the Judenrat, they weren't elected by a vote, they were nominated. In the Judenrat were Gedalya Shostakowski, Moishe Melnicki, Avrohom Bash, Zalman Zhitnicki, Shayke Stempnicki, Lipa Gurwitch and Boruch Gurwitch. Within the ghetto the militiamen were exclusively Jewish. Velvl Glezer was the commandant in the ghetto, and the militiamen were: David Zhitnicki, Shayke Stempnicki, Mordechai Bobrowski, Pesach Freier, Berl Reznik, Boruch–Layb Aronowski, Isaac Golubtchik and Chaim Grunt (Yisroel Grunt's son).
When the Germans had first come, they had given orders to the Judenrat that every Jew must wear a yellow patch or a Star of David. The ghetto was set up after the German Neumann arrived. In April, 1942 the ghetto was fenced off; and the Jews were brought to the train at Wysoke[6] on November 9, 1942.
[Page 552]
In Kamenetz there were about 450 families. The ghetto was located on Brisk Street, from Oizer Garbazh up to Michael Gelerstein's house; and on the opposite side, from Rachel Geier up to Yitzchok–Mordechai Hoichman, as well as the little lane where Chava the dairy–lady (the daughter–in–law of the mason Yaakov–Leib) once lived; also the little lanes that led to Shepsl's beis–medresh[7]; Kobryn Street, from Yitzchok Gewirtzman to the hospital; Litowsk Street, from Yisroel Grunt to Layzer's house, and on the opposite side, up to Yisroel Grunt's factory. All of this was surrounded by barbed wire. No one was allowed to go from one ghetto to the other. Anyone caught by a policeman was beaten. Only the Judenrat and the ghetto militiamen were allowed to go from one ghetto to the other.
We were given only a few days to move into the ghetto, and everyone rushed in to grab a better place to live. We were allowed to bring all our belongings, but by then we had very little, because every day we had to sell something in order to buy food. I was in the Brisk Street Ghetto and I lived at the home of Ben–Tziyon Zub (Bertchik Schmidt's uncle). My sisters Rayzl and Golda were living in the same ghetto, and my sister Sara was living at the kotlyer [coppersmith] on Litowsk Street.
The little lane of Mordechai Galman was not within the ghetto. Mostly Germans were walking around on that street, since the police station was located in Osowski's house; there were Germans living in our house and that of Shidlowski, as well.
No Germans came into the ghetto, they were present only on the other side [of the fence]. None of the Christian population was allowed to enter the Jewish side; the threat was that it would be punishable by death, and no one would risk it. No underground movement to help the ghetto Jews existed on the Christian side.
Every morning the militiamen would accompany the laborers to work, and then every afternoon they would bring them back to the ghetto. The laborers always came back, all of them. There was no pay for the work. Jews were beaten for any little infraction. The ghetto was kept lit up until 11pm every night.
Several weddings took place in the ghetto. Velvl Glezer got married to Aydl Wolfson, and Bayla Schmidt married Sholom Feldman, the son of Chaim Glikes. Velvl Glezer escaped from the ghetto, but no one knows what became of him.
There were ill people in the ghetto as well. Medications were brought from Osowski's pharmacy by the Judenrat.
Several people died in the ghetto. I still remember Pinye Wapniarski, of blessed memory. Those who died were buried in the Jewish cemetery, but none of their families could be present at the funerals, since it was forbidden. Still there was always someone from the Judenrat at the burial.
[Page 553]
They did not distribute any special rations in the ghetto; everyone supplied himself with food as well as he could. Whoever had more money managed better. I believe no one was starving in the ghetto. When Gedalya Shostakowski would receive a check for 40 measures of flour, he would come to me, and we used to doctor the number to 140 or 240 and even more; and then Grigorevski would distribute it without any trouble. The manager of the mill was a German who lived in Biala–Podlaska[8] and seldom came to Kamenetz, relying instead on Grigorevski, who had a good head on his shoulders. And for this reason there was no starvation in the ghetto.
The residents of Zastavya were brought to Kamenetz and were in the ghetto together with the Kamenetz townspeople.
By then we knew that in Brisk there were no longer any living Jews,[9] and yet we continued to go to work as usual. We commemorated the first and last days of the Yom Toivim[10] in great sorrow in the ghetto as we wept and cried, pleading with God for a miracle, that the murderers should not find the time to liquidate the Kamenetz Jews.
When the ghetto was liquidated the Germans took all our possessions away, bringing them to Dom Ludowy[11] on Szkolna [School] Street. The Jews were told that they need not take anything along, since they were going to be brought to the Black Sea; there each family would receive all that was needed, as well as work, and they would live well.
The better items, such as furs, feather–beds, pillows and machine–made products, were sent by the murderers to Germany, and the rest of the items they sold on the spot to Kamenetz Germans, some of whom were locals while others were from Germany itself. The Christian population of Kamenetz was also given the opportunity to buy some of it. An auction was conducted by Zofia Staszuk of Zastavya. Her mother was a teacher; Zofia worked in the commissary office as a secretary and translator. Her German was perfect and she despised Jews. She collaborated with the Germans and [later] escaped with them from Kamenetz.
I was at the home of my sister Rayzl, who lived at Mayer Fisher's house, and from there I watched through the window as they brought 155 people (Communists) to be shot. Zosza Staszuk was riding in the bryczka with the commissar to observe the execution in the Pruska Woods[12]. These were young people, and among them several women. The chairman of Kamenetz, Kuzka, as well as his secretary Cebulya, and the porters Chaim and Arye Waksman (Shlomo–Zelig's sons) dug the graves and buried them there.
[Page 554]
A German stood guard on our end of the ghetto, as did Russian and Polish militiamen. I escaped from the ghetto on November 3, 1942. My escape was planned by people who lived outside the ghetto. I escaped at a time when no Germans were standing guard, only Kamenetz militiamen. They didn't shoot because they had been bought off. The militiamen who were on guard were: Tadeusz Ruzicki and Rafael Liepskevicz, both of whom were Polish; and one Russian, Vitya Razdielnikow, at whose home I [later] hid for a long time. In 1944 Razdielnikow was shot by the Soviets; the Polish militiamen escaped to Poland, where the Akowces [Home Army, the Polish Underground] shot them.
The first house that I stayed in just after my escape from the ghetto was that of Pavel Kozlowski, right near the ghetto boundary. Kozlowski was already waiting for me, as he knew that the Germans had gone off to eat lunch. Right away he hid me in his barn. Afterwards the following people helped me: Michas Grigorevski and his family; the Kozlowski family; Razdielnikow; and also a Christian named Kolye Zhuk, from the Rozalin colony. I hid in this colony, which was located 12 km from Kamenetz.
Once during the winter, early in the morning, Germans arrived there in an automobile, and I barely managed to climb up to the attic. I lay there in terror; it was cold and there was nowhere to escape to. The owner of the house gave them whatever they wanted: schnapps, honey, goose and duck; he was just waiting for them to drive away. It did not end very badly: they left, and then I was brought back into the apartment. I was neither dead nor alive, traumatized by cold, terror and hunger: so much so that I was unable to speak to anyone. I was crying ceaselessly and was very frightened that they might come again and bring misfortune on the family that I was staying with. They, too were now afraid to keep me on; and so I experienced a new tragedy: where should I go now? Every day I had the feeling that they had had enough of me. From there I was brought back to Kamenetz, to the family Razdielnikow. I was brought lying on a sleigh, wearing old clothing, covered by a quilt, with my head bandaged. And this is how they brought me, as if I were ill and was being taken to a hospital. Fortunately no Germans stopped us along the way.
[Page 555]
Not far from Kamenetz there was a village called Liska. The murderers burned the entire village down with all its inhabitants: men, women, children, and old people. Nothing remained of them but ashes. This happened because it had been rumored that the village had been supporting partisans who had been coming there.
I left my hiding place on July 22, 1944. During all the time I had been in hiding, I was ill more than once, but I was never able to get any medical help; it would have been too great a risk to call a Christian doctor. And this has had an adverse effect on my health.
They did not bring refugees from the colony to Kamenetz. In the Kamenetz ghetto there were people from the colonies that lay just beyond the Zastavya mills.
Even after I left my hiding place I didn't go outside for a long time. My feet were swollen. I was still afraid and didn't feel good. It was so empty and lonely, because no one was glad to see me; no one asked me where I had been all this time, and how I had managed to survive. There were those Christians who said that one survivor was also one too many. So after having hidden out I didn't stay in Kamenetz; there was nothing for me there. I left for Brisk and lived there, but on October 23, 1944 the Soviets arrested me. They tormented me for an entire year. I was incarcerated there almost without any bread or water under terrible conditions. The reason was that they wanted to arrest Wolodie Grigorevski, who was already then in Poland; but they believed that he was still in Brisk or in Kamenetz and that I knew where he was but was refusing to tell.
My landlord Razdielnikow was always compassionate to me, but troubles came from all sides. I survived it all, but it has left a mark on the state of my health.
[Page 556]
When they led our sisters and brothers out of Kamenetz it was already cold out. It was possible to dress warmly, but traveling 10 hours to Wysoke with little children and old people was intolerable. They brought them to the train in Wysoke and from there to Treblinka, where they were all put to death.
They didn't bring anyone from the Kamenetz ghetto to Wolkowysk[13]: of that I am certain. Every day I knew exactly what was going on in the ghetto from conversations I had with the militiamen, who came to the ghetto on a daily basis.
And this is how the bloody Nazi murderers murdered all of our Kamenetz Jews.
Lyusha Kalasowski worked in the Kamenetz hospital. She took a great deal of interest in Yossl Glezer, who had hidden out in a village with a Christian acquaintance. She didn't know which village he was in or the name of the peasant he was with. He hadn't wanted to tell her, although the Christian went to see her several times to bring Yossl several items from her. But we didn't hear anything about Yossl. I believe it was not the Germans who put him to death, but rather the man who had hidden him. And so the hope I had of meeting up with Yossl again did not come true.
Right after the war a man named Itzik Zhitnicki of Baku asked me to go to his house and search for his diploma that had been in a cupboard in his house. He had studied engineering in France. I went there but found nothing, because the cupboard with all its contents had been taken away. And later Zhitnicki came on a visit to Kamenetz with his wife and two daughters.
A couple of years ago Dvora Radieszc, a daughter of Babel the Tokerkes, was in Kamenetz. They lived near the plump [water pump] on Zamkowe Street. She had sold their house and gone away.
After I was already living in Poland I met up with Boris Paskewicz of Kamenetz. He told me that in Warsaw by chance he had run into Itche Gurinski, who told him that he was going to leave to join his brother in Cuba. And I believe that he did not ask him about other people from Kamenetz. For the Christians did not get very involved in the misfortune of the Jews.
Translator's Footnotes
[Pages 557-558]
Mota Montag, Historical Committee, Schwandorf[2], April 30, 1947
Translated by Allen Flusberg
Question: How many Jews lived in this shtetl before the war?
Question: What were the main sources of income there?
Question: What were the community institutions and social cultural establishments; and how many were there?
The most important events in the town, starting from the beginning of the war:
On June 28, 1941 the Germans took the town again and immediately imposed a levy of 3 kg of gold. They robbed all the Jewish homes and confiscated all the Jewish property. Jews had to wear a yellow patch on their front and back. They were drafted into forced labor, and at the same time they received terrible beatings.
After three months all the Jews were locked up inside a ghetto. There was a great hunger in the ghetto, and many peopled died of starvation. At the beginning of the winter about 100 men were sent to forced labor in a camp in Wolkowysk.[4] At the end of 1942 the entire Jewish population was sent to Treblinka, where they were all put to death.
Question: Did the Jews of this area organize a resistance?
Question: How many [Jews] of this town survived?
Distinguished personalities: Yeshiva Head Boruch-Ber, who died of grief during the Russian occupation.
The person who provided these details is not known to us as someone from Kamenetz. Certain details don't fit. —The Yizkor Book Committee
Translator's Footnotes
in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps[1]
Dedicated to the memory of my parents Yoel and Esther, my brother Zanvil, my grandfather Aharon, my aunt Bayla-Chashe with her husband and two sons, my aunt Leah, and all our family members who were put to death by the Nazi murderers.
(A Testimony)[1]
Testimony taken by Meir Bobrowski
Question: How old was the Jewish community?
Answer: 300 years.
Answer: 500 families.
Answer: 60% business, 30% artisan, 10% agriculture.
Answer: 1 synagogue; 5 houses of study; 1 large yeshiva; 2 cemeteries; 1 home for the elderly, Linas-Hatzedek; 2 libraries; 1 drama circle; 1 bank; 1 gmilus-chesed [charity] treasury; and all the political parties.
On Rosh Hashana[3] 1939 the German army marched into the town. After eight days they left, and the Russians then occupied the town.
Question: What was the attitude and action of the non-Jewish population?
Answer: The Russian population didn't treat the Jews badly; in contrast the Poles caused them terrible troubles.
Answer: No.
Answer: 3, survivors of the concentration camps.
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