Resistance (cont.)

Spring of 1990 at the former headquarters of the Varshilov Brigade in the Naarootz forests From left: Zalman Uri Gurevitz, Danilotzkin (Vlodia), Yakov Alperovitz and his son

In the Deep Woods

In the morning he went to Kurenitz and later returned with horror stories. Concerning my father and my family he said he couldn't find them but the gentiles told him that Natan Gurevitch family was not amongst the dead. He told us a little bit of what he heard of the day of slaughter. How they took the beautiful girl Sarah, daughter of Bat-sheva and smashed her head against the wall. He told us of our teenage friend, Chiale sosonoski that fought the German who took her, scratched his face and shouted, “The day of revenge would come.” He said that many Jews escaped and he saw many gentile residents of Kurenitz going from house to house taking out the floors and looking for hidden treasures. I decided to stay for a few days in the little forest until I find out what happened to my family. The rest of the group decided to wait too. On the third day Shimon went to get some food from Yoshekevitz and found out that my family was alive and here in the woods. And they were with Moshe Alperovich family. I started looking for them and immediately found them. We were all ecstatic, kissed and cried. The whole family was saved.

I stayed in the woods for another day and then walked with Salim To Volkovishtzena to see if there was any news from the partisans. We couldn't find any of our connection. The Germans and the police were searching for suspects in all the villages and all the men escaped. Ivan's wife was arrested.

Salim and Shimon left us to check the situation in the deep forests, they promised to return and take the rest of the group to the deeper woods in Hog. At night I returned to Volkovishtzena and I found Berta. She told me what had happened with the Otriad. about Noah Dinerstien that was fighting with the partisans in the east. She also saw Nyomka Shulman going east. She said that Nachoom Alperovich, Nyomka Shulman, Yitzhak Einbinder were sent east through the gate of Surez. A place that through it the partisans and refugees crossed the German lines to the Russian side. There they sent my friends to learn terrorist's techniques and explosive management.

I told her of my dilemma, that my whole family was save and is now about 4 km from Kurenitz, what should I do?!. Berta said, “Wait, you are so lucky for your whole family to be saved, that is a present from God, don't leave them. Take them to the Pushtza and then join the Otriad.” We agreed that on the 10 of Oct. I will come to Volkovishtzena and wait for her until the 20^th. Meanwhile I will transfer my family to the woods. I returned to the Borodino forest and saw that Simah and her daughter Rivka Gvint joined us. A few days later Salim returned from the pushtza and together we transferred everyone to the big pushtza in the vicinity of Hog.

The situation of the Jews in Pushtza was bad, very bad. About 300 Jews including old women and babies escaped from the Kurenitz slaughter and were now in the Pushtza. The men and the women walk to the neighboring villages and ask for bread, potatoes, flour or soup., A few of the men receive the food after they threatened to light the farms on fire. A few times when they refused they stole from the fields. They stole laundry that was hanging in the yard. What could they do? they had to survive.

Even harder was the situation of women who escaped without men. They were victims for every Christian, every man. The fight for survival was very cruel. So the lucky ones that were left from the slaughter from Kurenitz, nyake, Kribitzi and Mydell had their own hell on earth….

The Departure to Vostok

I told him about my family that was saved and how I want to transfer them east. He told me not to worry, that they were planning on moving all the Jews east to the Soviet Union through the gates of the Surez. So he decided to make me one of the coordinators of the transfer unit and he said that when I reach Plashntzenitz I would join the Brova Otriad and my family will continue deep into Russia. I consulted with my father, Motik Alperovich and Shimon Zishka Alperovich, and they all were very happy with the news because some of their family members were saved and we could now take care of them. I didn't find the Shnitzer brothers and heard they were somewhere in the Pushtza. I returned to Timsok and told him that we all agreed.

The Jews started preparing for the journey to the Vostok. They prepared lapstot, a kind of boots that are made from clothing material. Among the Jews in the woods there was a shoe maker from Kribitz and he repaired everyone's shoes. They also gathered some bread, salt, and crackers. This was the middle of November 1942. On one Saturday 300 people from all over the Pushtza gathered. 200 of them were Jews from Kurenitz, the rest were from Nyeke, Kribitz, Molodechno, Vileyka, Mydell and Kobilnik. The camp was divided to groups of tens. At the head of each ten they put a captain and every group had partisans as guides. The first group included fifty men with one partisan. When night came we started walking.

At the beginning everything was fine. But parents with little kids and old people suffered. Slowly the distance between the groups grew larger. The young people held the children and carried them on their shoulders. The partisans also tried to help and they were extremely nice to everyone. A few started slowing and the partisans told them they must hurry to cross the train tracks before light. 300 people spread around one km, many just could not keep up with the rest. The partisan decided to get some horse and buggies because they were so slow. 4 km from the train tracks the partisans went to the village Peskovitch Tzizana and they took three buggies with horses and they had the little children and old men sit in them. When they reached 200 meters from the train tracks they told everyone to rest and they returned the horse and buggies. When they returned they ordered everyone to cross the train tracks. Everyone got up and quickly crossed the tracks.

We still had to cross the Kurenitz Dolhinov road and not far from there were two German camps. This was the most dangerous part of the 40 kilometers that we had to go that day. We sent three people to check the road. We waited and waited and they did not return. Later we found out that a group of 50 people crossed the road safely and they wrongly assumed that the rest of us were following. Somehow there was miscommunication and we did not follow. When hours past and night time was almost over we decided to look for some forest to hide during the day and at night we would continue east. 250 people rested in the forest joined by 3 partisans. The danger was unimaginable but everyone was extremely well behaved. They hardly talked and even the babies were quite. All day long we saw German cars on the road and farmers walking here and there. We kept quite and in extreme worries we passed the day. When it got dark we continued east. We left the clearing and went into the forest. The next village was 5 km away. From there we had another 20 km to the next partisan stop.

Very quickly we realized that in theory this was a good plan but in reality the people could not accomplish the mission. Everyone was very thirsty having not had anything to drink all day. The children could hardly walk, the line became linger and longer and the distance between the groups grew larger. The belongings and the metal food containers were making a lot of noise and along with the crying children and the parents trying to calm them down the noise could be heard all around.

All of a sudden we heard shots being fired and machine guns shooting from the direction of Dividki. Our being so laud saved us. As we later found out the police put a barricade and were waiting for us to arrive. They thought it was a small partisan group that was arriving. But when they heard such laud sounds they thought is was a big partisan army and that scared them and they opened fire sooner than originally planned. They started lighting the night with flares and kept shooting at us. Everyone panicked and ran to the direction of the forest. I knew that they were not going to touch us because they were too far. About forty people reached the forest with me. We lied on the ground. I had no idea what happened to the rest. From afar I could see people crawling to the forest. I could see 13 year old Yishayu Kramer that looked like a ten year old falling and getting up. Crawling and on his shoulders he is carrying his three year old sister Marishka. What a nightmare.

The shots stopped. I couldn't find the partisans and we were in a tiny forest. I didn't know the area but from my calculations we walked about 3 or 4 km east so we were still between Kastivonitz and Kanihinina. I knew that the Germans would look for us at the first day light so we looked for a bigger forest. We found one and exhausted we fell asleep. Early in the morning we woke up to the sound of shots. The Germans were going though the road looking for partisans. They didn't come near us. We lied down the whole day without movement. When evening came again we heard some more shots. We decided to go back to the Pushtza we originally came from.

I was happy Yitzchak Zimmerman was with us. He was a village man, smart and even tempered. I had someone to consult with. We both knew we must return to the woods we came from. But first we had to find out where we where. Yitzhak and I left the group and went to look for a farm. We found one and knocked on the window. An old woman answer but she gave us no help. We decided to find the road on our own. We manage to find a road and while walking we found a rich looking farm. The farmer told us the way to a town that was the opposite way from which we wanted to go. We didn't want him to know our real plans. We returned to the group. We didn't have anything to drink for 24 hours. We started walking and reached a village. We saw dirty water in the drainage system. We all drank from it using the palm of our hands. Yitzhak knew of this village and knew it was close to the train tracks.

Once again Yitzhak, Wexler and I left the group and went to check the train tracks. This time we were luckier it was not watched. We motioned to the rest of the group to follow us and we crossed the tracks. Everyone was very thankful but we had no time to rejoice. With Yitzka's help I hurried the group. We walked all night and in the morning we reached the village Margi at the edge of the Pushtza we left earlier.

Now I was all separated from my original troop. Motik Alperovich and Shimon Zishkas' Alperovich were with the first group of people to successfully reached the Vostok. I never saw them again. Both were killed in action during battles in the east Belarusian Forest in 1944 as heroes of U.S.S.R.

Meeting of former partisans from the Naarutz forests in Petach Tikva 1957 Middle row second from the left: Morbatzik, Rala Bogin, ?, Shura Bogin, ?,Moshe Yudka Rodnizki. Top row, first on the left: Moshe Shotan, fifth: Zalman Uri Gurevitz, Yaakov Shafran

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