[Pages 627-628]

We are already living for fifteen months under the teeth and nails of the bloodthirsty animal, there is not one person in the ghetto who has not suffered a terrible fate; children – orphans, lonely parents without their children, widowed women. People who have become shadows of themselves walk around and are petrified of the sunlight. There is not one sliver of hope to remain alive – everything and everybody is against us.

News from the surrounding villages is received that they are already Judenrein. We were also informed how terrible the liquidations transpired; (in a certain) place they tied the hair of pretty, young Jewish girls to the tails of horses, and made them (the horses) run, dragging their victims along; here the earth was still trembling from the bodies of innocent children, women, men and the elderly, because the murderer did not want to waste the bullet. Elsewhere, the location of the ghetto was located in the synagogue, (and the people) were terribly tortured and burnt alive.

We no longer ask the question that perhaps once again a miracle will occur. No – each one knows that he carries the fate of his people (on his shoulders) and that he has been sentenced to death.

Women are groaning quietly, with uplifted eyes to the sky and begging “Dear G-d, an easy, easy death, the bullet should hit its mark”. We hear a quiet plea from a child to his mother “I have hardly lived, and I really want to live” and again we hear; “No, I do not want to go to the massacre, I have poison”, and the second one (says) “I will slit my veins”. Here quietly stand the heartbroken parents, holding tightly onto their child, not wanting to part from them. A woman rushes past, throwing her last golden ring; possibly one can still bribe the murderer with this gold. In a corner there are elderly lonely men defiantly waiting for death, while death is the only way that will unite them with their already deceased families. Further on, young, healthy girls and boys stand and mourn their young lives, which will be cut short in the full bloom of their youth, only because they are Jews.

Each one is drowning in his own thoughts, but they could not focus their thoughts; they are shattered by fear and fright, and they look to the future without any dash of hope. They look at each other with great pity, because they are bound together in the same fateful death.

Suddenly there are quiet whisperings; everyone whispers secrets into the other's ear – tonight a group is leaving with weapons and small groups are gathering. They start discussing, as all hope is now lost – and, here, suddenly, there are weapons in Jewish arms! Do we really know what a gun or a bullet really is? Yes, this is one's own life, this is a struggle for oneself with close friends, this is survival, this is an instrument to take revenge for the innocent, spilt Jewish blood – and, at the end, the last bullet will be in our possession, in order not to land alive in the hands of the enemy.

We notice a quiet movement in the ghetto, groups of young people and families are formed, there is an awakening of a desire and thoughts of escaping, but where?

The group that possesses the arms is organized – the others are like sheep without a shepherd.

Hopeless opinions are being expressed; we shall fall in the forest, animals will consume our flesh. The front is far away. Once again, a person remembers the event that occurred a few months before, when four people left the ghetto

[Pages 629-630]

and were cheated by a White Russian peasant, that instead of putting them in touch with a group of partisans, he murdered them in a terrible way. Once again, we hear; this is an exception and not a general matter; many know to tell how Gentiles protected them.

The mood is extremely strained; we have to decide quickly; the days are short, soon it will be nightfall. A concerned mother, who has been left with one child, is running and looking for a pair of solid shoes with a warm garment in order to leave, it is already autumn, and she is concerned about her child. One hears quiet sighing of an old father; “children, escape, escape, G-d will help you, live your life, it is the time of war, one can see the beginning, but not the end result. The world is large (with many opinions); the murderers will not be forgiven for their committed crimes against innocent people”.

Many more announcements are heard, “dear children, escape! Revenge our spilt blood, revenge!”

A young, concerned man is walking, he wants to escape, but next to him is his child. In a weeping tone the child asks; “Father, you want to escape and leave us behind?”. His parental feelings are aroused, the father lowers his head; “I am staying”.

Mass grave of the victims in Mir, 1959

A group decides to escape, wherever their eyes will lead them. However, unfortunately, most of the people are resigned (to their fate); - “we remain (here)”.

[Pages 631-632]

A group decides to hide themselves in the underground road, which – according to the old legends – is located under the castle.

The people who have decided to escape are nervous; they are not thinking ahead; parents leave children behind, children leave parents, sisters leave brothers, and are running to search for an exit. People are running forward, congested amongst the big crowd to a small window, that leads from a cellar to the fields. No-one looks behind, and one does not glimpse to the side, at the remaining (people). One does not know if there will be a time when a human being will behave as a human being, and one's conscience will not allow any peace, and the sadness will constantly be heavy within our hearts. Why did our closest, loving and dearest, childhood friends from our hometown, not join us?

[Pages 645-646]

On a starry night during Sunday the 9^th August, 1942, two hundred people left the Mir Ghetto in order to fight the murderous Germans. Everyone's dream was to survive until the revenge; however, one did not know how to escape from the shocking ghetto, which was surrounded by high walls of the Mir Castle. The well armed murderous Germans were constantly ready to beat and to murder, waiting for the opportunity to notice that someone was moving towards the exit. Despite these dangers, the fear did not stop us; one after the other, we managed to drag ourselves through the narrow hole of the thick wall of the Mir Castle, going into the unknown and not knowing what we were about to do, however we all experienced was the fresh air of the summery evening upon the fields of Mir, which was covered with our spilt blood. We secretly crossed the Stolpce highway, passing the large graves near the road, where sand used to be dug. We moved into the Miryanker forest, thus we wandered through the surrounding forests, fearful of raising our voices, without having a drop of water, licking the little leaves in order to quench our thirst, but, nevertheless, I was very sad that I was unable to convince my four sisters, Chaya and her husband, Kunye, Sarah and Beila, who encouraged me to leave, but they themselves remained behind. Sarah, Kunye and Beila, as well as Sonia, Chatzel's the butcher's (daughter) and Tzila, the daughter of Chonye the blacksmith, hid in a cellar in the ghetto, where they stayed nine days in the darkness, and then on the 25^th August, they encouraged themselves and secretly escaped to the forest, when all the remaining people in the ghetto were massacred. I was very happy but not for long. On a sunny morning of 30^th August, 1942 sitting around the fire and roasting potatoes, when Chaim Lis was on guard duty with his rifle, we heard some twigs being broken, the murderous Mirrer police, had secretly approached close to us, and Chaim Lis shouted “stand still!'', he shot at them but they immediately covered us with a hail of bullets and we all dispersed in different directions. The two victims which the bullets did not miss, remained lying at that place, this was my sister Beila Kagan as well Chaim Lis.

Notes:

1. Tzila, the daughter of Chonye the blacksmith, did not hide in the cellar. She escaped that night to the forest.
2. The author Simon Kagan, his two sisters, Kunye and Sarah, and Tzila all survived the war and were together in the DP camp in Landsberg, Germany.

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Updated 25 Aug 2024 by JH