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Atmosphere
and Way of Life

The place of my birth, my dear town, you appear before me in all your happiness and joy, with all the goodwill and friendbetween one and another, and with all the will to help one another. I am sad to say that there quickly came a horrible, bloodthirsty time when an animalistic attack destroyed all that was precious in the blink of an eye. May the name of our enemies be destroyed, those wild animals descended from Amalek.

I am my parents eldest daughter. My name is Ethel, born in Stepan. After I got married, we lived in Rafalovka. With the help of G-d, we were fortunate and I was saved from the claws of the Nazi war. My parents were Aharon Mordechai and Hennia Shimshak. My sister Tzippah and her husband Pesach had 3 daughters, Beila, Rachel and Rivkah. Her husband, Pesach Plotnick, was a genius in Torah and with the help of my parents was able to devote himself totally to learning Torah. He brought joy to my parents and the whole family. All of them perished in the Holocaust. Also, my brother, Dovid, his wife, Channah, and daughters, Beila and Sarah, and their son, Avraham Altral, perished.

My parents and my brother were very capable people and in their financial lives they were very successful. They produced oil (Alearneal ?) and they always helped others. As I remember in their house, normally Motzei Shabbat, the big shots, shochets, and the Rav gathered for a Melava Malcah of song and dance. My mother always attempted to host all the important guests in an appropriate way. And I remember a special incident when they were burning coals, on top of which was a special warmer (samovar – Russian coffeepot). After a while the samovar melted because my mother never put water into it. After the moment of disappointment, everyone continued with the joy as if nothing happened and the guests enjoyed the other goodies and niceties of the party.

I was born in Stepan in 1927 to Yoel Priskolnik (nickname - Di Gates). According to one of the rumors, my father's grandfather of blessed memory, Yeshayahu, served as a gabbai and passed before the holy ark in the synagogue. And on one occasion, when he finished the prayer “Shema Yisrael…” by unintentionally chanting loudly “I am your Lord, your God. True”, instead of the accepted and customary saying, “your Lord, your God. True”, when the “I am” is not uttered at all. Hence, he probably received the nickname. As for the family name Priskolnik, which means - by the synagogue, or by the school. In our case, my grandfather's house was indeed located near the same ancient synagogue that, according to legend, existed since the time of the Polish king Stephen Bathory, for whom that the town served as his fortress and was even named after him. Therefore, it can be assumed that during the middle of the 15th century, the Jews who came from Eastern Crimea also settled there, that is, to the extent that our family settled with the founding of the town and the ancestors of this family, like other families with Slavic surnames or without surnames at all, came in the migration of the Jews from Eastern Russia, Crimea to the West, this nickname - the surname - Pri-Skolnik, probably stuck to the family since its house was in the vicinity of synagogues.

For generations, this family continued to live on the same lot near the synagogues, and this despite the vicissitudes of time and rule, and despite the many fires that have consumed the house many times, it was rebuilt in the same place.

In most of the towns and cities of Volyn near Stepan there were Priskolnik families, and according to information that passed by word of mouth in the family, all of them originated from Stepan, but over the years they changed their residences in their search of sources of livelihood. Indeed, my father had cousins, one in the city of Rivne - David Priskolnik, in Sarny - Israel Priskolnik and his sons: Aryeh and Yaakov Priskolnik, of blessed memory, and their descendants, some of whom are still alive, and they are: Yeshayahu Priskolnik who lives with a family in Tel Aviv, Yechiel Priskolnik and his family who live in Petach Tikva, Yeshayahu Priskolnik with his family in Givatayim, Yaakov Priskolnik in Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov, Berel Priskolnik with his family in France, and his daughter named Neita of the Prishkolnik family lives in Tel Aviv. In Luninets also lived one member of the Priskolnik family from Sarny named Shamai Prishkolnik. Also lived in Sarny my father's brother, Gedalyahu Priskolnik and his family members. In the town of Matchilik, lived my father's sister Reizel from the Priskolnik family, with her family. There were also members of the Prishkolnik family in Zdolbuniv.

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The example of the branching out and migration of my family members from Stepan is more evidence of the roots of Judaism in Volyn.

The assumption is that until the time of my father's grandfather, Rabbi Yeshayahu Prishkolnik, the entire family lived in Stepan, and since then the branching and dispersal of the family's descendants in the towns and cities of Volyn began. And as evidence of this, in every family from the Prishkolnik family in Volyn, there is a member in the name of Yeshayahu, after the same grandfather.

Although I was uprooted from my family, my home and my town when I was only 14 years old, I am filled with memories of my father's house, my grandfather, my uncle, my friends and all the people of my town. I remember that we lived in an apartment at grandfather's house. The two-room apartment was at the back of the house and faced the direction of a large barn. There was also a garden which was cared for in the spring and summer and neglected in the fall and long winter.

Next to our garden was a neighbor's orchard, with fruit trees, apples and juicy pears, some of which bordered our garden fence (the garden belonged to our neighbor Itzik Wiznodel the Butcher). The garden was cultivated by our late step-grandmother Sarah (her origin was from one of the surrounding villages, I think Zhelezna). She was knowledgeable in all the methods of agricultural cultivation and with the help of her gentile assistants she would hoe, rake, sow, uproot the weeds and water only sometimes in the summer, because it usually rained in our area during the summer season.

For me it was a special experience to work in the garden together with my grandmother, who was very kind to me and willingly and patiently explained to me the nature of the work, the types of growth, and the treatment methods. More than once I damaged the garden while “studying”, by uprooting some plant instead of a wild grass, but after a slight reprimand, my grandmother would forgive me.

I remember that my grandmother used to go out to work in the garden in the early morning hours and return at sunset. During this period, my grandfather was not among the well to do breadwinners, so my grandmother helped through the agricultural produce that she used to grow: garlic, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, horseradish, etc. As for me, I was always happy to join her, and I enjoyed her company very much when she worked in the garden and I tried to help her as best I could.

I had a brother who was three years older than me, Shaul of blessed memory, and a sister who was three years younger than me, Sesil (who now lives with me in Israel). My father, Yoel of blessed memory, was the youngest son from my grandfather's first wife (grandmother Sesil, who died, as it was told to me, at the time of my father's birth). My father had brothers and sisters, these are my uncle and aunts: Yankel Prishkolnik the chazan, who lived in a house next to ours on Shkolna Street, next to the synagogue. Aunt Raizel of blessed memory, who lived in a nearby town and would rarely visit Stepan. Uncle Gedaliah of blessed memory, who lived in Sarny and sometimes visited Stepan. I also remember one or two visits together with my father to their home. They were very pleasant hosts, especially his wife,

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aunt Rachel. My uncle was a sewing machine dealer. He was not rich but made a decent living and had three children: Hannah, Yeshayahu (who was very gifted) and Haya. I also had three aunts from my step-grandmother, who actually raised my orphaned father. The firstborn daughter, Adele, who was very kind, was like one of the family in our house and was very loved by my father and mother, and Teibel of blessed memory. We, the children, loved her and were very attached to her, as if she were our real sister. The family ties with the sisters Genia and Miriam, the little sister, were also very close and we were connected to them.

I remember my father as being of medium height and thin. He was busy from early morning to late evening in his shop, a tobacco and cigarette shop and alcohol in concession. I remember my mother always went to the shop right after she sent us to school to help my father, and she was not always at home when we returned from school. She was still in the shop, helping my father. As far as I remember, the livelihood was relatively not bad, but my parents invested many efforts and nerves and took many risks for earning a living and the take care of the household.

I particularly remember the days of the market on Wednesday, when the town was filled with gentiles from all the surrounding villages, who concentrated in the market square and the nearby streets. As a curious boy, I liked to squeeze in and look at the deals being made in the market: the sale of the produce of the villagers and the purchase of products from local peddlers, and the more professional ones who came from nearby towns or cities to offer their goods on market day. I loved listening to the peddlers' ridiculous statements and the many pranks that were often played on the rural gentiles, most of whom were innocent and ignorant. Our store was also very crowded, especially on market days, because tobacco and cigarettes were an accepted and extremely popular commodity among gentiles of the surrounding area. On market days, my mother had to help my father in the shop from morning to evening. More than once, when I was in the store in the afternoon, I noticed that my father was liked by the many gentile buyers who visited the store. Most of them called him by the name Suchoi (dry) meaning: thin. They sometimes consulted with my father about contacting the authorities and submitting requests. My father was very proficient in the procedures of applications to the authorities and in formulating requests in the Polish language. I remember that my mother also used to find a common language with the people in the store and especially with gentile women, whether they were smokers or came to buy tobacco and cigarettes for their husbands. Most of the time my mother would advise on health, hygiene and household issues. And of course, without any payment, but out of a good intention to help others regardless of class or nationality.

My mother is from a town near Stepan - Berezne. My mother's origin is from the extensive and respectable Zuckerman family in this town. None of my mother's immediate family survived, except for cousins, the children of my mother's brother, Ephraim Zuckerman of blessed memory, who live in the USA.

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The way of life at my parents' house

My mother showed a very fair attitude to the two gentile housemaids – one in the role of nanny, who spoke Yiddish fluently as she stayed in our house more than in her own, and a second one whose role was to pump water, do the laundry and clean the house. The relationships were excellent, the gentile women would treat my mother with complete trust, would leave their savings in her hands, consult with her, and my mother would treat them as if they were an integral part of our family. My mother used to give charity to the needy and poor, and there was no lack of such in our town. I often saw her sneaking out of the house in the evening, especially on Thursdays, carrying a bowl of wheat flour and various supplies to give to the needy who lived in the neighborhood. In a later period, after 1939, we purchased a cow, and then my mother would give milk and its products to the needy by bringing it to their homes personally and secretly. When I asked her many times why she does this in secret, I was answered that giving charity in secret is the most real help, without talking about it and publicized it, and thus insults and shame are avoided from those in need.

My parents used to host a “guest” every Friday, in most cases - a beggar, one of those who occasionally came to the town and stayed in it for the Shabbat. Father would invite him when he left the synagogue and he would sit at the table with us and have the Shabbat dinner with us. Such an act was a source of pleasure for my parents and us, the children.

The image of my grandfather, Ben-Zion Prishkolnik, or “Benzigot”, as he was called, is well remembered. An old Jew, bent over, with a short beard, often walked with a cane for support. From the time I remember, he owned a small butcher shop selling non-kosher meat - only to gentiles, of course. His business was not very flourishing, and he would be assisted by his daughters in running the store. A unique phenomenon that I remember is that my grandfather had many debts owed to him by his gentile buyers who were landowners, and his desk drawer was crammed with notes, on which the debts were written, but very few would repay him their debts. When one of the landowners accumulated a large debt, my grandfather would rent a wagon or sleigh with horses (and I would often join their journeys) and travel to the landowner's farm to receive what he deserved. As payment for a debt, he would often receive sacks of grain, flour, potatoes, onions, garlic, and the like. He would bring the goods home and store them in the basement - for home consumption in the winter.

One of his famous habits was drinking a lot of tea. After the water boiled, they poured five or six cups of strong tea and arranged them in a row in front of him, the tea was, of course, unsweetened. My grandfather would sip cup after cup while sucking a hard sugar cube and smoking a cigarette at the same time, which would give him a lot of pleasure. This phenomenon was repeated

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every evening. I remember my grandfather's walks on Shabbats after lunchtime, when he used to walk around the house and the nearby garden, with his hands clasped behind his back, surveying his property and enjoying it. At lunchtime my grandfather used to sip some alcohol before the meal, but moderately and with limits, only for the purpose of Kiddush and to delight the soul.

My grandfather had a sense of humor and often used to joke and tease the gentiles passing by or visiting his shop. Being a believing and God-fearing Jew, but not a fanatic, he used to visit the synagogue near our house on weekdays, Shabbats and holidays. I was happy to join him from time to time, especially on winter evenings, to sit by the hot stove in the Beit Midrash. On Shabbat evening, I would willingly accompany him to the third meal, and enjoy by the cheerfulness of sitting together, and by the pleasure that the meal brought to most of those present. Some of them probably because they were hungry and that they had a good opportunity to break the hunger by eating a piece of challah with salted fish, and some of them for no specific reason. Sometimes, I would also accompany my grandfather to the Selichot prayers at night or early in the morning (with my parents' permission, of course) with great reverence but also in fear of demons and wandering souls.

From my father's house I remember my brother Shaul- Sheilyk, who was three years older than me and studied at the "Tarbut" school. He was thin and somewhat indecisive, but kindhearted. He learned to play the violin by a Jew named Moshe der Klezmer, who came to our house and taught him. I was very jealous of his great ability and success in playing and singing. I especially remember the melody “Der yald is meer mekane”. I would try to imitate the playing by rubbing stick against stick or by drumming, and I remember how they used to make jokes about me because my hearing was not developed enough. But I was better than him in running, swimming and all kinds of mischievous acts.

As for myself, I was a student at the “Tarbut” school until the 5th grade and I mastered the Hebrew language well. The spoken language was of course Yiddish. I was an active member of the Hebrew Speakers Association and even though we lacked daily useful words, we kept a vow, and at certain times we only spoke Hebrew. I was considered a good student and had a lot of free time for games. I had many friends and in most cases I was the head of the gang or the deputy. We used to organize into a group to fight and defend ourselves against the gentile children in the streets near us.

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Description of my living environment

My home was near the synagogues and the square in front of them, as well as near the houses of the rabbis and the shochets - the center of ethnic and community-religious activity of the Jews of the town and the surrounding area. Both the poorhouse and the bathhouse were nearby. As is well known, most of the chuppahs (marriage ceremonies) were held in our town in the square of the synagogue, and the funerals were also held by the synagogues. Most of the beggars of the town and its guests were concentrated near the synagogues and in the nearby poorhouse. Most of the Jews, when they came to slaughter their poultry, would pass by the street of the synagogues, as the three shochets of the town lived nearby: the shochet Levi of blessed memory- the chazan, the shochet Yoel of blessed memory and the shochet Herschel of blessed memory, who was also Baal Kore. When they wanted to turn to one of the town's dayanim for a ruling, consultation, divorce or any other reason, they would pass by the synagogue street, because the two rabbis - Rabbi Benzion Volinsky of blessed memory and Rabbi Pinchas Gorinstein of blessed memory, lived near the synagogues. In short, I grew up and lived in the heart of the vibrant life of the town. I did not miss any wedding or funeral; in any case of a ruling, I would stay near the courthouse and out of curiosity swallow any information about the outcome. And so, I was well versed in all the practical processes of chuppah arrangements, funeral and burial, circumcision, Torah law and divorce, ritual immersion in the mikveh and bathing in the bathhouse, poorhouse procedures, shechita and more.

View of the synagogue street after the great fire in 1925

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In the synagogue square, farewells were also held for immigrants who went to America, and I particularly remember a case of a mass farewell for a couple from the Beitar movement, who decided to immigrate to Israel -Rozka Bebchuk and Tzelia Shpritz (both of them live in Israel today). I also remember parades of organized Zionist youth in their costumes.

Beitar headquarters in Stepan – 5682

I enjoyed all the Zionist organizations in the town and from time to time I would change costumes and visit the nests of “Beitar”, “Hashomer HaTsair”, participate in entertainment evenings, dances and trips to the wonderful pine forests around Stepan. On days off, on Shabbats and holidays, we would go out into the deep of the forests near the town, equipped with food and also with sticks for self-defense against the attacks of gentiles. In addition, I was an enthusiastic donor to the Jewish National Fund within the framework of the “Tarbut” school. My classmates and I used to compete on the filling of the stamp notebooks with the plants and fruits of the land that we used to buy and the proceeds from selling the notebooks would be a donation to the Jewish National Fund.

When we used to go out into the woods, we would reach a certain place and wave a national flag there - that we created. There we would set up in a camp and train in drilling exercises, with rifle sticks, like the senior Beitar members in our town. We spent many hours in watching drilling exercises, marches and self-defensive training and beating with sticks by Beitar seniors.

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“Jabotinsky” group, first rank in Stepan, 5682

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Stepan's river and the bridge over it

Stepan's river, the Horyn, was one of the important branches of the Pripyat River. The river flowed from the east of the town at the foot of a hill on top of which the town of Stepan was located. The waters of the river were quiet and flowed calmly, except for the place by the wall, where the flow was extremely strong. From stories I learned that in the past a flour mill was built in this place that was powered by the current of water. Remains of thick wooden pegs were still stuck in the same place at the bottom of the river. In the spring time when the snow and ice melted, the river would overflow its banks and flood extensive pastures (Lonka) across the river. This flood usually lasted until the beginning of summer and then the water level of the river decreased and the river would return to its normal course. The pastures would be uncovered again, except for a number of water lakes that would dry up only by the end of the summer. Travel to the town from the east was over a solid wooden bridge, which was about a kilometer long. The bridge was built of wood, including its thick foundation pillars, and all its beams and sides - all of these were connected by long screws and iron hoops. The bridge towered above the river at a height of over ten meters. As boys we often wondered how the wooden bridge was able to carry all the load of the carts passing over it and sometimes even individual cars. When the Red Army entered in 1939, even tanks passed over the bridge and it held on. We were always afraid that the bridge would collapse and then we would be cut off from the world and especially from the lovely pine forests, to where we would escape in the hot summer days and spend there on vacations and Shabbats.

Out of curiosity, we would go down under the bridge and climb on top of its pillars and go along and across it and check every peg and plank for rotting and cracks, and we checked every connection and every screw to make sure they were tightly closed. After such a tour, we would return home satisfied, that the bridge was indeed strong and that the authorities had really taken care of it, and would have fastened the screws and smeared its pillars with tar to protect the wood from the summer heat and winter humidity. The bridge was a cause for a special concern to all the townspeople and the authorities at the beginning of spring, when the snow and the thick ice that covered the river in the winter melted. Large icebergs were shaking the thick foundation pillars of the bridge and it seemed that the entire bridge would be swept away with the huge surges of the flow and the floating blocks of ice. The authorities together with the volunteer fire brigade, as well as other volunteer citizens, would break up the blocks of ice approaching the bridge using huge wooden beams that were sharp at the ends. After the danger passed, the townspeople would breathe a sigh of relief and the authorities would inspect, strengthen and fix what was required to ensure the firm standing of the bridge for the future.

I remember is that in 1939, when the Polish army retreated from the Russian border, they made all the preparations to burn the bridge by laying dry straw along its entire length, but in their panic, or for any other reason, they did not burn it. Before the retreat of the Poles, the Russians even threw a number of

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bombs into the river near the bridge, but the bridge was not damaged and this allowed them to enter the town easily with their weapons and heavy vehicles, including the tanks. When the Soviets retreated in 1941, they made sure to blow it up and burn it almost entirely and that was probably in order to prevent the Germans from catching them during their panicked retreat. The Germans built a temporary bridge, taking advantage of the forced labor of the town's Jews and based on some of the foundations and the remaining parts of the old bridge.

The view of the bridge over the Horyn River in Stepan

The townspeople used to bathe in the river during the summer days. It was not customary to bathe in swimwear. Most of the young men would slip into the river naked and swim for their pleasure, some of them wore some kind of special underwear that resembled bathing suits. Those who were ashamed would move away to remote corners along the river and slip naked into the river from among the thick willow (horva) trees on the river's banks.

The gentile women enjoyed bleaching linen fabrics day and night by soaking them in the river for a long time, laying the cloth on the banks of the river to dry in the sun and rewetting in the river. Women and girls, residents of the town, would go down to launder in the waters of the river.

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In winter we used to skate on the thick ice that covered the surface of the river. We used to concentrate in special plots from which the snow was cleared and they were prepared for skating. The river water was pumped for drinking both in summer and winter. In the winter they would make holes in the ice (polonka). At the end of the winter, the Stepan community, with the help of hired gentiles, used to collect blocks of ice from the frozen river waters and store them in a deep pit on a nearby river downstream, near the house of the late Levi the “Smoller”. The pit was covered with a low small roof with multiple layers of straw to preserve the ice during the summer and preventing its melting. The ice was used for healing needs of the entire community and even to the gentiles of the town.

Down the river, near the street of the synagogues, was the bathhouse, which took its water from the river, and the river received the sewage water of the bathhouse. The bathhouse was a rather shabby and neglected structure in both its exterior and interior appearance. Its exterior walls were made of red burnt limestone and the roof was made of dilapidated rusted tin. It contained a system of pipes and boilers, a room with a heating stove that was fired by wood, a room with taps for cold and hot water, mikveh and a nearby room with high stairs and a sweating room (a shvitz baad). On Thursdays and Fridays, the Jews of the town, especially the old people, accompanied by their sons and grandchildren, used to dip in the mikveh, bathe in the bathhouse and grab “a shvitz baad”. We, the boys, used to compete who would manage to last and reach the highest level of “a shvitz baad”. To ease breathing and refresh ourselves, we used to splash cold water with a special wooden bucket and beat with a special twig broom. As far as I remember, the bathhouse was provided free of charge, and it was maintained by the entire community, Reb Herschel Der Baader operated it with the help of his family members, probably for a fee from the community.

The Klenikes family branch of Stepan composed the well-known orchestra group: Reb Pleiah with the bass, Moshe with the fiddle - the violinist, Herschel with the violin or the trumpet and there were also drummers among them. They would entertain the guests with their Jewish tunes at Jewish weddings and were also invited to gentile weddings. The chuppahs were usually arranged under a tarpaulin in the synagogues square, accompanied by most of the townspeople and of course the orchestra. Some of the Jewish folk musicians served also as violin and trumpet teachers for the youth of those who had the financial means. At the end of the chuppah, a generous feast was usually held at the home of the bride's parents, to which most of the townspeople were invited and, of course, all the poor of the town were given the opportunity to enjoy generous hospitality and a special feast for the poor.

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The market – the fare

The selling of the produce by the villagers and purchase from the peddlers, grocers and artisans was carried out in the market. There were no fixed prices for the agricultural produce and the prices were set according to the demand at the same fare. If the demand was high, they would raise their produce prices immediately and if the demand was weakening, they would settle for discounted prices. Also, the power of persuasion was of great value and a continuous and frequent buyer, who acquired the trust of the villager, would receive his produce at a price that was sometimes lower than that accepted in the market. Many of the rural and suburban villagers of the town had reliable persons among Stepan's Jewish merchants and craftsmen and these were faithful to their Jewish friends, advised them in times of need and poured out their hearts to them. But in the disaster that befell Stepan's Jews, these acquaintances were estranged from their Jewish friends, abused the trust placed in them and in most cases, betrayed their Jewish friends. Most of them were looking forward to the moment when they could inherit the property of the Jews who were eliminated.

The view of the market in the market square in Stepan. In the background is the Pravoslav church.

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they received from the sale of the produce. The villagers would return to their homes drunk. The fairs were in part an important source of income for the merchants and artisans of the town because it was a day with a decent income.

A wedding was not only the matter of the two families, but almost the whole town shared in the joy. In rare cases there was “a stila chuppah” - marriage of a widower or marriage when one of the parties was not satisfied with the match.

The elders of the community and its dignitaries wore traditional clothes, the men usually wore dark fabric and woolen pants, gray kapote for the weekdays and dark and bright-shiny kapote for holidays and Shabbat.

Most of the town's Jews wore unusual headdresses which were adapted to the different periods of the year. The women wore long dresses, usually with headscarves. The women's holiday clothes were, of course, different from the everyday clothes, being more multicolored and the types of fabrics were more expensive.

The middle generation and young people wore more modern clothes than the fashion accepted at that time in the cities and towns of Poland. And indeed, there were a selection of tailors and seamstresses in Stepan who were very professional and sewed according to journals accepted at the time. Those with the financial means could afford themselves to sew suits and dresses from fine pieces of wool that could be purchased in the fabric shops in the town. At the same time, it was possible to find a selection of fashionable shoes in the shops in the town as well.

Almost every family took care arranging holiday clothes and new shoes for his family members and children, especially before the holiday, as well as a suitable coat for the winter days.

Compared to the clothing of most of the Jews of the town, the villagers of the town and the surrounding area were dressed as follows: the villager wore a linen shirt and pants, roughly sewn, which were prepared by his wife. The Jewish and the gentile women wore dresses and cotton shirts with colorful embroidery, a work of art. The shoes were worn only in winter. In the summer they walked barefoot, in the winter they wrapped their legs in diapers and wore pastales - sandals made of strips of tree bark and attached to the feet with strong leather laces dipped in tar to make them soft and flexible. In the summer days they wore various round hats with a glittering lacquer-coated forehead or casket hats

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from a coarse cloth. In the winter, they wore warm sheepskin hats with extra fur on the sides to cover the ears and the nape of the neck, and there were also cylindrical hats made of sheep's wool, known in the language of the gentiles as “kutzme”. The men wore vests and pants with cotton linings and long coats lined with sheep's fur and they wore boots larger than the size of the feet, because they wrapped bags called “onices” and straw around the feet in order to protect the feet from the intense cold.

The clocks were really expensive and many guessed the time according to the position of the sun. Most homes had wall clocks built into cabinets. There were only a few wristwatches. The wealthy and the dignitaries had pocket watches that were given as a wedding gift and were stuck in the front pocket on a long chain dangling from the pocket. The women often wore earrings, some women wore gold watches on a gold chain. Most of the women had jewels that were kept guarded and in times of need they were secretly used as collateral along with gold coins in the value of five rubles.

The water was supplied from wells with each house collecting it in wooden barrels or in a tin for regular consumption. To fill the barrels, they would be assisted by the gentile women who would carry the water buckets on their shoulders in yoke (Koromyslo). The houses had cooking stoves, baking ovens and heating ovens, all of them were built of mud bricks or granite stone with great skill. In a small house the tenants were content with only one oven, while in the houses of large families there were two or three ovens. Most of the housewives would bake bread once a week, usually on Sunday. They kneaded the dough with clenched hands inside the special bowl for this and then created the shape, put the dough on a board covered with a thin layer of bran and sprinkle cumin or poppy on the surface of the bread. The bread was usually enough for a week.

On Fridays, they usually baked challahs and cakes for Shabbat. As early as late at Thursday night, they would turn on the fire in the baking oven so that it would heat up to the required level and they would prepare challahs, cakes, bagels and other types of pastry, including delicious pita bread called papalikes, which are very popular among the children. On Fridays, the children would take hot paplik or hot fritters, dip them in milk and eat with a hearty appetite. The houses were lit with candles and oil lamps and a large part of the Jewish houses were lit with electricity supplied from the power station of the Tachor family.

There were dairy foods, ladishkes, made with cream that they used to fill on Tuesday or Wednesday and then use them for the third meal. There was a creamy and delicious layer on top and leben (sour milk) on the bottom. The cream was spread on the challah and the dish remained the

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“Zoyer Milch”. The poor would enjoy thick bread on the crust of which fresh and spicy garlic would be spread. The smell of garlic wafted from afar but did not bother anyone. Salted fish was considered a delicacy and especially with the addition of potatoes boiled in their skins.

For lunch there was soup with hirsh (millet) - grits with bones - or beetroot and cabbage borscht. For Shabbat there were fish and meat dishes also for the poor, challah and cakes. For Friday noon there was Russell-Fleisch - cooked meat with beans and garlic dipped in challah.

Shabbat and holiday meals: fish, chopped liver, tsibeles mit eyer und shmaltz as starters, followed by cholent containing potatoes and grits called kotie, kishke filled with flour and grits, flakes of meat and fat as well as chicken and beef, noodle pies with raisins and tzimmes of spiced carrot and plum and cherry compote as a dessert.

Both the poor and the rich were strict about the festive meals on Shabbats and holidays. The difference was that the quality of the types of meat or the drinks and fruits were different.

Before Passover special preparations in the town were noticeable. Immediately after Purim, the parents made sure to buy new shoes and, in many cases, new suits were even ordered for Pesach and at the very least new hats. Near the holidays, the Pesach dishes were brought down from the attic, washed in boiling water and placed in clean cupboards lined with shiny new papers. In front of every house there was dish immersion – every housewife made sure to heat stones in front of her house and to properly immerse her dishes in the boiling water in preparation for Pesach. The act of preparing the matzah and baking it was a special operation. Each family took care in advance to purchase fine wheat for themselves and under the supervision of family members, it was taken to one of the flour mills that were kosher especially for Pesach. This sometimes involved standing in line for a long time, and family members often spent half a day to a day supervising and personally assisting in kneading the dough and preparing the matzah using the primitive machines, baking them in an oven heated by burning wood. The matzahs were stored in a special box for this purpose, and in any case, the quantities that were prepared were sufficient for use for a long period even after Pesach, in order to ensure a sufficient supply for the holiday. In the winter, many housewives made sure to prepare goose fat with griben kosher for Pesach, as well as a homemade wine made from raisins for the holiday. Very often, stocks of fine potatoes, beets, eggs, meat, poultry and everything needed for the holiday was prepared ahead.

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Public activity and aid institutions

It is clear that as part of the preparations for the holiday, the town's residents who were with means remembered the poor and donated to Kamcha Depascha Factories, helped the needy as they did before the other holidays by providing loans from the Gmilut Chassadim Fund, or by signing them on “giving charity in secret” deeds. There were always righteous women who, at their initiative, would go from house to house and collect on Shabbat evenings challahs for the needy, clothes for the winter, charity for the dowry of a bride, donations for preparing firewood for the winter. In severe winters, the youth would spontaneously organize themselves and pass between the town's houses with a horse-drawn cart to collect firewood from those who had a stock of firewood and deliver it to the needy. As was customary in every town, there was a Chevra Kadisha in our town as well - those who were engaged in this work considered it as a great honor. The committee and the public activists did their work voluntarily, of course, except for the gravedigger who performed his work with a small fee that was barely enough to support his family. Yosel the gravedigger, who also perished in the massacre is well remembered.

The center of community life and spiritual activity of Stepan's Judaism was concentrated on “Shkolna” Street, the synagogues street. In this street, as the name explains, the synagogues were concentrated. On this street, near the synagogue, lived the rabbis of the town, the dayanim, the shochets, the “Tarbut” school. Here they held celebrations, chuppahs, funerals, processions and often even debates between political parties. In this vicinity were the bathhouse, the poorhouse and the poultry slaughterhouse. In the evenings of the Days of Awe, an atmosphere of reverence and anxiety prevailed in the town. Most of the town's Jews, who were dressed festively, came to the synagogues from all parts of the city with their children accompanying them. The surrounding rural Jews stood out accompanied by their boys who also came to pray and spend the Days of Awe with their relatives or friends in the town. They were a little different in their dress and customs and for some reason were considered inferior “Dorfs - Jungen”. During the Days of Awe were seen in the synagogues also Jews who would otherwise have avoided coming to it. In the ladies' section there were women, most of them wearing foreign wigs, who were praying without many of them even understanding what the prayer meant. Among them were women who were more knowledgeable about the prayers in the original language and in Ivry Teitsch (Yiddish written in Hebrew letters) and, in advance, these women would inform about an important prayer and then the women would bitterly cry and utter heartbreaking sighs.

On the eve of Yom Kippur, the act of collecting donations in bowls began. The activities of the communal public institutions in the town were based on volunteering, except for the Shamash and the gravedigger, who would receive a small fee from the public fund for their activities. The collection of funds for public institutions on the eve of Yom Kippur was made by donations using the bowl method. Every Jew paid his debt to the public and its institutions. Large bowls would be displayed on a long table in the polish before entering the prayer halls. Each bowl was marked in handwriting, clearly stating its purpose. Next to each bowl sat the gabbaim or the officials on behalf of the institution that the bowl belonged to. Everyone was obliged to contribute according to their ability to the big bowl, that belonged to the gabbai of the synagogue. The funds that were collected were used

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to cover the expenses of maintaining the synagogues, for cleaning, furniture, repairs, heating, and more. After the obligatory main donation, the donors went through the rest of the bowls and donated according to their ability. The purposes of the rest of the bowls were varied: mikveh, gmilut chassadim, maintaining the poorhouse, and there was also a bowl for the Jewish National Fund.

I remember two churches close to the center of the the town and one or two more outside the town - in the suburbs. The external shape of the churches was a stone structure rising to the height, followed by a tin dome painted green, the bases of the domes were wide and pointed at the top, a cross made of gold was fixed at the top of the dome. Inside the domes were the bell chambers where heavy copper bells hang. The bells were used to call the crowd of believers on holidays, and to alert during fires or any disasters. On the roads, there were crosses with icons - pictures of Jesus and Maria that were used by the crowd of believers to kneel and pray on their way to or from the town.

There was also a Catholic church that resembled the Pravoslav church, except for the color of the dome, which was reddish brown, and besides being more conical and sharper. The sound of its bells was less loud. Smells of perfumes emanated from the churches and they were surrounded by grass and ornamental trees for the most part. There was also a Ukrainian cultural house - the Prosvita, where the Ukrainian intelligentsia used to meet for cultural activities. There were rumors that there were anti-Semitic and nationalist incitements there. At both ends of the town there were also the two primary schools built of burnt stone, which had large courtyards. Next to the city council was a nice fire station, opposite to it was the courthouse and on the same street was the police station with a detention room. There were two hotels in the town owned by Jews. The town had three flour mills powered by steam engines and driven by wood, all owned by Jews. One of the mills was also used as a power station that barely provided light to most of the town's houses that were connected to the electricity grid.

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The place of my birth, my dear town, you appear before me in all your happiness and joy, with all the goodwill and friendbetween one and another, and with all the will to help one another. I am sad to say that there quickly came a horrible, bloodthirsty time when an animalistic attack destroyed all that was precious in the blink of an eye. May the name of our enemies be destroyed, those wild animals descended from Amalek.

I am my parents eldest daughter. My name is Ethel, born in Stepan. After I got married, we lived in Rafalovka. With the help of G-d, we were fortunate and I was saved from the claws of the Nazi war. My parents were Aharon Mordechai and Hennia Shimshak. My sister Tzippah and her husband Pesach had 3 daughters, Beila, Rachel and Rivkah. Her husband, Pesach Plotnick, was a genius in Torah and with the help of my parents was able to devote himself totally to learning Torah. He brought joy to my parents and the whole family. All of them perished in the Holocaust. Also, my brother, Dovid, his wife, Channah, and daughters, Beila and Sarah, and their son, Avraham Altral, perished.

My parents and my brother were very capable people and in their financial lives they were very successful. They produced oil (Alearneal ?) and they always helped others. As I remember in their house, normally Motzei Shabbat, the big shots, shochets, and the Rav gathered for a Melava Malcah of song and dance. My mother always attempted to host all the important guests in an appropriate way. And I remember a special incident when they were burning coals, on top of which was a special warmer (samovar – Russian coffeepot). After a while the samovar melted because my mother never put water into it. After the moment of disappointment, everyone continued with the joy as if nothing happened and the guests enjoyed the other goodies and niceties of the party.

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