[Page 580]

I went to Vilna immediately after the outbreak of the German-Polish war with the goal of making aliya from there. I lived in Vilna for two years but did not succeed in accomplishing my heart's desire. I decided to return home after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. I wanted to be together with my family during the time of trouble. From afar I saw Volozhin in flames. I found many Volozhiners near Mount Bialik escaping the flames. I went to our house. Many Germans were walking about the streets. They did not stop me, and they let me go.

The Germans sent us to different sorts of hard labor. I worked as the steam engine stoker at the Rapoport grist mill. I became friends there with the chief machinist Kadirko. Polish policemen with Gestapo men entered the mill one day, gathered all the Jewish workers, and told them that they were being taken to a general meeting. I continued working because Kadirko was suborn, and said that if they take me, he would be forced to stop the mill. This reason convinced the Gestapo men, and they let me work. However, my heart was not quiet. I felt that something was being plotted against us. I returned to the ghetto in the afternoon and saw that many Jews had been concentrated in one place. They were waiting impatiently for the “speaker.” I understood that this was not going to be a lecture, so I left the line and returned to work.
I decided to at least save the Jews who were involved in paving the road to the village of Kapustino. My brother Nachum was among them (useful people were exempt from listening to the “lecture”). I warned them to not return to the ghetto. My brother and I immediately set out on a journey, and reached the village of Solony. At night, we entered a building where they were drying flax. We were chased out of there. Having no choice, we returned to Volozhin.

When we returned, we heard that an aktion had taken place. After that life returned to its “normal” order. The Jews continued to work, and I returned to work at the mill. After some time, they took about 100 Jews to work in the forest near Bielokorets. My brother Nachum and I were among them. We lived in a shack in the woods. Yoda, previously the police commander in Yatskovo, was now the forest works supervisor.

In the woods we met Soviet prisoners of war. They conveyed wood logs to the sawmills in Volozhin. Once they told us that in the near future “flowers” would grow in the forest. (That was a euphemism for partisans.) They suddenly disappeared, and after some time they appeared anew. This time they were armed. They suggested that we join them. We refused their proposition, for it was difficult for us to leave our families in the ghetto. They did not insist. Thus, I continued my work in the forest until the second slaughter, which took place on 23 Iyar 5702 (May 10, 1942).

On my way to Volozhin one day before the slaughter, I stopped in the village of Kapustino to take a bottle

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of milk from there. I encountered a gentile from the area of Volozhin. He told me that partisans killed three Germans on their way to Horod'ki railway station. He advised me to not return to the ghetto, for the police were blaming the Jews for the act of murder. I did not heed him, and I continued on my way. There was an astonishing calm in the city. Lone Gestapo men were seen on the streets. The Jews walked about in the ghetto and outside of it without being disturbed. Nobody stopped them or paid attention to them. The Judenrat was ordered to prepare three garlands. Gestapo men calmed the Jewish representatives telling them not to fear, because Jews were not suspected in killing the three Wehrmacht soldier. The Jews sensed there was no truth in their calming words, because they saw clearly that something very serious was about to happen. Shneur Kivilevich sat with the Jewish policemen in the Judenrat office until late in the night. He returned home at 2:00 a.m. after they did not find any sign of anything to arouse concern.

Miriam Weisbord knocked on our window at 4:00 a.m. She said: “Get up quickly, something not good is happening in the ghetto!” We immediately jumped out of bed and got dressed. We heard shooting. The Germans approached our house and broke our neighbor's door. Kopel and I exited through the back door and turned toward our garden where there was a secret door through which we smuggled food into the ghetto. We crossed the bridge on Pilsudski Street. A German armed with a machine gun stood on the bridge. When the German bent down to light his pipe, I escaped in the direction of Novogrudski Street (it was called Ponizha). I heard a voice from afar. I stopped. Kopel reached me after a brief time. He was injured. The German who was guarding the bridge shot him in his shoulder. We walked together and reached the Islach River. The waves had brought a boat to the shore. We entered it and crossed the river.

We reached a forest near Bielokorets, and met Jews from Olshan who had escaped from the Volozhin Ghetto. The conditions in the forest were very serious. Having no choice, I returned to Volozhin. From there, I was taken to work in Krasno. Later, I reached the Oshmiany Ghetto together with Yehuda Yosef Potashnik.

There were Jewish police officers from the Vilna Ghetto in the Oshmiany Ghetto. I contacted them and made a proposal to set up a self-defence in the ghetto. One of them, a man of the underground, promised to send me weapons. We would stand up for our lives when they come to liquidate the ghetto.

News arrived that they would soon be transferring the Jews of the Oshmiany Ghetto to a labor camp near Vilna. The Judenrat appointed Ganz, the head of the Jewish police in Vilna, asking him to clarify whether the news was true, that indeed they were going to liquidate the Oshmiany Ghetto. Ganz hurried and went immediately to Oshmiany. He gathered the Jews and calmed them that all the rumors of the liquidation of the ghetto were baseless. Every attempt of escape to the forest and joining the partisans endangered the existence of the Jews in the Oshmiany Ghetto.

Many among us had already had experience with such assurances and did not believe Ganz' promises. In the ghetto, a group of Jewish doctors, nurses, and police officers were preparing to go out

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to the forest. Kopel and I joined that group. We contacted the partisans who were operating in the area. They told us that they were prepared to accept us on the condition that we bring a portable infirmary with us. We sent emissaries to Vilna who brought back all the necessary medical equipment
Prior to the liquidation of the ghetto, a German captain came to the carpentry shop where I worked and said that he had to tell me something. He got to the point immediately and told me, “I know that a group of Jews is about to go to the forest. I have decided to keep a Jewish brother and sister alive. Take them with you. If not, I will be forced to kill them. Since I know that the partisans do not accept people with empty hands, I will give them two rifles and two grenades.” The German kept his promise, and the brother and sister joined us.

We decided to prepare to take out the medication and surgical equipment. We had to go to the Sol railway station. We decided to send the medication to the town of Barun. We planned to place down the weapons on the way, and to disappear into the forest. This plan seemed to be practical, because the Germans appointed members of our group as caravan accompaniers. Thanks to this, the medication reached its destination successfully. However, we could not disappear with the weapons, because the camp director appeared suddenly. We reached the Sol railway station. A German approached me and asked, “What does the luggage contain?” I told him that it cannot be sent, and the package should be returned to the Oshmiany Ghetto.

We returned to the ghetto with the package of weapons. At night we made the decision to go to the forest, be what may. We went to Barun, and from there to Bukotovo near Vishnievo. There, we met scouts of the partisan brigades, who received us nicely. In time, Jews from other partisan groups joined us. I met Hessel Perski and Eliezer Rogovin.

Our first assignment was to obtain weapons. We found out that in Baksht, one could obtain weapons from the gentiles in exchange for tobacco and salt. We went there, and we indeed obtained some weapons. In Bakst, we made contact with the Staritzki Otriad. Eliezer Rogovin served in that camp as the commander of a group of miners. I also found there Mottel Malot, Yosef Girkes, and other Jews from Volozhin. After some time, we amassed a significant stockpile of weapons. We went through difficult training, and set out for actions. I was appointed as a scout thanks to my expertise in battle. Our field of operation was in the region of Volozhin. I made contact with a gentile from Volozhin who helped me enter the city to see if there were any Jews left.

I visited Volozhin in the year 5703 (1943). I found the Weisbord family, Eli the Locksmith, his son Hatzkel, and his daughter Rashel. The sisters Rivka (Ipta), and Rachel Perski lived with them. There was also a Jewish smith who had a smithy in Aroptzu. I asked them to come to the forest with me, for they had no hope in surviving. They refused my request. I went to Volozhin several times, and continued to urge them to come to the forest. Finally, when I succeeded in convincing them and promised to take them to the forest – there was already nobody to take. I was told that they were taken to Vileyka. That was the final liquidation of the Volozhin Ghetto.

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During one of the patrols in the area of Volozhin, I received an order from the commander to help a group of partisans destroy a German camp in Shapoval. I was injured in my leg during that battle. They brought me to a camp in the forest, and then they flew me to a hospital in Homel.

When I recovered, I was sent to the draft division of Homel. From there, I was transferred to the central command of the partisans in the village of Shevroki (near Homel). In that village, I met Eliezer Rogovin, who had been seriously wounded in one of the battles.

When Volozhin was liberated, I returned there from Shevroki. There, I encountered the survivors from our city: Pnina Potashnik, Yehuda Yosef Potashnik, Shayke Lavit with his brother-in-law, Leibe Lavit, the Skliot brothers, Leibke Liberman, Mariashe Kagan (Zukerkopf) with her husband, Areh and Zelig Rogovin, Mottel Malot, Zelig Meltser, Tsofen with his wife, Mendel Goldshmid with his wife, Shmuel Perski, and Mintzer with his wife (in his time, he was in the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz in Volozhin, and worked as a mechanic for Polak).

After working for several months at the grist mill in Pershay (twelve kilometers south from Volozhin) I was sent to Ivianiets. Kopel worked there at the draft office. I was appointed as a director at the flourmill in Rubyazavich. After some time, Koppel and I moved to Poland together. Finally, I made aliya from Germany to the land of Israel in 5707 (1947).

Note by M. Porat:

Yankele Kagan was member in the Irgun Tzvai Leumi the rightist underground organization commanded by Menachem Begin. He was seriously wounded preparing ammunition in the Irgun's undercover laboratory. Yankele the partisan lost an eye and burnt his face. The scar was with him all his life. In Israel he was happily welcomed by the Tel Aviv Volozhiners especially by Bela Saliternik (Kramnik). She arranged his marriage to Rivka, a girl who survived the Shoah in Poland. The wedding ceremony was led by Rabbi Langbord the last Volozhin town Rabbi. Bela told me that for Yankele Kagan's marriage she baked 10 (ten) cakes. He was very active at the committee of the Organization of Volozhin Natives. Yakov Kagan passed away after Rivka was deceased, leaving a daughter with grand children in Ness Tziona in 1998.

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I will tell about the death of Nissan Perski in these few lines. Seemingly, what is the reason to tell about the death of an individual when the entire community of Volozhin was destroyed. However, this death was one of a kind.

I escaped with my family to Horodok one day before the entry of the Germans. We could not continue our escape because the Germans ruled over the entire area. I was imprisoned in the Horodok Ghetto. After time, they took about fifty lads from there, I among them, and transferred us to Molodeczno. The work was very difficult and backbreaking. When the situation became unbearable, and I realized I could not continue to hold out any longer in that torture camp, I escaped from there with three other Jews. To our good fortune, we did not meet a Polish or German police officer along the way. We entered an isolated house in a grove. The gentile who lived there treated us mercifully and showed us the way to the partisans.

We walked on foot to the village of Rudki on the Islach River. There, we met two Jews from the Krasno Ghetto. The villagers related to us in a humane fashion and employed us with different jobs. At first, the partisans refused to accept us because rumors were spreading that the Jew were involved in spying for the Germans. However, after much urging, they agreed to accept us to their unit.

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Even after we were accepted, the partisans warned us that if any trace of duplicity would be found among us, our blood would be upon us. After a week, we were commanded to obtain arms and to be prepared for action.

On one of the actions of bombing a train, we found out that Nissan Perski was hiding in an isolated house next to the city of Rakow. After the successful execution of the action, I took bread, salt and butter with me. I went out with my unit late at night to save Nissan. I reached the hiding place and knocked on the window. Since I spoke Yiddish, the door opened, and I entered. When I entered, a man was groaning under the oven. This was Nissan. He was downtrodden, and his entire body was trembling. I told him that I had come to save him. He should come with me to the forest, join the partisans, and remain alive. However, he asked me to leave him, since he had become accustomed to the place and decided to remain there until the salvation would come. He regarded this house as a protection from tribulations. I did not succeed in convincing Nissan to join me, so I left full of worry and fear for his life. About a half a year later, I found out that the Germans set the house on fire and Nissan Perski went up in flames.

I was one of the survivors of the third slaughter. I was taken to work the Krasno camp. They made me work at the building of bunks and in porterage at the railway station. After some time, they transferred me to work in the sawmill. Tovia Slyowski, Yehuda Yosef Pucznik, Yaakov Kagan, Eli Yaakov Rogovin, Leizer Nul from Horodok, and a barber from Vishnyeva worked there.

On the Sabbath of Elul 9, 5702 (August 22, 1942), we found out that the Germans were planning to liquidate the Krasno Ghetto and the labor camp, and to take out all the Jews to be killed. We decided to escape from the camp beforehand. The escape was fraught with great difficulties. We crawled among the heaps of lumber that were in the sawmill. We climbed from heap to heap until we approached the road. We crossed it quickly and entered the grove.

We removed our Magen David [patches] and set out for the forests of Horodok. We sat down to rest in the forest. Suddenly, we heard Yiddish being spoken. We saw before us a group of Jews who had fled from the Krasno Ghetto and Camp, the majority from Horodok and the minority of Volozhin. Among the Volozhiners were the brothers Hershel and Moshel Skliot and the brothers Areh and Zelig Rogovin.

Our food supplies ran out. It was difficult to obtain food because the gentiles of the area were anti-Semitic. So as not to die from hunger, we carved forms of guns from branches. We threatened the gentiles with these “weapons” that if they do not give us food, their blood will be upon them. The gentiles were frightened of the sticks that resembled guns and gave us an abundance of food.

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Through the energy of this eating, we reached Pershai, (a large farm between Volozhin and Ivaniec, from where the routes between the Nlibok steppes and the forests of Volozhin cross). We could not go on the highway, for it was guarded by the Gestapo men. Therefore, we went on tortuous routes. We reached a pond that was about forty meters long. We measured the depths of the water with a stick. The beach was shallow. However, as we advanced, the water got deeper until it reached our necks. We were concerned about going further out of fear of drowning. However, Hershel Skliot urged us on, telling us that we were casting away our lives, for death was pursuing us from behind. We crossed the pond in peace.

Dawn had already broken when we arrived in Pershai. We were wary of resting there because flights were splitting the air. We went to the Volozhin forests. We saw traces of tanks, humans, horses, and dogs in the forest. Many corpses were wallowing between the trees. Yaakov Kagan and I felt the hand of one victim, and it was still warm, proving that the person had only recently been killed.

I had a friend in this area, a gentile named Yoda. I went to him and asked him to explain the killings. He told me that three days earlier, the Germans had surrounded the forests and started shooting. They conducted a search for partisans and Jews. He advised me to escape from the area. I returned to the forests and told my friends about the bitter fate about which Yoda had told me.

Hershel and Moshe Skliot, and Zelig Rogovin decided to return to the Krasno camp. This decision was like suicide. Therefore, we accompanied them with sadness and agony. Tovia Slyowski told me that he intended to go to Krewo[Kreva]. He had formerly served there as a teacher, and was much loved by the householders, especially by the rabbi of the city. He advised me to join him. I agreed. Yaakov Kagan and Yehuda Yosef Pucznik also accompanied us. We arrived in peace to the Krewo Ghetto. This was on the first night of Rosh Hashanah 5703 (September 12, 1942). Tovia and I entered the house of the rabbi. Yaakov Kagan and Yosef Pucznik went to a different house.

The rabbi lifted his eyes and was very astonished, for he could not identify me at all. He was astonished at Tovia's appearance, which had changed due to the troubles and tribulations. The rabbi invited us to eat the “festive meal” which was nothing more than “the bread of affliction.,” for the Jews were starving due to a lack of food. However, the warm reception of the rabbi satiated us. We recited the blessing on the food and lay down to sleep on the ground. The next day, we went to worship in the synagogue. We prayed with broken, trembling hearts. The Unetaneh Tokef prayer expressed the situation. We knew that we were all awaiting, “Who by fire, and who by water, who by sword, and who by beast.”

After lunch, we consulted with the rabbi about what to do. The rabbi said that Tovia could remain in his house because everyone knew him as a resident of Krewo. But I must leave, for the police was conducting searches in the houses for Jewish refugees who escaped from other camps.

The Judenrat also demanded that I leave the ghetto, for my presence endangered the lives of the Jews.

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I parted from my good friend Tovia with great agony. (He was later taken out to be killed by the partisans, with no iniquity on his side.) I went to Smargon, where they registered me in the name of someone who had been killed. After a few days, a truck arrived from the Zizmiria [Žiežmariai] camp in Lithuania to get workers. The Smargon Judenrat announced that anyone who wishes to travel to Zizmiria was permitted to do so. I decided to travel there, for my heart told me that life in a labor camp was more secure. I arrived in the evening. The camp was surrounded by a tall, barbed wire fence. The imprisoned Jews looked at me with surprise.

After a brief conversation with several of them, we walked together to the Kol Nidre service. We worshiped silently out of fear of the Gestapo. The next day, Yom Kippur, each of us was given one hundred grams of bread and coffee. They removed us from the bunks, lined us up in lines, conducted a roll call, and we were sent to work. During the work, we succeeded in making contact with the outside world. Thanks to those contacts, I remained alive.

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Note: this photo and introduction are not in the original. They were added by M. Porat:

Rachel and Reuven Rogovin - 1950

The Rogovins (the authors) were born in Volozhin, Rachel in 1906, Reuven in 1904. They married there, worked and lived there and fled the town with their two children to escape the Nazis, going to Tadzhikistan. At the end of the war the family came to Riga, and went to Israel in the early fifties. Reuven Rogovin was devoted to Volozhin. He expressed his love in many stories about the shtetl's colorful folksy types. Some of them he described and offered his articles to the Volozhin Yizkor Book. See: Reb Itshe der Balegole (coachman), Reb Chaim der Shnayder (the tailor), Reb Eyzer Der Raznoshtshik (postman) etc.

We fled Volozhin at night, four days after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The day before we packed our valuables and brought them to the cellar of our neighbor, Sholom Leib Rubinstein's. We left the town empty handed. Our son Grisha took his bicycle. Reuven left wearing slippers, because good friends persuaded him walking would be easier in slippers. After walking some kilometers on roads paved with building stones, his slippers tore, and his feet were exposed.

We felt better when we arrived at Miejiki. We saw about thirty large wagons hitched to horses. Our acquaintances with their families were in almost every wagon: all the Simernitski brothers, Berl Spektor, Avraham Molot, Chatzkel der Olshaner, Hershel Sheyniuk with his wife, and others. They were happy to see us, and asked about how things were in Volozhin, for they had left the city the day before. We told them that although it seemed quiet now, it was not a portent for the future. We asked if we could join them in order to cross the border to Russia, but Avraham Molot responded, “We are not going eastward, but rather westward. That is, we are returning to Volozhin. We escaped to here because they told us that they would bee bombing Volozhin. But if it is now quiet in the city, we are returning.” They went back to the mouth of the lion – To Volozhin, where they all perished at the hands of the Nazis.

Having no choice, we continued to walk and arrived in the city of Rakov. There we met acquaintances, who received us cordially. The mistress of the house, Chaika Rubinchik (sister of Getzl Perski), asked us to leave our children with her. She would protect them, and no harm would befall them, for the Germans are not doing any harm,

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neither to Jews nor Jewish children, but rather only to Communists and Communist collaborators… We did not rely on her “expertise” in matters of Nazi Germany, and we told her that our children would go wherever we went.

At night we arrived at border (the border as it was until 1939). There we found a large crowd. However, the border guard closed us off and did not permit us to proceed. Having no choice, we returned to Rakov. On the way we met Leibke, Meir the Slovensker's son, wearing a military coat. He told us that he brought wives of captains to the border on his wagon, with their belongings, but they disappeared in the morning and had not returned. We decided to go to Volma, fifteen kilometers away, to try to cross the border from there. However, that was also a sealed crossing. In the afternoon, we suddenly heard a shot, and saw that many people were advancing to the border crossing on wagons. Leibke hitched the horse, and we crossed the border. We reached the town of Dzherzhinsk-Yehomen. Leibke told us that he was returning to Volozhin. Our protestation that he was returning to the mouth of the lion had no effect. He left the horse and wagon for us, got up, and left. (He perished in Volozhin.) After a few days of travel, the horse's energy was depleted, and it was unable to move from its place. As we were standing there waiting from whence our help would come, a Christian lad approached us riding on a horse. Grisha offered him his bicycle in exchange for the horse, and he agreed. We hitched the new horse and quickly reached the city of Mohilev. From there, we reached the town of Mstislaw. There was a draft office there, which announced that all men up to the age of fifty were required to report for army service. I (Reuven) reported, and was sent from there to the forest. I was appointed as Politruk (guide) of the third battalion. I obtained two hours of leave to bid my family farewell. I did not know where our fate would take us. We agreed that if we survive, we should search for one other at my aunt's home in Stalinabad [Dushanbe] in Tadzhikistan. My family finally reached Stalinabad after much difficult physical suffering. Rachel set herself up with a dwelling and work, and the children were sent to school.

I went out with two other battalions, and we reached the city of Mchensk, not from Uriol. From there, I travelled to Crimea. I fought on Perekop, Simferopol, Feodosia, and Sevastopol. I was injured in my left hand in that city, and was sent to a hospital in Uzbekistan. A wounded captain was hospitalized next to me. He asked me to write a letter to his friend, Major Dyumin in Stalinabad. I asked him if he would permit me to include a letter to my aunt in the envelope. The major instructed the entire N.K.V.D. to find my aunt. They indeed found her and my family.

About two weeks after I sent my letter, I received a telegram from Dyumin that my family was healthy and whole, and they were coming to visit me. They arrived two days later. They remained with me for a week, and returned. I spent another two weeks in the hospital. After I recuperated, they gave me a six month furlough. During that time, our fifteen-year-old son volunteered for the army. He was badly wounded in 1942 in the battles near Stalingrad.

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The first of the Volozhiners to escape to the forest and join the partisans were Etele and Yosef Rogovin. (Their father was called Hershl Der Bunier). They appealed to Jews imprisoned in the ghetto to escape to the forests. I responded to their call and joined the Otriad in which Etele was the wife of the commander. I was knowledgeable in the area of Volozhin. Therefore, the commander put five partisans under my command, we went out to take down trains from the railway tracks on the Volozhin-Bogdanovo line.

We succeeded in bringing down seven wagons laden with planks for the front. Thus began my life as a partisan. My second mission also resulted in taking a train down from the rails. I arrived with my people to the vicinity of Molodchina. We planted a mine under the railway tracks about four kilometers from the city. Two wagons overflowing with German soldiers flew up in the air. The number of dead and wounded was large. I received information about that from a gentile who was among those drafted to dig a grave for the victims.

A group of Volozhin partisans and fighters From left: Mendel Volkovich, Lyuba Volkovich, Yaakov Kagan, Hessel Perski, Pnina Potashnik

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Thanks to my excellence, I was granted the rank of commander. I went out to Yurashchok near Lida with a group of partisans. We reached the Neman River, where we blew up a large bridge. Many Germans drowned in the river. The Germans worked hard for several days to repair the bridge. In the meantime, several trains were backed up, waiting for the bridge to be fixed. We “took care” of them successfully. For that deed, I received a citation of praise from the commander of the Kuznetzov-Klobaski Otriad, to which I belonged.

After these successful actions, the Otriad decided to conduct a face-to-face fight with the Germans. Our plan was to conquer the town of Horodok. It was a bloody battle. We conquered the town and held it for four hours. We lost twenty-five men during that battle.

On the way back we were ordered to destroy some buildings of a large farm near Horodok, in which Germans lived. I entered the yard with people from my unit, and we set the buildings on fire. The action was crowned with success, and we did not suffer any losses.

I went to the front and joined the artillery battalion, whose motto was “Death to the Germans!” I crossed through Poland and reached East Prussia. There, I was wounded for the first time. I recovered after a month and returned to the front. On 19 Iyar 5705 (May 2, 1945), I was wounded again, and I remained handicapped for life. I was hospitalized in the hospital in Baku. I spent three years there lying on the sickbed – most of the time unconscious. When I left the hospital, I went to the command in Minsk and received awards of excellence.

Yeshayahu Bernstein, may G-d avenge his blood

He was the son of Avraham and Rivka, born in Volozhin in the year 5680 (1920). His parents lived from the work of their hands, as did he. He was locked in the ghetto, but he sought a way to escape from it.

When the Nazis and their assistants took the Jews of Volozhin to be killed, Yeshayahu succeeded in escaping from them. However, he was caught after a few days, and brought to the Krasno Ghetto. There too, he did not sit idly. He began to amass weapons along with Tzvi Lunin, Eliezer Rogovin, and Mordechai Kaganovich. There were a great deal of weapons in the Krasno labor camp. The Germans tasked Yeshayahu and his comrades from Volozhin to sort the weapons and transport them to a specific place. They seized the opportunity, and hid weapon parts in the sand as they were working. They discussed among themselves about leaving the camp in the darkness of the night, with

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the weapons in their hands. They succeeded in escaping, and sought contact with the partisans, who refused to accept them into their Otriad and tried to take their weapons from them. However, the lads displayed fierce opposition, and did not part from their weapons. The organized an independent Otriad named for Staritski, composed entirely of Jews.

Yeshayahu was brave. One sole thought filled his heart: to take revenge from our enemies for the innocent blood that they spilled. I met him often. He was involved in ambush, planting mines on the roads that the Germans traversed, and wreaking havoc upon them. He fell during the blowing up of a bridge. There was a German post not far from the bridge, about which Yeshayahu did not know. The Germans opened fire upon him. He defended himself bravely and fired at the Germans. When he ran out of bullets, he drowned himself in the river on 11 Kislev 5704 (December 8, 1943).

Miriam Golobenchich

She was tasked with mobilizing additional partisans to the Otriad. She was sent to the Volozhin Ghetto for that purpose. When she arrived, she was caught by the Germans and forced to work at various jobs in the kitchen. There was a woman there who reported to a German that Miriam was sent to draft Jewish partisans. Miriam sat in the next room and heard the words of the woman. Since she realized what awaited her, she took a large meat cleaver and smashed the skull of the German whose ears had heard the bad report. The next day, the found the body of Miriam next to the church.

Note from M. Porat:

The Golobenchich house with their haberdashery store was located on the other side of the Minsker Street, the street where we lived. The Golobenchich girls learned in the same school in which I learned, Frumke a class lower, Mirele a class higher. Miriam Golobenchich was a real beauty and a very talented girl. She certainly was one of the most beautiful young ladies of Volozhin.

Tzvi Lunin, may G-d avenge his blood

Tzvi – Hirshle Lunin with his sisters Tsviya and Nekhama [Not in the original book but was added by M. Porat z”l]

Tzvi penetrated the town of Ivanets with a partisan unit. They conducted a bloody battle with the Germans and expelled them from the town. Once, he was sent with a group of partisans to sabotage activities in the Nalibok forest near Volozhin. The unit encountered a German ambush. A battle broke out in which all the partisans fell except for Tzvi. He defended himself with extreme bravery until

[Page 591]

the final bullet. He was seriously injured in that battle and died on 1 Adar II, 5703 (March 8, 1943).

Yosef was born in 5675 (1915) in the village of Mijeiki, where he lived until the war. He was transferred to the Krasno camp from the Volozhin Ghetto. He amassed weapons in the camp and escaped too the forest, where he was accepted to the Chkalov Brigade. To our sorrow, Yosef did not have the opportunity to earn acclaim through acts of bravery, for he was taken out to be killed after a short time, despite his innocence. This is what happened: Yosef went to the village of Mijeiki to get his personal belongings from a gentile with whom he had hidden them. The gentile reported to the commander that Yosef stole his clothes from him, and he has nothing to wear. All of Yosef's protestations that he had taken his own personal belongings were to no avail. The commander hardened his heart and refused to accept Yosef's claims. He shot him before the eyes of all the partisans.

Mordechai was born in Volozhin to Zalman and Lea in 5670 (1910). He was one of the first Volozhin partisans. He mobilized many Jews to the ranks of the partisans. He belonged to the Stalin Otriad, which was active in the Nalibok forest. He fell in battle in the village of Bialobereg near Baksht on 15 Adar I, 5703 (February 20, 1943), as he was going to conduct a mission with a group of partisans.

[Page 592]

After I received my discharge, I traveled with Rachel in 1946 to Riga, and from there we went to Volozhin. When we arrived in the city, it became clear that there was not much to see. We went to see the destroyed city. “The entire city is weeping.” Jewish Volozhin was no more. As if from itself, I recalled a stanza from Bialik's poem, “Look around, and in my heart – ruins. Ruins, my friend.” (“Starts Twinkling and Extinguishing”).

On our first day in Volozhin, our friend Roman Horbatchevki visited us. He told us everything that he had seen. Tears were in his eyes the entire time. He told us that when the large “shipment” of Jews was sent out to be murdered, he hid behind the gate and saw everyone going on their final journey. They walked silently, as if they were ignorant of where they were going. “Tell me, Mr. Rogovin, why did they accept the verdict so quietly, why did they not resist?”

I left the question without an answer, for my heart was not given over to debates of that nature. After two days, we met an old friend, the Pravoslavic priest Katovitz from the village of Lusk. He was a very cultured man who liked Jews. He did not hide his joy that we had survived and that he was privileged to see us. He invited our mutual friend the priest Salizh. At noon, the “Holy father Katovitz” repeated the question that Horbatchevki had asked me. Members of his congregation told him that in every place, Jews were going calmly to their death, and did not display any resistance. How can this be understood? They take a person to his death, and he does not resist!
This time I could not restrain myself and answered his question by asking other questions: You do not understand why the Jews did not resist? And the fact that of four million Red Army captives only 100,000 returned home, and the rest perished without resistance – that you do understand? Why did the Soviet commissars who were taken prisoner by the Nazis not display any resistance, even though they knew that they face certain death – that you do understand? Why did the 9,000 Polish captains taken to be killed in the Katyn forest not display any resistance – that you do understand?

The answer to your question, Holy Father, you can only get from the mouths of the martyrs, from the mouths of those who were taken to slaughter. It is not for us to judge their deeds. After my questions, my interlocuters sat silently without saying anything, for they realized that my agony was very great.

That conversation greatly vexed our spirits, which were already gloomy. We went to the cemetery where the remnants of our dear ones were buried. We saw the large mass grave, two meters high. They grave looked like a hill covered by weeds.

During our visit, a committee arrived to investigate the crimes of the Nazis. They opened the grave. Woe to the eyes who saw what we saw. We looked at the corpses, even though the flesh had already separated from bodies –

[Page 593]

nevertheless, we recognized several of our neighbors and friends. There are no words to describe this, therefore, it is best to not scratch such wounds, so as not to add pain to our pain, and so that we do not go crazy, Heaven forbid. Each person should go to their beds with the pain in their hearts, without adding to it. We can tell about what we saw through innuendoes, and leave the rest to imagination. In such a case, the imagination is far less frightening than the reality. No imagination has the power to describe what we and other survivors of Volozhin saw.

We visited Volozhin again prior to our aliya to Israel in 1958. We went again to see the common grave. Time had taken its toll. The teeth of time had destroyed this remnant. The communal grave had sunk, had been swallowed up, and was as if it never was. Their blood had been absorbed into the abyss of the dark grave. However, to our sorrow, it had not consumed or destroyed the institutions on the ground, and the world ran as usual. Pigs were burrowing in the grave that had taken in the remains of our dear ones, the remnants of the community of Volozhin that had existed for five hundred years; the Volozhin about which we shall lament all the days of our lives, until the end of time.

[Page 593]

Moshe Yoodl Eliyashkevitsh - 1965 [Not in the original book but was added by M. Porat z”l]

[Page 594]

I went to see what remained of the ruined town. The Yeshiva building stood in its place, however its roof was slightly damaged. No trace remained of the Beis Midrash. I did not find a synagogue in which I could pour out my soul. There was not a sign of a Hebrew letter. I went to Vilna to obtain a Siddur and Tefillin. (I guard the Book with me till now).

Some of the survivors of Volozhin Standing from right to left: a) Miriam Leviatan b) Moshe Eliaskevitch c) Dina Lechi (Feigenbaum) d) Meir Shiff e) Ethel Shiff f) g) Binyamin Klenbord h) Yosef Gelman i) Zimel Chadash j) Yona Rogovin k) The wife of Chatzkel Glik Sitting: a) Avraham Yaakov Shneider b) Pnina Pomashnik (Chayat) c) Hasel Perski d) e) Yaakov Kagan f) Dodman g) Lyuba Volokovitch h) Yechezkel Glik i) Mendel Volkovitch j) Pnina Hochman

All the days that I walked in the Volozhin streets I was in fear. I was not afraid of the Gentiles, of the local robbers and murderers, for I had been forged as a soldier during my battles with the Nazis. It was a secret fear for the holy souls of our martyrs. I wanted to see the common grave, but as I was about 100 meters away, I fainted. When I came to, I saw a gentile standing over me. He asked what I was doing there and chased me away.

[Page 595]

I was not bear any more of the heart-breaking places of atrocity. Everywhere I stepped I heard voices of crying and lamenting piercing the space. I waited and am still waiting to this day for another voice – and it will surely come. I am waiting for the voice of G-d who will avenge His enemies. I left my destroyed nest and went to my cousin in Olshin.

[Page 596]

The outbreak of the Second World war – 17 Elul, 5699 (September 1, 1939). The Germans invaded Poland at daybreak on September 1.

Britain and France declare war on Germany – 19 Elul, 5699 (September 3, 1938)

The conquest of Poland by Hitler's forces – 4 Tishrei, 5700 (September 17, 1939). The German losses in Poland included 10,572 dead, 5,029 missing, and 30,322 wounded.

The invasion of Poland by the Red Army – 5 Tishrei, 5700 (September 17, 1939). On September 18, 1939, the Soviets conquered Vilna.

The Molotov Ribbentrop agreement – 15 Tishrei, 5700 (September 28, 1939). On this date, the foreign ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union met and divided Poland between themselves. They signed the agreement that was called “The German-Soviet Border of Friendship Agreement.”

Designation of Auschwitz as a place of annihilation – 12 Adar I, 5700 (February 21, 1940). On this date, the Uberfuehrer Richard Glücks, head of the inspectorate of Concentration Camps, who toured the area of Krakow, informed Hitler that he found an “appropriate place” for the new concentration camp in Auschwitz, a remote city surrounded by marshy lands.

Churchill elected as Prime Minister – 2 Iyar, 5700 (May 10, 1940).

Mussolini declares war on the Allies – 4 Sivan, 5700 (June 10, 1940).

Auschwitz officially opened as a Concentration Camp – 8 Sivan, 5700. At first, the town of Auschwitz served as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners. However, this place quickly turned into the worst place of atrocities in the entire world. Rudolf Höss testified at the Nuremberg trial that he oversaw the deaths of 2.5 million people in Auschwitz.

Hitler issues a secret order to attack Russia – 6 Tevet, 5700 (December 18, 1940). Hitler issued a secret command that the German armed forces must be prepared to crush the Soviet Union in a quick military operation.

The flight of Rudolf Hess to Scotland – 13 Iyar, 5701 (May 10, 1941). Hess landed in Scotland alone to see the Duke of Hamilton. Hess explained to the duke that he had come on a “humanitarian mission,” that the Fuehrer does not want to vex England, and that he desires to put an end to the battles.

German invasion of Russia – 27 Sivan, 5701 (June 22, 1941).

Beginning of the “Final Solution” – 7 Av, 5701 (July 31, 1941). On this date, Göring sent a directive to Heydrich, the head of the SD [Sicherheitsdienst]: “I hereby empower you to carry out all preparations related to the total solution of the Jewish question in the areas of Europe under German influence.” Heydrich stated at a meeting of high German officials that this final solution of the Jewish problem would affect approximately eleven million Jews.^[1]

The Formulation of the Atlantic Charter – 16 Av, 5701 (August 9, 1941). On that date, Churchill and Roosevelt met in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, where they formulated the “Atlantic Charter.” Roosevelt agreed with Churchill that American warships and airplanes will patrol the western side of the Atlantic Ocean and will inform the British about any German submarines.

The Germans retreat from the approaches to Moscow – 24 Kislev, 5702 (December 14, 1941).

Heydrich, the head of the SD, dies from his wounds – 19 Sivan, 5702 (June 4, 1942). On May 29, 1942, when Heydrich was traveling in his sports car from his country villa to Prague, he was attacked by two Czechs, Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík of the free Czech Army of England, who parachuted from a R.A.F airplane. A British manufactured bomb crushed the car and crushed Heydrich's spinal cord. Heydrich died of his wounds on June 4, 1942. The Germans retaliated for this by destroying the small village of Lidice, not far from Prague.

Rommel stopped at El Agheila [Al Uqaylah] – 15 Kislev, 5703 (November 24, 1942). With this, the war turned in favour of the allies, and the Jews of the Land of Israel were saved from the Holocaust.

The German defeat in Stalingrad – 25 Shvat 5703 (January 31, 1943).

The Allied attack on Sicily – 7 Tammuz, 5703 (July 19, 1943).

The deposing of Mussolini – 22 Tammuz, 5703 (July 25, 1943). Mussolini was summoned to the palace by the king, and effectively dismissed from his position. He was transported to the police station in an ambulance as a prisoner. General Badoglio was appointed in his place.

The Allied invasion of Italy – 3 Elul, 5703 (September 3, 1943). The ceasefire between Italy and the Allies took effect on 8 Elul 5703 – September 8, 1943.

The plot against Hitler's life – 29 Tammuz, 5704 (July 20, 1944). Hitler convened a meeting somewhere in East Prussia. Colonel Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, a captain who had been seriously injured in Tunisia, smuggled a bomb into the meeting room in his briefcase. The bomb exploded. Von Stauffenberg returned to Berlin, convinced that Hitler had died. However, to our sorrow, only four Nazis

of the more than twenty that were present were killed. Hitler's left ear became deaf, his legs were injured, and his left arm was temporarily paralyzed.

The Allied invasion of Normandy – 15 Sivan, 5704 (June 6, 1944).

The Soviets enter Vilna – 22 Tammuz, 5704 (July 13, 1944).

The Soviets enter Warsaw – 3 Shvat, 5705 (January 17, 1945).

Mussolini and his mistress were taken to be killed – 13 Iyar, 5704 (April 25, 1945). On that date, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by Italian partisans as they were attempting to escape to Switzerland. On Saturday night, April 18, their bodies were brought by truck to Milan and hanged in the city square. The next day, they were hanged by their heels on lampposts, and then tossed into the sewers.

Suicide of Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun ^[2] – 18 Iyar 5705 (May 1, 1945).

The surrender of Germany and the end of the war – 24 Iyar, 5705 (May 7, 1945). In a small school in Reims, the place of Eisenhower's headquarters, Germany surrendered unconditionally on the morning of May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m. Signing the surrender for the Allies were General Walter Bedell Smith, General Ivan Susloparov for the Soviet Union, and General François Sevez in the name of France. Admiral Friedeburg and General Jodl signed in the name of Germany. The war had lasted for five years, eight months and seven days.

The Nazi war criminals ascend the gallows – 21 Tishrei, 5707 (October 16, 1946) ^[3]. Ribbentrop was first to ascend the gallows in the death cell of the Nuremberg prison. Following him were Keitel, Kaltenbrenner Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Seyss-Inquart, Sauckel, and Jodl. Göring swallowed poison vial that had been smuggled into his cell. Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, also hid a capsule of potassium cyanide that he hid in a space in his mouth. When his fate was certain, he bit the vial and was dead within twelve minutes.

Hess, Raeder, and Funk were sentenced to life imprisonment. Speer and Baldur von Schirach were sentenced to twenty years; Neurath to fifteen years, and Dönitz to ten years.

Dates of the Holocaust in Volozhin

Entrance of Germans to Volozhin – 1 Av, 5701 (July 25, 1941).

Establishment of the Ghetto – Elul 5701 (August 1941).

First slaughter – 7 Cheshvan, 5702 (October 28, 1941).

Second slaughter – 23 Iyar, 5702 (May 10, 1942).

Third slaughter – 16 Elul 5702 (August 29, 1942).

Hanging of Franz Karl Hess – 28 Shvat 5706 (January 30, 1945).

“We cannot deny that German culture hovers between two diametrically opposite worlds. It hovers between the abstract sublime world, and the world that reveres blood and power, between the heights and the depths, between godliness and Satanity. The role of each of them is great in defining and forging its image. Both of them are part of its body.

The success of Hitler and his gangs demonstrates that excellent tactics in education and guidance, including broad-ranging publicity material, both written and oral, along with means of coercion for both the classroom and the country – all within a short period of time, of ten years – can thoroughly uproot the old traits and manners, and to lead “a nation of poets and thinkers” to the service of cruelty and deeds of atrocity of which even wild beasts are incapable of. It led to a situation where they practiced and became experts in the trade of slaughter and murder of large populations at one time, and especially perfected the art of suffocating myriads upon myriads of men, women, and children -- without any feelings of conscience during or after the deeds.

There is no nation and no country that is immune from such changes and revolutions. They are not restricted to any place or time. They remain within the range of possibility, even to the extent of Hitler and his gangs. In any case, we must not become complacent with the idea that this was only the plague of a unique country in the world, and that we must not be concerned that this may be repeated in other countries of culture. This idea misleads the masses and is extremely dangerous for all generations.”

Dr. Yaakov Kletzkin, Writings, published by Ha'am Haoved, Tel Aviv, 5713 [1953], pp 40-46.

Translator's footnotes:

1. This date is two days prior to Tisha B'Av. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tisha_B%27Av where it notes that the directive was actually received two days later, on Tisha B'Av – a date known for a coincidence of Jewish tragedies over the centuries. Return
2. The word used is “mistress” although Hitler and Braun were married the night before their suicide. Return
3. The day was Hoshana Rabba in the Jewish calendar, the seventh day of the Sukkot festival, and a day associated with the final judgment of the High Holy Day period. Return

[Page 600]

Jewish Volozhin had many merits. The eyes of all Lithuanian Jewry, Russian Jewry, and Polish Jewry were raised toward it.

As we come to erect a memorial to it, we are in the category of “Here I am, poor in worthy deeds”^[1]. A heavy responsibility has fallen upon us – to ascribe greatness to those who were great in Torah, wisdom, and good deeds; and to present a faithful description of the city and its residents.

The survivors tell of the greatness of the souls of the people of our city. At nightfall toward the end of the holy Sabbath in the month of Elul 5720 [1960], the survivors of the sword gathered for the Mincha service, and upon their lips were the words “You and one and Your Name is one, and who is like Your nation of Israel, a singular nation in the world. Greatness of glory, and a crown of salvation, a day of rest and holiness You gave to Your nation.”^[2]

This time, the rest was proper under the wings of the Divine Presence. The Jews, the final ones of the community of Volozhin, had been brought to the vale of killing, with “Ani Maamim” on their lips, testifying to the unity of the Creator and His unity with Israel, in accordance with “The Holy One Blessed be he and the Community of Israel are called One” (Zohar, Emor 93).

We do dare to state that this book has provided a complete description of the material and spiritual life of Volozhin. We, the survivors of the exalted city, did everything that we could. Nevertheless, as the book draws to a close, our hearts are full of trepidation lest we have hurt ourselves, and lest we have hurt anyone. We testify on high that everything that we have done was not done for our own honor, but rather for the holy, pure memory of the dear Jews of Volozhin. May their names be magnified and sanctified^[3].

Translator's footnotes:

1. The opening words of the cantor's petition prior to Musaf on the High Holy Days: Hineni Heani Mimaas. Return
2. The opening statement of the middle blessing of the Mincha Amida for Sabbaths. Return
3. A paraphrase of the opening words of Kaddish. Return

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