Valkininkai, Lithuania

Olkeniki in Flames;
A Memorial Book to the
Community of Olkenik in the Vilna District
(Valkininkai, Lithuania)
54°21' / 24°50'

Translation of
Ha-ayara be-lehavot; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Olkenik pelekh Vilna

Editor: Shlomo Farber

Published in Tel Aviv 1962

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Ernest G. Fine

Our thanks to Sondra Ettlinger for extracting the pictures
from the original book, enabling their addition to the project.

This is a translation from: Ha-ayara be-lehavot; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Olkenik pelekh Vilna
(Olkeniki in flames; a memorial book to the community of Olkenik in the Vilna district),
Editor: Shlomo Farber, Tel Aviv 1962, Association of Former Residents of Olkeniki and Surroundings (H, Y 287 pages)

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Hebrew TOC translated by Sara Mages
Yiddish TOC translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund

The Hebrew Section
Editorial		7
Map of Olkeniki and the surrounding area		7
Words to be Said at the Memorial Ceremony	S. P-R	9
Introduction	S. P.	10

Chapters in History
The Origin of the Name Olkeniki	S.P-R	13
The Town and its Daughters	S. P-R	19
Olkeniki From the Beginning of the Century Until the Holocaust	S.P-R	21
Paths (Poem)	Avraham Menachemi	32
Institutions, Organizations, Societies and Personalities		33
Public Institutions	S.P-R	39
Institutions for Torah Study	K.P-R	40
Community Elections in 1921		41

The Town, its Landscape and Stories of the Cultural Pattern
Topography, Landscape, Transportation, Residents' Businesses	S.P-R	45
Chapters of the Way of Life of the Previous Generation	S.P-R	52
“Hadarim”^[1] in the Town	Shlomo Karpowich	54
R' Zelig the Melamed and His Heder^[1]	S.P-R	55
Gas Installation in the House of Study^[2]	Sh. P.	56
My Birthplace Olkeniki	Yakov Agami	57
Aliya to Israel	Zahava Menachmi Tanel	57
Matzos' Baking (From Mina Bank-Goldberg)	Sh. P.	58
The Bus Appears in the Town	Y. M-N	60
The Fire in the Town; Delay in Reading in Olkeniki	Sh. P.	60
The Weddings of the Yeshiva Members; The City is my Small Temple	K. P-R	62

The Old Synagogue
A Fire {Poem}	Avraham Farber	67
The Old Synagogue	Shlomo Farber	68

Personalities, Houses, Images
The “Chazon Ish” in the Olkeniki Forests (Poem, translated by N. Ginaton))	Ch. Grade	87
Rabbi Shmuel, the Son of Rabbi Chaim, Rabbi Yaakov Ben Shmariahu HaCohen Levin, The Rabbi's House, The Last Rabbi of Olkeniki	K. P-R	88
Bnei Torah in the Last Generation	S. P-R	89
Reb Avraham Mende (Greenzweig)	S. P-R	91
Rabbis and Yeshiva Members (Bnei Yeshiva)	S. P-R	94
The Gaon Rav, Rabbi Avraham Mendel Greenzweig	K. P-R	95
Rabbi Tobi Rothberg. May God Avenge Him	HaRav Zalman Rotberg
Long-Established Families in the Town	Emma Dvortzen Farber	96
The First to Immigrate to the Land of Israel	S.P-R	97
My Family House	Simcha Polachek	99
A Home That was Ruined	Yosef Karpovitz	99
A House in the Town	S. P-R	100
Three Families	Chaim Z-Ki	102
A Mother in the Town	S. P-R	104
A Pioneer; In Memory of a Friend	Yosef K-Vitz	104
One of the Activists; The Greengrocer	K. P-R	106
The Town in Recent Generations	K. P-R	106
The Folklore of the Town	S. P-R	106
A Legendary Man	Zehava Tanal Menachemi	107
The Power of a Handshake	Yosef Karpovitz	107
The “Parbelistan” (cheap woman)	Binyamin Farber, may God avenge him	108
Napoleon and the Bookseller	Balon	108

The Holocaust
The Arrival of the Holocaust	YYosef Meltzman	111
The Imprisonment of the First Five	S. P-R	117
Trader and Dealing with Public Affairs Lazer Worman, May God Avenge Him	S. P-R	119
My Best Friend Binyamin Farber, May God Avenge Him	Haim Z-Ki	120
To the Young (Poem)	Binyamin Farber, May the Lord Avenge His Blood	120
From the Strait	K. P-R	121
From Bad to Worse (told by David Rybeck)	S. P-Bar	128
From the Brink of Doom to the Land of Resurrection	Chaim Beit Yosef - Zubiski	131
In the Forests Among the Partisans and in Siberia (photos)		152
The Survivors of the Atrocities (Recorded from Avraham Taiken)	S. P-R	153
Remnants of Holocaust Survivors Living in the Land of Israel (photos)		157
With the Coming of the Holocaust	Rabbi Kalman Farber	158
Days of Horror (told by Meir Kinbrom)	K. P-R	194
Meetings with the Townspeople in the Soviet army	Y. M-Man	195
These are Your Sons, Olkeniki	K.P-R	197
The Two Sisters	K. P-R	200
The Memorial Candle	K. P-R	202
On the Ponary Hills	K. P-R (translated by S.P-R)	203
And These are the Names of the Townspeople who Survived the Holocaust		206
Important Dates in the Life of the Town	S.P-R	206
Closure of the Book	S. P-R	208

The Yiddish Section
From the Editor		212

*The Shtetl* Until the Holocaust**
The History of Olkeniki [Valkininkai]	Sh. P–R	215
Olkeniki, a Shtetl of Legends	Cheikl Lunski	215
Olkeniker Youth (poem)	Chaim Grade	221
On the Way to Eretz Yisroel (photographs)		223
Wedding of the Rabbi's Daughter (poem)	Chaim Grade	224
The Old Synagogue	Shlomo Farber	225
The Legend of the Philantrophist, Reb Yosef	Kh. L-Ki	228
The Old Synagogue at the Merczanke [Merkys] River (poem)	Chaim Grade	229
A Family in Olkeniki	Ruchl Sarduf-Dvortsan	233

Pain and Sorrow
The Death of Olkenik	Layzer Shtrof	237
Where a Day, Where a Night	Miriam Ben-Shamas-Ribak	238
From School into the Red Army	Khonan Berenshtein	241
In the Storm (Told by Berl Lipszic) Recorded by Khaver-Paver	N. Einbinder	243
How I Survived (Told by Levi Lipszic)	Recorded by Khaver-Paver	256
On the Mountain of Ponar	Kalman Farber	259
A Memorial Candle	K. F-R	262

Remembrance
Graves of Parents and Children		265
Pictures of the Martyrs		266
The Names of the Martyrs		279
At the Close of the Book	Sh. F. – R	287
Errata		288

The English Section
In Conclusion		289
A Short History of Olkeniki	Shlomo Faber	290
Editor's Foreword		291

List of Photographs from the Memorial Section
List of Names Extracted From the Memorial Section

Footnotes Heder - an elementary Jewish School in which children are taught to read the Torah and other books in Hebrew. Return Beit Hamidrash – house of study. Return

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