Vidzy, Belarus

Widze Memorial Book
(Vidzy, Belarus)
55°24' / 26°38'

Translation of
Sefer Vidz: ayarah behayeha uve-khilayonah

Edited by: ed. Gershon Winer, Yizhak Alperovitz

Published in Tel Aviv, by the Widze Association in Israel

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Our sincere appreciation to Gershon Winer, for permission
to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

Our sincere appreciation to Genia Hollander
for typing up the English text to facilitate its addition to this project.

This is a translation of Sefer Vidz (Widze memorial book), Editors: Gershon Winer and Yizhak Alperovitz, Tel Aviv,
The Widze Association in Israel, 1997 (Y,H,E, 565 pages).

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Widze (1998) pdf available

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
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Translated by Eudice Shifra Winer

*YIDDISH SECTION*

Introduction – Gershon Winer	11
Irgun Yotzai Vidz (Widze Landsmannschaft) in Israel	16

From the Past

A Shtetl: Widze (poem) – Borukh Gelman	21
Widze – Otto Hederman	23
Widze Between the Two World Wars	27
Chapters in the History of the Jews of Widze – Yakov Permont	30
Jewish Communal Life Between the Two World Wars – Yakov Permont	40
The War Years – Yakov Permont	53
The “folks-hoyz” (cultural center) in Widze – from the Vilna Yekopo – Jewish Relief Committee 1930 Register	60

Memoirs

Memories from my Childhood – Gershon Winer	62
The Yiddish Secular School in Widze – Yakov Permont	68
The Cultural Life in Widze – Shlomo Ichiltzik	73
Widze Nicknames – Shlomo Ichiltzik	76
Widze Folklore – Shlomo Ichiltzik	79
Letters from the Widze School Committee – 1926	82
The Opening of our Club – Rivka Murmiski	82
A Life that was Obliterated – Noach Shayvl	84
A Few Memories from My Birthplace Widze – Hode Klumel	87
The Outbreak of the Second World War – A. Makhnovski (Swirsky)	92
The Soviet Regime in Widze – Noach Shayvl	95
Back to the Past – Pessye Lipovski	103
Memories from Widze – Mikhle Abramson-Grundshtein	107
The Town of my Childhood and Youth – Mikhle Abramson-Grundshteyn	112
The Evacuation to Russia – Moshe Kraut	121
My Jewish Home in Widze – Jenny Khinitsh	125
My Years of Wandering During the Second World War – Noach Shayvl	128
The Fate of My Family – Ette Makhnovski (Swirsky)	139

Personalities and Figures

Reb Dovid'l of Vidz	142
Harav Aryeh Leib Rubin	143
Harav Yosef Kahanman	143
Yisrael Aharoni (Aharonovitz)	145
Dr. Meir Klumel	146
Borukh Gelman – Gershon Winer	147
About Borukh Gelman's Collection of Poems – Efraim Shedletzki	150
Natan Greenblat-Goren	154
Professor Gershon Winer	154
Moshe Zilberman	155
My Father Eliyahu Abramson – Mikhle Grundhsteyn (Abramson)	156
Shlomo Vatkin – Mikhle Grundhsteyn (Abramson)	157

The Holocaust and the Heroism

In the Shadow of Death – Shlomo Ichiltzik	161
Destruction and Resistance – Noakh Swirsky	167
Memories from the Ghetto and Forest – Jenny Khinitsh	187
The Bloody War Years – Sarah Korb-Dembovski	199
In the Days of Horror – Pessye Lipovski (Glikman)	203
The War Years – Sarah Swirsky-Okhane	206
I Survived the Nazi Hell – Chane Ichiltzik (Slitn)	208
Jewish Widze Partisans in the Kazian Forests – Yisroel Jekhilzcyk	222
Experiences in the Widze Ghetto – China Kuricki Lifshyn	227
Memories from the Holocaust – Yakov Mogilnik	234
Widze – Yisroel Kokhalski	259
The Struggle to Survive – Shlomo-Reuven Feygl	265
About the Ghetto and Forest – Shlomo-Reuven Feygl	279
The Bloody Scene by the Marug Lake – Sonia Kasimov (Abelevitsh)	315
Widze Holocaust Chronology of Events	319

*HEBREW SECTION*

Introduction – Gershon Winer	323
Irgun Yotzai Vidz (Widze Landsmannschaft) in Israel	327

Chapters from the Past

History of Widze and its Jewish Community - Yizhak Alperovitz	331
The Character of Widze – Shlomo Niv (Katsherginski)	341
Between the Wars – Noach Shayvl	343
Widze is No Longer! – Shlomo Ichiltzik	349
Memories from Widze – Rochel Zilberman	352
A Journey to the Past – Shlomo Niv (Katsherginski)	358
In the Footsteps of the Survivors – Moshe Zilberman	365
My Parents' House – The Farber Family – Shlomo Farber	369
Widze – Remembering You Forever – Shlomo Niv (Katsherginski)	371

Widze Personalities

Harav Aryeh Leib Rubin	374
Harav Yosef Kahanman	374
Yisrael Aharoni (Aharonovitz)	375
Dr. Meir Klumel	376
Chaim Aryeh Zuta	377
Natan Greenblat-Goren	377
Borukh Gelman – Gershon Winer	378
Professor Gershon Winer	379
Moshe Zilberman	379
Borukh Gelman's Poetry	380
The Klumel Family – Moshe Klumel	381
The Feigelman and Berez Families – Shimon Feigelman	384
Meyer Slitn – Yakov Slitn	386
The Gendel and Slitn Families in Widze – Adva Naveh (Gendel)	387

The Holocaust and the Heroism

Years of Storm and War – Shlomo Ichiltzik	393
The Ghettos of Widze, Vilna and the Camps of Estonia – Hirsch-Zvi Ablavitz	429
Memories from the Holocaust – Leah Swirsky (Shlomovitz)	456
In the Widze Ghetto and the Concentration Camps – Sarah Dembovski (Korb)	459
The Jews of Druysk in the Widze Ghetto – Reuven Bodovnitz	464
Memories from the Holocaust in Widze – China Kuricki Lifshyn	470
Protocols from the Holocaust Period in Widze	481
The Strobin Family during the Holocaust – Ayelet Shakham	486
The Sailing of the Exodus to Israel – Mikhle Grundhsteyn-Abramson	498
Widze Holocaust Chronology of Events	505

List of Holocaust Victims from Widze (Necrology)	509
List of heads of household in Widze before the war	519

Memorials	525

ENGLISH SECTION (in select books only)

Kaddish for our Shtetl – Gershon Winer	i
My experiences in the Widze Ghetto – Henia Koritsky Lifschitz	vi
In the Shadow of Death – Shlomo Ichitzik	vii
Widze Partisans –Yisrael Ichiltzik	viii
Destruction and Resistance –Noach Swirsky	ix
The Story of One Family – Malacki and Flekser – Freda Malacki Nareve	xi
A visit to Widze – September 5, 1996 – Dr. Joseph Katz	xiii

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