[Page 127]
Hashomer Hatzair Movement
by Aizik Hofman (Tel Aviv)
Translated by Steven Wien & Sari Havis
In 1921 Kremenets was emptied of Zionist mature youth. In two pioneering
groups, one after the other, Zionist activists left for
Eretz Israel, and the younger generation remained without any leadership. At the same time,
rumors had reached us that in other cities in Volhynia, various Jewish youth
organizations with more scouting characteristics were established. And thus,
with the initiative of the brothers Goldenberg, Avraham Rozenfeld, and others,
in Kremenets there was established such an organization named “Hashomer Hatzair”
[the Young Guardsman] in which the idea of scouting and sport took a central
role.
The first groups were comprised mostly of studying youth from the middle class.
The minority was from the poor and blue collar classes. The groups included
youth from the ages of 8 to 15-16, and only the guides (madrichim) were older, and among them were Avrasha Trakhtenberg, Shifris, and others.
Among the founders of the core of this movement was also a youngster from Rovno
named Bushl who was an outstanding sportsman. The nucleus of this movement
participated in activities for national funds, as well as various cultural
performances.
In time, a guide named Khana Horovits joined Hashomer Hatzair, and she reached
Kremenets, our city, from Russia. After that, the movement began forming more
idealistically, and the local headquarters contacted the national center of
Hashomer Hatzair in Warsaw. Various classes to study Hebrew history, Zionism,
Hebrew and Yiddish literature, and the geography of the land [of Israel] were
established and organized. On every Hebrew holiday, parties and balls took
place. Gradually, Hashomer Hatzair became transformed from a scouting movement
to a movement which had more idealistic, national, and humanistic content. The
energy served as an attraction for youth in Kremenets, and they started joining
the ranks of Hashomer Hatzair. Already within the first few years of the
movement's existence, we had in Kremenets several regional conventions
initiated by the local leaders.
Unlike other youth organizations, Hashomer Hatzair included youth from a very
young age; [children] already eight years old were drawn to intensive
activities, and thus were somehow distanced from the influence of family and
the non-Jewish school. This movement differed and varied from its counterpart
movements in the sense that it was more religious in the acquisition of the
Hebrew language. The activities were conducted in Yiddish or Russian, and later
in Polish, but nonetheless, the guides paid attention to the teaching of
Hebrew. They purchased and read Hebrew newspapers from the land [of Israel],
and some members of the movement were active in the "Hebrew corner"
which took place in our city.
In the legislative conference in Warsaw in 1926, Hashomer Hatzair switched
officially from a scouting movement like Baden Powell to a program of
aliyah, personal fulfillment, and a building of communes in the land [of Israel]. The
Kremenets representatives were very active in that convention.
At the same time, the following members were very active in leading the
headquarters in Kremenets: Meir Pinchuk (who later became very active in the
communist movement, and who was killed in the Caucasus [a mountain chain in the
nations of Georgia and Azerbaidzhan]); Moshe Kremenetsotski (who now resides in
Ramat Gan); Yonya Bernshtayn (who also joined the communists, and was killed as
a partisan around Kremenets); Dovid Vinokur (who was killed in Kremenets in the
Holocaust); and the writer of these lines [Aizik Hofman].
The national leadership of the movement considered the Kremenets branch very
respectfully, and devoted lots of attention to it. Messengers (shlichim) from the national center, as well as from the land [of Israel], used to visit
it quite often. Among them were Y. Khazan, Y. Guthelf, Ts. Luria, M. Shenhavi,
and others. Y. Riftin stayed in Kremenets for almost a month and conducted
active cultural activities.
In 1926 the first group left Hashomer Hatzair headquarters for
hakhshara (preparatory camp before emigration to Israel) in Dombrova, which was next to
Samiatits. The group included five people: Kremenetsotski, Hofman, Yonya
Bernshtayn, Avraham Margalit, and Sunya Keselman (The last two immigrated to
the land [of Israel], fought in the international brigade in Spain, and were
killed there.)
[Translator's note: Moshe Kremenchutski wrote a tribute to these two friends. His tribute and a
photograph are on page 228 of this Yizkor Book.]
[Page 128]
|
|
A group from the
Hashomer Hatzai Movement,
1928 |
This [going to hakhshara] was a very important turning point toward personal fulfillment. The members
did hakhshara for almost a year. After that, almost yearly, groups used to leave for
hakhshara in the vicinity of Stolin, Rakitno, and other locations, mostly in lumber
mills, in a specific hakhshara framework which was organized by Hashomer Hatzair movement.
[Translation Editor's Note: Stolin probably is Stolin, Belarus (132.6 mi. NNE of Kremenets). Rakitno
probably is one of two towns named Rakitno in Ukraine (65.7 mi NNE and 81.2 mi
W of Kremenets, respectively).]
The movement's members also used to actively participate in the public life of
the city.
There was a certain distancing of this group from other 'working' Eretz Yisrael
youth groups which were active in the city (like HaKhalutz [The Pioneer],
HaKhalutz Hatzair [The Young Pioneer], Hitachdut, and Dror). But there was no
sense of animosity among them. Whenever members from any youth group emigrated
to Israel, members from all the groups accompanied them to the train station,
and this used to serve as a festive event for all the Zionist youth regardless
of movement.
Cultural activity centered mostly around the Zionist library; the Hashomer
Hatzair members were part of its main clientele. At its peak, the movement
consisted of 200 boys and girls.
The majority of parents objected to their youth's joining Hashomer Hatzair
because it interfered with the young person's studies. But mostly the parents
became upset when a youth grew up and was asked by the movement to interrupt
his lessons in the higher classes of the gymnasium and go to
hakhshara.
[Ideologically] competing waves of communism attacked the centers of the
movement beginning in 1925, [but] reached our city only between 1929 and 1931.
The limited chances of emigration, the decree of the White Paper, and other
factors brought some members of the movement to desperation. Also, the
idealistic education began veering more toward Russia. All these [factors]
brought several of the members to join the Communist Party. Many dropped the
movement, but some Hashomer Hatzair members remained, even after joining the
communist movement, with the clear intention of making propaganda for communism
(among them was Tonya Grinshpun who emigrated later to Israel. From there she
went to the U.S.S.R., and she was annihilated in one of Stalin's purges in
1937.) This deviation [toward the Communist Party] affected mostly the older
generation [of the movement] and the guides. Some of those who went to Israel
joined the Communist Party there. Some of them left Israel. Among those who
remained in Kremenets, some became leaders of the Communist Party in the city,
as well as activists in the Union. Several of them were arrested by the Polish
authorities.
[Page 129]
|
|
A group of
Hashomer Hatzair members,
1930 |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
A group of
Hashomer Hatzair members,
1934
|
[Page 130]
In a large trial against the communists in 1936, some of the defendants were
graduates of Hashomer Hatzair. Thus, most of the younger generation of the
movement was saved from communist influence by the fact that they were left out
by their guides. Because of that, the center of the movement took care and
brought in a new class of guides who had received their inspiration in a
central preparatory farm in Chenstokhov.
[Translation Editor's Note: Chenstokhov probably is Czestochowa, Poland, 294.1 mi. WNW of Kremenets.
Hashomer Hatzair ran a training farm there.]
The club was used as a permanent location of the movement only during the
winter months; in the summer all activities and meetings took place in nature.
In the years 1936 - 1937, the movement continued to dwindle in numbers. There
was a rise of anti-semitism, desperation settled upon everyone, immigration to
Israel was almost completely blocked, there was a sense of a dead end. All this
affected Hashomer Hatzair, and it declined from year to year in quantity and
quality. In 1938-1939 the movement consisted of only tens of numbers of
members. [However,] even then, in the
hakhshara
in Chenstochov, there were ten members from the Kremenets group.
With the capture of the city by the Russians in 1939, the end of Hashomer
Hatzair movement arrived, and it ceased to exist.
In a large trial against the communists in 1936, some of the defendants were
graduates of haShomer haTsair. Thus, most of the younger generation of the
movement was saved from communist influence by the fact that they were left out
by their guides. Because of that, the center of the movement took care and
brought in a new class of guides who had received their inspiration in a
central preparatory farm in Chenstokhov.
[Translation Editor's Note: Chenstokhov probably is Czestochowa, Poland, 294.1
mi. WNW of Kremenets. HaShomer HaTsair ran a training farm there.]
The club was used as a permanent location of the movement only during the
winter months; in the summer all activities and meetings took place in nature.
In the years 1936 – 1937, the movement continued to dwindle in numbers.
There was a rise of anti-semitism, desperation settled upon everyone,
immigration to Israel was almost completely blocked, there was a sense of a
dead end. All this affected haShomer haTsair, and it declined from year to year
in quantity and quality. In 1938-1939 the movement consisted of only tens of
numbers of members. [However,] even then, in the hakhshara in Chenstochov,
there were ten members from the Kremenets group.
With the capture of the city by the Russians in 1939, the end of haShomer
haTsair movement arrived, and it ceased to exist.
The “Academic Pioneers”
by Sh. Titlman (Yafo)
Side by side with the large flowing rivers of the "haKhaluts" and
"haKhaluts haTsair" movements in our town, flowed the small stream of
the "haKhaluts haAcademi" ("Academic Pioneer"). It included
a few tens of young people. Still it fulfilled a certain role in the Zionist
life of Kremenets.
A group of friends who, for assorted reasons, did not find a place in
"haKhaluts", organized in 1932 a branch of "Academic
Pioneer". To start with, there were about 15 members only, but in time it
grew to 40 members. Their goal was to include the circles of the assimilating
youth in particular, and familiarize them with Zionism and the land of Israel.
And indeed, their efforts had quite some success, as tens returned and rejoined
their nation. The "Academic Pioneer" existed in Poland as a national
movement, its center in Warsaw, with a publication in Polish, and a hakhshara
place in Chenstokhov.
The branch dealt with theoretical preparation and the teaching /spreading of
the Hebrew language. Considering the circle's composition, you would have
expected that it would train its members to work in "white collar"
and clerical professions when in Israel, but that was not so: just like the
regular "haKhaluts", their goal was to train its members to work the
land and to Kibbutz life. Some of the men were sent to the training ranch in
Chenstokhov, and some of the women to the agricultural school in Nahalal,
Israel. More then two thirds of the branch's members have immigrated and
established themselves in Israel.
The branch was active in the local community's life too; in elections, the
assorted funds, the Zionist club and the library. They helped in the
trusteeship of the orphanage, and in all Zionist and community functions. It
had its own clubhouse where they conducted cultural activities.
Among the active members I will mention Shmuel Gendlman, Yona Frenkl (both were
murdered in the Holocaust), Yehoshue Goldberg (now in Poland), Yakov Shats,
Kharash, and the writer of these lines (these three are in Israel).
The "Academician Pioneer" existed in our town until the start of the
Second World War.
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. This material may not be copied,
sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be
reserved by the copyright holder.
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification. JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions. Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Kremenets, Ukraine
Yizkor Book Project
JewishGen Home Page
Yizkor Book Project Manager, Joyce Field
This web page created by Osnat Ramaty
Copyright © 1999-2008 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 28 Feb 2004 by OR
![Click here to extend the picture - kre128s.jpg (4 KB]](images/kre128s.jpg)
![Click here to extend the picture - kre129s.jpg [4 KB]](images/kre129s.jpg)
![Click here to extend the picture - kre129-2s.jpg [4 KB]](images/kre129-2s.jpg)