[Page 105]

Chapter 5

“Before WWI Dusiat traded with Dvinsk (Daugavpils) by means of wagon. After the war, Dvinsk was incorporated into Latvia. Trade increased with Rakishok (Rokiskis) since Ponivez (Panavesyz) was too far away. Dusiat did not have a railway station. The nearest station was Abel (Obeliai). Up until WWI the railroad was barely used, and afterwards most rode horse-drawn wagons… ”

([35] Chaya Malka Kruss-Glussak and Nachum Blacher. From Our Shtetl Dusiat, pp. 336-345, in Yizkor Book of Rakishok and Environs, Johannesburg, 1952.)

Levi Ron: I was a shaliach (emissiary) for Hashomer Hatzair in Lithuania and would travel from shtetl to shtetl, visiting the centers of the youth movement. For me it was a very moving experience to travel by wagon and hold a conversation in Hebrew with the driver. In contrast to Poland where I grew up, in Lithuania this was a common phenomenon.

[Page 105]

Like all the other children, I too studied at cheder. Then right after my bar mitzvah I began work as a wagon driver. In 1928 I enlisted in the Lithuanian army, and upon my release bought a “half bus” for six people plus luggage. I arrived in the shtetl on the eve of Passover. All the shtetl folk ran out to greet the bus. Horses were scared by it and went beserk…

Every morning I would travel from Dusiat to Kovno (Kaunus). I would sleep there and return the following day. I was given orders for different agents, and even money to pass on, as well as other missions. My brother Bentzke and I managed the line honestly.

We started with a small half-bus, and then grew to a 16-seater, and then a 35-seater. The trip from Dusiat to Kovno was considered expensive, 18 lit, so most people only traveled just before the holidays. There were regulars who worked outside the shtetl. Kahath Slep, for example, worked in Rakishok as a bookkeeper. He would leave on Sunday and return on Friday. There were others as well.

When the Russian-German war broke out, that same Sunday morning, my brother Ansel and I left the shtetl with the bus, not knowing that it would be the last time we would travel that line.

Rivka Levitt: The first time a car came into our village (probably government officials), we thought G-d had descended from heaven…

Reuven Milun: I remember Krut's bus well, even the headlights that shone. We stood rubbing our eyes in disbelief at this amazing sight…

Henia Sneh: The Krut family was in the headlines at that time. All of us, youngsters and kids, ran over and asked Baruch and his brothers, Ansel and Bentzke, to let us on and drive us a bit…

Rivka Shteinman: Every evening with the arrival of the bus, we would all go out to see whether a guest had arrived…

Malka Gilinsky: Everyone would go out to the square to see who had arrived. It was part of our entertainment.

Shayke Glick: In the 1930's there were bigger and smarter buses; according to regulations they had to carry both a driver and a conductor.

On Shabbat when the Kruts wanted to rest, they would occasionally choose one of the youths to act as conductor. It was an experience to travel through the shtetls, until reaching Kovno… I must point out that this trip was done secretly, without the parents' permission, because of desecration of the Shabbat…

And only I, the smallest, hadn't been given the honor, until one day when there were no other contenders because they'd all seen Kovno, they came and offered me the job. It was an honor for me, the feeling was grand; I'm already big!

That Shabbat my mother went away to the Levin's of Antaliept. I was afraid she would catch me in my dereliction, so I asked Bronka, the non-Jewish driver (who was said to be a big anti-Semite), to avoid Antaliept and not enter it. Bronka did not do as I requested, and as soon as I saw that he hadn't diverged from the route, I dived out of the moving bus and rolled in the dirt. I was badly scratched. I went home…

I knew the route well. Already as children we would play “horse and cart”; we would “gallop” to Antaliept until we could see the church steeple. We would then return to Dusiat…

Malka Gilinsky: We had many and varied forms of entertainment. We would walk along the Milner Gass and Unter Dem Brik. We didn't like walking on Maskevitcher Road. Maybe because it was a non-Jewish area, or maybe the road was too short. At the end of the road was the chapter of Hashomer Hatzair, next to the rabbi's house. He would ambush us and chastise us for breaking the Sabbath, so we avoided that spot.

Rasya Tal: The walks in the streets were part of our entertainment, even for our age group. We would meet a group of kids in the street, and I remember in our childhood the boys would annoy the girls by lifting their skirts and peeking… also as we grew older we would “patrol” the streets back and forth, gossiping and laughing. We would always find a “victim” to make fun of…

Shayke Glick: And Rasya knew how to laugh! She had a wonderful, rolling laugh that would go on and on, and we would be infected by it…

Kovno-Zarasai Line Bus Parked Overnight in Dusiat Bentzl Krut (left) Baruch Krut (right): The horses took fright and started rearing …

[Pages 107-108]

The Market Place From right to left, houses of: Avraham-Isaac Yoffe, Chana (Kagan) Aires, Asher Kagan, Zalman Kagan, Hillel Schwartz (in front of Milun), Sarah_leah Shteinman, Beth Hamidrash, Synagogue (in front of Blacher), Hirschel Blacher, Shapsel Krut, Melamed Avraham-Moshe Schmidt, Yitzchak Moshe's and Yosel Shifra's Zeligman At the entrance to the Market Place stood the Monument to the Unknown Soldier

Yosef Yavnai: Market Day was the day we wished and waited for all week long. It was the day on which our income for the entire week depended, the day on which the surrounding peasants gathered in the shtetl in order to sell their wares. The street was crowded with wagons, with not an inch to spare. The wagons held farm produce such as chickens, eggs, cheese, butter, vegetables and fruit. Men and women from the shtetl wandered between the wagons, buying and bargaining at the top of their lungs. Fun and games!

The Gentiles would come into the Jews' inns to gladden their hearts with a glass of vodka, and white chale (Sabbath bread) with herring to follow. Sometimes, when he was tipsy, a drunken peasant would try to cause a riot, and a policeman would immediately be called to calm things down. I remember that our Tatar maid would warn us not to go to the market if she knew that there was brawling going on there.

Rasya Tal: Wednesday, Market Day, was a wonderful day for me. We always prayed that we wouldn't have to go school that day. I remember the beautiful sight – especially in summer – when the wagons began to appear from all corners of the town. From morning, you could already hear the noise of the wagons approaching, and they were laden with grain, vegetables, chickens, eggs and … toys!

There was a special street for the cattle market: calves, cows and horses. What couldn't you find on those streets? The market street changed its appearance that day. There was a tremendous din all day long, until dark, and only then did the streets empty out.

I liked to go with the Shub sisters to see how far the market extended. Sometimes it even stretched as far as my grandmother's house on one side, and the spring, near the Charit's house, on the other side. The Gentiles would place their wagons, untie the horses, bring them to the trough, and on the wagons they would place a wooden pallet, on which they laid their produce. I especially remember the tasty cucumbers, their wonderful smell, and the green and fresh lettuce. We would shop for the entire week and store the items in the cellar.

There were so many intoxicated people at the end of the day! When I came to Eretz Yisrael, I was amazed that there was not even one drunk to be seen on the street.

The next morning they would clean the animal dung and dirt from the streets. The shopkeepers would clean the area around their shops, and town employees would clean the streets. Keeping the streets clean was obligatory, and anyone who littered was fined.

Rivka Shteinman: We used to wait impatiently for Wednesday, market day. Why were we so impatient? Because that was when Heshel “Der Beiglech Beker” (“the bagel baker”) would come to town. Father would give us some coins, and we would run to buy bagels. When I went to school in Zarasai, I would wait for Heshel “Der Beiglech Beker's” return every Wednesday evening, because he would bring me packages from home.

Rivka Friedman: Every Wednesday evening, when market day came to an end, a group of men would gather in our house. I particularly recall Chaim-Leib Adelman, Reb. Shaul-Dovid, Hone Berman, and of course, my father, Reb. Elya Orlin. They would study a page of Gemara (a portion of the Talmud) together.

Aliza Zilbershein: My mother, Slovka (nee Segal), used to tell us about her grandfather, Reb. Shaul Zezmer, who would sit in his shop and wait for customers. He spent the long hours of waiting in his shop studying the Torah. Many other men in the shtetl probably did the same. It's no surprise that they were all such scholars.

Rachel Rabinowitz: There was also a fair, twice a year, in the winter and the summer. The fair was a market of much greater dimensions. Entertainers would also come then.

Shayke Glick: I remember a magician coming once. He lay on a plank and a car drove over him. We were astounded to see that he wasn't injured, and got up without a mark on him.

Members of Hashomer Hatzair in the Market Place next to the monument in Dusiat on their way from Zarasai to Antaliept
R. to L.: Tzipora Per, Reinka Levine, Sarah Treger-Wolk, Yitzchak Shteinman, Shifra Stein, Zvia Yosman, Kalman Zilb, Itzke Leibowitz, Aryeh (Leibke) Gammer, Batya Rosenkowitz, Yosman, Moshe Rosenkowitz. In the background: Meir Slep's barbershop (on left), dyehouse in Chaim-Leib Adelman's house (second from right) on Milner Gass, Chaya-Hene Levitt's store facing Maskevitcher Gass (on right).

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