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[Page 441 - Yiddish] [Page 208 - Hebrew]

On July 5, 1941, the Germans entered David-Horodok. Several weeks before the capture of the town, local Christians headed by Maraiko, Kulaga and Latun, may their names be blotted out, succeeded in creating the impression that the town Jews were waiting for the Red Army to return. As a result, the Christians received permission from the SS headquarters in Pinsk to handle the Jews at their own discretion.

On August 10, at 4 o'clock in the morning, all the Jewish quarters were surrounded. All Jewish men and children eight years of age and older were brought forsaken and barefoot to the concentration point in the courtyard of the Catholic Church – and from there to their last journey.

Yaakov, Aba Gertzulin's son, the only Jew who had been forewarned by a Christian of the fate of those who were being sent away, tried to escape. A murderer's bullet stopped him and he died on the spot. All roads were blocked and there was no possibility of escape.

From the concentration point, the Jews were sent to two common graves which had previously been prepared. When the Jews came to the ditches, they were instructed to undress and climb down into the ditches where they were shot to death with machine guns.

A group of Jews were spared from the murder and they were used to sort the fallen bodies in the trenches. Afterwards, they were also murdered. After the murder, the trenches were filled in by the local people who took part in the killing.

Only a few managed to hide out by various means, but eventually they too met the same horrible fate.

Nachman Yonush, Yosef's son, Itche the milkman's grandson, succeeded in escaping through the village of Berezhnoye and reached Stolin. He hid in their ghetto for a year until he was killed along with the Jews of Stolin.

Yaakov, Litman Kolozny's son and Moshe Elianik's grandson, hid for several days until a Christian informed on him. They dragged him to the Gestapo and tortured him until he was finally relieved with a bullet.

Reb Aharon Slomiansky, who had been hidden several days by a Christian, was forced to leave his hiding place because the Christian was afraid they would kill him for hiding a Jew. Having no other alternative, Reb Aharon decided to return home. As he crossed the bridge, gentiles grabbed him and threw him into the river. He immediately drowned. Thanks to his wife Rachel who exerted superhuman efforts, he was buried in the Jewish cemetery.

Simcha, Moshe Aharon Mishalov's son, hid for two weeks in his cellar but the Christian servant gave him over to the gentiles. They dragged him out of the cellar

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and murdered him in his house in front of his wife and children.

Isser, Nissan Gurevitz's son, hid in a clothing closet. The local citizens found him, pulled him out and dragged him into the marketplace. They beat him and tortured him viciously and put out his eyes. His inhuman screaming was heard from one end of the town to the other. He pleaded with his murderers to end his life.

Reb Kahas, Reb Sander Belohousky's son, and Reb Moshe, Reb Avraham Baruchin the Choromsker's son, hid until 1943 in a nearby village with a Christian peasant. They dreamt that Rabbi Moshele, the Stoliner Rebbe, was yet alive. They crawled out of their hiding place and they went off to Stolin. Gentiles killed them along the way.

Reuven, Chaim Kolozny's son, hid in his yard. The gentiles found him, killed him and threw him into the outdoor privy.

Baruch-Yosef, Moshe Katzman's son, and his two sons hid out somewhere. They had nothing to eat and so they presented themselves to the Gestapo. There they were told that the Gestapo had no liquidation decree concerning them and they could go where they wished! However, the local citizens beat them to death with sticks in the marketplace.

Yitzchak, the son of Shlomo the Ozdanicher, remained alive thanks to a Christian who hid him after he promised to marry her. When the Red Army returned, he fulfilled his promise.

After the mass murder and on a cold and rainy day, they also drove the women and children out of the town. The local citizens chased after them for several kilometers with shouts of “Get out! We don't need you!”

Amongst the women there were several men who dressed in women's clothes. One of these was Rabbi Moshele, Rabbi Velvele Ginzburg's son. The local citizens, who were examining the faces of the refugees, recognized him. They pulled him out and murdered him.

Vigdor's daughter Leah, Reb Moshe Kolozny's wife, no longer had the strength to go on with the exiles and she sat down next to Chaim Baruchin's house. She was killed on the spot.

Chaya, Reb Asher Yudovitz's daughter, seeing what was happening, picked her child up and jumped with him into the Horyn River.

Feigele, Betzel Yudovitz's wife, and Rivka, Motel Bregman's wife, and her daughters remained almost to the end. But as soon as they had given up all their gold and silver, they were chased to the Olshaner Bridge and were murdered there.

A portion of the exiles arrived at the ghettos in Lakhva, Stolin and Visotzk. They had drunk their cups of bitterness and they were liquidated along with all the Jews in these ghettos.

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Three weeks after the women were driven from town, they were allowed to return into a newly created ghetto which existed for a year. Afterwards, they were sent to the same place where the men had been killed and they were murdered.

The year 1939 arrived. The town was taken by the Soviets. Many Jewish refugees from western Poland settled in David-Horodok.

In 1940, they began arresting and exiling Zionists and others. The town shuddered. The mood was strained. Still, there was the motto: “All for one and one for all.”

Then July 6, 1941 arrived. The town was captured by Hitler's troops. Many Jews wanted to save themselves in Russia but the NKVD and the border guards would not let them pass and so they were forced to remain under Nazi rule. Then began the horror and the murderous faces of the Byelorussians were shown. They began catching Jews in the streets and forcing them to do labor.

Many of Hitler's troops passed through the streets of the town heading east. A few days later, they returned because of the bad roads intending to find another path through the marshes. In town, it was rumored that the Germans had been driven back by the Red Army. This was exploited by the newly proclaimed mayor, the villainous feldsher (medic) Ivan Maraiko who went to Gestapo headquarters in Pinsk and reported that the Jews were spreading the rumors and that they – the Jews – were attacking the German army. This vile slander brought on the bloody 17^th of Av of 1941, about one month after the Germans had captured the town. In the beginning of August, about 50 SS murderers arrived unexpectedly. At 4 o'clock in the morning they surrounded the town and later began their bloody work with the help of the local Byelorussian underworld that had enlisted as police. Anticipating abundant booty, they began driving together all the Jewish men. They gathered everyone at the courtyard of the church and accompanied them with frightful beatings with sticks and guns.

There, they were forced to remain on their knees with their hands upraised for an hour until all the houses were searched. Whoever was found hiding was shot to death on the spot. That was the fate of the brothers Isser and Hershel Gurevitz – two healthy and sturdy young men who were pulled out of a hiding place. As they were led away, their ribs were broken and their eyes gouged out.

After all the men were assembled, they were arranged in columns and led out

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of the town. No one knew where they were going. They presumed that they were being led to work. However, the question was quickly answered.

Three kilometers beyond the town on the Olshaner road, on a hill of sand, the peasants had prepared a freshly dug trench. It was already too late to consider resistance. Besides, in 1941, there had not yet been any mass murders of Jews so that quiet and respectable, decent people could not believe that such a thing could occur. But it did – the last word belonged to the machine guns… and then, with a last breath, each sent a curse…

A policeman tried to pull the ring off the hand of Lazer Ronkin thinking that he was already dead. But the latter was able to raise himself up and spat at the murderer's face. With a curse on his lips, he fell dead.

So did the Mother Earth take in and hide you in eternal rest.

Honor to your memory, my brothers!

For your unassuming, difficult but decent lives, the “civilized” world has rewarded you with “a quick death”.

That same afternoon, after the murderers had completed their “little job”, they again went to “work”. All the remaining women and children received an order that they were to immediately leave town. In this particular “holy” work, the entire Christian population took part. Young and old, all like wild specters, they went to the Jewish houses with sticks and they drove out the housewives and their children with beatings, expecting to rob them of their possessions.

They drove them out of town with beatings and verbal abuse. “Despised Jews,” raged the aroused, looting crowd. Many of them stood at the bridge checking each Jewish woman to see if they could find a man disguised in women's clothing.

In such fashion, they discovered several men in women's clothes including Rabbi Moshele, Berl Migdalovitz and others who were viciously beaten by the wild mob and then shot to death. The women and children were accompanied with beatings until they reached the outskirts.

The unfortunates went as far as the first village of Choromsk after which they strayed through the fields, hungry, beaten and exhausted, many of them pregnant, sick and old, women with suckling babies, torn away from their husbands and fathers, desolate and forsaken in a land of wild animals. One of the better peasants would occasionally give a piece of bread or a potato.

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Some of them went to new towns such as Stolin, Lakhva, Visotzk and others. There they shared the bitter fate of those Jewish inhabitants. The remainder strayed and wandered over the dirty and muddy roads of Polesye. There was the constant danger of encountering further mental humiliation and physical abuse.

Autumn arrived with its damp and cold weather. Many women and children died along the roads. Every bush and tree along the way knew of their suffering. Finally, at the end of autumn, they were allowed back into David-Horodok where a ghetto had been created for them. Life in this ghetto was appalling. The entire population of the ghetto received ten kilos of bread per day and most of them had to work for the German army. They were forced to do a variety of jobs.

Many working women and children were overcome by hunger and inhuman conditions and they died. Those that remained hardly resembled human beings.

They were isolated, swollen with hunger, encircled by barbed wire in a small part of a filthy quarter, guarded by the murderous police who was headed by a creature with a rotten soul – Liava Kasarev – may his name be blotted out. He worshipped many gods. But he was particularly attracted to “shiny buttons” [officers] for whom this beast in the form of a person was prepared to do anything.

So the ghetto existed until the eve of Rosh Hashanah in 1942. On that day, the ghetto was liquidated.

All the women and children, the number was no longer very great, no more than 1600 souls – accompanied by beatings from the police as well as a special group of SS horsemen, were driven to the same trench on the Olshaner hill. There, everyone was stripped naked and shot to death.

Once again, Mother Earth opened her arms and received for the men their wives and children.

Thus was the innocent Jewish David-Horodok taken from the earth and ceased to exist.

The abandoned homes were taken possession by their “new owners”, but not for long. For later, when large partisan bands began to operate in the vicinity, they assaulted the town a few times and burnt most of the Jewish houses.

I came to David-Horodok in August, 1944. I found mounds with overgrown grass in place of the houses. Instead of joyous laughter and childish playful screaming, places that once had beckoned with the glow of their homely warmth, now presented a fierce and frightening picture.

Every remaining house, every tree that stood like a solitary wounded limb – cries, screams, laments and anxiously asks: Where are the gray and respectable old folks who would rest in our shade? Where has the happy laughter fled,

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the tender feelings, the curlyheaded children? Why is all that was beautiful and loving gone? And many, many more whys?

No answer came. I cannot find it. From the dentist Edel's house to the church hill – not one remaining house, only wild grass… mounds and grass.

Someone appeared… moving about like a wild apparition… he doesn't look me in the eyes... with dirty bare feet in a good black pullover with silk lapels. He doesn't speak... no one here talks now… They know nothing... They did hear about something but they don't remember exactly…

What's the use of talking? It is better to be quiet in a cemetery. A woman sells second-hand children's clothes in the marketplace. The woman keeps silent but the clothing cries – cries with pitiful tears!

I came to the holiest place for me in the entire world – to the mass grave. A smooth, sandy field – four years later! Four long years after fire and blood. Years of home-sickness close by; for finally coming to the home which was so near... Where are the loving mother's arms? Where are the coveted friendly faces – gleaming with pleasure at each encounter?

Member of our town Yitzchak Nachmanovitz is digging a pit to bury the bones of the martyrs found in the common grave

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No one kisses. No one shakes my hand. I stand shattered, dismayed and waiting, but in vain in this small arid field – a town is hidden. No markers, no monument tablets, no inscriptions, no flowers. A strange and heart-rending silence.

It remains a secret of nature. How much human beauty and dignity, how much love and friendship, how much creative initiative and talent was so cruelly, murderously and prematurely transported to eternal rest? Here, thousands of women, men and children released their pure souls and under the noise of the murderers' machine guns they sounded their last protest – a curse – a curse on the “culture” and the heads of the murderers as well as on the leaders and presidents, socialists and democrats, in uniforms and in dress coats. A curse on the heads of those who travelled to Munich, London, Paris or Moscow in white gloves, selling children's souls and trading with the blood and flesh of innocent people.

The 17^th of Av! Today is the sad day of your downfall, my David-Horodok. Your life was unassuming and full of service and perhaps that is why you were “rewarded” with a quick demise. You went like a pioneer to the sacrifice on the altar of the people. The number of your fortuitously spared sons is small. There are approximately 100 men who are now widely separated. In bitter spirit, we kneel and bow our heads in deep sorrow for you, our beloved and unforgettable David-Horodok.

Dear martyrs! Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers as well as your beloved children! The 17^th of Av is engrained deep into my heart, never to be forgotten. On that day, no smile is seen and joy vanishes from the heart. My mind burns with the realization of helplessness and the lost opportunity for a full revenge.

Rest forever, my dear ones.

May your holy memory be forever.No one kisses. No one shakes my hand. I stand shattered, dismayed and waiting, but in vain in this small arid field – a town is hidden. No markers, no monument tablets, no inscriptions, no flowers. A strange and heart-rending silence.

It remains a secret of nature. How much human beauty and dignity, how much love and friendship, how much creative initiative and talent was so cruelly, murderously and prematurely transported to eternal rest? Here, thousands of women, men and children released their pure souls and under the noise of the murderers' machine guns they sounded their last protest – a curse – a curse on the “culture” and the heads of the murderers as well as on the leaders and presidents, socialists and democrats, in uniforms and in dress coats. A curse on the heads of those who travelled to Munich, London, Paris or Moscow in white gloves, selling children's souls and trading with the blood and flesh of innocent people.

The 17^th of Av! Today is the sad day of your downfall, my David-Horodok. Your life was unassuming and full of service and perhaps that is why you were “rewarded” with a quick demise. You went like a pioneer to the sacrifice on the altar of the people. The number of your fortuitously spared sons is small. There are approximately 100 men who are now widely separated. In bitter spirit, we kneel and bow our heads in deep sorrow for you, our beloved and unforgettable David-Horodok.

Dear martyrs! Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers as well as your beloved children! The 17^th of Av is engrained deep into my heart, never to be forgotten. On that day, no smile is seen and joy vanishes from the heart. My mind burns with the realization of helplessness and the lost opportunity for a full revenge.

Rest forever, my dear ones.

May your holy memory be forever.

Editor's note:

Yitzchak (Itzl) Nachmanovitz was in the Soviet Union during World War II. Immediately after the end of the war, he visited David-Horodok as a Red Army soldier and he saw the destruction of the town with his own eyes. He now lives in the United States of America. The above description was written in 1946 on the fifth anniversary of the destruction of David-Horodok Jewry. At that time, he was visiting the German concentration camps and in September, 1946, he published “A Home” in the Yiddish paper. We republish this description with small deletions.

Bas-Sheva Lin, Meir Eliyahu Kushnir's niece, was the only one of all the David-Horodokers who I found in David-Horodok when I returned after Rosh Hashanah 5705 [1944].

The water carrier who had worked for me for four years did not recognize me. Her house was filled with Jewish goods.

The water carrier sent me to

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a second gentile who had taken possession of Litman Nachmanowitz's house. The gentile told me that the David-Horodoker gentiles had received awards from the German authorities for their part in killing and exterminating the Jewish population.

On the following day, I requested a home from the local authorities. When they suggested that I live in a Jewish house, I rejected the idea and I requested permission to live in my former butcher shop. My request was rejected. Not knowing this, I fixed up my butcher shop as a home. Later, the authorities helped me to set up a grocery store.

Also later, Noach, the son of Bezalel Yudovitz, came to David-Horodok. He had been wounded and walked on crutches. He received material and medical help from the Soviets and he helped me personally.

Later on, Zeev Shalom Lachovsky and Moshe, son of Yisrael Reznik, returned to Horodok.

The first Jewish victim in David-Horodok was Meir Eliyahu Kushnir who had lived in Raditch [the gentile section of David-Horodok]. After they had driven him out of his house, the Horodtchukas [Christians of Tartar descent from David-Horodok] attacked him and murdered him in the marketplace in the middle of the day.

The second victim was Zeev, the son of Grunya Kunda, a grandson of Velvel the blacksmith. The gentiles murdered him on Olshan Street next to Shlomo Fleishman's house.

On the 17^th of Av, 5701, the Jewish men were concentrated in front of the church and they were sent from there to a place where the Horodtchukas had prepared a common grave. It is very difficult to imagine the brutal acts and the atrocities that the Horodtchukas carried out against the Jews in the last minutes before they murdered them.

They stripped the clothes off the victims, smashed heads, cut off limbs and slaughtered with whatever came to hand: sticks, stones, iron bars and guns. Afterwards, they threw them into the trenches and buried them alive! Three days after the mass murder, the ground still stirred.

The leader of the pogrom was the medic, Ivan Maraiko, who made a special trip to Pinsk in order to bring back the SS. Before traveling to Pinsk, he gathered gold and silver from the Jews who entrusted him to hide their valuables.

After the aktion, the gentiles began searching for Jews in hiding. The first to be discovered was Avraham Slutzky, the wagon driver, and next was Mendel the Bratsker's son, who had hidden in the garden amongst the beans. They were both immediately murdered.

Reuven Kolozny hid in the closet of his gentile neighbor, Markovitz. He was murdered on the spot and remained there.

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Baruch Katzman and his two sons were found and killed by Dimitry Pozik.

Isser, son of Nissan Gurevitz, had his eyes gouged out by the Horodtchukas and his limbs severed one by one!

Yehoshua Zager of Tury, who had hidden in an oven, was pulled out and murdered.

Aharon Slomiansky was thrown into the Horyn River. Thanks to the efforts of his wife Rachel, he was pulled out by hired gentiles and merited burial in the Jewish cemetery.

My two children, Bracha and Baruch, who, thanks to a gentile woman, had fled to the Dubinitz Forest, were returned to town by the gentiles and cut to pieces in the middle of the marketplace. My son Yaakov succeeded in escaping.

Simcha Mishalov hid four months in his own cellar. His gentile maid fed him the entire four months. She then informed on him and he was murdered on Greble Street. Before his soul returned to G-d he was heard to cry out: “Scoundrels, what are you doing?”

A son of Berl Schmutz, who was dressed as a woman, was recognized by the gentiles and murdered by them.

After the men had been slaughtered, the Jewish women of David-Horodok were driven out of town. A portion died along the way. The remnant that later returned to Horodok were murdered by the gentiles a year later and they were thrown into the same trenches as the men.

The daughter of Rabbi Moshele became a partisan in the forests of Wysokie. She fell in battle.

Golda Rachel, Meir Eliyahu Kirzner's wife, hid in the chapel in the village of Choromsk where she was later killed.

Shmuel Katzman, a son of Leibel Katzman, moved about in the forest of Orly for four months. The gentiles caught him there and hacked him to pieces.

Nishka, Chaim Kirzner's wife, along with three other women hid themselves in a stable and that is where they were killed.

Leah, Moshe Kolozny's wife, was killed by the gentiles on the Greble Bridge. The gentiles planned to kill me. One night, a representative of the gentiles came to kill me. I began to scream and the police soon came and saved me.

At last, I could no longer stay in David-Horodok because of the hatred of the gentiles and I ran away.

Coordinator's Footnote

1. This article is very similar to the article “In David-Horodok in 1945” by Meir Tzvi Korman on pages 229-230 in the Hebrew section. Both were written by the same person (Tzvi in Hebrew and Hershel in Yiddish are equivalent names). However, each article contains unique information, so both have been included. Return

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