Notes: The complete translation of this book is also available here: The Belica Memorial Book The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Belitsa

[Page i]

Institutions of Support in the Shtetl		54
Zionists in Belica		55
Belica Revolutionaries		55
Rabbi Rudnick ז”ל		56
The Economic Situation Improves Itself		56
The Belica Estate is Parceled Out		57
The First World War		57
The Russian Bandits and the Jewish Victims		58
The Poles Take Over Control		59
A Volksbank and the ‘Khorev’ School in One Building		60
Our Institutions and Undertakings		62
The End Draws Nigh…		63
The Bloody Rosh Hashana of 5679 (1918)	Menachem Niv	63
Jewish Settlers Around Belica	Dov Kaufman	65
The Jewish Settlers Around Belica		66
Part Two
My Father, The Rabbi Gaon R' Joseph Rudnick זצ”ל	Abraham Abir (Rudnick)	71
The Rebbetzin and Rabbi Amongst the Community	Bruriah Aloni (Rudnick)	85
Episodes from the House of the Resident Rabbi	Tema Bakhamotsky (Rudnick)	86
The Rabbi Gaon R' Aharon Teitz זצוק”ל	Rabbi Moshe Levin	88
A Candle of the Soul to Dear Parents	Zerakh Kremen	90
To the Memory of My Father's Family R' Shmuel-Joseph Itzkowitz ז”ל	Zerakh Itzkowitz	93
Our Town in its Period of Bloom	Chaim Yosselewicz	95
Predation Against the Jews and Jewish Activities	Dov Grodinsky	98
With the Outbreak of the First World War		98
The German Conquest and Local Pogromshchiki		98
The Murder of My Father הי”ד		99
During the Polish - Russian War		99
The Establishment of the Library		100
The Fire Fighters and The Drama Circle		100
The Orchestra of Musical Instruments		101
Self-Defense: Protecting Possessions & Lives	Chaim Lejzorowicz	103
Education and the Hebrew School	Dov Kaufman	104

[Page ii]

This Was, and Is No Longer…	By Menachem Niv (Max Jasinowsky)	107
A. Freiheit and Scout Organization in their Work		108
B. The ‘Theater’ of Those Times		109
As If In One Family	Michael Ratnowsky	111
It Is for These that My Soul Weeps	Meiram Ratnowsky	112
The Sabbath Queen…		112
A Few Personalities		113
The Family of my Father and Teacher		113
The Town from an Economic and Social Perspective	Moshe Yosselewicz	114
A Document Concerning Economic Conditions (1929)	Sholom Cohen	121
One Tear in the Sea of Tears	Benjamin Makowsky	124
An Arm from a ‘Tough’ Grandfather	Sholom Garnicki	124
Several Personalities from the Shtetl	Eliezer-Meir Savitzky	125
Yaakov Kotliarsky		125
Shlomo Dziencelsky		126
Shmuel-Nahum Stotsky		126
Alta Milikowsky		126
Sports Events and Gatherings	Zerakh Kremen	127
Water-Sport		127
Light Athletics		127
Net-Ball and Football		128
Winter-Sport		128
Cycling		128
Part Three
To Remember !		132
My Father-Teacher The Rabbi Gaon R' Shabtai Fein זצללה”ה	Rabbi Reuven Fein	133
An Elder Whose Vision-Dream Became Reality	E.M. Savitzky	135
The Legacy of the Home of My Forefathers	Shlomo Shilovitzky	140
HaMelech…	E.M. Savitzky	143
Thirty-Five Years of Life and Struggle (1914-1949)	Israel Zlocowsky	146
A. During The First World War		146
B. The History of the Organization of the Belica Fire-Fighters Brigade		150

[Page iii]

C. During The Second World War		155
The Last Four Months in Belica	Zalman Yosselewicz	171
The War Breaks Out		171
The Town Burns		171
Terror, Fear and Revenge	Aryeh (Leib'l) Stotsky	176
The Camp in Navael'nja		177
The Selektion: Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die		178
In the Synagogue, the News of My Dear Mother's Death		179
In the Prison in Novogrudok		179
The Escape from the Camp		180
Thoughts in the Heart of the Forest		181
Freedom and Fear		182
In the Brigade of Dr. Atlas		183
The Entrance of the Germans and the Expulsion of the Jews	Moshe Yosselewicz	185
A. The Sabbath on Which the Holocaust Began		185
B. The Expulsion Decree and the Night of Departure for Zhetl		187
The Chain of Events in My Flight from Death	Abraham Maggid	191
The Tribulations of a Fighting Partisan	Joseph ben-Isaac	194
Bereaved and Isolated Among the Russian Partisans	Chaya bat Chaim-Yitzhak	196
Two Women Partisans Who Fought the Scourge	Shayn'keh Bat-Joseph	198
We Return from Zhaludok to Belica		198
With the First of the Underground in Zhetl		198
In the ‘Bunker’		199
The Flight to the Forest		200
In the Partisan Camp		202
The Song of the Ghetto	Leah Garberowicz (Halperin)	204
By Myself in a Compost Heap	Baba Gordon (Jaffa)	205
Three Years of the Holocaust and Revenge (1941 - 1944)	Zerakh ben-Abraham	207
From Slonim through Belica to Novogrudok		207
We Get to Minsk...		207
The Way Back		209
The “Assembly” at the Cattle Market		210
My Escape to Slonim		211
The Slaughter of November 14, 1941		212
The First Information I Passed to the Partisans		213
Between the Closed Ghetto and the Open Forest		213
The Slaughter of June 29, 1942		214

[Page iv]

The Jewish Partisan Group		215
Gruppenführer Fentz...		217
After the Liberation		219
Life in the Bunkers	Meir ben-Isaac	220
Regarding My Father & Mother, My Daughter and 20 Other Women	Rachel Itzkowitz (Szkop)	222
Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters...	Leah Garberowicz (Halperin)	226
The Tales of One Family	Bluma Lejzorowicz (Odzhikhowsky)	229
A Dear Friend, Zechariah-Shlomo Nignawiecki הי”ד	Chaim Yosselewicz	230
My Comrade and Friend, Zalman (Zhameh) Itzkowitz ז”ל	Herzl Sokolowsky	231
Man and Beast, One Opposite the Other	E.M. Savitzky	233
The Ruthlessness of Humanity		233
The Compassion of a Dog!….		234
Kaddish in the Forest	Elazar-Meir Savitzky	235
A Prayer in the Forest	Y. Feigin	239
The Rabbi R' Chaim-Leib Boczkowsky	Shimon Baker (Boczkowsky)	243
A Few Chapters from My Memories	Shmuel Shimonowicz	247
Chapter A: Early Recollections		247
Chapter B: Not Easy Under Polish Rule		247
Chapter C: World War II Arrives		248
Chapter D: Barely Escaping Alive		248
Chapter E: To the Zhetl Ghetto		249
Chapter F: Plotting Escape		249
Chapter G: Into the Forest		249
Chapter H: Thirty Months to Liberation		250
Chapter I: Anarchy in Post-War Belica		250
Chapter J: To DP Camps, and then – America		251
Poems of Suffering and Anger	M. Savitzky	252
My Child's Cradle		252
The Only Sin		253
The Old Man's Revenge		253
War and the Extermination of Jews	Chaim Yosselewicz	256
The First Week of War		257
The S. S. Troops Rampage and Murder		258
The Expulsion of November 10, 1941		260
In the Zhetl Ghetto		261
…Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die		263
The Mass Executions Beside the Pit		265
Between One Slaughter and the Second		266

[Page v]

The Liquidation of the Zhetl Ghetto		267
Beside the Extermination Pits	Joseph Fleischer	269
A. Decrees and Extermination in Belica		269
B. The First Slaughter in Zhetl		270
C. Zhetl is “Judenrein”		273
He Was Taken for Dead	Shimon Baker	274
A Family that Survived (the Second Great Slaughter in Zhetl)	Joseph Mayewsky	278
In the Forest with Partisans	Kh. B. Shaziv	281
Zhetl is 'Judenrein'		281
Forty Souls in One Hideout		281
Five Young People Flee to the Forest		282
Two Young People Look for Their Father		284
In the Belica Huts		285
The Assault Begins		287
In the Fight for Life		289
The Revenge Against the Killers		290
Once Again Spring and Summer...		292
Bloody Assaults Against the Jews in the Forest		293
Anti-Semites of All Kinds in the Forest		296
The Vlasovites Blockade the Forests		297
The Birth Pangs of Liberation		298
The Liberation...		302
How I Saved Myself	Yaakov Kremen	303
When the Germans Entered the Shtetl		303
Sporting With the Jews		303
Thirty-Six Martyrs Including the Rabbi ז”ל		304
“What To Do?”		304
The Twenty-Four Hostages		304
In the Zhetl Ghetto		305
Between the First and Second Great Slaughters		305
The Second Great Slaughter in Zhetl		305
In Novogrudok		306
In Lida		306
Back in Dvarec		306
Into the Forest		307
With the Partisans		308
Liberation		308
On the Front		308
My Cousin Yaakov Zlocowsky Falls at the Gates of Berlin		308
From the Hospital Back to Belica		309
Away…Away…		309
The Death of My Dearest	Sarah Baranchik (Fleischer)	310
A Letter from Home After the Holocaust	B. Ts. Yevunowicz	312
We Were Eight Children	Herzl, Yankl & Chaya-Cherna Fleischer	313
From Herzl's Recollections		313
Yankl's Recollections		314
Chaya-Cherna's Recollections		315
Meeting People from Belica in the Forest	Benjamin Baran	316
My Father's Destroyed Family	Schraga (Fyvel) Zlocowsky	318
Our Family Circle		318
From What We Lived, and How We Lived		319
Two Years of Soviet Rule		321
The Germans Arrive		321
In the Scucyn Ghetto		322
In the Lida Todt-Lager		325
In the Forest with the Partisans		325
I Part from My Brother		326
Family Life in the Forest		326
Back to the Destroyed Shtetl		328
Legal and Illegal Ways to The Land of Israel		328
By Battle and Indirect Means, to a New Life	Chaim Yosselewicz	329
After the Liberation		329
The Shtetl in Ruins		330
In the Military, At the Front		330
At the Front		331
Blood and Fire		333
The Telephone Stops Working…		334
I Become Wounded		336
From Hospital to Hospital		337
Home…Home… and Away from Home		338
Lodz, Bratislava, Budapest and Bad-Gastein (Austria)		338
In Austria		340
In Italy		343

[Page vii]

Part Four
The Map of Belica (1939)		347
The Rabbi, R' Joel Baranchik זצ”ל	Y. L.	348
About My Father	Rili Kamenetzky	349
An Example of His Dedication and Love	Bezalel Isaacson	350
From a Letter at the Memorial Gathering at the End of Thirty Days	Yaakov Tzur	351
From a Letter of the Parliamentary Journalist of the Newspaper ‘Haaretz’	James Yaakov Rosenthal	352
My Relative, and Friend, Issachar Kamenetzky	Moshe Yosselewicz	352
Baruch Krasnoselsky ז”ל	Z. K.	354
Our Dear Israel Zlocowsky ז”ל	E.M. Savitzky	354
My Father	Schraga (Fyvel) Zlocowsky	356
My Father and Mentor, R' Zalman Yosselewicz ז”ל	Moshe Yosselewicz	357
My Brother, the Martyr	E.M. Savitzky	359
Belica Émigrés Who Died in the Land of Israel		362
Committee Activities of the Organization of Belica Émigrés in Israel	Dov Kaufman & Moshe Yosselewicz	363
A Belica Family in America	Minnie Heinz (Menucha Kreinowicz)	366
The Shimanowicz Family	M. Y.	369
Simon Baker Appointed Consultant to Mayor Lindsay	The Morgen-Zhurnal	370
Once Upon a Time There Was a Small Shtetl…	Shimon Baker (Boczkowsky)	371

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