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This eighth translation, in a series, carries a special poignancy with it. Belica was a tiny shtetl, where the Jewish settlement never exceeded 150 families. Accordingly, its Jewish population was never as much as even a thousand souls. As its Jewish population suffered the obliteration, that befell all of Eastern European Jewry, it would have been easy for its history to have been swept into the oblivion of lost memory that overtook so many other Eastern European Jewish communities, about which we, literally, have no enduring record.

And yet, that did not happen.

Despite the fact that the proportional decimation of its Jewish populace was no less severe than that of other communities, the few, who did manage to survive, were drawn to the same sacred commitment: to set down for posterity, their recollections of their lives, the tribulations that they endured and survived, and a testament to their grit, that is best embodied in the well-known metaphor: Am Yisrael Chai!.

As I have said before, neither the story, that is found here, nor its outcome, is new to us. Yet, there is something special about the Belica survivors' experience that gives added insight, added texture, to how those beleaguered Jews went through worse than Hell, and yet came out at the other end, to rebuild a new life, and carry on.

This compendium is especially rich in documenting the nature of the partisan experience. By dint of geography, Belica was located pretty close, to the nexus of the partisan resistance movement, that fought the Nazi Germans from the forests, of what was then Byelorussia. Accordingly, a significant number of the survivors, who then wrote memoirs, give us a more than average glimpse of what it meant to retreat into primeval forest, in the face of a modern military juggernaut, and how they survived, and counter-attacked against its predations.

We also learn, yet again, that it was not enough to simply fight against the Nazi Germans. We see, in stark relief, the dangers that they faced from the predation of anti-Semitic Polish partisan units, and those of the bands of Soviet POWs who roamed those forests as well, and who were fighting for their Rodina. And yet, despite the latter, when the liberation in the East came, the Jewish partisans did not hesitate in joining the Red Army, to make the final push on the Third Reich, and bring it down.

It is because of this, we dedicate this book to the effort of the Red Army in decapitating the Nazi monster, with the Fall of Berlin in Spring of 1945, some 65 years ago.

While, again, it is true that the tragic outcome of the telling is known in advance, the record is enriched by the endeavor of these writers, to tell this tale from their own unique perspective.

I am indebted to Tomasz Panczyk, in Poland, and Leon Szyfer of Vancouver Canada, for their assistance in assuring that my rendition of Polish names and places, transliterated from Yiddish into English, were done correctly. I am also grateful to my wife's cousin, Oskar Kleinberg of Toronto, Canada, for his assistance with the several occurrences of German in the text. A special vote of thanks goes first to my classmate, Sam (Shmuel) Blumert for his insight into some esoteric Hebrew, and to Dr. Thomas Z. Fahidy, of Waterloo Ontario, for clarifying Russian usage on my behalf. Finally, my thanks also go to Yeshaya Metal, the reference desk librarian at YIVO in New York City, who, as usual, was ever ready with a suitable insight regarding the occasional esoteric word that would surface from time to time.

Winter 2010

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Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land… …Has anything like this ever happened in your days\or in the days of your forefathers? Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

--The Book of Joel, Chapter 1

“Candles of My Shtetl” portrayed by the artist, Yaakov Rosenbaum

The foundation for the realization of the concept to publish Pinkas Belica, was laid by our prominent landsman Issachar Kamenetzky ז”ל – teacher and Zionist educator, writer and community activist. During his visit to The United States of America, immediately after the Holocaust (1947) he crystallized the idea with the landsleit there, and, in hindsight, created the three-sided union between the three concentrations of Belica landsleit of that time: The Land of Israel, America and Europe (the survivors in the D. P. camps in Germany, Austria and Italy). Among the latter, could yet be found those, who after having been in ghettoes, concentration camps, and partisan brigades in the forests, had written down their experiences of those times, and proposed, after the Holocaust, to flesh out and complete these memoirs with the thought of publishing them in print. It was in this manner, that the survivors of our community mad good the responsibility, in this Pinkas, to tell the world about the gruesome deeds of the Nazi Asmodeus, and his abettors, who with their own eyes looked on during the time that their relatives and friends were murdered and slaughtered, who in the last moments of their lives, gasped out the sole, holy prayer: remember, and do not forget!

In a circular from Issachar Kamenetzky to the landsleit in Israel (published in August 1956) it says: “…a large part of the material, especially about the period of the Holocaust, can already be found in the hands of the editorial committee. However, a not insubstantial part is missing, especially about the period between the two World Wars… If among you there are those who can spend the time, and tap memory for filling out the required material, and would provide some financial support for the publication of the book, it will not take long for us to make the book appear.” Despite the fact that many years went by from the time that this circular went out, the Pinkas bears witness (Four sections that take up more than 500 pages and 100 pictures) that this appeal elicited a positive and friendly response from the majority of the landsleit in Israel and the Diaspora. It is a fact that, approximately 60 landsleit retell their memories here, of the life they lived in Belica before its destruction, during the Holocaust period, and thereafter. The also give a description of the despair and feelings of sorrow that all of us carry, and will continue to carry for the rest of our lives, in our hearts – in memory of our beloved martyrs who were brought to their end in the gruesome Holocaust. It is necessary to emphasize, that because of a need to refrain from touching on the identity of the writer and his writing – in this specific area of material – many details and repetitions of detail have been omitted, as well as certain routines in content and form – something that was not avoidable, and can naturally be interpreted as factual and essential.

So long as Issachar Kamenetzky was still alive (he passed away in the beginning of 1964) and afterwards, when we continued without him, to carry the burden of tasks to have the Pinkas published – we jointed bore the load in partnership, giving it our best effort, carrying out with love and compassion this, which was for us, a sacred duty, in order to erect a monument in this form, on behalf of our community that had been erased from the Book of Life. And, for a blessing, let us recognize, along with Issachar Kamenetzky, the following scions of our town: The Rabbi, R' Shmuel-Joseph Itzkowitz, Yehuda Kusielewicz, and Israel Zlocowsky – who distinguished themselves with their commitment and activity for the publication of the Pinkas.

We bestow our blessings on the activists and members of the Belica Relief-Society in New York, both the veterans there, and the newcomers, who individually and collectively spent a very significant amount of money which assured the publication of the Pinkas. A special recognition for this is due to the Messrs: Hirsch Shimonowicz, Joseph & Faygl (Kreinowicz) Schleider, Hasia and Nahum Stotsky and Shimon Baker (Buczkowsky) – who individually spent larger sums and also dedicated their energy and time for the gathering and sending expenses, and other activities for this Pinkas.

We owe deep thanks to three friends who are not scions of Belica, each of whom, in his own area, provided support for the Pinkas. They are: The editor – L(ieber). Losh, a scion of Scucyn near Lida, who gave his best energies to the formulation of content and appearance; the artist Yaakov Rosenbaum, a scion of Suwalki who dedicated his artistic rendering to the memory of the Belica survivors, called ‘The Candles of My Shtetl’ (page 9)^[1]; the teacher, researcher and writer, Joseph Cohen-Tzedek, a scion of Vilna, who worked over and edited the scientific handling of the history of the Jewish settlement in Belica (page 31).^[2]

And to the end, our plea is placed before our dear Belica landsleit: Read this Pinkas, and review well the contents of its chapters, for your children and grandchildren, who did not know our community from up close, for whose memorialization we went through this sacred labor. We have been privileged in this respect, to see this Pinkas of ours appear at the time of the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, and very close to the great Jewish victory in the Six Day War, – and therefore, let it be a remembrance that will be guarded and celebrated by our community here forever, and that the souls of its martyrs will always remain bound up in the bond of life of coming generations – the guarantors of the rebirth of Israel.

Translator's footnotes:

1. This has been relocated to appear on the frontispiece of this book. Return
2. See page 1 Return

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