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In the year 1929, I left the Volozhin yeshiva, and transferred to the large yeshiva at Mir. On one of those days, an emissary from HaPoel HaMizrahi came to town (Mr. Y. Bernstein, today, one of the editors of HaTzofeh) – and he lectured on the events in the Land of Israel and about the various parties. Influenced by what he had to say, I was drawn to him, as if by some higher force, and my comrades and I set a meeting up with him. As a result of our conversation with him, I left Mir, and went to study in Bialystok, and their I received partisan training.

After this, I received an appointment from the central office of HaPoel HaMizrahi to run the center of all the training camps, with broad discretion. I did not tarry a lot, and went to place designated for me, and I was very successful in my position. Many certificates were issued, and many of the comrades in these training camps, over whom I presided, made aliyah. In the end, I was required to remain in Poland as part of the argument that active members are required to remain in the Diaspora in order to recruit more members, and to establish training camps.

I returned to Belica, and established a branch of HaPoel HaMizrahi there. T threw myself into my position with all my might, and as a result, of this, many of our comrades made aliyah to the Land.

In the year 1930, on the even of Lag B'Omer, all of the Zionists parties in Belica came together under the aegis of R' Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky, and decided to conduct a joint Lag B'Omer parade in the streets of the city. I was appointed to head the parade, and I was to procure the permission from the police (I recall that this was on a Sunday, and all the stores were closed). The Fire-Fighters orchestra participated in the parade. We were very proud, and we all had the feeling that we were in the Land of Israel. Speeches were given beside the school: R' Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky, my uncle, Eliyahu Sokolowsky, Eliezer-Meir Savitzky, R' Shmuel Joseph Itzkowitz, and his son, Lejzor, myself and my brother Meiram. The parade made a big impression on the Jews of the city.

It is appropriate here, to mention R' Nachman, who wrote in his diary: He nicknamed me in his diary ‘To my right is Michael, grandson of R' Yossi of the Galilee’ (Joseph Sokolowsky). R' Nachman gave the appearance of a miser, but the truth of the matter was that he was a man much at peace with his environment, a conversationalist, and we would talk for hours on end about a variety of subjects. He very much loved new books, and I would obtain books and pamphlets of the movement for him, along with newspapers from the Land of Israel. I once received a letter from Dov Grodzinsky^[1] (who was already in the Land of Israel) with a number of ‘Dobek’ cigarettes. I immediately went to R' Nachman, and gave him a cigarette, he rolled it in his palm, and very much enjoyed the product of the Holy Land. At that time, he also offered me his blessing for success in my journey to the Land of Israel.

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It is pleasing for me to recollect yet another episode: after The First World War, when in Belica, study was conducted only in a Heder, they began to establish a Hebrew School. My grandfather, R' Joseph ז”ל, was hired as a teacher of Russian and Yiddish, not in order to get a prize. His pupils were Isser Kamenetzky, Eliezer-Meir Savitzky, Aharon-David Mayewsky, me, and others. My grandfather had a cane with a silver head, and he would hit his students. I was the first to be hit, until one time, when we decided to steal away his cane. He poured out his entire wrath on me, because he demanded that I reveal the name of the thief who stole the cane. At home, I said to mt grandfather, that there are those plotting to assault him, if he continues in this way. This ‘penetrated his skull,’ because on the following day, when he came to school, he had changed his attitude, and treated us very nicely. He even hinted to us, that if we were not pleased with him – he would resign. We only asked him to treat us with dignity, and we returned his cane to him, and the matter was over.

In general, life in the town went on as if we were in one large family. If someone came to grief, people would rush to assist and relieve the problem. The job of the ‘Linat Tzedek’ was – to discharge the obligation of staying up on watch during the night for sick people (who were not family members), and similarly, ‘Gemilut-Hasadim’ served this purpose for the economically distressed.

I left Belica in 1932 and made aliyah to the Land of Israel.

Translator's footnote:

1. We do not know if the writer meant Dov Grodinsky, or not. Return

The Sabbath Queen…

When the sun slid away from the treetops… the Shammes R' Itcheh would appear in the middle of the market and call out loud: ‘To – synagogue – let's go.’ It was the sign of the impending arrival of the Sabbath. It was at that point that the Sabbath candles were lit in Jewish homes, and everyone began to stream to the Bet HaMedrash to engage in the prayer of welcoming the Sabbath Queen…

On Saturday afternoon (in the summer) we would go on foot to the courtyard beside the Neman. There we would spend time on the grass, in the shade of the trees, wiling away the Sabbath, young and old alike, some reading, others singing.

We observed the Sabbath scrupulously. Once a rumor got started that the tailor had, God forbid, surely lost his mind, when he was seen riding a bicycle on the Sabbath. In my day, this was the first violation of the Sabbath, and the incident made a great impression on the town.

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A Few Personalities

In Belica, the town of my birth, there were few people, but they were substantive types. Every person – was a world unto himself.

R' Nachman would study, and lead prayers from the stand, articulating each word several times out of a concern that he had not pronounced it correctly. Every day, after the evening prayer, he would read a chapter of the Tanakh. He would record every occurrence in the town in his diary, and he would hide it in his bookcase under the books. He was alert to everything that went on. As for the children that annoyed him, he would chase after them with his cane and yell ‘insects’ at them, and also ‘shkotzim.^[1]’ As to the Itzkowitz sons – Zerakh and Zhameh – he nicknamed them with the scriptural names ‘Aluf Zerakh and Aluf Shama^[2]’ because he had a play on words of the type where one expression overlaps the other.

There were beloved Jewish people in our town like: R' Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky, a gentle person, if warm of spirit, and an ardent Zionist, the leader of the bank; R' Yaakov Kotliarsky, the Gabbai of the synagogue, and an activist with Gemilut Hasadim; R' Lejzor Jeremicer, a formidable scholar, who taught Mishna to a group of balebatim. On the night of Hoshana Rabah when we would gather to recite a chapter from the Psalms, R' Lejzor had a franchise for distributing large Antonov apples among the congregants.

R' Lejzor the ritual slaughterer (Shokhet) was a faithful man and the Torah reader at the Bet HaMedrash. R' Sheft'eh the Tailor would bring the congregation to tears with his prayers on the High Holy Days. R' Shmuel-Joseph Itzkowitz was of pleasant disposition, a great Torah scholar, and a community activist. R' Shimon the Baker would rise early for the first minyan, and would recite the chapters of the ‘song at the sea’ with such flavor that I will never forget.

Many in our town were like them, to the point that one would run out of space in trying to portray them all. Belica, from its midst, produced teachers, Yeshiva students, Halutzim, and the like. My soul weeps for all of these, who were taken by scheming hands, and brought to slaughter. הי”ד

The Children of R' Joseph Sokolowsky at the family burial plot

Young people of the Town

Young people from the town, during a joint get-together in a nearby grove

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The origin of the family of my father-teacher, Yaakov Ratnowsky ז”ל is from Sucza beside Pinsk. My grandfather was a well-to-do person, but all his assets were destroyed in The First World War, at which time my father went to live in Belica, close to the parents of my mother Tzivia, of the Sokolowsky family.

My grandfather and grandmother Joseph and Esther-Malka Sokolowsky had a big house in Belica that had two stories, in the row of houses around the perimeter of the marketplace. My father made his living in trade, and my uncle Eliyahu was a teacher in the public school, and my uncle Mott'l had a market store and paraphernalia shop.

My grandfather was known throughout the vicinity as a great scholar, and a speaker at synagogues and houses of study. He was a merchant that dealt in religious articles: prayer shawls, phylacteries, regular prayer books, and for the High Holy Days.

Golda, our oldest sister, married Yaakov Nakhumowsky from Novogrudok, and they had 5 children (Esther, Mamie, Gitt'leh, Herschel'eh, Moshe'leh). Our sister Bracha, went to the United States in 1933. My brother Michael made aliyah to the Land of Israel in 1934, and a year later, so did I. Three sisters – Marie, Masha and Hasia – remained with my parents, and during the Holocaust they were killed in the Scucyn ghetto. The entire family of my uncle Eliyahu met their death in this way as well. My uncle Mott'l was killed in the slaughter of ‘Group 36’ in Belica, among whom was Rabbi Fein.

This was the tragic end of one family out of tens of thousands, and we mourn those whom we lost, and will not forget them.

Translator's footnotes:

1. The plural of the Hebrew sheketz (elided in Yiddish to shaygetz) meaning an abomination. An epithet adopted by Yiddish-speaking Jews towards all gentiles, especially those of whom they did not approve. Return
2. See Genesis 36:17 Return

According to the entries in the old Pinkas of the Hevra-Kadisha of Belica, the Jewish settlement in the town started in the 15^th century, and this settlement continued for 450 years, until Jewish life in it was destroyed completely in the year 1942.

The town was built approximately a kilometer from the banks of the Neman River, with a marketplace in its center, and a number of streets around it, bounded the town. There were a few brick buildings in the marketplace square, with the rest being constructed of wood. all of them occupied by Jews, and even in the nearby streets, where there were wooden houses exclusively, mostly occupied by Jews with a minority of Christians.

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Surrounding the town, fields and meadows of grass spread out, and after them, forests, among which were scattered small and large villages. On the high bank of the Neman, was a large ancient building, surrounded by very old trees – this was the palace that at one time belonged to the noted landowner Graf Trubeckoy. Indeed, the entire town once belonged to him, and the residents of that time paid him taxes, until in the fulness of time, the land was sold off to the citizenry.

There were three principal paved roads that connected Belica with the cities of Lida, Zhaludok and Zhetl. Until after The First World War, the two bridges over the Neman were the only means of crossing between the two banks of the river. Afterwards, the Polish regime built a large wooden bridge, that remained in place until 1936. The bridge deteriorated over time, and was considered dangerous because of the large floes of ice that floated down the river during the melting of the snows at the beginning of spring. In 1936, a [second] larger and stronger wooden bridge was built closer to the town. The building work was done by a regular detachment from the Corps of Engineers of the Polish Army, and with the presence of the soldiers in the area, a bit of life was introduced into the area, and it added to the income of the residents. The new bridge (a length of 375 meters, and about twenty meters high above the water) remained in service until the summer of 1942, at which time it was burned by the partisans of the youth of Belica in order that it not be of use to the Nazi enemy.

A well-known movement of lumber was floated down the Neman as early as the previous century, until they reached Kovno, the capitol city in rafts, and Memel, the port city in Lithuania. The banks of Belica served as a sort of way-station for the rafts that were built on the spot, and a transfer point to those who guided the rafts down from the upper river, and as a place for rest and refreshment, provisioning of food and drink, as well as the purchase of other products (ropes, nails, iron, clothing, etc.), these being things that generated a bit of income for the Jews of the town. While they were in town, the raft sailors would spend their time carousing, drinking to excess, and not only once did fights break out among the drunkards, among themselves, and between them and the Jews of the town.

However, the most dependable and continuous income for the Jews of the town came from the farmers of the area, who would come to the town in droves on market days (every Wednesday of the week). On the market day, there were hundreds of villagers who would come to Belica in their wagons, to market their agricultural produce – grain, chickens, eggs, fruit, sheep, horses, and the like. In exchange for this, they would acquire those items that they needed for their domestic and agricultural needs, such as: bolts of textile and hides, sugar, salt, miscellany, spices, ironware, household appliances, farming implements, medicines, etc.

Medical services at the end of the prior century, and the beginning of this century, was also in our town, rendered by Feldschers, and in the surrounding villages there were also ‘experts’ and ‘elderly women’ that healed with the use of various herbs and ‘secret remedies.’ It was only after The First World War, that one doctor appeared in the town, who served all of its residents, as well as all the residents of the villages in the area.

There was a ‘big’ pharmacy and a ‘small’ pharmacy in Belica, that not only provided medicines and cosmetics. The balebatim who ran the pharmacies were consulted on matters pertaining to illness, whether Jews or Christians, whether from town, or the surrounding villages, even before they decided to call the

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doctor or visit him. In general, those asking for advice would receive both the advice and medication from the pharmacist, thereby saving the expensive fee for the advice of the doctor.

There were two (Christian) midwives in the town, and it is important to remember that most births in those times took place in ordinary homes.

Most of the breadwinners were storekeepers, and people who sold food, as well as general goods, textiles, leather goods, and ironmongers. There were also merchants who dealt in cattle, horses and other livestock, even for export out of the country. From five to six families were involved in butchering and meat for local consumption. The cattle for this purpose was acquired from the nearby villages, and were slaughtered in the town abattoir. the meat was sold both to the Jews and Christians (those hindquarter parts not kosher for Jewish consumption).

A number of inns, boardinghouses and saloons, and places to get light meals, could also be found in town. to the extent that the owners of these businesses made a living, it too was tied mainly to the market days, when the peasants would gladden their hearts with a bottle of whiskey and a good meal, after selling their produce.

An extended trade in grains, flax and flax seed and furs, went on during the winter months – when entire families were engaged in this. In connection with flax, it was necessary to visit villages and buy up the seeds locally, from the peasants, and afterwards, re-sell them to merchants operating on a larger scale, back in town, and these would then transport and sell the merchandise in the city of Lida.

A number of families engaged in tenant farming fruit orchards. The Neman River, and surrounding lakes, provided fish of varied species. This sort of merchandise was supplied by fishermen from the nearby villages, and were partly marketed in the town and part was sent to Lida.

A large part of the breadwinners were in the following occupations: tailors, shoemakers, seamstresses, hat makers and carpenters, saddle makers, smiths, and the like. There were several who made a living from transporting goods and traveled especially to the district capitol in Lida. In the thirties, the formal connection to Lida was strengthened by means of a bus service that ‘stole’ passengers from the wagon-drivers.

Until after The First World War, there were teachers in Belica who ran Heders, in which they taught the children of the town. There were also teachers who provided Torah education to the isolated Jews that lived in the surrounding villages. Between the two world wars, there were a number of known teachers, drawn from the youth of Belica proper, that taught in the local school. There were a number of bakeries in the town, and they served as a source of income for a number of families. The bakeries provided black and white bread, Challahs, and other baked goods for the town residents, as well as for the demands generated by the market day. In the final years, the smaller bakeries closed down, and only two or three large bakeries remained, which had the capacity to meet the needs of the town by using automated machinery. About two months before Passover, part of the bakeries, and also some of the balebatim in the town, would organize themselves for the baking of matzo for the town residents. However,

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the matzo from Belica earned a good reputation in their form and taste also outside of the town, and they were sent for sale in Lida and other cities.

Belica served as a center for an area that encompassed several tens of villages. The local council of the Gmina stood at the head of general administration. For this reason, the town had a police station, with a permanent detachment of between five and six policemen. The Jews had to take care that they enjoyed good relations with the police, so that they would not cause them any trouble.

The community council stood at the head of Jewish community life, which was elected by the Jewish residents. The community took care of community issues, and its officers were tasked to find solutions to related issues that were not in short supply: the community provided assistance to the needy, supported a Gemilut Hesed, and a Cooperative Bank, a Jewish school, synagogue, and represented the town to the authorities of the Powiat in Lida.

There were two synagogues in Belica: the ‘old’ synagogue, built of brick several centuries ago, and a ‘new’ synagogue that was built of wood (this latter one was in existence for about seventy years, and was burned down in the Great Fire of 1915, and never rebuilt). The ‘old’ synagogue was burned down after that, in 1941 by the Germans, who upon their invasion of Belica, burned down all the Jewish houses, and also the synagogue.

While it stood on its hillock, the ‘old’ synagogue served as the spiritual center of the town. Volumes of the Gemara, Mishna, and other sacred texts, filled its bookcases and armoires for the entire length of the western wall of the building, and in the Holy Ark, there were Torah scrolls that had been written by prominent scribes of centuries ago. All of these texts were completely incinerated in the fire that was previously mentioned.

During weekdays, as on the Sabbath, Jews gathered in the synagogue for morning, afternoon, and evening prayers. Between prayer sessions, the youth and older men would study a page of Gemara, look into a book, one looking in to a Maimonides text, another into Makor Chaim, or just recite a chapter of Psalms.

The community retained Rabbis who were men of the Torah, possessed knowledge, and were dedicated to the spiritual and community issues of the town. The last two rabbis were: Rabbi R' Joseph Rudnick זצ”ל, and Rabbi R' Shabtai Fein זצ”ל, the latter expiring after being tortured by the Germans, who despoiled a known group of the thirty-six first Belica martyrs, that were shot in the summer of 1941.

There were members of the community who led services and were cantors, and would enrich the prayer of the congregation of worshipers. Among the last of these that are recollected were: R' Meir Shimonowicz, R' Shfatya Kaufman, and R' Chaim Baranchik. Also, R' Shabtai Fein was an accomplished and excellent leader of prayer, and he had a franchise for leading the Ne'ila service at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

The community also oversaw the Hekdesh, for the poor, who would transit through the town and would come within its boundaries for the purpose of collecting alms (this building was burned down along with the ‘new’

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synagogue). There was no lack of a communal bath and a mikva in the town, to bathe, and to observe ritual purity.

For many years, there was no building available for a Jewish school. During the transition period, when the era of the Heder and Melamdim was being replaced, the students of the school would learn in the shtibl – a side room in the synagogue building, that served as a sort of ‘small’ synagogue when needed. Similarly, students would also attend class in the two parts of the women's section, in which the women prayed only during the Sabbath and on Festivals.

The erection of the school building is a story unto itself. At one of the sessions of the municipal council, that were held at the home of R' Abraham Kremen, R' Ziss'l Kalmanowicz told that in the little village of Toszynow there is a building for sale that could serve as a school, and also as a bank. It was decided to buy the building, and to build it anew on the parcel beside the synagogue for the above mentioned purpose (R' Zalman Yosselewicz was at that time, the Chairman of the parent's committee of the school, and R' Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky – the Chairman of the bank.)

The required funds were raised from a variety of sources: part was given by ‘JeKoPo,’ part from landsleit in America, and a part was collected in the town itself. A. Shalit donated the lumber boards for the erection of the interior walls, and so, with a joint effort, the building was put up that included four classes. Even the construction itself was not achieved easily, because the Christian residents were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish school in so central a location. However, thanks to the efforts of Shlomo Jasinowsky, who represented the Jews in the Gmina, this opposition was interdicted.

The parents committee looked after the fact that all the children should attend school, and study religious and secular subjects. The language of instruction was Hebrew, and after that – Polish. The tuition was set in accordance with the means of the parents of the children, and there were those who paid nothing at all. The members of the parents committee of the school were: A. Odzhikhowsky, Aharon Bussel, Israel Zlocowsky, Zalman Yosselewicz, Israel-Meiram Kremen, and Shlomo Kaplan.

At the beginning of the year 1939, the school was transformed into a government institution, with the language of instruction being Yiddish. It was burned by the Germans immediately when they captured the town in 1941.

Financial assistance within the Jewish community was carried out through a cooperative bank and a Gemilut Hesed organization. The bank was organized in 1918 (with the ending of The First World War), and was initially found, after being established, in the home of Chaya-Esther Meckel, and afterwards – in the home of Jonah Odzhikhowsky, and finally – in the new building that was built exclusively for the school and the bank.

In the first leadership of the bank were: Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky (Chairman); Abraham Yosselewicz (Treasurer); Abraham Kremen, Yaakov Kotliarsky, and Shlomo Jasinowsky.

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The bank granted loans to merchants, tradespeople, and also to ordinary citizens who were pressed to take loans for reasons of business, or other important matters. After the Soviets entered, all the papers of the bank was sequestered in its iron safe, which in turn, was buried in a hidden location in the ground, and it would seem that it is still there to this day…

The second financial intermediating institution in town – the Gemilut Hesed – was established before The First World War, in he year 1914. Yehoshua Jasinowsky served as its first Chairman, and its members were: Rabbi Joseph Rudnick, Eliezer Yankelewsky, Abraham Yosselewicz, and Moshe Dziencelsky.

In the year 1926, a new committee was elected, that brought in ‘new blood:’ Shmuel-Joseph Itzkowitz (Chairman); Zalman Yosselewicz, Israel Zlocowsky, Joseph Lozowsky, Jonah Odzhikhowsky, Israel-Meiram Kremen, Eliezer Yankelewsky, Meir Zelikowsky; Ephraim Ruzhansky served as a salaried secretary.

The organization first conducted its business in the store of Eliezer Yankelewsky, but after the community building was constructed, that we previously mentioned, in which the bank was lodged, the Gemilut Hesed was also moved there. This Gemilut Hesed gave out small loans, and assistance to the needy, and for the purchase of merchandise, the payment of onerous debts, the purchase of clothing and shoes for the holidays, and the like.

Among the social institutions that provided help, we also include: ‘Bikur Kholim,’ which extended medical help to those in need; ‘Linat Tzedek,’ to assure bedside care to the ill who had no family.

The activists of ‘Kemkha D'Paskha’ looked after providing matzo for Passover to those in need. The members of ‘Hakhnasat Kallah’ would volunteer themselves to donate and assure that a bride without means could be brought under her wedding canopy.

From among the young women of town, on a winter's day

R' Chaim-Noah Kamenetzky and son, Isser (with wife and child)

R' Shimon Odzhikhowsky (‘der Tchaplicher’) and wife, with their grandchildren

The fire fighters would organize drills and exercises in extinguishing fires from time-to-time. To indicate the seriousness of the emergency, when the alarm was given, the members of the brigade would assemble with great speed, dressed in their uniforms, and equipped with their tools, in the gathering place for the fire fighters, that was beside the synagogue. With lightning speed, the ladders were taken out, barrels for water,

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and fire-extinguishing equipment, hoses and pumps. At the same time, several wagons would be commandeered to bring all the fire-fighting equipment to the place where the fire was burning, generally, through the center of the marketplace. Such drills always would generate excitement among the children, who would come from all parts of the town to look with awe and admiration at the fire fighters, who climbed up the tall ladders, and would spray streams of water on the roofs, and ‘inadvertently’ on the children themselves….

Needless to say, at too frequent intervals, the fire fighters (all of whom were Jews) would have to gather to put out real fires that broke out in town, or in the nearby villages. Those who come from the town no doubt remember very well the two great fires that broke out in 1936, in which more than half of the town was turned into islands of ruin, even if only few of the Jewish homes burned down at that time.

The pride of the town was in the instrumental orchestra of the fire fighters, which played in the streets during festive occasions, be they Jewish or Polish, as well as events that were dedicated to public purposes. The leader of the orchestra was Dov Grodinsky, and after he made aliyah, his place was taken by Yitzhak Kamenetzky.

Among the community cultural activities, it is worth mentioning the Drama Circle, whose performances were put on in the premises of the fire fighters (within which a stage was built for the orchestra to play, and for dram circle presentations). It is also worth mentioning the sports activities of the Jewish youth: Soccer teams, basketball and handball, in which skill was developed, and competitions held with the Christian youth of the town, and with mixed teams from the nearby towns.

In the end: let us recall with favor those various ‘groups’ that occupied themselves in the synagogue with the study of Mishna, Gemara, recitation of the Psalms, and other things: At their head – the Rabbi, R' Shabtai Fein, R' Chaim-Leib Buczkowsky, and R' Yaakov Shmuckler. And let note also be take of the Hevra Kadisha, who dealt with bringing the deceased to their final resting place. This Hevra kept a Pinkas, in which a record was made of all those who died, and all those who were born, and the important events in the life of the Jewish community. The Hevra Kadisha looked after the ancient and modern cemeteries, in which many of the headstones had sunk into the ground, and whose ends were obscured by the grass that grew on the parcel, while the town that was here, still occupied its place.

Today, there is no trace of Jewish Belica. The houses of its Jews were burned during the Holocaust period, and those that survived the sword have left the killing fields, and who is to know if these headstones still peer out in these cemeteries….

(Note: pp 180 - 188 is the Yiddish equivalent of this chapter)

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