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The Destruction

O town of mine, you are etched into my memory, I see you from afar – and my heart is choked up – I see you swaying softly in the shadows of sunshine, Even though the black darkness reigns in your streets. My destroyed Dereczin, you are dear and precious to me, You were always with me in my wanderings. My innocent happiness of youth was consumed with you in fire, But my weeping over your ruins will never go away. Stone upon stone in your streets, shrieking voices Cry out from the fields drenched in blood, The smoke of the incineration is gone, your skies again are azure, As they were in that spring when all was good. As on those Sabbath days, when walking by my window, Were Jews in their prayer shawls going to the Synagogue. The joy of the Sabbath twinkled in all eyes, A happiness, with which each house was full. Now, however, I know that in your desolated streets, The joy of each house will no longer resound. I know: it isn't there any longer, Jewish Dereczin no longer exists, With “Hear O Israel” my little town went to its grave.

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The date of March 23, 1939 comes to mind. A cold rain, mixed with snow, fell ceaselessly since the early morning hours, but the snow didn't last, and melted underfoot. A swamp-like mud covered all the streets and byways of Dereczin.

The 23^rd of the month was a day for which the Jews of the town waited weeks at a time – it was the major market day, when thousands of peasants would come to town to sell their produce, buy a variety of things, such as kerosene, salt, sugar, footwear, clothes, etc. The marketplace was packed with hundreds of wagons. The peasants were in a hurry to sell their produce in order to have the time to drop in on a saloon to get some drink, have some talk with their acquaintances, buy whatever they needed, and then return to their villages before nightfall.

On the outside, it looked like a normal market day, but I remember it so vividly because on that day we lived through the first news of possible war, and this was the onset of the terrible misfortune that two years later befell Dereczin, and specifically its Jews.

On that day, the news of an instant mobilization hit us like a thunderclap. Before the news of the mobilization arrived, no one even dreamed of such a sudden mobilization order. But now it became clear – the smell of war was in the air.

The first of the mobilized troops ran around town putting outstanding affairs in order. Their mothers wept and wailed to the point where it was heart-rending. However, the older folks still recalled the mobilization of 1914 and remembered how tragically it was received by everyone at that time. But nobody took any comfort from this. We were all terrified. Under these extenuating circumstances, all the mobilized troops piled into wagons, and went off to Zelva to the train station.

A few days went by, and the first letters began to arrive. The young people were somewhere on the Polish-German border, intensely occupied with military affairs, but they communicated that everything was all right with them. However, the highly anxious state in Dereczin continued to persist.

It was in this fashion that days, weeks and then months went by, and the residents of our town did not return. From time to time, one or another of them would come home for a couple of days leave, but no one of our people was discharged from military service.

Life proceeded normally, but our sense of unrest did not leave us. Five months had passed, it is August already, and the state of anxiety persists the entire time, and grows more intense day by day. All manner of rumors and suspicions ceaselessly circulate among the Jews, and everyone's nerves are taut with tension.

The last week of August arrives. The remaining eligible age cohorts are mobilized, and in the air, one senses that the war is near.

On the morning of September 1, the bitter news arrives: the German Luftwaffe has bombed Suwalk and other Polish cities. Everyone becomes heavy-hearted. At noon, we heard the words of the Polish President Maszczycki, in which he expressed the hope that God would help the Polish nation defeat its enemies. It became rapidly evident to everyone

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that this was an empty wish. Hard days, filled with reports of the German victories, come along. The Jews, by and large, sit in their houses full of fear. Commerce was practically paralyzed. In the town, there is no military force. News reaches us that the Zelva railroad station has been bombed. Dereczin gets its first taste of these bombs on Rosh Hashanah. A few of these bombs fall outside of town, but apart from instilling fear, they cause no material damage.

Out of fear of the German bombardment, we leave Dereczin, and we go to a [neighboring] village. Our Polish neighbors ask us to flee from the German planes, because [they believe] they are bombing only the Jews... but we react to this specious suggestion without laughter, because we know that the Germans have a long list to settle with us Jews.

The war was already almost two weeks in progress before Dereczin received a detachment of several tens of Polish youths, who were sent as a military formation to protect law and order. You are to understand that the “ordering” started with the Jews. Several Jews fell victims at their hands, and they occupied themselves with instituting their bloody work. With armed weapons in hand, they forced several tens of the Jewish populace into an old abandoned barn, and wanted to torch it. It was only thanks to the energetic intervention of the town priest that these Jews were saved from an awful death.

An alarm then went out through the town, that the Soviets had crossed the Polish-Russian border, and they were coming to save us. We did not then understand exactly what would constitute their 'rescue' and as a result, a great sense of relief held sway among the Jews. And that happiness, was very understandable [at the time].

On September 17, the Red Army crossed the border, and a few days later, we were privileged to see the Soviet military arrive with our own eyes.

It is difficult to describe our sense of elation. At the time, I thought that I was living the happiest day of my life. The entire Jewish population, and also many of the Christians from Dereczin and its environs, went forth to greet the Soviet military forces. Their relationship to the native population was very friendly. There ride into town made a colossal impression. They were especially inspired by the Red Cavalry, which came riding in on their white horses, with shining beautiful pelerines over their shoulders. They embraced and kissed everyone who came to greet them, giving the children little red flags as souvenirs of this great day of good fortune. Our joy knew no bounds. It seemed as if the Messiah had come...

To the celebration gatherings, tens of thousands of people from the entire area came together. Dereczin was literally too small to absorb them all. The masses found many ways to express their enthusiasm and inspiration for the liberating Red military forces, and its shining leader, Stalin.

It quickly began its work to establish control of the town. It was immediately decided to continue utilizing Polish currency, and the Polish zloty was made equal in worth to the Russian ruble. The arriving Russians began to buy up everything that came to hand. In comparison with the prices that they experienced at home, the cost of merchandise, especially clothing and footwear was very cheap.

A new 'situation' developed in Dereczin. Hundreds of Jews, who fled the German-occupied parts of western Poland, streamed into the Byelorussian cities and towns, and came into Dereczin en masse. Despite the fact that the Dereczin Jews did not live in the lap of luxury, they took in these 'homeless' people with open arms. Jews from Poland lived in almost every home, and they brought in a new color to life in Dereczin. Together with our Litvak Yiddish, one could now hear, from all sides, the musical tone of Polish-accented Yiddish. Relationships between the two groups was generally amicable.

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Soviet Influence Arrives

Our ardor for the Soviet rulers began to get quenched a little at a time. Apart from continuous changes, our lives took on the character of the familiar Soviet way of life. Free trade was no longer permitted. One central store was opened, which needed to serve the entire town populace with all required products. While no official sanctions were put in place, as a practical matter, it was impossible to get a hold of anything.

When word of a product newly arrived at the store was passed, immediately a long line formed in which the 'bullies' had control. It was in this fashion that 400g of sugar was allocated to each family for several months. To the best of my recollection, I can remember only one instance in which my family received such a ration of sugar from the Soviets during the period of their occupation. There were those who happened to receive more than one portion during rationing. Few families were able to provision themselves adequately with all of the necessities of life.

Life became difficult, but this did not disturb the good relationship that had been created between the Soviet residents and the local young people. It was in this manner that we befriended a high-ranking officer, who was Jewish, who spoke a 'gentile' Yiddish, but could recite [Ch. N.] Bialik by heart.

Slowly, all the people fell into various lines of endeavor, wherever they had skills, as a teacher, or worker, in one of the [newly] created work collectives. It was hard for us to get used to the idea that if you were late for work, by even a few minutes, that you could be severely punished, even be liable for arrest. But, it is possible to get used to just about everything...

That is how the time passed by. Twenty-one months had passed since the arrival of the Soviet forces.

Suddenly, there came June 22, 1941.

Bitter bulletins about the enemy follow one on top of the other. The Germans have bombed military barracks, airfields, railroad stations, highways and cities. The Soviet military personnel are constantly disoriented and confused.

On that sad June 22, German aircraft appeared over Dereczin as well. The Zelva railroad station was also bombed. An indescribable panic took hold among the populace, especially the Jews. The surrounding Poles take great joy in the misfortune of the Jews. They hated the Soviet rule intensely, and now thought only of revenge.

Our hearts told us that the most terrifying period of our lives was approaching.

In the evening, all the young people received orders for mobilization, and in the morning they were to rendezvous at the railroad station in Zelva. However, it appears that the Germans had good intelligence, and from early morning on, bombed the rendezvous point heavily. The Soviet authorities had no alternative means by which to dispatch the assembled young people. Whoever survived the German bombardment fled for home. With the return of the mobilized young people, the atmosphere in Dereczin became even more burdened. A deep sorrow took hold of all the Jews.

On the second day, Monday morning, all the Soviet authorities abandoned Dereczin, and began to flee eastward to the Russian border. A part of the young people fled with them as well. The roads were packed with the military and civilians. Everything was focused on fleeing into Russia. But very few were able to break through and reach areas still under Soviet control. The roads were cut up by the fire of the Germans and their troops. People fell on the roads from German bullets. Those who remained alive, managed to crawl back home.

Dereczin was left without military protection. On the fourth day, Wednesday, an alarm was given that a German tank had rapidly run through the town.

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Nobody wanted to believe that something like this had happened – in Dereczin, the billeting point for one of the best Soviet battalions, and the young people who were friendly with the Russian military personnel, would relate not once how the battalion's equipment was so good and modern. Had the battalion abandoned its base in Dereczin without defense? These type of questions were posed from all sides, until we saw with our own eyes that not a single Soviet soldier remained in town.

Dereczin was captured by the Germans on June 27. A detail of German paratroopers entered the town, while the regular German Army was still in Zelva. As they entered the town, they began shooting indiscriminately, and started to drive the people out of the houses into the courtyard of the church. Also, black uniformed S.S. troops came into town, with the white skulls on their insignias, and ordered us to march with raised hands to the church.

The entire population, young and old, Jews and Christians, had been gathered there, and one of the Germans said that Dereczin had been occupied by the Germans, and martial law was being declared in the town. 'Suspicious' people were immediately put off to the side. In order to be 'suspected,' of being a fleeing Soviet resident, it was enough to be clean-shaven, or simply to have a haircut. They also began to separate the Jews and Christians.

That is how we all stood there, not knowing what would become of us. But then, suddenly, a miracle happened that permitted us that day to stay alive, but consumed half the town in flames.

To this day, we don't exactly know who, in that hour when we feared death, opened artillery fire on Dereczin. Perhaps it was the regular German Army, which was advancing from Zelva to Dereczin, fired on the town, not knowing that the town had already been taken by their own paratroops. Other knowledgeable people say that it was a Soviet detachment that opened fire, in a move to break through the German lines. One way or another, the falling artillery shells, which set fire to the houses adjacent to the church, so disrupted these German 'heroes,' that they began to run back and forth like poisoned mice. We all fled the church courtyard toward the burning houses. We began to try and save whatever we could. It was at that point that people began to run into the fields surrounding the town, to save themselves from the conflagration. When we regrouped, we found that our house had been burned to the ground. Temporarily, we went into the barn, which had managed to survive the blaze.

That evening, the S.S. troops wanted to begin murdering Jews. We were lying in the barn, together with our neighbors and other refugees, who had just arrived from the Soviet side. Suddenly, we were surrounded by German soldiers armed with hand grenades. They entered the barn and ordered the men to raise their hands, and took away their watches along with anything else of value. They didn't touch the women. They told us to remain in the barn, and not to move. Anyone who would presume to go outside would be shot immediately.

Beaten and frightened, we sat that way, not knowing what the coming minutes were going to bring. The little children cried, asking to be taken home, not knowing that all that remained of their home were the charred walls. The adults sat and their hearts gave out. So many stories had already been heard about German cruelty, about bestial murders. If true, then these perhaps are our last minutes [of life]. The sorrow of those sentenced to death fell heavily on us. No one spoke, no one stirred from their place. The German patrol is guarding us, we hear their footfall around the barn.

It is a dark night around us. What will the night bring? Will we live long enough to see the light of dawn?

About midnight, strong gunfire erupted all about us. The shells of automatic weapons are flying over our barn. And we are sitting inside as if caught in a trap. My father, a former Russian soldier in World War I, identifies the different artillery shells to me. Out of

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sheer exhaustion and weeping, the children have fallen asleep. My mother ע”ה, sits and watches over them, and tears fall from her eyes.

The coming of dawn pierces the blackness of the night, and it becomes possible to see something again. I steal quietly to the door, and peer through a crack. I see soldiers on motorcycles, and it appears as if the Germans are getting reinforcements. But as the morning proceeds, and gets lighter, I recognize these as Soviet troops. We immediately saw that our German patrols had fled. In the confusion of battle, they had forgotten about us, and we remained alive. One miracle after another.

In the morning we returned to town. There we learned that a part of a Soviet Division, which was surrounded by the German military forces, wanted to break through the German lines, and not having any other alternative, attacked the Germans in town in the middle of the night. There was a life and death struggle in the middle of the streets. The town was inundated with cannon fire. None of the residents got any sleep. At the end of the battle, the Russians were able to break through and they went through Dereczin eastward, in order to join up with their fragmented formations.

The Germans fled from Dereczin to Halinka. This was good news, but it didn't last very long. News reached us very soon thereafter that on arrival in Halinka, the Germans murdered and also buried alive 140 Jews. They had taken away everyone from Dereczin that they suspected of being a conscript in the Russian army, and to this day, no one knows where they were taken and killed. They were the first victims of German rule in Dereczin. Afterwards, there was a brief interlude without any death victims.

About July 15, a whole camp of Nazi agents of destruction entered the town. In a matter of minutes, all Jews, men and women, age 14-60 were ordered to assemble in the marketplace. An S.S. officer gave a short speech to this gathering. He said as follows: Beginning tomorrow, July 16, all Jews above the age of 14 must wear yellow badges 10cm^2. The penalty for not wearing this badge of shame, or for not displaying it properly, has been set – death on the spot. All Jews age 14-60 must every day present themselves for forced labor. All we got for this work was a beating, and later – even a bullet. Jews were forbidden to go on the roads, to live next to Christians, and leaving their houses after 5PM.

This is how the litany of decrees began. The Germans established a Judenrat to monitor compliance with these decrees and regulations. The German authorities related to the Judenrat with disdain and mockery, and treated its members no better than all the other Jews.

Forced labor was varied and also peculiar. Their true goal was to exhaust the Jews to death. We dug pits, and then filled them in again, moved large heavy boulders from one place to another, and then back again. As an overseer of the women's work, one of the refugee homeless people was appointed, one Belkovich, a quiet and good man, who was lame in one foot. He would always beg our pardon whenever he came to summon us to conscript labor. It was no secret what was happening when a young girl went to work, and hadn't returned by the afternoon, he would try to calm us by saying that we will yet be privileged to see the murderers get their own bitter comeuppance.

It was not once that I would start up from sleep in the middle of the night, fearful that I would oversleep and be late for work. Here it is 2AM, and in three hours, I must present myself to the Gestapo Command. The Head of these murderers would personally count and control his workers, cursing all the Jews and cruelly beating anyone he felt like beating. The entire process was frightening and demeaning. You think to yourself that nothing here can be called 'human,' what with this German animal standing in front of you with hate flickering in his eyes.

There is not much time for such thinking. An order is barked to leave the yard and begin work. All day

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we are transformed into robots, who do things without thinking about the purpose of the work. We become exhausted and oppressed. In the winter, for example, we had to clean the snow off all the streets, and as it happens, that winter, the Lord sent us snow without measure. I stand on the marketplace where the market fair days took place. Also, in those days, the peasants would come on the 23^rd of the month, to the market day. We have to clean the snow off this large expanse, along with the refuse from the horses and wagons that was left behind. And the snow is up to our knees. The remaining peasants look at us mockingly, as if to express their will to wreak vengeance on these very Jewish girls that, not so long ago, had lived such a tranquil life, studied, hoped and dreamed about things that these peasants couldn't even begin to understand.

Once, in such a distressed time, I spy my friend Sonya Grachuk not far from me. Recently we have not met very often, because of the strict curfews, we would spend entire evenings in our cramped and over-crowded homes. Sonya is standing, but not working. When I asked her what was happening, she said to me that where possible, we must damage and sabotage whatever the Germans force us to do. And in connection with this, she tells me the following overwhelming thing: there are thousands of partisans operating in the Byelorussian forests. They are waging guerilla warfare against the Germans. At this point, Sonya suddenly went silent – from the distance, the Hangman of the Jews of Dereczin was approaching, in his glistening high boots and leather jacket, which he had extorted from the Jews, and more than once had been stained with Jewish blood. We immediately stooped to our work.

Several months later on a summer's day, a contingent of Estonian police suddenly arrived in Dereczin. We all became terribly frightened. The Estonians were already well known as wild animals. Every Christian who had a complaint against a Jew, or just plain hated Jews, was in a position to inform to these police, and the Estonians would inflict the murderous punishment. It was in this manner that they were sent on “guest duty” in the towns. It didn't take long before the first victims were brought to the police. They are boarded on a vehicle and driven to the outskirts of town. I am made aware that Sonya Grachuk is among them. Later, witnesses told that when the auto passed through the center of the marketplace, Sonya raised her head, in order to bid farewell to the forced laborers. An Estonian struck her violently in the head with the butt of his rifle, and she fell dead in the car. Two years later, on my way to the tomb, I came across the mass grave where Sonya was buried. I paid homage to her shining memory with a profound silence.

Meanwhile, an alarm spread that in Slonim 1000 Jews were rounded up without any cause and sent to an unknown destination. A few days later, we found out that they had all been shot not far from the city. Equally bitter news began to arrive from other surrounding cities and towns. The disquiet among the Jews grew from day to day. We lived in constant fear, until the High Holydays came, which in that year were truly transformed into Days of Awe.

On the first day of Sukkot, as usual, the Jews left quite early for their work. But this time, they were not taken to there usual work, rather the police took them to a totally different location. In vain we waited for the return of parents, husbands and brothers, and they [finally] returned after 36 hours of inhuman labor. They had dug out a mass grave 45 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 4 meters deep.

Why do the Germans need such a pit? Many speculations circulated among the Jews. We tried to submerge the awful feeling we had, and said that it would be used to make storage units for potatoes and other produce. But that pit did not disappear from anyone's thoughts. We talked about it day and night, and it often came to us in our dreams.

By that time, the command had already been given that all Jews must vacate Christian homes, and move out of mixed residence streets, and to set up residence in the so-called Jewish Quarter, which occupied one side of the marketplace and the

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Schulhof. Quite often, S.S. troops would come from other cities, and the Jews would live through hours of indescribable terror. The town would be surrounded by military personnel and police, and these bandits would descend on the Jewish homes looking for gold, money, leather, and other items of value. Such plundering was always accompanied by murderous beatings. After such incidents, the Jews would temporarily breathe a little easier.

However, they were not permitted to breathe easy for very long.

During the first months of the German occupation, the local administration was in the hands of Polish authorities. Their relationship to the Jews was no better than that of the Germans. On November 17, a contingent of 11 S.S. troops arrived to take over the town governance into their hands. At the head of this group was a young, dangerous sadist named Poritz. He was as bloodthirsty as a wild animal. The Polish authorities are replaced with Byelorussian police, who are no better than their predecessors. The Germans set themselves up in the movie theater, and from there, spread their bloody rule throughout the town. Poritz was the Leiter for the 'Jewish Question.'

Day in and day out, hundreds of Jews would assemble in front of Gestapo headquarters, and from their go to work. For that many people, there was entirely insufficient work of any kind in Dereczin, but the Germans took pleasure in watching how hungry and driven Jews are made to stand in the rain and snow, and expend the last of their failing energies.

The situation became increasingly unbearable. Gentiles were forbidden to have any sort of contact with Jews, and it became increasingly difficult to procure the essentials of life. A Jew was prohibited from making any purchase in the marketplace, even in the circumstance that he had any money. It was not uncommon that in reprisal for buying a little bit of milk for children, or a bit of bread, that Jews were shot in the middle of the marketplace. Death awaited those who wanted to leave town, or approach the local gentiles in search of something to eat.

Terrifying news reached us from various sources, from the surrounding cities. The Jews in Baranovich and Horodishch (possibly Gorodishch) had already been slaughtered out. Life for us had ceased to exist. We spoke only of death, which stood before our eyes. Little children already understood to flee the presence of the bloody Poritz. Every night, two-year-old children would ask their mothers if it was safe to get undressed for bed, and if the night will be an uneventful one.

At Purim, a couple of hundred men were taken from Dereczin to Slonim for work. They were taken under heavy guard by Germans and [local] police, [recruited] from Dereczin gentiles. It was bitter cold, and the young Jews were clothed in tattered garments and footwear. They were led, as you can imagine, on foot, and were murderously beaten along the way for trying to stop and rest.

Some of them, after a while, managed to turn back to Dereczin without permission. The Germans found out about this, and on a specific day in April they arrested these young people and their families. Whoever was found in their homes was [also] taken off to the police. Without any charges, they were held the entire night, and beaten with the intent to kill. On April 30, they took everyone, about 200 souls, and led them off to the large pit, near the village of Radziak. A few understood what was going to happen, and began to run [away] across the fields. They were shot and left to lie in the fields. The others, forced by beatings, were thrown into the pit, and then they opened fire on them with machine guns and hand grenades. Dirt was thrown into the pit, which barely covered the dead and those that were still alive and lay dying.

Among those who fell in the fields was one woman who had only been wounded. With enormous effort, she managed to drag herself back into town, where Jews secretly brought her to the hospital, and when

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the Germans found out about it, they took all these unfortunates out to the cemetery and shot them there.

The following morning, after this terrifying day of slaughter, the Leiter of the Jewish Question Poritz, came before the Jewish laborers, threw his leather jacket to them and ordered: “Clean the Jewish blood off the jacket.”

The Germans carried out a registration of all Russian citizens who remained in our area. This consisted of about 100 men. These were rank and file soldiers and officers of the Russian military, who could not get out of the region after the German invasion, because this entire area of Byelorussia was in fact surrounded by German forces withing the first few days. They removed the Russian military insignias [from their uniforms], and went away to work for the local peasants.

The Germans arrested the registered Russians, and herded them of in the direction of Slonim. On the way to Halinka, they were all shot. When the remaining Russians heard about this, they fled from the villages into the forests. They were the founders of the partisan brigades in our area.

News of the partisans and their daring feats reached Dereczin. Legends were literally spun out of air about their exploits, their number put in the thousands, and that they were equipped with modern weaponry. At that time, this was pure fantasy, but later it became reality. But this news served to raise the spirits of the Jews; a small hope awoke in their hearts that now, the Germans might experience a little fear in starting up with the Jews. Many young people began to think about going to the forests themselves. However, it was not that easy to get out of the ghetto and go to the forests. A danger emanated not only from the Germans, who would have taken revenge on the families of these escapees, but also from the Jews as well.

In order to create antagonism among the Jews, the Germans divided the Jewish population into “essential” and “non-essential” Jews. The “essential” [Jews] were the ones who worked for the Germans. They implied that the “essential” [Jews] did not have to fear for their lives. In order to obtain an “essential” certificate, the Jews paid large sums of money to those close to the German authorities, and were prepared to do the hardest and dirtiest work for the Germans. Please understand, that this whole rigmarole with “essential” Jews turned out to be a gruesome ruse perpetrated by the Germans, in order to sow hatred and envy between one Jew and another, and in this fashion weaken their ability to resist the dangers that lurked for them, coming from the Germans.

The newly-minted bourgeoisie was organized into collective districts by the Germans, they emptied out a large Jewish dwelling, and turned it into a warehouse. Village residents who had need of labor, would come to these collectives. The Jews would carry out this work without compensation. There were many among the peasants who did not sympathize with this disgusting exploitation of the hapless Jews, and they would bring a little flour, a small bottle of milk for these workers – and all this clandestinely, because they stood to be punished severely for providing assistance to a Jew. The cows, which were owned by the Jews, were confiscated by the Germans within the first days of their arrival, and the little bit of milk from them literally helped to keep small children alive. I am reminded of how difficult it was to bring the sanctioned products from the warehouses, which were outside the ghetto, to our home. My little brothers ע”ה, made themselves a small wagon, and at great risk to themselves, through side streets and back yards, would bring this meager produce home with them.

It was in this manner that four thousand people lived in suffocation together, in 40 houses, consisting of 'homeless refugees' and natives of Dereczin, and Jews brought from Halinka and Kolonia [-Sinaiska]. About 500 “essential” Jews lived outside the ghetto. There was absolutely no contact between different segments of the Jewish population.

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With these types of relationships, it wasn't easy to contemplate fleeing to the forests, because no one was prepared to place the entire Jewish ghetto population at the risk of death. The so-called “essential” Jews were especially opposed to this idea, because they lived with the illusion of their “essential” status for the German occupiers.

Despite all this, the youth secretly prepared itself to flee to the forests, and establish a resistance to the finish. Those who worked in the ammunition dumps, where equipment that had fallen into German hands from their engagement with the Russians, used to slowly and one at a time, carry out individual firearms and bullets. In this fashion they assembles twenty guns and automatic weapons, hiding them outside of town, in order that no Jew fall under suspicion. An agreement was made to utilize this weaponry when there was no other choice remaining. One must recall the nature of the danger involved in trying to take arms out of a German ammunition dump in order to appreciate the heroism of these Dereczin young people.

It was felt that the end of the Dereczin Jews was drawing closer. The Germans had milked the last shreds of value, through contributions, from the Jews. From time to time, under direction from the Nazi regional command in Slonim, the Judenrat was compelled to offer up kilograms of gold, silver, furs, and large sums of money – and the Jewish houses had become emptied of their valuables. Physically, the Jews had become exhausted through hard labor and hunger. People dropping dead in the ghetto was a frequent occurrence. Everybody participated in the shooting: the Germans, the [local] police, everyone had a grudge against the Jews and wanted to exact revenge, giving no thought to why or for what.

The situation for the Jews in Zelva was at that time still somewhat better. Zelva was officially part of the Third Reich, and Jews were permitted to live there. They were even paid for their forced labor. From the perspective of the Jews of Dereczin, Zelva seemed like a Garden of Eden. It was no wonder, then, that people did almost anything to try and steal over to Zelva. This was no easy thing to do, since for merely going out of the ghetto you could get a bullet. It was also not easy to find a Christian, who even for a large sum of money, would agree to transport Jews to Zelva. Despite this, there was an inclination among many Jews to try and steal over to this “Garden of Eden” of Zelva. I personally escorted two of my sisters-in-law and a young girlfriend, and said my farewells to them at the boundary of the ghetto, in preparation for them smuggling themselves across the boundary in order to go to Zelva. I parted from them with an eternal finality, because I am certain that our end is close at hand.

The Ninth of Ab of 5702, and the following day, the tenth of Ab, July 24, 1942, will never be forgotten by the Jews of Dereczin all over the world.

The anxious sentiment was already palpable on Tisha B'Av. Jews fasted, prayed for their deliverance, and the downfall of the Germans. Neither the fast nor the prayers were of any use. The fate of the Jews of Dereczin was sealed on that day.

One sensed the odor of gunpowder in the air that day, somewhat more strongly than usual. The Germans and the police were making an incursion into the ghetto on that day. The Jews became uneasy, and began running around, one to another, seeking some insight or advice.

A certain Jew, apparently sent as an emissary by the Germans, kept constantly assuring people that there was nothing to fear, nothing was going to happen, and one could peacefully disrobe for sleep. As usual, we went to sleep fully clothed.

It was still dark when the ghetto was surrounded by the Germans and the police. There were four of us – my mother-in-law ע”ה, my husband, an acquaintance, and myself – outside the ghetto. Our eyes were not shut, and we saw everything that happened in the ghetto.

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My mother-in-law gave each of us a half loaf of bread and convinced us to flee. We all left the house together, taking nothing with us, and running towards the fields. It got as little lighter, and the police spotted us. A hail of bullets flew over our heads.

We ran off in all directions, and from that time on, I never saw my mother-in-law again. My husband Abraham, our acquaintance, Munya and I continued to run together. A large swampy mud plain was in front of us, and we sank into it up to our knees. Before that, we had to run through the yard of the Russian Orthodox Bishop, whose son-in-law was a known lackey of the Nazis. It would appear that they were all still asleep, since it was given to us to cross that dangerous yard by stealth.

After exhausting ourselves by crossing the swampy mud, we hid ourselves in a corn field. It was quiet all around. From the distance, the sounds of heavy gunfire was carried to us on the wind.

Mendel Feldman

Only two children remained alive from the family: the author of this memoir, Rachel Efrat, who fortunately emigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, and a son, Chaim Feldman, who along with his wife Liza, and two small children, survived the passage through seven circles of Hell, first in the ghetto of Novogrudok, and afterwards with the partisan brigades in the forest; they lived through every conceivable terrifying experience, and after emerging from the forests, reached America where they settled themselves.

The Feldman family in Dereczin was an institution unto itself. Everyone recalls both my mother and father ע”ה, with their cordiality to guests, and their warmhearted relationships to everyone.

My father Mendel Feldman, was for many years the head of the community in Dereczin, and with his wise and diplomatic leadership, earned respect from all parts of the town. Jews often came to seek his advice, because he was endowed with straight thinking and robust logic. My mother was the symbol of goodness to us and to everyone [in town].

It is therefore understandable that we, the children of the Feldman family household got a good upbringing, and we were active among the various youth groups in town.

My sister Tamara, died before the war. All the other of my brothers and sisters, except for my brother Chaim, were brought down by the murderous hands of the Nazis.

During the first days of the Nazi occupation, my father once again proved adept at protecting the interests of the Jewish community, but he quickly perceived the nature of the murderous plans that these butchers had prepared to carry out.

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On one morning, an order came from the Nazi commandant that Mendel Feldman and his wife must present themselves for relocation into the ghetto.

Father packed everything and hastily arranged all our effects. At a specific time, he left home, but did not return too quickly. Suddenly, there was a cry from my mother: “Jews! Come and save us!” When the neighbors who were around came running, they saw my father hanging from the loft.

A funeral was organized with the permission of the Nazi commandant. When the cortege wound its way through the streets of Dereczin to the cemetery, the lowlife of a Nazi commandant shouted out with great conviction and malice: “They are taking the smartest Jew in the town to burial...”

The sons and daughters of the Feldman family that were slaughtered by the Hitlerite murderers were: Chaya Dworetsky and her husband Hirschel along with two children (a third remains living in Russia); Shayndl Blum, her husband and daughter; Rivkah Viniatsky with her husband and two sons; Elkeh Weinstein with her husband and two sons; Hirschel Feldman met a hero's death in the forest as a partisan.

So many years have passed since those terrifying days, and I still cannot forget that frightening picture. Living through that first day when the Germans arrived in Dereczin.

The German attack across the Soviet border on June 22, 1941 found me in Zheludok, where I was a guest visiting my grandmother. On the third day, Tuesday, after heavy bombardment, I fled early in the morning from Zheludok to home in Dereczin. I made the 50 km journey in one day, and arrived home broken in body, and exhausted to the point that I was unable to stand on my own two feet.

A peculiar and gruesome silence pervaded the streets, when I arrived in Dereczin. I couldn't comprehend from where such a deathly quiet came to this place, at a time when all roads were packed with refugees, people were running from place to place, often without any seeming purpose, trying to find any way to save themselves from the Germans.

I was met by Bashka Abelovich. I studied with her daughter Tzippeh^[1] in a small class. She escorted me as far as my home. The elation of my parents was understandable. In Dereczin, this deathly silence persisted until Friday.

That Friday is strongly etched into my memory. I remember at about nine in the morning, tanks and other Panzer autos entered the town, full of Germans. With arms in both hands, the German soldiers came to us and ordered Jews and Christians alike to gather in the courtyard of the church. An older German, speaking a broken Russian, outlined a variety of edicts to us, what was permitted and what was forbidden. The picked out all the men who were shaven, thinking that these were Russian troops. Those were all shot on the same day.

As we were standing in the courtyard of the church, a bombardment began, and the town began to burn. Even the Germans were frightened, and ran to their vehicles.

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I ran to our house, because a bomb struck the Beckenstein home in the wall, and the fire was spreading right toward our house. My motherז”ל, looked after the children, while my father and I started to throw whatever contents we could out of the house. In the end I even rescued my bicycle.

Our house began to burn. In the ensuing tumult and confusion, I became separated from my family. I fled to the road leading to Slonim.

The fields were full of Jews and their children. I sat alone and looked at the devastating images about me. To this day, it appears before me like some gruesome film. It started to thunder and flash lightning, and an intense downpour of rain commenced. Airplanes flew overhead. The Germans rode back and forth in their tanks.

The town was ablaze. The smoke was heavy and constant. People screamed hysterically, cried, and wrung their hands. Women with children in their laps tore the hair from their heads.

One heard the continuous shouts of a variety of names, lost people were looking for one another, parents were searching for children, and children wailed and looked for their parents. Sheep and cattle ran wild in the fields – a terrifying portrait of wartime.

Translator's footnote:

1. Yiddish diminutive for Zipporah. Return

As soon as they marched into Dereczin, the Germans drove all the Jews around the church, men, women and children, with no exception, and inside the church itself, they gathered captured Russian prisoners of war.

Suddenly, a bombing attack by airplanes erupted, many houses were set on fire, and we all scattered. That very evening, the Russians re-entered the town, and all night a bloody battle ensued in Dereczin and its environs. By morning, the Russians retreated and the Germans entered the town once again.

Their bloody reign ensued. They established a Judenrat, and made the Jews miserable with decrees, forced contributions and death threats. They would often pillage Jewish houses, and our home was among the first to be victimized by German predation.

They drafted all the Jews into forced labor for a mere piece of bread a day. Also, all the young women, according to a decree, were required to present themselves for this work. I did not present myself to them for work, and therefore a German and a local policeman came to our home, the Dereczin magistrate Kozya Tchaplinski, and they put my father up against the wall, intending to shoot him on the spot. My sister and I then emerged from the cellar where we had hidden ourselves, and went off to work with the other Dereczin girls – digging ditches, under the direction of the Germans, in the Shlizer woods, on the way to Puzovitsa.

When I returned home a couple of days later, they had already confiscated all valuables from the Jews, such as furs, gold, jewelry, etc. From us they also took away our cow and the horse and wagon.
At that point, the Germans constructed a ghetto, and confined all the Jews within it. The overcrowding was indescribable.

Many young Jews were taken for forced labor in a Beute-lager, which were magazines for storing munitions captured from the Russian military forces. Conditions at this work were frightening, and a number of these young people fled home to Dereczin from these locations. The German killed the entire families of those who fled outright.

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In the summer of 1942, a day after Tisha B'Av, the Germans surrounded the ghetto, took the Jews out of their houses and hiding places, and led them off to a mass grave. It was at that location that the majority of the Jewish population of Dereczin was murdered and buried.

I had, on that day concealed myself, along with 20 other people, in a hideout. Our bunker was outside the ghetto, in the cellar of a mill. We spent the entire day there.

The [local] police discovered the bunker, tore off the cover, and demanded that we come out. We did not exit. The police were afraid to crawl into the interior, so they locked up the cellar and went away.

At midnight, we tore off the cover ourselves, left the cellar and went up to the attic, broke through the roof and fled. I fled with Motya Bosak and Alter Kolonar. [In this way] we reached the forest of Volya.

When the news came over the radio in September 1939 that because of the German-Soviet Pact, the Red Army was to enter Dereczin, a tumult and a shudder ran through town. Polish notables fled, and with them the police and anyone else who had reason to fear the Soviet forces.

In the meantime, Dereczin was left without police and without protection. Local Jewish youth, along with Christians from nearby villages took over the forces in Dereczin on a temporary basis, until the Russians would arrive. They had a little bit of armament.

Immediately on that first night, they came knocking on my door, and ordered me to open the store, and to provide red cloth for banners and tablecloths, in order to receive the Red Army.

On the second night, three vehicles with Polish officers drove through Dereczin, after whom were supposed to come a contingent of the Polish army. The temporary authorities detained the Polish officers, beat them up, confiscated their autos, and arrested them. In town, an uproar and panic ensued: the contingent of Polish army was expected any minute, and the Poles [surely] would take out their displeasure at the arrest of their officers on us, the Jews. Many Jews fled the town, and hid out among Christians and in the fields. We hid at Rushetzky's, “The American.” The Rabbi, his wife and their children, were with us as well.

In the early morning, the Rabbi was summoned to the local priest. There it was demanded of him that he should try to influence the young people, and obtain the release of the Polish officers from jail, because of the impending danger attending the arrival of the Polish army contingent who might wreck all of Dereczin. Only after expending considerable energy, did the Rabbi and the priest obtain the keys to the jail, and release the officers.

At about ten in the morning, the retreating Polish army arrived. The officers singled out the Beckenstein home, and related how the “Reds” that fell upon them and wounded one of them had hidden themselves in the yard of this house. The Poles immediately shot into Beckenstein's windows. The entire family was hiding down in the cellar, except for the aged Hirschel Beckenstein, who asked of them from the house, what was their concern with his house. With shouts that they had been fired upon from the walls of the house, they shot the elder Beckenstein. When the Poles retreated to a distance, Shmuel Beckenstein came up out of the cellar, to see

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what was happening in his brother's house. Seeing his brother lying dead, he fell down from a heart attack and died on the spot.

All the Jews began to emerge from hiding and began to prepare a reception for the Red Army. The following morning, the first detachments of Soviet soldiers arrived in wagons. They were greeted with joy and hand-clapping. When the first tanks arrived, they were greeted with shouts of: “To your health! Hurrah! Hurrah!” The entire town turned out to greet them.

The first few days went by, and a decree came out to open all the stores and sell everything to the old for low prices. There was no source of new merchandise. For many weeks, there were long lines in front of my store and other businesses, comprised largely of Russian officers and soldiers, and in this fashion I sold out my entire store of goods. The Soviet officers bought more than anyone else, and sent their purchases home to Russia.

A year went by this way. Many Jews arrived in Dereczin from Warsaw, Lodz, Ostrolenka, Suwalk and other cities. Polish Jews were fleeing the Germans, may their names be forever erased. {The Germans] caused them untold grief, and their ran to Russian arms. A short while afterwards, the Russians began to distribute certificates of citizenship, except to those who refused Russian citizenship, choosing rather to retain their Polish citizenship. In a couple of months later, the authorities came in the middle of the night and arrested everyone who had refused Russian passports. As they were seen to be enemies of the state, they were exiled to distant Siberia.

The remaining Jewish refugees remained with us until [the invasion by] Hitler.

Sunday morning the radio tell us: Germany has declared war on Russia. Shortly thereafter we got our first taste of the war. Airplanes arrived and bombed our town.

The Red Army was not prepared for the German assault. Germany attacked suddenly, like a wild animal leaping from ambush. The Soviet authorities and military did not know where to run. Early that Sunday, autos and wagons with Soviet commanders and their families began to pull back. Along with them, went Jews who worked for the Soviets, and Jewish women who had married Soviet personnel. Everyone fled to Russia. On Monday, many also fled on foot. However, very soon people appeared who were running back – the roads were fraught with danger, the German aircraft were raking all the roads and train tracks with machine-gun fire. Only a portion of those fleeing managed to reach Russia, and travel further. Many fell along the way, and the rest largely returned.

Dereczin was bombed yet again. The noise from the German airplanes literally deafened us, and we would immediately drop to the ground, and wait fearfully for the explosion of the bombs. One bomb hit the Stukalsky house, killing Musha and another refugee woman.

This is what it was like day after day. In the middle of a clear day, a wooden ammunition dump was set ablaze, full of Red Army munitions. Two Soviet commanders set the fire, in order that it not fall into German hands. At that precise moment, a couple of German airplanes flew by, and came down very low, for the purpose of seeing what was burning below. Many people fled the town and hid in the fields. I also ran, along with my child. On the way, I saw tow [Soviet] commanders hiding under an overhang. I will never forget the sight of Rocheh (Rachel) the Milliner, dragging herself across the ground, trying to save herself from the gunfire, and get out of town. Both her feet were bandaged, and she dragged herself on her back, supporting herself on her hands, and attempted to crawl to the fields.

The German airplanes would open fire with their machine guns and rake the streets. So we would crawl behind a wall in order to avoid being hit by their bullets.

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The Germans Arrive

By Thursday night, it grew quieter. It is said that the Germans are getting closer to Dereczin. There isn't a Russian left to be seen in the town. That morning, we heard about two German paratroopers who were dropped along with their armored cars from their planes. Later, I personally saw how an airplane was dropping a small tank. The Germans entered Dereczin. Nobody went out into the street.

Later, more Germans arrived, and two of them undertook to go from house to house and extract the people. They came to [our house] – I was at that time at Golda the Butcher's wife. They shouted: “Hands up in the air!” and told us to get out of the house and go to the vicinity of the church.

When we got to the church, we met up with many Jews and Christians. Around the church were automobiles and tanks. A young German looked us over with his light murderous eyes, latched up his firearm, and said to a second German: “Indeed, we'll have to take them to Berlin yet.” And we were all certain that this was the end of our lives. Standing beside me was the husband of Cherneh the Seamstress, Mikhl the Tailor's son, with a prayer shawl in his hands, asking his wife and children to hold onto him. We all thought that our death was near. On the surface around us, grenades were laid out.

An older German, perhaps fifty years old, stood up and began to speak. His false teeth rattled in his mouth: “Russians and Poles – to the right! Jews – to the left!” They had begun to sort us. The German said a few more things, took out his pocket watch, and said to us that it was twelve o'clock, and from this time on we were in German hands. Then he told us to exit the church.

We were let out through a small door, which could barely accommodate two people at a time, with everyone pushing, seeing as everyone wanted to get out of the church as quickly as possible.

Suddenly gunfire erupts outside. No one else is allowed to leave. People are running back [inside]. A panic sets in, as people fall over each other, and then I see my own 9 year-old child falling down, and a mountain of people fall on top of her. I start screaming all sorts of imprecations, and in the end, I am able to grab my child by the hand and run for an exit on the other side. My child falls again, and I am screaming at the top of my lungs. People started to jump over the church wall, running wherever their eyes were facing, to the surrounding fields.

These were the Russians, firebombing Dereczin. The side of the street opposite the church immediately went up in flames. All the houses from the church to the house of Veleh (Velvel) Rabinovich were consumed.

The houses burned, and the Germans stood and watched. A German asks my sister and Beilkeh, Shmuel Lobzover's daughter: “What are you, Russians? Poles? Jews?! – Slime, Slime –” he says, hearing that they are Jews. He made a sort of mark in the ground, and said that this is what they were going to do to the Jews. We didn't understand him.

An alarming report spread one day, that nine thousand Jews were taken outside of Slonim to a mass grave, where they were all slaughtered. They were told that they were being transported to another city, and they needed to take small bundles with their best possessions. Many took gold and jewelry with them. At the pit, they were ordered to take off all their clothes, their clothing and packages were tossed into the autos used to bring them there, and the Jews were laid out in the pit, and murdered in a terrifying manner.

A Polish Dereczin policeman told how the police were forced to help carry out this 'action' in Slonim.

Imagine then what sort of panic broke out in Dereczin, when one day nine Germans appeared in a fleet of automobiles. Jews ran out of town, but they were fired upon, and warned not to panic.

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First, after the Rabbi went out to meet the Germans and hear their demands, one Poritz stood out from among them, and ordered the formation of a Judenrat to carry out all orders. [He threatened] otherwise, that they would do in Dereczin what was done in Slonim...

These were the first words of the Germans, may their names be forever erased.

A Judenrat comprised of seven balebatim was immediately established. Immediately, a whole series of decrees began to rain down on our heads. Each was worse than the previous one. Jews had to wear a yellow badge, first a circular one, and then later a Star of David. It was prohibited to appear in public places. Every morning, all men from the ages of 14 to 55 were driven to forced labor, and Poritz stood over them with his riding crop in hand. Jews were required to give up their linens, furs, silverware and other valuables. The Germans incited the local Byelorussians and induced them into helping with extorting valuables from the Jews by promising them a share of the Jewish assets.

Twenty nickel bed frames along with a variety of bedding, pillows and blankets were provided to the arriving Germans. The better houses were vacated by the Jews, refurnished, and turned over to the Germans.

Later, a contribution of 3 kilograms of gold was demanded from the Jews. A howl went up in town, as everyone brought to the Judenrat what they had managed to accumulate only through the expenditure of enormous energy, assembled all the gold and turned it over to the Germans. Immediately came yet another decree: the Germans demanded fifty meters of green woolen fabric for making trousers. This [merchandise] had never been seen in Dereczin stores. Each of the balebatim was asked for twenty dollars, and the Judenrat sent three men to Volkovysk, who at great risk to their lives, illegally crossed the border and returned with the demanded woolen material for the Germans.

Yet another decree: many Jews are required to leave their homes immediately, and move to another street. One packs, one runs, one grabs a corner somewhere to lie down. All of this – to delay the [inevitable] slaughter.

Every morning before dawn, all the men are forced out to work. One time, a couple of hundred young men are taken on foot to Slonim, for road work. Nobody knew what happened to them there, and some returned home sick under doctor's orders. Early on a Saturday morning, the Leader issued an order requiring the Judenrat to hand over the families of each of the young men who had returned from the work detail. Some were brought by force. They were all taken out to a freshly dug grave and murdered. Among them were Itcheh Walitsky and his six children, Dvora the Koloner and two children, Gershon the Dyer And his entire family, and many families of the refugees that had arrived.

When the police came to take Itcheh Walitsky and his family, through a window they noticed a small mound of freshly turned earth. This was a 'hideout' dug by Jews to hide from a possible massacre, behind the wall of Shlomo the Kazianov Rabbi. The police immediately informed the [German] Leader, and he issued an order to bring all the residents of that house, all together about fifty people. It was on the Sabbath. Children of other families were playing around that house. They took all of them.

Two women, the mothers of children who were taken away came looking for them. The doors of the condemned house stood open, so both women, Alter Koloner's wife, and another Koloner woman, went inside to look for the children. German murderers arrived, and seeing the women, accused them of coming to rob the house. These unfortunate and innocent women were taken off to the cemetery to be shot. I saw how both of them were led off. They went to their deaths bent over in terror, with heads covered in woolen scarves.

It was in this manner that the family of Yankel Weinstein w as cut down on that day – he, Yankel,

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put up resistance, and would not let himself be taken away – the Zlotagura family, and the Ostrolenker watchmaker and his wife and child, and many other families.

This was some time before the major slaughter took place.

The decrees kept falling on the heads of the Jews, a new one each day: prohibition against entering Christian premises to buy something; prohibition against leaving the town and going to a village; prohibition against spending too much time in the streets. We were choked off in the ghetto, with several families to a room. I was in the shtibl of Shmuel-Meir.

Poritz would shoot people in the streets, and then send an order to the Judenrat to have the remains removed and buried.

This is the way a year went by, living with constant fear of death.

The Terrible Day arrived. Very early in the morning, Mikhl the leather worker, who together with his wife and daughter, Rishkeh, lived together with us in the ghetto, and conveys the bitter news: “Children, we are surrounded! Our slaughter is imminent!”

We didn't stop to think very long, and immediately descended into the cellar, which Herschel Kulakowski had prepared for his mother, Elkeh, Shmuel-Meir's wife. It was a cellar chamber with a double stone wall, four meters deep, without windows.

Those who went into the cellar were: my child and I; Zelik Friedman, his wife, and daughter, Chana-Chaya; the Shapiro Family – the father, mother and daughter, Liebeh; Elyeh-Chaim Walitsky with his wife and four small children; the old lady Sarah, with her brother; Rivcheh the storekeeper, my mother; Mikhl Derlekh; the leather-worker, his wife and daughter Rishkeh – all told about 25 people. In the house, all that remained were an 80 year-old couple, Berel Walitsky and his wife. The police came immediately and took them away.

We lay and muttered Shema Yisrael. Suddenly we hear knocking on the side of the cellar: “Come out!” We are certain they have found the entrance to the cellar and that our end of our lives is near. We sit trembling, and the police shout over the wall: “Come out, or we will throw grenades!”

At this point the Shapiro's daughter Liebeh came close to me and whispered in my ear that the police are not banging on the entrance to our hideout but rather on the double wall. The entry to our hideout is made from a broken slate whose back panel acts as a door, held in place by a nail. Once again we mutter Shema Yisrael. We hear the police enter the adjacent cellar, and seeing that it is empty, they leave.

We stayed this way in our hideout for a couple of days, abandoned and hungry. There was nothing left to breathe, since the air had all been used up. Liebeh, the Shapiro's daughter, crawled out through the entranceway crevice into the house, and brought back a pail of water and bread. I attempted to eat and drink, but nothing would go down my throat – I was literally asphyxiating without air.

I have to get out of this suffocation. I think to myself that it is better to die from a bullet than from this suffocation. The people don't let me move, since it is still possible to betray the location of our hideout.

Suddenly, we hear a voice coming from outside: “Open up, the slaughter is over!” We become terrified, but I recognize the voice as that of my sister's son, Yankeleh. My dear one! His first question is whether my mother is with us. He had left her in another cellar, and was now trying to find her there, but he found that cellar open, inside he found my mother's shawl and a little girl who had been strangled. Pitiably, he came running to us, to try and find my mother.
We came out of the cellar.

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No Place for Us

When we got close to the barbed wire at the ghetto boundary, I saw two Germans who shouted to us: “Come! Come!” and I ran back through the ghetto, to the bathhouse and again out of the ghetto. Together with my child, we hid ourselves in a potato field.

It was night. The moonlight was clear, illuminating the fields and our bullet-ridden Dereczin – lit up so tranquilly, as if there were no butchering taking place on this sin-filled earth.

My child says to me: “Let us go here, outside the ghetto, to Leibeh Zuber's little house. There is bedding stored there on the ground – I will be able to lie down there and sleep a bit.”

My child fell asleep, and I stood watch. I watched every minute, looking for it to get light. Light meant danger.

As the sky began to turn gray, I spied in the distance a policeman dressed in black, with a gun, drawing near to the potato field where we had previously hidden ourselves. Quickly I awakened the child, and squirmed out to find a place to which we could flee. I see that Moshe-David the butcher's son is sitting near us, with a loaf of bread under his arm. I quietly shout over to him: “Come, come quickly!” He answers: “I have nowhere to go. My wife and children are gone, and I don't want to live any longer.”

I see my brother-in-law sitting on a bench in a corner. I call to him, saying that he should run away with us. I get the same kind of answer from him: “My wife is gone. I am alone, bare and naked. I have nowhere to go.”

I quickly pried open a small window on the dark side of the small house, and jumped – right into a swampy muck. My child jumps after me. We both crawled over the ground, until we reached a brook.

I look around, and I see Shapiro's daughter, Liebeh who was in the cellar with us. I tell her that a policeman is off in the distance, looking for us in the potato field, and we must run away from this place. She answers me that she has to go call for her father and mother, who lie hidden in Leibeh Zuber's barn, along with the Stukalskys and o lot of other Jews.

Liebeh went off to retrieve her parents, and I never saw her again, to this day.

My child and I crawled to the Vian fields, and went into a corn field. There I met up with Nahum, Bertcheh's (son of Ber), with a loaf of bread in one hand and a child's jacket in the other. He related that the prior night, the police shot all the Jews who had hidden out in these corn fields. “Come to the forest – Nahum says – there is no longer a place for us here.”

But how can I enter the forest when my child is hungry!

I look about, and I see a peasant woman carrying a heavy blanket. I approach her – and she becomes startled, and drops the heavy blanket. I say to her that I no longer need the blanket, but that she must give me a piece of bread. She replies: “Go to the forest. My hut is there. My children will give you water to drink.”

I take my child and I go to the peasant woman's hut near the forest. Three young gentiles run out with sticks and begin to beat me. In the yard I see three wagons brimming with Jewish belongings from the ghetto. Their father helped the Germans carry our the slaughter, so they gave him permission to pillage the Jewish belongings.

I fought with these young thugs, and took a blow in the head from a stick, but I managed to get away alive with a wound in the forehead.

We entered the forests of Lipov. The child is hungry and thirsty. I begged for a scrap of bread from a peasant woman in a forest hut, so she shouts to me: “Go into the forest! The police will see you here and come and kill you!”

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She told me that at night, Jews come out of the ghetto and flee into the forest. I will be able to rendezvous with them at night in the forest.

I could barely wait for nightfall. I hear a stirring between the trees, and I go nearer to it. A lot of Jews, from Dereczin, are sitting there and thinking about where to go. There is no place for us anywhere.

The eyewitness account of Reich, the refugee from Poland, who survived the war years and occupation in Dereczin, turned over upon completion to a Commission concerned with preserving the testimony of those who survived the Holocaust.

In May, these slaves were sent home to Dereczin. The Jewish population begins construction of hideouts, influenced as they were by the earthshattering news of the bitter end that Jews came to in the surrounding cities. If such clandestine construction is discovered in a house, then all the residents are taken out to be killed. A “punitive tax” is imposed three times on the Dereczin population – a quarter kilogram of gold the first time, five kilograms the second time, and two million rubles the third time.

From the nearby towns, Ozernitza, and Halinka, and also the Jewish settlement of Kolonia Sinaiska, where Jewish farmers had lived for generations, the Jewish residents were uprooted and concentrated in the Dereczin ghetto, in which 34 houses were established in which the rooms were used to house 2880 souls. Typhus, dysentery and hunger ran through the ghetto. The Byelorussian police authority provided its complete support to the German executioners.

After this, they burdened the local Jews with the work of digging huge pits, 50 by 20 meters. The pursuit of the shaynim began. There were isolated instances of dealings with the Germans, but there was not one person who informed or passed the word from the Jewish population, which was unified in its misfortune – an unusual phenomenon, considering those trying times.

The slaughter was carried out on July 23, 1942. It reached all of the Jews, not leaving alive even doctors, dentists, and other “useful” Jews.

The “action” continued for two days, after which a

come and kill you!”

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communication came out that no one else would be taken out to be killed. Members of the Judenrat went from house to house, and told people that no one would be harmed, on the word of the head of the gendarmerie, “the word of a German officer.”
The Jews began to emerge from hiding and their caves, into the light of the July sun. For two days it was quiet in the town, and on the third day they gathered everyone and assembled them in the market square, surrounded them and led them off to the death pits.

Approximately 250 people escaped into the surrounding forests. From this group, 80 able-bodied men joined partisan units. The rest, women, the elderly and children, were concentrated into family camps. During the two and a half years that they were in the forest, they withstood five German attacks, suffered from pestilence and disease, and not once felt the pangs of hunger. Only about 90 people returned alive from the forest.

Jews didn't go out into the streets, not wanting to look at the German placards.

Then the Germans took the Torah scrolls out of all the synagogues, threw them out and began to tear them apart, burning and desecrating them with wild ferocity. The pain and shame was enormous. The unfortunate Jews had to stand by and observe our holiest objects being desecrated. Everyone was broken and hurt, not knowing what to do.

Mendzheh Beckenstein the Scribe lived next door to us. His sole remaining daughter, Tzippel was a young lady, 20 years of age who had studied for and had become a teacher.

Her two older sisters, Bashkeh & Golda had left the country, but her parents did not permit Tzippeh to travel as well, because they wanted to have [at least] one child nearby.

Tzippel saw how the sacred Jewish writings were being desecrated, the Torah scrolls. She came home entirely distraught and cried to her parents: “It is impossible to continue living! It is impossible to continue living!”

At night, she took kerosene and doused the entire house and herself. She stood herself in a corner and lit a match. She was already enveloped in huge tongues of flame when her parents started up from their sleep, and the neighbors form all around came to attempt to rescue her. She continuously begged: “Let me be consumed with you together! If our sanctity has been destroyed we have nothing to live for! I cannot continue to live after what mine eyes have seen.”

She managed to survive one additional day. Everyone wanted to help save her, but she refused, and asked to be buried in the garden near their home.

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