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I evidently ruined him, but tried to calm him down by telling him it was a shame for a person to bang his head on the wall, and promised him I would make him a new hatchet for free.

[Photo:] Shachna the Caretaker (who was once a woodcutter), Berl Resnick and another fellow named Berl.

        Shachna went off to the committee meeting without me. When he was asked where Mordechai was, he answered, "He's got a problem." Everybody froze when they heard Shachna's answer; they figured that I had suffered the same fate as many other people who went out on the street and fell down dead. They finally calmed down when Shachna told them the story about the hatchet.

        I went out on the streets looking for someone who could make a new hatchet, but soon realized that it wasn't so easy to find someone to construct such a treasured item until G-d sent me a Jew who revealed a secret: somewhere on Egypt Street lived a Jew named Yitzchak Konushkas. He told me to go to Yitzchak, and he would make a new hatchet for me.

When, after alot of searching, I finally found Yitzchak's little house, I could understood why the Cossacks spared that house. There was, however, one thing that I couldn't understand: since Yitzchak was such a skilled individual – virtually the only person in town who could make a hatchet – why did he live in such poverty? This demonstrated the truth of what the Sages said: "No bread for the wise." Yitzchak looked over the hatchet like a professional, and told me it would take him an hour and would cost me 15 kopeks for a new hatchet. Did I ever feel relieved! Not more than 15 kopeks? An hour later I joyfully ran home and handed the new hatchet to my landlord. I noticed how happy he was when he examined the hatchet; he was probably thinking he would like me to break the handle of the new hatchet, but I didn't do him that "favor."

J.

The Jewish mayor and the police

After taking power in Drohitchin, the German commander immediately proceeded to install order in town. First, he nominated a mayor, David Chatzkel's son-in-law (from Lodz); Nachum Hershel's son-in-law, Sola, as deputy mayor; and four Jewish policemen. The people in town weren't too happy with the new mayor and deputy. The Jewish policemen, however, were able to gain the sympathy of all Jews in Drohitchin. The commander also established a German patrol, that monitored the town day and night, and Drohitchin also got a German-Jewish doctor named Miller, whose medical assistance was greatly needed. The commander also converted three houses into an interim hospital for patients who were cared for by volunteer nurses.

        The population started storing food for the winter, since they knew that the railway wouldn't be able to bring in any supplies. There weren't any food stores, and during the week of Sukkot, people went off into the fields to collect potatoes that the peasants had left in the ground. Only a few people didn't do it, and those people laughed at me for taking my family out to gather potatoes. Later, however, they realized their error and paid for it in high prices.

        There was no end to problems. It wasn't enough that the Russians burned down three-fourths of the town,

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and thousands of Jews were homeless, a fire broke out on the second day of Sukkot in the village of Stara-Silia, now populated only by Jewish families. Everyone lost all his or her possessions in that fire – everything was destroyed. So a second time Jewish victims had to go on the road and spread out in the nearby villages such as Bilinka and others. It was like the saying goes: "A beggar has nothing to lose. If one village burns down, he goes to another one."

[Photo:] The Jewish police, 1915-1918. From right: Itshe Mishovsky, Zeidel Weissman and Yirmiyahu Grossman.

        It turned out, however, that the fire in Stara-Silia turned out for the best. The victims of the fire were able to find good places to live in the villages they settled in, with barns filled with grain and potatoes. In addition, they were spared by the epidemic that raged in Drohitchin the entire winter. People weren't allowed to go beyond the town limits. The bridge near the Sand was the boundary – no one could go beyond that limit, and on the "other side" was the war zone. We weren't even allowed to go over to the new cemetery without a special permit from the commander of Drohitchin; thus we had to bury the dead in the old cemetery.

K.

The New City Council

        As previously mentioned, the city was unhappy with the mayor, who was from Lodz and an outsider, as far as the Drohitichin Jews were concerned. They sent a request to the German commander to elect a new mayor. The commander, who was a very liberal person, acceded to their request. He called a meeting of local householders, and attended the meeting himself.

        The commander and his lieutenant went to the meeting, as did the mayor. The commander held separate meetings with each person, and asked each one who he thought should be mayor. Everyone mentioned my name. Finally, the commander told us to choose a delegation of 4 people from among us to return to him the next day, at which time he would make choice. The next day, Zechariah Schmid, Hershel Chaim Lev, Lipman Ezriel's Feldman, and I went to see the commander, who announced that the mayor who be whoever was the oldest. However, since all the Jews trusted me, he would appoint me as supervisor of finances, i.e. treasurer. The remaining three men would also be members of the committee. The commander then supplied a wagon with sugar and other food, and told the four of us to distribute the sugar and food to all the communities in the city. The commander gave us official documents certifying that we were now the official town committee.

        The committee immediately got down to work. We rented a large granary (from Alter the Merchant) to store the sugar, and the first wagon of sugar arrived shortly thereafter. The Jewish committee distributed the sugar to all of the surrounding settlements, and of course, to all the Jews in Drohitchin, based on family size. The town came to life since no one had seen sugar for many months, and nothing to sweeten the drinking water of typhus patients. Now, however, they were able to make life better for the typhus victims with a bit of warmth. The income derived from the committee's sale of sugar was used to support the hospital, which was located in three houses and was filled with patients. It should be mentioned that the chief activist at the hospital was Khasha Levin, the Bronner Lady, the wife of Chaim Hershel Levin. She would tended to the sick, and worked with superhuman powers until she ended up as a patient herself. There was also money left over to rebuild the public bath and mikvah [ritual bath], and people even started thinking of building a House of Study.

        During the entire period of the German occupation, there were no shops, and the people had to be satisfied with the food that the committee obtained from the

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