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[Page 21]

I was then a 14 year old lad, a student of the Yeshiva in Jonava that was headed by Rabbi Yehuda Gorfinkel of blessed memory.

My elder brother Dov of blessed memory had studied in that Yeshiva earlier. The Rosh Yeshiva was a genius in Talmud and didactics, an exacting teacher, but not an obscure fanatic. He dreamed and desired to go the Land of Israel. His wife was from a family of rabbis and Torah scholars to whom Zion was at the head of their dreams. Her father Rabbi Nisan Ovadia Rosenson served as the rabbi of Wendziago³a [Vandziogala]. Her eldest brother Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Rosenson of blessed memory was born in Jonava and made aliya to the Land already prior to the outbreak of the First World War. However, after the outbreak of the war he returned as an alien citizen, first to Egypt and then to Russia. He was exiled to Siberia during the era of the revolution. He returned to the Land after many tribulations.

He served as a successful teacher in the Tachkemoni School of Tel Aviv. His son David who was born in Smargon arrived along with his family when he was approximately three years old. He later became well known as David Raziel, the commander of the Etzel^[1].

Rabbi Yehuda Gorfinkel and his second brother-in-law Tzvi Raziel also succeeded in coming to the Land after the First World War.

At the time of the declaration of war, many of the youth of Jonava were drafted into the army as well as a significant number of heads of families who were called to the reserve army. At that time, a senior cutter and two young apprentices worked in my parents' hide shop with the adjacent sewing shop. One of them was drafted immediately and the second was in danger of being drafted. My father decided to stop my Yeshiva studies and take me on as an assistant in the store and sewing workshop. Even though I was not as studious as my brother Dov, I regretted the cessation of my studies. However, the contingencies of the times were decisive.

The chief commander of the Russian army, Nikolay Nikolevitch, blamed the Jews for the failures in the battlefield by accusing them of spying for the benefit of the Germans. Approximately ten of the community notables of Jonava were imprisoned as guarantors for good behavior of the Jews. My father and my uncle Eliezer Judelevitch of blessed memory were among the imprisoned.

In the meantime the front approached. The city was filled with fleeing soldiers. Many began to uproot themselves and move in the direction of Vilna and its surrounding towns.

My mother, who was responsible for the family, decided to move all of our family to ¯asliai. Only I remained with her to guard the store and to wait for Father's liberation.

Two days before the Festival of Shavuot 1915, the chief command issued a decree of the expulsion of the Jews from the Kovno region within 24 hours. This decree caused a great panic. We had some relief, since on account of this Father was freed from his imprisonment along with the rest of the prisoners.

[Page 22]

{There is an interlude of a poem on page 22, and the above article resumes on page 23}

Noach Stern

(In memory of the disturbances of 1919)

The vision of wandering still poisons my blood,
Its grey flags still hover over my head,
Oh, orphanhood, oh, the cry of hearts that are bound
Between the cruel vistas, closed and clouded –

… The last bird of the area in the leaden sky already melted away..
And in the desolation a train wailed the howl of a bereaved mother,
Burning up in despair in the deep, opaque vista,
To provide escape from the yawning abyss for desperate people…

-- -- And once again the smoke of the trains enveloped me with the odor of fire and exile
billowing with steam before me, as the furrows in the autumn fields.
Oh, my self, my soul, once again wings hasten you
On your great journey…

5693 (1933)

[Page 23]

The decree of expulsion came so suddenly that people were at a loss as to what to do. My mother demonstrated at that time that she was a woman of valor who controlled her nerves. She encouraged my father to start packing the merchandise from the store and the most necessary clothing and belongings. She got in touch with farmers who were our customers, and obtained wagons to transport the merchandise, sewing machines, and many belongings that remained.

Thus did thousands of Jews, uprooted from Jonava and its environs, set out to wherever fate would take them. Our family traveled to ¯asliai to join up with the rest of the family. Along the way, in the forest, we stumbled into bands of Cossacks who beat the travelers to the left and the right and tortured some of them – in one case to death. Beaten, persecuted and frightened, we arrived in ¯asliai for Shavuot. We celebrated the festival in a crowded environment and with tears, but also with thanks that we succeeded in arriving in peace and being all together. After the festival we moved from ¯asliai to Vilna, where my parents opened a hide shop with the merchandise that they had brought with them.

Vilna was crowded with tens of thousands of refugees. Its citizens were drafted to take care of those who came almost empty handed. My brother Dov and I volunteered to take turns guarding the mentally ill people who gathered together from all the towns and were concentrated in a large yard until they were able to be placed in closed quarters. We also volunteered for other acts of assistance.

As the front approached Vilna close to the time of the High Holy Days, my parents decided to travel to the interior of Russia after the holidays, to the family of my uncle and grandmother. We sent a portion of our merchandise there. In the meantime, the Germans decided to bombard Vilna, and they conquered it on the night of Yom Kippur.

Their relationship to the Jews in those days were particularly good, for the Jews were the only people with whom they were able to communicate.

After the Festival of Sukkot, several heads of families of Jonava gathered together and decided to travel to the city [Jonava] to see what the situation was there. Due to the mass movement of the army on the roads, we were permitted to travel only by river. There were no steamboats. Therefore it was decided that at first only the men would travel in ordinary boats. Among them were Leib Opanitzky, his son Eliahu, my father and I. I seem to recall that Eliezer Judelevitch was also with us. We hired gentile boat owners, and with their assistance, we floated along the current of the river. Along the way we stumbled upon bridges sunken in the water that had been bombarded by the retreating Russian army. We carried the boats over land to the other side.

This journey lasted a few days until we succeeded in arriving in Jonava. The city appeared dead. The houses and the streets were quiet. The farmers of the region avoided coming to the city for fear of confiscation of their merchandise and animals by the army.

The arrival of the first Jews was received in a friendly manner by both the Germans and the gentile residents, except for those whose houses were filled with the property of the Jews who left. Slowly, the Jews began to return. Life began to organize itself. The distress was great due to the lack of merchandise and foodstuffs. Most of the merchandise was rationed, and the military government forbade free trade.

Since the sources of livelihood were virtually sealed off, a black market began to develop, in which most of the residents worked. They purchased goods from farmers in the villages, and brought them to town, under the constant danger of fines and confiscation. As is said in the prayers of Yom Kippur: “He earns his bread at the risk of his life”.

Coffee and tea houses were opened for the soldiers by proper families who had charming daughters. Through the connections with the German soldiers, they succeeded in purchasing from them leftovers or merchandise that could be obtained from the military canteens.

The rest of our family returned along with all those who retuned from Vilna, except for my brother Dov, who remained in Vilna to study at the teachers' seminary in the conditions of lack that pervaded then. My parents once again opened the hide shop with the sewing workshop. The cutter remained in Russia, so one young person worked there along with me as the assistant.

Houses of prayer were opened. The returnees did not have intellectual prowess. A unique personality who stood out was Nathan Janosevitch, the son of well-to-do parents, with a pleasant appearance and general education, a Zionist by conviction, and concerned about raising the cultural level. Through his initiative, the library in the Wiener house was reestablished. When my brother Dov returned from Vilna, he was appointed along with Nathan and the teacher Joselovitch to open up the Tzeirei Zion hall as well as the Hebrew public school, in which Dov served as the principal and teacher along with his friend Joselovitch who was brought from Wilkomir [Ukmerge].

At that time, a young actor from Vilna, Germanisky, lived in Jonava. With his help and initiative, the play Yankel the Smith was performed, in which among others, Rikla Janosevitch and my sister Rachel of blessed memory performed. Later, with the expansion of the activities of Tzeirei Zion, plays on Israeli topics were performed, and the income was donated to the Keren Kayemet.

Translator's Footnote

1. Irgun Tzvai Leumi (often known by its acronym Etzel) – a pre-1948 Zionist military faction. Return

[Page 24]

Uncaptioned. In the photo list, it is captioned, 'the cemetery'

In 1922, we moved to the town itself, as residents in the house of Wiener the builder. I lived there until 1940 with brief interruptions when I studied in Vienna. In 1941, a short time before the war, the Soviets deported me to Siberia. I returned to Jonava for a visit 16 years later, on my long journey from the city of Frunze, through Siberia and Central Asia, in the autumn of 1957.

A group of Jonavers traveled from Vilna for a memorial day. We arrived at the edge of Wilkomir and entered the Girialka grove. This was the place where dancing parties took place in the spring, and now it was the resting place of our martyrs after the mass slaughter. The Jonavers from Vilna and Kovno set up a large monument with an inscription in Lithuanian and Yiddish next to the main mass grave. The monument was enclosed with a chain.

Behold, here was the recognizable grove. Here were the fir trees, trees that bore silent witness to the days of atrocities. We were together -- some in silence, and some with sighs and tears. We were photographed, and then we saw the old cemetery before us. From it remained

[First unnumbered photo page]

The Market Street

Jonava in 1914

A general view from the roof of the church 1, 3 -- The Great Synagogue and Beis Midrash 2. Goldman House and the “Maccabee” Hall Right background -- Har Hascharchoret

[Second unnumbered photo page]

Vilna Street -- Granevich's house and the public bank

The second side of the street

A section of Kovno Street

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