[Page 513]

On Thursday 4^th September, with the outbreak of the war, I left Reishe and travelled in an easterly direction together with almost the entire Jewish youth. We went on our way with my cousin Henech Kroitman. En route, Dr. Rozenshtok attached himself to us. We hired a horse-drawn coach and travelled until we reached Lantzut. The road was bad. We encountered overturned wagons, automobiles, horses that had been shot, severed telephone wires, and thousands of people on foot, on bicycles, and on carts. Lantzut looked like a besieged town. The shops were full of people. The local Jews received the refugees with worried expressions on their faces. It was dangerous to go on the main roads, so we took side roads through fields and forests. Saddled horses wandered around in the forests, abandoned by the Polish soldiers. From time to time, German airplanes fired into the forest because they believed that Polish soldiers were hiding there.

Ukrainians were very friendly to us, as well as the Poles. As we passed through Magerov we saw barracks with retreating Polish soldiers, in the middle of the small town. We then made our way towards Lubatshov. At night we arrived in a Ukrainian village, Butino. There we were sent to the village magistrate Vassil Reblik who received us in a very friendly manner and gave us food and a room. The room was small and Dr. Rozenshtok suggested that we sleep in the barn that was full of hay, but we soon regretted it, because mice were jumping on us from all sides. Dr. Rozenshtok switched on his pocket light, each time. Late at night, we heard shooting. We looked through a crack and saw people fleeing. Soon the home-owner appeared with a revolver in his hand. He was not afraid and told us the truth. As a Ukrainian who converted to the Catholic faith, he had many enemies among the nationalists, and more than once, they planned to assassinate him. Our arrival saved him, and the fact that we did not sleep in the house saved us, because shots were fired into the room that he gave us. He told us that there is one Jewish family in the village, across from the Ukrainian Co-operative. In the morning, we went to the Jewish family, who received us well. After a short while, we heard shooting. A Polish officer shot a sales person in the Co-operative because he demanded one zlotte^[1] more for cigars, so he called out “Poland is not yet lost” and shot him. Soon, many Ukrainians gathered, and we were afraid that we would suffer for this. In the meantime, the distant sounds of automobiles were heard, and the first German patrol-tanks appeared. The soldiers stood in the tanks and threw chocolates and cigarettes to the Ukrainians, who received the Germans with enthusiasm.

The black uniforms of the Germans were an ominous sign for us, and after a brief consultation, we decided to go back to Reishe. We went to Rava-Ruska^[2], and from there, the German patrol sent us to the magistrate for a permit, to go further. There I saw an elderly hunter being beaten for arriving an hour late to hand in his gun. After Rava-Ruska, we travelled a few kilometers, and there, German soldiers detained us and ordered us to level the road by filling in the holes that were made by bombs. They gave us tools, and we worked. Soon after that, German officers were passing by, and the soldiers were told to free us. Then we went to Yaroslav and were

[Page 514]

about 50 meters before the wooden bridge that the Poles had wrecked before they retreated, when we heard screaming and crying because everyone who returned had to drag the wood out of the water. I believed that this time we would not pass through uneventfully, but to our good fortune, the sergeant noticed a pelican feather in my bag. At first, he wanted to buy it, but afterwards he took it, in exchange for a permit for us to cross the water on the ferry. So, we crossed peacefully and came to a Jewish family, who received us very warmly. In the morning, we came to Pshevarsk^[3]. One could sense the smell of burnt sugar, because the Germans bombed the factory. We stayed over with the Kestenberg family who had a food store. At night, the daughters covered the windows and listened to news from Warsaw on the radio. In the middle of the night, Germans came in search of weapons and took a couple of bottles of alcohol with them. The next day, we entered Reishe again, and we met the whole family.

A few days later, was the terrible, last Rosh Hashanah. People prayed at the Tochfeld's in the market-place. Heshek Friedman, Chatzkel Tochfeld and I, stood on guard. On Yom Kippur, we were taken to work in the weapons factory Tzigelsky, that had been bombed.

That was the last Yom Kippur that I experienced in Reishe. A few months later, I left the town and embarked on a path, long and vast, wandering in the Soviet Union.

Announcement The following inscription must appear on the table of every shop: Shops are open from 8 – 12 and 3 – 6. These times must be implemented. In every shop, a sign “Arian shop” or “Jewish shop” must be attached to each table. Besides this, every shop must state the conditions of sale that have been introduced. The papers can be purchased from the municipal council for 10 groschen per piece. In all Jewish shops, the citizens' committee must call the Arayan manager in, to pay the owner. Pensioners, clerks and officials in all categories are also requested to inform the citizens' committee about taking over the management of the shop. Businesses of Jewish owners who have left the town, will be handed over to the Arian manager who must transfer the money for goods that have been sold, from the accounts of the business owner, to the citizen's committee banking account. Rzeszow 13 September 1939 Local Commander Gez (-) Lorenz Captain and Local Commander

1. Zlotte – Polish currency Back
2. Rava- Ruska – a town in western Ukraine on the Polish border. Back
3. Pshevarsk – Przeworsk. Back

[Page 537]

My father Reb Meilech, of blessed memory, lived in Reishe and barely earned a living for his large family. As a Sofer stam^[2], he was not able to earn a livelihood from his work. My mother Brachah, of blessed memory, helped as much as she could, to add to their income.

My father, a pious Jew, a Boyan chassid, died at a young age and left behind a widow with six small orphans. I was then ten years old, and the oldest of the children. I studied in the cheder for just a few hours - the rest of the time, I had to work in the dairy that my mother opened.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, I fled to Prague and remained there for two years. I returned to Reishe in 1916 and opened a grocery store. Within a short time, I was successful and became known as one of the largest wholesale merchants in Reishe, until the Second World War broke out and swallowed my assets and murdered my family. The loss of my wife and three children has forever left an open wound in my heart.

On the 7 September 1939, I fled Reishe. There were black clouds over the sky, the life of hell was beginning. I suffered for five and a half years until I lived to see liberation. I was truly free, and looked around, and I saw that I remained forlorn and alone. Of my whole family that lived in Reishe, no one remained alive. My only consolation was my brother Leibush, who was with me, and three brothers who were overseas.

In 1945, I arrived in Varotzlav [Wroclaw] as a refugee, and I met survivors from Reishe. Each one cried and all had something to cry about. I forgot my own troubles and stretched out a hand to help my brothers and

Kazhimiezsh Street in 1945

[Page 538]

sisters. I, together with Dr. Shmelkes and Volf Reichental, established a kitchen for the Reishe survivors of the Holocaust, but it soon became evident, that with our own resources, we would not be able to receive all these exhausted and hungry people that were arriving from the camps.

At that time, I moved with my brother Leibush, into a house that had been bombed. There we founded a Reishe committee together with Dr. Infeld, Dr. Rozengarten, and Volf Reichtal. Firstly, we turned to a fellow citizen of Reishe living in west New York, Mr. Yitzchak Lev, who immediately responded warmly and encouraged the committee to receive all the former Reishe residents who returned from the camps. It did not take long before the Reishe committee in Varotzlav began to receive parcels, and also the first $1000. This assistance, that was maintained by Yitzchak Lev, was then of very great importance, but the main goal of the committee, was to help the Holocaust survivors to leave Poland.

First of all, the committee began to establish a list of the Reishe survivors. Only later, it became evident how significant this list was. The names of the Reishe residents in Varotzlav, and in Poland, were sent into the free world, and through this list, many found their relatives. The committee was also successful in helping the Reishe survivors to get out of Poland. Many of them travelled various diverse routes and later arrived in America and Israel.

In 1947, my brother Leibush and I, arrived in New York. Our brothers, who were already American citizens, took up their surviving brothers with open arms.

In the Land of Israel, I found great consolation for all the suffering. In the Spring of 1965, I visited Israel together with my wife Hilda, for the second time. We hope to settle in Israel, because only in Israel can we continue Jewish life in Reishe style.

Let us also hope , that the book of Reishe will remain an eternal remembrance for the Jews of Reishe, and in this holy book, they will find consolation for the great loss that they suffered there.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Varotzlav – Wroclaw Back
2. A sofer stam – scribe who copies words from the Torah on to parchment scrolls, for the Torah, phylacteries and mezuzot. Back

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