[Page 13]

I am happy to be given this opportunity, to thank you, friends and benefactors of the Torchiner War Relief Fund, for your warm-hearted and inspiring response and co-operation to every appeal for our noble cause.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the men and women who have worked so ardently and given of themselves to unselfishly to work on the many committees.

Weary, tired men, women and children, relegated to spend their lives in the chaos that is Europe today, have been and will be helped to better lives because of you. Your contribution to this book about your beloved Torchin and its people, (which brought in over $5,000.00) makes it possible for our Relief Fund to continue to help these tormented and unhappy souls.

Rejoice in the good you have done and may you always be counted amongst the givers and the helpers.

Thank you again for giving so generously. Your good deeds lighten the burden of all and inspire our rededication to the building of our new State of Israel.

[Page 14]

[Page 15]

So that all who are interested may read what happened to our home town, a place so dear to most of us, - in the language best known to them – we hereby submit an English version of the “plain facts” relating to the destruction of Torchin under German domination, as told by two eye-witnesses, who have, by a thousand miracles, wrung their young lives out of the clutches of death.

In the Hebrew month of Sivan, exactly two weeks past Shavuot, 1941, Torchin was occupied by the German “Vehrmacht”. They were met by some of our people with a mixed feeling. Some still had faith in the German people. Others, too few, alas, knew better; they evacuated with the Russians.

The Germans immediately began a systematic documentation and registration.

On the third day of their invasion, they forced Jews into hard labor. One week later, on the Sabbath, an edict was issued ordering the entire population of about 3,000 Jews to assemble near the big Synagogue.

There, a “Yudenrat” was appointed, a group of twelve men responsible to the German Command. An order was issued to don white bands with the Star of David on the left arm.

On the Sabbath, the 9^th day of Ab, all Jews were commanded to assemble in the open space near the Russian Church.

Forty able-bodied men were picked, among them, the father and brother of Aaron Katz. With shovels on their shoulders, they were marched to Boyan, three miles northeast of the town.

About two hours later, after checking names, 210 persons, among them six

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Young women, all capable, young, the brains and brawn of the town, were forced into trucks that carried them into the woods of Boyan. All of the 210 persons were shot and thrown into the pit previously dug by the former forty selectees who were killed in the same manner.

It is known that the young Rabbi Leizer Steintuch, son-in-law of retired Rabbi Ben Zion Zucker, pleaded with the German beasts that they kill him first. To spite him, the murderers left him to the end, tied him to a tree and shot him. With a “Shma Israel” on his lips, he breathed his last. Baruch Shapiro, the son-in-law of Moishe Koopman dared to run out of the grave only to lose his life together with the Jews of Wladmir-Wolinsk.

Let it be added that the Ukrainian police were assisting the Germans in all their bloody acts, many times avoiding them in cruelty.

After this massacre, a new tyrant by the name of Walinshus took over the command in Torchin. His orders were to collect all movable possessions from the Jewish population such as gold, silver, coper, furs, clothing of every kind, and other valuables.

Shortly before the creation of the Ghetto in February 1942, every Jew was forced to wear a yellow band on his arm. The Ghetto consisted to the portion of the town formed by the two rivers, as far as the open area below the Russian Church.

The day our people were forced into the Ghetto, seven men lost their lives. A day later, an “attractive offer” was made: that whoever volunteers for heavy labor, at the front lines near Kiev, will be free from the Ghetto. Out of fifty young victims, only – Shmuel Shuster – who later gave his life for Israel, managed to return to Torchin.

Strict rules were established in the ghetto. Overstepping its boundary was punishable by death. Still, many risked their lives to bring food in for the starving.

In the early days of the ghetto, some bread was allotted per person but soon after, that too was denied them. The internees were forced to shift for themselves. Many were helped by having their valuables smuggled out secretly by those, leaving for forced labor, to be exchanged for bread.

A community kitchen was established where only those working could obtain some food. Many hungry Jewish children were trying to get into the kitchen for some food but were beaten and chased away by the German- organized Jewish police.

[Page 17]

Not all of the members of the “Yudenrat” gave in readily to the Germans. At one time, an order came demanding cloth, linen, thread and women's underwear. When two of the appointed, Joseph Ehrlighgerict and Hanania Goldberg expressed doubt of its feasibility, two others were asked and answered in the affirmative. The first two were killed on the spot. The same day, the Ukrainian police killed eighteen others, among them women and children, to quiet a protest in the Ghetto.

The mass murder was carried out on Sabbath, the ninth day of Elul, 1942.

Eighteen men, each a skilled craftsman, were spared. The rest were forced into huge trucks and taken to the Jewish cemetery where everyone was stripped, thrown into the previously prepared mass grave, and shot. This massacre lasted from 10 in the morning to 19h that evening.

We know that some offered resistance and died like heroes. Baruch Scher and Yankel Galperson jumped off the truck but were chased by a car with a mounted machine-gun. The youngest, Chopnick, a mere boy, was pursued out of the grave. Moishe Zuberman, Nathan's son, snatched the gun away from a Ukrainian murdered and beat him. Young Kreisel Chopnick displayed bravery and called for vengeance. Another young girl, daughter of Gerchon Wilkes, was brave to the end.

We are told that venerable Shmuel Kahn delivered a brave and heroic speech before the end. One Yudel, a blacksmith whom the German commander needed, was taken back from the cemetery, alive.

Soon after this slaughter, the German beasts continued their conniving tactics. They proclaimed that no more Jews were to be eliminated since every employable was essential to them. Three days later, when a number came out of their hiding, they were rounded up and shot.

About forty people, especially skilled craftsmen, were spared. Of these, the younger and stronger ones began to conspire on how to cheat death.

With the cooperation of Krut, son of Staske, they dug underground, beneath the row of stores opposite the small church and close to their workshop.

This chapter should be told in more detail but for the lack of space, let it be related that they dug for three weeks, preparing a hideout for about ten people.

On December the eight, the final slaughter was perpetrated. On that day, four more men were taken into the hideout, making it a total of 14 survivors.

[Page 18]

It should be mentioned that what gave these boys courage to hold out was the ammunition that they gradually acquired through barter.

They later learned about Gregory Onichenko, a grandson of Burtish who was a partisan for the Russians. He took them into his home where Sheindel Zucker and her daughter Toba, now in Canada, were housed previously. They were all with him until freed by the Russian army.

The following is a group of survivors, now scattered in Germany.

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[Page 21]

Officers
Fannie Tublin		President
Betty Greenberg		Vice-President
Helen Shapiro		Financial Secretary
Esther Garber		Treasurer
Ann Goldweber		Recording Secretary
Helen Katz		Social Service
Mary Wagshul		Corresponding Secretary
Executive Board
Elinore Worby	Gussie Abushevitz	Yetta Reitzes
Anna Gershenson	Rose Dreitzen	Raizel Kavaler
Bella Taback		Bertha Topol

[Page 22]

Mrs. Jack L. Tublin President of Ladies Auxiliary

[Page 23]

Nineteen years in retrospection is but a fleeting moment, but nineteen years crowded with acts of charity and deeds of renown is a memorable interlude in this world of ours.

Who could have foreseen on that night in February, nineteen years ago, when Mr. Abe Guss and our late Mr. Sam Reitzes came calling at our home to propose to me that I help form a Torchiner Ladies Auxiliary? All their reasons in its favor and why it would mean to their society made me realize its necessity.

How grateful I am to them today for their insistence because the years that followed proved that concerted efforts and perseverance bring results. Our record of accomplishments in the field of charity and in the very life of our Torchiner Men's Society are an indication of a united and whole-hearted cooperation.

In the early years of our Torchiner Ladies Auxiliary, we had the trials and tribulations, which beset all such societies, but our women were of strong heart and mind. Never did we falter for we were spurred on by our ultimate aim: that of aiding our people here and abroad.

We proudly point to the annals, which were so ably recorded in the archives of our society through the many years of faithful service rendered by our very competent secretaries. There, for all who care to read them, are inscribed the deeds of sisterly devotion given with such sincerity as though a sworn pledge of moral and economic aid had been taken. We have never failed to help in either large or small measure when called upon or very often, when we merely suspected need was essential.

It is with a keen feeling of pride that I enumerate a few of the things the Torchiner Ladies Auxiliary has done through these years.

We have given food to the needy here and abroad. We have given clothing where and when it was needed; we have helped pay hospital bills and convalescent care wherever called upon; we have supported schools of various types here and abroad. When that sad period in the life of our country came and our sons were taken from our homes, we sent them letters of devotion and small tokens of encouragement to cheer them on their way. We have received letters of everlasting gratitude

[Page 24]

expressed to us by our boys who were hoping for the day when they could thank us in person and so they did upon their return to these shores.

Our contribution, both national and international, have brought letters of praise from all outstanding organizations. Now, in our Torchiner Ladies Auxiliary, you find women with hearts and minds beating for Israel. Our efforts during this past year have been directed to ways in which to help Israel more and more and may I here state that we are off to a good start. We have already sent surgical supplies and medical aid. Our contributions in money to our parent organization has been of such amounts as to enable them to contribute larger sums to the United Jewish Appeal, Histadrut, Ort, Hias, etc. Last, but not least, on that memorable night when I appealed to our members to aid one of our sisters who was fortunate enough to have heard that three little members of her family were spared from the Nazi atrocities, inflicted on their parents, how warm was their response? In rapid order, personal gifts of money were forthcoming. That plus the kind and quick efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Worby whose papers were instrumental in bring the children to this country, was this wonderful feat accomplished. Is it any wonder that we are grateful to those who were responsible for bringing about and supporting an organization of this caliber?

We are proud indeed of our record and of our part in the life of the Torchiner Men's Society and sincerely wish them continued success in their efforts. May the next twenty-five years of their existence find both them and us working harmoniously towards a common goal.

May it here be recorded that we could not have accomplished such tremendous tasks if we had not had the full cooperation of our members. You receive in this world in return what you put into it. Scatter seeds of kindness and you reap a harvest of joy and love. The devotion of the members of our society has been amply repaid in the great personal satisfaction they derived in doing good and helping others less fortunate. To all of you, MANY THANKS.

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