We Want To Live

On the arduous journey of Jewish martyrs across Lithuania,
Latvia, Byelorussia, Poland, Germany, and distant seas to a
new life, to the Land of Israel

by Jacob Rassen

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Joshua H. Rassen

Our sincere appreciation to Joshua H. Rassen for permission
to put his late father's book on the JewishGen web site.

We also wish to thank Larry Freund for his
invaluable assistance in obtaining text scans of this book.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

On my re-reading of some of the text, I think Jacob's book may differ from other accounts.

Jacob had an intuitive sense of the people around him as individuals. This was a large part of how he survived.

He was well educated, with a masters degree in agronomy, He had been a Lithuanian agricultural official, and had started an ORT school in an early kibbutz in Palestine. He brought a maturity to his perspective. He spoke at least seven languages.

I find his account of the partisan days chilling for what he decides he will not tell you, unless you are also a partisan operative and need to know.

He made basic furniture for the ghetto residents by day. At night, he wrote, and read out loud, the poems that appear in the book, as a comfort to his companions, and to himself.

While this book was sent to libraries when it was published in Yiddish and later in English, you have now made the book far more accessible.

Joshua H. Rassen

Chapter Page

Introductory pages

1 On The Bloody Roads of Lithuania, Latvia, and Byelorusia 15

2 In The Ghetto of Dvinsk With Latvian and Lithuanian Jews 27

3 The Slaughter March 39

4 A Transport of “Last Jews” 59

5 In Kaiserwald, Near Riga, In Hell 69

6 Dragged and Condemned to Death 87

7 We Run Away to Freedom in the Woods 110

8 We Want to Live, Take Revenge -We Run Away Again 128

9 In the Woods and Swamps, Pursued Like an Animal 150

10 With Russian and Jewish Partisans in Revenge Warfare 164

11 After the Destruction, Back Again in the Old Home 180

12 On New Roads to a New Life 216

Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page

Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
Emerita Yizkor Book Project Manager, Joyce Field
Contact person for this translation Joshua H. Rassen
This web page created by Lance Ackerfeld

Chapter		Page
	Introductory pages
1	On The Bloody Roads of Lithuania, Latvia, and Byelorusia	15
2	In The Ghetto of Dvinsk With Latvian and Lithuanian Jews	27
3	The Slaughter March	39
4	A Transport of “Last Jews”	59
5	In Kaiserwald, Near Riga, In Hell	69
6	Dragged and Condemned to Death	87
7	We Run Away to Freedom in the Woods	110
8	We Want to Live, Take Revenge -We Run Away Again	128
9	In the Woods and Swamps, Pursued Like an Animal	150
10	With Russian and Jewish Partisans in Revenge Warfare	164
11	After the Destruction, Back Again in the Old Home	180
12	On New Roads to a New Life	216