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ViewMate Posting VM 114569

Submitted by Christine Lassiege

Information Picture Question
Category: Translation - Hebrew
Approval Date: 5/27/2026 4:06 PM
Family Surname: Yizkor Book Minsk Mazowiecki
Country: Poland
Town: Minsk Mazowiecki 		Click the picture to enlarge

 Dear All
This text is an extract from Minsk Mazowiecki's Yizkor book I would like a complete translation english or french doesn't matter.
Thank you very much

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On  Response 
5/28/2026 1:31 PM MALKA MARKOVITZ-GERSHKOVITCH
(Lod)

From the Rodzky Camp to the Warsaw Ghetto

I was born in Minsk, from many generations [this means, a descendant of many generations who had lived there]. The city seemed in my eyes like one family. At the beginning, we lived on Mostova Street. I remember the house of my parents as a home that welcomed guests. I joined the Beitar Movement. On Shabbat and holidays we would gather in the market square and from there walked to Kaloshin or to another place and sing the songs of Zion. Even though there was no wealth in the town, we knew a pleasant life. The war came upon us unexpectedly. As soon as the Germans arrived, they took Jews for labor. I remember the tragedy that happened at that time to the young Shmulik Zeesman, in a work accident, when the earth covered him in a pit that he was digging in a German labor camp near the Rodzky factory. The entire city was shocked by the disaster that had occurred.

We fled on the morning of Black Friday, my parents and we, six children, and were hiding the fields, between piles of potatoes. Chaya Ackerman and also Goldfinger hid with us. We ran in the direction of Koschelna. The gentiles stopped us. We begged them to allow us to flee. We entered a threshing floor and hid there. We rolled around for several weeks until we heard that there were Jews in “Kupernik”. We went there and found many people we knew, and among them Greenberg the tailor and his son. From time to time the Germans held selections. During one of them, they brought groups of people to Kaloshin and killed them Among them were also my brother Hershel and my sister Channah. Mother was able to run back and told about the killing. “Save yourself,” she told me. I left from there to the village of Karlino and stayed with a woman farmer.

After the passage of some time the Germans liquidated the camp in “Kupernik”. A fire broke out and the flames were visible from far away, in the village where I was hiding. I wanted to run in order to get my family out. But the gentile woman stopped me and didn’t let me go there. I stayed with her for a while. After I learned that Jews remained in the Rotzki factory, I decided to join them. There I found Sarah Gunterchik, Volf Morgenshtern, Kamien Yoel and his brother(s). I was sick for a number of days and Kamyan poked me with a needle to see if I was still alive… Sarah took care of me until I recovered. After a number of weeks the Germans began suddenly firing into the barracks we lived in. The Jews began to flee.

We, four women and two men, arrived in the city the next day, after we hid during the night in fields next to the cemetery. Isbrecht [a woman] gave me soup and said that it was dangerous there. I bought a ticket and traveled to Warsaw. I entered the ghetto, there I found a place with Liz, from the butchers of Minsk. Thousands were transported from the Warsaw Ghetto in trains to Lublin and to Auschwitz, and I was among them. There I spent the rest of the war years.
5/30/2026 9:13 AM De Rotznik à Lignov et Varsovie
(Malka Markovitz‑Kishkovitz, Łódź)
La petite fille quitte Łódź. Moi, ville de roses. Nous sommes arrivés en voiture chargée de nos biens et nous sommes installés dans la région de Kozienice. Nous avons trouvé un abri dans une maison qui n’était pas à nous. Tout semblait temporaire.
Aux premiers jours, nous étions encore pleins d’espoir. Nous pensions que la situation s’améliorerait bientôt et que nous pourrions revenir chez nous. Mais avec le temps, il devint clair que cette illusion était sans fondement.
Peu à peu, la réalité s’imposa avec dureté. Les conditions de vie se dégradèrent. Le manque de nourriture se fit sentir. Les gens souffraient du froid, de la faim et de la peur constante.
Les enfants essayaient encore de jouer, mais même leurs jeux étaient marqués par la guerre. Les adultes parlaient à voix basse. Les décisions se prenaient dans l’urgence.
Un jour, il fallut continuer à fuir. Le danger se rapprochait rapidement. Nous avons quitté notre refuge et pris la route une fois de plus, sans savoir où nous allions.
Sur les chemins, nous avons rencontré d’autres familles dans la même situation. Des groupes entiers erraient, portant leurs quelques biens, cherchant un lieu sûr.
Finalement, nous sommes arrivés à Varsovie. La ville était pleine de réfugiés. Les rues étaient bondées, les logements rares. Nous avons trouvé un endroit où rester, mais les conditions étaient extrêmement difficiles.
Malgré tout, la vie continuait. Les gens tentaient de maintenir un semblant de normalité. Mais chacun savait, au fond de lui, que le monde d’avant avait disparu.

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