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Down the mountain, as you come from Kolomyia on the main road leading to Horodenka, and from there to Zalishchyky and the rest of southeastern Poland, lies the town of Gwoździec, a typical Jewish town whose majority of residents are Jews.

A thick and wide forest welcomes you at the entrance to the town - we called it Stari Gwoździec. After crossing the forest, you found yourself on the top of a mountain, from where the entire town was revealed before you, stretching along and across the mountain slope.

Far away in the valley, a low-water stream runs slowly on the slopes of the mountain - and its name is Tsurnova. The stream has days of high tide and abundance of water on rainy autumn days and in the melting of the snow and ice in the spring. At these days, it goes beyond its limits, overflows its banks and sweeps away with it everything that comes in its path and sometimes even endangers the railway station and its tracks that are nearby. Over the stream was a wooden bridge – if you crossed the bridge, you reached a forest again - an ancient forest - Pozina forest, named after a nobleman who owned the estates of the area.

At the time, this area belonged to the south-eastern region of Poland named Fukucia - the name of the region's capital is Kolomyia. This region of land is located on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and is called the “Sub-Carpathian” region; “Podkarpacia” in Polish, which connected the center of Poland with the countries of southern Europe, the Balkans and the southern and eastern regions of Poland: Podolia and Wolin. Here are the fertile lands of Western Ukraine, from which mainly the Ukrainian or Rotan residents made their living, among them were even a few Jews, who engaged in agriculture in the surrounding villages.

During the First World War, like other cities of Fukucia, the town suffered from highs and lows. As the town was found in a frontier region, which was a meeting place of different peoples and near the border between Austria and Russia, it was often passed around, so its residents were forced to abandon it, flee the place and seek refuge throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the end of the war, with the fall of the monarchy, Karl, the Emperor of Austria, tried to save what could be saved, by guaranteeing autonomy to the many minority peoples in his kingdom, on the condition that they recognize the central rule of Vienna as their rule. The Ukrainians took advantage of the anarchy of the post-war period and encouraged by the rule of Petalura in Kiev and being loyal to Khmelnytskyi, the infamous persecutor of the Jews - they rioted among the Jews. Their rule was accompanied by robbery, rape and murder. Many were murdered, others fled, most of them without financial means

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having lost all or most of their property and been left without a source of income.

With the establishment of Polish rule in the town, its Jewish residents regrouped, and began to restore the destroyed and burnt town. They were engaged with retail sale and livelihood was sparely. The resurgent Poland, with its shaky economy, placed a heavy burden on its residents and imposed heavy and numerous taxes, which the Jews in particular could not afford. What future was expected for the younger generation?

The town itself was small, and as those who joked said: “running in it is forbidden”. As soon as you started running, you were already out of its bounds! But the surrounding area was large and there were many villages whose residents were engaged in agriculture. Gwoździecis served as a commercial center for the surrounding villages. Every Monday – which was the regular market day - carts loaded with agricultural produce arrived in the town. From Stari Gwoździec, Maali Gwoździec and Kolchkovtsa, Balinka, Vinograd and Ostrowiec, chmokowtza and many other villages whose names I don't remember anymore. There were extensive markets for the sale of their products: a market for fruits and vegetables, poultry and egg market and several grain markets. At the edge of the town, near the Jewish cemetery, there was a livestock market. Although the areas were large, the jam and crowding were very high.

After the sale of his produce, the farmer went to buy his necessities, which he needed for his day-to-day life, he didn't miss a visit at one of the bars that were always ready to serve him. Stores that were close to each other stretched along the sides and along the main streets and in the side alleys behind them were located workshops such as: tailors, shoemakers, tinsmiths and all the other arts in which the Jews were working in exile. The large number of stores caused tough competition and therefore the livelihood of the owners was not abundantly.

The younger generation was educated against this background in the various schools accepted in Jewish towns: “cheder” for the young children, “cheder” for advanced students and Beit Midrash schools. A compulsory education law brought the town's children, boys and girls, to the only Polish government school with seven classes for seven years of study. In addition to these compulsory studies, the youth also learned the Hebrew language, at one time there were three Hebrew schools:

The school under the management of the teacher Leah Latner-Kugler.
The school under the management of the teacher Yosef Scherzer.
and the school under the management of the teacher Binyamin Koren.

Over time, only one school was established, under the management of the teacher Yosef Scherzer

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And this is what the student's daily schedule looked like: in the morning he studied at a government school, in the afternoon - at the Hebrew school, and in the evening, he memorized his Talmud in the “cheder” or Beit Midrash.

The train and bus stations in the town served as a meeting place and an opportunity to see who was leaving, who was entering and who was just passing through. And how can we not remember the long freight trains, loaded with sugar beet that was produced mostly in the area. Long lines of carts proceeded slowly in the cloudy and hazy autumn days to the train station and from there to the sugar factories.

In the town there were a court and a pharmacy. Also served in it three lawyers: Gwirtz, Sobelzon and Rauch. There were two doctors in the town: Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Berger, all faithfully served the population of the town and the surrounding area.

The younger generation, as usual, looked for their own way when many followed the usual path, some to commerce, some to craft and some to continue their studies. Some rebelled and the adults among them left the place and went to the big cities of Poland or went to Germany, sailed to the United States and also migrated to South American countries. The rest looked for their future way in the town.

In the evenings during free time, on Shabbats and holidays, groups of youth met, spontaneous meetings. No one organized them, no one guided them. They spent their time talking and singing.

On Shabbats and holidays in the spring and summer months, they went together for walks in the surrounding forests or spent time bathing in the stream, far from the town, where the adults could not see them. Sports activities such as swimming, football, and gymnastics began to be organized here.

There is no doubt that these were faint echoes of the Scout movements in England, of the “Wanderfogel” (wandering bird) in Germany, and of the Zionist youth movements that had only just begun to organize. These youth groups - a group here, a group there - were like abandoned and scattered eggs, waiting for a targeted hand to come and collect them.

The aspiration, perhaps subconsciously, for culture and art, engendered amateur theater actors and choir singers. Among the most prominent aspirants for culture and art were the members of the Schreier family, one of whom is with us in Israel today - Busia who lives in Kibbutz Gat, and Hanan (who perished in the Holocaust) from the extensive Offenberger family - a talented fiddle player. There must have been other Jewish musicians there and I didn't know them.

One day, Moshe Auerbach returned to town - a talented athlete, a football star who brought us the theory of the game from the famous Vienna “HaKhoak” team.

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The fledgling footballers in the town gathered around him. This is how an organized football team was formed, who was well-known in the surrounding area thanks to its outstanding players: Carl Lindaur, David Greenberg, Matityahu Rauch, Gedaliah Schmelzer, Zosia Legstein the goalkeeper and myself. With the purchase of sports clothes and the football shoes, we went to competitions with Jewish teams in the area: Horodenka, Zabolotiv, Obertyn and more. After many efforts, we even received a field especially for us to play soccer, far behind the Pozina forest, near the Mazurit colony. It was a hard and long walk until we reached the field, yet we did not miss any training or competition.

The youth played a significant part in the Zionist Organization, which began to organize after the First World War. As a club they rented a room in Reiter house where they organized lectures, readings and parties. I'm sure many still remember the famous Hanukkah balls – “Maccabiyer Awenda”. I remember the holiday atmosphere felt in the town when the first radio receiver in the town was brought to the club. Chaim Haspel, the chairman of the local Zionist Organization, presented the radio receiver to a crowd of people gathered in the club.

The Zionist movement was engaged in advocacy, organizing and collecting funds for the National Fund for Israel. We faced tough competition with the Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess fund. The older generation did not yet want to acknowledge the Zionist movement's right to exist. The saying of the town's dayan, Rabbi Friedman - “For the next year in Jerusalem” – was famous, but not by the Zionists.

The main push for the organization of the youth in Gwoździec was given by a law student from Kolomyia, Isaiah Schauber. He taught the younger generation secular studies in private lessons. He mainly engaged in preparing students for high school entrance exams. Being a talented organizer and orator, he managed to gather around him most of the youth groups and founded the first Zionist youth movement in town, that is “Hashomer Hatzair” movement. This movement operated regularly thanks to its local guides, some of whom are still with us in Israel: Meir Eltenhaus (now M. Nave), Bossia nee Schreier and Hedva Haspel nee Schlesinger.

There were students who continued their studies in a nearby or distant cities. Few made it to university, of which only a few managed to graduate. All of them maintained a strong relationship with their families and with the town, where they used to spend their vacation days.

These steps of the youth towards progress were visible and known to all. Revolutionary literature began to secretly reach some of the youth. Mainly the working youth

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started to study the theory of Marx, Engels and Lenin.

An underground was organized that studied the theory of rebellion and revolution, from which emerged the people who headed the town when the Russians entered at the end of the First World War. The period of rule of the Jewish leaders was short and the Russian communist regime and its teachings did not bring them salvation. Some of them were privileged to immigrate to Israel.

It can be said that the youth was not satisfied with the reality, broke through the boundaries of the routine, rebelled against the existing and sought a new way for himself - few have found it, only a few have fulfilled it.

For those who aspired, for those who broke through and did not arrive - we mourn and the heart aches.

In 1936, “Achva” activists of the “General Zionist” organization founded a “Bnei Akiva” nest in the town. The names of the activists: Hanan Dresher, Ya'akov Mauzner and Yosef Stengel. The last also served as the coordinator of the nest in the town.

About fifty teenagers at the ages of 12-14, i.e. the primary school students, were organized into four groups according to their age.

The nest was in the house of Yuri Bergman, the daughter of Yosef Schmelzer. Social activity focused on the issues of religious and traditional Zionism. In the group discussions, they talked about the building and nature of the Land of Israel and what was happening in the Zionist movements throughout the diaspora. Of course, the social activity also included singing in public, songs in Hebrew, those which were brought to us from the Land of Israel and songs composed in the diaspora, all kinds of dancing including folk dances and those that were used to be danced in the Land of Israel. We tried to speak Hebrew as much as possible. We organized trips throughout the year. But mostly we went for a walk in nature around the town during the spring and summer.

One of the cultural activities was to run a library where books could be borrowed. Of course, the library contained books in Hebrew, but most of the books were written in Polish, the language of the country.

Most of the members of the movement studied Hebrew in classes with the Hebrew teacher Yosef Scherzer. The educational values imparted to the members were based on the principles of religion and the spirit of tradition. The spiritual guide was Moshe Yossel Fishman,

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a strange person, whose occupation was studying Torah. There was a paradox in him: faith and its opposite. According to his personal view, he was a heretic - an atheistic - and in fact he made a living by giving Torah lessons.

The nest was attached to the Kosów region and the regional administration in this city sent us lecturers.

I remember the conference of all the branches of the region in 1938 in the city of Kosow under the courtesy of the local rabbi.

We traveled on carts - about 25 boys and the guide who served as the head of the delegation. On the way to Kosów, near Zabolotiv, we met - unintentionally, with Polish anti-Semitic youth from the “Sokol” movement: when they realized that they outnumbered us, they attacked us and beat us, but this time we were lucky: a group of older Polish athletes arrived to the place and separated us - and we continued our journey to the conference in Kosów.

During the three days of the conference, we heard interesting lectures about Zionism, religion and the building of the Land of Israel, we met with friends, toured around the city, and we returned home full of impressions.

With the outbreak of war in the fall of 1939, all activity in our movement ceased, just as the war put an end to the activity of all Jewish youth movements in Poland, it also put an end to most of the activists. Of all the members of the movement in the town, I was the only one left of all the wonderful boys and girls, I was the only one who was privileged to immigrate to the Land of Israel and see the establishment of the state.

The founding of the nest of Beitar in Gwoździec was in 1930. A member of Beitar named Feifer arrived from Kolomyia. I met at a ball attended by teenagers, that evening we became friends, we talked, we argued and we decided to establish a nest of Beitar in the town.

Most of the youth were already organized in “Hashomer Hatzair”, “HeChalutz” and other movements, but still there were teenagers who did not belong to any movement, and we managed to attract them to our movement.

Among the first activists were, besides myself, the sisters Feige and Reisela Seltzer, Miriam Greenberg, Fanny Weinlauber, Golda Rickhaus, Stella Litner and Ita Stettner.

As it was in the early days of the movement, so it was in its continuation: the nest was composed for the most part of girls.

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Its first commander was Feiger, who would often come from Kolomyia to visit us. The next commander of the nest was Reisela Seltzer and thanks to her extensive and blessed activities, many of the local youth joined us.

It is worth noting that some of the activists knew Hebrew and even read Hebrew and so they extended their knowledge of Zionism and ideology from the first-hand source. Once we even went to Stanis³awów to the Beitar conference to hear a lecture by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, whose speech left a great impression on us with his talent and great and impressive personality. In Stanis³awów we also met other leaders and activists, whom we heard in their lectures on ideology, Zionism and daily matters. Similar to other movements, our social activity encompassed conversations and debates, whose main themes were Zionism, Jabotinsky's theory as well as trips, dances and singing in public. Indeed, there were people in the town who belonged to the Revisionist party, however Their number was small and so was their activity, so we could not get any help and relief from these adults. We would hold our own conferences, and one I remember in particular a conference that was held in Stanis³awów, and its main goal was “fulfillment”, meaning preparation for Aliyah, so members joined training groups in order to earn the coveted certificate. The first to go to training in Nadwórna to work there in a sawmill was Feige Seltzer. A few months later, Miriam Greenberg and myself joined the Nadwórna group. We worked there for about six months and returned home to prepare for Aliya, as soon as the certificates arrive.

Feige Seltzer was the first among the recipients of the certificates in 1933, she was the first among the youth in Gwoździec who was privileged to immigrate to Israel.

I received a certificate thanks to my status as the first Beitar activist in the town, and Miriam Greenberg also received a certificate and we immigrated to Israel in 1933.

They no longer handed out certificates to the people of Beitar, but a few of its members immigrated Israel with Aliyah B: Golda Rickhaus, Fanny Weinlauber, and others.

It should be noted that the relations between us and other movements in the town were among the best, because feelings of jealousy were not popular in the town.

Looking back, I see the period of my activity in the Beitar movement in Gwoździec as a glorious period of my youth, and it was only thanks to it I was able to immigrate to Israel, to witness the establishment of the country and the revival of the nation, and it was only thanks to it that I was saved from the clutches of the Holocaust. In grief, I can only express great sorrow, for all the best of the youth who did not get to immigrate and stayed in the town and perished in the Holocaust, may their memory be blessed forever.

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[Picture – 16. At the Beitar conference in the city of Saniatin and among them are participants from Gwoździec]

[Picture – 17. The crowd commune with the martyrs on Memorial Day in the Holocaust basement on Mount Zion, Jerusalem]

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[Picture - 19. A group of the surviving remnant in the Fernwald displaced persons camp, Germany, in 1948]

[Picture - 20. Three soldiers during their service in the Polish army in the city of Poznañ, 1933. On the right, a citizen of the town, M. Zomer as well as his cousin. On the left side in the middle sits Bonia Reiter, a cavalryman, also from Gwoździec]

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Down the road from Kolomyia to Horodenka lies the town of Gwoździec, surrounded on all sides by forests, orchards and grain fields. To the east of it runs a small river, the Chorniava River, and next to it are ancient oaks, lush natural grasses, wild bushes with their colorful flowers and their bitter fruits, and by the stream - near the flour mill - pimpernel and Myosotis flowers.

The forests in the spring time were an unfailing source of childhood games, when the first flowers bloomed. In the summer, we bathed in the river, walked together and hiked in the countryside, on paths, roads and among the golden grain fields interwoven with Centaurea cyanus flowers. In the winter, the road to the forest, that crossed the town, was covered with snow and frost. We used to slide on a slide at dizzying and breathtaking speed - from the forest up the road to the river down the town. These were indeed childhood delights, but all this was not enough to fill our lives with content. We felt like uninvited guests in the joy of strangers, and there was a great longing for a life with content.

And then something happened: the nest of “Hashomer Hatzair” was being organized.

Isaiah Shauber, a law student who was staying in our town, came up with the idea of organizing the youth, and it was a turning point in the lives of all of us. We were 12-17 years old; we were still children when the nest was established. A new spirit began to blow among the youth.

The “movement” kept us out of our homes, presented us with an idea and a concept, and we were as if enchanted. We dedicated every free moment to the “nest” and there, in addition to scout games, singing, and conversations, new horizons and a more penetrating vision of the meaning of life opened up before us, and this was the beginning of the journey.

In games, scouting, singing and trips, the barrier of foreignness between the youth eliminated. Everyone who was able to impart their knowledge would guide those younger than them.

The nest did not always have its own place, so we would spend most of the summer months on the riverbank, with an ancient oak tree sheltering us with its wide roof-like canopy. This was the “home” of the nest in every sense of the word. There, on Shabbats, meetings were held, the nest census, and group conversations. This allowed us to get out the small wooden houses and spend our time in the expanses of nature and in a new form of recreation with a new essence.

We would go on walks with the entire nest marching together, both in summer and in winter, exploring new paths in the snow, in places no one had ever set foot.

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We would find hidden places on the frozen river and slide across it, not on skis, but on the heel of a hobnailed boot.

Our stature grew taller and so we could ignore the hostile environment, because we already had our own lives of great meaning.

All of this provided the youth, in whom all their hopes for the future were anchored, new content and a new aspiration - the hope of immigrating to the Land of Israel.

It's a pity that only a few of us fulfilled our dream and immigrated to the Land of Israel, and as for the rest, how cruel fate was for them, when the Nazi siege closed in on them and there was no way out, and the longed-for land was closed to them. The injustice of young lives that were cut off and there was no savior will never be atoned for, and the Land of Israel lost loyal sons and daughters.

Our house was opposite a synagogue and the prayers could be heard well in our house. During the selichot, my mother z”l used to wake us up by saying, “Kinder steit oif m'zagt selichot”. So, we huddled on the windowsill and listened to the voices of the selichot reciters that disturbed the silence of the night.

I also remember the Kiddush evenings of the moon, when I looked closely at the figures of those who sanctified the night light.

Unlike the sanctuary, there was a market square near our house. During the summer, on Monday mornings, during the hours when agricultural produce was brought to the market, I clung to a small stool on the doorstep and listened to interesting flute melodies from a group of Hutsuls (inhabitants of the Carpathian Mountains) who had come down to the market.

There was a shift from the usual routine when I joined “Hashomer Hatzair”. I was among the many who organized in Zionist youth movements in Gwoździec, but unfortunately, only among the few who immigrated to the Land of Israel and escaped the terrible Holocaust that befell the town.

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[Picture – 21. The Dramatic circle presents “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo]

[Picture – 18. Lighting of memorial candles on Remembrance Day in the Holocaust Basement, on Mount Zion, Jerusalem]

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