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by Yitzchak Lichtenberg
Translated by Jerrold Landau
An excerpt from a submitted testimony to the Jewish Historical Commission in Warsaw, 1945. Yitzchak Lichtenberg was the commandant of the Jewish police in the Lakhva ghetto.
In April 1942, the ghetto was created in Lakhva based on an order from the Pinsk district commissar. The ghetto was located in the eastern part of the town. It consisted of forty-five houses for 2,350 Jews.
Within twenty-four hours of its establishment, the ghetto was fenced in with barbed wire, two meters high. The Jews had no right to go around in the city. The groups of workers had to go to work in guarded rows. Dramatic scenes took place with the founding of the ghetto: The White Russian police, under the leadership of commandant Gretshka, with the help of the White Russian population, beat the Jews severely, and robbed them of the goods and living necessities along the way. Life was constricted in the ghetto, and was severely suffocated both from a moral and material standpoint until the last day of the slaughter, September 3, 1942.
The thought of self-defence took shape immediately after the horrific mass slaughters in the surrounding cities that was perpetrated by the Wiking S.S. division. It was impossible at that time to create a fighting group, because partisans were not yet seen in the forests, and the Jewish people did not yet believe that the complete annihilation of the Jewish people [was intended]. The first contact with a local partisan took place in January 1942 – a white Russian peasant from the village of Liuban.
[Column 460]
Roman Shevchok, 37 years old, was an underground activist of the partisan group under the leadership of “Vostochnik” Volodia Poliakov. A group of five partisans was created: Yitzchak Rechtshin, Yitzchak Slutski, Yitzchak Lichtenberg, Hershel Migdalovitsh, and Moshe-Leib Cheifetz. They decided to divide up the underground work, clandestinely, into a fifth-system [a cell of five people], so that each member would not know the others. A group of thirty members was created, consisting of the best of the town's youth. They arranged a special night guard who had to issue an alarm in the case the ghetto was surrounded and suddenly attacked.
The issue of weapons was difficult and very complicated. It was difficult to obtain weapons even for large sums of money, for the following reasons: The White Russian population, who were inimical to us, would not give us any weapons, and there was a fear to discuss that topic with them. It was completely impossible to steal weapons from the Germans. In fact, we were empty handed. We conducted heavy persuasion with the Jewish population, that we must put up a resistance with what we could in the event of an attack on the ghetto.
At 1:00 a.m. on September 3, 1942, the local militia surrounded the ghetto. I was immediately alerted to this, and I then informed the entire population. It was clear that this was the very last moment of our lives. We knew well enough the objective of
[Column 461]
the White Russian militia, and it was decided to break through their cordon and exit the ghetto. However, the Jewish population was hindered. Everything depended on a miracle, as had taken place with General Schmidt on August 17, 1942. The plan was abandoned.
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At 9:00 a.m., 150 Germans (gendarmes and S.D.) and 200 White Russian police already surrounded the ghetto. The stark reality of the [impending] murder and mass slaughter became clear to us. Nevertheless, we did not give up. We prepared flammable material to set all the houses on fire. Some people were armed with axes and clubs. At 10:10, when the first shots were fired, and the first victim, Yisrael Drebski fell, all the houses began to burn. In the chaos of the fire, we attacked the gendarmes, and immediately killed six gendarmerie troops and eight of the policemen. The German enemy left, and, thanks to the commotion, over six hundred people escaped from the ghetto, taking a German gun with them. I myself was wounded while breaking through the cordon of the gendarmerie. As I saw, Asher Cheifetz split the head of a gendarme with an axe.
[Column 462]
His brother Moshe-Leib captured the gun of that same German and used it to shoot the police. As I was wounded, I went out with a group of scouts, tore down the fence, and made a route for the escaping Jews. The entire time, they were shooting at us with a hail of bullets from various weapons: rifles, automatics, machine guns, and grenades. The screaming and the shouting of Shema Yisrael were frightful. However, these were also intermixed with voices of Hatikvah. That is how 1,600 people fell victim. Some poisoned themselves. The ghetto was completely burnt down, but the buildings of the Wehrmacht, the post, the militia, the pharmacy, and warehouses -- especially the warehouse storing the stolen Jewish property and furniture – were also burnt down. In total, 144 buildings were burnt down.
About six hundred people – men, women, and children – gathered together at the Pripyat River. Knowing that the gendarmes would soon be searching and pursuing them, small groups of not more than twenty individuals were formed. They set out deeper in the forest at night, so that they would be able to hide for several days until they could connect with the partisans. A group of twenty-five men was organized; I was among them.
[Column 463]
We wandered in the marshes and forests for three days. On September 7, 1942, we met the first partisan group not far from the Gritshin marshes. They received us in a friendly manner, and gave us the necessities for living, available places where we could sit in calm. About 160 Jews had gathered there. The leaders of the partisan group, Petrovich, Ivanov, and Schvets, explained the situation of the partisan movement to us, and where we could obtain weapons. They showed us where the larger partisan units were located, who might be able to take in a larger number of Jews. I, along with twenty-five people, remained with that partisan group.
We organized ourselves and began to procure weapons. The Soviet partisans were unable to give us any weapons, because they themselves had few.
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With all our means, connections, and money, we managed to purchase thirteen weapons, and we began to raid the guard stations of Lenin Senkevich, and other places. Under my leadership, we destroyed forty-eight wagons with ammunition. My group
[Column 464]
was combat-capable and excelled in all the battles.
On September 12, 1942, an order was issued that special Jewish groups must not exist. Like other national groups in all the villages, we had to join the ranks of the general Soviet partisans. Our group consisted of fifty-six individuals at that time.
In January 1943, I was joined to the general Soviet group that built itself up to a large partisan battalion called Kirov, consisting of two-hundred people. The Jews were distributed into various fighting units [druzhene]. I became the commander of the first platoon [otdelenie], and at the same time served as deputy to the company commander. With me, there were three Jewish men and two Jewish women, [the latter] occupied with the cooking, washing, laundry, etc.
After the unification, we immediately sensed that the partisan leadership now felt free to belittle us, make jokes at our expense, and chip away at our heroic standing. We knew that
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five Jews of Lakhva – Binyamin Zalmanovich, the two Wolochanski brothers, and the two Shulman brothers – were shot without a motive or cause by a partisan group that was under the leadership of the Chief of Staff Kubasov. Even before the unfortunate murder, they had shot a partisan from Lakhva, Hershel Moravnik, who had been expelled from our partisan battalion for a breach of discipline. He was shot by an order of Commander Ivanov (Lisavich) and the commander Rupeyev of the Red [detachment]. In June and July 1943, they shot the partisan from Lakhva Nachum Moravchik through an order from the aforementioned Commander Ivanov. The murder was conducted by Volodia Poliakov. The official pretext was disciplinary negligence and affiliation with the ghetto police. The actual reason was that he had given over to them several pieces of gold as he joined the partisans, and they shot him because they were afraid that they [the partisan leaders] would find out about this. The leaders of the Kirov brigade, the acting commissar Ivanov (Lisovich), the chief of the “Special Department” Schvets, the head of the brigade chief of staff Kubasov, the commissar of the partisan group Za Rodino [For the Motherland] Svirchov, and the chief of staff of the “Stalin” partisan division Rupeyev all revealed themselves as unabashed anti-Semites, against the Jewish partisans, and against Jews in general. Now, they had taken on positions of responsibility. Ivanov (Lisovich) was the secretary of the District Committee [Raikom] in Luninets. Schvets became the secretary of the Raikom in Zhobtice [Zhabchytsy] near Pinsk, and Kubasov became the secretary of the Oblast Executive Committee of Pinsk. Svirchov became the chairman of the City Soviet in Pinsk. Rupeyev became an Raikom instructor in Luninets.
The Jews were strongly suppressed, but this did not weaken their fighting spirit and thirst for revenge. The best partisans in the brigade
[Column 466]
were Jews, such as Shlomo of Sarny (Psevdonim), who was the best reconnaissance scout of the brigade, and was later killed in the district of the Red Army; Berl Furer from Wlodawa, Mishe the Reconnaissance Scout, Nechemia Kurland, Jalvitzki from Slonim (the best machine gunner); and, from Lakhva, Moshe Leib Cheifetz, Asher the son of Shmuel Cheifetz, Avraham Feinberg, and others. The Jewish partisan Yeshayahu Milman from Lakhva, currently in the Red Army, had 185 railway demolitions and two trains to his credit. The Jewish partisans displayed steadfastness in various sabotage operations, reconnaissance missions, and attacks on the enemy.
On April 28, 1943, the only group that conducted the pre-May Day action was the Jewish group of my division. They numbered six people, among them two Russians. We laid an ambush on a group of Germans. One German non-commissioned officer and two Russian Cossacks were killed. In collaboration with an entire partisan division, we conducted an entire series of attacks dedicated to the First of May. Not taking this into account, they thought that I was involved in sabotage among the partisans, and said that one must not eat any slaughtered meat. They wanted to shoot me. An anti-Semitic German woman from Lakhva, who was Ivanov's mistress, was involved in this affair. According to her, Dr. Mina Pidiszowa and the former chief of staff Captain Kapustin were murdered without cause. Thanks to Commander Petrovich, who was a very good man and exposed what they had done, I was not shot.
I recall a tragic incident: There was a detachment of Germans. We had to retreat, and there was an order from Ivanov that no unarmed Jewish partisans could be taken along, but unarmed Russian partisans would be taken along. In the vicinity of Wolia, according to the order of
[Column 467]
Major General Komarov, currently secretary of the Oblast Committee [Obkom] in Pinsk, seven Jews of the brigade, who were near the detachment, [moving along] with the settlement, were shot. I attest that in all the brigades of Komarov's federation, the aforementioned command existed, and an anti-Semitic agitation took place. The commissar of the federation, Major General Kleshtshov showed himself to be a terrible anti-Semite.
I could no longer remain in the brigade. I was afraid of a bullet from within [the brigade], and I was morally crushed.
I left them on January 17, 1944, and met
[Column 468]
a Red Army sabotage group. I remained with them until May 12, 1945, and took part in the battles of the Red Army, helping in the victory over the enemy. I had a desire to fight, and even more so, to beat the enemy. There, I excelled in various battles, and I was decorated with various awards: one order of “Red Flag”, one order of “War of the Fatherland First Class”, medals: “For the Liberation of Warsaw”, “For Victory in Berlin”, “For Victory Over Germany.” For the partisan battles, I was granted the order of “The Red Flag” and the medal: “Partisan – First Class.”
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