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A. To the Ghetto as Refugees

- - - Only by chance did we come to Lida, my wife Tamar and me. This was in the first days of November in the year 1941. In our fleeing from the Vilna ghetto at the end of October, we had it in mind to reach the city of Tamar's birth, Stolvetzi which was in White Russia, on the previous border between Poland and the Soviet Union. In Vilna, shrouded in the bloody days, echoes reached our ears that deluded us about the life of tranquility that prevailed in the towns of White Russia. We thought, for some reason, that the rage of total extermination had poured out on only the Jews of Lida, and in the area of White Russia there still remained chances for rescue.

This was a flight pregnant with danger. After we escaped from the confinement in the area of Dzivoniski and wandered in the dense forests in the area, we arrived exhausted and weak to a small village settlement (Chotor), a number of shacks hidden within the forest. We turned aside to one of them in order to eat our fill, and rest for a few minutes. Two young Polish boys welcomed us, they even generously offered food, they warned us: “why are you wandering around on the paths? The dangers are lying in wait with every step! Many will hand you over to the Germans, don't walk too far. Before you, at a distance of about 15 kilometers, is the city of Lida. There Jews are still walking around free to a certain extent, and their situation is acceptable, go, therefore, to Lida.”

Their advice convinced us. Inasmuch as only a few hours before we had managed to escape with our lives and we had come to know that it was impossible to reach “Stoivetz.” With pleasure the young men led us to the path on which we had to go, and we parted from them. We made our way in a forest of tall pine trees with huge trunks, on a path flooded with soft winter sun. We hurried, sometimes we even ran, and in the course of the entire day, we did not permit ourselves to rest for even a minute. By the twilight hour, we had reached the train tracks near the forest. No one stopped us, we walked on the streets, and the Jews of Lida that we met on the streets showed us the place of the Judenrat.

We reached the place and it had already grown dark, the last workers of the Judenrat hurried to their houses. We remained alone there; we reclined on the tables and immediately our eyelids closed.

In the morning hours of the next day, we turned to Chairman Lichtman of the Judenrat, and his deputy Kotok,^[2]* on the matter of our arrangements. In the Judenrat tension prevailed, and its members worked feverishly. The Jews of Lida were faced with upheavals; still in the days before our arrival, the Germans had instructed about the establishment of separate neighborhoods for the Jews, in the suburbs of the city – the place where the poorest of the people lived. The first ghetto “quarter” was set on the long Piaski Street, on the scattered shacks within the sand dunes, along the length of the Grodno road. For the second “quarter,” Kosharova Street was designated, which bordered terrifying barracks. On one side solitary shacks were seen, surrounded with green gardens and fields; on the other side a tall fence stood out, and beyond it tall brick buildings, gray walls of a barracks, in the style of Czarist Russia. The windows of the shacks looked out into a thick forest, which darkened on the horizon. The third “quarter” was found on the other side of Lida, on Postovska and Chalodna Streets, near the Lida-Baronovitz train tracks.

Thus the Jews of Lida were also brought into ghettos. In these three “neighborhoods” a population of more than 7000 people was crowded. The streets of the city were filled with people laden with possessions that they were carrying. When they moved them to their new “apartments,” some used farmers' wagons harnessed to horses, and some moved by hand. Members of the “Judenrat” ran around irritated, made every effort to mitigate outbursts, resolve disputes, and settle housing matters. Yet even amidst all this tumult, the heads of the Judenrat found a response for us. Quickly we received identity certificates as permanent residents of Lida. To the merit of the Judenrat in Lida, it will be recorded that it saw to the provisioning of hundreds of refugees from Vilna with counterfeit certificates in advance, which acquired for them the right of settlement in the city, and this was a real rescue.

In those days the Germans held a surprise sweep in the town of Dzivinishki and arrested about 40 refugees from Vilna that were found there. These reached this town, which was in the area of White Russia, out of a misconception that the calamity of terror would not reach there – the fate of Lithuanian Jewry. Details terrifying in their horror were passed mouth to ear in Lida, about the arrestees being taken out to be killed, nightmarish scenes that took place next to the mass grave. Even Dr. Tsharna's widow, the man who had been the Director of the (private) seminary for Hebrew teachers in Vilna, was among the victims of the sweep.

Daily, companies of workers would go out to various work places, in the factories and workshops, farms and hospitals, warehouses of the plunder, the building camp, and the like.

The men of the Judenrat believed that the concentration of the Jews in neighborhoods was a positive turning point towards calming and alleviating the dangers. The Deputy Chairman of the Judenrat, Kotok, especially believed this. He was an alert man, dynamic and with initiative. He relied on the promises of the Germans that the work would make an undisturbed existence possible for the Jews. Kotok would negotiate frequently with the Deputy Regional Commissar, Vindish, who knew how to put up a polite German face of a person who was concerned with the wellbeing of the Jews, and he pinned high hopes on his deceptive promises.

“At present” Kotok said to me in a conversation, after my coming from Vilna to Lida, “we will be able to organize the internal life of the Jewish community as we desire. Indeed, we are forced to work for the Germans, but

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we will be able to survive. The paradox of our situation is that at present a window of opportunity will be given to us to develop a certain self-rule.

However not a long time was given to this devoted and enthusiastic man to be deceived by his naïve illusions and be captivated by the devious and misleading words of the German.

Meanwhile Kotok devoted himself with great fervor to his activity on the Judenrat. In every place the active figure of the tall bald man whose face radiated energy was prominent – his voice was sharp and authoritative, and his movements were rapid. He even helped the collected and settled Chairman of the Judenrat, Lichtman, faithfully. A new headquarters was also set up on the corner of Kosharova Street in a central place, which was suitable for a connection between the three Jewish neighborhoods that were scattered across the city. Here the Jewish police was organized, at whose head Kotok was stationed, the various offices of the Judenrat functioned, such as the work office, the supply office, social aid, and the department of population statistics.

In the yard of the Judenrat, on its porches, and the steps at the front of the houses, masses of people would assemble, especially in the hours after work, here the rumors were passed from mouth to mouth, from here the workers were directed to the places of work.

The work office would supply the German demands for working hands each day. The places of work were mostly unstable and the groups of workers were occasionally forced, each day, to trudge in various directions. They worked at service and cleaning jobs, in offices, in factories, in the hospital, in military camps and the army warehouses. The winter of the year 1941-42 was extremely difficult. Over the course of months, a heavy chill prevailed, and to the suffering of the exhausting work and the bitter cold was further added starvation that embittered the lives of many, and mainly the refugees, who came from nearby in extreme poverty.

The Sundays of the week were free by law from the yoke of forced labor. However, as usual, already in the early hours of the morning on these days, groups of German soldiers or policemen would appear in the neighborhood and would chase all the adults, men and women together, to purposeless jobs such as: sweeping the snow on the roads, clearing the ruins of the burned houses. On one of the Sundays, all of the adult Jews of Lida were summoned and forced to go out to the nearby forest to chase the rabbits that were hiding among the bushes, in the direction of the hunters. A mass of hundreds of people was recruited for this purpose. Along the road that led to the forest trudged a long convoy of people who were plodding through the deep snow, trembling with cold and fear and from what was expected for them. Suddenly, there appeared a troop of sleighs and in them was the regional Commissar Hanbeg and his entourage, officers, clerks, and women wearing luxuriant furs. All of them were slightly drunk, sprawling on their seats in the sleighs, bundled up. Their shrieking voices, sounds of snorting, sawed into the distance, their laughter echoing. The sleighs hurried between the lines of marchers. The shrieks grew louder. The wild gang ridiculed the Jews, disparaging, whipping with whips the backs of those who were near the sleighs. One of the drunken officers turned his hunting rifle and began to shoot into the mass of Jews, to the sounds of the entourage rejoicing. The bullets struck a few of the marchers and they collapsed wallowing in their blood.

Panic broke out among the Jews, many began to flee, but the patrols increased the pressure – they prevented the flight and hurried the march to the forest, in which the hunt was being held. Over the course of many hours the Jews were forced to engage in their strange activity. They marched in long lines which continued for the length of the forest, passed between dense trees and bushes and fulfilled the function of hunting dogs, who were frightening the rabbits and making them run in the direction of the firing range of their masters the hunters. A cruel sun stood in the clear blue sky, and shone an abundance of stinging cold that penetrated deep into the bone. A wind howled between the branches of the trees, which were laden with glowing snow. And in the forest the dense shots and the shrieks of the drunken troopers reverberated. Within the depths of the forest, between the bushes, the Jews ran around trembling with cold and fear.

With darkness, exhausted of all strength, they returned to their houses. These were “the days of rest” of the Jews of Lida. And nevertheless, these were weeks of relative peace in the winter months of 1941-42. Occasionally, especially on Sundays, good rumors would spread among the public. It was told then about overwhelming defeats that the Germans suffered at the front, about a revolt that annoyed Hitler and the Nazi regime and about negotiation on the matter of peace, which was growing nearer. For a second these innocent rumors raised hopes in the hearts of the listeners. However, over a number of hours the illusions were shattered, and their place was vacated for the bleak reality. The situation that prevailed in Lida in those days drew Jewish refugees from Vilna who were arriving by the tens. The Judenrat saw to providing them with identity certificates, and housing them.

In the apartments crowding prevailed and in our section a shack fell on Kosharova Street. In each of the narrow rooms of the house there lived a family or two. Tamar and I received a place in a small dark kitchen. In its one corner was a broad-girthed farmers' stove and on its other side, in the corner adjacent to the window, stood a bed in which the two of us slept. The house was full of hubbub, children's screams, and babies' weeping.

At first I worked at various temporary places such as the hospital, in cleaning the yards. We suffered terrible hunger, with all its severity. As a result of the strong cold, frostbite wounds were caused on the toes and fingers. They irritated us and weakened the body.

Finally, I was accepted for work at the Judenrat, on Kosharova Street, in the Evidence division, which was organized at Kotok's initiative. In this section, 5 people worked. We managed its cards and provided the required facts for other departments and especially the work division.

Days came therefore of temporary well-being, weeks of small worries. Daily suffering, hunger, rumors of sweeps, exhausting work, cold, and baseless expectations. And here the month of March arrived with warm breezes and days of sun. The farmers began to work the fields that were near the neighborhood. We began to plan the use of portions of the ground that were adjacent to the houses, and fights even broke out here and there about the division of the land among the neighbors. In the adjacent room our neighbors celebrated the wedding of their daughter to a young man, a refugee who wandered to Lida from one of the cities in Poland. Even we, Tamar and I, were invited to the modest as if ashamed ceremony. I looked at the marrying couple, discerned their youth, and faint hope began to awaken. Cups of borscht were poured in which we dunked dry slices of bread, we blessed the couple, and we quietly sang songs.

However, the weeks of relative stability did not last long.

On one of the days of March S.S. men appeared in the neighborhood, visited in a few houses, and checked the personal certificates of those residing in them. 5 Jews were arrested, 4 men and a young woman, refugees from Vilna, who had not yet received “certificates' of Lida residents.

The detainees were brought to the Judenrat, and in the presence of a few of its members their names were recorded.

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The young woman begged them to permit her to return home, to her baby, who remained without care. But the detainees were taken out after a moment and put up against the wall of one of the buildings. All of us were suddenly shocked at the sound of a number of shots. Through the windows we saw the bleeding corpses moving and twitching with the last death rattles. The S.S. men went away after they had completed their work. Suddenly a scream of horror was heard, in the place where the bodies of those put to death were lying: Help! Help!

The young woman got up on her feet and stood out. Her face, which had been punctured near the forehead by a bullet, was drenched with blood, and appeared like a giant wound. She moved in the direction of the Judenrat, went up the steps as if in a daze, with her arms stretched out in front of her. She burst into the office with ear-deafening screams bursting from her mouth: Help! Help! The screams that burst out of the courtyard of the Judenrat reached the ears of the men of the S.S. patrol who committed the murder, who had not yet entirely gone away. They returned to the yard and quickly discovered that a body was missing. They burst into the office, found the unfortunate woman, and began to pull her to the yard. The woman clung to the knees of those present, held on with what was left of her strength to the furniture, to the door, the legs of the men – “I want to live! I want to live! Save me, bring me to my child!”

Her tangled hair, her bleeding head, her desperate struggle, were a sight that froze the blood. However, the hands of the four troopers overcame the wounded woman. TThey dragged her to the yard, and in another few minutes her hoarse screams were silenced after an additional shot, that this time was more on the mark.

From time to time Jews, refugees from other ghettos, were brought to the prison in Lida. Especially great was the portion of Vilna Jews, who frequently made their way to the direction of White Russia, out of a supposition that they would find shelter there from their hardships. One of the victims was the Director of the Jewish-Polish gymnasium in Vilna: Tepper, who was arrested in the Lida area and taken out to be killed in the prison yard. Many Jews from Vilna tried their luck with the help of Aryan papers and more than once we encountered acquaintances from Vilna in the streets of the city and even in the German offices in which they worked, who played the role of Poles from the womb and from Lida. We passed by them without revealing even with slightest glance that we had ever met them. In one of the offices a Hebrew teacher from the “Tarbut” gymnasium in Vilna, Mrs. Katz, worked as a clerk. She had succeeded in remaining in her place until the liberation of Lida. The prison bustled with the horde of arrestees, whose fate was determined in almost every instance. Jews who were arrested on the roads, and who had been hidden in villages by farmers and turned over to the hands of the Germans, were transported there. Those too, who had been arrested without a [Magen David] patch, lacking certificates, and the like.

The news of the imprisonment of an entire Jewish family in Lida grew wings because of the bonds of love that their daughter had developed with a German in whose office she worked as a helper. The German felt an unconcealed and apparently serious affection for the young woman; his feeling aroused his friends' indignation. The unfortunate young woman was placed in confinement, for the transgression of racial desecration, together with her brother[s], her sisters, and her parents. After a few days they were all taken out to be killed. On days like those, the Judenrat would often receive notifications that they had to send a wagon to the prison, in order to transfer to the Jewish cemetery the bodies of those put to death. On one of the days the bodies of this young woman's family members, whose unfortunate bonds caused the loss of her family, were also loaded on this wagon. It is told that the German who was in charge of her in his office was in deep mourning, and would frequently visit the cemetery. There he would prostrate himself on her grave with bitter weeping.

On one of the evenings in the month of February 1942, rumors were spread that were passed from mouth to ear and caused serious worries, that one of the refugees from Vilna, Yaakov Avidan, a young man, broke into the apartment of the local Pravoslavi priest. The priest returned to his apartment in that same hour and when he saw the thief, he raised a voice to shout, struggled with him, and afterwards even began to run after him. In the course of the struggle with the priest the jacket of the intruder was dropped, and a yellow patch was found on it. Other pursuers also accompanied the priest, but the intruder was quick, escaped between the houses, broke into one of the apartments and jumped out, to the astonishment of its occupants, by way of the back door. His tracks disappeared. In the neighborhoods rumors immediately spread about the connections of the thief to a few of the Jewish policemen, about the shared celebrations that were accompanied by drunkenness that these policemen held with a number of the men of the underworld, including the one who broke into the priest's apartment. The news that a Jew tried to burglarize the apartment of the priest and even attacked him aroused the fury of the local population. It was told that the priest was known for his sympathetic stance towards the Jews. But the news of attempted robbery at his residence spread quickly among the residents of the area and fueled feelings of enmity for the Jews. On the next day Lichtman and Kotok were invited to the regional Commissar and it was demanded, accompanied by unambiguous threats, that they hand over the intruder. However the thief who escaped from the hands of the pursuers had already had time to flee from Lida and return to Vilna. All of the searching after him, therefore, was futile. After some time it became known that Yaakov Avidan, after he returned to the Vilna ghetto, continued with his “professional” activity. But finally he was caught, and his career was concluded with hanging, which was carried out by the Judenrat police according to the instructions of the Germans on Yatkova Street in the Vilna ghetto.

In their distress and under pressure, the members of the Judenrat decided, after a bitter struggle with their conscience, to turn six Jews, who were notorious as “men of the underworld,” experienced in the area of criminality, over to the hands of the Germans, and they accused them of the break-in of the apartment of the priest. In their arranging this suggestion, the members of the Judenrat were of the opinion that the regional Commissar, who maintained good relations with them, would not conduct a thorough investigation, would hasten their punishment, and with this the matter that was inciting the population in the city would be eliminated.

Vindish, the Deputy Regional Commissar, conducted a precise inquiry and obtained testimony from the criminals who were accused of the break-in into the home of the priest. Of course, they denied everything. But they were not satisfied with that; during their apology they began to reveal the “crimes” of the Judenrat, which were well-known to them. They especially elaborated on the masses of the refugees from the Vilna ghetto who found shelter in Lida under the protection of the Judenrat and received from it counterfeit certificates of Lida residents, in exchange for large sums of money. And surpassing himself in the work of informing was one of the thieves that was known from among the refugees that arrived in Lida, Avraham Virobek, whose family had a reputation for some time because of its criminal behavior.

On March 1, 1942, all of us were awakened when the neighborhood was surrounded by policemen only a few steps away, from every direction. Individual people who tried to escape were shot on the spot. In the morning hours all of us were taken out of our houses and ordered to go in the direction of the city square. The troopers' screams accompanied us, while they were hurrying us, penetrating the houses and chasing

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the dawdlers. The sick were shot on the spot. Here and there were seen in the openings of the houses on the thresholds the corpses of women and men, who were put to death by the murderers. On the entry steps of one house on Kosharova Street, across from the Judenrat, sat an old woman whose head was bent towards the wall. The pallor of her face competed with the whiteness of her hair, her facial expression was calm. Eternal tranquility already diminished the nightmares that were the fate of those marching in the street. Fear of death enveloped all of us “where are they transporting us?” we asked each other. “Is this our last march?” Individuals tried to get away at a crossroads and in alleys but the troopers' bullets instantly put an end to their attempts.

We got close to the broad city square. On its one side, the large government gymnasium building rose, which at the moment served as the seat of the Regional Commissariat. On the other side of the square stood a tall fence, which surrounded the “Erdel” galoshes factory. More than seven thousand Jews were brought into the center of the square, surrounded on all sides by soldiers and policemen. Heavy cloudy skies stretched out over our heads. The cold grew stronger, hours upon hours went by and we stood in our places. In vain the exhausted people tried to get warm, jumping in their places and rubbing their frozen hands. The fear mounted from minute to minute. The machine guns, stationed on the roof of the Commissariat, from time to time sounded barrages of fire and their noise that deafened our ears froze our blood. Policemen passed through the crowd and ordered people to turn over the money and the jewelry. Many tore up the paper money and scattered the coins and the jewelry that was in their hands, or buried them under the snow. The sounds of the explosion of the machine guns, which were occasionally renewed, increased the horror. Is this the sign?! The mass of people wept, children screamed and wailed while clinging to their parents. Many prayed. There was no doubt in our hands that our end was growing nearer. The turning point came in an unexpected way. Orders to organize ourselves were heard on the loudspeakers. To cross together next to the building of the Regional Commissariat, between two lines of soldiers and policemen, through a temporary gate that was put up especially for this purpose. Here it is, this was a strange march of all the Jews of Lida. In proximity to German officers, to the astonishment of all the thief Avraham Virobek stood and looked in the faces of all who were passing before him. From time to time Virobek would point at individual people and they were taken out the lines and concentrated in a place on the side. 50 people were detained according to Virobek's instructions and immediately they were surrounded by dense patrols. The remainder were directed to their neighborhoods.

At twilight with darkness we returned to our house. We did not believe what had happened. Was it really concluded thus? Was our sentence deferred? In a condition of lack of strength we reached our house, lay down to sleep, tired to death. We did not yet understand the strange events of the day and only on the next day would the matter be clarified. In the city square, a census of all of the Jewish population was conducted in order to identify from within it the refugees of the Vilna ghetto who found shelter in Lida and were provided with counterfeit certificates of Lida residents. The two informers Virobek and Tziglenitzki took the role upon themselves to reveal the Jews who were not residents of the place and by the pointing of a finger the fate of tens of people was decided. The group of arrestees was directed to the prison and without delay, still on the same night, all of them were shot. After a number of months, I encountered that same Virobek. I was plastering the walls of a German office, as the helper of Virobek, who was also a professional painter. Virobek opened his heart to me: “Do you think that I did not know that your origin was from Vilna? You have only me to thank that you are still alive, for some reason I did not want to hurt you.” He looked at me with emotionless glass eyes from within his freckled face adorned with red hair. “You were in my hands and with this little finger I could have put an end to your life.” A smile twisted his lips and poured over the rough lines of his face. Gripped by a shudder I remained quiet and did not utter a sound.

A few days after the “defilade” the members of the Judenrat were imprisoned and among them the chairman Lichtman, his deputy Kotok, and Binyamin Tzidrovitz, lawyer.

Heavy terror prevailed among the Jews of Lida. The activity of the Judenrat was effectively silenced. A few days of anxious expectation passed. On one of the nights two Jewish detainees succeeded in escaping from the prison (not from the group of members of the Judenrat). They took advantage of a window of opportunity in which the jailers were not watching and jumped out of a hatch into the yard onto a heap of barrels that were scattered around there and fled across the fence. The details of the torture of the men of the Judenrat were known from their mouths, of their protracted abuse, and about their bitter end. They told about Kotok's firm stance, which entirely says respect, who before the enactment of the ruling and after those convicted were told to undress, refused to obey the offensive order. He organized the opposition, stood by his refusal, and encouraged others to follow in his footsteps.

After a few days, the notification was received in the Judenrat office that it had to dispatch a wagon to the prison for the purpose of transferring the tortured bodies of the members of the Judenrat. The bodies were shattered to the point that it was hard to recognize them. Kotok's wife identified her husband by a twisted fingernail on one of the fingers of his hand.

Only relatives of the family were permitted to accompany the men of the Judenrat on their last road. They were buried in a communal grave in the Lida cemetery. A black horror now fell on the ghetto, after the deaths of the members of the Judenrat. Their loss was an ominous sign for the Jewish population. Indeed, what would befall us was coming.

Thus passed a number of weeks, until we stood on the bitter work that the census in which 50 Vilna Jews were arrested, should have served as a kind of maneuver before the liquidation operation of most of the Jews of Lida, a trick of misdirection and distraction. We surely felt that our sentence was only delayed, and that the destruction was hovering above our heads. Signs that portended the approaching destruction grew greater and greater. On one of the days about 60 Jews who worked in the warehouse of the plunder were arrested. It was told that the Germans discovered thefts of weapons in the camp, and they accused those who worked there. Then they began to investigate the matter. Out of fear of what was expected for them, the Jewish workers did not come to work. The reaction of their supervisors was immediate.

Policemen took them out of their houses and all of them were transferred to imprisonment. This was on one Sunday, at the end of the month of April. A bright spring day, warm, I did not work and I sat behind the house on Kosharova Street, before which stretched plowed fields adorned with a darkening forest on the horizon. Suddenly a group of men surrounded by soldiers appeared on the winding path between the fields at a distance of a few hundred steps from the place where I was sitting. They marched together in the direction of the valley, which stretched between the fields and its sand walls turned yellow from afar. I followed behind them; the men marched in silence, like silhouettes along the length of the path. The group stopped in the center of the valley, the men were stood in front of the wall that was shining in the sun. Suddenly shots like dull drum beats were heard. The row of men that were in front of the wall collapse on the sand – afterwards the armed men^[4] leaned over them and apparently covered them with soil. After a short time, the armed men began to move on the path,

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in the direction of the city. Silence suddenly prevailed and it all seemed like an unreal vision. Soon the hypotheses were confirmed! Before my eyes the workers of the plunder warehouse, who had been arrested a short time before, really had been murdered.

The tension grew from day to day; rumors chased rumors. News of what was happening in the cities and in other towns agitated the public. It was transmitted about butchery and slaughters that from time to time struck the Jewish communities in the region. From the mouths of farmers it was known that they were digging pits in the forests near Lida. The echoes of explosions were heard from the direction of the forest that was near Kosharova Street. The forest was well known to us. Sometimes we would cross the fields that were near our houses and on the paths reaching the forest to gather kindling and bring it home. At present we were at a loss for ideas. With staring eyes, we looked in the forest, darkening on the horizon, that was shrouded in horror. We tried to distract. These were warm days of spring. A few worked the plots of land that were next to their houses and sowed vegetables.

On the eighth day of May with dawn, the knowledge that again the neighborhood was surrounded by troopers frightened us. Through the windows their shadowy figures were seen walking about here and there along the length of the tall fence that surrounded the barracks. We did not hesitate and we took advantage of a window of opportunity when the sentry that was near our house turned his back to us and we crawled to the small warehouse that was in the corner of the yard. In the warehouse was a small basement. About two meters wide and long, about a meter and a half high, intended for potatoes. In the warehouse scrap-iron, barrels and twigs were scattered. The neighbors crawled behind us. 8 people, and among them two children, entered the basement. We seated ourselves along the length of the damp walls of the basement, closed the cover of the entrance over us, and hid it with scrap iron and twigs. Hours went by. The voices of the troopers who were chasing the Jews from their apartments reached us from outside. “Everyone must immediately come out to the street! Those who remain in the houses will be shot!” The orders in German and Polish were heard clearly. Hurried steps reverberated. The screams of the people who were taken out of the houses were heard, crying and screaming, and again - everything grew silent. The silence of death, which prevailed all around, weighed down on us. After a few hours, faint echoes of dense shooting reached us from a distance, unabated. The shots continued for a long time, thundered and echoed over the course of hours.

Afterwards the voices of the Germans who were checking the houses were heard. The door of the warehouse that was above our shelter was also broken down. Someone entered into it, rummaged in the scrap iron – the breath was stopped! Heavy steps pounded above our heads. Rustling sounds were heard that froze the blood. The heart pounded, as if it was going to burst its bonds. These sounds went by, passed. And again only the silence hung over us. We listened with boundless tension. The thundering drumming of gunshots grew silent. It began to get dark. No one returned. In the night the voices of the troopers were occasionally still heard from the street and their heavy steps reverberated. We did not dare to go out of our shelter. We sat hunched over, cramped, without emitting a sound from our mouths.

Carefully we lifted the cover that was above the entrance. Undisturbed tranquility prevailed, no living soul was found nearby. We returned and closed the cover. Again the troopers who were searching for the hidden ordered us. Dim voices penetrated from the house, footsteps echoed from the yard which filled us with fear; the terror of death was renewed, when the hands of the Germans rummaged in the scrap iron (which was above our heads) and the twigs that disguised the cover of our basement. Silence prevailed. Thus we waited until the night. Already for more than two days food had not entered our mouths. We almost didn't feel a need to satisfy our hunger. In the night one of us dared to steal into the apartment. In the faint light of the moon that filtered in through the windows, the great destruction was seen; everything was broken open, shattered – the belongings were scattered on the floor. Bread and a bucket of water were found. We slaked our thirst a little. We chewed the dry bread. We listened non-stop, all of us with an attentive ear. “Will someone from the neighbors return? Will he let us know that everything is finished? That it is permitted to return to the apartment?”

Many families were in the house, and they did not hide. In the apartment in which we lived, was a Jew “a former Polish soldier” Tzvi Chazzan, who participated in the short war, was captured and escaped from a prisoners' camp that was somewhere in the expanses of Russia. He walked hundreds of kilometers on foot in order to reach the members of his family, his two-year-old daughter, a charming girl with wonderful playful joyous eyes. He was considered as having an excellent profession, a one-of-a-kind plumber. “Is it possible that he will not return?”

There lived in the vicinity a family whose daughter had gotten married a number of weeks before. Her husband too had a good profession, he worked in a military institution. “Is it possible that not one of them will appear?”

Days and nights went by. Towards morning we would carefully raise the cover and peek out. And here the houses were broken open – the windows were opened wide, the wind moved the blinds and banged the doors. We continued to sit in our basement. We sat hunched over, with no opportunity to stretch out our limbs or breathe a deep breath. The air in the basement became unbearably stale, although a faint trickle of air from the warehouse penetrated through the narrow crack in the cover above the entrance. A heavy weight burdened the lungs. Already for some time we could not light a match because of the dense air. We were forced to sit in the thick darkness, at a loss for ideas. “Is it possible, that of all the Lida community, there does not remain even one living soul?” The hair stood on end with fear. “What must we do? To where shall we set our steps?” A full week had already passed and again we were forced to steal into the apartment in the late hours of the night and take out of it the remnants of food and water. And meanwhile no sign of life was seen. On the tenth day of our sitting in the basement, our patience ran out and we decided to do something. A neighbor woman who was hiding with us, the wife of the hatter Zundel Boyarski, who thanks to her “good”^[5] appearance could pass as a farmer, decided to go out in the direction of the fields and find out: what befell the Jews of Lida?

She put on boots and wrapped her head in a scarf, took a basket, and looked like a Belorussian farmer who was carrying her merchandise to the city market. She crawled from the warehouse and made her way on a path that wound behind the houses.

The farmers were working in the fields, plowing their land as in days of old. The woman approached the farmers and asked them about the Jews. From them it became known to her that on May 8 in the adjacent forest the slaughter had already taken place in which most of the Jews had been killed. Only 1500 people remained, and these were concentrated in the ghetto that was on Postovska, Chalodna and Pabritchna Streets. These were continuing to work and they were permitted to move freely to their work places. At present no one was stopping Jews in the streets. Zundel Boyarski's wife returned therefore to the warehouse and informed us that we had to go out of our shelter and move to the new ghetto. And thus finally we left, eight shadows from the basement.

Our steps were faltering; we moved slowly and heavily. The light blinded and pained the eyes. We dragged our feet between the breached and silent houses. And across from the houses, in the fields, the farmers worked. Their colorful clothing

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shone in the sunlight, the kerchiefs on the heads of the women were reddened. From a distance sounds of conversations and happy songs were heard – an idyllic picture. And we – the anguish raged in our hearts and the world acted as usual! German soldiers appeared across from us. The heart pounds again. They passed by us without paying any attention to us. We crossed the broad city square, which was across from the Regional Commissariat; we met many people on the way, German soldiers and policemen; no one stopped us.

My legs hurt unbearably, as if they were beyond my body. I walked as if on heavy bars, and each step was accompanied by pain to the point of fainting. I controlled myself and continued to move. As if daydreaming I walked with the remnant of my strength. Finally we reached Postovska Street. The ghetto was already fenced all around. In the area of the entry gate to the ghetto, in the first house that was on Postovska Street, was the Judenrat. We entered the office. They welcomed us with astonishment. We were like shadows that had emerged from their graves. No one could believe it possible that Jews were still hiding. We stretched out on the floor exhausted. With difficulty I took off my shoes, which seemed stuck to my skin and revealed swollen feet, red as beets, shapeless. I tried to lift myself up and stand, but pains and sharp stinging knocked me over, and I remained lying down. One of the Jews who dwelt in the adjacent house invited me to his house. I went over with my wife and I sprawled on the vacant bed that was in one of the rooms. Thus I sank into a deep sleep.

When I woke up, the men in the ghetto let me know the story of the days in which we were “buried” in our shelter. The details joined together one by one into a complete picture.

On May 8, 1942, all of the residents of the Jewish neighborhoods were taken out and transported in the direction of the Kosharova forest. A lightning speed selection was conducted. It seemed to me that Vindish himself, the Deputy Regional Commissar, selected the Jews who passed before him and directed those sentenced to extermination in the direction of the forest to the right, and those sentenced to live in the direction of the forest to the left. Family members were separated; those fit for work were directed to the groups of survivors and the members of their households were chased in the direction of the pits, which had already been prepared for their purpose some time ago. Very many surrendered their right to live and sought to join their families. Our neighbor the plumber, Tzvi Chazzan, preferred to accompany his parents, his sisters and his charming daughter on their last path. Also our neighbor, who had married a wife a short time before, escorted her and her parents, despite the possibility that was put in his hand to join the group of those remaining alive. The separation was accompanied by screams of anguish, tight hugging with family members, loud crying, whipping and cruel blows by the S.S. men – the executors of the murder.

After the completion of the slaughter the Regional Commissar Hanbeg appeared and orders were heard: “all of them had to kneel, raise their hands, and thank the Regional Commissar for the right that was given to them to continue to live!”

The Regional Commissar descended from his vehicle, perused the kneeling mass, row by row, with their arms raised as a sign of thanks. Afterwards the Jews who were left alive were directed to the ghetto. In all of the houses the wailing and weeping of the bereaved for the deaths of their loved ones was heard.

We received a corner in a shack, on Chalodna Street. In a small room, 3 x 3, three families lived in three corners. Afterwards, a fourth bed and an additional resident in the room was added, a man who arrived in the ghetto from one of the adjacent towns. The street was at the end of the ghetto in the area of the Lida-Baronovitz train tracks, adjacent to the ghetto fence. From the room's window it was possible to look at the trains that were passing and moving on the elevated track, mostly laden with army and ammunition. Green fields of grain stretched to the train tracks, the grain already in bud and from between the soft stalks wild flowers sprouted. Across from the house a steep hill rose and the trees of a dense forest overshadowed. Through the trees was the red roof of the house of the guard of the train tracks. Dwelling in it now was a patrol of German soldiers and Ukrainian policemen, one of whose functions was to oversee the bridge of the train tracks that was above the river Lideika. The train tracks passed along the length of a boggy swamp. The river curved between the bushes of the swamp, along whose length the double barbed wire fence of the ghetto was erected. Across the swamp, at a distance of a kilometer from the ghetto, the buildings of the estate of the Regional Commissar were seen clearly.

I was sick. My legs swelled to terrifying dimensions; at least double size around, and dark red with a crimson-blue hue covering them. The three doctors who remained in the ghetto were brought to me, they looked, examined, consulted amongst themselves, with a worried expression on their faces. “The matter is difficult! Protracted treatment is needed! Your disease is rare, appears among immobile prisoners. Protracted treatment is required, rich and healing food.” Their diagnosis was not encouraging. For many weeks I was confined to my place and my bed; these were weeks of relative quiet. No one from outside interfered in the matters of the ghetto and I was able to lie undisturbed on the grass behind the house, with my legs exposed to the rays of the spring sun. They indeed did their healing work. The pains decreased – the redness on the legs faded, their regular shape was gradually restored. I began to move, I stepped slowly, and with difficulty I wandered around. I exerted my strength in order to move around and get used to walking. I wanted to go out with the work companies and not remain by myself for weeks, without movement, steeped in memories that did not let go of me, preyed persistently on my thoughts. The process of recovery was slow, but finally I recuperated.

I joined a group of workers that worked in the garden that surrounded the villa of the Regional Commissar Hanbeg. The villa, one of the magnificent ones in the city, was found not far from the Regional Commissary building (the former building of the government gymnasia). It sat high on a hill, surrounded by boulevards of shade trees, flower beds, and a high shrub fence on all sides. Adjacent to the villa was a pleasant pool. We worked at various gardening jobs. Hanbeg played even then the role of a good German and never berated us or resort to crudeness. His glance almost never turned in our direction. Sometimes he gave orders in a quiet voice: “Bring!” “Do!” It seemed to us that we did not exist for him. Once the Commissar commanded to bring a heavy flowerpot into his dwelling. Two of the workers obeyed the order and lifted the flowerpot, in order to set it up in the dwelling. The Commissar lay in his bed with one of his lovers, both of them were naked. No signs of shame or embarrassment were seen on their faces, and they continued with their love games as if no people were found in their presence. Sometimes the Commissar with his entourage would go down to the pool that was in the garden. They would wade in it. Entirely naked, playing around without embarrassment without considering the presence of the Jewish workers who were bent over their work on the banks of the pool.

In the first months after the slaughter of May 8, the factories, which in the future were to encompass the majority of the Jewish population, had not yet been greatly expanded in scale. The temporary Jewish council administered the matters of the ghetto, regulated feeding, directed the workers to various work places

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in the city, according to the demands of the German work office. The Jewish police were organized anew. In a store on a corner of Postovska-Chalodna Streets, they distributed the portions of bread. The council took care of housing problems. Many inherited the belongings of the victims of the great slaughter that they found in the abandoned dwellings and exchanged them for groceries. In place of work, bartering with the local population flourished, and the workers would return from their work laden with food. The temporary Jewish council gathered part of the belongings of those slaughtered in a special warehouse and would distribute them among the needy. And so, after we returned with a 10 day delay to the ghetto, naked and lacking everything, we received from the council necessary undergarments and clothing.

In the ghetto a kind of relief was felt.

Its residents were ready to work in the work houses of the Regional Commissary, which continued to expand to a serious degree under the administration of the engineer Altman and the merchant Alperstein. These two had good connections with the Commissar, who in turn assured them that the factory workers would enjoy the assurance of life, since their work would be considered to be useful and to have security importance. Gradually most of the residents of the ghetto were concentrated in the factories. The factories extended over a significant area. The entrance for the workers was on the Postovska Street side, and the outer entrance that was designated for non-Jews led to an area that was outside of the ghetto. The factories consisted of many buildings, some of them only single story buildings, and some with two stories. Almost all crafts were represented in this multi-dimensional enterprise, in which its administrators invested organizational ability and serious effort.

In the mechanical workshops they repaired various vehicles, agricultural vehicles, engines. The rattling of machines and the blows of hammers were always heard from them. Electricians were busy with their work. Furriers, hatters, shoemakers, watchmakers, smiths, implemented the orders of the Germans. Clerks of the Commissary, German officers and their close associates, took advantages of the work houses and inundated them with orders that were put into effect on time. A special division engaged in the utilization of leather scraps that were received from the galoshes factory, and made them into leather items such as belts, pouches, wallets, boxes covered with colorful mosaics, leather jewelry that very much charmed the clerks of the Regional Commissariat.

Hundreds of workers took pains to supply the demands of the Germans and stretched their imagination in order to arouse their personal satisfaction and enthusiasm. They hastened to fulfill every caprice and held tightly to this work of theirs as if to a life preserver, in their hanging vain hope on it. In the carpenters' workshop great efforts were invested in the creation of toys for the children of the Germans. A work force prepared for the children of the Regional Commissar Hanbeg, as a gift for their birthdays, a small train with an electric motor, which moved on long tracks via a tunnel over the bridges, and on its sides were traffic lights, stations, and guard booths. Weeks of hard physical labor were dedicated to the building of the train, and the Regional Commissar followed its preparation and frequently expressed his satisfaction with it.

In the green gardens they grew vegetables and flowers.

In the rabbit hutches they took care of the angora rabbits and sheared their wool. The staff in the work houses was Jewish. Jews were in charge of the individual workshops, planned and managed the work. Theoretically a German who would represent the institution to the authorities managed the work houses. A clumsy old man dressed in uniform, but his presence was unnoticed. The workload was placed on its administrators Alperstein and Altman. The organizer and the living spirit of the work houses was Alperstein – a merchant from Grodno, an ebullient man, full of energy and initiative. He expanded the enterprise and tried to win help for it with pleasant conditions for the residents of the ghetto. He hung false hopes on the kindness of the officers of the Regional Commissioner and especially on Hanbeg. After the completion of his work in the workshops, Alperstein would concentrate on composing a comprehensive memo, in order to present it to Hanbeg. He dedicated much time to this memo of his, and in it attempted, based on reliance on the known assumptions of a number of historians in Poland (Shiffer), to prove that Jews of the border regions of Poland do not belong to the Semitic race and in their veins flows the blood of the Kuzaris, who received the religion of Moses and emigrated from the deserts that are on the banks of the Caspian and Black seas, westward – to the territories of Russia and Poland.

The memo was presented to Hanbeg; the Commissar pretended that he was interested, as it were, in its content and promised to study it. Did nothing then amaze the German about the naivete of the Jews who were holding on to logical and weak reasons, without seeing the things as they were? But also in this instance, Hanbeg did not deviate from his role as the good German, and thus he behaved until the last day of the ghetto. Alperstein toiled with an abundance of ability and force of determination. He developed the workshops until they encompassed the majority of the Jewish population. Sometimes he confronted Alperstein on the lack of meaning that was in all his work; for what am I working?! Isn't everything destined for ruin? The most painful thing is the lack of reason for all my efforts! But he tried nevertheless to restrain his thoughts and became devoted to his activities with vigor.

The Jewish workers in the work houses were therefore able to enjoy relative quiet. Their immediate supervisors were Jews. They planned all of the work and they directed it. The pace of the work was not too fast – it was possible to rest from time to time, conduct conversations on the issues of the day, read German newspapers, and transmit various rumors. Sometimes, the workers of the individual workshops remained, in order to spend time together. Thus we held a party on Purim for the workers of the fur scraps division. We gathered around long tables, quietly sang songs, and with pleasant friendly conversation we were separated for a brief moment from our desperate reality. In most of the workshops the workers repaired items that were designated for barter with the non-Jewish population. Daily in the area around the fence meetings were held with the Polish residents of the place or with the farmers of the area. The workers brought their products here, in order to receive in exchange essentials for their support. Thus they traded in watches, clothing, shoes, sweaters, etc. In this way food essentials streamed to the ghetto by way of the pipeline of the workshops; bread, butter, cream, that improved the nutrition of most of the residents. On the other hand, Hanbeg was continuing to placate in his conversations with Alperstein: in Berlin they know about the fine product of the workshops in Lida. Nothing bad will happen to you. Even if they liquidate Jews in other ghettos you will remain alive. Thus were cultivated illusions which put the awareness of the survivors of the Lida slaughter to sleep, made them forget the horror of the danger and the approaching end, and missed every opportunity, and the extermination of the remnant arrived.

Already in the summer of 1942, organized activity of the Partisans was felt more and more in the Lida area. Even before this there had been organized small groups of Soviet captives that had escaped from the camps

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who were cut off from their regiments and hid in the villages and forests, among them also Jews who had escaped the waves of slaughters that in the spring visited western Belorussia. All these began to unite into companies and reveal the first signs of a Partisan movement. In the great virgin forests Lipichany-Natshi, Naliboki, significant concentrations of fighters were active.

In the summer evenings, in the harvest season, the skies frequently reddened, in many places and in various directions simultaneously, a sign of the igniting of the crop in the fields and German storehouses. Likewise faint information reached us about the Partisan attacks on the military garrison and police station, about the explosion of trains. We heard also about Partisans who dared to approach the suburbs of Lida in order to carry out daring operations. Longing desperately for something unachievable, we looked at the forests that emerged on the horizon, while in our hearts gnawed the burning question, how to escape from the snare of the ghetto?

In the fall of 1942 lone youths from Lida were already beginning to emerge from the ghetto into the forests. These were counted among the Partisans who had a celebrated reputation afterwards: Baruch Levin, Bern, Fridman, etc. In the work houses they began to prepare weapons in secret, to assemble submachine guns stolen from German weapons storehouses. Velvel Krupski, who was responsible for the mechanics' workshop, was an excellent craftsman who excelled in assembling weapons for those going out to the forest. Krupski was well known to the Regional Commissioner Hanveg, who valued his work highly. He stood out for his quickness and professional ability after he repaired a damaged German tank. Groups of youth began to organize and seek contact with the forest. The exit movement was especially noticeable in the winter months of 1942-43. Very slowly and gradually, individual workers began to disappear; afterwards, small groups. The well-known surgeon Dr. Miasnik, who worked as a doctor in the hospital in Lida, was transferred to the forest by Jewish Partisans who were members of the Orlianski regiment who were sent by the command in the Lipetsk “Pushtshe” (the virgin forest). He organized a central hospital there in which hundreds of Partisans from various regiments underwent surgery. Dr. Miasnik's wife worked with me in the work houses, in the #25 division for leather scraps, and was among the first to go out to the forests. Indeed, her daring march aroused in us amazement and excitement. In the ghetto commerce in weapons, which became the most sought-after commodity, flourished. Acquisition of weapons was a condition of being accepted into the Partisan regiments, and the emissaries who arrived at the ghetto in secret would connect as usual with only those who were armed. Amounts were paid for weapons that reached many thousands, and according to what was transmitted, surpassed even tens of thousands of rubles, and even more than that, for a rifle and for a pistol.

However in the ghetto rumors were also spread about the conditions of the Jews in the forest. About the loss of family camps,^[6]* about hunger, and sickness from typhus that wreaked havoc among them, about the abuse by the White Polish^[7] Partisans. The Lida region was populated by Poles and the White Polish Partisans found it a sympathetic front. The Polish Partisans conquered whole territories that were previously in the hands of the Soviet Partisans. They would clash with groups of the Russian Partisans, who were going out to their battle assignments, and were also attacking Jews that were hiding in the forests. They would also lie in wait for Jews that emerged from the ghettos and wreak havoc among them.

Our neighbor in the next room, Reizkind, who arrived in Lida as a refugee from Grodno after the liquidation of the Grodno ghetto in January 1943, my good acquaintance, from the days of my time in that city, made contact in the month of March with the emissaries from the virgin forest of Natshi and left the ghetto with a group that numbered four people. After a few hours they encountered, while crossing the bridge over the river, an ambush of Polish Partisans, who were cooperating with the Germans, and in the fire that was rained down on them, three of them, and among them Reizkind, were killed. Only one escaped, and he let them know in the ghetto about the fate of his friends.

On one of the nights we were awakened by the sound of gunshots that came from the direction of the patrol of the bridge that was over the Lidzika. The frequent shots reverberated for a few minutes and then quiet prevailed. In the ghetto this was a night of watching;^[8] we did not know what the shooting and the explosions were about and we anxiously awaited the light of morning. Only on the next day did it become known that the patrol was composed of five Germans and four Ukrainians. The Ukrainians contacted the Partisans, murdered the Germans that were in the patrol, and took with them much plunder. These Ukrainians, according to what was made known to us afterwards, joined the “Iskra” regiment that was active in the Lida region. A number of times they blew up trains in the area of the Lida ghetto. The reverberations of the explosions were heard well, and served as a topic for endless conversations. These bombs were, as became clear to us over time, the handiwork of a group of Jewish Partisans from the “Iskra” regiment. Transmitted from mouth to ear was news of the attempts to set on fire the estate of the regional Commissar which was located at a distance not far from the ghetto, and its buildings appeared clearly on the horizon. The German patrols succeeded in fending off the Partisans' assault on the estate, and prevented it from being set on fire. Much was told then about the daring of the Partisans, of their success and their achievements. The anxiety of the Germans continued to grow. The patrol of the trains was strengthened. The German garrison was focused only on large settlements. Trees were cut down in an area of more than 50 meters from both sides of the train tracks. The electric station in Lida was mined by workers who were in contact with the Partisans and the machine room was destroyed with explosive material, which was of course supplied from the Partisan forest. The Russian workers of the electric station, who were evacuated from the cities of Russia that were close to the front, deserted to the area of the forests after they carried out the sabotage, and joined the Partisan regiment.

All of this of course stirred up the Jews in the ghetto and excited their imagination. It also aroused secret hopes. Encouraging news arrived from the front: the battles of Stalingrad heralded a turning point at the front and we saw in this a sign of the breakdown of the Germans' military formation. The flags of mourning that waved in the streets of the German cities after the defeat of Stalingrad raised our spirits. The number of emissaries that came to the ghetto from the Partisan regiments multiplied, and the departures from the ghettos increased. A majority of those going to the forests turned at first to the virgin forests of Lipetsk and Natshi; only in the spring of 1943 did many begin to stream in the direction of the forests that were in the area of Novogrudok, to Bielski's camp and the regiments of the Russian Partisans that were in the Nalibok forest.

A new wave of extermination operations that surged after the defeat of the Germans near Stalingrad struck the cities and towns of White Russia. Shocking rumors about the fate of liquidated communities, which from time to time spread through the ghetto, motivated the Jews to seek an opening into the forests of the Partisans. Likewise news was spread about the liquidation of the work camp

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in Dvoretz on December 28, 1942, a camp whose organization, conditions of work and life, and in the main the illusionary tricks of its German administrator, were very reminiscent of Lida. An acquaintance of mine from Grodno – Reizkind, who I mentioned above, and who escaped from there in the actual days of the liquidation of the ghetto in his city – January 1, 1943, brought us the news of the destruction of his community and raised before us horrible descriptions of the last transports. At that time news of the first slaughter in the Bialystok ghetto reached us, at the beginning of February 1943.

In the work houses in Lida, the center of social life and the shaping of the public opinion of the ghetto, this news, that was received from the mouths of the refugees, induced a spirit of fear and melancholy. In its wake the number of those leaving the ghetto grew, and they made their way to the Partisan forest.

Emissaries from the Partisan regiments were reaching the ghetto in secret, in order to take out of it groups that were going out to the forests. They hid, of course, but their arrival did not remain a secret; many eyes followed after their footsteps.

The emissaries chose their candidates, insisted on their being equipped with ammunition, their battle ability, considered family ties and friendship. In that time, for the first time, it also became known to us about this camp and the readiness of its commander and instigator, Tuvia Bielsky, to concentrate in his area the Jews who were abused, together with the members of their families, who lacked fighting ability, and defend them from the calamities of the forest.

Bielski's prestige, and that of his camp, rose in our eyes, thanks to his military operations in the area of Novogrudok and the act of revenge that he carried out on the local residents, after they cooperated with the Germans and took part in the murder of the Jews or handed them over to the oppressor. Many Jews in the ghetto traced the footsteps of his emissaries and followed behind the groups that went out of the ghetto; they ran after them and were not deterred, even in the face of threats. They would entreat the emissaries and beg them not to prevent them from joining them. There were even days that large groups of tens of Jews would flee from the ghetto and turn to Bielski's camp.

The Jewish police in the ghetto, at whose head stood Leizer Stolitzki, cooperated with the emissaries, who maintained a connection between the ghetto and the Partisans. There were also policemen who would join those going out to the forests and sometimes also served afterwards as liaisons between the forest and the ghetto. At that time local Polish policemen who declared themselves like Germans (Volksdeutsche)^[9] guarded the ghetto. Many if not all of them were young men. Their special uniforms – the white blazer with its gleaming buttons and the belt – in the ghetto earned them the description “white ducks.” In the nights, in which groups intended to leave Lida, the “ducks” were invited to the dormitory of the Jewish police, at the end of Postovska Street, near the entry gate, and there they sipped a decent sip, which distracted them from their patrol functions. The departing groups succeeded, meanwhile, to slip through the fence without interference, and set their steps towards the Partisans' regions. The mass exit movement also left signs in the workhouses; the best of the craftsmen abandoned their work, even those in charge of the workshops and their coordinators, such as Velvel Krupski. And until the great hunt, in the month of July 1943, upwards of forty Jews from Lida were absorbed into Bielski's camp. The number of Lida Jews in other family camps in the virgin forests of Lipetsk and Natshi and in the regiments of the Russian Partisans, also reached 100 people and up.

The directors of the work house saw in the departure to the forests a danger to the existence of the ghetto and began to conduct propaganda against it. Alperstein was the most active against the movement to leave the ghetto. A number of times he assembled the workers for gatherings and rained fire and brimstone on the heads of the instigators of departure to the Partisans. In his speeches he would promise the undisturbed existence of the ghetto. In his reliance on the calming notices of the regional Commissar, Alperstein told of the esteem that the work houses earned, that their name rose to fame even outside of Lida, and news of them even reached Berlin. Therefore, it was not reasonable that such an essential place in the eyes of the Germans would be liquidated. The ghetto was able, in his opinion, to survive for a long time, but the exit to the forests would endanger its existence and hasten its liquidation. Production in the workhouses continued to decrease. Alperstein warned that the matter of departure from the ghetto would become known to the Germans and they would draw their conclusions; they would not tolerate the existence of the ghetto that was providing reserves to the Partisan forest. With these harsh words, Alperstein condemned the “haste” of those going out to the forests, who were abandoning all of the residents of Lida and worrying only to save their own lives. And even this was an illusion, for they would soon face a swift end because of the pursuit of the German army and the police, and because of “the hostile stance of the local population, disease and starvation.” In melancholy tones, Alperstein described the fate of the Jews who were going out to the forests and warned against taking these steps.

At the same time the workers of the work houses were brought in for a gathering, with the participation of the local Commissar Hanbeg. It was known to him, apparently, from the mouths of Jewish informers, about leaving the ghetto. We awaited Hanbeg's appearance with great anxiety. Hundreds of workers assembled in the hall of the mechanical workshop in the afternoon hours immediately upon the completion of the work. Those gathered filled the hall to capacity. They crowded together in all its corners, got up on the benches, sat on the tables, stood on the entry stairs and even on the stage. A sea of heads. For a moment you could imagine before you that you were in a meeting of workers in a factory. The Commissar arrived in his car, ascended the stage with rapid steps. He spoke briefly to Alperstein and translated his speech into Yiddish. At the beginning of his words Hanbeg indicated that the fate of the Jews was not easy, and there was no envying them. But only one way existed for the assurance of their existence – the work. The work houses earned a positive evaluation in the eyes of the authorities, but it was necessary to increase production. Additional accomplishments in production would increase the value of the work houses and would ensure for their workers conditions of existence. He promised from his side to do everything so that the quiet and the security in the ghetto would not be destroyed. The local Commissar avoided any threat, and any subtle hint of what was going on in the ghetto. The tone of his words was quiet and businesslike. After the conclusion of his speech, he quickly left the hall and went out in his car.

Did Hanbeg's calming words herald the approaching hour of the ghetto's destruction? Did Hanbeg knowingly use this ruse in order to infuse us with a delusion of tranquility and security? Soon he authorized this reasonable course of events, so that no one thought about it while hearing the words of the district ruler.

In the months of summer 1943, departure from the ghetto was suddenly stopped. There began to arrive from the forest frightening news of German hunts of extensive scope. Already in the months of May-June 1943 a pursuit was conducted – first in the Lipetsk forest and afterwards in the Natshi. Many of the Jews of Lida were killed in the Natshi forest during the hunt. And those who succeeded in escaping from the German claws were killed at the hands of the White Polish Partisans. In the month of July the German hunt also surrounded

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the Naliboki forest. The scattering of the Partisan regiments and the dismantling of the family camps was known to us then. Then the first refugees also appeared who had left the forests and in their despair did not find any way out except a return to the Lida ghetto. Individuals returned and from their mouths we heard about the suffering of the Bielski men, about the division of his camp into small groups that wandered in the thick forests, in marshy swamps, and in them suffered losses.

White Polish Partisans that were in the Lida district at that time had command over broad areas and were especially cruel to the Jewish Partisans and Jewish family groups that hid in the villages or in the forests. Velvel Krupski and his girlfriend, Bela Golmbivska, both of them daring Partisans who were known in the Lida work houses, were killed in a battle with the White Partisans and their deaths inspired heavy mourning. The situation appeared to lack all hope. The way out to the forest was blocked.

The ghetto compared to this was alluring and deceptive with its apparent tranquility, with an abundance of food and illusions that were deliberately cultivated. Undisturbed quiet seemed to prevail. The work houses were established and even were expanded. The workers were finding ways of bartering goods with the local non-Jewish population, and most of the residents of the ghetto were nourished in abundance. Necessities such as meat, butter, cream, eggs, were not uncommon on the tables of many Jews. Sometimes, in the evenings, from beyond the darkened windows, echoes of voices were lifted in revelry and cheers. There were also card games and they would spend their time pleasantly. These parties even did not lack alcoholic beverages. They would vary the meetings with spiritual seances, and would try, sitting around the tables, to find an answer to the riddles of the time. On the grass at the entrance to the houses, groups of people would sit in the evenings, immersed in conversations about the national situation. The problems of the front stood as usual at the center of the issues that were discussed. With great tension we followed the events at the front and signs of the turning point in the course of the war, which announced the approaching redemption. German newspapers, which the workers brought from their workplaces in the city, served as a source of endless interpretations. We attempted to read between the lines and find in them hints of the long-awaited turning point. The fall of the Germans in North Africa, the invasion of the Allies into Italy, and the collapse of Mussolini's government won prolonged discussions. A few people also won the status of very respected political interpreters and were surrounded by groups of listeners who would thirstily drink in their words.

The situation of apparent tranquility lasted about two months. The work in the work houses was conducted as usual, the extent of the Germans' orders grew, and it seemed that all was quiet and calm. Then all of a sudden in September rumors spread about preparations for the liquidation of the ghetto. It was known about the sending of Jews from other places, about the liquidation of the Bialystok ghetto in August 1943. Hints heralding bad news were also transmitted by the police. It was told about Germans that they demanded the return of raw material such as fabric, leather that they delivered to the work houses with their orders for products before the jobs had been completed. Groups of workers who went out to work in more distant places in the city remained in the ghetto. All these were confirmed and sure signs for us, to the point of horror, of our previous experiences.

In many houses they had already for some time begun to prepare shelters, and in the nights muffled tapping, the beat of hammers, the footsteps of people running around, were heard. Also in our house many weeks of work was invested in preparing a shelter. All of us worked, beginning in the afternoon hours until late hours of the nights. The shelter was a masterpiece; a few craftsmen were dwelling in our house – a smith, a carpenter, and they installed a beautifully camouflaged, properly built, shelter. The entrance was dug in the tiny kitchen, resembling a corridor, next to the stove. The opening of the entryway was in the floor camouflaged by tin, which usually covered the floor boards next to the stove. Into the sandy earth was cut a tunnel about 15 meters long, whose ceiling was resting on wooden posts and boards. Places for sitting were prepared along the length of the wall, and even a place for storing food and drinking water was allocated. Valuable possessions were also hidden there. We would remove the soil carefully, in bags at night, and scatter it on top of the paths around the house.

On September 18, 1943, with dawn, we peeked out of the windows and saw that the ghetto was surrounded by dense patrols. In the faint light, the silhouettes of German soldiers, policemen, and white ducks were clearly seen, walking about slowly back and forth along the length of the wire fence. All the residents of the house woke up and began to go down into the shelter. We brought down food and water and locked the opening behind us. We sat and waited for things to happen. Hours went by, at about 7:00 in the morning we heard measured knocks. One of the inhabitants of our house informed those near him that in the streets Jews were assembling, in order to go out to work in Lublin. Also the heads of the work houses – Altman and Alperstein – were among a group waiting the transport. No one remained in the shelters. They were promising quiet work in the camps there. Alperstein was convinced that reasonable conditions were expected. Another three hours remained. At 10:00 they would transport all of them to the train station and from there they would transport them to the camp. Cries were heard from the mouths of all those sitting in the shelter: “We will be together, we will not be separated!” In vain we tried to convince our neighbors and warn them not to be swept away in the spree of departure. “The reality of the work camp in Lublin is known!” “We will not remain by ourselves!” They answered us “What will be for the whole of Israel – will be for us too!” Was this blindness? Fear of the threat of loneliness? The idiotic power of delusion?

They appeared calm. The decision to join the group freed them from the threat of loneliness. All of them went out of the shelter to their apartments in haste, to pack their backpacks quickly and prepare provisions for the way. Instantly the shelter was emptied. It was determined for us, to remain in the shelter no matter what! Even by ourselves. In the last minute my student L.S. and my acquaintance K. visited us and consulted with us. We advised them to join us and they, without hesitation, decided to go down into the shelter with us. In the streets there was commotion and frantic movement: people loaded down with bundles and backpacks, streamed group by group, in the direction of Chalodna Street, the place where all of the residents of the ghetto had assembled before their transport to the train station. Along the fences were stationed soldiers and policemen who followed what was going on in the ghetto.

The time of the completion of the evacuation of the ghetto approached. The movement in the streets diminished. The last of those exiting hurried to the concentration place. The four of us went down to the shelter and lowered the cover. From this moment the cold darkness and the oppressive loneliness enveloped us. We sprawled on the seats, all of us with attentive ears. The unclear voices grew silent, and the silence prevailed…

Thus the hours crawled by… In the afternoon measured clicks were suddenly heard at the opening of the shelter. Somebody rhythmically knocked on the tin that covered the opening. However only one of the residents could knock like that! We approached the opening. We heard the voice of our neighbor Roftshik. “Open! It's me! Don't be afraid! It's me!” We lifted the cover,

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Roftshik came down to us and told that he already returned from the train station accompanied by a German soldier who he bribed, in order to take with him the strips of leather that he had hidden in the shelter. We were shocked: “how could you have endangered us, for a few strips of leather?!” Roftshik promised that the German was waiting for him in the adjacent apartment, and could not see the place of the shelter. He brought up the leather, tried to persuade us to join him. “The German will receive part of the leather strips and will not refuse to transport us to the train station. Here we are travelling to the work camp in Lublin – why should you be separated? They all, all, went out!” We refused. “Our decision will not change!” We heard his footsteps going away, the sounds of his conversation with the German, and again we carefully lowered the cover. We also bolted the bolt. In order to secure ourselves, we began to dig inside, in the part of the tunnel that was below the part of the cover of the opening – we sealed it up with earth. We then sat as if within a grave, and the worry gnawed inside us, what if the German heard? What if he returns accompanied by a patrol and discovers our shelter? The time passed. The moments dragged on, to the point of pain. Strips of faint light filtered in through the cracks that we had dug in the earth, for the sake of air. Small spots of light flashed across the sandy soil. The people, who were half lying down, appeared pale and greenish in this light; their eyes closed, their heads a little raised, and inclined to hear any light rustling. Lone flies buzzed, shone when they reached the patches of light, and buzzing filled the empty space until it was unbearable.

The strips of light that penetrated through the cracks now changed their direction. The sunspots wandered across the walls and afterwards began to turn pale, and very slowly they died out. The night descended upon us. Light rustling deepened the silence. A field stretched out above us, wild mice or moles burrowed in the soil. With sharp clarity running and dragging were heard. We were alert and tense, we had not yet consulted with each other. It was clear to us that we had to wait a few days. At this time they were guarding the ghetto very carefully. Surely tomorrow they would start with searches and only afterwards would we be able to try to escape. We almost didn't close our eyes. Faint jets of light that broke through the cracks, announced the morning of a new day, and we were immersed in anxious listening. Hour after hour went by, silent and heavy, unending. Before noon, the clatter of wagons was clearly heard near the house; one of the wagons stood next to our house. The footsteps of many people reverberated, sounds of movement were heard, creaking of heavy objects and furniture – the sounds, it was clear, of the furniture being taken out of the house and loaded on the wagons. Haunted by contemplations we sat; “they are emptying the houses, apparently, in order to return them to their previous owners. And what is expected for us? To stay longer and wait? It is not impossible that the non-Jewish previous owners will return to their houses, and then it will already be too late to go out. Then surely they will still continue to guard the ghetto before the patrols will be removed along the length of the fence.” We decided to wait another day.

The rays of light that were filtering through the cracks faded and the second night fell. We had hardly moved from our places. We were immersed in listening. Not one of us had eaten, nor did we feel any need for it. In the nights we dozed lightly and awoke frequently. On the third day with dawn, the hope grew in our hearts – “we will wait until midnight and then we will try our luck.” We recovered a little. “Here it is the third day and we have not yet been discovered!” However in the morning hours movement was again heard above us: the reverberations of footsteps. Afterwards tapping was heard. But this time the tapping was different. It was regular, measured. It alternately grew louder and softer. It was clear to us that they were banging on the walls and the floors and checking the echo, for the purpose of discovering shelters. It happened that the tapping grew silent and then we breathed a little easier. But quickly they returned and repeated. Apparently our enemies had not been satisfied with a one-time check and renewed their searching. In the afternoon, the knocks began to reach from the direction of the opening in the kitchen; it was obvious that they were banging on the kitchen floor with full force and with iron rods. There was no doubt that the echo of the tapping in the kitchen was suspicious in the eyes of the searchers and they were apparently trying to break though the floor. The tapping kept thundering without stopping and filled the whole space of the shelter. It seemed that the ceiling was about to collapse on top of us. A few explosions were also heard and apparently they tried to break into a few different places, the floor and it is possible the ground, with explosive material. From time to time the searches stopped, but after a short letup, in which we started to breathe, the “thundering” that was above us was renewed. The tapping became more intense, as if strength had been added to the searchers, who insisted on exposing the entrance to the shelter. There was no doubt in our minds that they had discovered the existence of the shelter and that we were lost.

The searching continued in this way in the afternoon. The hammering of the pickaxes, the sounds of explosion, seemed like continuous and unceasing ear-deafening thunder. Just another moment and the soldiers would penetrate into our place, take us out into the air of the world, and abuse us. Suddenly L. took out a shaving knife from her bag and tried to cut the veins of her arms. “I don't want to fall into their hands alive – let me die! Why did you entice me to remain with you? If only I had joined the transport with all the Jews. Why did you do this to me?” With difficulty we stopped her. And I gnawed at myself: “Why did we put off our emergence from the shelter the night before, and not try to escape then?” We expected, then, the unpreventable end. Time was stopped; every minute our temples throbbed, laden with anxiety. And thus our suffering continued until the evening.

The terror increased in us to the point of madness. The strength to bear the despair was already gone. Finally it grew dark. In the apartment above us the tapping grew silent. Only from the direction of the kitchen a person's footsteps were clearly heard, walking back and forth. Without a doubt, they had left a patrol. The next day they would renew the searches. “We must escape in the dark of night no matter what! Clearly, they will open fire on us, and our desperate experience was that there was no shadow of hope. But it is better that we perish and not fall alive into the hands of the troopers. We must try to dig an additional exit, in the corner of the tunnel! To go out to the field, a distance of about 15 meters from the house!”

We began to dig. In our hands was a small hand hoe and we took turns. The sandy ground was soft, we dug above us with our arms raised. The sand fell on our heads, blinded the eyes, penetrated the dry mouth. We heavily breathed short breaths, drenched with sweat that burned the eyes. But we continued to dig; with every careless tap of the hoe, a kind of parallel tap was heard from the apartment above us and again the footsteps were renewed. “Our guard will neither slumber nor sleep!^[10] He is listening to what is going beneath him and is teasing us. For every noise that is heard from our hiding place he responds with a clear tapping! Why should we make an effort!” But despite all our doubt we continued. “We will not be discouraged! Better that the bullets of the enemy should strike us as we emerge from the tunnel!” We dug with our hands. The sand hurt our dry eyes, the opening grew larger and higher. After 3:00 in the morning, we got closer to the surface of the ground. We were at a depth of about 3 meters. Suddenly the starry sky was revealed above us in the narrow opening and the moon's rays of light penetrated inside it. They filtered clearly into the opening that was dug. The night was very clear. “This too was our downfall!” We thought. We would serve as an excellent target for the enemy patrol the minute we emerged. “For the windows of the apartment face the field,

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and when we emerge from there they will rain down fire on us.” We had reached exhaustion. Streams of sweat dripped from the forehead. We were breathing heavily. We decided to rest a little more before we emerged and were parted from each other….

- - - The first one to crawl was the thin and short boyfriend of L.S. He succeeded in emerging from the narrow opening and extended his arm to me. I went up on the face of the earth, which was lit up with a very bright light, while across from me a window of the apartment was wide open, like the maw of an animal. Thick fog covered the face of the ground. From its depths of the silence of death, which flooded everything, an endless chirping of the crickets arose… I raised Tamar and finally L.S. was also taken out. In fear we peeked at the house that was across from us… “Where is the patrol? Maybe he fell asleep! What does the silence say?” We began to crawl close to the ground. We crawled without a sound on all fours, crossed the road of Chalodna Street, continued to crawl in the direction of the adjacent fence, to the Lidzika River. The grass was high, we did not lift our heads. We crawled about 100 meters, until we reached the fence. I took out the pliers that I had put in my pocket and cut the inner wire fence, and afterwards the outer wire of the fence. The clothing was caught on the wire and tore, and the skin was wounded. We advanced. We pushed our bodies and found ourselves outside of the fence. We jumped into the river in our clothing, without taking off our shoes. The water was shallow and it reached the hips. The splashing of the water revealed us. From the patrol that was next to the train bridge many shots were heard. The bullets whistled over our heads and fell into the water. We went up on the shore, and sunk into the deep swamp up to our thighs. With difficulty we pulled our bodies up out of the mud, which was pulling us into it. We crawled out of the swamp between bushes and raised clumps. The shooting and the whistling bullets accompanied us without stopping, but the clumps and the bushes hid us. We turned in the direction of the forest! Across the swamp facing the bridge was the estate of the Commissar. Also from there fire was opened upon us, and again the bullets buzzed over our heads.

With great effort we pulled our legs out of the sticky mud. We rolled, and advanced slowly and heavily. The redeeming forest appeared before us. The treetops were silvered with the light of the moon. The nearby forest was like a protecting wall for us. Finally we landed in the bushes that were at the corner of the forest. We were covered in mud, we crawled unkempt within the forest. The dawn grew pale. In the thickening of the forest, shepherds herded their herds. A herd of cows.

“We discovered them!! Zhidi! Zhidi!” They began to yell.

We fled from them in a panic. We quickly picked up our feet that were covered in mud and weak from the protracted effort of crawling. We went deeper into the forest, and again a swamp spread out before us with bushes and clumps of tall pine trees. We ran into the swamp and behind us were German voices: “Where are they?” The barking of dogs was heard. The swamp did not make the task of our pursuers easy. We ran breathlessly. Sweating, weak. Shouting and barking came after us. We tried to rest for a minute but again the screaming of the Germans who were following our footsteps frightened us. And so the hunt was continued for the entire day.

We ran around within the wide swamp. The bushes began denser, we penetrated into a kind of jungle, we entered a broad bush and lay flat on the ground. “We will not be able to run anymore! The rest of our strength has gone – what will happen will happen.” The sounds of our pursuers became farther away. They were looking for us in the other direction. Finally silence prevailed around us. The sun began to set. The skies above us were high and clear. It was good to lie stretched out on the ground within the fragrant flowering grass and breathe deeply. We were tired and only then did we feel the hunger that was gnawing inside us, and we were reminded that for three days no food had entered our mouths. We waited for the dark of night and continued to walk in the direction of the virgin forests of Naliboki. To Bielski's camp. We knew about a farmer by the name of Kostia who served as a contact between the Partisan camps and those coming out of the ghetto. He lived in the village of Siagli, a distance of about 15 kilometers southeast of Lida. We decided at the outset to reach Kostia and find the village where he lived. We walked straight, but the thick and swampy forest forced us to deviate from the line, and after many hours of wandering we found that we were going around in a circle and we had even gotten closer to the city.

We quickly crossed a road which was shining brightly with the white light and we hurried to hide in the forest, across from which appeared a solitary shack, surrounded by the trees of a garden. The hunger and the thirst bothered us unbearably, we could not restrain ourselves any more. We knocked on the door of the shack. In the window appeared the frightened face of a woman. “Who are you?” she asked. We requested food. We feasted to our hearts' content on cold potatoes and after we had asked her about the place where we were and the roads that led from it, we continued to walk in the direction in which we were supposed to find the connecting farmer. We stepped carefully, avoided roads, and walked on the sides of the paths. We hid many times. Only in the afternoon did we come close to the village of Siagli. One of us went out to the village to find out about Kostia's house. His shack was found in a place that was at a distance from the edge of the village, among a grove of birch trees. Kostia welcomed us warmly, and directed us towards the grove. He promised to visit us quickly. We entered the dense grove of tall young birch trees, and we lay down exhausted. Kostia returned after about a short hour with a white jug, potatoes and bread, and let us know that we had to wait here for the Partisans that visited him frequently a number of times during the week. He would visit us each day and bring us food.

On the next day Kostia brought to us a group of four survivors from the Lida ghetto; these were two couples who managed to escape from the masses that were being transported in the area of the train.

The days were fall days of Poland, warm and pleasant, at the end of September 1943. We awaited the arrival of the Partisans, encouraged and full of hope. Our conversations focused on the destruction of the ghetto. It was known to us that all the Jews of Lida were concentrated on Chalodna Street in the area of the Judenrat, where they waited a number of hours. In the afternoon S.S. men appeared and ordered them to leave the place. The mass of Jews was surrounded by patrols on all sides. At the last minute before they left the place, the regional Commissar Hanbeg arrived! Alperstein went out to greet him. The Commissar pretended to be innocent, and with a look of astonishment on his face asked: “to where are they transporting you? What happened here?” He played the role that had been placed on him successfully until the end. The spree of departure attacked everyone and only a few took advantage of the shelters that they had prepared for the day of the order. Altman and those close to him hid at the last minute in a shelter in the ghetto, but afterwards the Germans discovered them. The searchers broke in and took out of it all who were hidden there. Altman was brought to the train and added to the transport.

The last steps of the Jews of Lida were not accompanied by horrific events. Loaded down with satchels the Jews moved in relative quiet in the direction of the transport trains at the train station, while surrounded by rows of German soldiers and policemen, accompanied by the curious and indifferent looks of the non-Jewish population.

Was the style of Hanbeg's action preserved here too? At the station a transport train was already prepared and the Jews were immediately put into the cars. They waited many hours and only towards evening did the train move that was transporting the remnants of the Jews of Lida to the valley of killing, to the eradication camp Majdanek.

On the third day Kostia brought our redeemers to us, the Partisans.

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We ran towards them to hear their voices, and we extended our hands to them as if to friends. But the visitors aimed their rifles at us and answered the words of blessing with which we preceded them with rude screams and juicy Russian curses: “Cursed Jews, you served the Germans and aided their military efforts and now when it's all done you come to us? It's possible that you came as spies, why should we let you live? They sent the Jews from the ghetto to the camps. Apparently, it was assigned to you to serve as spies. You are liable for death. Vile traitors, we need to shoot you.”

A search of our belongings was conducted while the rifle muzzles were pointed at us, and all items of value were stolen from us. “Thank God” - the Partisans added – that we did not honor you with bullets, as you are worthy only of that. You will not escape from the judgement of the nation. And there still await you investigations of and demands about your treason.

They went away from us, while their mouths were still producing rude curses, and left us in the grove. We did not wait for Kostia anymore, and we hurried to get away. We wandered around terrified and at a loss in the expanse of the forests. To where should we set our steps? Of whom should we be careful? From the Germans and their helping cooperators who are lying in wait for us at every step? All of our hopes vanished. We were disappointed and humiliated. The Partisans that visited us were satisfied with robbery, and who would ensure that others would not carry out the threats and kill us? We were reminded of many stories about antisemitic Partisans and their abuses of defenseless Jews that were wandering in the forests! The fear increased within us. We took care not to be seen during the day and preferred to advance in the nights, bypassing every settlement at a distance. We were stopped on the banks of a wide river that flowed through dense forests. The tops of tall trees were reflected in its quiet waters. This was the Nieman. On its other side sprawled the region that was dominated by the Partisans. Here there was already no foothold for the Germans. We were forced to request a boat and turned to one of the houses that were adjacent to the shore.

Before the owner of the boat was kind enough to take us across, we were interrogated at length by an armed man – a Partisan, who was guarding the passageways in the area. After he permitted us to cross, we were taken in the boat to the other side of the Nieman, to the area of the virgin forest. After we went up on the other shore and were supposed to continue on our way, Partisan patrols surrounded us and transported us to the commander of the Iskra regiment, one of the known regiments in the Lida area, rumors of whom had already reached us some time ago, and among its members were also found a few Lida-ites.

Another 12 Jews were concentrated here, among them a few children. Our friend L., who had hidden together with us in Lida, met here with her sister, who managed to flee on the way to the train and hid in a yard between houses. Here we also found the Pupko couple from Lida who jumped from the train car that was transporting the Jewish transport. In this group was also Starodvorski with his wife and daughter.

One of the officers came out to greet us and began to curse us: “You betrayed the homeland and helped the Germans, you built work houses for them and now you have escaped to us for espionage. Your judgement is the death penalty. You will not escape a fair trial after the liberation. You became rich in the ghetto and now you must turn the stolen goods over to the Partisans.” He ordered a meticulous search. We were forced to take off our clothes and our shoes, and to turn them over to the Partisans. Almost every useful thing, including needles and spools of thread, was stolen from us. We were left robbed and humiliated within the forest. Most of us were barefoot. We decided to advance in the direction of the Nalibok forest. Our only hope was Bielski's regiment. We walked in the nights, gripped by fear, and we refrained from any encounter with the Partisans.

Starodvorski knew these forests well since, as a result of his business, as a tree merchant, he had already visited this area more than once. He served therefore as a guide for us.

Like shadows we moved by the light of the moon, and in the day we hid in the thick part of the forest. The ground was swampy and our feet sank in the sticky mud. Our steps were accompanied by the croaking of frogs, and the bubbling of the murky water. Fog that was lifted above the forest enveloped the bushes, covered the treetops, which seemed blurred through a thin veil. Sometimes the path moved on wooden boards that were laid on the surface of the mud, as a kind of bridge for the length of kilometers. The boards shifted under the weight of the walkers, and sometimes the foot sunk into the crack between them. From time to time tree trunks blocked the paths, and it was necessary to climb over them.

The Partisans put up barriers of uprooted trees in order the prevent the advance of the Germans, when they penetrated into the forest at the time of the last hunt in the month of July 1943. Sometimes storms would fell giant old trees that lay across the length of the path. Sometimes the path would end in the mire and we were forced to make our way through the chilly water with our feet sinking into it up to the knees and even above that.

We were in the heart of the thick virgin forests of Naliboki. The settlements that we chanced upon on our way were destroyed. In the great hunt that was conducted in the month of July 1943, the Germans destroyed all of the settlements that served as a base for the Partisans. They annihilated the population, some on the spot and some they took out for forced labor in Germany. Before our eyes stood ruins of pipes, remnants of the Russian fences, walls that were not completely burned. Corpses of horses that spread a nauseating smell around them were scattered around. Sooty chimneys protruded.

We crossed the town of Naliboki, which was entirely overturned like an archaeological mound of ruins. No living soul was left in this settlement. We dug in the soil of the fields and took out potatoes, roasted them on campfires, and boiled them in a soldier's tin hat, and in a chamber pot that we found on the way. We divided the potatoes equally, strictly counting them out five to a head.

The rainy fall nights were threatening, and we were lying on the boggy ground. Trickles of water penetrated every pore of the skin. Tamar's right foot was injured and swollen and she limped on her left foot and suffered sharp pains. The worn-out children wailed, and their parents were forced to carry them on their backs. We reached the wide Braza River, one of the tributaries of the Nieman; from its two banks lofted tall birch trees. The tops of the trees that were standing in the fallen leaves were reflected in its silent waters. Hours upon hours we set our feet on the banks of the river in our search for a shallow crossing. We crossed it with our steps in formation and carrying our belongings on our heads. Thus we walked for about a week. We slowly cleared a path for ourselves among the paths that were intermittently disappearing. In the thickets of shrubs and among tall trees.

We entered a drier area. Broad-stemmed luxuriant trees were lifted up to the heights from between dense bushes. Beams of sunlight filtered into the darkness. The treetops shone in a variety of fall colors. Smells of sap surrounded us. Suddenly from within the bushes a sharp order burst out: “Stand!” A tapping of a rifle's safety latch was heard. Who are you? A Partisan with a rifle jumped out of the bushes.

We recognized him immediately. This one of the people we knew from Lida, Fridman. We shook hands and hugged him emotionally. We had indeed arrived at the camp of Bielski.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Original footnote, not starred in the original text, appears at the bottom of page 288: The author of the entry (today in Haifa) who was the Director of the “Tarbut” Seminary in Vilna, a professional historian, was in Lida until its bitter end. In those days he had the strength to write a diary and collect testimonies. All the material that was in his hand was confiscated by the Russian authorities. But he wrote it all anew. Return
2. Original footnote: * The father-in-law of Stoctor. Return
3. Defilade is protection, shielding, or shelter from observation and direct enemy fire, created by a natural or artificial landscape detail. Fire that is fired from behind cover. IDF Dictionary of Terms, Agam Tovad, 1998, p. 113. Return
4. This phrase can mean “the armed men” or a profanity describing the killers as “the f***ing men.” It uses a different word than the word used for “armed” in the following sentence. Return
5. Aryan. Return
6. * Original footnote: These were camps of non-fighters: mainly women and children, and a few old people, who were supported and held by the Partisan units. Return
7. This was a political party, not a racial group. Return
8. Exodus 12:42 “It was a night of watching unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt…” Return
9. People who were, claimed to be, or were considered ethnically German and living outside of Germany. Return
10. Playing on Psalms 121:4 “See, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!” Return

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The Germans said that they were taking us to work in Lublin. On that unforgettable, sad day I lost my whole family. I want to tell you about two episodes from that horrible day.

On one of the frosty days of the winter of 1941-42 I had not gone to work because I didn't feel well and was running a high fever. Lying thus, near the low window, in the cold house, thinking, looking outside, I saw two armed gendarmes driving the famous teacher from the Lida Povshekner Shul, Lichtman, on his final journey. He was the chairman of the first Judenrat.

One of the gendarmes was Sobolevsky. Lichtman was very pale, his hands behind him in handcuffs. Several days later his tortured corpse, along with the tortured corpses of several other members of the first Judenrat, were brought to the section of the Ghetto on Petovsky Street, where they were buried in the Jewish cemetery.

Now, about my experience on a summer day in 1943, before the liquidation of the Lida Ghetto.

I was going from work in a work gang along Fabritshine Street. There was the headquarters of the Whites. These were members of the Hitler Youth. They stopped us and held a search to see if anyone was carrying any products into the Ghetto. They found potatoes on me that a Pole had given me. They took me out of the work gang and brought me into the headquarters. There they ordered me to read an anti-semitic placard on the wall. After each sentence they rained blows on me from all sides. My face became swollen and full of bruises. Then they ordered me to undress and lie on a table. They put a sack on my head and told me that I would get 25 blows, and that each time I would make a cry or a groan, I would get the same amount of blows again until I would remain still.

From both sides they started beating me with long whips. I bit my lips and kept silent. How many times they hit me, I don't know. When they told me to stand, I could barely stand on my feet. I was half-conscious. Then they ordered me to clean up the courtyard, which had a fence, and in the entrance there was a post. I understood that they weren't going to let me leave there alive.

While I was cleaning the courtyard, I noticed a German enter it. Not having anything to lose, I went over to him. I told him that my family was starving. I was bringing them a few potatoes from work, and because of this they had arrested me.

He had me freed, gave me back the potatoes, and brought me himself to the gate of the Ghetto. It was my luck to meet a German with human feelings.

It was hard for me to sit for many weeks afterward. The 17^th of September 1943 the Ghetto, which contained the small streets of Postovsky and Chladne, was encircled by a German military unit of gendarmes and S.D.-men. The Ghetto police said that the Germans ordered that we should take whatever we could carry, go out of the houses, and stand in groups of 50.

The German guard stood in two rows, one outside the fence and the second inside, in the Ghetto. Before going to stand in the group I told my sister, of blessed memory, that she should go over, with one of her friends from Voronovo, to a German soldier and ask him where they were taking us. They did this, and I heard his answer, that they were taking us to work in Lublin. Later, the Germans began to lead one group after the other to the boxcars.

Our family and the Kamienietzky family were in one group. I saw how the leaders of the workrooms, Altman and Alperstein and also the Commandant of the Jewish Ghetto police Stalitsky, stood with their bundles on their shoulders in one of the groups.

At a certain moment, a great hole with corpses came into my mind, and I was in the middle, and the earth started pressing on me and sticking. At that moment an overwhelming strength gave me a push. I threw the sack with my clothing off my shoulders and began to run. I ran into a house that was emblazoned with yellow Mogen Davids in back and in front. There were several men there. One asked me in Polish what I need there. Driven by momentum I ran out and into a barn near the house. There was a pile of dried turf. I wanted to dig myself into the turf, but I saw that it was impossible. I went out of the barn and saw a heap of dung overgrown with long wild grass. Lying there were also pieces of rusted sheet metal. I dug myself deeply into the dung and covered it with sheet metal.

At one time, as I lay there, an S.S. officer passed by. I was lucky that he didn't have a dog. I lay there until evening. At night I met 4 other escapees, among them Movshovich from Lida, who had had a booth of second-hand clothing in the marketplace. To add to our worries, a full moon lit our dark world. We decided to wait until morning.

At daybreak we divided into two groups. Two other escapees and I went first. Behind us, at a distance, went Movshovich from Lida with a boy, a refugee from Poland. His name was Shliamush.

We had to go through one part of Suvalsky Street and were afraid to be noticed by passersby. If we saw someone coming toward us, we crossed to the other side. At one time we heard a cry of “Halt”. We didn't stand still but went in the direction of Lida Street.

I found out later that the area Commandant had stopped the two behind us and had taken them to the boxcars. Shliamush was able to run away from the boxcars, and he told me this when I met him later in the woods.

We went through Lida Street. I threw a petrified glance at the small mound of our house. We crossed the small river Lidzeike, the small town Ruslaki, and went into the woods. I glanced back in the distance and saw from the abyss, my family, my forever lost family.

In my memory, I parted with the neighborhood which was bound up with my golden childhood years. I couldn't cry because my heart was turned to stone and my blood curdled. I cried myself dry at a later time, after many years.

We went deep into the woods, and after a while came to the partisans.

[Page 302]

This happened in September 1943. Quite early the Ghetto on Postovsky Street was encircled by the S.S. Polish police and soldiers with machine guns in their hands.

There were then in the Ghetto about 4,000 Jews from Lida and the surrounding shtetls. The S.S. started to drive everyone without distinction to the railroad station and loaded them into the boxcars. It was hard to run away since they would be shot right away. Many hid in cellars, but they were all caught. By chance my brother Eltchik went into a house and noticed a cellar. From the cellar there was a tunnel dug all the way to the foundation. The tunnel was six meters long. About ten people were already sitting in it. He quickly got out, took my mother and Chana, and we entered the tunnel. Quickly more people ran in. The S.S. noticed the path, and started searching in the area. However, they didn't notice the tunnel. They opened the cellar door, and not seeing anyone, they departed and left behind Polish police so that no one should hide in the cellar.

In the evening already no Jews remained in Postovsky Street. Only Polish looters came to take the little Jewish goods that remained.

It was dim. The people who sat in the tunnel began to dig further and made an opening under the house.

It was already dark outside. The second house was 15 meters from the river. One by one we slowly went out and crossed the river. The water reached as high as our necks. My mother was carried across.

When the Polish police heard a noise they began to shoot. Four people were killed, but ten saved themselves and entered the road through the fields on the other side of the river. We finally reached the woods. We walked for two days and slept under the free sky. When we went deep into the woods we met partisans from Bielski's Detachment and thus we were rescued.

[Page 303]

At the outbreak of the German-Polish war I was in Warsaw and I participated in the defense of the city.

After the German conquest I was witness to a scene like this: a Jew carrying water from the Visla River. A German approaches him, pours out his water, hits him, and shears off half of his beard. In that moment I decided to flee from the German regime.

At the outbreak of the German-Russian war I was in Lida. With the entrance of the Germans into Lida I moved to Radon. In Radon Kotliartchik (killed by the Partisans) stood at the head of the police. I lived in his house on the basis of Aryan papers and I opened a barbershop.

In December 1941 the first slaughter was carried out in Eisishok. Before the mass murder of the Jews Kotliartchik came to an agreement with the head of the police in Eisishok, that he would receive the horses of the slain Jews. At that time Kotliartchik received an order from the regional Commissar in Lida, to send 10 policemen to Lida.

On the next day Kotliartchik needed to travel to Eisishok to receive the horses. Kotliartchik forced me to travel with the three policemen that remained in Radon to bring the horses from Eisishok.

When we arrived the slaughter was in full force. I saw how they were chasing my friend Podolsky with his wife and children to the area of death.

My heart was broken within me and I could not take it anymore. I caught the first two horses and I fled with them to Radon. The other three policemen remained in order to participate in the slaughter.

In Radon Kotliartchik informed me that they were preparing the slaughter in Lida. I immediately set my steps towards Lida. At that time the concentration of the Jews in the ghetto began. The Judenrat in Lida proposed that I serve in the role of policeman. I put off this offer and moved to the barracks.

On March 18, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded and the men of the Judenrat were imprisoned. Among them were: Lichtman, Kotok, Tzidrovitch, Sokolovski. They were imprisoned for eight days and were tortured with the tortures of hell.

One day an order was received to send wagons. We already knew beforehand, from the mouths of the Jews who worked in the prison, that the wagons were intended for transporting the bodies of the members of the Judenrat.

I was among the wagon-movers. They put us into a stable and there the 24 slain men were revealed before our eyes. Some of them were still dying. All of them were without outerwear. We were forced to load the bodies on the wagons, cover them with straw, and our clothing. The Germans forced us to sit on the corpses and transport them to the ghetto.

From the ghetto we transported the bodies to the cemetery and there we buried them in pits that had been prepared.

At that time 15 Jews were also shot because they were a quarter of an hour late for work.

On May 8 in the morning, 1942, the Jewish and Polish police expelled all of the Jews from their houses and concentrated them in an empty lot across from the Judenrat. There a selection was organized. 5600 were directed to the right towards death, and eight hundred who were directed to the left were designated to remain alive.

Those who were directed to the right were pushed with rifle barrels and shots towards the pits, and many were shot on the way. I with my brother and my brother-in-law were directed to the right to the side of those sentenced to death.

Upon hearing the shots I said to my friend Bobka Shtzitnitzki: “We will make a way for ourselves through the first lines and see what is being done there.” When I got near the first lines I saw that people were already dressed only underwear and the policemen were pushing them towards the pits.

In that moment I began to retreat and try to flee. The guards were Poles, Lithuanians and Germans. I saw how the murderers took a nursing infant from the arms of its mother, threw him up in the air, and caught him with a bayonet, while an S.S. man filmed the scene. From an abundance of anguish the woman ran to her husband and tore off part of his cheek, and he remained standing motionless. The murderers fired at the woman and killed her on the spot.

Afterwards they ordered all the women to set their children on the ground. Children were removed by force from those who refused, thrown into the pits, and torn apart by grenades.

At first I hid in the pile of clothing, after some time I came out and turned to Shtzitnitzki with a cry “let's flee!”

My cry reached the ears of a German who had a death skull on his hat, and he caught Bobka and me by our necks and moved us towards the pit. He shot at the head of Bobka Shtzitnitzki and entirely hacked him to pieces, I fell into the pit and was wounded by a bullet in the spinal cord.

At first I began to move around so that the murderers would sense me and kill me, at that moment I felt that my strength was still with me.

Meanwhile the shooting stopped, since a second group was preparing to take of their clothing. I got up on my feet and I wanted to go out, but the pit was too deep. I piled the bodies up on top of each other, and on top I put the body of a child, and I jumped up from the bodies. I my emergence from the pit I encountered a Lithuanian guard, grabbed a rock, and struck him in his eye.

I began to run in the direction of the ghetto. A rain of bullets came down towards me. A Polish policeman, Vatzek Yanush, who was beforehand a good acquaintance of mine (we served together in the Russian militia), chased after me. When he saw me he lowered his rifle and ordered me to enter the house and he hid me in the basement.

At the time of the escape my brother and his wife met me, and he too ran after me and came across Vatzek Yanush. Vatzek pushed him together with his wife (she went afterwards towards the pits and was killed) into the basement, and dumped a bucket of excrement on the basement doors.

After the policeman left the house another Jew and a young Soviet woman, Reika, hid in it, who afterwards joined the Partisans. We lowered Reika down and a Jew went up to the attic. After a short time the Jew was caught by the Germans who penetrated the house and tortured him to death. They did not reach us and they did not open the basement door, because of the excrement that was poured on it. And thus we were saved.

Six days we lay in the basement. No food entered our mouths. I was tortured by thirst, then my brother gave me some of his urine to drink. My brother found a rotten potato, cut it, and gave it to me to chew and spit out, and this saved me.

On the sixth day we heard that the Polish population was looting the houses of the Jews. We refused that the Poles would enter our houses, then my brother decided

[Page 304]

to emerge from his hiding place. As he went out he encountered a Polish policemen that he knew – Kovalevski. That one commanded him to immediately leave the area of the ghetto since in about an hour other policemen would come to take his place.

My brother took me out of the hiding place immediately and we entered the house of Marousia, a Polish acquaintance of ours.

She took care of me for five days. She washed and bandaged my wound. On the next day she took me to the hospital while placing her brother's passport in my hand. In the hospital a Jew, Dr. Miasnik, worked, and also the director Sinkeivitz was my good acquaintance from before the war.

It became clear that the bullet had wounded the intestines. They immediately brought me onto the operating room, and the surgery took 3 hours and 20 minutes.

I was operated on by Dr. Miasnik. I lay two days with a high temperature and my life was in danger. On the second day I dreamed that a German wanted to shoot me and my father grabbed him with his hand and said to him: “Don't shoot!” In that moment I woke up and it became clear that my temperature had gone down.

For two months I lay in the hospital. For six weeks they fed me by injection. In the seventh week a captured Russian Partisan was brought to the hospital, apparently a former Captain.

The next day the Commissars Koltko and Guterman approached my bed and asked: “here lies the Partisan?” Dr. Miasnik answered “No, the Partisan is lying in the next bed.”

They approached him and asked him how did he lay the mine? And what does he have to tell? Then he grabbed a bottle and patted the Commissar on his face as he said: “I will tell nothing about my brothers.”

In his desire to prevent a conflict, Dr. Miasnik explained to them that the Captain was in a state of narcosis.

Meanwhile I introduced myself to the Captain and told him who I was (I used to bring him tobacco and food), then he revealed to me too that he was filling the place of the Commander of the Partisan regiment. He advised me to go to the village of Dokudova and join the Partisans.

When I left the hospital I entered the ghetto. I was very weakened. Many had already made connections with the regiment of the Partisans and I too wanted to join them, but the friends did not want to take me with them, since I was disabled. I spoke with Reuven Matlovoski and we turned to a poor Polish woman Stanislava Kizdrova who would hide us in her house. Together with Matlovoski, his wife and son, we went down to the basement of the Polish woman. The basement sprawled under the entire house and it was very low. With difficulty we were able to sit. To stand was impossible.

In that house also lived her husband and her daughter, a Gestapo man Zeitz, and a prostitute – Yozsha.

We gave Kizdrova money to buy necessities and she would prepare food for us.

After the matter became known to Zeitz and Yozsha, they began to demand money from Kizdrova by threatening her that they would inform the Germans about her. Since Kizdrova was not willing to pay them they informed on her.

Two cars full of policemen arrived and conducted a search in Kizdrova's house. Kizdrova and her young daughter fled to a church and only her old husband remained in the house.

The Germans beat him, wounded him, but they could not get a thing out of him. They went down to the basement, knocked on the walls with their rifle butts, they even brought dogs with them, but they did not find anything.

After the search we decided to leave the hiding place and go out to the free air. This was already at the end of the summer. In my departure I could not stand on my legs, I wobbled like a drunk. And this was also the fate of my neighbor. With the remnant of our strength we penetrated into the ghetto.

Matlovoski and his wife fell ill immediately after they reached the ghetto. He died and his wife was killed by the Germans. Only the son remained, and afterwards he joined the Partisan regiment.

While I was in the ghetto I spoke with the friends Reuven Rubinstein, Avraham Faldon, Levit, Yosef Zulkovitch (fell in battle with the Germans) and another 7 friends, and together we went to the Partisan regiment “Iskra.” In our hands were three rifles and one pistol.

The regiment that we got to was willing to accept only me, and the rest turned to other regiments.

Jewish Lida ceased to exist. The vibrant life of tens of thousands of Jews is forever silenced; the existence of a large spiritual center has stopped, which included an extensive network of schools, a yeshiva whose name rose to fame, and many synagogues; youth movements imbued with the spirit of the Zionist-national redemption.

Already on September 18, 1939, with the entry of the Russian army into Lida the end had come for Zionist activism in the city. The Hebrew schools were liquidated, and the ancient and magnificent synagogue was turned into a warehouse for produce.

The Russians began the spiritual destruction of the city, while in June 1941 the Germans began its complete and final destruction. On June 27, 1941, at 6:00 in the morning troopers of Nazi Germany flooded the conquered Lida, and already on the next day 96 of the important and educated Jews were taken out for killing. Among them were many teachers and also the Director of the Tarbut school Baruch Sternberg, may his memory be for a blessing.

With the expansion of the front and the departure of the army the actions of the German civilian regime began, under the leadership of the regional Commissar Hanbeg. The Germans were organizing Polish Belorussian police. At the order of the regional Commissar the Judenrat was formed, which included 24 Jews led by the former teacher Lichtman.

Most of the men of the Judenrat, as opposed to the Judenrats in other cities, were admirers of the Jewish population and its friends, and acted within the best of their ability to help and save at the time of every trouble and tragedy.

New decrees appeared in the mornings, it was forbidden for the Jews to walk on the sidewalks, a heavy tax was imposed on the population. Every non-fulfillment of an order was followed by a death penalty. Already in the beginning the local authorities wanted to create a ghetto for the Jews. But thanks to the efforts of the Judenrat and bribes, the execution of the decree was prevented.

Women and children are sent under the supervision of the Polish Work Directors to clean the streets of the destroyed houses. On the way to the forced labor they would

[Page 305]

frequently encounter the Hitlerist Verner accompanied by his cruel dog. He would urge his dog on with beastly screeches: “Human, catch the dog.” And the dog would attack the unfortunate Jews and tear pieces from their flesh.

Despite the efforts of the Judenrat and the heavy taxes that were imposed on the Jewish population in December 1941 the degree about the creation of the ghetto was published. The city limits remained after the fire, and they were determined as the places of the ghetto. Three separate ghettos were created, one in the “Piaskes” area, the second in the “Kosharova” area, and the third on Postovska and Kropova Streets. This was around the beginning of 1942.

Also the Jews of the nearby towns; Zhirmon, Beilitza, Niemann and others, were brought to Lida.

A strict prohibition was imposed against Jews living together with Christians under one roof. On every door of the houses in the ghetto it was necessary to draw the ancient Jewish symbol: “Shield of David.” In the houses terrible crowding prevailed. A prohibition on the use of meat and fat began. Afterwards there also began a prohibition on bringing in bread and potatoes. The daily portion of bread that was determined for each person was 12 decagrams.^[1]

Residents of the ghetto were taken out in groups every day for forced labor. Every worker received a work certificate that would be frequently exchanged.

When terrible news began to arrive about the mass slaughters in Vilna and Lithuania, from the mouths of Vilna refugees who escaped to Lida, the Nazi murderers would tell the Judenrat that these were the doings of the Lithuanians, and in Lida such a thing would not happen.

Suddenly 75 Jews were imprisoned who worked in loading weapons in the “Boitonlager.” They were suspected of transferring weapons to the hands of Jews. In the city great anxiety was felt along with an expectation that something was about to happen.

On the night of May 7-8, 1942, all three parts of the ghetto were surrounded by Belorussian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and German police. The Jews were chased out in the night and under a hail of blows were forced to advance in straight lines towards the pits that waited for them beyond the city.

They were forced to remove their clothing by themselves, to arrange them, and afterwards to enter in groups of forty to a pit. Small children were thrown into special pits and grenades were thrown at them. For the mothers and children it was not permitted to enter one grave. Bleach was poured over the bodies whose souls had not yet left them. Only a few managed to escape and reach the hiding places of the forest.

On the next day a group of Jews was sent to cover the pits of their relatives and dear ones, many of whom were still breathing and hovering between life and death. Over a number of days the ground cracked open and streams of blood seeped out.

The clothing of the murdered was collected by the Germans in the “Erdle” galoshes factory. The good clothing was sent to Germany and the rest was sold to the Gentiles.

A similar slaughter was conducted in every district of Lida (Regional Commissariat) in the towns; Voronova, Ivye, Radon, Zheludok.

News was published in the German newspapers that a battle with Jewish robbers and Partisans took place, and 18,000 of them were destroyed.

The remnants of the Jews from Lida and the adjacent towns were concentrated afterwards in the areas of the following streets: Postovska, Chalodna, and Veiska, the place of the Jewish cemetery.

Thus concluded the chapter of the first destruction and the most tragic in the history of Jewish Lida.

Very slowly rumors about Jewish Partisans spread, and about the four Bielski brothers who were taking vengeance for the blood of the Jews that was spilled. In the ghetto they began to seek ways to get to the Partisan stations, and how to obtain and create weapons. This was not one of the easy things. Even getting out of the fenced ghetto was fraught with mortal danger. When the police sensed preparations to go out to the forest they made it known that if someone escaped, they would wipe out all of the members of his family.

Despite all the threats the youth were secretly creating weapons, in the German factories, finding its way to the Partisan camps, and causing the deaths of Nazis.

New of the slaughters in Novogrudok, Baranovich, Minsk, Grodno, incessantly arrived, along with news of the revolt in the Warsaw ghetto. All of this encouraged and spurred on the youths who remained to escape from the ghetto and take vengeance. Whole families would slip away in various ways in secret and reach the forests.

The Partisan movement began to leave its mark, and the Germans began to feel it more and more.

It should be noted that anyone who did not have a weapon in his hand could not be added to the ranks of the Partisans, and this fact weighed very heavily, and stood as an obstacle on the path of escape and salvation.

And here an additional tragedy occurred. In August 1943 an assault of 40,000 German soldiers began on the Partisan cells in the forests. Many of those who had fled returned to the ghetto in the wake of the hunt mentioned above, and many who were already ready to go out on the road were deterred at the last minute.

Almost daily there arrived news of the explosion of trains and other acts of vengeance that the Partisan regiments of Bielski and others carried out. Once a group of Partisans from Lida approached the train tracks that were near the ghetto and blew up a train. Binyamin Baron, Leib Fardman and Yehuda Dagotzki, who was killed afterwards by the hands of Polish murderers, especially excelled in acts of heroism. They blew up tens of train cars.

There were also instances when the Partisans succeeded in penetrating into the city and killing Polish and Belorussian policemen.

On September 17-18, 1943, the ghetto in Lida was surrounded. The official German announcement said that all of them were being sent to work in Lublin. But the road led to Majdanek. They put the approximately 3000 Jews who survived into sealed freight train cars. Individuals managed to save themselves by jumping out of the small windows that were in the cars. Their number reached a few tens, and they found a place of shelter in Bielski's Partisan camp.

Special thanks and recognition are due to the Bielski brothers, since thanks to Tuvia Bielski and his regiment upwards of 1000 Jews were saved, among them old people, women and children from various cities in western White Russia. Likewise their daring deeds raised up the pride of Israel and elevated Israel's honor.

The woman Kartchmer, who jumped from the car not far from Lublin, transmitted the final tragic regards from the remnants of the Jews of Lida who were transported for slaughter, and were offered up as victims on the altar of the Nazis and the fascist Germans.

Translator's footnote:

1. A decagram is 10 grams. There are 28 grams to an ounce. Return

I am only coming to add to the conclusion of the chapter that was concluded with quite a number of Vilna-ites who were in the Lida ghetto being taken out to be killed.

Three of them fell to the ground before they were shot and remained lying among the dead, stained with their blood and lightly wounded. After the murderers finished their work the three succeeded in escaping from the prison with each man holding on to his neighbor's shoulder in order to get to the high wall of the prison. They escaped while they had on only nightshirts and underwear.

We lived then in the Piaski ghetto together with the Shneler family (Batya and the son), father's sister – Zelda, and three refugees from Vilna who fled from the ghetto in their time and managed to hide during the time of the selection. Together – 11 people in a dwelling of two tiny rooms and a kitchenette. In the middle of the night, we heard knocks on the window, and when we opened after hesitation and fear, we saw to our astonishment the three who were fleeing that as far as we were concerned were returning from the afterlife.^[1] From among the three I personally recognized only one, and he was friend from the learning bench^[2] of our Shulamit. His name was Moshe (Moska) Perlstein. He fled with his father from the Vilna ghetto only to be caught in Lida. This Perlstein told us about their escape while noting that they wandered in the ghetto and reached the doctor Stolovitzki who lived not far from us, and he was afraid even to look at them, much less bind their wounds. Our Shula tended to the three of them, washed and bandaged them. Afterwards we gave them clothing to wear. On the next day in the morning it was Shula who went, as it were, to identify the dead who were brought from the prison for burial. On the grave of Moshe's father she also added the name of her friend.

The three spent another few days in Lida, until Shula managed to penetrate into their dwelling, to take out a few belongings, to sell them and pay for the continuation of the way. They continued their way as Gentiles, without the yellow patch.

I do not know for sure what was the fate of the three, but the story will be a faithful witness to the heart, the courage, and the magnificent personality of (Shula) Shlomit.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Literally, the world of truth. Return
2. Meaning that they sat together in school. Return

After my family in Vilna was massacred, I escaped to Lida in 1941. I was sent to the Regional Council (Gebietskommissariat) to work as a translator in the main forestry office in Juraciszki near Lida. Leopold Windisch was in charge of the office and together with this he was also the acting Regional Commissar (Gebietskommissar) in Lida. During his frequent visits to the forestry office in Juraciszki, and the hunting operations that took place there, in which I was forced to act as translator, I had numerous opportunities to speak with Windisch. Windisch believed that I was a Pole and perceived me as an educated man, and expressed to me his political views and his opinions of Judaism and the Jews. He stressed that from a national socialist viewpoint the Jews should be rooted out and his task in the sphere of Gebietskommissar in Lida was to carry out the merciless extermination of the Jews of Lida. Likewise, he would reiterate in my presence that irrelevant to the Nazi ideological stance, though taking into consideration the situation on the Eastern front, the extermination of the Jews was a military necessity. To my question if this verdict applied to women and children, as well, his reply was in the affirmative.

On one clear spring day in 1941 Windisch appeared in Juraciszki leading an extermination squad whose object was to reach Ivye. He announced that he would travel to the town of Ivye in order to kill the Jews following a selection that he himself would make. On the way back from Ivye he was delayed in Juraciszki and said that before carrying out the murders, he had separated the Jews into two groups. The first group was murdered immediately and the Jews of the second group were kept alive temporarily. The second group were stronger and they would continue to exploit them as a work force. However, together with this, he emphasized that the fate of these Jews would depend on the situation at the front and in his opinion; no Jew should be left alive.

I was also present when Windisch spoke with the head of the Juraciszki-Welski(?) council. He ordered him to send a transport truck to Lida and return with large quantities of lime to pour over the murdered bodies in order to prevent plague.

Leopold Windisch was reknowned in the field of Regional Commissar (Gebietskommissar) and was located in close contact with the Gestapo and would frequent jails in Lida in which Jews were regularly executed.

Remark:

Dr. Shimon Remigolsky gave this testimony in Munich, Germany on the 16^th of October 1947, in the presence of the central committee of the liberated Jews in the American occupied area.

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