[Page 3 - English] [Pages 13-17 Hebrew]

The ancient Ostrog Community dwelt in the Wohlin District in Western Ukraina, Poland. This town was as first owned by princes and counts, who, for their protection and defense surrounded it with a fortress, which gave it the name Ostrog (meaning fortress in Russian). According to scholars, its age today should be about 1,000 years (founded in 893).

In the 9^th century, there was a migration of persecuted Jews from Germany. They arrived during their flight to Ostrog and settled down there, under the patronage of Polish Prince Lashek. They mainly dealt with the trade of animals and horses, as brokers and money-changers, and later on, with trade and various professions.

Remains of the Fortified Wall with Castle on the right and Tower on the left

The old Jewish cemetery still has inscriptions on two tombstones dating back to 1445, but this does not prove that there were no older tombstones from more ancient times. According to the evidence of the Ostrog antiquity scholar, M.M.Biber, which is trustworthy and accepted by all of us, Ostrog had a Jewish community nearly one thousand of years ago.

During generations, Ostrog Jews were submitted to financial extortion by Polish and Lithuanian rulers. They also paid customs levies and serious amounts to the King treasury as well as bribes to judges and policemen. In spite of this, Jewish lives and property were never secure.

Libels and massacres have also, from time to time, occurred in Ostrog. Famous is the pogrom on Jews by students of Jesuit monasteries in nearby Pavlovitz, where nine Jews were tortured and killed, amongst whom the Holy Rabbi Zvi, in-law of the famous Rabbi Yevi. That is why there were quite a number of thanksgiving days for miracles that happened. One of them occurred after Passover in the 18^th century, when peasants from a nearby village arrived at Ostrog with carts loaded with timber, as if it were, for sale. But under the wood, the peasants hid axes and knives and other well sharpened cold arms in order to start pogroms against the Jews. The Tatars, residents of the town, who were known to be bold and courageous, agreed for money, to assist the Jews. The Tatars girded on their arms, assaulted the peasants and confiscated their arms. The Jews were overjoyed.

In commemoration of another miracle, the Jews observed another day, “Megilat Tammuz”, when the Russian forces, under General Sovorov's command, occupied Poland. The retreating Polish army destroyed the bridges over the river so as to prevent the Russians from moving on. The latter started shelling the town and its houses, mainly the big Synagogue which looked like a fortress. The Polish inhabitants ran away, together with the withdrawing Polish army, and the Jews hid in the Synagogue and were in a desperate situation. Then, as is told, one old man, among the Jews, a bold man who knew Russian (the father of Rabbi Yossef Moshe the Narrator from Kormarno), went out to the Russian commander and told him about the escape of the Polish army and of all the Polish inhabitants and that he may enter the town without any more firing.

Until the 14^th century, the Wohlin District was considered to be a Russian Princedom when Lithuania was united to Poland in the 16^th century,

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Wohlin was annexed to Poland. During those days, the famous printing press was founded in Ostrog, in which were printed Holy Books, in Hebrew and the Bible in foreign languages as well.

In the 17^th century, Jews suffered pogroms of the infamous traitorous oppressor Hmelnitzky and those years were marked with letters of blood ad fire in the history of our people as in that of the town itself which was destroyed by sword.

In 1797, the Wohlin District, including Ostrog, was annexed to Russia, only in 1920 did the greatest part of Wohlin with Ostrog return as a border town to Poland until 1939. Since the Second World War, the District – with Ostrog empty of Jews – belongs to the USSR.

As most of Polish towns, Ostrog also held a “Community Register” in which the Jews noted down the community events and laws. They also wrote in it stories and legends of the righteous and learned who lived and acted in Ostrog, but throughout the generations, following disorders and pogroms and numerous fires, almost no details remained of the ancient days of Ostrog – apart from recordings about the destruction of the community when about 7000 Jews were murdered and their property looted.

But the Jews who escaped returned and rebuilt the town, led exemplary community and spiritual life, set up synagogues and Yeshivas; they got organized in various societies, such as the burial society, the Study Society, a great Hassidim Movement founded by notorious persons like the Narrator of Magritch, and the town turned out to be a symbol and model for all other Wohlin towns and famous for many generations for its Learned.

An important contribution for the revealing of secrets from ancient days through a collection of material and checking of tombstones in the old cemetery of Ostrog, was made by the untiring scholar at the beginning of the 20^th century, a man from Ostrog, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Biber, who wrote the “Momento to Ostrog Great People”. This book, of great quality, gathers important information and serves to this day as a living memorial of Ostrog Jewry and all the research literature nowadays draws from it.

Jewish Ostrog is tightly linked to the names of great Torah Scholars and Talmud Commentators as the Maharal from Prague, Rabbi Shmuel Idlish, and the great Yeshiva he has headed for tens of years, and many others.

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The people told many legends and stories about Rabbi Shmuel Idlish and the great Synagogue named after him, built long before his coming to Ostrog in 1615 only thanks to the love and esteem of the community members and the fact that he lived, acted and was buried in Ostrog cemetery was the Synagogue named after him. He was considered to be the Father and Patron of the town, he was modest and hospitable. It was engraved in the stones of his house: “Strangers will not stay outside – my door will be opened to guests”. He died in 1632, leaving many books. In 1933, Ostrog Jews commemorated the 300^th anniversary of his death. Rabbis and notables from all over Poland and representatives of the authorities took part in the celebrations. On that day, Jews closed their shops so as to be alone with his memory.

Ostrog also attracted people by its external look as a beautiful town immersed in greenery. The building of the Great synagogue overlooked the general view of the town and gave it a Jewish character. The Princes' palaces and the numerous towers added a special charm, as a memory of a town which, during a certain period, served as a capital for hundreds of small towns surrounding it. The fields, rivers and forest enabled excursions and outings for young people and the whole population.

Among the Great Torah Scholars who lived and worked in the town – apart from Rabbi Shmuel Idlish – were:

Rabbi Shlomo Lurie who lived in the 17^th century, headed an important Yeshiva in Ostrog and served as an erudite Rabbi to all the Wohlin District. He moved to Lublin. His famous works included: “Hochmat Shlomo” and “Yam Shel Shlomo”.

Rabbi Yeshayahu Halevy Horovitz lived in the 17^th century and served as rabbi of Ostrog. His book “Shnei Luchot Habrit” became famous throughout the world. He immigrated to Eretz Israel and lived in Jerusalem and Safed, was buried in Tiberias next to the tombs of Rabbi Yochanan Hasandlar and Rambam.

Rabbi David Segal, who wrote “Torei Zahav”, lived in the 17^th century and served as President of Tribunal and Head of a Yeshiva in Ostrog. His book is a comment on Shulkhan Arukh by Rabbi Joseph Caro, who was among the survivors of the persecutions. He wrote special prayers in memory of the disaster.

Rabbi Meir Margalit, lived in the 18^th century, was President of Tribunal in Ostrog and the District. He was a scholar and wrote “Meir Netivim”.

Scholar Rabbi Yaacov son of Rabbi Haim Rapoport, was President of Tribunal of Ostrog and the District.

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Ostrog in the 20^th Century

The Zionist Movement in the town started operating in 1909 and went on with its activities until the Holocaust. During the reign of the Czar, there were clandestine meetings, sometimes during Christmas, when the officials were tipsy.

Cultural work was carried out in various circles: circles for Zionism, for Jewish History, Geography, etc. The young people collected donations for the Odessa Committee of Hovevei Zion. A company was also set up for organization of trips to Eretz Israel. The Bund Party was also most influential in the Jewish street.

Since 1917, public Zionist work has been carried out openly. Lectures took place on Eretz Israel and there were contacts with institutions in Eretz Israel and in Warsaw. Balls and bazaars of the Keren Kayemet (Jewish National Fund) were organized. The climax of the Zionist Movement activity in Ostrog was in the 20's and 30's when the idea of immigration to Eretz Israel struck roots. Among the first persons who immigrated in the 20's was Yaacov Fishel Feldenkreis with his wife Dvora. In spite of is being a scholar, he fitted at the age of 45 in agricultural works in Petah Tikva, in orange groves and ploughing. He was also one of the holy heroes of the riots in the country.

Public figures with a developed sense of public work were at that time Kalman Frenkeland Avigdor Kamerman who served as Deputy Mayor of Ostrog and saw to it that the Jews were not deprived by the town authorities.

Ostrog was the centre of Zionist and pioneering activities in Wohlin in the years preceding the Holocaust. Youth from all Zionist movements went to training; Jewish education developed, schools and “Tarbut” High school were founded, lectures took place on Zionist and literary subjects. The Zionist Women's Association also participated in the various activities for the building of Eretz Israel.

Notables headed the community, such as Avraham Aharon Finkelstein, Haim Galberson and Haim Davidson, who all assisted financially Rabbis and social institutions in the town. Among the town Rabbis were: Rabbi Yossef Wertheim, who moved to Horovishev and then immigrated to Eretz Israel and died in Jerusalem; he was known to be “sharp-witted and learned”, popular in Zionist circles and with the authorities; after him, as rabbi of the town, was Rabbi Mordechai Ginzburg.

The last religious judges before the Holocaust were Rabbi Ephraim Guberman, Rabbi Dov Kaplan and Rabbi Zeev Wolf Sefarad, son of the last master and teacher in the town, Rabbi Eliakim Gezel Gelman was Rabbi of the New

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Town. During those days, famous in the town was learned scholar, and a strong opponent to the Hassidic Movement – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Biber.

The notables who acted in the Ostrog Municipality were Shlomo Comandant, Bezalel Bramnik, Mordechai Yaacov Nordman, Grisha Band, Moshe Abelman and others. Chaim Davidson and Leibush Biber were the most prominent Zionist leaders in Ostrog.

The activities of the Zionist leaders were felt in all the areas of life.

Ostrog was also blessed with excellent teachers, having a strong public Zionist sense, such as Shmuel Sarir, about whom the late President of Israel Shazar used to speak a lot, Mordechai Kaplan, Yaacov Nordman, Moshe Tolpin, Tanchum Zebin, Josef Finkelstein and others.

People with a leadership ability appeared in all the Zionist youth movements in the town. Yankel Kaplan of Gordonia fell as an outstanding partisan behind Nazi lines.

There was also a Mishnah Society in the town, led by Rab. Meir Zvi Finkel and Rab. Pinchas Pelikop which had tens of notables who studied every single day of the year; at the “end” of their studies, they used to organize a feast at the home of the leader of the Society; I, as a child, used to enjoy those ceremonies at home and the fragrant dishes prepared by the cooks.

That was the golden age of the varied public activity in the town until the Holocaust which brought about the bitter end of the splendid community.

The bridges of the New Town on which Ostrog Jewry marched to death

Historical Places in Ostroh [Page 13 - Hebrew]

Ha-Rav Hagaon R. Shmuel Eidels, The Maharsha. 5323-5392 (1563-1632 [Page 15 - Hebrew]

“The Third of May” street in Ostroh [Page 16 - Hebrew]

Ha-Rav R' Ephraim Guberman [Page 17 - Hebrew]

Ha-Rav Wertheim [Page 17 - Hebrew]

Ha-Rav R' Alteroni, the last ADMOR in Ostroh before the Holocaust [Page 17 - Hebrew]

[Page 9 – English] [Page 85 – Yiddish]

There had always been an educated youth group in Ostrog. This group, which functioned on a voluntary basis, believed in helping those less fortunate than themselves obtains an education.

Isaac Jabin, the eldest son of the Jewish School's superintendent, Tanchum Jabin, was before the First World War a great believer in the teachings of the liberal and radical intellectuals of the town, but had little to do with Jewish culture. Every summer he would return home from his studies at the University of Kiev, and organize free summer courses for those who were interested. Almost everyone who had graduated from high school assisted him with his project – there was no shortage of tutors or students!

The Prince of Ostrog's castle

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With the revolution came new hopes for a better life. New institutions were formed. I remember the changes at the time. I had planned to give evening classes to young, uneducated workers. When I returned home at the beginning of 1918, I found that my father who was a teacher had taken the initiative and that the Talmud torah building was to be used for this purpose. Together with friends from Poalei Zion I formed a committee for the collection of money, and evening courses established in memory of the late Ber Borochov, commenced. I was nominated as superintendent and teachers, and began to form a comprehensive study program. The Socialistim Sionistim (S.S. and Seimoves) began to lend support to the Peretz School and together we formed the Cultural League.

Ostrog's Cultural League grew. It combined different streams of thoughts, but Jewish culture played the most important part. People, who would otherwise not have shown interest in Jewish culture, became interested. Despite the fact that the League's program dealt only with culture and not with politics, most of its supporters were from Poalei Zion and the Bund.

When the Soviet government was formed, it took over various institutions. Plans for expansion were made, but in effect just the opposite occurred. The governor of Zhitomir County ordered all Hebrew schools and evening course to close. The Cultural League continued, however, and its salaries were paid by the government. Once when they brought the salaries for our town, I distributed the money among the Jewish teachers, leaving my father, my sister and myself for last. But by that stage there was nothing left for us! We did not mind, the institutions functioned regularly, we had a kindergarten, the Peretz School and the Ber Borochov evening courses. We also organized cultural gatherings, concerts, plays, etc. Nevertheless, the Cultural League had to endure anti-semitic propaganda from the left and the right movements. The local teachers' conference is worth mentioning in this regard. The conference was made up of approximately 250 teachers from our county. Many of the remarks made by them during the conference contained anti-semitic slander. Some of them wore Petlura uniforms. I was sitting next to the vice-commissar who was a nice persona and a true liberal. We heard a speech given by the commissar of the 44^th soviet Division. This Division had occupied our region and in it there were several of Petlurs's former followers and pogromists who boasted about the success of the pogroms. The political faction of the 44^th Division was led by a Jew who had a doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne University. He addressed the conference before the commissar spoke and his speech was ridiculed by the teachers among whom I recognized my French teacher.

A special event in the life of the Cultural League was the Assembly of Jewish Teachers in Kiev in 1919. This event gave big rise to our activities especially at the schools. Many well known writers and teachers with long standing experience became our leaders. They provided us with textbooks and instructions. We had a feeling that we belonged to a strong stream of Jewi99sh cultural activity. Names such as Shimon Dobin, Levitan, Noah Luria, A. Golomb, Papirna and others became frequent guests in our town.

In 1920 I went to Kiev as a representative of the Ostrog County's Education Ministry. I was sent b y the Cultural League's committee and presented

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a report on the work of the committee under the leadership of Dr. Moshe Silverfarb. My report was well received. Then the Soviet Education Department requested that the Ostrog Cultural League put forward a person who would be able to supervise the Jewish education in the country. This was an indication of the strength of our town's Cultural League.

When the borders between Russian and Poland were altered after the First World War, Ostrog became part of Poland. This brought about a change in the school system. At first the Inspector of Schools nominated me as the superintendent of the Borochov courses and the technical school. But when I arrived in Warsaw at the beginning of 1921 there was already a new law which stated that only teachers who passed a special exam would qualify to teach together with Polish teachers.

The work of the Cultural League to spread Jewish literature, etc., continued as before. However, with time, the Jewish school and other institutions gradually diminished and then disappeared completely.

The two pictures below tell a great deal: -----

The first shows the Teachers' Assembly. Mina Abelman deserves special mention. She started as a kindergarten teacher in Ostrog, and later organized kindergartens in Bialystok and Lemberg. Later still she continued her work in Warsaw. Among the other teachers deserving of mention was one Moshe Tolpin. He was chronologically the eldest, but always used the most modern teaching methods.

The second picture shows the committee of Ostrog's Cultural League (1921) – Leib Ginker, Sarah Abelman, Hannah Spielberg, Dr. Shimon Tzviman, Dr. Joseph Rosenstrum (chairman), Prof. Jacob Tolpin and Haim Katz. Dr. Rosenstrum was very active. Haim Katz influenced everyone with his sincerity and clear minded thinking, Sarah, Rachel and Mina Abelman contributed much by working hard to better the lives of those less fortunate than themselves. Ginker, the modest teacher, also did his bit for the League, as did Dr. Shimon Tzviman who was always ready and willing to take part.

These were the type of people that the Russian poet Nekrasov and the Jewish poet David Bergelson praised and wrote about. The writer of this article was the superintendent of the Culture League. Hannah Spielberg, the youngest among us was a representative from the “Bund”. She was the youngest sister of a well known Zionist leader, Leib Spielberg. These were the kind of people who were interested in helping others to obtain an education.

The Management of the Ostroh's Cultural League in 1919

Seated from right to left: Dr. Shimon Zweiman, Dr. Yosef Rosenstrum, Professor Yaakov (Yuke) Tolpin, Chaim Katz Standing from right to left: Leizer Ginker, Sarah Abelman, Chana Spielberg [Page 86 - Yiddish]

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I am Zenia Eisenberg and I would like to talk a bit about my family.

We were 5 children and my parents, Shamai and Miriam. We lived together in Ostrog until the war broke out and then started to go in different directions.

My parents ran away to Lwow where my father was taken as one of ten hostages by the Nazis. They promised that he would be given back after the Lwow Jews paid a handsome ransom for the release of the hostages. They did not keep their promise and he with my brother Grisza were immediately shot by the Germans. My mother lived in Lwow until 1943 and was taken away and sent to a concentration camp. I do not know which one.

My oldest brother Abrasha was in the Red Army and was shot by the Nazis. His wife, Rachela, survived the war in Germany as a Christian. She is now a dentist, remarried and the mother of a wonderful son, a neurologist in Boston, Mass. She is still my closest friend.

My oldest sister Asia was married to Stach Siedlecki. She was shot with her 2 little children. Stach survived the war in the Soviet Union. He lives in London, England and is remarried.

My sister Ania (Hannah) ran away to Lwow and in 1943 to Germany where she survived as a Christian. Later she moved to the United States with her husband. Unfortunately, she died in 1973 leaving 3 wonderful children 1973 leaving 3 wonderful children. Sidney and Marilyn are teachers and the youngest, Arlene is a social worker. They all live in the New York area and are married.

I, the youngest in the family was in Lwow and in 1943 ran away to Katowice where I survived as a Christian. After the war I moved to Warsaw, Paris, Canada and finally got settled in New York. I teach in a high school and I am married to David, an American who teaches in the same school.

All my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who lived in Europe perished in the war with the exception of Genia (Steinberg) Reuveni, who lives in Israel and Meisha Steinberg, her brother, in Germany.

While in Ostrog, we lived in the center of town and also had an estate 25 km. from there, in Wilia.

I hope that this information will help people to recall my father who was always ready to help the poor in our town.

Sincerely, Janet Rogowsky (nee Zenia Eisenberg)

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Shamai Ajzenberg (Eisenberg)		Miriam Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) Wife of Shamai

Abrasza Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) The oldest son of Shamai and Miriam		Chasia (Asia) Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) daughter of Shamai and Miriam

Hana (Ania) Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) Daughter of Shamai and Miriam Eisenberg		Rachel Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) Wife of Abrasza Eisenberg

Zenia Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) - Rogowsky, the youngest daughter of Shamai and Miriam Eisenberg		Grysza Ajzenberg (Eisenberg) son of Shamai and Miriam Eisenberg

Lazar Zeigerson lived in Krasnogorska str. Who was active in the religious community in Ostrog, was known and respected for his Talmudic Scholarly knowledge and studies, also, in avocation. He was killed in August 1941, 1^st in Naje Schut.

Syma Zeigerson was killed after the liquidation of Ghetto in 3th Akcja on October 1942. She had 5 children, 2 sons emigrated to U.S.A. before the war. Sidney (Siunia) Zeigerson and Buzia (Zeigerson) Nagiel, survived in Russia. (Sidney was very active in Betar, played soccer). Now resides in U.S.A. Buzia had 2 daughters and 6 grandchildren, living in U.S.A. she died in U.S.A.

Dorothy Drinims (Dwerka Zeigerson), survived 2 executives (Akcja), she lived with her mother in Ostrog Ghetto, until the final 3^rd akcja. She escaped from the ghetto with Mark Grinims (Musia), were hiding in different places and then in the woods with other people. During the raid, she was shot and wounded in the foot by S.S. men, and thanks to false documents (Aryjskie Papiery), was in the hospital in Slawuta for 8 months. She and her husband Mark immigrated to U.S.A. in 1947. They have a daughter Lorine and a grandchild Simone (Syma).

Mark Grinims (Musia), after akcja, lived in the ghetto until 1942. He was in hiding with Dorothy. After the liberation by the Russians, was drafted into the Russian Army until 1945. After the army and together with his wife, he went to Munich, Germany. He resided in Jersey City, N.J., U.S.A. He finished his studies in U.S.A. and is a doctor.

Sonia Grinims (Mark's sister), was killed in Rowno in 1942. She moved from Ostrog in 1939 with her husband Gdal Gdalewski to Lwow. He was executed by the Russians for being a well know Zionist Leader in Wohlin. Sonia on the way to Ostrog stopped in Rowno and was caught in the akcja and was killed in 1942.

Other members of Grinims family: Father – Woolf Grinims, occupation – Pharmacist, had drugstore, died in 1935. Grisha Grinims – son of Woolf Grinims. He died in 1952 in U.S.A. Before the war he studied Medicine in Vienna and Paris. Practiced Medicine in U.S.A.

Other member of Grinims family killed by SS: Jankel Grinims, Gabriel, Ania Chai-Rachel and Minia.

Dr. Mark Grinims

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Edit Liwszyc Lwow, 1942		Lusia Sziejn-Liwszyc Lwow, 1942

[Page 17 – Polish]

Aharon Szeftel

It was the seat of magnates – the princes of Ostroh – they owned 280,000 subjects. To this day their castle, founded in the 14^th century, has been preserved, with three defensive towers in Renaissance style from the 16^th century and an imposing cathedral from the 15^th century, with five gilded cupolas.

There also remain the ruins of the synagogue built in the 16^th century. It was a structure with thick walls strengthened by buttresses and with a sloped ceiling resting on four pillars. The synagogue survived Chmielnicki, Petlur and Hitler's pogroms , but it was demolished as a result of the city council decision, “in order to obtain stones for the construction of a bakery”. In 1956, I was an eyewitness to the vandalistic destruction of this historic house of prayer.

Around the year 1580, an Academy was founded in Ostroh. It was the first institution of higher learning in Eastern Europe. A printing house was included, from which in 1581 the first Bible in the Slavic language was published.

Ostroh was an important center of Jewish cultural life. A famous commentator on the Talmud, Samuel Edels, known as “Maharshal”, lived and worked there; he was buried in the Ostroh cemetery in the year 1631. Many books in Hebrew were printed in Ostroh. The town's Jewry sent representatives to the sessions of the “Vaad Arba Aracot” (“Committee of Four Countries”). This was the central authority of Polish Jewry, active in the 16^th–18^th centuries; it encompassed four “lands” that formed part of Poland at that time: Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Podolia and Volhynia.

During the Cossack raids in the years 1648–1649, the Jewish population of Ostroh was massacred.

At the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, Ostroh passed to Russia. During the revolution of 1917, the newly created Soviets began their activity in the town by imposing a levy on the “bourgeois”. Those who refused to pay were imprisoned. At night they were woken up, lined up, and every tenth man was led out into the prison yard. There a volley was fired – fortunately into the air, as a warning. My father was one of those prisoners and came out of it alive.

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Wielboweńska Street

Our house was located in a poor district on Wielboweńska Street. The house was one story, covered over by a metal tin roof, had five rooms and two kitchens with large stoves to bake bread. Acacias grew on both sides of the house, and at the back was a garden with plum trees. Adjacent to the garden was a mass grave – one of three former wells into which the bodies of murdered Jews had been thrown after the Cossack raids in the years 1647–1649.

Our neighbors were Jewish craftsmen and small traders: – a tailor of cheap clothes, – a ropemaker (“sztrikdreer”), – a ritual slaughterer (“kacew”), – a rag dealer, – a pots dealer (“teper”), – a pigbreeder (“chazirnik”) – our only non-Jewish neighbour, – a tanner, – a grain dealer, – a cabman.

I liked watching the ropemaker at work. In his yard he had a wooden wheel turned by hand. The wheel was set in rotational motion with a row of hooks, to which thin hemp strings were attached. As the strings twisted, they formed a thick, handsome rope. This kind of production, however, soon disappeared, unable to withstand competition from the new machine method of manufacturing.

In the grain dealer's cellar stood a chaffcutter. It consisted of an iron flywheel turned by hand and a bed straw. Steel knives for cutting the straw into “chaff” were affixed to the wheel. The straw moved along the bed automatically, so that the size of the chaff could be regulated.

At the tanner neighbor's there was a pit dug in the ground, where cattle hides lay, covered with oak bark and soaked in stinking water. Next to it was a stand with a knife for scraping the hair off the hides. This primitive technology, used for thousands of years, produced hides of good quality, but it had to give way to modern chrome tanning.

My father came from a Hasidic milieu. At that time, at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Hasidism played a dominant role in Jewish society. Young people received their education in the bet-hamidrash, studying the Talmud, but new currents had already begun to penetrate there. Hungry for knowledge, the youth formed a self-education circle. The first step was to learn the Russian language. The learning was carried on without a teacher, by memorizing Russian words in alphabetical order from a dictionary. You could hear conversations like this among the members of the circle: “I have reached the letter D,” says one. “And I am already further, at the letter K,” replies another.

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At the price of enormous effort the young people acquired a command of the language, and then moved on to study Russian and foreign literature. They read the works of Turgenev and

Gogol and the critiques of those works by Bielinsky, and they analyzed the works of Spinoza, Freud, Zola and other authors.

Knowledge of Russian proved useful in practice. My father ran a grocery of colonial goods. By subscribing to the newspaper “Kijewskaja Mysl” he had the opportunity to establish contacts with manufacturers who advertised their goods in that paper. My father began to order goods directly from the producers, on favorable terms. The shop expanded and prospered for many years, until the time of the Polish Minister of Finance Grabski, who drove many Jewish enterprises into ruin. The shop began to emphasize empty spaces. At home poverty set in. More often sequestrators appeared taking away furniture in exchange for back taxes. It reached the point where sometimes we lacked bread.

In the interwar period, between the First and Second World Wars, Jewish youth found itself in a particularly difficult situation. Young people had the road closed to all professions. One could not even dream of a government post. My brother, after obtaining a Master of Laws degree, was not admitted to the bar. I, although I had an engineering diploma, could not get a job. Antisemitic slogans such as:

“Poland for the Poles”,

“Jews to Palestine”,

“Do not buy from the Jew”,

“De-Judaization of Polish trade”

pushed Jews out of the positions they had held until then.

Ideologically, young people therefore turned mainly towards the pioneering (chalutz) movement, despite the slim hope of obtaining a certificate to emigrate to Palestine.

Part of the youth took part in the leftwing movement, in the Bund organization or in the underground communist organization.

One such idealist, G., slipped across the border and reached the USSR – the country of his dreams. There, however, he was immediately arrested, accused of espionage and sent to a labor camp for ten years. This stay cured him completely of all communist ideas.

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A different communist, A., a leading activist, was twice imprisoned in Poland in Bereza Kartuska. Over time he too withdrew from communism and became a sympathizer of Zionism and of the State of Israel.

My father was knowledgeable in the Talmud and at the same time a supporter of secular learning. My parents made great efforts, amounting almost to self-sacrifice, to give their children a versatile education.

We attended the state gymnasium. In addition we took private lessons in Bible study, Hebrew language and Hebrew literature, from a teacher, M. Szulwug.

Prince's Ostrogski palace

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Polytechnic of Lviv

After my matriculation I entered the Lviv Polytechnic. My brother and I rented a private apartment in Lviv at 11a Krasickich Street. In fact it had been house no. 13, renumbered to 11a, because no one wanted to live in a house or apartment numbered 13.

The atmosphere at the Polytechnic, normal at first, worsened from year to year. In the 30s the National Democrats (Stronnictwo Narodowo Demokratyczne, in short N.D.) took control of the “Bratnia Pomoc” (Student Mutual Aid Society) and other academic associations. The student minority opposed to the ND ideology could not stand up to them and in practice had no voice at the institution.

The NDs did not see the danger from Hitler threatening Poland; they were rather in agreement with his slogans, considering the Jews to be enemy no. 1. These pupils of Hitler surpassed their master, creating ghettos at the universities many years before Hitler occupied Poland and introduced ghettos in the cities.

In the lecture halls special “donkey benches” were set aside for Jews. Jewish students protested by listening to the lectures standing for hours, with their notebooks in hand.

The NDs also organized “protest rallies” in front of the Jewish Students' House, smashing the windowpanes from windows. The police never intervened.

Pogroms of Jews were carried out at the universities as well. NDs students would form two rows, driving Jewish students they caught through, beating them mercilessly with fists from all sides, and often with knuckledusters, at times they beat them to death.

Two Polytechnic students were killed in this way: – Landesberg, a student of the Faculty of Chemistry, and – Proweler, a student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering.

My brother Szaja, a student at the Polytechnic, suffered seriously. While he was doing surveying exercises together with other students in the streets near the “Dom Techników” (the Technical Students' House of the Lviv Polytechnic), he was attacked by an ND fighting squad. His head was smashed and his leg broken. Both bones of his lower leg were fractured and displaced. In the hospital they applied a “traction” to his leg in order to stretch it a few centimeters beyond its normal length so that the broken bones could be set. The traction, a little less then torture, lasted several weeks, afterwards they put his leg in a cast. Szaja's studies were interrupted for a long time. Only after the Soviet authorities took over Lviv, in 1939, did Szaja return to the Polytechnic and complete his studies.

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The Polytechnic authorities opposed these excesses at the university but were powerless in the face of the students' stance. When, after one pogrom at the university, the Rector announced that the participants in the disturbances should report to him for a talk, at the appointed hour a queue of 500 or more students formed in front of the Rector's office. They all admitted taking part in the excesses and expressed solidarity with the pogrom-makers.

The older generation treated the exploits of their sons indulgently, or even approvingly, considering them innocent “fun” or patriotic deeds.

When my brother Szaja was lying on the pavement, covered in blood, with a broken leg, waiting for the ambulance, a crowd of onlookers gathered around him. Among them was an older Polish man who, instead of expressing sorrow or sympathy, said: “Good, it serves them right, they shouldn't push themselves where they don't belong.”

Once I was in an examination hall when a “gauntlet” had been arranged out in the corridor. My classmates, who were standing by the exit door, began to call me over, as if they had something urgent to tell me. In reality their aim was to push me out through the door into the “gauntlet”. I did not move from my place until the end of the exam. The professors, realizing what was going on, let everyone present in the hall leave through a side exit, directly onto the street. Thanks to that I avoided the “gauntlet”.

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Polish Catholics A period of increased pre-Christmas purchases is approaching! The slogan of all Poles, men and women: Christmas Without Jews! On the traditional Christian Christmas Eve table and on the Christmas tree let everything be from Polish and Christian firms! Today already the whole Polish society understands well the time table work of Jewcommunism! Thanks to the firm stand of the majority of Poles, tens of thousands of new Polish Christian shops have arisen! Poles, men and women! For your Christmas shopping, as always, buy everything from Poles! Support only them! Everywhere demand genuinely Polish, Christian products! This slogan, put into practice by the whole Nation, will deJudaize our towns, give bread and work to masses of our unemployed brothers! A penny to a Jew – a crime against the Nation! A Pole supports a Pole! Victory is already near! Its rapid coming depends on you: Great, Catholic and National Poland! Association “Self-Defense” (“Samoobrona”), 1938.

(Leaflet circulated by antisemitic pickets in front of Jewish shops, 1938)

[Page 24 – Polish]

Destruction

On 25 June 1941, that is three days after the beginning of the German–Soviet war, Ostroh was taken by German airborne units. The Nazi occupation lasted two and a half years, until 2 February 1944.

The Jewish population, which constituted 60% of the total of about 14,000 inhabitants of the town, was annihilated in three “actions”: 4 August 1941 – 3,000 people 1 September 1941 – 2,500 people 15 October 1942 – 3,000 people.

Three long mass graves remained by the road beyond the New Town. A handful of earth from these graves was taken to the cemetery in Holon in Israel, where in 1981 a monument was erected in memory of the victims who perished in Ostroh.

Houses, shops and property of the Jewish inhabitants were plundered by the surrounding Ukrainian population. The market square, where there had been hundreds of shops, was levelled and turned into a cattle yard.

A small number of Jews saved themselves from destruction by fleeing into the Soviet Union or by joining partisan units. A few people survived the occupation by hiding with Ukrainian peasants in the surrounding villages.

The fate of the Ostroh ghetto is described in the following letter by an eyewitness, written shortly after the town was liberated from the Nazis.

“Ostroh, 28.2.1944. (February 28,1944)

You should know this bitter and terrible truth. How happy you are that you did not see all this and did not live through it. If we, the handful of survivors who by a miracle – truly by a miracle – escaped with our lives have not lost our reason, that is a second miracle for us.

Your parents have perished.

On 4 August 1941 at four in the morning SS men together with the local police went from house to house and drove all the Jews without exception out of their homes. Everyone was herded to Nowe Miasto (the New Town). On the way they tormented people horribly, mocked them, beat and shoved them and the like. The column of defenseless people was surrounded by armed SS men and bloodthirsty local inhabitants together with their police. I had never imagined that in these people such savage and base instincts could develop to that degree. In such surroundings we waited until evening. All of us fasted that day, even the little children.

We had been driven out suddenly;

[Page 25 – Polish]

no one had managed to take any bread. Imagine the state of people waiting for their death! Each of us had one desire: the

sooner the better!… Children were screaming, the old were praying – all around, machine guns, and behind them our “neighbors” preparing the graves…

At four in the afternoon we young people were separated to one side from the old and the sick. Our parents were of course among the old. The sick and the old were counted. We were sent back into the town, to our homes. The old and the sick remained. They were led in groups of twenty to the prepared graves, and our neighbors – former friends – buried them. The police and the local population tortured many people to death; many were buried alive. There was no time to finish people off, because by seven o'clock the work had to be completed, and there were still many people left. There are no words to describe the horror when people walk to the grave in full awareness of what is happening. Each reacted differently, according to his temperament. Understand that each person had consciously to overcome the strongest of instincts – the instinct for life – and go to his death.

The pious, with Rabbi “Der Trisker” at their head, went to the “Kiddush Hashem”; but in the name of what were the young dying?

At seven in the evening the town governor arrived at the place of execution and declared: ‘All Jews are communists and warmongers; they all must be exterminated, but since I am a man with a good and noble heart, I pardon those women who have not yet been killed. Your mother left your father there and returned home…’.

After a month, on 1 September 1941, the bandits carried out a second execution, which in my opinion was more terrible than the first. The flower of our youth perished then: the best schoolboys and schoolgirls of our school. They were taken away “to work”, but in fact they ended up in a mass grave in Netishyn. (6) On that day the Germans and Ukrainians showed in an even more striking way who they really were. Terms such as “bestiality”, “banditry”, barbarism” and others describe the reality only very weakly.

From that tragic day we lived in the ghetto until 13 September 1942, in terrible moral torments. We wore medieval yellow patches, we were deprived of all human rights. We were not allowed to walk on the sidewalk, nor to shake hands with a non-Jew; we lived worse than slaves. We were not allowed in the market square to buy anything; we were condemned to death by starvation. It was a physical and moral vegetating. Jews themselves, because of deep sorrow and the hopelessness of the situation, began to live and behave in very strange ways. Much that is interesting and characteristic could be told about life in the ghetto.

[Page 26 – Polish]

The final “action” began on 13 September 1942. We were gathered on the Pocztarka square. All around there was a heavy guard. Masts with electric lamps were set up so that the victims could not escape at night. Many people took their own lives, many fled. I escaped. The fugitives had nowhere to go; some poisoned themselves, some drowned; others were handed over by the local population. Out of all of Ostroh around thirty people by a miracle remained alive.

All the houses of the ghetto have been destroyed. The men and women of Wielbów wear our fur coats and dresses. All this is trifling. What is essential is that we have lost all who were dearest and closest to us. Jankel was with us for ten months and did not live to see that happy moment. Sara and I buried him ourselves. What horror this is!

Now we are in Ostroh. For us this is a city of horrors. We are waiting for the moment when we can leave here…”

Szaja Szeftel by the tree on the square where his family home once stood

Szaja Szeftel at the mass grave of the Jews of Ostrog From the right: Attorney Chaim Szeftel, his sister Bat Sheva Szeftel Gertenkraut, and his brother Prof. Szaja Szeftel

[Page 27 – Polish]

Gitele Sztejnberg-Reuwejni

From my home town, Ostroh in Volhynia, only a tiny number of Jews survived; some of them managed to flee into the interior of Russia, and that is what saved them. About thirty Jews from among those who remained on the spot survived in the partisans, or thanks to the help of a few people of good will.

When in September 1939 the Russians entered Ostroh, arrests of Jewish youth suspected of Zionist activity began. At the same time the Soviet authorities also arrested a number of Jews from Ostroh as “capitalists”.

Thus the following were deported from the town: Buzia Chosid, a friend of our family and one of the leaders of the Revisionists; Josel Kleinman and his son-in-law Fajwel Berensztajn, a well-known community activist; and many others. All traces of these people were lost.

My brother, Mojsze Sztejnberg, was an active member of “Hanoar Hacjoni”. Realizing what awaited him, he decided to leave the town and, together with a group of Polish friends who helped him obtain “Aryan” papers in the name of Ludwik Rudnicki, escaped to Kraków (crossing the border between the Soviet zone and the General Government).

In Kraków he met a young Polish woman named Wisia, who of course had no idea that her new acquaintance was a Jew. The young couple fell in love. When my brother revealed to Wisia the secret of his origin, she decided that they would not part and with great devotion and extraordinary courage she acted for five years to save his life. Her family and friends helped her in this. Their marriage proved very happy and both of them are still living to this day in Europe.

[Page 28 – Polish]

Under German Rule

On 26 June 1941 the Germans entered Ostroh. Soon afterwards we were concentrated in a ghetto, in the district called “Grebl”, which naturally meant we had to leave our prewar homes.

In a short time hunger reigned in the ghetto, and its inhabitants were forced into hard labor. Our material situation grew worse and finding work for me and for my younger sister Chasia became a matter of first necessity. Chasia found work in the administration of the ghetto (the Judenrat); I worked outside the ghetto, in a militia's canteen, as a waitress. It was very advantageous work: I could eat my fill there, and even “manage” to bring home a little food for my parents and sister. At work I met a militiaman, a Ukrainian by the name of Borczakowski, by trade a shoemaker, who before the war had worked for a Jew, Mr Lulka. Borczakowski knew my family and treated me in a friendly way. Several times he visited us in the ghetto, bringing a baskets of food, despite the risk to his life.

Meanwhile rumors began to spread that the Germans were liquidating ghettos in various towns and killing all the Jews. One day, on my way back from work, I met an acquaintance, a Ukrainian named Wolodia Poliszczuk. He was waiting for me to return so that he could inform me of the rumors and propose that I escape from the ghetto. Promising to help.

I declined, not wanting to leave my parents and little sister. When his urging did not help, Wolodia left, promising that if the need arose, I could count on him. It was not an empty promise – I realized that in the hardest moments of my life.

On 4 August 1941 the Germans drove all the Jews out of the ghetto in Ostroh. The sick were taken on stretchers from the hospital. We were lined up in Nowe Miasto (New Town) and we stood there until four in the afternoon. Then the “selection” began – the division into two groups. No one knew which group was destined for death and which would gain a few more months of life. In the confusion we lost each other in the crowd, and any unnecessary movement could cost one's life. At the last moment my father decided to join the group of the sick – unfortunately it turned out that it was precisely the old and the sick who had been selected for extermination.

[Page 29 – Polish]

That was the last time I saw my father. After the group of sick and old had been taken away, the Germans allowed us to return to the ghetto.

The mood in our family, as in many others, was tragic. Crushed by grief and mourning, we had no strength to struggle with the hardships of life, nor any hope of survival. But we had to go on living, and so my sister and I each returned to our work.

On 1 September 1941, early in the morning, we were called to work as usual. I decided to stay at home, because shooting could be heard from the street. At that time we had a guest in our house, Roza Korenblit. We both decided to hide in the attic. Evidently I had a premonition of something bad, because, as it turned out, that day the Germans rounded up almost all the young people in the ghetto and, under the pretext of taking them to work, drove them to the place of execution. Fortunately my sister had gone to work earlier that day and had already reached Judenrat when the Germans began seizing the youth and driving them from their homes.

After that terrible day we continued our work as if nothing had happened – there was no other choice – and life returned to normal.

On 15 October 1942 the final liquidation of the Ostroh ghetto took place. The Germans began driving all the inhabitants out of the ghetto houses. My mother, helpless and distraught with fear, ran out of the house during the terrible shooting; just before that, my sister had slipped away to the ghetto administration to seek advice or help there.

I remembered the Ukrainian acquaintances who had promised to help me…That was the only chance of salvation.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian militia had surrounded the ghetto so as to prevent the Jews from escaping; among them was my acquaintance Borczakowski. I decided to break through to the outside, crawling on the ground between the posts. I was lucky, by chance I came upon Borczakowski, who – as he later told me – had been looking for me the whole time. Seeing me and my efforts, he engaged the nearest colleagues in conversation. Nevertheless, someone fired and hit me in the arm. I froze, motionless, pretending to be dead. At night, under cover of darkness, I made my way to Borczakowski's apartment. He lived on Tatarska Street, in the former house of the Trachtmans. I was warmly received. I was wounded, starving and without any possessions or clothes. Borczakowski and his family offered me shelter.

[Page 30 – Polish]

The next morning I begged Borczakowski to check the attic of our house to see whether anyone from my family was hiding there. Indeed, he found my mother and my aunt there. He promised them he would come for them when it got dark. Unfortunately, when he came back they were no longer there. He brought me only some photographs that he had found scattered on the floor.

A few days later a new blow struck me: I learned from Borczakowski that the Germans had found my little sister together with her friend. The searches by the Germans continued. From time to time shots rang out – that meant the killing of single Jews who had been found in various places in the town.

The Borczakowski family was poor, but they took care of me, fed me and helped as much as they could. They expressed sincere sorrow that such a fate had befallen us. Besides me, they were also sheltering a relative of the Trachtmans, Irena. We hid together for several months, in several hiding places.

From time to time we were visited by a Polish woman, Mrs. Kasia, who was hiding Mr. Trachtman in her house. She was exceptionally brave and courageous. One Sunday she told us that there were rumors that two Jewish women were being hidden in the Borczakowski house and advised us to change our hiding place. At my pleading, Borczakowski went to Wolodia Poliszczuk and informed him that I was alive and that a new threat hung over my head. Wolodia came to the Borczakowski house with a cart full of hay; he agreed to take Irena as well, with whom I did not want to part. We both crawled into the hay and the cart set off to the village of Moszczenica, where he had his home and a mill. At the entrance to the village the Germans poked around in the hay to see whether Wolodia was smuggling anything. Luckily, they did not find us. We were buried so deep in the hay that it was a real miracle we did not suffocate.

On the Tuesday – two days after our departure – the Gestapo surrounded the Borczakowski house, but of course they did not find us there anymore.

We spent three months with Poliszczuk. Unfortunately, from time to time his brothers, who were members of the Bandera group, visited him. This group hated both Poles and Jews. They burned villages and killed fugitives of both nationalities whom they found there. Each of their visits meant that we had to hide in the mill, in inhuman conditions, without food and water. When these visits became more frequent, we were forced to leave the village and return to the Borczakowskis. They again received us with all their hearts, and we hid there in great fear until the liberation by the Soviet army on 5 February 1944.

[Page 31 – Polish]

I will never forget the extraordinary care of these people; their disinterest help saved my life and Irena's. To this day I remain in constant contact with the families of Borczakowski and Poliszczuk, and I try to repay them with remembrance of them and with material help.

Chaim and Mala Sztejnberg		The Sztejnberg family: Chaim and Mala, Mosze, Chasia and Gitele
Chasia Sztejnberg		Mosze Sztejnberg

[Page 32 – Polish]

Letter by Bluma Sztirnberg

The letter, written by Bluma Sztirnberg, a teacher from Ostroh in Volhynia, to her husband and siblings, is deeply moving in its description of a few “dry facts” and of the despair of a mother who is unable to save her “beautiful, wonderful child”. The grief-stricken author gives expression – as she herself says – to her “at times deranged feelings”, addressing her nearest ones and urging them to “flee from memories”, from the place of our torments, as from “places of plague'”.

A copy of the letter, written “after the second Monday” (after the second “action”), which, like the first, took place on a Monday (1 September.1941), is in the possession of Mrs. B. Ajzensztajn, the original remained with Mrs. Piotrkowska, a Polish woman with whom the author left it to be delivered to the addressees.

3 September 1941

My dear ones, and above all my beloved husband! I am writing this letter two months after your departure. I have lived through a great deal in that time, and now I must say farewell to you! I cannot describe to you the whole hell of our life. I will try, in a few words, to tell you about the main stages. It began immediately after your departure, that same day. On Friday morning the town was already occupied – but the fighting in the town itself lasted six days. It seemed that not one stone would be left unturned. We lived through it all with a small child, amid various torments, in cellars and in the Orthodox Church. We knew that life would not be sweet, but we hoped that they would let us live, and that in the worst case we would die of hunger. There were good people who brought us a piece of bread, until everything quieted down a little and we began to sell things for food.

We were as happy as if we had won the first prize in the lottery of life. We lived like that until 4 August. On the morning of that day a scene took place that was almost Dantesque. No, that is not true – Dante could not have invented such horrors. Between two rows of “people” armed with sticks they walked us into the forest, where we stood in a clearing surrounded by machine guns, calmly waiting for our death. However, only 1,900 people found death there; the rest returned home. We left Father there on the clearing. We did not mourn him for long. Healthy logic told us that we had been left to a life worse than death. But the instinct of life was so strong that we rejoiced even in that life. We did not believe that we would have to go through anything similar again.

[Page 33 – Polish]

That stage of life lasted four weeks, “varied” by such moments as the surrender of gold and silver, the payment of a contribution in the amount of 100,000 rubles, and the expectation that they would set up a ghetto for us. On 31 August rumors began to spread that tomorrow the scene we had already lived through would be repeated. I did not believe it, and yet it was repeated. This time we gave up Rosia, who after Daddy's death had been our Father. She had the willpower and physical strength for everything. She sold things, obtained food, ran the whole household and in addition went every day to forced labor, which lasted from six in the morning to six in the evening. She ended her life the day before yesterday, and today no one deludes himself that that was the last installment taken… Today a rumor has spread that it will happen again tomorrow, and since recently all bad rumors have been coming true, today I say farewell to you.

I have described to you the bare facts, but I cannot describe my feelings, which at times border on madness – especially when I look at my son. My dearest, if you only knew what a beautiful and wonderful child he is. My heart breaks when I think that tomorrow I myself will carry him to his eternal rest. And he laughs and cries: “Ma…” God does not want me to live to hear from him the full word “Mama”. Twice He saved my life, because they sent away mothers with small children, and now I wanted to save him, but there is no way. I wanted to convert to Christianity (many would like that); the clergy went to ask permission for this, but they have no hope that they will be allowed, so we too must say farewell to life.

Mother is holding up very bravely, she despairs only because she cannot save the child, and because she will not see you again. Mother and I kiss you all warmly and ask that when you return you do not stay on the ancestral homestead. Flee from memories, from the place of our torments, as from places of plague. Weep over our fate and try to arrange your life. And you, my dearest, however you arrange your life – for life has its own laws – do not forget me and your firstborn son, of whom you would be proud if God had not sent us such a punishment.

[Page 34 – Polish]

We kiss you once more and say farewell, Bluma, Mother and son.

My one and only God! I have lived yet another whole month and again deceived myself with hope, but alas. Tomorrow is the Day of Judgement, and truly the Day of Judgement for me and for your wonderful little boy, Josek (Josef). It is so hard not to want to die. The child is so wonderful… and to die like this…

(From: “Akcje i wysiedlenia” – “Actions and Deportations”, Dr Józef Kermisz, 1946, Warsaw – Łódź – Kraków.)

Bluma Sztirnberg

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