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Monumental buildings and memorials did not decorate Ostryn: architects did not plan her streets and houses. Only small gardens, wooden fences, sticks, posts and ordinary stones divided neighboring houses.

A market-place, a few “main streets”, a few side streets, the “sentry boxes” – this was Ostryn.

The Jews lived around the market on all surrounding streets and alleys. The Gentiles lived at the end of the streets, closer to the surrounding fields and meadows in the suburb “Valeshay”.

You could count the number of rich Jews. the “affluent” on one hand. The majority of Jews worked bitterly hard and barely earned a living.

The groschen was calculated and expensive. In those days, they did not write with ‘globes’ but with simple ink. Ink was never an expensive commodity. Therefore, many would combine things to make ink even cheaper. They would buy violet dye from Brayndl Butensky for a few groschen and mix it with a bottle of boiling water and they had a supply of ink for a few years. There was one disadvantage to producing their own ink, when they wrote, it stained the paper.

School children protected their pens, pencils and notebooks. They knew all too well their parents worked very hard to buy them writing materials.

The Jews tried to earn a living in various ways. Those who had some free space near their homes planted seeds in small gardens to grow vegetables; others who had cows, would give the manure to the peasant farmers they knew. At the end of the summer the farmers would compensate the Jews for the manure with potatoes. A bin filled with potatoes for the winter was a helpful means of support.

The majority of housewives baked their own bread at home. They would allow the dough to rise in basins and knead it. The large warm rye bread, laying on chestnut leaves was delicious.

Work opportunities in our town were minimal and restricted. There were Jews without stable employment as well as beggars. They had to be satisfied with financial support they received from relatives in America just before the holidays. They sustained themselves on bread and potatoes

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and other necessities. They did not have to pay rent. Almost all the Jews had their own houses. Sons from respectable families did not learn a trade as not to dishonor their “stature”. They would help their parents a bit in their shops, but they would mainly walk the streets doing nothing.

In the summer, people would always gather at the market-place around Yisroel – Avreyml's seltzer stand. Here they refreshed their hearts with some soda water and sherbets. The town's beggars sat on the stones around Yisroel – Avreyml's shop. This is where politics and local and world news was discussed.

Until 1925 there was no radio in Ostryn. There was talk about a sort of box that existed which was called a “radio” and you can hear, from this box music, singing and talking from far away.

Finally, Ostryn had the privilege to see a radio with their own eyes. A Jewish doctor, a bachelor, lived on Tchikhever Street. This doctor, in 1925, brought the first radio to Ostryn. This radio did not have a speaker. One had to listen with earphones.

Groups of youngsters would gather in the evening outside the doctor's house and watch as he sat wearing his earphones listening to something. Those gathered did not hear a word, however they were amazed.

There was no water in the houses. Rich and poor, everyone brought water home in buckets from the town well.

Let us remember the old well keepers who supplied water for drinking, cooking, washing and fire extinguishing.

In the middle of the market-place, not far from the Pravoslaven Russian Orthodox Church, stood a half modern wooden well with a wheel and chain with two buckets attached. Beside the well there was a basin with a wooden cover which was always filled with water. The water is the basin was used to extinguish fires. The well in the market place and the basin were always overgrown with green moss.

For the Germans, during the First World War, there was a water pump in the market -place. However, the pump stood abandoned for so long it disappeared from the market landscape.

Shmuel the baker's well was on Vasilishker Street. In the winter, this well was almost always covered with ice up to the brim.

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People would often slip on the ice with full buckets and the ice around the well grew higher. In order to prevent falls they would pour ashes on the ice.

Trakhimke's well stood on Grodno Street (beside the house of a Gentile named Trakhim).

Trakhim's well was a modern one, built from concrete wheels by Yosef Vidorovitch.

They said Trakhimke's well was the deepest in town. The water from this well was always clear and cold.

In the summer, people would come from all over town to Trakhimke's well to draw water for tea.

On the side streets, near the non-Jewish homes were some old wells. There was a thick long log, and on top a moveable long log with a long hanging wooden pole. There was a bucket attached to the pole which was lowered into the well.

In the winter they would cut a hole in ice which covered the Ostryn river and draw water from there. Livelihood was lacking in Ostryn, but not water.

Fires would often break out in the summer months. The sudden shouts: “Fire, fire!” would chase everyone in town out from their houses. Everyone ran to where the fire was. The fire brigade, led by Tap was the first to arrive. They dragged barrels of water and pumps. The fire brigade would always encounter an obstacle: water would leak from the dried-out barrels, a hand pump didn't work or a hose was lost.

Whatever happened, by the time the fire brigade began to work, the small wooden house would be half burned down.

Jews living in neighboring houses would crawl on to their roofs with wet rags to prevent sparks from the fire to be carried to their houses.

The “Authority” in town was the Polish commandant and a couple of policemen.

An order was given saying that the residents must keep the streets clean as well as the area around their homes.

When they would see a Polish policeman from the distance, Jews would run out of their houses with brooms and begin to sweep the streets and around their homes. When a Jew saw the Polish commandant approaching,

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he would show great respect and remove his cap.

Throughout the year the weekdays were grey and mundane. However, everything changed with the arrival of the Sabbath. As early as Friday morning one could notice the preparations for the Sabbath. Scents of freshly baked Challah emerged from the houses, as well as gefilte fish and other Sabbath foods.

Friday afternoon, Jewish women and children hurried with their Cholent (Sabbath stew) to the nearby bakeries. People cleaned and tidied their homes. They washed and combed the children's small heads with thick combs.

The men hurried to the bathhouse with bundles of clean clothes under their arms. The bathhouse was noisy. You could not see one another due to the thick steam as they poured water on the shiny stones in the oven making it even hotter in the steam bath. The shop owners sat with artisans on the top steps. In the bathhouse, everyone was equal. Simple folk hit the wealthier men with small brooms. The steam bath was the only place a simple man could flog the illustrious in town. Everyone's faces were red-hot. Everyone cooled off and caught their breath with a pail of cold water.

Yoshe, the rabbi's assistant would call out, in a loud voice, the arrival of the Sabbath. He would stand in the middle of the market-place and shout: “Go to the synagogue!” and, the entire town, big and small, streamed in the direction of the two study houses.

A cantor came to town for the Sabbath with a beautiful voice. Ostryn loved cantors and understood cantorial music.

Friday night: Sabbath candles flickered from the houses. Fathers, mothers and children all dressed in their Sabbath best sat around a beautifully covered Sabbath table. The sounds of “Kiddush” (the blessing over the wine) and other Sabbath melodies rang through the streets.

The youngsters rushed through the meal. Each one was anxious to get to the locale of his organization and friends. They would shuffle quietly out of their homes. The locales of the youth organizations filled quickly.

Happy songs were heard through the town. The meadows and fields of the White Russian plains were abundant with sounds of Zion, the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret. (The Sea of Galilee)

Couples and groups of friends walked along Vasilishker and Grodno streets. They walked out of town on the highways and roads. Laughter and song could be heard everywhere.

Sabbath in the summer: After the Sabbath meal the town emptied.

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The youngsters went out walking in the Loybisk forest., on the banks of the rivers, near the water mills.

Some people would take a Sabbath walk with their children in the priest's orchard. The orchard was just beyond Notke Bril's garden. It was a large area with tall beautiful trees, covered with green grass and leaves.

On hot days it was cool in the priest's orchard. Older people would take a nap in the shade of the trees. The children played soccer, climbed the trees and threw pine cones. Sometimes the priest was not happy with his uninvited guests and accompanied by his dog, he would chase the Jews out in all directions.

Summer, winter, fall and spring, holidays and the Sabbath. Each time, each holiday brought its experiences and joy.

Ostryn continued the rooted Jewish life style, continuing the golden chain of generations.

A lot had been written about the road to hell the Jews of Ostryn travelled in the sad years (1941-1944) under German Nazi distress, years that were well engraved in the memories of those who miraculously survived. However, little has been written about the Jewish heroes from Ostryn, who during the worst terror and tense environment, escaped to the forest in order to take revenge on the German enemy.

As someone who experienced that life, if you can call it that, I would like to reflect on what is only a small fragment of that experience.

Until June 6^th 1942 I was with my family in the ghetto. The border of the ghetto was Vilna Street near our house. At that time the ghetto included the following streets and alleys: from our house, in the direction toward the river, near the tannery; the streets, including Vasilishker Street, almost until the bridge; the synagogue courtyard, the front of the market from the synagogue courtyard with the gate near Dovid Rubin's wall and Draznin's.

Jews from Voloshay, the entire right side of the town, entering from Vilna, were forced to the side of the synagogue courtyard on Vasilishker Street.

On June 6^th, 1942, there was chaos in the ghetto: the Germans demanded one hundred Jews be sent to work. Where? When? For how long? We did not know. Since no one was willing to volunteer to go,

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they sent everyone out to the market-place and the Germans chose one hundred Jews, I being one of them. Even the connections of my uncle Gedalia Borukhovitch and my cousin Berl Viernikov had working for the Judenrat (the Jewish Council), did not help. The same day they took the entire group on foot to Azyor, 24 kilometers from Ostryn.

We travelled all night. The next morning, at dawn, we arrived in the town of Starosheltz, a few kilometers from Bialystok. This is where they divided us in two groups and we began building various structures for the railroad department.

We lived in barracks surrounded by barbed wire. From time to time we were able to visit the Bialystok ghetto. To do this we needed permission form the camp commandant, a German. We worked bitterly hard with one hope, that they send a group from Ostryn to replace us. However, something else happened:

On November 2^nd, at dawn, as we prepared for work like every other day, we were suddenly surrounded by a horde of S.S men and the told us to walk. They warned us not to run away. If we did, they would shoot.

They made us walk toward Bialystok, later they changed direction. As we later found out, this was the camp of Bialystok Jews.

In the camp there were long buildings and stalls which used to house horses for the Polish army. Here we found Jews from surrounding communities. New transports of Jews would arrive every day.

Those November nights were terribly cold. We did not have sufficient clothing nor covers. Obviously, there was no food. The frost on one hand, and hunger on the other annoyed us terribly, took years off our lives and was practically unbearable.

A group of youngsters tried to escape from the camp, however, unfortunately, they could not because the fence was lit with large projectors and guarded by the Germans. In addition, the wires around the fence were electrified. One could not even go from one barrack to the next as they were divided by barbed wire.

There were train tracks in the camp and military troops arrived regularly.

Each barrack had a number. The barrack containing the Jews from Ostryn was number 17.

Our food consisted of 150 grams of bread a day and two rotten boiled potatoes. It was difficult to obtain drinking water. Due to the lack of water, we could not wash, and due to the severe cold, we did not undress. We slept on bare planks, and because of this, many people died,

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especially the elderly. All of this transpired in the sixteen days we remained in this transitory camp Ignatke.

On November 19^th a train pulled into the camp with a few passenger cars and a larger number of closed cars. They took us from the barracks and put us in the closed cars. The Jews from Ostryn stayed together even under the most difficult conditions.

Fortuitously, we learned from the conductor, a Pole, that the echelon was going to Treblinka. There was chaos among us. After they closed the door to our car, we began to reflect on our situation. A few of us were convinced we had to make every effort to escape from the train that was taking us to our deaths. Others were afraid to take the risk of jumping from the train at top speed, and the doors were barred.

As the majority of the Ostryn Jews believed we must take this risk, Shayke Goldberg climbed up to the small train window, broke the grate over the window, bent it in half and with all is might, opened the door of the train car. The train was travelling at full speed and…the majority of the Ostryn Jews began jumping from the train.

The Germans did not notice we were jumping off the train because first of all, they were travelling in the passenger cars and secondly, they did not even imagine Jews would break open the door and jump.

We met up in a small forest and began to consider our situation and decide what to do next. It was decided we remain there until it got dark, because in those regions it was impossible for Jews to move around. When night fell, we divided into a few groups and headed toward the Ostryn regions. This was decided because many of us had Christian acquaintances in the area. A second consideration was: to join the partisans in the region.

I was in a group led by Aron Shilanksy. Others in the group who I remember were: Yosef Krospadin, Shloyme Konopka, Hirsh Krinsky and Yitzkhak Kapitkin.

Aron Shilanksy who was at the time 28 years old had served in the Polish army, and this proved to be very useful. Without a compass or other tools for orientation, he led us, in the dark, with self-assurance, as if he was a local.

Our first night of wandering we set a goal to

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avoid Bialystok and come out on the Grodno highway, which goes through Sokolke – Kuznitze. We did this because the west side of Bialystok was swarming with Germans and there was danger of falling into their hands.

At first, we were in a hurry, but as we continued, many felt weak from the latest experience in Ignatke. For much of the way, we carried our weakened friends on our backs, but after a while we had to stop because we also felt ourselves losing strength. Thus, those who lagged behind were: Hirsh Krinsky and Yitkhak Kapitkin. I don't remember the others. They all remained lying in the field despondent.

Those who remained in our group were: Aron Shilansky, Yosef Krospodin, Shloyme Konopka and me. The next day we found another forest and that night set out again. This is what happened day after day, no day or night. In the following days we acquired some food from Christians.

One night, as we marched further, we stumbled upon a German patrol. That night, we lost our friend Shloyme Kanopka. We remained three.

Moving in the direction toward Ostryn was very difficult because the Nemen River which stood in the way. Crossing the river at Grodno was impossible, so after long excessive wandering, we avoided Grodno and crossed the river near Skidl, in the early morning hours in the first days of December. A Christian helped us cross the Nemen.

Two days later we arrived in t he village Olishkovtse, seven kilometers from Ostryn. This is where we learned the sad truth. In October they had taken the Jews from Ostryn to Kelbasi, near Grodno.

Once we were in the Ostryn region we did not find partisans due to extreme cold and deep snow. We separated. Yosef Krospadin left for the Bersht regions, believing his peasant acquaintances would hide him, and Aron Shilansky went to Litshkovske.

Later I learned the peasants handed Krospadin over to the Germans. I met up with Shilansky a few weeks later in Shtutshin. He decided to wait out the difficult winter there.

In Shtutshin I found other Jews who survived the slaughter in White Russia. The Judenrat did not allow us to stay in the ghetto as we were not registered anywhere. Without any other choice we had to leave Shtutshin and continued on our journey. Exhausted from our wandering and having nothing to eat, we were forced to return to the Germans to work. This time, in the east. Our only hope was, when spring would arrive, we would escape to the partisans.

Together with Shilanksy, I arrived, under the watch of two Germans,

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in a labour camp in Ashnianke. This was between Molodetchne and New Vlayke. In this camp we found Jews from Vasilishok, Baranovitch and other surrounding towns. We remained in this camp barely two months.

On March 8^th 1943, together with Shilansky, with great difficulty and danger. I escaped from the camp and arrived in the town of Oshmene (Oshmianke is a train station, Oshmene is 18 kilometers from Oshmianke). From Oshmene, with a larger group, we joined the partisans. We had in our possession: two rifles, a revolver, medication and a doctor, Dalinsky. When we arrived in the partisan district we were joined by a group of boys and girls from the surrounding region. The partisans did not want to accept them without weapons.

Aron Shilanksy, who represented our group which was comprised of 50 people, went to the partisan elders to negotiate allowing us into his unit. It did not help. We settled in a forest, separate from the partisans.

A few months later they brought us into their ranks and that is when we began to live the partisan life. This was a heroic chapter in fighting and acts of diversion. We took revenge for the innocent blood of our nearest and dearest.

In January 1944 Aron Shilansky fell in a disproportionate battle against the Germans, not far from Skidl. This is what happened: unexpectedly, the Germans attacked his house. At that time his friends were not there and he was alone. Shilanksy did not fluster. He killed two of them and wounded another. Then he jumped from the window and ran to the forest. Two Germans shot at him and probably wounded him. Not willing to fall into their hands, he blew himself up with a grenade. This was a half a year before the arrival of the Red Army.

This is how one of our greatest heroes, Aron Shilansky lived, struggled and fought.

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June 25, 1941, the first victim of the German murderers was Yitzkhak- Hirsh, Dovid the blacksmith's son. As soon as they marched into Ostryn they shot him. A week later they shot: Meir the bricklayer's son, Khaim, the son of Khane the cemetery attendant and Dovid the carpenter. This was just the beginning.

Later on, they arrested Zaydke, Shmuel the baker's son, Pinye- Shaye, Nyome's son, and a few Christians.

The sent those they arrested to prison in Grodno. They remained there for a few days. Then they took them for interrogation. The interrogation judge (a German), let them choose their punishment: death by shooting or a concentration camp.

“I advise you to accept the first: shooting: it's an easier death; the concentration camp is death as well, but slower and crueler”.

They all remained silent.

“Where are you from?” asked the German.

“From Ostryn”.

“Do you know a woman from Ostryn called Khayke Patushinsky?”

“Of course!” they replied.

“A very beautiful woman,” said the German. “I was once in Ostryn and stayed at her place. Since you are from Ostryn. I will let you go!”

The German gave them a travel pass and sent them back to Ostryn. Pinye- Shaye went to Lida. He did not want to remain in Ostryn, he was afraid he would be arrested again (he died in Lida). Shmuel's son Zaydke remained in Ostryn and experienced the same fate as all Jews of Ostryn until the end.

The following died during the first selection in the ghetto: Leybe Moishe Yankl's son, Yoshke Berele's son, Zayd Shmuel's son, Abba – Meir the bricklayer's son and Artchik from Bialystok.

The situation was catastrophic. They were taken to forced labour repairing highways and the reward was beatings. The situation for those who worked for the farmers in the region was better. Every farmer was permitted the take Jews to work and pay the Germans one Mark for every work day. With the farmers, they received ample food and no beatings.

Right after Succoth, 1941, the Germans shot a Jewish family from Warsaw which had escaped and were living with a Christian named Tekatch. Then they set Safran's barn on Grodno Street on fire because rumours were spreading that Jews hid valuables there.

Then came “Bloody Sunday”, when the German's shot 80 Jews in town.

A week later the Germans shot Asher Lande's family.

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During the shooting, the two brothers, Zalman and Ziske escaped. The Germans shot at them and Ziske fell in Bril's garden near the park. They said he was injured and later died of a heart attack.

A short time later, the staff sergeant Suks, the ruler of Ostryn, summoned Poretzky, the chairman of the Judenrat, and ordered him to bring the rabbi to him, and promised nothing would happen to the rabbi. (At the time there was an order to send all rabbis to a camp in Lida). Poretzky offered the German a bribe for the rabbi, gold or other valuables.

“Man! Don't be anxious, nothing will happen to the rabbi…” the German said.

The rabbi came to headquarters. They ordered him to climb into a truck, where there was already another person. The truck left. A few weeks later a Christian from Sabakintse came to the Judenrat and told them, on the road, the Germans shot the rabbi and the other man and buried them in a field.

Later, the Nazi murderers gathered all the teachers, and took them to Notke Bril's garden and shot them. The next day, they put these victims on two wagons and took them to be buried in the Ostryn Jewish cemetery. This was the beginning of 1942, right after New Year's.

The town was divided in two sections; Vilna Street, the sentry boxes and the houses of study were ghetto number 1; Tchikhev Street and a few houses – ghetto number 2.

Twenty to twenty-five people lived in each house. Those of Tchikhev Street were: Shloyme Hirsh Shilkovsky and his family; his brother Motke Shilkovsky and his family; my wife's two nieces from Bersht; my brother-in-law Dovid from Bersht and his family; My wife's mother. All these families were in my small normal family apartment.

An order was given: from 5 o'clock in the evening until 8 o'clock in the morning, no Jew can be seen in the streets, as well as all-day Sunday. There was no running water or bathrooms in the houses in Ostryn. Anyone who went outside to relieve himself at these times did not return. They were shot on the spot.

One Sunday, through the window, we saw two Germans pushing a woman and beating her. She was crying and did not want to go, but she must. They dragged her until Leybe Zlotzovsky's house. Then we heard a gunshot and the German's left. I went out the back door to see who the woman was: It was Blumke, Khaim the blacksmith's daughter. She was lying on the ground, shot dead, and the dogs were licking her blood. After that, the Germans ordered the Judenrat send her husband and two children (a two-year-old daughter and one year old son) to headquarters. The Germans took him to

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Bril's garden and shot him there. Two Polish policemen (Gratzovski and Bernik) shot the children nearby.

They brought all the Jews from Novy Dvor to the Ostryn ghetto. The ghetto was even more crowded. After Passover 1942 they enclosed ghetto number 1 with barbed wire and brought all the Jews from ghetto number 2 to ghetto number 1.

News arrived from Shtutshin: “We had a large wedding, the wedding cost us 2100…” (This meant, the Germans murdered 2,100 Jews in Shtutshin). The news caused a panic in ghetto. People did not sleep all night from fear. Poretzky went to the commissar of the ghetto to learn the fate of Ostryn's Jews.

“Be calm, Jews of Ostryn, nothing will happen to you!” the German promised.

Moods were calmer and they continued the forced labour in the forest digging out stumps, repairing highways etc.… Hunger was great in the ghetto and Jews shared the last bits of food. They would smuggle rye, barley and buckwheat through the barbed wire. Khaim from Bialystok and Mikhl Shloyme, Yosl's son set up a millstone and their house and ground wheat and grains smuggled into the ghetto.

One Sunday there was an order that all Jews between the ages of 16 and 60 must gather in the synagogue courtyard at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The commissar chose 100 men, among them, Yosl Vidorovitch, and sent them to work in Staroseltz. The all died there, except one, Khaim the son of a man from Zamosc. He survived.

This is how the entire summer of 1942 played out. Jews tried to store some food for the winter since the Germans allowed them to buy free potatoes.

The pious began to see Messianic times through these problems: redemption was nearing…they would sit day and night and recite psalms to quicken the redemption.

One day two Germans entered the ghetto and noticed tall Berl. He had a patriarchal beard. They photographed him, cut off his beard and photographed him again…

Rumours spread that all the Jews from Kaminke were sent to a death camp. The anxiety in the ghetto increased. On the 1st of November, 1942, at 5 o'clock in the morning we received an order: go out to the street and take bags, as much as you can carry. We woke the small children, packed our bags and went out on the street.

Once it got light, they pushed us onto wagons that were already prepared. We sat the children and the weak on the wagons and the adults walked. This is how we left the ghetto in Ostryn, while the gentiles stood on the street accompanying us with mocking smiles, celebrating our tragedy.

As we walked, we arrived at Shlonsky forest on the road to Grodno,

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the road which ran from Ostryn to Azhor which stretched into a dense forest. We passed Shklansk, crossed the river Kotre. There too, all the gentiles from the villages were standing and watching them take the Jews of Ostryn to their unknown fate. When we passed the “Shventer” swamps, we stopped and some went into the forest to relieve themselves. It would have been easy to disappear in the forest, but no one dared.

When we arrived in the Azhor ghetto the doors to all the houses were open (the Jews of Azhor had been taken away earlier). We found warm bread in the ovens which they had not managed to take with them. We spent the night in Azhor and in the morning continued our journey along the Grodno highway.

After the village Koplitz they ordered all the adults to get off the wagons and walk. They lined is up four in a row (me, Berl Vernikov, Sholem Shudmes and Yisrolke, Itche-Mordkhe's son, walked in the first row). The Germans walked ahead at a fast tempo. They shouted we should catch up. The elderly began to fall down (Hershl, the rabbi's son remained lying on the road).

This is how things went until we arrive in Kelbasin camp. We were convinced there was no end to our troubles. As bad as it was in the Ostryn ghetto, it was much worse in Kelbasin.

The camp in Kelbasin had previously been a camp for Russian prisoners, built like a mud hut 6 feet deep. The boards on the walls were covered with earth. The shoved 300 people into each mud hut. The food given was: a quarter pound of bread a day and once a day a little bit of water with a couple of frozen potatoes. (There was no water for drinking or washing). People began to drop like flies. Everyone was covered in lice from the filth and a typhus epidemic broke out.

There were 25 thousand Jews in the camp (from Ostryn, Azhor, Skidl, Sukhovolia, Soptzkin, Volkovisk, Lune, Krinki, Admor, Novy Dvor, Kaminka and other towns). All the men had to go outside in the morning and line up according to their town. The head of the camp, Sintzler, would walk past the rows and check if we were standing straight. Those standing in the first rows would get beaten every day with a stick on the face, for no reason at all.

I worked in the kitchen. To do this one had to be very strong. Our work consisted of: arriving at the kitchen at 4 o'clock in the morning. Two men had to carry a basin and fill the kettles; then we had to bring potatoes in the same basins. The greatest hardship was carrying the basins with potatoes because people would attack us to grab the potatoes due to hunger. We had to bring the basins filled with potatoes to the kitchen, but what could we do? Beat up Ostryn Jews? Our neighbours, our friends?…

People dropped like flies from hunger and Typhus. The mud huts were filled with dead bodies. Once a day (8 O'clock in the morning) they would

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carry out he dead from the mud huts. Besides this, many people went mad, former wealthy people were dying from hunger or they just couldn't take it and went crazy.

I always see this scene before my eyes: it is night and dark in the mud hut. I stand up and want to cook the few potatoes I stole during the day. There are corpses on the ground and crazy people are walking around mumbling. They are talking only about one thing, food…I rustle through those lying on the floor and try not to step on them, and bring a few pieces of wood. I cover the window, make a small fire and cook a couple of cut up potatoes. Women ask me: “Give us a few pieces of potato” …however, I run out of the mud hut and I'm afraid to look around. It seems they are running after me…

One day the Germans ordered all the Jews from Skidl to come out from the mud huts and put them in trucks. The Nazis took them toward an unknown destination. A few days later we were told: “Tomorrow the Jews of Ostryn are going!”.

That night no one slept. They sent us out to the street at 3 o'clock in the morning. It was snowing. Maishke Berezovsky stood with a lantern lighting the road so we could see where to go. He said goodbye to us: “Be well and go in good health!”. Maishke, Gedalye Borukhovitch (Kive) Velfke Bril, Yankl Lunyansky and others remained in the camp because members of their families were sick with Typhus.

We marched to the train station (5 kilometers away). Elderly Jews stopped; they didn't have the strength to march. The Germans shot them on the spot. They shoved us into “Tovorno” train cars. The train began to move. From my train car, three boys later jumped out the window. They made it to Grodno and entered the ghetto. (The died there with all the Jews of Grodno).

We arrived in the death camp Auschwitz. When they opened the doors, we heard shouts: “Get out! Lie down on the ground!”. An S.S. man noticed Zaydl Draznin. He could barely walk and was holding a stick in his hand. He ran over to him, grabbed the stick and began beating him left and right. People were falling one on top of the other, breaking out in tears and cries…

This was the last day of life for the Jews from Ostryn and Novy Dvor who had endured months of suffering until they were brought to Auschwitz.

I am the only one of those Jews who miraculously was saved from the hell of Auschwitz.

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