-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Great site I have learned a lot about my fathers origins. Why don't you remove the commercial posts from your guestbook?
Brian
Brian Alpert <balpert1@nyc.rr.com>
New York , NY USA - Sunday, September 21, 2003 at 12:21:02 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Sanders' theory is that having the sugar cube visible for all to see,
while drinking tea, was a sign that you could afford sugar. I'd like to
expand this with some nice info in an eMail which I kept an year ago - but
could not find on-line now. I had to do some research for a friend. His family is related to the
Weizmanns from Motol. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of modern Israel,
was born in Motol, in today's Belarus. Searching for Weizmanns and Motol, I
came across this. The author of the eMail.mentioned quoted his uncle Aaron.
Aaron - believed to live across from the Weizmanns in Motol - said that
"the Weizmanns were so rich" that....
"they had sugar in their tea every day." !!
Certainly many of us take some things for granted nowadays - sugar, for
example. Extracting and refining sugar from sugar beet was the activity of
some of my family members. Probably, the Weizmann's sugar came from sugar
beet, too. By the way, I remember the tradition of cube-in-teeth and tea- in- tall-
glasses (with and without handles) for family members originating as North
as Vilna Gubernia and as South as Kremenchug, Ukraine. Who copied whom?
Carlos GLIKSON
Buenos Aires, Argentina .
- Monday, September 15, 2003 at 20:22:38 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are the second to ask for where you can get a copy of the book. I
will forward this to Ron Sandler. Somehow the families all tie
together. Same names with Deutsch-Taitz, same region they left and now
Haverill being in common. Just have to put it together. I am sending
this E-Mail to Ron Sandler and perhaps he can help you too. Might try
Amazon.com as I have found hard to find books there many times.
Hi Ron,
Always difficult to find woman when you don't know their married
names. I suppose finding an obit is one of the best ways. I have done
that myself. The New York Times does have an index to its Obits going
back to the dates you are talking about. I'm sure major libraries have a
copy, I used one at Yivo. There are other data bases that may help, but
they are long shots. You could also look for them on the SSDI. They may
have signed up for social security after they were married. Although
they may still be alive. I have the index on cd, so I could look up all
woman with the first name of and look for proper birth date. You have to
use last names on the internet. I haven't used it for a long time,
because I don't have that program on my
hard disc now. of course, the best way is to find someone in that family
you
can contact. The book you mention, From the Hill to Main Street, do you know the
author, how can I get to read a copy? I still have Taitz living in
Haverill. Ron
> Hi Ron
>
> I think the piece that I need to research in NY is what are the
> married names of the children of Jacob (Jakob) Goldberg and Rebecca
> Deutsch Goldberg. According to the 1920 Federal Census they were
> living at 259 East 98th Street and they had two children Claire/Clara
> Goldberg who was born in 1914/1915 and Sylvia Goldberg who was born
> 1917/1918. At the time of the marriage, I know Jakob was living at
> 214 Clinton Street and had emigrated months before the wedding on July
> 21, 1913. Rebecca Deutsch was living at 22 Rutgers Road in Manahttan
> and she emigrated in 1908. I am pretty sure, even though the Israeli
> cousins tell me otherwise, that Rebecca was the sister of Nathan
> (Nafulle) Deutsch, Abe
> (Abba) Deutsch and Arthur (Chaim) Deutsch.
>
> Do you have any suggestions on how I can locate these daughters? I
> suspect if I can find the obituary newspaper article for Jacob
> Goldberg and/or Rebecca Goldberg it might list their survivors. The
> daughters' > married names hopefully would appear. I can't find any on line
> records for that purpose. Also, I have no clue when Jacob or Rebecca
> passed away nor whether they passed away in New York. I suspect they
> were in the City through the 1940s as my father remembers one of the
> daughters married an Italian who owned a bar in the Bronx after my
> father was discharged from the army. Any suggestions? Any Jewish
> groups that would keep track of deaths or burials? Rebecca was born
> in 1891 according to the Census and Jacob was born in either 1888 or
> 1885 depending on the record. Abe was born in 1890 and Nathan was
> born in 1895. Somehow have to track down Sylvia and Claire/Clara and
> hopefully they are still alive.
>
> I just located the decendants of Nathan Deutsch in the State of
> Washington, Chicago, and NV. Just need this last branch and I think
> we found all the descendants with the exception of Lazar Deutsch. I
> have communicated with a descendant of "a" Lazar Deutsch who came from > Scionysis in Lithuania who Thekla Nordwind located. Not to far from
> our Dolhinov. Might be the right connection but I am not able to
> confirm at this point.
>
> The 1857 Census Records from the Vilna archives are now being
> translated and hopefully we will find more descendants from earlier
> branches. Jewish Genealogy is still trying to raise a few more dollars
> for the 1934 Census. Who knows if the family was even in Dolhinov in
> 1834 though? Anyway any thoughts on tracking Syliva and Claire/Clara
> Goldberg would be very helpful!
>
> Ron Deutsch.
- Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 07:15:29 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------------------------------
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
( Isaac Newton ) Credit - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -
- There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. - Opportunities multiply as they are seized. ( Sun Tzu I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.
( Mark Twain )
)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This past June, during my 10th trip to Lithuania, I obtained a copy of a
hitherto unknown record stored in the Panevezys archive. On my previous
trips to this archive, only a few Jewish records could be found. The archive had a 1940 record of property owned by Jews, and a collection of
pictures of Jewish owned factories and mills from the interwar period.
This time, with the help of Genady Kofman, the Chairman of the Panevezys
Jewish Community, another record of Jewish interest was found in the
archive. In 1947, 31 Jews in Panevezys submitted an application to the Minister of Culture (Soviet) for the return of a former Synagogue building. The Minister of Culture, before deciding, instructed the Mayor of Panevezys to first find out if the Jews already had a synagogue. If they did, they would not need a second synagogue. Apparently, the Minister did not know that, with 31 Jews, even two synagogues may not be enough!!
Following is a list of the 31 Jews who signed the application.
1 DUDIK, Girsh son of Aron
2 LEVIN, Lazarus son of Izrael
3 KAB, Mausha son of Shliomo
4 CHVOTSKY, Gershon son of Gutman
5 ALPERAVICH, Yudel son of Mendel
6 FISHER, Efroim son of Abram
7 BIN, Izrael son of Zelman
8 GONTOVNIK, Boris son of Vulf
9 KLEIMAN, Izrael son of Isaac
10 FEIGEL, Zelman son of Leib
11 KAGAN, Sholom son of Aron
12 LEVIT, Simon son of Jakub
13 MANDEL, Slave daughter of Simcha
14 KRAVETZ, Etel daughter of Girsh
15 OSHRY, Grisha son of Aron
16 SHERMAN, Yosel son of Meyer
17 MAGID, Icik son of Yankel
18 MAGID, Mausha son of Yankel
19 SHIPEL, Yankel son of Yudel
20 MAGID, Benjamin son of Yankel
21 CHVOTSKY, Yasha son of Gutman
22 SIYON, Simcha daughter of Motel
23 CIRLIN, Kushel son of Alter
24 TIGEL, Abel son of Meyer
25 SKURKAVICH, Kopel son of Yudel
26 BRIKOV, Roza daughter of Kapel
27 MUNICK, Samuel son of Abram
28 SEGAL, Meyer son of Nochum
29 KLOTC, Sholom son of Poric
30 SEGAL, Mausha son of Gecel
31 KATZ, Sara daughter of Leib Howard Margol
-
- Sunday, August 17, 2003 at 13:28:40 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comprendo todos estas publicidades que aparecen en la página que ya tomé como propia.
El ansia de venta de una sociedad mercantilista no puede estar nunca sobre los sentimientos y la historia de un pueblo.
Ruego a estos señores abstenerse de adicionar estos tipos de mensajes.
Pedro Alperowicz <salonelcano@arnet.com.ar>
Buenos Aires, Argentina - Friday, August 01, 2003 at 18:25:40 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you for the wonderful website and all the information about
Kurenets. I was reading some of the Kurenets stories one evening this
week and saw the paragraph copied below from "By the Nails of the
Eradicator."

I have a friend whose name is Sol Shulman. He hid in the forests around
Kurenets with his younger sister (Rita now), his parents, and a
grandmother--the Shulman mentioned in a paragraph copied from Rivka
Gvint's story below is his
father. Sol was 13 I believe when they went to the
forest--the name of Rivka Gvint was not familiar to him. He does
remember Nathan Gurevich, who is also mentioned in her story.

Do you have any information on either Nathan Gurevich or Rivka Gvint? I
would love to get some contact information for either of them for Sol--he
said in Kurenets his name was Zalman Szulman. I believe his Dad's name
was Elijah, but I don't know how that was spelled in Kurenets.

Thank you, very much!, for all the history and photos on your web site.
Kathy Hahn
College of Applied Life Studies


Dear Kathy, Thank you so much for your email! I would very much like to talk to Sol Shulman!!!!!
My grandmother from Kurenets was Bela nee Shulman (daughter of Aharon Shulman and sister of Nyomka and Chana Shulman. pictures;
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pix/kurenets_portraits/51_big.jpg
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/shulman.html
Nathan Gurevich was the brother of my grandfather. click for pictures of Nathan with the rest of the family;
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pages/gurevitz.html
His son Zalman (now lives in Germany and Tel Aviv) wrote a story;
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/kurenets/kur267.html
please email phone number of Sol and his sister. Thank you so much,
Eilat -
My gr-grand father Joseph Meltzer was from Kuranitz (Kurenets?). He was born circa 1850 and died circa 1906. The Americanized versions of his childrens' names are Rachel - Nee about 1876; Samuel - Nee 1877; Nathan - Nee Oct 1887; (Female) - Nee Unknown; Leah Pesha - Nee Unknown. Sam and Nathan emmigrated to the USA. Any of this sound familiar to anyone?
Matthew Meltzer <MDTCCDRS@aol.com>
Wappingers Falls, NY USA - Thursday, July 24, 2003 at 03:44:07 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ron and Lillie:
Wait to you hear this. Until now, Willy (my husband) is a Friedman because his great grandmother was Fraida Freeman (please note that Elllie spelled the surname this way and you know how exact she was.)
Lillie says this: "I do know my Mother came here as a child. Her Mother was Rose Krivel."
Now follow this. Fraids'a daughter, Rebecca, married Max (Mayer) Cornez. Max' father was Ykuziel Kornetz. He was the first husband of Rose Moldevan. The family story is that she ran away from Max and married a man by the name of Krivil who lived around Edmonton, Canada so she then became Rose Krivil. Willy remembers visiting the Krivil family when he was young. There was an Uncle Jake Krivil who had just died but had been mayor of the same town of Estervan in Canada.
Eleanor Cornez Nordwind had notes indicating that her grandmother, Rose Moldevan Kornitz Krivel Gerson left her first husband, Ykuziel, in Russia, only to find that she was pregnant. She returned, had Max, left him with the father (her first husband, Ykuziel) and went to Canada where she married Mr. Krivel and had another family.
So..................it would appear that the Friedmans are related to each other two ways.
Wow. Thekla
Lillian Rivera
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 7:14 PM
To: rdeutsch@cohn-goldberg-deutsch.com
Subject: Re: Zusha Friedman/Dolhinov Dear Ron Thank you for your most interesting message. I'm afraid I
can't help you much with information. None of the names you mention
sound familiar. Being the eighth child of Isaac Michael and Tillie Friedman It never occured to me to ask questions Now all my
siblings are gone and I'm almost 84 there is no one left to ask. I do
know my Mother came here as a child Her Mother was Rose Krivel Although
I married a Puerto Rican he converted to Judiasm when we married in1940
I find your messages very interesting so keep it up. Thanks so much
Incidently my oldest daughter Irene is an associate professor at Hofstra
College in Long Island perhaps Ira Kaplan can get in touch with her
there. Talk to you soon Lillian My Birth certificate reads Lillie
Bye now
From: Lillian Rivera
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 10:36 AM
To: rdeutsch@cohn-goldberg-deutsch.com
Subject: RE: Zusha Friedman/Dolhinov This is all so fascinating I prefer Lillian Irene's e-mail
She is vacationing in Canada where they own a home I
don't remember my grandparents names but one of Geraldo's producers did
a family tree for him once. I'm trying to get a copy of it. It's really
nice to know there are still Frirdman cousins out there. Talk to you
soon Lillian ..
- Wednesday, July 16, 2003 at 07:35:16 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a message dated 6/25/03 1:49:20 PM Pacific Daylight Time, YUSSR writes:
<< think the story of this Torah may end up being more incredible than it already is >>

I Am working on a translation of a poem that was written about this torah book in The Yizkor book for Kurenets;
It is the very first draft and I have a long ways to go.....
Bakatz
By Ahoron Meirovich And I didn't know his deeds of kind
Nor the nobleness of his soul
Of my ravished home the remnants wailed
Of the testament they had to recall There was a goy, a solitary dweller of my homestead
Yesteryear no one was his confidant
No one conceived that this son of a stock we dread
To a righteous mankind belonged Until something started brewing in the center of the earth
Days of horror, boulder of genesis
These chronicles they called out in their hurt
My brothers, the sons of my hometown, the vestiges
And on their faces ruins imprinted
A raven shadow, while they told what they had to say
And only when Bakatz tribute they recited
Light passed through and I saw a ray And it was, they told, time when our blood was spilled,
Time when every son of evil eradicated our cherished
Only he, seeing them standing in line waiting to be killed
Supported them and cried for the perished And this man put his life in his hands
He threw his soul to the other side to consult a tormented Jew and to heal him
To be his staff and his support but the glory of the man and his special spirit was discovered later on
And they asked us to keep their testament and its candle as an eternal flame that will never be extinguished It happened that great tidings spread that the enemy (that wanted our destruction) came to the day of judgement
They told of the transfer from darkness to light the remnants of the violated Israel
Then we returned, leftovers from forests and corners, but there was no ray of light for the returned
They didn't walk in glory as heroes of battles -
Bodies as extinguished flames

Dark mood, humiliation, capture
Only dust, not a hint of salvation
Hills of extinction, rupture on top of rupture
The footprints of a community in desolation And when on the ashes of the dead community
The hobbled vestiges sat
Bakatz humbly approached the remnants
Mourning, he sat in the midst Quietly he sat, to a point of depression he was subdued
And he was like the community in her essence
Until this man expressed what he had to tell
- it was lower than the ashes I know that the depths wronged you, crimes to the deepest crippling wound
And my heart fills me with a desire to console you
However, first I have something holy of yours
Envision, you three Jews, only the elderly and those who lived through many days, since the thing is pure and very holy and holds many sorrows and blood Then we answered what we had to say to the man
Here, look at us the remnants - there is no more difference between us
the young and old after leaving the core of torment
Look at us. We returned from misery and from the forest as one destroyed
In these remnants a child and a teenager are very old, they are sons of gray
When you add the souls of the remnants
they were endowed with age when they pass through the trail of fire
And each child is holy and pure like an old man
So choose the ones you would ask for Three he then took in union
From the leftovers of the remnants as his heart wished
And they walked silently with him and joined him
With Bakatz, the three to his abode Confounded as to what he was going to do
They sat in his home, the three
And they watched as he took a cloth and covered the picture of the holy mother
And they watched as he went to one of his barrels and took from the well
In this water he washed his hands and they looked on without understanding



What is this unexplained work
What hint will this ceremony endow
And why is he taking a white tablecloth
And covering the table with it And two candles' fire he lit
And placed on his table across from them
And he kneeled on the floor and uncovered a trapdoor
Into the basement he descended on a ladder
While they sat wondering in silence
As to what was occurring
Then they saw that the trapdoor to the basement again was lifted
And palpitating were their hearts They saw the man, but not alone
He ascended from the darkened basement
A Torah book in his hand he held
And their eye filled with tears And then on the tablecloth splendor
He laid it down slowly
Their soul understood the grandeur
Bakatz with a shaky voice: Maybe it would be considered a sin for me
On this holy book to put my hands
But my witnesses above
In purity and fear I guarded your book with me
I knew that one of you would return
And I guarded it for you
For when your hearts will ask to heal
And there would be no one to answer to you
I knew that very anguished you would rejoin…
But Bakatz his assertion didn't resume
As tears and convulsions overcame him
And his voice in his tears was consume - - -
On the Torah book that was left as a shrine
The three lamented inconsolably throbbing
And Bakatz from a corner, joined in their pine
The righteous giant was sobbing My brothers, all of this they told with a tear
They told and requested while weeping
That the memory of this venerable dear
Would be printed on the table of our heart for keeping.
Eilat
.
- Saturday, July 05, 2003 at 20:47:57 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: YUSSR
Hello,
I was glad to hear from you, and would like to contribute some information about the tora: I was born in Kurenetz in 1948, and the story of the Jewish life in Kurenetz after the WW2, by me, you can find in www.eilatgordinlevitan.com, in the Kurinetz section. Since childhood I remember that there was a tora in the house, on the closet, which was half burned, and was hidden in a box from a "Singer" sewing machine. My father told that when he returned from evecuation after the war, an old citizen of Kurinetz named Bakatch came to him and told him: "Orchik, come I'll show you something", and when father came to his place he was given a half burned tora, which he rescued from the burned synagoge of Kurinetz. There were 3 synagoges in one street in Kurinetz. And so it it was kept this was untill 1974, while my father lived. In 1974 me and mother Zelda moved to Tallinn, Estonia where my older brother lived. In 1991, when we were about to move to Israel, I was studing Hebrew in the Talins' Jewish school and meet 3 Jewish guys from the US there. I invited them home to see how Jews live, and gave them the tora since it was hard to be to smuggle it out of the country. One of those guys, Reuben Taragin left me his phone number in the US. In 2002 I've called him, and he told me he gave the tora to a museum, and it made me very happy to know it found it's propper place. I've also informed that to mr. Shimon Zimerman, the chairman of the Kurenetz desendants community in Israel. Hope that helps,
don't hessitate to address me with any futher questions,
best regards
Shlomo Alperovich
----- Original Message -----
From: YUSSR
To: sashaal@t2.technion.ac.il
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 10:55 PM
Subject: your torah from Kurinetz

Dear Shlomo -
I am writing to you today with an interesting story. Our organization, YUSSR works with Jewish children in Belarus. About 13 years ago, ELi Krimsky was given a torah to smuggle out of Belarus. The person was making aliyah and had a sefer Torah, and your name. Eli Krimsky brought it back to the US.
We have the torah in our office and would like to get the history of the torah. We would eventually like to give the Torah to a musuem - with permission, of course. Here is the story which Eli wrote to me - please let me know if this is your family. One of my adult Hebrew students invited me to her home to show me a 'Torah.' I think both Josh and I went and just assumed we'd have some tea and look at her little simchas torah paper torah. She then pulled this out and we almost dropped. I distinctly remember seeing it open to the parsha at the end of Balak and the beginning of Pinchas - where it discusses the zeal of Pinchas. I shook when I realized that. the idea of revenge - here's a Torah that survived the Holocaust open and stuck on that specific parsha. I immediately started writing down information about the Torah and knew that I needed to get it out of the USSR, although it was made clear to me that any artifact smuggled out from before WWII was illegal.
Anyway, here's what we found out. The village of Kurinetz was an all Jewish village in White Russia near the city of Minsk. Between 1941 and 1942 the nazis occupied Kurinetz, gathered the villagers into the synagouge, and torched it with the sifrei Torah and villagers inside r'l. A non-Jew named Konstantine Bakatz, who lived in the nearby town of Melnicki, saved the Torah and hid it in his his basement all the years of the war. He gave it to the father of Shlomo Alperovich (and other Jews who returned to Kurenets after the war)who kept it hidden in his basement. Shlomo was born after WWII and his father died many years later.
Shlomo Alperovich, his mother, and two children (Shmuel and sister) emigrated to Israel on March 25, 1991. Shlomo knew that he would be thoroughly searched upon his departure from the USSR but he wanted the Torah removed, but knew it was illegal to remove it. He relayed the story to me, and gave me the Torah with the hope that I, an American citizen, would be able to remove the Torah from the country. On March 28, 1991 I packed the torah in my duffle bag and with the help of God, had it removed from the country. Best regards and I look forward to hearing from you.
-Ruth Rotenberg
.
- Saturday, July 05, 2003 at 20:39:35 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Story of Dina nee Spektor Dreilich I was born in Kurenets in the Vileyka-Vilna area. At the time I was born it was part of Poland. Kurenetes was a small town and most residents were pretty poor. The majority were Jews that supported themselves with stores. There were a few that worked in offices, in education, and social services. The town was surrounded by villages where most of the population was of Belarussian origin. The high officers and the authorities at the time when I was growing up were Polish people who were sent from the western part of Poland to run the place.
The Jews spoke amongst themselves Yiddish and seldom Polish. The youth studied Hebrew and very much wanted to live the Hebrew culture. The youth movements were very developed and there was a strong attachment to the Land of Israel. Most of the children studied in the Hebrew school, Tarbut, and were deeply ingrained in the language and the Zionist ideology. Since the town was small, almost everyone knew the entire population. A few words about the Cheres family who I’m writing about: I knew the parents very well as well as the three daughters and Yehudah, the youngest and only soon. The father, Shalom Cheres, who came from Dolhinov, was a simple Jew, very honest and hard-working, and very dedicated to his family. He was a glazier, and would use a horse and buggy to come to the different villages to fix the windows and also to sell certain glass products. The family, like most families in town, lived a modest life, but despite that, they always seemed to be very happy. The older girls, Dvoshka (Dorothy) and Itka, studied in the school Tarbut. My father (Nathan Spektor, Z”L) was a teacher of Torah in the school, as well as my older sister Esther Spektor, who later on joined the staff at the Tarbut school. Hundreds of children of the town were educated by here, but tragically, most of them perished in the Holocaust, and she was amongst them.
The sleepy, relaxed sort of life continued until the year 1939, when the war started, and even then, after the Russians came, things didn’t change much. But then, when the Germans attacked Russia, our world was turned upside down. Shortly after they entered the town, they announced new rules against Jews, and from then on, they started systematically killing the population, and many of the local, non-Jews became their collaborators. The main actzia (killing) took place in 9/9/1942, three days before Rosh Hashanah. On that day, about one thousand forty people were killed, which was most of the population of Jewish Kurenets. More than a hundred people succeeded in escaping and hiding in basements, attics, and some of them were later caught by local farmers who brought them to the Nazis, who killed them. Others escaped. Amongst them was the Cheres family, who survived greatly because of the familiarity of Shalom Cheres with the environs of the forest. They survived there for almost two years of deprivation, living in a state of starvation and through two very cold winters, hiding outdoors until the area was freed in the summer of 1944.
I, Deena, was amongst the few who survived. I was in the camp in Vileyka with my sister Sarah, my brother Koppel, and my brother Eliyau. Both of my brothers were strong like lions, and since we were all in very good condition and able to work any kind of job, the Germans used us for hard labor. From the ghetto, we escaped with a few other Jews, although my brother, Koppel, was amongst the leaders of the escape, and everything was prepared for an orderly escape, things didn’t turn out so, and we had to escape all of a sudden. The Nazis and the locals who helped them ran after us, using dogs, and they shot at as, killing many, including my brother and sister. I was wounded but survived as the only remnant of my entire family, the last of the Spektor family that does not exist anymore. With the little bit of might left in me, I was able to run to the forest with other survivors and together we survived the hard years in the forest until the war ended. After the war, many of us were able to go to Israel, and to build a new life there, and rehabilitate ourselves. I kept in touch with every survivor, amongst them the Cheres family. Since Shalom’s wife was caught in the forest and killed, the father Shalom, with his four children, went to Germany after the war and met another woman who he married and had a daughter with.
After I married, Shalom would visit our family often in Herzelea. He would often talk about his son, Yehudah, who later immigrated to Israel. He particularly loved his daughter-in-law Wanda. In Israel we are still in great contact with all the Kurenets natives and survivors. Here in Herzlea where I live, I have a good friend, Chaiat Tzirolnik Sheingood. She’s also a Kurenets native and a survivor who is left as the only remnant of her family. She’s also in touch with the Cheres family. We all greatly appreciate Yehudah Cheres for all his activities for the sake of our own Kurenets, and now his involvement, great involvement in the issue of making a street named after Kurenets in Israel.

Subj: pedro alperowicz
Date: 6/30/03 6:59:05 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: salonelcano@arnet.com.ar
To: eilatGordn@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Dear Eilat:
Today, José Alperovich is the new governator of the Tucuman´s province.
José is the son of León Alperovich.
regards.
Pedro Alperowicz
José Alperovich' family originated in Vileyka.
click for picture and old infotmation
- Monday, June 30, 2003 at 09:57:41 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jason Alpert writes; My mother Dorothy (OBM) had a best friend. Her name was Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson. Ada and her husband John retired to Phoenix Arizona.
I believe that Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik was a close relative of Ada or John.
Dear all;
I received a family tree from Jewel Fishkin that tells the connection;
Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson was married John (born 1909 died 1992) the brother of Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik (she was the youngest child of the family). Here is the Abromson family tree in a short version;
Chana nee Edelman [daughter of John Adelman and Anne nee Skloot was born on May 18, 1874 in Russia. She died on February 2, 1960 in Auborn, Main she was married to; Luis Abromson died on December 25, 1947. Children;
1.Hyman Abramson was born in Krasne in 1894 and died in Lewiston, Maine in 1972
Spouse; Lena nee Cohen.Daughter Charlotte married Ernest Bart (Susan, Nancy, Laurnce)
2.Celia abromson was born April 5, 1900 and died in Lewiston, Maine January 25, 1996. Spouse; Morris Supovitz.Children; Paul and Beverly Supovitz+ Paul Hurvitz (son James Hurvitz)
3. Fannie Abrmson born May 10, 1902 and died ? Spouse;Israel Abraham Miller
Married in Old Orchard Beach, Maine 9-19- 1926. Children; Stanley John Miller (Scott, David, William) Maynard Miller (Diana and Anita). Judith + Henry Jordan.Joseph Milton Miller (Matthew). Michelle Lynn+ Ryan Damare
4. Esther Abromson born 11- 21- 1903 in Auborn, Maine.Died 11- 27- 1995 in Chicago. Married Max Gordon in Portland, Maine ( children; Howard died as a baby in 1944, Ruth Adele married Herbert Halperin)
5. Benjamin Abramson Spouse; Natalie Supovitz (Son Michael died in 1993, grandsons; Richard and Daniel)
6. John Abramson born 1909 died 1992 in Portland, Maine married Ada Meltzer (sons; Irving Joel Abromson and Morton Colp Abromson)
7. Mary Abromson Spouse; Sam Skolnick (sons; Louise and Steve.)
.
- Friday, June 27, 2003 at 10:27:26 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Towns (Shtetlakh) within area of former Vilner Gubernia
where Jason's family once lived
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dieveniskes (Yiddish: Di-VEN-i-shok)
Dolhinov/Dolhinow/Dolginovo (Yiddish: Dal-HI-nev)
Dokshitzy (Yiddish: DOK-shitz) [Home of Yiddish journalist Nissan Gordon (OB"M)]
Horodok/Grudek/Gorodok (Yiddish: Ha-ro-DOK)
Ilja/Ilya (Yiddish: IL-ye)
Krasne/Krasnoje-Nad-Usza [Krasnoye on the Usha River] (Yiddish: KRAS-ne)
Kurenets/Kurenitz/Kurzeniec (Yiddish KU-re-nitz)
Molodechno (Yiddish: Ma-lo-DETCH-ne)
Oshmyany (Yiddish: Osh-mi-YE-ne)
Radoshkovichi (Yiddish: Ra-desh-KO-vitz) [At the former "Russian-Polish" border]
Rakov (Yiddish: RA-kev)
Smorgon (Yiddish: Smar-GON) [Birthplace of famed Cantors Koussevitzky (OB"M)]
Vileyka/Vileika/Vilejka/Wilejka (Yiddish: ViLEYke)
Vishnevo (Yiddish: VISH-ne-ve)
Volozhin (Yidish: Va-LO-zhin) [Home the the famed Volozhiner yeshiva]
Below are some scattered notes from my files and my memory on the Scolnik and Manpel Families (who are among the descendants of Eliyohu Zaludik)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kalman and Mary Scolnik (both deceased)
210 Ash Street
Lewiston, Maine 04240
Tel. 207-782-5794 Kalman and Mary were married 9/23/1910.
They are the parents of Samuel, Bill, and Eddy Scolnik.
Mary's yortsait is 24 Nissan. I (Jason I Alpert) knew Kalman and Mary well. (I was born in Lewiston, Maine, March 8, 1940.) My mother worshipped her Aunt Mary, and repeatedly took me to visit her. Many years ago, I spent a few hours with Kalman Scolnik at 210 Ash Street. I picked his brain in compiling our family tree. Unfortunately, Kalman has passed on, and the piece of paper containing that family-tree has been lost. Some things survive in my memory, to wit: Kalman said that our ultimate ancestor was named Eliyahu Der Vilner (meaning Eliyahu from the City of Vilna). This is undoubtedly the Eliyahu Zaludik that is listed on Dave Fessler's excellent family-tree (see below). (And, no -- this is NOT the Vilner Gaon.) Kalman lived to the age of perhaps 110 or 120. In case you want to try to figure out his exact age, consider this: Kalman once told me that he (Kalman) was born in Kurenitz (Kurenets in Belorus) "the year of the big fire." Kalman also told me that he'd had a brother who'd changed his name to Alperowicz (a very popular family-name in Kurenitz), and that this brother had then moved (from Kurenitz) to Bobruisk (Belorus). Someone should try to locate any descendants of this displaced family-member ...
Kalman's wife (and first-cousin) was Mary. "Aunt Mary" was a sister of my grandfather (Eliyohu-Shlomo or "E-le-SHLEY-me") Gurewitz. My mother Dorothy Gurewitz Alpert (Eleshleyme's daughter) used to address her as " Mi-YA-she" (probably from the Russian name Mar-ya-sha)" My mother OB"M passed away Feb 1991.
Kalman and Mary's two unmarried sons, Bill and Eddy, still live at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston. Bill and Eddy probably possess a treasure-trove of information that could be used for family genealogical research. By this I mean correspondence from pre-war Europe. This is because the Scolniks have lived at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston "forever", and that address has for many years served as a rally point for separated and dispersed family members to seek each other. (According to Dave Fessler's family-tree, Bill was born in 1913, and Eddy in 1917 -- so I wouldn't procrastinate contacting them.)
For example, cousin Ida Manpel Rubin (see below) once told me the story of how she'd been reunited with her brother Elye after the Holocaust. She said that Elye had written to the Scolniks at 210 Ash Street saying that he was still alive. He'd survived the Nazis, and was living in Russia. (The only American address that he had was 210 Ash Street.) The Scolnik's contacted Ida in NYC upon receipt of this letter (more about this below). Nevertheless, Ida disliked her uncle Kalman. She called him "a miyeser shlang!". (Perhaps she was jealous of his great wealth???) Ida (Chaya-Hinda) MANPEL was born in Dalhinov (Dolginovo), which is now in Belarus. Ida emigrated to the USA, where she married Israel "Tulie" RUBIN. They lived in Brooklyn, NY.
I used to have a b/w photo of Ida Manpel and her parents and siblings, sent from Dalhinov to my grandfather Louis Sam Gurewitz in Auburn, Maine. It was sent before she emigrated to the USA. Does anyone have a copy of this priceless photo? I doubt that Ida is still alive. You could check with her son Lewis -- with whom I once played chess while the Rubin family lived on (367?) Miller Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn -- around 1954 or so. Here is his address: Rubin, Lewis MD (Urologist)
2320 Bath St # 309
Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Phone: 805-682-7661

After Ida Manpel emigrated to the USA, her brother Elye Manpel remained behind in Dalhinov (Dolginovo). Elye was there during the Holocaust. Fortunately, Elye caught the very last train that managed to leave Dalhinov before the Nazis arrived, and thus miraculously escaped the invading Nazis. MANY YEARS LATER, a letter from him was received by the Scolniks at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston. He was (is?) living in the Russian city of Orel (pronounced Aryol). I am attaching a file named Manpel.GIF. This is an image of Elye's address written in Cyrillic characters. Here is my transliteration of the Cyrillic version, and it may be WRONG.
Elye Manpel
Komsomolskaya Street 46, Apt. 3
Orël, Russia 302001 (ANSI character-set, used in Windows)
Or‰l, Russia 302001 (ASCII character-set, used in DOS)
I believe that Elye was Ida's YOUNGEST sibling. Therefore, he might still be alive. Someone should try to locate him, and any possible descendants (as well as Kalman's brother in Bobruisk, mentioned above) ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Lewis Rubin's older brother is Seymour, and the oldest is Jackie.
I found these 2 addresses for Seymour on the Internet.
I don't know if either is correct. Rubin, Seymour
2085 Rkwy Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11236
(718) 763-5419 Rubin, Seymour
4218 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11229
(718) 769-2444 I also found Jackie's address on the Internet. I KNOW that this address is correct, because I used to visit Ida there.
Rubin, Jack
2896 W 8th St
Brooklyn, NY 11224
(718) 373-2049
(718) 373-0230 Since Jackie Rubin is occupying his parents' apartment, and since he is the oldest son -- I would think that he might be in possession of old family photos and correspondence from pre-war Eastern Europe. (Similar situation to Bill and Eddy Scolnik, above)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
***** More About the Family ***** During the years 1953-1956 (when I first came to NYC from Maine to study in a yeshiva), I used to regularly visit cousin Ida Manpel-Rubin and her husband Israel (Tulie), and their three sons.
They lived in the East New York section of Brooklyn, at 367 ? Miller Avenue.
(Later, they moved to 2896 West 8th Street in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.) After visiting with Ida, I would walk over to (129?) Miller Avenue, and visit with cousin Sadie (Mrs Jake) Friedland, and her daughter Pauline. (I was just 13 or 14 years old. Ida and then Sadie would both feed me well.) I believe that Sadie had a sister (Becky Williams?) maybe in Far Rockway,NY. Besides their daughter Pauline, Sadie and Jake had a son named Al Friedland. Al married his second-cousin Estelle (nee Gurewitz), from Ithaca, New York (more below). -----------------------------------------------------------------------
My grandfather Louis Sam (Eleshleyme) Gurewitz (changed from Zaludik) had these siblings (as far as I recall): 1. Mary (Maryasha), who married her first-cousin Kalman Scolnik.
(They lived at 210 Ash Street in Lewiston, Maine, as mentioned above.)
2. David, of Lewiston, Maine. He never married.
3. Harry, of Ithaca, New York. [I recall now that Mary's husband Kalman couldn't stomach Mary's brother Dovid. Dovid would have to sneak over to 210 Ash St. for a meal when Kalman wasn't home. Maybe this is one of the reasons that cousin Ida Manpel-Rubin didn't like him. (As I mentioned above.)
I never met Harry Gurewitz. According to my records, Harry's daughter Estelle married her second-cousin Al Friedland. They had three children: Rickie, Phillip, Jay Lee, and Lisa Sue.
I don't remember if I ever met any of Estelle's children. I MAY have met Estelle and Al Friedland, possibly at Sadie's home on 129 Miller Avenue in Brooklyn. I don't remember.) I vaguely remember that family members would stay with Estelle, whenever they visited Florida. (Why pay for a hotel?)
My records show her address as: Estelle Friedland
17521 N. E. 1st Court
North Miami Beach, Florida 33162 But I couldn't find it on the Internet. I am fairly sure that her husband Al Friedland has passed away. I don't know about her. The children are probably alive.
------------------------------------------------------------------- A 3rd son of Kalman and Mary Scolnik is Sam Scolnik. Sam is married to the former Mary Abromson. He is a (retired?) lawyer.
Here is their address: Samuel and Mary Scolnik
3700 Calvert Pl
Kensington, Maryland 20895
301-949-0519
-------------------------------------------------------------------
******** Re the surname "GUREWITZ" ********
Ida Manpel once told me that the family-name Gurewitz wasn't genuine. The name was really Zheludek (Ida even wrote Zheludek for me on a paper.)
Also, As a child, I once questioned "Uncle Dovid" (as I used to fondly address him) as to why the family name had been changed from Zheludek to Gurewitz. His reply was something like: "Vos bin ich shul-dik vos der ta-te hot amol ge-ton?" -- which gave me the impression that he couldn't, or didn't want to, explain why his father Yosef (after whom I'm named), had changed the name. Well, this is confirmed by Dave Fessler's family-tree. Only there, the name is spelled Zaludik -- which is probably more correct.
There is a Yizkor-book commemorating a TOWN named ZHELUDOK. See
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/zaludok/zheludok.html
Many years ago I skimmed through this book. In it I found some cousins of
mine (from a different side of the family, not related to the Scolniks and Zaludiks) named ALPEROWICZ (ALPEROVITCH) and SZYFMANOWICZ (SHIFMANOVITCH). (Lyuba SZYFMANOWICZ died in the Holocaust according to page 314 in this book.)
It doesn't make sense for a family-name (surname) to be identical to a town name. Someone from Vilna might be named Vilner (not Vilna). Someone from ZHELUDOK might be named ZHELUDKER. That's why I think that Zaludik is correct. An alternate spelling might be Zaludok or Zaludek.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
According to Lester Solnin (changed from Sosensky) and Marian Anderson, Dave Fessler of Houston, Texas, has a large amount of information. They sent me a paper copy of Dave's family-tree, which is entitled "Descendants of Eliyohu Zaludik. It is a masterpiece ...
They also sent me a digitized image (Paperport .MAX file) of a 1-page Report, which is information extracted from Dave's family-tree (database).
Dave's email address is dfessler@houston.rr.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of "Sosensky", I vaguely recall seeing a photo of an old bearded man. I think he was a cousin named Sosensky. And I very vaguely recall being told that he was referred to as "Der Feter" ("The Uncle"). ====================================
I know nothing about the following person:
P Scolnik
Lewiston, Maine
207-784-5573 -------------------------------------------------------------------
I know nothing about the following person (Helen Manpel).
Perhaps she is Ida's sister-in-law or niece?
Manpel, Helen
1071 Eglinton West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tel. 416-782-6465
------------------------------------
Same is true for the following couple: Manpel, Jack & Frida
569 Sheppard Avenue, West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tel. 416-636-9640 ------------------------------------
This is Ida's brother (a wealthy merchant?). Manpel, Louis
989 Eglinton Avenue, Apt. #223
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M6C2C6
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
On 10/13/1985 I (Jason I Alpert) attended a meeting of the KURENITZER FAREYN (Kurenitz Landsmanschaft or "Society"), held in New York City. There I unexpected ly met a man named Julius Scolnik, of the Bronx, NY. (This is NOT the Julius Scolnik of Lewiston, Maine.)
Julius said that he is a cousin of Kalman Scolnik of Lewiston, Maine. Julius was born circa 1897. At that time, Julius's telephone was 933-1062 (now area-code 718).
On 5/15/1986 I spoke with Julius by phone. He said that a meeting of the KURENITZER FAREYN had just been held on Sunday, 5/4/1986.
============= RESOURCES ============= *** Jewish Home for the Aged in in Portland, Maine ("Cedars Campus") *** My mother Dorothy (OBM) had a best friend. Her name was Ada (nee Meltzer) Abromson. Ada and her husband John retired to Phoenix Arizona.
I believe that Mary (Mrs Samuel) Skolnik was a close relative of Ada or John.
An Internet search that I just made for "Abromson AZ US" yielded no matches.
But a search for Ada and John's son Joel yielded the following:
I J and Linda Abromson
25 Fall Ln, Portland, ME 04103
207-797-4438 I believe that Linda is on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Home for the Aged in in Portland, Maine -- which is now called "Cedars Campus"
http://www.thecedarscampus.com/ppf.html I mention this because the records of Cedars could possibly be a great source of info for people researching Jewish families in Maine.
For example, I believe that a cousin from Auburn, Nochum Widrowitz (who was called Kop-Af-Kop) and possibly his wife Reyze ("Reize-Nochum's"), retired to this Home for the Aged.
------------------------------------
******* Zalman Alpert *******
Zalman is librarian @ Yeshiva University's Mendel Gottesman Library. Zalman has published scholarly articles on Lubavitch history -- in the English section of the ALGEMEINER Journal. Zalman's father was born in Kurenitz, and Zalman is an expert on Kurenitz. He's from New Haven, Connecticut -- a city where many Jews from Vileyka, Kurenits, and Krasne area settled. Zalman's email address is alpert@ymail.yu.edu ------------------------------------
**** Websites **** Eilat Gordin-Levitan's Kurenitzer website is
http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/kurenets.html JGFF (Jewish Genealogical Society Family Finder) website is:
http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/ Miscellaneous other genealogical websites: http://www.ajhs.org/genealog.htm
http://www.avotaynu.com
http://www.jgsny.org
http://www.JewishGen.org
http://www.jewishgen.org/ajgs
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/database.html
http://www.jewishgen.org/jgsgw/links.html
http://www.lds.org/site_main_menu/frameset-global-bas_bel.html
http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html
http://members.aol.com/rechtman/yizkorbk.htm
http://www.remember.org/children/tracing.html
http://shamash.org/holocaust
http://home.att.net/~JGSNYCem/WPAForm.htm
http://www.yivoinstitute.org/archlib/genealog.htm#resources

------------------------------------
As cousin Steve Sosensky once wrote, I "have a lot of other things to take care of, and am putting genealogy on hold..."
I will try to assist others in such research, by providing information that I have, and/or by translating from the Yiddish or Hebrew. But I cannot actively engage in the research myself ... maybe, later.
So, please -- don't send me info -- just questions.
Also, I am quite knowledable in Yiddish. I've spent vast amounts of time reading old Yiddish correspondence. If you have such correspondence, please mail same to me. ------------------------------------
For more info, please telephone me on 212-414-8738, or email me.
-- Jason I Alpert (Yos'l ) ~~~~~~~~ END of Scolnik.txt FILE ~~~~~~~~



.
- Friday, June 27, 2003 at 07:47:38 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ronald S. Deutsch"
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 20:26:02 -0400
To:
Eilat Gordin wrote me that you were in contact with Randy Daitch who
specializes in genealogy from the Vilna Gubernia area. Our family
originates from Dolhinov which is in that region. Wondering, if you
could put me in touch with him to see if him and I are related.
Thanks!
Ron Deutsch
Crownsville, MD 21032 ====================================================
To which I reply:
---------------------- I've been out of touch with Randy for many years.
If you find him, please apprise me of his whereabouts.
My records re Randy are below.
(I doubt if his Venice CA address below is still valid.)
------------------------------------------------------ Randy Daitch
206 Fifth Avenue
Venice, California 90291
213-399-7092 Randy's surname is pronounced as per its original Polish spelling
"Dejcz" ("ej" like "ey" in "they"). In other words, "Daitch" with the
"ai" as in wait. Randy is mentioned on page 18 of Avotaynu magazine, July 1985 issue. The
publisher of Avotayne magazine is Gary Mokotoff (see below).
Randy stayed at my former apartment, 100 Forsyth Street, NYC from
8-6-1985 thru 8-20-85. Randy and Gary co-authored the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex. See websites:
www.avotaynu.com and www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/database.html Or contact
Gary Mokotoff Randy's family was from Sharkovshchizna (Sharkovshchina or Sarkauscyna),
Belorus. Check out this link:
http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/Shtetls/ssharkovshchina.htm -- Jason I Alpert (Yosl), 212-414-8738



click for sharkovshchina
- Friday, June 27, 2003 at 03:43:48 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<viagra>
viagra, MI USA - Friday, June 27, 2003 at 03:13:07 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Eilat, Just wanted to bring you up on my quest since you last sent the email
connecting my line to Danny Taitch. We have been emailing back and
forth for several months, and actually got a chance to speak with each
other early this week. Danny's voice sounds remarkably like my late
father's! I had sent Danny a photo I had found in my grandmother's things that
had written on the back of it, "Mel's brother's family". I guessed it
was Danny's grandfather, because I knew the other brother's had had
much smaller families. Sure 'nuf, Danny could identify all the people,
and was quite impressed as he had never seen a picture of his
grandparents that young. I have also found four more first cousins of my father's- three
children of Morris Daitch and a daughter of Rose Deutsch! It's quite
exciting to find a branch that I thought would be next to impossible to
trace (because I didn't know of any living descendants) has connected
me to these wonderful cousins from all across the US!
And then there's Ron Deutsch, who brought you and I together, and who
strongly feels that his branch is connected, too.
Thanks, Eilat! By the way, I will be at the DC conference. Will you? I'd love to
meet you and thank you personally. Warm Regards,
Marla Deutsch .
.
- Friday, June 27, 2003 at 02:48:35 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received an email;
I am trying to track down a member of the Alperovitch family that moved from Kurinetz to Israel on March 25, 1991.
The names of the people are: Shlomo Alperovitch, his mother (no name available), 2 children (Shmuel and a sister).
It seems that they were hiding a Torah scroll [during the Communists days e l ] and realized they would not be able to get it out of the country, so they gave it to one our organizations volunteers. He smuggles it out. This Torah has been sitting in our offices for quite some time (it has been protected with a special container and stuffing) and I finally tracked down the story.

If you could help me find these people, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Ruth Rotenberg Executive Director
YUSSR
2525 Amsterdam Ave., Suite 103
New York, NY 10033
USA
Tel: 212-923-7650 Dear Ruth,
Thank you so much for writing me.Is this your guy http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kurenets/k_pix/scenes_new/11201_18_b.gif ?
Memories of Solomon (Shlomo) son of Orchik Alperovich - Jewish life in Kurenetz after the Holocaust:I was born in "shtetle" Kurenetz — (Belorus) in 1948, and I wish to share my own memories and stories that I heard and remember from the Jewish natives about the Jewish life in Kurenetz and it's surroundings.After the liberation of Belarus including Kurenetz, in 1944, the Jewish people started returning to the area. Kurenetz was almost completely destroyed and burned by the retreating German Army. Only a few houses were left standing. most of the surviving Jews migrated to Palestine and the United States in the next few years.My father, Alperovich Aaron Abramovich (Orchik son of Abram, grandson of Chaim- Isar born in kurenets 1896- died in Kurenets 1974) returned home, to Kurenetz, from Saransk (Mordva) were he was sent in 1939 (when the Soviets came to the area) by the decision of Stalin’s Court for 5 years of hard labor. When he returned he found no home nor family. His wife Mirel and 3 of his children (Chaim Isar, another son and a daughter) were murdered. From the local residents and the Jews who returned from the forest, he found out that his older son Yakov (Yankel) joined the partisans during the war and that he was recruited to "Belpolk" — a Red Army unit that was supposed to search and clean the Belarus forests from Nazis soldiers and local collaborators (politzais) that were now replacing the Jews and hiding there. Father finally found Yakov near Minsk. he was very skinny and very tired. He learned from him that his daughter Lisa and his son Samuil also survived and that during the war they also joined the partisan’s ranks. Yankel Orchik story is well known and told in many books. In Simchat Torah of 1941 his family was taken to be killed . his mother was able to escape with the younger kids while they walked to the forest. Yankel and his brother Chaim Isar where taken with the other Jewish men. the men were put in groups of ten and killed while many of the local population was looking. Just before it was Yankle turn to be killed he say that Yente nee dinerstein Rodanski was let go by the Germans and was told to never marry a communist again (They just killed her husband Velvel Rodansky.Yankel realized that not all are equal and demanded to speak before he is killed. The German officer let him talk. Yankle said in broken German "Before I am to be killed I would like to know if my sin is being a Jew or being a communist?" the officer answered "clearly for being a communist" Yankle said while turning to the local people " they could all tell you that my father Orchik was sent to Siberia for being an enemy to the soviet people, why would I then become a communist?" The officer liked what he said and maybe it was the broken German that made him laugh- he told him to stand to the side. Yankle said that his sick brother should be let go first and they let Chaim Isar go.Yankel did not trast the Germans and together with the sons of Pinia Alperovitz he escaped to the woods. They were killed. Yankel survived and later Joined the partisan and saved many many Jews from Kurenets and Myadel and also his brother Shmuil. In 1944 my mother, Botwinnik Evgeniya Samuilovna (Zelda daughter of Shmuil Botwinnik born in 1920 in rakov) came to Kurenetz. After her release from partisans she looked for her relatives. She found out that all her family was killed in Rakov. She moved to Kurenetz following some of her Jewish friends from the partisans. And that is how to lonely people met each other and established a family.At first they lived in the house of Aaron’s brother Hirsh who was killed with his entire family (wife and two children). Here in August of 1946 their first son Abram was born. At that time Arye Leibe (Lior's grandfather), the brother of Aaron returned from evacuation to Russia, also their two sisters Hava and Feiga returned after being partisans during the war. They all married and started their own families. My father moved to a new house of his own, that he build with his own hands, he left the old house for his brother Leibe And sister Hava. In July of 1948 in the new house, a new citizen of Kurenetz was born — that was I. About my birth I will tell you the following story:My mother felt that she is about to give birth so my father took her to the Vileyka’s hospital what was 8 k.m. Away, riding on a horse. However it was too early, and after one day in the hospital she asked to be taken home because she had a lot of work to do there. And so my father brought her back. A few days later he had to set the horse again to take mother to the hospital. This time she was left there for several days, while my father had to return home to take care of the housekeeping chores. A Few days passed and then a fellow Kurinitz resident by the name of Nikolay met my father and told him:" Vorchik, I’ve visited my wife in the hospital and saw your Zelda. You have a boy". Father took a horse and went to meet us. Mother asked to go home right away so father took of his jacket, put me inside and brought me home. That is how my life in Kurenetz begun.At that time almost every Jewish family in Kurenetz had a new born. In Kurenetz after the war remained about 15 Jewish families. On Saturdays and at Jewish holidays Jewish people were gathering at the old Leizer Shulman house. There they had their prayers and after the religious ceremony they were drinking "lehaim". We, kids, played outside the house, and never forgot that Leizer had an apple orchard. We, all the Jewish kids, were raised together among the other gentile kids — together we went to the river and to the forest. Sometimes we had our fights. During winter we would build snow forts and have snowball battles. Starting at the age of 7, every kid in kurenets would attend school,there we met with new duties and challenges and made new friends. In 1955-6 many of the Jews Kurenetsers started moving to Poland in order to continue their way to Israel. Since Kurenets was part of Poland before 1939 the Soviets let the old Polish citizens cross the border to Poland. The first family to take that step was my father’s sister Hava and her husband Boris, with their 5 children. The oldest child was 7 years old and the youngest — Sholom, less than a year. I still remember his Brit Milah ceremony — all Jews of Kurenetz gathered together in the small room and then came the rabbi. All Jews raised the money to pay for his services. That how the last Jewish child was born In Kurenetz, and that happened in 1955.Many families followed that path, moving directly to Poland or to the larger cities in order to fix the needed papers and then move to Poland. So in 1958 only two Jewish families were left in Kurenetz: Levin’s and ours. But the Jewish life didn’t stand still. At every holiday the older children of my father would visit us with their children. Also we kept in touch with the Jews in the nearby villages: Dolginovo (4 families), Lyuban’ (7 families) and Vileyka (about 15 families). The spiritual leader of the remaining Jews was Mironovich (Finkelshteyn — Tewel) the head of Lyuban sovhoz.In 1958 a new school director arrived to Kurenets — Catznelson. He lived in Kurenetz till 1963. The head doctor of the Kurenetz regional hospital was Dr. Nasis. He lived in Kurenetz from 1960 till 1966. They both had children younger then school age.At the Kurenetz public school between the years 1958 — 1966 only two Jewish kids studied: me, and my older brother, Abram. Despite this we never felt excluded and participated in all kinds of social activities along with the other students we went dancing and training. Abram even won regional championship in throwing the discus. We participated in all night parties in the nearby villages and hanged around with boys and girls of our age, but what we were missing was the Jewish friends.Abraham finished school in 1964 and went to Brest to study pedagogy. I finished school two years later in 1966 and went to Minsk to study engineering, but it didn’t mean that we left Kurenetz. Every holiday we returned to visit our parents. After finishing my studies in 1971 I returned to Vileisky region to work. I was the head engineer of kolhoz, and later a regional agriculture machinery engineer.At that time my brother Abraham was already math teacher in Vileiky’s school. Almost all Jewish kids of the Vileiky region got high education.Soon Abraham got married and moved to Tallinn (Estonia).In 1974 my father passed away. It happened in January, and it was very cold outside, but still many Jewish and also local (goy) populations came to give him their final respects. Among the locals he was a well-known authority. Every one who had to sell or to buy a cow went to Aharon ("Vorchik") to ask for help in advice or even in shortage of money. I still remember how some of our Russian neighbors cried at the funeral and kissed his legs.My mother and I, in 1975, sold our house and left Kurenetz and moved to Tallinn. I would still come to Kurenetz for visits; one time, it was in 1981, I went there after getting married, just after the wedding ceremony, together with my wife we flew to visit my father’s grave. At that time I learned from the local non-Jewish citizens who still remain there that they are all called "Vorchiks" by the near by villagers- that’s how deep and lasting was they memory of the last Jewish family that lived in Kurenetz.After us, there was only one Jewish family left in Kurenetz — Levin Issak and Jeniya. Issak passed away in 1990 at the age of 90, and his wife moved to Svetlogorsk to live with her sister. Before leaving The USSR and moving to Israel, in 1989 my brother Abram and I visited Kurenetz and our oldest brother Jacob (Yankel) who lived in Molodechno and worked not far from Kurenetz — in sovhoz Liuban with Mironovich. He organized a placement of a memorial at graves of those who died in the Holocaust.At this visit in Kurenetz we met our old neighbor Felsher Shuberty (born in 1918). While talking to him we found out that he was a Jew, something that we didn’t know before. We lived nearby since 1956 until 1975, went to school together with his children and didn’t know of him being a Jew. So since 1990, he is the last Jewish settler in Kurenetz, he is the one who welcomes the visitors who arrive to Kurenetz and he is the one taking care of the Jewish graveyard.My brother Abram and I live happily with our families in Israel for already 10 years. Our brother Yacob also immigrated to Israel but he passed away in 1996. My other brother Samuil is still living in Belarus. April, 2001Alperovich Shlomo Afula, Israel -

The Story of Arie Shevach of Krasne I, Arie Leibke Szewach, was born in Krasne in 11-22-1925 to Miryam Mriyasha nee Sklut and Binyamin Nyomzik Szewach
My mother; Miryam was born in 1895 to Shimon and Reyze Rachel Sklut. The Sklut family had many relatives in Volozhin and Vishnevo. Shimon and Reyze Rachel lived in Krasne. Shimon was a blacksmith who had a great talent for making gadgets and I as all his grandchildren enjoyed the great toys he made for us. Other then my mother Miryam they had;
1. A son; Yakov Sklut who was born in 1900. Yakov was a blacksmith like his father. His wife was Sarah- Rivka. They had three children; Chaika was born in Krasne in 1924, Asher in 1925 and Motel in 1927. The family perished in Krasne
2. A son Moshe Itza. He had seven children. He died in his sleep and six months later his wife passed away. At that point of time there were no organized institutions to take care of Jewish orphans. To be an orphan most time was a “verdict” of desuetude. My grandfather; Shimon told his children to divide the seven children amongst the three of them and raise them as their own.
3. A daughter; Sarah who married Baruch Kaganovitz from Krasne they had a son; Motl who was born c 1930 and a daughter who was much younger. The family perished in Krasne. 4. Two daughters who came to the U.S many years before; Esther (Cohen) and Gite (see note)
My mother; Miryam first married Shmuel Kelman. When my mother was still pregnant with her first child during the hard days of World War I rubbers came to the house at late night hour and murdered Shmuel Kelman and robbed the home. Shortly after my mother had her daughter , Dvora born in 1915. My father Binyamin Shevach was born in Pieski to Arie Leib and Alte Shevach in 1900. Later the family moved to Vilna.
Arie Leib and Alte Shevach had five children. Other then my father; Binyamin they had… Hanach Chanoch Shevach was in the business of selling alcohol, which at that time was something Jews were not allowed to do. When the authorities found out about his business and were about to arrest him, he was able to escape and immigrate to South Africa. His wife; Chana Gitel with the three daughters and the son joined him in South Africa shortly after.
3.Yosef Shevach lived in Vilna and was married before 1939. (perished in Vilna)
4.Shalom Shevach lived in Vilna and was a pharmacist and owned with partner a large pharmaceutical enterprise in Vilna . He was single (perished in Vilna with his mother)
5. Sarah nee Shevach Las was married in the town of Shtzotzin . She had a son; Arie Leib. They all perished in Shhtzozin.
My grandfather; Arie Leib died c 1920 and my grandmother Elte lived in Vilna with her son, Shalom. During the war Binyamin was taken to serve in the army. After a year of service his brother Chanoch helped him escape. Binyamin must have needed to move to a different town. Somehow he ended in Krasne and he married Miryam. In 1930 Binyamin and Miryam Shevach had another son?
Dvora was a devout Zionist. She was a member of “HaChalutz” in Krasne and in the 1930s went to “HaChshara” Preparation for becoming a Chalutz (pioneer) in Eretz Israel.
Young Jewish men and women would live together in communities in Eastern Europe and earn money by doing difficult manual labor in preparation for doing agricultural work in a Kibbutz in Israel. Dvora spent about eighteen months in the Hachshara and when she ended her training she went back to Krasne to await her certificate from the British to be able to immigrate to Israel, that was at the time under their control. The British gave very limited amounts of certificates, and after a long wait in which she did not receive a certificate, Dvora plotted a different course of action. A young Jewish man who was born in Petach Tikva arrived in Poland with the soccer team of Maccabe. He was a citizen of Palestine (Eretz Israel). Immediately there was a wedding so he could take her as his wife back home. But when the British consul in Warsaw received the application he said to the man, “You were born in Palestine. You arrived here a week ago and in such a short time you passed to the other side of Poland, fell in love and married. Now you return to me, but I cannot believe this story.” So the consul continued, saying, “Young man, go to Palestine, and from there use the usual procedures to bring your wife to you if she is really your wife.” And that was it. The young man went back with the sterling that he was paid already before coming to Poland and forgot all about the deal with Dvora. Years later, when Dvora arrived in Eretz Israel, she had to argue with him to annul the marriage.
So Dvora waited for another chance, and she then joined “Bitar”. “Bitar” was the most popular Zionist movement in Krasne in the 1930s. Unlike HaChalutz and Hashomer Hatzair, which had a Socialist Zionist core, Bitar had no Socialist ideology and had a more “militaristic” dogma. Eventually Dvora as other members of “Bitar” used Aliah B which was illegal Aliah.
The young Jewish people resorted to all sorts of plots (another word?) to get to Eretz Israel. A revisionist businessman by the name of Stavasky succeeded in organizing illegal immigration into Eretz Israel, and Dvora took such a ship in 1937. Near the shore of Greece, the ship sank but she was able to get on another ship and after many weeks of travel she arrived in Eretz Israel as an illegal immigrant.
Meanwhile, Arie studied in the Tarbut school in Krasne. All the subjects were taught purely in Hebrew except for the Polish language classes which was a compulsory subject, though even that was taught at a high level. The cousin, Motl Sklut, returned to the town as a certified teacher who had gotten his papers from the teachers’ seminary in Vilna. But now he was unemployed, so his relative Arie and the twins of Abba Kaplan, Dvora and Shlomo, who were still very young at that point, not yet school aged, became his students. The fathers made an agreement with him to pay. The result was that the three children skipped two grades when the appropriate time came for them to enter the Tarbut school. But when Abba Kaplan was no longer able to afford lessons for his children at the Tarbut school, they were sent to the Polish public school where their education was free. For Arie this skipping two years created many social problems since he was two years younger than all his friends, but the reward came when the war started and he was already two years ahead of his peers. That affected his advancement later on.
Dvora decided to join “Bitar”. “Bitar” was the most popular Zionist movement in Krasne in the 1930s. Unlike HaChalutz and Hashomer Hatzair, which had a Socialist Zionist core, Bitar had no Socialist ideology and had a more “militaristic” dogma. Eventually Dvora as other members of “Bitar” used Aliah B which was illegal Aliah. They embarked on a Greek ship that was after some days at sea to bring them at night to the shore of Israel and there they would enter in the dark the water on small boats and when they get to the shore Israelis with meet them and secretly snick them to the country. The original boat they went on was sunk by the British but the second was able to make it.
Arie spend six years in the Krasne “Tarbut” School. Most of the Tarbut schools flourished in shtetls in the Vileyka area in the late 1920 as Zionism and the Zionist Youth movements spread their roots. They replaced the old fashion Cheders that in their core were religious studies.
The students in the Tarbut School were typically tutored in Hebrew and the studies were secular in nature and with emphasis on the love for Zion. All subjects were instructed in Hebrew by a Moreh with credentials and not by a rabbi. The Hebrew language left the holy books to become a “living” language.
Every vacation Arie would visit his Shevach family in Vilna. He would go there accompanied by a family member about three times a year.
To go from Krasne to Vilna in the 1930s you would take a train. There was a train station in Krasne that was about 150 kilometers from Vilna. The trip took six hours. When Arie was about eleven years old his parents let him take the trip all by himself. When he arrived in the train station in Vilna he hired a horse and carriage to take him to his grandmother’s house.
When Arie graduated from the Tarbut School the family decided to send him to a Gimnasia in Vilna. In order to attend the Gimnasia he needed to attend seven school grades. Since the Tarbut school only contained six grades the only choice in Krasne was the Polish public school which he attended for one year.
Arie attended the Gimnasia in Vilna only for a short time. He was home in Krasne for the holiday in September of 1939 when the Second World War started.
The “Liberation” by the Soviets.
According to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement of September 1939, Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Krasne was a distance of 16 km from the old Soviet-Polish border, so it took only a few minutes and all the Polish cavalry that was sent to fight the Soviet tanks was destroyed. Much of the local population, including the Jews, was not happy to be liberated as the Bolsheviks had described in their accounts of the conquest of Belarus. Immediately as the Soviets arrived they started deporting people. At first they sent away all the former Communist party officers who were active during the Polish times. Together with them they sent the Polish settlers with all the politicians and the Polish municipal authorities that they could find. The Polish settlers, or as they were known in the area, Osdoniki (Asdoniks, also), consisted of veterans who served in the army of Pilsudski and others, and were later brought by the Polish government so that they could populate the area with Polish people when it was conquered in the year 1921. The prior population didn’t consist of any Polish people, only Belarussians. Now almost everyone was classified as a non-trustworthy element. It seemed that at any minute, someone could classify you as an enemy of the people and someone who could not be trusted, and anyone who was a political activist, and it didn’t matter what it was he did or really believed in, had the potential to be deported. First and foremost were all the Zionist activists. Pressured by the US, England, and France, the Soviets retreated from the area of Lithuania for a short time and an independent rule was established there for a short time. So many succeeded in escaping to Lithuania. Vilna, which had been part of Poland from 1921 to 1939, was part of Lithuania again. But this lasted a short time and the whole area became part of the Soviet Empire. Despite the fact that the area was supposedly liberated from the Polish, the liberators kept the old borders between Belarus and the old Soviet Union. None of the recently liberated were able to go into the Soviet Union. This situation continued until the surprise attack by Germany. The Nazis were quickly in the outskirts of Minsk, and we fled, but the NKVD prevented us from escaping from the Nazis into the depths of the Soviet Union. Ironically, the Jews who were deported were amongst the few in the community who survived to the end of the war.
From Krasne, there were a few Jewish families that had been deported, among them the family of Avraham Flachtman. During the first World War, Avraham served in the Polish Army and received the highest decoration for bravery. Another family was the family of Nachum the Butcher. They were an older couple that had only one son, who was the head of Beitar in Krasne. At the time when the two families left, it seemed to us like a horrible tragedy, but all of them survived and later returned.
Another family that succeeded crossing the border was Noach Broadner’s family. On the first days of the war despite the fact of the closing of the border, they found a way to cross it and the entire family survived.
The Shevach family tried for three days, like other families, to cross the border. They attempted to board the train to escape the approaching Nazis, but until the moment that the Germans arrived, there were instructions from Moscow to disallow any attempt to cross the border. The family tried to cross at another area, but there they also found the NKVD. They were ordered to return, so in great despair they returned to their home.
The Ghetto
As soon as the Germans arrived, they announced the new rules with regards to the Jews. They established a local police force that used all the collaborators and immediately started robbing, confiscating property, and killing. The Jews were forced into all kinds of labor, and were treated with extreme cruelty. It seemed that the Nazis wanted to show to the local population that the blood of the Jews was worthless, and that the more you tortured a Jew, the more you would be appreciated by the Nazis. During one night, the Nazi soldiers broke down the doors to the Shevach house, as they did with all the other Jewish homes in town, and began beating everyone. They took them out of their beds, and made them run in the streets until they arrived in the place designated as the ghetto. The former homes of the Jews and all their belongings now were officially open for looting by the local population.
Living conditions in the ghetto were very difficult. A very small amount of food was given to the Jews and communication with non-Jews was disallowed. Soon they started bringing Jews from neighboring towns into the ghetto. They came from towns that were already annihilated. Every time before they annihilated a community, they chose a few Jews who could be useful and transferred them to Krasne. The place was chosen as a supply base for the Germans, where materiel was relayed to and from the front, including a large amount of weapons captured from the Soviets. Thousands of Jews worked in construction, in loading and unloading goods, and in other logistical support positions. Since the ghetto could not contain thousands of workers, the Germans established a labor camp, and they continuously brought Jews from neighboring towns after each action. As in other ghettoes and camps, there was a Jewish committee or Judenrat. At the head of the Krasne Judenrat was Shaptai Olyuk. During the First World War he had been a POW in Germany for a few years and learned to speak German fluently. He knew of their way of life and their habits, or at least he thought he did. There were more than a few members of the Judenrat, and amongst them were some who were pure and decent, and others who were power- and money-hungry. Shaptai Olyuk and the brothers of the Kaplan house, Yitzhak and Moshe, should be in my opinion classified as pure and decent, but others were not so. But still, amongst the others there were other levels of evilness and corruption. However, in general they seemed eager to fulfill the instructions of the Nazis with dedication, exactness and competence in the true spirit of the Nazi philosophy. At the end of the year 1941, a group of 30 Jewish youths was sent to cut firewood in the forest. Amongst those sent was Arie Shevach. They found flyers with a speech by Molotov that called on people to stand up with their weapons and to fight the Nazi evil. The forest was filled with such pamphlets, including a speech by Stalin. The 30 youths did not lose their sense of humor. They started laughing, thinking that the pilot threw his entire cargo in a forest when it was probably intended for a town, and later told the Soviets that he had carried out his mission. Still, what was written there greatly affected the Jews. When they returned to the ghetto they immediately started collecting weapons and organizing the young people to go to the forest. During the month that they worked in the forest, they realized that it was possible to survive there, far away from the control of the Nazis. They also found a great potential to acquire weapons from the huge warehouses in the base where they worked. The main problem they faced was how to transfer the weapons and hide them so they would not be caught by the Nazis.
They started organizing themselves into a group that contained local people who were natives to Krasne, and others who came from annihilated towns. The others were mainly young people whose families had been killed, which made it much easier for them to uproot. There was no one who would prevent them from leaving, and their objective living conditions were much more horrible than the local people since they had nothing to barter with and they did not know the local gentile population.
The place that was found as the most easy target to get weapons from was the old factory that used to make dried apples, but at that point it became a workshop for fixing weapons. It was located in the town of Krasne, and outside of the army base. The specialists there were older German soldiers and the way they treated the Jews was generally more humane, particularly since it was winter and they also suffered greatly from the cold. Someone suggested that they should ask them to let the Jews collect some wood and transfer it by horse and sleigh to the ghetto. They agreed but they still supplied soldiers to watch the operation. In spite of the soldiers the operation was successful, and with the wood the Jews were able to transfer some weapons, particularly rifles. Mostly it was semi-automatic Russian weapons that held ten bullets. The Jewish girls in the group also were able to sometimes transfer guns. Amongst the best operators was Dvora Kaplan, who studied with her brother Shlomo and Arie Shevach, with Motl Sklut. When the Judenrat found out about the weapons and the preparations for escape, they came to the parents of the youths who were involved and threatened them and started following the youths. SO one day I succeeded in transferring together with Yosef and Duba (brother and sister from Horodok) Rabinovitz, three rifles. The Judenrat, who secretly followed us, found the hiding place. They took the weapons and imprisoned the three of us. They started beating us up and threatened us as well as my parents. Many days later we found out that the Judenrat members gave our stolen weapons to their children and sent them to the forest to join the partisans. Since they were not informed about the difficulties they would encounter in the forest or how to communicate with the partisans and which areas were more dangerous, they went to a different area than the rest of the Jews that were preparing to escape, and they were robbed and killed. Once we had weapons, without which we knew we had no way of being accepted to the partisans, we started leaving the camp sporadically and trying to connect with the partisans. I left twice but returned. My parents and especially my father, were opposed to my plans to join the partisans. Friends that left with me and didn’t return joined different partisan units. There were some tragedies too; even among the Russian partisans there were some who hated the Jews.
The partisan brigade was established by Red Army soldiers who had succeeded in evading capture by the Germans. They had found jobs in the neighboring villages. Hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers fell as POWs and were put in camps where they were starved and many were murdered in a systematic something? By the Germans. At one point, the German army and the police started collecting all the soldiers who had escaped to the villages, but when the soldiers found out about it they ran deep into the forest. As the Red Army retreated, many units made sure to bury their weapons in the forest, and this was the seed for our weapons supply, since many of the soldiers in the villages were from units that had buried their weapons. At first they were very small units of armed men who basically used the weapons to physically support themselves and to rob the neighboring towns. As their numbers were enlarged they started a real army with discipline and rules. From that point, to go to the forest and have a chance to join the partisans meant that you must bring a weapon so you could join such a troop. Later on, from 1943, most of these troops were essentially a regular army.
Some information about the area;
The area of Krasne was since the 1790’s under Russian rule. Just about that time Catherine the Great traveled from Moscow to her parents’ mansion in Koenigsburg. Traveling by horse took a long time and carriage and different locations for changing horses and resting were designated for her ahead of time. The places were named for her mood when she arrived; Radoshkovichi (happinesss) and Krasne (to do with red blood). There were many other places named Krasne and this Krasne was also known as Krasne nu Uzsha (Krasne near Uzsha)
In 1915 the Germans took control of the area (invasion during World War I). During the war, the area experienced many battles between the Germans and the Russians. Shortly after that, during the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks took control of the area, then Germans again and then there was a war between the Soviets and Poland. In 1921 Poland took control of the area. Poland also took control of Vilna, the former capital of Lithuania, while the rest of Lithuania became independent
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- Sunday, June 22, 2003 at 16:05:55 (PDT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ From Nachum Alperovich story....
...The Germans kept demanding money from the Judenrat. Some of the members of the Judenrat were dishonest and took some of the money for themselves. In our home there was a new couch and carpet that we bought before the war for my sister Henia who was about to be married. When the war started, Henia’s groom was taken to the Polsih Army and died during battle between the Polish and the Germans. One of the Judenrat people who was the very worst among them, knew about the sofa and the carpet, so now he demanded that we should give those things to the Germans who asked for furniture and carpets. My sister Henia was very much against it. These things were very dear to her as a reminder of her dead groom. And she asked that they should be left with her. The Judenrat man slapped her and took her things by force. When I found out about it, I came to the Judenrat and I said to the man, :You must know that we will never let you, a Jew, slap another Jew. It’s enough the way we are treated by the Germans.”
He answered, yelling, “What do you think? Do you think I am afraid of your gun? DO you think I don’t know you own a gun?”
“It is not a secret I have a gun,” I replied and pulled out my weapon. He must not have thought I’d react so fast and he went pale and never came to our home again.
The head of the Judenrat and some of its members were new arrivals from other towns. They were not always decent or honest, and it wasn’t the rescue of the community that was first on their minds. The people who were the public servants before, whose names were famous for dedication and good deeds, like Zalman Gvint and others like him, clearly knew that to be a member in the Judenrat meant that they would have to fulfill the wishes of the Germans, and could never accept such a job. Zalman Gvint, who was experienced with pharmaceuticals, this time established an enterprise, together with Nathan Gurevich, to make chemicals for soap, shoe polish, and ink. They also suffered much at the hands of the Judenrat, who demanded their products. Leib Motosov had a place in the deep forest before the war, that made turpentine and tar. He knew all the little paths in the forest. HE also clearly understood that the Nazis would soon annihilate us. So he came to Zalman Gvint, who agreed with him and suggested that tthey should escape to the forest, where he knew many of the villagers in the area and he thought that since they were friends they would help him. They started planning their escape. I also remember that my mother in those days talked a lot about leaviung the town and escape to the forest. While everyone was planning such an escape, a tragic event took place. Some families who escaped to the forest, among them Zishka Alperovich’s family, secretly from everyone, escaped to the forest, but someone told about them and the mutilated bodies where brought to town. It was a huge disappointment for all who dreamed of going to the forest, and momentarily shocked everyone and caused them to postpone their plans. Nyomka Shulman, who was very energetic and a go-getter, was still full of excitement and plans. He was the leader of our group, and he came with an idea to uplift the spirits of the people. We did something that was dishonest, that we should not have done. We made a pamphlet of encouragement, filled with imaginary events that had no basis in reality. In this pamphlet we wrote that the wonderful Red Army pushed the Germans out of the Polaczek area and soon would free our entire area. We ended it with writing, “Death to Hitler.”
There was a rumor that something might happen in Polaczek, but to say that the Germans lost there was a greatly exaggerated statement. Anyway, the Jews found great encouragement from this pamphlet and conversed about it, especially Motl Leib Kuperstock, who used to have a flour mill. He would stand in the synagogue amongst the Jews spreading the rumors that the pamphlet had come from the Soviets. They beat the Germans, he would tell everyone, and were going through Polaczek. And this had to have been done by planes, he added, and since we were only 120 km from there, it would not take long until they arrivedat our area. Motl Leib was very interested in polticis and strategies. There was a time when he lived in the US, and he knew how to add certain sentences in English that greatly impressed the people, the residents of the town. Amongst the people who converse ith him, there was someone who took his samples and said he really knew that the retreat of the Soviets was only a trick, and they would quickly show the Nazis their might. For some days they were conversing like thais, but there was a great disappointment when nothing happened. We felt bad for whatwe did and from then on we decided to write only real news.
Time passed and Noach Dinestein (put picture here) from Vileyka joined our group. [PICTURE OF NOACH DINESTEIN]. He was older than us but was once a soldier in the Polish Army. In 1939, when the Germans and the Polish fought, he was drafted. After a battle with the Germans, his unit suffered greatly. He was somehow able to escape and he came back to our area. When the Germans killed the man in Vileyka near the bridge on the Vilia during the first month of the war in our area, Noach somehow escaped from the place and arrived at Kurenets. Here he taught us how to use weapons and trained us in other military operations.
The Code Name is Volodia
[PICTURE OF VOLODIA] One day I was told that a Christian person had come to our house and asked for me. She later returned and met with me. It was a young village girl who looked much like a Christian but she was really a Jewish girl by the name of Bertha Dimmenstein from the village Khalafi, a little village near Vileyka. I Didn’t know her earlier and had no idea she was Jewish. She showed me our first pamphlet and said that she knew there was a secret printing press in Kurenets. I was very worried and I pretneded to know nothing about it. I ocntinued being worried when she told me she belonged to a group of young villagers who organized themselves to fight the nazis. She said that these young villagers wanted to meet us since they knew we were also an underground unit. She also told me that she had a text that was ready to be printed by our unit. She said to me that if I could print the text it would be proof that they could rely on us and they would get in touch for later missions.
She said she would come back the next day and take the pamphlets and they would distribute it on their own. The text she gave me was very similar to what we had written. It was asking the locals to organize against the Nazi invaders and unite with the resistance. I was very confused and didn’t know if I should trust her. I called my friends for a meeting. Amongst them were Eliyau Alperovich, Itzkaleh Einbender, Zalman Gurevich, Noach Dinestein, and Nyomka Shulman at whose house the meeting took place. We met in the dark room in their home. Once again, the question arose if there was someone tricking us. Some thought positively, some thought negatively. I thought that we should wait for a moment, but Nyomka Shulman finally won. He said that there was no reason to wait, we must print the pamphlet. So, already that night I sat in our hideout and joined letter to letter and after a short time, the pamphlet was ready. I only printed 20 copies. I thought that to prove our loyalty and reliability that this was sufficient. All the time I was very fearful that Bertha would arrive with someone from the authorities, and a big rock came off my heart when I realized she had come alone. I explained to her that I could only print 20 pamphlets. Bertha took it and promised to return shortly. Many years later, when I met Josef Norman in Israel, he told me how Bertha had found out about me. Bertha, who knew Josef from Vileyka and knew that he was working in the printing house, thought that Josef might know something about those secret pamphlets. So when she met him, he told her about me. He knew that she was very reliable and didn’t hesitate to give her all the information. And this was how she found me.
Shortly after, Bertha returned and told me that their unit was ready to join with us for missions. She also told me that eventually they were planning on going to the forest, and there start fighting the Nazis. She also asked me if we had any weapons. I told her that we had only two rifles. I didn’t tell her about the guns. She suggested one of our people should come to them. The meeting would take place in the village Volkoviczina. At the entrance to the village, she said, there was a small building, a Christian prayer house. She said that one of our people should there during a certain night, and there he would call a certain code word which would let him into the house. The code word was Volodia.
Once again, we met. The energetic Nyomka insisted that he should be the first messenger. Nyomka went during a late night hour and met with one of their people. The guy suggested at this point we should keep our group small and not add any members. Most of our energy should be put in collecting weapons and food to be ready to go to the forest. During that meeting the man told Nyomka he must never come to Volkoviczina without being first contacted by them. We would receive orders from them,. And Bertha would be the main contact. Most important, from now on the codeword would be Volodia. Nyomka slept there, and the next day, early in the morning, he returned to town and told us all the details. At about that time I waas told by Josef Norman saying he could not give me any more letters since they realized that something was not right at the printing press, and they thought something dangerous was going on.
At this point, the Germans only killed single Jews in Kurenets, here and there in small numbers, and life continued like that until Simha Torah in 1941 when they killed 54 Jews of Kurenets. The Fifty Four During the days in years of peace and quiet are called the Days of the Torment. The synagogues were filled with people praying. Most people seemed a bit frozen. They didn’t scream or cry. To the people on the outside it seemed as if people had put up some kind of barrier, but it seems that in the synagogue, this barrier was broken. The tears and the cries were heartbreaking, and the line of the people who said kaddish for the dead was very long. The people in our group who were secular in nature, also went to the synagogue. Koppel Spector was called by the management of the old carpentry mill of Zukovsky since there was something wrong with the main machine there. Maybe now it is time to talk about Koppel. [INSER PICTURE OF KOPPEL]
There was something kept very secretly. During the Soviet days, Koppel who was an engineer and an inventor, worked on a machine to automatically load coal to keep train engine fires going. It was almost ready to be patented when the war started. In the train station in Molodetszna, Koppel had a laboratory where he had all the papers that had to do with his invention. During the war between the Germans and the Soviets, he went to his laboratory and burned his papers and inventions so they would not fall into the hands of the Nazis.
Back to that Simha Torah… As usual we went that day to Vileyka. At first walked the women, and I along with the men walked at the back. We passed by the village Zimordra, and all of a sudden, two policemen from Kurenets and collaborators with the Nazis, Pietka Dovsky and Pietka Gintov, who studied with me at the Polish school, appeared and ordered me to return to Kurenets. I felt that there was some danger facing me, so I asked, “Pietka, why do you stop me? We used to be friends.”
“Satan is your friend,” Pietka answered, “Not me. Come with us.”
SO I was brought to town and put in the store of Itzka Leah’s, the place the police now used to keep prisoners. When I got there I met other Jews from the town, amongst them Kazdan, Chaim Zukovsky, Zaev Rabunski, and others, more than 20 people. Once in a whil e they would bring new prisoners. We looked outside the windows and saw they had colelcted the families of the prisoners. One person who was with us said he was arrested for the red flag found in his home. During Soviet dyas, everyone had a red flag, and he forgot about it. Now he was taken to the prison along with his flag. Some of the prisoners started screaminng that for this flag, everyone would be killed. They wanted to take the flag, rip it, throw it on the ground and cover it with their shoes.
While talking about it, the police came in and took out ten people. We watched through the shutters as these people were given the hose and marched away. Once again people wondered what was going on. Some said they were being taken out for a job. Chaim Zukovsky, who was badly beaten and depressed said they were not being taken to work, but were being taken to dig their own graves. All of a sudden the door opened and to the room and into it came a German Oberlieutenant who called me by name. He took me outside and told me that I should point to my relatives who were standing outside. “This is my mother and those are my sisters.” I pointed to my mother, Rohaleh, Rashkaleh, and Doba.
“Take them and go home,” the officer told me, and I was ready to do it but all of a sudden he hesitated as if he changed his mind. “Jew, you still need to receive some beatings.”
I lay on the ground in the presence of my mother and sisters, and he beat me many times. Finally he stopped and ordered me to leave. I could hardly get up, and lefft with my mother Rohaleh. I had no idea why I was taken out of the prison room and separated from the 54 Jews who were residents of our town who were murdered that day. After they got the hose, they were made to dig their own graves as Chaim Zukovsky foretold while we were in there. When we got home, my sister Doba said she saw me being taken out of the people who went to Vileyka and she recognized my life was in danger, so she left the group of girls and ran to Kurenets. As soon as she got home she told my mother what happened. They knew it was a very dangerous situation and they had to do something immediately.
Without hesitation they immediately went to the Polish teacher Mataroz to ask for his help. In town people already knew that the Germans were planning on doing something against the Communists. They decided that my father and my sister Henia, who were known as communistis, should escape and take the cows to the meadow. So when they came for them they couldn’t find them home. Rohaleh and Doba asked Mataroz, who liked me very much from when I was student, and who was now the mayor of the town appointed by the Germasns, and they told him about my imprisonment. As soon as they left Mataroz, they were taken by the police, as well as my mother and Rashkaleh, and it was Mataroz who decided to save us all from our deaths. Two days later I went to Mataroz to thank him for what he had done. At that point we were all heartbroken over what had happened in town. He asked me to sit down and I told him I could not sit down since my back had awful wounds from the beatings I had received. When I thanked him he said I shouldn’t thank him, and that I should pray to God and stay a human being as I had been in the past, and stay decent despite the tortures that occurred every day.
I was strong in my wish that for thanks we should give him some materials from the old store we used to own. Materials could be used for suits for him and his son. He was very much against it and got mad at me. I was very embarrassed and didn’t know what to do, so I suggested something else. I asked that he should receive our cow since our lives seemed to be pretty much over with or without a cow. He answered that he agreed to take the cow since we had such troubles even trying to take it to the meadow, but he had one condition. He would take it if we would receive half of the milk from the cow each time he milked it. I said to him that this could cause him great troubles as the mayor of a town sending milk to a Jewish family. At the end we reached a greement and gave him the cow. Secretly, in all sorts of ways, he was able to transfer milk to us. Now I know how he saved me from certain death: after doba and Rohaleh visited him, he went to the German offcer, who was conducting th emurder of the 54 people for being Commmunists. He told the officer of how I helped him during the Soviet days by giving sugar and food to the teacher Skarntani, who was anti-Communist, and that I had helped him when he was very sick and put myself in danger. This proved I was anti-Communist, so I could not be blamed for Communism. The officer accepted his opinion, and this was how I was rescued.
The Jews were shocked at the killing of the 54 who were supposedly Communists. Everyone was talking about how the 54 men, women, and children were taken to the forest of Lovitz, and there they were ordered to dig their graves before they were killed. The Christians, especially the villagers who were present told many stories about the killing, especially the brave stand of Yankeleh Orchik’s (son) Alperovich. When Yankeleh stood at his open grave, he asked the officer who was ordering the killings, “IF you kill me because I am a Jew, there is nothing I can do since I am a Jew and this is my faith. But if you kill me if I am a Communist, you should know the Soviets sent my father to Siberia since I am an anti-Communist. Can you really believe that my father who is being tortured in Siberia is a Communist?” The officer decided to release him as well as his younger brother. The Christians who were watching admitted that Orchik Alperovich was sent to Siberia.
They also told about Tevel Alperovich, the son of Pinhas the butcher. Tevel, who was a very strong and good looking man, was able to escape from the killers but he encountered Volodka, the son of Mishka from the alley. With a hoe in his hand, he hit him on the head and wounded him. Then he called the Germans to kill him. The reason why the Christians would gather in such places to watch the killings was so they could collect their belongings such as clothes, shoes, etc. Some of the Christians would. Some of the Christians would sing while the Jews were being taken to their deaths. They made a song singing, “Zhydi, zhydi, tzerti. Kali vas femerti”, which means “Jews the son of Satan, die already! When? When?” During their singing they would sometimes throw rocks at the Jews and curse them. Many of the Jews in town wanted to believe the Germans, that this murder was meant only for communists. They were hoping that now all the murders would be done with, but our group, as well as many others in Kurenets, knew that this would not be the end, that it was only the first in systematic killings, and our desire to fight increased tenfold. For My Benefactor, Mataroz Once again, I visited Mataroz. Mataroz, in his true nature, was liberal. As far as the Jews, he tried to help, and this was not unknown by the Belarussian population, and they greatly disliked him. One of his opponents was the son ot the felcher, Surikvas. There was a certain rumor that the son secretly put in Mtataroz’ office a picture of Pilsudski, and told the German police that Mataroz was secretly organizing Polish resistance. The Germans imprisoned him but he was somehow immediately returned to become mayor. [Reminder: he was killed with his family by the Germans]
I came to Mataroz after he asked me to come to him. He immediately told me that murder is facing me everywhere I go, and that he would try to help me. Further, he said, “You must know that between wishes and ability there is a big distance. I truly wish that all my students will survive, but what can I really do? As far as you are concerned, I suggest you come to the school as a laborer doing cleaning and cutting wood for the fire, as well as operating the furnaces.”
At that point he was no longer head ot the school, but since he was mayor he was able to do it. He was also in cahoots with one of the teachers. He still said to me that I must be very careful to be there only when the school was empty of students. I later found out that the person he was in touch with was the wife of Skrentani, who was a teacher in the school. Skretntani himself worked for Mataroz in the municipal building, as head of the food distribution department.
I was told to be in school in the afternoon hours until the time of curfew, when I was supposed to be home. Mataroz said that since danger faced me in every direction, it would be easier to escape from the school in times of extreme danger than from places where Jews were plentiful. Further, he said he would try to get me a special permit was worker of the municipality, so I could work outdoors even during curfew hours. Once again he emphasized that in case of an action where they would kill the Jews, I would have to hide in the school. There would be a greater chance of survival there since it was unlikely that they would look for Jews in the school, there was a huge basement with many secret corners that I could hide in. He also gave me a letter to take to the police which asked for permission to work at night since I needed to clean the school after the students left. When I entered the school I only found Baliznuk, who was known as the most evil torturer. :How do you think this will help you? With such a Jewish face, how to get a permission from the police?” He started laughing.
“Before I would ever get a look at the permission you might receive, I will shoot you with a bullet and the permission will not bring you back to life.” Still, he gave me the permission.
In the school worked a Polish woman that explained to me my duties. She was generally kind to me but she was very fearful that my presence in the school would hurt her. She begged me that I should be very careful and to make sure that no one would suspect that she hidesa Jew at the school. Every time she had a hint of