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I Have Tried to Create a Written Monument to the Three of the Questions, and He Was Too Tired to Continue

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I Have Tried to Create a Written Monument to the Three of the Questions, and He Was Too Tired to Continue 4 feature feature 5 LITHUANIAN “I HAVE TRIED AUTHOR GRIGORY KANOVICH, TO CREATE SURVIVOR OF THE SHTETLS: A WRITTEN MONUMENT TO THE LITHUANIAN JEWS” by Påhl Ruin e is the last Lithuanian Jewish author with first-hand Kanovich has lived in Israel since 1993, and his son Sergey has experience of the shtetls, the small Jewish towns that helped in translating our questions into Russian and then trans- vanished from the face of the earth in 1941. lating the answers into English. First his father only answered ”I have tried to create a written monument to the three of the questions, and he was too tired to continue. But the Lithuanian Jews”, says Grigory Kanovich in an interview with following day came the rest of the answers. Baltic Worlds. ”He is delighted that the English-speaking world is now able Kanovich turns 90 this summer. At 85 he stopped writing to read his books”, says Sergey, who is also a writer and cur- when he published his last book, Shtetl Love Song. The book rently walking in his father’s footsteps by trying to give life to the Devilspel, from which an extract is published in this issue of Jewish culture before the war through work with the Lost Shtetl Baltic Worlds, was written back in 2002 but not translated into Museum in the small town of Šeduva in northern Lithuania. The old part of Grigory Kanovich’ home English until now. ”I have said many times that Lithuania has enough traces of town Janova was demolished in 1941. heslavas deliberated constantly about how he as if to a member of his family, he urged his raven beauty on, suffered not only from a diseased liver, but also from a flow of could save Elisheva from those who wished Stasia, Stasite, Stanislava. Stasite understood from his tone pointless questions in her blood. to purify the nation. where to go and how. She understood whether he wanted “I’m learning from her.” He thought about her when he was in the her to trot or gallop, whether in the direction of the farm or to “If it’s no secret, what are you learning? I would imagine Extract from “C meadow, too, with the intoxicating odour of Mishkine. She quickly caught his mood and easily deter- that she was the one who should be learning from you.” Devilspel harvest in his nostrils, as he carefully lifted the hay and lay it mined when he was sober and when he was tipsy. “She’s teaching me how to be a human being. Where do by Grigory into the cart as if it was alive. The clouds descended lower Sometimes, she would approach him when he was you think all the evil in the world comes from? From horses and lower. On the horizon, far beyond the meadow, they had disconsolate or troubled and nuzzle up to him as a woman or cows? From sheep or from birds? It comes from us intel- Kanovich. already merged with the majestic crowns of the trees. From might, rubbing against his chest with her muzzle. He pitied ligent two-legged creatures! A horse would never wage war time to time the horse raised its head and looked up in alarm; her and harnessed her only on church holidays when he set against another if her rider didn’t force her to do so. A rabbit Translated by Yisrael it wouldn’t be long before they dropped their burden – the out for prayers in town or when it was time to cut the hay and wouldn’t disparage a sheep out of envy, because the poor Elliot Cohen for Noir Press. first rainstorm the bomb-wounded earth would receive. harvest it. creature lacked a woolen coat and had to warm himself with Release of the English Without waiting for Elisheva to bring his afternoon snack, “Why are you so attached to her?” Prane inquired, never his feet in contrast to herself. A sparrow wouldn’t accuse a version June 2019. Lomsargis got up on the seat of the cart. Speaking tenderly, failing to disapprove of his love for anyone but herself. She nightingale of all kinds of mortal sins just because the latter 6 feature feature 7 Jewish death,” he says. “Meanwhile, it’s almost impossible to find in 1940. This was of course a horrific accusation, and the vast not in command of Yiddish. The fact that Elisheva was playing traces of Jewish life in Lithuanian towns.” majority of the Jews were victims of the occupation, just like the with a Lithuanian kid was rare, an exception to the rule.” This description of both the life and death of the Jewish ethnic Lithuanians. At this time, the Jews accounted for about What did you yourself experience of Lithuanians turning culture in Eastern Europe is something that characterizes his 8 percent of the Lithuanian population, but they held about against you Jews before you fled? father’s books. In Devilspel, the readers get acquainted with a 15 percent of the leading positions in the communist regime. couple of Jewish and half-Jewish families in the town of Mishkine Without in any way having a dominating influence, they were ”Before the evacuation I had never experienced any hostile in Southern Lithuania at the end of June 1941 when the Germans still over-represented among the hated communists. This fact approach from Lithuanian children — they knew that their par- are about to arrive. The sounds of the war are heard from the was exploited by the Nazis: “It was Jewish communists who car- ents were wearing Jewish tailored clothes, had their hair cut at distance, while Lithuanians suddenly are turning against their ried away your countrymen to Siberia, now you have to help Jewish barbers. This somehow made us closer.” Jewish neighbors. us make your country free from the Jews,” was a message that Grigory and his parents fled Jonava the day before the town Grigory Kanovich himself was born in the town of Jonava, in many people bought. was taken over by the Germans. Via Latvia they managed to central Lithuania. What did he experience of anti-Semitism be- Almost 80 years have passed since Grigory Kanovich expe- escape to Russia and the Ural Mountains and ended up in a kol- fore the family left? rienced this sudden hatred, which forced him and his family to khoz at the Kazakhstan steppe where they lived with very little Grigory Kanovich in Janova 1934, age five. ”My life in the 1930s in Jonava flee the country. How could his food. His father had to serve in the Soviet army. was happy and untroubled. As “MY LIFE IN THE 1930S IN neighbors become murderers They almost didn’t make it all the way to Russia. At one point far as my parents are concerned, over night? What is his answer the line of refugees they were travelling with was attacked by a I cannot tell you for sure if they JONAVA WAS HAPPY AND after all these years? Surely, he German airplane. Grigory’s mother dragged him into a haystack experienced anti-Semitism at UNTROUBLED. AS FAR AS MY must have thought about it over in the middle of a field, an act that came to save their lives. The that time. They never dealt with and over again? scene is dramatically retold in the novel Shtetl Love Song. politics. My father Solomon tai- PARENTS ARE CONCERNED, His answer is brief, and may- Grigory tells me that his mother saved the family even at an lored suits for everyone regard- I CANNOT TELL YOU FOR SURE be he lacks the energy and will earlier moment: less of ethnicity or religion — he IF THEY EXPERIENCED ANTI- to dwell on it today: ”I remember an argument between my parents — to leave or tailored for rabbi and priest, po- ”There were many reasons to stay. My father was convinced, as unfortunately were many liceman and doctor. My mother SEMITISM AT THAT TIME.” and most probably we will never Jews who decided to stay, that the war would be over in a few was a house-keeper.” know all of them. But we can days or a few weeks at most. It was my late mother who persuad- Researchers in the field have come to similar conclusions, raise the questions and try to understand. One of the main rea- ed him to leave.” namely that anti-Semitism was not a widespread phenomenon sons was Lithuania’s loss of independence.” Around 95 percent of the Lithuanian Jews were killed in the in Lithuania before the war, and the situation for the Jews was Holocaust, over 200,000 people, most of them already in 1941. Grigory Kanovich in 2011, age 90. Before the hatred took root, how intense were the actually better than in many other European countries. The Jews Grigory lost several family members, but still the family moved contacts between kids from the Jewish community and had lived in the area for almost 600 years, and Lithuania’s auto- back to Lithuania after the war, settling in Vilnius. ”We were the Lithuanians? In Devilspel, you describe how Elisheva cratic leader at the time, Antanas Smetona, even spoke Yiddish. drawn back to the cemeteries of our relatives,” he said in an ear- had played as a child with the Lithuanian boy Povilas The sudden change in mood among many ethnic Lithu- lier interview. Genis. Was it common? anians, the outburst of hatred and violence, has been analyzed Grigory started studying at the philology department at the by several scholars.
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