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RG-50.120 #157 7 Tapes TORY, AVRAHAM

TAPE I 1.02.13 Avraham Golub, Born in 1910, in a small town, Lazdijai.

2.32 Schooling.

4.17 Left town by orders of tzar in 1914. Returned 1919.

4.36 Maiamposh, Lithuania. Founding of the Hebrew High School [gymnamsium]. A principal was brought in from Berlin.

6.35 Studies and materials in gymnasium.

7.47 Father graduated, ordained, from Volozhin [Bialik contemporary] but never was a rabbi.

8.24 Mapu's reading underground.

9.00 All Zdub chilren [boys and girls] were sent to gymnasia.

10.00 Hebraization of name Golub to Tory.

12.00 More education in the gymnasia.

12.25 Maccabi; paralel bars in Kovno.

15.08 'Hanoar Hatzioni' [Zionist youth].

15.40 First Maccabee games, 1932. Macabi Lithuanian participation.

16.12 Macabi games in Israel; Dizengoff's salute.

20.30 Adloyada in Tel Aviv, at Macabi games time.

21.00 Returned to Lithuania to finish university.

21.15 Work of the 'Noar Hatzioni' to implement changes on the umbrella oranization 'The Center of General Zionists' in Lithuania.

This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection

21.50 Chosen delegate to the organization.

22.13 'Di Yiddishe Shtime' newspaper; editor Reuven Rubinstein.

23.12 Shmuel Goldshteyri sent to London for a year to train for above newspaper.

25.17 Attempt to study medicine.

25.40 Attempt at delectrical engineering for a year.

26.22 Army service not chosen; instead studying law in the US.

27.30 Returned to Lithuania because of father's sudden passing, in order to take over business.

27.50 Did not adjust in the US in 1929.

30.00 Graduation from law school in Lithuania, chose to become an attorney.

32.31 Last Zionist Congress before war, 1939. Golub chosen as delegate, the youngest of them all.

33.30 Request to Jabotinsky, who was in Paris, to return to the Zionist Histadrut, because of the grave situation in Europe in 1939.

35.05 Interruption of deliberations beacuse war broke out in Poland. Weizman's words at closing.

35.17 Return to Lithuania.

37.20 Lithuania falls to the Soviets, June 1940.

37.37 Golub's parents. Mother orthodox. Grandfather was a land owner.

47.20 Sisters.

49.00 Fraternity at the university in Kovno, 1928, Antisemitism.

56.51 Sisters.

2.02.12 His older brother emigrated to Argentina.

3.03 June 1940. Lithuania falls under Soviets. Beginning of persecution of Zionist leaders.

6.31 Threat of exile and forced labor in Siberia.

8.30 Appointed head of financial planning for a military building project to serve this Baltic area. Importance of Kovno and Lithuania because of immediate borders to Germany.

12.36 Was able to hire some of his Zionist friends who could not find work elsewhere.

12.50 Work conditions there.

20.00 Asked to leave. Suggested best way: to abolish the position.

21.00 Was given temorary job as accoutant for his brother-in-law.

21.52 Escapoe to Vilnius.

22.00 Zionist activities in that period: went underground. Main activity was to support the families of the leaders who were in prison or exiled to Siberia, or disappeared.

25.00 The 'Israel Office' of the Zionist organizers. Its involvement in distributing certificates for emigration Israel.

31.06 Begin, Sneh, Varhaftig arrived as refugees from Poland, a committee to help those was formed.

32.30 Involvement of the Japanese consul in granting visas to refugees. [Sugiara].

38.00 Criteria for distribution of certificates.

39.50 Hiding in Kovno when war broke out on June 22, 1941.

40.00 Fear of Nazism was that all able men would be sent to doi forced labor; young people fled from their family house.

42.28 Married in 1935 to 'russophile', non Zionist. Didn't have children.

44.28 Began to write his diary. The date was June 22, 1941.

45.00 Arrived in train station with his relatives to excape. There were cars but not locomotives. Many people sat and waited. He saw no reason to wait. Bid farewell to his family, found his bicycle and rode off toward the East.

46.06 Conditions on the road: overcrowding, explosions from the air, retreat of Red Army. Rode 80 km.

49.49 The 'Lithuanian partisans', who murdered Jews, started after the Soviet conquest of Lituania in 1940, in Berlin. They formed the 'Lithuanian front' and had cells all across Lithuania.

50.15 Jewish refugees and Lithuanian partisans.

51.00 Returned to Kovno by waslking 3 days, far from the mauin road.

51.27 Return to Vilkomir.

53.52 Slobodka, poor suburbs of Kovno, place of high Jewish learning and yeshivot. Slaughter of thousands happend on June 25, just before Abraham passed by. Slaughter done by the Lithuanian partisans.

54.37 Found a way to by-pass Slobodka and saved his life.

56.59 Return to Kovno.

3.02.28 Invited his sisters and their families to join him in Kovno. They chose to remain in Lasdija, and all were massacred by the Lithuanians.

04.53 Tried to re-establish contact withZionist activists. But after the Soviet conquest, all Jewish insitituitions were liquidated. Only one remaining was chief rabbi.

05.00 The decision to move the entire Jewish population of Kovno to a ghetto, to the suburb of Sldsodka - the involvement of the Lithanians - in coordination with the gestapo - in the decision to transfer the Jews. The deadline. The attempt of a grooup of Jews to reverse the decision. The election of the governing body of the ghetto.

47.00 The last meeting of the Jews in the school of Kovno on the 4th of August, prior to the transfer. The disintegration of the Jews in Kovno. Their transfer to the 'forts as of yet, unknown places.

48.00 Elchanan Elkes, doctor of the Lithuanians in high places, and of foreign ambassadors in Lithuania. He was appointed the head of the Jews [oberjude] in the ghetto.

54.00 Appointment fo all the Jewish officers of the ghetto.

58.00 Murdering waves of the jews: 5000 at one time, for instance. No one believed it was happening.

59.00 The 'forts'. Fortresses around Kovno erected by czars in Russia [Nikolai and Alexander] 150 years before the outbreak of WWII, in order to protect Russia from a German conquest. Were used to hold prisoners for life, or those awaiting the death penalty. Impossible to run away from them, well guarded. Forts were used for mass imprisonment.

TAPE II 4.04.32 Work of the committee to transfer the Jews. Tory was one of 2 attorneys working for thast. Jewish cries of help came to the committee non-stop. Also, there was hunger, as the Jews were forbidden from visiting the markets.

07.00 Danger to the Jews in the streets, where groups of 'partisans' attacked non-stop.

08.40 Tory's diary. Recollection of the good times.

13.20 Beginning of close relationship with Dr. Elkes.

21.09 Tory's organization toward transfre to the ghetto.[Too busy to get organized!]

27.00 Endless caravan of Jews moving to Slbodka.

30.20 Committee's work for the transfer of the Jews to the ghetto. Some moneys from the joint were transferred to the committee through the Red Cross. 38.00 How money was earned in that period [through sellilng of personal belongings].

40.00 Situation in Kovno worsened during the month of preparation to transfer. Many Jews moved to the ghetto earlier than the appointed date - ghetto was still open - before Aug. 15.

43.34 The streets during this time.

45.00 Knowledge of executions of the Jews in the ghetto before all Jewish population was transferred, July 10 or so.

47.43 The story of Yehiel Blumenthal, eye-witness of the executions, who manages to escape the ghetto [the 7th Fort].

49.40 Cruelty of the Lithuanians against the Jews. Causes.

57.48 Personality of Dr. Elkes.

59.00 Commerce just before ghetto closed.

5.00.17 Situation just before ghetto closed.

5.06. Municipality requested Jews to erect the security fence around the ghetto. They were elected by the committee [Jewish] thast facilitated the transfer to the ghetto.

10.31 The Zionist underground, Aug. 4, 1941.

14.00 Documentation of ghetto life [photos, drawings].

14.52 Fence completed on 8/15/41. All Jews already in. 28,000 people were there. Some lived outdoors.

17.00 Dr. Brauns - infirmary. Living conditions.

22.00 Fire and desctruction in the infirmary for contagious diseases.

22.40 Transport of orphans to the 9thFort, where they were murdered.

23.00 Care of new orphans at the ghetto.

24.01 Murder of 10,000 in two 'actions', Kozlovsky, etc.

24.36 Dealing with problems of crowdiness.

27.17 Murder of 500+ intellectuals [under guise of working in the archives] in the 4th Fort.

42.11 10/28/41 - Entire families are taken. Room is made for the homeless. Although, after each 'action' ghetto was reduced in size by request of the Lithuanians.

42.31 The 28th of October, 1941.

6.02.00 Dr. Elskes' intervention to save a few people and transfer them to the 'small ghetto' [the remaining of the burned down hospital] not successful.

08.22 The 9th fort, called by the nazis 'extermination place number 2'. Each open grave contained 3,000 bodies. Russian prisoners of war dug grave pits. Eyewitness to the murders. It was confirmed by another eyewitness.

23.32 Knowledge of murder of 10,000 reinforced the work of the underground units.

24.00 No one came to the point of summons any more. Jews feared for their lives. The Jewish committee in the ghetto ordered the Jews not to appear.

25.56 The Zionist underground.

26.37 Gathering of Tammuz 21.

27.03 Third seder, Pesach.

27.14 Dr. Chaim Nachman Shapiro's roile, only son of the chief rabbi Dov

Kanana Shapiro.

28.07 Dr. Shapiro's efforts to establish a school against all odds and difficulties.

29.00 'Garden' guards.

30.45 Zionist education of youth, with help fo the Zionist underground.

31.00 The selection of 'work' in Riga [500 people].

41.50 Righteous Gentile [anti-Hitler] officer liertenant Gustav Herrman, from the SR[A?], in charge of the labor dept. in the ghetto, on behalf of the Germans.

43.41 Seizing of Jewish property in ghetto; all valuables. Cruelty of Nazis.

49.00 Escapes from the ghetto.

55.20 Establishment of a Jewish court of law in the ghetto.

7.00.27 The Jewish police was the 'executive' brand of the ghetto.

00.30 More about the court of law.

05.18 When nazis found out about existenceof the court, they demanded its closure. It went, therefore, underground.

06.00 Life in the ghetto, beginning of 1942. the '-----'[slave?] market.

TAPE III 7.10.00 The German escorts of the Jewish workers.

12.00 Work shops in carpenty, etc, within the ghetto. Occupation for the Jews who couldn't work outside of the ghetto.

17.00 Tory's way of concealing ducuments - waterproofing his 5 cases.

20.00 Tory's testament.

22.00 Blueprints for the building of bunkers, fit for human habitation for at least a

month.

27.00 Alternatives to hiding in bunker [for Tory's wife].

30.12 When Germans liquidated ghetto, they knew there were bunkers, and therefore all who hd hidden there were in danger. When ghetto was liquidated, many were shot on the spot, others were sent to concentration camps in Germany.

30.47 Benno Lipzer, head of the Jewish brigade, liaison to the gestapo on issues of services.

39.36 Encounter of Tory with Lipzer's son in Israel.

53.20 Lipzer hid in one of the bunkers when the Germans liquidated the ghetto. He was shot on the spot.

54.00 More on Lipzer.

59.43 Changes on the organization of the ghetto.

8.11.11 Elkes. More about him. His eulogy at the First Zionist Congress after the war, in 1946.

12.12 Purim 1942 in the ghetto.

13.23 [parenthesis]

14.36 Purim in the ghetto: 1942, 1943.

15.30 Mention of the ghetto's kindergarten.

20.00 The underground bakery.

27.14 Purim 1943.

28.00 In charge of Staat Commisariat [civil administration] was Miller, who had some 'humane' traits.

32.00 More on Purim 1943.

34.00 The welfare office in the ghetto. Also, medical care. Medicines, nurses. Disinfection against contagious diseases.

46.59 The Jewish committee in the ghetto.

48.04 First news from outside the ghetto. The role of the Catholic church. Contacts with priesthood of the church.

9.01.07 More of news from outside ghetto.

02.23 1942: a visitor from Vilna. Irena Adamovich, activist of the pioneer movement in Poland. She conveyed news by travelling from ghetto to ghetto [she was originally from Warsaw].

08.43 Stories from the Vilna ghetto.

19.10 Information that in every ghetto there was a zionist underground. [More about the underground.]

24.25 The Warsaw ghetto rebellion.

36.10 Development of the underground activities [the Zionist underground].

37.06 Omabo;otu tp establish contact with the communist underground [non- Jewish] in the city, for 2 years. For lack of interest and anitsemitism.

37.41 The Lithuanian and Russian communists murdered Jews in cooperation with the Germans. They were only too happy to continue with the pogroms, as their ancestor did.

45.00 Underground education.

47.00 Purchase of the first revolver in the ghetto, in 1941.

48.00 Organization of shooting instruction, in groups, in 1942. Also, instruction of underground fighting in the forests.

54.00 Volunteers in the underground far exceeded the available spots.

57.00 Hiding places for weapons outside of the ghetto.

58.00 Bartering of goods for weapons.

10.00.00 Rold of Tory while in the ghetto.

TAPE IV 10.13.49 Jewish council liquidated before ghetto was liquidated. The elders were taken to the 9th fort, interrogated. All their duties were taken over by Goecke, the ghetto liquidation.

10.18 Despite lack of duties, the Jewish council decided to stay on, for the sake of the ghetto Jews. And this was by suggestion of Elkes.

10.20 Trust of ghetto dwellers on Jewish council.

10.20 Lipsky's contact with the gestapo.

10.23 Role of Elkes in defense of accused Jews.

10.23 Role of Jewish council when confronted with intimidation by the gestapo.

10.28 Role of Jewish council and Jewish police on mobilization of work force.

10.28.53 Religious practice in ghetto.

10.30 Red line, never trespassed by Jewish council, was to turn in Jews or discover their hiding places.

10.32 Garfunkel's character.

10.35 Relations between the communist anti Nazi organization and the general Jewish organizations.

10.35.45 The anti-nazi council organized in 1943, after the communist underground started.

10.36 Chaim Yellin and Jacob Ratner.

10.37 Work required to send ghetto dwellers to join the partisans in the Rudliski

forest.

10.40.32 Goals of cooperation between the communist underground and the Zionist underground.

10.42 Chaim Yellin.

10.45 Uprising within ghetto was never considered.

10.48 Correspondence underground with ghetto Vilna.

10.49 The united underground had between 300-500 persons.

10.49.57 The establishment of the Zionist underground.

10.50.08 Impossibility to rebel in the ghetto.

10.56.00 Preparation for the possible escape from the ghetto.

11.00.00 More about the underground work in the ghetto.

11.08.00 Chidren's 'action'.

12.56 March 1944, 27-28 'action'. Tory ran away from the ghetto 4 days before.

13.40 Tory's decision to run away.

17.00 Rare news from the Vilna ghetto.

17.50 News from Shavli ghetto, and contact with Yerushalm, that ghetto's secretary of the Jewish council.

20.28 Nov. 1943, Tory's prearations for escape from the ghetto.

21.00 Relationship between Tory and his current wife develops. Place found to hide her daughter with the help of a priest.

41.09 Tory is 'summoned' to join the women [P'nina and Shulamith] in their hiding place in a vaillate, Virvagda. Tory complies and joins them instead of the partisans.

47.00 Tory's last days in the ghetto and preoccupation with hiding his diary and other ghetto documents in as safe place [including his last will and testament].

06.54 Last night in the ghetto.

09.00 Elkes gives Tory his last will and testament.

10.00 More about Tory's escape.

40.12 How they obtained documents of all kinds to be able to fulfill the underground tasks. 48.00 Time of escape was frought with danger. Also, because many Lithuanians were escaping, the army and the authorites were looking for them in all possible hiding places.

49.00 Description of Tory's hiding place.

53.41 Possibility to hear news. Feeling of being out of contgrol because of the 58.15 forced confinement. Hew was there 4 1/2 months.

59.00 Importance of keeping a diary for 3 years.

13.00.53 Started another diary to keep the memories of the ghetto, in case his original diary would be lost.

02.00 Unexpected arrival of Penina's cousin.

05.05 Unexpected arrival of the priest who directed them all to the village. He was hunted by the gestapo and the church for helping Jews.

09.09 Guilt feelings about having family who hid them be endangered for doing so.

11.30 Removal of Penina's dresser from the ghetto to be brought to the village; also obtaining a better lamp.

TAPE V 13.20.00 Only two who knew Tory's hiding place were Elkes and Garfunkel.

22.10 Conversations with the priest.

25.51 The war front approaches the village: bombings, fires, explosiions all around. Provisions for sleeping quarters during attacks.

27.00 Encounter with a Russian soldier of the Red Army, and his commander.

36.00 Return to Kovno, in August.

14.14.00 Marriage of Abraham to Penina on August 10, 1944. 14.19 Recovery of ghetto journal.

14.26 Left Kovno, to Vilna.

14.27 Preparations for flight to Palestine.

14.35 Flight from Vilna to Lublin, over the Polish border, in February 1945.

14.45 Encounter with Jewish Zionist leaders: Abba Kovner, Tzivia Lubetkin, Antek Zuckerman, etc.

15.03 Visit ti ghetto Warsaw with above leaders.

15.07 The 'escape' movement and Tory's role in it - March 1945.

15.16 The escape route through Bucharest, Czechoslovakia, Hungary.

15.33 Visit of three Zionist leaders from Palestine, while awaiting travel certificates.

15.43 Posing as Greek war refugees, going back home they crossed the Austrian border.

15.44 Crossing over to American section in Italy [Trevisia] with help of Jewish Brigade.

15.48 Transfer to refugee camp in Bologna first, and then to the south of Italy.

15.51 Escape to Roma.

15.58 Aid from UNRA and the Joint.

16.00 Meeting of Napoli with a delegate from Palestine, Baratz, head of the Zionist movement.

16.09 Tory was appointed as 'head man' for the illegal immigration to Palestine ['Haapalah' in Rome]. He served in that position 2 1/2 years.

TAPE VI 16.25 Visit to head rabbi of Italy, Rabbi Pratto, who issued the Tory's another marriage certificate, but in Italian.

16.42 Contact with head of UNRA, in Rome. 16.42 Birth of Tory's daugher in Rome [Alina] at Saint Anna Clinic. 17.00 Tory's activism in Italy. More about the illegal immigration. Establishment of 'kibbutzim' in Italy for training of sailors and fishermen, and building of ships [in Ostia and Fano].

18.54.24 Tory's preparations for immigration to Palestine.

18.58 Tory's preparations for immigration to Palestine. 18.58 Tory's arrival in Palestine, landing on a field near the Lod airport, at 2-3 in the morning.

18.59 Arrival in Tel Aviv October 17, 1947.

19.17 First job of Tory's: secretary to the Taiber companies, and especially to Israel Taiber.

19.22.37 Return to the law profession in 1952.

19.25 The sequence of events that led to the publication of the Kovno Ghetto Diary.

TAPE VII 19.30 More about the events leading to Tory's diary publication.

20.34.40 Tory refused to accept German indemnizations.

36.31 Testimony of Tory against the deputy gestapo chief, Captain Heinrich Schmitz, in Wiesbaden, in 1962.

21.15.32 Tory's testimony against mayor of Lithuania, Kazys Palcianskas in Tampa, Florida, for the Office of Special Investigations of the US Justice Department.

21.32.17 Organization of youth groups in Italy, in 1946, for para-military purposes, by Captain Shadmi. Publication of instructional manuals in Yiddish.

21.39.55 Para-military youth groups accompanies each illegal boat that sailed from Italy.

21.42.06 Last will and testament of Dr. Elkes, Kovno ghetto Oberjude.

21.50 Establishment of special programs, in Italy to re-educate and re-introduce to Judaism all those orphans saved by Catholic families. 800 reeducated in Salvin Italy.

21.56.45 Tory's unique contribution to the extradition of SS master sergeant Helmut Ranca, head of the gestapo's Jewish section in Lithuania. From Canada to Germany.

22.21.33 Tory's work in Israel, mainly on behalf of Jews in the FSU.

This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy.