Israel Stern My Survival stern-inhalt-v16.indd 1 29.11.18 11:27 stern-inhalt-v16.indd 2 29.11.18 11:27 Israel Stern My Survival Translated by Hannah Morris stern-inhalt-v16.indd 3 29.11.18 11:27 The German original is published under the title Mein Überleben. First Printing, 2018 © 2017 Israel Stern, Zurich All rights reserved. Credits can be found on the last page. Editing, Design and Production Katharina Hellriegel-Stauder and Phillip Hailperin, Hofmeister Stauder. Büchermacher, Berlin www.hofmeisterstauder.de Printed and Bound by DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Altenburg ISBN 978-3-033-06567-3 (English) ISBN 978-3-033-06047-0 (German) Printed in Germany stern-inhalt-v16.indd 4 29.11.18 11:27 Contents Foreword 7 Translator’s foreword 8 Roots 9 Mielnice 9 My Family 16 The Second World War 25 The Outbreak of War (1939) 25 German Invasion (1941) 31 The Committee 34 German Occupation (1941–1944) 37 Forced Labour (1941–1942) 40 Survival 47 Forced Resettlement (1943) 55 In Hiding (1943–1944) 68 Liberation (1944) 97 Fighting under the Soviet Army (1944–1945) 102 A New Life after the War 125 Displaced Person 125 Bricha (1946–1948) 131 Lili 151 Appendix 172 Glossary 172 Family Trees 176 Maps 184 5 stern-inhalt-v16.indd 5 29.11.18 11:27 stern-inhalt-v16.indd 6 29.11.18 11:27 Foreword Foreword An explanation of my motivation for writing this book My Grandson David was forever asking questions about how I survived the horror of the Second World War, and about the persecution and eradication of Europe’s Jews. He wanted to hear about the horrendous crimes that were committed, and how they were carried out. David’s interest was great. He kept asking me why I would not record my sto- ry, urging me to write a book so the next generation would know what their grandparents and their grandparents’ families went through dur- ing that dark period – so they would know of the atrocities, of the suf- fering, of the hunger and of living in fear of your life – all of which they had to endure before being murdered. I was not sure if I would be able to sit down, call up memories and reflect on the details of events that I had witnessed and experienced during the terrible years I lived through, the worst being the three years between 1941 and 1944, when I was only a teenager. Yet David was persistent in his encouragement, and I decided to find the strength to fully contemplate the horror of those times and to write them down. And so I began, although this was not an easy pro- cess. The strain of recalling the details of the crimes that we had to suf- fer was at times unbearable. I would write for one or two days before needing to stop for a few days just to not have to remember. It was also David’s wish that his Bubbe Lili would write a book about how she sur- vived the Warsaw Ghetto. He used to ask her constantly to describe it. Like me she considered this for a long time, although coming to the con- clusion that her health was not up to sitting for hours concentrating on every detail of her nightmare in the ghetto. I have therefore decided to write a second part sharing the account of my wife’s survival. I know the circumstances of her story as we have often talked of it during our long years together; indeed, there has not been a week where we did not talk 7 stern-inhalt-v16.indd 7 29.11.18 11:27 with one another about a memory or an event from this time. I am fa- miliar with every detail of her experience and how she managed to sur- vive from the outset of war to its conclusion. For those moments when I needed clarification of any particulars of her story, or had any doubts, Lili has given me a full account. Translator’s foreword I am grateful to David for giving me the opportunity to translate this pe- riod of his family’s history as part of my Master’s dissertation. It has been a draining and humbling experience to translate this nar- rative account of the dark chapter of European history, which Israel Stern witnessed and barely survived. For many months as translator I have had to absorb this story, visualising rural Galicia and living vicari ously amongst the Jewish community, seeing the world through the narrator’s eyes. Accounts of brutality and the murder of loved ones are economi cally described, given more detailed accounts of random aspects of rural life. Our narrator was young, traumatised and caught up in a maelstrom of horror which no modern teenager would be able to comprehend. Indeed, thanks to decades of peace and relative civilisation, we have a more com- fortable perspective from which to engage with the Holocaust – a perspec- tive not enjoyed by the author. Our narrator anchors himself to events which are often repetitive and seemingly unimportant to the overall narrative – but this is typical of traumatic narratives. He was a young man watching his neighbours and community slowly turn against his family, to the point they became vi- cious murderers. It is the stuff of nightmares, and language is inadequate to fully communicate the terror, the fear, the tragedy, the anguish. Israel Stern’s commitment to writing down the events as he remem- bers them is further testament to the courage he demonstrates in having survived. May he rest in peace. Hannah Morris 8 — Foreword stern-inhalt-v16.indd 8 29.11.18 11:27 Roots Mielnice Mielnice, as it was called in Yiddish, was a small Polish town on the Dniester river, which at the time was situated in the Southeastern cor- ner of Poland close to the Soviet border (an area that is now part of the Ukraine). The Poles know it as Mielnica nad Dniestrem and the Ukrain- ians as Melnycia nad Dniestrem. It was part of the district of Borsz czow, in the province of Tarnopol. This small town housed a population of around three to four thousand inhabitants, of whom approximately for- ty percent were Jewish, forty percent Ukrainian and twenty percent Pol- ish. The Jews lived in the town’s centre, with the Ukrainian and Polish in- habitants on the outskirts. The nearest train station was situated in Iwanie Puste, a distance of five kilometres from Mielnice. Other villages and market towns in the area were: Ustie Biskupie, Filipkowce (Pilipsch), Michalki, Wolkowce, Chudikowce, Dziwinecke, Zielona-Olchowiecka, Kolodrupka, Kudrince and Olchowiec. The local land was very fertile and was referred to as ‘Podole’, and the soil was dark and heavy. Temperatures in winter could reach up to mi- nus thirty degrees with significant snowfall, often falling a metre high and with heavy drifts. Beyond the towns and villages, snowdrifts could reach up to four metres in height. Summers, by contrast, were so mild that apri- cots, grapes, walnuts and melons grew. Despite the fertile local land, the population was poor. With abso- lutely no industry or work, there were no means of earning money. For the peasant population, without land of their own, the only opportuni- ty for work was with the large landowners or the local gentry. These farm workers lived like slaves, enduring terrible working and living conditions. Rows of the most basic dwellings were situated on the edge of the farm- ing estates. The buildings were constructed using loam and the roofs were made of straw. A door would lead into a single room which was used for 9 stern-inhalt-v16.indd 9 29.11.18 11:27 eating, sleeping and as a kitchen and living space. In this one room the whole family lived, and the families were often large. Every family mem- ber worked at the farm. The men worked the fields using horses, ferti- lizing the land with manure and bringing in the harvest, amongst other tasks. The women milked cows in the sheds, fed the animals and helped at harvest time. Payment was made with produce, not money. Depend- ing on the number of working family members, a certain amount of grain, potatoes and wood for heating (more like kindling) was handed out. Ev- ery family was able to keep a pig near their home. The days were long, and people worked from sunrise to sunset. The produce of sunflower seeds, walnuts, tobacco, grain, corn and apricots was delivered all over Poland and the rest of Europe. Despite the successful harvests, fertile land and favourable climate, even the inde- pendent farmers remained poor, with few exceptions. Any wealth a farmer had decreased substantially on the marriages of the children. For example, a farmer with ten Morgen of land (one Morgen = a quarter of a hectare) would share it equally amongst his four children, leaving only two and half Morgen for each child, and so it continued from one generation to the next. This was also the case for Jewish landowners despite their rela- tively larger holdings. My Grandfather, who owned several hundred hec- tares of arable land and forest in Pilipsch, split his land between his grown children as an old man, leaving only a portion with each. This went on through the generations, leaving families ever poorer. Jewish families also lived in some of the villages throughout the area. The Jewish population of Mielnice comprised mainly merchants and tradesmen, with a smaller amount of farmers and landowners.