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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 17

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is March 16, 2010. We are in Brooklyn, meeting a former ghetto inmate and participant of the Great Patriotic War. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your life before the war. What sort of family were you raised in? What did you do during the war?

My name is Khonya Epshtein. My father’s name was Borukh and my mother’s name was Malka. I was born in the town of Shepelevichi [Shapyalevichy], Mogilev [Mahilyow] Oblast, Belarus. The town was on the northern outskirts of the Mogilev Oblast. Beyond the town were dense forests that stretched all the way to the Berezina River. You could walk all the way to the Berezina and then reach Minsk if you wanted to. The forests were rich and dense. The forests had many lakes that had probably been formed during the Ice Age. My childhood was spent surrounded by Belarusian nature: mushroom, berries, and swimming in lakes. The gorgeous Aslik River passed through my town and there was a wonderful beach on its bank. Near the beach there was a two-story windmill. There was a lot of fish in the river, so fishing also occupied a very important place in my life. I remember one time my father and I caught a huge catfish, but we could not eat it because my father kept kosher and could not eat a fish without scales. We had to give it to the town priest, who gratefully accepted the gift. Belarusian families lived next to the Jewish families in our village. We got along splendidly, among the children it made no difference whether you were Jewish or Belarusian. Many cottagers from Leningrad, Moscow, Minsk, and Mogilev came during the summer, lured by the wondrous nature all around us. My father had many Belarusian friends. During the evenings we often had many people over to play cards and chat around a table. They took over our usual study place and we would have to go to a different part of our enormous house in order to do our homework.

There was a large school in our town. At first it was a seven-year school, but it was later expanded to include high school. We had great teachers, all of whom had higher education. Our Russian language and literature teacher was Evgeniya Petrovna Skalina, math was taught by Mariya Vasilevna Dividenko, the principal was Andrey Makarovich Lipetsky, and the chief administrator was Afansy Fyodorovich Lugovtsov. My first teacher was Elena Konstantinovna Vidyakova. From my elementary school teachers, I best remember Mariya Vikentiyevna Kuzmenkova. She was my teacher through fourth grade. Thanks to her I was a great student in fifth grade. I received certificates of merit every year. I loved the forest. I would go and pick baskets of mushrooms before school. When I was not gathering mushrooms . . . Not far from our home there was a large fire observation tower, and I went there almost every day. I climbed to the highest step. I also loved to swim and dive. I would dive from the roof of the windmill that was on the bank of our river. I often had to cross the river using a plank if the water was too deep. This came in handy later when I was a partisan and had to cross the river using a plank, but this time carrying my submachine gun, ammo clips, grenades, and a rucksack. What else can I tell you . . .

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

—What language did the children speak to each other?

Most children spoke Belarusian, but those families who were close to us spoke Russian. In Russian there is the conjunction “kogda” [when], while in Belarusian it is “koli.” I remember that the father of Misha Bordashev, one of my friends, would chastise and ridicule him for using the Belarusian word. Because of that Misha tried to speak Russian, even though there was a great teacher of Belarusian at our school, Mariya Fyodorovna Sulimova.

—“Koli” also exists in some Russian expressions.

Yes, well . . . he was not allowed to speak Belarusian. His father served in the army, knew Russian well, and forced his children to speak it.

—Did people speak Yiddish?

We only spoke Yiddish at home. Because my parents spoke it at home we also knew it very well. There were about forty Jewish families in our town. There was an entirely Jewish street. It was paved with battens and thus was a little higher than the other streets. The houses were in better shape than those on non- Jewish streets. The homes were beautifully built and there were many new houses there. The Jews were mostly craftsmen. Many were blacksmiths, cobblers, glaziers, and tailors. There were also merchants, but in smaller numbers. Since we lived in a heavily wooded district, there were several tar factories nearby. They were built on clearings not far from the riverbank. Jews normally worked there as store clerks. My grandfather Simon Soloveychik, who lived 12 kilometers away in the town of Esmony, worked at one such factory.

Our family was enormous. My father not only had two brothers, but two sisters as well. His older brother and middle sister had immigrated to America before 1914. My father was born in 1890 and was drafted into the army in 1910 and served in Volsk, Saratov Province. In 1914, when the First Imperialist War, as it was called then, began, he fought at the front near Lviv. The tsar even awarded my father with St. George’s Cross for the capture of Lviv. He only had the cross though, he was not included into the order. After that he was taken prisoner and held until 1920. His mother died when he was in captivity. After he got back, he got married, in 1921. There were many people in our town who were not supportive of the new government and violent crime was common. Since Jewish families tended to be richer, the bandits often targeted them. Sometimes after looting a house they would light it on fire with the occupants still inside. My father’s first wife, Roza, saw that a nearby house was on fire and tried to wake my father up, but he would not get up. From the shock she fell ill with tuberculosis and passed away two years later. My father was left alone with his young daughter, Rakhil. He had to figure out what to do next and who would raise her. My father turned to his wife’s father's family. There were five more daughters and one more son in that

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN family. At a family council they decided to place the responsibility on the next oldest, my mother, who lived in Minsk and evidently already had a suitor. My father did not know her. They met for the first time when she came here. She had been friends with her oldest sister, my father’s wife, and she was convinced to come back home despite having a suitor in Minsk. She had no choice but to marry my father. I must say that a strong family was created. My mother and father loved each other and my sister was very lucky because she was raised by her aunt. I also had an older brother named Samuil, born in 1924, who was very smart, handsome, and sociable. All the boys from our town wanted to be friends with him. I was born in 1928, followed by my younger brother Simon in 1930. Because her mother had fallen ill with tuberculosis . . . my sister had eye problems. They say it is related to tuberculosis. She was shortsighted and everyone pitied her. She was a very beautiful and interesting girl. This was our life before the war.

My father was the chairman of a small cobbler workshop. He employed five craftsmen and was himself a good cobbler. After the war, when I ran into people from my hometown in Mogilev, they would turn to my wife, Olga, and ask: “Do you know who his parents were?” One former peasant from a village near ours said, “When I grew up and had to join the army, my father took me to his grandfather and asked him to make some boots for me. Your grandfather said that it was not a problem. My father said that he did not have enough money to pay him. Your grandfather asked how much we had, and we said three rubles. He said that that was enough and made me a pair of boots that lasted me until I was issued new ones in the army.” Later he was sent to the front and was promoted to the rank of major. He knew my parents and my grandfather well.

My time at school was quite lively. We had events at school, and a good mechanical engineering program, despite it being a rural school. We also had well-equipped chemistry and physics classrooms.

—Then the war began.

Then the war began. On the first day of the war, I traveled to Krugloe [Kruhlaye]. We had just graduated from high school and I wanted to get a photo taken. It was an 18-kilometer journey and my friends and I set out on foot. I had the picture taken and was on my way home when I heard the word “war.” My mother and father traveled to Belynichi [Byalynichy] that day in order to purchase a new cow. They brought the cow back that same day, but it turned out to be blind. So during the first few days of the war I had to help the shepherd, because the cow couldn't see. Five or six days passed like that. After eight days the Germans appeared. The whole town was abuzz with their arrival. Terrible leaflets appeared, threatening dire consequences for anyone who was sheltering Yids . . . The Yids were a centerpiece of German propaganda. Before the war we had many Russians over at our place, but now the doors had shut. However, everyone needed shoes, so my father continued to work. My brother, who was seventeen at the time, was summoned to the draft office and offered an opportunity to put together a partisan unit. They

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN offered this to my brother . . . He looked Jewish with his black curly hair . . . My father’s sister was evacuating with her large family because her husband was a Party worker and was afraid of staying behind. Since my brother had been issued rifles, ammunition, and grenades . . . My brother showed me where all of these things were stored and left with my aunt. This is how my sister and my brother stayed behind . . . Before that my maternal grandmother had been brought in, and she could not travel. We could not take her anywhere . . . We could not just leave her, so we stayed behind in Shepelevichi.

Two weeks later we were ordered to wear the Star of David and a new police force appeared. The police consisted of the children of former kulaks, people who had been repressed by the Soviet regime. Where did they all come from? They must have fled from their places of exile. As soon as the Germans arrived, they all emerged to take leading roles in the police force. Plus the locals . . . One of the peasants was a bit deaf. He had seven children. He surprisingly also became a policeman. His name was Makar Golovkov. In our town we all knew one another. There was another man named Roman Pushakrev. Before the war there was an order to check the fitness of all those registered for service. Both Golovkov and Pushkarev were relieved of military duty because of hearing problems. They decided to return home once they received their exemptions. Just then the draft officer walked out onto the porch and yelled after Pushkarev. He turned around. The officer accused him of faking his disability and reenlisted him. When he called Golovkov, he just kept walking. Pushkarev was drafted and died at the front, while Golovkov became the head policeman. Makar took part in the murder of my father and brought me boots to be repaired the very next day. Makar also beat my mother. Later, when I was in the partisans, we captured and executed him. The story about Makar’s capture is quite interesting. He was captured along with town burgomaster Viliskevich. Viliskevich’s son had been the best student at my school. Before the war, he had risen to the rank of captain and commanded an infantry battalion. During the war he even led a regiment. Meanwhile his father was a burgomaster. So we captured him along with Makar. Since Makar had participated in the murder of so many people, we immediately . . . A session of a hastily formed tribunal sentenced him to death by firing squad. He was executed. As for Viliskevich . . . we took his Browning. Makar had a rifle; he quickly surrendered when we caught them off-guard. We let Viliskevich listen to a radio broadcast about our offensive on the Kalinin Front. Our troops were successful on the Kalinin Front and his son was commanding a regiment . . . “I will not serve anymore,” he said, and handed over his Browning. Two weeks later . . . There was a butter factory in town and he loaded up a whole cart of butter to take to the local fascist garrison. Just then some partisans, including me, drove into town and saw what he was doing. Our brigade commander took out his pistol and shot Viliskevich in the stomach. Everyone thought that he was probably still alive. He fell down . . . and needed to be finished off. “No need for that, he’ll croak on his own.” It turns out that he was taken to a hospital, healed, and continued his work at the district capital. Finally we caught him again, in another place. All the partisans that I met later on had settled their scores with collaborators in our territory. What else?

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

—How did you survive?

How I survived . . . that is a very difficult question. First of all, my father was executed on October 29, 1941. This was a big loss for our family. He was respected by everyone in our town. Our homestead, which included all of our agricultural buildings, was surrounded by a fence. We had a lot of firewood because we heated our home with a wood-burning stove. My father prepared dry birch logs for the winter. We had a large house. Nobody bothered us. On the evening of the day my father was killed . . . after I returned and found him dead inside a fresh grave, another polizei named Semyon Vladeyko came around, broke our fence, took our horse, loaded our cart with firewood, and drove it away. In the morning Makar showed up with the boots he had taken off my father’s body . . . The heels were worn down and since I used to work with my father, he had taught me his trade. He had seen me working with my father. He asked me to resole them. I refused. He then whipped me half to death and then began harassing my mother and demanding that she bring him gold. This was the first incident. Since we lived in a wooded area, there were surrounded groups of Soviet troops nearby. However, they did not make their presence known. Nobody knew that there were officers and soldiers that had retreated into the forests after being surrounded. Winter came and they built dugouts not far from our town. One of the traitors gave them away and the Germans decided to encircle and kill them. However, that group of seven servicemen managed to break out of the encirclement, killing two German soldiers in the process. Two days later the Germans came, evicted all the Jews including me from their homes, and took us to the outskirts of the town. Before this they had already killed all the men and teenagers. They were taking us to get shot. Beyond the town, there was a place where earth was extracted for road repairs, and that's where the Germans took us; they began the selection process. My mother and a few other people were selected to be spared. And my younger brother and my sister . . . But I and the other teenagers and about eighty women and youths in total were slated to be executed. My mother saw that I was among those who were to be killed and began begging the starosta, bowing to him. The starosta’s name was Leon . . . She swayed him and he pulled me out. This is how I miraculously survived for the first time. This happened on November 15, my birthday.

A few days later they shot people where Kuperman lived. On December 12, 1,500 people were killed in Belynichi. Two people escaped, Kuperman and Shaya Belevitsky. The surviving Jews from our town were taken to the district center and housed in eight adjacent houses, with about 40 people living in each house. There were about 300 of us there. We had no food, so we were forced to wander the surrounding fields and dig up potatoes, as well as beg for food in the nearby villages. We lived like that until February 1942. In February we were moved into three large buildings that formerly served as party and government offices. Those buildings were divided into many rooms. About 100 of us lived in each building. The buildings were then surrounded by an enormous 3-meter fence made with fir branches and wire. Guards were placed around the perimeter around the clock. We lived there for over three months before the executions began. They counted us every evening. Kuperman was imprisoned there with me. He escaped a week before the execution, but I stayed until the very last day. On the night of June 15, 1942, my

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN grandmother woke up and tried to go use the outhouse. She was not permitted to exit the building. That is when we learned that a few policemen were in the house. When I looked out the window, I saw that our building was surrounded by police.

—Were they Germans?

Yes, the Germans had surrounded the house. My mother then thought that . . . who knew, maybe they were going to take the teenagers away again. She began shouting for me to quickly climb into the cellar. I climbed in and crawled a little ways under the floorboards. Suddenly a German appeared there and told me to climb out, in Russian. He was obviously a collaborator. I kept crawling away. He kept shouting and I kept crawling away. He began shooting, but I kept crawling. Then I heard everyone being rounded up and taken away. Everything got calm and quiet. There were special openings so that air could circulate in the basement. I looked outside and saw that it was already dark. I decided not to hang around any longer and tried to get out. As soon as I neared the exit, I heard “Halt! Hands up!” All of a sudden, they began shouting and throwing grenades. Then they began blowing up the floorboards and destroyed the floor entirely. I took cover under the stove, which was supported by parallel beams. They shouted all night long and then searched for me during the day . . . I lay there in wait. Then the same thing the next night. They kept shouting and I kept waiting. On the fifth or fourth day everything got quiet again, no more shouting. I decided to take a peek outside. I looked out and saw a policeman named Zaykovsky. There was a government building nearby. I saw that he wasn't looking in my direction. I walked into what used to be our room and found it empty. I thought that there might be some photos left behind. I exited. The fence was gone. I went down into the neighboring ravine.

I walked along the roads, which I knew well from going around the villages to get food. A spring downpour began and I found myself on a collective farm. I was completely soaked. My shirt was in tatters from crawling under the floorboards. There were many nails there and I had quite a few scratches and bleeding cuts. I decided to seek shelter in a house. I walked into a house, which I later found out belonged to a peasant named Shevchik. He immediately told me to climb onto the stovetop bed, which was concealed by curtains. He asked what I needed. I was silent and did not ask for anything. Through the curtain his wife handed me a bowl of buttermilk mixed with cottage cheese. I quickly ate it, fell asleep, and only woke up in the morning. I heard the voice of a man who frequently visited my father. Until 1939, he was the chairman of a village council before being imprisoned during the purges. Eventually there was a trial and he was freed. Now he returned to the district center and found a job as a forest ranger. He began telling the peasants that five days ago all the Yids in Krugloe had been killed, but that one had escaped miraculously. The Germans blew up the entire floor . . . it is as if he disappeared into thin air. They kept searching but never found him. Where could he have . . . it was a puzzle for all the Germans in Krugloe. I lay there on the stove while he told that story and left. The village of Oglobli [?], where I was taking shelter, was about 4 kilometers from the garrison. I figured that the polizei could come around and decide to take

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN a look behind the curtain where I was hiding. I then told the peasants that I would leave. “Where are you going to go, son?” I said that I had to leave . . . He said, “Then take my sweater, a new shirt, and some boots.” I had nothing. “Go in that direction.” We were in a deforested area of the Krugloe District. Our section was forested, but this one was not. It was on the other side of the river. I walked along the tree line of the forest. To my left was the village of Pasyrevo with its large beautiful houses. Then I came across the next village, Dudakovichy, also very beautiful. Then there was a less beautiful but larger village called Orekhovka [Arekhawka].

I sensed that it was a large village. I crossed the road and saw that it bordered the forest. It had gotten dark already. I went to the outermost house. The owners immediately offered me some food. I thought that I wouldn't stay there too long. I asked whether there were any partisans in the village. The owners responded, “Son, go through that forest and you may find them. We see them sometimes, but they never come to our village.” I walked down a forest path and stopped in a clearing near a century-old oak. I lay down next to it and fell asleep. I woke up at dawn. It got light early . . . it was . . . June 20. I wandered further into the forest and came across an arbutus bush and ate the berries. I kept walking and reached the village of Sloboda [Slabada]. I tried asking about the partisans again. “Son, you should go to Ratsevo [Ratseva], there are partisans there sometimes.” I went there and saw a disabled persons' home. I did not know about such places before, but it was inhabited by people who had been seriously wounded during World War I. Some were missing their legs . . . A man was sitting there and said, “Yes, we have partisans in our village. Go to such and such place . . . This won’t end well for our adversary. He started with the Jews, but he’ll get to us too.” He showed me where to go and I met the partisans in a forest clearing. I was immediately taken to brigade HQ. The brigade was commanded by Kepich. He questioned me about my story and I answered. He listened to me and said, “We have a squad leader named Suvorov, you will serve in his unit. He will come to brigade HQ and you will join his unit and leave with him. He is a very good person, a graduate of the Dzerzhinsky Military Academy, and a uniform-wearing artillery captain. He will take you in.”

Just then we heard people running around and shouting “Mishka, Mishka, Mishka Nudelman blew up the bridge!” There was an overpass, not a bridge over the Dnieper but rather a railroad overpass, and it had been blown up by Mishka Nudelman. Mishka then appeared at HQ to report how he blew up that overpass. He had changed into a German uniform, killed the sentry using a dagger, and then placed two separate explosives under the bridge to blow it up. The Germans could no longer use that railway. They decided to surround our forest. A battle began and 83 Germans were killed. This happened on the day of my arrival. Also on the day of my arrival a Jew was executed. He was a tall, handsome man with a neat haircut, dressed in a kosovorotka [traditional Russian shirt] and Galliffet pants. He arrived and introduced himself as a doctor to the head of the medical team. He said, “I am a doctor from Mogilev, a Jewish escapee . . . I have managed to bring some medicine, you can use it to treat the partisans.” Then another

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN partisan saw him and said, “What are you doing here? Why, this is our chief accountant from the automotive plant!” I no longer remember his last name. His wife was a doctor and worked at a German hospital. She obviously convinced the Germans to send him on a mission to the partisan camp. He was executed immediately. He confessed and told us everything.

A few days later I saw . . . our partisan units were based in one forest. I saw Kuperman riding a bike. Meanwhile, Suvorov received me very well. Three days after I joined, we stormed a large German garrison in Golovchino [Halovchyno] and captured a lot of clothing for the partisans from the polizei. We brought the clothes back. I forgot to mention that I was put in charge of caring for the horses. The partisans kept coming up and giving me clothes—a coat, some boots—and telling me that it would fit me perfectly . . . I felt exceptionally cared for, which immediately gave me strength. They also brought me a French carbine and 150 rounds of ammo for it. Suvorov said, “Khonya, this is your weapon and you will use it in battle, but be aware that there are only 150 rounds for it.” They began bringing me as a sentry on railroad sabotage missions. I came to understand that looting was punishable. A well-known partisan by the name of Boris Zemlyakov . . . he was told to stay in his tent and put under guard. I was selected for guard duty. It turns out that two women had been parachuted into our district. They were hungry and Boris offered to help them. He caught a chicken that belonged to the forest ranger, a partisan messenger, and made soup for the women. The forest ranger complained, and they disciplined [Boris] right away. Boris turned to me and said, “You know what my little Epshtein . . . I think I’ll be going now.” I replied, “If you want to die an early death, go ahead.” “Are you really going to shoot me?” I said that I would because otherwise I would be killed. Then we were surrounded. It was then that Kuperman and I became separated. He went to the forests near Lepel. We traveled in the same direction as well, but we could not cross the railroad and the highway as one large group, so we crossed near Smolyana by Orsha. We ran into an ambush. The ambush party was quite large and we immediately lost about twenty men when they attacked us. It was a nighttime battle and we could not see our enemies, but they saw us clearly. We again retreated into the forests near Shepelevichi. Suvorov and I operated in that forest.

—Were there many Jews in Suvorov’s unit?

There was one other Jew named Mottl Frayman. He had been hidden by the village council clerk, he himself was the village council secretary. Mottl Frayman was the secretary of the village council. A coworker of his, the clerk, hid him by building a dugout for Mottl to live in. When the partisan movement took off, he also joined our group. And the other guy too; his name was Sazanovich. He did as he was told, no differently from anyone else. I always volunteered for tasks. He was a little wiser, having lived and experienced more. He fought in that unit until the end. Later I was wounded, and he left for Brest. Our HQ chief was Nikolay Ivanovich Yurevich. So this Yurevich . . . When we joined forces with the Red Army, there was an unpublicized order that partisans who had served for over two years could leave the armed forces

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

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ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN and help rebuild the republic through government or party work. [Frayman] was well-suited for this because not only had he been the village council secretary, he had also served for over two years. But it was the HQ chief who was in charge of making these decisions, and he sent him to the front. Fifteen years later I traveled to Brest and saw a plaque at the city limits. It said “They perished while liberating Brest: . . . Modest Frayman." He was killed near Brest. Aside from me and him there were no other Jews, but this was probably because none of the Jews from Krugloye and the five surrounding Jewish towns had survived. Only Emelyan Kuperman survived from Belynichi. So that was inevitable.

After failing to cross the railroad, we stopped in a small forest named the Berezovsky Forest. There was a railway station nearby in Kokhanovka, which was not far from the village of Zaozerye. We had no food supplies, everyone was hungry, and the commander told us to ask the peasants for bread. Five of us went to the village. We walked through the forest before reaching the village. There was a house at the outskirts, and further toward the middle of the village there were some logs in the road, with men sitting on them. Our group consisted of me, Savchenko, and three other guys. I told them that I would ask for bread at the nearest house and that the rest of them should continue onward. They kept going and ran into two Germans and six polizei. They just walked straight at them. I heard gunfire. I jumped out and saw them running toward the house where I was. I made a dash for the forest and got away. The other four were killed. I miraculously survived. After that we decided to move to a larger forest because autumn was coming and it was impossible to hide in the small forest where we were, not far from Shklov [Shklow]. My former home was surrounded by expansive forests, so we decided to return to that district. We decided to cross the Drut River and stop near my hometown.

By then I was the commander of my unit. Our unit joined up with another unit and we made it to the village of Zelenaya Roshcha [Zyalyona Roshcha], some 3 kilometers outside of my town. Many of my former classmates were there. When they saw me, they started shouting “Khonya is alive! Khonya is alive!” They thought that I had been killed long ago. There I began to truly live. The partisans loved me. Suvorov was made the commander of several other partisan units that had joined us. We were preparing to destroy the railway station of Slavnoe [Slawnaye]. It was a large railway station on the Minsk-Orsha route and was used as a water filling station by the Germans. Our objectives were to destroy the water pump, disable the German garrison at Slavnoe, and to sabotage the rails 5 kilometers on each side of town. This was September 1942. My unit did not have direct involvement in the operation, but the mission was a success.

Suvorov would stay up late trying to decide which garrisons to attack. It got dark early. He called me and asked, “Khonya, maybe someone in Shepelevichi has some extra kerosene?” When the war began, my family was afraid of a fire starting, so we buried a large container of kerosene in the hayloft. I knew where it was hidden. I said that I knew where to get one. He told me to take Makushin with me and bring him the

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN kerosene if we could find it; he badly needed it. We left. At some point, we arrived at a fork in the road. A man was digging up potatoes out in the field. I decided to ask him if there was anyone in Shepelevichi. I asked him which road led into town. He stood up, took a good look at me, and asked, “You’re telling me that you don’t know how to get to Shepelevichi?” He recognized me right away: "You're Borukh’s son." I replied, “Well, Maksim, I thought I’d ask you.” I recognized him right away too. We arrived at my old home. It had been occupied by a polizei. He was chased out . . .

—So the home had not been destroyed with grenades?

No, that was in Krugloe, this was in Shepelevichi. The house was standing and had an enormous lock on the door. The polizei was replaced by a man who made felt boots. We took down the lock and entered. We went to the hayloft to get the kerosene. The hayloft was full of hay. We called the neighbors over to help us throw the hay out into the yard and began digging. It turned out that the new owner had a cellar there with sixty pairs of felt boots, and twelve sets of good military boots. I do not know where he got them. We kept digging and found the kerosene. Sixty pairs of felt boots, when nobody in our partisan group had any decent footwear. We hitched up a cart and decided to take all the loot with us. The new owner of the house was away. As soon as we set out, some women spotted us and began asking me for kerosene. I poured two bottles of kerosene for my neighbors and took the rest with me. Then the owner came running and Makushin said, “Take a pair of felt boots and one more for your wife, but if you ask for any more, you’ll be lying on the ground next to the cart. This is all stolen property.” We drove off with the rest. We buried it in the forest and . . . could never use it. But the army boots went to the partisans; we got them outfitted right away. And so I brought the kerosene.

Then the Germans began tightening their ring around our village. They began appearing in the nearby villages and trying to push us out. We had to find a larger forest. On our way there, we ran into a German ambush in a small forest. Our unit was surrounded. The first battle was near Stekhovo. Our Suvorov . . . there was a second commander named Nikitchenko. We had small mortars and enough firearms to fend off the enemy attack. Suvorov became frightened and ordered a retreat. Nikitchenko insisted that we had to engage the enemy. We engaged the enemy and pushed our way out of the encirclement. It was starting to grow dark by the time we broke out. The ring of enemy troops grew tighter and tighter until every road was under enemy control. They were using armored units. A division that was on its way to the front had stopped for four days in order to eliminate all the partisans in our district. Everyone except for me found themselves in an unfamiliar forest, but I knew the area very well. The recon unit went in one direction and found German trenches, where there were German soldiers every 30 centimeters. They were going to attack the following day and wipe us out. Everyone began wondering where we should go. Suvorov gathered us together and said, “The forest is very large, they cannot . . . we have to split up into groups of two to four people. It will be hard for them to find all of us.” There were spruce groves and raspberry thickets that had not yet lost their leaves. I knew of these places. I also knew about one road, beyond which

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN there were no Germans. If we could only cross it . . . Everyone said that I knew the forest and that they did not, so fifteen men joined my group and I led them away. Suvorov took another group and told us to meet at a designated location four days later. I approached the location where I wanted to cross the road, but discovered that there were Germans there too. The Germans were afraid of us too. When they saw us, they began shouting “Halt! Halt!” We heard them coming closer. They spent all day chasing us around the forest. We then walked into a spruce grove and decided to wait out the German operation there, intending to fight if we had to. By morning the Germans lifted their siege thinking that they had killed all of us. They left. We then set off for our designated meeting place. As we walked . . . we found Suvorov’s body. He had a military uniform, a ceremonial sabre, and a watch. His watch had been stolen, probably by one of the policemen. Krasnoselsky, Nebulin, and Kissym lay there with him . . . We lost about thirty of our people. Suvorov was dead. We wandered around this unfamiliar forest. We decided to return to the sparsely forested district because we knew all the villages and the surrounding areas. I didn't know what would happen to me, but the other partisans said to me: “Khonya, you will come with us, we won’t leave you behind.” I don't know why they were so fond of me.

—How did you meet up with the Red Army?

We met up with the Red Army . . . I was wounded and took part in many battles, and railroad operations. Then we learned that the Germans were retreating and that we would unite with the Red Army soon. Ten days prior to that, we were ordered to destroy 400 meters of railroad between Orsha and Tolochin [Talachyn]. There were seventy people in our unit. We destroyed the railroad, but before doing that we had to clear the enemy bunkers that protected it. Again we found ourselves just 7 kilometers outside of Shepelevichi and set up a camp in the forest. I was a scout then because I had been hit in the leg and had a hard time walking, so I could only get around on horseback. I was ordered to observe German troop movements between Shepelevichi and Belynichi. The German retreat was in full swing. I traveled to Zaozerye and then used the forest to reach Esmony. My aunt’s house stood on the banks of the river in Esmony. It was a gorgeous house. I crossed over a small bridge and saw the house where I had been many times, where I swam in the river, where I learned to ride a bike. The house stood empty . . . Fourteen people were killed there: my two cousins, their wives, their children, my uncle, and my aunt.

Beyond Esmony, the road turns toward the Belynichi-Shepelevichi highway through the village of Mokrovichi [Mokravichy]. Mokrovichi seems to have gotten its name from the swamps all around it. In August 1941 the Germans came to our town and forced about seventy of our teenagers to climb into mobile gas chambers, killed them, and then drove them to Mokrovichi. There is a ravine there where their bodies were dumped and covered with sand. As I was approaching Mokrovichi, I approached the road . . . and saw bones sticking out from the shallow grave. I looked at them and felt so much horror and pain . . . I kept going. I crossed the road, which was marked up with tank tracks. I had an acquaintance who lived in

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Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN the village, so I went to see him. His house was on the banks of the Drut River. I had lunch with him. He was Ukrainian and his wife was from my town. He had worked as a cobbler alongside my father. He received me well. When I exited his house, I saw partisans from Kulikov’s detachment on the banks of the river. I saw a car speeding through the dirt toward the river. When it got closer, we opened fire on it. The Germans began jumping out. We killed some of them, while others escaped. We rowed across the river and picked up some war trophies. I kept two German Parabellums and a field bag. It began to grow dark, so I returned to the camp.

The commander awaited my report. I returned . . . It was a tough journey. The Germans were retreating along secondary roads because our air force was bombing the main highways. The railroads had been blown up. When I returned, he said to me, “Khonya, I was beginning to get worried that you had been captured.” He then told the orderly to wake the cook for me. He fried up some potatoes . . . The commander said to me, “In the morning you will lead our unit to the forest clearing outside Shepelevichi." That was the same clearing where I was almost killed along with the boys and women. We were to take up defensive positions in that clearing and stop the German forces retreating from Shepelevichi. As soon as it began to get light, we set off. I was acting as a guide. We dug small trenches. Shortly about fifteen motorcycles appeared. We shot them up at point-blank range. We got out to pick up some trophies. The Germans figured out that we were not a regular unit, so they used artillery and tanks against us. We lost one, two, and then ten people all at once. Our commander ordered us to retreat. He saw that we could not fight against such a force. We retreated into the forest and he ordered me and another partisan to scout out the situation in the village of Kozel [?]. We went there and saw our tanks with stars on their armor. That was our first encounter with our troops.

—Were you drafted?

We immediately went to the district seat, Shklov [Shklow], where we were photographed. Then we were taken to be officially assigned to another unit. I was awarded the “Partisan of the Patriotic War” medal. I gave my horse to a peasant. I was assigned to a Ministry of Internal Affairs destruction battalion in Bobruisk [Babruysk]. A group of German troops had been surrounded there and we were ordered to capture them. There were 150 of us, each with a submachine gun. I still remember my gun’s serial number, IG-453. I had a submachine gun when I was a partisan, and I was issued a new one here. We marched 120 kilometers to Bobruisk and took up residence in the surrounding villages. Over the course of three months we escorted groups of 30-50 prisoners to Bobruisk, and one time a group of 300. I did not know what to do after that. I had nobody. My parents had been killed and I did not know where my brother was. Where could I go? Who could I turn to? I was sixteen by then. I decided to join the army and go to the front. I trained in the 206th Reserve Regiment and was deployed to the 1st Belorussian Front. I was wounded again near Warsaw. I was sent to a hospital in Syzran, where I met my brother. I then continued to serve, and worked

Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I had a very good relationship with people there. Then I left the army and served in the NKVD until 1951. I served at the State Political Directorate in Engels, but saw that there was no way forward for me there due to anti-Semitism, so I returned to my unit and continued serving there until demobilization. I spent three years as the aide to a platoon commander at the regimental school. I trained sergeants and trajectory calculators. I then served as the chief topography and calculations officer in an artillery regiment.

—Did anybody know of your story? Did you share it with anyone?

There is a book . . .

—You served alongside officers . . .

Nobody was particularly interested. Everyone had their own story. All of them had served at the front.

—After the war, did you ever visit those people who opened their door to you and hid you on the stove?

Yes . . . When I was still a partisan I remember bringing a whole cart of flour to that Shevchik. I came to visit him again, but he was gone. His house was gone too. There was another story. I was in tattered clothes and looked terrible . . . This was the same autumn when we captured the felt boots. I did not even have an undershirt. There were a ton of lice and I needed a change of clothes. My mother would take a lot of things to my first teacher, Elena Konstantinovna. I went to see her with two other partisans. I said, “Elena Konstantinovna, my shirt is completely worn out, maybe you have . . .” There were men in the household, there was her husband, Medyakov. “My mother brought you some things . . .” She said, “Khonya, what are you talking about? Your mother never gave me anything.” What was I to do? I turned around and left. I saw my biology teacher, Mikhail Vasilevich Zalivkevich. His wife had passed away three years before the war. He was now married to a beautiful village girl named Nadya. He saw me and exclaimed, “Khonya, you're alive!” I told him that yes, I was. He called his wife over: “Nadya, Nadya, come here. Khonya is here with two other partisans. Make him some eggs with lard, feed them. Give them everything we have. I have some moonshine too . . .” He had studied at the Vitebsk [ Viciebsk] Medical School before transferring to a teaching college and graduating from the Chemistry and Biology Department there. We were getting ready to leave when he said to me, “Khonya, here are two pairs of underclothes and a shirt, you better put them on right now.” Two people . . .

—After the war, did you visit all the villages you mentioned?

Yes.

Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

—How were you received?

It varied. One such story happened when I was working as the assistant principal of a school in Belynichi after competing my education at a teaching college. Obviously I was included in school evaluation commissions. I went to Shepelevichi with one such commission. I knew the school principal. He took a correspondence course during my studies at the teaching college. He had asked me for help during the exams. After graduating he became a principal. There was a subject called military and patriotic education. There was a stand at the school which read “Graduates of our school who were partisans in the Great Patriotic War.” There were three names there: Kadyshev, Lapko, and Volodko. And that's it. I said, “Volodya, I don’t think you included everyone!” He said, “What do you mean? We only had three partisans?” I asked what about me. He said that he had forgotten and apologized. "Forgotten" . . . There was one woman who was an orphan and after completing medical school she moved to Lviv just before the war. After the war she returned to find out about the fate of those who stayed in Belynichi. She knew that my parents had been shot, and that my relatives had been shot, but wondered if anyone had survived. She was told that only I was left. I left for America at some point. One day I got a call from her. Her name was Matlya, her Jewish name. I got a call in the United States asking me if I remembered Matlya. I did, of course.

Then they began inviting me to speak at schools that bore the name of our partisan brigade. I was invited to speak to students. I arrived and tried to find acquaintances, but could not locate any. I saw posters on the walls. One of them was titled “Partisan Families.” A woman and a man stopped to take a look at it. She turned to the man and said, “We should include the Sazanoviches here.” Sazanovich was the clerk who hid Frayman. I asked her how she knew about Sazanovich. She was from Leningrad. She saw me . . . I had changed completely, I was a child back then . . . “Khonya, it’s you!” I immediately recognized her as Stasia, the daughter of a Leningrad district police chief. She was visiting her grandmother when the war began and joined a partisan unit. She saved my leg when I was wounded. We did not even have anything to clean the wound. She went to the hospital and picked up all the necessary medicine. There were so many of these cases, Lenya! A thousand and one nights. Then there was college . . . I graduated with perfect grades.

—What was your major?

Russian language and literature.

—I can tell from your book. When and where did you graduate?

In Mogilev. I had no family left. Despite the anti-Semitism, I was given a Komsomol stipend after completing my first year. One year I even received the Stalin stipend. I did not personally experience any

Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN virulent anti-Semitism, but it was terribly prevalent. I was the deputy principal of a school. The district party committee decided to award me with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. I told them that the whole district would lose its award if they gave it to me. But they'd made their decision and sent it to the oblast committee for approval. Sure enough, everyone else got it, and my name was crossed out.

—Thank you very much.

Khonya Epshtein. Full, unedited interview, 2010

ID NY060.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4j847

ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN

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