Baranovich The Trilogy Part II Baranovich In Martyrdom & Resistance Memoirs, Documents, and Eye-Witness Accounts, Dedicated to the Sacred Memory of Our Martyrs & Heroes, from Baranovich and its Environs, Who Perished During the Period of the Holocaust Gathered, Compiled and Edited by Joseph Foxman Volume I Published by The Baranovich Society in America New York, 5724 – 1964 Price 2.00 Dollars Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................. i Foreword ........................................... By Mordechai V. Bernstein 1 The Heroic Partisan Shlomo’leh Itzkowitz of Baranovich ............... By: Sh. Gerling 3 We Flee the Koldichevo Camp to the Partisans ................ By Pinchas Mordkowsky 5 The Uprising in the Koldichevo Camp ........................ By Shimon Berkowsky 7 The Frightful Tragedy of the Baranovich Jews ...................... By Herman Kruk 8 Remarks ............................................................. 15 Escape from Camps ........................................... By A. Srogowicz 15 We Escape from the Baranovich Camp ..................................... 15 We Escape from the Koldichevo Camp ..................................... 16 Ash.. ...................................................... By Z. Segalovich 16 Uprising in the Old-Wilejka Camp .......................... By Baruch Kudewicky 17 Holocaust Murderers and War Criminals in Baranovich ........ By Yaakov Shereshevsky 20 Poems ...................................................... By Itzik Manger 21 Orphans ............................................................. 21 Sullen Anger ......................................................... 21 A Six Year-Old Child Rescued Herself ....................... By Rosa Shereshevsky 22 The Extermination of Two Thousand Czech Jews in Kaupenica ........ By Lyuba Parzen 22 A Small Testimony to our Great Tragedy .................... By Joseph Szczawinsky 23 Four Murderers of Jews in Baranovich Are Sentenced to Death ........ By M. R. Khayet 24 To the Heavens ......................................... By Yitzhak Katznelson 25 The Heroes – Vova Kopeliowicz and Shlomo Lansky ............... By Kh. Lidowsky 26 Vova Kopeliowicz ..................................................... 26 Shlomo Lansky ....................................................... 26 i The Baranovich-Kadainov Rebbetzin, Perel’eh Perlov .............. By Menashe Ungar 27 Slonim Hasidim among the Daf-Yomi Resistors In the Vilna Ghetto ... By Joseph Foxman 31 Jewish Resistance in the Sveran’ Camp ....................... By Tevel Rozowsky 32 Concerning the Baranovich Yizkor Pinkas ....................... By Daniel Charney 33 Baranovich ............................................. By Ben-Zion Goldberg 37 The Baranovich Yizkor Book ..................................... By Ber Green 39 A Baranovich Bat-Mitzvah in the State of Israel ..................... By A. Sh. Uris 41 She Did Not See Death Only Once Before Her Eyes ..................... By Sh. Bank 44 Hidden in an Attic ..................................................... 44 ‘You Are Too Young To Die’ ............................................ 44 Ten Thousand Are Killed ................................................ 44 Taken Away in Gas Trucks .............................................. 44 Without Food or Water ................................................. 45 Her Mother in Nazi Hands ............................................... 45 Partisan Missions ..................................................... 45 The Fate of the Jews in Baranovich and Vicinity ............... By Joseph Ziegelbaum 46 The Heroism of the Baranovich Jewish Partisans ........................ By H. Vital 50 Partisan-Resistance Groups in the S. S. Camp and the Koldichevo Camp By Lyuba Sluczak 54 A Jewish Trade School in the Nineteenth Century ................ By Shlomo Foxman 57 The First Host of Baranovich ................................. By Moshe Goldman 62 Portraits, Folklore, and the Way of Life Before the Holocaust ........ By Joseph Foxman 64 The Ignored Grave in Mys ............................................... 64 A ‘Donkey’s Burial’ in the Little Shtetl of Staloviy ................................. 66 Permission from a Hasidic Dayan in Baranovich to Build a New House ................. 68 R’ Pini’eh, ‘The Guest Ombudsman’ of Baranovich ................................. 69 ii Leib’eh the Miller from Kunceviy .............................................. 70 R’ Leib’eleh of Malakhowiec – The 37th Lamed-Vovnik .............................. 72 Customs of the Hevra Kadisha in Ljahaviy ....................................... 73 The ‘Pinkas - Wedding’ in Mys ................................................. 74 Two Lamed-Vov Tzaddikim ................................................... 75 The Four Feasts of the Hevra Kadisha in Baranovich ................................ 76 By-Laws from the Mys Pinkas .................................................. 77 The Will of a Jewish Tailor from Mys ............................................ 78 A Din-Torah with a Deceased Person in Staloviy .................................. 79 The Inauguration of the Baranovich Cemetery in 1888 ............................... 80 Well-Known Hasidic Leaders of Prayer from Mys and Telekhany ..................... 81 The Will of Sarah-Risha v”g, the Charitable Woman of Mys .......................... 82 The Will of a Jewish Horse Thief ............................................... 84 The ‘Sacred Stone’ of Ljahaviy ................................................ 85 A Rosh Hashana ‘Rebbe’ in Mys ............................................... 86 A Rich Man’s Will Breaks an Old Custom of the Hevra Kadisha in Mys ................ 87 A Shokhet Strike in Baranovich ................................................. 88 ‘At Weddings, At Ritual Circumcisions’... ........................................ 90 ‘God’s Street’ in Baranovich ................................................... 90 A Forgotten Province That Made Our People Great ................ By Daniel Charney 91 A Seder Night Without Matzos in a Soviet Prison in Baranovich ..... By Fishl Ludmirer 96 Shavuot in the Slonim Shtibl in Baranovich ..................... By Fishl Ludmirer 98 iii R’ Moshe’leh, Hasid from Slonim ........................ By Yekhiel Granatstein 101 R’ Israel Zalman Szelowsky from Moucadz’ ...................... By A. Rosen 104 My Father’s Boots ........................................ By Yeshaya Spiegel 106 The Gaon R’ Elchanan Wasserman .. By Minna Chana & Elchanan Meir Wasserman 106 Baranovich – The ‘Tel-Aviv’ of Lithuanian Poland ............ By Moshe Yudelewicz 108 For the Sin I Have Committed ................................... By Fyvel Blank 115 The Hideout of the 71 in the Baranovich Ghetto .................. By Isaac Fayglstein 115 Grabowiecky’s ‘Kolkhoz’ ............................................... 115 Being Quartered and Helped by Christians ................................. 116 At the Partisans ...................................................... 116 The ‘Zhorkintzehs’ .................................................... 117 The ‘One-Fifth’ Jewish Partisan Group on a Weapons Mission ................. 117 Mulya Yankelewicz ................................................... 118 The Partisan ‘Special-Group’ and its Commander, Orlovsky ................... 118 Commander Nikolski .................................................. 118 The ‘Zadanias’ of the Partisans .......................................... 119 The Partisan Zone .................................................... 119 Sar’keh Rabinovich – the Partisan Heroine ................................. 120 Commander Lejzor Segal ............................................... 120 Commander Yud’l Wisznia ............................................. 120 ‘Rosa ’ ...................................................... 121 Medals for the Jewish Partisans .......................................... 121 The Baranovich Judenrat ............................................... 121 The 22nd Day of Remembrance for the Martyrs of Baranovich ........................ 124 Editorial Notes About Sources of Published Material ............................... 126 iv Foreword By Mordechai V. Bernstein Baranovich belongs to those cities that, relatively speaking, was among the earlier ones to publish a Yizkor Book. This was indeed a virtue – the scions of Baranovich were among those who were early in commemorating [the tragedy of] the Holocaust. However, this virtue has one shortcoming – When Sefer Baranovich, which appeared in Israel in 1953 was prepared for publication, many details were as yet not yet known, and as it was, especially concerting the martyrdom and heroism of the Jews from Baranovich and its vicinity. It is possible that those who produced Sefer Baranovich did not have the ability to reach everyone, who could have helped to complete the picture, both of suffering and heroism. It is also possible that many of the survivors, at the time, had no knowledge that such a book was being prepared, or these events were still so fresh in their minds, that they could not yet digest them in order to put them down on paper – for everlasting memory. Regardless of the reasons, in the fullness of time, a significant amount, and a very important body of material was assembled regarding the Holocaust and resistance period in Baranovich and its vicinity. This material os of diverse character. Some of it is scattered and dispersed among a variety of anthologies,