DELIVERANCE DELIVERANCE ISBN 965-90701-0-1 Ãñôêáþ the Diary of MICHAEL MAIK
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MICHAEL MAIK was born in Sokoly, Poland in 1897. He was educated in the famous Slobodka Yeshiva in Lithua- nia where he received rab- binic ordination. He married Tzippora Meltz from Vilna (Vilnius) in 1918 and later, he and his wife returned to MICHAEL MAIK Sokoly where his only son, Moshe, was born. Michael was respected as a learned man and taught private lessons from his home in Sokoly. He also sold books and newspapers, such as the popular Warsaw Yiddish daily Heint. He not only had an excellent Jewish education, but his learning also extended into many Áelds and in a number of languages, including Esperanto. His The Diary of extensive library was destroyed when the Germans expelled the Jews from Sokoly in 1942. Michaels eyewitness · account of the years of the War and his personal experiences form the dramatic basis of this Diary. In 1949, after the War, Michael Maik and his son, Moshe, made their way to the Jewish Homeland, the State of Israel, and eventually settled in the coastal city of Netanya where Michael lived out his life. Michael Maik returned his soul to his Maker on the 24th of Kislev 5728 (Dec. 26, 1967). DELIVERANCE DELIVERANCE ISBN 965-90701-0-1 ÃÑôêáÞ The Diary of MICHAEL MAIK DELIVERANCE THE DIARY OF MICHAEL MAIK A True Story Translated from the Hebrew by Laia Ben-Dov Second Edition 2019 Revised and Corrected With a Full Index by Avigdor Ben-Dov From: Sokoly B’Maavak L’Chaim, (Hebrew) Sokoly Emigre Society in Israel, Tel-Aviv (1975) Shmuel Kalisher, translator (Yiddish to Hebrew) On September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland, and the world Holocaust began. Prior to that, no one believed that the danger was so near and that it would reach such proportions of horror. Ten days after the War started, bloodthirsty German soldiers burst into our town, Sokoly, and immediately began a mad rampage. Guided by young Poles, they passed through the homes of the Jews and abducted the leaders of the community, in particular, the Rabbi and the shochtim (kosher ritual slaughterers). Thus, it was decreed that our Rabbi, HaRav Yosef Rosenblum, was also among those who were tortured. They stripped him of his clothing and, when he was barefoot and almost naked, they forced him to jump and dance under a flood of well-aimed strikes of a whip on his exposed back. At the end, they forced their captives to wash their vehicles. The barbarians stripped the clothing off their victims and lashed them with rubber whips. They also pulled out their beards along with the skin, and forced them to sing and dance. This hell lasted for two hours. The Germans pushed a frightened crowd of Jews into the old synagogue and, screaming and shouting, threatened to burn it down with them inside. Thus, they kept their captives terrified to death for many long hours. The Germans burnt the nearby district city, Wysokie Mazowieckie, on the day they entered it, and not a single Jew was left alive there. Some of the people who were burnt out of Mazowieckie came to Sokoly to seek shelter. But the day after their arrival, the Germans 1 also burnt down two main streets of Jewish homes in Sokoly: Tiktin [Tykocin] Street and Gonasoweki Street. While the flames reached towards the heavens, the soldiers rushed around in the streets of the town like hunting dogs and abducted Jews along with the possessions that they had rescued from their burning homes. Again, they gathered hundreds of Jews, and filled the Christian church with them, as well as a house that was under construction near the Bialystok road. Among the crowd there also were a few Christians, and even a young priest. The Germans threatened to take revenge on the prisoners for the killing of three of their soldier companions by Poles in the village of Lachy (three kilometers from Sokoly). Because of this, they burned down the village of Lachy and murdered a few farmers, but without the addition of Jewish victims, they did not regard their revenge as complete. Thus, about 500 imprisoned Jews lay in fear of death all that night. Whenever a door opened, the people trembled and their hearts beat faster, lest their end had arrived. Cries and painful wails were heard, that they would never again see their children, their wives and their dear ones, and take leave of them before they were sacrificed. At seven o’clock in the morning, the door was opened and a few Germans entered. They ordered the prisoners to get up and form lines according to age: lines from age 30 and upward, after them from age 20 and upward, and at the end, youngsters up to the age of 20. At the beginning, all of them thought that they would be shot according to the order of the lines. With broken hearts, parents separated from their children; brothers from brothers. Unexpectedly, to their surprise, all the lines were released. The purpose of the Germans was to cause terror and fear among the people. With indescribable joy, all of them ran to their relatives to spread the news that, praise G-d, they were rescued from death. 2 Alter Slodky When they had gone only a few steps away, the joy ended. Alter Slodky was lying in the middle of the street, next to the two-story house, in a puddle of his own blood. Regarding Alter Slodky: he was a vigilant man, attached to, and active in the community. His intelligence was outstanding, and he always had a parable, joke, or slogan appropriate to the conversation. His black beard, encircling his face, was always neat and combed. Alter was a talented merchant; he supplied flour, salt, sugar, and oil to shop owners and bakers – at wholesale. He also had a general store, where he sold housewares, decorative items, and all kinds of candles. In his yard were a horse and a wagon, which he used for his business. His three sons were employed in bringing merchandise from Bialystok, and they traveled around to the landowners’ courts and the flour mills in the villages. On the High Holy Days, it was Alter’s custom to serve, without any compensation, as the chazzan (cantor) for the musaf prayer in the large beit midrash. His voice was agreeable and his singing of the prayers gave much pleasure to the congregants. Now, Alter Slodky is no more. His body lies in the street, split and blood-soaked. Pelchok, the Fisherman At a distance of a few steps away from Alter Slodky lies the old bachelor, Chaim Pelchok the fisherman, seriously wounded in his stomach. This is Pelchok, who supplied the Jewish residents of Sokoly with live fish for Shabbatot and holidays. We dedicate a few lines to his image: On Shabbat and holiday eves, in the early hours of the morning, Pelchok would bring a wagon full of fish to the market in our town, and would loudly call out: “Women – Live, Flopping Fish!” Dozens of women, with bowls in their hands, would hurry out from all directions and push to buy the live, flopping fish. There 3 were women who sat and waited from midnight in the fish market, worried that they would be late, Heaven forbid, and would not be able to get live fish in honor of the holy Shabbat. The noise and tumult among the women was immeasurable. They surrounded Pelchok’s wagon like bees. But Chaim knew how to stand up to all of them. With one look he encompassed the entire crowd of women. He knew his customers well; he knew their weaknesses and their tastes. He knew who paid in cash and who took credit. He hurried to weigh the fish and record sales in his book, while telling jokes with his clever tongue. He calmed discontented women, exchanging one fish for another, to the satisfaction of all of them. Now, Chaim Pelchok lies on the main road, curled up in agony, seriously wounded, and struggling with the Angel of Death. His sister stands at his side, tearfully begging the Jews who are approaching to take him into the house. There is no stretcher. Eight Jews carried Chaim Pelchok in their arms. The victim bitterly cried out: “Jews, have mercy on me, let me die quickly, I cannot bear the suffering.” They laid him in bed. It was shocking to hear him crying from his horrible suffering. Alter Novak A few minutes later, it became known that there were additional sacrifices that night. Alter Novak was a 60-year-old learned Jew, a former Telshe Yeshiva student, who was always happy and of high spirits. In the beit midrash, he would learn Torah with the yeshiva boys and kollel students. During prayers, he did not allow the congregation to talk. He used to check whether the tsitsiot of the children’s “small tallitot” were kosher. He watched over the boys of bar-mitzva age and took care to see that they put on tefillin according to the requirements of the Shulchan Aruch. It was his custom to severely criticize rabbis and famous authorities, and to disqualify their opinions. Alter frequently went around in the villages in order to buy “bargains,” and it was his custom to joke around with the farmers. 4 He took his only cow, which had a single horn, to pasture in abandoned places, because he wasn’t able to give it to a shepherd. While he watched the cow, he would study a book or read a newspaper that he got from his neighbors.