Volkovysk exhuutektuu The Trilogy Part III exhcIektuu ,hbIhm-,hsUvh vkhve ka VrUPo Volkovysk The Story of a Jewish-Zionist Community Published by Katriel Lashowitz Tel-Aviv 1988 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................... .......... i Foreword ............................................... By Katriel Lashowitz v The City, In Changing Times .................................................. 1 Notes on the Origins and Development of Volkovysk . ..........................1 The Jews of Volkovysk and Environs . .......................3 Volkovysk After The First World War . By Eliyahu Shykevich 6 Experiences and Memories .................................................. 9 A “Tour” of Volkovysk .............................. By Noah Tzemakh 9 A Home in Volkovysk ............................... By Eliyahu Rutchik 14 The Porters and Wagon Drivers of Our City . By Eliezer Kalir 18 Mutual Aid and Support ................................................... 20 TO”Z ............................................... .................23 The Old Age Home ................................... ..................24 The Orphanage (According to the Diary of Eliyahu Shykevich) ...................25 Fire Fighters ...................................... .....................29 Education, Culture and Journalism ............................................31 Jewish Education ................................... By David Niv 31 The First Rungs .................................. by Yehuda Novogrudsky 32 Between Belz and Volkovysk ........................ by Israel Scheib (Adler) 34 A Jewish Girl Student In a Polish Government School . by Shifra Hakla’i (Langer) 37 Teachers and The Heder ....................................By Ben-Israel 38 Activities in Theater Arts ......................... ........................39 Jewish Newspapers in Our City ...................... ......................41 Volkovysk .......................................... ..................42 Organizations and Youth Movements ...........................................43 General Zionism.................................... ....................43 The Revisionist Movement ........................... ....................44 The Left Wing Zionist Camp ......................... .....................45 Sixty Years with the HaShomer HaTza ‘ir Movement . by Gedaliah Pick 47 Betar.............................................. By David Niv 52 The Gordonia Youth Movement ....................... by A. Novick 56 Maccabi ................................................... ...........57 The Bund ................................................... ..........59 Jewish Activity In the Communist Party . by Nechama Schein-Weissman 60 i Religious Life ................................................... ............64 Rabbis and Dayans.................................. ....................64 The Volkovysk Community Its Rabbis, Personalities . by Rabbi Yitzhak Kossowsky 69 A Wellspring of Zionism and Halutzim ..........................................74 Volkovysk Jews and The Holy Land . .....................74 Eliyahu Golomb ..................................... ...................77 Eliyahu, A Son of My Hometown By Azriel Broshi . By Azriel Broshi 78 Yaakov Rabinovich .................................. ...................79 Moshe Saroka....................................... by Ben-Yisrael 80 Hanokh Saroka...................................... ...................81 Raphael Klatshkin .................................. ....................82 Yaakov Einstein .................................... ....................84 Yaakov Einstein as a Friend ....................... by Katriel Lashowitz 85 Abraham Makov ...................................... .................86 Shimon Rogov (Reznitsky) ........................... By Katriel Lashowitz 88 Azriel Broshi ...................................... By Katriel Lashowitz 89 In Memory of Noah Tzemakh ......................... By Katriel Lashowitz 89 The Story of Giora Epstein ......................... ......................90 The Surrounding Towns and Villages ...........................................91 Zelva .........................................By Yerakhmiel Moorstein 91 My Town, Lisokovo................................ By Jonah Borukhansky 93 Fragments of Memory from Lisokovo . By Tova Shantal (Kravchik) 97 My Town, Volp ....................................By Shmuel Sidransky 98 With the Mosty’ Jews On Their Last Journey . By Dr. Noah Kaplinsky 100 Svislucz .........................................By Shimon Finkelstein 103 My Town, Piesk ..................................... by Chaim Shevakh 104 Krzemienica ...................................... By Nakhum Reznitsky 107 Porozovo ........................................... .................108 Personalities & Portraits ................................................... 109 The Barash Family .................................. By A. Novick 109 Dr. Moshe Einhorn.................................. ...................110 David Einhorn ...................................... ..................111 Dr. Raphael Lemkin ................................. ...................112 David Hubar........................................ ..................112 Meir Shiff..................................... By Yitzhak Bereshkovsky 113 Tuvia Fenster ...................................... ...................113 Nakhum (Nakheh) Heller ............................. By Dr. M. Einhorn 113 Rabbi Abraham-Zalman Kurtz......................... ...................114 Israel Novick and His Sons ......................... .....................115 Reb Abraham-Eliyahu Markus ......................... By Zahava Graf 115 Grandfather Meshel ................................. By Katriel Lashowitz 116 ii The Holocaust ................................................... ..........118 Table of Dates ..................................... ...................118 The Russian Occupation at the Beginning of the War . By Eliyahu Rutchik 118 The Initial German Occupation ................... (According to Dr. Einhorn) 120 The First Miracle ............................... By Dr. Yitzhak Goldberg 123 With the Doctors Who Were Taken Out to be Killed . By Herschel Roitman 125 That Children and Grandchildren Might Know . ............. By Mira 128 The Path of Suffering and Heroism . By Eliyahu Kovensky 130 Thanks to a Broken Machine Gun ..................... By Katriel Lashowitz 135 The Tribulations of Ida Mazover . ......................140 From the Memories of A Partisan . By Katriel Lashowitz 148 From the Birkenau Camp – To Israel . by Chaya Weiner 159 That Long Day .................................. by Dr. Noah Kaplinsky 160 Concerning the Volkovysk That Is No More by . Yaakov Rabinovich 164 Pages from the Album ............................... by Mulya Schein 165 Efforts to Create Permanent Memorials .......................................167 Memorials to the Volkovysk Community In Israel . .......................167 About the Memorial and its Creators . by Aharon Podolinsky 168 Critical Acclaim for Dr. M. Einhorn’s Book on Volkovysk .....................169 At Daniel Lemkin’s Fresh Grave .................... by Katriel Lashowitz 170 Volkovysk Organizations Abroad ..................... by Katriel Lashowitz 172 With the Completion of the Book .............................................174 There – And Here ................................................... ........ 176 iii iv Foreword By Katriel Lashowitz Yizkor Books, that sought to preserve the memory of those Jewish communities in the Diaspora that were wiped out by the Nazis, began to appear by the late 1940's. About seven hundred books were published then, because every organization of émigrés from a city or town [living] in Israel saw a need to preserve the memory of the city or town from which his comrades came. Therefore, the appearance of this book may seem surprising – to the memory of the Jewish community of Volkovysk and its environs – forty three years after the Holocaust. It appears to me that some explanation is in order for this surprising work, in view of the fact that two volumes appeared in the United States in 1949, by Dr. Moses Einhorn, entitled Wolkovisker Yizkor Book, and many of the scions of Volkovysk were satisfied with that, because the publisher has succeeded in assembling a great deal of informative material in his books, from various sources, and also availed himself of the eye witness accounts of those who survived the Holocaust. By and large, these books were written in Yiddish (several tens of pages in English also), and as can be understood, only those who understand this language can access them. In one of his letters to the Organization of Émigrés from Volkovysk in Israel, Dr. Einhorn conveyed his hope and request that one day his books would be translated into Hebrew, however, for a variety of reasons, this never came to pass. Only a folio put out by the Organization of Émigrés from Volkovysk in Israel was published in Hebrew, in the year 1945, with the first news of the fate of the Jews of Volkovysk, but not much else. When I reached Israel after the war, I heard a great deal from the Volkovysk émigrés, that there was a need to preserve the memory of our Jewish community, in a book written in Hebrew , however, for whatever reason, this never got past the talking stage or the realm of wishful thinking. I am compelled to admit that never in my life did I believe that I would be the one to realize Dr. Einhorn’s hope, and of the older people