The Outcasts
(Last part. The beginning in Vol. 89 and
90)
Out of 2017 Jews, less than a half survived – 894
people.
Abraham Sutzkover (was born in Smorgon, Jewish poet and writer)
testified in the Nuremberg Trials regarding the atrocities which were committed
by the fascist towards the Jewish people: “The Germans declared that the
holocaust of the Jewish people was according to law…The ghettoes were made in
order so that the extirpation of the Jewish settlers to be easier. The Jews were
not allowed to pray inside the ghetto, using watches was not allowed either.
When a German entered, the hats were taken off; it was not allowed to look at
the Germans. Giving birth was prohibited inside the ghetto. When my wife gave
birth to a baby, the baby was killed before my eyes, something black was put
under his nose and he stopped breathing. Later on part of the Jews was taken to
Ponari. When carts with shoes returned, I recognized my mother’s old pair of
shoes…”
Abraham Sutzkover was in the Vilna Ghetto and not in the Smorgon one,
where the conditions were even more inhuman. Out of 80,000 Jews only 600 were
saved. It is unknown whether they stayed in Vilna or left its borders. As for
the Smorgon Jews – most of them moved to Israel.
According to population
census of the 1999, in our region lived 15 Jews. Today, probably there are even
less… One of them, Dmitry Samuilovich Jacobson, complained: “They brought up
this issue too late. There’s no one left to tell about this. There are no more
witnesses of this terrible tragedy in the town. All I know is that the
conditions in the Smorgon ghetto were extremely tough. The conditions were worse
only in the Vilna ghetto. I also know that the synagogue on the territory of the
ghetto was one of the most beautiful in Europe…
You’re asking why there were
such persecutions of Jews? I have no idea. They always have been. And they are
now, but in an unrevealed form. There is some kind of an antagonism against
Jews, although the human race began from Jews. We are all brothers and
sisters!
If only this phrase which breathes a spirit of humanity could revive
all the fallen! To turn time back, like a film, to the very day when nobody had
known, that tomorrow there would be a war.
As written in the letter of the
Jews of Hadera to the Regional Smorgon Historical Museum: “There is no longer a
Jewish community in the town of Smorgon. The memory of this community was
eternized in the city of Jerusalem on the mount Zion, together with all other
sainted communities. Its memory is also eternized for future generations in the
memorial book named “Smorgon”. This is the evidence to the fact that despite all
the monstrous and terrible tragedies which occurred to the Jewish people and
threatened to destroy us, we say: we exist and we will exist, we live and will
live!”
And they live – some in England, some in Canada… Most of them, of
course, are in Israel, in the already mentioned city of Hadera.
Short
historical background: Hadera was founded by emigrants from Smorgon after the
First World War, in the year 1915, on the territory of Palestine at that time.
Originally, it was a small community, but step-by-step, in virtue of historical
circumstances, the community was growing, despite the hard environmental
conditions of the desert, and eventually became a city. Now it’s a populated
locality at size of Molodechno. Approximately 100 thousands inhabitants reside
here. They live in concert and on friendly terms thanks to a well-organized
community. The chairman of this community is Mordechai Taboriysky. However, the
soul of the community of Jews of Smorgon was and is, for many years, Lea
Levinson (friends and relatives call her Liza), whose letter was quoted above.
Maria Moisevich, director of the museum of Smorgon explains: “Liza, maybe as
nobody else, represents a strong image of optimism and unbreakable will. Her
husband-to-be lost his legs during the war, but she, while overcoming certain
difficulties, found him and brought him to Israel. Her grandson was born
disabled with absolutely hopeless diagnosis, but his grandmother managed to get
him on his feet – he became the Champion of Israel in swimming among disabled
people… The day he became champion he brought home his medal and said to his
grandmother: - This is your prize!
Despite all, Liza has enough internal
strength to help others, to support the other members of the community for
better or worse. The telephone in her house never becomes silent.
But if Liza
is the community’s soul, then Liubov Mishlovskaya should be called the mother of
the community. Her all-inclusive maternal sense reaches all. This is a person
with unique zest for life. She went through all the ghetto hell and high water.
She got saved by a miracle from shooting in Ponari and from the tragically known
pits. Afterwards was the German death camp Shtutthoff. When they were released,
a soldier carried her on his arms. She cried and couldn’t stop the tears. He
stroked her head and said gently: - Granny, please calm down…
She wasn’t even
20 years old at that time. Bertha Kvartach went through all of the war’s
horrors. Now she is the Chief Costume Designer of the Russian Theatre of Drama
in Tel-Aviv and also works in an Opera House. She is long since reaching the
retirement age, but nobody, by hook or by crook, wants to let her go to
well-earned rest.
You can bring back a lot of memories and tell much about
everyone who ever lived in Smorgon. These people themselves often bring call to
memories regarding their town and their youth, and those who were killed by the
hands of the fascists.
The Jews of Hadera have collected money and had a
monument constructed in the village Zelenka (the Oshmiansk region), where during
the war the first 500 Smorgon Jews were shot. Originally the inscription said
that in this location peaceful settlers who were shot by the Germans were laid
to rest.
In the year of 1995 an entire delegation from Hadera came to
Smorgon. They had a commemorative tablet, which they financed by themselves,
installed on the wall of the Bank of Belarus. They took a walk in the town,
which became unrecognizably different - luminous and beautiful. They looked for
their old houses. Some of them have found their houses and were wondering how
small they are. But when they have seen that an old Jewish graveyard no longer
exists (the graveyard extended from the site where was once a parking lot and
later became the shop “Zhuravlik” to house No. 26 on Gagarin street and was
removed in the 70’s), they cried...”
Since that, they visit the town every
year, except the last summer. They bring their children and grandchildren with
them. They take a trip to Zelenka, the city and its environs – Golshani, Krevo,
because some of them are from the Smorgon vicinity. And on the next day they go
to Minsk, and from there back to Israel. They come here only to pay their
respects to their nearest and dearest. For this very reason only... Because they
have no one left here.
The opening of the commemorative tablet for the
victims of ghettos. Smorgon, July 3, 1995.
From left to right:
The chairman of the community Mordechai Taboriysky, Lea Levinson – the secretary
of the community and Maria Moisevich - director of the Regional Smorgon
Historical Museum.
The monument to the Jews of Smorgon who fell in
all of the different wars. City of Hadera, Israel.