Vishtytis
(Vistytis, Lithuania)
54°27' / 24°43'
by Dr. Mendel Sudarski
Translated by Mindle Crystel Gross
A Town That Kaiser Wilhelm Helped to
Rebuild
Scores of well-planned and
beautifully laid-out Jewish towns developed along the entire length of the German-Lithuanian
border and the German-Russian border. With friendliness and good humor, these
towns observed their German neighbors across the border. During the working day
a lifelong competition went on between the towns. Jews, Germans, Lithuanians, Poles,
and Russians conducted business alongside one another and occasionally even
socialized.
The town of Vishtinetz was pretty and
idyllic. One side of the town was bordered by a large lake that stretched for
miles, from Lithuania deep into Germany. On the other side, Vishtinetz was
bordered by small hills covered by a thick, almost inpenetrable forest. The
hills, to our childish eyes, looked like tall mountains.
The lake was a good meeting place for the German
and Lithuanian fishermen (mostly Jews) as well as providing the perfect
opportunity, during the previous Czarist rule, to row illegal immigrants to
Germany from the Russian side and to bring illegal literature from Germany into
Russia.
Vishtinetz was once a town of
substantial size with a large religious Jewish community of landowners. The
famous gaon [sage] Rabbi Khayeml Filipover Brash was a resident of Vishtinetz
and was well known for his charity and for his greatness equally as a Talmud
scholar and as a mensch [a human being, in the highest sense].
Vishtinetz was one of the oldest
settlements in Lithuania. Because of its proximity to the German border, it was
obvious that Vishtinetz would become a center of small industry. There were a
number of pig-hair factories and tanneries, which employed approximately 200
workers.
The brush-workers had a hard time
then. They worked 16 or more hours a day, with the majority of them having
their dinner brought to the factory and some of them staying there overnight,
resting on a sack of pukh [“down,”i.e. the soft part of the pig-hair] and
sleeping. Thursday, or as it was called, “Green Thursday,” they worked through
the entire night to compensate for Friday, when they left early because of the
approaching Shabbos. The work week began again Saturday evening, right after
havdala [ceremony ending Shabbos].
And yet the brush-workers were the first to
introduce a worldliness into the Jewish life of the shtetl and to revolutionize
the masses. Regardless of how strange it may seem now, the first book that
awakened the consciousness of the workers was Mendele [Moikher Sforim]'s story
“The Mare.” The sole copy of “The Mare” was passed from one group to another in
secret since it had been banned, after all, and anyone caught with it would be
arrested. I remember to this day how they led away the brush-worker Tanakhke
Bunes, an honest and guileless worker thirsting for knowledge, to Vilkovishk,
the district capital, for just such a serious mistake. This was the first
disturbing incident that led to changes in the idyllic life of Vishtinetz.
It was difficult and troublesome to
reach Vishtinetz from the Russian side, although it was only 21 verst away from
Verzhbalove. Twenty-one verst are about 15 American miles. To travel this
distance, however, often took the better part of the day and sometimes part of
the night as well. The road was partly sandy, strewn with rocks and, in many
places, so muddy that sometimes Vishtinetz was cut off from the rest of the
world—no coming, no going—unless you took a long detour through Germany in
order to reach the station at Verzhbalove. The only connection with the
surrounding area was Moyshe the “Telegraph,” a young, strong man and army
veteran, always happy, always making a joke and meeting every difficult
situation with a smile. He rode to the train station every day, regardless of
the weather, to post the mail, to bring merchandise back, and to transport
passengers back and forth. He was called “Telegraph” because neither cold nor
mud stopped him.
As time passed, Vishtinetz, like many
other small towns, shrank in size. A portion of the younger generation, having
gotten a whiff of the malevolent wind that blew from the German side, gradually
left—some to South Africa and others to America where they established
themselves in fine positions. Even Moyshe the Telegraph, in time, made his way
to Canada where he died a couple of years ago. Several of the pig-hair
factories (Itsele Sidorski's and Khaim Bertz's) relocated to Virbalin and
Vilkovishk, and the tanneries closed. The large, beautiful synagogue became
empty and nostalgia for its former worshippers enveloped the adjoining house of
study.
Quiet and sad were the streets that
had become overgrown with grass, and the hearty and resounding laughter of the
children who had once played there so innocently was no longer heard. To make
matters worse, Vishtinetz unexpectedly experienced a hellish fire at the end of
a summer 49 years ago, which virtually decimated the greater portion of the
town.
Photograph
with caption: A solemn worship service in the Vishtinetz synagogue in honor of
the coronation of Nikolai II (1895) with the participation of a town official
and the police commissioner. From right to left can be seen among others: R'
Nakhum Itseles (teacher); Aba Abelevitch; Moyshe Pavishanski, Cantor; Leyzer
Volf, town-head (from Brody); Khana Lipman (teacher); Avraham-Motl
Viklavishski, Rabbi; Fayvl the shokhet [Kosher slaughterer]; Mordekhay Pats;
and Itsele Peretses (Rubinshteyn).
But an odd honor was visited upon
Vishtinetz, an honor that memorialized the town in history, even though the fire had partially
wiped it off the face of the earth. On the other side of the lake, which
culminated deep in Germany, was the large and beautiful estate Rume (?), hidden
in a deep, virtually pristine forest. A magnificent palace stood there, with
the entire surrounding area beautifully landscaped. The dense forest, the large
lake—all of this was perfect for the Kaiser's yacht.
Every autumn, the Kaiser and his
entire retinue arrived for the hunt. Here he could show off his prowess as a
sharpshooter, that regardless of what target he aimed at, he would hit it.
During this period of several weeks of free-spirited living at the expense of
innocent animals, he would destroy a number of bears, hungry wolves and sometimes
even lured a fox. But most importantly, he was an expert at frightened and shy
deer. Afterwards, these dead animals were brought to Berlin with great ceremony
and exhibited in the very center of the capital. The idiotic Germans hastened
to gaze upon the slaughtered animals, which to them appeared to be such a
wonder, and could not praise their Kaiser's skill highly enough.
Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in Vishtinetz
for the hunt in the same year that the fire occurred. Learning that the pretty
town located on the other side of the lake opposite his yacht had burned, his
heart filled with pity, or maybe eagerness at seeing a burned-out Jewish town.
One day he arrived in Vishtinetz with his retinue. It was Yom Kippur and there
was no prior warning announcing his visit.
Wilhelm delighted in making such
surprise visits and was well known for his sudden and unannounced appearances
among the populace. Noticing the dead silence and the streets empty of people,
he became downcast–what should he do?
Even when the head of the town
informed him of the important and holy Jewish holiday, he remained perplexed,
for after all, a Kaiser is not just any ordinary person, and certainly not
Wilhelm, who had been “anointed by G-d”. He sent a messenger to the Jews in the
synagogue and politely requested that they go to the market place as he had
something important to discuss with them.
The Jews, upon hearing of this
development—even those in a talis [prayer shawl] or kitl [white garment worn
onYom Kippur] and boots—rushed to the market place. The Kaiser exhibited his
majestic patience and waited until the very last elderly man arrived from the
synagogue.
Then Wilhelm dismounted his horse,
and in a friendly manner greeted the Jewish representative—the teacher of the kazioner
elementary school, Dovid Robinson (father of Drs. Yaakov and Nehemiah Robinson,
both of whom are in New York), greeted everyone with good wishes for the new
year, apologized for disturbing their prayers and imposing upon them with his
summons.
The Kaiser offered fine words of
consolation to the frightened people and substantial aid for reviving the town.
He offered 10,000 marks (at that time equal to 4,000 rubles). Later he
convinced his friend Czar Nikolai II to contribute a similar amount (5,000
rubles). In addition, he promised to intercede with the Czar to forego the tax
on all necessary building materials obtained from Germany.
Dr. Rabinov, who spoke German
fluently, greeted Wilhelm and thanked him heartily in the name of the Jewish
community. Wishing the Jews an easy fast and great restoration after the fire,
Wilhelm bade a friendly goodbye to the startled and surprised Jews.
Their fast was certainly an easier
one, and happy and enthusiastic after the unexpected event that they could
hardly comprehend, they went to Neilah [closing service on Yom Kippur], praying
with even more fervor and fire than usual, calling out lshana haba birushalayim
[next year in Jerusalem].
This event was described in all the Russian and
German newspapers, and the Gemans lauded the Kaiser for his fine and humane
act.
As I tell you this story, it seems to
me to be the product of fantasy, a wild dream containing within itself the
terrible wrongs which the Jews suffered at the hands of the barbaric Hitler
gangs, sons of the German people, descendants of Wilhelm, but it is a fact, and
a fact filled with such sorrow. Kaiser Wilhelm should serve as a model of high
morale and good deeds and yet, what a far cry from that time, that not-so-long
ago past to the dark Hitler times.
Yet even the royal intervention of
Kaiser Wilhelm could not help, although he did keep all of his promises.
Missing was the strength and energy of the youth; there was not the needed
impetus to rebuild the entire town. The mood of impoverishment was felt even
more strongly.
After the Great War barely a minyan
[ten men required for public prayer] of Jews remained in Vishtinetz and the
town reverted entirely to the rule of the Lithuanians and the
Lithuanian-Germans.
Now there is no one there who, at the very least,
will remind the German Hitler-murderers of the “scandalous and law-breaking
act” of their late Kaiser Wilhelm II. Certainly, they have noone who will
listen, who will take this “unbelievable” story of their former leader—Kaiser
Wilhelm—as an example.
Different times, different birds—and
instead of the former chanting and prayer-
murmuring birds, there are new wild, black crows in
Vishtinetz as a result of the slaughter which the Nazis, together with the
Lithuanian murderers, carried out against
the town of Vishtinetz and which piece by piece,
destroyed the tattered and tortured Jewish community.
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/lita/Lit1614.html
[Pages 1633-1644]