By Ilya Magid

Editors: Steven Siegel and Dan Smollens

SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

1. First Acquaintance

2. Childhood in Poland

3. The Soviet Government

4. Life under German Occupation

    4.1 First Contacts with Germans

    4.2 Life in Forest's Dugout

    4.3 Partisan's Life

5. Postwar Life

6. Emigration

7. Emigration Life

Conclusion

SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST

1. FIRST ACQUAINTANCE

My hero, Constantine, is a strong man, age about 65, average size. He wore a knapsack on his back. He said, "I like to walk." He arrived from Minsk (Byelorussia) in Boston in 1994 joined his wife and daughter, who arrived a year and 4 months before. He later began to live separately from his wife.

[That was a financial decision. They received two apartments and income of $670 for each, instead of one apartment and income for each of $470. I know many emigrant families who live separately for that reason].

He said, "If Russia had not won in the war, the Germans would have conquered the entire world. Constantine believed that America had no role in the war.

[Many Soviet people think that World War II began in June 1941 and ended May 1945. Soviet censorship news informed the Soviet people that way.]

I saw that he brought products from the Haymarket on Shabbat. I told him, "You must understand that is not so good to buy food on Shabbat." He answered me, "I don't believe in G-d, but I pay respect to believing people.

[That phrase is not good for me, because I think, that it means, "I am clever but you are a stupid person". That is the result of the Soviet education.]

It is necessary to act honestly. Pioneers (members of the children's communist organization) teach, "don't steal; be honest." I told him, "The fascists have one moral and communist have another. Who is right?" He said nothing to me.

I think that people in those 2 countries created new idols, Stalin, Hitler, instead of G-d.

2. CHILDHOOD IN POLAND

In Poland the Jews lived in a degrading situation. They had difficulty to access jobs and education (it was very expensive), etc., but they had a Jewish life (synagogues, education.)

Meir saw light in 1929 in Poland in the region of West Byelorussia in the shtetl Zamoshino. In 1939 his family had three children, Meir-9 years, one younger and one older daughter than he. In the shtetl Zamoshino there lived 1000 residents (40% of them were Jews). There were one synagogue, one Polish Roman-Catholic church, and one Orthodox Church.

The shtetl Zamoshino was in Wrozlovs region. Wrozlov had 10,000 residents of whom 40% were Jews. There were two or three synagogues. His uncle lived there. Another uncle and aunt emigrated to Palestine in 1936.

His father had 5 hectares of land. (That site his father inherited from his father.) His father was also a tailor. There he always had clients. Meir studied in heder until 1939. He remembered if he did not prepare his lesson, the teacher punished him with a birch rod.

3. THE SOVIET MANAGEMENT

In 1939 Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. Their area became part of the Soviet Union and was united with East Byelorussia.

The Jews in Poland met the Soviet Army as liberators. (In the Soviet Union before World War II, 1939, there was no discrimination against Jews, all Jewish ghettos were dissolved but all religious Jewish life was destroyed. The civil education was free including university education. After the war, anti-Semitism arose.) A Jew became the chairman of the executive committee of the town of Wrozlov. Many militia men were Jews also.

At first Soviet officers bought all their products and clothing from the Polish shops. Then they began to select people for deportation. Rich people were exiled to Siberia. (If the other people said that the rich people performed well in their businesses with their workmen, their businesses would have been confiscated but they would not have been exiled.) Instead of private shops they organized government shops, but there were few products for sale. There appeared the Soviet clubs. Then they began to organize the 'kolkhoz' (collective farm). The father's 5 hectares of land was confiscated. It was good that his father had another specialty.

At first a rabbi secretly went home to teach Meir, but later that became dangerous. Meir then enrolled in the Soviet school. He should have gone to the 4th grade class, but he went to the 3rd grade class. Meir studied in the Soviet school almost 2 years.

4. LIFE UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION

    4.1 First Contacts with Fascists
In 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Very quickly Germany occupied that place.

At first, the Germans removed all Jews from the shtetel Zamoshino to other villages and located them with other local families of Jews.

The family of his father's brother in Wrozlov had already been in a Ghetto. In the ghetto Germans appointed leaders, police officers from the Jews.
The father's brother sent a note with a peasant to his father, "We paid the commandant (Gate commissar) a ransom of gold and they did not kill us. Come to us in the Ghetto!" The father did not believe the Germans. He with his family secretly went to a forest.

All prisoners in the Ghetto, including the father's brother and his family, were killed in September 1942.

    4.2 Life in a Forest Dugout
Meir's family (father, mother, Meir, and his younger and older sisters) departed for the forest in the fall of 1942. In the forest they met another Jewish family, a father and his two adult sons, and a Soviet officer, who turned up in German occupied territory. He had a cavalry carbine.

They decided to build a dugout and build it in a swamp. In the dugout was a plank-bed, from the trunks of young trees, and branches, and straw. The plank bed was high above the ground because the dugout was on the marsh.

In the night they went to the villages and begged for or bought food. That was very dangerous. When you walked and somebody walked to meet, you did not know, maybe he had a sawed-off rifle in his clothes. Meir's family together with the soldier and the family with two adult sons got food independently for themselves.

In winter, when they stood up in the morning, from the plank-bed, water was on the floor. They had a problem with lice. Sometimes the mother with the hostess of the hut in the village arranged a bath. They heated the bathhouse and water in the evening. The bathhouse was located outside. (Candles must not be lit). At night families came and washed themselves and came back. If somebody knew that, all would be killed and the family of the hostess also.

The mother told her young daughter (4 years old) that there is a country called America, where Jews aren't killed. The young daughter said, "I want to go to America."

In the winter of 1943 Meir's father saw a notch on the tree close to their dugout. The father was very nervous. They sent the soviet officer at night to the village where it was known who made the notch. The officer learned nothing. In the morning they detected somebody creeping to the dugout. The father walked not far from the dugout. All residents hid their heads in the corner of the dugout.

The German crept toward the dugout and shot his machine guns inside the dugout. Behind German there were Byelorussian policemen. The Soviet officer aimed and discharged and hit the German soldier in the stomach. There was silence but there was an unbalance of power. The Soviet officer (Vasya) returned fire and was killed.

Meir with no boots and only 'bast sandals' in his hands jumped out of the dugout and ran to the right side. The sandals got stuck in the bushes. He ran without shoes through the snow. There was frost temperature of mines 20C (mines 5F) degrees. He ran up to a clearing in the forest and saw his father, who took Mair on his shoulders. They ran to the next dugout, where there lived other Jewish families. The distance between their dugout and the new dugout was 7 kilometers.

Later they returned to the old dugout. On the snow they saw blood and traced in to that direction and saw a dead mother. One stocking was pulled up the whole length of her leg but the other was only halfway up. First she was wounded on the feet, and then she was killed by two other bullet wounds in the head. They covered her with earth. The younger and older sisters, and father other family also were killed.

Later when they went to the village at night to barter for food the owner of the house said, "After the killing, the policemen assembled in the hut and drank hooch (special strong vodka was preparing in homemade condition) and spoke about that case. The policemen burned straw in the dugout. The young sister covered herself up under the plank-bed. She ran out and said to the policemen, "Do not kill me."

They knew later that two-brothers looked for the way to the next dugout, but they couldn't find it. They went to the village to ask for direction. They were reported to the police. One brother was killed, the second brother promised to show the location of the next dugout. He went with the police, but he did not know the way and was also killed.

In that dugout three families lived. They were from the same shtetl, Zamashino. There lived one family, mother and two sons. The mother's husband was exiled to Siberia, as a shop owner. They lived in the dugout with partitions from willows and twigs. We could see lice creeping cross the partition. Very soon the mother died.

In the summer some people left dugout and roved in the forest. They build a hovel.

    4.3 Partisan's Life
Once, some armed people went into a dugout. They were people of the Lithuanian Partisan's brigade. The brigade was sent to the German rear. They enrolled in their brigade only people knowing the Lithuanian language. Lithuania was close to that place and those people had a frame of mind against the Soviet domination. It was necessary to establish contacts with Lithuanians; it was necessary to convince them of the benefits of Soviet authority. The Commander of the Lithuanian brigade was Lithuanian, the commissar was a Jew. The Commander of Lithuanian brigade took only Meir (an active boy) for communication.

Later Meir's father was enrolled in the partisan's squad named Rokosovski, which was part of the partisan's brigade named Zucov. There were some squads similar to the squad of Rokosovski. After some time the father begged the commander of the brigade to release his son Meir from Lithuanian brigade so he could joint the squad Rokosovski. When the commanders met together, they decided that matter. Meir left his weapon in the Lithuanian brigade (that was the rule), and exited the partisan squad of Rokosovski to go to his father.

There were 180-200 partisans. They consisted of 'osobist' (representative SMERSh), group of scouting, group members of demolition, etc.

'Osobist' checked persons who exited from the partisan's squad. Meir remembers, once two partisans were killed as German spies. 'Osobist' had a connection with his agents in the occupied territory.

In the squad people usually were not accepted without weapons, but doctors, paramedics, shoemaker, tailors were accepted without weapons.

When the fighting front went across villages many ownerless weapons stayed on the field. The peasants collected weapons, and saved them. Those weapons could buy gold things, etc.

Once in the squad one Jew took a machine gun, called a Degterov, (armed machine gun). Therefore they accepted four other Jews. Partisans built the dugout in the forest where they lived. Each squad had villages for receiving food (contribution). If the captain of the village did not give them products, he would have been killed.

Meir heard that somebody reported to the Germans, that the village helped the partisans and the Germans drove together all residents of the village into the shed and burned them.

Sometimes commanders of the Soviet Army gave commands across the front to the partisans to lead an operation against the Germans: for example, "to destroy or block a road." Each squad gave some partisans to that united group. After they carried out the operation they came back to their squad.
Once, German troops (from front) attacked the partisans with airplanes and artillery. The partisans had many night transitions, sometimes across rivers.
Meir heard that there were also all Jewish partisans squad.

    5. POSTWAR LIFE

In 1944 the Soviet army liberated their places. Meir's father was drafted in the Soviet army, but Meir, as a young boy (15 years) was not. Meir lived in Wrozlov in part of the house where his uncle who was killed in the holocaust had lived. Meir studied in school. The father was discharged from the army at the end of the war (1945) and then Meir lived together with him.

After the war Meir changed his first name, Meir for Constantine, when he received his passport at 16 years of age.

In 1950 Constantine was drafted into the Army and served in the North on the border with Norway. He was discharged from the Army in 1953. Later he enrolled in the Higher Military political academy in the city of Lvov and graduated from it.

All the time he was an active member of the 'Komsomol' (Young Communist League) and in 1954 he enrolled in the Communist party.

After the military political academy he was assigned to regiment, subordinate to second in command of the regiment of the political division led by a lieutenant colonel. (He conducted political education of the soldiers). Under him there was a group consisting of the following: 'Komsomol' organizer led by a captain, 'propagandist' led by a major, (he organized political lessons in the division of the regiment. He told soldiers about the internal and international Politics of the Soviet Union. A higher leader instructed him as to how it is necessary to explain only the correct point of view of the Soviet Government; party organizer led by a major, (the decisions of the party's meeting were obligatory also for the conduct of the commander of the regiment); chief of the club, and chief of recording table.

There was also a representative of the KGB, 'osobist'.

In the battalion the commander had two assistants. One was a substitute for the commander of the political part and another released the party organizer of other responsibilities.

In the company there was also a substitute commander for the political part. In the platoon was an agitator (he read a newspaper for the soldiers).

At first Constantine was a 'komsomol' organizer of the regiment, then he became 'propagandist' of the regiment. In that position he was discharged from the Army.

Then Constantine enrolled in the Institute of Culture, Krupski, (Krupski was Lenin's wife) in Leningrad. In 1960 Constantine was sent from the Krupski Institute to work in the city of Minsk for practice. There he met her future wife. She was a Jew. (Constantine said, "It is important to have a reliable rear, as we were told in the Army"). In the beginning of the war she was evacuated from Byelorussia to Middle Asia.

She had finished high school in Middle Asia with a gold medal, entered the Leningrad University of Journalist faculty, and finished it in 1953. Then she defended her thesis, "About Human rights."

His wife did not want Constantine to be in the military service, (which had a bigger income), because she wanted to continue in her scientific job. (Military had to move to different places.)

In 1961 she gave birth to her daughter. In 1967 Constantine's father died.
Constantine worked as a teacher. One time he did not have a job. The 'Raicom party' could not help him find a job. Somebody gave him advice to send a letter to a higher level of the 'Obcom party' (regional committee CPSU Byelorussia) about a job. After that he received a job in the Byelorussian State University (18 thousand students). There he was leader of a division, and taught 'library science'.

Constantine took an active part in the affairs of veterans of the war. The veteran's organization had 1000 members. He was a substitute for the chairperson of the veterans committee. He could be driven on a free pass for vacation to the Crimea, but he was embarrassed to go each year. He was in the military reserves and often-military aids took him as a 'palitruk' (political instructor). The military service boosted him; Constantine retired from service as a major.

His daughter completed the mathematical-mechanical faculty of Minsk University. She got married to a lieutenant colonel. (He completed the Leningrad Military Topography's specialist school. He served in Urals military district.)

Constantine said, "In the Soviet Union I occupied a high position. I was a respected person."

6. EMIGRATION, EMIGRANT'S LIFE

The Soros fund sent Constantine's wife to Harvard University for scientific work for a half year. When she returned to the Soviet Union she made plans for her and her daughter's family to emigrate to her sister in America. Constantine was a pensioner but he continued to work in the University. He was ashamed to emigrate from the University. In OVIR (emigration office) it was necessary to give documents about his last work. He resigned from his job and enrolled in the house management office. From that last service he emigrated to America. He emigrated to his wife in Boston in 1994. Constantine worked in America as volunteer with Russian war veterans. (In Boston we have a big organization of Russian veterans 250 members. He is a member of the veterans' committee.) He resented the last chairman of the veteran's organization, who stole veteran's money (veterans' membership fees). That chairman died.

On the big military holiday he dressed in the Soviet military uniform with ribbons of rank. I did not know haw many orders and medals he had (medals are less prestigious than orders.) Once a week he went to a class to study English language.

His wife is a volunteer at Harvard University. She wanted to publish a book in conjunction with her dissertation (The source of democracy). Her daughter, 39 yeas old, worked as a programmer, her husband worked as a topographer. Their income would be better if higher. Constantine have too dauteeres, 13 and 16 years old. The family of his daughter bought a house, which was not located in a Jewish area.

CONCLUSION

Constantine said to me, "I don't want somebody to write a book about me. I am a simple person; my wife is the same. I do not want to be distinguished from all the other people. In the beginning of the war there was a commander of a division that was a Jew. His division stopped the Germans on the river Beresina, and he received the rank 'Hero of the Soviet Union'.
In the Soviet Union the veterans of War were given a big honor. *
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*Although before the 1950's in Leningrad I saw many wounded soldiers without legs. They ambulated on a board with small wheels propelled by their hands with special mittens striking the asphalt. Once I saw fighting between a wounded soldier and a waiter in a cafe on the Nevsky Avenue.

Suddenly all wounded soldiers with evidence of mutilation disappeared from Leningrad. Soon my wife and I took a short cruise to the island 'Woloam' (close to Leningrad). There we heard that not far from our tourist route (7 kilometers) there are homes for invalids of the War. Some people from our tourist group ran there. They shared with us their heart-rending feelings from their visit. At this time in America a Russian newspaper wrote that one boat with wounded soldiers sank.

There was censorship and nobody knew about all those events.
_____________________________________


Constantine visited the synagogue on an important holiday, especially, when the 'yizkor' prayer was to be said in the synagogue. Once during 'purim', after drinking and eating the 'gabbi' of the synagogue got many other people excited.

Constantine told about the 'gabbi', "He could be a good chief at a club in the regiment. A soldier, usually, with the rank of captain, organized the soldiers' amateur performance. When the higher level leaders came he presented the soldiers amateur performance.

Constantine said, "When Germany began to practice Anti-Semitism it was necessary to fight back. At present Constantine receives additional help from Germany, $200 for three months. The woman, who allowed his family to use her bath home, died, but her two daughters receive $30 each per month from Israel, as "righteous gentiles".

Constantine said, "When we saw the notch in the tree we had to run away and did not wait for other people." The father of another family said, "You had grown children, but I am another case, we will just stand up and go away". Constantine said, "A military person has to give us direction".

I am alive, but my mother and sisters died. Why am I better?"

In Israel his uncle recently died, but his aunt is alive.

If Constantine's father had decided to emigrate to Israel in 1936, as his brother and his sister did, Constantine's situation might have been different. I think that emigration to Israel in the (1930's) was a good decision for the Polish Jews. I think that was the will of G-d.

He said, "We do not live at home, but overseas (with negative connotation).The person has only one homeland (Russian).

Constantine is an active person. He participates in all meetings. He goes to Government Center in Boston to meet congressmen, meeting for the defense of Israel, for a trip to the synagogue of a Lubavich Rabbi, etc. Maybe that helps him change his opinion about America.