By Ilya Magid

The Heroes Among Us

His name was Benzion, born in 1895, in the town of Slovuta, Ukraine. He fought in WWI; in the Soviet period he was employed in a cooperative crew. In WWII, when the Germans approached Slovuta, he with his family evacuated to the town of Buzuluc, in the Southern Urals. There he was drafted at the age of 47 years and sent to the front. Before the war ended he was assigned to the "construction battalions" for renovation of the Donbas mines.

In 1946 he returned to Slovuta, where before WWII there lived 50 thousand people (Ukrainian, Jewish, Russian). In WWII 17 thousand Jews from Slovuta perished in the fire of the Holocaust.
On Yom Kippur in 1960, Benzion went to the Synagogue.

Benzion's son, Naum, at that time was a senior lieutenant. He arrived during his vacation from Moscow. A Ukrainian woman ran to their home and cried in Ukrainian Language, 'They killed your father". Naum quickly got dressed in his soldier's boots, because the ground was covered with mud. He ran to find his father.

His father was walking and smiling. His father told him the following story, "I returned from the synagogue on a deserted road. One very drunk lieutenant called me "kike face". I took off my tallis, put it aside, grabbed the offender by the throat and nearly choked him. Then I took out a board from a fence, and beat him with it."

The son went ahead to find the lieutenant who was wallowing on the ground. He kicked him with his boots and returned home.

On the next day, a military commandant* of the town of Slovuta called Naum to him.  He asked, "What incident happened?" Naum told him the story. The commandant said, "The lieutenant is in the hospital. I will report you to your service in Moscow. Then he asked Naum, "How old is your father?" Naum answered him, "65."

Right now, in 1999, Naum at age 74, is strong like Hercules. I could imagine what his father was like at age 65.  Naum thinks, that the commandant who did not report him to his service in Moscow covered up this case.   Right now Naum can still protect himself, but I don't see him wearing a tallis.

8\6\00


*In the former Soviet Union in each town or city there were both military police and regular police. The chief of the military police was called a "military commandant".