Survivor Profile

Introduction

The Torah tells us maaseh avos siman labanim. I was therefore thinking, bederech derush, that there are things that I heard and saw during my life that may be repeated with my children and grandchildren. So I decided that, since I'm not a major writer, I will record my story.

I'll start from the very beginning of my life.

Childhood

I was born in Berlin. My parents lived then in Danzig but my zaide, who was a shochet and a very erliche Yid, lived in Berlin and my mother traveled there to give birth to me. Danzig wasn't a makorn Torah and my parents had to send me to a German public school where there were very few Jewish children and 99% of the children were Germans and anti Semitic.

Even before the second world war, Jews felt they were different. I remember one small incident. There was a weak Jewish child who a sheigitz hit. I told the sheigitz, "Why are you hitting such a weak child? Hit me, or someone else!" He said, "OK, let's see who is the better fighter!" They gathered around us, maybe a hundred shekotzim, and we started to fight. I gave it to them good. That's the first incident I remember from school.

The teachers also hated Jews. They would hit the Jewish children for offenses like not doing homework more than they would hit the others.

In Danzig there was a Jew named Avraham Michel Chaimovitz who was a great talmid chacham, a student of the Volozhiner yeshivah and a Slonimer chassid. He was the posek of Danzig. My father loved him dearly. He was an erliche Yid and there were few erliche Yidden in Danzig. Also in Danzig was a Rav Rappaport, who was the father of the Mikdash David - the rash yeshivah in Baranovitch, and a descendant of Reb Akiva Eiger. But my father was closer to Rzy Chaimovitch because he was chassidish and my father loved chassidishe people very much.

Baranovitch

It happened that the hanhallah of the yeshivah of Baranovitch needed someone like Reb Avraham Michel and they asked him to join the staff there. Reb Avraham Michel spoke to my father and a few others and suggested that perhaps they should send their children to Baranovitch to learn because in Danzig there wasn't even a good cheder. My father agreed and at eleven years of age I was sent with Reb Avraham Michel to Baranovitch.

I went and began to learn in the cheder, which was called Yesodei HaTorah and was under the auspices of the Slonimer Rebbe. l learned there for only half a day because the other half a day they learned Polish and I didn't want to learn Polish.

I stayed there until I was bar mitzvah. I had the zechus to buy my tefillin from the so/er who the Chafetz Chaim bought his Rabbeinu Tam tefillin from. My melamed from cheder put my tefillin on me and I think he told me - but maybe someone else told me - when I began to wear tefillin, that I must continue to do so for my whole life. And, baruch Hashem, until today, I have never missed a day.

Then my father came to Baranovitch and took me to the Belzer Rebbe for a brachah. We went to Belz for Shabbos and late motzaei Shabbos we went to the rov, zichrono levrachah. The rov knipped my face and said, "A Yiddishe face with nice peyos! You should put tefillin on a pure head and not speak with tefillin and not walk around with tefillin."

We then traveled back to Baranovitch and I remained there for another year or perhaps a little more and then I spent a half

a year in Stolin. I don't remember why I went to Stolin but while I was there I would eat Shabbos meals with the Rebbe . I remember that my father, alav hashalom, would send me money every month and the mailman would bring it to the Rebbe's house. The Rebbe sometimes needed money and would borrow from me and tell me he would repay me in a few days. He would do this because he was a tremendous baa! tzedakah and was sometimes lacking money.

I then returned to Baranovitch and remained there until before the war. But the Poles made trouble for me because I was not a Polish citizen, as they had taken away my father's citizenship, and they didn't want a non-citizen to remain in Baranovitch because Barano vitch was near the Russian border. I told them I was a Polish citizen but I didn't have my passport and I would ask my father to send me documentation. I regularly pushed them off in this manner until I saw that I couldn't do so any longer. I asked my father what I should do and he told me I should go to Belz because a lot of people would travel there and my presence would go unnoticed by the authorities, who wouldn't bother me.

I did this, but instead of travelling directly from Baranovitch to Belz, I went first to Krakow because I heard that two of my mother's brothers, who had previously lived in Germany, had since become refugees in Krnkow, and I wanted to see them. I later arrived in Belz.

Belz

I remained in Belz for a few weeks. The rov, zichrono levrachah, drew me very close and he called me "Danziger" instead of my name. I would attend his tischen and the rov would say "L 'chaim" to me and he would say a brachah that the Eibishter should help peace to prevail upon the earth. He called Poland a government of kindness. Although I didn't understand that then, today I understand very well what the rov meant. A Jew was then in danger in Poland but a few million Jews lived there nevertheless. Later, what happened, nebach, happened.

After a few weeks in Belz, the rov told me to travel to Lubitch, which was near Belz, where there was a rov called Reb Hershel Lubitcher, who was a very great chassid and a talmid chacham and by whom I could learn. So I went and I learned there for two or three months until the rov came to Lubitch to rest.

My mother and father would write to me regularly about bow great the troubles were in Danzig. The danger that my parents were in grew greater with each passing day. They had four children at home then. Four others were already sent away from home: Sosha and Moshe were in America, Chana was in Eretz Yisrael, and I was in Poland. Chaya and Surah, who were seven and nine years old, remained at home and suffered greatly because the danger was such that they couldn't be allowed to go outside. My mother wanted them to go to England, to her sister Mirel, but my father opposed it. He wanted to keep the children nearby. Although he knew the danger was great he bad bitachon that the Eibishter would help and he would be saved. They concluded that they would ask the rov and do whatever he said.

The next Shabbos - it was probably at the beginning of Av or in Tammuz, I don't remember exactly - I received a letter from Danzig, from my mother, instructing me to go and ask the rov if they should send Chaya to her sisters in England or leave them at home in Danzig with the other children.

On motzaei Shabbos I waited outside, in the summer heat, with older people, women - many different people. We stood the whole night and waited to be admitted to the rov. But they didn't open the door. Just before the morning - it was already light outside - they opened the door to allow one person to enter. But when the crowd saw that the door had been opened they pushed forward and came in. When the rov saw this he said, "I can't see anyone, like I said; I'm not a malach. And you' ll ask: Why is that Yid different? That Yid made a Kiddush Hashem. He was clean shaven."

When I told Menachem Hersh, the gabbai, that I received an important letter and must ask the rov something, he took me and led me to another room, and when the rov was finished with the other man, he came into the room by himself and the crowd went away.

He asked me, "What are you doing here?" I answered that the gabbai had let me in. I told him about the letter I had received and I described the whole issue; how my father didn' t want to send away the children and my mother did want to. The rov asked, "What type of house is [your aunt's ]?" I said, "To the best of my knowledge, my uncle is a bearded Yid and an erliche Yid and the house is a good house." The rov, zichrono levrachah, said that if the children will have the same chinuch there that they have by their parents they should send them." And, indeed, the children were sent.

But it didn't go as hoped for because my uncle was a very miserly person and he didn' t care for the children well. It became necessary to remove the children and place them in an orphanage. They therefore didn't have the chinuch they would have received at home. Surah remained an erlich child and an eishes chayil but Chaya didn' t remain a shomer Shabbos.

War

When I left Belz I heard that the second world war had broken out. The first thought to cross my mind was that I would lose contact entirely with my parents. I made up my mind to return to Belz. But it wasn't easy. I became sick with dysentery and I was bleeding. But what was there to do? I had to return to Belz. I somehow schlepped - I don' t remember how - back to Belz. When I arrived there, I was very weak and the thought occurred to me that I should buy an apple. I cooked the apple and I lay in bed for perhaps a week, with only the apple to eat, until I felt better. Baruch Hashem, I eventually felt better and everything was good.

When I returned to the beis midrash people told me that in Belz there had been a blackout due to the war and the rov was unable to lead the tish in the beis midrash as usual, so he led the tish in the iron room, where one was able to go, with a small crowd. And on Shabbos, when the rov was saying l'chaim and he didn' t see me because I was absent due to my sickness, he told people to call me from the place where I was. They couldn't find me because no one knew I was sick. I didn' t want to go anywhere because I was afraid of straining myself.

When I got up I saw German airplanes flying above Belz and gunshots could be heard regularly. Another few days went by and everything got worse. Erev Rosh Hashanah we heard very, very much shooting and saw very many planes and

people were saying that the rov was preparing to flee. I, as a native of Danzig, was particularly afraid. I thought that maybe after the rov would flee it would be impossible for me to do so and it would therefore be better for me to begin to flee immediately.

Flight

I did so and began to go to Sekol. On the road there were many, many people who were fleeing. I travelled for an entire day until I arrived in Sekol and then I went further until it was the night of Rosh Hashanah. 1 looked around and saw- that there were almost no people left on the road. There were only a few bachurim, who were not heimishe, who were still walking. I asked them if I could walk with them since I was afraid to travel alone at night. I didn' t even know where to go in the dark. They told me I could do as I pleased.

I went with them and I saw that they were also tired and one of them jumped into a ditch at the side of the road in order to hide there. I, baruch Hashem, had strength and continued walking until the middle of the night, when we arrived at some village.

It was very, very dark and there was deep mud. I found a man and asked him if there was any rov in the village. I wanted to daven. It was Rosh Hashanah night. Maybe I could make Kiddush. He pointed out a house to me and I went there to find the rov. He had also packed already in order to flee. I asked him for a machzor and I davened maariv. I then asked if I could have a kezayis of food because I wanted to make kiddush. He gave me and I made kiddush. I then left that place and continued walking.

I traveled a whole night until the day broke. I was extremely exhausted and I saw. a carriage traveling on the road. Because I was so tired I wanted to hang on to the wag9p and thereby rest a bit. When the wagon driver realized someone was hanging on he dragged me off. The horse had hardly moved and I peeked into the carriage and I saw Yidden with shtreimlach sitting there. When they saw me, oneof them called to me and I stood on the steps of the carriage. He asked me where I came from and other details and then I went down and they continued to travel.

I continued in this manner until perhaps eight o'clock on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, when I arrived at a shtetl called Orakov which was after Sekol. There I found a beis midrash in which Reb Shaya Dzhikover, the youngest son of Reb Chaim Sanzer, zichrono levrachah, and the Bilgayer Rov, the brother of the Belzer Rov, davened. When the Bilgayher Rav saw me he asked where I had come from. I told him I had come from Belz and he told me these words: "The Apter Rav is a chossid; when war broke out he ran to my brother, to Belz. I wanted to be a chochom so I went alone and therefore I am wandering here, alone."

I also heard that the Bobover Rav was there and that he had davened elsewhere and his crying was so great that it could be heard from far away. Immediately after davening, he fled further because the fear was so great.

I remained there for both days of Rosh Hashanah and davened with Reb Shaya Dzhikover and the Bilgayer Rav. After Rosh Hashanah they went further but I remained there until after Yam Kippur. After Yam Kippur things were quieter and I heard that the Germans had already taken all the areas they needed. Near Orochov there were also Germans, but I didn't see them. The Polish army had fled.

I heard that the rov was still in Belz. I went back to Belz from Orochov and arrived there erev Succos and spent the entire Succos in Belz. Baruch Hashem I had an esrog and a lulav and it was fine. But all around Belz had already been taken by the Germans and there were rumors that the Germans and Russians had divided [the area] because there was a river near Belz called the Bug River, between Belz and Sekol. Indeed, on Shemini Atzeres, after maariv, the rov came to shul, took the sefer Torah and performed all the hakafos, and then put on a hat and went, together with everyone, to the train station and travelled to Sekol. I saw the rov sitting on the train with his family - it was gevaldig. But there was a war going on.

Sekol

When the rov arrived in Sekol he went to his brother-in-law's house. (The Belzer rebbetzin was a sister of the Sekoler rov.) The Sekoler rov was then in America. When the rov saw me he said these words: "Ah! Danziger. Where are you sleeping?" I said that I'll sleep where everyone will sleep; why am I different. The rov said to Menachem Hersh, the gabbai, "See to it that he has a good rest."

The Yam Tov passed in Sekol and I remained there for a few [additional] days. Once, I went to daven in shul and before I had a chance to put on my tefillin, two militia men who were grabbing men for labor [entered the shul]. I saw that they were only taking single men; they left men who wore taleisim alone. I wanted to take a talis from someone and put it on but no one wanted to give me one. So I lay down under a table in an effort to hide. But they saw me, hit me with the butt of a rifle, and pulled me out from under the table.

I went out with someone walking behind me and directing me outside where another soldier stood watching the people who had been taken out of the beis midrash. As I was walking I saw that there were two doors: the one where the soldier stood guarding the single men and another, off to the side. I suddenly began to run out the side door. I ran and ran with all my strength until I came to a house and asked them to allow me to hide inside. I was hiding there for maybe an hour or two, until I felt that [the militia men] had left and I emerged.

I heard that someone had taken my tefillin but when I came back to the place I had left them I found my tefillin. Everyone asked me, "Weren't you taken for the labor?!" And I told them

that I had, baruch Hashem,_ escaped. I davened and that night or the next morning I heard that the bachurim who had been taken had been forced to work near the Bug river, pulling out electric poles that the Russians wanted. They worked in mud and were not given any food the whole day and all of them became sick, nebach, as a result. I thanked the Eibishter that the idea to rnn away had occurTed to me.

I remained in Sekol for a few weeks and I realized that there was no point in staying there since there was no yeshivah there and, in gene ral, it wasn't a place for me. But I didn't know where I should go. I had no contact with my parents and I didn't even know if I would ever see them again. I didn't know ifl should go back to Baranovitch or ifl should look for somewhere else to go. I heard that if one would travel to Lemberg he could be smuggled into Romania and I thought that from Romania perhaps I could contact my brother and sister in America and from there maybe I would see a solution.

Wandering

I secured a ride on a truck that was driving to Lemberg. I sat on the truck and waited for perhaps four or five hours but the truck wasn't moving. The thought occurred to me that why should I travel to Lemberg and from there try to get to Romania, it would be better for me to return to Baranovitch, where people knew me and where I had left my things. [I decided that] the best thing would be to travel back to Baranovitch so I descended from the truck. I found out that perhaps ten miles from Sekol there was a station from which trains would travel deep into Russia, from where I would be able to get to Baranovitch.

I arrived in that village at night and was told that the train would come in the morning. I stayed there the whole night and, in the morning, I waited and others waited - there were many people there waiting for the train - but no train came. Nu, ifthere was no train I would have to walk. I began to walk. I don't remember how long I walked until I came to - I believe it was Kobbe!, in Poland. From Kobbe! I continued to walk - I don't remember exactly, maybe I got a ride for part of the way with a truck - until I arrived in Ludrnir, which was on the way to Brisk. I knew that after Brisk was Byalistock and from Byalistock it was not far from Baranovitch.

In Brisk· I made inquiries and eventually found the aforementioned Avraham Michel Chairnovitch, who had originally gone from Danzig to Baranovitch and had since traveled to Brisk. In Brisk I heard that the yeshivah, Reb Elchonon Wasserman's, was no lon ger in Baranovitch, as it had travelled to Vi1na. Everyone was saying that the

Lithuanians would take control of Vilna and the Russians would leave it, so the yeshivas travelled to Vilna.

In Bialystock, I was told, there was a train that could take me to Vilna. But to travel to Vilna I would need money and I had no money. Before boarding the train one had to buy a ticket, without which it was impossible to board. I saw that around the station there was a large fence. I don't remember how high it was but it was much taller than me. I climbedup the fence, jumped over, and entered the train. Before the train began to move, there was an inspection to determine if everyone on board possessed tickets. I heard the inspector moving from one compartment to another and I was sitting there without a ticket. What could I do? I was just sittingthere. I saw the conductor open the door, intending to enter and inspect the tickets. "Oh!" He said, " I was already here." And he moved on. And thus, the Eibishter, baruch Hashem, protected me.

Vilna

I managed to travel until Vilna and I arrived in Vilna when it was already perhaps 8:30 at night. At 9:00 the curfew would go into effect and it would forbidden to be in the streets. I was familiar with Vilna because two years earlier 1 had had a sinus operation there. So I knew where to go. From the station I wanted to go the shul hoif because I had been told that the Baranovitch yeshivah was in the Gaon's kloiz.2 I ran from the station and I reached the shul hoifjust before 9:00. I went to the Gaon's kloiz and, indeed, I found many, many bochurim from the yeshivah. I asked them where everyone was sleeping and they told me that for now they were sleeping on the benches in the shul because nothing had been organized for the yeshivah yet.

I saw that I couldn't sleep there because there was such a bad smell in the shul that I couldn't breathe. But where should I go? I went down to the street and I found a Baranovitcher bachur. I asked him where he sleeps and he told me that there is a family in the shul hoif (there were apartments there too) and he sleeps there. I asked him, "Can I sleep there?" He said, " these people are also refugees and there is no room." I said, "I don't need anything. Only that they should let me sleep on the floor because in the shul I simply can't breathe." So he said, "Come up with me and you can ask the people if they will let you sleep on the floor."

I went up and said to the people, "I'm not asking you for a bed or bedding or anything else. Nothing. Just let me sleep here on the floor instead of on the benches in shul." They said, "Yes, you can." And I slept there on the floor for some time. But then I thought that since I had left my bedding and other things in Baranovitch before I had gone to Belz, maybe I should quickly return to Baranovitch to retrieve my bedding so that I would be able to make myself a bed on the floor.

I did this even though it involved a great risk because we didn't know when the Lithuanians would enter and when they would it would be impossible to enter Vilna. But I took the chance and I quickly went back to Baranovitch and I went back to the place I stayed before I went to Belz. I wanted to take my bedding but people said that my bedding had already been divided up [among other people] because it was heard in Baranovitch that I was no longer alive. One person had needed a pillow and another something else. So I went and gathered everything together and packed it all and immediately hurried back to Vil na. I brought my things to the hoif, where I had been sleeping on the floor, and every night I would spread out my bedding there.

It soon became very cold and the refugees who [I was staying with] were from Krakow and didn't know how to heat up the oven. I heated up the oven for them and they were very thankful. I remained there until the yeshivah left for Melishok. But while I was in Vilna a great thing happened.

I was once walking in the street when I heard someone calling, "Hello, hello." I looked around and I saw that the uncle I had met in Krakow, while travelling to Belz, was there in Vilna. He had seen me walking in the street and he recognized me and called out, "Hello." I was very happy that I had someone, an uncle, in Vilna and he was also very happyto see me. And it only came about because of the foolishness that I traveled from Baranovitch [to Belz] through Krakow, because I had never before seen that uncle. My mother, alehah hashalom, was his sister. I began to cry and I said that I was told that in Danzig everything was destroyed. They pillaged and then burned the entire town. "Nevertheless," he said," write a postcard and send it to Danzig, to the address [of your parents], and see what will happen." At that time the Lithuanians still hadn' t come and it was possible to send mail. Nu, I obeyed him and wrote a postcard. My uncle knew that I was in the Gaon's kloiz and I told him, "If you hear anything you should let me know."

A few days later my uncle came to the Gaon's kloiz with a telegram (I had sent my uncle's address). My parents had sent a telegram from Danzig saying that everyone was, baruch Hashem, healthy. Nu, I had rediscovered my parents and they had rediscovered me. We began to correspond until my parents wrote to me, in 1940, more than half a year after the Gennans took all of Poland, throughout which my parents remained in Danzig, that somehow, I don't know how, my parents had received visas to travel to Italy. They were very happy because from Italy they hoped to travel further and to receive a visa to enter America because my father had two brothers and children - Sasha and Moshe - in America.

My Parents Escape

And so it was. My parents travelled to Italy with a visa they received from the consulate in Danzig. But to travel to Italy one needed to take an international train that left from Frankreich, traveled through Germany, and made its way to Italy, to Trieste. My parents traveled to Germany and the train was to stop in Munich. My parents came to Munich with the two small children, Shulem and Mire!, arriving at night or in the evening. They would have to wait until the morning, when the international train, which traveled from Frankreich to Italy, would arrive. With that train they would be able to go. So they sat in the station and waited.

In the middle of the night there was an announcement that everyone had to exit the station because they had to clean it. My parents didn't know where they should go. It was winter, it was cold, and the two small children were sleeping on the bench in the station. They didn't have anywhere to go. Where should they go? My mother approached the chief conductor, who was in charge of the station, and said, "We are Jews and will therefore not be admitted into a hotel and I have two small children. Where can I go now, in the middle of the night?!" The conductor went to the cleaner and told him, "Tell everyone else to exit but these people leave undisturbed." And in that manner, baruch Hashem, the Eibishter caused, with his right Hand, that my parents were there for the whole night, until, in the morning, they took the train and travelled to Trieste.

From Trieste they continued to write to me, saying that they were, baruch Hashem, in Trieste and they hoped to receive a visa to America. They were there for a few weeks until they received the visa and, on what was almost the last boat to leave from America to Italy, my parents travelled. Later, Italy joined the Axis, together with Germany and Japan, and the three countries united and severed ties with America. Baruch Hashem, my parents wrote to me when they arrived in America. I remained in Lithuania for the entire period.

My Own Efforts to Escape

A few more months passed. There were rumors that the Russians were going to take the entire Lithuania. The yeshiyos were very scared because they knew that the Russians would close the yeshivas. But what was there to do?

My parents were working to arrange for me to come and be united with them in America. I didn't have a passport. I had nothing. But I had what was called in Lithuania a leidipass. This was a paper that stated that I was a refugee and it had my picture and my name. That was the extent of the documents that I had.

One day I received a letter from the American consulate in Moscow instructing me to come present myself in connection with an application for a visa to travel to America. But it was impossible to travel from Vilna to Moscow unless one had a permit from the Russian government. I h·avelled to Kovno and I don't remember the details but, baruch Hashem, I obtained the permit. I had two uncles [there], two of my mother's brothers, Mechel and Srulka. I parted from them and I travelled to Moscow.

In Moscow I stayed in a hotel called Novomoskovskaya , which was a hotel in which all the foreigners would stay. I was there for a day. I asked and was told where the American consulate was and I went there. The consul spoke Russian, English, and German and I told them that I couldn't speak Russian and certainly not English. Only German. We spoke and he told me to come on Shabbos.

Shabbos morning, I first went to daven. In Moscow there was one shul, a large one, and there I saw only older men, I saw no children at all in shul. After davening I went to the consulate and I told him that he had instrncted me to come that day and I had come. He said, "Now you come?! Now I'm already closing up." It was perhaps 11:00 in the morning. He said , "Come Tuesday."

Every day I went to daven in shul. Shacharis, minchah, maariv. The first time I came to shul in Moscow the people asked me when I have yartzeit. Because a young boy - I was then seventeen years old-was never seen in shut. I told them, "I have parents, baruch Hashem, in America, and I came here because I need to obtain a visa to travel to America." Every day I would go there and people would ask, "Nu, when are you getting the visa?" And this went on.

Miracle in Moscow

On Tuesday I went to the consul. He asked me different things and he told me that he would give me the visa. He added that I wasn' t eligible for a visa because I was under eighteen years old but he would do me a favor. He was a great rasha, like all the American consuls, and he didn't want to give a visa to a young boy. But since I had parents, baruch Hashem, he didn't have a choice.

"But," he said, "l can only give you the visa if you bring me ten dollars. That' s the price of the visa." I said to him, "As you know, it' s illegal to have American currency in Russia. I'll ask my parents to send ten dollars by telegraph." "No," he said, "you will have to give me ten dollars cash." No arguments were of any use.

I left and I asked in the Novomoskovskaya, where everyone was refugees, if anyone had ten dollars to give me. No one had. Finally, I found someone who gave me ten Canadian dollars. I brought this to the consul. I figured that Canadian dollars would also be good. I gave it to him and said to him, "I have it," indicating the ten Canadian d ollars. "No," he said, "it has to be specifically American. Otherwise I won't give you the visa."

So every day I went to shul and people would ask me, "When will you get the visa?" And I told them, "I can't get the visa because I need ten dollars to pay for it and I already asked everyone and no one can give me ten dollars. I have ten Canadian dollars but the consul won't take it and I don't know what to do."

One time, after davening, a Yid with a white beard approached me and said, "If you will come tomorrow I will give you the ten dollars." I was very happy but I couldn't believe that a man who I didn't know and who didn't know me would give me ten dollars like that. The next day, after davening, I approached the Yid and he gave me the ten dollars. I wanted to give him the ten Canadian dollars I had but he didn't want to take it and he suddenly disappeared. I was told that he didn't want to take it because he had already risked his life by having ten American dollars and if he would take the ten Canadian they would accuse him of being a currency dealer. This was no simple matter, that a Yid in Moscow should risk his life to give someone a gift of ten dollars, which is the equivalent of a thousand dollars in America today. But he saved me.

I went with the ten dollars to the consul and he produced the visa for me. There were also two Jewish girls there, who could not speak German, only Yiddish and Polish, which the consul didn't understand. I served as their translator and the consul told me, " Because of you I will also give them the visas."

I Leave Europe

I spent two weeks in Moscow altogether. I also met Reb Mendel Zaks, zichrana levrachah, there. I waited together with him for a train that was coming from Kovno through Vladivistock. A Yid with a long beard approached Reb Mendel Zaks the inisgnia in his lapel meant that he was a member of the NKVD He asked him, "Is it true that the Chafetz Chaim said that one may flee Russia on Shabbas?"

He knew that Reb Mendel Zaks was the Chafetz Chaim's son-in-law. Reb Mendel Zaks answered that he doesn' t know, he never heard of that. But lhe fear was tremendous because for every small thing people would be taken away and no one would know what became of them. Baruch Hashem, [the NKVD man] didn't make any problems.

I was told that there was a Yid named Gavniznik, who was also in Moscow, a little before me, and he went to daven in the shul there. An NKVD man came over to him and told him that if he would come again he would be arrested. But I, baruch Hashem, went there regularly and no one bothered me.

My parents had sent me a third class train ticket but, while in Moscow, I had heard that it was possible to buy a second class ticket for a few rubles and I did so.

I also went to the mikveh in Moscow. I didn' t find anyone else who could say that. I was shown where the mikveh was.

On the train I met the Amshinaver Rebbe, Reb Shimon. He was travelling with his family but they travelled third class and he travelled second class. He was given a compartment with three women - each compartment in second class held four people. Nu, he wouldn't go in there. I was travelling in a compartment with another Yid and a Belgian with his wife - four people altogether. When the Amshinover Rebbe heard that I also had a second class seat, he asked me to give him my seat and, of course, I did so. He prefened to be there with two men, rather than with the women. When the Belgian saw the Amshinover Rebbe he immediately ran away. So I was together with the Amshinover Rebbe and the other Yid and it was very good. I was meshamesh the Rebbe the entire time, baruch Hashem, [for] eleven days. Reb Mendel Zaks was also on that train with his family.

I travel led in this manner for eleven days and eleven nights. We stopped a few times and went off the train to take hot water, which was called kipitok. We travelled until Bijhan where again we stopped. There were Yidden there, who thought, nebach, that they were being sent to some Gan Eden, but they got malaria there and other sicknesses and there was nothing to eat. That is what Russia gave the Yidden.

We travelled until we approached Vladivistock. In Vladivistock we were told that the ship that would take us to Japan would first anive the next morning. We were told that we must all remain on the train. On one side there was a bathroom and we were permitted to go off the train there but only to use the bathroom. Otherwise we were not to leave the train.

The Lubliner Bachurim

Looking out the window, I saw from a distance that some

students of the Lubliner yeshivah were standing by a fence, far away from the train. They were motioning with their hands but we couldn' t hear them or understand what they wanted. I volunteered and I went off the train, went under it to the other side, and ran to them and asked them what they want. They said that they needed money and they needed coupons - people had coupons to buy things with which were as valuable as money - whatever we could give them. They couldn' t travel fmther because they had paid with rubles and they could not board the ship. In the end they did travel. Not with that ship but later.

At any rate, I ran back and reported what they wanted. Reb Mendel Zaks, zichrono levrachah, and someone else, went throughout the entire train, collecting money and coupons. I ran back to them and handed it over to them.

As I was returning a Russian officer and a soldier began running toward me and when they got close to me the officer slipped and fell flat - it was winter then - and the soldier pulled him up. He began to scream at me in Russian, "You know that you are not allowed to go off the train, why did you go off?!" I was very afraid because he could take his revolver and do whatever he wanted.

I replied to him in German, "I don't know what you are speaking about. 1 don't understand Rusian and I don' t know what you saying." My thinking was that if he thought I was a foreigner he wouldn't do anything to me. Baruch Hashem it worked. He took the key and opened the door - I didn't have to go under the train - and, baruch Hashem, eve1ything passed peacefully.

I was later told by those bachurim that I had literally saved them because they didn't have anything to eat.

I forgot to mention that when I went to Reb Chaim Ozer, zichrono levrachah, so that he could sign the check for me, I found him sitting and writing with both hands - a different teshuvah with each one - and he was also speaking with people at the same time.

Japan

When I boarded the ship that was to take us from Vladivistock to Japan, on the ship with me were the Amshinover Rebbe, Reb Shimele, zecher tzaddik levrachah, and Reb Mendel Zaks. Many bachurim from the Mirrer yeshivah and others were also on the ship.

It was Purim, so we read the megillah and we celebrated very well, but the ship shook so much that when we were lying on the floor - on the Japanese ships there were no beds - we would roll from one side to the other because the ship was throwing us that way. The waves washed over the deck at times. They told us that when another ship had travelled previously they had to lower the lifeboats because it could have sunk any minute.

In this manner we travelled for three days until we reached Japan. We reached Japan on Shabbos. We didn't want to disembark on Shabbos but the Japanese required us to go off the ship and sit on a train to travel to the place they took us. We had no choice.

I was only in Japan for two weeks because I already had a visa. In Japan, I met someone who had been with me in the hotel in Moscow. He was a Polish Jew, an irreligious doctor. When I had returned from the consulate in Moscow on Shabbos, after I had gone to daven first, this man had asked if I had gotten the visa and when I told him what happened he literally wanted to hit me. [He felt that because] the danger was so great one had to do whatever he could and not go daven. But that is what I had done.

Now, while walking in the street in Japan, I met this same doctor. He asked me, "Nu, what happened? Did you get the visa?" I said, "Yes, baruch Hashem, I got the visa." He literally started to dance and he told everyone, "You see?! He went to daven and he got the visa!" All the people who travelled to Japan thinking that there they could obtain a visa all had [trouble] because the Japanese consul didn't give anyone - without exception - an American visa. Apparently, he had an order from Washington not to give any Jews American visas. Those who had the best documents he would not give visas under any circumstances.

Japan was very interesting. The Japanese not only let in refugees with forged visas, but even gave them - during wartime - good rations, more than they gave their citizens! In Japan, especially for those who still had some money, nothing was lacking. It was very good. Until the Japanese war with America things weren't bad for the refugees in Japan.

Nu, after two weeks in Japan I found a ship that was travelling to America. Also on that ship were Reb Aharon [Kotler], zichrono levrachah, and his family. On that ship, too, the travelling was very difficult, especially for Reb Aharon. He was very seasick and couldn't get out of bed. I had to take him to the bathroom and I was meshamesh him the whole time. I received payment in the form of food. He couldn't eat and I wanted to eat but didn't have anything. He had food because he travelled second class. I was meshamesh him in this manner for the two weeks that we travelled from Japan to San Francisco.

America

We arrived in San Francisco on Erev Pesach and we couldn't travel further. I was put up in San Francisco by a rov. On Chol Hamoed Pesach I wanted to continue traveling by train to New York, but in the middle of the journey I had to disembark in Chicago because it was erev Yorn Tov again. I stayed there for the second days of Pesach and, there too, they put me up by a rov.

I arrived in New York on motzaei Yorn Tov and my father and mother, aleihem hashalom, were waiting for me at the train station and, baruch Hashem, we once again saw each other alive, for the first time in over two years.

Then began a new period. My parents lived in a very small apartment where there literally wasn't anywhere for me to lay my head. But my father had a brother, Avremel Hitman, who lived not far from my parents, in Brighton Beach, and there I was given sleeping space on a chair. But it didn't take long for them to want me to go to work. I said that I had decided in Europe that I was only travelling on condition that I would continue to learn [in America]. And, baruch Hashem, as a result, I remained what I remained. If, chaliliah vechas, I would have listened then to the people who told me to go to work nothing would have remained of me. For the [spiritual] danger then was extremely great.

My father, alav hashalom, brought me to Torah Vodaas and I was accepted in the yeshivah. Reb Elchanan Wassennan told me before we parted - I met him in Reb Chaim Ozer's house after [Reb Chaim Ozer' s] death these words: "If they want to take you into a yeshivah called Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan don't go there. Only to Yeshivas Chafetz Chaim or Yeshivah Torah Vodaas can you go." That is how I chose and I went to Torah Vodaas.

There, too, it was very difficult. In the dormitory there was no room for me at all. They put me up in the Agudah of Bedford Avenue, where I met Harav Don Ungarischer, who is today the rash yeshivah of the kollel in Monsey. It was a very, very dirty place. It was so infested with bedbugs that we had to spray DDT every night so that we could sleep. Even that didn't help and I got severe headaches from it. Reb Don Ungarischer also suffered very much but there was no solution. To sleep without spraying was impossible and with spraying we were barely able to sleep. The bedbugs were like nothing I had never seen in Europe. Nowhere were there bedbugs like the American ones.

I stayed there for a few months until it became summer and I asked for mercy, for them to allow me to go to camp. They allowed me to go to camp Torah Vodaas and there I at last had peace. Because here [in the city] I suffered very, very much. The food wasn't good, the sleeping certainly wasn't good, and I couldn't be by my parents because there simply wasn't any space. Even for Shabbos, I couldn't go home because there was nowhere to sleep. Sometimes I would go home and sleep at my uncle' s.

In this manner almost a year passed in which I was in Torah Vodaas. My mother would sometimes give me a dollar and with it I would buya few oranges. That was my pocket money. At that time a ride from Brighton Beach to Williamsburg, where Torah Vodaas was, cost a nickel.

I beard that the Modzhitzer Rebbe was in Williamsburg. I had known him and his children while still in ViIna, because in Vilna I would go to his tishcen. I very much loved his songs. Here also , I would go there and it simply revived me. With time, I became very close there.

I Begin a Career

My head wasn't too immersed in learning because I saw the situation my parents were in and I myself didn' t have anywhere to lay my head. I heard that one could learn how to work with diamonds but it cost five hundred dollars. And from where would I get that? I borrowed money from my sister and others and, baruch Hashem, I put together the five hundred dollars and I was taught how to cut diamonds.

I spent the entire day in Torah Vodaas, and at night, after seder ended at five o'clock, I went to work. After a month's time I began to earn money, baruch Hashem, and I was able to help my parents a little. The situation by then was very, very bad. My father, alav hashalom, was a very broken man as a result of all the suffering he endured before coming here and also when he came here and saw what had become of his children. He couldn't pull himself together to go do something. The situation was very, very difficult.

When I started profiting I realized that my parents had to move out of Brighton Beach and into another apartment. My father wanted to move to Williamsburg. We succeeded [although] it literally wasn't possible by natural means to obtain an apartment then. We got a five room apartment. I rented it and my parents, baruch Hashem, came to Williamsburg. When they were in Williamsburg, Chaya and Surah came from England and there was where to house them because they had a large apartment. It was much, much better for my parents.

I would give them from my earnings every week - maybe I earned $40 a week then - $35, which was then a lot of money, and my parents' situation in Williamsburg was much, much better. It was easier for my father to have where to go and where to daven. And [it was easier for] the children. Sholom had ayeshivah there. My parents were much happier there.