1) In the house at 17 Kupiecka St, in Bialystok, where he lived, there also lived with us physicians: Dr. Ejhorn, pediatrician; Dr. Gdanska, dentist; and Dr. Rabinowicz, an elderly woman. It’s interesting that Dr. Rabinowicz in the Ghetto received a letter from her daughter Perka who studied there before the war. Cases of official correspondence in the Ghetto were extremely rare occurrences and Ela remembered the mother’s joy and emotional state.
2) The story of the final liquidation of the Bialystok Ghetto. On 16 March 1943 the Judenrat issued a decree about the evacuation to Lublin. Some believed it, some did not, there was great agitation. Then she turned to her acquaintance A. Limon, member of the Judenrat and the close collaborator of Brasz (head of Judenrat), and asked for advice what to do in this situation, whether to turn up at the evacuation or to hide. Limon answered he can’t advise anything because he himself has no idea what the outcome will be. M. saw with her own eyes how Jewish fighters on Nowogrodzka St prepared for the fight; there was Icchak Engelman and his people among them. A lot of people from the crowd wanted to join them but there were no guns. The fighters were shooting from the windows and roofs and from behind the walls. Dr Fitersztajn’s daughter Ania was killed in a shoot-out in Ciepla St. In the evening the shooting subsided. M. went to the hospital in Fabryczna St. He put on a white coat and, like many others, passed for a mail-nurse; during the first action, that is in February 1943 Germans didn’t touch the hospital and people were under an illusion that maybe this time they would leave it alone too. On Wednesday, 18 August, Frederer with some Ukrainians broke into the hospital and marched out 2000 people who were hiding there to the Poleski Station. People were packed like sardines into wagons, men and women together, it was very hot, people fainted of thirst, Ukrainians brought them water for gold and jewelry.
After half an hour the train departed and went at great speed without stopping. People didn’t know they were going to their death, the pious prayed, others cried. M had a specially prepared tool, sawed through 3 planks and jumped off. A lot of German guards were stationed along the track. Jumping off M. fell on a woman who jumped off another wagon, and hurt her face. It turned out she was Dr Lewi, a dentist. Before her jump, she threw out her two-year-old child but didn’t find it. Her husband was to have jumped right after her but she didn’t know if he did or not and what happened with him. They saw Germans in the distance and a German must have seen them because he ran towards them. They escaped to the forest, Germans were shooting but didn’t follow them to the forest.
They walked at night and reached the River Narew, they headed towards Bialystok. A difficult task was before him - how to cross the river. They saw a modest cottage by the river and asked the peasant - a fisherman - to get them across the river by boat. The peasant knew exactly who was standing before him and told them another Jew was hiding nearby. He took them to the Jew and it turned out it was a Bialystoker, Poznanski, who survived the war. The peasant took them all across the river for 500 marks. Poznanski was their guide because he knew the area. They went towards Bialystok and bypassed Choroszcze near Letniki, 3 km from Juchnowice. Dr Lewi left them saying she knew some peasants in the village because under Soviets she used to work there as a dentist. She went and they never heard of her again.
3) M and Poznanski went to the village of Lemisze near Bialystok; while still in the Ghetto, Poznanski was in touch with a peasant there named Starosielski. He contacted them with an armed group called White Fur Coats that was set up still in the Bialystok Ghetto. First Manelis Grodnianin was in charge, then Szalke from Augustow (M doesn’t remember his surname). The group was looking for Jewss wandering in the forests in order to give them shelter. For a longer period of time they took care of two women and a child. Both women were from Bialystok. One of them was called Osuraska. All of them survived. For a certain length of time 5 Poles who were persecuted by Germans belonged to the White Fur Coats. The relations (between Poles and Jews) were quite good but then 4 of them decided to denounce their Jewish companions when they were asleep. The fifth Pole, a commmunist Janek (M doesn’t remember his surname) warned the Jews against the treason. The traitors were sentenced to death and executed. Janek died a heroic death during a skirmish with Germans on the bridge in Jurowce. In January 1944 Germans organized hunts in the forests where the White Fur Coats were spending the winter and German by sheer accident ran into their earth dugouts. The Jews opened fire first and fierce shooting lasted half an hour when Germans retreated. On the same night, when the partisans were preparing to leave their revealed hiding place, Germans came unexpectedly. Germans rarely organized round-ups in the forests at night; they attacked them with heavy fire.
Wszolke dropped the original plan to retreat with all the things found and garnered in the last few months and they retreated towards [word missing] in two groups. One group headed by Szolka, the other by Manelis. Szolka’s group left footprints in the snow and was attacked by Germans the next day in a secluded settlement. In the fight that ensued 3 people were killed, among others Szolke. Being injured, he decided to stay behind and secured the group’s retreat with his automatic rifle. His sacrifice saved them. With Szolke died Miszka from Grodno, a mechanical engineer, I don’t remember the name of the third man because afterwards the group was divided in two. One group hid in the muds [swamps] near the village Rybniki, the other group went back to the dugouts in Lence. Among the later was Morduchowicz Lipa and Rodsztajn from Bialystok, both survived.
The above testimony was given to me by Meduchowicz Lipa in June 1947 in the camp Mailimn Ksylotymbu 67 on Cyprus. I edited and typed the testimony on 23 May 1948, Dr Szymon Datner, Warsaw 23 May 1948. Honor His Memory!
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