Testimony of Waiszentina-Teresz
nee Tetper, Teresz after her first husband, born in 1905 in Suchowola.
She has been living near Bialystok for 20 years. The testimony
was recorded on 6 January 1946. On the night of 15-16 August
1943, that is Sunday to Monday, about 3 a.m. they were woken
up by a neighbor, Diana Boron, a teacher from Tykocin. She said:
"Get dressed, Germans entered the ghetto, they surrounded
and entered the factories in the ghetto." In the morning,
Diana’s son, Rahmiel, born in 1924 in Bialystok, member
of the Komsomol Fighters’ Organization, tried to reach the
appointed meeting place in the vicinity of Nowogrodzka St. but
he failed and was trapped He went back home when in the morning
an announcement was put about the evacuation to Lublin. Her husband
Lejb Tereszynski decided to join the transport with their son
Jankiel on Jurowiecka St. while Diana was adamant that it was
not a transport to a working place but a death transport. So
she’d rather stay and wait for death at home. She and her
daughter Rachel hid in a nook under the roof where they had hardly
enough room, in a sitting position. This hideout/shelter was
in a house in Kusmierska St, near Czysta St. They stayed there
for two weeks in abominable conditions, relieving themselves
on the spot, drinking their own urine because there was no water
and eating tomatoes they picked in the garden before they went
into hiding. They watched what was going on outside through the
crannies in the shingles. Germans were measuring the houses inside
and outside to see if there were any hideouts or shelters. In
case of doubt, if they couldn’t find shelters, they set
the house on fire, thus forcing people to go out of hiding. For
instance, some two days after the liquidation began, Diana saw
Jankiel Fink’s house in Zabia St being set on fire. She
saw Jankiel’s son Zemal jump out of the flames and 8 Germans
chased him shooting ceaselessly. Eventually, they wounded him
and gave a final shot. Meanwhile, his father Jankiel with his
wife, three other sons and a girl from Grodno stayed in the burning
building till the Germans left, then went out to hide in another
shelter. They left it a few days later to be hidden by their
Polish acquaintances. Since then, there has been no news about
them.
They spent two weeks in hiding without
ever going out, violent shooting lasted for almost a month. Germans
came to the house where Diana and her daughter were hiding a
few times. At least 5 people came each time. Since there was
a stove in their hideout, they wore black clothes and black kerchiefs.
Rays of the sun didn’t reach them. Germans kept on shouting:
maszko herc... They wanted to lure people out of the shelters.
Sometimes they called out to the birds in the garden: fogier,
fogier... Seeing a well-kept garden they said something in German
and the others laughed at the joke.
On the seventh or eighth day after the
action began, she saw a few dozen, about 70 [?] Jews being marched,
men, women and children from the shelter in Czysta St. as I later
found out. Among the people I recognized in that group was Szlomo
Puszkin, about 33 years old and brothers: Lutimon, David, Moshe,
Shlomo and their sister Phamo [?] with her husband (I don’t
remember the surname) and their three children. And other young
Jews who did not survive, Jurek Suraski and Teolik Breski, watched
the execution in a flat above the bar at 3, Kosynierska St. It
was near a hollow in the cemetery where the shooting took place.
Each time they 5 people were ordered to lie face to the ground
at the edge of the hollow. Some Ss-men sat down and watched the
execution like a show. They used machine guns. A 6-year-old girl
was assigned to 4 strangers and she cried out that she wanted
to die with her mother. Fidel agreed and ordered the girl to
wait by the wall until it was her mother’s turn and they
were shot together. They [the murdered] were covered with layers
of earth. Another girl seeing this all shouted: "You will
lose the war anyway! I will treat you worse than you treat us!
"
On the fourteenth, fifteenth
day a few people were brought from a shelter. Pomerajec Bejf,
a sports instructor, and his wife Hana nee Jutkowska, a teacher,
and their sons - 3 and 6 years of age; Hana Haskiel, aged 38,
and his wife Peser nee Grynberg, [the following probably refers
to Peser] a niece of a well-known merchant Radileg and their
two children: a girl of 17 and boy of 14; Peser’s sister
Arka, a nurse, and her husband Abram and their son Majerek, Majkra’s
brother (?), aged 5; Mojsze Notkowicz with his wife and child;
Peser’s mother Gimberdowa. They were lead out of the shelter
in the hous at 15, Czysta St., not far from Dina’s shelter.
The house not burnt. The group went
out on Kosyniarska St. A seven-year-old girl Haikla, extraordinarily
developed for her age, fell at one German’s feet, shouting:
Liberhastal.... The German grabbed her by the legs and smashed
her head against an electric post so that her brain was splashed.
All the way Germans shouted: rous... Near a hollow, in front
of their house at 15, Kosynierska St. they ordered them to take
off their better-quality clothes and shoes. Later they drove
them to the pits and shot them.
The following day Diana saw other groups
of people led to be shot. Among them she recognized Fajkowska
Petrzana with his wife and his/her sister, whose marital name
was Komercow, with her son Mojszele aged 5; Kamieniecor’s
wife sister [unclear], Lonkentin and his wife and son Jankiel;
Beshel’s mother and her married sister with her daughter
Haini aged 10. Germans discovered them in a shelter in Rojbrant’s
house at 18, Czysta St. They were also led along Kosynierska
St and shot in the same pits as the Fighter’s group, Pomeranc,
and the comrades. After the liquidation of the Bialystok Ghetto,
Gestapo, Belorussians in Wehrmacht uniforms, Ukrainians in black
uniforms and (?) in white uniforms were discovering the shelters.
For two weeks they did not leave the
shelter, afraid of the never-ending shooting. They were drinking
their own urine being afraid that taking water from the well
would cause too much noise.
Honor Their
Memory!