Trudy Gold
Rescuers in the Forests of Novogrudok: Jack Kagan and the Bielski Brothers
Trudy Gold - Rescuers in the Forests Novogrudok Jack Kagan and the Bielski Brothers
- Hi, Trud.
Hi, Wendy. Leave the birds, it sounds gorgeous.
Yes. So, it’s… You know what? It’s David, you know David Morales? It’s his 31st birthday today.
Oh, mazel tov. Mazel tov! I remember him before he went to university, playing the piano.
You know what? It’s so amazing because we used to go… I used to go and waking him up for school, and he hated school, and he used to say, “Why do I have to go to school today? I went yesterday!” And this went on for a long… He was very school-resistant-
I love it! I love the logic of children, it’s wonderful.
And I was lucky that he was number three, and I realised that he was in the wrong school, so I took him out of school when he was nine years old and I sent him to this incredible school called The Academy in London.
I know it, it is brilliant, yeah.
Visuals are displayed throughout the presentation.
And Garth Evans was this incredible headmaster, and he taught in a church, and the children were divided into little groups within the church, and Garth really wanted me… And he did brilliantly there, and then he wanted me to send him to Westminster, and I decided, “No, I’d rather send him to UCS.” Because I wanted him to be top of his class… He was very smart, he was very smart, but he needed to get motivated, and he needed the self-confidence, and Garth gave him that confidence, so as we went off to UCS, and this child who hated school, and really wasn’t doing well, and he was at High-Gate, he was doing very poorly at High-Gate, and then he ended up going to Penn, and to Stanford, and now he’s
And that is superb, it’s superb.
So, that’s how important school is, it’s all about self-esteem, to get back to the psychologist-
Exactly, and it’s going to come out in exactly what I’m talking about today.
And I think it’s all about self-esteem, confidence, and you know, anyway…
That’s what makes…
Are we live?
Yes we are live now, yes.
Everybody’s listening to my… To the history of my…
It’s a lovely story. So, you tell me when you’re ready for me to start.
Sorry, everybody had to listen to David’s story.
No, I think we should. We celebrate a lovely birthday of a fabulous boy, so… A man.
Thank you very much. All right, over to you. Welcome everybody. Welcome back once again, thank you for attending a beautiful gala and for all the well-wishes. Over to you, Trud.
Thank you.
I just want to mute myself.
Yes, okay. Well, I’ve changed locations too, I’m now in sunny, bright Cornwall, and we’re slightly changing tact today, because I want to look at resistance and rescuers, and obviously, the past few weeks looking at the show, or looking at the Vancie House, and then of course that brilliant presentation with David, and Dennis, and at the weekend, they’re going to be talking about the Hannah Arendt and the banality of evil. In a way, I wanted to try and although, a lot of what I’m going to be talking about tonight is dark, yet there is light in it too, because I’m going to talk about a hero I knew very well, and that was a man called Jack Kagan, and I’m very pleased, and of course Jack Kagan fled to the forests with another group of incredible heroes, the Bielski Brothers, some of you will have seen the film “Defiance”, which is based on their story. They were one of a group of Partisans in the woods of Belarus, and Jack always said, “Never forget the Zorin Partisans.” Zorin was another Jewish Partisan group, so I just wanted to bring their name in here, because one of the issues that’s come up on these presentations is, “Why didn’t they resist?” When in fact they did, they resisted, ironically I think far more than the other population. But, before I do that and before I get onto the bulk of the story, we only announced that I’d be talking about Jack Kagan, Novogrudok and the Bielski yesterday, for the simple reason that I didn’t know that the film would work.
Thank goodness for Adam Meyers, Sandra’s grandson, and also for Judi Ferrara, because I’ve got an amazing collection of films, and we’re gradually digitalizing them, and I’m going to show you a film of Novogrudok in a minute. But, it’s very exciting for me, and I hope for you, because I’ve had two emails via Judy, but one from Heimen Negen, who tells me that his family were in the Bielski, as was his cousin Sophie, I hope I pronounced it right, Meganovitzki, and she was responsible for funding the museum, and also did Lenore Fogleman Kagan, her husband Simon was also with the Bielski, I believe these are in Canada, there are also people in the Bielski, whose families were in the Bielski listening in Israel, and I’m delighted that Debbie Kagan, Jack’s daughter, will be contributing at the end of the presentation. So, why was Jack such a hero of mine? And I’m going to tell you a personal story first. I first met Jack in the ‘80s, when he, and his wife Barbara came to a class I was giving in Hampstead Garden Suburb. What did I know about them? Except, they were incredibly nice people, we chatted, but that was it, it was pleasantries, until we came into the course, the part of the course when I was looking at resistance, and all of a sudden, Jack started talking, everybody swivelled 'round, and I said, “Please tell your story.” And he did.
And gradually, we became very, very close friends, he was an extraordinary individual. I’m going to tell you another story about Jack. In the mid-90s, because holocaust studies had gone on the core curriculum, and because teachers were so frightened of it, together with Robert Witsrich and the brilliant film-maker Rex Bloomstein, when I showed the extracts last week, they were from one of Rex’s films, Auschwitz and the Allies, we produced a study-pack, which included a film, Robert wrote the actual script for teachers, and basically, myself and colleagues did all the educational notes, et cetera. Well, it was a big production, and we were in partnership with HET, and we decided we’d launch it at the film, the National Film Theatre, we’d hired the film theatre, all the great and the good were coming, but we had the film, we had the day as well. So, one of my colleagues said, “Let’s invite schools in.” And I said, “Yes, we’ll show them the film, and let’s ask a survivor to tell the story.” And it so happens, that about 90% of the kids came from so-called “sink schools”, most of them were ethnic-minority kids, and they sat there, and they watched a film about the Shoah, and then Jack got up, and told his story, and I’ll never forget the impact that man made, because there was a kid sitting in the middle of the front row, a big kid, and he got up, and he said, “Hey mister, if that’d happened to my people, all I would want were to have mowed them all down and get real revenge.”
And Jack was so wise, he said to the kids, “Look, I know a lot of you have it tough, but you’ve heard my story, you know how tough I’ve had it, and yes, I did seek revenge, but not the kind of revenge you’re looking after, I made sure that nobody, along with my colleagues, and my friends, we were all involved in this. I’d made sure that nobody would ever forget the ones we loved. And also, the people in the town would never forget the ones we loved. And in addition to that, if I’d sought revenge, what kind of life would I have had? I’ve married, I have children, I have grandchildren.” I now know he has great grandchildren as well. “I’ve had a good life in England, I built up a business, and I’ve done many, many things with my life.” And they wouldn’t let him go, these kids were mobbing him, they were surrounding him, it was like he was a beacon to kids who felt that their lives were difficult, and I really began at that stage to understand what it meant to mentor, and one of the most effective things that I think the group of survivors I worked with ever did, they would go into schools, they’d tell their stories, particularly in schools where there were kids with problems, and it was revolutionary. So, this is about what individuals can do, and Jack was an extraordinary individual, he came from a town called Novogrudok, now Novogrudok, and I’ve been there with Jack, and I’ll talk about that later on. Novogrudok is 143km Southwest of Minsk, it’s on a stream that flows into the Neman River, at the centre of Novogrudok is this beautiful market square.
Now, it’s one of the most… The air there is so pure and clean, it’s in Belarus now, Belarus of course is still a communist dictatorship, it’s a very backward country, but we met some very interesting people there, and it’s important to remember that it kept on changing hands, it was originally in Lithuania, part of the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth, then of course it was taken over by the Russians, and in 1888, there was a population of 12,000, of whom 8,270 were Jewish, 2,200 Poles, 1,160 Tatars, 470 Belarus. They had an excellent library, the Jewish Town Council was one of the oldest in Lithuania, and gradually you had every branch of Jewish life. Now, a film was made of Novogrudok in 1931, it was made by a man called Harkavy, and Jack had possession of this film, he had it cleaned up, and I’m going to show it to you in a minute, but I’m going to tell you a little bit about Harkavy.
Albert Harkavy, his dates were 1835 to 1919, he went to St. Petersburg, he was a brilliant scholar, and he was actually in charge of the manuscripts at the Imperial Library, his cousin Albert was born in Novogrudok, he went to America when he was 23 years old, he always was associated with his birthplace. In America, he helped immigrants learn English, he wrote a textbook in 1890, English Teacher, that sold over 100,000 copies, you know, teaching from your native language into English, in 1898, he created a Yiddish/English dictionary, and in 1925, a Yiddish/English/Hebrew dictionary, he was involved in HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Now, many of these towns and villages in Eastern Europe, and don’t forget that from 1881 to 1914, 40% of the Jews of Eastern Europe got out, either because of poverty, fear of pogrom, whatever. The point was you have this great exodus, and many of them created lebensmenschae in America, and Novogrudok had a very effective one, and Harkavy in 1931 when he was quite an old man, he travels back to Novogrudok, and a film is made. So Judi, can we please see the wonderful film of Novogrudok that was cleaned up by Jack, and I think it speaks for itself. This is an original shtetl in Eastern Europe in 1931. Was 13, I think 30 and 35 we’ve got to be at. That’s gone too far. That’s about it, perfect.
Video plays.
- [Narrator] Three men are walking along the road leading to Novogrudok, the one in the middle is a 70 year old Jew who was born in the town, but left at an early age to live in the United States, his name is Alexander Harkavy. In Novogrudok, they’re waiting for him, one of their most distinguished sons who has made a name for himself as scholar, linguist and writer. It’s said that he’s bringing with him a photographer from Warsaw, to record them in a film. The photographer from Warsaw, films a panorama of the town. It’s a pretty town, built on a high hill, overlooking the whole region. On top of the hill is a fortress called Schlosberg, once it was a tough place to conquer with it’s thick walls and towers, and when troubles approached, the inhabitants shut themselves in, but today, little is left of the fortress. This is the home of Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s greatest poet, Mickiewicz mentions his birthplace Novogrudok in his poems, after his death, it was decided to build a mound in his memory, people would come from all parts of Poland to add a wheelbarrow of dust, and slowly, they raised this mound. Meanwhile, Alexander Harkavy has reached the Hotel Europa, this has a Jewish owner and it’s guests are Jewish, non-Jews seldom stop over in the town.
Alexander Harkavy surveys the town from the balcony of the hotel, to the right, and to the left. The houses are of wood, in these houses, most of the inhabitants are Jews, Jews first arrived in the town in the 16th century, before the Second World War, they numbered about 6,000, about half the total population, at some periods, they were even in the majority. The view. The wood. People come here especially on the Sabbath. This is the house of the miller who uses water from the well to work his mill. In general, water is something special in Novogrudok, because it’s built on a hill and you have to dig deep to reach it. Baroeg Wulf, nicknamed “The Scarecrow” brings especially good water, good to boil and make tea with, and he sells it to the wealthy. Yankuv the water carrier, carries water in a barrel in a waggon, this is already a step forward. Rivkivah Krazih, everyone knows her and she smiles at them all, and is goodhearted. The fire brigade brings it’s equipment in a horse-drawn waggon, and in a car. They’re all Jews, here they’re working hard in a fire-fighting exercise, perhaps for the sake of the camera, but there are many blazes, and they are often called out. This is the town hall, Harkavy is talking with the mayor, they get up, shake hands, the mayor is a Pole, his deputy a Jew, generally, relations between Jews and non-Jews are good.
The police, there are no Jews in the police. Every Monday and Thursday, there is a market in Novogrudok, the farmers come from the surrounding areas to sell their produce, fruit, eggs, fowl, the housewives come and buy, the farmers buy what they need, clothes, kerosene and merchandise. In the centre, there’s a big building, around which is the commercial area with small stores and stalls all belonging to Jews, on the Christian feasts, there are large fairs and people come from far away, park their waggons around the market, then make large deals selling horses. Transport in Novogrudok is by horse-drawn waggon, there are also buses, and people line up in front of the buses, so as to be in the photo, there’s a new gas station, but most still travel in the waggons. Sabbath. On the Sabbath, stalls are closed in Novogrudok, they’re mostly owned by Jews, so no business is done on this day. On Sabbath, you walk. on Sabbath you go to synagogue and there are many synagogues in Novogrudok, the Ghaiodom Synagogue, the Shoemakers Synagogue, the Synagogue of the Self-Employed, the different kinds of merchants, each group of craftsman has it’s own synagogue, this is the Basamidrichzt, a synagogue built of stone where the town’s rabbi prays, most respected is the Great Synagogue, an imposing building, high, it’s very cold inside, so that it is known as the “Cold Synagogue”.
The Jews gathered here in times of trouble until danger had passed. The best known Jewish institution in the city, the Ribinich Academy, The Yeshiva, it’s rabbis belong to the Muso Movement, and the children study Torah, they come early in the morning, and stay late at night. This is the home for aged, old people who are on their own live here and are looked after without payment, and here is Alexander Harkavy, and his escort. And here are the heads of the Jewish orphanage. The beds are neatly made with white sheets, they eat, and are photographed. Here is a vocational school, carpentry for boys, sewing for the girls. TOZ, the Jewish Health Organisation runs summer camps for Jewish children, they go to a little village not far away, and the fee is nominal. And here too is Alexander Harkavy with his escort. Meanwhile in Novogrudok, they’re making their monthly payment to the charity, which gives loans to those who need it, without interest. There’s also a Jewish hospital and a medical staff who look after sick Jews of the town, again for a nominal payment.
Hebrew is the language of study in the Tabud school, and the curriculum is adapted to that in Israel. The Jewish library has a fine collection of books lent without charge. The municipal theatre of Novogrudok is the Jewish theatre, the Poles don’t have a theatre, they have a cinema. Motorcycle racing, the Maccabi team. Soccer, Maccabi Novogrudok. The road to the cemetery. On the gates of the cemetery are the versus from Ezekiel about the valley of the dry bones, this is where the corpses are washed. Gravestones. Now, it’s time for Alexander Harkavy to say goodbye to the leaders of the community, and to rabbi Mayaratitz, and rabbi Abovitz, and start his journey back to New York. The 70 year old Jew who’s paid a nostalgic visit to his birthplace, and made of it, a permanent record.
Video ends.
- Thank you. Thank you Judi, very much. I think that is probably the… I think it’s the only full little documentary I’ve ever seen on a shtetl, well I guess you get bits from other places, but I think that’s why it’s… I’m sorry the quality isn’t that good, but it’s as good as you’re ever going to get, and I just thought it was so important to show you the life because one of Jack’s most important mantras was, “You have to remember.” And I know that he, and his colleagues, and as I said, I just looked at the chat line, there are a lot of people who are connected with the Bielski and Novogrudok listening online today, and the work they did was to ensure that it would never, ever be forgotten, because another point to make is there is now a wonderful Jewish museum in Novogrudok, the film mentioned Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s greatest poet as a result of that, he was like the Shakespeare of Poland, so his birthplace became a great pilgrimage spot, and when Jack, and some of his colleagues visited Novogrudok, in the late '70s, they met an extraordinary woman called Tamara Vershitskaya, who runs the museum, and through her, and through guidance from Jack, and other colleagues, they have now established a brilliant museum, Jewish museum in Novogrudok, but more about that later because obviously that film, which gave us a real smell of an authentic Jewish life and also, we saw the poverty, we saw the wooden houses, but we also saw Jewish charity, Jewish philanthropy, and Jews coming together. So, can we have a look at some of the pictures please, Judi?
Now, if you don’t mind. Jack had also prepared a marvellous book on Novogrudok, and these pictures are taken from it, there you see Jack’s parents, Dvore and Yankel Kagan. Thank you. Tragically of course… And this is his synagogue, see the wooden poverty of the synagogue? But the place of love and prayer. Thank you. If you could go on, there’s the Maccabi football team, young, brave men. There’s the swimming team. See how important Maccabi was? Now, this is… These are a group of Zionists, this is a Zionist organisation, these were elections, it was mainly left-wing Zionism. The other point I want to make is how modern so many of them were, and I remember Jack telling me that in his school, they actually used the Mendelssohn translation, which is fascinating, because as many of you know, Moses Mendelssohn was very much a modern reformer Jew, so if you think in terms of Novogrudok, a shtetl in Eastern Europe, it’s a very modern place, isn’t it? Yes, it’s got the payes rabbis, yes you have a gashivah, but you also have the modern as well. This is the Jewish world in 1931, who knows what would’ve happened? Here you have Hashomer Hatzair in Novogrudok. Look at their faces. This is the fire brigade, they had their own orchestra, it’s so important to remember the lives they had. And shall we go on, Judi? Yes, these are the Jewish doctors, and we already saw them in the film, they were so proud to be part of that film, and here you have a shot of them, yes.
And remember, they took very little money to look after the old and the sick. Now, let’s keep it on that shot, because that’s Novogrudok, the huge marketplace in December 1941, and of course you can go back into the film to the very busy marketplace now. Look, as you all know, by the late '30s, Poland had become a very antisemitic place, the index, the antisemitic party, and just before Sade in 1939, rumours spread in Novogrudok that the Poles were planning a pogrom, and everybody hid, and you see we’ve got a lot of eye-witnesses to this now. And, it was rumoured that nothing happened, and it was evidently the chief of police was bribed, so though they had to hide in cellars, and they didn’t have their Passover in 1939, nevertheless… And it’s important, because this is around the time of Passover, isn’t it? And it’s also the time of Yom Ha'atzmaut, so it all comes together, and this story was the chief of police had been bribed. Now, the pact of August 1939, and the village Novogrudok was actually part of the Soviet zone, so in October '39, the Soviets, they move West into Novogrudok, the Nazis are moving…
If you think about it, the Nazis are moving in from the West, the Soviets are moving West from the East, and Novogrudok is in their zone. And of course, the communist nationalise everything, and make everything into cooperative workshops, and also between 1940, and 1941, Jews are fleeing the German zone to Novogrudok, bringing stories of German atrocities. Now, what happens is, throughout the early months of 1941, the Soviets began to arrest due to being merchant, they’re stripped of their possessions, and they’re permitted to only take 10kg with them, of luggage, but what happens? They deport it to Siberia. You know, it was a terrible tragedy at the time, these are people being deported into the cold of a Siberian winter, but ironically, many of them managed to survive the war, because on the 22nd of June 1941, as I’ve told you in different presentations, Operation Barbarossa, the Germans break the pact, and they move into this part of Russia, the bombs dropped on Novogrudok, and by the 3rd of July 1941, the Germans march in, the brutalities begin immediately, there are no basic rights, the Star of David, they have to wear a Star of David, they’re not allowed to walk on the pavements, and then, the massacres begin. And I’m actually going to read from Jack Kagan, in his book on Novogrudok, let me explain, this book has many different contributors, and I thought it’d be better to use his words.
Now, remember what I said about Jack? Remember, remember, remember. That’s what he was concerned with. “On the 6th of December 1941, all Jews had to assemble in the courthouse, the elderly, the sick and the children from the orphanage had to go to the convent on the first of Main Street. From the convent, they were taken straight to Schkidao to be killed, they could take with them only what they could carry.” You see, this is the gutter, we saw that film 10 years earlier, Jack had been to at the time, and now, we’re hearing what happened to them. “They could take with them only what they could carry, more than 6,000 assembled there in the bitter cold, in the evening, we were let into the five buildings, on the 8th of December, a selection was made where 5,100 men, and women, and children were selected to be killed, they were beaten on the way to the waiting lorries, 50 people in each lorry, they were taken 3km from Novogrudok, there they had to lay face down in the cold snow, and at 50 a time undress, and at 50 a time to run to the pit where they were shot. They also brought to the pits some Jews from the surrounding villages, four members of my family were killed.”
And he of course gives the names of the children. Now, the other point was that Jack also reports how although we’re going to find out there were some very, very good Poles, good Belarus in this area, there were also those Poles who were betraying the Jews, and I think one of the issues was of course finality, because the low-level property was not taken by the Germans, it was one of the ways they kept the inhabitants sweet, and kept the inhabitants underfoot. Yes, we want people to work with us, but we will also make sure that you can have the possessions of the Jews. And, about a month later, a yudarat was set up, the first lot were killed, this is the tragedy, the yudarat is empowered by the Nazis, but really they have no power. And, Jack goes on to say, “About a month later, the SS arrived and asked the yudarat for 50 workers, it took time, but then the Jews assembled. On the 22nd November '41, an order was given, the Jews must give up all their valuables, such as gold, silver, copper and fur coats.” And he remarks all these orders end with, “You will be shot if you don’t obey.” And they know what’s happening, they’ve seen the assemblies, these are the killing fields. “In May & June '42, Jews were brought into the Novogrudok ghetto…”
Ghetto has been established for “Working Ghetto”. “From the neighbouring towns, including Nalibokhi and Meer.” Meer is an extraordinary town, because Meer was the home of the great Meer Yischevah, which is now in Jerusalem. “And then a new yudarat was formed.” And Jack says, “We waited for a massacre, but we couldn’t do anything about it. Young people escaped, but bad news came back quickly, either they’d been killed by the Germans, or by the local population, or by the Polish Partisans. On the 7th of August 1942, Estonian collaborators for the Germans surrounded the courthouse of the ghetto and the barracks, and on the same day, killed 5,500 Jewish men and children, and women in Litovah, about a kilometre from the ghetto.” And so, it goes on, and he lists his family members who die in these shootings, and also other people in this book, it’s a fascinating book, they also list their family members. So, then Jack goes on to say, “We were now just over 1,000 Jews left, about 500 in a much smaller ghetto nearby, and 500 in a labour camp.” And he goes on to say, “And this is when we begin to see the light.” Now, what is the light? And that is of course that one of the most extraordinary aspects of the story of Novogrudok and Belarus… I want you to remember the Belarus Forests, and can we now go on with the photos, if you don’t mind, Judi?
Remember the… Ah, they were four extraordinary brothers called the Bielski brothers, they themselves witnessed their parents and two siblings were murdered. They were a fascinating family, before the war, they’d been millers, they’d been grocers, they were… The two elder boys were very strong men, Tuvia in the Polish army, they lived on the outskirts of Novogrudok, and they’d also been smugglers, Tuvia had been in the army also under the Soviets. Now, on the 8th of December 1941, their family were killed, and they fled into the forests, they were strong, hard men, and they fled in the forest with 13 people who’d also escaped from the ghettos, they formed the nucleus of a group, Tuvia was the commander, and he actually sent into the camps, and ghettos to recruit anyone who could get out, could come to the Bielski. Could we go on with the pictures, please? There is the other Bielski’s, and in the forests, they affiliate with the Soviets, in the forest. Now, what is so important? I’m going to talk now about some righteous people, could we go on with the pictures? Here you see Konstantin Kozlovsky, now Konstantin Kozlovsky, along with two or three other people were actually active in helping. I want to talk first about the dog catcher. On the edge of the village was a man that nobody wanted to go near, he was the dog catcher… That’s what he did for a living, he lived in this sort of terrible squalid house, but the outsider, the outsider helped, what did the outsider do?
He let it be known that if any Jew could make it to the edge of the forest where he lived, he would get word to the Bielski, and the Bielski would come for them. Tragically, he was betrayed and the Nazis set fire to his house, and his family were all… And most of his family were murdered, I think a granddaughter, one branch of the family survived, because I met the granddaughter with Jack when we went to the village, and she was waiting for him with a wonderful bouquet of flowers. He was honoured at Yad Vashem. There was also another, there was another righteous one who smuggled himself into the ghetto, he spoke Yiddish, to tell the people that if they could make it to… If they could actually make it to the Bielski, the Bielski would save them. And what was interesting about the Bielski, and there was another Jewish brigade called Zorin, I want you to think about the depth of the Belarus forests, to start with, you’ve got to know how cold it becomes in the winter, in the end, at it’s height, the Bielski Brigade had 1,236 people. Now, the majority of the Partisan Brigades were fighting men, the decision was made by the Bielski, they would not turn away anyone, so anyone who escaped to the forests had a place for them, and what they did, and this is of course, the fighting men, and Tuvia, and his brother were really tough men, they would steal arms, they would find arms, they would purchase arms, they also destroyed Polish collaborators, later on this became a very contentious issue with Eastern Europe.
These Partisan, these Jewish Partisans, great heroes to the Jews, but on the other hand, they actually went out and executed people who’d betrayed them, Bielski personally executed the family who had betrayed his parents, so the other point about the Bielski that’s so important, in the forest they created a world, they created their own life, and I’m actually going to read from Tuvia Bielski’s report, because Tuvia and his brother, three of the brothers survived and went to live in America, and this is about his camp on the 31st of December 1943. And the General Platon, who was the Soviet party’s commander, they actually cooperated with the Soviets, so they want to be shown 'round, so he says, “We first entered the large light industry building…” Remember, this is all in the forests, the Germans discovered the camp, once they had to go even deeper into the forest, but in the forest, they created almost a little town. “Kabak, a lawyer called the group to attention, and we moved from group to group, the general was astonished at the industriousness and dedication of the workers. Esther Goravitzkiah was responsible for the 12 women and two sewing machines that continued on.”
This is in the forests. “Platon shook our hand and asked about the conditions, they all praised me, the commander, the hut-maker sat close by, and Platon spoke with Ledavitsch, the foreman, he spent some time with the saddle-makers and told the foreman that every saddle-maker in the camp was like ambushing the enemy. The shoemakers workshop employed 22 people, and he saw a number of rifles hanging on the walls, Kolschak, the foreman of the shoemakers described how the shoemakers kept their weapons close to hand 24 hours a day. There were four hairdressers, and Platon invited the chief hairdresser to make a working-visit to his headquarters. He started the second round of visits with the tailors, Schmo Kagan from Novogrudok headed a group of 18 tailors. Platon was surprised at the quality of the goods, he was even more surprised when he met the watchmakers, they were working on many watches. The foreman explained they did work for many people in the region, that’s how they were making money as well, they actually had an industry, they would steal flour, make bread, which they gave to the other Partisans.
Then we went to the carpentry workshop where Netta Hoebeman from Meer was in charge, here we manufactured the stocks of our rifles, and some machine guns, and windows, and doorframes, and other articles. Outside the workshops, there was a large wooden tank that served as our tannery, we had six tanning tanks, Maude Hyberkowitz was in charge of the four blacksmiths, and we prepared the charcoal ourselves, we simply burnt trees in the forest, even the bakery supplied us with large quantities of charcoal. At the time of our visit, Baschitz the blacksmith was busy manufacturing the upper parts of rifle breeches, very delicate work indeed, this made an impression on Platon, and he asked for more information. Make reaches comrade to attack the German fascists. We stopped next to the empty jailhouse…” They even had a jailhouse, and they had flowers in the camp, they’d go to the tannery, and evidently, the General Platon was totally, he was totally bemused by it all. We moved to the bakery, where the ovens were full of bread, Maude Hirshowitz from Lidde was in charge, but Platon was even more surprised when he saw our sausage factory, so I said to him, “But it is often, we were glad to share our bounty with you.” So, what happens is they are actually taking people to life, they are showing life… In the forest, “If you can actually make it, from the horror of what has happened to your families, then we will restore life to you.” And in that forest they created…
They were fighting the Germans, they were fighting the Partisans, the terrible insecurity, the terrible weather, and then what happens if women got pregnant? Can they give birth in the forest? If you just think of the everyday aspects of life as we take it for granted, these are people living in the most extraordinary situations, they even had a little mikvah in the forest. So, what they’d do is create a world if you like, and so I’ve already mentioned Kozlovsky, who was a farmer, and the dog catcher, whose name I couldn’t remember, his name was Barbovski, and it’s so important to remember that Jack, and his colleagues made sure that they were actually… That they were honoured at Yad Vashem. Now, the fourth massacre occurs, we’ve seen three massacres, Jack actually tried to escape, he did escape, but he didn’t… But he escaped in the winter, in the terrible, cold of the winter of 1943, and what happened… Sorry, 1942. And what happened was, he contracted frostbite, and he had to go back to the camp where his father was still alive, and he lost his toes as a result of it. On the 7th of May 1943, the Germans separated 200… And remember, he goes back to the camp where they have 500 skilled workers, and his father, and his friends hid him under the blankets, and they think they can survive, because they’re important workers, but then the German you see… How would you take on that killing the Jews was as important as winning a war? And they take out 250 of them, and then they shoot them, and again Jack says that three members of his family were actually killed, and it’s at this stage they establish an escape committee, and they escape on the night of the 26th of September 1943, and that is actually when Jack escapes, unfortunately his father was 1 of 11 workers who were taken out for special detail, and his father was killed, but Jack managed to escape, those who escaped, 170 of them made it to the Partisans, now what is extraordinary about the tunnel they escaped from?
A few years ago, the survivors of the Bielski went back, and with many of their family… There’s a film about it, it’s very moving, and Jack’s son was involved in the making of the film, and they actually found the entrance to the tunnel, which is now a kind of museum in Novogrudok. So, I want to talk a bit about the work that Jack and his colleagues did, I’ve mentioned Tamara Vershitskaya. I was working for the International Task Force, now known as IRA, and myself, and my colleagues, we were running seminars, bringing together… This is under government auspices, so it meant particularly in Eastern Europe, it gave you a kind of . So, myself and my colleagues were working already in Lithuania, and Poland, and Jack said… And Jack was already taking tours of interested people to Novogrudok, he had been made a freeman of the city of London, and he was an incredible operator, he took a book from the mayor of London, to the mayor of Novogrudok, this tiny little town, remember it’s a communist town, and we found out that we would be allowed to teach there, teach teachers about the Holocaust, Tamara already had her museum, she was going to cooperate, there were people in Minsk prepared to cooperate, but it had to be under the auspices of the great patriotic war, that’s how you teach in Eastern Europe under communism.
Anyway, we were all excited because the seminar was passed by the International Task Force, and we were going to train 100 teachers in Novogrudok, and Minsk. And then, I got word from the foreign office, they were only seven embassies in Belarus, and we were taking individuals from other organisations, so we were told they didn’t feel that they could protect us, so I phoned Jack, and Jack’s mantra was always, “No problem.” I never knew a man like that, he always said, “No problem.” I said, “Jack, they’re saying they can’t protect us.” He said, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” And when we arrived, we flew to Vilnius, and when we arrived, there were all these men in leather jackets who were prepared to make sure that everything went beautifully, and in the end, the British Ambassador, he came to Novogrudok because he wanted to find out how Jack had operated there. So, it was Jack who was responsible for us actually teaching in Novogrudok, and it was an extraordinary experience, and it was in Novogrudok, just in the outskirts that I had I think the most profound experience of the whole of my teaching life.
We talked about methodology with the various teachers, and most of them came from the villages, they didn’t have computers, they didn’t have huge resources, and the last session was devoted to how they were teaching, and remember the pits, the killing fields were all around them, and when Jack, and his colleagues first went back, there were very few Jews left, but the majority of Novogrudok Jews died, those who survived with the Bielski, they came back to Novogrudok, but it was over, and the majority of them immigrated either to England, to Canada, to America, to Israel. A cousin of the Bielski went to Palestine, where he joined the Irgun, the two elder Bielski setup a big trucking business in New York, they said they wanted to learn not to kill, and they had a completely different life, and I believe one of them is… I think there’s a cousin who’s still around in Palm Beach.
But anyway, they went on to have lives, but the point is, they made the decision, they setup in Israel, a sort of community of Novogrudok, and the Bielski, and they made a decision that the Bielski had to become famous, in fact, Jared Kushner, who is of course Trump’s son in law, his grandfather was in the Bielski, there’s an extraordinary bunch of individuals, and what they were determined to do was to setup a memorial in Novogrudok, which has been done, the tunnel is now a memorial place, the museum is about the Shoah as well, and they just didn’t want the people ever to forget, and many of them never knew, and I remember this teacher, she came to the front of the class, and she said, “I’ll tell you how I teach the the Shoah.” She didn’t use the word Shoah, she used the word “Holocaust”, and she said, “My students aged 13 & 14.” Which is about the same age as we teach in England, “I asked them to write down their hopes and dreams, I put them all in a big urn, and then I burn them, that’s how I begin to teach about the Shoah.” And that’s become a legendary story now, we tell it to everybody, because we looked around, we were so humbled, we said, “Well, what can we ever teach you?”
She got it, she got the humanity. So, the other point to make about Jack, he’s also been involved in war crimes trials, he knew who the collaborators were, and so, his story never finished, his story, he created a family, he had a wonderful wife, who I knew very well, he had a wonderful family, as did many of his colleagues, he built up a big business, he was a religious man, he also was so devoted to the memory of his people, not just his family, but his people. So, to me, he was a hero. The Bielski are different kind of heroes, you have fighting Jews who sort of… And the story of the Bielski becomes famous, the story of Zorin should become famous, Jack would always say, you’ve got to find out more about Zorin and his brigade. So, I’ve just given you really a sort of, really just a brief description, because there are so many stories like this, and confronted with the task of trying to give you the atmosphere, I know many of you know a lot, but to give you the atmosphere, I thought it was very important to show the pictures, and here you see Jack, this is Jack and his colleague Tevele, just after liberation when they marched back into Novogrudok and there you see Jack and Tevele 40 years on, I think… Is that the last picture? I think that’s the last picture we have isn’t it, Judi?
[Judi] Yes.
Then we finish on a note of triumph. Now, what I propose… Did you find Debbie? Judi? Let me just have a look at the questions.
[Debbie] Hello, Trudy.
Have you found Debbie? Debbie?
[Judi] Debbie’s there, she’s online.
Lovely. Debbie, I’d like… Before I get to the questions, if you don’t mind, let me introduce Debbie Kagan. It’s such a pleasure to have you, Debbie is Jack’s daughter. Have you got a few words to say, I think?
[Debbie] Trudy, thank you so much. Sorry, I don’t know how to get the picture of me off there.
It’s all right. It’s lovely to see you.
[Debbie] All right. That was very moving, and of course very emotional for me to hear you give dad’s story, obviously I’m used to him giving it, but thank you. And I understand why both my parents were so very fond of you, and the work that you do. My dad’s mission in life as you said, was to educate about the Holocaust to as many people as possible, from all walks of life, and his main topic was resistance, he always said, “Not enough was spoken about this.” I just want to say, it was dad’s birthday a few days ago, and therefore this evening is really so befitting. And the other thing, the film that you showed at the very beginning, when that was first shown in Tel Aviv, people from Novogrudok were sitting watching, and they were literally standing up shouting, “That’s my father! That’s my mother! That was my grandmother!” And in fact, the fire brigade that you saw, one of the fireman was my late great grandfather. Trudy, thank you so, so much with all our heart for continuing dad’s work.
Debbie, you know that story you told me about citizenship? Would you mention that, please?
[Debbie] Okay. A few years ago, my Australian daughter-in-law went to Brent Town Hall for her naturalisation ceremony, and towards the end a gentleman got up, and he said that he was there on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, and that before he presents everybody, and the few hundred people in the room from all different countries all over the world, he said he wanted to tell a story, he wanted to explain how coming into this country as refugees if you work hard, you can go far, and he spoke about a man that came as a refugee who didn’t speak any English, who’d survived the Holocaust, who’d survived hatred, and had worked, and he’d come from Belarus, and his name was Jack Kagan. Well, my daughter-in-law nearly fell off the chair, and at the end of the ceremony when she went to get her certificate, she explained that Jack had been her grandfather-in-law, and this morning I spoke to this lieutenant, I managed to track him down. I wanted to know, “How did he know my father? How did their paths cross?” And he said to me, every naturalisation ceremony that he speaks at, he speaks about Jack Kagan, because dad had made such a huge impression on him, he had met him some years ago when my dad gave a talk at a Holocaust Memorial day. So, that was the impact that my dad has had on people’s lives, and it’s great that it continues.
Thank you so much for joining us, Debbie. I’m going to have a look at the questions, because I think there’s quite a few people who have descendants from that that town. So, let me just go through the questions. And this is from… All right.
Q&A and Comments:
This is from Carol, “My late in-laws were in the Bielski.”
And Stephanie says, “So appropriate to be talking about this on Yom Ha'atzmaut.”
And this is Barbara, “Michael Kagan, son of Jack has made a movie about the escape.” Yes. “The Tunnel”, yes.
And this is from Debbie Meyers, “My husband’s uncle Wulf Kaladitzky and his two young children Paula, and Isaac were with the Bielski Partisans, Wulf married Hannah in the forest, and after the war they immigrated to Chicago.” You know, the Bielski never wanted to be honoured. “My parents Schloma and Haya Riebec were also in the Bielski Partisans, they also escaped through the Novogrudok tunnel with Jack Kagan and 240 others.”
Q: “My question is, I heard that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, they had to call out, 'Remember Novogrudok’.”
A: Yes, yes the Novogrudok story was certainly told in the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Warsaw Ghetto story was told in the camps. So, you know, you get it going.
Now, this is from Beth Price, “A family member Leah Johnson Lee, born Bedzowski, and her husband Vefkah Johnson, also Canadian, not sure what part of the Bielski Brigade.”
“Leah was the advisor to the movie "Defiance”. Yes, this is extraordinary.
Wendy, I don’t know what you’ve done.
“Jay Bielski is a neighbour of mine, a son of Zeus, his uncle Aaron presented the movie, ‘Defiance to our Development’, Aaron 93 is the sole…” He’s still alive! “And the surviving brother lives in South Florida.” May he be there in good health, and peace.
And this is from Jeffery, “The parents of our friends Haskiditz from Stanmore, both were in the Bielski.”
“How do you spell Novogrudok?” That’s the problem, it can be Novogrudek or Novogrudok.
Somebody says from Anne Ditts, “My parents were with the Bielski, my father was Hein Burchovitz.” Who I mentioned. “And Leah Abrahmavitch, we went to the forest with Jack and a grandson of one of the Bielski brothers.”
And this is from Leonore Kagan, who I’ve already mentioned, “So did my husband Heim.” Who we mentioned. “The film was made by Mel Bergstein in 1931, and it’s about as good…” Unfortunately, with these films, they’ve been cleaned up, Beth cleaned that one up, and it’s as good as it’s going to get.
This is from Steven Masel asking if I have information for Ozaritch, the death camps… I do, but it’s a long… But I don’t have enough, so leave that with me Steven, and let me make a note of it here. Okay, thank you.
This is from Octavia, “It’s evident that the community is extremely cohesive, we can come together to sustain all social and political, and economic institution.” Yes! They very much lived a life within a life, didn’t they? This is the point about Eastern Europe.
This is from Michael, “I have been to Novogrudok with the Together Plan, which is helping Jews of Belarus rediscover their Jewish identity.” You’ve got to remember, under communism, those Jews who survived, well, you couldn’t be a Jew and survive well.
This is from Deborah, she says the film is amazing. “Is there a link to this?” You see these films, what has happened is we have managed to digitalize, which means once the website is up, presumably you will be able to see the films, and Wendy, and I are discussing with colleagues, whether it is possible to have a film on once the website is up, because I was very, very fortunate working with the LJCC, because I had the most extraordinary students. I mean, Jack Kagan was a student, and one of them was a film buff, and we collected film of… We got an amazing film library, and as I said, Adam Meyers is beginning to digitalize the important ones, but we are talking.
This is from Simmie, “Thank you, this film is like a diamond.”
“Oh, this is rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz started the Mirrer Yeshiva, he was the first cousin of my mother.” That’s from Anne Ditz.
This is an unbelievable group. It’s just so extraordinary, I’ve been to Meer, and of course… You know what’s so fascinating about those areas? They’re physically beautiful, the air is crisp, but you don’t get much impression that there was that much interaction between the Jewish world and the non-Jewish world.
And this is… A lot of you did love the film.
This is from Michael, “In conjunction with Jewish Child’s Day, we’re running an educational programme, which includes taking non-Jews from a college in Minsk to Novogrudok, to teach them what happened there.”
Yes, Tamara Vershitskaya is a hero in her own way, what she has done, and what she’s setup there.
This is from Adrian Cohen, “My family was from Grodno, very near Novogrudok.” Yes.
Oh, this is from Hazel, “My mother who is now 99…” Bless her. “Came to South Africa when she was nine and talked about the , and she attended the Tarbert school.” Yes, you had every aspect of Jewish life.
This is from Bev Price, “Amazing to think, particularly today on Yom Ha'atzmaut, how these precious Jews built such functional and seemingly confident, and functional communities, despite the state of Israel. For me to be born in a time with a fate accompany of Israel provides such a backbone in the world as a Jew, never to be taken for granted.” Yes.
This is from Barrington Black, “Did you notice how many of the men in that remarkable film were wearing ties in a shtetl? How civilised.” Barrington, I think it was very exciting for them to be filmed. Very.
“Were the Jews not allowed into the police?” I would think not.
This is from Arlene, “Trudy, to see the shtetl brought to life was really moving, when you visit Lithuania or Latvia now, you only see one street with old wooden houses and there is very little left.” Yes, this is the problem. I mean, when we first started visiting Eastern Europe, actually before communism fell, even in Warsaw we went to flats, which before the war had been 80%/90% Jewish, and what is fascinating, and in the shtetl, you could still see they were wooden, it was poor, and you could still see where the Müsavat were torn out, it became an absolute obsession.
This is from Miriam, “My mother, Sharna Lewin from Novogrudok came to Rhodesia and then to South Africa in 1939, her parents, two sisters were killed, her brother and her sister survived in the forests, my mother brought them to South Africa after the war.” “My cousins, the Charne family also survived in the forest.” You see, this is about them, this is also about Jewish life, it’s how despite all the horror, how somehow families have picked themselves up, the remnants of families have picked themselves up, they have regrouped, in different places now, in America, South Africa, Canada, Britain, and of course Australia, and in Israel, the Jewish world has changed forever. And what Wendy and I have been discussing, is I’m going to spend a lot of time with you on the years between ‘45 and '48, because look, we’ve looked at Novogrudok, there was a Zionus school there, it was more and more difficult for people to get to Palestine of course, and ironically, the Poles wanted as many Jews as possible to get out to Palestine.
This is from Esther, “As a student at the Hebrew University after the war, they asked for volunteers to work at the orphanage, all that was asked from us was to hold the babies in our arms. I went home crying, so many of them lost their parents.” Yeah, yes Esther.
This is from Johanna Guilbert, “Faye Schulman is one of the remarkable female Partisans featured in my book, Women of Valour, Jewish resistors to the Third Reich, I am honoured to be one of the presenters on a panel about Faye Schulman, sponsored by the Susan Menses Foundation on May the 9th.” So, that is very, very interesting.
This is from Norman, “Was Joseph Kagan related to Jack Kagan?” I do not know, of course it was. I think there was a very large clan, I really don’t know the answer to that, maybe Debbie Kagan can give information on that.
This is from Indihurte, “There’s a book, Children of the Forest, refers to the Bielski group, a difficult read.” Yes, these are very.
“Is Novogrudok the same as Novagrod?” I’m not sure. It’s very likely it is, now if you get in touch with me, get in touch with Judi, she’ll pass it onto me, and I will get in touch with Tamara.
“I know this book, I’m pretty sure it was Norman. As a Jewish architect, I treasure this publication from '57 to '59 of martyred buildings. Could be worth a presentation.” Yes.
This is from Myrah, “My husband’s cousins worked with the Bielski in the forest that were in a dugout for two years. A book written by their son tells the story.” This is Jack and Rochelle, by Laurence Sutin. Yeah.
Q: “Do you know the name of the film?”
A: Yes, it’s called “Defiance” Elaine, and actually… This is from Elaine Yakar. The film “Defiance”, it actually stars James Bond, what’s his name? Daniel Craig. Who I believe has become Jewish after marrying Rachel Weisz, and it’s a pretty good film, I remember when we had our premier in London, and Jack spoke at it, and look, it tells the story of a fighting force of Jews. Yes. “And it’s based on the Hamia textbook.” Thank you Johanna.
This is from Sue, “I was at Minsk in 2019, it was very advanced, my understanding is that they in Estonia are amongst topping the world in technology, the architecture is extremely modern.” Yeah, I found when I… I haven’t been to that part of the world for about 20 years, and when I was in Minsk, I just found the buildings very oppressive and stateliness.
This is from Evelyn, “How do we connect the lessons of the Holocaust to antisemitism, and anti-Israel sentiment today?” Evelyn, have you got 25 hours at your disposal? I think this is one of the biggest tasks we face, and this is something… You’ve got to remember that I’ve been… We’ve just celebrated our year anniversary on Zoom, so there’s been a lot of lectures on antisemitism, and I am actually working on some presentations on antisemitism on the left, I think we can connect the dots frankly, and it’s something that we will be with Wendy discussing with our colleagues, and we are thinking about how we can talk about these kind of issues in a very meaningful way.
Joanne, “How do you contact?” You get in touch with Judi, and she passes it onto me. This is from Joanna Guilbert, “Accompanied by the Partisans, renowned surgeon-”
[Wendy] Trudy. Trudy. Trudy.
Yes.
[Wendy] What I’d like to say is, please put in a subject line for Trudy, LU for Trudy, because Judi is very, very busy, she works… She has another job, and a very demanding job, not just Lockdown, so you know, I don’t want her having to go through so many emails, if it’s for you, she will just forward it straight onto you.
Yes, thank you. Did you hear that? Did you hear that? I think it’s quite important. I’m just seeing, I think shall we-
So, just no. All responses from participants for Trudy, please send to Judi and put in the subject line “For Trudy” and then Judi will just… Yeah, thank you. Sorry, I’ve got so many things going on here. It’s Charlene Oenteholder’s 70th birthday and she’s just on the other line, so she just warned me as I was talking. Happy birthday, Charlene! But I just want to say, “Attention Trudy”, and then Judi will just send them straight onto you Truds, and then she doesn’t need to respond. Thank you.
Thank you very much for that. Wendy, I think… Shall we call it a halt now? It’s quarter to seven.
Yes, let’s call it a day, and then I can talk to Charlene.
It’s absolutely wonderful that we’ve had so many people connected, being connected with the Bielski online, and I think Wendy, it’s just a tribute to you and the Lockdown University, it’s extraordinary.
Well, thank you, Trudy.
People are listening, and it’s extraordinary.
Very good.
Charlene, wish her happy birthday and lots of love, and I’ll see you next week.
Thank you very, very much Trudy for an outstanding presentation once again. Bye-bye everybody, thanks for joining us. Thanks, bye.