Ze’ev Raveh Werba papers

Wolf Vova Werba (later Zeev Raveh) was born on May 23, 1923, in Maniewicze, Poland (Prilesnoye, Ukraine) to Shlomo, born in 1893, and Miriam Mancia Cyrulnik, born in 1896. Shlomo had three brothers: Hershel Zvi and Schmuel Baruch, who immigrated to Argentina and Israel, and one sister, Zitka, married to Arie Farbman. Miriam had four siblings: Menachem Mendel, Shikl, Lejbl, and Cipora. Shlomo and Miriam married in 1922. He owned a forest and was a lumber dealer, employing hundreds of Ukrainians in his factory. The family was well off and Vova and his 4 siblings, the youngest, Pola, born December 24, 1924, were well educated and involved in a Zionist youth organization, HeHalutz. The family spoke Yiddish at home and was moderately observant. Summers were spent with their maternal grandmother Gitl. Vova attended the Tarbut Hebrew school before transferring to the Polish public school. He participated in the Zionist hachshara, training to emigrate to Palestine, but it was very difficult to get permission to enter the British controlled territory. In 1937, Vova left for a vocational high school in Lvov to train as a machine technician. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the west, and a few weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Mankiewicze became Soviet territory. Their father’s business was confiscated and Shlomo worked as a clerk in a government office. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and soon occupied the town. On June 27, there was a pogrom and local Ukrainians attacked Jewish citizens and invaded and looted all the Jewish homes. The Werba family survived the pogrom because they had hidden food with a neighbor, Kowalski. The Germans set up a Jewish Council led by Mr. Frucht and Jews were ordered to wear Star of David badges. On August 26, 1941, the Germans rounded up 370 Jewish men, beat and then executed them on the village outskirts. Vova and his father hid in the neighbor’s barn, but two of his paternal uncles, Israel and Arie Farbman, were killed. The winter was harsh and food was scarce. Shlomo removed one pane from the double paned windows and traded it for a sack of flour. Vova refused to be seen wearing the Judenstern, so he never left the house. In July 1942, Vova joined a group of young Jewish men who left for the Kukhov forest to establish a Jewish partisan unit. They were known as the Kruk unit, after their leader, a non-Jewish partisan, Nikolai Konischuk. Conditions were primitive, but the fighting unit and an associated family camp expanded to include several hundred people. They slept in underground dugouts. For over a year, Vova did not bathe or change his clothes and the lice were a plague to everyone. He was part of a 45 member unit led by Berl Lorber from Lishnivka. The Soviet Army arrived in the area in February 1944, and the partisans were ordered to join the Red Army and move onto Rovno. After the war ended on May 7, 1945, Wova returned to his hometown and learned that his parents and sister had been murdered on September 5, 1942. On that day, the 2000 Jews of Mankiewicze were marched into the forest, shot, and buried in a mass grave. His home had been burned down by retreating German forces. Vova stayed a few days with the Kowalski family. Shlomo had given them his furniture and other belongings and they offered to pay Wova for the items, but he refused. He was able to sell the remaining stables and storehouses and buy some clothes. The only item that he was able to recover from his home was a tablecloth. In 1946, Vova was discharged from the Soviet Army. He had earned his high school diploma and received technical drafting training. He joined a refugee group and made his way to the Adriatica displaced persons camp in Milan, Italy. Now called Zeev, he traveled throughout Italy, assisting a writer who was conducting interviews with Holocaust survivors. In 1948, he left for Israel and was immediately inducted into the Air Force. He continued his education and earned a masters in engineering. He was a career officer, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1960. He married Bila, a pianist, that year and they had two sons. He wrote a book, Days of Evil, about his Holocaust experiences. Zeev died, age 89, in August 2009.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eric Werba

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Eric Werba

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Zeev Raveh-Werba

Ze’ev Raveh Werba and Erica Werba donated the Ze’ev Raveh Werba papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009, 2010, and 2019. Eric Werba is Ze'ev Raveh Werba's son.