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Displaying items 101 to 120 of 855
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Country: Israel

  1. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 9]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    In his statement, the 25 years old clerk Lejb Rozencwajg from Warsaw describes his excape to Lublin in September 1939. Because of an order issued by the major of Warsaw, refugees were forced to go back to the city to defend it. Rozencwajg depicts how Jews, also religious Jews, volunteered to dig defense trenches in Warsaw but faced antisemetic reactions from polish Christians. Furthermore, he describes how life rapidly changed for the Jewish community after the occupation by the Nazis. Protocol No. 9 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish r...

  2. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Motl Greier, 19 year old yeshiva student, son of a leather merchant, from Markuszów, by Lublin. He reports that at the beginning fo the war he was at his parents' home, in Markuszów, and left it for Lublin. The heavy bombardment of German planes destroyed the town almost entirely with incendiaries. From Lublin he set out on his way to Lukow which was under Russian control. He describes antisemitism and anger toward Jews among the Polish population specifically because they welcomed the Soviet army. He recounts an account of a man he met on the road concerning the fate of Lukow'...

  3. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of A. K., b. 1908, a mill worker from Wyszków. He describes the bombings and the flooding of refugees from Mlawa, Przasnysz and Pultusk, and the panic which caused the residents of Wyszków to flee into the forests, where they lost their way. They were overtaken by the German occupation in the city of Stoczek, where men, both Jews and Poles, were taken and marched out into the forest and to a camp at Ostrów Mazowiecka where military and civilian personnel were separated. He describes discrimination between Jews and Poles along the way, and the hunger in the camp. Eventually the Jew...

  4. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of M. T., a 22 year old baker from Poręba-Kocęby, a small town oin the Ostrow Mazowiecka district. According to the author of the testimony, the town was not damaged by bombardment, and no local casualties fell. The Germans entered the town and looted the Jewish homes; in some homes they even broke down the walls. Then they ordered men to come with them, saying they were going to work, and held them in a church for several days without food. The Poles that were held with them were fed, and abused the Jews, taking from them money and their watches, together with the German soldiers...

  5. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of A. W., 20 year old trader from Goworowo. He describes the occupation by the Germans, then by the Russians, of the Bialystok area, and tells how, under German occupation, the Jews were burned inside the synagogue in the town of Czyzew-Osada. The town of Zambrow had its synagogue and study hall, with their torah scrolls, burned and bombarded. Protocol No. 54 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of...

  6. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 8]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Protocol No. 8 is an English translation from original Yiddish. It was given by the 23 years old tailor Ajzenszer Jechiel about his escape from Warsaw on the 7-8 October 1939. In it, he describes bombardements and intense shootings in Warsaw and the advancements of the German troops. Furthermore, he depicts the different treatment of Christians and Jewish Poles by the Nazis. He shows how Jews were maltreated and their property taken and divided among the christan population. When Jechiel and some others were captured by the Nazis, they were badly tortured and kept in Transit Concentration C...

  7. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 107]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of L. B-ca., 38 year old social worker from Lodz. She describes the entry of the Germans into Lodz, and the evacuation of men, Jewish and Christian, of military age, preceding it. The local German ethnic population greeted the German army with joy, and the Jews avoided them, and generally avoided the streets for fear of persecutions. The commandant of the city called to him the two rabbis and after they were beaten they were brought into the synagogue and ordered to burn the Torah scrolls. They refused and were beaten again, their beards torn. The Germans issued orders forbidding ...

  8. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of B. H., 18 year old student from Vishnevets. He states that while the town had no military operations of any kind or any military presence, it was bombarded heavily by German airplanes, and the Jewish sections of the town suffered heavy damage, with one street completely destroyed. There were about sixty people killed, twenty of them Jews. Protocol No. 155 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of ...

  9. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 109]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of H. M., 33 year old trader from Hrubieszów. The city was taken over by the Germans, and then by the Russians, who arrested people as provocateurs. The Russians left the city after only a short time, returning it to German control. The Germans executed Jews in town and kidnapped Jews for conscript labor. After the German reentry, the Polish population attempted to dismiss the Jews from the civil guard and city authorities, until the guard had been dismantled by the Germans and replaced with a Ukrainian contingent. With which the Polish population cooperated against the Jews. The ...

  10. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Protocol No 118 is a testimony by Israel A., a jeshiva student from Lyda, a city near Minsk. He states that on the 1st of September 1939 he saw the first german airplanes above Lyda and one week later the city was bombed. After the polish military had left the city on the 17th of September, the inhabitants formed a people's militia, Jews and Polish people together. The head of the militia was the mayor of the city who also prevented anti-jewish riots. He further states that the Bolshevik which entered the town on the 19th of September were warmly welcomed by the Jews. On the 22nd of Septemb...

  11. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. F., 27 years old lacemaker from L'viv. After initial bombardments, he describes the German control of L'viv, and the sabotage of efforts to establish Jewish civilian authorities after the invasion. He describes the welcome of the Ukrainian population and their actions against the Jews of the city by serving as informers. Likewise, he described the fleeing of the Jewish population from the neighboring city of Krystynopol, and the temporary retaking of it by the Polish military. The Jews of Krystonopol received the Poles with joy and resisted the Germans with Molotov cocktail ...

  12. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Record No. 18]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Ezriel Kruk was a jewish soldier in the Polish army, a member for the jewish comittee in Lipna and a member of the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland (General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia. He depicts how on the 5th of September 1939 the civil population and the army were evacuated from Lipna. Although the Germans and the Jews of his unit were not put on guard anymore, he stayed with the unit and testified how the Polish army arrested german civilians. He also describes lynching of German civilians by the Polish population. During heavy air raids...

  13. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Rabbi Abraham Efraim Nadelman, from Ostrow testifies about the incidents in his town from the 2nd September to the 2nd October 1939. He begins with describing the invasion of the Nazis and heavy canon fire and bombings that left a lot of casualties among the inhabitants. He depicts in details how the situation of the Jews of the town, with its Jeschiwa students, decreases rapidly and the Jews suffer severe torture and humiliation. Pious Jews suffer tremendously. Their beards get shaven off brutally, they get beaten and tortured for hours and they are forced to do degrading work. On every Je...

  14. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of Shmuel Grossbard, 19 year old yeshiva student from Suwałki. He describes aerial bombardment and German planes flying over the city, and fire from the Polish military, as well as panic among the civilian population. The Germans entered the city the following day, and several of the neighboring cities that same day, but did no special harm. Here the testimony cuts off. Protocol No. 21 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect e...

  15. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. K., 19 year old yeshiva student from Zawady, a small village by Ostrow Mazowiecka. He describes the village being relatively unharmed at the beginning of the war, but tell that once the Germans entered it, they took all men, Jews and Poles, and deported them ot Germany. The men were held confined in a church for several days in harsh conditions, without food, then sent off by train. In Germany the Jews were separated from the Poles and sent on to a prisoner camp (stalag) near Stablak. They did forced labour on a minimal amount of poor food. The Poles also were brought there,...

  16. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of M. A. K., 55 year old timber merchant from Ostroleka. Left the city on October 7. He says that though German planes were seen over the city, nobombs fell. When the Germans were about to enter Ostroleka, he and the majority of the Jewish population left for Ostrow Mazowiecka. The Germans in Ostorw Mazowiecka kidnapped Jews for forced labor, and held the Jews of the city prisoner, shooting anyone who lagged behind and many of the prisoners. The author left Ostrow Mazowiecka to return to Ostroleka for Yom Kippur. In Ostroleka, the Germans burned and destroyed Jewish shops and hous...

  17. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No. 6]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Statement No.6 is an extract from a volume of protocols / statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of the Jews in Poland under German occupation. This statement is by Lejb Blumberg, born 1915 in Warsaw, and describes briefly his escape from Warsaw to Vilnius in Oktober 1939. The statement is originally in Yiddish. Both, the original and the English translation are attached. Statement No. 6 -- פראטאקאל נומער 6

  18. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Record No. 30]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Izaak Danciger, a 25 years old shoemaker from Sierpc testifies about the breakout of the war and how it affected the Jewish Community. He depicts how the Nazis invaded and at the beginning were very kind. With the arriving of the Gestapo the situation for the Jews declined rapidly. Jews, especially pious Jews, were humiliated and severely tortured. He, among with other unmarried Jewish men, was forced to sign a declaration that he will leave the German territory and never come back or he shall be shot. Afterwards, the group was imprisoned and tortured and mistreated until there were eventua...

  19. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of an anonymous author who is named "a pioneer"; he describes the German and Soviet occupation of Łomża. The Germans occupied the city in early September and the soviets entered it on September 29th. He describes arrests and repressions by both German and Soviet occupying forces. The soviets forcibly registered all young and middle aged men for immigration, and arrested political leaders of Zionist organizations and the Jewish Bund. The Germans looted stores and Jewish property, and arrested men. The bombardment destroyed buildings in the city including the markets, synagogues, an...

  20. [Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland]

    1. The Alfred Wiener documents collection

    Testimony of J. P., 40 year old office worker and newspaper administrator from Warsaw. He describes fleeing through several towns including Kałuszyn, Łuków, Radzyń Podlaski and Sosnowica. He describes how, under German bombardment, he saw trains stopped or destroyed at train stations, and the railways flooded with refugees. In Kałuszyn he met the author Shimon Hornochick, who was later shot by the Germans in the same town. The arrival of the Germans immediately brought with it mass executions, and extortions of large sums of money to recover the bodies for burial. He describes how the small...