Exodus from Borshchagovka:
Fawel Zitomersky’s Rescue Of More Than Fifty Survivors of the Pogroms
By Benjamin D. Zitomer
(Translation of Schloime Zitomersky’s Yiddish letter courtesy
of Nathen Gabriel and Israel Olin; and Esther Chanie Dushinsky)
[Before reading the rescue story, please click the link below for an overview of the Borshchagovka pogroms:
Burshivker Khurbn (The Destruction of Burshivka)]
During the 1919 pogroms the shtetl of Borshchagovka was completely destroyed, with every Jewish-owned home, store, and factory burned to the ground. The Burshivker Relief Committee in New York City estimated that 1,600 of the 2,000 villagers were murdered. The complete annihilation of the shtetl, coupled with the scarcity of eyewitness accounts, made an accurate death count impossible. Many survivors later succumbed to wounds, starvation, or diseases such as typhus. Others fell victim to subsequent pogroms in the towns to which they had fled, notably Tetiev and Skvira.
Thirteen members of the Zitomersky family were among those slaughtered in the summer of 1919, including their patriarch, sixty-year-old Yitzhak. His son Schloime had narrowly escaped the atrocities, and was clinging to life in the neighboring town of Ruzhin. Schloime’s new bride, Chaika Drobkis, had found shelter in Skvira, twenty miles away. With food scarce and disease rampant, each day was a continuous fight for existence. Six months passed before Schloime could finally send a desperate plea for help to his elder brothers in America.
Fawel and Yussel (Joseph) Zitomersky had emigrated a decade earlier from Borshchagovka and were now residing with their families in Brooklyn, New York. On February 23, 1920, Schloime wrote a devastating letter to his brothers, recounting the horrific events in their shtetl between August and September 1919. With great anguish, he detailed the brutal killings of their family and the dire circumstances of those who were still alive:
“There is a lot that is difficult to write, and perhaps one should not, but
this I will write to you: our father, our sister Chaika, brother-in-law
Yudil, sister Malka, and brother Ayzik were murdered. Our father with
Ayzik were killed on [the 25th of August, 1919]; our sister Chaika and
brother-in-law Yudil and sister Malka were killed 17 days later. […]
Basya's groom is Pinchas the butcher's young boy his father was also
murdered.”
The survivors had sought sanctuary in the nearby towns of Pogrebishche, Ruzhin, Dzyunkov (Zhinkov), Tetiev, Skvira, and Belaya Tserkov, where they were all “begging for bread.” Schloime implored his brothers to save them:
“[...] if you have any brotherly feeling, if you have God in your heart,
take us to you as soon as possible before we all perish here. Pull us
over to you. Here we will either be starved or be killed. […] Dear
brothers, have pity on us, do not leave us here, save us, bring us to
you. Brothers! Save us!”
Sam Cohen, a landsman serving in the U.S. Army, played a crucial role at the outset by delivering Schloime's letter and initiating the rescue mission. Sam had received permission to make a dangerous journey to the region to find his family, and returned with correspondence from the relatives of Burshivker Society members. These letters spoke of the barbaric violence that had claimed so many lives and left their village in ruins.
It likely took several months for Schloime’s letter to reach Fawel and Joseph, possibly the first communication the two brothers in Brooklyn had received from family in Russia since the outbreak of World War I nearly six years earlier. Upon receiving Schloime’s heartbreaking entreaty, Fawel immediately applied to the State Department for a visa to travel to Burshivka and bring his remaining family members and landsleit back to America.
Fawel outlined the objectives of his trip in his passport application:
“My reasons for going to Poland and Roumania are as follows:
“I have, scattered through Poland and Roumania, two sisters, two brothers, my brother’s wife and children and my wife’s parents. The
letters which I am enclosing, a translation of which you will find, was [were] brought to me in person by [...] Sam Cohen who
travelled through Poland. I have not heard directly from these people and really do not know where they are. It is my intention to go to
Warsaw and Bucharest, and from there through the various Jewish organizations and other bureaus, trace whatever is left of our family
and bring them to the United States, including my wife’s parents. The letters speak for themselves, and prove how they beg and implore
me to bring them here, since a good number of family were killed.
“I have, therefore, arranged to go to those two cities - Warsaw and Bucharest - from where I expect to trace the addresses of my
people and once I will find them, I will bring them over immediately to the United States.
“I have here, another brother, Joseph Zitomersky, who is ready to help them with me upon their arrival to the United States. It seems
to me that this short letter that was brought by Mr. Cohen which I am enclosing, speaks everything and is conclusive reason for me
not to stay one more day here, but to go and save them from the other side. I am willing to undergo all sorts of inconveniences
and stand all sorts of trouble in undertaking this trip, so that I may bring them here.”
Fawel later requested a passport amendment to specify the distribution of money in Burshivka:
“I desire that it be amended to include another purpose, and that is to ‘distribute money in the City of Burshivka.’ I desire this
change because when the people of my Society here found out that I am going to aid my own family on the other side, they
decided to trust me with additional money for the relatives of the members of our Society.”
The Burshivker Relief Committee in New York City provided a letter of reference with Fawel’s application that stated:
“At the last meeting of the Burshivker Relief Committee, held on Wednesday, August 18, 1920, it was decided that we appoint
Mr. Fawel Zitomersky and Mr. Benj. Decoveny, to be our Representatives in the City of Burshivka, for the purpose of
distributing money to our relatives there, and also to assist them in other ways as they will find necessary.
“We have appointed Messrs Zitomersky and Decoveny to those positions because we have learned that they are on their way
to Roumania, the former to assist his family, and the latter for commercial business. [...]
“In the city of Burshivka there was formerly a population of 2,000 of our relatives. We understand that there are only 400 of
them left, on account of the misery they endured. There are about 120 families, their relatives, in the United States, in
various cities, who have gathered a fund of $20,000 which will be given to Messrs Zitomersky and Decoveny […] so that
they may use it to assist our relatives on the other side.”
Fawel's application was approved by a special agent within the Department of State, whose accompanying report, condescending and antisemitic in tone, contained the following comments:
“I have interviewed and personally examined FAWEL ZITOMERSKY, of 762 Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., who
desires a passport to go to Russian Poland through various ‘necessary countries’ to trace and assist family.
“This Zitomersky is a clothing-presser in the employ of S. Altman, owner of a Boys’ and Childrens’ Clothing sweatshop
at 254 Wallabout Street, Brooklyn. He is also a member of the Buershewsky [Burshivker] Relief Society [...] all of his
references being also members of this society, they being fellow countrymen of the village of Buershew [Burshivka] in
the Ukraine District of Kiev.
“It appears that another member of this group, a young man who has been in service in the U.S. Army and who
received a permit to go home, has visited this district and has brought back to the various members of the
Buershewsky [Burshivker] Society letters from their relatives setting forth conditions in the home town. Zitomersky’s
family have been in peculiar distress in that most of them have been killed and the few left are in a state of abject
destitution. Zitomersky has a well-to-do brother who is a clothing manufacturer in partnership with the subject’s
grown-up son, who will provide means for their relief and to get any of them able to travel, to America.
“While it is not written in the books as yet, the inference is strong that Zitomersky will be entrusted with funds of
other brethren of the Buershewsky [Burshivker] Society.
“... These people are Orthodox Russian Jews of the most simple and inoffensive species. The only objection the
writer has to Zitomersky himself is that he looks a little stupid, but he may prove more intelligent in his own
environment and in the Russian language than he does in English. He will leave a wife and six children to await his
return, in this country, and avers that if anything happens to him, his wife will be provided for by other members of
the family who are able to take care of her. He also thinks in view of some things that he has read in the newspapers,
that he will take out a substantial life insurance policy before he starts.
“I do not believe that there is any danger involved in letting Zitomersky have a passport, to anybody but himself
and he seems willing to take the risk, so that the same is recommended. All the parties concerned are completely
respectable.”
Benjamin (Benny) Decoveny, a fellow émigré from Burshivka whose father, Mendel, had been killed in the pogroms, also applied for a visa, intending to visit family and purchase goods for his employer. His application was approved on August 10, 1920. The report from the Department of State provided the following comments:
“Benny Decoveny [...] has two purposes in going abroad: to purchase supplies of the goods in which he deals and to
visit cousins in Poland and Roumania. In addition to purchases which he will make on his own account he is also to
buy for I. Butterman and Sons and H. Bobker of 336 Grand St, Brooklyn. [...] Although the applicant does not seem
to be very strong on veracity he makes a very good appearance personally and I think he really is going on a
legitimate mission as stated.”
The Burshivker Relief Committee raised the enormous sum of $20,000 (equivalent to over $300,000 today). The money was entrusted to Fawel and Benjamin to pay for food, clothing, and shelter; bribes to various officials and guards; documents of transit, both forged and legal; and, most importantly, steerage tickets to the promised land.
The exact departure dates of Fawel and Benjamin are unknown, as outbound passenger lists were not preserved. However, they likely set sail in August or September of 1920, shortly after their passports were issued. Records show that while Benjamin made one trip, Fawel made at least two overseas missions, returning from Le Havre in April 1921, and from Constantinople in November 1921.
On February 3, 1921, the S.S. Finland departed Antwerp, Belgium with the first group of Borshchagovka refugees since the onset of World War I. Among them were Fawel's brother Max (Mordechai), his wife Rose (née Rybak), and their daughter Marion (Manya). Fawel's sister Basya (Zitomersky) Matos and her husband Morris were also on board. Benjamin Decoveny traveled with his mother, Ray, and sisters Eve, Ida, and Tabel (Lillie). The steamship docked in Boston on February 15.
One week later, another vessel from Antwerp landed in Boston carrying family members of Fawel's wife, Sura Shapiro*. This included her parents Baruch Aron and Malka (Millie) Shapiro, and two sisters. Also on the boat were members of the Schupak, Olin, and Altman families, as well as Benjamin’s aunt, Frime (Decoveny) Tucker, and her three children.
Fawel’s Tsarovsky cousins were on the first ship to transport Borshchagovka villagers across the Atlantic following the passage of the Emergency Quota Act on May 21, 1921. This Act significantly reduced overall immigration, particularly targeting immigrants from Eastern Europe, thereby drastically limiting the number of Jews entering the United States.
Leyb Tsarovsky (Louis Zarow), his wife Sarah, and their daughters Goldie and Bess left Antwerp ten days after the Act became law. They arrived in Quebec, Canada, on June 12, 1921, then traveled by train to Winnipeg. In 1923, they made two attempts to enter the U.S. from Canada at St. Albans, Vermont, intending to permanently join their cousin Fawel (Philip) Zitomersky in New York. They were debarred both times due to the immigration quota restrictions for Jews, and returned to Winnipeg, becoming Canadian citizens in 1927.
Entry to the United States for Fawel's uncle, Aron Zitomersky, and his family may have been delayed due to the quotas. Aron, a half-brother of Yitzhak, lost two children in the Borshchagovka attacks, as cited in Schloime’s letter: “Uncle Aharon with his wife are living, but they murdered two of his children.” Aron, his wife Bertha (née Brucha Cooper/Kuperwarg), their children Feivel (Philip) and Haim (Hyman), and nephew Willie Tobias were stranded in Brussels for a lengthy period and did not arrive in New York until September 20, 1922.
The heroic rescue efforts of Fawel Zitomersky and Benjamin Decoveny gave their families and landsleit the chance to leave behind the ashes of their shtetl and begin new lives in new lands. Between 1921 and 1923, over 120 exiles from Borshchagovka set sail on transatlantic ships bound for America and Canada.** Their exodus often began with a perilous 200-mile trek on foot, by wagon, and by train through a region rife with banditry and plagued by brutality and chaos. Desperately seeking the Romanian border, they were then confronted with navigating the formidable Dniester River. The river spanned several miles and was traversable by rowboat or on foot during winter freezes, requiring stealthy passage under cover of darkness to avoid detection. Smugglers demanded exorbitant fees to safely transport families to the opposite shore, while guards on both the Russian and Romanian sides had to be bribed to turn a blind eye to the illegal transit.
The journey to America undertaken by Fawel’s brother Max (Mordechai) and his family mirrored the experience of many refugees. Having lived through the massacres in the nearby town of Volodarka, seventeen miles to the east of Borshchagovka, they were struggling to survive, as depicted in Schloime's letter: “Mordechai, Raiza [Rose], and their child are in Belaya Tserkov, and whatever they aren't given, they don't have.” In a 1982 family interview, Max’s daughter Marion, who was almost five years old at the time of the pogroms, recalled that she and her parents were eventually “smuggled out in January 1921.” Marion described the danger they faced traversing the frozen Dniester River, seeking haven within the Jewish community of Soroca, a Romanian port town: “We were lucky to get across. The guides knew you had money and jewelry. They'd take you across and then kill you and take your possessions.” After the crossing, the family spent the night in a farmhouse in Soroca and were served mamaliga, a traditional Romanian dish made from polenta.
From Soroca, the group traveled eighty miles overnight by horse and wagon to the city of Kishinev (Chisinau), where Fawel was waiting. He took them to Bucharest, where they boarded the first of several trains that traversed 1,500 miles through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany, before reaching the port city of Antwerp, Belgium. After spending three days in a large waiting hall (possibly the Red Star Line Terminal) with no place to sleep, they embarked on a two-week voyage over the Atlantic Ocean, en route to their final destination … the Goldene Medina.
Negotiating the Dniester River by rowboat was a particularly harrowing experience for Fawel's younger sister, Basya, and her husband, Morris (Moishe Leib) Matos. As recounted by their son, Irving P. Matos, Fawel had ensured their protection during the crossing by bribing the border guards to hold their fire. However, as their boat approached the far bank, the sound of gunfire erupted. There had been a changing of the guards! In a frantic move, Basya and Morris jumped into the river. Fortunately, Morris, a skilled swimmer, managed to guide Basya to safety. Their passport photos, taken shortly after the incident, captured them drenched in their soaked clothes.
The Matoses had made it to the border while Basya was still recovering from a gunshot wound inflicted during the carnage in Borshchagovka. She had been in a group of women who were lined up against a wall and shot by bandits. A bullet pierced her neck, causing her to collapse. The assailants, mounted on horseback, then trampled over the fallen bodies, thrusting their sabres downward as they advanced. Basya owed her life to the protective shield formed by the women who had fallen on top of her.
A historical photograph, taken in Romania in January 1921, features Fawel and Benjamin seated prominently at the center of a group of over fifty rescued refugees. (Fawel is wearing a suit and sporting a mustache; Benjamin is seated to Fawel’s left, also dressed in a suit.) Only nineteen individuals in the picture have been identified, including members of the Altman, Decoveny, Matusenko (Matos), Olin, Shapiro, Spector, Zaslow, and Zitomersky families.
[Click here to view the group photograph and a list of people who have been identified.]
On September 3, 1921, while in Romania, the Burshivker Relief Committee in Kishinev honored Fawel for the courage and bravery he demonstrated in rescuing the many men, women, and children of Borshchagovka who had survived the pogroms. In a commemorative photograph taken that day, the Grand Rabbi of Borshchagovka, Mottel (Mordechai/Max) Shapiro, is seated in the center wearing a dark hat, with Fawel to his right and holding his hat. The five other men in the picture have yet to be identified. The caption beneath the photograph states:
“These photos were given freely as an eternal memento from the Burshivker Relief Committee that is located in
Kishinev to the entrepreneur, the intervener on behalf of the wanderers, the refugees, the orphans and the widows
who survive as a permanent memorial to the city of Burshivka these last 2 years, Mr. Fawel, son of Yitzchak
Zitomersky, of the city of New York may God protect him [...] 1st day of the month of Elul, 5681 [Saturday evening,
September 3, 1921] here in Kishinev.”
(Hebrew translation courtesy of Nathen Gabriel)
[Click here to view the photograph honoring Fawel.]
Following the pogroms, the First Burshivker Sick And Benevolent Association, a landsmanshaft formed in New York City in 1904, placed a memorial pillar at the entrance to the Burshivka Society burial section in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens, New York. The pillar bears an inscription honoring the memory of their loved ones who perished:
Eternal Memory
To the martyrs that were killed that were slaughtered
That were burnt in sanctification of His Holy Name
500 human beings
Men women and children
In the city of Borshivke
During the time of the pogroms in Ukraine
In the year 5679 (1919)
May Their Souls Be Bound Up in the Bundle of Life
(Hebrew translation courtesy of Nathen Gabriel)
[Click here to view the pillar and inscription.]
A final note: One hundred years later, the fate of Schloime Zitomersky remains unknown.
*Fawel’s wife, Sura, and four of their children, just barely made it out of Europe, departing Libau (Liepāja, Latvia) on July 28, 1914, the same day that World War I began.
**Click here for a spreadsheet with over 400 Borshchagovka immigrant arrival records.
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Created by Benjamin D. Zitomer
Copyright © 2024 Benjamin D. Zitomer
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Fawel Zitomersky’s Passport Application File
Photo of the Borshchagovka survivors in Romania, with Fawel Zitomersky and Benjamin Decoveny
Benjamin (Benny) Decoveny’s Passport Application File
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