A visit to
Kamenka ,
Belarus
Memories (Summary)
(part of ver. 01)
Who
traveled? I and Moshe, my cousin.
Moshe’s
main purpose of the tour was to visit his brother, whom he didn’t see for 11
years, since Moshe immigrated to
My
purpose was to visit Kamenka, the Shtetle where my parents came from and,
perhaps even find some new evidence to be added to the story of Kamenka, which
I write.
14.3.20002
We
landed in
15.3.2002
16.3.2002
Morning. We had breakfast (Did I mention the Kartoshka in fat? Delicious) and 2-3 Vodkas and then Golda and her son came to pick us to Kamenka.
Kamenka (pronounced by the local people as KamenkE) lies near
the road between
We stopped at the church square. Golda
asked for the house of Katia, her friend and we went there. Katia is 71 years
old. She was a good friend with Moshe’s family and with my grand mother and
father. Katia said that she knew my mother, Hamche, as the Goyim called her,
when they were girls.
Katia instructed us to the Goldberg
house. I have known that the house exists since Rochelle R. visited the
place and took pictures in front of the house on May 1999. The house serves
today as a hospital and a clinic. My mother told me that the Russians used the
house as a hospital right after the war, in 1944.
Opposite the Goldberg house, so said my
mother, lived her parents (Sidranski), and there was a synagogue and a post
office and the house of the Kozakowski family, my father’s.
Katia pointed at the Sidranski house, but
didn’t know about the Kozakowski family house. The synagogue, she said, does
not exist any more.
The name of the street was, at those
times,
Then Katia showed us to the Jewish cemetery,
she knew exactly its location. The place is completely covered by dry yellow
grass. A pile of lawn indicates a
grave. All the graves are covered by lawn, but some 10 black stones are
apparent. Most of them are broken, and partially covered by moss and grass. We
cleaned some enough to see Hebrew letters, but I couldn’t read out the words.
That was true until Katia showed us a head stone that stood erect and clean and
clear as if it was cleaned today. Zabagonski was the name engraved in Hebrew
letters at the center of the stone…
Haya Yente daughter of R’ Menahem Hacohen
Zabagonski, passed away in 12 Elul 5677, (
I didn’t see signs of newer stones, the
local farm people took away many of the “new” gravestones to be used for
construction.
We left the place but I have a strong
urge to return one day to clean the cemetery and put a fence around it and
memorate it in one way or another…
We went to the Memorial and mass grave of
the Jews of Shchuchin and Rozhanka. They were murdered on May 1942. Quite close
to it is the old Jewish cemetery. We didn’t visit the place.
Then we went to Shchuchin cemetery to the
graves of Moshe’s parents. They passed away 10 years apart, but their graves
are quite close. I said Kadish on both graves.
We went to the mass graveyard and
Memorial of the Jews of Zheludok and Orla.
The mass grave was discovered by chance
when works were done on the site and human bones were exposed. Golda evoked
panic at the army authorities
to stop the works at the site. They did. Later the Soviets fenced the place and
built a memorial to “the Soviet citizens” that were murdered by the Nazis. The
fact that only Jews were brutally murdered there was not mentioned.
Moshe and Pesia Beirech and other
Zheluduk remnants from
Moshe gathered the necessary money from
Zheluduk remnants while Golda and her son monitored the project at the other
end to get permission from the authorities, buy materials and recruit workers.
Four years lasted the project. Today, a strong iron fence fences the site, a
sign in Hebrew, English and Russian stating that on this place were murdered
Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators replaces the Russian plate. Even a
Yad Vashem icon is engraved on the memorial.
Moish Bairech asked me to say Kadish when
we visit the place. I did.
The old Jewish Cemetery lies not far
away, between the memorial and the line of the wooden houses of Zheluduk,
surrounded by tall trees. We didn’t visit the place.
17.03.2002
Breakfast and Vodka (did I tell you about the Latkes that Donia so deliciously prepares? And the Smetana that goes with them? I should have).
Golda and her
son arrived and we went to the Jewish Cemetery of Grodno. A wall and an Iron Gate that was locked surround the cemetery. We guys
jumped above the wall. Golda stayed behind by the car, not for long… The
cemetery is large with trees growing; it’s clean, well treated. Most of the
head stones are complete. On some graves we could see signs of visits, such as
dry flowers and Neshama candles from Israel
We searched for the grave of our grand father, Shiel Sidranski. The graves are arranged by year of burial, Shiel died at the year 1965.
From the old part of the cemetery we saw Golda arriving, with a key in her hand, the key to the gate lock. There is a big farm-like house there and she got the key from the people that live there. They are most likely, the people that attend the place.
We located the grave. The paint of the
engraved letters faded with time. We cleaned some. I said Kadish. Next time we
come to
We went to the
19.03.2002
Breakfast and Vodka. Moshe felt a little ill and had some extra Vodkas - for medicine.
At
After a 35 minutes ride there was a road
sign saying Kamenka 4 km. on the highway, that was readable to me as the name
Kamenka contains only one Crilic letter. There is another village just before
Kamenka and almost connected to it.
20.03.2002
Breakfast and Vodka (didn’t I forget to
say something about the Kartoshka and Smetana?). We went to a tour in
At
At 0200 a driver waited for us and we
went to the airport. We experience a heavy snow that covered the road for about
one hour of the way. And also four police inspection posts, and one interesting
speed ticket.
The Topolov of Belavia took us back to
Tel-Aviv, to the land of no-breakfast, no-Vodka on breakfast and lots of
bombing instead.
Ze’ev
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