Mil'man Family Portable Matzevah

THE UNIQUE YAHRTZAIT DOCUMENT OF 1943  I am happy to keep in touch with Proskurov (nowadays Khmelnitskiy, Ukraine) native, Semyon Mil'man. Recently, he sent me a copy (a scan) of the unique document. This document was dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust victims which belonged to his family. After that we, Semyon and I, exchanged with numerous e-mails related to this document in June-July, 2020  As a preamble to the publication of this document (we will call it "Yahrtzait") which is presented below  I would like to put here a part of this correspondence.in my translation to English. Semyon Mil'man (SM). I am keeping a document which was performed in the ghetto of Zhmerinka in 1943. It was prepared up to the first Mil'mans' YAHRTZAIT (a first anniversary of my father's pre-war family's murder). In 1942, he lost his first wife and their four children - and also his dear parents and other relatives. They were shot and killed by Nazis and their collaborators in the city of Proskurov in November - December, 1942. The Hebrew text of the document was written on thick yellowish-colored paper of "a4 format" size. Both edges of it, along its whole length, were stitched with black thread.  It looks like a mourning frame of the text. In the center of the Document, in the whole height of the sheet, a seven-candle-Menorah was drawn. It was performed  in the form of a tree. A trunk and six large branches (three ones on each side of the trunk) were drawn with red pencil. The branches were shown with cut upper ends, from every one of which blood dripped.  The picture is very simple, as if it wаs drawn by a child, and, at the same time, it is very impressive, touching. THESE BLOODY ENDS OF BRANCHES AND DROPS OF BLOOD FLYING FROM THEM  SYMBOLIZED NOT ONLY THE SUFFERING OF MY FAMILY, BUT ALSO THE TRAGEDY OF ALL OUR PEOPLE. The first, upper line of the text is horizontal. The second one is written as a semicircle, in the form of an arch ...Below, in the middle of the sheet, are lamentations. The text of this part wаs written in high biblical Hebrew and is stylized after the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah ("Eicha"). Quotеs from the Tanakh in the text indicate that the person who wrote this document had an excellent "Jewish" education and possessed the knowledge of the Sacred texts, perhaps he was a Rabbi or came from a rabbinical family. And in the lower part of the sheet there are the names of my perished relatives.   Eugenia Sheinman (ES). I believe that this is a very important and unique document. I am grateful to you, Semyon, for sending me your YAHRTZAIT document. I have never heard of such papers and have never seen anything similar to it. According to your description, it looks like an epitaph on a grave stone, which does not exist and has never existed. I am sure that your father initiated this document not simply as fulfilling a duty of commemoration his mostly close and beloved relatives in a year after they passed away. His purpose was much more significant. He understood that he hadn’t been able to bury them as the Jewish tradition prescribed, and he could never put a matzevah on their grave with the “right” epitaph, which would express his love and the sorrow associated with their untimely death, because no such grave existed. And he wanted to leave their names for posterity. That's why he decided to create this document which would replace a gravestone with the epitaph for his beloved ones. It expresses everything that Jews usually write in the epitaphs. That is why he treasured this YAHRTZAIT document so much and preserved it through all the perturbations of 15 turbulent years of his earthly life that remained to him. It might be his will - "NEVER FORGET THEM". And also a commandment to you, his son, to put the matzevah - cenotaph with their names in the Jewish cemetery. And I suppose that putting here the exact, verified dates of murdering every one of them may serve as reminding to pray Kadish in the days when each of them died. Then I would like to ask you a couple of questions. Why this "Yahrtzait" was written in the Zhmerinka ghetto? When and how did your father get there?   SM. Why this document was made in the ghetto of Zhmerinka I can't tell it briefly. The story is like this. My father was born in the shtetl of Mikolaev, located in Proskurov vicinity, and there he lived with his family before the beginning of German-Russian war of 1941-1945. There also lived his parents and his wife's parents. After Germans occupied the whole area of Ukraine, a ghetto was established there, in Mikolaev, but later, in the early 1942, all local Jews which stayed alive up to this time were resettled to the Proskurov ghetto by Nazis. My father had foreseen the destruction of the ghetto in Proskurov with murdering all its inhabitants by occupants and wanted to save his family from this terrible fate. In November of 1942, when the snow fell on the ground, my father sent his 13-year-old son Aaron to Mikolaev where father's good friend lived who might help. On his ordinary clothes the boy put white clothes which were sewed for him from a sheet of linen and at night crawled under the barbed wire, which surrounded the ghetto. Then he ran in the direction of Mikolaev. The Mil'mans' native shtetl was in 17 km from Proskurov. Father explained the road to his son in the best way and the child walked all cold winter night following those instructions. Only in the morning hе reached the destination and decided to take a rest in a haystack before entering the village. Unfortunately, the hay was guarded by two Ukrainian policemen. The cruel ones caught Aaron and took him to the Jewish cemetery where they shot and killed the poor teenager. Meanwhile, still in Proskurov, my father decided to flee to Mikolaev himself for preparing a hiding place for the rest of the family. Once, when the group of the ghetto laborers were driven to the place of work, he successfully fled. At night he reached the village and came to his friend. There he was told, at all details, of his son's death. After a short time, another sad news reached him. It was the story about the annihilation of all prisoners of the Proskurov ghetto and the Jewish labor camp where his eldest (17-year-old) son was kept. Beforehand my father had had a big family: his wife, three sons and a younger daughter of 7, his parents and his wife's parents. And suddenly he lost all his huge family and was left absolutely alone...He couldn't protect and save anybody of his dear ones... It was an unprecedented tragedy for him... .. Soon my father understood that it was dangerous to stay any longer with his friend and the friend's family, because their neighbors could inform Nazis that his friend hid a Jew, and then, not only he, but also every one of the family that gave him a shelter would have been murdered. He could not allow to risk their lives for saving him. Up to this time rumors already reached him that the Romanians, unlike Germans, did not murder Jews. His friend gave winter clothes and some food to my father, and he went to Zhmerinka that was under Romania Protectorate. It was a long and dangerous journey. A married Ukrainian couple, which rode around the close villages on a sleigh with a horse and changed clothes for food, helped him tremendously. The woman's name was Malanka, Unfortunately I don't know her last name... I remember that she came to our house after the war. I remember her. But that's it... The other problem was to move from German to Romanian territory – to cross the strictly guarded border between them. Obviously, the Almighty helped him, because it was a miracle to safely get there, to the Transnistria territory... But he did it! I think that this document was written at the end of 1943 -at this time there was the first anniversary of the death of my father's family members. The YAHRTZAIT document has survived, by miracle, his staying in Zhmerinka ghetto, the turbulent liberation of previously occupied territory from Nazis, his new family’s moving to Proskurov. It has also survived father’s death. In Zhmerinka, my father met my future mother and later married with her... Before the war, she had lived in the neighboring shtetl of Brailov. Germans entered there in 1941 and killed all local Jews. But she was lucky - previously to the massacre she could save herself and her family. She brought her two children, 2 and 3 years old, and her mother to the ghetto of Zhmerinka.  Her first husband had been drafted to the Army at the very beginning of the war and soon and perished at the battle. After the liberation, my father took everyone to Proskurov, because he couldn't return to his native place: all Jews of the shtetl of Mikolaev perished, and all Jewish houses were destroyed there.    In 1945, I was born. My father did not live long after the war: he got ill and died in 1958.Years after my mother's death, looking through her papers, I found this folded in four document. It was damaged on the folds. That time, nobody knew Hebrew in our place, and I simply kept this document for many years. I saw the drawing of chopped off fingers of the Menorah with dripping blood from them and understood the importance of its preserving.  Once, already after 2000, Jews from Israel came to Proskurov and dropped in to our Hesed-Besht. Previously to their visit, I had made a photocopy of my document and while meeting Israelis I asked them for its translation. After a while they sent its translation to Russian (by L. M.) to me.   ES. Thank you, Semyon for your story. A stunning story in terms of tragedy! I can imagine what was in your dad's soul when he learned about the death of the boy, and then - about the destruction of the whole family. It has touched me very much. Yes, your parents carried a very hard burden all their lives. And now it is on your shoulders. In the Encyclopedia "Holocaust on the Territory of the USSR" (edited by I. Altman), Moscow, 2009, I read that in 1942, 800 Jews who "remained" in the village of  Mikolaev (some of them had previously to German occupation been evacuated and the men were drafted), "were resettled to Proskurov and there they were murdered together with local Jews". There is also an abundant literature about the ghetto in Zhmerinka, in particular, the book by Ephraim Wolf (the most detailed one - with names and photographs), and a lot of other materials. The ghetto in Zhmerinka was unique one. There was an underground school and a hospital there. Also there was an underground synagogue in the territory of the ghetto. People gathered in it for regular praying - and, obviously, there were a Rabbi and maybe a soifer (a person who was qualified writer of the Holy Teхts) there. One of them apparently prepared this priceless document for your father. SM. It turns out that even in such extreme conditions life continued, despite the tragedy of the loosing beloved ones.  And the memory about lost members of the family was preserved according to the Jewish traditions. It's remarkable that there were people around my father who, with their knowledge and skills, helped him to observe our traditions. Whoever knowledgeable person wrotе this "Yahrtzait", definitely he made such documents not only for  my father, but did  similar job for the other members of community  and only one copy has survived - ours! Isn't it a miracle?!   ES. You're right, Semyon. It is a great success that at least your document has survived the difficult, awful times and has been preserved up to our time. Probably a proper place for documents like yours is the Institute of Yad-Vashem. There it would be published and maybe its publication will cause the interesting reaction of the broad auditorium all over the world. And perhaps it would have been exhibited - then it would have been available to many people who visited Yad-Vashem. After this long preface it's time to present this unique document which can be named a "portable matzevah"

Translation of text In memory of the Yahrtzeits of the Saint Martyrs. These are the names of the People of my house, the Saints Martyrs, who perished sanctifying the G-d's name, in the city оf Proskurov, in the year 5703 (1942). Woe to me, woe to my soul. (1) The waters closed in over me up to my soul. My heart aches in the depth of me. My pain is in the memory of these terrible days. They all cried out and their wail went up to G-d. Their voices were heard all around, all around. And I will raise my voice with weeping from under the hand that lay on me. My eyes let down streams of waters for these disasters. Their blood poured like water around their grave after the murderous pursuers followed the orders to fulfill the Martyrs’ sentence and seal their fate. (2) For these (people) do I weep. My eyes, my eyes flow with water: for the death  of my father, my teacher, Israel Haim ben Tzvi, and my mother, my teacher, Hanah, daughter of Yosef,  and also my son Aharon, age 13,  who went to their eternal world on 21 day of the month Kislev (November 30 in Cyrillic); of my son Shlomo, age 15, who went to his eternal world on 27 Kislev (December 6 in Cyrillic) - corrected to "5 day in the month Tevet (December 13)"; of my wife Dvoshe, daughter of Abraham, and my daughter Peril, age 7, who went to their eternal world on 3 day (corrected to "8") in the month Tevet (December 16 in Cyrillic); of my son Yitzhak, age 17, who went to his eternal world on 22 day in the month Tevet (December 30 in Cyrillic).   The handwriting in Cyrillic at the bottom of the sheet:  "The family of Leibysh Mil'man was shot and killed in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, - in the vicinity of the (nowadays) Dendropark (Arboretum), in 1942"

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