Family histories from former Jewish communities of Mlyniv, Ukraine

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Translation of Diary Entries in Notebook 2

July 1915-March 1916 (17th of Av, 5675 – 25th of Adar II 5676)

The translation of Lamdan's diary entries in his second notebook (Notebook 2) follows below or you can return to the overview, the concise summaries or the interpretive summaries of the diary entries.

Notebook 1 (June 1914-September 1914)
Notebook 2 (July 1915-March 1916), translated below.

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Notebook 2 (July 1915-March 1916)

July 1915
July [25], 1915 | July 28, 1915

August 1915
August 10, 1915 | August 11, 1915 | August 17, 1915 | August 21, 1915 | August 26, 1915

October 1915
October 4, 1915 (Nadchytsi) |

My Diary

Yitzhak Lamdan^[1]

***

July 1915

[July 25,^[1a] 1915, Sunday, 14th of Menachem Av, 5675, Mlynov]

I ask myself: Why do I write “my daily” [i.e., diary]? Is it due to so much variety in my life here in the town of Mlynov that I need to record them for posterity? Don’t I already know in advance all the content that will fill the pages of the daily [i.e., diary]: despondent writings filled with bitter grief and sorrow. So what is it that compels me to produce this daily of mine? These objections and questions are surely righteous ones and were it not for the reason given below truly I would not produce this daily of mine. At a time when I find myself in a depressing situation and despair, a time when I experience inner doubts and am lost, wandering her dwelling deathlike, seeking a refuge and there is none

A time the hand of despair is upon me with great strength
My bitter heart already endured and suffered I am tired
And I surely seek a shoulder of a devoted brother or sister
To share all my feelings and to spill my tears
It is a time I surely seek, but I don’t find – – –
(“With despair,” from my poems)

Yes, I cannot find a shoulder for my depressed soul, nor have I been able at any time to spill my guts into a single consoling poem. The poetry muse does not always come to me – and thus the only shoulder [to lean on] is the daily [i.e. diary]. Inside the pages of this notebook, I am able to recount and fully detail my momentary situation and my despair in all their fullness. And after feeling so, my agitated spirit calms a bit, after spilling my feelings to the shoulder of my daily [diary]. Here is the answer to my questions and objections that I brought above [e.g. why bother writing?] Facts about me^[1b] that would make her [the diary] happy I know I won’t write in my notebook, because I know their non-verbalization [literally their non-existence]^[1c] will therefore have [the following effect] in my daily: will therefore have [the following effect] in my daily:

A self-accounting my soul will value
with the shadows because the day is ending
("In the Corner," from my poems)

[Jump to page 3 to read the continuation. Page 2 was probably written later, as discussed in the notes]

[2] Lamentation how quietly it will flow^[2]
the waves of its tiny brook
and prayer to the God of the heavens
it will pray and it will mumble slowly
My God! Woe, my God,[2] Lamentation how quietly it will flow
the movement of its tiny brook [hakat]
and prayer to the God of the heavens
it will pray and it will mumble slowly [balat]
My God! Woe, my God, look (why fem form? Look at it I guess)
all my friends died already (kefar)
all of them destroyed trampled under it
without the mercy of the bitter fall season [hamar].^[2a]
Withered and extinguished on me are the pledges
that are planted here on my lips [netu-oat]
they will not sing among their branches
The birds so fitting there [co-hana-oat].
My beloved sun expired
with my haphazard guideline [hapezizim]
that submerges them always always
inside my delightful wave [ha-alizim].
She [i.e., hope] is buried there on high [bemaroam]
In the clouds so black [shehorim]
And I long
for a guideline, straight and ablaze [orim].
Withered are all the coastal flowers
the grasses have lost their green [ha-ahsavim]
To bury them the clouds have swallowed [them] up
the moon and the stars [vi-ha-kochavim].
All my friends all of them died
Please kill me, my God, too [oat-ti]
from this life, my death is good for me [mo-ti].
The passing wind calls to the brook
run to your prayer [tefillatcha]
and with the coming of furious winter
you will be like one of your friends[mi-chevrecha]…
a ground of ice, a blanket of snow
will cover your broad waters [memecha]
stop and end the unfortunate brook
the whispering of your movement [galecha].
Lamentation how quietly it will flow
slowly the movement of the tiny brook [kat]
and a silent lamentation, a sorrowful song
it will sing quietly [ba-lat]
Yitzhak Lamdan [his signature]

Angels of winter^[3]
Minister of the winter
Kapuriel painter of pictures, builder of mansions
Karkhiel
Shalgiel
Sayariel
Kuriel
Chirakyiel (look this [is maker of?] white dust, the snow squeaks under the feet).

[3] I have no patience. What is there to write about? In general, the mood [of those] in my town is such that it does not permit the mind [of anyone] to focus on anything outside themselves. Thus there is nothing to do at home and most of the hours of the day I spend in the store sitting and yawning and listening intently to every idle conversation. What can one do? Therefore, when they began to call anew for work in the trench digging, I didn’t wait long [to learn] if they would call me or not, and this morning I got up early, prayed, drank tea, grabbed some food and drink for the road and a hoe – and went out like that. And I too was with all the people who went to dig, because generally my work is not that difficult, and on the contrary, it is very pleasant knowing that it [hard work] strengthens the body and accustoms it in general to physical labor. Let me get used to it! Who knows perhaps finally with the help of the God of Zion I will be fortunate to go up to the Land of my ancestors to wet her land with the sweat of my brow, and with what great inner pleasure I look upon my hands, tanned a bit from the sun, a light copper look to them, and my face suntanned a bit. For three days, two weeks ago, I went to the trench work. The first day was very hard, and although all my limbs hurt when I got up in the morning of the second day, I pushed myself and hurried to get ready and went again to the work. During the second day the work time was easier, but [4] […]^[4] that same day I was not able to sleep even a wink, all my limbs ached and what strong sunburn attacked me. I didn’t sleep all night and in the morning when rising I was not able to move my hand or foot. A terrible pain attacked all my limbs. With great effort I sat up in bed, and despite all this I got up and went outside another time to go to the work, but this time due to the [extent of the work] the residents of the town were required from that day and following to join the work, every day only thirty people [joined] from the line of houses, so that it wasn’t necessary for me to go – and I remained at home, and had it not been for this, I was totally ready to go even this time.

And here it is about two hours since I returned from the trench work, the work today was very easy. And we also returned [from work] early, namely, at the third hour in the afternoon, because today is Sunday at the request of the Christian farmers who were forced today to go to the trenches – they freed them at an early hour and the Jews also enjoyed this reprieve.

Around noon (literally "the twelfth hour"), we rested and ate our meal which each one brought from his home. I and one other youth made ourselves a kind of tent with […] like this: opposite the width of the trench, we leaned several hoes and many stalks of corn like [5] the on the roof of a Sukkah [festive tent]. Under the shade, we made a bed of stalks, we lay down our coats on them, and thus sat in this tent and ate our food. After the food we lay down to rest. Meanwhile, the youth I sat with in “our tent” went to get water, and I remained alone “in the tent.” I lay down and reflected. Strong longings for the Land of Israel attacked me, to work on her cultivated land and her mountains and enjoy her clear open skies. Silently, silently I sang to myself "My Soul's Burden,” by M. Z. Mana [Mordechai Zvi Mana]: “Where, Where is the Holy Land?”^[5]… and I saw that the burden of my soul was meanwhile far from me, the ravages of time have strongly hurled her back and forth, is coming near to me? [No!] … Oh no, if only I already got out of here, from here, from this hell (gehinom) of afflections for our people. One thing the present time and situation taught me, and one thing I decided from their influence: flee from here and get out from the terrible exile (galut), from the torture, the terrible insults, and all the malicious misfortunes that surround you on every side - [flee] to the land of the ancestors. Do not let the thoughts entice me lest I suffer a great deal there in the land of the ancestors.^[5a] No! Much better to live a life of sadness in a Hebrew environment, a free life – than a life of wellbeing in an exilic environment full of insults and torture for you as a Jew.^[6]

[6] There in the land of the ancestors, there in that place I will feel free in a Hebrew environment, there in a place that gives me self-respect and food to protect me with strength against all that befalls me and for all my belongings – there is my future and not here!

***

I am stopping my writing because I am hurrying according to the call of Moshe Pinchosovitz^[7] to the military council^[8] to write there during the discussion of the trench work.^[8a]

Read the interpretive summary or return to the top of the page .

Notes

[1] The front page of this small notebook is written with relative sloppiness for this diary, language mistakes and deletions abound in it, and it is crammed with Russian scrawl on all its sides. In the middle of the column on the side aligned with the poem appears a drawing of the face of a young man holding a pen in his mouth, that was drawn with the same pen that wrote the text. [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak uses his Hebrew surname Lamdan here. The first time he called himself Yitzhak Lamdan in the diary was September 2, 1914 in Notebook A. [HS] ↩

[1a] [Translator’s comment:] In the body of this diary entry, Yitzhak makes clear he is writing on a Sunday. His next entry is on Wednesday, July 28, 1915. Given his tendency to write every few days in his first notebook, it seems likely he began this notebook that Sunday, July 25, 1915. [HS] ↩

[1b] I’m understanding the Hebrew word here as a possessive plural, עובדותיי. [HS] ↩

[1c] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak seems to be saying that he won’t write about the good things happening to him because it would defeat the purpose of the diary which is to be a place for a self-accounting and a taking stock. One is reminded of his early entries in June and July 1914 when he observed the beauty of nature around him but suppressed those thoughts as inappropriate as he longed for the Land of Israel. [HS] ↩

[1d] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak seems to be saying that he won’t write about the good things happening to him because it would defeat the purpose of the diary which is to be a place for a self-accounting and a taking stock. One is reminded of his early entries in June and July 1914 when he observed the beauty of nature around him but suppressed those thoughts as inappropriate as he longed for the Land of Israel. [HS] ↩

[2] The poem is written on the back of the front page. It is divided its length into two columns via a dividing line in the middle. It is evident that it was not written as a continuous part of the diary; the writing does not fit the regular style of writing of the diary and there is no indication of date. It is possible that the back of the front page remained at first empty and somewhat later Lamdan utilized the empty space to write the poem after the pages of the diary were already written. ↩

[2a] [[Translator’s comment]: The poem has rhymes. I’m indicating the Hebrew rhyme in this poem with pronunciation style transliteration (rather than academic style) in square brackets. Note, however, that while the Hebrew words that rhyme are always at the end of a phrase, the translated word is not always at the end of the phrase, though the transliterations are placed there. [HS] ↩

[3] To the left of this list is a picture of a bearded man’s face. [Translator’s comment:] I have found no references to these names of angels in other sources and am uncertain their significance. [HS] ↩

[4] The page is cut off in the top right corner, and it appears a word or two is missing. In the continuation of this notbook, this symbol [...]will signal text is deleted (water stains, moisture and so on) or text that can't be deciphered because it is smudged. ↩

[5] The Jewish Russian poet Mordechai Tzvi Mana (1859-1886). Nicknamed Ha-Metzayer [or HaMaZyr] (an acronym for the “young man Mordechai Tzvi born in Radoshkovitz”). He died from tuberculosis at age 27 in his birthplace in Belorussia. A quotation from his poem, "My Soul's Burden:" "Where, Where, Holy Land / My spirit yearns for her?! The air of your land is the living soul, / healing also the body." See The Collected Writings of Mordechai Tzvi Mana, Warsaw: Toshia: 5657 [1896-1897], pp. 147-48. ↩

[5a] [Translator’s comment:] It appears that with this sentence Yitzhak is hearing a counter voice in his head arguing with him not to go to the Land of Israel lest he suffer. He then talks back to that voice and argues the contrary. [HS] ↩

[6] These lines are emphasized with a thick line underneath. The word "Jewish" has an additional thin line, the thickness of which is like the thickness of the letters of the text. ↩

[7] In the continuation "Mr. Pinchosovitz " is mentioned as one of the wagon drivers who is going out of Mlynov to Dubno. It is possible he is from the family of the lawyer Pinhovitz, who is mentioned in the Dubno memorial book as someone who stood at the head of the Jewish people's party during the Revolution, about two years after this (in the latter part of 1917). See Yitzchak Ajzik Feffer, "Public and Party Activism" in Y. Adini, ed., Dubno: A Memorial Volume, The Dubno Organization in Israel, 1966, translated by Selwyn Rose, pp. 191-92. [Translator’s comment: A lawyer named Pinkhasovitsh is mentioned in passing in the Mlynov-Muravica Memorial Book, p. 59. “Shtetele Mlynov,” by Yisroel (Sol) Berger. [HS] ↩

[8] The military council that bridged between the civilian authority and the military in the period before the War. ↩

[8a] [Translator’s comment:] It is not clear to me from the language here whether Yitzhak was called to the meeting to take notes. [HS] ↩

***

[July 28, 1915] Wednesday in the morning, 17th of Menachem-Av [5675] in the terrible period, Mlynov

I haven’t written anything yet in the daily [diary] because I was occupied all these days, all day I spent by the trenches as a recorder. Every day at 8 am [literally the 8th hour] I leave the house and return for lunch at noon [literally the 12th hour] and wait until 3 pm or 3:30 [literally the third hour] and then go a second time to the trenches and stay until near evening.

Thus far I received a ruble a day. This week I don't know whether or not they will increase the wages.

During the past week when I was sitting by the trenches dug by the Jews of Mlynov,^[9] non-Jews were digging around them and they threw rocks on us and ridiculed us; I was sitting behind a pile [of earth or material] and on a scrap of paper I wrote down these words for my daily [diary]: [7]

“Let me record this as a memory! Perhaps with the help of the
“God^[10] of Zion and Jerusalem, when ‘my soul's burden’^[10a] will be close
“to realization: to go up to the land of our ancestors for which my soul is consumed
“and longs – my spirit will thus fall a little, and cowardice will attack me
“to take this step: to leave the homeland of my ancestors
“to go up across the ocean knowing the difficult barriers that I will meet
“there – Let me remember then the current proof
“now via this terrible attack, how hard and terrible is the exile (galut)
“how ugly, poor, despised, tortured, chased, beaten at the hands of
“every coarse and evil person is the Jew; how wretched are they and despised
“ much more than the wild animals and beasts of the fields. Let me then remember
“this well and know that it is better to live in the land of the ancestors
“in a Hebrew surrounding and to be free to suffer sadness and grief
“than live life here in this terrible and difficult exile (galut).
(* “18th of Av 5675 [July 29, 1915]. By the trenches when the coarse
“and loathsome non-Jews are insulting us and throwing rocks
“at us).

And yesterday in the morning before I wrote the [diary] entry, the following incident befell me: while walking to the [military] chancellery^[11] to return the list […]

[At this point in the middle of this unfinished sentence, Yithak added an asterisk with a footnote :]

*) I stopped writing at this spot yesterday morning but because I stopped in the middle [of the sentence] and hurried to the trenches I am now finishing the story:

[8] [On the next page, Yitzhak now completes his unfinished sentence: the incident happened while I was carrying the list of] names I copied of the Jews who were digging.^[11a] While walking on the road of the village, I encountered one soldier who yelled “Hey Zhid!”^[11b] He threw a rock at me that struck my head. Behind him another soldier was walking who laughed and lifted his bandaged cloak to scare me.^[11c] Walking behind these soldiers were non-Jews on the way to the trenches and in seeing the soldiers’ activity, they also hurled insults at me. Is it possible to describe my feelings at these moments? Is it possible to describe how much blood was storming and boiling inside me, but it was necessary to angrily bite the lip and remain silent, and you can’t let the storming feelings out…And I would go out of my mind with anguish and pain – were it not for one ray of distant light which is: the Land of Israel. As the pain and sorrow grow, all my heartstrings^[12] will express [the following]: “Who will place me now on the land of the ancestors in a Hebrew setting.” Ha! Cursed, cursed is the exile (galut) and woe to us the wretched ones who wallow in her midst. Until when? And where to? And if in incidents so light in value (light in value, in my opinion, in their being extraneous, but in truth they have a great moral impact on the soul) like those mentioned above – make my spirit storm inside me in this manner – what will they say of those that cause true suffering? [for example] that they kill them and burn and murder, and expel them and cause all their afflictions only because they are Jews? What will they say?

[9] On [the fast day of] Tisha B’Av [the 9th of Av, on Tuesday, July 20th, eight days earlier] I wrote a letter to Hinda Weitz.^[13] The content of the letter was about the special inner courage that I saw in her previously and which is prominent now especially since all of her household members left the forest [where they lived] and only she remained with her father. I received a reply to my letter. Then again on Thursday I wrote to her, but at the end of the Sabbath [Saturday night] I rewrote the letter and on Sunday planned to send it [to her] there. But because I had to go to the trenches – I gave the letter to Moshe [my brother] and asked him to send it^[14] there. The letter was complete and ready to be sent by someone, but what did my Moshe do? He took a great interest in what I wrote to Hinda and in desiring to know what was written there, he didn’t send it with the messenger but opened it afterwards and read it… I anticipated already at the start that this is what he would do from all the curiosity and interest… and therefore when I got up in the morning, I approached his coat to see whether the letter was there or not, and behold I found the letter open. I was very angry about this and I made a remark to him about this, but he justified himself: first of all, he didn’t have free time from all the pressures in the store to send pass the letter to the messenger, but this was just a lousy excuse, because in fact if he wanted to send the letter he could have done so right away, since it was all ready to go. And wouldn’t I have done it that way [were I working in the store]?

Meanwhile, the letter was not sent, because there wasn’t anyone [going to the forest] with whom to send it [10] all week. But yesterday I learned from someone that someone has to come [to the store] from the forest [where the Weitz family lived] and I asked Moshe to try to send the letter, because these days I am by the trenches all day. And Moshe told me that the letter was already sent. Whether he is speaking the truth or not – I don’t know, meanwhile I need to check his pockets…

Read the interpretive summary or return to the top of the page .

Notes

[9] The defense trenches that the military council oversaw in the town with the approach of the Eastern front. The Jewish community had [to supply] a requisite quota of workers . During the trench work, the diggers congregated by their national-religious group as evident from the description in the diary. ↩

[10] The double quotation marks at the beginning of each line are the archaic symbol that the quote continues from the previous line. In the source, the lines are written full and not chopped off, fitting the limitation of the page’s width. ↩

[10a] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak is here quoting the title of the poem by Mordechai Tzvi Mana (1859-1886) which he mentions singing in his previous entry while sitting in the trench during a noon day break. [HS] ↩

[11] Chancellery, the military council. ↩

[11a] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak was apparently getting paid to act as a scribe and record the names of the Jews who participated in the digging of trenches and he brought these lists to the military council that mediated between the military and the civil authority. The purpose of the lists, it appears, was to ensure that the Jews were meeting their quota and was likely related to what he mentioned in the previous entry about going to the military council with the local lawyer. [HS] ↩

[11b] On the history of this Russian slur, see John D. Klier, “Zhid: Biography of a Russian Epithet,” The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan. 1982), pp. 1-15 (15 pages). ↩

[11c] [Translator’s comment:] It is not clear to me from the language exactly what gesture or movement the soldier made with his robe or cloak that was supposed to frighten or excite Yitzhak. [HS] ↩

[12] The term מוֹרָשֵׁי–לְבָבִי here means innermost thoughts quoting Job 17:11: “My days are done, my tendons severed / The strings of my heart. [Translator’s comment:] “There was a belief in the past that “heartstrings” were literal nerves connected to the heart that controlled emotions. [HS] ↩

[13] The daughter of Abraham Weitz, brother of Yosef Weitz, one of the prominent pioneers of the second aliyah. See Diary 1, note 2. [Translator’s comment]: In June and July 1914, before WW1 began, Yitzhak’s diary entries are very hopeful he will be able to journey to the Land of Israel that summer with Abraham Weitz and/or his daughter Hinda. It has been a year since Yithak mentioned Hinda. I suspect but can’t prove that perhaps Hinda Weitz was the young woman that Yitzhak has a crush on whom he mentions but doesn’t name in his diary entry for August 18th. His words in his letter and his brother’s effort to read the letter seem to support this interpretation. [HS] ↩

[14] Lamdan uses the Hebrew word for letter מכתב as if it is feminine [when it is fact masculine], apparently like the parallel term in Yiddish and Russian which are also translated into Hebrew as איגרת meaning letter or missive. ↩

***

August 1915

[August 10, 1915] At night, Wednesday 1st of [the month of] Elul in the terrible period, 5675, Mlynov

Recently, I didn't write anything in the daily [diary] because I am at the trenches all day and there is no free time to write in the daily. During the past week, I earned another five rubles apart from the six rubles that I received for six [work] days of the week. And here's the thing: the military typist for the trench work told me to write down in the list of workers a few other outside names of those who didn't work. I did this and for this I received 5 rubles. This week my material situation will apparently weaken; a new officer and new typists arrived, [and] in place of 6 rubles per day they set [the rate at] 75 kops [i.e., kopeks].^[15] This is how I occupied myself in my material situation every day, and I don't have free time to be devoted to my spiritual work. A difficult time!...

But in spite of this I wrote a new poem last week called “No Escape or Refuge from Wars”].^[16] which was on my mind already [11] to compose. In this poem, I noted one line from my psychology. Because in a situation so difficult, in a hour that I am entirely captive in the grip of my despair – even in these hours the dreams penetrate and present their charming scenes to me:

“There is no escape or refuge from wars and hopes
Spontaneously they rise up in the heart and appears
Even if I disparage them, I know that they will lift me –
They will present to me a nice future.”

And this is not just related to my personal situation, but also to that of the general situation, to the situation of all the people:

The people is depressed, wretched, tortured, pursued incessantly
and the spirit of extinction surrounds it, wailing and noisy,
destructions, destructions in every corner of its world –
and in spite of this there is no fleeing and no refuge from dreams…

Despite my expectation, I didn’t receive yet an answer from Hinda Weitz to my second letter. And there is no doubt I won’t receive it soon. Too bad, I so desire to exchange letters with her, because to our sorrow there are few girls among our people who know how to write Hebrew and who understand the spirit of the Hebrew heart [12] and among my acquaintances (and how many acquaintances do I have in general? [not many!]) she is the only one with whom I can exchange Hebrew letters, meaning two, and thus I am sorry that our exchange of letters is not continuing. Is the exchange of letters not desirable for her?

On Sunday this week, I composed a letter to her in which I asked her the reason for her silence. And no doubt I could have sent the letter because on Sunday I didn’t go to the trenches, and instead all day, to my irritation, I sat with Yitzhak the Staroste^[17] and together we apportioned their wages for trench digging; this is how I spent the all day and the letter didn’t get sent. And in the middle of the week it was possible to ask someone to send it there [to Hinda in the forest] but I was occupied all day at the trenches, and to give the letter to [my brother] Moshe to give to a messenger was also not possible because no doubt he would open it and read it and for this I had no desire at all…

Read the interpretive summary or return to the top of the page .

Notes

[15] Kop, shortened form of Kopek, a coin worth 1/100th of a ruble. [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak’s wage was reduced 25% because of the new officer and typists in town. [HS] ↩

[16] Among the many poems of Lamdan’s youth, this one is lost. ↩

[17] The staroste, the title staroste, was given to someone appointed to the administration of the Jewish community (kehilla) on behalf of the governments in the states of Eastern Europe like Romania, Moldova and others. This person served as an agent of the state treasury instead of the assembly of the community (kehilla). [Translator’s comment]: This particular administrator was recalled by a granddaughter in the Mlynov-Muravica Memorial Book, “Stoliner Hasidism in Mlynov,” 78-81. [HS] ↩

***

[August 11, 1915] Nighttime, Thursday, 2nd of Elul, in the terrible period, Mlynov

Today, I came back from the trenches in the afternoon in the hour of 12-1 and I didn’t return there, because I didn’t have anything to do there after the typist was already there. It was good that I was home in the afternoon because today a messenger came from the Weitz home to Mlynov, and I sent with him the letter to Hinda, which I mentioned in the previous entry.

Let me see the results of this letter …

[13] The exile (hagolah)!.. It grows more and more repulsive to me every day. Every moment I see how righteous is the aspiration of the Zionists and how fraudulent and misleading the system of “those favoring exile” (galut).^[17a] Alas, the exile, the exile, how awful and hard is it! There is no breathing room, no place to rest and no end to the terrible hardships and what will be its end? Central to our aspiration – the Land of Israel meanwhile we don’t know its situation. There are no newspapers in Hebrew or in jargon [i.e. Yiddish],^[17b] and news from the Land of Israel there is none. Who knows what is happening there now in the land of our ancestors? Nevertheless, there will be heavy grief there somehow – I previously agreed to bear it all, but in free surroundings, rather than being here in terrible hell (Gehinnom).

Read the interpretive summary or return to the top of the page .

Notes

[17a] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak uses the same language a year earlier on August 18, 1914, to describe those favoring acculturation, describing those who believe that Jews can and must seek achieve civic equality as those “requiring exile.” [HS] ↩

[17b] [Translator’s comment:] Advocates of the Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah) sometimes referred disparagingly to Yiddish as “jargon,” because they viewed it as an inferior or corrupt form of German. Zionists who favored Hebrew also spoke disparagingly of Yiddish and viewed it as a symptom of diaspora and exile. Yitzhak clearly favors Hebrew but he also occasionally uses a Yiddish saying in his diary entries. ↩

***

[August 17, 1915] Evening, Wednesday, 8th of Elul, in the terrible period, Mlynov

Earlier this week I didn't think about going to the trenches because this Monday our Jews didn't go to dig, but today they started to go again. I too was there in the morning, and I returned home at the first hour [about one o'clock]. This is the second or third day that the rain hasn’t stop falling, and it isn't summer rain, and its smell - is the smell of autumn, the cold is sneaking in slowly, slowly and makes the body shiver. Cold winds blow announcing the end of summer; our friend, summer, expired already. It is already the days of [the month of] Elul. [In Yiddish:] “it is already blown away”^[18] – as the masses say … the days of fall arrived, those days casting quenching calm and sweet sorrow, days with patches of color, and gold streaming in gardens, [14] and vegetation everywhere… those same fall days filled with hidden longings for a hidden, serene world, but after these days, fall mud lurks and cuts them off. The wind announces its coming to all:

“Check your shoes? Patch your cloaks?
Go out and prepare the potatoes!...”
(Bialik)^[19]

Yes, it is necessary to check the shoes and patch the cloak but not for serene, normal living in the regular dwelling place but rather… for wandering! Who knows whether – in the difficult days of fall, with rainfall that doesn’t stop, when the mud reaches the neck, at the time of the damp cold – we won’t need to leave here from the fear of War that has been hanging over our heads these several months. Yikes! Who knows if our bitter luck will not result in our being expelled from here, precisely during the difficult days of fall, and [result] in having to wander to other distant places… Yikes! The thought of this is terrible when you bring it into your heart.

Yes, yes, it is necessary to check the shoes and patch the cloak, but to prepare potatoes is not possible now, because who knows if we will be lucky to eat them…

The War situation at the front which is close to us is unchanged and almost complete silence rules there. But will it indeed remain this way also [15] in the future, and will no war incidents develop here? Thus everyone is alert and anxious about the incidents that could come. These words are heard from the lips of everyone: only if we are sentenced, God forbid, to suffer from this situation – let this moment be soon and let us not live constantly in expectation and anxiety, and that which we must bear in the future, let us suffer sooner, rather than later and especially not during the difficult days of fall and winter.

The timely troubles, the sorrow of the individual and the communal each, and the issues of youth storming separately – – – –

I already mentioned, in my previous diary entry, that I sent a letter to Hinda Weitz in which I asked her the reason for her silence and expressed my suspicion: perhaps she didn’t want to exchange letters at all – But I haven’t received yet an answer to my letter. Whether or not this silence confirms my suspicion – the coming days will tell …

I thought this diary entry was completed. But after half an hour or so, Moshe came from the store and after sitting a bit, he produced a letter that came for me from Hinda Weitz. The content of the letter was meager and included only justifications for her silence “due to the present time and isolation, and the present idleness”… but even this was positive. Provided that the exchange of letters didn’t cease, and my suspicion [16] of H. [Hinda] Weitz – was wrong. The result was to my liking. [She did want to continue writing].

I must say more because the letter was open. Apparently by Moshe…

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Notes

[18] A Yiddish expression meaning: it is already erased, finished. ↩

[19] “Summer Expires.” “The heart is orphaned. In a little bit and a day of heavy rain / On the window silence knocks / “Check your shoes? Patch your cloak? / go out and prepare the potatoes.” Hayyim Nachman Bialik, Poems, edition of Avner Holtzman. Or Yehuda: Dvir, 5765 [2004-2005], p. 330). The poem was written in 5665 [1904-05] and published in the edition of Bialik poems, Kharkov, 5668 [1907-08]. ↩

***

[August 21, 1915] Sunday night, 13th [actually the 12th of] Elul in the terrible period, Mlynov

I was out of the house all day, because I was busy with receiving and paying money for the trench digging work. And I am so sorry about this! During the time I was busy with worthless activities that are not useful to me at all and which cause me only regret - Hinda Weitz and her mother were here in our home.^[20] and I so very much wanted to see her. When I heard from Moshe after I arrived home in the evening, that she was here, I was so sad and angry with myself that I went and invested time in the paying of money and spent the whole day there. So angry with myself...

Thursday last week I answered Hinda's last letter, whether or not she will think to answer it now that she has visited here - I don't know. And if I have free time tomorrow - I will write her a second time.

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Notes

[20] The mother of Hinda, wife of Abraham Weitz, Rizah (Rachel) Kalivner (see Notebook 1, note 2) ↩

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***

[August 26, 1915] Thursday, 16th of Elul, in the terrible period, 5675, Mlynov

Today, I am sending another letter to Hinda Weitz, if she still hasn't answered my previous letter.

[17] I am still busy at the trenches. These three days that the Jews of Mlynov were digging far from town by the village of Pudgayetz [today Pidhaitsi, Ukraine]^[21] that is already part of another [military] unit. Meanwhile I went there all those days. The work for me there was not breathtaking [literally didn't blind the eyes] and thus the days passed without concern or anything fitting to do.

The situation has become more agitated. Rumor after rumor spreads about the approach of war operations towards our location, with their approach to Lutzk.^[22]

They speak of the terrible images of refugees and evacuees^[22a] and as you realize that it is possible that we also could find ourselves in a situation like this - the hair of the head turns white. Terrible, terrible is the situation and what will be the end?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Notes

[21] The village of Pudgayetz, pronounced in Ukrainian as Pidhaitsi, in the district of Rovno in Western Ukraine, about 7 km southeast of the town of Mlynov. Not to be confused with the town Pidhaitsi in the district of Tarnopol which is about 200 km south of Mlynov where Jews lived as early as the 15th century. ↩

[22] The town of Lutzk, the district seat in the Volyn Oblast in Western Ukraine about 30 km northwest of Mlynov. ↩

[22a] [Translator’s comment:] In the end of August 1915, the Astro-Hungarian forces advanced during what is known as “The Great Retreat” of the Russian army, which began in July 1915 and continued into September 1915. The Austro-Hungarian forces captured the city of Kovel on August 25, and the city of Lutzk on August 31st. Yitzhak’s next diary entry describes his own experiences during the week that the Austro-Hungarian captured Lutzk.
The two Hebrew terms translated here as “refugee” and “evacuee” could have different shades of meaning. The term "נמלטים” means people who flee. In English, “refugee” is the closest term though technically “refugee” tends to be used for someone who flees their country because of violence or War, not someone who flees their town. “Displaced persons” also refers to a person who leaves their home town because of violence and War, but doesn’t capture the sense of the Hebrew for actively “fleeing.” The second term והנשלחים means those who were “sent” or “dispatched” and could carry the meaning of “expelled” or “evacuated.” Since this is the period of WWI known as the “Great Retreat” in 1915, it seems likely that as the Russian troops fell back from the Eastern Front, people were fleeing and being evacuated from the towns along the way. This general atmosphere seems consistent with the “caravans” or “trains” of people that Yitzhak describes seeing in his next entry. [HS] ↩

***

September 1915

[September 3, 1915] Sabbath Eve, 24th of Elul, in the terrible period, 5675, Dubno^[23]

Yikes, so much has happened to me and all of us during the days that I didn't write anything in the daily [“diary”]! We are satiated on so much sadness and grief already! Too bad that due to many disturbances, I was not able to capture all of it when it was taking place. Now, for sure, I will not be able to record everything that happened, since [I’ll be] forgetting details of the impressions [i.e., experiences]. And furthermore this [is another reason I can’t recall it all]: the present banishes the past and the [current] impressions are as impactful as those of the past [and obliterate them]. But, nevertheless, I will try to record [the details] that I remember: [18] The tumult and commotion began during Thursday last week [August 25].^[23a] The military movement continued and expanded. Long convoys^[24] began traveling from the Lutzk side where a battle between the Russians and Austrians broke out. The convoys didn’t stop leaving the town of L. [Lutzk] after all the military equipment was brought out. This past Sabbath refugees^[24a] appeared. The emotional state of the Jews of the town [Mlynov] was already depressed. On Sunday morning, I again traveled to Pudgayetz [Pidhaitsi, Ukraine]^[24b] to collect money for the trench work. We didn’t receive any money. When we returned to town, there were already many soldiers there. And when I entered [our] home, I saw the frightened and terrified members of my household [i.e., family], because rumors were spreading that the Cossacks^[24c] were coming to town, and they would do what they wanted, because they were already in Mervits and they plundered and robbed there, and other various rumors like these spread which evoked terrible fear in the people of the town. From that day forward, the [military] movement increased significantly in town. The convoys and soldiers didn’t cease and also from Galicia the soldiers, convoys, and camps, camps of refugees began to pass. All of this consolidated [19] to a frightening and horrible tumult which made a terrible impression on the heart. Also, heavy and frequent gunfire began to be heard. But there were very terrible moments Sunday night. When we lay down to sleep on our beds, we were wearing clothing in case we needed to get up in the middle of sleep. My aunt^[25] heard that the soldiers from the convoy who were situated in our yard called one to the other that a telegram was received that the convoy needed to hurry up and immediately get on its way and they began to prepare for travel. The tumult increased. We all got up out of our beds. When my aunt and father went outside, they entered the house in panic: Mervits was already burning in fire. This matter scared us to death. We all hurried outside and look there on the side [of town] towards Mervits a terrible fire had burst into flames. But after this, we were convinced that they were piles of grain that were burning that the soldiers set on fire. After this, refugees came to us from Demydivka. Suddenly several soldiers entered. One of them began to speak harshly and scared us [threatening] that he would set the house on fire. The situation became difficult. Another thing I forgot to write, that on Sunday, David Weitz^[26] came with his wife and everyone from the forest of Pean and Notzitz (today Nadchytsi, Ukraine) as refugees. They fled from Notzitz (Nadchytsi) from fear of the Cossacks.

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Notes

[23] Dubna or Dubno (Dubno in Ukrainian) is a city in the district of Rovno (south of the city of Rovno) in the geographical region of Volyn in northwest Ukraine located on the banks of the Ikva River. It is about 20 km southeast of Mlynov. ↩

[23a] [Translator’s comment:] As noted in the previous footnote, the town of Kovel was taken by the Austro-Hungarians on August 25th and by August 31st, the city of Lutzk was capture. Yitzhak is describing his experience in Mlynov during that week. [HS] ↩

[24] The term in the Hebrew text, “Oboz,” is Russian, here with the meaning of a military convoy or train. ↩

[24a] [Translator’s comment:] See note 22a and the discussion of the translation “refugee” or “displaced persons.” [HS] ↩

[24b] [Translator’s comment:] See note 21 on location of Pidhaitsi. [HS] ↩

[24c] [Translator’s comment:] The Cossacks served as highly respected mounted fighters in the Russian Imperial army and were known for their calvary skills and traditional warrior ethos. They were semi-nomadic and free-spirited and provided military service for land and privileges. As is evident here, the Jewish community was frightened of them even though they were serving in the Russian army. In stories from the Eastern Front, the Cossacks looted, raped and attacked local Jewish residents. See, for example, "Russia’s ‘enemies within’. Jewish and German minorities on the Eastern Front.” [HS] ↩

[25] The aunt, sister of his mother, Etta Rosenberg, who lived on a regular basis in their home. ↩

[26] [Translator’s comment:] David Weitz was the son of Abraham Weitz and brother of Hinda Weitz. In Yitzhak’s first diary (notebook 1) from the summer of 1914 before the War broke out, Yitzhak mentions David Weitz several times. At that point David still lived in Bokiima in the forest with his family and solicited Yitzhak’s help with newspaper subscriptions. He apparently had left Bokiima at some point in the past year and moved to Nadchytsi. [HS] ↩

[27] Notzitz refers to the village Nadchytsi in the district (oblast) of Rovno located about 20 km northwest of Mlynov. Pean and Notzitz refers to a forested area near Mlynov and Mervits. ↩

***

[20]

[September 5, 1915] Sunday, 26th of Elul, 5675, in the terrible period, Dubno

The entry that I began to write on Friday, I didn't completely finish and now I am continuing it following the the chain of events:

On Wednesday morning (or perhaps on Tuesday) the situation in the town worsened significantly. The tumult grew seven-fold, the growth of refugee camps was immeasurable, and their appearance was awful and made a difficult and painful impression. Many Cossacks entered town and spread fear among all the Jewish inhabitants. Chaim Shteren and all of them decided to travel to Dubno, and both [my brother] Moshe and I decided to accompany them. After much preparation and wailing farewells with crying, we all left by foot following the laden-down wagons on the road to Dubno. In our convoy, there were three wagons: C. [Chaim] Shteren^[28] and [Mr.] Diyunetz,^[29] the wagon of Pinchosovitz,^[30] and of Leibush^[31] the agent; our departure from town was awful. All around were billows of smoke of burning piles and villages on fire, and piles alongside schnapps distilleries also burned. Scattered along the way were piles of apples, pears, different implements, machines, etc., etc., that the refugees left to lighten the load on their horses. When we got close to the village of Podgayetz, we were not able to enter because of all the refugees, but after much effort, we reached the village. We rested a bit there and then traveled onward. The road was difficult because of the marsh. We reached Dubno at the 11th hour [about 11 am]. As a group, we set up our living quarters in the home of Mr. Erdeman.^[32] [21] Furthermore, along our way to Dubno, we decided to remain here [in Dubno] and await fate. But many changes and alterations occurred in just the few days we stayed here in this city. Our decision mentioned above [to remain in Dubno] weakened several times. Especially yesterday in the afternoon following closely on the heels of the announcement that young people from age 17 to 45 years of age are required to leave the city. But after that it became known that the order applied only to Christians and not to Jews. Gunfire is heard and doesn’t quit. And here now at the moment that I am writing my present entry, a new hullabaloo arose because despite the “exemption for the Jews” related to the exit of residents from the city, they are saying that immediately they will pass through [the city] and force the Jews to leave and that at the sixth hour [about 6 pm] the bridges will go up in flames, etc. Fear and worry is all around.

Facing the situation we find ourselves in now is hair-raising. Our families are torn into three parts, father, mother and aunt – God [hashem] only knows where they are and where they fled with the major chaos that occurred in Mlynov. (Apparently they are in Varkovychi^[33] ). Malcah, Hansa and Riba - are in Baranivka,^[34] and Moshe and I are here – and we don’t know our future here in the city before the fighting that is likely to break out here. And we all wander now without a home, our home is lost. We no longer have an ancestral home. Ha! How horrible is that idea! In remembering our serene and well-to-do lives, I am not able to fathom that from now on our lives need to be reordered… and who knows [22] the nature of this reordering… we are light and empty without anything, our possessions were lost and what to do now? How awful when I remember the spiritual storehouse of our books that we left in the basement. Yikes! What will happen to the library? And what take place in there? I imagine how the Cossacks will break into the basement and how, when they see the closed cases, they will break them in anger and cruelly rip up the precious Hebrew books! Alas, how terrible! Yikes! What has happened to us? It is good I saved my writings and notebooks etc. – if not for this, I don’t know what I would do! I imagine I would go crazy, because are not my spiritual outputs part of my life, and without them, it is as a large part of my life was lost. But who knows if this precious possession will still be saved, if the tumult grows so much more, who knows what will happen in the coming moments and hours.

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Notes

[28] Chaim Shteren, one of the main Jewish families in Mlynov. Upon leaving Mlynov, he moved his family and home to the village of Notzitz (Nadchytsi). In the continuation of the diary his wife is also mentioned (page [37] and Eleazar Shteren his son (page [29]). ↩

[29]Mr. Diyunetz, head of household of one of the Jewish families in Mlynov. ↩

[30] Moshe Pinchosovitz [a lawyer] from Mlynov mentioned [in this notebook 2] on page 7 [July 25, 1915]. ↩

[31] Leibush the agent, from one of the main Jewish families in Mlynov. [Translator’s comment: possibly Leibush Gelberg. See his granddaughter’s memory of their evacuation from Mlynov during WWI. Helen Lederer (born Chultzie Gelberg) described being rounded up with her mother and siblings and told to leave. She sees her grandfather Leibush when they arrive in Varkovitch [Varkovychi]. Helen Lederer, “In Pain from the First World War,” pp. 37-38 in Mlynov-Muravica Memorial Book. [HS] ↩

[32] No details are known about him. ↩

[33] Varkovychi, a town in the district of Rivne in western Ukraine, about 30 km east [and a bit south] of Mlynov. ↩

[34] According to the information relayed by Yitzhak Lamdan his sisters Riba (see above Notebook 1, note 49 [Aug. 5, 1914]), Hansa and Malcah were found at the time in the town of Baranivka. The eldest sister, Genya (Henya, Heni) is not mentioned here, perhaps in line with what is said in the diary (25 Cheshvan, 5677 [1916] that she was also staying with the other sisters in Baranivka. [Translator’s comment:] In the entry from Aug. 5, 1914 cited above, Yitzhak does not say that all his sisters were living in Baranivka. That entry says only that Riba and her husband and child left Mlynov. In On August 8, 1914 Yitzhak records in his diary that he received a telegram from his sister Genya inviting them to come to stay with her since it was safer. Her location is not indicated explicitly in that telegram. [HS] ↩

***

[September 8, 1915] Eve of the New Year 5676, in the terrible period, Dubno

Well then, we are still standing at the beginning of [the year] 5676! Should I try to summarize the nature of the past year, 5675? No! I have neither that patience nor the talent for work like this. But why should I enumerate all the details of the present passing year? It is possible to express the essence of this year in several short words: It has been a year cursed by sword, famine and grief. [23] A year in which tens of thousands of pure souls were annihilated, a year in which humanity suffered an innumerable amount. Yes, humanity. But humanity in general didn’t suffer as much as our poor people suffered in particular. This year was terrible for our people. This year almost all the communities of Jews in the Diaspora were destroyed: in Galicia, Poland, Lithuania, Kurlandia [now Courland or Kurland, Latvia]^[35] and now also the blessed Volyn…^[36] is being ruined by heavy destruction in the Jewish Diaspora. And a severe destruction is taking occurring in our precious settlements in the Land of Israel. When all the Hebrew newspapers were still being published, we knew something of the situation in our precious land. But from the moment that the Hebrew and Jewish [Yiddish] newspapers stopped appearing – nothing is known about the situation there, and who knows what is happening there?... Thus a severe destruction rules now in almost every corner of the Jewish world. Yes, all humanity indeed suffered in the present war, but the Jewish people suffered more, because it suffered from the direct clashes of the War but also from the side effects: they were beaten down by murder, stealing by the Russian army, and so on and so on. Yikes! Our shattering is extensive and terrible; the Jewish people is shattered!

[24] And it is the holiday of the “New Year” (Rosh Hashanah), and are we now are in a foreign place and have no home close to the heart and soul…^[36a] My brother and I are staying now in Dubno and today is the eve of Rosh Hashanah. The holiday now feels up in the air as it does in our hometown? Yes, in my good town, plant and leaf, withered and yellow, express that it is [the month] of Elul and before the Days of Awe [Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur], as if the blast of the shofar hangs silently in the air.^[36b] Yikes! Where oh where are you my silent hometown? Where are you all? Where have you all wandered, my precious and beloved parents?! We have indeed been split into three parts, and the good God knows when we will be joined together again as at first. Yikes! My heart is torn to shreds in thinking about the situation our family finds itself in now, my heart is torn to shreds! And my heart is full of sadness and grief and there is no rest for my soul.

The situation here lacks clarity. These last few days we already found ourselves in very terrible moments. In addition, on Monday night a tumult erupted. Soldiers and convoys flowed constantly from the city. Thus we already understood that something was happening soon, and it was already known that the Austrian military was close to the city. Yesterday at night they [the Russian military] burned all the bridges and the entire Russian army left the city. Difficult moments confronted us, with we nervously waited to sense what was coming and we all dressed in our cloaks [25], packed necessary objects, ready for the road, but the fear passed in peace. Soon thereafter they came and told us ten Austrian military spies were already moving about in the city. Upon hearing that we thought that for sure the whole Austrian army would enter the city. But it hasn’t entered further so far. But instead a few of them are moving about the streets of the city. No one is able to solve this riddle: the Russian army left the city, but the Austrian army has not entered. But they say that many Russian soldiers are found in Surmitz [now Surmychi, Ukraine].^[37] In any case, the end has not arrived yet and who knows what else will befall us in this city.

~~~~~~~~~~

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Notes

[35] Kurlandia, Kurland (English Courland), a district in northern Latvia, which was in the Russian Empire until the War. During the fighting in the fall 1915 (the period in which these lines were written in the diary) it was conquered by Germany, and once Latvia was founded as an independent state in 1918, was absorbed into it. ↩

[36] Jews of Volyn, the Jewish population in the area of historic Volyn in Western Ukraine, which included several districts: Volyn, Rovno [Rivne], where Mlynov is located, part of Zhytomyr, part of Ternopil, and part of Khmelnytskyi. ↩

[36a] [Translator’s comment:] Yitzhak’s wording here alludes to his exile from his ancestral home (Mlynov) and to his life in the Diaspora in general. [HS] ↩

[36b] [Translator’s comment:] It appears Yitzhak is metaphorically comparing the sight of the yellow withered leaves to the blast of the Shofar that announces the Days of Awe. The leaves hanging there are like a blast of the shofar that hangs in the air. [HS] ↩

[37] [Translator’s comment:] It appears Yitzhak is metaphorically comparing the sight of the yellow withered leaves to the blast of the Shofar that announces the Days of Awe. The leaves hanging there are like a blast of the shofar that hangs in the air. [HS] ↩

***

[September 13, 1915] Monday, 5th of Tishrei 5676, in the terrible period, Dubno

The holiday is over and now we are alive during the Ten Days of Repentence.^[37a] Yesterday, the day passed by with great fear. All day long the canon balls did not stop roaring and whistling over the face of the city. There were also several tragedies. The Austrians already conquered the city, apparently a complete conquest. But we are still not certain that this is the situation. People are very worried that the Russians won't enter the city a second time and then – all of us shall be lost. Commandant Dofa hasn't yet given documents to leave the city to residents of those [other] cities [26] who fled here. Today, the day passed almost in silence. But now again the terrible shooting began which is shaking the ground and the fear once again attacks everyone.

I am almost reconciled to the situation, to whatever happens to me, but when I recall the situation of my parents and our home - awful grief grips my heart, especially when I think of father. When I think of his terrible spiritual situation, especially when he has nothing and just worries about malicious incidents and what about now at the moment that the terrible storm is already happening - ha! Almost only about this [my father’s situation] does my soul mourn and suffer without end. The hour is late, twilight, and it is possible I will write some more about my emotional state, but when I revive, it is possible I will write this another time.

____________________

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Notes

[37a] [Translator's comment:] The Ten Days of Repentance (Aseret Yemei Teshuvah), also known as the Days of Awe, are the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These days are traditionally a period of prayer, reflection, repentance and charity. Jews metaphorically believe (and perhaps some really believe) that during this time God determines who will live and die in the coming year. That association is not lost on Yitzhak who knows his own life is at risk. [HS] ↩

***

[September 15, 1915] Wednesday, 7th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period Mlynov^[38a] Dubno

I am reminded now of several stanza of this poem I wrote earlier, a year or more ago:

"The days pass
and the swapping of the nights [27] (ha-leilot)
in passing thoughts of grief,
and mourning thoughts (avelot)
with afflictions of the body
and with afflictions of the soul (neshama),
without the splendour of hope!
without the spark of consolation (nehama).”^[39]

Yes, I am reminded of these words of the poem because they are entirely fitting to these terrible days. Yikes, difficult, difficult, and terrible are the present days in which we are stuck now. Every day I wander around here and there getting my fill of terrible and depressing boredom. There is nothing to interest you. Everything lacks interest. Everything is so unimpressive and useless, it is impossible to do anything. To read, to write – there is no patience and there is not that peace of mind required especially for the first [i.e., the activity of] (reading). Nothing can hold my focus, and the worm of boredom and grief don’t stop gnawing the heart, and you don’t know how to silence the gnawing pain… – and in truth the situation is terrible. We are stuck in Dubno, our precious family – is far from here and torn from here [28] and the Lord knows their situation there and how much they think about us and what will be the end? Look I now received greetings from Mlynov, a painful and depressing greeting. The Austrians expelled the few remaining residents in town for various kinds of labor. No food is in the city. No bread, no sugar, kerosene and all essential necessities are impossible to obtain for any amount of money and people are basically dying of hunger. All the houses are filled with soldiers. The new house was made for barracks and the cloister – for a stable. The situation is awful. They are sustained^[40] exclusively on potatoes and even they are impossible to obtain. The houses are vacated, desolate and ransacked etc. etc. This news depressed me no end but what can be done. It is possible that we will soon obtain a certificate [allowing us to leave Dubno] to travel home. But in such circumstances how is it possible to travel? To perish there of hunger? How will we enter houses filled with soldiers? Will they let us enter? With what can we prove to them that these are our houses? We are at a loss. Yikes, what did we have. [29] Look at the level to which we descended. Our quiet lives have been destroyed. And when I think about the terrible future facing us – the hair on my head stands on end. But with all my strength I try not to let myself think about it, because it weakens my resolve too much that we will suffer so much.

The sadness and grief eat my heart and the anguish and wailing attack all of me. This is how it is!

____________________

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Notes

[38a] [Translator’s comment:] Throughout this translation of the diary, I generally ignored the words that Yitzhak crossed out in his diary which are visible in the critical Hebrew edition. This mistake here, where Yitzhak scratched out “Mlynov” and then corrected it to Dubno, I found interesting. He has been in Dubno since the beginning of September and has not made that mistake before. Perhaps because in this entry he is reporting on news he received from Mlynov, he momentarily wrote his wrong location. His hometown was on his mind. [HS] ↩

[39] The poem is written in Ashkenazi accent, the complete version [of the poem] is lost. [Translator’s comment:] The poem has rhyming stanzas that are not easy to capture in English. The rhyming Hebrew is illustrated with the transliterations at the end of sentences. ↩

[40] Meaning “nourished” [rather than to be nurtured or supported by]. ↩

***

[September 19, 1915] Sunday, 11th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Nochitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]^[41]

While still the eve of Yom Kippur, I wanted to write in the diary about what has happened to us up to that day, but I didn’t succeed due to insufficient time and now there are additional momentous incidents, or in more accurate language: new grief is added which makes the earlier ones forgotten... "Each and every day is more cursed than the previous one [Babli Sotah 49a]."^[42] On Thursday [Sept. 16th], we all left Dubna traveling homeward, following the conquest of all the places by the Austrians and the possibility of returning there. Despite my knowing how abnormal and purposeless was my journey homeward, still a certain form of light warmth and inner pleasure flickered in my depressed, grief-stricken heart. "Homeward." Is there any pleasure greater than this?...And if truly I knew that the home was destroyed, that [30] I would encounter a shocking vision there – even so I would want to be there and see it all. Thus we left Dubna on Thursday at noon, the road was difficult and the wagons advanced with difficulty. From here we traveled until late at night and we all (meaning the Shteren family, David Weitz, Hochberg) decided to stay overnight in Mlynov, but because the bridges that had been burned were not yet fixed by the Austrians, we were forced to travel on. But next to the yard of the whole body of Mlynov^[42a] [... ...] the horses were not able to go further and we were forced, despite the bad location, nightfall, and the terrible cold, to spend the night in the middle of the way. [...] On the side of the road I encountered [...] the son of Chaim Shteren on his cloak on his warm coat and with his cloak spread out in terrible splendor.^[42b] The ice and cold didn’t [...] to move my feet from all the freezing that attacked them, that night was terrible and horrible [... ... ...] we were next to Mlynov and couldn't enter to see our houses. [... ...] large [...] bitter my soul was then, sick to death [literally “bitter to death”]. Life itself became sickening to me. The entire road from Dubna we went on foot. Were we accustomed to this? – But in spite of this we walked. We walked with depressed hearts that were broken to pieces.

Along the way, as the nighttime fog began to spread, we went out to the road. [31] [Headed] to Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine], to the home of Chaim Shteren. When we got to Mervits, we met there another person from among the Mlynov people who were in Dubna and who were also traveling homeward. I also wanted so very much to go home, but [my brother] Moshe didn't want to go under any circumstances. With the risk of being hungry there, and for what purpose, and despite my objection, he didn't want to change his mind, and thus we immediately left with everyone for Notzitz [Nadchytsi]. We arrived at the town of Notzitz on Friday [Sept. 17] (on the eve of Yom Kippur) at the 12th hour [about 12 o'clock]. When the Shteren children and everyone entered to their houses, they found only four walls; everything was plundered, broken and destroyed. Is it possible to describe what an impression such sights make? After we restored order in the houses and of the bundles that we took off the wagons ,we began to prepare for the fast of Yom Kippur.

An eve of a Yom Kippur like this, obviously, I’ve “tasted”^[42c] only once during all the days of my life. We ate at a late hour. My soul cried bitterly at the memory of Yom Kippur in Father’s home, at the memory of the sanctity that ruled over everything, at the memory of the order in the home. My soul cried bitterly in absolute silence at the great fracture that shattered us. Before the [prayer] Kol Nidre, when each person greeted his fellow with “happy new year,” – everyone cried tearfully and I also cried, ha, how broken [32] then my heart inside me, at the thought of the situation we are placed in now. And that’s how it was. David Weitz intended immediately following Yom Kippur to travel to the forest of Bokiima to learn about the wellbeing of his parents^[43] and Moshe and I also thought about going with him home but here yesterday some incidents took place that we didn’t believe possible at all. In the morning, we stood up to pray. We prayed. Through the window we saw Austrian patrols standing by the sides of the houses and looking opposite them and we quickly realized that there were things in the back. It became clear to us immediately that the Austrians were retreating backwards because of Russian pressure which they received from a large auxilary army. Fear attacked everyone and the impression of this thing is known — — — after several hours loaded wagons appeared traveling on the road towards Lutzk and on them were sitting German residents. We asked to where and for what purpose they were traveling and they explained that the Austrians told them they should leave their places before they [the Austrians] retreated and the Russians came. Obviously, this [news] intensified our fear many times over. Eleazar Shteren^[44] and Shmuel Hochberg^[45] went quickly towards Lutzk… and I also wanted to accompany them [33] but before I succeeded in bundling up my possessions, they went and I remained, and I didn't want to go alone. The quorum (minyan) obviously broke up and prayer ceased. I was very sorry that I didn't go with them and thus the day passed in great fear. And Yom Kippur ended terribly. At night, the Russia soldiers were already passed by. And some turned into the house and recounted the retreat of the Austrians. Look at the change that occurred within a few hours! And now many soldiers and Cossacks pass the road of this place – and the fear is awful but up to now, thank God, nothing befell us or and we said a prayer that in the future the situation will pass peacefully.

That’s the situation. Life goes on now. Where to turn? We are staying now in the forest Notzitz, but what will the goal be? I describe to myself the horrible sadness of my parents and of all the dear members of our household – in their worrying about us. Life for me has become devoid of content and interest. I stopped being interested in anything. Previously I was interested in the course of the War but now this doesn't interest me at all. Like what? I am lost and suffering, suffering the yoke of life that has become so difficult [34] and bitter. Constantly only fear and worry, and how is it possible to suffer this pain? We just learned that a Cossack battalion convoy was sent and is stationed here – and now there is a new worry.

That’s how it is. I wanted to write more about my emotional state, but if I live, God willing, I will write about this another time.

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Notes

[41] A forested area in the southern corner of Nadchytsi in the Rovno oblast (province). [Translator’s comment:] Nadchytsi is about 18 km (about 11 miles) north of Mlynov just west of the road to Lutsk. Yitzhak spells the name two ways in the Hebrew lettering, Nochitz and Notzitz. [HS] ↩

[42] In accordance with [the Talmud] Babli, Sotah 49a, about exile (galut): Said Rabba, "Each and every day is more cursed than the previous one.” ↩

[42a] [Translator’s comment:] The Hebrew text is missing words and the exact meaning of the words here are unclear. The words “whole Mlynov body” appear to apply to the town and perhaps allude to the destruction that prevents the horses from entering. [HS] ↩

[42b] [Translator’s comment:] The Hebrew text is broken up and the exact meaning of the text here is unclear. [HS] ↩

[42c] [Translator’s comment:] I suspect Yitzhak is punning here by using the term “tasting” for “experiencing” since Yom Kippur is fast day for traditional Jews. [HS] ↩

[43] Abraham and Ritza (Rachel) Weitz. See Notebook 1, note 2. ↩

[44] Eliezar Shteren was son of Chaim Shteren who is mentioned above (page 67, 72) and further on, page 79, 80, 81, 106. [Translator’s comment:] Shteren is mentioned in Notebook 2 journal entries of 1915 on Sept. 5, Sept. 19, Sept. 29, Oct. 4, Oct. 7, 1915. [HS] ↩

[45] The continuation of the diary entry (page 73) mentions Michal Hochberg, his friend and sister. Shmuel is the brother of Michal. ↩

***

[September 21, 1915] Tuesday, 13th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]^[41]

When I sit to write during this time my diary entries, I personally don’t know where to begin. The heart is full, constantly overflowing its banks, and the mind is constantly astounded by the multitude of thoughts – but at the moment I sit at the table to write in the diary – I almost don’t know what I will write.

An awful fear attacks me at the moment my thoughts are “all told” on our present situation, how amazingly far we have sunk, especially my terrible sadness recalling the precious books in which we invested all our strength and now – does a single page remain? Ugh, terrible, terrible! I recall how much Moshe and I labored when bringing them down a second time to the basement, how we chose each and every individual precious book, and it did not [35] occur to us that actually they would be trampled by coyotes – – – and how many books remain of Father’s books; I recall that on the last day we carried a complete suitcase with Father’s remaining books up to the attic. It seemed as if they would be safer there, as if the hand of the tyrant wouldn’t reach them there, even though in the depths of our hearts, we knew him well… and now another shard in our pieces (shvareinu).^45a Initially, after the first battle that was nearby, Mlynov remained whole and none of her homes were burned, and this was like a drop of consolation in a large cup of our great sorrow because at least our home remained amidst the general destruction. But now, in the second battle, when the Austrians retreat, according to the rumors that reach us, the heaviest battles are taking place in Mlynov and Mervits, and now who knows if a sign or memory will remain of all the homes of these unfortunate towns.⁴⁶

How difficult and awful life has become. You live like a gypsy. [36] Always dressed while sleeping on the bundles, in the midst of terrible disorder, not well-bathed for a month. Your own body feels heavy, and you can’t stand yourself.

But there is something that I think to myself, what is the noise [in my head]? Why do I complain incessantly? In as much as during the year of war when I was staying safely in my parents’ home with enough food, healthy – how many of our brethren suffered in other places? And I, as much as I knew about it, nonetheless felt the burden of the situation in its entirety, and here now we find ourselves in a terrible situation like this. Such is life, I think to myself sometimes. Truly, for my part, I accept it all with love, but in recalling the sadness of my family – my heart is torn apart. And now Moshe and I stay in Notzitz, until when? – the Lord knows. Meanwhile it is not possible to go anywhere, we are like prisoners here in prison. Truly, we experience ourselves a little lucky in that here the food is better than in the town, there are potatoes [37] in the gardens and flour obtained quite reasonably and more – no one is starving here. But the fear is great in our isolation here. The Jews are alone in this entire colony. And when we see some soldier or Cossack our teeth chatter from fear. From every coarse, evil lowlife – we need to be afraid and tremble. And in observing sights like these – the heart bursts from sadness at the sight of our degradation of us Jews in terrible exile (galut).

And why, Lord of the Universe, why is the people of Israel more wretched than the other people on the face of the earth? Sadness of the individual and of the many, the individual and the sadness of the people and all of His dominion – Lord of the Universe, where is the strength to suffer all this and to hope for a better future? How? – – –

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Notes

[45a] [Translator’s comment:] It is possible Yitzhak is punning here in the Hebrew on the short sounds of the shofar (ram’s horn) that are blown on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The name of the short bursts of the shofar are called shevarim, which is the same word he uses here for “our pieces.” [HS] ↩

[46] “The first battle” in the language of Lamdan is the first retreat of Russians from the areas of Galicia and Poland following the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive at the beginning of May 1915. This prolonged retreat which is known as “The Great Russian Retreat” along the entire Eastern Front continued until the 18th of September, three days before these lines were written in the diary. The Russian military pulled itself together and renewed the battles (what Lamdan calls “the second battle”) which passed literally through Mlynov, which was located along the line of Vilna-Pinsk-Lutzk-Lemberg. See the schematic of the halting withdrawal line in Douglas Wilson Johnson, “The Great Russian Retreat” Geographical Review, 1:2 (February 1916), p. 87. [Translator’s comment:] I interpret Yitzhak’s reference to the “first battle” differently. I think he is referring to the beginning of the War which he wrote about in August-September 1914 when wounded soldiers were being brought into Mlynov but the town was spared. He is contrasting that period of the War with the recent end of the Great Russian Retreat where the fighting was now happening in Mlynov and Mervits.[HS] ↩

***

[September 26, 1915] Sunday, 2nd Chol HaMoed Sukkot^[46a] (2nd^[46b] of the intermediate days of the Festival of Booths, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

The holiday of Sukkot [the Feast of Booths]. With how much internal pleasure, and how much abundant festivity, I would celebrate it in Father’s home. The Sukkah (tabernacle) was built and arranged with good taste, the house clean. Every corner sparking from purity and cleanliness. [38] We came [home] from the synagogue, entered our Sukkah, opened its covering. The Sukkah was full of festive smells and special warmth spilled into every limb. We sanctified [the holiday] over a cup with beverage and would eat various sweet delicacies and you would feel yourself so light and good among your ancestors next to [?] your beautiful home the […] going to eat the meal. Father, Moshe and I would enter the neighbors’ [sukkot] and other houses […] wash the hands and bring [… … … … … …]. The image of the holiday appears before me in all its beauty and splendor, with its entire lofty idyllic experience, and more of the picture stands out before my eyes and in my imagination – My soul is pained and my heart torn to pieces. I’ve already spent Rosh Hashanah [the New Year] and Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] wandering in a foreign place but during those holidays I didn’t feel myself so depressed and desolate like last Wednesday, the eve of Sukkot. “I didn’t find my place” – as people say [idiomatically] – what strong longings and stinging attacked me for the holiday of Sukkot in Father’s home – alas, and here I didn’t bath, and I didn’t even change to another outfit [39] and not only that but there was no new white shirt to wear, my body became a burden to me. I didn’t feel the attraction of the festival at all. Everything was profane and secular, and there was no sign of festive splendor. I was so depressed and desolate…like a hunk of heavy lead resting on and troubling my heart and giving me no rest. I am reminded of my ancestors and all my precious family members who are celebrating obviously the festival of Sukkot in Barnovka [now Baranivka, Ukraine],^[46c] and I described to myself their awful sorrow in worrying about our fate, I was reminded of all this, and I spilled [my heart] from all the sadness and grief. “Troubles find their place” [Yiddish version of the idiom:] “(The troubles all dwell in one place”)^[47] say the multitude, and indeed true are the words of the folk saying as we see in realistic lives but in my case the opposite is the case. In the first days of our wandering episode, my heart was not so heavy, these events made me forget the details of the terrible storm that beset us, and there were moments that my heart was a bit light, but now, from day to day, from hour to hour, from moment to moment, my sadness expands many times over and the lead in my heart expands and weighs it down [40] more and more, with every single moment details of the terrible store stick out before more more and more and cuts my heart to bits. Shreds. Every time the memory of the precious books occurs to me, all by itself I think of the books’ value, which ones I had an how many, and every time I think about another group of books which was so precious to me, I picture in my imagination all the preparation brought to bear with the arrangement of books. There in […] the vestibule stood a bookcase and was full of books and books. I remember that when I entered the house from outside my first path was – to the vestibule to the bookcase of books, [… … …] and thus [… … … … … …] doubled [… … … … …] to the spiritual storeroom [… … … …] that each and every book [ … ]^[49] [what] has become of them all in this storeroom? I imagine the piles of folios torn and scattered in the basement. Yikes, this precious spiritual storeroom that was the source of knowledge during my entire youth, from which I drew help for my poetic talent, – what will become of this precious storeroom? In each and every moment, the memory of these precious books arises in my mind and my soul ponders all the grief and sorrow, and doesn’t find rest.

In remembering our home and its general household items, and in remembering the genteel feeling of home, as they say – “our place” – what purpose is achieved [thinking so]? We were rich, thank God, in everything. What did our home lack? And now? The Passover dishes are ours.^[49a] Yikes! How much beauty and festive charm they had, all these dishes carried with them some [associated] impression from a festival [when they were used], and all without doubt are broken, stolen, and no [associated] memory remains. All have surely been destroyed, all ruined, the end our idyllic family life arrived. The domestic serenity and bliss are gone, and now, Lord of the Universe, where shall we go?!

This is how the thoughts torture me constantly and nonstop, and in each and ever moment they weigh me down more and more and suck [42] my life force, because how could it be otherwise? In bringing up all the details of our terrible destruction in my mind – yes, the heart is liable to explode from all the sorrow. Despite all, I try to find consolation from other sides – but I don’t find a single drop of in this bitter cup of poison. Sometimes I am also angry at myself for complaining so much at a time when I am not unique and tens of thousands of people now suffer in the world as I do and even more severely, but even this doesn’t help to lighten my sorrow a bit.

And during a day when distress and worry attack me, my body – I don’t forget, God forbid, my essential aspiration and the situation of my people and my precious land in all that we suffer now from every course evil person – I will not forget the rest and freedom I will find only there in the Land of Israel and how will the heart not burst from sorrow? Every time the soul shudders in fear seeing some soldier or Russian Cossack who want only to annoy us Jews. If truly hope weakens and despair wins and I drown only in a sea of sorrow and worry – but still I dream about the precious land of my ancestors, past and future.

[43] And there is news. Yesterday we had a night of no rest. Suddenly we realized that the Russian army was retreating back from this area. We all got up in fear about the new developments. The shooting became frequent and close, from a distance we heard the moving convoys etc., with great fear the night passed. In the morning, we went outside and there was silence all around. No Russians, no Austrians. The telegraph of the Russian army ceased and meanwhile we live in fear without knowing our fate. Look how fate plays with us and casts us about this way and that like a football [lit. game ball].

___________________

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Notes

[46a] [Translator’s comment:] Sukkot, called the Feast of Booths, is one of three biblically based pilgrimage festivals in which Israelites were instructed to make pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Biblically, it is associated with the fall harvest and commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. Traditional Jews build a booth (Sukkah) in which they eat and sleep during the festival, which lasts for seven days. The festival is observed differently in the Diaspora and Israel. In the Diaspora, the festival is 8 days. The first two days are sacred festival days when work is not performed like on the Sabbath. They are followed by four intermediate days (the 3rd through the 7th day). The eighth day is Shemini Atzeret followed by Simchat Torah. [HS] ↩

[46b] [Translator’s comment:] Chol Hamoed (profane days of the festival) refers to the “intermediate” days between the first sacred days of Sukkot and the festival days following Sukkot. Outside the Land of Israel, two days are designated sacred at the start of the festival. The editor of Yitzhak’s diary added the comment that the date of this diary entry was the 3rd day of Chol Hamoed (the intermediate days, which was the 18th of Tishrei) and not as Yitzhak indicated the 2nd day of Chol Hamoed. I believe, however, the editor based his comment on the Jewish calendar as celebrated in Israel when only one day is a sacred day at the beginning of the festival, whereas outside the Land of Israel, two days are celebrated as holy days. Therefore, this diary entry is, as Yitzhak said, on the 2nd day of Chol Hamoed. The dates as I understand them that year are:

Eve of Sukkot – Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1915
Day 1 of Sukkot - Thursday, Sept. 23, 1915 a sacred day
Day 2 of Sukkot – Friday, Sept. 24, 1915 a sacred day outside the Land of Israel
Day 3 of Sukkot – Saturday, Sept. 25, 1915 the first day of Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days
Day 4 of Sukkot - Sunday, Sept. 26, 1915 the second day of Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days. This is the day that Yitzhak wrote his diary entry.
Day 5 of Sukkot - Monday, Sept. 27, 1915 the third day of Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days.
Day 6 of Sukkot – Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1915 the fourth day of Chol HaMoed, the intermediate days.
Day 7 of Sukkot – Wednesday, Sept. 29, 1915 Hoshana Rabba, the last day of Sukkot.
Shemini Atzeret – Thursday, Sept. 30, 1915 [HS] ↩

[46c] Now Baranivka, Ukraine in the Zhytomyr Oblast, 193 km (~120 m) mostly due east of Mlynov. ↩

[47] Literally, the troubles all live in one place (Yiddish). ↩

[48] Illegible words. ↩

[49] Four illegible lines. ↩

[49a] [Translator’s comment:] I’m not positive of the meaning here. I suspect that Yitzhak thinks the Passover dishes still were theirs because they were hidden away when it was not Passover and therefore not destroyed like everything else. . According to one Mlynov descendant, his parents told him they would bury the Passover dishes. [HS] ↩

***

[September 27, 1915] Monday, 3rd day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot [3rd ^[49b] of the intermediate days of the festival of Booths], 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

Alas, what great boredom attacks me all these days. "Idleness brings boredom" – says the proverb,^[50] and truly this boredom is the result of terrible idleness that I am situated in. Every day, you go about here and there without work or interest of any kind; You go about here and there and the various worries and passing thoughts about your situation and the general situation – depress the heart seriously, and if only I found some book to read to lighten a bit the idleness and boredom that comes with it, but where is it possible here to obtain a book? [44] To spend time on my different papers and write – is impossible for me for these reasons: a) all my papers, my writings and my notebooks are properly and well bound in a sewn parcel, and I don't want to open^[51] the parcel, without a needle and thread to fix and sew them as before. And who knows what will occur in each and every moment. Therefore, I want this spiritual collection of mine that is here in a place of danger to always be hidden and ready for the shoulder or wagon; b) I know clearly that my present emotional state is not fit now to write and even writing things influenced by this present time (the terrible period). The heart becomes too foolish. From tragedy and grief... For these reasons I am not able to engage in any writing effort, and therefore I suffer terrible boredom.

Today, I didn't suffer so much from boredom because I engaged a bit in various kinds of work, in digging potatoes, and drawing water, etc.

My diary entry from yesterday I finished yesterday when new incidents were happening. Now the situation has become a little bit clearer. The Austrians came. But in the capacity of experienced individuals [reassuring] a son who is still a flutter and shaking: Maybe? Who knows?... And I already want [45] to be in another situation, to know where to turn. How I long to be in Mlynov already, to visit our home and see if a vestige of our assets remain.

During these days, I actually aspired to go to Russia, meaning places under the control of Russians, to see my parents and precious family members in Barnovka [Baranivka, Ukraine], I would find a material foundation for myself, because it seems to me that I would obtain lessons there for [teaching] the Hebrew language, or I would be able to establish a Hebrew school there. But then in remembering that after a few days, it was possible military episodes^[2] would arrive, I let go of that aspiration a bit. But between this and that, I can think for myself and reality takes its toll and grabs the bridle of life in her hands... in the current situation, in other words, at a time when these places are located in the control of the enemy, I will not be able to travel to Russia anyway. In this kind of situation, what is there to do? Where to turn? Surely this question is a weighty one, but, in any case, it is too early [to decide] in light of the present situation which is not yet completely clear. When we live, with the help of the Lord, we will see what will come – and we will know.

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Notes

[49b] [Translator’s comment:] See note [46b] with the dates for each day of Sukkot 1915. The editor suggests that Yitzhak was writing on the 4th day of Chol Hamoed and not the 3rd day of Chol Hamoed as Yitzhak wrote. However, as discussed in notes to the previous entry, it appears the editor was following a Hebrew calendar schedule for celebrations in the Land of Israel. The observances differ in the Diaspora and it appears Yitzhak was correct this day was the 3rd day of Chol Hamoed. [HS] ↩

[50] Quoting the Mishnah, Ketubot 5:4 [pericope 5:5 in my version]: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Even one who vows that his wife is prohibited from doing any work must divorce her and give her the payment for her marriage contract, since idleness leads to boredom. ↩

[51] [The Hebrew can be read as] to open (לִפְתוֹח) and it is possible the intent is the word (לְִפַתֵּחַ) meaning to unpack or unbundle. ↩

[51a] [Translator’s comment:] I’m not certain what Yitzhak means by his language here. But based on the words and discussion that follows, it appears he is feeling that the War situation makes his aspiration unrealistic. [HS] ↩

***

[September 29, 1915] Day of Hoshana Rabbah,^[51b] 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

[Reflecting on] the last Hoshana Rabba in Father's house.

The air was full of pleasant smells of the festival. In the morning the preparation increased. Going to the prayer [service in the synagogue]. There was a large crowd there. The prayer took longer than expected. Arriving home and entering with the greeting "Happy New Year" [Shana Tovah], entering the Sukkah [the booth] and saying prayers of sanctification over some drink, afterwards going to eat the special food for Hoshana Rabba, and what holiday charm and enchantment spilling all around; and a certain special warmth fading in the heart, and all of it so close to your heart, so pleasant.

Yes. This day in all its details is photographed in my imagination, and how much pain I feel now at a time that I am spending this holiday in a foreign place, while wandering depressed and miserable without purpose and goal. If I were in a foreign place under different circumstances, namely, [if] I traveled from Father's house to another place and I was staying in a foreign place, in spite of that I wouldn't suffer so much knowing that in the distance in the small town, we have a home, where there is a holiday, and there is everything, and I alone stay here, and therefore this [staying in a foreign place] would be no big deal, – I could return to Father's house and then enjoy myself also. But now, knowing the particular way I came to be in a foreign place – my soul secretly cries out, now I am lost here, because we no longer have a home, because all of it [47] was destroyed and stolen. And regarding the parents and my beloved family members – I understand their emotional state now during the festivals.^[51c] My soul silently cries over all this and my heart is torn to pieces. And regarding the holiday [of Hoshana Rabbah] I don't feel anything at all here, everything is so profane, so profane. I am always in the same garment, and a shirt to change into – doesn’t exist. Those that already got dirty, there is no place to place them for laundering, to wash adequately is impossible, and your body becomes a burden to you, and thus in your heart you feel broken and depressed, and until when - God knows. If I were able to go now to Russia to be with our parents and our beloved family members and to live as a man who is clean and attired – I already wouldn't be so particular about standing for the military [conscription]^[51d] and I would go [to my family in Russia] because this waiting sickens me, and to travel far to seek some work in Poland or in Austria I think impossible, and therefore what is to be done? And here recently we began to also suffer a bit from food, because we already ate individually on our own account, and we have literally nothing to eat, because our bread is very bitter and it is impossible to eat it and apart from bread we have nothing; there was [48] a half-pound of butter, and now in a little bit it will be used up and meanwhile it is impossible to buy more, and if not for the wife of Chaim Shteren who invites us every day to eat from her food – we would be actually starving.

I would write about more about others matters, but the hour is late already and the eve of the holiday (Erev Yom Tom Shemini Atzeret) is today, and even though I am not in my home I need to hurry, for despite everything the holiday spirit of the festival eve is planted in me...

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Notes

[51b] [Translator’s comment:] Hoshana Rabbah is the seventh day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the 21st day of the month of Tishrei. This day is marked by a special synagogue service, the Hoshana Rabbah, in which seven circuits are made by the worshippers with their lulav and etrog, while the congregation recites prayers. It is customary for the scrolls of the Torah to be removed from the ark during this procession. Hoshana Rabbah is considered the end of the high holiday judgment period, and it is characterized by special rituals and prayers. It is the final day of the judgment that began on Rosh Hashanah and is often called "the end of the judgment." [HS] ↩

[51c][Translator’s comment:] I believe what Yitzhak means here is that he understands how bereft his family is during the holiday not knowing the fate of himself and his brother since they are now in territory captured by the Austrian military and his family probably does not yet know their fate. [HS] ↩

[51d] [Translator’s comment:] Standing for the military appears to refer to the possibility that Yitzhak would get conscripted if he went back to Russia. Perhaps this fear explains the reason Yitzhak and his brother, Moshe, fled Mlynov originally without his parents and siblings. [HS] ↩

***

October 1915

[October 4, 1915] Monday, 26th [of the month of] Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

Thus the holidays are already over. The pleasant holidays, the festival of Sukkot– “Chag HaAsif” [Holiday of the Harvest], Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, that I used to spend in enjoyment and pleasantly in the home of my parents – they passed us by now in a foreign place, and moreover in terrible manner like this. The festivals are over, but I felt nothing of it being a festival? What a profane spirit ruled over everything, and the sadness and worry so very much depressed the heart with no capacity to feel the spirit of the festival. The pleasant festivals are over which had such a prominent and pleasant impact in the small town in Father’s home, the home that was the clean and sanctified for the festival, festive clothes, festive foods, the house of worship, the worship, [49] everything was so close, so close to the heart, and this was the first time in my life that the festivals passed me by in such a terrible manner like this: not washed, not attired [well], with a heart full of grief and sorrow ready to burst from pain, in a foreign place, while wandering, without goal and hope, without your knowing which new trouble is likely to befall you each and every moment, at a time when life is so dangerous and bitter. Look how peppered were these holidays, and in this situation, is it possible to also feel some spirit of the holiday? And a situation like this still goes on and continues, and the good Lord knows until when.

Yesterday, leaving here were David Weitz and his wife, Michel Hochberg his wife and his sister. They all traveled to Boremel,^[52] but the former [the Weitzes] will travel from there to Horochov [today Horokhiv, Ukraine],^[53] to their parents, Abraham Weitz and his family members who traveled there.^[53a] Truly, the separation was difficult. - - - Remaining here are Mr. Chaim Shteren and his family and the widow Chantzi Goldberg^[54] and her family. Today Chaim Shteren left for Lutsk to consult there about what he should do, whether to remain here or to leave. Traveling with him also was [my brother] Moshe [who went] to learn if [50] residents of the town of Hubyn [Hubyn Peshyi]^[55] are still in place, and if so, it is possible we will make our way there, because it is enough already staying here.

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Notes

[52] Boremel a small town in the oblast of Rovno located about 30 km southwest of the forest of Nadchytsi, and forty km south of the city of Lutsk. [Translator’s comment:] Boremel and Horokhiv are both west of Nadchytsi and were under Austrian control. [HS] ↩

[53] Horokhiv (also spelled Horochov or Gorokhov), a small town in the district (oblast) of Volyn located a distance of 60 km west of the forest of Nadchytsi, about 20 km southwest of Lutsk. [Translator’s comment:] On contemporary maps, Horokhiv appears to be 75 km from Nadchytsi along roads and 52 km southwest from Lutsk. [HS] ↩

[53a] [Translator’s comment:] The Weitz family was still living in the forest of Bokiima when Yitzhak was writing about them in the summer of 1914. They were apparently still there as late as September 15 when Yitzhak mentioned in his diary that David Weitz was hoping to head there to see his family. In the last few weeks, they must have fled further West into Austrian controlled territory to Horokhiv, to get away from the fighting on the front lines. [HS] ↩

[54] No details about her are known. [Translator's comment:] Perhaps it is entirely coincidental that a woman by this name, Chultzie Goldberg (later called Helen Lederer), later wrote her memories of their evacuation from Mlynov during WWI in an essay called "In Pain from the First World War," for the Mlynov-Mervits Memorial Book, pp. 137-38. She was a young girl at the time and not this woman, but perhaps they were distant relatives. [HS] ↩

[55] The town Hubyn “the first” (Hubyn Pershyi) is 30 km southwest of Lutsk to be distinguished from just Hubyn (which is also a district in Volyn) about 50 km west of Lutsk. Moshe, the brother of Yitzhak Lamdan, stayed in this village [Hubyn Pershyi] at the end of 1914 for the work purposes. See Notebook 1 [Aug. 2, 1914]. ↩

***

Translated by Howard I. Schwartz
Updated: June 2025
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The Diary of Yitzhak Lamdan (A Translation of the Diary Entries)

Translation of Diary Entries in Notebook 2

Notebook 2 (July 1915-March 1916)

My Diary

Yitzhak Lamdan[1]

July 1915

[July 25,[1a] 1915, Sunday, 14th of Menachem Av, 5675, Mlynov]

[July 28, 1915] Wednesday in the morning, 17th of Menachem-Av [5675] in the terrible period, Mlynov

August 1915

[August 10, 1915] At night, Wednesday 1st of [the month of] Elul in the terrible period, 5675, Mlynov

[August 11, 1915] Nighttime, Thursday, 2nd of Elul, in the terrible period, Mlynov

[August 17, 1915] Evening, Wednesday, 8th of Elul, in the terrible period, Mlynov

[August 21, 1915] Sunday night, 13th [actually the 12th of] Elul in the terrible period, Mlynov

[August 26, 1915] Thursday, 16th of Elul, in the terrible period, 5675, Mlynov

September 1915

[September 3, 1915] Sabbath Eve, 24th of Elul, in the terrible period, 5675, Dubno[23]

[September 5, 1915] Sunday, 26th of Elul, 5675, in the terrible period, Dubno

[September 8, 1915] Eve of the New Year 5676, in the terrible period, Dubno

[September 13, 1915] Monday, 5th of Tishrei 5676, in the terrible period, Dubno

[September 15, 1915] Wednesday, 7th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period Mlynov[38a] Dubno

[September 19, 1915] Sunday, 11th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Nochitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine][41]

[September 21, 1915] Tuesday, 13th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine][41]

[September 26, 1915] Sunday, 2nd Chol HaMoed Sukkot[46a] (2nd[46b] of the intermediate days of the Festival of Booths, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

[September 27, 1915] Monday, 3rd day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot [3rd [49b] of the intermediate days of the festival of Booths], 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

[September 29, 1915] Day of Hoshana Rabbah,[51b] 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

October 1915

[October 4, 1915] Monday, 26th [of the month of] Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

The Diary of Yitzhak Lamdan
(A Translation of the Diary Entries)

Yitzhak Lamdan^[1]

[July 25,^[1a] 1915, Sunday, 14th of Menachem Av, 5675, Mlynov]

[September 3, 1915] Sabbath Eve, 24th of Elul, in the terrible period, 5675, Dubno^[23]

[September 15, 1915] Wednesday, 7th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period Mlynov^[38a] Dubno

[September 19, 1915] Sunday, 11th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Nochitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]^[41]

[September 21, 1915] Tuesday, 13th of Tishrei, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]^[41]

[September 26, 1915] Sunday, 2nd Chol HaMoed Sukkot^[46a] (2nd^[46b] of the intermediate days of the Festival of Booths, 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

[September 27, 1915] Monday, 3rd day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot [3rd ^[49b] of the intermediate days of the festival of Booths], 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]

[September 29, 1915] Day of Hoshana Rabbah,^[51b] 5676, in the terrible period, in the forest of Notzitz [Nadchytsi, Ukraine]