Mlynov and Mervits During WWII

(return to Phase I: The Russian Occupation)

Phase II: From German Occupation to Ghetto (June 22, 1942-Oct. 8, 1942)

On Sunday, June 22, 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression treaty he earlier made with Stalin. The German army attacked and quickly rolled across the half of Poland held by the Soviets. The attack, known Operation Barbarossa, surprised everyone including Stalin.

The Russian airfield was bombed outside of Mlynov that first morning, Sunday June 21, and the Germans appeared in town by the evening of Tuesday, June 24th. The German occupation lasted until Oct. 8th (or 9th), when the ghetto was liquidated of its Jewish residents. The following account pieces together one narrative of events in the first-hand words and memories of survivors as found in the Mlynov-Muravica Memorial Book, family memoirs, and video interviews.

Contents

The Airfield Bombing (June 22, 1941) | Fleeing Again | Summer of 1941 | The First Killings | Death is Normalized | Chaia Kipergluz and the Roundup of the Young Jewish Communists | Confiscations, Murder and Dehumanization | News of the Ghetto / Commerce in Certificates | Passover 1942 | The Rescue of Asher Teitelman | The Mlynov Ghetto (April-October 8, 1942) | Underground Resistance | Nearing the End | The Plight of Chana Klepatch | Other Efforts To Escape | The Last Few Days | The Final Day | The Mass Grave

The Airfield Bombing, June 22, 1941

Four survivors from Mlynov and Mervits wrote about the bombing of the Russian airfield just across the Ikva River from Mlynov. The bombing began on Sunday, June 22nd in the hours before dawn. A second bombing of the town followed in the afternoon. Several homes were destroyed and several people were killed and injured in the second bombing. By Tuesday, June 24th, German soldiers entered town.

The most detailed account of that first day and the week that followed comes from survivors, Asher Teitelman, and his father Nokhum (Nahum) Teitelman. Both men wrote essays for the Memorial book and Asher's life story was recorded later in a book form. (Read more about the Teitelman family.)

Asher Teitelman Recalls Day 1

Asher was born in Mlynov in 1921 and his father Nokhum was born there in 1890. Asher, about 20 years old at the time, was working at the Russian airfield the day the bombing started. "That very moment," he recalled later in life,

I was at the airfield. Fortunately, I was only lightly wounded. In that place, total confusion broke out. People screamed, cried, and fled with fear in all directions. I also fled…I reached the river, and I saw the bridge destroyed. I climbed on the parts of the bridge that remained hanging. With a great effort and all my remaining strength, I managed to cross the river. I reached the town, turned and walked towards my house. Along the way, I realized that most of the houses were empty of people. I entered my home. To my joy, I saw that Mother, Father and all my siblings had not fled. They waited for me. The emotion was palpable. Mother sobbed. (Tomer, Happy is the Man: The Asher Teitelman Story, English p. 19 [original page 21])

Asher also wrote a detailed account for the Memorial book of the confusion that prevailed in town that day and which included the Russian military who were present. "Thus it began," he wrote:

With the breaking of dawn, the town shook from the sound of loud explosions. We thought it was just a military exercise, because there were military bases surrounding us, in addition to the large airfield on the Count's land on the other side of the river. That the war had broken out the day before between the two parties to the [Molotov-Ribbentrop] pact — no one believed this… but when we exited from our houses and the throng of residents gathered in the open areas of the town, and the situation was comprehended, the shock hit us like thunder on a clear day.

“War has broken out” - was heard from all sides. The Germans bombed the airfield, and the local Soviet army was thrown into shock, [but thought] this is nothing but a regretful skirmish. “It is not possible,” the commanding officers responded, “that war has indeed broken out.” But in the meantime, terrible news arrived, each worse than the next.

Shocked and mortified, we stood, group by group, and discussed our situation. We had to plan what to do for the future. Who could have imagined that looting and destruction were this close; that the walls of protection would be removed, that the mighty army of the Soviet Union would retreat completely along the length of the front?

In the meantime, the town and the airfield were bombed four-five times during the day. The large bridge that led to the property of the Count, was destroyed in the bombing, and the passage of vehicles was not possible; those going by foot endangered their lives and crossed it when it was broken up and its whole length was hanging by a thread above the water, but who paid heed to the danger? All the men were brought out by the Red Army to the airfield to fix what was possible to temporarily fix and I was among them. All the time there were sirens and bombings.

What was going on in the town, we didn't know. Only flames and stacks of smoke we saw from a distance and from this we guessed that here and there bombs had fallen. Towards noon, the airfield was bombed in a massive bombardment and it was completely destroyed. There were dead among the residents of the town, Jews and gentiles both included, and some of the military men. Hundreds of people [took cover by] lying down along the shore of the river, by the meadow, and watched the aerial fighting taking place between the Nazi and Soviet planes. After the planes were driven away, a large surge of people fled to the town. The remnants of the bridge were going up in fire, and many succeeded to cross over to the town on the broken remains of bridge that still were floating.

And the town? — most of the residents already had fled from it, and those who remained were waiting impatiently for the return of their loved one from the airfield. The town emptied quickly, the bombed houses burned and the roads were destroyed. Towards evening, the Nazis took control of the airfield and on the next day they left again.

The second day passed quietly in the townlet that had emptied entirely of its residents, who had scattered to the rural villages and the fields. On the third day, rumors spread by the Soviet army, that they had repelled the invader, and that there was no immediate danger to our area. The rumors influenced [opinion] very quickly and the residents began to stream back home. Indeed, during the day it seemed, that the danger had passed.

But how astounded we were in seeing in the darkness of dusk German reconnaissance units wandering around between the houses. Panic seized the residents of the townlet and, in the blink of an eye, a strong flow began towards Mervits, and from there to Polish farming communities in the area. All night and during the fourth day, the migration occurred, and from afar the sounds the Lutzk bombardment and its surrounding reached us; The burning town lit up the surrounding area.

During the night, the Red Army retreated after hard fought battles on the north side of Mlynov, and evacuated the area. A number of buildings were damaged and among them the new flour mill of Rabbi Joseph Gelberg, of blessed memory. In addition, the supply of electricity to the town was damaged.

During the middle of the fourth day, the soldiers appeared in the area. An army that was large and numerous, with vehicles and by foot, gained control over everything. Tragedy fell upon us, we tumbled and couldn't get up. And that is the way it only started… (Asher Teitelman, "The Massive Disaster," English p. 34, original p. 38).

Nokhum Teitelman's Memories of Day 1

Asher’s father, Nokhum Teitelman, also recalled the confusion that first day from his own vantage point.

Early on a nice morning, the 27th of Sivan 5701 [June 22, 1941], I shook off my sleep, got out of bed, and went out into the street. There was screaming, an uproar; we didn't know what was happening. The Russian landing field had been bombed, and we did not know who did it. The Russians were grabbing people out of their beds to make the repairs; my children were among them.

We spoke in whispers. What could this be? We were a little mixed up, and we shivered. This went on until 4:00 p.m. when, suddenly, 18 German airplanes started bombing our shtetl Mlynov. All four sides were burning. It became dark; we wanted to run, but we did not know where. In addition, the children were still not back from work, and only God knew what had happened with them. People ran, but we waited, hoping our children would soon return. And so they did. Our children came running back, barely alive.

My Asher was black, his face covered with dirt, because a bomb fell in the place where he labored. With him, in that place, was Shaye the psalm-chanter's son-in-law. A rock tore off one of his hands, and he was saved by a miracle. (Nokhum Teitelman, “In the Depths of Hell,” English p. 299, original p. 314).

When Asher finally reached home, the Teitelmans quickly locked up their house and headed to Mervits where Asher’s aunt and uncle, Sonia and Mendel Teitelman were living. They found them outside of Mervits in the fields where they witnessed an aerial fight in the skies above Mervits. Bullets were whistling all around so they fled from Mervits too.

As the Teitelman group continued walking, they could see the town of Lutsk burning to the north. That first day after walking 8 km along the road they got to the village of Stomorgi [today Stomorhy, Ukraine]. There were many other Jewish refugees there already, most of whom fled or were evacuated ahead of the German invading forces from points further west. The family didn’t find a place to stay there. The following morning they continued to the Polish town called Pańska-Dolina, that was surrounded by forests. In a foreshadowing of their later experiences, they stayed in this same Polish town which subsequently harbored Polish partisans and played a critical role in their own survival.

News and rumors were traveling fast. A rumor reached them that the Germans had retreated and that the Soviets were again in control of Mlynov. So the family made the decision to return to home on Tuesday, June 24th. They found their home intact as left it. That evening, Tuesday, June 24th, they saw men riding into town on motorcycles. They were German soldiers in the disguise of civilians. (See Tomer, Happy is the Man, English p. 19 [original page 21])

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Yechiel Sherman Remembers Day 1

Yechiel Sherman a peer of Asher's, was almost 19 years old when the airfield was bombed. He was living with his younger siblings in the house next to his grandmother's and he was the man of the house. His mother had passed away several years earlier and his father had moved to Dubno after remarrying. Yechiel disliked living in Dubno with his father and had moved back to Mlynov in the meantime. For the summer vacation of 1941, he was joined by his younger siblings.

In an essay for the Memorial book in 1970, he also vividly recalled that morning.

It is 4 am in the morning. I had just begun to dress to head to work. Suddenly I heard a loud, strange noise. It was like the houses were moving from their foundations. I went outside quickly but didn't see a thing. I began walking towards the town center. By the home of Rabinovitz, I already saw several Jews standing and saying that they had bombed airfield on the other side of the Ikva River.

Already by 9 o'clock that same day, talk began about the war that the Germans declared against Russia. Many people were standing and talking about this disaster, even though they couldn't relate any details. But already by 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when I walked in the direction of the general store, which at that time was opposite the house of Aba Grinshpun, I heard and suddenly saw suddenly aircraft approaching from the direction of Dubno and beginning to drop bombs on the airfield and afterwards also on Mlynov itself. Already, by this time, some people had been killed and the panic had broken out. Tremendous fear pervaded everyone. They began to run from the town in every possible direction. (Yechiel Sherman, "Taking Leave of Home.")

Yechiel returned home from work that evening. Details at that point are a bit fuzzy. In his initial telling of the story, which was probably fresher in his memory, he fled Mlynov with his grandmother, his aunt and siblings, for the nearby village of Slobada where they had a Ukrainian acquaintance.^[1] They stayed there in his hayloft along with other families from Mlynov. In his later account from 2003, Yechiel indicated that his siblings were not home when he returned from work the day of the bombing. He went out to look for them on his bicycle but he couldn't locate them. He later learned his brother may have died in the bombing and was uncertain what became of his sister. In both versions, he and his grandmother and aunt fled to the nearby village.

"The following day [in the village]," Yechiel recalled, "we began to analyze the situation, but in the morning, we still lacked information that could help us with this."

We observed only that the [Russian] military quickly made an escape in the direction of Russia. What to do? I was then 18 — and it was my opinion that there was no compelling reason to remain here and wait for the Germans to arrive. A clear and decisive sign to me was [the fact that the man]— with whom we stayed the night and in whose shade we spent time — already in the morning drank vodka to the wellbeing of Germans and the life of Ukrainian independence. We grasped that our end would be bitter.

That same day, the 23rd of June 1941, I bumped into Pinhas Klaper, Moshe and Yehuda Veiner, Gertnich Koftziav — and we decided to flee at night towards the Russian border. I alone went back again to Mlynov to convince a few young men to flee together with us, but I was not successful. Among others I met was Icek Kozak and asked him to permit his son Ruben to go with us — but he refused. I returned to Sloboda.

Along the way, I met Yehezkiel Liberman, who lived along the road to Sloboda, and he asked me, “Yechiel, where are you going?”

I told him that I and a few other friends were fleeing to Russia. He started persuading me not to flee: The way was full of danger, and we were liable to be killed. I didn't heed him, and I continued to the village of Sloboda. I recounted what had been done in Mlynov and people’s opinion about our fleeing — Only members of my family,among them my father Moshe Sherman, favored my fleeing. (See Yechiel Sherman, "Taking Leave of Home," English 322, original p. 344.)

Yechiel and four friends fled East on bicycles and made it into the interior of Russia where they survived, in a story that Yechiel recounted later to family in 2003 (Koren, Story of Yechiel Sherman, 2003). Yechiel's grandmother, aunt and his siblings, Yoskah and Sheindel, did not survive. Later, after the liberation of the area, he would be reunited with Ezra who managed to escape and miraculously survive.

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Yehudit Mandelkern Remembers Day 1

Another survivor, Yehudit Mandelkern (married name Rudolf), recalled the bombing and the moment the Germans entered her house that week. Yehudit was one of seven children in the Mandelkern family. She and her sister Fania escaped the Mlynov ghetto together and contributed a comprehensive narrative from the start of the German occupation until their return to Mlynov following their liberation. Yehudit recalled that

Already on Sunday, June 22, 1941, with the outbreak of war between Russia and Germany, our little town, which had in it a Soviet airfield, was bombed. My mother was injured in her leg. During that same bombing, a number of people were killed, and several houses destroyed.

On Tuesday, June 24, 1941, in the afternoon, the Germans entered the town. Before their entrance there was a small dogfight. The Soviets fled town on Monday [June 23rd] without putting up resistance. At 5 o'clock, on Tuesday afternoon, the first German soldiers entered our houses. My mother who was wounded, lay on the floor out of fear from the bombardment; my brother, Moshe, of blessed memory, was lying down pretending to be sick. The five or six soldiers who entered obscenely asked for pork. We responded that we were Jews and didn't have any pork. We offered them buttermilk. But when they heard we were Jews, they rudely shattered the pitcher and left the house.

A day or two after the occupation, they had already published a proclamation in writing, in Ukrainian and German, that Jewish men and women from age 14 and older were obligated to report to the market square for labor, equipped with work and cleaning tools. Whoever did not present themselves — would be shot. Immediately, the Ukrainian police was organized, its recognizable symbol was a blue-yellow ribbon on the left sleeve. The women were sent usually for cleaning work and the men — for digging and field work on estate of Count Chodkiewicz, who had disappeared already by 1939. (Yehudit [Mandelkern] Rudolf, "Life Under the Occupying German Government" English p. 269, original p. 287)

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Fleeing Again

The day the Germans entered town (Tuesday, June 24th), Asher's family decided to flee again. They gathered up a few things and fled again by foot back to Pańska-Dolina to the home of farmers they knew and requested food and shelter. The famers gave them some food, but they were afraid to shelter them because of the Germans. So the Teitelmans entered the forest around the village and there bumped into siblings of Asher’s mother Rokhl (Rachel) (her brother Nuta and her sister Chaika who had three children). The group stayed in the forest until Friday [June 27th] and then decided to head home.

There were fifteen of them walking along the road when they were stopped by German soldiers along the way. The soldiers lined them up along a wall, commanded them to raise their hands and turn to face towards the wall.

“We are going to kill you,” they said. “You are our enemies.”

Two of the officers spoke Czech. Since Asher’s Aunt Chaika knew how to speak Czech, she turned to them and began to speak to them. She told them that they just wanted to go home! The soldiers deliberated and then told their captives to be on their way. Nokhum recalled,

On the way we saw how Christians were carrying off Jewish possessions. We even recognized our own things, but we kept silent until we came to our house. When we went inside, it was worse. Everything was broken. We had been robbed, and the house was full of feathers because the thieves shook the feathers out of the pillowcases, and they packed everything that was in the cupboard in them. The store that had been full of grain and some flour was cleaned out. We were left with the four walls. (Teitelman, "In Depths of Hell," English p. 300, original p. 315).

Asher added some additional details:

Father and I entered first. In the living room, I recognized familiar faces: A farmer and his wife stood beside full sacks of clothes and other belongings of ours. Father exploded in a loud voice, “Joachim, “Even you are among the thieves!” They left all of it and fled. (Tomer, Happy is the Man, English p. 21, original p. 23)

Nokhum had more to say:

But that was not enough. Soon several Germans marched into our house. They asked what we were doing there, and who we were. At first they said they were searching for weapons, but they meant something else. They started to bother [my daughter] Shifrele, even though she was still a child. We bought off the villains. (Nokhum Teitelman, “In the Depths of Hell,” English p. 300, original p. 315)

Asher's family remained in Mlynov that Friday and Shabbat [June 27th and 28th] but they were too frightened to go to the synagogue.

The First Sabbath in Mervits As Remembered by Bunia Steinberg

Survivor Bunia Steinberg (married name Upstein) recounted to her daughter what the first Sabbath after the German invasion was like in Mervits.

The terrible trouble started on the Sabbath. Following rumors that the Nazi Gestapo attack only men but not women, my mothers’ brothers went and hid in an orchard and my mother stayed alone in the house. Suddenly, the Nazis broke into the house and began to cruelly beat her with rubber clubs. They found the males hiding in the orchard and beat them too, without mercy, and afterwards took the family out into the street. Thus, they went from house to house, beating them and taking those hiding in the houses out to the streets. While my mother was standing in the street, she saw the Nazis cruelly beating her mother even as she was bleeding.

My mother ran to protect her, but she was shoved back into line by the Nazis. The Nazis forced everyone standing in the street to run to the neighboring Mlynov and had them stand alongside the post office, which the Gestapo had made their headquarters. The men with beards were taken from the line; their beards were cruelly sheered and they were beaten without mercy. Afterwards, everyone was ordered to perform exercise drills: [repeatedly being ordered] stand up, sit down. (Baruch, Struggle To Survive")

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The Summer of 1941

After the initial shock of the bombing and rapid German occupation, several searing events took place that summer. Asher provided an abbreviated version of events that probably telescoped several into a shorter timeframe. In Asher's recollection,

on Sunday morning [June 29th, following the appearance of the Germans in town], Ukrainian police passed by on the road and called everyone out of their homes to the town square. Hundreds of Jews obeyed and came out. That same morning some Jews were killed. Many Jews, mostly the younger ones, were taken for labor by the Germans. All the Jews were required to tie on a yellow patch...I was taken to the area of the Count’s mansion. There were two mansions. One was destroyed by the bombing. The second remained still standing. They demanded that we clean up the area. (Tomer, Happy is the Man, English p. 21, original p. 23)

Yehudit Mandelkern on the Summer of 1941

Yehudit Mandelkern recalled the early period too. In her memory, the Jews were intially identified by a white ribbon. The yellow patch came later. She wrote:

Immediately after the occupation, the Jews were ordered to don a white ribbon with a blue Star of David (Magen David) on the sleeve. A number of months later, in the fall of 1941, they were ordered to switch the white ribbon with a yellow patch on the back and breast. This obligation fell on children 12 and older. (Yehudit [Mandelkern] Rudolf, "Life Under the Occupying German Government," English p. 269, original p. 287).

Like Asher, Yehudit recalled forced labor starting immediately, enforced by Ukrainian police who were organized to support and extend the German terror. With few exceptions, Ukrainians in general were willing participants since they resented Polish rule and aspired to have their own Nation State. They thought and hoped that by supporting the German efforts, they would be rewarded with their own national entity. Yehudit recalled:

A day or two after the occupation, they had already published a proclamation in writing, in Ukrainian and German, that Jewish men and women from age 14 and older were obligated to report to the market square for labor, equipped with work and cleaning tools. Whoever did not present themselves — would be shot. Immediately, the Ukrainian police was organized, its recognizable symbol was a blue-yellow ribbon on the left sleeve. The women were sent usually for cleaning work and the men — for digging and field work on estate of Count Chodkiewicz, who had disappeared already by 1939.

Some of the people — about 200 — who were sent to labor, were directed to the property of the Count Liudochowski in the village of Smordva; Jews from the nearby villages of Boremel and Dymidivka were also taken to that same estate. The head of the estate was Volksdeutscher Grüner, a cruel sadist who would wake the men up many times at night and command them to run. The running required running down steps. During the descent, he would whip the runners with an iron whip so that the men would fall down the stairs. (See Y. Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," English p. 269, original p. 287).

Nokhum's Memory of Forced Labor

Asher's father, Nokhum, for example, was sent into the fields for agricultural labor during the summer.

We got used to it. Early in the morning we ran to the main plaza, and we waited to be taken to various jobs. Soon Germans came for laborers, and they divided us up. One village needed 50 Jews, another needed 100, and so on, until the plaza was emptied. The Christians stood at a distance and laughed. A few even taunted the Jewish merchants...Because aristocrats had many fields around Mlynov, the Jews were distributed for fieldwork at harvest time.... we became land-workers: cutting, tying, threshing, and cleaning. (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” English p. 300, original p. 315)

Individuals like Nokhum, who were observant, tried to observe the Jewish rituals including even fast days during their forced labor.

So we worked until the harvest was done. On [the fast day of] Tisha B'Av [eve of Aug. 2nd to end of Aug 3rd, 1941], I was working together with more Jews. For show, we each brought along a bottle of water with a piece of bread, but we did not eat or drink [because of the fast day]. We kept spilling out a little water, so that the Germans would think that we were drinking it.(N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” English p. 303, original p. 319)

The Forced Labor of Young Women

The forced labor of young women was also quite brutal as documented by survivor Liza Berger, remembering her experience from the fall of 1941.

We were about 50 girls, women, men, and children. Girls were chosen to wash the vehicles in the river. 20 trucks were brought in, and we girls stood in the river up to our belts and washed the vehicles, from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. It was September 1941, and it was very cold, freezing. When we were told to go home, we each received three blows from their guns — that was our pay. When we got home, we had nothing to eat; the farmers had not brought anything into the shtetl that day. (Liza Berger, "I Wandered Hungry and in Pain," English p. 325, original p. 347)

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The First Killings in the Summer of 1941

"We were fine with the work, as long as we had our lives," wrote Nokhum Teitelman looking back on the early days of the occupation. That soon changed, with roundups, humiliations, and shocking killings occurring in the few weeks following the occupation. Especially horifying was the murder of Mlynov Rabbi Yehuda Gordon.

Asher's Memory of the First Killings

According to Asher Teitelman, the killings began almost immediately on the first Sunday of the occupation, the same day he was taken into forced labor, though others identify mid-July as the date of the first killings. Asher recalled:

On Sunday morning [June 29], Ukrainian police passed by on the road and called everyone out of their home to the town square. Hundreds of Jews obeyed and came out. That same morning some Jews were killed. Many Jews, mostly the younger ones, were taken for labor by the Germans. All the Jews were required to tie on a yellow patch.

Rav Gordon was killed that day. They cut off Father’s beard. I was taken to the area of the Count’s mansion. There were two mansions. One was destroyed by the bombing. The second remained still standing. They demanded that we clean up the area.(Tomer, Happy is the Man, English p. 21, original p. 23)

The Killing of Rav Gordon and How Nokhum Lost His Beard

Asher was probably telescoping together several weeks of time together in his account and it is possible he may not have known or may have forgotten the story of how his father, Nokhum, actually lost his beard. Nokhum remembered the same events taking place on Saturday and Sunday July 12th and 13th:

I got up in the morning and saw the gifted Rav [Rabbi], Mr. Yehuda son of Mordechai Gordon, righteous man of blessed memory, passing my house, and walking [and not riding] towards Mervits, so as not to profane the Sabbath.

I thought, “perhaps I too should try to leave town,” and I walked straight to my brother-in-law, Yaakov Schichman, of blessed memory. He was living at the end of town and suddenly, when I was already there, I heard shooting, and I went outside with my brother-in-law and we hid among the grain in the field. The grain was already reasonably tall, and that same Shabbat the bitter enemy entered the synagogue of the Trisk Hasidim in Mervits and killed Motel Tesler. He was already close to one hundred [years old]. [They murdered] him and another poor man.

Near evening I returned home, and I met older men along the way, among them was my uncle, R. Chaim Meir [Teitelman], whom the bitter enemy had reduced to younger men by removing their signature beards … I entered home safely, with great trepidation, because they had already told me what had happened to them that same Shabbat.

The following morning, I got up and took the scissors and cut my own beard and went with all the others to their respective work. By the time I returned in the evening from work, we had already heard about eighteen dead, and among them, the gifted and holy Rav Yehudah Gordon, and thus fulfilled in us [the Scriptural verse]: “you shall be in terror, night and day, with no assurance of survival” (Deuteronomy 28:66). (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” English p. 301, original p. 316)

Nokhum recalled the exact date these events took place because he was attuned to the cycle of the Jewish lexionary. The painful and ironic parallel between the events befalling them in real time and the events described in the biblical reading for that week were not lost on Nahum.

That Saturday, Nokhum recalled, was the 17th of Tammuz (July 12, 1941), what Nokhum called "the Black Sabbath, Parasha Balak." The 17th of the month, Tammuz, is a fast day on the Jewish calendar when Jews commemorate how the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans before the destruction of the Second Temple. In 1941, the date of the fast (17th of Tammuz) fell on the Sabbath, so the fast day was postponed to the following day in accordance with Jewish law.

That particular Sabbath of 1941 Jews normally would have read the Torah portion called "Parashat Balak" (Numbers 22:2–25:9) if there had been prayer services in synagogue that day. Since Nokhum saw Rabbi Gordon heading to Mervits early in the morning, it seems likely synagogue services had already been suspended in town. In any case, Nahum was still keeping track of the lextionary anyway. He knew that the biblical passages for that day described how Balak the king of Moab requested that a prophet named Balaam curse the Israelite people. But when Balaam tried to do so he ultimately failed because God intervened in various ways. Nokhum doesn't say so explicitly, but he must have been praying God would intervene to stop the Balak of his own time. It was not to be, at least that summer.

Sonia and Mendel Teitelman Recount the First Killings in Detail

An even more detailed account of the same events is recounted by Nokhum's first cousin, Mendel Teitelman and Mendel's wife Sonia Teitelman. (Sonia was also sister of Nokhum's wife). Sonia and Mendel lived in Mervits. They began their recollection describing the same murders that that took place on the 17th of Tammuz [July 12th, 1941] and the following day:

Our first 10 slaughtered were eight young people, of blessed memory, from Mlynov and Mervits, plus two old Jews of blessed memory who were killed the day before them on Shabbes afternoon, 17 Tamuz 5701 [July 12, 1941] in the Trisk synagogue in Mervits. One of them was Mr. Motel Grinshpan, called Motel Tesler (tesler meaning carpenter), over 90 years old, and the shammes [sexton] in the Trisk synagogue. He lived there and he was shot there. (Sonia and Mendel Teitelman, "Tragic Tales," original p. 325, English, p. 309).

Recounting the sequence of events, Sonia and Mendel remembered that

In that perilous day, the 17th Tammuz, Shabbes ... not a single creature in the shtetl felt cheerful, even though in the early morning hours we still prayed with a minyan, and I still said Kaddish [a prayer honoring the dead] for my mother, may she rest in peace. The Mlynov Rabbi of blessed memory had a premonition to not be in Mlynov, although up to then nothing had happened.

He came running in the early morning to Mervits and prayed together with us. After praying, he left for Stomorgi [today Stomorhy, Ukraine] to the fleeing Jews there, and he remained with the Keler family, of blessed memory, thinking that when the situation would stabilize a little, he would return home. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 326, English, p. 310).

According to their account, Rabbi Gordon was killed in Stomorgi along with another Jewish man from Mervits, named Zelig Moravitsky, who was a barber. They were killed there with Jewish farmers who had been resettled there in April 1940 by the Soviets from the town Sokoliki which was further east near Turka. In a different essay they wrote, Sonia and Mendel, mention in passing that Rabbi Gordon "was brought for burial to the nearby village of Kutsa."

What Happened in Stomorgi

Frida Kupferberg, recounts the situation in Stomorgi the day Rabbi Gordon was murdered. At the instructions of a high-ranking SS commander, Zalewski (probably Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski)

the Germans entered Stomorhy from Dubno three weeks after the outbreak of the German-Russian war; that was Sunday, the 13th of July 1941, the 17th of Tammuz, a fast day for Jews.[6] It was a double day of sorrow a[1st as a fast day and 2nd] because the Germans had taken over. They attacked a Jewish house where two families were living. With screams and violence, the Germans forced everybody out into the garden, and then they shot the Jews one by one. The last one shot was Moyshe Fayler's young, very pregnant wife. Moyshe Fayler with his wife and mother; Ester and Shmuel Zinger, Royze Zinger, Leyb Fram, and another boy were murdered.

After that the Gestapo ran into the house of Volf Keler. Volf Keler was a learned Jew who sat and studied Gemara. His four sons followed the same path as their father. The Gestapo forced Volf Keler, his four sons, Moyshe Gelmakher, Mudil Frab, as well as Mlynov Rabbi Gordon, who had spent Shabbes with Volf Keler, to the house where those who had been killed were lying.

Relatives and neighbors were ordered to put the bodies in a wagon and take them to a ditch. Afterwards they followed the corpses in the wagon up until the heaps of excrement before Mervits. There had been an open ditch in that place for a long time. The Jews were ordered to dump the murdered bodies into that ditch. Afterwards the Germans also shot the Mlynov Rabbi, and he fell into the ditch.

The Gestapo took Volf Keler with his four sons Berish, Moyshe, Hirsh, and Shimeon, and another two victims, Moyshe Gelmakher and Moydl Frab, to Dubno. They were thrown into prison, where they were all killed. The rest of the Stomorhy Jews were beaten and forced by another division to Mlynov, where they were distributed for various labor assignments. The horrible events of the 13th of July remained in my soul. A year later, the rest of the Jews from Stomorhy and Hintsharekhe were murdered in the Mlynov ghetto. (See Frida Kupferberg, " Murder of the Sokoliki Refugees" original p. 384, English p. 354)

It is clear that in the early days of the occupation, rumours and misinformation circulated as residents grappled with the early shocking deaths. Survivor Yehudit Mandelkern, for example, heard a different story of Rabbi Gordon's death. Rabbi Gordon, she wrote,

was summoned from his home by the Germans and held a number of days in prison before he was brought out and killed. It was said in town that the Rav knew how to speak German well and therefore they interrogated and tortured him for several days. Afterwards, he was taken outside town and killed. (See Y. Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under the Occupying German Government," original p. 289, English p. 271).

The First Deaths in Mervits

That same day Rabbi Gordon was killed, Sonia and Mendel recalled that the first murders began in Mervits:

The first [to be killed] were the two old Jews, Mr. Motel [Tesler] the Sexton and the deaf pauper. Everyone in the entire shtetl, without exception, ran out to the fields at the first shots and hid among the tall ears of corn, which were still standing in the field. Not one happy creature remained in the shtetl. As elderly and deaf and dumb people did not orient themselves so quickly as to what was going on, the two victims remained sitting in their places, eating the tiny portion of tsholent[a kind of stew] that they had prepared the day before. And when the murderers, may their names be blotted out, opened the door and saw them, they shot them both on the spot, leaving them in pools of blood. Then they left to search for more victims.

We first learned about their deaths in the evening when we all, very frightened, returned home. The meaningless death of the two old, poor, innocent people, the first victims, spread terrible fear and great pain throughout the shtetl. All realized that the murderers' goal was to kill people who were in no way guilty of anything, and nobody had to account for the murders. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 326, English, p. 311).

The next day, the 18th of Tammuz 5701 (July 13, 1941), residents were ordered to gather in Mlynov in the middle of the marketplace for forced labor.

Accompanied with beatings and curses, we were led from there to the Mlynov airfield, not far from the Count's palace. We fixed damage caused by bombs...We were beaten and abused at work, but who reacted to such things?

That afternoon, a German with a gun, "dressed only in a bathrobe," showed up and ordered eight of the young people working there and a few others he selected to line up.

He killed them all with his own unkosher hands. Afterwards, he called the next group. In the beginning, everyone had to dig his or her own grave, and to cover up graves next to them until their strength gave way before being shot. Those who were accompanying the victims finished everything. When they returned, they were unable to speak until nighttime; they had simply lost their language skills.

Icek Kozak Was There That Day Too...

Another survivor, Icek Kozak, was there that day and described that same event.

As soon as the Germans came in, they took us, a group of old and young Jews, to work on the military airfield. Several murderers went over to the people who were working, and they chose the best-looking boys. My children and I were standing a little further away and we saw how the murderers shlepped 10 boys down into the old trenches which were there from the First World War. The boys were killed there; Shloyme Sherman (he was the eleventh) covered them with dirt. Afterwards he came back. Shloyme did not have to be asked about the boys; his face told us everything. I will never in my life forget that day. The mothers in the shtetl looked for their children to come home before night, but they were already dead. (Icek Kozak, What My Family Endured", original p. 354, English, p. 330).

Mourning Spread in Town

Sonia and Mendel recalled the intense mourning in town that day:

The mourning spread to everyone in the environment, even affecting a large number of our murderous neighbors, who at that time were not used to such things. The families who had young children, husbands, sons, and fathers of young infants torn from them, lamented the most. Their cries went up to the sky.

A stone could have melted from their tears and hysterical screams. Even a few Christians were astonished. It moved a few of them to respond that the edict had to be a mistake...We saw that it made an impression on the Christians mostly because that was still the beginning. Mass murders were still new. Later, of course, they became a routine habit; nobody paid any attention to such slaughters.

Sonia and Mendel remembered the names of those who were murdered "when we still thought that things would not be that horrible." They were:

• Motl Grinshpan [=Motel Tesler], of blessed memory
• A dumb pauper, without a name, of blessed memory
• Dov Ber Moyshe Litsman, of blessed memory
• His sister-in-law's sister-in-law Pesi, of blessed memory
• His brother-in-law Borukh Likhter from Mervits, of blessed memory
• Moyshe son of Peysakh Kugul
• Moyshe son of Shaye Fishman, of blessed memory
• Borukh son of Fayvish Likhter, of blessed memory
• Moyshe son of Ezris Kulish, of blessed memory
• Moyshe son of Khanina Upstein, of blessed memory

(See Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 325, English, p. 312).

Death is Normalized

After the initial shocking deaths, killings became normalized as evident in several survivors' accounts. Events began to run together, especially as the local Ukrainian police eagerly implemented the German violence, hoping that they would thereby earn their own Nation State at some point by supporting the Germans.

Asher wrote:

Slaughter and robbery became a daily occurrence. These Ukrainians, who had been thirsty for Jewish blood for generations, experienced in theft and murder, were unleashed to pursue their iniquities. The first shots echoed already in the square of the town, blending well with the sounds of windows breaking and houses being destroyed. Farmers from the surrounding area wandered around with sacks laden with items that Jews had labored to make. And following them their wives and child, laden with whatever came to hand. Under the protection of the soldiers, they passed from house to house, killing, plundering and destroying everything. (Asher Teitelman, "The Massive Disaster (Shoah)" original p. 39, English p. 35) [Page 39]

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Chaia Kipergluz and the Roundup of the Young Jewish Communists

In the first month of the German occupation, another shocking event occurred. A group of twenty young people were rounded up for being Communists. The Germans suspected them of being loyal to the Soviet Communist government. The deep irony, of course, was that when the Russians occupied Mlynov, the young Jewish Communists had been arrested by the Russians for being Zionists in the past.

Yehudit Mandelkern recalled that "A few days after the occupation, a group of young Jewish boys and girls were arrested for being Communist members in the past: Chaia Kipergluz, Rivkah Ber, Freidel Rivitz, Yenta from the Mandelkern line (my father's sister)."(See Yehudit [Mandelkern] Rudolf, "Life Under the Occupying German Government," original p. 287, English p. 269).

Chaia Kipergluz, who was among those rounded up, was a friend of Yosef Litvak who wrote a tribute to her ("A Memorial Candle [for Chaia Kipergluz]").

Chaia, of blessed memory, was born in Mlynov in 1919. She excelled in her childhood in intelligence and natural talent in many different ways and with much charm... From the age of 9, she was a protégé of the youth movement “The Young Guard” (Hashomer Hatzair)...

She yearned and strove to make aliyah to the Land [of Israel]. Her leaving for a training kibbutz was held up by a family tragedy when her only brother, who was 10 years old, drowned in the river, in the summer of 1938. Her older sister made aliyah before this, and Chaia was not able to leave her parents alone in their heavy grief...

In the early days after the Nazi invasion towards the end of July 1941 she was arrested together with about 20 other Jewish youth – the best of the local Jewish youth – for being “Communists.” All the members of the group were taken out to be killed about 3 days after their arrest following severe beatings by their Nazi torturers and their collaborators from the Ukrainian police men.

May her memory be a blessing and may her soul be bound up in bond of life.

The killings expanded and multiplied and eventually included other groups besides Jews. As Yehudit Mandelkern recalled,

A month to six weeks after the occupation, the Germans sought out members of the Polish parties. They imprisoned 10–15 Polish men and accidentally incarcerated the Jewish young man, Yehuda son of Mordechai Liberman. The Germans misled the families of the prisoners and even accepted packages that were intended for them [from the families], but it became known, that in fact, they murdered all of them immediately after the arrest.

One night, in the early days, the Germans entered the house of the Jewish shoemaker Shlomo Kreimer. He had a beautiful daughter, Rachel – who, upon seeing them, escaped through the window. As revenge for this, the soldiers killed the two parents. Their son, Zalman, who was [laboring] in the village of Smordva, burst out crying when the rumor of his parents' murder reached him. A German soldier who noticed asked him the significance of his crying, and when the soldier heard the reason — shot him to death on the spot. (Mandelkern, "Life Under...," original p. 288, English p. 270).

The sheer number of incidents was completely overwhelming. "It is difficult, very difficult, quite impossible, to bring out every rotten thing on paper," wrote Sonia and Mendel in their essay.

Between one slaughter and the next there were supposed signs that the situation was improving, and we wanted to think — maybe? Maybe this will have been enough? So little by little, about 9–10 months passed, and in that time, in addition to murder, plunder, and deathly fear, the Jewish people were emptied of their gold, jewelry, butter, and everything of value which we had been using the whole time as exchanges for bread. And the mark of Cain, meaning the yellow badge worn in the front and in the back, warned others from far away of every Jew who was seen wearing even clean clothes, not to even think about wearing a fur coat, because that was simply life-endangering. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 329, English, p.312).

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Confiscations, Murder and Dehumanization

The Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators found various ways to extend the terror and abuse of residents that summer. Asher's father, Nokhum, was sure he was going to lose his own life when he was assigned to lead a confiscation effort.

One evening, having come back tired from work, unable to straighten up from having tied up wheat, a German burst in the door and ordered: “Come!"

I had to go. To where I did not know. My wife and children were crying, certain that I would be shot, because that was nothing new. The German who took me also took Yoysef Wurtzel, Khayim Berger's son-in-law, and Nosi [Natan] Shiper, the son of Yitskhok Ulinik. We marched in threes. We were taken through the town to the house of attorney Revtshinski. There they started to ask us what our occupations were, and many more questions until late at night.

Back home they had no doubts that we had been murdered, because practically every day several people were taken to the Nantyn [Mantyn?] Forest, and they were shot. After sitting there several hours, I was the first one to be called in. The result: I had until tomorrow 12:00 to deliver 120 cakes of good soap; if not, I would be shot. Nosi: [the obligation of] two kilos of tea. Yoysef Wurtzel: 3,000 cigarettes. And we were escorted home since we were not permitted in the streets after 6:00 pm. When I knocked on the door of the house, those inside thought I had come from the other world.

In the morning, the three wives got together and went through the town to collect the soap, cigarettes, and tea. We put together the products with great effort, because everything had been plundered earlier. For us it was life or death. And God caused the Nazis, may their names be blotted out, to be satisfied with the [effort] of the people. The Germans accepted the goods and ordered us to go home. They took other people right after us: Avraham Gelman, Yankev Golzeker, and Yoysef Gelberg. All curses and calamities came true. (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” original p. 319, English p. 303)

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The Fall of 1941: More Confiscations and the Judenrat Creation

Confiscations continued into the fall of 1941 and the summer of the following year. Yehudit Mandelkern recalled that "that fall [of 1941] there were two other additional operations: a Gold Aktion and a Furniture Aktion."

During the Gold Aktion the Jews were ordered to bring all their silver and gold implements, dollars and jewelry. They all got receipts for the items that were turned over. After the Gold Aktion came the Fur Aktion — at the end of the summer 1942. After this, Germans arrived with several hundred Ukrainian police and with wagons and confiscated whatever they found — bicycles, sewing machines and regular furniture. The operation stopped suddenly. A whistle was blown, and afterwards some furniture still remained in the spots they had been set when brought out [of the houses] but which they hadn't managed to load on wagons. (Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 289, English p. 271).

Despite these confiscations, Yehudit recalled, there was not a severe shortage of food in the first period.

Most of the families had a stockpile of food. In addition, items still existed which could be bartered with farmers. Somehow each managed, even though bartering was forbidden. Despite the prohibition, the Jews were going to the homes of farmers and farmers were coming to the homes of Jews to barter. (Mandelkern Rudolf "Life Under...," original p. 288, English p. 270).

Yehudit also recalled that the Judenrat (a Jewish council) and a Jewish police force were established in the fall of 1941. The ostensive purpose of these groups was to give the appearance that the Jewish community was being consulted, even though those chosen for the the roles had no real choice in the matter and were burdened with often making painful decisions about to execute the German projects which were implemented by their Ukrainian collaborators.

The Judenrat, Asher wrote, was "the Jewish go-between was the execution arm for all the kidnappings of those sent for labor to the camps in Rovno, Studinka, and elsewhere. They seized warm clothing, furs, gold and silver and in the end also copper and everything made from copper." (Asher Teitelman, "Massive Disaster," original p. 40 original, English p. 36)

Yehudit recalled the composition of the Judenrat and the Jewish Police. The Germans appointed six reputable men, "all shopkeepers and friends: Mordechai Litvak, Chaim Yitzhak Kipergluz (formerly chairman of the community (kehilla) [and father of Chaia Kipergluz who was earlier murdered], a man named Katzevman, formerly secretary of the community, Mordechai Liberman, David the kosher slaughterer (shochet) and Moshe son of Yaakov Holtzeker. For the Jewish police they selected Zelig Zider, Shlomo Schechman, Peretz Tesler, Tzvi Gering." (See Y. Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 287, English p. 269).

Attitudes Toward the Judenrat

Yosef Litvak reflected on the dilemma facing his father who was assigned to the Judenrat.

During the period of the Nazi occupation, he was appointed as secretary of the Judenrat in the ghetto. He carried out this obligatory and wretched role, with integrity, dignity and decency. He was cruelly beaten a number of times by the Nazi rulers for his refusal to fulfill the extortive demands. He died a holy death, with my mother, of blessed memory, at the murderous hands of the Ukrainian police during their attempt to flee from the ghetto a few days before the mass murder of the community... (Yosef Litvak, The Litvak Home," original p. 413, English p. 378).

Not everyone was so undersanding of the Judenrat. In a tribute after the War to a young woman victim from Mlynov named Chana Klepatch, her friend Reuven Raberman, from another town, recalled Chana's outrage towards the Judenrat. The Nazis, he wrote,

infused her with rage, contempt, and deep hatred for all the new humanistic concepts. Springtime feelings that characterized her over the years were transformed suddenly by a bellicose spirit, a vigorous and rebellious resistance, and extraordinary daring. She despised the silence born out of fear [of other members of the community] and didn't leave the Judenrat alone who, in her view, didn't act appropriately given the demands of the hour. (Reuven Raberman, "Chana Klepatch–A Mlynov Tragedy," original p. 277, English p. 258)

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How the Judenrat Funtioned

One example of how the Judenrat and Jewish police interacted in the execution of German orders is evident in another operation reported by Yehudit Mandelkern.

In the fall of 1941 (the exact date I don't remember) an order was promulgated to the entire district — to supply 3,000 Jews as construction workers to the town of Rovno to build barracks for the army. The Judenrat in Dubno did not want to send the heads of families and decided to take men from all the towns in the area. In the small towns, they didn't know about the goal of the operations.

Usually, in each operation, there were Ukrainian police who surrounded the small town and the Judenrat communicated the order — to supply a specific number of men. The Judenrat prepared the lists. From Mlynov, they took at that time about 50 men. Men of the Ukrainian and Jewish police went house to house searching for the men on the lists. Some of the men fled to the fields and surrounding forests. In place of those who fled, whose names were on the list, they would take anyone they came across. The arrest of the men was accompanied by crying and wailing.

The men were in fact transferred to Rovno for work. For about two months, news of them was received. After they finished the work, all of them were murdered and not one returned. In order to deceive the youth who were working there, some of them were purposefully sent home for a vacation. These, obviously, confirmed the knowledge that the men were in fact working and were even receiving vacations. (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 288, English p. 270).

The Rescue of Asher from Rovno

Asher Teitelman was part of the roundup that brought young people to Rivne for labor. His mother Rokhl described the night he was taken.

One night a German policeman came in and took my son Asher out of bed. The Germans did not even allow us to go along to see where they were going. When it became daylight, we went out into the street, and we heard that many young people had been taken, but to where—nobody knew. It took a longer time until we learned that they were in Rivne at forced labor for the Germans.

Sometime later I learned that Yankev Goltseker, of blessed memory, went to Rivne, and after a couple of days he brought home his son Dovid; but his son-in-law was still there. I went to him and begged him to tell me the secret as to how he managed it, but without success. However, he promised me that if he would succeed in getting his son-in-law out, then he would tell me everything.

And so he did. The following week he brought his son-in-law home. He also gave me a note from Asher saying that we should save him if possible. I started to research possible ways to travel to Rivne. It took several days until I was able to get a Christian driver, but he could only go on Shabbes. Understandably, this was a very big problem for me and for my sister Khayke—her son was there too. So I ran to Mervits to Uncle Khayim-Mayer z”l for advice. He affirmed that to save a person one could travel even on Shabbes. Yankev Goltseker explained everything to me, told me with whom I needed to meet, and how to handle everything.

Rokhl made her plans. In addition to saving Asher, she was also hoping to do a good deed by rescuing Lipe Halperin, who was there too. His family begged her to do whatever she could for him, and she told them she would do whatever was possible.

Rokhl dessed as an old peasant woman and paid a farmer to drive her to Rivne. Apparently there was a Jewish woman who was living with the German Commander in Rivne who needed to be approached and bribed. According to Asher's account of the rescue, the woman was known to be "whoring" with the Germans. When Rokhl approached the woman, she sent her to a specific doctor (a Dr. Tsaytlin) to secure a red ticket for Asher, which would indicate he was ill and should be released from labor.

So Rokhl approached Dr. Tsaytlin. She had been to this doctor in the past, before the War and he had helped her recover from a difficult illness. She recounts how the doctor was afraid for his life and didn't really care about money. But she reminded him of how he had healed her in the past and appealed to his mercy.

Rokhl writes:

With tears in his eyes he gave me the ticket, and I took it to the woman. That was Monday. She told me that everything would be done the next day. That cost thousands, but I had enough money. Tuesday I again went to the doctor and begged him to give me a ticket for Lipe. I explained that his mother was a widow, and he supported the family. He gave me the ticket, and I went again to the woman. She had to wait for Wednesday.

Every day people said there would be an Aktion that night against the remaining Jews. I barely survived Wednesday. I took out the two tickets to free Asher and Lipe, and I gave Lipe his ticket and Asher his. I was ready to go home, but Asher lost his ticket! Lipe went home, and I remained with nothing!

So I ran again to the woman and told her she must go to the same office so I could get another ticket for freedom. But as it was already late, and there was nobody to write it up, I had to wait until the next day. Meanwhile I reported the loss to the police, hoping maybe somebody would appear with that ticket. And actually, Thursday, I did receive that same ticket. A Jew had found it and he had brought it to the office.

This is how we, meaning Asher and I, were saved from our deaths for the first time. That same night all those who had been with Asher were murdered. Among them were many from Mlynov. Unfortunately, Lipe was murdered later. (Rokhl Teitelman, "In Those Times," original p. 380, English p. 350).

News of the Ghetto Leads To Commerce in Certificates

News that a ghetto would be established apparently was announced already in the fall months of 1941. Yehudit Mandelkern recalled that

In the late fall months of 1941, the Judenrat issued a proclamation indicating that anyone who had a work certificate would not be taken into the ghetto (there was already talk that a ghetto would be established) and would be considered a productive element. Fictitious weddings started between young women and men who were consistently engaged in different kinds of work, and in particular, artisans, including those who worked on farms, who were mentioned above. Afterwards, commerce in work certificates developed. There were different types of certificates. The “best” type were the “iron certificates” that were given to the dentists, goldsmiths, decorators, and all different kinds of artisans, that the Germans openly engaged for their own personal needs. (Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 289, English p. 271).

Possession of such work certificates later helped a number of survivors remain outside the ghetto before the end and go into hiding when rumours started circulating about ditches being dug nearby. When ghetto residents left for work they also had the opportunity to get news and barter for goods and food that were not available in the ghetto.

In Mlynov itself, it was difficult to get these certificates, but trade in them flourished in Dubno. Even before the establishment of the ghetto it was forbidden for Jews to travel from town to town, and the trip to Dubno was therefore unlawful; in other words, the Jews traveled with Ukrainian farmers, disguised [as farmers], and of course with the agreement of the farmers. Every trip like this, therefore, was life threatening. On one unlawful trip, Yaakov Nudler, who traveled to purchase arms for the resistance organization, was grabbed and killed (Yehudit Mandelkern, ) In another instance, "Perel Mandelkern, wife of Yitzhak Mandelkern (living today in Israel), traveled to Dubno to get this kind of certificate for her sister-in-law. Coincidentally, there was a roundup in Dubno and she was swept up and murdered..." (Mandelkern Rudolf, ibid).

Nokhum Finds Work

Most people who had certificates and secured work, were pressed into forced labor for Germans. Asher's father, Nokhum Teitelman, was fortunate in securing work initially with a Christian farmer.

Soon after the holiday, around the month of Cheshvan [October 1941], I searched for work with Christians, because many rich, elderly Christians were permitted to take Jewish workers, since the young people were serving in the war. They were allowed to take a few Jews for hard labor, provided the Jews would not be in the town. I needed the earnings of a piece of bread.... I connected with a very well-known Czech, Pani Nokhum, an old man who was alone. He had permission from the authority to take a Jew for labor. I worked for him. He was very happy with me, and I also was happy with him in that time of doom and gloom. It was not that very far; it was 8 kilometers from Mlynov. Friday after lunch I used to walk home, and early Sunday morning I would walk back to him. It was already known that I work for Guladkin. And so the time went, until the 1st of January 1942, when Mlynov was organized. Everyone had to work for the Germans; just a few worked for Christians with permission from the Germans. (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” original p. 319, English p. 303)

Later in January 1942, the Germans started collecting grain for Germany. Nokhum who had expertise in the grain business from before the War was given work back in the town at the repositories. "People were simply jealous of me. The director was a Ukrainian, a big hooligan, an anti-Semite. He was called Flint, but to me he was one of the best...whoever came to his office to register was beaten by the police without a reason. Except for me."

He became a good comrade to me. He found out that I was the best worker and also a specialist. He gave me the key to the repositories, and also the receipts from the grain, so that I became an assistant to him. I used to stand alone [without supervision] by the scale intaking the grain, and also at distributing the grain. The day on which the grain had to be given out was a day of reckoning. 10 trucks, sometimes more, used to come for the grain. So an order was given that all trucks had to be loaded in 2-3 hours; if not, the workers would be shot. One can imagine what kind of rush it became. It was hardly possible to gather everything into sacks, tie or sew them up, weigh them, and load them onto the trucks in time. The sweating laborers were filled with terror that they would take too long and be shot. (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” original p. 320, English p. 304)

Mendel Finds Work

Mendel secured work in the local mill owned previously by Yisrael Vortsel.

I was lucky. As a former owner of a mill, I was grouped with the six families who were employed in Yisroel Vortsel's [alt. Wurtzel's] mill. There I succeeded in being a “useful worker” as was Srolik Vortsel of blessed memory, his brother Mayer of blessed memory, his brother-in-law Fishl of blessed memory, and his cousin Yoysef Feldman of blessed memory from Berestechko. Gershon Opshteyn [Upstein] z”l was a useful carpenter, and Borukh Lokrits z”l was a useful blacksmith.

And we all, with all kinds of tricks, kept our families in Mervits supposedly for work, even in the time of the closed ghetto. There were plenty of death scares in the mill. We had the burden of supplying the population with bread, as far as we only could, and that was fraught with danger to our lives. And still God protected us, and we succeeded, as much as possible, to feed the ghetto with bread. And even though enemy ranks came from many places, wherever there were Jews, there was still a spark of hope not yet extinguished –maybe? Maybe? Maybe God will actually perform a miracle? Because without miracles there was not a single prospect for rescue. (Sonia and Mendel Teitelman, "Tragic Tales," original p. 330, English, p. 313).

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Passover 1942

As the spring of 1942 rolled around, residents of Mlynov and Mervits contemplated if and how they could celebrate the festival of Passover. Before the War, preparation for Passover was a town-wide event which included "whitewashing the walls, koshering, baking matzas (unleavened bread), preparing shmaltz and eggs, and more."^[2] There were different recollections about how residents managed to make matzah that Passover which began the evening of April 1, 1942 and continued to April 8th. In Mlynov, Yehudit Mandelkern recalled that the Judenrat received permission to bake Matzah. "The baking was done in two places and following all the regulations [for baking matzah according to Jewish law]. The Germans did not take an interest in the source of the flour." (Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 289, English p. 271).

Sonia and Mendel who lived in Mervits, and not Mlynov, had a different recollection. They recalled that any talk about baking matzas in 1942 was life endangering if it would be so discovered. But they went ahead anyway.

We kind of thought that the honor of the good deed [of making matzah], and maybe also good wishes, would maybe help, and our wishes would be realized. We baked and we wished, but our good wishes did not come true. To cover up our baking, we, not yet being in the ghetto, gathered in a house which was not on the main road from Mlynov-Lutzk. That was at my brother-in-law Note Gruber, may he rest in peace. His house was slightly hidden by trees on Mikhalovske's land. Several of my relatives baked matzas there, like my Uncle Chaim-Meir, of blessed memory, with his family; my brother Yankev-Yoysef, of blessed memory, with his family; and my Uncle Yankev Gruber, of blessed memory; and my brother-in-law Yankev and Khayke, of blessed memory, with their families. (Sonia and Mendel Teitelman, "Baking Matzahs," 183, English 167).

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The Mlynov Ghetto (April-October 8, 1942)

Yehudit Mandelkern, who lived in Mlynov, wrote that the ghetto was set up in April 1942. Asher Teitelman, recalled that the ghetto was established between Passover (April 8th, 1942) and the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) (the eve of May 21st). Asher wrote,

One of the days between Pesach and Shavuot, a decree was promulgated to gather up the inhabitants of Mlynov/Mervits in one ghetto. The ghetto was set up and the [plan] carried out. In two narrow and small streets, all the inhabitants of the two townlets were gathered and from the surrounding villages. 10-12 persons — and sometimes more — were crowded together in every room, barbed wire fence was set up, with no entrance or opening, the trap around us was set. (Asher Teitelman, "Massive Disaster," original p. 40 original, English p. 36)

Asher's father, Nahum, added some additional detail.

Before Shavuos [the Festival of Weeks, which began the eve of May 21, 1942] when the German Kommandant Schneider left for a month's furlough to Germany, the Ukrainian Commander Navosad and community official Sovitski created the ghetto. The second day of Shavuos, [May 23] all Jews from Mlynov, Mervits, and from the surrounding villages had to leave their houses and move into the inner street. 5-6 large families, and more smaller families, were put in one house. We were fenced in with thick barbed wire. Standing at the gates were Ukrainian soldiers.^[3] (N. Teitelman, “Depths of Hell,” original p. 320, English p. 304)

Survivor Saul Halperin identified July 10th, 1941 as the date the ghetto was fenced in with barbed wire. He wrote, "We lived in fear. No eating and no drinking. Like for Pharoah, we labored hard. The 10th of July 1941, the shtetl was fenced in with barbed wire. The Jews were driven from the surrounding area to Mlynov. The ghetto had been created. The Ukrainian police guarded us day and night. The number of illnesses multiplied; people died of hunger, need, and fear. Bodies were swollen from hunger."

The Nazis Loot Jewish Posessions

Bunia Steinberg, who lived in Mervits, recalled that "The first or second day of Shavuot (I don't remember which), we were ordered to go straight to the ghetto in Mlynov." Before going into the ghetto, Bunia, her mother and her sister-in-laws sewed gold coins in their clothing; these coins were critical to the families at a later period when they were looking for places to hide in the homes of Jews.

In the entrance to ghetto, the Nazis searched the belongings of the Jews and looted many things they brought with them: potatoes, oil, flour, and clothing. A search was also carried out on my mother and when they wanted to search her belongings, she resisted. Luckily for her, Hungarian soldiers were the ones who searched her.^[4] They left her alone and she was able to bring all her belongings into the ghetto. [Shoshana Baruch, A Struggle to Survive, Heb. p 28, English p. 27]

Descriptions of the Ghetto

Survivor Sura (Sarah) Shichman (a niece of both Sonia and Rokhl Teitelman) was one of seven children and the only survivor in her immediate family. She recalled that

In May 1942, the Germans chose the smallest and dirtiest street, encircled it with wire, and made the Jewish ghetto inside. If the Nazis allowed a Jew to bring a few things into the ghetto, they did not allow any food whatsoever inside. Hunger started immediately. I still see small, hungry children in front of my eyes." (See Sore Shichman-Vinokur "Nazi Crimes in the Volyn Neighborhood," original p. 449, English p. 431)

Yehudit recalled the Mlynov ghetto

was confined to two streets, Shkolna and Dubinska. Permission was given to Jews from the other streets to bring personal belongings with them. Those evacuated individuals entered the homes of residents of the two streets just mentioned. Most made personal arrangements [which houses to join] and for others, the Judenrat organized the operation. Due to overcrowding, sanitary conditions worsened. In our living quarters — of two rooms — our aunt also lived and the family of Grandmother with two grandchildren (The kids of Yenta had been killed already at the beginning of the occupation). In general, the density reached 7–8 people per room. The ghetto was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and had two gates guarded by Ukrainian police. The Jewish police generally accompanied those who went out for work. Apart from those who left for work in groups, no one was permitted to leave the ghetto. (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 290, English p. 272).

Sonia and Mendel, who also lived in Mervits, recalled that just before the Festival of Weeks (Shavuos) in May 1942:

an order suddenly came that the Jews from Mervits and from the surrounding area, meaning from the villages, should all move to Mlynov. Starting in Shul Street until Kisil Yoel's, and until the synagogue near the puddle, the area was fenced off with a heavy barbed wire and isolated from the general population. Only two gates would allow Jews to be taken out for labor.

A decent pen cannot in any way describe how the Jews from all the other Mlynov houses had to press themselves together like herrings in houses that had been already emptied of furniture, bedding, and household things; this tragedy I cannot describe in any way.

I was present when my sick brother Yankev-Yoysef, of blessed memory, with his family, and my old uncle Khayim-Mayer of blessed memory, with his children and families, and my uncle Yankev Gruber, of blessed memory, with his wife, and more people, were forced into the ghetto. Nobody in the world could picture such things.

In front of our eyes, we could see the beautiful days of May in Europe, with their full beauty, where both nature and humanity live and laugh. From the big light our darkness increased. In the ghetto, the decrees became harsher. The news coming from every neighborhood was bad. And just like the Mlynov kehilla was united with all the surrounding shtetlekh, so it was with the ghettos. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 331, English, p. 313).

Efforts to Work Outside the Ghetto

As soon as everyone was in the ghetto, Yehudit Mandelkern remembered the "general feeling was that one should do whatever possible to be outside the ghetto." Those who worked on

agricultural farms were subjects of envy by the ghetto residents. My sister, Fania, worked in a German office for road work and had a work certificate. The German soldiers who were in charge of this office were Austrian and treated her fairly well. Every evening she returned to the ghetto. While at work, she connected with a Polish family by the name of Veitschork from whom she got food. She also initiated a discussion with them about hiding in the event of the ghetto liquidation. The head of this family was a sentry for the roads. (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 290, English p. 272)

Bunia's experience working outside the ghetto allowed her to barter and bring back necessities into the ghetto. But her experience was much more difficult. She worked initially in a four shop in Mlynov until the workers were asked who spoke German. When Bunia indicated she could speak the language, she was transferred to a military hospital in town. Her daughter recorded her mother's memories of that time.

My mother worked there [in the military hospital] cleaning and sustained beatings by her superiors. Periodically, she was ordered to polish the German officers’ boots. One of them was not happy with the work, and she was lashed with a whip so that she would improve. The harder my mother tried to polish the boots, the officer [nonetheless] remained dissatisfied and continued to beat her. There were also some officers who treated her nicely. Periodically, when there was a need to translate from German to Ukrainian, she was called upon to translate. After 6 weeks, the hospital moved to another location...(Baruch, Struggle To Survive," original p. 25, English p. 26)

Icek Kozak was given a position as a driver for the Germans.

The summer [of 1942] passed and outside it became cool. The Judenrat sent for me and said that the Germans needed a driver, so they confirmed that I would do it. I drove the Germans wherever they needed to go....

I continued to drive Germans with horses and wagons... The German whom I drove around thought I was a Russian. He assigned non-Jews to work in Germany.... One time I was with my German at a Czech's in Novyny. When I needed to give the horses a drink it was raining, so I put on my jacket. I forgot that my two yellow patches were sewed on it, and the German saw this through his window. He called me in and asked about it, so I answered in Ukrainian that the day before I had killed a Jew, and I had taken his jacket. The Czech translated my words into German, and my excuse was accepted.

Now my real troubles began. All the Jews were in the ghetto while I drove around with my German. Every day I would come home and tell all the latest sad news: here the shtetl was destroyed, and there another shtetl was liquidated. I used to go to Christians that I knew, and I begged them to allow me to hide there. (Icek Kozak, "What My Family Endured" original p. 355, English p. 331)

Miriam Blinder, who was 13 when the War began, went to work for a farmer:

In our house our big troubles started earlier than everywhere else, because my father had been taken right away. Unfortunately, he did not return. My mother had to become the breadwinner for the whole family. The bread rations were then 90 grams of bread a day, and even children had to go to work...

I, therefore, looked for a way to help the family with some food. I went to work for a farmer with the name Grabavetski. The work was difficult, but I was glad because the farmer helped me to feed my house somewhat. When I used to bring home the little bit of food, it was a holiday in the house. My mother always waited for me and used to always go to the ghetto fence to be able to see me from a distance. (See Miriam Blinder, "Where Do We Go?," original p. 370, English p. 342)

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Underground Resistance

Once the ghetto was created, everyone knew what the future held. As Yehudit Mandelkern recalled,

Immediately following the establishment of the ghetto, the feeling prevailed that this was the prelude to the general liquidation. A number of youth, among them my brother Moshe Mandelkern, the brothers Shlomo, Yaakov, and Yitzhak Nekunchinik, the police Zelig Zider, Tzvi Gering, Peretz Tesler and Shlomo Schechman; Rachel Liberman, Rivka Liberman, Liuba Chizik, Hannah Veiner, Zelig Pichniuk and others, tried organizing resistance.

At the head of the group was Avraham son of Ben-Tzion Holtzeker. Shlomo Nekunchinik who lived before the war in an isolated home outside of town, had connections with foresters who had weapons. One of the Polish foresters promised him to supply arms to the Jewish youth. The youth gathered money to purchase weapons and prepared kerosene to set fire to the ghetto when the liquidation was announced in order to create chaos and provide an opportunity to flee. The group secured two rifles, that were held by Avraham Holtzeker. It was agreed that if escape to the forest was successful, those fleeing would try to reach the forests of Polesia and the groups ofpartisans, whose existence had already been initially rumored.

The members of the group were assigned different roles. Members of the group would meet almost every evening but did not succeed in achieving much. The weapons were hidden in the “tent” which stood over the tomb of the Rabbi Aharon from Karlin from the Stolin dynasty. Those who were on a farm in the village of Karolinka prepared two bunkers in the forest which had work tools and blankets. These bunkers were intended to serve those who fled the ghetto at the time of its liquidation. (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 290, English p. 272)

"The News of Job"

Survivors remember terrible news reaching them continuously. The idiom for bad news, the "news of Job", resonated on multiple levels. They felt like Job who kept receiving terrible news and wondering where in the world was God.

Sonia and Mendel recalled that ghettos were made on the same day in all the shtetls like Ostrozhets, Trovits, Demidovka and Boromel. "Terrible news from one ghetto to the next came very often."

We heard terrible news all the time. The horrific situation [in the ghetto] lasted four months. And [during] this time Motl Litvak, of blessed memory, Khayim-Yitskhok Kipergluz, of blessed memory, Moyshe Zider's two sons, and others, would steal out almost every day and go to the mill in Mervits at night, and talk about ways out, which was useless. During the four awful months in the closed ghetto, the edicts got worse every day. It is not possible to paint that picture, not even by someone with the greatest strength, knowing that the end would be–extermination. Rosh Hashanah 5703 [September 11, 1942] approached. We could see our sentence in front of our eyes. The days from Rosh Hashana until Sukkos went by quickly. The ghetto was totally sealed. For what purpose? (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 332, English, p. 314).

Asher recalled that those going to work outside the ghetto continually brought back bad news.

From here, through the entrance and exit gate, hundreds of men and women were taken to work each day. Early morning they would leave, and in evening return. Devastating news reached us from all the communities in the area, day after day, night after night, the Jewish residents were wiped out; the axe was poised. Rovno, Lutzk, Dubno and all the nearby communities were emptied of their Jewish residents. (Asher Teitelman, "Massive Disaster," original p. 41 original, English p. 37)

Looking back, Sonia and Mendel Teitelman later asked themselves the difficult question, why there was not more resistance and whether it would have mattered anyway.

Future generations will also bring proof in writing of the heroic struggles of the partisans in various occupied enemy areas. So why were we not organized? What was standing in the way?

But the first answer to that horrible question is that all the tragedies did not happen at one time. Between one tragedy and another, there were breaks, with signs of ending, with a suspicion, maybe for good, maybe that would be the last of the evil acts? The extermination work was so refined and organized, that what was happening on the fronts did not interrupt the plan. Additionally, local bandits robbed the Jews before the civil thieves.

Furthermore, partisans began to organize quite later, when all Jews from all nations had better chances to defend themselves. In addition, they were not few, like us [Jews] in the shtetls, but rather hundreds of villages that had hidden weapons from earlier, that had been tied to the fields and forests for generations. That was unlike the larger part of the Jewish population, which had in its life never been in a forest. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 333, English, p. 315).

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Other Massacres Mlynov and Mervits Jews May Have Heard About

• July 2, 1941 In Lutsk, a mobile killing squad, Einsatzgruppe C's Einsatzkommando 4a, assisted by an infantry platoon, massacred 1,160 Jews. (See "Lutsk Ghetto")
• Nov 6, 1941, about 21,000 Jews were massacred in Rivne by Einsatzgruppe C and their Ukrainian collaborators. The remaining Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto. (See "Rovno Ghetto")
• May 26-27, 1942 a large part of Dubno ghetto was liquidated. (See "Dubno")
• July 1942, the remaining 5,000 Jews in the Rovno ghetto were trucked to a stone quarry near Kostopol and murdered there. (See "Rovno Ghetto")
• Aug 19, 1942 about 17,000 Jews were rounded up in Lutsk and shot in the forest. (See "Lutsk Ghetto")

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Nearing the End (Aug. - Sept. 1942)

Yehudit Mandelkern recalled that "in the late summer months of August / September 1942, rumors arrived about the ghetto exterminations in other small towns and cities. It was obvious that Mlynov's turn was approaching and the fate of death of the town's Jews had been decreed." (Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 291, English p. 272).

Bunia Steinberg recalled that already by the end of Passover that year, she realized that they would have to make plans to save themselves. Things got worse in late summer.

The Judenrat bribed the Ukrainians to inform them when the slaughter will take place. That was Rosh Chodesh Elul [Aug. 13, 1942]. Trials were made to see where the Jews would run. In the middle of the night, 12:00 midnight-1:00 a.m., the Ukrainians came and reported to the Judenrat that the entire shtetl would be massacred that night, and whoever wanted could flee. The gates would be open.

I took my mother and we fled. My grandmother lived at the edge of the ghetto, right at the fence that was very high. She used to have a very large orchard. A whole night we were lying hidden among the trees. We planned that if we would hear something, we would jump over the fence and run away. At the end: daylight came, and nothing had happened. The Jews returned to their residences in the ghetto. As stated, the Christians wanted to see where the Jews would run. They made fun of the Jews. (Bunia [Steinberg] Epstein, "Wandering During the Terrible Catastrophe," original p. 388, English 357).

"One day," Asher Teitelman recalled, "rumors spread it was the turn of Mlynov, our town, to be counted."

Several daring individuals broke through the ghetto fence and hid in the forests and the fields. But the incident was known to the Germans and they postponed the day of the liquidation. Poor conditions and ravenous hunger tied them to the town, even the daring among them, and thus sealed their fate. The [fate of] the holy community was thus in the hands of heaven.

Sometime those the final weeks, several young people managed to reach the bunkers before the end including the brother of Yehudit Mandelkern. She recalled:

The following made it to the bunkers: my brother, Moshe Mandelkern, Shmuel Gruber, and Yitzhak Mandelkern. It is worth noting that the underground group was comprised of young people from the various youth movements, which had previously been active in town: “The Guard,” (Hashomer Hatzair), “The Young Pioneer” (HeHalutz Hatzair), and Betar — and a total unanimity prevailed among them. One fact stands out: proteges of the youth movements participated in the [underground] group apparently under the influence of the education that they received from the youth groups. (Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 290, English p. 272).

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The Plight of Chana Klepatch

Not everyone who had the opportunity to flee in the final weeks felt they could leave behind their loved ones. Chana Klepatch was a case in point. Caught on the horns of a terrible dilemma, she turned down the opportunity to join those fleeing to the forests.

Her decision came not long before the end. Her friend, Reuven Raberman, who was from Trovits (now Targowica, Ukraine) was on his way home from his forced labor in Studyanka. He detoured into Mlynov to warn his friend, Chana, and urge her to join him and others in the forest.

"I will never forget our last meeting," he wrote.

“Yes,” she said, “I heard much about your activities; the forest tugs at my heart, but how can I leave Mother and small children without supervision and a livelihood, especially when my father and my older brother are no longer living? — my forlorn mother will surely die from all her sorrow!”

At first, I tried to convince her and point out the how matters would progress. I sensed the beat of her young and sensitive heart; her face paled like lime and tears glittered in her eyes. With difficulty she resisted the significant temptation and choked back the terrible pain that had accumulated during all the days of suffering. She stood standing upright, tears falling down her cheeks, she almost did not dare to lift her eyes towards me, fearing that she would burst forth in loud sobbing.

For a long moment we stood hugging this way, until finally she gathered strength, leaned against me and whispered in my ears, “We are seeing each other for the last time, my heart understands the evil, you go, my dear one, and may God be with your footsteps; I don't have the strength to abandon the little ones, nor is it simple to leave an unfortunate mother, but perhaps, perhaps at the last moment I will succeed in escaping.” She was still standing petrified, when I waved to her with my hat and for a long time she looked at the abundant and promising forest towards which I was heading.

From the lips of Mlynov survivors, who met her in the last moments, I learned that, at the moment when the Ukrainian militia surrounded the ghetto, Chana tried her luck at escaping, but was caught in the barbed wire when the bullets of the murderers punctured her young heart.

May her memory be a blessing. (Reuven Raberman, "Chana Klepatch–A Mlynov Tragedy," (original p. 278-79, English p. 260)

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Other Efforts To Escape

Icek Kozak was still serving as driver for the Germans as the end drew near. "Now my real troubles began," he recalled.

All the Jews were in the ghetto while I drove around with my German. Every day I would come home and tell all the latest sad news: here the shtetl was destroyed, and there another shtetl was liquidated. I used to go to Christians that I knew, and I begged them to allow me to hide there. They answered that maybe they would accept my sons and me, but Chava and the girls, no way.

Then I received a promise from a Ukrainian with the name Anapry Tsereshok, who lived in Mervits. With great effort and step by step, I little by little brought over my entire family with my wagon, for which I had the certificate. I would lay each of them one by one in the wagon and pile hay on top. This way we all got together at [the home of] Anapry, the Ukrainian's. Meanwhile graves for the little Jewish children were prepared. That was Thursday, the 1st of October 1942. (Icek Kozak, "What My Family Endured" original p. 356, English p. 332)

Around the same time, Liza Berger and other young men and women who were engaged in labor made the decision to flee.

We young people got together and agreed that we need to accomplish something and not be so naïve. We decided to escape into the forest. We left near Mantyn. The boys found a barn. They remained there while we girls searched for bread. When we came back, we found the boys naked and dead. Our aimless, lifeless wandering began then. No Christian we approached wanted to give us a piece of bread, and we did not have where to rest our heads.

The other girls separated from me, and I remained alone in the forest. I was in Pańska Dolina at night, and I tried to go into a Christian's barn. He saw me and drove me out of there. That was midnight. The snow was a meter high. It was in November. I was only in a pair of shorts, without shoes and without a dress, because a few Ukrainians had caught me earlier and demanded money.

Parents Urge Children To Flee

Some parents, who felt incapable of leaving for various reasons, begged their grown children to flee the ghetto those final weeks. Fania Mandelkern (a sister of Yehudit) remembers her mother urging her to leave.

Our house was by the gate of the ghetto. My mother begged me to leave the ghetto. We knew that my brother Moshe was in a bunker that he had prepared near the forest by the village Karolinka. My sister Yehudit joined him a week before the ghetto was surrounded.

My mother pressured me to try any way to leave – to bribe a policeman or by begging a policeman for permission to get out. She also prepared a bundle with all different kinds of necessities for me, and even remembered to include scissors, thread and needles and the like.

I approached one Ukrainian policeman; his name was Shafortyuk. I pleaded and cried for him to let me go. I promised him clothing and gold. Initially he swore at me and threatened me with his weapon. I begged him many times, until he told me to come in the evening when it was dark. He told me to bring him all the things I had promised and leave it in a bush by the gate. He also told me that he would give me an opportunity to leave and would shoot his rifle in the air, in order to disguise my exit and cover it up.

Initially we thought we would leave together with my sister Rosa and my mother. But in the end mother decided she would remain behind so she wouldn't weigh us down.

I approached the gate with just my sister. About 6.30 pm in the evening, I brought the policeman the bundle I had promised him. A watch, gold coins, and nice boots. At first, he refused to let my sister leave. But he didn't have time to argue with us, afraid he might not get his loot.

He opened the gate giving us opportunity to leave, shot [his rifle] in the air, and also showed us how to proceed, so that we would not fall into the hands of police. Initially we crawled a long way so that we would not be discovered. We wanted to go first to the Polish family Veitschork whom I knew before this. We walked all night long even though the distance was not far. We got to the home of the Polish family. The woman of the household wouldn't receive us and even told us to go away or else she would turn us in. Apparently, she was afraid to hide us due to the close proximity to the town. (Fania Mandelkern Bernstein, "In the Valley of the Shadow of Death" original p. 293, English p. 276).

Survivor Liba Tesler recounted a similar experience to her step-grandson David Sokolsky who wrote a book about her survival experience. David wrote:

I can still recall Liba's matter-of-fact demeanor as she nonchalantly told me of that terrifying day in Otober 1942 when she snuck out of the Mlynov Ghetto. Her mission was to find a hiding place as the gehtto in this small village in eastern Poland would soon be destroyed. Her brother, Peretz, and his friend, Herschel, had left a week earlier with similar hopes, but had not yet returned. Their father, Jacob Tesler, now desperate, urged Liba to escape and find some sort of refuge for herself and her younger sister, Golda. But Liba did not want to leave. She told her father she wished to remain with the family and that "whatever will be will be." Yet, she knew very well what would be. The scourge of terror and death was approaching....

Liba bitterly remembered how, on Monday, October 5, 1942, her 30th birthday, word spread throughout the Mlynov Ghetto that the Dubno Ghetto had been liquidated....After much arguing, Liba's father convinced Liba to leave.

She donned an old frayed hat, a plain, light brown dress, and worn-out shoes to disguise herself as a non-Jewish peasant. She took a shovel to presevent she would be diging for potatoes, a common activity in the area. Kissing her parents and her sister good-bye, she set out early that afternoon praying they would see each other soon.... She walked the short distance to the ghetto gate near their house and approached the Ukrainian guard.

How much do you want today? she asked in perfect Ukrainian.

"Let me see what you have, Yid," he growled.

She extended her left hand and opened her fingers to reveal a watch and necklace. "What one would you like?"

Grabbing both, he chuckled and said, "These will do. Now get along and be quiet." The gate swung open and she started her journey. Liba whispered a prayer that she would secure a hiding place before dark, and return for Golda before it was too late. Once out of the guard's sight, she removed her yellow Star of David badge. (Sokolsky, Monument, p. 1).

Liba did survive. Her extraordinary survival experience, pretending to be a Ukrainian Christian girl, and ultimately ending up in a slave labor camp in Germany, are recounted in detail in David's book, Monument: One Woman's Courageous Escape From the Holocaust.

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The Last Few Days

Realizing the end was near, Nokhum Teitelman arranged to hide his family with a Polish man he knew named Zaremba, in the mostly Polish town of Pańska Dolina. Over the next year, Poles in Pańska Dolina helped save several refugees from Mlynov and Mervits. Like his other memories, Nokhum remembered the date based on the cycle of the Jewish Calendar:

On Thursday, the 4th day of the Intermediate days of Sukkot [Oct 1, 1942], the eve of Hoshana Rabba, as was the custom in the morning, we all went to work, each to his own place, and I to my place of work. I took the keys to the storeroom and entered the storeroom and had already begun to work, when suddenly they came with Job's news [terrible news], that they are preparing too quickly the graves for us and today-tomorrow they will accomplish it.

We already expected the tragic day, because in all the surrounding areas they had already finished with the Jews. All of us that worked there knew already. We looked at each other with sorrowful eyes. Everything fell from our hands. In addition, we were forbidden to show sorrowful faces.

Nokhum immediately headed back into the ghetto to round up his family:

...I got out of the storehouse and ran into the ghetto, because I had a card that gave me permission to go in and out of the ghetto...

Actually, my children Fishl and Shloyme came right into the house. We asked them if they wanted to run out of the ghetto themselves and go straight to the Pole Zarembah, and they said “Yes.” So I led them out of the ghetto. They went on a side path. After they had gone a short distance, they were captured and shot on the spot. Soon there was a commotion in the ghetto. People heard that Nokhum's children were shot; the bitter news reached me.

My sister Yente wanted to quiet me down, so she told me that she was just informed that my children went straight to Zarembah, and it was not true that they had been shot. So I was mixed up. I went to the director, who was good to me, and I begged him to give me a certificate authorizing me to go to the village magistrate with a letter about [grain] prices, and with that letter I went freely. I had been stopped several times; each time I showed the letter, and I was let through. When I got there: the children were no longer, and I, where should I go? (Nokhum Teitelman, “In the Depths of Hell,” original p. 322, English p. 305)

Despite his agony and grief, Nokhum, figured out how to get his wife Rokhl and his other children, Asher, Shifre and Yosele, out of the ghetto. Nokhum sent Asher on ahead with the letter authorizing Nokhum to leave the ghetto. They arranged for Shifre to take the place of one of the Jewish girls who worked for a local farmer and had gotten sick. They gave Shifre instructions to head to the Zaremba family after she got out of the ghetto. Nokhum leveraged his position at the granary to bribe a Christian to take Yosele out of the ghetto.

What should we do next? I wanted to send Rokhl away, and I would stay here in the ghetto together with all the Jews. I had a plan: A Christian from home was at the storehouse. I promised him that I will write an order for him to receive several meters of grain. I had the papers on me. For that, he should take Rokhl out of the ghetto. Naturally, she had to disguise herself as a Christian.

And so it was. My wife Rokhl agreed but on one condition, that I should also come to Zarembah's, and if not, she would come back with the children. But how could I come since everybody knew me? All this was going on early in the morning of Hoshana Raba, because just on that day I was in the storage area of the synagogue (the Germans used it for a warehouse), and one side of the synagogue was in the ghetto, and the other side was outside the ghetto–so I could accomplish all these difficult things.

Now I remained alone in the ghetto. Rokhl with Asher and Shifre with Yoysef were in the village of Pańska Dolina. And my children, my sons, my treasures Efraim-Fishel and Shlome-Bentzion, were lying covered with a little dirt from the Nazis and Ukrainians, may their names be blotted out.

It was already 12:00 noon. I closed the [granary] storehouse, and I gave the key to the director. I went for an hour to the house in the ghetto where I lived with Fishl-Kritser. His wife wanted to give me something to eat, and I did not want to take it.

I sat down and thought about what I should do. If I would go there, I knew that I would certainly be killed; if I did not go there, I was afraid that Rokhl and the children will come back. I could not decide what to do, until a decision came to me, that I should go to the storehouse for the key. I will ask him again to give me a certificate to go to the village magistrate about prices. I will tell him that I am again going to search for my children. And I went and stood in front of him.

He said to me: “Take the key and go.” I kept standing.

He asked me: “Why are you standing?”

I explained that I wanted a certificate, because I was told that my children are in Dolina.

He said to me, “Do not talk nonsense. Your children were shot.” He even knew where they were buried. Seeing that I had no choice, I said to him:

“Listen, sir, you want me to stay alive? Then give me a mission to go there, because I see that the end is coming.” He thought and thought and said, “For you, I will do this.” And he gave me a letter for the head of the village with a stamp, indicating I was going on his behalf, and allowing me to come and go without harm. I went with no incident, and we [the members of the family] met there together, already it was the eve of Shemini Atzeret [Sat. Oct 3].

Meanwhile, Nokhum's sister-in-law and cousin, Sonia and Mendel Teitelman, managed to to remain outside ghetto when it was sealed up, with a friendly Polish man (Marian Baretsky) in Mervits. They recalled, the last Shabbes in the ghetto, probably the same day that Nokhum left:

On the last Shabbes, I think Shabbes during Sukkos [Oct. 3rd Shemini Atzeret], people gathered in the synagogue. Women and children came to the last prayer. I did not have the privilege of attending. It was enough for me to hear about it from the Christians, who were supposedly not as murderously purposed towards Jews.

From the closed ghetto, on the last night, half the people ran out, loaded up with axes and with pieces of iron in their hands, ready for everything, and ran wherever their eyes carried them. Practically all of them, not being fit for the fields or forests, with the rains and cold, with small children and old people, fending off persecution and murder from local enemies–practically all perished, with very few exceptions. (Sonia and Mendel, "Tragic Tales," original p. 332, English, p. 314).

Bunia's Revisits Her Fate

Bunia Steinberg had earlier worked cleaning the nearby military hospital until closed down, was doing agricultural work in the fields with her brothers. Typically, she would labor all week in the fields and came back to the ghetto for the Sabbath to be with her mother. Near the end, she returned to the ghetto and was there the day that Nahum's boys were killed. She was all set to share the fate of everyone else when a man she knew shocked her out of complacency.

In the morning I went to the Mlynov ghetto. I came into our room, and I started to bake. As I was baking, I was told that that people had already been murdered. Whoever had tried running out of the ghetto had been killed on the spot. Among the murdered were the Teitelman's two boys.

Women asked me why I came back into the ghetto now, when the whole time I was out of it. I answered that it was probably fated that I should be slaughtered together with all the Jews. I continued to bake, but I was very nervous. Whatever food there was in the room, I put into the oven and baked.

... Khatskl Liber came to me and said:

“Bunia, you have a permit. Take it and go. Pretend you don't know anything.”

I understood what he meant very well. In any case, I was sentenced to death. Why did I need to die together with everyone, to stand in a row and wait to be shot? I thought I would go to the gate so I would be shot right away and save myself from having to see how they shoot others.

I packed up two bags of food. I put on a yellow sweater with two patches (I put on a yellow sweater so that the two yellow patches would not be visible) and a scarf on my head. I put my shoes over my shoulders. I went out of the ghetto like that. The Germans and Ukrainians were standing around and did not recognize me. They thought I was a Christian.

And that is how I got out of the ghetto. When I came to the bridge behind Mlynov, a Polish man came and took me into his wagon. He asked me where I needed to go. I answered that I needed to get to [the village of] Pereveediv. He told me that I should ride with him to Smordva because [in Pereveediv] all the Jews were being shot there. The graves were being dug. But my mother was in Pereveediv, and I had arranged places in which to hide, so I did not want to ride with him to Smordva. He took me to Pereveediv.

When I arrived, I met with my mother and two of my brothers. We waited until night-time. We had arranged to stay with a Christian in [the village of] Dobryatyn. My older brother Hershel remained with a Christian in Pereveediv (naturally, he paid the Christian). My mother remained there too because she could not swim; to get to Dobryatyn one had to swim across a river. We said goodbye, and Yukal and I swam across the river at night. (Bunia [Steinberg] Epstein, "Wandering During the Terrible Catastrophe," original p. 389, English 357).

Bunia's account of her survival with her brother Getzel, his wife, Pessia, and small child, Zelig, is told in a book length story written by her daughter. (Shoshana Baruch A Struggle To Survive).

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The Final Day

The liquidation of the ghetto took place on Oct. 8th or 9th, 1942 according to accounts of survivors.^[5] News of what happened the final day reached those who were already in hiding a fews days later, as reports were passed along by non-Jews who were nearby, visited town, or heard what happened. A few individuals managed to hide themselves in the ghetto and were not discovered.

Mendel Steinberg (Bunia's brother) recalled he was working at a heavy machinery shop with other Jews when news reached them that the liquidation was imminent.

I was then working in the so-called M.T.S. We were 13 Jews, among us the Rav of Mervits, Shmuel-Ber Katz. From the Judenrat, of which a few members were then in Dubno, I learned that by the 10th of October our entire neighborhood needed to be Judenrein [empty of Jews]. By that date, all the Jews had to be slaughtered.

Mendel went into hiding with his wife and son in the wood shed of one of his business associates, a man named Soldatuk, who had been friendly to him. Soldatuk brought back news of what happened.

Friday, 29 Tishrei [Oct. 10, 1942], Soldatuk was in Mlynov where he heard that all the Jews in the ghetto had been exterminated. [He also heard that] If anyone would find a hidden Jew, both the hider and the Jew would be killed. He came to us at night when we were lying down, and he told us to get out. My wife started to cry.

Mendel's wife, Sheindel, was crying because she had been visited the night before in a dream by her grandfather, Motel Tesler [i.e., Motel Grinsphan, the carpenter], the patriarch of the family. Motel was one of the first two men who were killed first in Mervits way back in July 1941. In her dream, her grandfather told Sheindel, that "she must not leave the place where she was hiding." Sheindel was afraid to leave their hiding place with good reason. Mendel leveraged that dream with the superstitious Soldatuk, convincing him to allow the family to stay put for quite a while. Though they ultimately needed to move on, that dream helped get them through the first difficult period with their benefactor.

What Yehudit Learned

Yehudit Mandelkern, who was by this point in the bunkers with two sisters and a brother, recalled what she learned about the last hours.

On the 8th of October 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by the Ukrainian police on German authority. With loudspeakers, they announced that it was forbidden to leave and periodically they brought groups of Jews and individuals, who were being returned to the ghetto from their places of work. Everyone understood this was the end.

Men, women, and children went out to the streets. Panic and hysteria broke out. People prayed, cried, yelled, and huddled together with their families. As it grew dark, the loudspeakers announced that everyone had to go into their houses, keep the lights off, and anyone who left a house would be shot on the spot. Now and then the sounds of isolated shooting could be heard and occasionally the rattle of a police motorbike in the ghetto. (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 292, English p. 273).

Ezra Finds A Hiding Place

Survivor Ezra Sherman was still a young boy of 10 or 11 when he lined up in the ghetto with the other imprisoned residents. He had been living with his grandmother in the ghetto for some time now and his later memories of that year were were naturally fragmentary.

Ezra's mother had died in 1938 before the War and his father had moved to Dubno after he had remarried. Ezra used to secure rides between Dubno and Mlynov with a gentile farmer who was friends with his father. The last time Ezra saw his father in Dubno was in 1941 when he had witnessed a massacre there in a cemetery near his father's home. "You grow up fast," Ezra commented one time in his interview about how he managed to survive.

Ezra was back in the Mlynov ghetto with his grandmother for some period before its end. He remembered figuring out ways to sneak out of the barbed wire in the ghetto. He would go work for local farmers and bring back food for his grandmother.

When they were lined up that October 8th in the ghetto, Ezra had the wherewithal about him to ask a guard if he could take a leak. When given permission, he went out of sight climbed up into the loft of a small stall for animals. He could watch what was happening through the slots in the stall. His hiding place was not far from the ghetto gates.

Another younger girl named Micah appeared below him whom Ezra knew from school. He helped her up into the loft too. The two of them fell asleep for several hours. In the early morning hours he awakened to the sound of banging the ghetto gates. Local Ukrainians were wanting in to plunder the goods of the empty ghetto. Ezra and Micah climbed down and took one of the paths out through the barb wire that Ezra already knew about.

Ezra survived his harrowing experience, wandering alone in the countryside, and eventually finding help from a series of Polish farmers. Early on in their wandering, Micah didn't want to follow Ezra into the forest and she went off down the road in a different direction. Micah did not survive. (Listen to Ezra speak about his experience).

Ezra was not the only person who found hiding. Anticipating the worse at the end, there were other individuals and families who found or created hiding places. A few of those in hiding survived to tell the story but many were hiding places were discovered during the search of the ghetto.

In the Chimney / Under the Floorboards

Reb Leyzer Mohel, who used to be one of the kosher butchers in town, prepared a compartment under the floor boards of the house they were in for his wife and three remaining children. Four of his older children had already fled east when the Germans attacked on June 22, 1941. They were somewhere in the interior of Russia and suvived. The Mohels invited a friend of the family, Sura Neyter, to join them in their hiding place. But Sura didn't like it and she chose instead to hid in a chimney.

Later she wrote to the surviving Mohel children about her own harrowing experience hiding in the ghetto and the discovery of their parents and siblings under the floorboards.

So stretched the weeks and months like heavy lead until we approached the final liquidation of the remaining few Jews. Everyone searched for possibilities to hide, but there were no prospects. Your father made a hiding place in the kitchen. He cut out two boards from the floor and fitted them back perfectly so they would not be visible; and he put his entire family underneath. He also invited me to go into that underground basement, but I didn't like the hiding place. I decided to hide in the top of the chimney; I put a board between the bricks and let myself down.

And so I stayed in the chimney about three days and three nights without food and drinks, with one shirt. It was October. Cold winds blew; it rained. I often lost consciousness from suffering; I felt that I was almost at the end. But on the third day I awoke from my unconscious position when I heard the murderers tearing into your apartment. They searched everywhere, including the kitchen, and I heard how they discovered the hiding place! I heard how they shlepped everyone out one by one, then lined them up at the wall and murdered them. The words that Bouzke'leh told them still ring in my ears: “'You can kill us, but my brothers will take revenge on you! Our innocent blood that you shed will not protect you. Your end is very near!'

At these words a salvo was heard, and it became terribly quiet. I do not know with what strength I lasted until the evening. I got out of the chimney and, thanks to the darkness of the night which additionally was cold and rainy, I succeeded in getting out to the fields. And like a driven animal I ran around over the fields and forests until I survived the liberation.” (See Yaakov Mohel, "a href="https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Mlyniv/mly405.html#Page410">A Murdered Family," original p. 410, English p. 374).

In a postscript to the account of the Mohel family's end, which Yaakov Mohel included in the Memorial book, he recounted the story he heard of his father's death.

My father, may he rest in peace, was not there when his family was shot. He had gone out somewhere searching for food; when he came back, everyone was dead. He ran around like a crazy person until the next day. Then the Germans murdered him not far from the slaughterhouse where he had worked for so many years. And so came the bitter end of Reb Leyzer the kosher slaughterer from Mlynov, his wife Khana-Leye, daughter Basye, daughter Brukhe (Bouzke'leh), and the small 10 year-old Yenteleh. (See Y. Mohel, "A Murdered Family")

As discussed below, Yaakov's statement is one of two places in the Memorial book that identifies the site of the massacre near the spot where animals were slaughtered for food. In a disturbing irony, Yaakov's father, who was one of the town's kosher slaughterers (shochet) was killed not far from where he supervised the slaughtering of animals. The Ukrainian killers apparently saw the Jews as animals to be slaughtered too.

Sarah Shichman was a young girl at the time and was the only one of seven family members to survive. Her mother Chaika was a sister of Nokhum and Mendel Teitelman's wives, Rokhl and Sonia Teitelman. She later wrote about Yom Kippur that year:

Jews learned that the Ukrainians were digging graves not far from Mlynov, and that the graves were being prepared for the Jews in the ghetto. All the people wanted to save themselves. But how? Ukrainian police were guarding the ghetto. The Ukrainian inhabitants were quite happy that the Jews were going to be killed. They would also benefit from Jewish goods. Our Shichman family consisted of nine people: two girls, their father and mother, and five boys. We decided that I, Sore, should get work as a maid for a farmer, and maybe thereby I might have an opportunity to get my family out of the ghetto.

It took practically our entire fortune to secure a position for me as a maid in a neighboring shtetl for Master Bialkovsky. With his help we did manage to get not only my whole Shichman family out of the ghetto in a wagon covered with straw, but also my Uncle Nute Gruber with his wife and two children.

We paid a Ukrainian farmer, Rituk from the village of Kutsa, to hide everyone until we would be liberated. Rituk dug a large ditch under his stable, and that became the grave we lived in. During the day we could never go out of the ditch so that nobody, God forbid, should see us. Only at night would someone go outside to the farmer to cook something to eat for the next day. Every day the Ukrainian would come down into the ditch and ask for something: a dress, a shoe, a blanket, money. Wanting to live, everyone complied. (see Sore Shichman-Vinokur, "Nazi Crimes in the Volyn Neighborhood")

Saul Halpern and Rabbi Gordon's Daughter Go Into Hiding

Shaulik (Saul) Halpern, who was born in 1918 in Mlynov, recalled:

And all at once, the 10th of October 1942, we heard that graves were being dug between the mountains to bury the slaughtered, innocent Jewish population. Some were able to save themselves and run into villages and forests, but they were very few. I also was among the lucky ones. Together with [Rabbi Gordon's daughter] Toybish Gordon, we were able to hide by good Czechs who saved us; we will never forget them.

The ghetto was well surrounded by the Ukrainian murdering police and with SS people. People searched for ways to tear out of the enclosure—but it was too late!

Early in the morning, trucks full of SS came into the shtetl. Women and men, old and children, were flung out of the houses and brought to the graves. Undressed, naked, they were positioned in rows near the graves, and mercilessly shot and thrown into them. The heartbreaking scenes are indescribable; many children were simply buried alive.

This was how Mlynov-Mervits was liquidated, wiped off the earth; that is how our parents, brothers and sisters became martyrs; that is how our dearest ones were torn away from the world. We will never forget them! (See Shaulik Halpern, "Holocaust").

What Fania Heard in the Bunkers

Fania Mandelkern, who was in the bunkers, got reports about the final moments, though she had a mistaken memory of Ezra Sherman's escape at least as reported by Ezra in his own interview. She and Ezra both ended up back in Mlynov after the liberation of the area and later in Israel and it is likely she heard Ezra's memories then.

"I will pause here," wrote Fania "and recount what I heard from Ezra Sherman, who escaped from the truck that was carrying people to the killing ravine and also what I heard later directly from farmers — about how the massacre was carried out."

The Germans loaded the people on a truck and brought them to the pit. A plank was suspended over the pit. People were ordered to strip and one by one get on the plank. Before they did so, they were ordered to hand over their belongings to the policemen. Opposite the plank stood a machine gun that shot those crossing the plank with constant bursts. In the ghetto itself, Germans and Ukrainians stayed behind and searched house to house for valuables and Jews in hiding.

On the day of the liquidation, about 900 persons were massacred and buried in the large pit. Another several hundred people, residents of the nearby town of Mervits, who had been absorbed into the Mlynov ghetto, were slaughtered also that same day. Afterwards, during the next few days, another sixty-six individuals were seized, who had been rounded up by the police, and were brought out, killed and buried in a mass grave in the courtyard of the large study hall in the middle of the ghetto. The day after the liquidation, thousands of Ukrainian farmers from the nearby villages flocked in and plundered those belongings that remained in the Jewish homes which the Germans hadn't wanted. (Fania Mandelkern Bernstein, "In the Valley..." original p. 293, English p. 277).

Liba Tesler, who managed to bribe her way out a day or two before the end, circled back to the ghetto when she was unable to find help. David recounts what Liba told him.

After resting for a short while, Liba decided to give up her search for a hiding place and return home. She intended to tell her father no one wanted to help a Jew. People were either afraid or did not care....She headed back to Mlynov, ready to die alongside her family. Better that way than to be shot alone in the forest...

As she neared the ghetto, she saw searchlights and heard loudspeaker announcements. Then a few gunshots and the roar of motorcycles. She faintly heard womena nd children screaming and crying. Is that my mother? Or [sister] Golda? I want to be with you now. Oh my God, I'm too late. Liba realized she could not go back now...So Liba waited helplessless, hiding in the forest for what seemed like an eternity. Then she heard the trucks roll away. Monument: One Woman's Courageous Escape From the Holocaust, p. 4.

Hiding Behind A Door

Leye Likhter, who was in her early 20s, was hiding in the ghetto when

we heard the Germans scream, “Lauz!” ["out"]. Then we knew that they were coming to get us. When they entered my house, I hid behind the door. I wanted them to shoot me in the back. I had heard them take out the dearest person I had in the world, my mother. They also removed the other people. It is hard to describe those terrible minutes.

I came out of hiding at night. The tall gates of the ghetto were open, and I left for the fields. As the grain had already been cut, I hid among the potatoes. I do not know how many days I was lying there, but hunger and cold drove me into the villages, of course only at night.

I pretended to be dumb so that my language would not betray me. I went from place to place. It was very dangerous because German and Ukrainian policemen were around. When I came to the Czech village of Malyn, I went to the hospital since they needed workers. I started to weep when I saw the doctor because I felt I could trust him. The doctor asked me, in Polish, if I were pregnant. I answered him that my problem was even worse–I am a Jew. He advised me to get away from that neighborhood. Actually the next day, after I left the village, the Germans burnt down the town completely. Not a single person had been allowed out. This was revenge because a German had been killed earlier near that village.

I worked as a Christian in various places. When the war ended, I could not travel to our shtetl to witness the destruction. My family and I arrived in Israel via Georgia [in the Soviet Union]. (See Leye Veyner-Likhter, "In Fear and Pain", original 383, English p. 352).

Hiding in the Mervits Cemetery

A child survivor who hid in the ghetto in an unknown place was Basye Blinder (married name Kaptshik). She recalled leaving a hiding place in the ghetto and taking refuge in trenches dug for WWI in the cemetery in Mervits: To be among the living is a natural thing, she wrote, "but to be among the dead, nobody heard of it. I was someone who remained alive by being among the dead. As frightening as this seems, it is a fact that I was saved by hiding for a while among the tombstones.

I was with my older sister Khaye, then a child of 10; an old woman from Mervits, Freyde Teitelman; and her three grandchildren Rikil, Mordkhe and Maye, may their memories be blessed.

We ran away from a hiding spot in the ghetto a day after the general slaughter. We were driven away from every Christian house. Not having where to hide ourselves from the eyes of the murderers, Freyde Teitelman, may she rest in peace, led us to the former trenches that were dug for the First World War in the cemetery at Mervits. We were there a few days (weeks?). Every evening Freyde sent us out to beg for a piece of bread and a little water, and that is how we were nourished. Basye Blinder Kaptshik, "A Child in the Storm," original p. 374, English 346)

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Location of the Mass Grave

The massacre of the imprisoned ghetto residents took place in a ravine or valley between Mlynov and Mervits. A photo exists of that spot from after the Russian liberation. An unknown person, possibly a Russian soldier, snapped two photos of survivors standing at that spot in the fall of 1944. They had gone there to commemorate family and friends who were slaughtered there. In one of those photos in particular, the steep sides of a ravine are evident.

A visual discussion of this 1944 commemoration and the identification of survivors in the photo can be found here.

Kruzhuk, the name of the Ravine

The area where the ravine was located was called "Kruzhuk" (קרוז׳וק) (probably pronounced "Crew-shook") by two of the survivors and described as between Mlynov and Mervits, the latter not more than a km up the road from Mlynov. Yehudit Mandelkern was one survivor who referred to the area that way: She wrote, "In September, it became known that the farmers in the area were ordered to prepare a large pit in the valley between the two towns of Mlynov and Mervits, that was called Kruzhuk, a distance of one kilometer from the town." (See Mandelkern Rudolf, "Life Under...," original p. 291, English p. 273).

The second survivor to refer to the area by that name was Yankev Holtzeker who was born in Mlynov but survived the war in the Red Army. When the War ended, he returned to Mlynov. He wrote movingly of that experience.

I will tell a little about Mlynov after my return from the Red Army, after the Holocaust, in 1945. Broken physically and spiritually, I still had the great privilege of taking revenge for our dearest brothers and sisters, fathers, and mothers.

The shtetl looked like a catastrophic graveyard. Every little footpath was saturated with Jewish tears and blood. I got frightened as soon as I approached my shtetl. Everything was blocked and ruined. All the streets were a mountain of stones. The only Jewish houses remaining were occupied by Christians. Not a trace remained of the Study House and the other synagogues. Everything had been destroyed. Wild grass grew on the streets.

I went only to my brother's grave, located on Kruzhuk (קרוזשאק), between Mlynov and Mervits. I wept heartily because of the dark fate that had befallen us.

Earlier references to Kruzhuk

The name "Kruzhuk" was apparently applied to the area long before the massacre there. It was called that name by 1920 if not earlier, as evident from the recollections of another Mlynov born individual named Shmuel Mandelkern. (It is unknown if Shmuel was related to Fania and Yehudit Mandelkern). Shmuel Mandelkern was a young man at the end of the First World War and he became the catalyst for the Zionist Youth groups in Mlynov in the early 1920s. He made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine in 1924.

Writing in 1970 about his efforts to organize a defense organization in Mlynov back in about 1920, during the period following the Bolshevik Revolution, he referred to the area called "Kruzhuk" on multiple occassions and associated the name with the area between Mlynov and Mervits. The following passages from Mandelkern's essay include the name "Kruzhuk". He is describing where the various were stationed around town. From these statements, it is clear that "Kruzhuk" was between Mlynov and Mervits, north of town, that a road leading north towards Mervits was referred to by Mandelkern as Kurzhuk and that it was a "Ukrainian" suburb at the time.

• The third [guard] unit guarded the second square that began at the home of Beynish Schwartz[39] to “Kruzhuk” (קרוז׳וק) and they also had responsibility to keep an eye on the entire surroundings, including the bridge over the Ikva, that lead to the estate of Count Chodkiewicz. (Eng. translation, pp. 112-113 / Heb. original, 122)


• The format of guarding and inspection was conducted in the following way: the gathering place that had once been the corridor [“Palush”] of the synagogue moved completely outside, by the square. From there, the units would go out to Bathhouse Street, by the main road that goes to Lutsk, to the primary road that goes to Kruzhuk (קרוז׳וק) and Mervits. (Eng. translation, p. 117, Heb. original, p. 128)


• No less interesting were the maneuvers, that we organized nearly twice a week. As noted, our central meeting place was in the Church (tserkva) square; we chose this place for two reasons: 1. Because it was in the middle of the small town, and from this point there was an opportunity for us to observe the bridge over the Ikva, and to the road that goes towards the villages of Smordva, Berehy, and others; the road that goes to Ozliiv and its environs; the road that goes to the main road of Slobada and Uzhynets'; the road that goes to Pecherneda, Dorohostai and more. And thus, there was the opportunity to keep an open eye on the substantial part of the town, which was opposite the Catholic Church and the Ukrainian suburbs called Kruzhuk (קרוז׳וק). (Eng. translation, p. 123 / Heb. original, p. 135)


• On the second side, marching under the direction of Nute Iskiewicz, which included Bathhouse Street and the road to Kruzhuk (קרוז׳וק), they too were singing different songs (Eng. translation, p. 128/ Heb. original, p. 140)

Shmuel Mandelkern mentioned Kruzhuk in another essay he wrote about his early Zionist efforts before 1920. In this essay, he was describing how he and his friends were sending a young man, Yaakov-Yosi, on his way to Dubno to catch a train to Odessa. To avoid arousing suspicion, the friends split into two groups. One group took the road north to Kruzhuk before crossing the Ikva River, the other group crossed the bridge directly opposite town.

• Three of us walked the road to Kruzhuk (קרוז׳וק), made a turn across the big bridge by the horses and arrived at the designated place, while two [other friends] would go straight from the town across the bridge over the Ikva and also reached the designated place. (See (See "In those days … Yaakov-Yosi[1] goes to the Land of Israel (or doesn't go…)(200 English, 218 original Hebrew)

Earlier Uses of the Ravine

As noted earlier, the area of the mass grave was described by Yaakov Mohel as near the place where animals were slaughtered by his father who was a kosher slaughterer (shochet), the place in a painful irony where his father was left after he was shot. Another unlikely source confirms this association of the mass grave and the slaughtering area. A Jewish eyewitness, who was masking his identity, came to Mlynov in December 1942, just two months after the massacre.

Gedalia Lahav was born in Aleksandriya, [Russia] near Rivne. He fled his home town and spent the War posing as a Ukrainian. During 1943, he came to Mlynov. "It was the beginning of December 1942, when I fled from my town Aleksandriya, [Russia] near Rivne and came to Dubno."

Volyn was at that time “cleansed” of Jews, and displayed on the town buildings were placards with shining white letters: “Whoever finds a Jews must bring him [or her] to the police and will receive a reward[”]; the reward – sugar, schnapps so forth. Horror overcame me. Indeed, in my pocket was a forged identity document — but even so, what should I do and where should I turn?

I was aware that in Mlynov there a large estate that needed workers. So I traveled to Mlynov and obtained work there and stayed working until the liberation of the city. Already by the time I got there, not a single Jew remined. Through contact with the population, I became aware that all of them had been shot and thrown in pits which were outside the town (by the slaughterhouse). Truly, after some time, I saw the place with my own eyes. Two mounds of dirt 2-3 meters high covered the pits. What could I do but secretly shed tears, lest someone see me.

During the month of January 1943, when I was sitting by a barber (opposite the Catholic Church) I saw an image that made all of me shake. I saw myself [in the barber's mirror] white as lime and I made a gargantuan effort not to arouse any suspicious that I was a Jew. I saw a family of Jews being transported by armed Ukrainian police.

The barber let loose with the words, “Hell, these Jews are like ants. The more you eliminate them, the more they spring forth from the cracks.” I didn't respond; I sat in silence. That same winter I also heard that in one village (the name is gone from my memory) they discovered 7 more Jews and their fate was like the rest of the Jews.

I personally did not come across any Jew. Most of the Jewish homes stood on their foundation and only a few were destroyed. The homes were occupied, especially by poor Poles and survivors, who fled for fear of their annihilation by the Ukrainian gangs. (See Gedaliah Lahav, "During the Shoah," Eng. translation, p. 355, Heb. original, p. 386)

Near the Menorah Tree

Yaakov Mohel's sister, Dvorah, in a sorrowful and haunting poem she composed for the Memorial Book described the area of the massacre. The massacre took place near "the menorah tree" a tree that was planted on the mythic spot near where a famous Hasidic Rebbe died and that had grown into the shape of a candlelabra (a "menorah"). Dvorah remembered walking along the road between Mlynov and Mervits with friends and sitting under the shade of the tree they believed was that Menorah Tree.

On the road from Mlynov-Mervits
Graves were dug
Opposite our old friend, the tree.
Parents and brothers buried alive.

And you, old tree, what can you tell
Of that black day now distant?
Although you did not stand indifferently-cold
When murderers without hearts murdered. . .

You, sole witness, heard all, saw
How the unhappy ones were led to their deaths;
You heard their lamenting screams of woe
And you saw their blood—redder than red.

You saw the last struggles
Of life, bleeding--young, full of love,
To quickly aged, gray, old people,
Of mothers and fathers, broken, tired.

Did you break your branch arms
In great pain? -- --
Did your yellow-green leaf-eyes burn
Or look with cataracts on their deaths? . . .

Did your friend-storm
Carry into all the corners of the world their “Shema Yisroel” [Hear O Israel prayer]--
East, west, north, south—
And stop somewhere?

Did the golden fields, wheat and corn,
Swallow their wild grief
In those distant days during [the month of] Tishrei,
On both sides of the Mlynov-Mervits way?

* * *

Old friend of my youth, see,
I cannot even go to their grave,
Nor pour out my grief and pain
Nor bring their flowers on stone.
May then birds on your branches say [the mourners prayer]kaddish
And be guardians over the holy place.
May autumn winds carry your golden leaves
To cover the mass grave of murdered Mlynov-Mervits.

(Dvora Mohel-Yarnitsky, A Ballad of a Tree," original 427, English 392)

***

Kruzhuk Today in 2024

Apparently, there is still an area in Mlynov today, in 2024, that is still referred to informally by residents as "Krushy." The information comes from a Ukrainian, Andrii Kopylov, who I contacted online. Andril lives in Mlynov in 2024 and collects and publishes materials on the history of Mlynov in a Facebook group ("Млинів старовинний"). Andril has also done work in the past scanning and restoring old photos of Mlynov for an exhibition organized by the Mlynov town council.

I asked whether he knew where the liquidation happened and whether the name Kruzhuk means anything to him. He indicated that Kruzhuk means "small circles" and is still the unofficial popular name for a microdistrict in Mlynov. It is called Kruzhky (Кружки [укр] - meaning small circles). When asked why it is called that, he that responded that "I think it's because that microdistrict is surrounded by a river: (Кругом вода, навкруги вода, кружкИ вода - in Ukrainian) (See Facebook group "Млинів старовинний")

A map shows the approximate area where the massacre happened according to Andrii's best guess. He identified the geographical degrees speciffying that area, in latitude and longitute, as: 50°30'59.6"N 25°35'56.9"E.

Notes

[1] Yechiel gave a different account of that first day he returned home later in life, possibly due to telescoping memories when he was older. I tend to think the earlier one, written 40 years earlier in 1970, was the accurate account. According to his earlier account in 1970, Yechiel's siblings were with him and his grandmother Hannah, and aunt Tzvia, when they fled to the village of Sloboda where they had a Ukrainian acquaintance and stayed in his hayloft. In the later account from 2003, when Yechiel returned home the day of the bombing, he couldn't find his siblings and he went out on a bicycle to search for them. Later he learned that his brother Yoskah was probably killed in that bombing. He is not certain what became of his sister, whether she was killed or walked to Dubno where their father was living with his second wife. Either way he never saw her again. ↩

[2] On the celebration of Passover under normal times, see Sonia and Mendel Teitelman, "Baking Matzahs," 181, English 166 see also Days of Celebration," original p. 161, English p. 152) ↩

[3] Mendel Steinberg has a bit more to say about the man named "Scheider/Shnayder: "...the Mlynov estate with all its goods was given to a retired German, an old dog, a huge villain. He managed the plundered goods with the palace, having the full assurance that it was his to keep forever, as an acknowledgement for his excellence in the military. The Jewish population, with its committee at the head, was deadly frightened of him. The only people with whom he had decent relations were the dentist Berman and his wife of blessed memory, and someone called Shnayder. We protected ourselves a little with all kinds of bribes. The local Christian population believed that while Shnayder was in Mlynov, nothing terrible would happen (even that very pleasure they also did not allow us). Maybe there was a small kernel of truth to it, because when Shnayder left Mlynov for a time, the evil edicts worsened. And during the wholesale slaughter he was gone." ↩

[4] Hungary joined Germany during WWII. In Operation Barbarossa, Hungarian soldiers were fighting alongside Russian soldiers. During the war against the Soviet Union, 50,000 Hungarian soldiers participated.

[5] Survivor Saul Halperin put the liquidation on October 10, 1943. " And all at once, the 10th of October 1942, we heard that graves were being dug between the mountains to bury the slaughtered, innocent Jewish population The ghetto was well surrounded by the Ukrainian murdering police and with SS people. People searched for ways to tear out of the enclosure — but it was too late! ↩

References

• Baruch, Shoshana. A Struggle To Survive. The story of the Steinberg family. Trans. by Howard Schwartz and Hanina Epstein. Download here.


• Koren, Zipi. "The Story of Yechiel Sherman" [Hebrew] as told to his niece, Zipi Koren, August 2003. Trans by Howard I. Schwartz, PhD. and Hanina Epstein. Download here.


• Tomer, Dina; "Happy is the Man" (Ashrei HaIsh): The Story of Asher Teitelman. [Hebrew]. An Account of Asher Teitelman's life as told to his daughter-in-law, Dina Tomer. trans. by Howard I. Schwartz, PhD, and Hanina Epstein. Download here.


• Sokolsky, David, Monument: One Woman's Courageous Escape from the Holocaust. 2017 (Third Printing)



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See the video discussion of the 1944 commemoration and the identification of survivors in the photo here.

***




Compiled by Howard I. Schwartz
Updated: July 2024
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