Kholmech
_______________
• Excerpt from ‘Report
from Kholmich’
Information gathered by researchers who traveled to
the town, July 2001.
For the entire report, see the family history book
“Kholmich! A Return to a Shtetl”
• Information
About Kholmich Massacre
The names of 53 victims were found in a book entitled,
“Memory.”
The information was received on Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 17, 2001.
• Summary
of Chapter on the Rechitsa
from Jews In Belarus
by Leonid Smilovitsky
(Minsk 1999)
INTRODUCTION & ADDENDUM
People & Places
How did the Holocaust affect our family–our great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins?
The fog of war and massacre make it impossible to answer this question with confidence. We do know that special Nazi killing squads were unleashed just after Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 and that they passed precisely through the areas where our grandparents were born. Newly-released historical sources cannot tell us exactly what happened, but they are able to tell us what might have happened. The story is a complicated one.
Family members, present and future, who read these pages should know that we had a large Russian family. Even to members of this generation, this fact came as something of a revelation. For example, my father, Jerry Schechter, did not discover this until his 70’s.
It was only during our collaborative effort to translate and publish letters that my grandmother, Bessie Rapoport Schechter, had received from Russia that my father and I learned she had nine or ten brothers and sisters. (This story is recounted in Bessie’s Letters). We know that several of them had children, and that several more were of marriageable age as the story told in the letters came to a close in the 1930’s. Multiplied through all the generations which have passed, this family would by now have become a small clan. Yet I have only a half-dozen American cousins, and none of them, so far as I know, are Rapoports. What happened to them all? What was their fate?
Through my grandmother’s letters, we learned several facts, which helped us to fill in a larger puzzle. First, we learned that my grandmother was twenty years old in 1913 when she came to America from her small Byelorussian shtetl of Kholmich. She was the oldest sister in her family, though she had three older brothers. The math is easy to do. When Hitler launched his Operation Barbarrosa invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, my grandmother was 48 years old.
Using her age as a reference point, we can conclude that all of her siblings
could have survived to this point. We have a small photograph of her father.
He has an impressive white beard, and, perhaps because of it, appears elderly.
Even in the unlikely event that the picture was taken very late--in the early
1930’s, he appears to be at least in his 60’s. It is very possible
that, after a difficult life, he had passed away before the Nazi invasion. We
know that his first wife, my grandmother’s mother, Golda, had died earlier.
We also know that my grandmother had Rapoport relatives in the neighboring,
larger town of Rechitsa (ten miles from Kholmich). There her Uncle Gershon lived,
and, undoubtedly, several cousins.
Finally, the towns most often mentioned in the letters, aside from those named above, were the even larger ones of Gomel and Bobruisk, fifteen and fifty miles from Kholmich, respectively. On the ship manifest in which my grandmother’s name appeared, in the space for “last residence,” there may be written the name of one more locale, “Minsk.” But the word is hard to make out, and it may just as well refer to a province name.
As for the Schechters, we know of no immediate family who remained in the Ukrainian shtetl of Yarmolinitz when the Nazis came. There may have been cousins though. My grandfather, Max Schechter, emigrated to the United States in 1910. Within the next dozen years, he, his older and young brother, and his father were all living in America. His father arrived after WWI with his second wife, a cousin. His first wife, Eva, who was my grandfather’s mother, had already died.
There is another place associated with my grandfather’s life. When he
was a young man, he had left his small town for the nearby city of Kamanets-Podolsk.
It was there, after service in the Russian army, that he became active in revolutionary
circles. (See the memory book, Max Schechter-Father, Grandfather, Union Organizer).
My Grandma Sarah also came to America in 1913. She was then a young woman of
twenty, and had traveled across a great ocean to meet her brother in Boston.
Her Russian name was Sonya Sholkov. Her brother’s name was Issac, and he
later Americanized his last name to “Sholkin.” The two children had
left their mother, Vigassi, in Russia, perhaps planning to bring her over at
a later date. Their father had died years before my grandmother’s emigration.
The family originally came from the small Ukrainian shtetl of Pereyaslov, where
my great-grandmother was related to another resident, the great Jewish writer
Sholom Aleichem. (See the book: Remembering Grandma Sarah). Sometime later,
she and her mother might have migrated south to Ekaterinoslav, a larger city,
also on the Dnieper River. That city is listed on her ship’s register papers
as her last place of residence before emigration. In the early 1920’s,
my grandmother heard the tragic news of her mother’s death, so she was
not alive when World War II began.
The Holocaust
My previous efforts to determine if members of our family had perished in the death camps were unsuccessful. I had requested searches through Yad Vashem and The International Tracing Service. The names of a few Rapoports did emerge, but none belonged to our family. It was at that point that I learned that our relatives may have perished before the construction of the death camps. This is because millions of Russian Jews were killed during the two years following Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
In the rear of the German armies, four so-called Eizensatzgruppen units fanned out through the old Jewish “Pale of Settlement.” In Byelorussia and the Ukraine, they systematically went about the work of “exterminating” the Jewish population. These millions of victims never saw the inside of a gas chamber. There was no Auschwitz for them. They were simply marched into forests, forced to dig pits, and were shot at close range.
I learned this from The Black Book, a title supplemented by a huge subtitle that begins with the words, “The Ruthless Murder of Jews by German-Fascist Invaders...”
But did this happen to our relatives?
In April, 2001, I obtained a copy of the book, The Einsatzgruppen Reports, which
is a selective compilation of the official reports sent to Berlin by the various
Einsatzgruppen (EG) units and sub-units. Far from being ashamed of their work,
the killing groups dutifully reported their progress to their superiors in Germany.
As I read, I saw first hand the fabled German predilection for keeping complete
records.
What I read in the book was, in equal parts, reassuring and shocking. It was
certainly chilling to learn that the EG units came to each and every area in
which my grandparents had lived. In the xeroxed pages that follow, many localities
are mentioned, including: Bobruisk, Gomel, Rechitsa, Pereyaslov, Ekaterinoslav
(now called Dnepropetrovsk), Kamenets-Podolsk.
How well our relatives must have known the streets and marketplaces of these towns!
And the chill grew only deeper when I realized that I could now attach dates to these nightmarish events. For example, on October 12, 1941, an EG-B unit entered Rechitsa, only ten miles from the small shtetl where my grandmother had been raised and where her family continued to live.
But amidst these stories of horror, there was also cause for hope. We had already known that one of our grandmother’s sisters (as well as a cousin) had survived. At war’s end, they were found living together in an apartment in Moscow. Her husband and children had been killed during the war. But how? This we do not know.
Her survival was not singular however, and this is the best reason for the hope that somewhere in Russia or Belarus, we may still have relatives, the children of children of the war generation. On September 27, 1941, two months after the German invasion, an EG unit entered Gomel (where one of my grandmother’s brothers helped to run a leather factory). It reported:
“Particularly striking is the fact that in towns like
Gomel and Kholmich which formerly held quite significant numbers of Jews (for
instance in Gomel: of 100,000 inhabitants, 50% were Jews), hardly a single Jew
can be found. As was learned, the Jews were given preference in the evacuation
of the population that started some weeks ago. This happened because Communist
propaganda pointed out that all the Jews would be shot immediately upon the
German occupation of the towns.”
-Einsatzgruppen Reports
Gomel is less than fifteen miles from Kholmich.
Were they evacuated? When the Germans came to the Kholmich area in October, 1941, did they find the Rapoport home–once ransacked in an earlier pogrom–empty? Had our family fled elsewhere? And what happened when the Germans came to those places? Did some join the army? Did some fight in the forests with the partisans? Did some fall into unmarked pits?
There is ample reason to imagine, to hope, and to mourn.
B. Schechter
April, 2001
Addendum
This book was completed in April 2001. I did not send it out, however, because
I was hopeful that more information would be forthcoming. On July 28, I received
a report from historians whom we hired to hired to go to Kholmich. We found
out what happened to the Jews of that shtetl during the Nazi occupation of Byelorussia.
This new material follows this introduction. Also included is a summary of a
chapter from a book about the Jews in Byelorussia, kindly sent to me by a historian
in Israel. The chapter, which was translated with the generous help of Dr. Mark
Urman, concerns the fate of the Jews of Rechista–the larger, neighboring
town– during the Holocaust. As noted above, our relatives lived there as
well. In fact, our direct relations probably migrated from Rechista down the
road to Kholmich.
The full text of the report about Kholmich can be found in Kholmich!-A Return To A Shtetl.
August 2001
BALLET BELARUS
In the photograph
her right foot has just lifted
off the ground, as she pirouettes
like a ballerina on the edge
of the pit, back turned to the Einsatzgruppen
soldier, I think to give the child
in her arms a last moment of
protection. The bullet has already been
fired in this frozen moment, the shutter
too slow to capture it, but the silence
shatters a new millennium, in Brookline, in my
study, and
startled,
I look up.
B. Schechter
May 8, 2001
‘Report from Kholmich’
–An Excerpt–
The discussion comprising the first part of this book was based on historical
research, speculation, and extrapolation. On the basis of what was generally
true and known, I tried to imagine what happened to our relatives and to the
Jews of Kholmich during WWII and the Holocaust.
In July, 2001, I received photographs and a report about Kholmich, from researchers we had hired to travel there. Though we cannot know whether the Rapoports were still in Kholmich in August, 1941, we do now know what happened to the Jewish community there. The facts are in our grasp, though comprehending them can still test our imaginations in a different way. What follows are the words of the report and a photograph:
“The tragedy occurred in August 1941. (Some of the elderly recall September or October, but the records suggest otherwise). Seven soldiers came on horseback. There wore yellow uniforms. One witness said they were Hungarians. Others said Ukrainians. [Ed. note: The translator thought it was far more likely they were Ukrainians, who wore yellow patches on their uniforms]. None of those who saw them recalled them being, or said they were, Germans.
“All Jewish people, regardless of age or gender, were gathered together. Apparently, the soldiers already had a list, because none of the Byelorussian homes were even entered. They brought the Jews to the banks of the Dnepr River and killed them with two automatic weapons. About 200 Jews (perhaps also including some non-Jewish members of the Communist Party) were killed. Kids from the town were offered a chance to fire the weapons. But they all refused, saying they were scared.
“A Jew named Fishkin–who didn’t look Jewish–had been away when the round-up of the Jews occurred. When he returned, he saw what had happened to his family, and he chose to take his place at the massacre site [Ed. Note: The implication is he might have been able to escape].
“Two days later, two local Byelorussian policemen came to the town and ordered the residents to bury the Jews. Twenty Jewish children survived, because they were not at home at the time of the massacre. Local police found them in Rechitsa and executed them there.
“Today, there are now no Jews remaining in Kholmich.”
Information
About The Massacre in Kholmich
As this book was going to press, we received confusing reports which suggested
the possible existence of a second Holocaust memorial in Kholmich, as well as
information about the existence of a book entitled Memory which contained the
names of some fifty-three Jews executed in Kholmich in August 1941. Finally,
the actual names! (Would there be a Rapoport among them?) Moreover, the number
“53” also re-opened the question of how many Jews were massacred in
the town.
The answers to these questions were discovered by our dedicated researchers in the Greencastle group in Belarus. Here is the story they pieced together:
In 1976, someone in Kholmich used an iron pipe topped with a Jewish star to mark the massacre site. In 1999, that crude iron pipe was replaced with the current memorial (See the photograph in Kholmich! A Return To A Shtetl). The Rechistsa Jewish veterans’ group, “A.M.E.,” and a new leader of Kholmich worked together to create the new memorial, under circumstances more fully explained in the family history book referred to above.
The current memorial represents a tree with limbs cut off. Actually, it represents a particular and very resilient tree that had grown in the Jewish cemetery (now a field) and that somehow had survived the war.
Later, the fifty-three names were discovered. According to one eyewitness, this number represents the sum total of Jews killed that day. Another eyewitness recalls hundreds being killed. However, both witnesses were between 9 and 12 years old at the time, and therefore their estimates must be considered uncertain. There is a plan to add the names to the memorial at some point. There is only one Holocaust memorial in Kholmich today; there was once an older one of sorts (the iron pipe). A book recently found which mentioned “the other memorial” was probably referring to the WWII battle statue which stands in Kholmich and which is shown in the picture section of Kholmich! A Return To A Shtetl.
Following is the list of names of fifty-three Jews executed in Kholmich in August 1941:
1-4. VILENSKI Avram Isakovich together with the wife, son Jakov and daughter
Doba
5-7. GORAVAYA Khana together with two children
8-9. GORAVI Notka together with wife Khayka
10-12. GORDIN Itska together with parents
13-18. KAGANOVICH Zalkun together with the wife and four children
19-22. KAGANOVICH Khaim together with the wife, daughter Sonya and the sister
23-28. PUGACH Benya together with the wife and four children
29-31. SPEVAK Esel together with parents
32-33. SPEVAK Isak together with the wife
34-35. SPEVAK Meyer together with the wife
36-41. FISHKIN Ruman together with wife Khasya and four children
42. (the Surname is unknown) Brokha
43-49. (The Surname is unknown) Kiva with the wife and five children
50. (The Surname is unknown) Leyba
51. (The Surname is unknown) Perla
52-53. (The Surname and names are unknown) the Jewish family (the husband and
the wife)
- Source: A book entitled, Memory
|
METRONOME OF MEMORY
Only the story of Fishkin
|
February 21, 2002
The Holocaust in Rechitsa
A Summary from
Jews In Belarus (Leonid Smilovitsky, Minsk 1999)
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Many thousands of Jews perished in the initial stages of the invasion. Before the Nazis were able to sweep through eastern Belarus and the Ukraine, the Soviet government ordered an evacuation of the Jewish population. While the Soviet government and people were not aware of the word “genocide” there was an awareness that the Nazis were targeting Jewish civilians.
Most Jews availed themselves of the opportunity to be evacuated, but there were three groups among them that didn’t: the old, the infirm, and those that thought they might do better under the Germans, given that they came from an advanced country that appreciated people with skills, business know-how, etc.
In August 1941, Rechista was occupied by Soviet partisans, but this proved shortlived. In September, the Gestapo arrived.
On September 28, 1941, the Germans ordered that “useless” Jews be killed, but that those who might be of some use be placed into ghettoes. A very large ghetto was established near Gomel for the entire area. There were 15, 000 Jews confined to it.
In November 1941, a new policy was issued with the appointment of a new Nazi commandant in the district. He was quoted as saying that by the time he assumed his duties, he expected that the Jews would be killed. He insisted that not a single one be allowed to remain alive. The ghettoes were liquidated.
On November 25, 1941, seven large trucks rolled into Rechitsa, each capable of carrying 35 people. Many trips were made transporting people to an area outside the town where the Jews were executed in relatively small groups, their bodies falling into a large pit that had been dig there. By 4 p.m., the executions had of 300 Jews had been completed. It is reported that some of the Germans soldiers were drunk. It is also reported that some of the Jews loudly denounced their murderers. One screamed, “Bandits and fascists!” Another yelled, “The Red Army will come and pay you back!”
Rechista was under Nazi occupation from August 23, 1941 to November 15, 1943. Everything in the city–schools, hospitals, homes–had been destroyed during the war. Says the author: Everything was later restored–except the people.
In 1939, 29,729 people lived in Rechitsa. Of these 7, 237 were Jews. The Nazis killed 4,395 people in Rechitsa, 3/4 of whom were Jews. The names of most of the victims remain unknown.
Shortly after World II, Jewish community life in Rechitsa came to an end, not to resume until 1989. By that time, there were only 1,904 Jews in Rechitsa. Today only 450 remain, 300 of whom are elderly.
A World War II monument was raised in 1973. Its inscription reads: “3000 Died. Why?” Later, an obelisk was dedicated in memory of the victims of the Jewish genocide. Within the last five years, it was destroyed by vandals, as were 24 stones in the Jewish cemetery in six different incidents.
KADDISH
for my dear family, lost in Russia– and in America
Tonight,
the
history finally written,
the
family huddles together
at last,
from
Kholmich to
Brookline,
and the Bronx in between,
from
shtetl to
death camp, from
the neighborhood
to a cemetery in
New Jersey,
from Hanna and Chaim, and Isaac Hirsch,
to
Bessie and Max,
from Uncle George
and
my mother,
to Grandma
Sarah,
their faces flickering
in
the light of a
vast, weeping
century
of Yarzheit candles
on
my table.
Yom Kippur
September 30, 1998
B. Schechter
1910
Max Schechter emigrates to America
1913
Bessie Rapoport and Sonya Sholkov emigrate to America
1941
June/ Germany invades the Soviet Union; two weeks later the Einsatzgruppen (EG)
begin killing Jews in occupied Russia
September/ EG-“B” enters Bobruisk and Gomel; EG-“C” enters
Dniepropetrovsk; EG-“D” enters Kamenets-Podolsk
October/ EG- “B” enters Rechitsa; EG-“C” enters Pereyaslov
First death camp begins operation at Chelmo (Poland)
1943
The Einsatzgruppen begin their retreat to the west, after killing millions of
Jews.
1945
World War II ends.
______________
SOURCES:
• Maps (Atlas of the Holocaust, by Martin Gilbert, Wm. Morrow, N.Y., 1988).
• Excerpts/ The Einsatzgruppen Reports(Arad, Krakowski, Spector-editors/
Holocaust Library, NY, 1989).
• Jews in Belarus (Leonid Smilovitsky, Minsk 1999).
• Greencastle research.