by Maxime Rafailovitch
I was born in Warsaw and lived there until the Germans
ordered the building of the Ghetto. I escaped to the Russian
zone, to the little town of Ruzany, Belarus. My family perished in
the Holocaust.
The whole story is very terrible. I don't see anything redeeming, only
desperation. I understand that the younger generation may see it differently.
In the horrible camp of Wolkowysk, Belarus, I met Chaim Katz from Piaski.
He is mentioned in the Piesk web. [note: the Necrology from a Yizkor book
on the Yizkor site]. We made our escape from the camp together.
Some time later I joined a Russian partisan group and eventually, joined
the army again.
I deserted the army in 1946, and made my way west to work and study in Paris
where my parents had relatives. I came to New York in 1958.