Żółkiewka, Poland District Krasnystaw, Province of Lublin

Żółkiewka Memories and Stories

Life in Żółkiewka Pre WW2

Summary of an interview with Nathan Irland (Finkelstein) by Yad Vashem

The following is a translation of an interview held by Yad Vashem with Nathan Irland (Finkelstein).
The file no. for the original in Yad Vashem is 03/5646 tape #033C/1566.

The first part was translated by Morris Gradel z"l and the rest by Tamar Amit.

Only the part relating to Żółkiewka is brought here. The full interview contains Nathan's escape and how he reached Palestine in 1943.

The interview itself was recorded on 20^th December 1989 and lasts 1 hour and 45 minutes. The interviewer is Danny Eisner.

Abstract of the full interview by Yad Vashem: Description of his family and the Jews in the town before the war; Sending of the witness to work in a Warsaw bank in 1934 by his father; Anti-Semitic acts in Warsaw in 1938; War breaks out in September 1939; Witness returns to Żółkiewka on foot in October 1939; Pogrom by the Poles on Żółkiewka's Jews on 8^th October 1939 when the witness lost his sister and aunt; Transfer of ruling over the town from the Russians to the Germans several times until the physical arrival of the Germans in October 1939; Flight of the witness to Zamość and his return after a week; Flight of the witness with a friend to Chelm on 30^th October 1939; Crossing of the Bug river to the Russian side; Capture by the Russians and detention in Vladimir Volynski for a month and a half; Transfer to the Kowel city jail for 2 weeks; transfer to the Berdichev prison for 6 months; transfer in October 1940 to a forced labor camp in the city of Chib-Yu; release in August 1941 and witness's recruitment to Andres Army; Arrival with the Polish army to Israel (than Palestine) in August 1943; Desertion of the Polish army and assimilation in Israel; Details on witness's parents and other Jews murdered in Sobibor.

Q: Are you ready to begin by telling us when you were born and where?

A: I am Nathan Finkelszteijn, born in the small town of Żółkiewka on 7^th March 1919.
I begin the story from the time I recall myself: At a tender age I went to Cheder as was the custom among Jews. At the age of seven I also started attending school together with Polish children.
Here it was the custom for Polish and Jewish children to learn together. In the morning I went to school and in the afternoon I went to the Cheder. I went to several different Cheders during the years until I could read a page of Gmara.

Q: Tell me something about your family, how many brothers and sisters?

A: In the family we were seven children and my father and mother of blessed memory. I had two brothers and four sisters. I was the eldest son.
My father was Secretary of the Congregation. He was born in the city of Zamość and my mother was born in Żółkiewka to the DIAMOND family.

When I finished school there was no problem with regard to the Jewish political parties in town – as a youth I was in "Beitar" and there was also "Gordonia" and sections belonging to the Communists
but these were illegal and we hardly noticed them.

After graduating school I wandered about aimlessly; my father was an educated man and I learned a lot from him but there was no future in aimless wandering. I was fifteen and a half. My father wrote to an aunt in Warsaw and I was sent to her.

Q: Can you tell us something about the town?

A: The town itself, I would say, passed through several periods and I would like to mention the period just before Poland became independent in 1918.
The Jews there were in fact on the same level/situation as the Poles, and the Tsarist regime did nothing for the local culture, but compared to the Poles, the Jews were somewhat more educated. Jews learned in the Cheder, Bet Midrash and Synagogue as they had different purposes in life. These things were customary for Jews: some knew more and others less but all knew the prayers. Among them were those who were very educated in the Talmud. Others had more traditional occupations such as shoemaking, tailoring, carpentry and tinsmithing as well as carting. There were also a handful of merchants. There were different kinds of merchants – the one who had an iron store was quite wealthy so were some of the haberdashery shop owners but most merchants were in a bad state. Heads of families with a trade were even worse off as they had to look for work outside of the town, in surrounding villages and they worked for Poles. Such a carpenter for example would leave on Sunday morning to a village and stay there for 6 days coming back only towards the Shabbat. To eat Kosher, he would take several pots from home and eat in most cases milk and potatoes but never any food from the Poles. They had a pretty rough life. On occupations such as roof fixing there is a saying in Yiddish "Udech de Shlajger"

Q: How many people were in the town?

A: I am now in the process of documenting and I already reached over 300 families.

Q: Are you talking about Jewish families?

A: Only Jewish.

Q: How many were there in total?

A: There were Poles living around the town but that doesn't count but there were Poles living with the Jews and these were considered town's people. I assume there were about 200 families of those.
The majority in the town were Jewish although in terms of cultural and other collaboration, there wasn't any. Jews couldn't work in a Polish office - not in the Police or the local council.
Jews had their own administration and led their lives separately but under the Polish rule. Even the Rabbi was appointed by the Polish government although his salary was paid for by the Jewish community.
There was a Rabbi and three judges (or kosher butchers?). The community also had a committee and it collected an annual tax from the better off in the community.
The poor Jewish families were assisted by the community either as an organized effort or personal initiatives. There was solidarity and mutual care.

Q: How were things within your family?

A: My father served as the Secretary of the community's committee and earned a salary from it. I want to give some examples: the Rabbi earned 80 goldens per week, the Shochet (kosher butcher) earned 60 goldens per week and
my father earned 30 goldens per week. Thirty goldens was not a lot for a big family like ours but it allowed living. Others had it much worse – there were those who could not get 5 goldens a week and I am not speaking of those who had to beg here and there that the town had to support. My father was deeply troubled by this as far as I can recall. He served the Rabbi and the three Shochets (as there were three and we needed only one). The salaries they got were a big burden on the community but that was how things were and they couldn't be changed.

Q: What languages were spoken at your home?

A: The mother tongue was Yiddish. Afterwards, as I started attending school and due to the fact that we had many Polish neighbors, I started speaking Polish.
The Yiddish I got from my mother and the Polish from society, neighborhood and school. Till this day, Polish is my second language and I have a good control of it although so much time has gone by.

In the 1920's or from 1925 we felt a population explosion in the town. I was still young and didn't understand but it was then that emigration started especially of artisans that did not rely on commerce. They started to think of running away or emigrating and that is how the emigration started.

A few arrived in the United States, about 5 families as far as I know but most emigrated to Argentina and Brazil. I need to receive the list to document all those who were alive, stayed and perished.

In 1934 when my father sent me to my aunt in Warsaw, my aunt received me as best as she could – a widow with no riches. She cared for me but I was a growing boy with an appetite of an adult man or even more – of an adolescent. I could only earn as an adolescent. I did all kinds of work.
One day, a letter arrived from my father who was interested in what I was doing and how was I earning a living. Inside the letter was an additional closed envelope. In the letter he asked me to go to a Jewish man named Szpar living on #20 Zelna St. and give him the closed envelope. He did not write what was in the closed envelope. That evening I went to that address, rang the bell and found a Jewish couple, much more universal, without hats and speaking Polish. I begged his pardon and delivered the closed envelope.

Q: What was the man's name?

A: Szpar. He was also from Zamość, a childhood friend of my father's. He read the letter and asked if I was his son. I was invited to dinner and requested to return in a few days so he can arrange something for me.
He was a supplier of office supplies to banks and other large companies so he had many contacts. After a few days he told me to go to #152 Marszenkovska St. at the corner of Karditova St. and there wait for him at 1PM. I arrived at the given address on which there was a private Polish bank (called in Polish "Donbenkawa") where there was more privacy. Not a large bank with clerks. I remember that the bank owner left every morning to the stock exchange. I was hired as a delivery boy. As He introduced me to the Director, the distance was so great I could not take part in the conversation. There was a distance between the small man to the upper class man. I just heard one word in Polish "Mozevitc" meaning "acceptable". I was immediately forwarded to one of the clerks and instructed to return the next morning for deliveries. I asked my father's friend what the meaning of "Mozevitc" and he told me that now he can reveal it – he presented the director with a delivery boy but the director did not want a Jew, at least not one that looks like a Jew. He was willing to compromise on one with a fairer complexion. This offended me as I came from an orthodox home however I did accept the job and all turned from darkness to light. All the despised jobs I had done till then, it is hard for me to even describe.

Q: What for example?

A: For example being a street peddler to earn a basic existence. Here, with this new job, I turned at once to be a person amongst cultured people. Work started at 8AM and ended at 1PM with an additional hour in the afternoon. For me it was already acceptable but my parents did not know I was working on Saturdays. It was till noon and then I had a break until Monday. That was a big thing. I earned 120 goldens a month which was quite a lot for someone at my age.
Also working there was a converted Jew that used to be a journalist but was now a banking consultant. He always came to the bank at the same hour and knew everything that was happening in the financial market. He was a financial genius. His name was Ludwig Landau. He is now a part of history – I found something about him in a Polish newspaper. I worked at this bank until the war broke out.
As part of my job, I was sent in 1938 to a place where no Jews lived. Until arriving at this place I passed in Novish St. and down Tanki St.and later to Soltc St. until I reached the 3^rd May St. where I ran into a mob of anti-Semitic Andaks that were breaking windows in Jewish shops and I looked like I was one of them. The Polish policemen on horses tried to break the crowds but seemed quite smug about the whole event. Nothing happened to me but when I returned to the bank I got my courage up and went to the owner named Henric Axe, asked his pardon and told what I witnessed. He placed a paternal hand on my shoulder and told me: "my boy, don't take this to your heart – their payment day will come".

Q: That was the bank manager?

A: Yes. That’s when I understood that he hired me somewhat based on my blue eyes – he knew I will not be subjected to beatings wherever I was sent. From that day, my attitude towards him changed. That was how I worked until 7^th September 1939 when the war broke. Until 3^rd September I was still working and we didn't feel what was happening as the bank. On the 4^th of September I arrived at the bank – it was closed and there was no one to talk to. Later on the 7^th there was panic and people said that the Germans are at the gates of Warsaw. I hadn't managed to escape as many did. That could have been my luck as although I suffered along with the rest of the citizens in Warsaw until the surrender but our suffering was not as hard as that of the ones who ran, many of them killed by bombings and shooting.
When this war was over, I decided to go to my parents in Żółkiewka.

Q: What do you mean "this war was over"?

A: War was over in 1939 in the interior of Poland. It was conquered on one side by the Russians and on the other by the Germans. I decided to return home to my parents. From Warsaw to Żółkiewka it's about 240kms.
There was no transportation. I joined another friend from Żółkiewka, Abraham Rodenstejn and another girl named Rivka Peshin and we walked together for 4 days. We reached Żółkiewka around 7PM on the 8^th October, Sabbath, a day after Simchat Tora. I managed to enter the house, my parents were very happy to see me and I remember as if it were today that there was a heavy sheet of tin on the outside of the window. I asked my father what it was for and was replied that I was not yet aware of what could happen. My paternal grandfather was killed in a Pogrom… While we were talking, shots were heard on the outside. I remember my father saying in Yiddish: "Children, hide under the beds". But the shots had quickly stopped. I went to the corridor (we lived in a big house inherited from my grandfather) with four other related families. In the corridor I found my sister. She was dead. I entered my aunt's apartment and found her injured as well.
I grabbed my mother and ran back. I tried to enter the Polish neighbor's house. He was a shoemaker and my uncle, Jacob Milstajn, who had a shoe store, often gave him work. The Pole's name was Podgolski and he made shoes for my uncle/ I knocked on his door in a panic and told him in Polish: "I am begging you, let my mother and myself enter". He answered in rude Polish: "May you go to hell and quickly". We ran on to another neighbor. I knocked on the door. He was of a different nature – he let us in and asked us not to yell so as not to attract the Pogrom crowds to his house.

Q: Who was there?

A: My mother and I. I left all the others and the dead sister. From our house to this neighbor were maybe 100 meters. In the morning as we got up, my mother, like a mother ran to our house to see how her children are. She tried leaving before but I didn't let her. In the morning we left and saw what had happened. What happened with us was trivial if compared to what happened in the rest of the town.

Q: You said there were just a few shots and it stopped?

A: That was in our house, slightly out of the town. They did the main Pogrom within the town. We couldn't know what was happening there. We heard nothing. When they reached our house, there was some shooting and they stopped.

Q: And your sister was hit by those shots?

A: Yes. A bullet hit her through the eye. And my aunt, Sara Shechter was injured in her legs by a hand grenade but as there was no help available, I traveled with her to Krasnystaw on the next day to a hospital there, 28kms from Żółkiewka.
The first question the Polish doctor asked me was whether I have 500 goldens. I said I did. It was a huge sum and he took it. He asked where we came from and what happened. I told about the Pogrom. He answered in Polish that he assumed as much. Later on I will tell the Poles reason for the Pogrom. I went back to the town and found out that whole families were brutally murdered - Men, women and children.
I would like to mention the following:
Family of Abraham Feldman, his son in law and grandchildren – Eight
Family of Samuel Goldberg, all were killed except one doughter – Six
From the same family, Zvia Hertzog and her daughter Zipora Hertzog - Two
Family of Israel Tropen, husband, wife and son – Three
From the Nudel family a woman named Tova Nudel.
From my family, my sister Leah aged 10 and my aunt Sara that died two weeks after the Pogrom from her injuries.
Twenty two souls in all.
On the next day I started investigating what had happened. I asked an aunt of mine what was the background and why she thought they did it.
It turned out that on the 17^th September the Germens entered the town and stayed for just 2 days. They opened all the Jewish shops and let the Poles take "gifts", rob the Jews. Objectively, there were some Poles who understood the consequences and did not partake in that. On the other hand, there were many who were happy to gift themselves… This is a people (the Polish) that was used to acts of plunder and looting. After 2 days, the Germans left and the Soviet army came. As the town already felt the Germans' attitude and the behavior of some of the Poles (and I emphasis, only some of the Poles), when the soviets came with their propaganda of equality, they were relatively welcomed.
In the town we were not used to carry a gun – that was for the Polish policeman and not the Jews. Council clerks were Polish and suddenly the Soviets were saying that we are free and equally deserving. 90% of the Jews understood that they had to keep quiet and not to partake any action with the Soviets at that time. But there were a number of youngsters, only the young, who had the ideological tendency to the Soviet doctrine. Had I boon there I might have been part of them as well… The Soviets gave guns to some of the Poles as well as to some of the Jews – to keep the order. The Poles were not used to that and felt it was treason. When a Pole is doing that, it's a bad Pole but when a Jew is doing it, its treason. They were acting as if they were feeding us, we are living in their country and suddenly we are collaborating with the enemy. That was the reason I heard when I started asking some school mates. Why did this have to happen? They said it was because those Jewish youngsters started wearing red bands on their sleeves.

Q: Red bands like the Russians?

A: Yes.

Q: Was Żółkiewka under the area captured by the Russians?

A: No, it wasn't like that. I'll explain how things turned out. The soviets were only there for seven days. According to the agreement between them and the Germans, the town was to be under German rule and not Soviet. Till the Bug river. It was known to all. They were there for seven days and when they received their orders to retreat and hand the town back to the Germans, they did according to testimonies tell the Jews and there were also Jewish officers in the Soviet army, they told them to escape and that they would help and take them to Russia but they should leave Żółkiewka as it will become mortally dangerous. Some of the youth and several families heeded to that advice and left with help of the Soviets.
Although it was not great fun there during the war especially after the war declaration between Germany and the Soviet Union, it was incomparable to the situation under the German occupation.
You must understand that it was the best escape route for Jews to suffer in Russia and not be murdered in Poland. The young escaped along with several families and the rest stayed – they didn't believe or didn't understand what the Germans were capable of. Most [of those that escaped - TA] lived. There were single cases that I am now documenting of those that escaped to Russia and survived and if they didn't make it back from Russia in time, died of hunger but those are few, about 3%. The ones that lived are scattered around the world. The majority, about 80% are in Israel and the rest in Argentina, Brazil and the USA.

Q: In what region of Poland is this? What large city is nearby?

A: It's in the Lublin region. I remained stuck after all this happened. I had a blank head. I was stuck in Żółkiewka under the German occupation.

Q: Where was the rest of your family during this time?

A: Also in Żółkiewka.

Q: Brothers and sisters as well?

A: Brothers and sisters as well except one sister that was in Warsaw but later she too joined us in the town. So we started thinking what to do. Each day followed the last and weeks went by. One clear day my mother said to me: "Nathan, go outside to an unsettled area because it seems that the Germans are hunting people down for forced labor". And indeed, the Germans were catching Jews for forced labor while beating them.

Q: All that time the Germans were in the village?

A: From the time the Soviets left there were Germans until they lost the war.

Q: What do you recall from the Germans?

A: I remember that they took more and more control from the Jews. Our house was right by the main road so they always passed right by. The main German office (staff) was close by. Almost always in the evenings and we would hear the voices of the beaten Jews going back after interrogations. The Jews were taken to all kinds of despised jobs. I ran away when my mother told me. As I did so, I met an acquaintance named Tova Cuiker, about my age. My father always said about me that I was independent and now I asked her to tell my parents that I am running to the Russian border and that they shouldn't worry. I had a grandmother in Zamość, my father's mother. Through the roads it would have been 60kms but through the villages and the woods it was only 30kms. I knew the area well from my childhood wanderings so I went to Zamość in the afternoon. I reached my grandmother's house and I remember, I have to point out what human feelings are. My grandmother asked me "Is your father alive?", I said yes. Afterwards she was more comfortable and started asking about my mother and the other children. So I started telling her without too much detail. Till this day I cannot forget what a son means to his mother – first she asked about him and not about the rest of the family. I told her that I wish to get to the border. She said "how can you leave your whole family and your home to escape alone?" I stayed there for a week and then returned home, influenced by her.

Q: When was this?

A: During October. On the way I ran into a Pole. I greeted him and he replied. He asked where I was coming from and I replied Zamość. He asked about the situation there and I told him it wasn't good. This whole conversation was of course in Polish. I told him that people are caught and taken to forced labor. He looked in my eyes and said "you must be a Jew". I replied that I am as in that time we still didn't fear that much but I did realize that I betrayed myself although I did not look Jewish. He knew I was Jewish from my discontent at the situation as the Poles at that time and the Germans had a different life. We parted and I went on my way learning an important lesson. I ran into another Pole that came back from captivity. The same story repeated – I asked him where he was coming from. He replied that he was held captive by the Germans but is now returning home. He asked me the same and I said that all is well, I was returning from Zamość… I saw that he didn't guess I was a Jew. I returned home bearing greetings especially to my father from his family in Zamość. He was content although he had no idea about my whereabouts during that week as there was no telephone or post. During that time, my sister returned from Warsaw. Hunger was starting there already in October 1939, a month after war ended in Poland. In our small town it was the opposite – we had food but were missing other consumables such as razor blades for example. My sister and I decided to go back to Warsaw with a few suitcases of food like eggs and butter. There were no regular trains only freight trains. We bought tickets and boarded. When we reached the station at Demblin, between Warsaw and Lublin, the train stopped.

Q: Is that a city?

A: Quite a big city. Demblin. A German entered and asked if there were Jews in the compartment. I was with my sister and wearing a farmer style hat. We spoke Polish between us but didn't have any false documentation. Just ours – Jewish. There was a Jewish lady aged about 50. The Poles did not understand German except for a few words: "Jude" was one of them. They pointed at her and she was taken off the train. I assume they didn't do too much to her as the murdering hadn't started yet. We continued and arrived to our relatives in Warsaw. I have to stress that we had no guidance – we did not have any Jewish leaders to guide us in the daily changes. I was young and didn't understand much but there were many like me. We should have had guidance for example to tell us that for someone with my "Arian" looks there was almost no room for worry. Instead, I got very fearful of train rides and refused to return to Żółkiewka by train. That when the road "adventures" begun. I found a carter and rode with him four days and we encountered some foul incidents. If the carter was Jewish, it was also obvious that I was. It was easy to capture us, have us do some forced labor for 24 hours and release us. I made it back home but was still not thinking to escape to Russia. A friend of mine, Arie Kaufman was in the army and captured by the Germans. He heard that they were releasing only those that fought over Warsaw. He was living in Warsaw for several years before the war so he told them that he was also a fighter for Warsaw's freedom. They inquired about places and as he knew the city well, he had no trouble in answering. They released him home. He was planning to escape to Russia so when they asked him where he wanted to go, he answered Saharna which was on the old Russian border and there he served as a soldier before the war. Although he was released to there, he came to his parents in Żółkiewka. We met there and he started talking about escaping. He told me what he went through in his short imprisonment. He didn't suffer from the Germans but from the Poles: "Yesterday I fought together with the Pole and in captivity he didn't know me. Not only that but the Germans took out the Jews separately while the Poles stood there laughing and that was the worst. I assumed I would be targeted by the Germans but not by the Poles. It is true that they beat me but the shear insult – we have to escape".
I went to my father and told him I was escaping. It was the 30^th October 1939.

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