The Heavens Are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod

by Avrom Bendavid-Val

  They were dressed nicely; the men in Western-style suits. No one dressed like Hasidim.2 My father, for example, would go to the synagogue dressed in a suit, like in the city. Whether they were religious or not, everyone went to shul and observed the Jewish holidays. There were a few Communists, and they would go out on Friday night with their cigarettes, and people would pass them and taunt them yelling, “fire, fire.”

  We had nothing in common with Poles and Ukrainians. The opposite: they would come and do business, buy and sell … I remember that my father’s grandmother would go out to villages with her husband, and she would bring all sorts of goods to sell, eggs and so on, and later the villagers would come to our house to buy things. There was no sense of hatred, but sometimes … the Gentiles, on Sundays, would walk through Trochenbrod on the way to their church. And sometimes, I remember once in particular, they did a little pogrom on us; maybe we were at fault also. As children maybe we shouted at them or put something in their way in the street. We weren’t friends, but we got along.

  We would prepare for winter. People who had root cellars would gather the potatoes, for example, and store them there. Those who didn’t have root cellars would dig a pit in the ground, and put in the potatoes, and cover it with lots and lots of straw and soil. Because as Pesach would approach, people needed lots of potatoes, and potatoes didn’t grow in the winter. It didn’t always work. Sometimes the cold made it so that it was impossible to use them. There was always a great effort to prepare all kinds of foods that would last throughout the winter.

  It’s really sad that there’s nothing left of Trochenbrod. I left Trochenbrod in 1939. I would never have believed, until I saw it myself, that there’s nothing left. It hurts a great deal. In Trochenbrod—it’s not just that I grew up there—in Trochenbrod there grew up a wonderful youth, wonderful people. It was a generation of people … there was joy, not bitterness; I think the political youth movements created it; it gave us a sense of purpose and meaning. Among the youth there was idealism. We were a Jewish town. That was unique. That was special.

  1. Hebrew for “Holocaust.”

  2. Plural of Hasid, Hasidic Jews.

  GLOSSARY OF HEBREW AND YIDDISH TERMS

  Hebrew and Yiddish words often have a guttural “kh” sound in them, as in “khutzpah.” In English transliterations, that sound is most often denoted with “ch.” Unfortunately, “ch” is also pronounced as in “cheese.” In the text I follow the most common practice and use “ch” for both sounds. If the “ch” should be pronounced as in “khutzpah” I denote that with a “(kh)” symbol in the table below: otherwise pronounce the “ch” as in cheese.

  Balagola Wagon owner.

  Baruch (kh) atoh adoinoi eiloiheinu melech (kh) haoilom … Opening phrase of many Hebrew blessings: “Blessed are you lord, our god, king of the universe …” The style of pronunciation that that Ryszard learned was the Ashkenazic, or European, style of Hebrew pronunciation.

  Beitar Right-leaning Zionist youth organization that stressed self-defense.

  Challah (kh) Egg bread, often braided, traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays.

  Chalutz, pl. chalutzim (kh) Pioneer; specifically, a Jewish settler in Palestine who went with the idea of paving the way for a Jewish state there.

  Chapper (kh) Kidnapper of young Jewish teenagers for conscription into the Russian army in place of the sons of wealthy Jews.

  Chazan (kh) Cantor.

  Cheder (kh) Religious day-school for boys, usually held in the home of its only teacher.

  Chulunt Slow-cooked stew that was a Sabbath specialty because it could be placed on the stove before the Sabbath and left there over a very low fire for the entire Sabbath, during which lighting a fire is forbidden.

  Dreidel Spinning top, a toy traditionally used for Hanukah games.

  Eretz Yisrael The Land of Israel; refers to the biblical Land of Israel and the Jewish homeland.

  Etzel National Military Organization, a militant Jewish organization in Palestine that believed in creating a Jewish state there by using force against the British and Arabs.

  Feltcher Self-taught paramedic, a healer, often also the pharmacy owner.

  Goy Gentile.

  Hanukah, or Chanukah (kh) Festival of Lights, an eight-day festival commemorating the reopening of the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E., following the military victory of Judah Maccabee. The holiday occurs in the same season as Christmas.

  Hanukah gelt Coins given to children during the Hanukah holiday.

  Kapoteh Long black or white kaftan, prayer garb.

  Kichel Sweet cracker.

  Kiddush Prayer sanctifying the Sabbath.

  Latkes Potato pancakes, a traditional Hanukah dish.

  Matzah, pl. matzot or matzos Unleavened flatbread eaten during Passover. In the plural, “matzot” represents the Sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “matzos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

  Melamed Learned teacher.

  Mitzvah A good deed in God’s eyes.

  Pesach (kh) Passover.

  Purim The Festival of Lots, a happy holiday in the Jewish calendar that falls about a month before Passover.

  Seder Passover ritual meal.

  Shabbat, Shabbos Sabbath. “Shabbat” represents the sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “Shabbos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

  Shabbos goy “Sabbath Gentile” who performed functions for Jews like stoking fires or milking cows on the Sabbath because Jews are prohibited by religious law from performing acts of “work” on that day.

  Shalom aleichem (kh) “Peace upon you,” a traditional Jewish greeting.

  Shoah Hebrew for “Holocaust.”

  Shtetl Community of Jews that was part of an Eastern European town. The Jews would live in a section that was exclusively Jewish and reflected Jewish religious traditions and values: in effect a Jewish village within a Gentile town. People referred to Trochenbrod also as a shtetl because the Yiddish word literally means “townlet.”

  Shul Synagogue. Derived from “school.”

  Sukkah Temporary field hut erected for the Feast of Tabernacles.

  Sukkot, Sukkos Jewish fall harvest holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles, during which meals are taken in temporary huts where stars can be seen through fronds on the roof. “Sukkot” represents the Sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “Sukkos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

  Talmud Torah Jewish day school for boys that has a number of teachers and teaches the classic Jewish religious texts.

  Tzimmes Baked dish of mixed ingredients like chopped carrots, dried fruit, and meat.

  Tzitzis Tassels on the corners of prayer shawls.

  Yom Kippur Day of Atonement; the most important day on the Jewish calendar.

  Zmires As used here, Sabbath songs.

  CHRONOLOGY

  1791 Czarina Catherine the Great establishes Russia’s Jewish Pale of Settlement, an area that eventually extends from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

  1795 The last of three partitions of Poland leaves Poland’s eastern lands, including Volyn province in which Trochenbrod will arise, in the hands of Russia’s Catherine the Great and the czars who follow her.

  1804 A decree of Czar Alexander I permits Jews to live only in larger towns and cities of the Pale of Settlement. The decree also exempts from harsh taxes and other discriminatory laws Jews who engage in agriculture on unused land. In the years following this decree the first individual Jewish families settle in the marshy Trochim Ford clearing.


  1813 The first baby is born in Trochenbrod.

  1820 An organized group of Jewish families from cities in the surrounding area joins the earlier Trochenbrod settlers.

  1827 Czar Nicholas I issues a decree that conscripts Jewish boys into the Russian army until age forty-five. Again, families of Jewish farmers on unused land are exempted. In response, there is a new surge of Jewish settlement at Trochenbrod and outright purchase of the land by the settlers. The United States is just over fifty years old.

  1828 Approximately at this time a group of twenty-one families of Mennonites establishes the villages of Yosefin and Sofiyovka near Trochenbrod. They begin to abandon these settlements several years later.

  1835 Another decree from Czar Nicholas I requires rural Jews to be in agricultural “colonies” and have passports and permits to travel. Trochenbrod is formally recognized as a Jewish agricultural colony and given the name of the former Mennonite village, Sofiyovka.

  1837 Ignatovka, also known as Lozisht, is established near Trochenbrod as a sister Jewish agricultural colony.

  1850 A new decree outlaws Hasidic dress. From this point on Trochenbrod is gradually de-Hasidized, though it remains strongly religious.

  1865 Another Czarist decree allows Jews to change their status from farm villager to town dweller without giving up their land. The Jews of Sofiyovka petition for and are granted town status; Ignatovka remains a colony.

  America’s Civil War ends.

  Tolstoy begins publishing War and Peace in serial form.

  1880 Trochenbrod begins a process of steady economic diversification, modernization, and growth, increasingly transforming itself into a real town and regional commercial center. This process continues until the First World War.

  The first Trochenbrod immigrant goes to the United States.

  1882 Czar Alexander III enacts the “May Laws,” highly oppressive anti-Jewish regulations that restrict where Jews can live, how many can receive higher education, and the professions they are allowed to practice. These regulations remain in effect until the 1917 revolution, and are one factor encouraging massive Jewish emigration from Russia during that period.

  1885 Heavy emigration from Sofiyovka begins and continues to 1940, except during the First World War. Trochenbroders immigrate to North and South America, and after the First World War also to Palestine.

  1897 Trochenbrod and Lozisht have a population of close to sixteen hundred Jews. Trochenbrod begins to have light industry, begins to modernize, and begins to diversify into a larger array of economic activities. The economy of the entire Pale of Settlement becomes more dependent on industrial production.

  1901 Theodore Roosevelt becomes president of the United States.

  1904 The Russo-Japanese war spurs illicit emigration of many Trochenbrod men to avoid conscription.

  1914 The First World War places Trochenbrod on the front between Austro-Hungarian and Russian troops, where it suffers pillage, rape, murder, famine, forced labor, and disease.

  1917 The October Revolution establishes Soviet rule in Russian lands.

  1918 The First World War ends; the newly constituted Soviet Union immediately embarks on a territorial struggle with Poland. Trochenbrod is further ravaged in the conflict.

  1921 Trochenbrod is now located in eastern Poland. Its population is again roughly sixteen hundred Jews.

  1925 Prince Radziwill begins building a Catholic church at the edge of Trochenbrod to serve Polish people living in villages in the area.

  Trochenbrod begins to recover and reassert itself with vigor as a regional commercial center.

  1929 Sofiyovka is described in the Illustrated Directory of Volhyn and the Polish Address Business Directory in a way that suggests it has begun to reclaim its role as a robust regional commercial center.

  1933 In this year and the next, many Trochenbroders who had settled in the United States return to visit their relatives in Trochenbrod.

  1934 Hitler, as both chancellor and Führer in Germany, emerges as a major political figure in Europe. A Polish-German nonaggression pact allows for unrestricted Nazi propaganda in Poland. From 1934 on, Poland’s pogroms and repression of Jews are lesser echoes of those in Germany.

  1938 The first military training course for Etzel officers is conducted in Trochenbrod.

  November 10: Kristallnacht.

  1939 Spring: A ribbon-cutting ceremony is conducted for the first paved segment of Trochenbrod’s street. Trochenbrod has some electricity, telegraph and telephone, newspapers from Warsaw, bicycles, movies, and even an occasional visit by a motorized vehicle; the town is rapidly expanding and modernizing.

  August: Germany and the U.S.S.R. sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact.

  September: Germany and the U.S.S.R. invade and divide Poland between them. The Second World War begins. Trochenbrod comes under Soviet rule.

  1941 The population of Trochenbrod and Lozisht has swelled to over six thousand people as a result of economic growth in the interwar years and an influx of refugees from western Poland in the wake of the German invasion.

  June 22: Germany invades and the Soviets withdraw from eastern Poland, leaving Trochenbrod in Nazi hands. Trochenbrod is terrorized and brutalized by the Germans and their Ukrainian auxiliary police. December: Pearl Harbor is attacked; America enters the Second World War.

  1942 August 11: The first Aktion. Most of the Jews of Trochenbrod and Lozisht are taken to pits prepared near Yaromel and slaughtered.

  September 21: The second Aktion. On Yom Kippur, everyone remaining in Trochenbrod’s ghetto, including many that had fled from the first Aktion and then returned to pray with their brothers on Yom Kippur, is taken to the Yaromel pits and murdered.

  December: The third Aktion. The last of Trochenbrod’s people, about twenty leather workers, are shot.

  1950 A Trochenbrod survivor living in the nearby city of Lutsk reports having visited the site of the town and finding no remaining physical evidence of it.

  SOURCES

  A Grandfather’s Memories. Memoir of Morris Wolfson, as told to his grandaughter, Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann, in November, 1974; submitted by Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann as a term paper to Sol Gittleman, Professor of Yiddish Literature, Tufts University, in December, 1974. The manuscript was given to me in 2008 by Laura Praglin, cousin of Geri Wolfson Fuhrmann; Laura and Geri subsequently provided a tape and CD of the full interview and related material. Morris (Moshe) Wolfson was the son of Wolf Schuster, a shoemaker in Trochenbrod. Wolf immigrated to the United States, and in 1912 brought over his son Moshe. When during immigration processing Moshe was asked his father’s name in order to establish the surname, Moshe said he was Wolf’s son: duly recorded as Wolfson, and that remained Moshe’s legal family name forever after.

  A Voice from the Forest: Memoirs of a Jewish Partisan. By Nahum Kohn and Howard Roiter; published by Holocaust Library, New York, 1980. Like many Polish Jews, after the Nazis arrived Nahum Kohn fled eastward, to what a short time before had been eastern Poland. He eventually found his way to Trochenbrod. After a few months he left Trochenbrod for the forest and established a Jewish partisan unit that included young men from Trochenbrod. He operated in the region around Trochenbrod for the duration of the war, and afterward settled in Canada.

  And I Still See Their Faces: Images of Polish Jews. Published by the American-Polish-Israeli Shalom Foundation, located in Warsaw, Poland, 1997. In 1994, the Shalom Foundation appealed throughout Poland for photographs of Jewish friends and neighbors before the Holocaust. More than seven thousand photos came in, accompanied by notes telling what the submitters knew about the people in them. A jury selected photos, editors refined the notes, and the result is this beautiful and moving book. As I explain in the Epilogue, And I Still See Their Faces ultimately brought Basia-Ruchel Potash and Ryszard Lubinski back together; this in turn led me to most of the photographs of Trochenbrod in the 1930s that appear in this book.

  Ani Ma’amin: Eidut V’Hagot (I Believe: Testimon
y and Meditations). By Tuvia Drori; published in Hebrew by Yair Publications, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1994. The author gave me an original edition of this book in 1997. Joseph Blau translated the manuscript to English, and a copy of that translation was given to me in 1998 by Marvin Perlman, a Trochenbrod descendant living in Potomac, Maryland. I have edited the English translation of quotations that appear in this book. It was in Ani Ma’amin that I found a reference to Jacob Banai’s book, “Anonymous Soldiers” (Hebrew, Friends Publishing, Tel Aviv, 1978) in which he records his impressions of Trochenbrod while on the 1938 Etzel officers training course.

  Esh Achazah B’ya’ar (A Forest Ablaze). By Gad Rosenblatt; published by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad Publishing House, Ltd., Kibbutz Lochamei Haghettaot, Israel, first published in 1957, corrected second edition published in 1976. In 2008, Burt and Ellen Singerman provided me with an informal translation into English.

  Findings of the [Soviet] Commission Documenting Fascist Atrocities. Report of a local commission set up by Soviet authorities, February 1945. This report, which is based on witness testimony, describes Holocaust events in the Sofiyovka area and provides some interesting insights into the Soviet view of what transpired. The report, housed in the State Archive of Volyn Region in Lutsk, Ukraine, was translated for me by Alexander Dunai of Lviv, Ukraine.

  Hailan V’shoreshav (The Tree and Its Roots: The History of T.L., Sofiyovka-Ignatovka). Edited by Y. Vainer, T. Drori, G. Rosenblatt, A. Shpielman; published primarily in Hebrew and Yiddish by Bet TAL, Givatayim, Israel, 1988. Bet TAL is the organization of people from Trochenbrod and the neighboring village of Lozisht and people descended from them; Hailan is the “official” memorial book for Trochenbrod: it can be viewed on the Bet Tal Web site, http://bet-tal.com.