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pair of horses we'd had since the German occupation
(and with which we cultivated our fields),
responded "willingly," so to speak, transporting
in his wagon a number of soldiers and their
artillery to the front; and he remained there in the
trenches a number of weeks until his younger
brother came to replace him
A Sobotnik Operation
That Was Not Carried Out
My friend Bebik Veyner and I were called to the
offices of the authorities in the Afeldman house,
where we were received nicely by an elderly man
named Kolashnikov. He admonished us to bring
the young people we led into the Komsomol, in
return for which we would gain access to high
school and university, so that we could get a
higher education and integrate into the life of the
Soviet regime, which would solve the Jewish
problem.
As a first step, he told us to parade the very
next Sabbath, with red flags flying, to the railroad
station, where we would engage in some loading
work for the army. This would be called Sobotnik
work and would symbolize the beginning of the
new path for our youth as we integrated into the
Komsomol.
We hesitated to give him a clear commitment
on observing this Sobotnik commandment, and
explained that first we had to call a general
meeting of all the youth groups to organize from
scratch, to find the way into their heartsa task
that would take some time.
The Poles Return
In the meantime, the Poles began a counterattack,
and the Soviets began to retreat eastward, so the
front came close to home once again. On a Friday,
at the end of the month of Elul (AugustSeptember),
Polish planes began bombing our city and
one bomb fell beside the flour mill owned by
Volvushes, Gelman, and Royzman, near Mendl
Eizenberg's home and Hershl Lifshitz's house,
along the main road.
As a result, Mendl Eizenberg's eldest son,
Yisroel, was wounded and died, as did Mendl's
brother, also named Yisroel; Moyshe Lifshitz,
THE EARLY DAYS 89
may he live a long life, was severely wounded in
the legs.
The next day, early Sabbath morning, the
Polish vanguard entered after an exchange of fire
with Soviet troops. With the Soviet retreat, bloody
Hersh Fuks, an early immigrant to Eretz Yisroel.
massacres again raged in surrounding villages,
committed by the murderous bands of Bulak
Balechovitz with the help of village bullies. The
Polish occupiers resumed these attacks, and once
again we realized we had to leave that bloody
place as soon as possible, and that our future lay
in Eretz Yisroel.
A Vain Appeal That Did Not Cause a Stir
With the reestablishment of Polish authority in
the areas of the Kressy, an d the return of normalcy,
Zionist activity was vigorously revived.
As in other towns and villages, a few activists,
from the movement began to think about establishing
a Hebrew school in our town. We discussed
it with a few adult Zionist activists and
with their agreement we called a meeting of
progressive-thinking parents in the Talmud Torah
on a Sabbath afternoon .
At this meeting it was almost unanimously
decided to start this activity and from that point on
we began to publicize the project, verbally and in
writing. I remember how I met with two members
of HaShomer HaTsair, B. Veyner (Gafni) and Leybl
Melamed, and we renewed publishing our appeal