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When we learned from the Germans who were
occupying Libivne that the Soviet army would
occupy the town in a few days, the people were
filled with joy. Everyone was sure that at least
they would now be sure of their very lives.
The radical left and other sympathizers with
the Soviet Union grabbed horses and with guns
in their hands ran to welcome the Red Army,
which was to come to us from the direction of
Ludmir. But it did not take long before we heard
shooting. No one knew what was happening, nor
where the noise came from. Everyone was dazed.
Suddenly we saw Shmuel Krayzer with a bloodied
neck running toward us, saying that the Germans
were returning from the street near the railroad.
Not knowing what was happening, I did not
wait long but grabbed my wife and the little children
and some food and we ran into the cellar of
Chayim Wolf Olesker. The cellar was filled with
Jews. We still heard shooting. All of us were lying
still with terror. Suddenlya knock on the door.
From the other side of the door we heard an order,
in Polish, telling us to leave the cellar.
Chayim Wolf and I quickly ran out through
the second door. Suddenly I heard, "Stoy. Psha
krev zhidovsky komunistu! " [Halt. You bastard
Jew-Communist! ]. I turned around and saw three
Polish soldiers with fixed bayonets standing near
me. One said to me. "I'll show you what we do
with one who sells cigarettes on the black market!"
The second one said to him, "Why make
such a big fuss? Put a bullet through him and let's
go." But as by a miracle, the third one butted in,
saying, "Oh, let him go, may the cholera take
him! " And they left while I was still in a daze.
UNDER SOVIET RULE
By Shmuel-Yakov Landsman
232
I ran back into the house more dead than
alive. I and my family locked ourselves in and did
not even leave the house on the Sabbath. On
Wednesday, as I peeped through the cracks in the
windows, I saw gentile youths leading Polish
soldiers and pointing out those who had been
ready to welcome the Soviet army. The soldiers
then rounded up the pro-Communist youths (some
gentiles among them) and led them to the station
all beaten up and bloodied.
There was not a civilian to be seen in the
street. Anyone who came outside was immediately
shot. A young Jew was pulled out of Shloyme
Sirtchuk's cellar and shot. Nathum Pinchas
Yoseles was shot on Chelm Street by a bunch of
gentiles who came from the village of Kites.
When Dovid Reder, from Palap, went out to close
the shutters, he was felled by a bullet.
Finally, at the close of Yom Kippur, the Red
Army entered the town and we were able to
breathe more easily. But soon other troubles began,
though they were of another sort. Zalman
Rubinshteyn [he was a Communist] made himself
the leader of the shtetl. He chose as his aides
Moyshe Koltun, Moyshe Bobtses, Rafael Poyntses,
as well as a couple of the town's gentile youths.
They arrested my brother, Efrayim Landsman,
and Avigdor Chesner. Accusing them of treason,
they sentenced them to five years in prison. We
never saw them again.
When the war between the Germans and the
Soviets broke out in 1941, I was drafted into the
army at once and left Libivne on the third day of
the war. I never saw again my parents, my wife,
my children, nor the rest of my family.
Who will avenge their innocent blood?