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Kampyoni, who had a good relationship with the
new assistant commissar, Uhde, told my mother
that she would visit all the camps in Germany to
find the cap tured Jews. My mother and Mrs. Gitelis
began to collect money, gold, and whiskey to give
to Topka in order to get information. She came
back the first time, telling us that she had regards
from our men. She did the same also a second
time. By then the Jews became suspicious. And so
I and a couple of other boys went to the pits
behind the cemetery. The shtetl then learned the
awful truth that the captured Jews had been shot
and buried near the town's slaughterhouse.
Everyone then realized that the best way to
save himself was to work for the Germans. Therefore
everyone, whoever had the strength, strived
to be registered for work in one of the labor
camps. Through my mother's connections, I was
put to work in the home of Kampyoni, the landowner,
and my brother also got work there.
Topka's brother, Mishko, was good to me, and
whenever there was to be a round-up he would
take me into his room and hide me.
Once in a while there appeared a good man
among the Germans, a man who had pity on the
Jews. We had such a German man, whom we
nicknamed "Moyshele" because he never did us
any evil and, at times, threw some morsels to the
Jews. There was also another German stationed
at the railroad station, whom we called Zede
(grandpa) because of his not bad behavior toward
us Jews.
Many Libivne Jews realized that everything
we had experienced up till then only foreshadowed
what was to come. This was especially in
the thoughts of our youth. We felt that sooner or
later the Germans were getting ready to exterminate
all of us. The news we were getting from the
surrounding areas left us without doubt, leading
to the decision by many of our young people to
flee from the ghetto into the woods. Jews also
began to buy up weapons, which was a very
difficult job under the circumstances. I and a
friend of mine, a boy about 12-13, had earlier
hidden a revolver and parts of guns that he had
found, left by the retreating Poles and Russians.
One of our plans was to set fire to both ends of
the shtetl during the final "action": in the confu-
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 291
sion, most of the Jews could save themselves by
running away into the woods. The plan was never
carried out, but many Jews did manage to escape
the ghetto.
Among those who had initiated and organized
the escape into the woods were my cousins
Chayim Honig and Yankl Honig, and my uncle
Moshke Tzukerman. The leaders represented
various parties. They confided their secret to me
even though I was then only a small boy, only
because I had brought them the hidden revolver.
One day, Mishko, Kampyoni's son, came to
my mother and told her the Germans were going
to start mass killing the next day, expecting to kill
every Jew in Libivne. She immediately told me to
come home, where she had a package ready for
my escape. Most of our group met on the outskirts
of town, at the home of Moyshe Fuks. But when
rumors spread that the SS men would begin at
that very spot, I left to join another group which
included Leybl Rusman, Shloyme Sokolovsky,
Feyge Temer, and others. We were 30 persons in
that group.
We managed to reach the Boris Woods, and
later we were joined by Aaron Milshteyn and
Dovid Pitchinkes who had escaped from the
"action." They reported to us what had happened
to our families and to the other Jews in Libivne. In
the woods we encountered some Ukrainian
Banderovtsy [terrorists and Jew killers]. Our group
therefore had to split up and disperse throughout
the woods. I stayed with Shloyme Sokolovsky,
Feyge Temer, Yisroel Kagan, and a few other
young people, among whom there were also a
young girl and a young man from Warsaw who
had been a Jewish policeman in the ghetto. Our
entire arsenal consisted of a grenade, a revolver,
and a knife.
When we came upon a peasant's home, the
dogs started to bark and the peasant began to
shoot. We ran into the bushes, where we lay a
whole day. It was then that Sokolovsky left us.
Very soon the problem of food developed. The
only means of getting food was from a peasant's
housebut that was very dangerous, since we
did not know what would greet us there. But we
could not avoid that danger, and we thought the
risk would be smaller if the girls went, openly