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FIGHTERS ON THE FRONT AND IN THE FORESTS 329
children who had survived and told them he
would send them to work in Donbas. Thereupon I
and my daughter went to him, saying, "Isn't it
enough that these children have gone through such
terrible experiences during the war? But instead
of sending them to school, you are sending them
away to work together with murderers and traitors
in Donbas? The four children were Nathan
Sobel, Avrom Getman, Moyshe Blumen, and
Binyomen Perkal.
The gentile was insulted and told me he would
send my daughter there, too. But higher authorities
intervened and his evil plan failed.
Rochl Leichter lived with us. When the Ukrainian
leader of the shtetl's work force wanted to
send her to Donbas too, I went to the Ukrainian
and begged him not to do this to her; when the
Ukrainian did not listen to me, I approached the
first secretary of the Party and told them this Ukrainian
man had been in my Fyodorov partisan group
and when sent out on a mission he had run away.
The man was called before an investigation
committee and was asked whether it was true that
ZEIISHEN
ASSEMBLY CENTE
U E0 A TEA
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Yitshak Orbuch with his wife, Sonya, and Shmuel
Melamed (z"1) at the gate to the UNRRA assembly
center in Zeilsheim, Germany, 1946.
he was a deserter. He answered that he had not
deserted, but had run to another partisan camp.
But he could not convince the examiners and was
removed from his post. Rochl was saved.
I worked thus for six months, until the Soviets
decided to form a commission to decide who
had the right to be repatriated to Poland.
When we received permission to go, we said
goodbye to the Jews of Libivne. Before we left, we
learned that two Jewish girls had been saved by
hiding in the homes of peasants in a nearby village:
the children did not know they were Jewish.
We took them to sleep over in our house on the
eve of our return to Poland. But in the morning
we discovered the two girls had run back to the
village.
We crossed the Soviet border on our way to
Chelm, stayed in Chelm for a short time, and then
continued on our journey through Lodz, Szczecin,
and finally Berlin. From the American Zone in
Berlin we went to Zeilsheim, where we stayed for
three years. We then emigrated to America.
I finally wish to add a few words about my
exterminated family. My brother Abraham was
killed in 1943 in the vicinity of the town of Matzev.
The date and place of his death are unknown. The
place where my brother Chayim died is likewise
unknown. My brother Simche Sheynwald was
killed in a village during the winter of 1944. His
wife and four children died there, too. I do not
know where and how my brother Tratl died.
My sister Henye Lentschitsky (Sheynwald)
was exterminated together with her whole family.
The same is true of my sister Freydele Vishnits
(Sheynwald).
My son fell
in a fight with
the Germans in
1943. I do not
know when and
where my son
, Shneyer fell.
Yitshak Orbuch accompanies Eleanor Roosevelt (center)
during her visit to the Zeilsheim camp in Germany,
1947.