דאָס לעבן אין װילנע האָט זיך סטאַביליזירט. די אָנגעקומענע פּליטים האָבן טײלװײַז גענומען אַרבעטן, טײלװײַז געהאַנדלט און פֿאַרדינט אויף חיונה. אַ גרויסער טײל איז אָבער אָנגעװיזן געװען אויף סובסידיעס פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע אָרגאַניזאַציעס, און אַלע האָבן געזוכט װעגן װי אַזוי װײַטער צו פֿאָרן.
“דאָ איז אַ װוּלקאַן” – פֿלעגן אַלע אין אײן קול טענהן – “מען מוז לויפֿן װײַטער”. אין דער צײַט זײַנען קײן װילנע אָנגעקומען די פֿירער פֿון פּוילישע ייִדנטום – סײם־דעפּוטאַט לײבל מינצבערג, סענאַטאָר טראָקענהײם, הרבֿ ד”ר יצחק לעװין, ראַטמאַן פֿון לאָדזשער שטאָטראַט (רײשער רבֿס זון), ראַטמאַן פֿון לאָדזשער שטאָטראַט אַדװאָקאַט רײכמאַן, זײער פֿיל רבנים און ישיבֿה־לײַט פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע ישיבֿות. אַ סך בונדיסטן מיטן פֿירער פֿון לאָדזשער בונד שמואל מילמאַן בראש, זײער פֿיל ציוניסטישע פֿירער און סתּם ייִדן, װאָס האָבן באַװיזן צו אַנטלויפֿן פֿון דעם היטלעריסטישן גיהנום. דאָס איבערשװאַרצן די גרענעצן איז שוין דאַן געװען פֿאַרבונדן מיט גרויס סכּנת־נפֿשות. אַזוי איז געקומען מיט אָפּגעפֿרוירענע פֿיס דער אַדװ. רײכמאַן. מיר האָבן אים אַרײַנגעגעבן אין שפּיטאָל פֿון “משמרת־חולים”, װוּ ער איז געלעגן אַ לאַנגע צײַט. אויף מײַן אַדרעס פֿלעגן כּסדר אָנקומען זײער פֿיל בריװ, ספּעציעל פֿאַר לאָדזשער און װאַרשעװער פּליטים. איך האָב זיך פֿאַרבונדן מיט די לאָדזשער לאַנדסלײַט אין אַמעריקע, זײ האָבן מיר צװײ מאָל געשיקט קלײנע געלט־סומען, װעלכע איך האָב צוזאַמען מיט ד”ר װיגאָדסקי און ל. מינצבערג פֿאַרטײלט צװישן די פּליטים.
די לאָדזשער לאַנדסלײַט אין ניו־יאָרק האָבן כּמעט ניט געשטיצט די פּליטים אויף די ערטער. זײ האָבן געהאַלטן, אַז מען דאַרף פֿון די אָקופּירטע געגענטן אַרויספֿאָרן [זײער הילף איז געװען אַ נישטיקע: צװײ מאָל צו הונדערט דאָלאַר!]. דאָס איז געװען זײער אַ גוטער װוּנטש. אָבער צום באַדויערן, אַ ניטדורכפֿירבאַרער. אין יענעם פּעריאָד האָט מען שוין פֿון לאָדזש כּמעט װי ניט געקענט אַרויס. אַפֿילו דאָס פֿאָרן פֿון לאָדזש קײן װאַרשע איז שוין דאַן געװען פֿאַרבונדן מיט אַזעלכע ריזיקע הוצאות, אַז נאָר געצײלטע האָבן דאָס געקענט בעװײַזן. װער רעדט נאָך דאָס פֿאָרן פֿון װאַרשע קײן װילנע, איז שוין דאַן בכּלל געװען אוממעגלעך. נאָר געצײלטע יחידים איז דאָס געלונגען. […] זײער פֿיל פּליטים זײַנען געװען אָפּגעריסן פֿון זײערע מישפּחות, װײַל געלאָפֿן זײַנען אין דער ערשטער רײ נאָר מענער און דערװאָקסענע יוגנט. פֿרויען און קינדער זײַנען געבליבן אויף די ערטער. און אָט די אײנצעלנע מענער זײַנען געזעסן אין װילנע ביזן לעצטן מאָמענט, כּדי צו שטיצן די געבליבענע פֿאַמיליעס מיט פּעקלעך. אַ סך מענער פֿון זײ זײַנען דערנאָך אַרײַנגעפֿאַלן צו די דײַטשן.
אַנדערע װידער האָבן דורכגעמאַכט שװערע טראַגעדיעס צוליבן אַרעסטירן זײער פֿאַמיליען־מיטגלידער אין װעג דורך די רוסן, בײַם אַריבערגײן די גרענעץ. […]
פֿון װילנע האָט מען געקענט שיקן פּעקלעך פּראָדוקטן אין די אָקופּירטע געביטן. אַלע פּליטים האָבן זיך אויף דעם אַ װאָרף געטאָן, װי אויף דער אײנציקער מעגלעכקײט אויפֿצוהאַלטן זײערע פֿאַמיליעס בײַם לעבן. יעדער האָט פֿון זיך דאָס לעצטע פֿאַרקויפֿט, אַבּי װאָס אָפֿטער צו שיקן אַ פּעקל. פֿון יענער זײַט, פֿון לאָדזש און װאַרשע, פֿלעגן צו מיר אָנקומען האַרצרײַסנדיקע בריװ װעגן הונגער און נויט. און לויט מײַנע באַשײדענע מעגלעכקײטן האָב איך זײער פֿיל געשיקט צו פֿרײַנט און חבֿרים. דאָס לעצטע פּעקל האָב איך באַװיזן אַרויסצושיקן צו מײַן חבֿר און פֿרײַנט אַדװאָקאַט יוסף װײצמאַן אין װאַרשע. כּדי צו שיקן אַ פּעקל, האָט מען געמוזט האָבן אַ פּאַס פֿון אַ ליטװישן בירגער. אַזוי האָבן מיר, אַלס װילנער, פֿאַרלײַכטערט דעם ביטערן גורל פֿון די פּליטים.
Life in Vilnius stabilized. Some of the refugees who arrived started to work, others traded [on the black market] to earn a living. However, a large number of them were dependent on grants from various organisations, and everyone was looking for ways to move on.
“Here is a volcano,” everyone said in one voice, “you have to keep running.” At that time, the elite of Polish Jewry arrived in Vilnius – the Sejm 11Sejm is the name for one of the two chambers of the Polish National Assembly. representative Leybl Mintsberg, Senator Trokenheym, Rabbi Dr. Yitskhok Levin, a representative of the Łódźer city council (the son of the Rabbi of Reysh), the representative of the Łódźer city council lawyer Reykhman, a great many rabbis and yeshiva people from various yeshivot. 22A Yeshiva is a Jewish educational insitution for religious studies. Many Bundists with the leaders of the Łódźer Bund with Shmuel Milman as their head, many Zionist leaders and ordinary Jews who managed to escape from the Hitlerian hell. Already then, the illegal crossing of the borders was connected with a great danger for life. So the lawyer Reykhman arrived with frozen feet. We took him to the hospital of “Mishmeres-Kholim” 33A Jewish hospital in Vilnius for patients who were unable to pay for their stay where he lay for a long time. There were many letters addressed to my address all the time, especially to Łódźer and Warsaw refugees. I contacted the Łódźer Landsmener [compatriots] in America and they sent me a small amount of money twice, which I distributed among the refugees together with Dr. Wygodski and L. Mintsberg.
The Łódźer Landsmener in New York barely supported the refugees on the ground. They proposed that they had to get out of the occupied territories (their help was virtually non-existent: two hundred dollars twice) That was a nice wish. Unfortunately, it was not a feasible one. At that time you could hardly get out of Łódź. Even the trip from Łódź to Warsaw was so expensive that only some people could afford it. Not to mention the trip from Warsaw to Vilnius, which was almost impossible. Only very few succeeded. […] A great many refugees were separated from their families because mainly men and adult youths had fled. Women and children remained at home. And exactly these men stayed in Vilnius until the very last moment to support the families, they had left behind, with packages. Many men among them fell into the hands of the Germans.
Others had suffered severe tragedies because their family members had been arrested by the Russians while crossing the border. […]
From Vilnius it was possible to send parcels with food to the occupied territories. All refugees threw themselves on it as if it was the only way to keep their families alive. Everyone sold everything they had, everything, as often as possible to be able to send parcels. From the other side, from Łódź and Warsaw, heartbreaking letters were constantly coming to me, telling me about hunger and need. And with my modest means I sent a lot to my friends and comrades. The last package I managed to send to my friend and comrade, the lawyer Yoysef Veytsman, in Warsaw. In order to send a parcel, you had to have a Lithuanian passport. So, as Vilner, we relieved the bitter fate of the refugees.
In the interwar period Mendel Balberyszski was editor of the Yiddish newspaper Der Tog (The Day) in his home town of Vilnius. He left Vilnius and became a member of the Polish Jewish Folkspartey (People’s Party) to fight for cultural autonomy for Polish Jewry. In 1925 Balberyszski founded the Association of Jewish Craftsmen and Small Entrepreneurs in Łódź and became the president of Noten Lekhem (Bread Giver), the largest Jewish aid organization. In 1939 he led the Polish Democratic Party, one of the three most important political parties in Poland between the wars.
In the first days of September 1939 he decided to flee from the German Wehrmacht to Vilnius, where he arrived relieved on 29 September. He was one of many, especially men, who found their way here. However, he had the advantage of being from Vilnius himself and thus being able to fall back on certain structures and privileges, which he used in various ways to support other refugees. Unlike many, Balberyszski stayed in Vilnius. Most of the refugees were looking for ways to escape further. Others felt tied to Vilnius, as it was from here that contact and support for those who remained behind in the occupied Polish territories was still possible.
After the German occupation of Lithuania, Balberyszski survived the “liquidation” of the small and large ghetto in Vilnius and experienced liberation by the Red Army in a concentration camp in Estonia. After the end of the war, he emigrated to Australia and continued to be actively involved in Jewish community work. He founded the Society of Partisans and Camp Survivors, of which he became president. His memoirs, including this text, were published in 1967 under the title Shtarker fun ayzn: Iberlebungen in der Hitler-tkufe (Stronger than Iron: Surviving in Hitler’s era).
Excerpt:
Mendel Balberyszski, 1967: Shtarker fun ayzn: Iberlebungen in der Hitler-tkufe, Vol. 1. Tel Aviv: HaMenorah, pp. 88–90.
From the Yiddish Book Center’s Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library.
Translation to English © Minor Kontor.
Shortly after the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, it was decided within the first week of the war that the Polish government was to be withdrawn eastbound as Warsaw was threatened. The Polish press, among them representatives of the Jewish Polish press, was to be rescued as part of the evacuation plans.
On 8 February, 1940, Pese R. entered the office of the "Committee to Collect Material about the Destruction of Polish Jewry, 1939" in Vilnius, Lithuania in order to give an interview. She was one of many Polish Jewish refugees who had found shelter in Vilnius.
On 21 December, 1939, Chaim-Leyb D. was interviewed by the "Committee to Collect Material about the Destruction of Polish Jewry, 1939" in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Among the more than 10,000 Jews who were stranded in Vilnius in the fall of 1939 there was the librarian and political activist Herman Kruk from Warsaw. His exceptional diary records and press reports sketch a mosaic of the heterogenous society of refugees in Vilnius since the beginning of the war.
Mendel Balberyszski (1894-1966) was born in Vilnius but had been living in Łódź for over a decade at the outbreak of the Second World…
On 21 December 1939, Chaim-Leyb D. was interviewed by the “Committee to Collect Material about the Destruction of Polish Jewry 1939” about his flight…
On November 16, 1939, Owsiej Bułkin was the seventh refugee stranded in Vilnius who gave a report to the Komitet tsu zamlen materialn vegn…
Mendel Balberyszski (1894-1966) was born in Vilnius but had been living in Łódź for over a decade at the outbreak of the Second World…
On the night of September 5-6, 1939, only a few days after the German attack on Poland, a group of Jewish journalists and writers…
On 20 November 1939, the YIVO in Vilnius approached the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee with a funding request for the “Project of Investigations…
Herman Kruk was a refugee from Warsaw who wrote reports on the refugee situation in Vilnius for the Yiddish magazine Folks-gezunt (Public Health) of…
Ilija Trojanow, who fled with his parents from Bulgaria to Germany in 1971 and whose life is marked by experiences of migration, deals in…
