סוף אָקטאָבער זײַנען אין שטאָט אָנגעקומען אַ סך ליטװינער; מיליטערלײַט, פּאָליצײ און ציװילע באַאַמטע. ס’איז שוין באַװוּסט געװען, אַז ליטע נעמט איבער װילנע, אַז זײ האָבן שוין אין קאָװנע מאָנטירט אַן אַדמיניסטראַטיװן אָפּאַראַט אויף אָנצופֿירן מיט דער שטאָט.
די רויטע אַרמײ האָט איבערגעגעבן די מאַכט צו דער קאָװנער רעגירונג. אַזוי אַרום איז װילנע צוריק אָנגעשלאָסן געװאָרן צו ליטע.
דינסטיק, דעם 31טן אָקטאָבער, איז אויסגעבראָכן אין װילנע אַ פּאָגראָם. װי די ליטװינער האָבן זיך שפּעטער פֿאַרענטפֿערט, איז דאָס געשען דערפֿאַר, װאָס אַ ייִדישער ינגערמאַן זאָל האָבן אַראָפּגעריסן פֿון מאַגיסטראַט־בנין די ליטװישע פֿאָן. אין דער אמתן זײַנען אָבער די אומרוען אַרויסגערופֿן געװאָרן דורך אַ פּראָװאָקאַציע פֿון די ליטװינער גופֿא. פֿונװאַנען האָבן זיך גלײַך גענומען אַזוי פֿיל פּאָגראָמשטשיקעס; װוּ האָבן זײ אַזוי שנעל זיך אויסגעלערנט די תּורה פֿון שלאָגן, ראַבעװען און פֿאַרניכטן האָב און גוטס – איז ניט געװען צו פֿאַרשטײן. פֿון שעה צו שעה האָט מען איבערגעגעבן שוידערלעכע ידיעות: אַז אויף באָיאַקעס האָט אַ הויזװעכטער אַרויסגעװאָרפֿן דעם באַלעבאָס פֿון הויז דורכן באַלקאָן, מען האָט אַרויסגעלאָזן די פֿעדערן פֿון די קישנס, די הײַזער צעראַבירט אונ אַלץ חרובֿ און מוחרבֿ געמאַכט.
מיר האָבן געװוינט אין צענטער פֿון שטאָט און אַלע שטוביקע זײַנען געװען פֿאַרזאַמלט אין אײן צימער און דורכן פֿענצטער געזען, װי אַזוי ליטװישע סאָלדאַטן יאָגן זיך נאָך ייִדן און שלאָגן זײ מכּות־רצח מיט די קאָלבעס פֿון זײערע ביקסן. אַזוי האָבן די כוליגאַנעס געבושעװעט ביז נאָכמיטאָג. ערשט װען ד”ר װיגאָדסקי האָט דערקלערט דעם ליטװישן שטאָט־קאָמענדאַנט, אַז ער װעט זיך װענדן נאָך הילף צום קאָמענדאַנט פֿון דער רויטער אַרמײ, װעלכער געפֿינט זיך אין פּאָרובאַנעק, 4 קילאָמעטער פֿון װילנע, האָט דער ליטװישער קאָמענדאַנט אַרויסגעשיקט מיליטער־פּאַטרולן און טאַקע גלײַך באַהערשט די לאַגע.
שטײענדיק אַזוי בײַם פֿענצטער און אָבסערװירנדיק די געשעענישן, האָב איך דערזען װי אַ גרופּע שקצים יאָגן זיך נאָך אַ ייִד און שלאָגן אים מכּות־רצח.
איך האָב מיט דער האַנט גענומען זײ דראָען דורכן פֿענצטער. די שטוביקע האָבן אויף מיר גענומען שרײַען, אַז איך װעל ברענגען אַן אומגליק אויף דער שטוב. באַלד האָבן טאַקע גענומען פֿליען שטײנער דורך די פֿענצטער. אַלע שויבן און דער גרויסער לאָמפּ איבערן טיש זענען צעבראָכן געװאָרן און דאָס גאַנצע עסן איז פֿאַרשאָטן געװאָרן מיט גלאָז.
“אָט האָסטו דיר פֿאַר דײַן העלדישקײט”, האָבן מיר די שטוביקע געזאָגט.
[…]
אָט אין דעם פּעריאָד האָבן ייִדישע יונגעלײַט גענומען מאַסנװײַז פֿאַרלאָזן די שטאָט און אַװעק קײן ראַטנפֿאַרבאַנד.
[…]
די מאַכט האָט געגעבן אַרויספֿאָר־שײַנען, צעגער זײַנען געװען גענוג און מ’האָט לעגאַל און ניט־לעגאַל פֿאַרלאָזן די שטאָט.
װי עס זאָל ניט זײַן, איז דער אָנהויב פֿון דער ליטװישער ממשלה געװען אַ ביטערער פֿאַר ייִדן, אַון דער סוף אירער – דער פֿינצטערסטער, װאָס די שוידערלעכסטע פֿאַנטאַזיע האָט זיך געקאָנט פֿאָרשטעלן.
At the end of October the Lithuanians arrived in the city: soldiers, police and civil servants. It was already known that Lithuania was going to take over Vilnius and that they had already installed an administrative apparatus in Kovno to administer the city.
The Red Army has handed over the authority to the Kovno government. And so Vilnius was again annexed to Lithuania.
On Tuesday, October 31, a pogrom broke out in Vilnius. According to what the Lithuanians later explained, this happened because of a young Jewish man who tore down a Lithuanian flag from a magistrate building. In reality, however, the riots were provoked by Lithuanians. Where, however, so many progromists immediately came from; where they so quickly learned by heart the Torah of beating, robbing and destroying belongings – it was incomprehensible. Every hour there were new nasty information: that on Boyakes Street a housekeeper threw the owner of the house off his balcony, that feathers were let out of cushions, houses were robbed and everything was destroyed.
We lived in the city center and all the residents gathered in one room and watched through the window how Lithuanian soldiers chased after Jews and beat them mercilessly with rifle butts. It was only when Dr Wygodzki [recognised head of the official Vilnius Jewish community, Zionist activist and former representative in the Polish Sejm] told the Lithuanian city commander that he would turn to the Red Army Commander, who was in Porubanek, 4 kilometres from Vilnius, for support, that the Lithuanian commander sent out patrols and thus directly controlled the situation.
As I stood by the window and watched what was happening, I saw a group of impertinent guys chasing a Jew and beating him mercilessly.
I started threatening them with my fist through the window. My roommates started shouting at me that I would drive our house to ruin. Very soon stones actually started flying through the window. All the windows and the big lamp were broken and all the food was covered by glass.
“That’s what you get for being a hero,” my roommates told me.
[…]
It was precisely at this time that the Jewish youth began to leave the city en masse and move to the Soviet Union.
[…]
The authorities issued exit tickets, a hesitation was enough and they left the city by legal and illegal means.
Unfortunately, the beginning of Lithuanian rule was a bitter one for Jews, and its end – the darkest thing that even the most shameful fantasies could not have imagined.
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 War. In the interwar period, Balberyszski was an editor of the Yiddish newspaper Der Tog (The Day) in Vilnius. He became a member of the Polish Jewish Folkspartey (People’s Party) and, as part of it, fought 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 the largest Jewish aid organization Noten Lekhem (Bread Giver). In 1939, he became the leader of the Polish Democratic Party, one of the three most important political parties in interwar Poland. In the first days of September 1939, he decided to flee from the German Wehrmacht to Vilnius. He arrived in Vilnius on 29 September 1939. His memoir Shtarker fun ayzn : Iberlebungen in der Hitler-tkufe (“Stronger than Iron, Surviving in Hitlers era”), this text being among them, was published in 1967.
Balberyszki’s notes are an eyewitness account of a pogrom in Vilnius at the end of October 1939. Indeed, with the withdrawal of the Red Army and the transfer of Lithuanian troops to Vilnius on October 28, 1939, three-day anti-Jewish riots broke out not only in Vilnius, but also in Naujoji Vilnia, Maišiogala, and Pabradė, which quickly turned into pogroms. Contrary to Balberyszki’s statements, these were mainly committed by ethnic Poles and had started as anti-Lithuanian and anti-Soviet demonstrations, which were then quickly directed against Jews. That the Lithuanian government itself was behind the pogroms has been refuted by research, contrary to Balberyszski, but the role of the Lithuanian police remains unclear; Balberyszski and other sources point to complicity. By October 31, 1939, a Jew named Fayvl Magun had been killed, hundreds more injured, and Jewish stores looted. 11Dieckmann, Christoph, 2011: German occupation policy in Lithuania 1941-1944, Volume 1. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 142-143; Levin, Dov, 2008, pp. 107-137; The Jews of Vilna under Soviet Rule, 19 September-28 October 1939, in: Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 9. Particularly in the face of the pogroms, but also because of ideological proximity to communism or the hope for a better future, between 2,000 and 3,000 Jews left Vilnius by November 11, 1939, and moved to Soviet territories. [2 Levin, Dov, 1995. The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule, 1939-1941. Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society. 181.]
Balberyszski survived the “liquidation” of the small and large ghetto in Vilnius and experienced the 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 Association of Partisans and Camp Survivors, of which he became president.
Excerpt:
Mendel Balberyszski, Shtarker fun ayzn : Iberlebungen in der Hitler-tkufe, Vol. 1 (Tel Aviv: HaMenorah, 1967), pp. 73–75.
From the Yiddish Book Center’s Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library.
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.
On 24 June 1941, Kruk writes about his discouragement regarding his futile attempts to leave Vilnius for the USA shortly after the German attack…
The Polish Jewish family Weyland from Łódź survived the Holocaust thanks in part to Sugihara Chiune (1900–1986), the Japanese consul in Kaunas just before…
Marcel Weyland (born 1927 in Łódź) survived the Holocaust thanks in part to Sugihara Chiune (1900-1986), the Japanese consul in Kaunas. Thanks to him,…
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…
Internal communications between the Vilnius delegation of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the New York Headquarters.
Benzion Benshalom writes about his euphoria after attending a Zionist assembly in Vilnius for the first time.
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…
Benzion Benshalom wrote in the winter of 1939/40 about the desperate atmosphere and the sad cityscape in Vilnius.
