Day 42
Surviving the Holocaust with the Jewish Partisans
Dedicated by the author to his family who perished in the Holocaust and to the 80 escapees from the camp that did not make it.
I was born in 1929 in Novogrodek (Novardok) into a middle-class family. The town had a Jewish population of between 6,000 and 6,500, who made up half the town’s inhabitants.
On 22nd June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. We knew that we would suffer under the Germans, but never imagined that they would try to liquidate us all. I remember the discussion between my father and my uncle. “There is no point in running. We are used to work. They won’t kill us!” And so we stayed.
The Germans entered Novogrudok itself on 4th July 1941 and immediately started enforcing anti-Jewish laws. Yellow stars had to be worn on the front and back of our clothes and everyone from the age of 12 to 60 had to report for work.
