History

David-Horodok had a long-standing amateur drama group, which gave performances from time to time. There had long been an inclination towards theater and acting in David-Horodok. Even at the time of the 1905 revolution, such amateurs as I. Afiganden, I. Gottlieb and Helman would excel in readings from the masterpieces of Shalom Aleichem, Peretz, Bialik, Frishman, etc. David-Horodok had a long-standing amateur drama group, which gave performances from time to time. There had long been an inclination towards theater and acting in David-Horodok. Even at the time of the 1905 revolution, such amateurs as I. Afiganden, I. Gottlieb and Helman would excel in readings from the masterpieces of Shalom Aleichem, Peretz, Bialik, Frishman, etc.

Later a group of amateur artists was trained, and they gave two or three performances each year for the Jewish populace. After the 1917 Russian revolution and later, after the Russo-Polish War, the drama circle developed somewhat more. Fresh faces arrived, and the actors gave serious performances. The proceeds from performances went to various charitable causes. At times the revenue would be divided up to support a variety of needs. In praise of the drama circle, it must be said that the amateurs had little interest in how the money was divided. They were only interested in artistic success.

In 1936, another youthful amateur group was founded. They gave several successful performances. Unfortunately, the outbreak of World War II ended the activities of both drama groups. It should also be mentioned that the children of the Tarbut school gave a successful performance under the leadership of their teacher every year.

Photo: Performance of the The Dybbuk* by the young amateurs of David-Horodok, 1938, courtesy of Alex Gizunterman, who’s grandfather, Mottel Weissman is sitting front row right.

Text from The Memorial Book of David-Horodok.

*The Dybbuk (דער דִבּוּק) is a play by S. Ansky, authored between 1913 and 1916. It was originally written in Russian and later translated into Yiddish by Ansky himself. The Dybbuk had its world premiere in that language, performed by the Vilna Troupe at Warsaw in 1920. A Hebrew version was prepared by Hayim Nahman Bialik and staged in Moscow at Habima Theater in 1922. The play, which depicts the possession of a young woman by the malicious spirit – known as Dybbuk in Jewish folklore – of her dead beloved, became a canonical work of both Hebrew and Yiddish theatre, being further translated and performed around the world.

Photo of the town fire in David-Horodok. May, 1936.

One of the most useful institutions in town was the fire department, which was 99% Jewish. David-Horodok, like all small towns in Belarus, was composed of houses built out of wood, many with thatched roofs. These often fell prey to fires. Fire, the unbidden and undesired guest, would pay a visit almost every summer and cause considerable distress. Homes were burned as a result of a variety of mishaps: carelessness with fires, setting out a hot pressing iron, going out at night to the stable with a torch, throwing away cigarettes that were still burning, children playing with fire, and arson.

Fire was a nightmare for the masses. Summer was both the most beautiful and the most interesting time in the life of the town. However, it was often spoiled by frequent fires. In many homes the residents would pack up their valuables in summer and carry them away to one of the town’s few brick houses, which were fireproof. An alternative was to keep the valuables at home in packs which would be easy to remove in case of fire.

In order to fight this plague, even in former times a Firefighters Brigade was established. The town administration then built a large station to hold the equipment and water buckets. The town administrator levied a special chimney tax to finance the building of the station. The insurance companies also helped pay the expense.

Almost all the Jewish youth enrolled in the Firefighters Brigade. They considered it a civic obligation to belong to the firefighters. Even though the Christian populace was in the greatest danger because of their thatched-roof houses, only three or four were enrolled as firefighters.

In the summertime the firefighters would periodically hold drills. In the olden days this was quite an event in the life of the town. Masai, the station watchman, went around all the streets with a special bugle to signal that the firefighters should come out to the drill. The firefighters put on their special uniforms and gathered at the station, which was in the center of the town. After a few calisthenics, one of them would be secretly sent into the streets to pick out a house which was supposedly burning. He then gave a signal and the firefighters would begin “extinguishing” the house. The firefighters always picked the house of someone they bore a grudge against. After the drill, they all had a beer.

After World War I, the Firefighters Brigade expanded. The town council allocated more money to enlarge the inventory of equipment, and to teach the firefighters better techniques for extinguishing fires, especially containing their spread. However when a fire broke out in a stiff wind or in the vicinity of thatched roofs, the firefighters were unable to localize it. That is what happened in 1936 when a fire broke out mid-day in the Raditch, the Christian part of town. One third of the town, including the Eastern Orthodox church on the hill, burned down. A newspaper in Warsaw reported that on “May 8, 1936 a woman and two children were reported to have died in a fire that destroyed entire streets of frame dwellings in the town of David Gorodok, in the Pinsk district. Damage was estimated at 500,000 zlotys.”

In the last years before World War II, the town administration directed the firefighters. Management remained in the hands of the Jews. The most active managers were I. Yudovitch and M. Rimar.

The Jewish community of Nirtcha, Belarus was founded in the early 19th century. Nirtcha was situated at the confluence of the Horin and Pripyat Rivers, 7-and-a-half miles northeast of David-Horodok. Boats traveling between David-Horodok and the Ukraine or Pinsk had to pass this particular point on both outbound and inbound trips. With the dramatic increase of business between Polesye and the Ukraine, Nirtcha became commercially important. With commercial prosperity, Nirtcha became a place that could sustain a large number of families.

Nirtcha was a unique Jewish community begun by one family–the family of Joseph Moravtchik. In the scarcely 100 years of its existence, before it was dissolved by Duke Radziwell, the Nirtcha community expanded to a population of 100. These 100 included sons and daughters, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the same Yosel Moravtchik.

The Moravtchiks’ business in Nirtcha was based on gardening, fishing, cattle-raising, and especially dealing in lumber and other wooden articles. They themselves hauled firewood by transport barge to Kiev. They provided food for workers on the steamships, rafts and berlinis that passed through Nirtcha. They also prepared food for the travelers on passenger steamships going to and from Pinsk. They did much of the work in the businesses themselves, particularly in the gardens, but also employed both peasants and merchants.

The inhabitants of Nirtcha were examples of hardy, plain folk. They had daily contact with the Jews of David-Horodok, and thanks to their contact with a variety of business people they were not ignorant villagers. They brought in the very best teachers for their children, and incidentally, the teachers were quite willing to go to Nirtcha. The land occupied and worked by the Jews of Nirtcha belonged to Duke Radziwell, and they paid him rent.

As mentioned above, the community of Nirtcha existed for almost 100 years. In 1906 it was liquidated and all its inhabitants moved to David-Horodok. The cause of the liquidation was Duke Radziwell’s choosing the land on which Nirtcha stood to build a sawmill. He was certain that milling wood at such an important transportation point would be very profitable. The extraordinary efforts of the Nirtcha Jews to annul the decree were to no avail. They received compensation from the Duke and with great bitterness left the place where they had lived and earned a respectable livelihood for almost 100 years.

At first the move was a great tragedy for these Jews. They had to start building their lives anew in David-Horodok, which included seeking a new means of making a living. Later they were very pleased with the change. They bought houses with the compensation money and became involved in the town. In 1914 when World War I broke out, they would of necessity have had to flee anyway and naturally would not have been compensated. The duke had not made a good exchange because the mill did not succeed and he had to close it.

Photo: Members of the Moravtchik family, former residents of Nirtcha, photographed in David-Horodok. Top left to right: Sam Mednick (Nuranda, Quebec, Sam Murawtchik (Windsor, Ontario), Ruben Lutzky, Joseph Grenadier (Palestine), Sonia Murawtchik (from Pinsk), Soshke Murawtchik and husband, Aaron Dobrushin, Rochel Lutzky Dobrushin, Bessie Murawtchik Kutnick (Windsor, Ontario), Yentel Lutzky Siporin, Aaron Murawtchik. Middle left to right: Chaske Grenadier Ratner & Yankel Ratner (both killed in Holocaust), Rivka & Noach Grenadier (Palestine), Zelda Murawtchik (Windsor, Ontario), Mendel & Mirel Murawtchik (Windsor, Ontario, Avram Lutzky, Beryl & Esther Murawtchik. Bottom Left to right: Avremel Ratner (killed in Holocaust), Philip Murawtchik (Windsor, Ontario), Kopek Murawchik (from Pinsk), Alpiner, Rivela Lutzky, Chana Lutzky, Leitchik Murawtchik, Sorel Grenadier (Palestine).

Sourced from The Memorial (Yizkor) Book of David-Horodok.

The Red Army (Krasnaya Armiya) was a common name for the Russian National Military Forces from 1918 to 1946.

The history of the Jewish soldiers who fought in the Red Army during WW2 is relatively untold. Of the estimated 500,000 Jews who served against Nazi Germany, more than 160,000 received medals for their courage and their service. Sadly, more than 200,000 Jewish soldiers died in combat.

Our landsman Alex Gizunterman sent us two photos of the monument in David-Horodok which honors the memory of the local soldiers who were killed while fighting in the Red Army during WW2. This war is officially remembered in Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War.

Through Mr. Genady, the history teacher at the high school in David-Horodok, Alex was informed that there is a manuscript in the town’s historical museum which contains information about each of the fallen soldiers. Among the list of the fallen are the names of eight Jewish soldiers: 1. Shumul Arnuson, son of Shamay. 2. Aron Gadzyuk, son of Asher. 3. Ele (Ilya) Krotsman, son of Abraham. 4. Hirshel Raichman, son of Shlem. 5. Shlem Raichman, son of Leib. 6. Ignat Rakshtein, son of Lyavon. 7. Michael Tochman, son of Aron. 8. Yakov Yudovich, son of Isaac.

Motl Vaisman (left) and Noah Grenadier after the war in Kiev.

Alex’s grandfather, Motl Vaisman, was born in David-Horodok in 1922. Alex told us that “Between 1939-1941 he decided to join the Red Army. He fought until August of 1943. During the Battle of Kursk (an engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front) the soldiers were looking for a defensive fighting position. One of soldiers noted a horse urinating in an excavation, so he told them that is a safe place, ‘the horse knows how to chose a place’. The soldiers took this place and a German shell exploded exactly there. Only four people survived the attack. Motl was in a coma and woke up only when he heard the surgeons discussing him. They wanted to amputate his leg, but he objected. He had a very long recovery, that included many surgeries. Small shards of shrapnel were present throughout his body for the rest of his life. My grandfather lived in Kiev from 1946 until 1990, then he moved to Israel with my family.”

When WW2 began, Belarus, (then known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic) was divided between the Soviet Union and the Second Polish Republic The borders of Belarus were greatly expanded in the Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939. In 1941, the country was occupied by Nazi Germany.

On 22 June 1941, four million German soldiers, to be joined by Italian, Romanian and other Axis troops over the following weeks, burst over the borders and stormed into the Soviet Union, including the Byelorussian SSR. For a month the offensive was completely unstoppable north of the Pripiet marshes, as the Panzer forces encircled hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving infantry divisions while the panzers charged on, following the Blitzkrieg doctrine.

Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of SS Einsatzgruppen (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them. Local gentiles were encouraged to carry out their own pogroms. On the 17th of Av, 5701 (August 10, 1941), all Jewish males in David-Horodok over the age of 14 were forced to gather in the marketplace across from the Catholic Church. With the help of the Horodtchukas, Christians of Tartar descent from David-Horodok, the men and boys were marched out of town to mass graves and then shot to death by SS Einsatzgruppen troops. The women and young children of David-Horodok suffered a similar fate on the 28th of Elul, 5702 (September 10, 1942).

By the end of 1941, there were more than 50,000 troops devoted to rounding up and killing Jews. In three years of occupation, between one and two million Soviet Jews were killed.

Photos of the memorial in David-Horodok for the fallen soldiers who fought in the Red Army during the period of WW2.

We honor the memories of the 7,000 Jews of David-Horodok and vicinity who perished in the Holocaust on Remembrance Day. 17th of Av, 1941-1942.

Here is a newly translated account of the murdering of the Jews of David-Horodok from our Yizkor Book. This excerpt is from the chapter, After the Holocaust and is titled “In David-Horodok in 1945″. It was written by Meir Tzvi Korman and translated by Jerrold Landau.

The Slaughter

“Eliyahu Kushnir was the first victim of David-Horodok. After he was expelled from his house, he lived in Raditch [the gentile section of David-Horodok], and was murdered by the Horodtchukas [Christians of Tartar descent from David-Horodok] while he was walking to the marketplace during the time of the German occupation. After him, Zeev, the son of Grunya Kunda, was murdered on Olshan Street, next to Fleishman’s house. On the 17th of Av, the Jews were gathered in the yard of the Catholic Church and transferred to Chinovsk, where the Horodtchukas had dug graves. It is difficult to describe the means of torment there. Clothes were removed, limbs were cut off, and the slaughter was perpetrated with whatever implements they had – sticks, stones, firearms. After that, they were tossed into the pits that were dug by the gentiles. Their blood flowed through the ditches for three days, and the ground lifted and moved from their death throes.

The father of the pogrom perpetrators was the medic Maraiko, who travelled specially to Pinsk to fetch the S.S. Before his journey, he gathered up and hid the gold of the Jews that was given to him to watch.

Those Who Hid

After the selection, the gentiles began to search for Jews in hiding. Avraham Slutsky the wagon driver was the first to be found. The son of Mendel Moravchik was found between the beds of beans, and was murdered on the spot. Reuven Kolozny was murdered in the toilet of the gentile Markovitz – and he remained there. Baruch-Yosef Katzman and his two sons who survived after the slaughter were murdered in their rooms by Dimitry Pozik. Isser Gurevitz was dismembered and his eyes were poked out. Yehoshua Zager from Tury was hiding in an oven. He was removed from there and murdered. Aharon Slomiansky was cast in the Horyn River, and was pulled out of there dead by gentiles who were hired by his wife Rachel. Thus, he at least succeeded having a Jewish burial.

My two children, Bracha and Baruch, who had been smuggled by a gentile woman to the Dubinitz Forest, were brought back to the city by the Horodtchukas and murdered by dismemberment in the market square. My son Yaakov succeeded in escaping the vale of murder.

Simcha Mishalov found refuge in a cellar. The maid of the house sustained him for four months there. Finally, she turned him in, and he was taken out to be murdered on The Greble Street. Before he expired, he succeeded in calling out three times : “Scoundrels, what do you want?” The children of Matityahu Korman later informed the Soviet authorities that Boris Sraiko murdered Simcha – and he was arrested and exiled to Siberia.

Rabbi Moshe Ginzburg was spared by the Germans, but out of fear of the Horodtchukas, he disguised himself as a woman. A year later, he met his death during the period of the existence of the women’s ghetto. Yitzchak, the son of Berl Schmutz, also disguised himself as a woman, but he was recognized and was murdered.

After the slaughter of the men, the women of Horodok were expelled to nearby villages. Some were absorbed into them, and others died along the way. Those who remained and returned to Horodok were murdered by the gentiles and buried in the graves of the men.

Rabbi Moshele’s daughter was with the partisans in the forests of Wysokie and was killed. The family members themselves were also subsequently killed.

Golda Rachel, the wife of Meir Eliyahu, met her death in the “chapel” in Choromsk, where she had been hiding.

Shmuel Katzman, Leibel’s son, wandered about for four months after the slaughter. The gentiles captured him in the forests of Orly and tore him to pieces.

Nishka Kirzner, Chaim’s wife, was found with two other women in their cowshed, and they were murdered there. Leah Kolozny was murdered by the gentiles on the bridge.”

May we, with increased awareness and sensibility, recall the people of our town, the Jews of David-Horodok, the holy and pure men, women and children who were slaughtered, shot, strangled and drowned in martyrdom by the Nazis and their collaborators. May their names be renowned forever and their remembrance sanctified for eternity. – The Yizkor Book of David-Horodok.

Another back to school photo from David-Horodok. Here is the Girl’s Kitah Dalet (4th Grade) Tarbut School Class. David-Horodok, 1930. Rear to front, right to left: Baila Olpiner, Bracha Dorchin, ?, Fruma Slobodnik, Tzivia Gizunterman, Minya Baruchin, Mindl Frankel, Baila Sustkovski, Esther Volpin, Yintl Fraimen, Ruchl Lipshitz.

In 1924, a Hebrew Tarbut school was founded in David-Horodok under the direction of Reuven Mishalov. The school started with three classes and in time became a seven-class folk school, one of the best in Poland. Until its closing in 1940, there were eleven ceremonies, which graduated hundreds of children. Tarbut (Hebrew word for culture) was a network of secular Zionist educational institutions that functioned in the former Jewish Pale of Settlement in the interwar period; the language of instruction was Hebrew. The educational network, which began its activities in Vilna in 1925, operated kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, teacher seminaries, and agricultural schools. Additionally it provided evening classes for adults, and lending libraries; and published teaching journals, educational textbooks, and children’s journals including popular science booklets for young people.

The Tarbut School Book was printed in Israel (in Hebrew) in 1992. It includes a concise history of the school in David-Horodok, along with many memories and photographs.

Excerpted from the Yizkor Book of David-Horodok:

“David-Horodok was pro–Zionist since the times of the Hoveve Zion (Lovers of Zion). As mentioned previously, the town was under the influence of Lithuanian Jewry. The Haskala (enlightenment) movement came to David-Horodok from there at the end of the 19th century. The Zionist movement also came from there.

Peretz Smolenskin’s ‘Wanderer Through Life’ and Abraham Mapu’s ‘Love of Zion’ and ‘The Guild of Samaria’ adorned the shelves of David-Horodoker households alongside the Talmud.

They read the Hebrew press in David-Horodok. They collected and bound ‘The Dawn’. Nahum Sokolov’s Friday evening articles were not only read but also studied. They also tried to educate the younger generation in the spirit of Zionism. For that purpose, they brought the best teachers to David-Horodok who introduced classes where they taught Hebrew by speaking Hebrew. After World War I, there were youth circles in which they spoke Hebrew exclusively.

Because of the war and the czarist regime, it was difficult to develop diversified Zionist activities. However, under various pretexts, they would hold assemblies and celebrations on a variety of Zionist themes.

Vigorous Zionistic activity began after the Kerenski revolution in February 1917. It was as if they had been in a lethargic sleep of latent energy and they wanted to make up for the lost years of inactivity by throwing themselves into Zionist activities with wholehearted zeal and energy, filled with the hope and belief in the great possibilities that the Russian revolution promised for the Jewish people.”

Photo: Administrators of the library of the Zionist Organization in David-Horodok, 1917. Seated: 1. Yosel Muravtchik; 2. Asher Zager; 3. Yoshke Friedman. Standing: 1. Veichel Freidman; 2. Leibel Lachovsky; 3. Zalman Alpiner; 4. Shalom Kwitny; 5. Bina Gorin.

There were several Zionist youth movements popular in pre-war David-Horodok. Among them were Hechalutz, Betar, Hanoar Hatzioni, Hatzionim Haclalim, Freiheit (Dror) and HaShomer Hatza’ir.

HaShomer Hatza’ir Youth Movement was formed from the combining of two different youth movements at the beginning of the last century in Poland. The “Shomer” together with the “Youth of Zion” organizations decided to amalgamate and became one movement in 1913. This was to be the first Jewish/Zionist youth movement in history and began working with youth in hundreds of “nests’ all over Poland. These branches were to become the gathering places for 70,000 young Jewish people who were looking for a connection with the Jewish people and the Zionist Movement being established in Israel.

“Tel Chai” branch members of HaShomer Hatza’ir, David-Horodok, Polesia, Poland, 1934. (Beth Hatefutsoth Photo Archive, Courtesy of Aharon Ginsburg, Israel)

The movement stressed the need for the Jewish people to normalize their lives by changing their economic structure (as merchants) and to become workers and farmers, who would settle in the Land of Israel and work the land as “chalutzim” (pioneers). They were influenced, as well, by the burgeoning socialist movement, and they dreamt of creating in their new homeland a society based on social justice and equality. In 1936, members of HaShomer were among the vanguard of the Haganah, the Jewish self-defense organization of Eretz Yisrael. In 1943, Mordechai Anilewicz, head of the Warsaw branch (Ken) of Hashomer, led the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis. After WWII, with the influx of Holocaust survivors and the need to settle and secure Eretz Yisrael, HaShomer Hatza’ir members founded some 30 kibbutzim in the years surrounding the creation of the Jewish State.

HaShomer Hatzair is the oldest Zionist youth movement still in existence and has branches, activities and summer camps all over the world. From HaShomer Hatza’ir USA, “Our history inspires our current generation to continue fighting for the ideals of Zionism, Social Justice, and Peace. HaShomer Hatza’ir encourages youth to build progressive Jewish values, explore connections to Israel and the Jewish community, and develop a commitment to social, environmental and economic justice in a setting characterized by youth leadership and collective responsibility.”