The Boy in the Suitcase: Holocaust Family Stories of Survival

Introduction

When The Last Survivor Is Gone, Who Will Tell of the Holocaust

Etunia Bauer Katz, survivor

I am not a Holocaust expert; the more I read and research, the less I realize I know. This may sound like a surprising introduction to a book I hope is read by many, but it is the way I sometimes feel. The task of telling the stories of survivors and their families has been daunting at times. Yet I am riding along a river that continues to take me to places I could not have imagined four years ago.

The etiology and original title of my book, Connecting with the Holocaust, began in 2006, when I discovered genealogical information about my paternal family. As you will read in chapters 1 and 2, my family came from the Russian territories. My beloved grandmother Bella and her parents survived the harsh Russian pogroms in Dubno. My grandfather Max and his family came from the Russian village, shtetl in Yiddish, of Lyakhovichi. Who knew this was actually Belorussia, now Belarus? I certainly did not. And so I thought the story would end here. I planned a trip to my ancestral homelands, with the explicit goal of Walking in the Footsteps of My Grandparents. In July 2006, I had no idea I was about to actually begin an extension of my career as an educator, to that of a Holocaust scholar. You will read how after living in the former Russian territories and in Eastern Europe, my objective was now to Walk in the footsteps of the Holocaust.

Upon return to America, I resumed my life as a college professor, supervising student teacher interns for the University of Central Florida. I asked my interns and their supervising teachers what they knew and taught about the Holocaust to their K-12 students. The scarcity of resources and information in many of their classes greatly concerned me. So I became a resource for my students, which is what good instructors do all the time. But this time, it was also personal. I was invited to speak to organizations and schools in several central Florida counties. I was chosen to study in 2008 at the prestigious International Holocaust School at Yad Vashem, Israel, furthering my status as a Holocaust scholar.

As I would address various groups at speaking engagements, people would come up to me afterwards and share their personal family stories with me. During one of my aptly entitled power-point presentations of Walking in the footsteps of the Holocaust, to a genealogy society, I noticed a woman softly crying. At the conclusion, she approached me and began telling me her story as a Holocaust survivor. Following subsequent speaking engagements, others would tell me their parents were survivors, and the stories began to collect in my consciousness. I would awake at all hours and jot notes, which later I would Google search, then further research, using a multitude of academic and organizational sources. It became clear, that the only way I could ever sleep through the night again, would be to share these stories with interested readers.

I could no longer rely on the occasional public speaking at Shoah remembrances to keep these stories alive. The book you are about to read is not just about my disruptive sleep, but more importantly, it is an homage to the intelligence, courage, and survival of the families in each chapter. Please join me on my river of life journey, as we connect with the Holocaust through The Boy in the Suitcase: Holocaust Family Stories of Survival.

For whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness.

Elie Wiesel

Chapter One

Dubno: From Russian Pogroms to the Holocaust

In 2006 I decided to walk in the footsteps of my paternal grandparents. I journeyed to Dubno, the former Russian shtetl (village) of my grandmother Bella Bittelman Needle. I started out in Kiev, heading west across the Ukraine. My first historical encounter with the city of Lvov showed a once thriving place of Jewish culture and commerce. Subsequent research during the Nazi occupation revealed Ukrainian collaborators beating a young man to the ground. The man was nicely attired in dark slacks, a tailored shirt, and a sports jacket. He looked like he could be a medical student in any twentieth century city. The Ukrainian police under the watchful eye of a Nazi soldier, continued to kick and attack the man, who’s apparent crime was being a Jew. Yet both the Polish and Ukrainian police, and other similar Ukrainian archival photos and data show all these people being of the same race and nationality: white, Polish or Ukrainian, born in Lvov, or Dubno. How could the church you enter be cause for your elimination from a cultured twentieth century society? This question continues to plague students of the Holocaust. The Nazi German government from 1933-1945, under Hitler’s rule launched the most impressive propaganda campaign against the Jews. Convincing the populace that Judiasm was a race and pestilence needing elimination in order for eastern and western Europe under the mighty German empire to flourish.

My grandmother’s village is now located in the western Ukraine. Dubno has always remained in the same area of the world, but which country came after its name was dependent on who conquered and occupied it. The village changed hands from the control of Polish, Russian, and eventually Ukrainian monarchies. During the 16th century the Polish monarchy under King Ostrofski recruited Jews from the Mideast region for their skills as scholars, merchants, and farmers. The king had Jews as tutors for his children and as advisers on financial issues. So for decades Jews lived in the region peacefully and prospered. Later Dubno was taken over by czarist Russia. The czar initiated a series of pogroms that would restrict life for the Jews in the area. Land formerly owned by Jews was now property of the state. Jewish children were restricted from attending public schools, and taxes were levied the on the Jewish population. By the 19th century control of Dubno reverted back to the Polish government. Jewish culture flourished once again and so did the beginning of the communist and Zionist movements in Eastern Europe.

During the governmental transitions over the centuries, although existence was hard in the shtetl, the Bittelman family continued to make a good life for themselves. Their house was located at 22 Rezenicka, Dubno, Russia. David Bittleman, my grandmother’s father taught at the local synagogue. Rifka, grandma’s mother, bore four children of which my grandmother was one of three girls. At age 13 during the Russian pogroms, Bella’s father made arrangements for her to travel to New York City to begin a new life in a new country.

Bella Bittelman age 13. Courtesy of snc.

It was a difficult and scary journey, but in 1906 she was met at Ellis Island by Uncle Lou, Rifka’s brother. Grandma Bella rolled cigars on the lower Eastside in Uncle Lou’s novelty and cigar store to be able to send money back to the old country and get her siblings to New York city. The last person grandma could get out of the shtetl was her brother Arthur, who in 1935 was in the Zionist Youth Movement, in Dubno, Poland. My one act play Bella’s Story from Pogrom to Holocaust (2009) chronicles the Bittelman family story, and unfortunately the sad and disturbing murder of the remaining family members. Unfortunately, it is also the sad ending and total destruction of the Jewish community of Dubno and approximately 3,000 other Jewish shtetls.

The ancient city of Dubno was founded by Prince Ostrozky in the 12th century. Dubno is in the Volhynia region of the Ukraine. Konstantin Ostrogski built a castle on the banks of the Ikva River in 1492. Jews are recorded as having arrived in the area early in the 16th century, purchasing land and cattle. A headstone uncovered in the old Jewish cemetery was dated 1581. Jewish town councils and a synagogue were all established, keeping with Jewish law and tradition. However, old traditions of Jews being chased from lands and murdered continued in this region. A peasant and Cossack uprising, the Chmielnicki uprising, resulted in the seizure of homes and land, and the death of approximately 2,000 Dubnovian Jews. They were buried as martyrs outside the eastern synagogue wall.

The Jewish community returned to Dubno in the late 17th century, welcomed back by a new Polish monarchy. In 1780, they briefly abandoned Dubno, fleeing into the woods, due to the plague. The church blamed the Jews for the plague, since they did not succumb to the illness due to hygienic religious laws, once again fostering antisemitism. Upon return, the community thrived and became the hub of commerce and culture. Jakob, the Maggid of Dubno, the ancient traveling teacher and storyteller was the rock star of his time. Doctors, poets, writers, printers, all settled in Dubno. The great annual fair was even moved from Lvov to Dubno for many years. By the late 19th century, approximately 7,000 Jews were living in Dubno. Finally by the early 1900s, the town entered the industrial age with the advent of the very successful Grain and Hops factories.

However, from 1905 through 1918, under Tsarist Russian rule, the Jews of Dubno and the surrounding shetls were subject to often violent pogroms. It was during this period that immigration to America increased, bringing one Bella Bittelman at age 13 to NYC. World War I brought economic hardships to Eastern Europe and the Polish-Russian-Ukrainian territories. The German soldiers did not appear threatening to the Jews, as they had other pressing needs. Things quieted from 1921-1938 in Dubno, once again under Polish governance. In 1931, there were approximately 7400 Jews in the town of 12,700, or fifty-eight percent of the population. Ten small shuls (synagogues) and one grand synagogue, plus a Yiddish theater marked the growing Jewish presence. Every Thursday the main town marketplace bustled with merchants, shoppers, entertainment. Intellectuals studied in secular and religious schools with the hopes of professional future careers. Political groups also formed with Zionist and Communist foci. My great uncle Arthur, Bella’s youngest sibling, was a member of the Zionist Youth Movement. While studying in the International School for Holocaust Education in Jerusalem, I excitedly discovered a group photograph of my uncle surrounded by his Zionist friends. It was in the Dubno Memorial Book, one of several shtetl Yizkor (remembrance) books in the archives at Yad Vashem, Israel.

Exchanges between NY and Dubno via postcards and letters and word from emigrating friends and family indicated the change in government in Germany from a democracy to fascism under Hitler’s Nazi socialist party. Bella sent money back home and got her sister Anna to America. Dubnovian Jews had survived pogroms over the centuries, and encountered German soldiers before. There was a widespread disbelief that things could be any worse. The expectation seemed to be that German WW II soldiers could not be any worse than their fathers from WWI. Many Jews saw no imminent need to leave their homeland. My Uncle Arthur, being a Zionist, wanted to go to Palestine, then under British control, to rebuild the land of Israel and live on a kibbutz. This