Introduction to the Original Yiddish Text

Introduction

A half century has elapsed since Abraham Weissbrod wrote his book describing the extermination of the Jews in the small Galician town called Skalat.

Of the few of us who survived the slaughter, those of Abraham Weissbrod's generation are no more. Those who were then young, a dozen or two teenagers, and the few surviving children are the last living witnesses to the catastrophe which befell the town of our birth. It will be far less than fifty more years before there will be no one left to say - “We were there. We saw what happened. We remember the suffering and we still carry the pain of our losses.” As I have grown older, this thought has given me no rest. During various contacts with other survivors, I realized how many of them were preoccupied with the same thoughts. When speaking to my children and to others of their generation, I also became aware of how much they wanted to know everything that happened to us and how urgently they needed a record to pass on to their children.

But the questions of the young people and our answers to them proved more painful to handle than I had anticipated. The prospect of reliving my personal tragedy in writing made it impossible for me to pick up a pen for forty-five years. Some events of the Nazi era have marked me indelibly: the mounting dread, the hopelessness of our situation and above all the 'actions.' Those shall be with me to the end. With time, however, I had begun to forget the names and the details of the daily nightmares of Skalat in those days. It is with these reflections in mind that I turned to Abraham Weissbrod's book.

Living in a small town, naturally our families knew one another well. The author's mother, Amalia Weissbrod, found me sitting on the ruins of my home, near the marketplace of our town, on the day I finally came out of hiding. Having recognized me, she addressed me in Yiddish, “Vus tiysty du?” (What are you doing here?). I looked up and answered her in Ukrainian “Bihrne ya zhydivka, no ya zabula hovoryty po zhydivski” (I swear, I'm Jewish, but I forgot how to speak Yiddish). Terror and loneliness had blocked out the Yiddish language in me and made it impossible for me to form the words in the tongue of my parents and my community. She stared at me in disbelief and said, “So young, all alone, how did you survive?” Tears flowing, we slowly made our way to her place. She took me in and that night as I went to sleep, for the first time in a long time, I felt safe.

I was in Skalat during the Nazi occupation and there lost my entire family. At eleven years of age, I was old enough to understand the terror and the overriding necessity to run and hide in order to escape the killers' bullets. For that reason, I share the anguish and passion with which the author relates the events which led to the annihilation of the Jewish community in Skalat. At that young age, there was also, of course, much that I was not privy to, especially the dealings between the members of the Jewish Council, i.e., the Judenrat, and the Gestapo headquarters in Tarnopol, as well as between the Jewish Council and the German and Ukrainian administration in Skalat. Since each survivor knows only his or her part of the terrible puzzle, there is much in Abraham Weissbrod's book from which we, who lived those events, have also learned. Obviously, only those who jumped from the trains, witnesses at the mass shootings and the very few wounded who came out of the graves, could tell us what went on there. Others supplied details about events in the Skalat ghetto, the camp and the woods. We are, therefore, indebted to the author for the amount of information which he collected and passed on to us.

When one reads the story of the destruction of the Jews of Skalat, it seems that although the town was small, it was typical of what took place in thousands of other towns both small and big. Even if this book were the only record left of that tragic time and place, one would still be able to know the circumstances, the Nazi aims, the process and the final result of that unprecedented evil. In Skalat, a small Jewish community was persecuted then incarcerated, extorted, tortured and finally with a few systematic 'actions,' brought to an end.

Abraham Weissbrod's recollections of the events and the testimonies of other survivors were

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shaped into a book and printed in Munich (Germany) within two years after our liberation. There was not yet, at that time, much printed material on the period subsequently known as the Holocaust. But even now after half a century of accumulated information, one still can't understand how that which took place, could have occurred. Often we, the survivors, can't comprehend the events which we experienced. It is precisely because the horror of that period was so extreme, that future generations may be tempted to doubt its authenticity. There are also those whose anti-Semitic and malicious intent is to rewrite the facts and to deny the truth of the Holocaust period, as some “revisionist” writers of our time have already done. We think it is imperative, therefore, not only to make the book available in English and thus accessible to a broader reading public, but to add to it additional personal testimonies which could only be obtained from the remaining survivors, in order to further substantiate the verity of these events.

With that in mind, the task of obtaining an English text was undertaken. In addition, personal testimonies were solicited. Contact was made with survivors from Skalat in the U.S., and in the Spring of 1992 a group of survivors met in Israel. Dates, names, and the accuracy of events were verified. The book was considered from a perspective of fifty years since it was written. Those who gathered felt that with the exception of some obvious repetitions and a few pages of philosophical ponderings, stated from a personal perspective and therefore deleted from the edited version, Abraham Weissbrod's book depicts faithfully the destruction of the Jews in Skalat and, therefore, should stand as written.

All agreed with the view expressed by Buzio Eisenstark. With the exception of the creation of the State of Israel, where some Skalat survivors rebuilt their lives, and also those who did so in the U.S., there are no bright rays in the sad saga of the perished Jewish community of Skalat.

We join in Abraham Weissbrod's desire that this book serve as a memorial to the Jewish victims who perished in and near Skalat and also as a legacy to our children, grandchildren, and to future generations who must undertake the difficult task of educating themselves about this tragic period in our long history.

Lusia Milch nee Rosenzweig
New York, 1993

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Introduction to the Original Yiddish Text

(1948)

With Death of a Shtetl, the Central Historical Commission in Munich begins publication, in book form, of more extensive works by individuals who describe the khurbn ^[1] of Jewish settlements, as well as their own experiences under the Nazi regime.

It is superfluous today to speak of the importance of such works. Innumerable Jewish communities were uprooted or cut down with the most refined cruelty, leaving no documentary trace or memory of their destruction. In countless shtetls ^[2] as well as in the larger towns, it is impossible to determine the locations of the Jewish mass graves, to say nothing of the dates of the 'actions,' ^[3] or other details of what befell the Jews before their extermination. The existing written history of the khurbn is now focused mainly on the testimony and descriptions of the few survivors. All testimony - each detail, including hearsay - is important at this stage. And it is especially welcome that a person who survived the khurbn devotes himself to compiling a broader description - a monograph - of the annihilation of an entire community, as in this book.

Abraham Weissbrod has shown the courage, in writing this book, to erect a monument to his birthplace, Skalat, a shtetl in Eastern Galicia. Even under the Nazi regime, he began to gather his material: to question people and to clarify many of the details regarding the Jews of the town. His work became much broader after the liberation. He threw himself with all his energy into collecting more and more reports. He gathered data from among the few who returned to Skalat. He also traveled to find other Skalat survivors and to record their experiences. He corresponded with many more. He doggedly researched each event of the occurrences in the town and the fate of almost every individual. Thus the author succeeded in assembling the work that lies before us. And though the book is limited to Skalat, it throws light on the destruction of many other Jewish settlements in Galicia and in other parts of Poland, where events transpired in a similar manner.

In relating the various events and experiences, Abraham Weissbrod demonstrates great descriptive powers. At times he even evokes admiration for his artistry. Weissbrod is also no stranger to the satirical writer's style, which, within the context of this book, introduces a lighter note and a certain liveliness.

The author also demonstrates a marked tendency to philosophize. Deep reflections and psychological insights frequently accompany his recounting of the events themselves. Perhaps the author's insights and, still more, his conclusions suffer from the emotional involvement resulting from our proximity to the events. Yet his reflections add much poignancy to the content of the book. They underscore for the reader the issues of that wild and tragic time and encourage us to think more deeply about those events. We're living close in time to the events described, therefore to a still-smoldering atmosphere due to these events. Hence, we cannot expect the author to maintain a cold, measured tone nor complete objectivity when dealing with the torture of his relatives in the Skalat Ghetto and in the nearby camps nor complete objectivity when dealing with the behavior of some Jews who held leading positions in Jewish institutions. In some cases we may differ with the opinions of the author and his judgments about these persons. It is also possible that some of his other views may be open to correction. However, in regard to his relating of the facts themselves and of his own actions, there is nothing to give us pause. Here we can see plainly that the author writes with deep integrity, that every event he relates bears the seal of his conscience, of his own painful experiences and, more pointedly, of his feeling of social responsibility.

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The literature of our latest khurbn is yet so small and the khurbn itself so horrible that the need to preserve the eyewitness accounts becomes a veritable commandment of our times. We must, therefore, approach such a work as Death of a Shtetl with our fullest attention, especially since its materials were gathered so carefully and with a sacred devotion. The book itself was written as though it were a holy obligation.

This work is truly an important contribution to the recorded history of our great catastrophe. May Abraham Weissbrod's work be an example and a model to our survivors, and for each of us, a reminder to devote our time and strength to erect similar memorials for the many, many murdered Jewish communities.

J. Kaplan

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