“A Matter of Savagery”

Erin Harper: 12 Years That Shook the World tells true stories from Holocaust history that may not be suitable for everyone. This episode includes testimonies describing gun violence, sexual violence and violence against women and children. [Theme music] Previously, on 12 Years That Shook the World: On the eve of Rosh Hashanah in September of 1941, German authorities order all Jewish people in Eyshishok to report to the synagogues by nightfall. Miriam Kabacznik: We felt danger. We did not know what, but we felt danger. Erin Harper: Leon’s family splits up— he and his brother hide on a barn roof. Miriam escapes town. Zvi and his family are forced into the synagogues, along with thousands of other Jews. [Angry yelling] Zvi Michaeli: The yelling and the screaming, and the crying from the children. It was so terrible. Erin Harper: After days of agony in the synagogues, the Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators force all Jews to walk to a field at the edge of town, where Jews are imprisoned. Soon the guards begin marching away groups of Jewish men and teenage boys — telling them they’re going to build a ghetto, and do forced labor. [Somber music] But when gunshots echo in the distance, more fear spreads among the Jewish community. And hours later, only one group of Jewish men and teenage boys remains in the field. It’s Zvi’s group. They’re next to be marched away. From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I’m Erin Harper. This is 12 Years That Shook the World. Episode four: “A Matter of Savagery” [Deep breaths] Zvi and his family huddle at the far end of the fenced-in field — including his father Mane, his mother, and his younger brother David, who’s about 14. David clings to his mother’s side. Now, the guards come for them. [Angry yelling] Zvi and his father Mane are forced to stand and line up with others. People are crying and praying. Then— at gunpoint— the guards begin to march Zvi’s group out from the field. Here’s historian, Dr. J. Luke Ryder. [Wet footsteps] Dr. J. Luke Ryder: While they're being marched away, Zvi's younger brother sees them leaving the area and runs from his mother's side to their group. He doesn't want to be separated from his father. He doesn't want to be separated from his older brother. Erin Harper: Also in Zvi’s group is one of the Rabbis of Eyshishok, Rabbi Suze, who taught Zvi Torah as a boy. The Rabbi begins to pray. As they’re marched through the streets, Zvi sees his non-Jewish neighbors watching this unfold. He thinks they look pleased. Zvi Michaeli: You could see the satisfaction on the face. Erin Harper: The dogs circle, endlessly. [Dogs barking] If any of the Jewish men or boys step out of line, the dogs attack. The Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators curse at Jews and beat them with clubs. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And in these moments the time seems to slow. The violent blows from the Lithuanians and Germans chase them about a half mile to the site of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Eyshishok. Erin Harper: As Zvi approaches the Old Jewish Cemetery, he sees what has happened. He now knows that this is where all the Jewish men and teenage boys had been taken. There is no ghetto. There is no forced labor. The Germans had lied. [Pause; Crickets chirp] Here a deep pit has been dug in the ground. And inside the pit, lie the bodies of the hundreds of Jewish men and teenage boys who'd been marched away. People Zvi knew, his friends, teachers. Stripped naked, and shot to death. Murdered. And all around the pit, Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators grip their guns. Zvi Michaeli: The air became so heavy. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And he starts to notice piles of clothes and piles of shoes around the area, and there's more shouting. And then they're being forced to undress. Erin Harper: Zvi is told to remove his clothes, and add them to the massive pile before him — the shoes, shirts, pants, and jackets that he had seen his neighbors and friends wearing just hours before. Standing alongside the pit are local non-Jewish men. Some hold shovels. Some watch. Others guard the perimeter, or sort through the piles of clothing. [Metal clatters] Then, Zvi sees the Nazi, sitting on a barrel with a rifle across his lap. Zvi thinks he looks relaxed — sitting patiently, like a hunter watching his prey. The Nazi is supervising the scene. This man is a one of the members of a killing squad that Nazi German leaders had sent to Eyshishok. He, along with the other Nazis that stormed into Eyshishok this week, are attempting to kill every Jew in Eyshishok, and every Jew in German-occupied Lithuania. The Nazis’ hatred has driven them to murder Jewish people in mass, at point blank range. Now, at gunpoint the guards force Zvi towards the pit. [Pause]

Dr. J. Luke Ryder: In Zvi's mind, in his memory, he is suddenly standing in a line at the edge of a pit. And on his right is his father, and then on his father's right is his brother. And also in their line is the Rabbi from Zvi’s synagogue. Erin Harper: Zvi hears his beloved Rabbi’s voice. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And he's praying and he's reciting, Zvi remembered, a passage from Psalm 91 in the Hebrew Bible, and it's one that Zvi remembers from his many times in the synagogue.

[Hebrew prayer]

Erin Harper: The Rabbi recites the Psalm, “A thousand will fall on your left, and on your right, ten times a thousand, and it will not affect you.” Dr. J. Luke Ryder: So as they’re standing there, he's hearing this Psalm and then his father, Mane, leans toward him and repeats: “You will survive. You will survive. Don't have any fear. You will live and you will take revenge.” Erin Harper: But Zvi can’t imagine how he could survive this. Zvi Michaeli: “You’ll survive? You’ll survive?” I say, what is he talking? … I’m a split of a second, the machine guns… I'll be alive? … He says again to me, “You will survive.”

Erin Harper: And then the guns fire. [Pause; Silence] And in this moment, Mane's left arm pulls Zvi tight as they fall into the pit. Zvi lands on his back, and his father — on top of him. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: Minutes go by and then hours go by, and he's hearing more shots and cries. And he wonders if he's dead. Erin Harper: Gradually Zvi notices that he's covered in blood — but it’s not his blood. It's his father’s and his brother’s blood, from their gunshot wounds. Zvi finds that he, too, is wounded. On the side of his neck there’s a gash where a bullet has grazed him. Zvi thinks maybe his father's arm had absorbed the bullet that was meant for him. And Zvi realizes he's actually alive. [Low mournful music] Zvi Michaeli: [Crying] And then I don’t know time, time. I cannot explain time, how long it took me to realize I am alive. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And lying on his back, he can't really see much except the sky. He can't see the landscape around him. But after a while, he notices that the area is quiet. Erin Harper: So he decides to escape. He makes his way to the edge of the mass grave and climbs out.

Dr. J. Luke Ryder: Immediately, he breaks into a sprint.

[Footsteps running]

For just a minute he stops, and he looks back towards the scene around the cemetery and he suddenly wonders if maybe his father or his brother are running behind him. And then he realizes that they're not. Erin Harper: Zvi turns away. Naked and covered in blood, he runs off into the night.

But here in the cemetery, almost every Jewish man and teenage boy of Eyshishok is left behind in a mass grave. More than a thousand human beings — murdered. Eyshishok’s rabbis, fathers, grandfathers, sons. The shtetl’s firefighters, a town shoemaker named Yankel; the carpenter, Reb Gedalia; a tailor named Szaul; innkeepers, scholars. These men are denied a proper Jewish burial. Their bodies are neither ritually cleansed nor shrouded. There is no memorial prayer recited at the grave. Here’s historian, Dr. Edna Friedberg. Dr. Edna Friedberg: They were humiliated. They were exposed. They were brutalized. And then they are buried in a mass grave. An unmarked, mass grave.

Erin Harper: A mile away, the young brothers, Leon and Benjamin still hide on the roof of a barn. And as night falls, the boys hear something they don't expect: people laughing, and partying.

[A glass clinks, a group of men cheer]

Dr. Edna Friedberg: And they could hear Germans and some Lithuanians nearby partying all night, drinking, cheering. Just in a great mood.

Erin Harper: It’s coming from a woman’s house nearby. She’s hosting a party for the Germans and their collaborators. Leon thinks it sounds like they’re celebrating. But Leon and Benjamin have no idea why they’re celebrating. Because the boys don’t know what has just happened to the Jewish men and teenage boys at the Old Jewish Cemetery. [Low mournful music]

The last time they had any information was several days ago when the family split up— when most Jewish people in Eyshishok were forced into the synagogues. Now with the Germans and the Lithuanians this close by, the boys fear they might be discovered if they stay on the roof much longer.

Dr. Edna Friedberg: They don't know where to go. They don't know who to trust, but they just know they cannot be seen. And they have to hide.

[Shuffles and footsteps] Erin Harper: They slowly climb down the side of the barn. They slip through the garden, between the houses, and past the neighbor’s party. They take off running. [Crickets chirp] Meanwhile, back in the fenced-in field, more than two thousand Jewish women and children remain imprisoned. And the armed guards stand watch. The women and children are terrified. They have no food, no water. Tonight, they sit in agony, wondering what has happened to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons after they were marched away. Some women in the field perhaps believe— or want to believe — that the men are, in fact, building a ghetto,like the Germans had said. Like that letter had said. And that their whole families would be reunited. But all day, those gunshots rang out, echoing through town. So many other women know in their hearts that their men and teenage boys are already gone. That every Jewish man they had known, loved, or even passed in town, had been murdered. Now the question is: what will happen to them — the women and the children? There, among the crowd, is Zvi’s mother, and his three sisters. As well as Leon’s mother, sister and grandmother. Leon’s father had escaped town a few days back, because initially, Leon’s mother had believed the women and children would remain unharmed. And that only men needed to hide. But now, after four days and nights of torment, how can they be sure they’ll be safe? Dr. Edna Friedberg: So the female members of Leon’s family are in this fenced-in field awaiting — they don't know what— but they know it cannot be good. And there is a local policeman, a Lithuanian man, who approaches the fence and he recognizes them. They had previously had some friendly relations between the family. This man, apparently according to Leon, had also previously expressed anti-Jewish feelings, antisemitic feelings, and yet he comes there looking to help. Erin Harper: The policeman’s wife had sent him. She heard about what was happening to Jewish people in Eyshishok, and she wanted her husband to find Leon’s family and help them escape. [Whispers] So in the dark, this policeman approaches the field, and through the tall wooden fence planks, he asks around for Leon’s family. Leon’s mother comes to the fence. This policeman tells her to gather her family. They’re getting out. Dr. Edna Friedberg: So this Lithuanian man, and he’s a policeman, so he has some authority, is able to pull them out from the crowd, pull them out from this terrified mass of people. Erin Harper: Leon’s mother, sister and grandmother quietly crawl out between two broken fence planks. The policeman leads them, as they dash through a meadow, and out of Eyshishok. Miriam’s mother, too, is in the field. And also, on this night, a Polish woman comes to rescue Miriam’s mother. The woman is someone she knows through her family business. But Miriam’s mother is too afraid to run away, because the armed guards are watching. Paralyzed with fear, she cannot move. But the Polish woman insists. [Grass rustling, cloth folding] She climbs into the field through a broken part of the fence, and wraps a scarf around Miriam’s mother to disguise her. The woman physically kicks her out of the field. On the way out, the Polish woman bribes a Lithuanian guard — gives him a little something to turn the other way, and keep quiet — as the two women run away. [Pause; Wind blowing] Across town, Leon and Benjamin are also on the move. Dr. Edna Friedberg: They're completely exhausted. They're exhausted from lack of food. They're exhausted from running, and they're exhausted from fear. Erin Harper: It’s almost morning, and the boys need to hide before dawn. Leon remembers the Catholic cemetery just outside of town. Leon Kahn: We decided to go to the Catholic cemetery and hide in the Catholic cemetery. Because the Catholic cemetery was the last place in the world that anybody's going to look for anybody. [Footsteps, running through water] Erin Harper: They keep running — crossing a river, and stumbling through fields. Finally they reach the Catholic cemetery, and go through the gate. There’s a wall, three feet high, that surrounds the cemetery. And next to it — tall grass, overgrown vines, and bushes. The boys lie down near the wall, hiding among the bushes. And just as the sun is coming up, they fall asleep. But just hours later— they’re jolted awake. Dr. Edna Friedberg: They wake up because they hear screaming. Erin Harper: Leon and Benjamin look out at the road, in the distance. Dr. Edna Friedberg: And they see lines of women and children. Hundreds and hundreds of women and kids, approaching the cemetery and being marched to a gravel pit. [Low mournful music] Erin Harper: Leading the processions are Germans and Lithuanian guards. They approach a steep gravel quarry — a deep ditch, normally used to mine sand and gravel— right beside the cemetery. Leon realizes these are the Jewish women and children from Eyshishok. Leon Kahn: And they got closer and we started seeing people that we knew. We knew them all. Dr. Edna Friedberg: Benjamin and Leon are searching the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of their mom, their sister, their grandma. They don't see them. They don't know what's happened to them. Erin Harper: But Leon sees his aunt Rebba, his cousin Sarah, and his neighbors from the market square. Also there are Zvi’s mother and three sisters, along with more than two thousand other women and children. Leon and Benjamin are frozen with fear. The Lithuanian guards separate the mothers from their young children. Dr. Edna Friedberg: The women are forced to strip naked. Erin Harper: The guards force a group of women to line up, and march towards the gravel pit. Some of the Lithuanian guards pull young women away from the crowd, behind some bushes, where the guards rape and sexually assault them. Then, the guards push these young women back in line at the edge of the gravel pit. Leon stares at the scene. Dr. Edna Friedberg: And he watched as the local Lithuanian helpers took women in groups and shot them into the pit. Just shot them and let their bodies fall. Leon Kahn: I didn't know what to do. I was jumping out of my skin completely. Should I jump down? Should I do something? What could I do? I was completely helpless. Dr. Edna Friedberg: And also knowing that if he sticks his head up too high, he will join them in the pit.

Erin Harper: And Leon notices — dozens of local people standing nearby. Leon Kahn: The place was loaded with Polish farmers and Polish people from the city standing around watching what was going on. And they gave them shovels and after they shot, let's say a hundred people, they told him to go down there and cover the bodies.

Erin Harper: Leon keeps scanning the crowd for his mother, sister and grandmother, but they’re nowhere to be found. He sees his aunt Rebba get shot and fall into the pit, along with his cousin, Sarah. Watching the killers, Leon wonders, how could they commit such brutal crimes? He says to his brother: Leon Kahn: Do they know what they are doing? Those are human beings that they are killing. Erin Harper: While the Germans supervise the scene, Lithuanian guards keep lining up rows of women. It goes on hour after hour. Benjamin buries his face, sobbing. Leon Kahn: My brother was grabbing me and trying to drag me down. “Don't look. Don't look.” And I kept saying, “I got to look. I got to see it. I got to see it.” Erin Harper: He watches, until the last Jewish woman of Eyshishok falls.

Leon Kahn: And they started killing all the children.

Dr. Edna Friedberg: These are such hellish scenes. Leon Kahn: It wasn’t a matter just of executing and killing people. It was a matter of savagery.

Erin Harper: Hours later, it’s over. And suddenly, it’s quiet. [Wind blows] The Nazis had carried out their plan in Eyshishok. By nightfall on September 26, 1941, the near entirety of the Jewish community of Eyshishok now lies murdered in two mass graves on the outskirts of the town. In a matter of two days, more than 3,000 Jewish people had been wiped out. Dr. Edna Friedberg: A whole place, a whole society, a whole community, is just being obliterated. Every friend, every sibling. No one. It's just this, this void. They had relationships, they had hopes, they had families, they had loves, they made promises and those all went into the Earth with them. Erin Harper: Eisyshok’s, mothers, grandmothers, daughters. The shtetl photographer, Alte; a seamstress named Rochel; Zvi and Leon’s school teacher, named Gottberg; a little girl who loved to garden. Dr. Edna Friedberg: If someone died, if someone was killed, and everyone who had ever known her was also killed, is it as though that girl never existed? If no one is alive to say the memorial prayer for her, if no one is alive to remember her name — there's a certain horror in the vacuum of it that transcends any one death.

Erin Harper: But, against the odds, some have survived.

After Zvi crawled out of the mass grave, he ran several miles, straight to the farm of his mother's Polish friends, Józia and her brother. They take Zvi inside, and give him a place to sleep.

[Pensive music]

Back in the Catholic Cemetery, Leon and Benjamin are still in shock from what they just witnessed. And now, once again, they have to hide. Leon remembers a woman: Mrs. Carolowa. She’s his family’s Polish friend who lives in the countryside. So after the killers are gone, Leon and Benjamin run away, through the fields, towards Mrs. Carolowa’s house.

[Dishes rattle]

She brings them clean clothes, and serves them milk and bread with honey. Leon can hardly speak.

Leon Kahn: I was out of my mind, completely. Erin Harper: Mrs. Carolowa hurries them into her barn to stay overnight. [A door creaks open and closed] But Leon can’t sleep. The massacre of the women and children is burned into his mind. Miriam too, is in hiding. Days earlier, when Jewish people in Eyshishok were forced into the synagogues, Miriam fled to the home of the farmer named Korkuć — the Polish Catholic man who had agreed to hide her. And after Miriam's mother was rescued from the field, she also found her way there— and is now with Miriam in hiding. Korkuć brings them the news of the massacre in Eyshishok. Miriam Kabacznik: Still we were hoping, maybe there are some, maybe they didn't kill everybody. Maybe they sent some to work. We couldn’t believe it. No Jews in town — not one left. They killed everybody.

Erin Harper: Zvi, Miriam and Leon wonder: what happens now? All around them, the Germans remain in control. The Nazi killing squads continue going from town to town, on their hateful murderous quest, as the Nazis attempt to destroy all traces of Jewish life across Eastern Europe. Now Zvi, Miriam and Leon — go on the run.

Coming up on 12 Years That Shook the World: [Suspenseful music] Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: They had to worry that a neighbor, a friend, would tell on them to the German authorities. Miriam Kabacznik: He said “I went to sleep, I had a very bad dream and I came to take you out from the ghetto. And you have to get out.” Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And even in all of this death and extremity that's surrounding them, they have this kind of romantic feeling for each other. Leon Kahn: But they were coming like an avalanche. Miriam Kabacznik: And he said, “I want to live to tell the world what had happened to us.” [Theme music]

Erin Harper: From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I’m Erin Harper. Joining me were historians at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dr. Edna Friedberg, Dr. Lindsay MacNeill, and Dr. J. Luke Ryder. Our show is written and produced by me. Our story is researched by Meredith Gui, with additional research by Dr. Lindsay MacNeill, as well as Clare Cronin and historian, Dr. William Meinecke. We offer a special thank you to Dr. Simon Goldberg, and Hana G. Green. This story is informed by the work of historian, Dr. Yaffa Eliach. Some oral history interviews are from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s collection, as a gift from Jeff Bieber, including: Miriam Kabacznik Shulman from 1997, Leon Kahn from 1998, and Zvi Michaelowsky from 1997, and 1999. An interview with Miriam Kabacznik Shulman from 1996 is a gift from Randy M. Goldman. You can watch these testimonies online in the Museum’s collection. Other Interviews of Miriam Kabacznik Shulman from 1998, Leon Kahn from 1996, and Zvi Michaeli from 1996 are from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education. For more information, visit sfi.usc.edu. Leon Kahn’s interview from 1982 is from the Montreal Holocaust Museum. For a complete bibliography for our story, and for more resources, look for the link in the episode show notes or visit USHMM.org/12YearsPodcast. This podcast is funded in part by support from the Crown Family Philanthropies, the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation, Walmart Foundation, and from the Judd, Randi, Stephen & Barry Malkin Families. Music and Sound Design by SALT Audio. Lead Editor and sound effects by Aaron Kennedy. Listeners, we need your help to make 12 Years That Shook the World even better. We want to hear from you: what resonates, what moves you, and what you think of our latest season? Look for the survey link in the show notes or send an email to podcast@ushmm.org. If you like our show, follow us on your favorite podcast app and share our podcast with others. Thank you for listening.