A World Destroyed

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 suicidal ideation. [Theme music] Previously, on 12 Years That Shook the World: It’s been more than two years since the massacre of Jews in the shtetl of Eyshishok. Zvi, Miriam and Leon are on the run — hiding with farmers, escaping ghetto massacres, or fleeing Into the forest. Their lives are crumbling. Zvi’s girlfriend Rivka has been killed. Zvi is once again all alone. Leon’s brother, Benjamin, has been murdered. Leon hears that the Nazis may have sent his mother and grandmother away — he doesn’t know if he'll ever see them again. Miriam is in hiding with her family, but she’s worried that the neighbors are growing suspicious and it’s only a matter of time until her family is betrayed. Germans still have control of the area. The war continues. And they wonder: How much longer will this go on? From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I’m Erin Harper. This is 12 Years That Shook the World. Episode six: A World Destroyed [Pause; Cautious music] It's the winter of 1943 to 1944. Miriam is now 25. She and her mother and brothers, and several other Jews, are hiding with a Polish widow and her daughters on their farm. And they go undiscovered — for a while. But just as Miriam feared, someone has found them out. Miriam hears that the widow is suspected of helping Jews and armed men are on their way to investigate. [Scurrying footsteps] So at night, Miriam and her family run out of the house. They escape to a nearby field, while a few of the other Jews remain hiding inside the house. The armed men arrive. [Men yell] The men beat the widow, and demand to know if she’s been hiding Jews. She denies everything. But her daughters are in the house, and they can hear what’s going on. The girls get scared, and admit it. The armed men murder the Jews hiding in the home. Then, they lock the widow in her basement. [A door slams] Outside, in the field, Miriam watches as the house goes up in flames. Miriam Kabacznik: They burned her alive, and they burned everything down. Erin Harper: Now Miriam has no idea what to do. [Slow serious music] Then in the moonlight, she notices there’s someone else in the field nearby. Someone she recognises from Eyshishok. It’s Zvi. He’s now grown up. He’s 18-years-old. Zvi recognizes Miriam too. Miriam Kabacznik: And he said, “What are you doing here?” Erin Harper: Miriam sees that Zvi is carrying a gun. In this moment, she’s had enough of running and enough of hiding. Miriam Kabacznik: We said, “Shoot us! Get rid — let somebody get rid of us! We have no place to go!” Erin Harper: But one of Miriam’s brothers intervenes. He disagrees. He doesn’t understand why she’s giving up. Miriam Kabacznik: I kept telling my brother, “Why do we have to be different? Everybody — all my girlfriends are killed. Everybody’s killed. Why do we, why do we have to be stubborn and want to live? What purpose? What? They’re all killed, nobody is here around us.” … Why did we have to suffer like this? You're completely not a human being anymore. Erin Harper: Miriam’s brother wants to defy the Nazis. He wants to survive and tell the story of what the Nazis have done to Jews. Miriam Kabacznik: And he said, “I want to live to tell the world what had happened to us.” And I used to scream, “Why do we have to tell the world? The world doesn't think about us, they don't help us” … He wanted to live. And I was giving up because the prayers did not help.

Erin Harper: There in the field, with the house still burning, Zvi steps in.

Miriam Kabacznik: He said, I’ll go and I’ll find you a place. Erin Harper: Zvi helps hide Miriam and her family for a few weeks, and then, they hear from Korkuć — the Polish Catholic farmer who’s been helping her family. He has good news from the front.

[Hopeful piano music]

The Soviets are winning, and Germans are fleeing. Miriam’s family thinks if they hold on a bit longer they might survive this war.

But even if the Soviets win and the war is over, there’s another fight: Many Poles and Lithuanians despise the Soviets. They have different visions for the future. Many Lithuanians are willing to fight for an independent Lithuania, while Poles are fighting for an independent Poland.

Zvi, Miriam and Leon don’t feel that they belong to any of these groups. Nor are they — or any Jews — likely to be welcome. Right now, some of these Polish and Lithuanian groups are roaming the area — and they’re armed.

[Tree branches rustling]

It’s Spring, 1944. Leon is now 18 years old. And again, he’s on the move in the forest, with the Jewish and Soviet armed resistance fighters, along with his sister Freidke, who is 14, and their father, Shael. The group has just arrived at a spot in a forest to rest for a while. They settle in, and things are quiet. Leon Kahn: All of a sudden, a farmer appears in the forest.

Erin Harper: Leon’s father recognises this man, in fact they know each other. He’s the farmer who owns this piece of land. He says he's just walking the property, looking for his cow. He seems friendly, and even agrees to bring them a bottle of vodka.

[Menacing music]

But Shael has a bad feeling. Just hours later, Leon’s group comes under attack. Through the trees, they see more than 100 men charging towards them.

Leon Kahn: One of our guys had binoculars. We started watching and it wasn't Germans. Those were Poles. Erin Harper: The men start shooting. Leon grabs his gun, and fires back.

Leon Kahn: But they were coming like an avalanche.

Erin Harper: Leon keeps firing but can’t hold them back. The armed men chase Leon's family, and the other resistance fighters into an open field. Leon, Shael and Freidke run as fast as they can. Leon catches sight of his father. Leon Kahn: And all of a sudden, I see him falter.

[Music intensifies]

Erin Harper: Shael is hit in the back with a bullet. He gets up and manages to make it to a wooded area, where he hides behind a tree with Leon. Leon looks down to see there’s a hole in his father’s abdomen, and the blood is pouring out. The armed men keep firing at Leon and Shael. Leon sees his sister Freidke still running through the open field. Leon Kahn: And three Poles with bayonets, right behind her…. And in front of my eyes I saw my little sister bayoneted by the Poles. She fell to the ground like a wounded little bird. Erin Harper: Freidke has been killed. She was only 14. Leon had protected her throughout the war. He carried her through snow and saved her from attacks in the ghettos. She had survived so much. And right before his eyes. She was gone. But for Leon and his father, there’s no time to mourn their loss. Leon helps his father as they run for their lives. Eventually they make it to safety — far away from the armed men.

[Thoughtful music]

Leon gets help from a nearby farmer, who agrees to hide them. The farmer and his wife press bandages on Shael’s wound, but they can’t stop the bleeding. Leon stays by his father for several days. But it becomes clear to Leon that his father is not going to survive. Shael takes Leon's hand. Leon Kahn: He kept telling me that I should never forget my heritage. I should never forget Judaism. I should remember what happened to the family. Erin Harper: He also tells Leon to take revenge on the farmer who betrayed them. Shael hangs on for a few more days. One night, Leon leaves his father’s side to find food. When Leon returns, he calls out to his father. But there’s no answer.

Leon Kahn: I put my hand on his face. And it was cold. Erin Harper: At this moment, for Leon, the loss doesn’t sink in. Now he has to save himself. So Leon runs back into the forest.

[Compelling music] A few months pass. It’s July of 1944. Miriam and her family are now hiding only a couple miles away from Eyshishok. One night Miriam hears planes passing overhead — she thinks they’re military planes. And word gets around: The Soviets have retaken control of this area and pushed the Germans out. The war is over in Eyshishok. And even though it seems this liberation from Nazi German rule should be joyful, Miriam is full of fear and uncertainty. Miriam Kabacznik: We had hope, but we were afraid for the day when it’ll come. We did not know how we get out and show our faces? How can we face the world? How can we look at people that they wanted to kill us? Erin Harper: Her family decides to make their way home to the shtetl. As they walk, Miriam wonders what it will be like.

Miriam Kabacznik: And imagining the town without Jews, without my friends, without everybody.

Erin Harper: And for the first time since the massacre nearly three years ago, they set foot back in Eyshishok. Miriam Kabacznik: And I don't know how we made it. I think we were numb. We did not think what we are doing. We were numb.

[Horse hooves trot; Wheels churn over cobblestone]

Erin Harper: They arrive at a familiar scene: the cobblestone streets, the market square, and on the corner, Miriam’s house — the Kabacznik house. They open the door, and find people living there — an elderly non-Jewish couple. Miriam Kabacznik: And they got very scared and we told them not to be scared. They'll have to move out eventually, but they can still stay until they find a place to stay. Erin Harper: Inside the house, there's nothing left. The last of the family’s belongings have been stolen. Miriam’s family buys some wood to make new beds. And they live simply.

[Hopeful piano music]

More Jewish people from Eyshishok start to emerge from their hiding places in the surrounding area, but there are only twenty-or-so who have survived. Miriam’s mother takes many of them into her house. Here’s historian, Dr. Lindsay MacNeill.

Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: Their large home once again became a gathering place. Miriam Kabacznik: My mother was their mother. Everybody. Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: The people who gather in the Kabacznik’s house are devastated. Most of them lost their entire families. And they've returned home to see what's left, to see who is left.

Erin Harper: When Zvi hears the news of liberation, he too makes his way home to Eyshishok. But when he arrives on the market square, Zvi finds — where his house once stood — is a pile of rubble. Here’s historian, Dr. J. Luke Ryder.

[Ethereal music]

Dr. J. Luke Ryder: Parts of the town had been destroyed during the course of the war. Many houses like Zvi’s on the market square had been dismantled or stripped of metal and other things, other elements.

Zvi Michaeli: Mine house was taken off. They took off the whole house. Erin Harper: Most Jewish-owned homes are now empty, and some have fallen into decay through neglect. Others have been taken over by non-Jewish neighbors. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: They find out pretty quickly that there's not very much to return to. Still, some of the Jews, including Zvi, think about remaking their lives in the ruins.

Erin Harper: Miriam and her mother take Zvi into their home, along with the other survivors. And together in the home, they pray.

Leon emerges from the forest, and makes his way back to Eyshishok, feeling sick with anticipation. But when Leon arrives, he hardly recognises anything in the market square. He thinks everything looks so different. And like Zvi, Leon finds that his home has been completely demolished. The home where Leon remembers his mother would make chicken soup and bread for Shabbos, where he would play with his brother Benjamin, and where he would watch as the town came alive on market days. Outside, on the market square, there are no more Jewish kids playing soccer. At the three synagogues around the corner — there’s no congregation, no Rabbis. For Zvi, no Shabbos dinner with his father Mane, his mother, or his siblings. At Miriam’s house — no Jewish teenagers dancing. And no music playing on the gramophone. It has all been silenced. [Pause; Silence] Zvi, Miram and Leon now see that their shtetl really has been destroyed by the Nazis hateful, murderous regime. Eyshishok’s Jewish culture, its traditions, its people — hundreds of years of Jewish life in Eyshishok — destroyed. Here’s historian, Dr. Edna Friedberg. Dr. Edna Friedberg: Even a place where a community has existed for centuries, where generation after generation of a family have built lives, and had babies and planted gardens, with hatred, it can be taken away in the equivalent of an instant. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: These are whole other dimensions of loss. Erin Harper: Zvi, Miriam and Leon are among only a few dozen Jews from Eyshishok — out of thousands — who survived the massacres, and years of life in hiding. The Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators murdered more than 3,000 Jewish people in Eyshishok. And the Nazis’ bloodshed extended far beyond the shtetl of Eyshishok. [Ethereal music] Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: What happened in Eyshishok happened a thousand times over.

Dr. Edna Friedberg: There are these mass graves that I think of as scars marking the landscape.

Erin Harper: Across German-occupied Eastern Europe, more than 1,500 Jewish communities are wiped out.

Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: Each massacre was the destruction of a specific community. It was the murder of people with full lives.

Erin Harper: And across German-occupied Eastern Europe, the Nazis didn’t do it alone.

Dr. Edna Friedberg: The Germans could not have perpetrated murder on this scale without substantial local help.

Dr. J. Luke Ryder: The Holocaust was directed by Germans, but it would have been impossible without the cooperation and help of many people across the countries that Germany invaded and occupied. You can count among those helpers: the Lithuanians who helped to arrest and confine the Jews in the synagogue of Eyshishok, guarded the victims at the fenced-in field, or even pulled the trigger at the killing site.

Erin Harper: Or the local Lithuanian policemen who Leon saw murder hundreds of Jewish women and children. Leon knows these policemen. And he decides to track them down. Dr. Edna Friedberg: He is motivated by a gnawing need for revenge. To avenge the cruel murders of everyone that he ever loved. Erin Harper: Leon finds one of the policemen, and he kills him for what he had done to Jews. Leon also thinks of the farmer — the man who betrayed the family’s location in the forest, leading to the murder of his father and his sister. Just as Leon promised his father, Leon finds the farmer, and stabs him nearly to death.

Leon Kahn: All I could see is my dear father dying in my hands.

Erin Harper: Back in Eyshishok, Zvi sees a few of his non-Jewish neighbors. People his mother knew. People he went to school with. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: The town's inhabitants have really changed in their attitudes towards them. On multiple occasions, he encounters non-Jewish citizens of Eyshishok who seem disappointed that he has come back: “Oh, you’ve come back?” Like they wish that they hadn’t. Zvi Michaeli: “You're still alive?” I say, "See, I am still alive.” Erin Harper: Zvi also sees a girl in a blue dress pass by. Zvi recognizes it. The dress belonged to one of his sisters. Somehow this girl had obtained it after Jews in Eyshishok were murdered. Zvi, again, wonders who he can trust — and if it’s even safe to be here, back in Eyshishok. [Somber music] Miriam, too, is worried, because a Polish woman tells Miriam that there are people who still want to hurt Jews. Miriam fears that violence against Jews will once again erupt in Eyshishok. Miriam Kabacznik: We didn't go out from the house. Feeling was a fear and upset. [Wheels on cobblestone] Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: For most Jewish people from Eyshishok, this was the only place they or their families had ever lived. And they return to a place that's not the same. And a place where they feel like outsiders and unwanted guests. Miriam Kabacznik: Everybody was against us. …. In their heart, they did not want us. … We did not realize that nobody wants us anymore. We couldn't believe it. If we lived all our life together, why can’t we live, now, together? Dr. Lindsay MacNeill: So it becomes a question of: What are we going to do next? Erin Harper: When Leon made his way back to Eyshishok, in his heart, he had one last hope: that the rumor about his mother wasn’t true. That maybe the Nazis hadn’t sent her to her death. Leon Kahn: I didn’t know where she disappeared, they took her away. Maybe she would come back. Erin Harper: But, his mother never returned to the shtetl. By now, reality has set in for Leon. Everything he had been through — the grief, horror, killing — it comes in his nightmares. Leon Kahn: I completely fell apart. I locked myself in a house and I was crying for almost three days. Three solid days. [Crying] Because I realized that I’m liberated, but I’ve got nobody. My whole family is gone. Erin Harper: Miriam again struggles with the idea of going on. She questions, with nothing left in Eyshishok, why live at all? Miriam Kabacznik: I really felt like we should not survive. I had a feeling. What is the reason? Why? Why should we live in a place where everybody's dead? Everybody’s dead, around. What? What is the purpose of living? [Pause; A Holocaust survivor sings El Malei Rachamim, a Hebrew memorial prayer] [Grass rustling] Erin Harper: Zvi takes a walk to the Old Jewish Cemetery at the edge of Eyshishok to the site of the massacre of the Jewish men and teenage boys. Zvi thinks of everyone he knew and loved, who is now dead. Zvi lies down on the ground — on the mass grave. He feels his father's presence below him, buried under the dirt. Zvi recalls all that he’s been through since the massacre. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: And he starts to consider this utter impossibility of his own escape. He can't believe that he's alive. And he returns to those words from his father, “You will survive.” Erin Harper: Zvi's father was right. Zvi did survive. And now Zvi feels being alive should be a moment of relief. But instead he’s overcome with grief. Dr. J. Luke Ryder: Because I think he senses that the possibility of new life is eclipsed by the scale of this loss. Erin Harper: With their world destroyed, Miriam, Zvi, and Leon each decide there is no future for them here in Eyshishok. There will be no rebuilding life in the ruins. They pack whatever they have left, and leave town — forced to face the future somewhere else. Because the Jewish shtetl of Eyshishok — as they knew it — only exists in their memory. [Jewish survivors from Eyshishok recite Kaddish, a Hebrew prayer of mourning]

[Somber music] Even though Soviet troops had retaken Eyshishok in July 1944, the war continued for ten more months. And in that time, Nazi Germany did not stop killing Jews. By the end of the Holocaust in May 1945, the Nazi German regime and its collaborators had murdered six million European Jews. About two million of them were shot or otherwise killed in massacres near their hometowns, like in Eyshishok.

After the war, Leon Kahn first immigrated to Austria, and a few years later, settled in Vancouver, Canada. He married a woman named Evelyn, had three children, and later, grandchildren. He became a businessman. Leon took with him from his home in Eyshishok his family’s mezuzah — a small parchment scroll containing Hebrew inscriptions from the Torah inside a small decorative case, traditionally affixed to the doorpost of Jewish-owned homes.

[Moving piano music]

Leon also carried with him his father’s tefillin — a pair of small black leather boxes with straps that contain Hebrew inscriptions from the Torah, that Jewish men customarily wear while praying. Leon, himself, continued to pray and practice Judaism. He enjoyed his life, but over time, many things would trigger his memories of the Holocaust.

Leon Kahn: The memories, it's terrible memories. … This is one episode in a life that you can never shake. It stays with you forever. … It's still there.

Erin Harper: In his later years, Leon gave video testimonies and spoke publicly about his experience resisting the Nazis and surviving the Holocaust. He also chronicled his story in a memoir titled “No Time to Mourn: The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter.” Leon Kahn passed away in 2003 at the age of 78. Miriam and her family first moved from Eyshishok, to a nearby city, shortly after the war. But In a matter of months, fearing for their safety — because of ongoing hostility towards Jews — they felt forced to leave the area, entirely. They made their way to Italy, and stayed in a camp for displaced persons. Miriam struggled to adjust to life away from her shtetl. Miriam Kabacznik: That was the hardest part, that we did not know how we can go on in life. … My landlady taught us how to be free. We didn't know how to be free. We didn't believe anybody. We didn't trust anybody. But she kept saying, “Now you're free. You have to learn to be free." Erin Harper: In Italy, Miriam met a Jewish man she would marry — Norman, who had been a soldier in the Soviet army. They stayed in Rome for a few years. In 1948, they immigrated to the United States, and settled in Southern California. Miriam and Norman started a new life together, and opened a clothing store. They had two children, and eventually, grandchildren. Miriam’s mother moved in with her. She and Miriam continued to speak the Yiddish language together. Miriam still prayed, and found comfort in continuing her Jewish faith. And she and Norman were among the founders of a synagogue in Southern California. Like Miriam’s brother had inspired her to do, Miriam told the world what had happened to the Jewish people of Eyshishok by giving multiple video testimonies later in life. Miriam, too, said she would sometimes replay her memories of the Holocaust in her mind. The day the Germans invaded her town, and the years in hiding. Miriam Kabacznik: I see it all the time, day and night. This does not go away from me. Erin Harper: Miriam Kabacznik Shulman passed away in 2008 at the age of 90. Erin Harper: Zvi got married shortly after the war. He and his wife, Paula, moved to Israel and built a new life. Zvi kept close relationships with other survivors from Eyshishok, and with the Wojewocki family, who took care of Zvi while he was in hiding. Zvi and his wife became parents to two daughters, and named their eldest daughter in memory of Zvi’s mother, Nechama — the Hebrew word for comfort. The family immigrated to the United States in 1966, and lived in Queens, New York. Zvi’s younger daughter, Edna, said it took many years for her father to return to synagogue. What Zvi endured in the Holocaust remained imprinted on him for the rest of his life. Zvi Michaeli: I never survived, emotional, the Holocaust. I am a split man remaining, up to now. Because my body is still in the grave. My father, over me. Erin Harper: Zvi shared his experience numerous times in video testimonies later in life. His story is also chronicled in a biography written in German by Reinhold Lehmann called “You Will Live and You Will Take Revenge.” Zvi often thought of those words — his father’s last words to him: “You will survive.” And Zvi thought about the meaning of his own hard-fought survival. Zvi Michaeli: If I could just let know, my father, what I achieve, I would be more happy. Maybe he knows? Erin Harper: Zvi Michaeli passed away in 2012 at the age of 86. [Pause; Birds sing] And as for Eyshishok: After Miriam, Zvi and Leon left, seasons passed. Eventually, grass grew over the mass graves. Years later, one of the few Jewish survivors from Eyshishok erected stones to mark the gravesites. In the town of Eyshishok, life went on without Jewish people — without Jewish customs, or celebrations. The Yiddish language was no longer heard, spoken in the streets. And since the massacres in 1941 — to this day — no Jewish life and community has ever again existed in Eyshishok.

From the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I’m Erin Harper. This is 12 Years That Shook the World.

[Theme music]

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. Our detailed knowledge of this community is thanks in large part to the work of another Eyshishok survivor— Dr. Yaffa Eliach — who, as a young girl, was in hiding during the massacres. She committed herself to research and remembrance of the Eyshishok shtetl. Dr. Eliach immigrated to the United States, became a historian, and documented the stories of other survivors. And for decades after the war, she collected hundreds of photographs of Jewish life in her shtetl, which are now on display in the “Tower of Faces,” a three-story permanent exhibition of photographs in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Dr. Eliach also authored the book, “There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eyshishok,” which memorializes the victims and honors the town’s vibrant Jewish cultural and community life. 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. The story of Eyshishok; of Zvi Michaeli, Miriam Kabacznik, and Leon Kahn are now in your memory. And these stories from the Jewish shtetl of Eyshishok will live on. Thank you for listening.

[A survivor from Eyshishok sings El Malei Rachamim, a Hebrew memorial prayer]