Introduction

Dov Bar: On Holocaust Day, 1997, we, descendents of Volchin, assembled at the foot of the memorial to the murdered Jews of Volchin, in Holon, Israel. Some of us were about to join the Israeli delegation of the descendents of Brest to travel to Belarus.

On that occasion, I promised the Volchiners that I intended to research the fate of the Jews of Volchin in the Holocaust and I was determined not to leave a stone unturned until I unraveled the truth. Twelve years have passed. I think that I have fulfilled my vow. I feel I have reached the end of my inquiries.

In June 1997 we set out to Belarus. We were 3 Volchiners: the late Shmuel Englander, our president; my sister Drora Schwartz, and I. My wife Ester, who joined us, is not a Volchiner.

About me
I was born in Yanov Podlask, on the western bank of the Bug River, north-west of Brest. At the end of 1929, at the age of two-and-a-half, my family made Aliya to Eretz Israel. So I have been living in Israel for 80 years. Although I was born on the west of the Bug, my roots are east of that river, in Volchin and in Wysokie-Litovsk.

I changed my family name from Birenboim to Bar as a result of Ben-Gurion's instruction that holders of service passports must have Hebrew family names. As an aircrew man having to fly abroad, I got a service passport. Otherwise I would not have changed my Yiddish name because I like Yiddish, the language of the Jews of East Europe where I was born.

People Who Helped Me in My Research
Shmuel Englander helped me a lot in my research on Volchin and Brest. His sister married my mother's brother, and both of them were sent with the rest of the youth of Volchin to the small ghetto of Brest. They were imprisoned there, no cover above their heads, and were compelled to find shelter from the rain and cold using cardboard from boxes or any available material. This ghetto was the base from which they were sent to hard-labor: construction of the Brest-Chernevchich road. They did not survive the Holocaust.

I also got help from Moshe Smoler, survivor of the ghetto in Brest; and Chayim Nortman and Gershon Lev of Brest -- of whom all four have died.)

Also, I was helped by Andrea Simon of New York, a Volchin descendent, author of the book Bashert. I met her for the first time in the fortress of Brest, the Krepush. She came with the American-Brest delegation.

Shmuel Englander questioned the elderly Gentiles of Volchin and recorded their answers on 21 June 1997. He did not tire of pressing them with a list of questions that he had prepared before departing from Israel. He dedicated that full day to his investigations and inquiry. In the evening he returned to Brest, exhausted, with the answers that he got from the them.

My Research
Upon our return, I started researching. Chayim Nortman, who used to frequent Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, introduced me to a worker in the archives who spoke Russian and some broken Hebrew. Through him I discovered that there were documents in the archives about Volchin. We went twice to Jerusalem, Shmuel Englander who spoke Polish, Belarusian and Russian, I, ignorant of these 3 languages, and my wife Ester, who helped us with the research. We found about 10 documents pertaining to Volchin, which had arrived from Moscow, written in Russian.

The most important document that we discovered is no doubt the testimony given by the head of the police in Motikala (near Brest) half a year after the liberation from the Nazis, in the presence of the Head Prosecutor of Brest, and an NKVD man. This document sheds a dark light on the actions of the Motikala police, which was composed of Belarusians and Poles. The document explains many things that were not known to us. I sent copies of this document, of utmost importance in my eyes, to Mr. Blacher, the manager of the small Holocaust museum in Brest, to the Local Council of Volchin and to Andrea Simon in NY, who used the material in her book Bashert.

Editor's Notes: Yanov Podlask: Current name is Janów Podlaski, Poland. Northwest of Brest: Distance is about 32km (20 miles). Small ghetto of Brest: There were two sections, divided by a wide avenue. The larger area was to the north and was commonly referenced as the Large Ghetto. Chernevchich: (Polish: Czernawczicy, Russian: Чернавчицы) A town about 14km (9mi) north of Brest and 32 cross-country miles east of Volchin. Bashert: see this article elsewhere on this site. Motikala (Polish: Motykały, Russian: Мотыкалы) A town about 21km (13mi) east of Volchin. Mr. Blacher: Arkady Blacher: see this article.

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Page Last Updated: 22-Mar-2010