Dov Bar's Volchin - Avraham (Abraham/Avrum) Kupershmit

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Dov Bar's Volchin

Avraham (Abraham/Avrum) Kupershmit
My great-uncle. He was forced to be head of the Volchin Ghetto Judenrat. Shmuel Englander and I discussed my great-uncle: He worked hard to loyally represent the Ghetto's residents.

Judenrat. Avraham Kupershmit was previously a member of the Jewish Community Council of Volchin. He was the life and soul of the Council. All the local government authorities were his friends, including the police. In short, he was a macher.and he took care to put in order and resolve all sorts of problems that cropped up against the Jews, and the problems were not few. He smoothed problems with the authorities, and was a great help to the community of Volchin Jews. The Jewish Community Council of Volchin used to meet in the house of the rabbi, one who'd come from Wysokie Litewskie, Noach Shmoysh.The house of the rabbi was in the front of the synagogue.

Avraham Coopershmit saved Mendel Kaplan after he was captured outside the ghetto. Kaplan tried to smuggle himself out of the Ghetto in a roll of fabric, intending to exchange the fabric for dairy products to feed his family. (Mendel Kaplan was the father of the wife of Azrileh Coopershmit, Azrileh was the brother of Avraham. [Mendel was Avraham's brother's wife's father.])

Avraham Coopershmit's position as an intermediary [shtadlan] for Volchin Jews did help him when they all stood on the edge of the death pit and were cut down by the Nazi machine guns. His only “relief” was that, because he helped to arrange the bodies of the dead inside the pit, he was the last to be executed. I am sure that his last words were Sh'ma Yisrael...

Andrea Simon records in her book Bashert that Avrum Kupershmit lived close to Shmuel Englander's home and next to the water well. Simon's account adds that Avrum was non-religious.

Translator's Notes: life and soul: Dov used a word literally meaning living spirit. macher: Yiddish: maker, someone who could make things happen. An interceder/intermediary (stadlan). Shymosh: The rabbi's family in Israel changed their them to Shemesh, Hebrew for sun. relief: Dov's term in Hebrew also means reduction, exemption, remission. Sh'ma Yisrael: Hear, O Israel – the affirmation of faith that traditional Jews say before dying.

Avraham's fate is unrecorded, but the Nazis commonly murdered Judenrat members at will, and in any case, all the inhabitants of the Volchin Ghetto were murdered 22 September 1942.

Page Last Updated: 02-May-2013