Cover design: www.kamenets.by

We are very pleased to announce the publication of a book about the Jews of Kamenets, The People Who Lived Among Us. (Народ, который жил среди нас) by the historian G.S. Musevich of Kamenets.

G. S. Musevich photo: O. Medvedevsky

Mr. Musevich has been the unofficial historian of his native town for many years. His interest extends to a number of the towns in the region, which is to the north of the city of Brest, at the western border of today's Belarus.

This book is one of the first modern efforts by individual citizen--historians of Belarus to recover from the destruction of the last 100 years. The Jewish communities of the region are vital parts of this history.

Mr. Musevich is a careful researcher. He depends heavily on eye-witness statements and archival documents. His overriding concern is that this information not be lost forever, as so much of his country's history has been.

The 92-page book is in Russian. It is now in final preparation for printing. The book will be distributed within Belarus only, primarily to libraries, historical organizations, and Belarusian Jewish groups. This is a non-commercial project.

Arrangements for translation to and publication in English are underway.

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From the Author's Introduction

In 1500 the Brisk Jewish family Ihelevich purchased a prominent house in Kamenets-Litovsk.  This is considered the beginning of the permanent Jewish presence in the town.   Historical sources mention Jews among the people setting on the site as early as 1465.

Up until World War II, the Jewish population gradually increased  to become dominant in Kamenets-Litovsk and in neighboring Wysokie-Litovosk.  Beyond these two towns,  Jewish communities could be found in nearby villages  -- notably, Volchin, Ryasna, Verhovichy--  in agricultural colonies such as Lotovo, Sarovo, Abramovo, and in many other places in the region.

This people, their unique religion, language, culture, and customs,  were not well-understood by those they lived among.  And as a result of the development of a racial "theory" by fascist leaders, this people disappeared from our midst.

We can stand on the sidelines of history and choose to not recover the memory of these people and the terrible events of their disappearance.   However, those who stand aside condemn themselves and their descendants to a future of unforeseen misfortune and misery.

I myself stand at the threshold of eternity.   I cannot, I do not have the right, to keep to myself what I have learned from documents and interview  about these people who lived among us.  That is why I wrote this book, which I offer to people now living and their descendants...

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Working Outline of the Book

1. Preface from the author

2.0 Occupations of the Jews of Kamenets
              2.1  In trade, from general sources
              2.2  In trade, from Yechezkel Kotik's Book Mayne Zichroynes
              2.3  In industries and crafts
              2.4  The farming colonies
              2.5  Transport as a window into the surrounding world.
                       2.5.1  The lorry
                       2.5.2 Balagolas (coachmen)
              2.6  Working conditions
              2.7  Industries
              2.8  Shops
              2.9  Restaurants, canteens
              2.10  Socio-political life

3.0 Education
              3.1 Kamenets-Litovsk
              3.2. Regional Schools
                       3.2.1 Volchyn
                       3.3.2 Sarovo
                       3.3.3 Abramovo
                       3.3.4 Lotovo
                       3.3.4 Ryasna
                       3.3.5 Verkhovichi
                       3.3.6 Vysoko-Litovsk
              3.3 General secondary school in Vysoko-Litovsk
              3.4 Yeshiva of Kamenets-Litovsk
              3.5 The prominent teachers of Kamenets Yeshiva
              3.6 Kamenets Yeshiva of America: the impact of Boruch Ber Liebowitz

4.0 Kehila (community) life
              4.1 Kehila life in Kamenets-Litovsk
              4.2 Kehila Council in Vysoko-Litovsk in 1936

5.0 Religion, synagogues, cemeteries
              5.1 Religion
              5.2 Synagogues
              5.3 Cemeteries
              5.4 Discovered matsevas (grave stones)
              5.5 Rabbis, cantors of Kamenets-Litovsk

6. Jewish culture in Kamenets-Litovsk
              6.1 Libraries
              6.2 Drama circles
              6.3 Writers, poets
              6.4  Scholars
              6.5  Pastimes

7. Where Jews lived in Kamenets District

8. The professions of the Jews of Kamenets-Litovsk

9. Kamenets street names, old and new

10. Bazaar and fair days in Kamenets-Litovsk

11. Yechezkel Kotik about Kamenets-Litovsk, extracts

12. Coming of the Red Army

13. Coming of Hitlerites
              13.1. War outbreak, the death of a Jewish lady
              13.2 First shootings of Jews
              13.3 Deportation of Jews to Pruzhany and their return
              13.4 Ghetto in Kamenets-Litovsk

14. Dora Galpern's life-story
              14.1  Recollections about the drastic days
              14.2  Ghetto
              14.3  Ordeals, courage and escape from the torturers
              14.5  Liberation
              14.5  From frying pan into fire
              14.6  in the Soviet jail
              14.7  Court
              14.8  Back in the jail
              14.9  The end of the ordeals
              14.10  Author's comments

15. Transportation of the Jewish men to work

16. Liquidation of the ghetto

17. My trip of Kamenets

18. The open letter to Kamenets District Council

19. Return to hearth and home

20. The names of Jews in Kamenets-Litovsk

21. Concluding remarks

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Section 5.3 -- Cemeteries [Rough Translation]

5.3 Cemeteries Cemetery - a necropolis of those how left us for a different world. It is as if there is remaining link of the living world to that of the dead. At Jewish cemeteries, matseva --old tombstones-- mark graves with earlier inscriptions in Hebrew, and later ones in Yiddish. In the old days, matseva were made of [processed?] stone. Later, as we are told by experts, these were made in Kamenets of sandstone which was quarried somewhere near Siemiatycze. Matsevas are illustrated with synagogues, tents, [refuge of Christ?]. Not all towns with Jewish populations included Jewish cemeteries. There were no Jewish cemeteries in Lotovo, Sarov, Abramov; their dead were taken for burial to Kamenets-Litovsk. It has been impossible so far to locate a Jewish Cemetery in Verhovichah. Volchin is known to have had a Jewish cemetery, but it cannot be precisely located. Ryasne resident Anonina Plisun told us, "The Jewish cemetery was located north of the marketplace, on the other side of the Kamanets-Litovsk highway. Resident Anna Musevich tells of the Wysokie-Litewskie (now Vysokoye) Jewish cemetery: "It was on the hill, east of the current House of Culture, in front of the mill on Wyganow Street (now Sovietskaya Street)". A second Jewish cemetery there was located by the local college directory, Yuri Saharchuk. It is located at the outskirts of Wysokie-Litewskie, near the current site of the agricultural college. Kamenets-Litovsk had three Jewish cemeteries: The oldest was located on Brest Street. There is now a branch of the Agroprombank there, according to Kamenets-Litovsk resident Yaroslav Mushitsa. The old cemetery, Kvores, dating from the 18th century, was also located A new cemetery is located 200 meters from Shossova St., now 8th of March St., in a newly planted forest area and ["Santehspetsmontazh."?] These three cemeteries were razed and few traces remain. [????] The tombstones were taken away and used as grinding stones, for paving roads, and as steps.

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Last Updated: 25-Feb-2010