Volume 26

Abraham Zylbering

Translated from the Yiddish by
Eva and Hymie Zylbering
and
Compiled by Leah Zylbering

A SURVIVOR REMEMBERS: THE GULAG AND CENTRAL ASIA

A publication of
The Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies

Copyright © Abraham Zylbering, 2002

Note

A reader of this book, who wishes to remain anonymous, has alleged that the author has published false and slanderous information concerning a relative.

The passages the reader objects to are the following:

In the chapter “March, 1946”, 13^th paragraph (p. 86 in the table of contents):

Here's a story regarding fellow landsperson. A very nice guy, a Pole, took her out of the line where she was working and was hiding her all the time in the war time. After the war she came to Bodsanov, and didn't want to see anyone from her hometown. She came to Bodsanov to take out her birth certificate, which stated that her mother was Jewish but she changed it so that it showed that she was Polish. Why? I don't know. Then, Beenum wrote this to his brother in New York saying that she came to Bodsanov for her certificate. Why did she do that, I don't know either but I'm a witness to that. She was even wearing a cross on her neck.

In the chapter “July, 1946”, 18^th paragraph (p. 94 in the table of contents):

A daughter from a very famous family wrote a letter to Noiach asking if he knows where Beenum Letterman is. She also wanted to know my address. This girl who now lives here in Montreal is a very smart cookie. She survived the Germans by luck. She was a very pretty girl, with blond hair, and she met a Polish man who took her in and kept her safe. The man was married, and still took her in. This was the girl I spoke about earlier as a fellow landsperson. When the war was over she converted and with the previous story, wanted her mother to convert as well. She wanted revenge because of the letter that we wrote about her in the Jewish newspaper the "Forward."

The reader states that these passages are false and slanderous, and she has submitted supporting documents that are on file in the Concordia Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies.  For further information, please contact the Institute: cjs.fas@concordia.ca

Editorial Note

This manuscript was originally written in Yiddish by Abraham Zylbering and it records his wartime experiences in the Siberian Gulags and later in the Soviet regions of Central Asia. It has been translated into English by his wife Eva and his son Hymie. His grand-daughter Leah prepared the manuscript including the word-processing and the compiling of additional materials

Abstract

The author was born in 1920 in Bodsanov, a small town near Warsaw. He describes the social and economic life, including the 1937 typhus epidemic that infected him also. The German occupation brought a curfew and forced labour. He was excepted because he was working for a tailor who was making pants for the German army. Police disappeared and thieves looted undisturbed. Fleeing across the border to Russia resulted in being put on a train to Northern Siberia and working in a labour camp on very little food. Boat trip west on the Vela Morski canal to Rybinsk and on to Saratov, Angurus, Stalingrad, Astrakhan, and to Makhachkala and Derbent where he worked making hats for the army. Then to KavKas on the Caspian Sea and work on a kolchoz making wine and getting plenty to eat. Then back to Derbent to work in a restaurant and enjoying bathing in the sea and having a love affair with a Georgian girl, Because of German army advances, Polish Jews were told to leave. Went to Baku to cross the Caspian Sea to Krasnovosk and Samarkand and Kamibadam with many adventures and selling goods in the market, esp. apricots. Then had to go by train to Valtooz in Siberia to work on rail lines that had been bombed. Volunteered for the Polish army and was put into a "sanitary batallion" which meant working in field hospitals. Frequent moves with the advancing army. Visit from the "Police Bureau"who made them sign a document blaming the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish officers on the Germans. There were many wounded on the Warsaw front. Advances to Coburg and deep into Germany.

When the war was over he wanted to take the train back to Tashkent to look for his father and brother. Stop-over in Kielce. Visit to Bodsanov to look for survivors. Release from the army. On return from Russia he married and settled in Vrotzlov where he bought a house and started a tailoring business. In October 1950 they finally received their papers to emigrate and left by boat from Dansk to Haifa, Israel and in 1954 they moved to Canada.

Key Words

Bodsanov, near Warsaw
Bund
Warsaw
Veshayeva, a town
Veshengro, a town
Projan, a city near Bialystok
Bialystok
Alexandra Novalok, Siberian labour camp
We Lodka, Siberian labour camp
Doskastroy, Siberian labour camp
Vitestroy. city in Siberia
Welodka, Siberian province
Chanserov ghetto
Rybinsk, city on the Volga
Stalingrad
Astrakhan
Makhachkala, city on the Caspian Sea
Dagestan Republic
Derbent, city on the Caspian Sea
Kavkas, city on the Caspian Sea
Tajikistan
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Kanibadam
Kolchoz
Dzhambul
Chelyabinsk
Valtooz, Siberia
Smolensk, Russia
Katyn Forest
Warsaw
Misrahi
Posnan
Coburg, Germany
Russian field hospital
Elbe River
Plotsk, city in Poland
Tashkent, Kirgizstan
Kielce, Poland
Vrotslov
Dansk
Haifa, Israel
Holon, Israel
Kiryat Matalon, Israel
Montreal, Canada

Table of Contents

1 1920
4 1937
5 1938-1939
18 The train ride
23 1940
27 1941
36 September 1941
38 January 1942
44 September 1942
49 January 1943
53 February 1943
55 March 1943
60 October 1943
63 January 1944
64 June 1944
69 1945
76 October 1945
81 February 1946
86 March 1946
94 July 1946
107 1947
112 1948
112 June 1949
117 October 1950
121 Words by Eva Zylbering
123 Words by granddaughter Leah
125 Appendix