Revised january 30, 2009 a tangled web
Villagers Defend Themselves Against Raids
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- The Raids Intensify
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Villagers Defend Themselves Against Raids
In view of continued assaults and relentless pillaging, the peasants armed themselves and formed self-defence groups. The formation of village self-defence was strongly encouraged by the Germans, who were short on manpower, for their own purposes, namely to safeguard the food supplies the peasants were required to deliver up. The purpose of these groups was not to attack forest Jews or Soviet and Jewish partisans, a war which the villagers could never hope to win, but to protect their meagre possessions. The truth of the matter is that villagers who had the audacity to attempt to protect their property and fend off marauders of various description are automatically branded as Nazi collaborators in Holocaust memoirs and are deserving of retribution. At times this gives rise to rather ironic scenarios described by Jewish memoirists themselves: At night we foraged for food for all of us. We learned how to steal live geese, lambs, chickens and ducks. … During one such episode in the village of Puniszcze, we were shot at. We later found out that we were stealing geese on a farm where, unknown to us, two Jewish men were hidden. They had two rifles and when told by the farmer that someone was in their barn, came out and fired a shot. We fired back, thinking they were German collaborators. It was a very dark, rainy spring night and we each went our separate ways, not knowing who the other party was. After we were liberated, we compared stories and finally sorted it out. Our cousin Folke Zilberman and my friend Hirshke Einhorn were the ones who fired the first shot.559 I came with a small group of Jewish fighters into a village, and was told that a group of Jews are resting in a hay barn. They thought they were already in “paradise”, in an area controlled by the partisans. In fact, it was a hostile [sic] village, as we entered the barn they thought we were Germans and panicked. It took us some time to calm them down … I requisitioned a few wagons and brought them all to the partisan zone.560 The impact of these raids, from the perspective of the local farmers, was devastating. The following are the experiences of a Polish family by the name of Kazuro, who lived in the hamlet of Zareże, some 7 km from Duniłowicze, at the hands of constant “visitors” from the forest.. The Kazuros sheltered an impoverished Jewish family, the Gordons, consisting of two adults and two young children, for almost three years without any remuneration. We all had to pitch in to support the Jewish family. We [three children] helped our parents in almost all the work in the field and at home. … There was so much food that had to be prepared. There were six of us including grandma and four Jews—all together ten people. … A separate problem was the food supply, which was very scarce. We had a farm of sorts. Father had to provide mandatory quotas of farm produce to the Germans, and on top of that the forests were full of [Soviet] partisans who also had to eat something. It seemed that there were few of them who actually fought with the Germans. Most of them were people from the margins of society, thieves and bandits who lived from depriving others. They hid in the forests and called themselves partisans. They had arms and attacked in the day and night, sometimes several times a day. They took everything they could lay their hands on. I remember well how terrifying it was, how we were forced against the wall while they stole everything they could, loaded it up on wagons and drove away. They took not only food but also clothing, blankets, pillows, duvets, not to mention chickens and geese. My parents were in tears and nearly broke down, and we children looked on at them in their state of despair and also cried. We ourselves often had nothing to eat but had to take food to the Jews who, from their hiding place, could not see what was happening to us outside. We had to work hard. Every day was tedious. Mum baked bread herself and a bandit attack during that time resulted in the entire batch of freshly baked, still warm bread being taken. They also took flour, buckwheat, everything. Thus we couldn’t really raise animals or poultry because they immediately took all of them. I often saw my parents in tears, exhausted both physically and emotionally, and at the limit of human endurance. Our only salvation was the fish caught in the lake. It is difficult to appreciate today how hard it was to survive. On the one hand, we were continuously preoccupied with ordinary, prosaic matters; on the other hand, we were constantly fearful for our lives. On the one hand, the Germans sought out Jews and laid ambushes for the partisans; on the other hand, the partisans laid ambushes for the Germans. The partisans sat around at our house consuming our food and we had to cook for them. We were in a state of fear that if the Germans should arrive, then a battle would ensue right there.561 Accounts of Christians are corroborated by the testimony of a Jewish survivor from that region by the name of Liba Zaidlin, who was sheltered by several Poles and Belorussians. The fate of one of his rescuers, Stefan Paszkiewicz, is described below: He also took great care of us. One day while we were hiding there, a unit of Jewish partisans entered his home and demanded food supplies. Stephan begged them not to take everything he had since he was hiding a Jewish woman and his [sic] son in his home. The Jewish partisans were very cruel to him, taking everything from him since they did not care at all about our fate. In great shock, he came to me and told me about their behavior. He said, “I am endangering my life for Jews and look at how these partisans treated me!” I was very ashamed and did not know what to say. Despite this incident, he did not tell me to leave his home. After a while, some non-Jewish partisans also arrived at his house and demanded that he give them food. Again, he told them that he was hiding Jews in his house and begged them not to take all of the food. The commander of the partisans had said that he could not take with him a woman and a child into the forest, but agreed to leave some of the food.562 The raids carried out by Soviet and Jewish partisans also led to clashes with the Polish underground, who had to assume the role of protectors of the local population once the partisans became an organized, active force.563 These encounters take on a distinctly apologetic and ethnonationalist focus in Jewish memoirs. Then suddenly we encountered the White Poles, they were Jew-killers and murderers of the worst kind. … Once we send [sic] 6 men to bring food for our “Otriad”, we marched a short distance behind them, and suddenly encountered a large group of Poles, they were “White-Polish” bandits and attacked us immediately. Luckily it was a pitch dark night, they couldn’t see how many we were. We killed a few of them, and managed to extricate ourselves from that village but without food.564 Moreover, the peasants were caught in a bind. On the one hand, Soviet and Jewish partisans were demanding provisions under threat of violence, while on the other hand, any indication that the peasants were supplying partisans with food (e.g., missing livestock), or even not reporting their presence in the area, incurred severe punishment from the Germans. Villages that defaulted on their delivery of mandatory food quotas because of confiscations by partisans were often destroyed because the Germans suspected the villagers of supporting the partisans. Severe measures against farmers who failed to perform their duties were imposed in Vilnius [Wilno] District (undoubtedly, repressions in the District were preconditioned by other factors too, activity of Polish and Soviet underground, and a more complex political situation in general). The letter of 2 March 1943 by Gebietskommissar of Vilnius district concerning the sabotage of delivery of quotas indicated that announcements by the end of 1942 made it “plain” to all the population of villages and urged them to fulfil their obligations as well as threatened them with “strict and very strict” punishment. The deliveries of quotas improved to a certain extent, but they hardly reached the required levels, thus, H. Wulff ordered to gun down “undoubted” saboteurs of quota delivery. According to H. Wulff, the “security services” gunned down 40 saboteurs in deifferent rural districts between 5 and 17 February 1943. Before the poor people were shot, they had been interrogated for 20–30 minutes. The executions were carried out in public by forcing the population and officials of local governments to the places of killings.565 The Germans combed the forests and wiped out all the positions and bases left by the partisans. They also set fire to dozens of villages whose inhabitants were suspected of aiding the partisans. … From afar, the echoes of explosions were heard. The Germans were bombing Russka Forest and the villages suspected of sympathy towards the partisans.566 After a few weeks of fighting, the [first] blockade [of the Koziany forest in October 1942] suddenly ended. The German army units had been transferred on to Stalingrad. Before they left, they burned all the villages in, and close to the forest. The farmers in each place were told to assemble for a meeting and while they were concentrated in one building the Germans set it on fire. Men, women and children, in village after village, were burned alive. The Germans wanted to make sure that no one could, or would help the partisans and the Jews again. They tried to make sure that we were deprived of food and supplies.567 The devastation left by the Germans [in the fall of 1943] was inconceivable. Many Jews were killed by the Nazis. A large number of them had come to our forest from Narocz seeking to escape a blockade of their forest and instead walked into a terrible trap. Villages as far as 20 kilometres from the forest fell before the German onslaught. Homes where Jewish men and women had been hidden by the Gentile population were burned, with their occupants still alive inside. … The Nazis spent three weeks combing the [Koziany] forest, aided by dogs, planes and spies, trying to kill as many people as they could find and report the number of “partisans” killed to the High Commander. Of course, Jewish men, women and children, armed or unarmed, were counted as partisans. Unarmed Jews were captured and brutally tortured before they were killed. It was during their withdrawal that the Nazis began burning dozens of villages. While some of the peasants and farmers from those villages took to the forest to save their lives, some of the Jews left the forest in a daring effort to reach the homes of the Gentiles who had hidden them before there were partisans in our forest.568
Anyway in the summer of 1943 the Germans organized a blockade around the whole Partisan Zone in our area [in the vicinity of Miadziół]. … We watched the Germans, collecting the villagers. They took them to work to Germany. Their only “crime” was that they lived near to the Partisan Zone. … During the blockade the Germans burned down most of the villages which belonged to the Partisan Zone. They took many of the people to Germany to work there.571
Thursday the 17th of September the German raids began. Massive military equipment was used to break into the partisan forests. The barricades stopped the tanks only temporarily … Electric saws began cutting through the barricades. Peasants, pressed into service by the Germans, cleared away the debris. A way into the forest lay open. The enemy attacked from three directions, assisted by reconnaissance planes that hung low over the treetops, reporting the location of the partisan units. Coming from Zhireva [Żerewa], Meremin [Mironim], Dobribor [Dobry Bór], Ivacevici [Iwacewicze], Kossovo [Kossów], Ruzany [Różana], they tightened an iron noose around the partisan zones, cutting off all contact with the outside world. … On a little clearing in the forest stood the Jewish family camp with its 360 people. … On Sunday September 20th they reached a clearing and decided to spend the night there. The 150 survivors fell exhausted to the ground. The five babies demanded to be fed and the desperate mothers did not know what to do. … Weeping spasmodically, half-demented, the five mothers suffocated their babies, one after the other, then tore the hair out of their own heads or beat their own heads against the tree trunks. … On the third day of the raid two partisans brought the word that the Germans had burned down all the partisan camps, killing many and taking the boots off dead bodies. The fourth day … Enemy planes searched for hidden partisans and rained down bullets. The dead lay everywhere. Wednesday, the sixth day of the enemy attack, the survivors in the camp were so exhausted they could hardly stand. Most of them had become apathetic, completely indifferent to their fate. … The Germans had left the forest. … The two German divisions had laid waste many villages, burning down houses along with the people inside them.573
The wave of manhunt in Švenčionys spread towards Vilnius and the surroundings … were devastated. … The punitive expedition brought about harsh socio-economic consequences. It left incinerated, raged villages and non-harvested fields behind in Eastern Lithuania.574 At the same time as threatening reprisals for not meeting their food quotas, the Germans armed the peasants and ordered them to fend off partisan raids and to alert the authorities when these occurred. A vicious cycle ensued in which innocent peasants were also caught up. The following description pertains to the vicinity of Rudniki forest: There were over three hundred Jews in camp, and the most important task was keeping them alive. At night, Abba [Kovner] sent partisans to steal food and guns. About twenty fighters went on each mission. … A raid might yield a cow, two pigs, a horse, a sack of potatoes. If the partisans found someone helping the enemy [usually these were people who simply wanted to protect their own property—M.P.], they went out of their way to kill him. If these same peasants helped out the partisans, however, the Germans exacted a far harsher punishment. When a boy in town near Rudnicki [Rudniki] gave information to the partisans, a German unit invaded the town, drove the people into their wooden houses and set the houses on fire. All that remains of the town [Pirciupie or Pirczupie] today is a clearing and a statue of a weeping woman. The peasants in the nearby villages began to resist the Jewish partisans. … The farmers would … hide food and guns. … Villages organized militias, which were supplied by the Germans. A system of couriers and flares was devised. … Yourgis [Henoch Ziman “Jurgis”] told Abba to disguise his troops. If the Jews wore quilted coats like the Russians or short boots like the Poles, they would be less easy to identify. … Abba instead responded with [more] force, meeting every threat with gunfire. If a partisan met a peasant in the forest, the partisan would kill the peasant before he could sound the alarm. On the raids, the Jews took no chances, shot their way into towns and shot their way out, sometimes even killing civilians, women and children.575 Jewish partisans, acting alone or in concert with Soviet partisans, (whom one Jewish partisan accused of thinking about little more than “robbery and pillage and all kinds of adventures”),576 not only engaged in frequent provision-gathering expeditions (sometimes posing as Polish partisans), but also staged “punitive” operations against impoverished peasants reluctant to part with their possessions. Houses of worship and religious objects were also not spared. In Niestaniszki, Soviet partisans fell on the church and robbed both the priest and the faithful gathered there in prayer.577 These tactics further strained relations with the local population and, eventually, led to a collision with the Polish partisans. In some cases, the Belorussian population was targeted by Soviet partisans in their war against pockets of rural resistance or “vigilantes,” as was the case in “Operation Lanceviche.” Our political commissar briefed us on the imperative of our assignment—the breaking up of the vigilante stronghold at Lanceviche [Łancewicze]. … The village of Lanceviche was fifteen kilometers or so south of Derechin [Dereczyn]. Most of its houses were of wood with roofs of straw or shingles, easy to set afire. In actions against the vigilantes, we had begun following a new strategy, with men from different platoons working together. … Mortar fire from our positions struck the houses, setting them on fire. Victorious, loaded down with booty, we left the area in broad daylight. … The destruction of Lanceviche maked the first time we had carried out our reprisals on civilians, and it did achieve our goal, which was to break resistance to the Underground. For a long time, the vigilantes did not bother us again.578 Occasionally, even German field reports showed sympathy for the plight of the local population caught up in this predicament. A report from March 1943 on the situation in the Słonim district commented that a peasant has no choice but either to be robbed and possibly murdered by the [Soviet] partisans in due course, or to be rounded up for work in the Reich or even shot by a German police unit during the ‘cleansing’ of a partisan-infested area. In this way conditions have been created, which if any sort of comparison is possible, without doubt can only be compared with the conditions of the German peasant during the Thirty Year War.579 The Raids Intensify Raids on villages, which went by various code or slang names such as bombyozhka and zagotovka, would take on the following appearance: Partisan food collections, known as “bambioshka” [“bombyozhka”], took place at night. From the Bielski otriad, “Every night one or two groups were sent out to bring food. A group consisted of ten or twelve armed men. One of these men acted as the leader. Some of the participants had to be familiar with the side roads and the particular villages. Of course, one had to select people that first of all were not afraid and second of all to whom the peasants would give food.” When a group reached a village it would first collect provisions from the richest [of the poor—M.P.] farms. As one partisan explains, this was possible because “In each village we had a peasant, usually himself poor, he would give us information about the other peasants. This way we knew what each had, how many horses, cows, etc. Such a peasant we called ‘legalshchyk.’ We took nothing from him. Sometimes we would give him some of the booty. [Wouldn’t the other villagers have detected this?—M.P.] Some of the rich peasants tried to hide their products … we would search and if this was the case, we took more from them.” Toward the end of 1942 horse-drawn wagons, confiscated from farmers, were used for food expeditions. When a group left a village, it had to subdivide and prepare the goods on the way back to the camp. For example, cows had to be killed and cut into manageable portions. All this had to be done quickly. At dawn a group was expected to be back at the base—daylight was the partisans’ enemy.580
There was a certain amount of truth to these accusations. Some Jewish partisans would take honey, eggs, and meats from villages that were friendly toward the partisans. This was forbidden. At Russian headquarters it was assumed that these luxury items could be confiscated only from [allegedly—M.P.] pro-Nazi villages.581 So twice a week, during the evening, we went out to the unfriendly farmers who were cooperating with the Germans [i.e., by reporting robberies]. We asked them for food and we would take it on our own if they didn’t give it to us. If we found some [abandoned] Jewish memorabilia in their homes … we got mad and smashed up everything in their houses. Sometimes, we beat those jerks up a little. … I established myself as the leader of the group and always went out on food raids from the farmers in the region. … We would break into the houses and steal lots of food and clothing. Then we would smash the windows and the furniture. We killed their dogs when they bit us. … We had already conducted a number of raids in this area, as often as twice a week. I figured that in one of the rich farms in that community [Piesochna?] I could find decent clothing for Rochelle and also bring back some good food to celebrate her arrival. So we went, four of us, including Liss. We all carried pistols and rifles, and in addition a pair of binoculars I had taken on one of the previous farm raids. Things went very badly. About a half mile or so we reached the farm we had in mind, the police opened fire. … But then we found out about a very large farm a mile or so outside of Mir … We figured that we could make such a large food haul from that one estate that it would reduce the need for making smaller raids so frequently—twice or three times a week, as we usually did. … Our advantage was that we were, by this stage, well-supplied with pistols and rifles and hand grenades and even some automatic weapons. … We talked over our plans for the raid with two other small groups and finally we reached an agreement—each of the three groups would send four men. We would take as much in the way of food, clothing, and supplies as we could carry and split it evenly between the three groups. … There were about seven people at home, the old parents and some of the daughters and maybe some servants as well. Immediately they started crying and begging. We held our rifles on them … We opened up the trapdoor to the cellar and found down there a number of big barrels full of food—salted pork, ham, sausages, honey, bread, and more. [This was undoubtedly the family’s entire food supply for the long winter months. M.P.] We hauled all of the food out of the cellar, then herded all of the residents of the house back down in there. We told them to sit there quietly or else we would kill them and burn the entire place down. … We then covered up the trapdoor with some very heavy furniture … Meanwhile, three of our men … found a small number of calves and sheep … [they bound] their feet to make it easier to take them along. Then we had to figure out how to carry all of the food away. We solved the problem by finding two hauling sleds alongside their barn. We hitched two horses to each of these, then loaded them up with the livestock and the barrels. We packed in some Christmas baked goods we found—cookies and cakes. We also took lots of warm clothing and some cooking utensils and tools—any useful things we could find. Even with the four horses and the two sleds, that was all we could handle at one time. Before we left, we debated amongst ourselves as to whether to burn the place down or not. … one of the men found some large canisters filled with kerosene and emptied them all around the house, on the rugs, furniture, and woodwork. He was hoping that the residents might set fire to the house themselves, once they managed to push open the trapdoor and then attempted to light some lamps in the house, which we had left totally dark. We managed to transport the loaded sleds most of the way back to our bunkers.582 We went to the villages and took food. If they betrayed us, the next day the whole village was on fire. In this particular otrad [the Kirov otriad] there were thirty Jews. … I had a gun, and I had a rifle. … You got your boots where you got your food, in the villages. We went for what we called a “bombioshka.” You “bummed” whatever you could. One night I went out with a group of other partisans. I climbed up to an attic of a house … I threw down boots and overcoats and fur coats from the attic for the other people to take. That was when everybody got dressed so nicely in boots and coats.583 This is how a foray was carried out: first, guards were set up on both sides of the village and then the fighters were divided up into smaller groups of three to four people. Each group entered a house and asked the peasant to prepare a quantity of food. While the peasant and his family were preparing the food, the partisans searched for arms and confiscated everything that could help the camp, including clothes and utensils. When everything was ready, the peasant was told to hitch up a wagon, load it with his goods, and remain in his home for a time if he valued his life. At the edge of the village, at a predesignated spot, all the wagons would gather and together they would leave for the forest. The whole operation was carried out in great haste, for they wanted to reach safety before dawn. The horses and wagons were later returned to the peasants, several of whom would sometimes wait on the edge of the forest. In the beginning both the partisans and the peasants lacked experience. … The peasants learned how to hide their food and belongings, claiming the Germans took everything away from them, while the partisans learned how to locate the hidden food supplies, either by stripping the peasants or threatening them. Naturally, the peasants reported the thefts to the Germans. It occasionally happened that a caravan of loaded wagons making its way to the forest suddenly came under heavy fire from a German ambush along the road. … The partisans finally started using trickery: they would take several peasants with them as wagoneers, and so as not to risk an ambush attack, would send the peasants ahead with the wagons. Only after the peasants passed safely through the dangerous area would the partisans follow. At the edge of the forest they would free the peasants and send them home. Not wanting to risk their own lives, the peasants finally stopped asking for help from the Germans. … In their complaints to the German authorities they reported that “Jewish bandits” robbed them of their possessions and gave them no rest. They asked for German protection against this lawlessness. German help was not late in coming. The Germans began distributing arms among the villagers. They also hired agents among the peasants and spread antipartisan propaganda. In most of the villages, the peasants began stationing guards at night, and when the guards detected partisans approaching, they alerted the villagers, who opened fire. The result was that only rarely were forays carried out without clashes and casualties.584 Supplying the battalion with food was one of the most frequent missions the partisans had to fulfil. … The twenty-five partisans who were assigned the task, or as the partisans put it, to carry out “zagotovka” (purveyance), we were supplied with only thirteen rifles. The command of the “Death to the Occupier” battalion [detachment] had to apply to one of the Jewish units and ask them to lend them another twelve rifles. … Anton Bonder, a unit sergeant, announced that we should be prepared for a mission to obtain provisions. The partisans who were sent on this mission, began to clean their weapons. At three, they had their meat stew. A group of forty men left the base [in Rudniki forest]. The village we were aiming for was near the village of Eishishkes [Ejszyszki]. We had to walk thirty kilometres in one direction and the same distance back, and these sixty kilometers had to be covered within twenty-four hours. … We were told to encircle the village, spreading out among the houses, and order the farmers to harness their horses to sleighs and fill them with food, and not to spend too much time doing this and to return immediately. The commander, Michael Trushin, decided on the assembly point: near the bridge on the way back to the forest. He keeps with him the crew with the machine gun and myself as liaison. We all stand alongside the little bridge, prepared to fire on any enemy who turned up. The village was large, with wooden houses and large peasant barns. The place was quiet and there were no voices to be heard. Everything was done silently. Within an hour, we loaded the sleighs with provisions of every kind. A cow was attached to each sleigh and the procession of sleighs proceeded on its way back to the partisan base. … The farmers sit in their sleighs and spur on the horses while the partisans march on foot alongside the sleighs, fully on guard and with their weapons prepared for any enemy who appeared on the scene. In the village of Vishintchi [Wisińcza], some ten kilometers from the base, we left the farmer-drivers and promised them that on the morrow, they would get their horses back together with the sleighs. They had no alternative but to wait for the return of their horses and sleighs. It was a partisan rule that farmers were not allowed to come near partisan bases [in Rudniki forest]. … Some five kilometers from the base, I reach one of the lagging sleighs driven by partisan Shara Robinson. … On her sleigh, there are two slaughtered pigs and a sack of potatoes. I turn over my sleigh to her and tell her to proceed to the base. … Two women partisans, who had returned from the supply mission were worn out and hurried to their huts to sleep.585
Because the family camps were not usually armed … Mostly, they depended on the good nature of the Jewish partisans to supply them with limited amounts of food such as flour and potatoes. … The most dangerous jobs involved raids on nearby farms to obtain food. The men who carried out these missions returned with animal carcasses, flour, potatoes, onions, bread, and dairy foods. Because the hospital was staffed by Jews, Papa convinced the raiders to conveniently “lose” some of the food along the way back. The “lost” food went to feed the civilian family groups of women, children, and elderly Jews. … Such tasks were undertaken in great secrecy so as not to arouse the suspicions of the Russians in charge. On one occasion, the partisans returned with several live animals, including cows, sheep, and chickens.586 As Polish reports confirm, there was no shortage of raids and their attendant violence visited on the local population by Soviet and Jewish partisans.587 German field reports also reported the succession of raids that befell a particular area. For instance, on November 9, 1943, about 25 Soviet and Jewish partisans raided the landed estate of Rakliszki near Ejszysyki taking twelve horses, eight cows, three tons of grain, two tons of coal, and 450 German marks. On December 8, a unit of 200 Soviet and Jewish partisans attacked Wiłkańce near Ejszyszki. The village was looted, one inhabitant shot, and his farmstead burned to the ground. On December 12, a group of 50 Jews raided the village of Montwiliszki, completely despoiling the inhabitants and carrying off the loot on 25 wagons. On January 7, 1944, 30 Jewish and Soviet partisans raided Karklinki, Torosinki, and the petty gentry hamlet of Songiniszki. They loaded their bounty on 15 wagons and left. On January 25, a Soviet-Jewish group of 25 fighters expropriated Dajnowo and Kamerowszczyna, taking nine cows, some pigs, clothes, and other items.588 Their impact of these endless raids on the welfare of the local population was devastating. A seized cow was often a farmer’s most valued livestock; pigs, sheep, and other livestock were also taken.589 Given the violent methods employed by the Soviet and Jewish groups, altercations were inevitable. A week later I was part of a group of ten sent on an “economic action.” A Polish village near Hoduciszki was chosen as the target. Upon arriving we left a patrol on guard and ordered four farmers to harness horses to their wagons. We went from house to house taking sacks of potatoes, flour, and meat. We took cows as well. After loading the booty on the wagons and tying the cows behind, we started out for the base, the owners of the wagons driving us. We left them on the river bank, unloaded the provisions at the base, and then sent the farmers with their empty wagons. … Thirty of us went on an “economic action.” The target was a large Lithuanian village twenty-five kilometers from partisan territory, near the town of Constantinova [Konstantynów]. By this time there was nothing left to take from villages nearer by, as they had gradually been relieved of their food reserves and cattle by the many partisans in the Naroch [Narocz] region. It was becoming increasingly difficult to acquire provisions, and more often than not the “economic actions” involved armed combat. The large forces sent on these missions reduced the number free for other partisan activities.590 One evening three lads, led by Shlomo Brand, went to the village of Solcza, near Olkieniki [in the vicinity of Rudniki forest], and despite the strong resistance of the peasants, took several wagonloads of food from the village, returning to the forest under a torrent of bullets. … The more people we had in the partisan camps, the more pressing the matter of a food supply. … Every night groups of fighters went out on food forays. … The next morning the unit which had set out in a foray had not yet returned. It was headed by Shlomo Brand and consisted of the best fighters. … The worst was already suspected, when suddenly Shlomo and his friends came running and said that on their way they had met with a Polish roving band [doubtless a partisan group who had come to the aid of the villagers who were being robbed—M.P.] and only by a miracle did they manage to escape. They had succeeded in collecting several wagons laden with food, but they had to leave them at the edge of the forest among the bushes, a few kilometers from the camp.591
We succeeded in wresting considerable quantities of arms and ammunition from villages who collaborated [sic] with the Germans and were supplied with arms by them. Punitive measures were undertaken against collaborators; and one village which was notorious for its hostility to the Jews was burned down completely.592 The following account is from Naliboki forest where both Bielski and Zorin’s partisans were active: The first of May [1944] was approaching. Zorin’s people wanted to mark the day with a celebration. Zorin asked us to help his partisans obtain food and we agreed. Fourteen armed comrades [mostly Jews] from the Lithuanian units [from Rudniki forest] went out with ten of Zorin’s men on this mission. We walked for a whole day and with sundown entered a village. Its poverty was evident in the small huts that seemed about to collapse and its underground cellars. We took but a small amount of food from the inhabitants. One’s heart was torn and one’s conscience objected, but we had to care for the children and the old people who were waiting for it in the unit. [Yet, earlier on it was stated that the “mission” was to get food for the May Day celebration. M.P.] On our return, near the place Zorin’s unit was stationed, when dawn was coming up and beginning to disperse the night mists, we were stopped by some Russian partisans, who demanded that we leave the wagons with provisions to them. [It is not clear why there were “wagons” of provisions if only a “small amount” of food had been taken. M.P.] We soon discovered that the stories told us about Zorin’s unit [i.e., that they were in turn robbed by Russian partisans—M.P.] were true.593
Soviet reports confirm the extent of the plundering and its devastating impact on the population in the area surrounding Naliboki forest: “In the Stołpce and Nieśwież regions only one cow remained for every five to seven farms and one horse for every seven to ten farms.”598 Soviet partisans often stole clothing and household items for which they had no need. Some of the stolen goods, which included furniture and bedding, surfaced in the local markets where they fetched pocket money for the partisans and their forest charges.599 Soviet partisans committed assaults, rapes and murders and burned down homes and farm buildings. In March 1943, a drunken partisan from the Chkalov Brigade stationed in Naliboki forest murdered 13 inhabitants of the village of Borowikowszczyzna, including young children. On April 24, 1943, on orders from the leader of the Zhukov Brigade, 92 homesteads were burned down in Derewno (or Derewna). As Soviet field reports show, partisans would frequently descend on villages in the Iwie (Iwje)-Juraciszki area for extended drunken orgies.600 The most voracious raiders were reputedly the Jewish groups, and this too exacerbated conditions. In one case, Soviet partisans had to intervene on behalf of a villager in Kul, near Rubieżewicze, when Zorin’s men seized the few remaining supplies this widow had to feed her young children.601 Other accounts, including Jewish ones, refer specifically to Jewish marauders assaulting villagers, raping women and taunting the local population during raids, thereby provoking violent confrontations.602 Yakov Ruvimovich, a Soviet-Jewish partisan in that area, provides the most candid and damning indictment of his fellow partisans: “About half of our people were Jews, but what kind of partisans were they? All they did was rob and rape.”603 One of the strategies adopted by the Soviet (and Jewish) partisans was to set fire to Polish estates which had been confiscated by the Germans, but often continued to be administered by their former Polish owners. The ostensible purpose behind this was to prevent the Germans from amassing and transporting grain and other food supplies to Germany, but the actual consequences were far more devastating. As of January 1, 1944, Soviet partisans boasted the destruction of 217 estates in the Baranowicze district alone.604 Jewish accounts attest to the eagerness with which this mission was accomplished: With the coming of the harvest of the summer crop of 1942, we were getting ready to destroy the harvest stores of the Germans. They had expropriated the large landholdings and the majority of the [Soviet-created] co-operative settlements (kolkhozes), and had planted fields for their own needs. … But the large landholdings—they are all in the hands of the enemy. Their fate is—fire! We divided the great landholdings … We set a time for setting of fires in the whole district. We prepared very well. … One autumn, at midnight, at a given moment, fires broke out in all the farms … Snipers from the Partisan groups shot at everyone who came to extinguish the flames. The skies grew red over the forest and the fields.605 The partisans also set fire to the sheaves of grain stored near the palace, ready for shipment to Germany. … Large estates which the Germans had taken possession of were burned to the ground.606 Although the estates were intended to be a source of food supplies for the Germans, often their Polish administrators siphoned off food for the needs of the local population and the Home Army clandestinely. The raids on the estates therefore constituted a double blow: not only was Polish property destroyed, but also the Home Army lost an important source of provisions and the local population lost their source of livelihood.607 According to a Jewish partisan from the Lenin Komsomol Brigade encamped in the Nacza forest, a Polish dairy was destroyed intentionally in order to prevent milk from being delivered to the Home Army.608 This strategy was ill-conceived (such wanton destruction of national property was virtually unknown in most occupied countries, certainly not in the prosperous countries of Western Europe or in the Czech Protectorate), and it was clearly out of step with the position of the Polish underground authorities. It constituted another source of friction between the Soviets and Jews on the one hand, and the Polish population on the other. Under pressure from the Polish side, the Soviet partisan command belatedly agreed to abandon these disastrous measures.609 1 For a Jewish nationalist perspective on the organization of the Jewish partisan movement in northeastern Poland and its relationship with the Soviet partisans see Ainsztein, Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Europe, 302–25. The author relies exclusively on Jewish anecdotal sources and his pro-Soviet and anti-Polish bias is all too evident. 2 The designation “White Poles” (belopoliaki in Russian), which has a distinctively pejorative connotation, originated in Bolshevik propaganda during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920. See Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish Soviet War, 1919–20 (London: Macdonald, 1972), 89. It was intended to suggest—falsely—that the Poles were allied with the White Russian forces and foreign imperialists in the Russian Civil War. The use of the term “White Poles” in a World War II context is anachronistic. It came into vogue after the Germans uncovered, in April 1943, mass graves of Polish officers and officials murdered by the Soviets in Katyn forest in the early part of 1940. When the Poles called for an investigation by the International Red Cross, the Soviet Union formally severed diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile in London on April 26, a step it had been planning for months. From that point, the term “White Poles” was used by the Soviets to smear the Poles—again falsely—as reactionary fascists. The Polish leader, General Władysław Sikorski, was accused of being a fascist who was collaborating with Nazi Germany (the Soviet Union’s erstwhile ally), and the Polish partisans became “White Poles,” “White bandits,” “agents of Sikorski,” or simply “Polish fascists.” Soon after the Soviet partisan command in Moscow ordered the liquidation of the Polish underground loyal to the London government. See Tadeusz Gasztold, “Sowietyzacja i rusyfikacja Wileńszczyzny i Nowogródczyzny w działalności partyzantki sowieckiej w latach 1941–1944,” in Adam Sudoł, ed., Sowietyzacja Kresów Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej po 17 września 1939 (Bydgoszcz: Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna w Bydgoszczy, 1998), 279; Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 143; Zygmunt Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody: Polsko-sowiecka wojna partyzancka na Nowogródczyźnie 1943–1944 (Warsaw: Rytm, 1999), 114. Israeli historian Leonid Smilovitsky notes that these as well as other epithets such as “national fascists” and “Polish-Hitlerite units” were used to describe the Home Army in Soviet documents from that era. See Leonid Smilovitskii, Katastrofa evreev v Belorussii 1941–1944 gg. (Tel Aviv: Biblioteka Matveia Chernogo, 2000), 141. This book is available online in English translation as Leonid Smilovitsky, Holocaust in Belorussia, 1941–1944, Internet: Yüklə 1,68 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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