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Avenging Her Family's Murder
Zinoida Ginzburg was born in 1926, in the town of Palczin the Minsk district,
and when the war broke out, she was a high school student. Before the age of
sixteen, it was her fate to see how the Germans led her parents and her two
brothers out of their home and murdered them, together with other Jews. When
she saw the Germans approaching her home, at the very last moment she jumped
onto the little roof, hid there, and through a crack she watched the atrocity
that was being perpetrated at the central square in Dolhinov, the town in
which her family was living at that time. A third brother, who had been
wounded in battle at the beginning of the war, was in the hospital in a
distant village. After the mass murders took place, an orchestra began to
play marches, while a number of Jews who sur! vived, were ordered to remove the
corpses and to clean the square of the spilled blood. This event left a deep
and painful scar in her heart all her life, and despite her young age and
solitariness, she swore to avenge her family's murder. At nightfall, she fled
to the marshes, where she hid for a few days, without knowing where to turn,
and pressed by hunger and loneliness, she started to wander from village to
village, while contemplating her situation and future. At the end of 1942,
she alighted upon a group of partisans, amongst whom was a non - Jew whom she
knew from her place of birth, and he took an interest in her, took her to his
base and introduced her to his commander. She later learned that this
partisan group was called Mestitel (avenger), and was led by a Russian
officer, Sokolo! v. In a forest setting, amongst young armed people, her
aspirations to take revenge from the Germans grew stronger, and she was given
a quick course in the use of weapons, and was soon integrated into the group,
serving at first as a scout, since she did not look Jewish, and also knew the
German language very well. She dressed like a village girl, reaching many
places from her base, and gathered important military information.She not
only brought this information back to the partisan commander, but also
participated in the partisan responses - blowing up railroad tracks,
storehouses, bridges, etc. As a native of Palczynce, she served as a guide to
commander Sokolov in a planned raid on the town, and the attacking group was
divided into three separate units, and after a twelve hour trek in the snow
and 30 degree below zero weather, they arrived around midnig! ht at their
destination; they stormed into the town with blazing machine - guns and
shouts of "Hurrah!", and approached a large building with a large
concentration of Germans, who defended themselves desperately, shooting as
they were jumping out of the windows. The town was captured, but the partisans
suffered many casualties of dead and wounded, as did the Germans.Engraved in
her memory was a difficult action in the winter of 1943, when they were
ordered to attack the Germans in the town of Kustinbitzi, about twenty
kilometers from Vileika, who had resided in the ancient church. The mission
was to blow up the church and its inhabitants and to liquidate the priest,
who had collaborated with the Germans. For some unknown reason, the church
building did not collapse, despite the explosives, and they therefore were
forced to engage the German forces in a very! tough battle before the enemy
was eliminated. Ginzburg, despite the losses, had a special satisfaction to
see the Germans that she personally shot at, die.In her unit, there were
three young Jewish girls, all of whom shared the same fate and destiny. Their
parents had been murdered by the Germans, and so they shared a common
purpose. Towards the end of 1943, headquarters summoned Zinoida to
participate in a special scouting mission, far from the partisan base. She,
her Jewish girlfriend Selva, and nine men, constituted the group, to be led
by the Russian partisan Veizbirzki.Dressed as a village girl she "walked"
around the surrounding villages, until she reached the train station in
Vileika, and she gathered information on the movement of the army, the
trains, war equipment, tanks, guns, and even overhead conversation among
soldiers about the war. At night she would return to the partisan location
and transmit her informatio! n to the commander, and every few days she
traveled to the brigade headquarters, escorted by a colleague, to hand over
the accumulated information, plus an account of her impressions of the
conversations she had heard.Her reports were considered valuable and useful,
and in this capacity she worked from October 12, 1943, to June 26, 1944. One
day the group was advised to return to its base, as the fighting front was
coming closed, and a few days later, reports reached them that the Germans
were encircling the forest, and the brigade was ordered to be on the alert.
The battle with the Germans began - amidst the German gunfire, they were
exhorted to hold on to their positions, and not to retreat. With nightfall,
the shooting ceased, and it became clear that the partisans had sustained
losses in dead and wounded, and at midnight the order was given to the
partisans to disengage themselves from battle with the Germans and to retreat
deeper into the forest. In the morning, German bombs were dropped on the area
and they were closely combing the entire forest, and soon they met other
partisan groups belonging to the brigades, who were seeking ways out of the
forest. The siege continued many days until the Red Army liberated them.
Courtesy of:
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Los Angeles, CA 90035