The program can be heard @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vc51h

Here begins an extraordinary journey to Lithuania and Belarus for
broadcaster and writer Michael Freedland and his son, Guardian
journalist and best-selling author, Jonathan.

These two countries once thronged with Jewish life, a life that was
all but extinguished by successive regimes- Russian Czarists, Soviets
and then the Nazis who, with the help of some Lithuanians, managed to
totally decimate many towns and villages, or shtetls. Knowing that
their forebears settled in the UK in the late 19th century they set
off to try to find any trace of the Freedlands who came from Baisogala
in Lithuania and the Mindels from Dunilovichy in Belarus. As the
journey progresses, it becomes a broader search- a search for Jewish
life. They are taken to Janova and Kedainiai, both once busy shtetls,
alive with Jewish businesses, shops and culture. Sadly in such places
where there was once a high proportion of Jews, few now remain and
synagogues have disappeared or fallen into disrepair.

In Kaunas, an interview with Professor Egidius Aleksandrovicius lays
out the entire history of Jewry in Lithuania. In Vilnius, the family
focus is re-established as they visit the National Archives where they
learn a lot about the Freedlands and the Mindels, discovering
crumbling nineteenth century archives that refer to what could be
Michael's ancestors. The trail now points clearly to Baisogala, what
was once a tiny shtetl in the Lithuanian countryside. Simon the guide
knows of a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts, but it's a cemetery he
hasn't seen for ten years, as it's been flooded for a reservoir, but
by an amazing stroke of luck, the team tries a wooded hillside
and...there it is, remnants of old and mostly illegible Jewish tombs,
where, no doubt, Michael and Jonathan's ancestors are buried."
(Producer: Neil Rosser //A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4).

Stacye Mehard
Virginia

Studying the Families of
Alperovich of Kurenets; Ipp of Kaunas; Krokin / Krokinovsky /
Crockin of Crockin of Kaunas and Baltimore and Norfolk, Va;
Lewitan of Kobylnik, Dokshits-Dokkshytsy, Lithuania and Belarus;
Luloff / Lulow / Lulove of Dokshits-Dokkshytsy and Minsk;
Piastunovich of Kurenets & Dokshits-Dokkshytsy;
Rapoport of Kaunas; Rosenthal / Roszental of Dokshits-Dokkshytsy;
Sass / Zess of Lithuania and Poland; Smigelsky of Grodno and
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

From: Haim Furman <haim.furman@anobit.com>

I would appreciate your assistance regarding the testimony with the title:

June 1941, The Germans entrance to Dunilovichi By Yitzhak Mushkat (A
survivor, now in Argentina) Translated by Eilat Gordin Levitan

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/hlybokaye/hly339.html

In the testimony, there are 2 parts that I want to focus on:

1. We went out of the house and dawn was breaking. By day, we had to
be careful not to be seen. We went deeper into the forest. The frost
was fierce and we had nothing to wear. We didn't dare make a fire. We
again went around in circles. Suddenly we saw a small boy sitting on a
tree stump, eating a piece of bread. He was wounded in his leg. This
was Reuven Furman's eight-year-old son. While running across the lake,
he had been shot in the leg. He told us, “I made out as if I was dead.

When the policeman went away, I ran into the forest. I was in the
forest with my father and two brothers. Where they are, I don't know
because I had fallen asleep. When I awoke they were gone.” We couldn't
understand why the father had abandoned his son. We asked him, “Where
could they have gone?” He answered that he had simply heard them
saying that they must go to the Shnitz Forests, where there were
partisans.

When we heard this, we had a shred of hope. We decided to go there
since we might meet up with the partisans, but what to do with the
boy? He wants to go, but he can't, since he is limping badly, and it
is about forty-five kilometers to Shmitz. We bandaged his foot with a
torn shirt. A rich peasant lived nearby. We brought him there and
asked that he keep him until we find his father. We told the peasant
that if he turns him over to the Germans, the partisans will come and
burn down his entire farm. He took him and made a shepherd of him.

2. We were driven deep into the forest until we noticed patrols at
their posts. One was an acquaintance from the shtetl. Then we
understood that these were the partisans. We met people from
Dunilovichi such as Leib Gentzel and his daughter and Reuven Furman
and his two sons. This was the father who had left his small son in
the forest.

I am Reuven Furman's grandson.

I believe that one of his two sons is my father, Jacob Furman, and the
other son was his twin brother, David.

The eight-year-old son (in part 1) should be my uncle.

My father had 7 brothers and sisters and he told us that they,
together with his parents were murdered.

He actually didn’t see them all dead, by he told us that he know...

I hope that you could light more details about this story.

Thanks in advance,

Haim.