Today I spoke with Zalman FEYGELSON in the area
Mr. Feygelson was born in Glubokie. He had two brothers. In November
of 1942 he happened to be standing next the the building of the
Judenrat. Someone told him in excitement that some partisans arrived
in the ghetto. He entered the room were they went and found Avraham
Friedman. He was ready to take 40 people to the forest to join the
resistance. All the other people in the room were survivors of
liquidations from other shtetls, who escaped to the Glubokie ghetto
which was
the only one left. Mr. Feyglson was very insisted that he should join
them. Mr. Fridman asked if he had any weapon or money to purchase the
necessary weapons for the fight against the German enemy.
He answer that he had known but still was detemend to fight. Mr.
Friedman agreed to take him. When the designated time for the escape
arrived the 40 people secretley gathered in a place near the fence of
the ghetto. They broke part of the fence and escaped.came to . and
filiandFEYGELSON Yosef ; Zalman and Dan,(Survived with the partisans)
When I talked to the Polish families, they told me about a Christian
woman by the name of Aviyetchik who was hiding in her home a Jewish
doctor from Globoki with his wife and child. I do not remember his
name, but the wife's name was Rachel Shperber from Globoki. Later on,
I found out that the collaborators told the Germans. The Germans came.
The Jewish young son, I am told, though very charming and pleading for
his life, was killed along with his family as well as the family that
sheltered them
In September of 1942, I told Timczok that my two brothers were in the
ghettoes of Postov and Globoki, and the wife and daughter of Segalchik
were in the ghetto in Myadel. I suggested we get them out of there and
try to save other Jews from those ghettoes. Timczok was did not object
to it. His only condition was that it should take only three days
since our unit was planning to move away from the area.
My cousin Mitzia and I, Yakov Segalchik and the Estoncik (a Jew from
Estonia who was very famous among all the survivors in the area, whose
real name was Yuzek Blachman—he was a real brave guy and helped
transfer many Jews from the towns of the ghettoes, from Kriviczi to
Ilya to Kurenets, and also Dolhinov, Myadel, and Globoki. He arrived
everywhere). He was always walking in the forest and that is how we
encountered him. He planned many transfers of Jewish people past the
front. HE somehow always knew how to escape from the Germans. Anyway,
the four of us left, and when we arrived at kanihanina near Kriviczi,
we went on horse and buggy. We left it behind and walked to the Narutz
forest. When we arrived, we split. Segalchik and the Estoncik went to
Myadel, and Mitzia and I went to Postov. We avoided going in the
ghetto in Postov, fearing that someone would tell the Germans about it
and they would catch us, so I sent a note using a villager who knew my
brother and I. I notified them that they should organize as many Jews
as they could and wait somewhere on the road for us. We waited for
hours for the group from Postov, but no one arrived.
As we later found out, it was a very dark night and for some reason
they were half a kilometer away from us, waiting. Mitzia suggested I
fire so they would know where to find us. As it turned out, this
firing only made things more difficult, because the people thought
that the Germans were waiting for them, and they hid in the trenches
on the road. We waited a little longer but we had to return to
kanihanina. As it turned out, my brothers and others who came had
heard us while they were lying by the side of the road. But my
youngest brother recognized my voice in Russian, but they were too
fearful to yell for us and we did not see them
The next morning I went back to where to the farmer who delivered my
message and asked him what had happened, but he didn't know. We went
back to Niviyeri and found out that Segalchik already went to the
ghetto in Myadel but was not yet able to organize the Jews. Still this
was very important because many of the Jews in the ghetto were excited
by his brave entrance to the ghetto and started organizing to leave
the ghetto. I think about fifty or sixty people eventually left the
Myadel ghetto.
I gave the people of Myadel certain addresses and eventually they were
organizing to also go to the Soviet Union. While walking, they
encountered my brother and 13 other people who left Postov. Although
they had kept looking for me, when they found out that I had left,
they decided to join the people from Myadel. Eventually my older
brother found me but my younger brother continued to walk with the
people from Myadel on to Russia.
My older brother joined the partisans, as did some villagers from the
nearby village and some POWs who escaped from the Germans. Although we
were originally going to leave the area, we decided to stay until
spring. As the partisan force enlarged, there was more need for
information and there was a need for some kind of newspaper to explain
different aspects of the resistance. Originally it was enough to just
have pamphlets but now there was a need for real printing. Timczok
decided that we should send some people to Globoki to confiscate the
printing press with all the tools and to transfer it to the forest. I
wanted to volunteer for the mission but Timczok refused, saying he
needed me, so he sent my brother and my cousin Mitzia. They succeeded
in getting into the Globoki ghetto and in getting in touch with my
other two brothers who were there, and four other people who escaped
from Postov but whose names I don't remember. I know that two of them
fell in battle and two others are here in Israel. My brother and
cousin succeeded in getting them out of the ghetto and a few other
young people from Globoki also left. They were also able to confiscate
a printing press with all the other equipment and brought it to the
base in Lagojsk, where they started printing a paper.
My brother was able to do it after contacting a Jewish guy who worked
for the Germans in the printing press that had originally belonged to
a Jew. This guy, Dov Berl Katzowitz, is today a math teacher in Petach
Tikvah. He was the man who really made it happen. It all took place in
the beginning of January 1943. Amongst the people who were then
assigned to print the paper were Moshe Forman and Gershon Yoffe from
Dolhinov, Shimon Shapira, and a woman who was a chemist (?) from
Postov, and others who were non-Jews. Most of what was written came
from the Jews and was edited by the Jews. Other than the newspaper,
they also printed pamphlets and flyers encouraging resistance.
My brother went to Globoki a few more times and was able to take more
Jews, amongst them my wife. There were others who were encouraged by
his visits and were able to escape during the night. Eventually a big
group of young people and families from Globoki, Myadel and other
towns in the area were organized. At that point the headquarters
decided to organize Hanokem, a special Jewish atriad meaning "The
Avenger" near Niviyeri. They thought this atriad could contain all the
people who had recently arrived. Yakov Segalchik was appointed as the
head of this unit,. [p. 553]
The newly arrived escapees from the ghettos of Dokshitz, Globoki, and
Myadel and other towns in the area joined the new unit, and they
eventually became the best unit in the area. They performed special
missions that no one else could, and they did wonderfully in all the
missions they took upon themselves. But tragically, this unit broken
up because there was a non-Jew from Globoki who pretended to be a Jew
and he was really an agent of the Germans. As soon as they found out,
they put two Jewish guys to watch him, but they fell asleep and he
escaped. People chased him and he was caught, but the traitor said
during his trial that he gave his guards gold and they let him escape.
One of the guards admitted that he fell asleep, which allowed the guy
to escape, but the other guard did not give any proof that he didn't
take the gold. So all three, the traitor and his two Jewish guards,
were executed and the entire unit was dispersed to other partisan
units. Segalchik then became the head of the hospital unit and the
chief administrator of the hospital. This took part in the first
months of 1943.
Changes in New Partisan Units
As the second-in-command to the commissar, Timczok chose the new
commanders, some of whom were Jews from Globoki and other towns in the
area, and also a few women. The printing press and the newspaper were
also moved to the new area that Timczok commanded. My two brothers, my
cousin Mizia, and my wife, and two other friends came to the new unit
with us. Timczok was not satisfied to just work for the party; he also
established new partisan units, a new Atriad by the name of Bolshevik.
It took five or six months and they became a brigade. In this short
time, the Bolshevik Atriad contained more than 400 fighters, amongst
them 30 Jews. The Bolshevik Atriad became very appealing to many
partisans. Even a rector of the University of Minsk, Professor
Libikov, joined. We had people who came all the way from Lithuania. In
this atriad we stayed until the end of August, or maybe the beginning
of September of 1943.
The area that we had been in before, between Poloczek and Minsk now
had other partisan units. The Markov Brigade and also demolitions
units headed by a man by the name Litpbitzky. I was sent to that unit
to meet Litbitzky to find out about his loyalty. I would like to point
out that for some reason I was always sent out on jobs of
communications. Although Timczok would always complain to headquarters
that he didn't like them to send his assistant, but they always sent
me because they knew I had good connections with the farmers as well
as the townspeople.
One time I went along with some people from Niviyeri to see the area.
On this mission I had my brother, Mizia, my wife, Tsipilevich from
Postov who died a few years ago in Israel, and four other people who
were not Jews. After spending a few months there for this mission, I
returned to the brigade.
They sent me on many other missions, many times despite the protests
of the commissar. It seemed that for any mission that needed deep
analyses, or were more sensitive or more complicated, they liked to
send Jews. They believed that we were better able to communicate with
the locals, and we were planted in different areas to gather
information. I think in general, culturally speaking, the Jews tended
to be better off or more sophisticated than most of the other
partisans. Timczok, who knew many of the Jews very well, used that
aspect to send them on missions that needed higher leadership quality.
He was very warm and loving and caring, and his warmth would be spread
all around him. He was a good listener and quickly understood the
motivations of people he met, and he had good analytical skills. First
and foremost, the soldiers under him and the people above him
respected him as a friend, not just a leader, and I in my heart will
always be filled with warmth and admiration for this man, Timczok and
all his missions to save people. Many people owe their lives to him.
There was a special bunker with a big container, filled with letters.
There was also a primitive, wooden printing press. Here I met with Dov
Katzovitz from Globoki. He had just started working in this place, but
still didn't finish the first pamhlet. He was very happy to see me. We
worked an entire day until we prepared the first pamphlet in Russian.
During the three days I was there I was able to publish two different
pamphlets. On the fourth day, Timczok came back and took me to the
center of the partisan movement in the area of Borisov. This group was
named Kirov and the location was somewhere behind the Berezina River.
It was near the headquarters of Dyadia Vasia. Here I stayed to sleep
and Timczok left, at a distance of three or four kilometers away. In
the center was Zokovitz from Kurenets. He was sent here from Moscow
with instructions on how to do certain missions. Zokovitz was the
secretary of the Communist Party in Kurenets. ( Yosef Norman)