Our wedding on Jan.24, 1919
The wedding was smaller, without as many people attending. Ruben didn't want music and didn't know if his parents were alive or dead. We had our wedding at my brother's house, with my cousin Fishel Leshner serving as the Chazan (or Cantor) and performing the religious ceremonies. When it came to the Shiva-broches, or Blessings, he openly blessed me, telling me I should have children as good as I was! I was amused, and asked him 'what, are you blessing me with good children so quickly?' He answered: 'I openly pray for you, because you are as dear to me as my own daughter; you are a good child, so I want to bless you in this special time, as you really deserve to have good children!'
Thank God my children are all good children! God bless all of them, and my grandchildren - Amen! |
The church yard
After the Communists came to power, there were new anti-Semitic groups organizing themselves every few days. The groups gave themselves names and the first thing they wanted to show, in order to prove their strength, was that they could kill more Jews than other groups. We had one police station in town and only a few policemen. They disappeared when these groups came, leaving them free to do everything they desired - to rob, kill and destroy.
In such moments, people left all their doors open, so that the doors would not be destroyed. When they came in, they took whatever they wanted. And if people were in the house, they killed as many as they liked. So, of course, in such days, Jews were hiding themselves, often in Christian fields or gardens; if these groups thought Jews were hiding inside a house, they would just burn the house down, which is why Jews hid elsewhere. So you see, even if you had a Christian friend, he wouldn't let you hide there in his house. If a Jew was in his field, however, a Christian could say: 'I'm not responsible, because I didn't know'. On one such day, Ruben said to me: 'Come with me - if we reach the village alive, I know a woman there that will let us stay for a day'. So we went. We took a shortcut through a Polish church, but there were a few bandits there. When they saw us, they started shooting. Ruben took my hand, and we started to run in a zigzag pattern so they couldn't shoot us. As we ran, Ruben threw me over the high fence, and jumped over too. I fell into a valley a yard deep, and I was then in my eighth month of pregnancy with Bernard. I was in such pain that I thought I was ready for childbirth pain now. We found a pig shack the size of a telephone booth and jumped in. Our pursuers lost us, but Ruben said we should continue on because they will find us again soon. And so we went further. I asked Ruben why we should die here, in the village. 'Let's go home, and die at home!', I said. 'No, come on!', he told me. So we reached that woman and Ruben asked her to hide us. She said: 'I could hide the pigs, the chickens, the dogs, but not you! At your own risk, go between the potato grass in the garden. But if you are found, I will tell them I didn't know about you.' We went quickly and lay down, as I was in pain. While resting there, my pain quieted down. Within an hour a large Cossack on a big horse appeared. He had a big hat, and he looked as tall as the little house the woman lived in. He said to her: 'Your neighbors told me that you're hiding Jews!' She said: 'If you find some, then help yourselves.' He saw that everything was quiet, stood there for a while, and left. We heard all that, and I asked God to save us; in the name of my unborn, innocent child, let us live. The woman really helped us, by hiding all her livestock. Then we started to go home, but there was still unrest. So we went into another Christian barn and dug under a pile of straw which was stacked up to the ceiling. I can't understand to this day how we came out alive. But God saved all three of us: Ruben and me, and Bernard inside me. The devils eventually went home; we looked around, and with trembling hearts went back to our house. I had 20 rubbles, and it was one bill pinned in my hair. There was nothing to buy, as all the stores had been robbed. Our servant from long ago, Uliana, and her husband Lupanas brought us fruit and potatoes so that we could cook something to eat. At this point, three bandits came into our house since the door was open. They saw me, afraid and pregnant, and my scared father, and Ruben, who was pale. They robbed the house, looked at us for a while, and left. These are just some of the pieces of horror we lived through. Dear children, we thank God that you are here, and not there! God bless you, our dear children, for marrying wives from your own nation! We are proud of you! What we couldn't accomplish here, you did - wonderful! |
The pogroms and Bernard's birth
Revolution against Czar Nicholai the Second, and the murder of him and his family ended the first World War. The revolutionaries made a big mistake by letting the army loose, allowing them to go home with their ammunition. They also gave all the prisoners amnesty, or freedom. There was no Czar, no rules, and no bread to eat. All of these people coming back home were hungry, so of course, the ammunition was the tool they used to quench their thirst. They needed to begin living again, and the innocent Jews, as always, were the first to pay for everything. That's how the pogroms started and kept going for a long time. They robbed, killed, and used Jewish girls to satisfy their desires. They also killed my brother Boruch, who left behind a wife and five young children. My father, Ruben and I went up the ladder and hid ourselves in the attic. Boruch was at his home, and soon we heard a gun shot and the loud screams of his family. We came back down and ran into his house to see what had happened. Boruch opened his eyes once, and then closed them forever. A group of murderers shot him through the heart once and took his money. That same day they killed many Jews, including my cousin Moshe Leshner and his twelve year old son. Our tragedy was unimaginable! Thus, in such unrest, our first child was born, and we named him Boruch after my brother.
October 25, 1919 was the day the new Mr. Dranow arrived. When I felt the birth pains, there was nobody to help me, so Ruben ran to bring an akusherka, a type of midwife. Nobody walked through the streets at night, and she didn't want to go! But Ruben was so insistent that she came. And for that she handled the child in such a way that I got swollen and needed stitches, and the child couldn't live in the uterus. In the morning Ruben ran to the government hospital, and fetched a regular lady doctor. She made the child leave the uterus and stitched me up, and all went well. |
More Chaos
There was no place to hide. The city was full of hooligans, and Christians didn't want to let Jews in anywhere. So Ruben said to me: 'Let's go to another city since it's difficult to hide with a child; the child will cry, and then they will hear us, and that's not what we need. Maybe there is some other city that is not in chaos.'
So we asked the father to go with us, and later we’ll come back. But father didn’t want to come with us. His answer was: “I want to be buried near my son Boruch. There are my parents too. I kept you for a long time, but now I see, that you can stay here any longer, on account of the baby. So in his honor, go well , and come well, and God should keep you safe, all the time. He kissed me, I kissed him, and he couldn’t stop kissing Bernard, his grandson, his son’s name!... In a few days he took sick, and it took him two days, and he died. Yes, he’s near his only son Boruch… I felt sick after, but it’s too late…
He was 74 years old when he died. Nikolaev
There was a big crowd of Jews at the Rakitno train station, trying to run to any place where there was at least a little bit of order. Ruben saw to it that we caught the last train, as the rest of the trains were reserved for military personnel. We reached a big town called Nikolaev; we were there two days, but we couldn't stay. There were already Communists there; they caught men from the streets and sent them to the coal mines, never to be heard from again. So we started moving again . There were no more trains for private use, so we, like others, stood at the Yavekino station for days.
Station workers would come to bother us, looking for money, and the poor Jews screamed. There was a Jewish colony, or farm, not far from the station, and they took milk and other products and brought it to the train station to distribute among us. When they saw me, a woman with a baby of 6 months, they came closer and gave me an extra glass of milk so I could nurse the baby. Boy did I cry! Not long ago, I gave away so much of our cows' milk products to the poor, and now, I'm a poor woman, without a home, and without food! I thanked them very much... Ruben begged many of the train conductors to pick us up, but to no avail. One conductor saw me and the baby and his heart softened; when Ruben put some money into his hands he took us up. The train couldn't go any further than Korsun, which is 12 miles from Steblow, because the other four train stations near Rakitno were still in disarray. Ruben then hired a horse and wagon, which took us to Steblow. My sister Bas-Sheva took me into her dining room, and let us stay with her until we found our own place. Ruben couldn't make a living
Times were very bad. There is so much that should be written to explain this, but I'm making this short, so I hope you can think and understand the rest. If not for my sister Bas-Sheva, we would have just died of hunger and sickness, one by one. We began to prepare ourselves to leave Russia, to risk our lives, in the hope that we could reach the USA. Letters from America to Russia just started to resume after being suspended during the war, from 1914 to 1918. I sent word to my sister Celia Chepow about my condition, and asked her to help me come over there. I received an answer with a new address of 72 E. 111 St. N.Y.C., and the reply was that America still didn't recognize Russia's regime. Celia told me I should cross to Poland and from there she will see what she can do for me.
I talked to Ruben, and told him that we should try to reach the US now, while I'm not pregnant. Yes, he said. But just because I asked, he fixed me up, and now I was pregnant again. It's hard enough to risk our lives with one child, without money, and in this condition. As we were sitting with Bas-Sheva, I talked about how he promised, and then look what happened. Ruben smiled and said nothing - it looked like he was happy about the pregnancy. Then Bas-Sheva said to me, 'Look, my dear sister, you see that I have no children of my own; I'm a stepmother to my husband's children, so when God likes you, say 'thanks'. This child should have the name of our father Moshe, if it's a boy. Now don't go anywhere until you give birth - I'll help you.' So we were in Steblow until after the birth. |
Morris' birth on Nov. 15, 1921
The following story is how I gave birth to my second child Moshe, or Morris. Ruben was visiting Bas-Sheva while I was making dinner. Bernard was sitting on a chair by the table, which had a white tablecloth on it and a challah that I had just baked. It was Thursday night, and soon Ruben would arrive and enjoy our supper. I took a little kerosene to light the lamp with, since it was evening time, but I didn't know that kerosene had benzene in it. As soon as I started pouring the kerosene into the lamp, it caught fire, which spread to my sweater and my hair. I dropped the bottle and ran out into the street, screaming for help! In the meantime, I remembered that Bernard was still in the house, so I ran back in and grabbed him. His sleeve was already burning, as well as the tablecloth. As I grabbed Bernard, the fire pressed in on me; I held Bernard close, and ran back into the street. People put out the fire and ran to call my sister. Of course Ruben came as well.
The skin on my hand was burned all the way up to the elbow, and it was very painful. There was no doctor in town, and the hospital was closed at night. So Bas-Sheva and her girls ground potatoes and kept them on my hands all night. In the meantime, the child inside me moved further down. I felt the birth pains, but there was no doctor! This went on until the morning, when I went to an out of town hospital. The doctor there took scissors and cut off my skin up to the elbow, which was extremely painful. But then he put some salt on that cooled my hands, and I could open my eyes again because it felt better. I asked him about the birth and he said I still have time. Yes, I had time, until the next evening. Again the hospital was closed and there was no doctor. So Ruben called in a Chazan's wife who lived across the street, since she was used to helping in such situations. So what did she do? She took a Jewish prayer book, sat down, and prayed that the child should be born quickly. Morris was a heavy child, and it was a miracle that I gave birth and both Morris and I came out of it alive. Thank God we were both all right.
Since my hands were bandaged, I could not hold the child or feed him until the sixth week after his birth. Bas-Sheva would come feed me and the baby. We stayed in Steblow through the winter, and on May 1st, 1922, we were on our way to America. God bless the U.S. for being good to the Jews! Thank god that my children were raised here and they will never know what we went through. I bless the U.S. day and night, for being so humane. I love my children and wish them the best.
The skin on my hand was burned all the way up to the elbow, and it was very painful. There was no doctor in town, and the hospital was closed at night. So Bas-Sheva and her girls ground potatoes and kept them on my hands all night. In the meantime, the child inside me moved further down. I felt the birth pains, but there was no doctor! This went on until the morning, when I went to an out of town hospital. The doctor there took scissors and cut off my skin up to the elbow, which was extremely painful. But then he put some salt on that cooled my hands, and I could open my eyes again because it felt better. I asked him about the birth and he said I still have time. Yes, I had time, until the next evening. Again the hospital was closed and there was no doctor. So Ruben called in a Chazan's wife who lived across the street, since she was used to helping in such situations. So what did she do? She took a Jewish prayer book, sat down, and prayed that the child should be born quickly. Morris was a heavy child, and it was a miracle that I gave birth and both Morris and I came out of it alive. Thank God we were both all right.
Since my hands were bandaged, I could not hold the child or feed him until the sixth week after his birth. Bas-Sheva would come feed me and the baby. We stayed in Steblow through the winter, and on May 1st, 1922, we were on our way to America. God bless the U.S. for being good to the Jews! Thank god that my children were raised here and they will never know what we went through. I bless the U.S. day and night, for being so humane. I love my children and wish them the best.
The story continues from Steblov
Ruben went to another town with a few friends for business purposes. When he came back, he brought Typhoid fever with him. He was near death, but came out of it. Unfortunately, he gave it to me and both children. Typhus could return even after you recovered from it - Ruben had it three times, and the children did as well. As soon as I could stretch my feet again, I said 'let's go, or we'll die here'. We stopped in Rakitno to say goodbye. Then we reached Berdichew, but there were no more trains. A lot of passengers were waiting there until they became sick, collapsed on the floor, and died. Our whole family was laying sick on the floor too. The stretchers that took away the dead were working overtime in such conditions. God helped us, and we caught a train to the border. I forgot the name of the town, but it was near the Polish border.
Once there, Ruben convinced someone to lead us to Poland. We only had a little money, our clothes, a little jewelry, and pillows for the children. I became sick again, sweated it out, and a half hour later we started towards Poland. Ruben carried Bernard and I had Morris. Morris was a heavy baby, or perhaps I wasn't strong enough. We walked 10 miles, through the night, and through rocks, water, and fields. I couldn't wear shoes, so I walked only in my stockings. There were two men with us, and they walked far ahead of Ruben. I was far behind all of them because I couldn't walk fast enough. After one night, we reached the Polish town of Rovno. Bernard was 2 and a half years old, and Morris was 6 months old. Thank god we were now through Russia - soon we would go even further.
Once there, Ruben convinced someone to lead us to Poland. We only had a little money, our clothes, a little jewelry, and pillows for the children. I became sick again, sweated it out, and a half hour later we started towards Poland. Ruben carried Bernard and I had Morris. Morris was a heavy baby, or perhaps I wasn't strong enough. We walked 10 miles, through the night, and through rocks, water, and fields. I couldn't wear shoes, so I walked only in my stockings. There were two men with us, and they walked far ahead of Ruben. I was far behind all of them because I couldn't walk fast enough. After one night, we reached the Polish town of Rovno. Bernard was 2 and a half years old, and Morris was 6 months old. Thank god we were now through Russia - soon we would go even further.
Rovno, Poland
It was 10 miles from the Russian border to Rovno, Poland. As I said, I walked through mud and some stretches of water, with a heavy 6 month old child, and right after sweating off Typhoid fever for half an hour. You could imagine my physical state after these 10 miles. Ruben walked with Bernard and a pillow for the children. The men that walked in front were healthy men; Ruben was not well, but he's a man, so he was walking in front of me, watching the men far in front of us. He turned back to make sure Morris and I were keeping up. At dawn we reached Rovno. The men led us to a Jewish Community house where I could dry out my clothes, rest up, and try to figure out what to do. I caught typhoid again, and the two children were sick too. We needed a hospital. Ruben talked Polish and asked where we could go, and got all three of us to a hospital. After a week we were fine again, as fine as it was possible to be in this situation. In the meantime, Ruben rented a room from a Jewish family and brought us there. We took photos in order to make passports, so there is a snapshot of the family there. Here is one of me before all that... in the hospital they cut off my hair.
Rovno was a Jewish Destination
Immigrants congregated in Rovno, seeking a chance to go to America; Jews were especially prominent, as they were running away from the pogroms, killings, and Communists. There was a HIAS in Rovno - an American organization to help immigrants who had relatives in the U.S.A. For most refugees, American relatives would send money to the HIAS, and the organization would take care of them. However, because America did not yet recognize the Communists, bringing Russian refugees to the country was a different story. There was a long wait time to get the visa, or permission, to come to America - it took nearly a year for us.
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At one point Ruben went to the HIAS to see if Celia sent us some money; there were about a hundred immigrants there, and everyone was arrested. Why? Because the Polish authorities had some argument with the shipping companies. Amidst the chaos, the Polish pocketed some money. HIAS was closed for a few days, then everything went back to normal. But Ruben was arrested along with everyone else.
The landlady wanted the rent, and we had to eat, but I had no money. A detective was assigned to investigate us; he went to HIAS to get the landlord's money from what Celia sent, and sent another detective to arrest us. I asked the landlady's daughter to bring Ruben food, and put a note in the bread. The note said that maybe this is the end for us, and explained the situation. He freed himself from jail, and freed us as well. Then he promised to pay someone so we could get to Warsaw. There we received the visa and the money we needed to go to America, and here we came.
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I could dedicate books to the time we spent in Warsaw, but I want to forget those times, even though I can't. Thank God we lived through them!