Friday, July 21, 1944

THE JEWISH NEWS

12 of 119,000 Jews Found
Alive as Reds Take Minsk

Eye-Witness Reveals Gruesome Tale of Extermination of
Co-Religionists by Nazis Before Russians Swept
into City; Ghetto Liquidated

Schreiber Praised
For Bond Posters

A feature article by Herschel
Berman in Tuesday's Detroit
News revealed that Alex Schrei-
ber, well -known Jewish commu-

By Raymond A. Davies
(Special JTA Correspondent)

Isaacson Slain

At 6 a.m. trucks drove up to
the ghetto and the unlucky 6,000
were loaded into them as their
families and friends who had
been spared were forced to stand
by and watch. Isaacson and sev-
eral Jewish- policemen
1
w o were
compelled to assist the Germans
were shot that evening.
This was the first pogrom in
Baranovichi. The sec o n d oc-
curred in the Fall of 1942, when
3,000 were killed, leaving an-
other 3,000 survivors. All but 200
of these were murdered in a
third pogrom on Dec. 17, 1942.
The. 200 who were spared were
highly skilled workers, among
them Burstein and his compan-
ions. They were taken' to a penal
camp and then to the Trostinetz
camp, about eight miles outside
of Minsk.
Liquidation of Ghetto
In the Fall of 1943, the Ger-
mans began liquidating t h e
Minsk ghetto. They deported
8,Q00 Minsk Jews to Lublin
where they were killed, while
several thoUsand others were
executed at Trostinetz.
At the same time, the advance
of the Red Army towards Minsk
necessitated the services of more
auto mechanics. Burstein and
about 200 others, including 13
women and four children, were
quartered in the garage where
they lived as slaves.
From hints dropped by their
chief, the slave laborers realized
that they would be executed be-
fore the Nazis quit Minsk. They
decided to escape. On the morn-
ing of June 28, the 12 men hid
in the cellars of the university
buildings.
Children Burned Alive
On Sunday, July 2, which was
the day before the Red Army
broke into the city,_ all the Jewish
mechanics who had not escaped,
together with the women and
children were taken into the
charred building we could see
behind us and burned to death.
At 5 a.m. on July 3, Burstein
looked out of a crack in the
basement wall and saw a Red
Armyman standing before the
ruined government b uilding

ZOD, 12th St.
Beat Quotas

Merchants Sell $510,000 in
War Bonds; Zionists Top
$100,000 Goal

Detroiter Will Represent
State Bar of Michigan
at Conference

For many years active in
Latin American affairs in this
area, Mr. Levin holds member-
ships in the American Society
of International L a w, Pan-
American Lawyers Association of
New York, Foreign Trade Club
of Detroit a n d the board of
directors of the Detroit Inter-
American Center. He is a mem-
ber of the law firm of Levin,
Levin, Gar-vett and Dill.

Mr. Levin will be accompanied
by Mrs. Levin on a several
weeks' trip that will take them
to Mexico, Gautemala and Hon-
duras. They will leave next
Thursday.

where a' statue of Lenin h a d
once stood.

Today Burstein and his com-
panions are working at repairing
damaged German trucks for use
by the Russian troops.

Jewish Woman Worked
In German Headquarters.

MINSK (JTA)—A 43-year-old
Jewish teacher, who spent three
years in German-held Minsk and
the surrounding forests, told a
Jewish Telegraphic Agency cor-
respondent this week how she
worked as a charwoman for five
months in German headquarters,
enabling her to pass on informa-
tion to the partisan bands around
the city.

The woman, red-haired Klias-
sia Prusslina, an instructor in
Russian history in the Minsk
Medical Institute, spent 15
months within -the city of Minsk
and 21 months with guerilla
bands on the outskirts. During
this time her 11-year-old son
was killed by the Germans and
her brother was hanged.

Romanians Hid Jews
Until Russians Arrived

MOSCOW (JTA)—The Jewish
Anti-Fascist Committee this week
-reported that many of the 300
Jewish families in the Romanian
town of Staroshentzi, now in the
hands of the Russians, w ere
saved from death by non-Jews
and kept hidden for in a n y
months until the town was taken
by the Red- Army.
The report names Stepan Bur-
leku, a forest watchman, as one
of the Romanians who saved a
number of Jews who were held
for three weeks at the local rail-
way station awaiting deportation
to Transnistria.

BUY. WAR BONDS NOW!

Lipsky Believes Infamous Document Will be Replaced by
"Something Which Reflects Assurances of Com-
monwealth" as MacMichael Leaves

-7

Saul R. Levin
To Visit Mexico

Saul R. Levin, legal advisor
to the Mexican Consulate for the
jurisdiction of Michigan and
Ohio and Consul for the Repub-
lic of Honduras
in Michigan, has
been designated
an official dele-
gate of the State
Bar of Michigan
to the third con-
ference of the
Inter - American
Bar Association
to be held in
Mexico City,
Aug. 1 to 8.
Mr. Levin was
notified of h i s Saul R. Levin
appointment this week by
Charles M. Humphrey, president
of the State Bar of Michigan.

End of White Paper Looms
As Commissioner Departs

NEW YORK (JPS)
The. departure of the high com-
missioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, from Palestine "means
also the end of the infamous White Paper which, there is
reason to believe, will be replaced by something which
reflects assurances given that the hopes of the Jewish people
with regard to the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish

MINSK (JTA) —Only 12 Jews remained alive of the
80,000 Jews who lived in the city and of the 39,000 who
were brought there from Berlin, Vienna and Prague, this
correspondent established this week upon arriving here.
Ignatz Burstein, one of the 12 who escaped Nazi exter-
mination, told how the Germans annihilated 11 9,000 Jews in

Minsk . during the three years
they held the city. He related
his gruesome tale in front of a
charred building where the 12
Jews, all skilled technicians,
were made to repair German
military vehicles.
In 1941, Burstein said, the
Germans deported thousands of
Jews from Lodz to Baranovichi,
a short distance southwest of
Minsk, where they were placed
in a ghetto, where 12,000 persons
were confined. Although forced
to work for the Germans, the
Jews were not molested" until
March, 1942, w hen the Nazis
suddenly divided the ghetto into
two parts and drove all the in-
habitants into one section, leav-
ing the other empty.
`Tickets of Life'
Then they began distributing
green "tickets of life." These
were work cards. Failure to ob-
tain such a card meant death,
since only those who -w er e
deemed fit to work were to be
allowed to remain alive. From
6 p.m. to 1 a.m. the Germans
called out the names of the for-
tunate persons who were to be
given cards. Twelve thousand
desperate people attempted to
claw their way into the building
where the cards were being dis-
tributed. Women and children
were trampled.
• Towards the end, the Germans
handed the remaining to a local
Jewish lawyer named Isaacson,
who was head of the ghetto
council, telling him to distribute
them. When all the cards had
been distributed; those possessing
work permits were herded into
one section of the ghetto.

Page Five

Commonwealth, will be real-
ized," it was declared here by
Louis Lipsky, member of the
World Zionist Executive.
Mr. Lipsky made the statement
in the course of a press luncheon
tendered by the Bnai Zion, fra-
ternal Zionist organization, of
which he has recently been
elected president. He said that
the organization had changed its
name from Order Sons of Zion
"in order to make clear and to
emphasize the true intent and
purposes of this organization as
a fraternal body which is whole-
heartedly dedicated to furthering
the cause of Zionism and the ad-
vancement of Jewish culture in.
America and in Palestine."
He recalled that for 35 years
the Order Sons of Zion had as-
sisted a variety of Hebrew insti-
tutions and publications, among
them the Herzlia Hebrew High
School in New York City, and
the Histadruth Ivrith, and is
planning expansion of these ac-
tivities.

The Twelfth Street Merchants'
Association has exceeded its
ALEX SCHREIBER
quota in District 11 of Retailers'
5th War Loan Wayne county
nity leader, president of t h e drive by selling $510,000 in E
Fresh Air Society, was the fa-_ Bonds, it was announced this
ther of the picture-poster plan week by the committee headed
that was used in Detroit during by Jack Halperin and Nathan
the 5th War Loan.
Schecter.
Mr. Schreiber, who is Chief
The 12th St. group was one of
Barker of the Variety Club and
first to go over the top in the
one of the best known operators the
drive.
of theaters in Detroit, has been
In a statement issued by
an active leader in all humani-
tarian drives in Detroit. He is a Messrs. Halperin and Schecter,
former president of the Old thanks are extended to all the
Gallants who assisted and to the
Newsboys' Fund.
Mr. Berman's article was given many societies in the district who
space as an extensive personality co-operated.
He stressed the importance of
Announcement was made on
sketch in Tuesday's News.
Tuesday by Rabbi Leon Fram, the Red Mogen Dovid, Jewish
president of the Zionist Organi- Palestine's equivalent of the Red
zation of Detroit, that more than Cross, a project sponsored here
$100,000 in War Bonds were pur- by the Bnai Zion.
chased by members of the or-
ganization in the 5th War Loan.
The only sales effort made by
the ZOD was a letter addressed
WASHINGTON — Bnai Brith to members by Rabbi Fram, and
cabled $2,000 to the Bnai Brith the result is considered one of
British Care Committee for Ref- the most gratifying achieved by
2231-35 Woodward Next to Fox Theatre
ugee Children in London to help any group in Detroit in a mail
Open Evenings
underwrite the cost of evacuat- campaign.
ing several hundred refugee chil-
dren from London and Southern
England areas threatened by
Nazi robot bombs, it was an-
nounced here by Henry Monsky,
Bnai Brith president.
Half of the $2,000 came from
Bnai Brith's National War Serv-
A Call to the Synagogues to
ice Fund and the other half was
contributed by Bnai Brith Worn-
Mobilize for the Jewish National
en's Grand Lodge No. 6.
Fund on Tisha biA6
A contribution of $1,000 to the
Tornado Relief Fund being raised
in McKeesport, Pa., by the Mc-
This is the time for all synagogues to arrange for speakers and
Keesport Daily News for the re-
appeals on Tisha b'Ab, which tPis year occurs on Sunday, July 30
lief of victims of the recent tor-
nado, was announced by Bnai
Make arrangements NOW for your Tisha b'Ab appeals by calling
Brith.
The funds came f r om Bnai
DANIEL TEMCHIN
TO. 8-0730
Brith's Emergency Relief Fund
IRVING
W.
SCHLUSSEL
CH. 7790
through which the organization
has contributed over $5,000,000 in
RABBI
JOSHUA
S.
SPERXA
TO.
7-8000
the last 65 years for the relief
of victims of natural and man-
of the office of the
made disasters throughout t h e
world.
Bnai Brith's contribution was
made through Rep. Samuel A.
Weiss of McKeesport, third vice-
11608 DEXTER
TO. 8-8658
president of Bnai Brith's Dis-
trict General Lodge No. 3.

Bnai Brith Sends
Funds to Assist
In Evacuation

REMEMBER THE DESTRUCTION -
BY RE-BUILDING !

JEWISH NATIONAL FUND

The Trained Nurse
Depends on the Druggist .

To give the most efficient service she must have
medical supplies of the best quality. Our label
on a prescription bottle is recognized by nurses
as a sign of the best. Ask them, and have your
prescriptions filled by-

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