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Celebrate
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Jewish Heritage Week*

with Corinne Stavish

but don't forget how to laugh."
By the time he reached the newborn
Jewish state in 1948, Blustein had
earned the right to laugh — though
first he fought in one more war, with
the Israeli army, before he could
rebuild that normal life. The comforts
of his light, airy flat in the lower mid-
dle-class suburb of Givatayim did not
come easily, but they came.
And with them the proud, defiant
photographs of his Polish-born wife
Clara, son, daughter and seven Jewish
grandchildren. In his interview suit
and uncharacteristic Israeli tie,
Blustein cuts a short, stocky figure
with a sculptured, weathered face. He
tells his harrowing tale in robust
Hebrew, pausing now and then to
swallow his emotions.
After 10 months in captivity,
Blustein realized that the Germans
were preparing to evacuate their camp
— and that they were unlikely to take
live Jewish prisoners with them.
"I was determined to escape," he
said. "I cut the bars of my window
with a pair of shears and fled into the
forest with a purloined hand grenade
and a box of matches."
Sometimes alone, sometimes with
other Jewish fugitives, he lived off stolen
potatoes, buried by peasants for the
winter. "It was hard even to steal," he
said. "There were dogs in every village."
Having no shoes, the runaways
bound their feet in rags when winter
came. The Germans spotted their
footprints in the snow and caught
them drying the rags over a bonfire.
"When they started shooting, I ran
away, alone and barefoot. I stopped

after about three kilometers. I knew
that if I couldn't light a fire, I would
freeze to death. I had three matches. I
succeeded with the second. As I sat by
the fire, I asked myself what I had done,
filthy, eaten by lice, to deserve this hell."
He contemplated suicide, but then
teamed up with another Jew he
encountered in the forest. The pair
jumped a villager and threatened to
kill him if he didn't help them. He led
them to a hideout, where they found
guns, grenades and ammunition.
"From that moment," said Blustein,
we started to live. We held up local
drivers ferrying food to the soldiers
and took whatever we needed."
Later, when the Russians dropped
paratroopers to organize resistance, the
two highwaymen joined the partisans.
"That was the start of our sweet war,"
Blustein said with relish. "We blew up
trains, phone lines, bridges. We invad-
ed a German camp and fought a
pitched battle for six hours. We killed
dozens of Germans and took 124
Ukrainian prisoners. We filled 100
carts with weapons and uniforms."
In July 1944, the Red Army liberated
the area. "There was great rejoicing
among the partisans. Some went home,
others wrote home. The few Jews among
us knew there was no one waiting for us.
We had no home to go back to."
So Ben-Zion Blustein ended one
man's war of survival in the uniform of
the Red Army, promising a shadow of a
Jew that he would tell the world what
happened. "Testifying wasn't easy," he
said, "but I felt better afterward. I felt I
had fulfilled my mission."

performing her one-woman show
Still Dancing: 100 Years of Jewish Detroit

Monday, April 19,1999
7:30-8:30 p.m.

Barnes Noble
orCil larial9 Ciee Road,
3

West Bloomfield

Free of Charge.

CC

For more information
call the Agency for Jewish
Education,
(248) 354-1050.

A freelance writer for 20 years, Corinne specializes in Jewish and
comparative world folklore. She has published articles, stories, and edited a
book of Jewish folktales, Seeds from Our Past Planting for the Future
Corinne will be a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival in
Jonesborough, TN in October, 1999. Her show, Still Dancing: 100 Years of
Jewish Detroit weaves a personal story of a 100 year old character that
reflects the lives of Jewish Americans.

*Jewish Heritage Week: April 18-25, 1999
Celebrating contributions that Jewish Americans have made to the
society and culture of America.

Co-sponsors

Agency for Jewish Education
American Zionist Movement
Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah
Jewish Apartments and Services
Jewish Community Center
Jewish Community Council
Jewish Educators Council

Jewish Family Service
Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit
Jewish Genealogical Society
Jewish Historical Society
Jewish National Find

with the support of

Jewish Theological Seminary

DWYER

AND

Pursuing Crimes

National Council of Jewish Women
-Greater Detroit Section
The Jewish News
The Neighborhood Project

SONS

COLLISION CENTER

London
Anthony Sawoniuk was one of thousands of men from Eastern and Central
Europe who were allowed to enter Britain virtually unscreened in the imme-
diate aftermath of the war to ease a critical labor shortage.
Many, like Sawoniuk — a paradigm of what is described as the "small
fish" of the Holocaust — are now believed to have used this opportunity to
escape from their hometowns and villages after perpetrating war crimes.
Sawoniuk's trial followed extensive investigations by a team of police and
historians set up after enactment of the landmark War Crimes Act of 1991.
The Act gives British courts jurisdiction over non-Britons for crimes against
non-Britons on non-British soil under Nazi occupation.
The eight-year investigation into possible war criminals in Britain has
involved 376 suspects. Of those, 117 were dead, and in an additional 257
cases, investigations were dropped either because of insufficient evidence or
because the suspects were too old and too ill to be questioned and prosecuted.
The investigation has cost a total of some $18 million, and although one
other case is still under investigation, it is considered highly unlikely that
further trials will be held.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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4/9
1999

Detroit Jewish News 19