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Kasriel K. Eilender, M.D.

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THE BARBER OF GOERLITZ - A MEMOIR

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Chapter Five

I was told that

my Father used to

take out my picture

and say:

"My heart tells me  

that he is alive."

I will forever share the

 anguish of my family's

on horrible days.

My father Josel Eilender, my mother Sarah, and sister Ester, who was at this time 12 years old, were among escapees in to the forest. It is still not clear to me how they made it. After the war, I asked my father’s deputy Mr. Furmanski if he had any information about it. He did not.

 According to Mr. Furmanski, my father was put in charge of family camp in the forest, which contained women, children and the elderly. His role was to see that they had some food, clothing, shelter, and some kind of protection. As time went on, Soviet drops of food and ammunition, as well as newspapers, started to appear in the underground camps. On occasion, some parachutists used to come and they were very fond of my father. 

It was inescapable that some German military personnel, mostly police, were taken prisoners. It was not possible to let them go, since they would immediately bring an entire SS division into the forests, and the partisans location would be known. Therefore, the underground people executed them. My father, who spoke German and Russian fluently, used to act as an interpreter. 

Sometimes he was asked by the captured gendarmes, "Do you have an order from Moscow to kill us?" His answer was, "Not at all, only our hearts tell us to shoot into the uniform you are wearing."

Around Christmas time 1942 a large German force supported by local police, as well as some of the friendly farmers, who were intelligence sources, surrounded the forest and started an offensive. The partisans had no choice but to leave their pretty well organized quarters, dugouts and other establishments in the forest, and move to different areas. There was snow, frost and it was very cold. They did not have proper equipment to establish better shelters and deeper dugouts. 

My little sister Ester froze her legs and she could not walk. My father carried her as much as he could. Apparently, she died of exposure to cold and hunger. My father, according to the testimony of people who been with him around March 1942, froze to death in the new shallow dugout. My mother subsequently died of hunger. My father used to take out my picture and say to his comrades: "Well, my heart tells me that he is alive." He was right. My younger brother Gerszon kept his promise that he would never be taken to the pits in Dereczyn. During the liquidation of the Ghetto in Dereczyn he was one of many selected to be killed at the prepared graves. He jumped from a truck and was shot. I will forever share the anguish of my family’s on horrible days.

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During my captivity, I always heard some older people saying that a human being is much stronger then a horse or an elephant. What we were enduring and surviving for so long could not be explained otherwise since an animal would have succumbed already. The ones who could escape the massacre of the ghettos, in this case Dereczyn, were the "lucky" ones. Their suffering in the forest in the winter in existing snow and rain in the dugouts, always hungry and also hunted like animals by the Germans or local police was horrifying. They were tortured and killed if captured. It was also horrifying to see children and parents or comrades dying from wounds, which could not be treated, in addition to infections and starvation. It was hell everywhere. Some young people said it was not worth it, and committed suicide.

However, the partisans had proven that one can get used to anything --- even hell. They still preferred to die fighting the enemy and avenging their loved ones who perished in a terrible fashion.

A physician from Suwalki, Dr. Rosenthal, who lived with his family in Dereczyn, was offered to be spared working as a physician in the ghetto. He refused and went with his wife into the pit! He left a teenage boy, who was able to escape to the forest. He became a famous machine gunner and died in battle. 

The great help to the underground army was a lush forestry, which surrounded the entire area. Life started to become more stabilized. They organized so-called sick bays without too much medical help. Family camps were established, food was fetched from the surrounding villages and farmers. When the escapees arrived in the forest, it was summer; however, as fall and winter moved in, it was a different story. It was more difficult to get shelter from the elements, food was getting scarce, and people became sicker. However, the worst was yet to come.

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