MEMOIRS
®FC¯
of
®FC¯
SAMUEL ESTEROWICZ
®FC¯
in collaboration
®FC¯
with
®FC¯
PEARL ESTEROWICZ GOOD
memoirs translated from Russian
and edited by
Pearl Esterowicz Good
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®FC¯ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO
My dear cousin, the late architect Gary Gersztein
who, before his untimely death at the age of 55
contributed his powerful drawing
which serves as frontispiece here,
as well as the diagram of the "maline",
the hiding place in which we both survived
the terrifying concluding days of the Nazi nightmare.
My dear friend, Dora Wulc
For help with the editing of the MEMOIRS
My beloved daughter, Hannah (Anne) Good
for help with editing and proofreading
Pomona College Chemistry Department
Dr. Wayne Steinmetz
For help and encouragement
Dr. Freeman Allen
For making it all possible
Evelyn Jacoby
For encouragement and help with typing
The kind Consultants of the Seaver Academic Computer Center
For invaluable help with the printing of the Memoirs
Gerhard Ott
For reproduction of the photographs from old originals
Larry Lindell
For the preliminary translation of the beginning
of the manuscript
Pearl Esterowicz Good
®PG¯
®FL¯
WILNO
W.W. I
PETROGRAD
DOOMED MONARCHY
DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
EVALUATION OF THE CAPITALIST & COMMUNIST ECONOMIES
BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
RETURN TO WILNO
GERMANY
RETURN TO WILNO
SOVIET, GERMAN REALITY, "RED MENACE"
W.W. II
HITLERS ATTACK ON RUSSIA
THE HOLOCAUST
GHETTO
VOVA'S STORY
H.K.P.
LIBERATION
WILNO
POLAND
ITALY
UNITED STATES
PERELLA CONTINUES the FAMILY HISTORY
APPENDIX. Letters and thoughts.
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®FC¯ WILNO
®FL¯
History of Wilno
Family life
Russian history
Position of Jews in Russia
Comparison with life in the U.S.
Family life, description of family members
Father's business
Beylis affair
Russian intelligentsia
Similarity of Okhrana and Stalin
Twilight of the Czarist regime
Tolstoy
®FC¯
WORLD WAR I
®FL¯
International politics, prelude to war
The policies of England, Germany and Russia
Sarajevo tragedy
Roots of tragedy, the Balkan war, Berlin Congress
Oppression of Serbs
Premeditated war plans of Austria and Germany
W.W. I breaks out
®FC¯
Petrograd
®FL¯
My departure for Petrograd
Illegal stay as Jew in Petrograd
Chance of enrolling at the Petrograd University
Petrograd
Innocent abroad
Family settles in Gomel after being endangered at the front
Nobility of spirit of the Russian students
False prophecy of socialism
Description of the university and of my life
Russian unpreparedness
Russian politics
Petrograd Jews
Historical overview of situation
Cultural life, library, theater, opera
Young romances
Russian military fronts 1915-1916
Jewish students
Rasputin
Sister Emma's family
My life in Petrograd, studies
Western front
Eastern front
®FC¯DOOMED MONARCHY
®FL¯
My visit to Gomel
Description of family life
Anxiety about draft-age sons
Financial difficulties, looking for work
Taking post of clerk at the remote Obukhovsky factory
Observation of the character of the Russian worker
Inflation, shortages
Government corruption (Rasputin)
Cadet party, Milyukov's speech
The Czarist couple's blindness
Protests, strikes
Demonstrations on Znamenskaya square
Experience with Cossack
®FC¯ DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
®FL¯ Events of February, March of 1917
Collapse of autocracy - absence of police
Burning police station, district court
Confused shooting
Exultation, street experiences
Governmental Duma assumes authority
Moderates attempts to avoid shocks fatal for the war effort
Abdication of the Czar on March 2nd, 1917
Formation of Provisional Government
Two authorities - Duma and Soviet
Joyful enthusiasm
Problems of Provisional Government
Milyukov and Kerensky
Revolution eventually brought military defeat and bolshevism
Lenin engendered Hitler
Milyukov ignored the demoralization of army
Kerensky proposes "peace without annexations"
Germany rejects peace offer, injects Lenin into Russia
The figure of Kerensky
Genghis Khan and Peter the Great
Chats on Znamenskaya square
Revolutionary Democrats irreparable mistakes
Suppression of Kornilov's attempt at military dictatorship
®FC¯ BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
®FL¯
Deadly role of the bolsheviks
Ludendorf's crafty injection of Lenin to liquidate the second front
Lenin's perfidious demagoguery
I heard Lenin's speech
Bolshevik's horrible deeds in contrast to their promises
Troops of the Petrograd garrison organized by Trotsky
End of my deferment, I want to defend democratic Russia
Father engineers deferment
Work at the Mamontov's
October Bolshevik revolution
Kerensky gets little help from military
Bolshevik's supposed "pacifism"
Hunger in Petrograd in the months after the Bolshevik overthrow
Dictatorship - Lenin takes off mask
Forcible disbanding of the Constituent Assembly
Shameful Brest-Litovsk peace conditions
Victory of the Allies saved the communist state
Vlasov's treason of 1941 equivalent to Lenin's treason of 1917
Evaluation of capitalist and communist economies
The indispensable free market price
Terrible price in suffering of the failure of communist economy
Soviet mockery of truth
Lenin the greatest evil genius of this century
Events in the country after the forcible disbanding of the Assembly
Trotsky organizes the Red Army
David's and my lives in Petrograd
Terrible hunger
My exams at the university
Leaving Petrograd for Gomel
Peaceful life in the Ukraine under German occupation
German defeat, capitulation
Terrible pogroms after German withdrawal
®FC¯
GERMANY
®FL¯
In defeated Germany, thoughts of retaliation
Reactionary lie that war was lost because of Jews and Marxists
The Nazi Hitler gang
Assassination of Walter Rathenau caused by Rapallo
Rapallo the first correct step in German politics
Rapallo's results excellent for Germany
My enrollment at the Commercial Institute in Berlin
My subjects and professors
Ricardo's quantitative theory of value of money
Berlin a world center of science and art
The terrible devaluation of the mark
Old traditions untouched, depersonalization by industrialization
I feel no antisemitism
Great Jewish input to the growth of German banking and industry
Jewish participation in German banks, industry, department stores
Jewish contribution to science and literature
Moscow emigree theater
Russian circles in Berlin
Broadening of my cultural horizons
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RETURN TO WILNO
®FL¯
Family financial difficulties
Polish economic antisemitism
The ruin of many enterprises
Jews the only enterprising element
Wilno's economic decline
Creative and beneficial role of the Jews
Jewish successs and inventiveness were the Jewish "crime"
Description of "big" Kola
I start work at the Shenyuk sawmill
Pilsudski takes over power
Death of beloved father - the fallacy of atheism
I meet my future wife, Ida Gerstein, we get married
Initial success in business, luxurious apartment
The idle lives of wives of our generation
Birth of our daughter Perella
Death of my father-in-law
I take over franchises, modest income, I curtail expenses
My income increases sharply because of Electryt
Steadfast business principles contributed to our survival
Description of my friend Alesha and family
®FC¯
THE SOVIET, GERMAN REALITY
"The Red Menace"
®FL¯ Collectivization, life ever more intolerable
Scapegoats for failures
Business support of Hitler because of "Red Menace"
Ill fated mistake of democratic Czechoslovakia
Antisemitism in Poland strengthened by Hitler's example
Poland's suicidal foreign policy
False conviction that empires were indispensable for prosperity
Prosperity and abandonment of "laissez faire" (Keynes)
Happy marriage, prosperity
Perella's early developement
Our move to better premises on Zawalna 2
Summer vacations in Niemenczyn
Month in Paris at the International Exposition
David's difficulties there
Anya and Yefim's difficulties
Circumstances of the Gerstein family
My wife's illness
Gera's illness and death
Evaluation of Chamberlain's Munich "appeasement"
Hitler occupies Czechoslovakia
England guarantees Poland's borders (and therefore Russia's)
Soviet pact with Hitler
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®FC¯WORLD WAR II breaks out
®FL¯
Hitler attacks Poland
Wilno is bombed
Soviet tank crashes across the street from our house.
Wilno is occupied by the Soviets, arrest of many people
Great difference in Russian people
Wilno is handed over to democratic Lithuania
Jewish refugees stream into Wilno
Description of Lithuania
Stalin realizes his mistake
Occupation of Lithuania by the Soviets
Arrests and deportations
I am sure that Hitler would attack Russia immediately
®FC¯ HITLER'S ATTACK ON RUSSIA
®FL¯ Stalin refuses to believe
Hitler's victorious Balkan operation main reason for his downfall
June 22, 1941 Hitler's attack on Russia
Frenzied Soviet evacuation
Poddany's offer of help
Germans occupy Wilno
®FC¯THE HOLOCAUST
®FL¯
Anti-Jewish measures
Mass murder begins with the grabbing of men (Khapuny)
Did we behave like "sheep to the slaughter"? No!
The German's diabolical plan for our extermination
My horrifying arrest
Provokatzye
We are driven into the ghetto
Unspeakably crowded conditions in the ghetto
Perella is taken to the infectious barrack with scarlet fever
The Yom Kippur aktzye
Pole's joy at the killing of Jews
Why antisemitism?
A decent German
The role of the ghetto chief Gens
The aktzye of "yellow life certificates"
Emma gives her "life certificate" to Eva
The night before the slaughter
The murder of our families
Killing of the second ghetto
German need of a work-force
®FC¯
MY SON-IN-LAW VOVA GDUD'S STORY
®FL¯
Attempted flight to Russia
Being shot at Ponary - miraculous survival
Warning of another execution
Running away from being shot by a Lithuanian "friend"
Father's escape from execution
Death of my mother and younger brother
Excruciating years of hiding
Kind drunkard savior
Father's generosity
Terrifyingly close to detection (death) experiences
Attempted sabotage of railroad, escape after being caught
Near encounter with deadly Polish "White Partisans"
Inability to kill a captured Lithuanian policeman
®FC¯ H.K.P.
®FL¯
We move to the work-camp H.K.P. on Sept. 16, 1943
We learn about the liquidation of the ghetto on Sept. 23rd, 1943
Mula Gerstein and family end miraculously in Kailis
Ida manages to bring the Gersteins to H.K.P.
Ida & Perella work in workshops
Perella's memories of barely escaping aktzye grabbing women
Major Plagge's kindness
Life in H.K.P., vital importance of books
The children's performance
The children aktzye on the day after
Perella finds Zmigrod's meline, hides there during children aktzye
The fate of Mosya Cholem and family
Feverish work to finish building Zmigrod's meline
Major Plagge's warning
We descend into the meline on July 23rd, 1943
Experiences in the meline
Coming out during German retreat
®FC¯
LIBERATION, JULY 1944
Wilno
®FL¯
Life in liberated Wilno under the Soviets
Stalin's antisemitism
Tales of the partisans
Ida's illness
Perella finds a tutor, is able to rejoin highschool grade
My work in the Soviet Lithunia's Planning Ministry
The reality of life in the "classless paradise"
Arrests and deportations
My views on the conduct of the war
We leave Wilno for Poland on a freight train
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Poland 1945-1946
®FL¯
We settle in Lodz
Perella goes to the Lyceum, graduates
Not much chance of coexistance of Jews and Gentiles
Polish pogroms
We leave Poland illegally for Italy
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ITALY 1946-1951
®FL¯
Problems of refugee life in Milan
Difficulties of making a living
Perella enrolls at the University
The Turin student hostel, "Casa dello studente"
My work for the Joint, transfer to Rome
Visit to Israel
Perella graduates
We leave Italy for the U.S.
®FC¯
UNITED STATES
®FL¯
Mean employer
Perella's and Vova's wedding
My work for Helen Neushafer
Impressions of American education, politics
Our life in New York, "United Wilno"
Birth of grandson Lenny in 1954
Perella, Vova and Lenny go to California
®FC¯
Perella continues the family history.
®FL¯
Our first California experience.
We decide to move to CA.
Sadness of separation.
Journey to CA.
We leave Lenny with my parents.
Establishing the office.
My work at the office.
My Mother brings Lenny to us.
Father's stock investments.
Birth of Anne and Michael.
Lenny resents the twins.
Vova's father, Rabbi Gdud and his wife Gita come to CA.
We build the house of our dreams.
I begin working at Pomona College.
Mike's reading.
Getting rid of the TV.
Anne's horses.
Israel's six day war in 1967.
Our visit to Israel.
My Israel Ulpan experience with the children in youth camps.
Lenny's Bar Mitzvah.
Rabbi Gdud's death in 1968.
The kids go to youth camps in Israel, we to Israel and Greece.
Lenny goes to Pomona College in 1971.
My parents move to CA in 1974.
Lenny gets admitted to Albert Einstein Medical School.
My mother's stroke.
Father begins the writing of his memoirs.
Anne gets admitted to Pitzer, Mike to U. of Redlands, then Occiden
tal.
Mike gets the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
Mother dies in July of 1975.
Mike gets thrown into jail in Mexico.
Mike decides to be a pre-med.
Father takes Anne to Russia in 1978.
Father's letter about the economy.
Father's letters to Nixon, Nixon's reply.
Lenny graduates from Einstein Medical School.
Mike is admitted to the Rochester Medical School.
Lenny starts pediatric residency in New York.
Father's prostatectomy.
Lenny marries Stacy in 1981.
Father begins new investment strategy.
Father and I go to the Soviet Union, Wilno, Berlin in 1982.
Birth of Lenny's and Stacy's son Benjamin in 1982.
Father advises me on investments.
Father's metastatic cancer.
Mike graduates from Rochester Medical School in 1983.
Mike marries Sue in 1983.
Birth of Mike's and Sue's son Jonathan in 1984.
Father continues his interrupted memoirs in collaboration with me.
Anne goes to Ross U. Veterinary School in St. Kitts.
My Father dies in Jan. 1985.
Eulogies.
Our trip to Israel, Italy.
I start the translation of my father's memoirs.
My breast cancer is discovered in Feb. 1986, chemotherapy started.
Lenny's and Stacy's son Jesse is born in October 1986.
Mike's and Sue's daughter Rebecca is born in March 1987.
Vova and I go to the Soviet Union, Wilno, visit the
peasants who saved him during the Nazis.
We visit Vovka's uncle Mula and his family in Argentina in Oct. ®FL¯ 1987.
Our Alaska cruise.
We go to New York for Anne' graduation from Veterinary School.
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Appendix
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®FC¯ WILNO
®FL¯
History of Wilno
Family life
Russian history
Position of Jews in Russia
Comparison with life in the U.S.
Family life, description of family members
Father's business
Beylis affair
Russian intelligentsia
Similarity of Okhrana and Stalin
Twilight of the Czarist regime
Tolstoy
®PT5¯
Today is the 16th of April, 1975. Within two months I will be 78 years old. I have just returned from visiting my critically ill wife at the hospital. On January 25th of this year a stroke deprived her of speech and paralyzed the right side of her body. Since her chances for even a partial recovery are poor, this event turned my life into a relentless nightmare.