One day a segment of the surviving Jews met and formed a plan to
attack the guards of the Ghetto and run wherever they could. We
managed to purchase and smuggle some arms into the Ghetto. We knew
that we were all destined to be killed. We thought that if we ran a
few might survive. We organised ourselves in fighting units. We were
all able to fight and knew weapons. A date was set to carry out the
attack. All was ready. As the time approached we noticed that the
guards had been doubled in strength. We realized that our plans had
been disclosed. We decided to investigate the leak and find the
culprit. We had in the Ghetto a Dr Jakubovich, who now lives in
Israel. He was injured in his leg. His brother was the chief of the
Ghetto police. The brother knew of our plans and was prepared to
escape from the Ghetto with the rest of us. We asked him what was to
happen to his brother, since he would not be able to run. He
answered that 230 people of the Ghetto could not sacrifice
themselves for one, even if that person was his brother. He told us
that he was in favour of the attack on the guards. The doctor's
wife, who was a midwife and was doing her best to cure her husband,
found out about our plans and opposed the plan to attack the guards.
She was protesting and pleaded not to sacrifice her husband and to
postpone the attack. The attack was postponed and this, in the end,
turned out for the best.
We were looking for a solution and considering all possibilities. Perhaps,
perhaps… A group of us got together with the chief of police Jakubovich. As a
result of our discussions it was decided to dig an underground tunnel. It seemed
a fantasy. But gradually the fantasy was changing to reality. We planned how to
go about the job. When the plan was ready Berl Yoselevich and Jakubovich were
put in charge. The work was started with great enthusiasm and strict secret,
because we were continuously watched by the police on the outside and the
foremen of the workshops, who were Russians. Fifty people were selected. They
were young and, we hoped, they could keep the work confidential. Every day each
man had to work a two hour shift in the shaft. The digging was started in the
barn where some of us lived. One of the first problems to be solved was to
dispose of the soil removed from the tunnel. As it happened a few buildings in
the Ghetto were built under the one roof. Holes were made in the partitions
under the roof to create a passage. Men were seated every few meters and the
soil in small sacks was passed from one to the other and thus transported to the
loft. The sacks were made by the tailors from rags. In time the loft was full.
At that stage double walls were made and soil was deposited under the floors.
The work proceeded in silence. Communication was in sign language. The most
intensive work was done on Sundays, because it was officially a day of rest and
the gentile personnel was not present. On Sunday the Ghetto was cleaned and the
garbage removed. The opportunity was taken to mix the soil with the garbage and
get rid of it. A number of technical problems had arisen. The walls of the
tunnel had to be shored up to prevent them from collapsing. The carpenters
prepared sections made of wood. The wood was stolen from the workshops, carried
under coats, made up into panels and installed at night. Thus meter after meter,
the tunnel was extended. Two to three metres were dug daily. The next problem
was lack of air and darkness. Kerosene lamps were made, but they did not work
for lack of air. Our tinkers, such as Niomke Portnoi and others, came to the
rescue. They made up pipes in form of cones – wide at the bottom and small at
the top, where they penetrated to the outside. This solved the problem of air
supply. The men inside the tunnel worked naked because of humidity in the
tunnel. It so happened that July was a wet month and it rained daily. Water
entered the tunnel. A new job of removing the water had begun. We would empty it
and new water would seep in. In time we overcame this problem too. The tunnel
was 60 centimetres wide and 70 centimetres high and ran 2 meters under the
surface. This made it possible for a person to crawl through the tunnel. At this
stage the tunnel was 100 metres long and it became more and more laborious to
remove the soil. We looked for a solution. A carpenter from Zetl by the name of
Borecki came to the rescue. He made two platforms on wheels with timber rods for
rails. He designed it very well. One carriage was moving forwards and the other
backwards. The carriages were pulled by ropes made from rags. This innovation
made the work much easier. One improvement led to another. Electric light was
installed in the tunnel. We had no electricity in our rooms, but there was
electricity in the workshops. Our electrician Gershon Michalovich had run a
concealed connection through the loft. We smuggled in lamps and we had light in
the tunnel. The work continued. In the beginning of September 1943 the tunnel
was 250 metres long. News began to circulate that the Ghetto was going to be
liquidated and the town would be made Judenrein [cleared of Jews]. We heard from
our Belarus police that the Ghetto in Lida was liquidated and all Jews were
taken to Majdanek. The police was pleased to convey to us such news. We decided
to escape as soon as possible. The news about the tunnel was disclosed to
everybody in the Ghetto and was received with enormous surprise. There were
however some who had expressed doubt about the possibility of an escape. Some
said that we would be trapped alive in the tunnel. Others thought that we should
wait and see what the time would bring. We made every effort to convince
everyone. We told them that if we do nothing we would be all killed. If we tried
we might succeed. It was decided to conduct a secret ballot and we would follow
the will of the majority. The result of the ballot was 165 votes for and 65
against. We decided to escape. The next problem was who should go first and who
would be last. Everyone wanted to be first. We came to a decision that no one
would be told where he was in the line. Everyone was given a piece of paper with
the name of the person ahead of him. The small supply of arms was divided in
two: half to those who would guard the exit the other half to those that would
guard the entrance. In case of a hold up nobody would be allowed to enter the
tunnel to give a chance to those inside to save themselves. It was decided that
we would leave on Saturday night. The night turned out to be clear and everyone
was held in readiness till one in the morning. It was decided to try again on
the next day, Sunday. Everyone went quietly to their barracks. The men in charge
knew that they could risk the delay because the Germans never conducted an
'action' on a Sunday. Next day was a clear sunny day, but this time there could
not be further delays. The living dead in the Ghetto milled around in feverish
excitement. As our luck would have it, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon dark rain
clouds began covering the sky. Soon after the rain with thunder and lightening
came down. We loosened deliberately the metal sheets on the roofs and the wind
made them flap noisily. As soon as it was dark we were all in our appointed
places. We slithered through the holes in the loft to the entrance to the
tunnel.
Now I have to tell my story, because I did not escape through the tunnel and
nobody knew that I remained in the Ghetto. I saw all that was happening in
preparation to the escape. With me was my sister Chaje Sore Ludski. She had a
heart disease. I knew that she would not be able to crawl 250 metres on all
fours through the tunnel. She would only stop others, because nobody could pass
her in the tunnel. I was looking for a solution and I believed that I had found
one. I spoke to a Jew in our Ghetto by the name of Shmuel Kulachek, who stemmed
from Iveniec. He too suffered from a heart disease. He had a 14 year old son. We
discussed the situation. He told me that he had prepared a hiding place. He said
that if I was in agreement, we could wait and after the escape we would decide
what to do next. He took me to a loft and showed me what he had built. It was a
double floor 50 centimetres high, covered on the outside with a high pile of
smelly rubbish to discourage people approaching it. I liked his preparations and
we started storing our provisions, water and blankets, to make it possible for
us to survive in the hiding place for some time, if necessary. I included in the
conspiracy my brother-in-law Zisl Raisin who was the husband of my younger
sister Bejle, who was killed by the Germans on the 7 May 1943. When I explained
to him our intensions, he answered that he left the planning to me and would do
what I intended to. In the evening, when all departed to the tunnel we hid in
our hiding place. There were five of us: my sister, I, Zisl Reisin and Kulachek
with his son. At 8 o'clock the escape started with the agreed signal: Gershon
Michalewicz the electrician short circuited the current to the projector. The
projector was installed on the roof of the court house and illuminated the whole
surroundings. We saw from our hiding place the projector blinking a few times on
and off and than stopping for good. Our Gershon did well. From then on till
about 9 o'clock there was total silence. It was calculated that the escape
through the tunnel would take 20 minutes. We were certain, therefore, that the
escape was successful. At 9 o'clock intensive shooting started in town. This
lasted for about half an hour and then there was silence again. At 11 o'clock we
heard more shooting and running by the Belarus police all over the Ghetto. Of
course they found no one. They must have been puzzled about the escape. I heard
them shout in Russian: 'not a living soul'. There was a lot of activity and
after a time they found the entrance to the tunnel. There they found a letter to
the district commissar Traub, in which he was informed in a humorous way that
the Jews had departed. The rest of the night was quiet. In the morning all the
gentile supervisors arrived and were arrested. In the afternoon they dismantled
and removed all the equipment in the workshops. For the next three days there
were visitors to the entrance to the tunnel. Gentiles from everywhere came to
look at the rarity and to see what people under threat were capable of. We, in
our uncertain situation, were also glad that at least some Jews saved
themselves. We stayed in hiding for eight days, till we felt that the guards
were not there anymore. On Yom Kipur at 1 o'clock at night, in the rain, we
decided to abandon our hiding place. We were aiming to go towards the forest in
search of the partisans. I went out barefoot and shook intensely the barbwire.
When there was no reaction we convinced ourselves that the guards were not
there. We came down one by one. We went out through a hole which the police used
to trade with the inmates. We were carrying my sister. We were aiming to get to
the Sieniezyc forest. We got to the forest which was about 6 kilometres away. In
the forest we felt more secure. It was beginning to get lighter. We saw in the
distance two men with rifles. We thought that they may be policeman and we hid
in the bushes. They shouted at us to come out and come over. To our joy we
discovered that they were Dr Rosenbloom and his gentile superior. He was very
glad to have met us. He told us about the escapees from the tunnel. He said that
more then half were caught and killed by the Germans [Jack Kagan, who escaped
through the tunnel {see his 'How I survived' on p.299 of Pinkas Novogrudok},
investigated after the war the number of survivors from the tunnel and found
that more than 170, or 74%, of the escapees through the tunnel survived]. The
rest joined various partisan formations, most of them joined Tuvie Beski's
group. He was glad that some were saved. He advised that we should not join a
small partisan group, because Jews may not be safe among gentile partisans. He
said that they were not keen to help us, and if they meet a Jewish partisan
alone they might behave like the Germans. He gave us information of how to find
Bielski's group. It took us another 8 days to find Bielski, where we met our
people from the Ghetto. We were well received by them. We were not alone at
last. We found ourselves among Jews with arms in their hands. We were in the
forest and free to fight the Germans. We were in the partisans for 10 months.
Every now and then we experienced hunger, but we were alive. On the 22 June 1944
the Russian offensive against the Germans started. The Germans were running to
the west faster than they came to the east. At the end of June 1944 Novogrudok
and the district towns were free of the Germans. [Novogrudok was liberated by
the Russians on the 8th July 1944]. When the Russian army came we
were in the forests. They have seen for themselves that there were partisans and
their families in the forests. A day after liberation plans were made to return
to our homes. But what homes? They found large mass graves. Some of us were
mobilised to the regular Russian army. About 50 Jews out of 6000 remained in
Novogrudok. Most of us could not live among the ruins. We made our way to Poland
and from there to Israel.