Yad Vashem Publications

Menachem Katz relates his escape from the mowing down of the last Jews of Brzezany at the cemetery in 1943 through his experiences hiding in a bunker with seven other people. He describes life in hiding in detail as well as the relathionship with a family of Poles who assisted them in survival, and relates the severe difficulties of daily existence in the closed and crowded spaces. alongsode some moments of humor. Katz succeeded in locating members of the Polish family that saved him, and they were honored as Righteous Among the Nations.

Nathan Eck

Aron Shneyer

Judith Tydor-Baumel

Yoav Gelber

Lazar Engles (Engelstern)

The moment we first set foot on the soil of the Naliboki Pushcha, the atmosphere was completely different. We felt a new kind of security, as if we were in our own partisan kingdom…. We had survived so many dangers, but we were now among Jews in the forest.

Prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Lazar Engles (Engelstern) lived a peaceful and fulfilled life in his beloved city of Vilna with his wife and two daughters. The Nazi occupation of the city in June 1941 and its subsequent ghettoization marked a rapid escalation of horrors for Lazar and his family.