The Heavens Are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod (21 page)

They were dressed nicely; the men in Western-style suits. No one dressed like Hasidim.
²
My father, for example, would go to the synagogue dressed in a suit, like in the city. Whether they were religious or not, everyone went to
shul
and observed the Jewish holidays. There were a few Communists, and they would go out on Friday night with their cigarettes, and people would pass them and taunt them yelling, “fire, fire.”

We had nothing in common with Poles and Ukrainians. The opposite: they would come and do business, buy and sell … I remember that my father’s grandmother would go out to villages with her husband, and she would bring all sorts of goods to sell, eggs and so on, and later the villagers would come to our house to buy things. There was no sense of hatred, but sometimes … the Gentiles, on Sundays, would walk through Trochenbrod on the way to their church. And sometimes, I remember once in particular, they did a little pogrom on us; maybe we were at fault also. As children maybe we shouted at them or put something in their way in the street. We weren’t friends, but we got along.

We would prepare for winter. People who had root cellars would gather the potatoes, for example, and store them there. Those who didn’t have root cellars would dig a pit in the ground, and put in the potatoes, and cover it with lots and lots of straw and soil. Because as
Pesach
would approach, people needed lots of potatoes, and potatoes didn’t grow in the winter. It didn’t always work. Sometimes the cold made it so that it was impossible to use them. There was always a great effort to prepare all kinds of foods that would last throughout the winter.

It’s really sad that there’s nothing left of Trochenbrod. I left Trochenbrod in 1939. I would never have believed, until I saw it myself, that there’s nothing left. It hurts a great deal. In Trochenbrod—it’s not just that I grew up there—in Trochenbrod there grew up a wonderful youth, wonderful people. It was a generation of people … there was joy, not bitterness; I think the political youth movements created it; it gave us a sense of purpose and meaning. Among the youth there was idealism. We were a Jewish town. That was unique. That was special.

1
. Hebrew for “Holocaust.”

2
. Plural of Hasid, Hasidic Jews.

GLOSSARY OF HEBREW AND YIDDISH TERMS

H
ebrew and Yiddish words often have a guttural “kh” sound in them, as in “khutzpah.” In English transliterations, that sound is most often denoted with “ch.” Unfortunately, “ch” is also pronounced as in “cheese.” In the text I follow the most common practice and use “ch” for both sounds. If the “ch” should be pronounced as in “khutzpah” I denote that with a “(kh)” symbol in the table below: otherwise pronounce the “ch” as in cheese.

Balagola
Wagon owner.

Baruch (kh) atoh adoinoi eiloiheinu melech (kh) haoilom …
Opening phrase of many Hebrew blessings: “Blessed are you lord, our god, king of the universe …” The style of pronunciation that that Ryszard learned was the Ashkenazic, or European, style of Hebrew pronunciation.

Beitar
Right-leaning Zionist youth organization that stressed self-defense.

Challah (kh)
Egg bread, often braided, traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays.

Chalutz, pl. chalutzim (kh)
Pioneer; specifically, a Jewish settler in Palestine who went with the idea of paving the way for a Jewish state there.

Chapper (kh)
Kidnapper of young Jewish teenagers for conscription into the Russian army in place of the sons of wealthy Jews.

Chazan (kh)
Cantor.

Cheder (kh)
Religious day-school for boys, usually held in the home of its only teacher.

Chulunt
Slow-cooked stew that was a Sabbath specialty because it could be placed on the stove before the Sabbath and left there over a very low fire for the entire Sabbath, during which lighting a fire is forbidden.

Dreidel
Spinning top, a toy traditionally used for Hanukah games.

Eretz Yisrael
The Land of Israel; refers to the biblical Land of Israel and the Jewish homeland.

Etzel
National Military Organization, a militant Jewish organization in Palestine that believed in creating a Jewish state there by using force against the British and Arabs.

Feltcher
Self-taught paramedic, a healer, often also the pharmacy owner.

Goy
Gentile.

Hanukah, or Chanukah (kh)
Festival of Lights, an eight-day festival commemorating the reopening of the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E., following the military victory of Judah Maccabee. The holiday occurs in the same season as Christmas.

Hanukah gelt
Coins given to children during the Hanukah holiday.

Kapoteh
Long black or white kaftan, prayer garb.

Kichel
Sweet cracker.

Kiddush
Prayer sanctifying the Sabbath.

Latkes
Potato pancakes, a traditional Hanukah dish.

Matzah, pl. matzot or matzos
Unleavened flatbread eaten during Passover. In the plural, “matzot” represents the Sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “matzos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

Melamed
Learned teacher.

Mitzvah
A good deed in God’s eyes.

Pesach (kh)
Passover.

Purim
The Festival of Lots, a happy holiday in the Jewish calendar that falls about a month before Passover.

Seder
Passover ritual meal.

Shabbat, Shabbos
Sabbath. “Shabbat” represents the sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “Shabbos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

Shabbos goy
“Sabbath Gentile” who performed functions for Jews like stoking fires or milking cows on the Sabbath because Jews are prohibited by religious law from performing acts of “work” on that day.

Shalom aleichem (kh)
“Peace upon you,” a traditional Jewish greeting.

Shoah
Hebrew for “Holocaust.”

Shtetl
Community of Jews that was part of an Eastern European town. The Jews would live in a section that was exclusively Jewish and reflected Jewish religious traditions and values: in effect a Jewish village within a Gentile town. People referred to Trochenbrod also as a shtetl because the Yiddish word literally means “townlet.”

Shul
Synagogue. Derived from “school.”

Sukkah
Temporary field hut erected for the Feast of Tabernacles.

Sukkot, Sukkos
Jewish fall harvest holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles, during which meals are taken in temporary huts where stars can be seen through fronds on the roof. “Sukkot” represents the Sephardic, or Mediterranean style of Hebrew pronunciation that is used for modern Hebrew, and “Sukkos” represents the Ashkenazic, or European style of Hebrew pronunciation that was used in Europe for prayer, religious study, and other religious purposes.

Talmud Torah
Jewish day school for boys that has a number of teachers and teaches the classic Jewish religious texts.

Tzimmes
Baked dish of mixed ingredients like chopped carrots, dried fruit, and meat.

Tzitzis
Tassels on the corners of prayer shawls.

Yom Kippur
Day of Atonement; the most important day on the Jewish calendar.

Zmires
As used here, Sabbath songs.

CHRONOLOGY