Articles


The forgotten resitstance in Lachva

Posted On 08/06/04
By: Aron Shworin

How does one put pen to paper and tackle the subject about which there are so many documented accounts. Upon the written pages have collected a multitude of tears and yet in the retelling of events of the holocaust, each testament stands as an individual —heroic and unique.

In 1939, Germany strikes Poland and demolishes their army in but a few weeks. June 22, 1941, Germany attacks Russia and the Jewish people learn what awaits them — hunger, tears and death. The earthquake of occupation rumbles on. The waves of aftershock envelope each town trembling with uncertainty.

Lachva, is eighty kilometers from Pinsk, eighteen kilometers from the old Soviet border. It is an extraordinary shtettle, with a beautiful school, Bet Sefer Yavneh, sporting a library large enough for ten thousand Jewish readers. People from the surrounding towns are obliged to come to Lachva to take the train. As a result, the merchants and passengers are left with the impression that it is a substantial town.

The entire youth belonged to all the Zionist organizations and spoke Hebrew with pride. The parents were also fervent Zionists and sent their sons and daughters, even before the war, to Israel, then Palestine. The Lachva Ghetto uprising, in proportion to its population, was even larger than the valiant effort of Warsaw. These heroes’ names shine along side those honoured at Yad Vashem, The Washington Holocaust Museam, like Bar Korba and Hashmoinoim.

Several hours before the liquidation, the Jewish Committee issues orders to burn the ghetto. The fire, like Mount Visuvious, also consumes the German Command Post, the Post office and more than half the town. Amid the smoke and flame, the heroic Jews throw themselves upon the gate and fence where the Ukrainian Police stand armed and ready. With only sticks and stones, these Lachver overpower the forces, breaking through the line. Through gardens and back streets they make their escape to the nearest swamps and forests. Near the River, where the Jewish committee gathered, an SS Officer shoots, Israel Drepsky, our first casualty.

Yizhak Rochczin, a member of Betar [B.T.R.], wielding a small hatchet splits the officer’s head. A strong swimmer, he jumps into the river where he is shot. Osher Cheifetz, snatches a revolver from the dead SS, and shoots several more Germans. Chaim Cheifetz, wounded, sitting on a German, thrashes a heavy pot upon the shattered soldier’s head, wailing, “Jews, run! Jews run!”

Jews battle like wounded lions and in the streets among the Jewish dead lay dead Germans. In the melee, the Germans become disoriented and believe that they are under attack of Partisans. In the short confusion the Jews run toward the forest and the fields. The truth becoming apparent that these are not Partisans but the Lachver themselves, the soldiers fire machine guns.

Although many perish, six hundred save themselves within the twenty-four hours. The following day, Ukrainians who know the land, encountering those lost or unable to continue, shoot them or more exactly, murder them. Several hundred survive in small groups deep in the forests. A good portion join Partisan enclaves and one group in particular, form their own Jewish Partisan Fighting Unit.

It is not possible to document all of the heroic, living and dead, in this short document. Many Lachva Jews at war’s end immigrated to Israel. They and their descendants served in tank divisions, as pilots, soldiers, teachers, doctors, and lawyers.

Mr. Begin is known to have said, “Our fighters are as heroic as the Jews of Lachva”. In the Shomer Ha L’oumi, Hertzel’s portraits always hung on the wall with the inscription, “Im tirtzu, ain zu agada”, if you desire, it will not be a fairytale. In B.T.R. there hung a different inscription, “B’dam v’a aish Yihuda nafla, B’dam v’a aish Yihuda Tacum”, in blood and fire the Jewish nation fell, in blood and fire the Jewish nation shall arise!