Ilishesti

2006-12-31T12:59:00.001-08:00

Ilishesti is a town in the Suceava County in the Bucovina region, Romania.
A long time before World War I, this region belonged to the Austrian Empire. By the end of World War I, in which Austria lost, several regions were taken from the Empire for the bordering countries. Thus the Bucovina region was given to Romania. Hence most of its population spoke German, as it was in Misu's parents' house.
In the course of time, several Romanian-speaking families settled in Ilishesti, and through them the Romanian language penetrated the daily life.
Life in Ilishesti, as told by Misu's mother, Rivka Gelbert, may she rest in peace, was a life of mutual respect regardless of the person's nationality, religion or business. It was a life of solidarity.
With the appearance of Hitler and the Nazi movement, Fascistic movements which adopted and even joined the Nazi doctrine started appearing in Romania. This was the turning point of the treatment toward the Jews, especially with the appearance of the Romanian Fascistic movement, Garda de Fier (Guard of Iron).
Anti Semitic actions shortly started: conspiracies against Jews, burning of Jews' farms, murders and the banning of Jews with all that concerned with trade and work relations.
At the start of 1938, the Jews were announced as unwelcome in Ilishesti, and due to that announcement, Jewish families, including Misu's parents, moved to the city of Suceava.
The "sympathy" towards the Jews in this city wasn't better than in Ilishesti, however in the city they were able to earn a living from trade or their professions.

Gelbert (Misu) Moshe גלברט (מישו) משה

2006-12-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

RelatioNet GE NI 37 EL RO
Gelbert Misu

Interviewer:

Full Name/s: Greenberg Stav, Zussman Sagie, Zafri Ady
Email: ilovexp11@walla.co.il
Address: Kfar Sava

Survivor:

Code: RelatioNet GE NI 37 EL RO
Family Name: Gelbert
First Name: Moshe (Misu)
Father Name: Avraham Chaim Gelbert
Mother Name: Rivkah Michaela Gelbert
Birth Date: 16/09/1937
Town In Holocaust: Katzmazow (Transnistria)
Country In Holocaust: Romania
Status (Today): Alive
Address Today: Kfar Sava, Israel

Relatives:

Family Name: Gelbert First Name: Rivkah Middle Name: Michaela
Father Name: Kalman Weissbrod Mother Name: Driza Fruma Weissbrod
Relationship (to Survivor): Mother Town In Holocaust: Katzmazow (Transnistria) Country In Holocaust: Romania Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Seamstress; Translator; Common work
Status (Today): Dead
Death Place: Israel Death Reason: Age Year Of Death: 1998

Family Name: Gerlbert First Name: Avraham Middle Name: Chaim
Father Name: Yehuda Arieh Gelbert Relationship (to Survivor): Father
Town In Holocaust: Katzmazow (Transnistria) Country In Holocaust: Ukraine
Status (Today): Dead
Death Place: Israel Year Of Death: 1971

Moshe's Story

2006-04-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

I was born in September 16, 1937, in a village called Ilishesti in Romania.
In 1938 the Jews were no longer welcome in Ilishesti, so my parents moved to the city of Suceava, along with other Jewish families.
In October 4, 1941, when I was 4 years old, the Jews of Suceava, including my family and I, were exiled to Transnistria, an area in the Ukraine which was conquered by the Romans from the Soviet Union. This is how it happened to us:

Early in the morning, the head of the Jewish community in Suceava was ordered to evacuate all the Jews within 8 hours. At the same time, an announcer walked in the streets and announced the order. The Jews were allowed to take with them light baggage of what they extremely needed and food for 8 days.
All the Jews were gathered in the yard of the large synagogue of the city, and from there they started their journey ON FOOT to the train station, which was about 5 kilometers far. The authorities didn't make it easy for the sick and the elders.
At Burdujeni station they were ordered to give the jewellery and keys to the soldiers. We were carried on carts that normally carried beasts.
We traveled for 24 hours to the Russian border, to a river. On the way there, people died from the cold, weakness and diseases.
We arrived in Ataki. There started a sad, hard, painful way to the camp.
Ataki served as a gateway to the Transnistria. In Ataki we saw bodies of Jews and blood the synagogue's walls, and we realized what happened to the town's Jews when it was conquered. On one of the synagogue's walls there was a message written in blood: "Jews were murdered here. You Jews that are passing here, please say Kadish."
From the synagogue we were led to an abandoned house on the river bank. The way there was on foot in the rain and through the freezing wind and the mud in which we sank to our knees. Not all made it.
At midnight we were robbed by the Roman soldiers. They also destroyed our documents, deleting our identities and existence. Then they ordered us to stand in two lines. They took 2 by 2, pulling them aside and shooting them in the head. My family and I were lucky to be one of the lasts in line, because after a while the Roman soldiers were ordered to stop the extermination and lead us to the other side of the river. That is how we were saved.
In the morning, we saw the bodies of the dead floating on the blood-stained river. On the way to the other side of the river many people fell off the raft and drowned to death.

And so we continued our journey to the camp (on foot), passing many swamps, through the cold and snow. Many died on the way.
Most of the Ukrainians were hostile, but in some villages the people tried to convince the soldiers to let us stay in their villages for a while.
We kept on walking, stopping only in one village for one night. There we got good care from one of the villagers.
We were rarely allowed to bury the dead, so the bodies were left on the road.
For a reason not known to me, we were led back to one of the villages we had already passed through a different way. On that way back, the villagers were kind to us and gave us food and water. My mother got 10 loaves of bread for a pair of pants. My grandmother, of blessed memory, took one of the loaves, sliced it up, put a bit of jam on the slices and gave them to the starving children.
After a few days we were on the way back to the camp, and finally arrived in Katzmazow – a village in the Ukraine with 2 kolkhozes.

We were settled in a cowshed. The cowshed wasn't properly closed, so the cold and win got in it. Already in the first night people died from the cold.
In the morning some of us were taken to work (including my parents), while I stayed in the camp with my grandfathers.
Those who worked got food during the day, and in the evening when they got back to camp, they gave everyone food and milk.
After a week we were ordered to leave the camp and we were led to an unknown place. We arrived in a village. The villagers had heard that we were going to be sent to the death camps in Poland or Germany, so they decided to not let us stay in the village, and by doing so they saved our lives!
The soldiers took us to another village, and on the way there more people died. There the villagers were very sympathetic to us and gave us food and milk. But after a week we had to leave again. The soldiers, not knowing where to take us, led us to a forest, and on the following day they took us back to Katzmazow. This time the camp was prepared to receive us. That was our home for more than 3 years.

The guarding of the camp was assigned to the local policemen, inspected by German soldiers. The police treated the "captives", as they used to call us, with cruelty to the point that even the local villagers hated them.
The guarding of the camp itself and its inhabitants was assigned to the captives themselves by the chief of the police.
Every day there was a count and pop inspections. If someone was late or missing, the guard was the first to be punished. The punishment was merciless beating.
There were some who sneaked to the village to find some food. If such person was caught, he returned to camp with deformed swollen face, toothless and exhausted. He was to be punished by the guard as well. If the guard (which was one of the Jews, as mentioned above) didn't punish him enough, the Chief threw him to the floor and danced on his chest with his boots, breaking him ribs, and beat him, to show him how to punish.

Later after we arrived in the camp, the villagers made an agreement with the police that those of the captives who were able to work properly would be given permits to live in the village with the local families that would employ them to replace the men that were in the army.

Those permits were valid for 2 weeks. When they expired, the captives had to return to camp and renew them. My parents were among those who go the permits, and so every while we moved to live in the village. My mother was also used as a translator from German and Romanian to Russian and Ukrainian!
As time passed, the villagers saw that the Jews were hardworking and had special knowledge and work methods. This tightened the relation between the Jews and the villagers. As a result, they allowed my mother to bring me with her when she went to work in the village, so I got satisfying warm meals!
Overall, as time passed, most of the villagers showed compassion and sympathy towards the Jews.

About a year and a half before the liberation, an order was given that no captive was to live in the village, and those who were there had to come back immediately. The permits to work in the village were changed to be valid only for one day. Any captive who got a permit had to come back to the camp every evening of the same day. The work in the village was in addition to the forced labor which was assigned to all of the captives.

Those who stayed in the camp (minors, elders, sick, handicapped etc.) had a very hard life. They sold everything they possessed to the villagers that came to the fence. In exchange the villagers gave them a little food like bread and a bit of milk, and rarely eggs and vegetables. Many died from the hunger.

In the spring of the second year in the camp, the police have agreed to the captives to grow vegetables (for self-use only and inside the camp). They were allowed to use only leftovers of vegetables and not seeds. "Leftovers" were the skin of potatoes, onions or garlic.
Some of the villagers "sold" the captives such leftovers for this operation, but also sneaked seeds and fresh vegetables among the leftovers.
The captives cleaned the surface and processed the earth without fertilizers or other materials, and indeed after less than a year there were results. The vegetables grew and thus added food and iron to the captives!

One evening my mother brought 2 big loaves and several apples from the village. She was going to keep one loaf and a few apples to our family and the rest to sell. When I heard of that intention, I asked my mom to not sell the bread and the apples, and instead give them to me so I could share them with my friends who were starving. My mother sliced the bread and the apples and both of us walked from child to child and gave them a slice of bread and apple.

As for the burying of the dead:
Each day the Chief of the police sent a cart to load on it the bodies (about 20 bodies a day). The gathering of the bodies was assigned on some of the captives, inspected by the police. In many of the cases the body was still warm, and also some of the appointed captives had to gather their relatives' bodies. If the appointed captives let children time to say goodbye to their deceased parents, the police would beat them mercilessly. The policemen also removed golden teeth from the bodies' mouths and kept them for themselves.
The burying itself was done in a common grave, in an open field. It was done without purification or prayer.

As for myself:
When I was 5 years old, my mother decided that I should start learning the Torah. My mother taught me the alphabet, and paid (with food) a teacher that was in the camp to teach me the Torah.

Every Shabbat and holiday the men gathered for prayer, having a small number of prayer books. There were almost no prayer books for the holidays. There was no scroll of the Torah, so the reading of the weekly portions was done from one book that one of the captives possessed.
The spiritual life was an important part of the strengthening.

The Liberation

Prior to the liberation itself, there were 2 events:
1. A few weeks before the liberation, partisans approached the area. In the nights they the sneaked in and around the camp, dug in and made observations. Sometimes they hid among the captives and pretended to be captives. For us it was a great danger, but the Russian partisans killed those who resisted. Every day the German soldiers searched the camp to make sure there were no partisans hiding. The searchings were done by humiliating beatings, curses and threats. However, there are no recollections of caught partisans. Still, those days were days of horror.
2. In March 19, 1944, in the afternoon, a group of Roman soldiers arrived in the camp, commanded by a master sergeant. The master sergeant ordered all the captives to gather in the valley between 2 hills outside the camp, and announced that they were going to exterminate them.
In order to save bullets, he ordered everyone to sit so one shot would kill the young and the old simultaneously. According to the Romanian army laws, the master sergeant gave the sergeant the order to shoot the Jews. The sergeant ordered his soldiers to shoot into the air until they ran out of bullets, and so they followed his order.
The sergeant was slapped by the master sergeant and told him he would be brought to trial.

At the early hours of the following day (March 20, 1944), the partisans appeared happily and with cheers at the camp's gates and announced of the liberation of the camp, and that we can go free. Among the partisans was the sergeant that saved our lives.

In the mid of June, 1944 we returned to our home in Suceava! More and more people, families, orphans, widows, widowers etc. returned from their camps, physically and emotionally broken.

I made an aliyah to Israel (to Givataim) in January 18, 1959.
I have a wife, Sarah, and one daughter, Tzviah. I also have two grandchildren: Oran, who is 18 years old, and Adi, who is 15 years old.

A great deal of these stories was told to me by my beloved mother, Rivkah Gelbert, of blessed memory.