Dedicated to the fifth anniversary of February 6, 1942, the deportation aktion to Riga, which we composed in my café in the Riga ghetto. We composed the poem during Sukkot 1942, I, Shane Viner, and my friend Volf Puchard.

1.

I will never forget the violent acts! Going through the Kovno ghetto gate they [….] us.1Note 1: Uncertain. Counted us (if it is געצאלט)? Colored us? The latter could be a reference to the marking of Jews. They arranged us in lines. Commotion, wailing and cries! Children, this reeks of an aktion!

2. They dragged the heretics from the aerodrome to the kloyz! Whoever is one of their own, they take him out. In its predicament, the committee already selected people from the underworld. Small children have no place here!

3.

Here the clique revealed its sharp teeth, escorted by rifles, blows, and childish crying! Sorted into groups of twenty and inspected with jabs. Oy, to where they are taking us I do not know.

4.

Here it reeks, children, of the Fort,2Note 2: Ninth Fort, where most of the Jews form the Kovno ghetto were murdered. that was what we thought! We went like sheep, to the train they brought us! They threw into the wagons loaves of bread and a purse of matches. Children, smoke and be quiet!

5.

You cannot imagine, people, our comfort, relieving human needs on the spot! No drop of water in our mouths, sticking your head out is liable to get you a bullet! So we travelled for two full days.

6.

Arriving in the Riga camp imagine my luck, the first day I became well acquainted with Provodnik!3Note 3: A rubber factory in Riga. Kaiserwald, only the […]3Note 3: Uncertain. Steinbach hits the mark pretty well in the cheek. What does he want, poor thing, from a Lithuanian Jew.

7.

Everyone together endured poverty, cold and need! Rising very early and returning late at night! We were not lacking any bedbugs at night, they turned the world over! Likewise, the bath was not for us.

8.

Sorrows, just like everything else, nevertheless have a limit! Now they do not herd us to Provodnik, the sorrows to an end! No more masters, no more Poles, to hell with the pick axes and barracks! Many no longer need the ration

9.

Only in the kingdom of the women does one forget the suffering! The men become fools5Note 5: Or prostitutes, uncertain. when the watch strikes half past eight! Mrs. Margolin watches over everything well, she also sings the hit songs!

10.

I have finished the business, set the soup pot to cook! Sold shag, saccharine, I whistle to the world! The German ghetto is not far, I go straight to the other side, at least I avoid the evil uncle.

11.

Dry biscuit and bacon, then farewell! When you still have a half a flask, you’re set! One puts aside a packet for the Jewish policeman! Then your certificate is valid everywhere! The half-Aryans are my friends.

12.

And when I come home completely drunk, I fall straight into bed! Then Jordan and the committee come to me in a dream! Elkes, Lurie, and Arenshtam, and the trading through the fence! God have mercy on them. End

Mr. Editor, please sent this poem to the Historical Committee in my name to Mr. Israel Kaplan, he is also one of those remaining alive who were on my transport. I have many more poems that I composed but I have no paper to write, but I will send to you also my experiences which I endured in eleven camps and three ghettos.

My memories from February 6, 1942, to February 7, 1947.

In the Kovno ghetto, only a few months after the Great Aktion in which more than ten thousand of our dearest ones were taken away, on January 25, 1941, they again began talking about an action to Riga. Later the talk about sending 600 men and women to Riga intensified. However, we knew what this meant for us and we began to hide ourselves away in the hiding places. A few days later the atmosphere calmed down again, and we gradually came out [of the hiding places]. In the Kovno ghetto at that time they needed working hands for the Kovno aerodrome. So as soon as I went out onto the street I was caught and straight away sent to the work at the aerodrome. That day there was a burning frost which cut like knives, we all went out to work. In the ghetto there was then a panic. They immediately slammed the doors with the bolts, no living soul was to be seen outside, apart from a few policemen. However, that day we did not work in the aerodrome. We just stood and talked with one another about the good conduct of the guards, how they did not herd us to work as they did on all other occasions. Yet that day also passed slowly and sadly. When 3.30 arrived, they gave us an order to lay down the axes and spades and the working day was over. We went straight into the ghetto, on the way we directly found out that in the ghetto something bad had happened, but we did not know what. Close to the door they arranged us in rows of twenty men. Opposite the Work Office and in the square stood the commandant of the ghetto, Jordan, with his retinue and from the Jewish Labor Office Lurie and Arenshtam and the Jewish police,

and they herded us straight into through a fenced wire gate, a few people straight away tried to escape. However, immediately a few shots rang out and they took us straight to the kloyz 6Note 6: small synagogue or study house. They beat us with the rifles and they filled the kloyz with people so that it was hard to breath; really we were suffocating. Immediately, Jewish policemen came and took out their people. Later, the Jewish police came again and it became bitter and dark for us, the black trade began – how much will you give, you get out straight away, five golden coins and a golden watch and the deal is done, hand it over. And now take an armband and a police hat and follow him out. And so it went on, and we still remained in the kloyz. A roll call was conducted in the ghetto and they seized more people because they had not reached the required number due to the police letting half the people go for gold and money, with the agreement of the Labor Office, at its head Lurie and Arenshtam, nicknamed the Hunderter [the hundred] or Mapu. Yet the number had been reached by 7 P.M., and they arranged us again in front of the commandant in rows of twenty men and march. A few shots, childish cries, and the wails of women were heard. We walked and we thought they were taking us to the Ninth Fort. However, the commandant assured us that we should not be afraid: we were going to work and not to death. The people in Kovno would yet be jealous of us. We would forthwith be able to write letters to our families. But promises and love [maybe: being nice] do not cost money, especially for the Germans.

We were well acquainted with German promises but could not help ourselves. So they took us in the direction of Laisvės Alėja, and we arrived at the train station in Schanz, where they loaded us into the wagons, forty men to a wagon. Before they closed the wagons they gave us bread with a purse of matches so that we could smoke and be quiet. And when they had loaded us into the cattle cars there were six hundred of us, including children and women; there were also a few volunteers like the crazy people Galu and Mapu. This was February 6, 1942, and we left at midnight. The wagons were locked from the outside. As soon as the train started moving away from the station, immediately a few lads opened the windows and doors and a series of people began jumping through the doors and windows. From my wagon twelve people jumped out straight away; from another wagon there jumped out seventeen persons and in Jonava (Yanov) and near Šiauliai (Shavel) also a few jumped out. I myself also wanted to jump out. I was standing ready to jump when all at once I felt that someone was holding me by my coat and a woman’s voice calls out my name, Shane, I won’t let you jump, you stay here. I turn around, angry. It was a friend of my wife, Sorel Kabinsky. And later I did not manage to jump out and continued on to Riga. It was cold in the wagons and there was no water to drink, only dry bread and it stank in the wagon because people had to relieve their needs on the spot.

We arrived in Šiauliai by day and stood for a few hours at the Šiauliai station. Jewish girls from Šiauliai worked at the station and they told us about the aktions in Šiauliai. Thanks to them we were able to get icicles to drink and bread, and they were herded away from us so that we should not be able to talk with them. Later they opened our wagon and we got some fresh air, relief from the stink, and we received money – 17 marks in our wagon. In other wagons they received only 12 marks. This was because our wagon had fewer people in it after a lot had jumped out. And so we travelled on further for two days and three nights until we reached Riga. There began my wandering through eleven camps and (3) three ghettos and my experiences until today I will [not or will later]7Note 7: Something seems to be missing here so that the sentence will make sense. Perhaps he will write more later. write to you because I do not have paper on which to write. And I attach here the poem about February 6 which I and another lad form Kovno composed in my café in the Riga ghetto. My café in the Riga ghetto was the only one in the ghetto with music and artists also sang there. I ask you, Mr. Editor, that you print it and improve the wording, that means edit it, and please excuse my bad handwriting because I am right handed [but] I am sadly an invalid, I am missing three half fingers from my right hand. In addition to this, I endured things that would fill volumes. We were among the first of those sent to Riga and only twelve of us remain alive.