Wolf Fajnsztadt Testimony (doc. 301/945)
Typescript, 2 pages, 210 x 295 mm, Polish language
Partisan fighting
I was a partisan from July 26, [1944], until January 17, 1945. Before my time as a partisan I was in a camp in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.
In February 1943, still in the ghetto, boys had organised an attack on the commandant of the Jewish
militia, and we took away from him 40 2Note 2:
Probably dollars.
in gold, the sum which we spent on arms. We exchanged that currency for 36 thousand zlotys,
and bought 12 revolvers with this money. For the time being, we were in the ghetto. Seventeen of our boys went to Kunów to hide
there on Aryan papers, but they were killed
by the AK men.
Those men threw a grenade into the bunker
where our friends were hiding, and all of
them were killed on that occasion. This delayed our action in the ghetto until March 1944. At the beginning there
were 47 of us, and only 30 members remained alive. The leaders of our fighting unit were two
Stein brothers from Ostrowiec..
Both of them were killed in June 1944 during the talks
with the boss of the workers’ party from Ostrowiec.
His name was Rybowski, alias Wujo
[Uncle], and he was a Pole. They met to discuss the question of an
escape attempt from the camp.
And then one Jew named Blumental, a capo
from Ostrowiec, informed on them to the Germans, who immediately apprehended them, and
the Stein brothers were executed by a firing squad two days later. It took place in the camp
square in Ostrowiec.
After that Dawid Kepiński from Konin took over the command. Led by him, we cut through the camp wires and escaped to the forest on July 25, 1944. There were 29 of us. We had 14 revolvers, 2 short machine guns, and 3 grenades. Thanks to Antek Cukierman we received money from a Jewish fighting organisation from Warsaw. That money was brought by Frania Beatus, a Jewish woman from Konin. She brought 25,000 zlotys and one grenade. She came to the camp on Aryan papers. As one group of the Jews from the Ostrowiec camp worked in the town on the Aryan side, she joined that group of workers when they were coming back to the camp, and in this way she also got into the camp and established contact with us. On the following morning she returned with the same group to the town, but from there she went to Warsaw. But on the way some Germans recognised she was Jewish and she was killed.
We stored the arms in the camp -
in crates, feather quilts, and so on. When we entered the forest, in Krzemionki near
Ostrowiec, we joined a Russian unit of nine. They had escaped
from German captivity. They
were well armed - they had eight machine guns. We contacted them through a Pole named Sternik from the workers’ party from Ostrowiec
(he is at present a commandant of the militia in the Security Department in Bodzechów3Note 3:
W tekście: Bodzanowie. near Ostrowiec).
We built three sheds because it was still summer, and in September we made up underground
bunkers, the so-called dug-outs
. There were four bunkers
for thirty-eight people. There were also girls,
about 20 years old, among us. They cooked for us.
We escaped from the camp because we were aware that it was going to be liquidated. We were also planning to save our families but, unfortunately, it was too late. On August 2, 1944, the camp was evacuated to Auschwitz, because the front was drawing nearer.
We obtained food from well-off peasants and manors, and we paid for the products the pre-war prices. We went to get the food at night, and we were armed. From time to time we met Germans at those peasants’ homes, and then the shooting ensued. On one such occasion four our boys were killed and two were wounded. But also two Germans were killed, and we took off their uniforms and got hold of their arms, and went back to the forest. One day we met a German lorry which had a cargo of cigarettes and canned food. We killed two Germans, seized the cargo, and burnt the lorry, having first poured petrol on it. On June 29, 1944, we derailed a German train which was carrying ammunition and explosives to the front. On October 4 we blew up the whole building in the village of Sudół Górny,4Note 4: In the text: Sudogóra in which a German Hauptmann 4Note 4: Hauptmann (Ger.) – captain. was staying. That Hauptmann was killed, and we managed to run away. In November there was an ambush organised by the Germans, because we had been given away by one forester who told them where we were hiding.
The names of the members of that partisan unit:
1. Mojżesz Wajzer aged 28
2. Berek Szerman 28
3. Wolf Szerman 52
4. Matla Waldman 20
5. Szyfra Weinberg 20
6. Majer Fleischmann 32
7. Izrael Fleischmann 24
8. Tojwie Fachler 31
9. Jakub Fachler 22
10. Szmul Fachler 29
11. Mendel Waserman 21
12. Uszer Rubinsztejn 18
13. Josef Wajnberg 22
All of them come from Ostrowiec.
14. Izrael Słodki 22
15. Szymon Kempiński 28
16. Fajwel Kempiński 21
17. Mojżesz Zygielbaum 21
18. Ajzyk Zygielbaum 23
19. Szlama Szmilewicz 34
20. Szmul Alios 32
21. Juda Singer 22
22. Hersz Akerman 30
23. Gecel Akerman 26
24. Dawid Niskier 23
25. Motek Ajzman 31
26. Wolf Fajnstok 26
From all those mentioned above the survivors are:
1. Berek Szerman and his brother Wolf
2. Szymon Kempiński
3. Mojżesz Wajzer
4. Motek Ajzman
5. Myself, Wolf Fajnstok
The others perished.
Recorded by Chain, Będzin.