Stories

The following statement is a message in the 1947 yearbook of the Sudilkov-Shepetowka Relief Society (in Chicago), presumably written by their President, Julius Weiner (Source: the Miriam Weiner archives).

"PEACE AND CHARITY - The War against Fascism ended victoriously. The victory, however, was won at a terrible price. Almost thirty million people were killed, entire countries were devastated and hundreds of millions of human beings are starving now. The greatest loss of all is felt by the Jewish people, one third of whom was slaughtered by a savage nation the like of which never existed before in the memory of mankind.

To the shame of the so-called civilized humanity the surviving and destitute Jews are still in their camps built for their extermination in the country of their executioners. Their future is not causing any concern to anyone but their fellow Jews, while statesmen and other public figures are showing almost frantic concern about the future of Germany.

The surviving European Jews are not beggars. They are proud men and women. They are moral and spiritual victors over the so-called "Aryan Supermen" who are now begging for charity from allied soldiers.

The secret of the Jewish survival during three thousand years lies in deep appreciation of the preciousness of human life and therefore of constant readiness to give, to help and to save.

The Sudilkov-Shepetowka Relief Society exists for this purpose. During the year 1947 we will give more than ever to help and save Jews and other people who fight for the right to live and be free."

From that same issue, the President's Message states the following:

"The Sudilkov-Shepetowka Relief Society is affiliated with the Folks Division of the American Jewish Congress, to which it contributes regularly. The Congress is a non-partisan political organization which fights against political, economic and cultural discrimination against Jews and other minorities and for a democratic America. As a division of the World Jewish Congress it participates in the struggle against Antisemitism and all forms of Fascism all over the world.

Our Society contributes to the American Red Cross and Infantile Paralysis Fund.

It contributes to the upbuilding of a Jewish Palestine by regular donations to the Jewish National Fund for land purchases, Jewish Labor Federation (HISTADRUTH) for industrialization of the settlements, Hadassah, for educational institutions, hospitals, and children's homes, Pioneer Women's organization for bring and educating European refugee children to Palestine and Mizrachi for religious and educational institutions.

To help the war victims overseas we contribute to the Jewish Welfare Fund to take care of destitute and stranded people in the German camps, in battle-torn lands and wherever they have found an insecure refuge. We give to the American Federation of Polish Jews who are assisting the survivors of the crematoriums. We help the Ambidjan Society whose purpose is to settle the many Jewish war orphans of Ukraine and White Russia in the Jewish Autonomous Territory.

Here in America we donate to the Hias (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and to the Sanatoriums for Consumptives in Fox River, Winfield, Denver, and Los Angeles, Jewish charities, Hebrew Theological Seminary and others."

In the same issue is an appeal from the Jewish Children's Bureau:

"This is not an appeal for money. Jewish boys, mostly 16 years of age or over, survivors of massacres and concentration camps, look for homes in Chicago and in other American cities. Their expenses, room and board, education and medical bills are paid by the Jewish Welfare Board through the Children's Bureau. They are carefully selected for their health and character before being recommended for placement in private homes. Those of you who are able, or know people who are able to do so and take into your home a fine Jewish young man, orphan and survivor of Hitlerism, and without any expense to yourselves, please communicate with the Children's Bureau or with our Society."

The following statement is a message from Julius Weiner, President of the Sudilkov-Shepetowka Relief Society, in their 1954 yearbook (Source: the Miriam Weiner archives).

"Thirty-five years of unselfish activity and one hundred thousand dollars given to humanitarian causes - this is what we, the members of Sudilkov-Shepetowka Relief Society, are proudly celebrating this year of 1954. Deep in our hearts there is a feeling of happiness created by doing so many good deeds to so many people, something no publicity could give us, no inscriptions on marble or bronze tablets could do for us.

This thirty-fifth year of our fruitful existence is being crowned by our participation in furnishing the Shepetowka Memorial Clinic in the Zadonia suburb of Rehoboth in Israel. This is a fitting Memorial to the thirty thousand martyrs of the Shepetowka ghetto who were shot, clubbed to death, or buried alive on the Klemetowich Road. It as also a challenge to the mass assassins from Titus to Hitler who tried to kill both the Jewish people and the Jewish spirit, and failed miserably. The land of Israel is victorious over Rome and Germany. The Jewish spirit of mercy is the guide of the new state, and in this spirit is given our contribution.

By participating in this project we help the sick and wounded and pay our reverent message to our holy martyrs."

Sudilkov Story from Harold Aspiz

My family's name was Ahshpiz; my grandfather was named Shimon and his brother named Mayer. They were tailors, and orthodox. My father came to this country in 1914, after the first World War broke out, in order to avoid the draft, and made it to San Francisco by way of Siberia, Japan, and China. He came across a Jewish congregation in Mukden, Manchuria, with a Chinese-looking rabbi who spoke Hebrew and wanted to have him arrested on the chance that he was a Russian spy rather than an impoverished refugee. My father, an ardent socialist, wanted to go back home after the Bolsheviks came into power. My grandfather wrote that things were so desperate at home that rather than have his son return he would himself commit suicide. Father stayed here, of course.

In the period immediately following World War II, my father received a letter from a boyhood friend, the only Jewish resident of Sudilkov who survived the Nazi occupation, a man named (Leyzer?) Finkelshtein who had been working in the Ural Mountains at the time of the Nazi invasion. (Like many of the surviving Jews in the Soviet Union he was desperate to obtain some cloth or a sewing machine or some other small basis to stay alive among the ruins). Finkelshtein wrote that he had returned to Sudilkov only to find that all the Jews had been herded together, lined up in an excavated trench, and shot to death.

Sudilkov Story from Murray LaBelle

Sudilkov was a small town. The inhabitants were not known by their family names. For example, chances are that someone named Rovener had come from Rovno generations back, and all future generations were known as Rovenor. But mostly everyone was known by their nicknames, mostly as their trade. For example, a clock repairer would be known as "Die Zeigermaebers", a baker would be known as "Becker," etc.

Sudilkov was a wonderful beautiful shtetl with a very large round "mark" (shopping center). All the kleiten (stores) were in a circle around the mark, the mark would have a yarid (fair day) every other Tuesday. Tradespeople, peasants from around the nearby towns would bring their wares to sell, exchange, etc.

Sudilkov had the most beautiful shul, was known as the "calte" (cold) shul. It was so huge that there was no way of keeping it warm for the winter. The sabbath before Pesach was the official opening. The trees were tall around the shul, this being spring with the birds in the trees, the windows of the shul opened for the first time. It seemed that the birds and the worshippers on that Shabbat were like one choir, unforgettable.

The mark had a line crossing right through the middle, it was called the "shosei," supposedly paved road leading to Shepetovka westward and side roads to other shtetlach, eastward to Ritvez, Chrolin, Palone.

Sudilkov also had a Bes Midrash. This is a type of shul where the people would sit all day and learn the Talmud, the Gemorrah, Mishneh, and all of the holy scriptures, aside from davening the three services every day. Sudilkov also had two "Kloizen." a "kloiz" is a sort of shul on a smaller scale. One was called the "Makarover Kloiz," but I do not remember the name of the other.

Once at school, when the teacher left the class for a moment, the pupils were mischievous and decided to have some fun on my account. They twirled a ring out of wire, and dared me to say the blessings (brochos) to a girl by placing the ring on her finger, and immediately after that chanting that according to the law, I'm married to this poor girl who cried her eyes out. I ran home, crept up to the attic to say "tillim" (psalms). The attic and the psalms were always my redeemer.

Our famous pastime among the youngsters was to catch a ride on a wagon or a sleigh in the winter. After "cheder" school was out, we gave chase to any vehicle, catch a ride until whipped off by the driver. So there was a horse and sleigh, and naturally I jumped on the sleigh, the driver hadn't chased me off, and I considered myself the champion of having the longest ride. But by feeling and poking at the load beneath me, I realized that it was a dead body. The poor Jew was bringing his wife for burial from his village, so in my fright I was back at my hiding place up in the attic saying "tillim" for hours to the Almightly to forgive me.

Compiled by Miriam Kirshner

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