The volume begins with accounts of failed attempts to cross the Bug River in 1939 (Docs. 1, 2), as well as general descriptions of the situation under the Soviet occupation (Docs. 3, 4). The second group covers the so-called Western Belarus (Docs. 5–20), primarily Białystok, Słonim, Grodno, and Brześć. The third group consists of accounts relating to Vilna and the surrounding area (Docs. 21–29), and the last one – Lvov and, to a small extent, Volhynia (Docs. 30–46). Within each geographical group, accounts have been arranged according to their contents: accounts of the Soviet occupation, followed by those relating to the German occupation.
Almost all accounts come from byezhentsy (as refugees from central Poland were commonly called), who were not very familiar with the Jewish communities in the Borderlands. The group consisted for the most part of young people, many of whom were staunch Zionists; they were not deeply religious in the traditional sense. There were no outstanding individuals among them, well-known and experienced in their work or social activity. Some information about their attitude towards the occupiers, their general education, and their ability to reflect on the new situation in which they found themselves can be gleaned from analysing their language, though we do not know how much of that resulted from the work of the Oyneg Shabes interviewers.
The volume covers a number of still under-researched topics. Authors of testimonies contained in this volume had witnessed anti-Jewish pogroms of the local population immediately after the outbreak of the German–Russian war. They also provide extremely valuable reports on the Bug River crossings in 1939, the grey-market business, the issue of passports, the attitude of byezhentsy to the work of the commission registering those willing to return to the General Government, and observations on the deportations of June 1941. Much new information comes from accounts of the first phase of the German reprisals after the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union and the so-called local pogroms, especially in Lvov. We must not forget that these are all personal statement, recorded ad hoc, not beautified for any purpose. Suchauthentic messages from the era of the Holocaust are very scarce.
GENERA L INTRO D U C TION XXIII
