into the prayer house. Only then did the Jews understand the true meaning
of ma’avir tsono tahat shivto.¹⁸¹⁹ Shivto had always been understood as a stick,
a thin twig, but in the end it turned out to be a thick rubber hose with which
the ‘sheep’ were driven past the ‘shepherd.’ And the ‘shepherd’ had a whole
host of assistants. Those assistants placed tables across the whole width of
the bet hamidrash and everyone had to jump over them in order to be let into
a smaller room that had once served as a Talmud Torah. At these [6] tables the
new melamdim taught the Jews the true parshe.¹⁸²⁰ The younger people, who
quickly jumped over to the other side, got off with relatively minor blows, but
the older and weaker people felt the taste of death. For them it was real hell,
and their screams and shouts rose to high heaven. The tables were soaked in
the blood of ‘incapable’ pupils.
Whenever a ‘pupil’ of this sort managed to scramble over to the other
side, after many attempts that cost him dearly, and lay on the ground in
a faint, his tormentors would clap their hands in delight.
After the above-mentioned ‘check,’ all the people were squeezed into
a small room where it was very hot and stuffy. They were kept there for four
hours, and only then were they let back into the synagogue. The ‘guards’ had
changed, and the new overseers, it seemed, could not bear to watch the suffering
of the crammed mass of people, who kept fainting from the great heat.
That day, an old man of 76, Yitskhok Blachman, one of the town’s greatest
scholars and proponents of the Haskalah, was taken away and accused of
having prepared weapons to meet the Germans with as they marched into
town. The accusation stemmed from the fact that during the looting of his
kitchenware store, several dozen knives were found.
Nothing the old man said in his defence, pointing to his old age and
frailty and his inability to fight with soldiers, had any effect. It is impossible
to describe the blows that he received and how he was tortured. Tears gushed
from the eyes of those who witnessed it. It is beyond understanding how the
frail old man survived. It was simply a miracle! No sooner was he absolved of
that serious accusation than another reason to beat him was found. He was
ordered to clear off quickly, quick as a flash, but the old man, who used to
1819 (Hebrew) makes his sheep pass under his staff; from the Unetaneh tokef prayer recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; see Doc. 113, footnote 1511.
1820 Ironically, a real lesson.
