give this book a single voice was not an easy task. Rajzner, himself, is quite variable. Some parts of his book read like a best selling thriller, other parts are quite parochial. He mentions many people by name, who would not normally be considered to be historically significant, the sort of people who might not be mentioned anywhere else. Rajzner might be the only surviving record of their existence. I am reminded of the numerous foot soldiers who gave their lives for a cause, only to be forgotten forever. Generals tend to be remembered by history, not the nameless privates who do the brunt of the dirty work.
I therefore decided against deleting any of the names. I wanted everyone mentioned in the Yiddish text to appear in the English one. I even added a few more, my grandparents Hersz and Raya Leah Lew; my uncles Fishel Lew and Hillek Basz; and my cousin David Lew; about whose fate Rajzner had informed both my parents way back in 1947. I made no attempt to upgrade Rajzner’s language, to transform it into high literature. For one I am not the person sufficiently talented to do so. I am neither a poet nor a man of letters. My aim has been simply to re-create this book in English as Rajzner originally intended it to be, a frank eye-witness account of a terrible human tragedy.
Some of my 22 translators, on completing their pieces, volunteered to do more. I always accepted their offers. In some instances it enabled me to get the same pages translated twice. I found these dual translations particularly helpful. At other times when I experienced difficulties turned to Mr. Israel Kipen, a fellow Melbournian and a former Bialystoker, for help. Israel was one of my translators and nobody could have been more obliging. He is a wonderful man, a gentleman and a scholar, who was at all times ready and willing to offer me help.
And then one day, lo and behold, the whole book was translated.
4. THE TRANSLATORS.
I would now like to personally mention and thank all my translators:
Miriam Dashkin Beckerman of Toronto, Canada.
Miriam has a Diploma in English Literature with Honours from York University. She is a well-known translator of numerous Yiddish and Hebrew works into English. In 1998 she shared the Dora Teitelboim Foundation Prize for translating “The Return of Noah Amshel” by David Katz from Yiddish into English
Jack Berger of Mahwah, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Jack is a graduate of the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art and has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He is a former Vice-President of Citibank, for whom he worked for thirty years, and as a hobby he has done a number of Yiddish translations for Yizkor (Remembrance) Books pertaining to the Holocaust.
Helen Burstin of North Caulfield, Melbourne, Australia.
Helen survived the war as a young girl together with her mother in Russia. She and her husband Simcha were accountants for most of their working lives in Melbourne. Prior to that, Simcha had worked for the Yiddish section of the Melbourne Jewish News, for several years, during the 1950s. Helen, Simcha and their daughter Ena are well known identities in local Yiddishist circles. When Helen first came to Melbourne she lived in the Bialystoker Centre together with my parents and Rafael Rajzner. When I visited her home to pick up her translation, she asked me if I knew a lady named Genia Lew who lived in the Bialystoker Centre in 1948. Genia, of course, was my late mother.
Anna Clarke of Ottawa, Canada.
Anna survived in Poland from 1939-1944, first in the east under the Soviets, later as an internee of the Warsaw Ghetto, and finally in hiding, with documents stating she was a gentile. In 1944, she was sent to Germany as a Polish slave labourer and worked as a housemaid until liberation. After the war she acted as an interpreter for the British Government. It was in this capacity that she met her husband, an intelligence officer with MI5. They remained in Germany until 1954, then migrated to Canada. In Canada Anna graduated M.A. from the University of Ottawa, did some freelance broadcasting for the Canadian Broadcasting Commission, and also taught at college.
Victor Cohen of Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Victor’s schooling was at a Yeshivah. He obtained an M.A. degree from New York University, majoring in Jewish Studies and Philosophy. His working life was spent in education, as a teacher in the New Jersey Public School system, as an adjunct Professor of Philosophy at a county college, and as an administrator in the field of Jewish Education. He is the author of “The Soul of the Torah - Insights of the Hasidic Masters on the weekly Torah Portions,” and during his retirement is currently working on another book.
Meir Fass of Rego Park, New York, U.S.A.
Meir was born in Israel after its independence. He moved to New York where he had a career in import/export shipping services. He has recently retired and heard of this project second hand. He therefore differs from my other translators in that he approached me, not vice-versa. His brilliant translation of the last fourteen pages of Rajzner’s book helped complete the project.
Luba Goldberg of South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia.
Luba, a 14-year-old girl, and a recent graduate of the ORT Girls’ School in Bialystok, had just returned to her small home town of Ciechanowiec, when war broke out in September 1939. She remained there under Soviet occupation until Germany attacked Russia in June 1941. She was then relocated to the ghetto at nearby Sokoly, until the commencement of its liquidation. She was fortunate enough to escape from the ghetto and after a number of harrowing experiences managed to survive with partisans in the Bransk Forest.
Ruth Fisher Goodman of Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.
Ruth was born in New York City. She graduated from the Workman’s Circle Yiddish School in 1945, got a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from the City University of New York in 1949, and a Master’s Degree in Reading from the University of Delaware in 1968. She has been both a teacher and a professional translator. She is widely travelled. Her publications include the video “How to Teach Reading to Adult Illiterates through the Language Experience Approach.”
Beni Gothajner of Elsternwick, Melbourne, Australia.
Beni is a former teacher, whose specialties were Yiddish, English and History. These skills proved to be the perfect combination for this project. Thank-you Beni for suggesting that I divide this foreword into segments.
Mindle Crystel Gross of Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.A.
Mindle graduated from the Sholem Aleichem School in Brooklyn, New York and Brooklyn College and she also attended a Jewish Teachers Seminary in Manhattan. Her various occupations include having been a bilingual secretary in Yiddish and English, teaching Yiddish both at Sunday School and at Adult Education, and working as an Ophthalmologist’s technician and office manager. She plays classical piano for recreation. If I could present a special medal as an “Honorary Bialystoker” to one of my translators I would award it to Mindle. I think of her as my personal “Oliver Twist.” Every time she completed a translation she would ask, “Could I please have some more.” In all Mindle did six translations of ten pages each and they were all great. Mindle also proof-read the entire original completed version of the translation. Good on you Mindle.
