Creators & ContributorsLozansky-Bogomolnaya, Rivka (author)
Logan, Susan (editor)
Beckerman, Miriam Dashkin (translator)
Lozansky-Bogomolnaya, Rivka (subject)

Summary"Wartime Experiences in Lithuania is the story of a survivor who experienced the mental anguish of seeing relatives and friends murdered by those who had been neighbours and acquaintances. By September 1941 Rivka Lozansky Bogomolnaya had witnessed the mass murder of men, women and children in her hometown of Butrimonys in Lithuania, along with others who had been marched there. The last remaining Jews were gathered in the ghetto awaiting their fate—for many death was a welcome end. Rivka was determined to escape, and pulling along her mother on what was to be the last walk for many, she made her daring getaway. For the next three years, with her mother, sister, and brother-in-law, she survived by moving form place to place, begging scraps of food, living in constant fear that they would be found and that those who had helped them would be punished. By the time liberation came they were all physical and mental wrecks, yet throughout her ordeal Rivka had written down her experiences on whatever scrap of paper she could find." —Back cover

ContentsPart I: Butrimantz

• My Hometown Butrimantz
• Life in the Village
• Religious Life in the Village
• Education in the Village
• Officials, Professionals and the Church in the Village
• The Shenker Family
• Our "Good" Neighbours
• My Family
• My Eldest Sister Basya
• My Youngest Sister Nechama
• Reunited with Nechama
• The Terror Begins
• Murder
• Nechama's Act of Humanity
• 12 August 1941
• German Troops Arrive
• 22 August 1941: My Father is Taken
• The Priest of Pun
• Families from the Village of Pun
• The Ghetto
• Trying to Find My Mother
• Escape from the Ghetto
• Where Could We Go?
• The End

Part II: The Hiding

• In Hiding
• The Shestakovsky Family
• Deeper in Hiding
• Reunited with my Sister Tzila and Her Husband Tevya
• The Golombevsky Family
• Another Hiding Place: The Maldanis Family
• Dr. Gabay
• Bernshteyn
• From the Forest into the Fields
• Ivanovsky's Barn
• Summertime
• Chvedorovitsh's barn
• On the Run Again: Shvabofsky
• The Sound of Bombs

Part III: Our Liberation

• Our Liberation
• We Meet Russian Soldiers
• Guilt
• Who is Left?
• Returning to Our Village
• Mother and I Return to Shvabofsky
• We Flee Once Again
• Our Return Home
• Andrikonas the Priest
• Ten Survivors
• The Fear Continues
• Trying to Live Again
• The Maldinis Brothers
• A Flood
• The Grave Site
• Searching for Justice
• My Work Continues
• Witnesses
• The Commissioner for Internal Affairs
• Lesctshinsky
• Krasinsky
• Yoseliunas
• Two Graves
• Continuing to Search for Justice
• Yaneika the Policeman
• Stefankiavitshus the Policeman
• A Chance Meeting

Appendix I. Butrimantz Jews who Perished: Jewish Residents of the Shtetl Butrimantz and Alita Area of Lithuania
Appendix II. Butrimantz Jews in Hiding between 1941 and 1944 who by a Miracle Remained Alive