Additional information
by L. Losh (Editor), Irv Osterer (Cover Design by), Stefanie Holzman (Index by)
This book assembles the stories of five neighboring towns in what is now northwestern Belarus. They were located within about a ten-mile radius of each other with Szczuczyn acting as both a geographical and socio-economic center. But while bringing these together under one cover, the editors took care to maintain each town's identity with its own front page and table of contents and the unique style of its contributors.
At the outbreak of World War 2, there were about 8,000 Jews in the five towns (which also included Vasilishki, Ostrina, Novi Dvor, Rozhanka), of whom only about 160 survived. Most of the deaths occurred between May and late 1942. Each town section of the book has chapters describing how the Holocaust unfolded in their towns. Each book has its own necrology.
The overall history of the region is recounted in the Szczuczyn section. Chapters in the other sections relate stories of people and events specific to their communities. These include the occupations of townspeople, family life, political and religious movements, schooling, and the economic hard times that contributed to a rise in emigration to America and elsewhere.
The bitter end that befell all five towns is eloquently and painfully memorialized in passages like this one:
The 22nd of Iyar 5702 was the date of the final liquidation of the Shtutchin Ghetto and the cruel end of the remaining citizens of the Rozhanka community.... At the present time, Rozhanka has no Jewish residents. Local and neighboring Christians settled in Jewish homes. The remaining homes of the residents were dismantled. The Bet Hamidrash was converted into a stable. In the cemetery, gravestones were removed and used for building needs... It was, then, leveled out and served as a pasture for cattle.... The memory of the Rozhanka community is with the several tens of families who emigrated to the United States before the First World War and the thirty-some families who made aliyah to Israel in the period between the two World Wars.
