The War
On the Day of My Bar Mitzvah
As soon as the Germans arrived, the town’s leaders met at the rabbi’s house and decided to send a delegation to greet the soldiers. The nearby Ukrainian and Polish communities had already sent their leaders and priests to welcome the soldiers, and the Jewish community was afraid that it would be interpreted as a lack of re- spect, if they, too, did not send a delegation. The delegation included Mottel the rabbi’s son, Isaac Hersch Guttman, Shichna Shemesh, and Mottel Primak. Others remember Rabbi Akiva Chazan and Itzhak Koperband as the leaders of the delegation. The delegation set up a table near the post office and decorated it with bread, salt, flowers, and a big rusty key to symbolize the handover of the town. The first soldiers to arrive thanked the men for the reception. But minutes later a second column of Germans arrived, smashed the table, and beat the delegates, who fled in ter - ror along with the other Jews who were out on the streets. My family was living in the small house just outside of town, so we ourselves were not affected immediately the way people liv - ing in the center of town were. However, within one week, we all lost our rights as citizens. We no longer had any protection. We were fair game. The German military overwhelmed the town with its presence, and everybody had to serve them, peeling potatoes, bringing them wood, and, in the process, being beaten. They raped every woman they ran into. Although this treatment did not reach us right away, we knew that whatever happened to the people in town was going to reach us sooner or later. As more Germans came into town, they parked their trucks clos- er to where we lived. They knew we were Jewish immediately, and made us work for them. We were peeling potatoes and working in their kitchens, and they beat us often. It was a horrible time, and it became worse. The German commander promptly appointed a middle-aged German teacher from the local Polish school as the new mayor of Ludvipol. Mayor Hering began by going into the town square,
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