Historical Background and Interviews
I. Ludvipol: A Modem Shtetl Ludvipol: A Modern Shtetl
soldiers with flowers, banners, and expressions of joy. To the Poles, this was a distressing and an alienating spectacle.” 2 Ideological af- finities with the Soviets, however, were far less compelling for the youths of Ludvipol than their dreams of a homeland. 3 On June 22, 1941, almost two years after the Soviet occupation of Ludvipol began, German soldiers swarmed through Poland to launch an attack on the Soviet Union, and the Red Army began its hasty retreat. A map showing the front between Russia and Ger- many indicates that fighting took place within a few kilometers of Ludvipol. Despite warnings, the Soviet army was inadequately prepared and flight was its only choice. At the same time, Germany was instituting the first phase of its genocide of Jews. The German Einsatzgruppen, mobile death squads, followed the German army into small towns similar in size to Ludvipol and systematically ex- ecuted their Jewish inhabitants. During the next six months, it is estimated that one million Jews were killed in Poland. The Russians were making their preparations to abandon Lud- vipol and the commissar apparently urged the Jews there to flee with them to Russia and not expose themselves to the Nazis. En- tire families as well as some groups of young people, especially those who had a strong connection with some of the Russians, fled eastward into the interior of the Soviet Union. “Two or three days before the Germans came into our town,” Shmuel Shafir said, “I escaped to Russia with my brother Isser.” Those who fled into the Soviet area included Arje Katz, Belle Katz, Bernard (Bell) Raber, Nachum Feldman, Tzvi Katz, Jacob Allerhand, Naftali Feder, Har- old Feld (a teacher in the Tarbut School), Hershel Tzvi, and Yona Blueshtein (Raber). Arje Katz said he had been drafted into the Russian army the week of Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, but never had to serve because of the confusion of the times. He left for the Sovi- et Union as soon as the border, about thirty kilometers away, re- opened. “I was lucky,” he said. “I traveled by train from Gorodnisa, about twenty kilometers from Ludvipol, and the border had just
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