HOLOCAUST PROJECT KATZENELSON HIGH SCHOOL ISRAEL
ASHER FAGEL - ASHER FOGEL
MAIL: yair0547@walla.com, relationet2014@gmail.com
First Name: Asher
Last Name: Fagel
Father: Aliezer
Mother: Mira
Year of Birth: 1925
Year of Death: 2000
My Grandfather Story:
The Fagel family lived in the diaspora in
a town called Vidz. There was my father, Avi Aliezer, my mother, Mira, my
sister, Rachel, my brother Asher and myself, Reoven Shlomo. We lived in Vidz
till 1941.On June 22nd, a war broke out between Russia and Germany.
By the end of the month, the Germans managed to conquer Vidz. At first, we
lived in Ghetto Vidz, we worked in different labor works and we were forced to
wear a yellow patch on our cloths. In January 1943, the Germans moved us to Ghetto
Svencian. In March 1943, my brother and I were moved to ghetto Vilna. Other
Jews from the ghetto were transported to work in Kovno.
On April 5th, the Germans
murdered our parents and our sister. It happened not so far from Vilna in a
village named Ponar. The Germans used Ponar's forest to kill the Jews. They
lied to the Jews and told them that they were going to work in Kovno to
preserve the Jewish labor force, however the train that took the Jews to Kovno
got to Ponar instead, and all the 5000 Jews that were on that train, including
our parents and our sister, were murdered by the Germans in a mass murder in
Ponar. The Jewish Vidz was wiped out of the earth and all the Jewish community
there was gone. The Nazis .brought extinction to all the Jews in Vidz, their
life work, their creations and their lives
I, my brother Usher and 5 friends of ours
were transported by train to the central Ghetto in Vilna. In Ghetto Vilna, we
were forced to work until the end of June 1943. At this time, we ran away from
the ghetto and joined the Partisans in Kazan's forest not far from our town
Vidz. The Partisans welcomed and gave us weapons. Asher and I fought with the
Partisans in the woods till the end of July 1944. There were thousands of
Partisans in the woods.
At night, we went out of the forests and
tried to kill as many Germans as possible. We killed them when they slept; we
put demolition charges under their rails and blew up their trains which led
Germans, ammunitions and military equipment to the front . Our goal was to
prevent the trains and the valuable equipment on it from reaching their target.
Every night the Partisans went on missions such as those. They blew up bridges
and rails, sabotaged the phone lines, raided the Germans' bases and took
vengeance upon peasants who collaborated with the Germans.
The Partisans' operations increased when The
Red Army got closer to the front in the spring of 1944. The destruction of the Germans
headquarters casted terror among the local population, especially on those who
collaborated with the Germans. When we went out to attack the most powerful
German garnizon (headquarters), a battle that I and my brother excelled at; we
led the Partisans to the target smoothly and without casualties. All the Jews
from the "Spartak" units participated in the operation which resulted
in the destruction of the biggest garnizon in the area. In addition to this, we
burnt all the Germans' supply depots. After we had beaten the Germans, they
moved all of their supply depots to Ofasa and set up bunkers surrounding them
with barbed wire fence.
A group of Partisans from Vidz after the war 1946
Due to the success of The Red Army which started by attacking the Belarusian front, many cities, towns and villages were released. On the 4th of July The Red Army's armored force reached the area where we lived. Together, the Soviet rescue force and the Partisan brigades got into Vidz and fought a bloody battle to release it. After they had won the battle, the soviet soldiers celebrated with the Partisans happily. The Germans ran away from us and tried to escape through the forest, but the Partisans' bullets were after them. The forest was filled with Germans corpses. We, the Jewish Partisans, got to see the murderers of our people defeated and humiliated. The Red Army conquered Vidz. Our brigade left the forest and a mass order took place in our burnt and destroyed town. We came back to Vidz as winners with honor and dignity, but we also came back to a town empty of Jews. We walked through the deserted streets; ruins were covered with grass. That was all that was left from the lives that were taken. The Jewish houses that stayed complete were taken by Christians. We were angry. When we looked at our town all we could think about was the horrible things that happened, the murder of the Jews by Germans and the deaths we saw with our own eyes. The wound never healed. We, a handful of Jews, the remainders from the town of Vidz returned to our ruined hometown.
In
the end of July, my brother Asher joined The Red Army. I stayed with the
Partisans and a few months later, I joined The Red Army as well. I served The
Red Army for 29 years , at first I was a soldier, then I became a sergeant, and
after I graduated the Officers School I became an officer.
Asher Fogel, my brother, graduated the
Officers School as well. Afterwards, he decided to forge an identity card and
ran away from Russia to Poland. From Poland he fled to the Czech Republic.
Asher joined the Gordonia group which planned to immigrate to Israel in the
Second Aliya. In 1945, Asher got on a ship called "Theodor Hertzel".
When the ship reached Israel, he and all the other Jews that were with him on It,
got caught by the British near Haifa. The British sent them to Cyprus and they
stayed there for a couple of years. In 1947, my brother immigrated to Israel. I
kept serving in The Red Army for 29 years, and I immigrated to Israel long time
after my brother, Asher Fogel R.I.P.
My grandfather Asher with my father in Israel.
