JEWS FROM KARTUZ BEREZA THAT I FOUND OVER THERE

By Elizabeta Zilbershtein (Lea Berkovitz

I cannot describe with words what happened. One of those pictures is always present in my eyes - the train station of Blodna and the moment - October 1940. Mom and my two siblings, Danielka and Hillelka, arrived at the station to say goodbye to me and my husband before our trip to Lita. Thereafter, we traveled to Lita and we were there one year.

We were in Lita when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. I was pregnant at the time.We decided to escape to East Russia. My daughter was born during 1941. In 1944 I returned to Kartuz Bereza. I looked for Jews but I did not find any. All were annihilated in the forest of Brona Gura. From Kartuz Bereza I traveled to Brest, and there I worked and studied. I found Zlatke KRINSKY there; she married and went with her husband to Gorki in the Soviet Union. I also found David EKSHTEIN, Niome KOGAN, and also BERMAN who played the violin in Kartuz Bereza.

Those were the last Jews of Kartuz Bereza that I found. Luck smiled on me and I was still alive. Only a few Jews of the town lived through the war and survived. All others were murdered by Nazis. Be blessed their memory!!