Testimony of Chawa Schachnowitz (Goldin) Berenstein, born in Nowy Swierzen, Poland, 1903, regarding her experiences in the Nowy Swierzen Ghetto, in hiding and in Podzierzyce

Testimony of Chawa Schachnowitz (Goldin) Berenstein, born in Nowy Swierzen, Poland, 1903, regarding her experiences in the Nowy Swierzen Ghetto, in hiding and in Podzierzyce Outbreak of the war, June 1941; burning of Nowy Swierzen by the Germans; murder of the Partzovitz family on the first day of the occupation; murder of 20 youth in the Jewish cemetery, 12 Tishrei, 03 October 1941; murder of the Turzec community, Tishrei, September-October 1941; deportation of 100 Jews from Turzec to the Nowy Swierzen Ghetto; ghetto life including the murder of 200 Jews in an "Aktion", 05 November 1941; mass escape from Nowy Swierzen, 29 January 1943; murder of Schwartok, the Judenrat chairman and additional Jews in reaction to the escape; murder of the remaining Jews in the ghetto; life in hiding in a cellar with a young lad; suicide of Velvel Bereches, 30 January 1943; liquidation of the ghetto; escape with her father and three additional Jews; life in the vicinity including the murder of her father by Ukrainians; life hidden in Podzierzyce with her husband by Iwan Lojko, a Baptist farmer, for 18 months; contact with her son and two sisters through Lojko; receives letters from the labor camp in the Nowy Swierzen sawmill; murder of her son and her sisters; liberation, July 1944. Meets with a Jewish Soviet officer born in Rowno; repatriation to Poland, 1945; reunion with her brother in Lodz; aliya to Israel, 1950.