Novoslitza
Novoslitza was, up until the first World War, a border town between Russia and Austria, with each one of the countries controlling a part of the town.
The town was used as a transport town for immigrants, and between each program more Jews gathered from all over the Russian country.
It should be noted that the Austrian part was much more developed than the Russian part.
In 1918 Baser Via was conquered by Romania. In the first years of Romanians in Baser Via were interested in acquiring the affection of the Jews, and to lessen the impact of the Russian culture on the Jewish population. As a result of this, in Novoslitza a grand building of the school "Tarbot" was built and many children learned there. More Jews, which were still learning in the traditional "Heder" began to learn Hebrew and Russian as well, an hour or two a day, with private tutors.
Later on the Zionists formed the Modern Hebrew school, and founded the fisrt national library in the town. Most of the Zionist town meetings were held at the synagogue "Dahhisi Boyan". In 1937, the destruction and the crumbling of the Jewish community in Baser Via began.
The public instituions of the Jewish community fell apart.
In 1940, the Romanians left Novoslitza, and the town went unready to the Soviet reign.
All the town institutions were paralyzed in a single night, as if they had never existed.
Interview of Ayala CohenThe town Novoslitza was in the Romanian/Russian border.
There were between 8000 to 10000 Jewish residents in the city.
In the town The Jews tried to live as Jews as much as possible.
In the town, there was a Jewish school and a synagogue. People spoke Yiddish in the town.
The Romanian government at the time was usually reasonable towards the Jews.
In Novoslitza, there were some religious people, very few kindergartens and some of the people worked (only men).
Ayala’s family was not religious, however, guarded Saturday and celebrated the holidays.
Ayala remembers that, occasionally, a theater and a movie came to town.
In the winter, they did winter sports, they skated on the frozen river “Prut”.
In the summer, they went to the river and had picnics.
Except for one doctor, no one in town had a car.
Everyone had carriages with horses. Ayala’s family had a horse and a carriage as well.
The social life and family life were very tight.
Before the war had gotten to Romania, in the summer of 1941, the Romanians soldiers were allowed to do what they wanted to do with the Jews.
The results of that event were:
A thousand people dead, all the houses were plundered.
After the Romanians attacked (not the Germans) the Jewish survivors were gathered to the “Spirit” factory where they were held for a few days, without food or water. After a few days, the Romanians allowed the women and children to go back to town, except the Jews could not enter the main street.
Several weeks later (3 to 4), the Jews were exiled from town to Bryshitt, Ukraine.
Every day they walked 20 to 30 kilometers. They were not allowed to drink water. After a while, they had arrived to the “Neister” river. The river was filled with corpses of the previous group of Jews that had gotten there.
The water was red from blood.
Their expedition was delayed there and they were only allowed to pass the river in the winter.
Very few people survived the walk to Ukraine. Those who did not were buried by peasants that lived nearby.
At night, you could hear the shouts of people looking for their missing family members.
When they had arrived to Brishitt, Urkaine, they were placed in a closed Ghetto. People started to die from cold, hunger and diseases.
Some were taken to work in the woods, including Ayala’s father.
The workers were taken to the woods for an unknown periods of time.
When Ayala’s father returned, Ayala and her sister did not recognize him.
There were people who occupied empty houses.
Ayala sold fabrics in the market. The gentiles from the nearby towns came to purchase goods even though it wasn’t permitted.
Ayala’s mother did not look Jewish, therefore, she tried to get out of the Ghetto, however, she was discovered and was beaten up.
One day, someone came to the Ghetto and said there was a town about 20 kilometers away from the camp with some Jews in it.
Some men were sent to the town on snow slides. Ayala’s father got sick and stayed in that town. Ayala’s sister went to look for him. Later, Ayala’s mother sent Ayala to the town called Brashend. There, she found her family.
During the time in the camp, Ayala’s feeling were usually terrible fear of everything and constant hunger.
In 1944 the Russians liberated them and recruited Ayala’s father to the red army, when he was 44 years old.
In the summer, the Russians liberated Novoslitza. They then returned to Novoslitza on foot, walking 40km per day.
They arrived to Israel by illegal immigration which was organized by Shaikeh Dan.
Dan told Ayala’s family that they had to move to Bukaresht because the immigration can happen any day.
Several days after arriving to Bukaresht they went to Yugoslavia by train and there they boarded the “Hagana” ship together with another 2701 people. (The ship did not leave from a harbor)
The entire journey took only 6 days.
On the way, they were discovered by the English. They were dragged to Haifa by two battleships and from there they were transferred to a camp in Atlit.
Every month, the English released 1000 people from the camp. When Ayala’s father was released, he was asked if he wanted to live in Kfar Saba. He asked if there were Jews in Kfar Saba and since then Ayala has been living in Kfar Saba.
