This is a brief account of a visit made in July 2009 to the town of Gorodok by myself and my cousin Trevor Bedeman. First of all some background to the reason for the visit. In 1902 our grandfathers came to England from Gorodok with their mother and father and sisters. The original family name was Bederov, but became Bedeman in England. The family consisted of our great-grandfather Menashe (Morris) Itskevitch Bederov Halevi, his wife Malka Zaboshinska, my grandfather Gershon (Harry), Trevor's grandfather Zalman (Solly), and their sisters Chava (Eva), Dwoshe, Chana (Annie) and Rosa. I eventually learnt through research that their was another brother called Mendel who remained in Russia. We also learnt that Menashe had a brother Michael Itskevitch Bederov, married to Mariasha Chaimovna Spekterova from the town of Nevel (it seems that it was common for men from Gorodok to marry women from Nevel). So we realised that we had a great uncle and his family who had remained in Russia. We also learnt that Menashe and Michael's father (our great-great grandfather) was Itsko (Isaac) Menashevitch Bederov who had been drafted into the Czarist army around 1830 at the age of 13, presumably as a so-called "cantonist". It seems that he returned 25 years later to Gorodok having been trained as a doctor in the army. He was given some land and the title "Barin". According to records in the Minsk Archives he built a house at No 10 Naberezhnaya Street. Menashe (his son) was according to family folklore a chemist in Gorodok before coming to England.
According to British Special Branch reports recently released, my grandfather Gershon (Harry) went back to Gorodok in August 1917, he said, to join the provisional army of Kerensky. However, by this time the provisional army had almost disbanded. He remained in Russia a while (I remember that he told me that he had been working as a cab driver at the railway station) but then at the end of 1918 he made his way to Odessa and then to Istanbul. Following this he got to Salonica and joined the British Army Pay Corp. In June 1919 he was discharged from the army and he was granted a free passage to Instanbul and then on the SS Partridge to Malta. From there he stowed away on a steamer and was discovered in a half-starved condition at Gibraltar. He was then put in prison for 14 days and then deported to England, arriving in London 10th August 1919. There is a story that before the war Gershon used to send money back to Russia for an old uncle (presumably Michael) but eventually discovered that he had died many years earlier and no-one had admitted it. As a result he cut all contacts with the family back in Russia! I have also learnt that Genya Bederova (probably Michael's daughter) came to England in the 1960's looking fro Gershon Bederov but unfortunately did not find him as she did not realise that his name was now Harry Bedeman.
As a result of the information obtained so far about this family, Trevor and I decided to make a short visit to Gorodok to see our grandfathers' home town and perhaps where they lived.
The Visit
Prior to making our visit we were lucky enough to make contact with Zlata Krivichkina, a student in Moscow but who came from Gorodok. Her father Mark is a doctor in Gorodok and is the head of the small Jewish community still remaining there. As a result we were invited to come to Gorodok and stay with Mark and his wife Mira.
The first job was to obtain visas, a relatively simple and straightforward process. First of all, deposit passport and application form at the Belarus Consulate in London, pay a fee, and then collect visas the following day. The staff at the visa office were very pleasant and helpful, a good sign for our impending visit! Trevor was in contact with Daria Melnikova, a young lady in the Belarus Tourist Agency in Minsk, and she arranged the stay in the Hotel Planeta in Minsk, and tickets for trains to Gorodok and back.
July 5
We flew from London to Riga and then to Minsk (this was the cheapest route we could find) in July. On arrival we went through customs and immigration very quickly and easily, something that we had not expected from the stories we had heard about the last remaining Soviet style country in Europe. Daria was there to meet us and took us to our hotel in Minsk. This was comfortable and of a reasonably high standard. That evening Trevor and I went out for a meal, found a nice restaurant nearby and watched the young "Minskians" enjoying themselves dancing.
July 6
Trevor went off to a
business meeting and I met an aunt of Zlata's who took me to the small
Jewish museum. Interesting exhibits,
but
I was particularly taken by a notice by the Belarus SSR in several
languages with the usual message of "Proletariats of the world unite!"
What interested my was that one of the languages was Yiddish, and I was
told that this was in the early days of the revolution in 1917 but not
long after Yiddish was no longer included.
Later in the evening we were taken to Minsk station, travel arranged by the ever efficient Daria. It seemed that everything ran exactly to time. So, what of our impressions of Minsk? I thought it was very impressive, building very clean and modern, plenty of recreational areas, people relaxed and well-dressed and happy. Our impressions were that this was a pleasant place to be with nice helpful people and a modern society (communications by mobile phone were instant and hassle-free).
The train journey was exactly on time and the
train compartment comfortable. A young lady shared our compartment with
us and as she spoke English well started a conversation. It seems that
she was leaving Belarus to seek a new life in St. Petersburg where she
had a boy-friend. That helped to pass the 5 hours journey to Gorodok. On
arrival at Gorodok station (presumably where Gershon may have worked all
those years ago), we were met by Zlata and Mark who had a car waiting to
take us to their flat. There we were met by Mira who already had food
prepared. I
n
fact for the rest of our stay there every day Mira piled on all kinds of
Jewish and Belarusian meals, absolutely delicious. We were made to feel
like visiting royalty! Here we are at home (left to right: Mira, Trevor,
Mark, Zlata, in the middle: food). Conversation was in a mixture of
English, Russian, Polish (many similarities to Polish) and in Yiddish.
July 7
After a good night's rest we were taken to the local museum, which is small but very nicely laid out, with many exhibits on the local nature and also on the war. We were interviewed by the staff and subsequently our visit was published in the local newspaper. The museum is next to the original old market square (this, according to the Minsk Archives, is where great uncle Michael Itskevich had his stall selling seltzer water). On the left of the picture is a memorial cemetery for the Gorodok victims (mainly partisans) of the war and this occupies nearly half of the original market square. Great-grandfather Menashe was said to be a chemist and Mark Krivichkin suggested that this building, which is an apothecary shop, would have been where he probably worked.
Market square Apothecary
Now very old, she was able to tell us about the street and many of its inhabitants, but unfortunately not of the Bederov family. On the left is a photo from the museum taken during the war and on the right today with Mark Krivichkin in Naberezhnaya Street. Below, she is explaining to Mark about the inhabitants of this street.
Continuing our walk we finally arrived at number 10. To our surprise this is what we found:
Between numbers 8 and 12, just a fence and an empty space! This must have been the site of the original house as otherwise how to explain the gap in the numbering? This was both disappointing and at the same time intriguing. None of the neighbours recalled a house there, so it must have gone a long time ago, probably long before the war.
Naberezhnaya Street
Mark demonstrating a well in Naberezhnaya Street
After lunch (more food from Mira) we went to
another part of Gorodok to visit a street where many Jews had lived
before the war. Here we met with Zaima (Zalman Gelfand), who knew the
whole history of the street (Nevelskaya Street). Originally at the top of the street there
had been a tea shop and as a result the street was sometimes called
"Under the Tea" (
ut red retnv). See
http://shtetle.co.il/Shtetls/gorodok/gorodok_eng.html for more
information about this street. According to the Vitebsk archives our
family briefly opened a fruit, honey and kvas shop in this street in
1923. It only lasted a few months!
Mark showing cobblestones laid by his grandfather Nevelskaya Street
The original Gorodok ghetto Zaima Gelfand
We finally arrived at another street known as Vzgor'e. According to Vitebsk archives, great uncle Michael and his family moved here to number 1 in 1917 (the year that Gershon was there), so we were interested to see if this house survived. However only a very few houses were to be found here. Below is a typical example, number 9. We now believe that about 40 years ago part of the street was built over by a bus station and that was where number 1 had been! Another small disappointment.
Number 9 Vzgor'e Mira
Krivichkina and Zaima Bogatyr
At this point, we met up with a great character, Zaima (Semion Yakovlevitch Bogatyr), who lives in St. Petersburg but returns each summer to his original house in Gorodok. Zaima served in the Russian army as a tank commander and was wounded in Germany. He walked around Gorodok with us and entertained us hugely with his stories of the town.
July 8
After a full breakfast we were taken to Vitebsk by car, a journey of about 45 minutes due south. Here we were introduced to Arkady Shulman, who is a journalist. He took us on a visit to Chagall's house and museum.
Chagall's family home Street in Vitebsk
Vitebsk turned out to be a quite beautiful and
cultural city with many fine buildings. While there we visited the
Vitebsk archives and asked them to research the Bederov family in
Vitebsk. Later we received very useful information indicating that great
uncle Michael's family moved, after Michael died in 1927, to Vitebsk. On the way back from Vitebsk to
Gorodok we stopped to let a passenger do some shopping in a supermarket.
I went to have a look and was surprised to see a well-stocked modern
supermarket as good as anything that we have in the West. It seems to me
that everything is available in Belarus, only salaries are low and so
goods are expensive.
July 9
We were taken by a car with 4-wheel drive, driven
by Viktor Arkadievitch Popov, head of the local agricultural school. Although not Jewish
himself, he is a good friend of Mark Krivichkin and has been helping him
in preserving Jewish heritage in Gorodok. We first went to the
sites of two mass graves where most of the Jews of Gorodok were shot by
members of Einsatzgruppe B in the winter of 1941.
To get there we were driven across fields with dense undergrowth, very bumpy and difficult terrain for about 30 minutes to a very remote spot in a hollow surrounded by trees. This was the site at Berezovka and it was easy to see how this site had been chosen by the Germans as it is both difficult to get to and is hidden from view. The photograph (right) shows Viktor cleaning the memorial to the victims. In this grave only men were buried.
Mass grave at Berezovka showing high ground hiding the site
On leaving Berezovka, we were then driven to the
other war grave site at the Vorobiev Hills. Again
the journey was very rough and mosquito-ridden and generally
uncomfortable. We finally arrived at a small clearing with a gate that
had been erected by Mark.
This then lead to a long path deep into the undergrowth until we arrived
at the mass grave site.
At this site, completely screened by dense trees, some 2500 women, children and some men were shot in 1941. They had been led out of Gorodok having been told that they were going to work. Here, a Russian commission after the war exhumed some bodies. The fence around and the memorial stone were placed here by Mark's efforts. A difficult day.
From here were taken to the
Jewish cemetery. This is described on another
page. Viktor also took us to visit his agricultural college in
Gorodok.
This
turned out to be modern, extremely well organised and very impressive.
After being treated to some honey and tea, we were given a grand tour of
almost every room in the building. One room even had two full-size
working tractors which could be set into motion for study
Viktor starting up the tractor
!
Classroom for driving lessons
That evening, we were driven to Vitebsk with Mira and Zlata to catch the train back to Minsk.
Vitebsk railway station
The ever efficient and charming Daria was at Minsk station to meet us (the train arrived precisely on time) to take us to our hotel, and the next morning she arranged for a car to take us to the airport for our return journey.
Summing up then: visiting Belarus was an eye-opener. It was much nicer than we had expected, everything went perfectly smoothly and we can certainly recommend that more people should visit this interesting and pleasant place. We would advise however to make sure that you have someone to interpret or else make sure you learn some Russian, as English is not universally spoken or understood. Finally, both Trevor and I are extremely grateful to the Krivichkins for their generous hospitality. When it came to it, it was really difficult to say goodbye to our friends in Gorodok.