Shalom Yoran
Encyclopedia
Shalom Yoran is a survivor of the Holocaust
and a former Jewish partisan. His World War II
memoir, The Defiant. A True Story of Jewish Vengeance and Survival
, was published in 2003.
Shalom Yoran was born Selim Sznycer in Raciąż
, Poland
. The Nazi Germans
invaded Poland in 1939 when he was fourteen. His family fled eastwards into Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
, after the Soviet invasion of Poland
, but in 1941 the Germans invaded the USSR
and caught up with the Sznycer family in a small Lithuania
n village of Kurzeniec.
On September 9, 1942, the Jewish community of Kurzeniec was "liquidated". The Einsatzgruppen
, assisted by Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Latvian auxiliary units and some locals, dragged 1,040 Jews, including Selim's parents, from their homes, hideouts and the synagogue
, then systematically murdered and burned them. Only a few, including Selim and his older brother Musio, managed to hide in a barn of a sympathetic peasant Ignalia Biruk and later escape to the forest. Later he recalled:
In the woods, they found a disorganized group of about 150 Jewish escapees from nearby ghettos
, concentration camps and Nazi atrocities. Five of them spent the harsh winter of 1942-1943 in an underground dugout zemlyanka
they built themselves in the swamps near Lake Naroch. Without previous experience in construction, they built based on what they could remember from books such as Robinson Crusoe
and common sense. They stocked up the food - mostly potatoes - by begging and stealing from local peasants. In the spring they returned to find that fewer than 50 Jews from the original group survived Nazi round ups.
They located a partisan unit, but were not allowed to join because they lacked weapons, according to a common partisan practice. A commander of another unit offered them a condition to join: they had to blow up a Nazi military factory in Kurzeniec. The building was well guarded but they succeeded nevertheless. Upon their return, they learned that the partisans did not expect them to return from the mission and did not intend to let them in, because they were Jewish.
Together with fellow escapees, they formed an all-Jewish unit in the forests and swamplands of Western Belorussia. Against all odds, they survived, acquired some guns and fought back the Germans and their collaborators
. Later they joined a unit of the Soviet partisans
and waged guerilla warfare against the retreating German troops, ambushed convoys, blew up bridges and railroads and derailed German trains.
In 1944, Belarus
was liberated by the Soviet Union
and Jewish partisans were drafted into the Red Army
. Later some of them were allowed to join the Soviet-controlled Polish Army. By the end of the war, they illegally crossed a number of European borders to Italy
, where Selim illegally worked for the British Army
.
In 1946, he made his way to the British Mandate of Palestine using false identification to evade the limitations imposed on the Jewish immigration
by the British White Paper of 1939
. While recovering in a hospital following surgery, he recorded his wartime experiences in Polish
and put the notebooks away.
He assumed an Israel
i name and joined the newly formed Israeli Air Force
. Later he played a major role in developing Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), eventually serving as IAI's Senior Vice President.
Shalom Yoran is a founding board member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
in New York City
and a governor of Tel Aviv University
. He is a chairman of a commercial aircraft company in Long Island
.
In 1991, he found his old manuscript and in 2003 published his wartime memoir. He dedicated the book to his parents.
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
and a former Jewish partisan. His World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
memoir, The Defiant. A True Story of Jewish Vengeance and Survival
The Defiant
The Defiant: A True Story is a 1996 World War II memoir by Shalom Yoran, a Holocaust survivor and a former Jewish partisan.At 14, Yoran witnessed the first hours of World War II when his home in Poland, 37 miles from the German border, came under attack. Yoran barely escaped the roundup and...
, was published in 2003.
Shalom Yoran was born Selim Sznycer in Raciąż
Raciaz
Raciąż is a town in Płońsk County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,585 inhabitants . Its history dates to 10th century....
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The Nazi Germans
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland in 1939 when he was fourteen. His family fled eastwards into Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
, after the Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
, but in 1941 the Germans invaded the USSR
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
and caught up with the Sznycer family in a small Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n village of Kurzeniec.
On September 9, 1942, the Jewish community of Kurzeniec was "liquidated". The Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
, assisted by Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Latvian auxiliary units and some locals, dragged 1,040 Jews, including Selim's parents, from their homes, hideouts and the synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, then systematically murdered and burned them. Only a few, including Selim and his older brother Musio, managed to hide in a barn of a sympathetic peasant Ignalia Biruk and later escape to the forest. Later he recalled:
"Before being separated from my mother, she told me, "Go fight... try to save yourselves, avenge our death, and tell the world what happened." These are the words that guided me through that dark period, what gave me strength to fight, and what inspires me to share my story today."
In the woods, they found a disorganized group of about 150 Jewish escapees from nearby ghettos
Ghettos in occupied Europe 1939-1944
During World War II, ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe were set up by the Third Reich in order to confine Jews and sometimes Gypsies into tightly packed areas of the cities...
, concentration camps and Nazi atrocities. Five of them spent the harsh winter of 1942-1943 in an underground dugout zemlyanka
Zemlyanka
Zemlyanka — is an Eastern Slavic name for a dugout or earth-house which was used to provide shelter for humans or domestic animals. Based on a hole or depression dug into the ground, these structures are one of the most ancient types of housing known...
they built themselves in the swamps near Lake Naroch. Without previous experience in construction, they built based on what they could remember from books such as Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
and common sense. They stocked up the food - mostly potatoes - by begging and stealing from local peasants. In the spring they returned to find that fewer than 50 Jews from the original group survived Nazi round ups.
They located a partisan unit, but were not allowed to join because they lacked weapons, according to a common partisan practice. A commander of another unit offered them a condition to join: they had to blow up a Nazi military factory in Kurzeniec. The building was well guarded but they succeeded nevertheless. Upon their return, they learned that the partisans did not expect them to return from the mission and did not intend to let them in, because they were Jewish.
Together with fellow escapees, they formed an all-Jewish unit in the forests and swamplands of Western Belorussia. Against all odds, they survived, acquired some guns and fought back the Germans and their collaborators
Collaboration during World War II
Within nations occupied by the Axis Powers, some citizens, driven by nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, anti-Semitism or opportunism, knowingly engaged in collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II...
. Later they joined a unit of the Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....
and waged guerilla warfare against the retreating German troops, ambushed convoys, blew up bridges and railroads and derailed German trains.
In 1944, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
was liberated by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Jewish partisans were drafted into the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. Later some of them were allowed to join the Soviet-controlled Polish Army. By the end of the war, they illegally crossed a number of European borders to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where Selim illegally worked for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
.
In 1946, he made his way to the British Mandate of Palestine using false identification to evade the limitations imposed on the Jewish immigration
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
by the British White Paper of 1939
White Paper of 1939
The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
. While recovering in a hospital following surgery, he recorded his wartime experiences in Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
and put the notebooks away.
He assumed an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i name and joined the newly formed Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
. Later he played a major role in developing Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), eventually serving as IAI's Senior Vice President.
Shalom Yoran is a founding board member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and a governor of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. He is a chairman of a commercial aircraft company in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.
In 1991, he found his old manuscript and in 2003 published his wartime memoir. He dedicated the book to his parents.
External links
- Shalom Yoran's bio at jewishpartisans.org
- Virtual Zemlyanka by Adam Dickter. The Jewish Week. May 6, 2005
- 3-D virtual model of Shalom Yoran's zemlyanka
- Heroic Actions of the Few by Tom Tugend. The Jewish Journal.
- Honoring The Jewish Resistance by Kate Taylor. The NY Sun. April 13, 2007
- WWII resistance fighter recounts harrowing story for captive audience by CHRISTINA HOLDER. Naples News. December 7, 2004