I have spent my childhood in the village Zoritev as well as in Kleck. - - My parents Yoel Khanan and Sarah-Bu’ane Veinger live in that village approximately 60 years. Their economic condition was not bad. They owned several cows , 2 horses and about 50 geese. Also, a piece of ground/land for a garden. In addition, there were some non-Jews in the village who wanted to go to The States. Since they did not have enough money for the expenses so they borrowed money from my father and in return transferred to him the ownership on a piece of land. However, a Jew at that time was not allowed to own any land, these people registered the piece of land on the name of another non-Jew and gave father a promissory note that this other non-Jew owed my father a certain amount of money.

Later, the economic situation became better, the older children helped in the work and the younger children use to fence the geese to hinder them from going to the surrounding grain field.

We were 7 Jewish families in that village and a bit farther there were 4 other families so that for Sabbath several Jews would come for a minyan [the 10 people needed for prayer] from the village Ortze.

Teaching of children was a big problem for us. There were not many boys among the families and in fact some of the families moved from the village, only 3 or 4 boys were left. The first years we studied with one of the Jewish persons, but later, when I had already learned a bit of the bible, I had to leave home to Kleck where we had relatives. My teacher there was Leizer Velvl, and later I attended the Kleck Talmud Torah. My aunt, Yentl, was a great supporter of that Talmud Torah. Thanks to her intersession, I got permission to sleep next to the heating oven in a room that was perhaps the biggest and most comfortable in Kleck.

However this did not satisfy me. I was then only 8 or 9 years old and I greatly missed my home and my parents. I often went to sleep hungry.

I did have good days. I remember when I moved to “Motl the Red”. He treated me very well.

At the age of 12 I did not want to stay any longer in Kleck. I went back home and started helping with the home economy. During the day I worked in the field and in the evening I took the horse to the pasture – together with maybe hundred non-Jews. I used to sleep together with them. I locked the feet of the horse with iron fetters to keep him from thieves.

Life became hard for me and I decided to travel to the States. I learned a trade – a cobbler, worked for 3 years and saved money. Then I went to the States. My brother Leizer was already in the Russian army in Siberia. I planned that he would flee from there through China to the States. He did not want to do it so as not to leave our old parents alone in the old home. However, when he was freed from the army and he was not allowed to return home to the village, the parents settled in Kleck. My parents died a natural death, but the rest of the family were slaughtered by Hitler. The son of my sister Rivka, Motl Gelfant was saved from death.