How the Deitsch Were Saved From the Nazis on Rosh Hashanah

As German forces closed in on Kharkiv in 1941, Dovid and Sara Deitsch and their family faced an agonizing decision on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

By Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

In June 1941, the Germans began the invasion of their former ally, the Soviet Union. After the fall of Kyiv in September, it was clear that Kharkiv, a strategic point for any invading force, was next. It had a strong manufacturing sector that produced tanks and airplanes, served as a major railway hub, and was home to one of the country’s largest and most important airports.

The German air force dropped flyers over the city, assuring residents that they would not be harmed. “Only the Jews need to worry,” the message stated. The goal was to avoid bombing the city—particularly its industrial areas—in order to preserve ammunition and military equipment for German use.

By that time, Dovid and Sara Deitsch were already the parents of two small children, Mordechai “Mare” and Yosef “Ose.” Dovid quickly realized that he had no choice but to take his family and flee to the east, as far away from the front as possible.

Like others in town, he set his sights on Central Asia, informing his parents of his plans and urging them to come with him. But his father Mendel Deitsch resisted. Rosh Hashanah was approaching and he did not want to spend the yom tov on a train. “The Germans were nice to the Jews during the previous war,” he told his son. “Who says they won’t be this time too?”

Unwilling to leave his parents behind, Dovid postponed his departure from day to day, continuing to try to convince his father of the urgency of the situation. He began making plans to leave the city. The train station in Kharkiv was packed with refugees, and tickets were almost impossible to obtain.

Dovid considered purchasing a horse and wagon for the family, but Sara devised a plan to go to the neighboring town to purchase tickets. She suspected there would be fewer people vying for a seat on the train in that town, and that the tickets they purchased there would also allow them to board at the Kharkiv station. When she got there with her sister, her hunch proved correct; they had successfully procured enough tickets for both the Deitsch and Kunafsky families. The two sisters skirted German bombs as they returned to Kharkiv. Under a clear sky, they were terrified by the sight of the German pilots’ faces, which revealed their murderous intent.

Decades later, when asked how she found the courage to do it, Sara replied, “What do you mean how?! I just did it. You would have done it too.”

Dovid was racing against the new date printed on his draft card, but by now it was already the eve of Rosh Hashanah—and Mendel refused to leave. Dovid was not going to let his parents remain in the city alone, and he gave his father an ultimatum: “If you refuse to go on your own, we are going to tie you up and put you on the train!”

Mendel relented and agreed to depart that night—Rosh Hashanah—for Uzbekistan. In order to observe the holiday as best they could, Dovid hired someone to take their belongings to the station, and the family walked.

At the station, Dovid resorted to bribery once again to ensure that the family and all their belongings would make it onto the train.

As it turned out, it was one of the last trains to leave Kharkiv before the Germans arrived. The Germans’ promises to the local population had been mere propaganda: of Kharkiv’s prewar population of 800,000—of which approximately 15 percent were Jewish—less than 200,000 remained by 1945.

An excerpt from the new book Yards of Kindness: The Life of Dovid and Sara Deitsch, available at HasidicArchives.com.

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