Rosa Kravchuk — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Rosa Kravchuk, daughter of David and Rachel Susel, born in Vilna, Lithuania

I was born in 1926 in Vilna, Lithuania. My father was a tailor and my mother worked as a seamstress. I had a brother, Eliezer. I attended a Polish elementary school and later a gymnasium where the language of instruction was Yiddish.

At the end of June 1941, the Germans occupied Lithuania. The Jews were interned in the ghetto and the murders began. We soon learned what was happening in the nearby Ponar forests. I worked in the ghetto planting flowers and loading equipment on trains. My brother worked in carpentry and my father worked as a tailor with the Red Cross service. His employers would warn him against any potential 'aktion,' allowing him to bring us to the post where he worked, thus protecting us. Before the ghetto was liquidated, my father was sent to the Stutthof concentration camp. He did not survive the death march.

In 1943, Vilna Ghetto was liquidated, and a selection was held. My mother was separated from us and I have not seen her since. My brother Eliezer was sent to the Klooga concentration camp, where he perished. I was sent to Riga and worked there at the Tranzhof knitting factory. After a year and a half, in 1944, I was transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp, where I worked in agriculture in the homesteads of local farmers, and occasionally was taken to dig trenches. In 1945, as the Russians approached, I was sent out on a death march towards Kolkau. Many fell on the snowy road and died of starvation and dysentery. After two weeks, the Germans fled and the Russians released us. Whoever was able went into the peasants' houses to look for food. Those who ate too much died of severe pains. After the local women returned to their homes, they took care of us -the liberated ones. After about two months, I decided to return to my hometown, Vilna.

During the Holocaust, I lost my parents, my brother, and my uncles: Motel and Chaim Poslochin, their children and wives, and my aunt Chaya Levin and her children. I do not know what happened to my father's family who lived in Bialystok, near Vilna.

When I returned to Vilna, I discovered that the house had been taken over by the locals. Acquaintances invited me to live in their house and I started working in a restaurant. I met Meir Kravchuk, who was a partisan during the war. In 1946 we were married and moved to Lodz, from where we continued to the Eschwege DP camp near Kassel in Germany. We had two children in the camp. We were in the camp for three and a half years.

In 1949, we arrived in Israel on the ship "Negba". At first we were in the "Sha'ar Aliya" transit camp and then were transferred to the Ra'anana immigrants' camp. My husband, Meir, started working in carpentry. From Ra'anana we moved to Kfar Saba and from there to Kfar Malal. After my husband died, I moved to Ra'anana.

I maintain close contact with my friends from the ghetto period. I often participate in the activities of Holocaust survivor social groups in Ra'anana and Kfar Saba. I volunteered for the "Ha'aguda Lema'an Hachayal" (Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers) and was even presented with certificates of appreciation.

I have three children: Batya, Yitzhak and David, and two grandchildren.

From: Remembering for Generations - Documenting Holocaust Survivors [Hebrew]