A Jewish family named Gorelik, rescued from Nazi-occupied territory recently when the Red Army began its offensive in the Smolensk region, today told how three elderly Jewish brothers in the town of Pukhovich, near Minsk, sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save the relatives of Jewish Red Armymen who were threatened with death by the Nazis.
The Goreliks, who are now recuperating in a convaleseent home near here, said that shortly after the Nazis entered Pukhovich they massacred most of the 3,000 Jews in the town, leaving only about 90 families alive. This winter when the Russian offensive in Stalingrad reached its height, the three brothers, Boris, Solomon and Benjamin Soloveichik were summoned to Gestapo headquarters and told that within 24 hours they must expose all Jews in the town who had relatives fighting with the Red Army.
Instead of complying, the three aged men warned their neighbors to flee. That night a few families succeeded in escaping. When the Nazis discovered this, they hanged the three Soloveichik brothers on gallows as the outskirts of the town, Several days later all the remaining Jews were brought to a chuch situated near the gallows and shot. The Gorelik family were the only ones who managed to escape.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
