An article in the local press today pays tribute to the activities of the thousands of Jews who have joined partisan bands, especially in the Ukraine. Veterans of the Civil War, collective farmers and young boys are working behind the German lines, blowing up bridges, destroying telegraph wires, and harrassing the Nazi troops generally. The Jewish guerrilla units are particulaly active in the Dniopropetrovsk, Chernigov and Nikolayev sections, it is reported.
One soviet correspondent recounts the adventures of a Jewish partisan, Yankel G., whom he met in a hospital where the young Jewish guerrilla was recovering from wounds suffered during a battle with Nazi units. Yankel and a companion were operating with a partisan unit in the vicinity of Rostov. Nearing the German front lines, after cutting telegraph communications, they sought temporary refuge in the hut of peasant women, since the pcasants always sheltered the guerrillas. The two youths had only been in the house a few minutes when a German officer throw open the door and shouted to the woman: “Who are those two?”
Although the peasant know she was risking her life, she replied: “They’re my sons.” The officer then ordered his men to arrest the three and shouted: “If they’re Jews you will all be hanged tomorrow.” That night, however, the Red Army troops advanced and the village was recaptured.
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.
