War, Peace and Svintsyan

Cover of the first edition of 
War and Peace [source: wikimedia.org]

It was on holiday this summer that I unexpectedly stumbled across a reference to Svintsyan, the shtetl (Jewish town) of my forefathers and Aunty Betty's birthplace. I was reading War and Peace when to my astonishment I came across events which took the Russian army through Svintsyan. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy, a masterpiece of modern literature, cleverly combines the tale of three families, the Bezukhovs, the Rostovs  and the Bolkonskys, with the history of the Russian involvement in the Napoleonic wars spanning the period  from 1805 to 1812. In the summer of 1812 the Russian army was retreating  from the advancing Grande Armée through what is present-day Lithuania, then a Polish frontier region of the Russian Empire. After having retreated through Vilna, Nicholas Rostov and the rest of supreme commander Barclay de Tolly's* troops stopped in 'Sventsyani', the Russian name for Svintsyan. According to Tolstoy's account the Svintsyan encampment was one big drunken orgy: 'many complaints were made against the troops, who taking advantage of the order to collect provisions, took also horses, carriages, and carpets from the Polish proprietors'. In actual fact at least half of the 'Polish proprietors' referred to by Tolstoy were Jewish. The quiet of this tranquil rural town and it's peaceful inhabitants would have been disrupted by the debauchery of hundreds, perhaps thousands of drunken soldiers.
Following the retreating Russian army at the end of June 1812, Napoleon took the same road into the heart of Russia. Having difficulty crossing the River Kuna, he also stopped with his troops in Svintsyan. The house below, opposite the Orthodox church on Vilniaus gatvė (Vilna Street), was unfortunately not preserved. From this house Napoleon watched his troops pass by, not knowing the disaster that was to befall him and his mighty army later on in that fateful year.

*Barclay de Tolly was notably a Lithuanian nobleman of Scottish descent.

Napoleon's House [source: JewishGen.org]

The Orthodox Church still stands as a silent witness to war and peace
[source: The Aunty Betty Project]

Second visit to Lithuania

Fania Brantsovskaya

Just back from Vilnius and my second trip to Lithuania. During this trip I interviewed Fania Brantsovskaya, Vilna Ghetto survivor and former partisan. It was an honour to meet this extraordinary, energetic 89 year-old woman who, despite all she has been through, emanates an inspiring humaneness and warmth. Mrs Brantsovskaya was able to tell me about life in the Vilna Ghetto in the most incredible and often harrowing detail. She and her family lived in the same street as Feigl, Leib, Basia and Rasza Daiches during the Vilna Ghetto period (see Vilna Ghetto and Ponar). Mrs Brantsovskaya survived by escaping the Ghetto to join the Jewish partisans in the neighbouring forests. No other members of her immediate family survived. This she made clear when she showed me the photo of her family which she keeps on a cabinet in a central spot in the living room. My sincere thanks go to Judita Glauberson who did the Russian-English interpreting for this interview. 

Fania Brantsovskaya, survivor of the Vilna Ghetto and former partisan

Svintsyan

The second highlight of the trip was a visit to Svintsyan, or Švenčionys as it is known in Lithuanian, the small town or shtetl my family came from before they moved to Vilnius. A chapter about Svintsyan will appear soon on this weblog.

Jewish cemetery in Švenčionys. 

I had read that the three synagogues of Svintsyan had been destroyed and I didn't expect to find anything regarding the rich Jewish past of this rural town 84 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital. It was therefore all the more surprising to find such a beautiful old Jewish cemetery aged by time but undisturbed by history. There were too many graves to search for the family name in the time we had but nevertheless it is a very special feeling to know that my ancestors are buried here. 

Family-related landmarks of Vilnius

As if these highlights weren't enough I also found the house that Feigl Lulinski lived in before she married Leib Daiches, number 18 Jono Basanavičiaus Street (then 16 Wielka Pohulanka Street) in Vilnius. This happens to be the same block of apartments in which the famous French writer, diplomat and WWII aviator, Romain Gary lived before he and his mother emigrated to Nice. Part of his novel 'La Promesse de l'aube' describes his childhood in Vilna. 

Plaque on 18 Jono Basanavičiaus Street in memory of Romain Gary. 

I also found the apartment block in which Betty's brother Sydney Lubin (Zelik Lulinski) and sister-in-law Sara lived before they left Vilna, incidentally in the same year as Romain Gary, in 1923.

14 Savičiaus Street (formerly 14 Sawicza Street [unreferenced])

Sara Lulinski was a sewing teacher in the Hilf Durkh Arbet (Help Through Work) institute run by the Yiddish educator, writer and journalist, Hirsz Abramowitz. Situated on a hill overlooking the city I have come to be very fond of, the former Hilf Durkh Arbet building stands on the Subačiaus Street (formerly 19 Subocz Street).

Mrs Brantsovskaya knew this institute well and told me that her aunt had received sewing lessons there.

A number of these details will be compiled into the chapter "Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius". So please don't forget to come back to the weblog once in a while to see how things are progressing.

Promo trailer

With the film footage I've gathered so far I've started work on a 5 minute promotional trailer. This short film will give an impression of the atmosphere, style and theme of the film. I'm really excited about this. All the more so because what started off as an idea, a dream, is starting to become a reality as I mix, cut and shape the footage to tell this story. I can't wait to share the results with you all in the coming months.