Childsize violin and case of a young Jewish Lithuanian boy killed in the Ponary massacre

Niusia Golden (Gordon, now Anna Nodel) was born on September 15, 1925, to Moishe and Basia Gurwicz Golden in Swieciany (Svencionys), Lithuania, about 50 miles north of Vilnius (Vilna.) The families had been there for five generations. Her parents were married in 1924. Moishe’s training as a lawyer was curtailed by World War I (1914-1918) and he worked as a clerk in a law office. He was fluent in several languages and also ran a cattle business with his brother Tevye. He had eight siblings. Basia was also well educated and grew up in a well-to-do family on an estate in Stratcha. When her father died, Basia became head of the family. They owned a large apartment building in Swieciany and had a live-in nanny, Karolne. Niusia had three younger siblings, Riva, born 1929, Boruch, born 1930, and Tevya, born 1933. It was a religious household. Niusia went to a Jewish preschool where she learned Hebrew, then attended private Polish schools.

In 1939, Lithuania signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Moishe was put in charge of arranging forced labor groups for the Lithuanian authorities, as part of their agreement with Germany. In the summer of 1940, Lithuania was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. The Jewish population increased by thousands as refugees fled German-occupied Poland. In the spring, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Lithuania. The police chief told Moishe about the murders of Jews that accompanied the German advance and the family moved out to the farm. Shortly before and after the German invasion, Lithuanians carried out violent riots against the Jews. Then came detachments of German Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), which with Lithuanian auxiliaries, murdered thousands of Jews. In August 1941, the Gordon family was forced into the Swieciany ghetto. Niusia worked on a German farm on the outskirts of the village. Moishe was a member of the Judenrat (Jewish Council). He and the head of the council, Dr. Taraseski, were beaten and arrested by Lithuanian police. Basia snuck out of the ghetto and went to the German police who accepted a bribe and had Moishe released. When the ghetto was liquidated in April 1943, the family was separated. Niusia refused to board the trains and decided to go into hiding. Her mother told her to ”go back, and stay alive…” The rest of the family was deported to the Jewish ghetto in Vilna.

Niusia, at first, stayed with a Polish couple, Vaclav and Vera Tchowkofski’s, but it became too risky when authorities intensified their search for hidden Jews. She then stayed with her former nanny, until they were forced to evacuate the apartment. Niusia returned to stay with the first couple, but soon fled again because of the danger. The Germans began deporting Lithuanians as forced laborers to Germany and, for a while, Vera went into hiding with Niuisia. Up to this time, she had been able to exchange letters with her mother in Vilna and she learned that her father and uncle had been sent to Klooga concentration camp.

Niuisia went to visit an acquaintance, Stanley, who managed a large Soviet-style cooperative farm outside of Swieciany. There were German soldiers stationed there, and Nuisia was almost discovered. But Stanley arranged a place to hide her in the barn. She left after a while and found her father’s cousin; they found refuge with another Polish family near Swieciancy. In late 1943, Niusia purchased false identification papers from a partisan and lived under a false identity. She decided to go to Vilna to see if she could find her family. She discovered that the Vilna ghetto had been liquidated that September. Many residents had been taken to the Ponary forest and shot; the rest were deported to concentration camps.

When the Germans started retreating in 1944, she decided to return to Swieciany. She returned to the farm and found it deserted. She had seen German soldiers hiding in the fields, and when Russian soldiers came to the house asking for milk, a gunfight began. Niuisia ran to the orchard where she discovered the other residents hiding in a ditch.

After the Russian victory, she went into Swieciany. Most of the town was burned to the ground. As survivors from the concentration camps began to return, she learned that Riva had been sent to Kaiserwald concentration camp, but was alive. Her mother and her two young brothers had been taken to Ponary and murdered.

Niusia remained in Swieciany. She was robbed of her money, but was able to recover valuables that her mother had hidden before deportation. She was able to correspond with her sister and told Riva that she should stay in Poland, since it was nearly impossible to get permission to emigrate from Lithuania. In 1945, Nuisia married Moshe. He was a soldier in the Russian Army who had been born in the same town in 1921. They moved to Moscow in 1947 and had two sons. In 1948, Riva emigrated to Sweden, and then, in 1951, to Canada. The sisters were not reunited until the fall of 1958, when Riva made arrangements for Nuisia and her family to come to Canada.

Boruch Golden (Gordon) was born in 1930 to Moshe and Basia Golden in Swieciany (Svencionys), Lithuania, a small village about 50 miles north of Vilnius (Vilna.). He had three siblings, Niusia (Anne Nodel), born 1925, Rywa, born 1929, and Tevya, born 1933. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June-August 1940; in June-July 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Lithuania. Detachments of German Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), together with Lithuanian auxiliaries, began murdering the Jews of Lithuania. In August 1941, the Golden family was forced into the Swieciany ghetto. When it was liquidated in April 1943, the family was separated. His elder sister, Niusia, decided to go into hiding. The rest of the family was deported to the Jewish ghetto in Vilna. His father was soon sent to Klooga concentration camp; he did not survive. When Vilna was liquidated in September 1943, his sister, Rywa (Regina), was sent to Kaiserwald concentration camp. Boruch, his mother, and his brother were taken to Ponary and murdered; he was thirteen. Ponary was a forest about eight miles outside of Vilna that was used as a killing field for tens of thousands of Jews by the Germans and Lithuanians from 1941 through 1944. Both of his sisters survived the Holocaust. While hiding in Swieicany, Niusia managed to save some of the family’s possessions, including the violin that Boruch had begun playing at age six.

Riva (Rywa) Golden (Regina Gordon) was born on June 11, 1929, to Moishe and Basia Gurwicz Golden in Swieciany (Svencionys), Lithuania, about 50 miles north of Vilnius (Vilna.) The families had been there for five generations. Her parents married in 1924. Moishe had trained as a lawyer and worked as a clerk in a law office. He was fluent in several languages and also ran a cattle business with his brother Tevye. He had eight siblings. Basia was well educated and grew up in a well-to-do family. When her father died, Basia became head of the family. They owned a large apartment building in Swieciany and had a live-in nanny, Karolne. Riva had an older sister, Niusia, born in 1925, and two younger siblings, Boruch, born 1930, and Tevya, born 1933. It was a religious household and her family was active in the synagogue.

In 1939, Lithuania signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Moishe was put in charge of arranging forced labor groups for the Lithuanian authorities. In the summer of 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. They abolished religious groups; the Hebrew school was closed and the synagogues were used to store grain. The Jewish population increased by thousands as refugees fled German-occupied Poland.

In the spring, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Lithuania. The police chief told Moishe about the murders of Jews that accompanied the German advance and the family moved out to the farm. Shortly before and after the invasion, Lithuanians carried out violent riots against the Jews. Then came detachments of German Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), which with Lithuanian auxiliaries, murdered thousands of Jews. In August 1941, the Gordon family was forced into the Swieciany ghetto. Moishe was a member of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) and, with the head of the council, Dr. Taraseski, was beaten and arrested by Lithuanian police. Basia snuck out of the ghetto and went to the German police who accepted a bribe and had Moishe released. The Germans decided to destroy the ghetto in April 1943 and transfer the residents to the Vilna ghetto. Niusia decided that she was going to go into hiding instead. Basia wanted Riva to go with her, but Riva refused because she wanted to stay with her parents. Riva, her parents and brothers, her maternal grandmother, and a paternal aunt were deported by train to Vilna.

Riva pretended to be sixteen and was sent to work in a boot factory. Her parents worked outside the ghetto and were able to send coded postcards to Niusia. Her father and his brother were sent to Klooga concentration camp. Her grandmother was also removed from the ghetto. In September 1943, the Germans began the destruction of the ghetto. One morning as they dressed, Basia had Riva wear a belt filled with the family’s remaining valuables. The streets were filled with German and Lithuanian guards with machine guns. Everyone was ordered into the theater. Basia said her mouth hurt from a recent tooth extraction and told Riva go to back to their room to get a kettle of hot water. When Riva got back, she could not find her mother and the boys. She found a cousin who told her to stop looking for her mother; she was gone. Riva was marched to a train with several hundred girls. As the train left, they could hear shooting coming from Vilna and knew that the remaining residents were being killed.

Riva was sent to Kaiserwald concentration camp, where she worked unloading gravel from boats. From there, she was sent to Strasdenhof forced labor camp. A female SS guard, Mrs. Hollander, made Riva her new servant. Riva cleaned for her. During the day, she worked in a factory repairing telephone cables. She cut her hand in a knife accident in the factory and lost the use of three fingers. Mrs. Hollander hid her from the SS guards who conducted frequent searches looking for those who could not work. Daily camp life was harsh: they were awakened every day at four and made to stand at attention in the yard for hours; if you moved, you might be shot. Every Sunday, the SS guards would come by and make them walk naked around the barracks. The SS would regularly make the girls run while throwing sticks at their feet; if someone fell, they were shot.

In the spring of 1944, Riva was transferred to Stutthof concentration camp. There was no food and the girls were often beaten. The SS guards would knock girls down on their way to the washroom and choke them with their boots. Riva and a group of girls were sent to work on a farm caring for livestock and picking sugar beets. When the harvest was over in January, they returned to Stutthof. The barracks were empty. Riva and the others were made to pull sleighs for the remaining Germans as they retreated from the nearby Soviet forces. On the third week of this death march, the Germans locked the girls in a barn and left. After a few weeks, during which there was a typhus outbreak, they were discovered by Russian troops near Laenburg, Germany. Riva’s legs were severely frostbitten and eventually she was sent to a Russian hospital.

After her recovery, she was given permission to return to Vilna. She was detained in a Soviet displaced persons camp in Torin (sp?), in Poland but escaped after a few weeks. She made it to Prague, still trying to contact her sister. She went to Warsaw and sent messages to her sister to come join her so they could emigrate together. At some point, she heard from Niusia, who had lived in hiding in Swieciany throughout the war. Niusia had learned from concentration camp survivors who returned to their village that Riva was alive. She told Riva her to stay in Poland, as it was nearly impossible to emigrate from Lithuania.

Riva met and married Isaac Wertman. In 1948, they emigrated to Sweden, where their son was born. In March 1951, the family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. Riva continued to send letters to Niusia in Lithuania, but she did not get any in return until the late 1950s. She was able to make arrangements for Niusia and her family to come to Canada, and the sisters were finally reunited in the fall of 1958.