B'Midbar

Kasriel Ejlender (Eilender) was born on March 11, 1923, in Konigsberg, Germany, on the border between Poland and Lithuania, and grew up in Suwalki, Poland. His father, Josel Mordechai Ejlender, was born in 1895 in Sztabin, Poland. Kasriel’s grandparents, Elkona and Cypora emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. His paternal uncles, Arthur and George, emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Josel sold lumber to the German Army. He was involved in local politics and was well respected in the community. Kasriel’s mother, Sara Blacharski, was born in Augustow, Poland, in 1904 to Bentzion and Eiga, who lived with the family in Suwalki. Bentzion exported fish to Germany and was a Zionist. Kasriel had two younger siblings, Gershon and Esther. It was a traditional Jewish household and Kasriel attended a religious school.

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and the family moved away from the German border to Indura. They returned to Suwalki after learning that the city was occupied by the Soviet Army. In October, the Soviet Army withdrew and transferred the city to the Germans per the terms of the German-Soviet Pact. Rather than live under German rule, the family moved to Soviet controlled Augustow. Kasriel’s maternal grandparents did not want to travel and stayed in Suwalki. Eiga was deported by the Germans and killed in a forest near Lomzy, Poland. Bentzion moved to Augustow in 1940, but died shortly after of natural causes. In May 1940, local communists denounced Josel as a capitalist and he was ordered to move 103 kilometers from the Soviet-German demarcation line.

The family moved to Dereczyn, and then to Slonim in June 1941. On June 22, Kasriel was in the main square with Josel when the public address system announced that Germany had attacked the Soviet Union. The city was bombed and then occupied by the Germans. Anti-Jewish regulations were enacted: Jews could not walk on the sidewalks and had to wear a Star of David badge on the front and back of their clothing. The family moved back to Dereczyn, thinking it would be safer and food would be easier to obtain. But the Germans occupied Dereczyn in July and ordered the mayor, Mr. Lewandowski, to report all refugees who had escaped German-occupied regions. Josel had befriended Lewandowski and he did not report the family. The Jews were ordered into a ghetto. In order to barter for food, Josel and Kasriel made soap at night from animal fat that they obtained illegally. In November 1941, the Germans ordered all Jewish males, ages 15 to 60, to register for forced labor. At one time, Kasriel was taken to a forest for 36 hours and forced to dig a large ditch with a ramp, which he discovered later was a mass grave.

Gershon was deported to a work camp in Slonim and put in charge of supplying food, a position that allowed him to move people in and out of the ghetto. Kasriel was deported to the same work camp, and Gershon smuggled him into the ghetto. In May 1942, there was a round-up of Jewish men and Kasriel hid in the attic of the metal shop where he worked. A young boy saw him look out a window; a young boy saw him and ran to the attic. Two soldiers followed and ordered Kasriel to go with them. The first soldier left with the boy, and, as the second soldier went down the stairs, Kasriel hit him over the head with a piece of iron and killed him. He was arrested on May 26, 1942, and deported to German occupied Mogilev. He worked as a soap maker, but when the head soap maker, Lipa Rosenthal, told the commandant that there was not enough fat to produce soap, Kasriel worked chopping wood.

In September 1943, Kasriel was deported to Majdanek concentration camp. During processing, he told the Germans that he was a leather maker, knowing that skilled workers were less likely to be killed. He was sent to Blizyn labor camp. The Jewish prisoner in charge of the leather shop, Mendel Fuks, knew that Kasriel lied, but he did not report him and taught Kasriel how to repair leather backpacks. In May 1944, Kasriel was deported to Płaszów concentration camp where he was dug up buried bodies and burned them. In September 1944, he was deported to Gross-Rosen concentration camp, and then sent to the satellite camp Langenbielau where he dug trenches for the Germany Army. In February, he was ordered to push sick prisoners on lorries to the main railroad station, for shipment to Dachau.

The Soviet Army liberated Langenbielau on May 8, 1945. Kasriel became the translator for a Soviet officer, Lietenant Colonel Soloncev. He also worked with the Dutch military and a Dutch colonel helped him travel to Prague. He then moved to Foehrenwald displaced persons camp, near Munich. The camp was run by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and Kasriel was part of a council that worked with UNRRA and other rescue organizations.

Kasriel began medical school in Munich when the University reopened in 1946. In 1948, he emigrated to the United States. He finished his studies at New York Medical College, opened a private practice, and taught at the college. Years after the war, he learned that his mother, father, and sister had joined the Russian partisan underground army. They lived in the woods, where they died of exposure and hunger. Gershon had been shot and killed after jumping from a truck en route to a concentration camp where it is presumed his mother and sister were killed. Kasriel married and had two children.