Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998
Manya was born in Dombrovitsa, Poland in 1923. Her family was orthodox
and considerably large, numbering close to 200. Following the outbreak of
the war in 1939, the Soviet Union occupied Dombrovitsa. Russian occupation
ended however in 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Manya's hometown
fell into German hands. The Jews in Dombrovitsa immediately felt the effects
of German anti-Semitic measures. In August 1942, the Germans liquidated the
ghetto in Dombrovitsa and Manya, along with her father, brother and eldest
sister escaped into the forest. Her mother and her two sisters remained and
they were deported to the nearby town of Sarny where they were murdered. After
fleeing the Germans, Manya and her remaining family joined the Kovpak partisan
movement. Manya was separated from her father and siblings and spent the remainder
of the war hiding in several small villages in the region and serving in different
partisan units. Her father and siblings were killed in combat. Following the
end of the war, Manya was placed in a DP camp in Berlin. She then emigrated
to the United States.
