Email: noyshabtay@gmail.com
Family
Name: Nadler
First
Name: Cecil;
changed to Yekutiel after emigration to Israel
Father
Name: Menachem
Nadler
Mother
Name: Feige (Zipporah; Esther)
Brothers
Names: Moshe,
Yitzhak Yehuda (Dove)
Sisters Name: Chaya, Hannah
Date
of Birth: 25th
October 1929
Country
of Birth:
Poland (Ukraine of today)
City
of Birth:
Chortkiv
Places where Cecil was
List of places where Cecil was
Before World War II
Czortkow (also at
the beginning of the war)
During the War
Uman
Makhachkala
Mozdok
Turkmenistan
G'orbon
Tashkent
Korhose
Makhachkala
Mozdok
Turkmenistan
G'orbon
Tashkent
Korhose
After the war
Moscow
Warsaw
Wroclaw
Bolkov
Pravdinsk
Brno
Atlit
Hadera (until today – 2013)
Warsaw
Wroclaw
Bolkov
Pravdinsk
Brno
Atlit
Hadera (until today – 2013)
Czortkow
Before World War II
Czortkow, Poland (now Ukraine) had been a
home to a large Jewish Community for hundreds of years until it was destroyed
by the Nazis and their collaborators in World War Two.
The town lies on the right bank of the Seret River, in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, some covered with forests, others greening with herbs in summer and snowcapped in winter. The river flows from north to south into the Dniester (River). The river crosses the town at two different points and largely add to its charming beauty. One could feast his eyes on the exquisite landscape from the mountain top for hours.
The town lies on the right bank of the Seret River, in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, some covered with forests, others greening with herbs in summer and snowcapped in winter. The river flows from north to south into the Dniester (River). The river crosses the town at two different points and largely add to its charming beauty. One could feast his eyes on the exquisite landscape from the mountain top for hours.
Pictueres of Czorkow before World War II |
During the War
At 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, according to the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Czortkow was occupied by the Russians again (the first
time they entered Poland was in 1918 for 3 months) and was under their control
until the German occupation in July 1941.
When the Nazis invaded Czortkow, one of their first acts was, as in other pIaces, to start cutting the "Tree of Life" from the top. As per the demand of the Gestapo, the Judenrat provided a list which included hundreds of those in the liberal professions such as lawyers, teachers and engineers. All of whom were brutally murdered in the "Black Forest" near the town.
When the Nazis invaded Czortkow, one of their first acts was, as in other pIaces, to start cutting the "Tree of Life" from the top. As per the demand of the Gestapo, the Judenrat provided a list which included hundreds of those in the liberal professions such as lawyers, teachers and engineers. All of whom were brutally murdered in the "Black Forest" near the town.
After the War – Today
Chrotkiv today |
After the Second World War Czortkow was under Soviet
control. All Jews left the city for Wrocław Poland in where gathered together
in order to make decisions and obtain permits to Israel or America. The Polish
population largely left the city and moved to other areas in Poland.
In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine regained independence and Czortkow became part of independent Ukraine.
In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine regained independence and Czortkow became part of independent Ukraine.
Today Chortkiv (Ukrainian: Чортків; Polish: Czortków)
is a city in Ternopil Oblast (province) in
the western Ukraine.
It is the administrative center of the Chortkiv
Raion (district), housing the district's local administration
buildings.
Other places
During and after the war Cecil was also in Uman (a city
located in the Cherkasy Oblast region in central Ukraine,
to the east of Vinnytsia), Makhachkala (the capital city of the Republic of Dagestan, Russia), Mozdok
(it is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia), Turkmenistan
(formerly also known as Turkmenia, is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia),
G'orbon, Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan and
of the Tashkent Province), Korhose , Warsaw (known
in Polish as Warszawa, it is the capital and largest city of Poland),
Wroclaw (situated on the River Oder in Lower Silesia,
it is the largest city in western Poland), Moscow
(the capital city and the most populous federal subject of Russia), Bolkov (a
village and municipality in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region
of the Czech Republic), Pravdinsk (known in Polish as Friedland, it is
a town and the administrative center of Pravdinsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located
on the Lava River,
approximately 30 kilometers east of Bagrationovsk),
Brno (by population and area it is the second largest city in
the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city,
and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia)Atlit (a coastal
city town located south of Haifa, Israel), and Hadera (a city located in the Haifa
District of Israel approximately 45 kilometers from the major cities
of Tel Aviv and Haifa).
Cecil’s Family
Father: Menachem Nadler.
Mother: Feige (Zipporah; Esther) Nadler daughter of Moses and Hannah Robiner, born in 1893 Czortkow.
Sister: Chaya, daughter of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1915 Czortkow. She married a man from a wealthy family which had a sugar factory in Lvov in 1928.
Brother: Moshe, son of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1917 Czortkow.
Brother: Yitzhak Yehuda, son of Menachem and Feige Nandler, born in 1919 Czortkow. He was also called Dove (Bear in English).
Sister: Hannah, daughter of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1931 Czortkow.
Mother: Feige (Zipporah; Esther) Nadler daughter of Moses and Hannah Robiner, born in 1893 Czortkow.
Sister: Chaya, daughter of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1915 Czortkow. She married a man from a wealthy family which had a sugar factory in Lvov in 1928.
Brother: Moshe, son of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1917 Czortkow.
Brother: Yitzhak Yehuda, son of Menachem and Feige Nandler, born in 1919 Czortkow. He was also called Dove (Bear in English).
Sister: Hannah, daughter of Menahem and Feige Nandler, born in 1931 Czortkow.
Wife: Ida (Yehudith; nickname - Ithca), daughter of Moshe
and Regina Fruchter, born on February 17, 1933 and died on 22 December 2008.
Other people in the story: Władysław Gomułka, Kuznetsov, Mr. Schleicher, Dmitri Kozlov, Nina
Vasilivna (daughter of Peter) and Zoya.
The only pictures Yekutiel has of his family. His sister Chaya (on the left), his mother Feige (in the middle) and his brother Moshe (on the right). |
Before The War
Cecil Nadler was born in 1929 in Czortkow which had a
community of 30,000 Jews who had political parties and youth movements such as
Hashomer Hatzair. He is named after a very religious man, because the community
members asked his mother to give him this name - Cecil. He believes to this day
that thanks to the name of the religious person he has stayed alive.
Main prison building of Bereza Kartunska detention camp. The white structure on the right is a post-war Soviet monument, dedicated to victims of the camp. |
Władysław Gomułka |
His father Menachem was arrested because he was active in
the Communist Party, and was sent to The Bereza Kartuska detention camp (a prison-like
institution in the Second Polish Republic, in Bereza
Kartuska, Polesie province) in 1937. Where He stayed for
a year and met a Polish Man called Władysław Gomułka, a Polish Communist leader
(and the de facto leader of Poland from 1945 to 1948, and again from 1956
to 1970).
During the War
When the Nazis invaded Czortkow Cecil’s Family fled to
nearby forests. The women - his mother and two sisters were caught and sent to Belzec.
There is no trace of them.
Cecil, his father – Menachem, and his brothers Dove and
Moses managed to hide in the woods. They ate what the forest gave them and what
they could catch - strawberries, moldy bread, roasted rabbit (which was
dangerous because of the light and the smoke) etc. There was no drinking water -
the water in the woods was green and full of frogs. Therefore, they used napkins
to filter the water. Cecil did not want to drink at first, but his father
forced him to. When he belched, he thought a frog was going to come out of his
mouth.
One day they came to the house of the forest guard and told
him they were running away from the Nazis and asked him for food and drink in
exchange for his father's clock. The guard gave them some food and tea. They
slept on the floor. His father asked his two older brothers (not Cecil) to be alert
because he didn’t trust the forest guard. In the middle of the night when they
heard sounds of motorcycles, after the guard went to the village to bring them
food, they fled for fear he had sold them out.
His eldest brother Moshe was caught by the Ukrainians and
was placed in jail in 1941. A Polish man who worked there told Cecil that one
of the Gestapo named Clore killed him.
As they approached the city Uman there was shelling so they
returned to the forest. They met Red Army soldiers who had remained in the area
and fled to the forest. The family joined the soldiers who gave them food and
weapons and they became partisans. The soldiers taught Cecil how to use weapons
and ride horses. Dove his brother managed to escape and was drafted into the Soviet
army. He was killed at Stalingrad.
Menachem looked for someone who remembered him. After a
while a tall man came and asked Cecil if he remembered him. It turned out he
was a Jew with a flour mill who was a Russian officer and spy that Cecil’s
father transferred across the border and thus saved his life. The officer told
Menachem: "You will go with the train to the Caucasus!"
Cecil and his father boarded the train. There were many bags
on the train - it was a freight train. Cecil fumbled through the bags and found
a lot of money. His father told him not to touch the money, because it was the
government's money and forbidden to steal. They arrived in the Caucasus and
stayed there from 1941 to 1942.
When Cecil took the train to Makhachkala without any
property, the railway station where his father was in Mozdok was bombed. Knowing
this, Cecil walked in the city and found a bakery where he gathered breadcrumbs
and ate them. Someone who saw him gave him half a loaf of bread. He slept on a
public bench and returned to the train station not knowing what to do. An
officer went to the child, and Cecil told him what had happened. The officer
took him to a military school.
It was a naval academy named after a Russian Field Marshal –
Mikhail Kutuzov. The officer said Cecil was his brother's son who had
apparently been killed in the bombing and asked that the child be enrolled at
the school.
The educator at school, Kuznetsov, sent Cecil to the school’s doctor. She
had to determine boy's age, because 16 was the minimum age regalement for
registration at the school. Cecil was only 12. She knew he was too young and
demanded the truth. Cecil told her his story, and she signed that he was born
in 1926. She also asked if he was Jewish. It turned out that she was also a
Jewish who was recruited in to the Russian army. Although Kuznetsov loved him
he used to call him a "dirty Jew" when he didn't want to jump into
the cold water of the Caspian Sea. His friends at school loved him too.
In 1944 Cecil was listed as 18 years old even though he was
only 14 so he was sent to be examined by the army, who were recruiting soldiers
to the front. The doctors did not believe he was an 18 year old man, so he
returned to school and became an excellent Sargent (late 1944). He taught
young soldiers to March, use weapons and salute.
He was transferred to Turkmenistan where he went to the
information center and began searching for his father and his family, hoping
they were still alive.
Two months later he received a letter which noted that his
brother Dove had fallen as a Russian hero in Stalingrad. Two months later he received
a letter which noted that his father Menachem Mendel resided in the city of
Korhose, Kazakhstan.
To convince him to give Cecil a travel permit authorization,
he brought Kuznetsov a gift of two bottles of vodka. Kuznetsov agreed, granting
Cecil a military certificate with approval to travel anywhere. Through the cold
and snow of winter, Cecil travelled on the roofs of trains from Turkmenistan to
G'orbon, then to Tashkent and finally to Korhose. He found out that his father
had run a bakery there, stolen a lot of flour and bread and run away.
Cecil returned to the army camp. Although he did not find his father, he knew
that his father - the only family he had left - was still alive.
After the War
It was September 1945, the war was over. Cecil didn’t know
where to go, thus he stayed in Russia where he received certification as a technician.
He was usually called Gregory or Grisha. One day, while shaving, Kuznetsov brought him
a letter. He was surprised because he did not have any friends abroad. He took
the letter and saw that it was from his father who had written to him in
Ukrainian: “My Dear Son, I was in Poland where I baked bread for the Rohovsky Brigade
of the Russian Army…” Gomulka (whom he had met in Bereza Kartuska detention
camp) had appointed him. He asked about Dove. Menachem had already known that
the Gestapo had murdered Moses and that the women of the family had been sent
to Belzec.
Cecil had a Russian identity card, therefore he never said
he had been born in Poland. When he sent a request to the Ministry of Interior
in Moscow to go to Poland so he could visit his father, they replied that as a
Russian citizen he was prohibited to travel to Poland.
Mr. Schleicher - a clever Jew and the manager of a factory which
manufactured boots for the army, who occasionally gave Cecil boots to sell,
suggested that he go to the NKVD to get the certificate to travel to Poland, by
telling Cecil that he is a man who isn’t afraid of anything. This decision
could have two results, either getting permission going to Poland or being sent
to Siberia. Cecil took his suggestion and went to the NKVD.
He wore his Navy uniform. When he arrived he was so scared
that his hat shook on his head. He saluted and stood at attention until they
said “at ease”.
He handed them the documents and the letter from his father, and
explained that he had found his father after six years. The man he was talking
to was Dmitri Kozlov. He asked Cecil if he is in Vasilyev Battalion, because he
had many good relations there. Cecil answered in the affirmative. Since it was
the beginning of the year, Cecil brought 30,000 Ruppin as a gift wrapped in a newspaper
(in order to make it look modest like Pork).
Cecil didn’t return to the military camp but cared for a
sergeant, Nina Vasilivna (daughter of Peter), who had had surgery and had no
family. Three weeks passed and he kept in contact with the Kuznetsov waiting
for the answer. During this time he was injured in the leg while jumping into
the water. A sergeant, Zoya, received a letter informing him that he needed to
come to the NKVD. There was a great fear in the air.
Cecil entered the heavily guarded NKVD headquarters. He came
in and saluted. Dmitri Kozlov said to him: “My son, sit. I received a letter
from Moscow saying that you will go to your father in Poland.” He also added
that his wife asked him
to stay with them for the New Year.
They had a big house full of medals. Cecil brought two
bottles of wine, dried fruit and two horsemeat sausages to the event. A female
sergeant stood at the entrance. There were many generals and Nina was there as
well (she was invited because Dmitri’s wife knew that Nina and Cecil knew each
other). Dmitri’s wife told him to go and dance with Nina.
Lieutenant colonel called out to Cecil using the name
Grisha. Cecil saluted, the lieutenant colonel told him not to because he would
be a great man one day. Cecil felt uncomfortable among all these great people.
He told Mrs. Kozlov he would go early.
Cecil took a train to Warsaw and then to Wroclaw, where his
father ran a big modern bakery for the army. His father didn’t recognize him with
all the muscles he had developed. Luckily he had a sign on his leg that his
father recognized since they were in a bathhouse. Menachem, his father, married
a second wife two weeks before Cecil came to meet him. He didn’t like her. The
Poles were having a party and all of them were amazed Cecil drank a whole glass
of vodka and poured another cup. His father told him to return to Russia,
because getting out from there was very hard, but he stayed in Poland.
Cecil joined the "Haganah" through the people of
Kibbutz Naan who were in Bolkov - a village and municipality (obec) in
Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. Cecil opened an
Agricultural school at the Czech Republic border in the town of Friedland
(today Pravdinsk). Through the school they transferred Jewish people from the
Czech Republic to Brno then to the Alps in Austria and finally to Israel via
small ships. In the school he met his wife Ida (Ithca was her nickname and as
she arrived in Israel her name was renamed to Judith) Fruchter. She came from a
very rich family (they had a textile factory in Bshemesh) which had lost all
their money.
Ida and the other people stayed at the school for a month
and a half till they were transferred. People began to understand that
something strange was happening there so after a while the Russian officer who
had been helping them smuggle people decided he needed more money. While trying
to kill Cecil, he killed Cecil’s friend - Solomon. Cecil had hid in the water
then a gentile helped him escape and cross the border in return for a promise of
horses and a wagon. They drove a horse’s cart while Cecil was hidden in a pile
of straw. The gentile said he was on his way to bring straw to his sister and
bribed the border guard with vodka and meat.
Menachem, Cecil's father decided not to stay in Poland and
immigrated to Israel according to the wishes of his second wife. They arrived
in Atlit. Cecil followed him and came to Hadera, where by chance Ida had moved
to. They were reunited and got married in 1950.
The state of Israel was established and his father set up a
bakery where Cecil had worked in addition to his work in the orchards. Ithca
worked as a cook at the Arlozorov School. With a little money they managed to
buy a house in Shikun Aliya. Later on Cecil established a large bakery - Dagan
Bakery in Hadera.
When Cecil moved to Israel his name was changed to Yekutiel
(since Cecil in Hebrew means an idiot).
But his ID still says that he was born in 1926, in memory of
the age change which saved his life.
He served in the 13th Regiment and then in the Burglars
Battalion called Leo in the armored corps of the IDF.
He has two sons, Tzvika and Tzafrir, who served in the Air
Force, one daughter, Mira, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Yekutiel
is not sorry for what he did for himself, for his family and for his true
country. He enjoys seeing his family everyday – he is satisfied.