Volhynia ruled by changing kingdoms. Living is hard for Jews and ethnic Poles.

Samuel Pomerantz and his future bride Sarah are born around 1880. They marry and raise a family of six children who are born starting around 1900.

Russia partitions and occupies Poland. Volhynia in Russian control.

During WWI, Jews fight patriotically for their respective country where toleration of Jews permits. Everyone does what it takes to survive. Virtually every Jew is affected by the War--death, disease, hunger, rape, loss of home and property.

Poland becomes a country again regaining independence because of the Treaty of Versailles. Polish army defeats Soviet army and gains western Ukraine including parts of Volhynia and Belarus.

Abram Kashtan born October 5, 1919 to Rivkeh (Pomerantz) and Gedaliah Kashtan

Asher Pomerantz emigrates to the United States with his future bride Sadie Kupperman and her mother and sisters when Jacob Kupperman arranges their passage. Asher sets up a small neighborhood grocery shop and a new life in Washington, DC.

No wars and some political stability. Waves of rapid European industrialization and the global economic depression usher mass migrations and deepening social tensions. Some anti-Jewish laws are repealed in places leading to some social and economic freedoms but anti-semitism is growing. Stalin's forced famine in 1932-1933 result in millions of deaths throughout the Ukraine. Ukrainian fascist nationalism boiling. Ukrainians see Nazi Germany as their way to fight the Soviets.

Cipe (Pomerantz) and Benjamin Perles and Louis Pomerantz emigrate to Argentina. Louis takes the name Luis Pomerane.

Hitler starts WWII by invading Poland.

Jewish Holocaust begins. Stalin invades, takes eastern Poland. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact carved Poland up as well as other countries: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. Polish Volynhia in Soviet sphere at the start of WWII. Harsh Jewish restrictions and deprivation begin anew under Soviet rule. Poles and Ukrainians suffer as well, but scapegoat Jews for the troubles. Ukrainians support Hitler.

Abe is drafted into the Red Army. Fights against the Finns. Wounded in action, leg severely wounded by shrapnel. Evacuated to a Soviet hospital. Released and returns to Berezhnitza.

Poland occupied by Nazi's. Jewish annihilation accelerating. Many Jews in Poland who are able to travel cross over to Ukraine and Belarus hoping for safety in Soviet-controlled areas.

Jews have run out of emigration options.

Most of the friendly countries--including the USA--have shut their borders to Jews.

Operation Barbarossa commences.

Hitler invades the Soviets and surprises Stalin. Paltry resistance gives Nazi army enormous territorial advances.

Hitler is pestilence.

Every Jew is condemned to death.

Ethnic Ukrainians join with the Nazi death squads. Unimaginable horror and brutality. The Jews of the Pale are doomed. SS attrocities continue in the Pale until late 1944.

The Einsatzgruppen  

The Aktions

Jews living in large cities are murdered in mass graves. Nazi's begin tactics to round up Jews living in rural areas and small towns. Ghettos established as holding pens. The Pomerantz and Kashtan families are rounded up, stripped of their posessions, and held prisoner in the ghetto in the town of Sarny along with thousands of Jews from surrounding regions.

Testimony from survivors of the Sarny massacre tell that the ghetto was liquidated. A planned escape turns into a frantic stampede when some heroic Jews cut a hole in the ghetto fence. Hordes of Jews try to flee. Many get out of the hole in the fence. Nazi's and Ukrainians machine gun the area and kill scores. Escaping Jews run through the town to the forest. Only a small number survive. Abram and Lipa Kashtan, Brenda Senders and her sister get to the woods but Lipa is mortally wounded in the back and dies later in the forest. The Pomerantz and Kashtan families along with 14,000 Jewish men, women, and children are executed over two days by firing squads. Our fallen martyrs lay buried in mass graves outside of Sarny.

Abram Kashtan is saved and hidden by the Chorazyczewski family (Polish Catholics) on their farm in Antonivka. Brenda Senders fights Nazi's and Ukrainians in a partisan unit. Abe Kashtan leaves his rescuers after a period of time to make contact with a partisan resistance unit.

Abe fights until the end of the war. The Soviet Red Army continues to lose against Nazi offensives until June 1944. From June 1944 until May 1945, Red Army victories push Nazi's back to Berlin. Jewish partisans must continue to fight and survive locally against murdering Ukrainian militias and townsfolk.

Surviving in the Forest

Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945. The worst is over. Germany surrenders on May 7, 1945. Localized hostilities still ensue in Ukraine and also in what remains of Poland. There are still plenty of gentiles looking for Jewish blood. Local pogroms occur but diminish over time. Abe Kashtan manages to get to Linz Austria (past Soviet control) to find shelter and help in the Bindermichl Displaced Persons Camp, Settlement #64. Abe escapes the coming Soviet Iron Curtain. He lives three years in the DP camp.

Asher Pomerantz sponsors Abe Kashtan's immigration to the United States. Abe, Brenda Senders and her sister are the only survivors of our family who remained in Europe during WWII. Brenda and her sister also came to the USA at a different time.

Abe is shot in the back and badly wounded during a store robbery in Washington DC where he worked. He survived this attack.

Abe passes away in 1965 at age 46.