about our family in that town, and we called her. She was the wife of Schmuel Zigler.
Zigler I remember as a firewood merchant who for a substantial sum he and his family were hidden in the home of a friendly Christian on the outskirts of Boiberke during the Nazi invasion. One day, when this Christian returned from town he told Zigler's wife that he had witnessed something he would never forget. The Jewish committee of Boiberke who were ordered by the Nazis to deliver a certain number of Jews for work in Germany (in reality they were to be transported to the gas chambers), dragged through the streets of the town my niece's boy, age 15 and he cried I am still young and I want to live. They locked him up in a small stable but he broke the door and escaped. Unfortunately he went in the wrong direction, was caught again, and this time was shipped with the others to the gas chambers.
The Jews of Europe, Boiberker among them, by that time were aware what is waiting them from the Nazi beasts. Those who had means and could find a Christian friend, tried to save themselves (and very few did). The Nazis at first bribed these Christians by giving them sugar and salt, which were scarse, to reveal where Jews were hiding. Later they threatened the Christians with the death penalty if they refused to tell where the Jews are.
The wife of Shmuel Zigler ended her story about Boiberke by saying my own husband went from the hiding place to the house in our town to fetch some warm clothes and while carrying the clothes, he was shot by the Nazis. Thus, each one of us had a victim; no one could escape the Nazi terror.
I had to wait a fortnight in Jerusalem for my visa to Cyprus. I tried my luck on a Sunday morning when there was the only clerk who had charge of issuing the visas. His name was Mindlin, whom I knew, as he was employed in that office for more than a quarter of a century, but he too turned me down. Finally, I called on my American Zionist friend, Charles Passman, who at the time represented in Jerusalem the American Jewish Joint Distribution committee, and he got me the visa. The next morning, in less than an hour and a-half, I was in Cyprus. In a double barbed wire camp there were already more than 8,000 of our brethren, and by the time the state of Israel was proclaimed 15 months later there were 33,000. After visiting with my niece and her children, I began looking around for Boiberker landsleit in Cyprus, but to my sorrow I could not find any.
Returning to Jerusalem, Dr. Shraga Kallay suggested that since I still had the money from the Relief fund, I should give $50.00 to a Rabbi in Israel who had once occupied a similar post in Boiberke. He had a large family and could use a little extra money.
When I said goodby to Dr. Kallay, he remarked, I am sure ther are Boiberker in Eretz Israel who could use a little money, but as you know they were always too proud to accept aid even if it came their own landsleit. Twelve years later, when they organized with their meager few pounds the Boiberker Free Loan Society in Israel, I convinced myself that Dr. Kallay was right.
Returning to New York 1947, I rendered a report of my journey and handed to the Relief committee the $425.00 which I had left of the $500.00 they gave me to distribute to fellow Boiberker landsleit wherever I might meet them.
We realized that to keep up the Relief Committee was a waste of time and effort and money. It was suggested to dissolve, and the balance in the bank should be donated to the United Jewish Appeal. Which we did. After thirty years of good work in behalf of the poor in Boiberke, it was much viser to give it up.
The last officers of the Boiberker Relief were; President, Anna Paget-Rabinowitz; Vice President, Henie Katz-Lusthause, Ray Paget-Hornik, and Mrs. Kugel; Treasurer, Abraham Haber; Finance Secretary, Florence Zweben;
Among the active women workers for the Relief Committee were Anna Spitzbard-Chapman, representing what was left of the Boiberke Ladies Aid Society, Clara Helfer, Lodie Herbst, Dora Paget, Adell Gross, Mrs. Julius Katz, Mrs. Samuel 