Bubbe's Place: Stories

The Border Crossings

In 1921 Menashe traveled 150 miles to the border town of Zagifka. Traveling with him were his two sisters, Mindel and Chaika (Ida), and Chaika's husband Ben and their two children. They waited and waited for an opportunity to cross the border. Mindel grew discouraged and impatient, and finally returned home. Chaika and Ben agreed to wait as long as it would take. Menashe was determined to find a way to shorten the wait.

Menasha waited and watched. When you wait and watch long enough, you learn when and where a group will cross the border. He learned that a group of people would be moving across the Dniester River into Bessarabia, Romania.

Ben, Chaika and the two children decided to wait for a legal opportunity. They were afraid it would be too dangerous for their young daughters, Sarah and Naomi. Yussel would wait with them to help keep the family protected.

Menasha decided to go with the smugglers. He hid in plain view of the crowd hoping the smugglers would simply overlook him. The smugglers took the people along a road to a hiding place. The smugglers left them there to check out things ahead. After the smugglers left, four young men snuck up the group threatening everyone. "Take us with you," they demanded, "or no one will cross the border!" Since the group was desperate to go, they agreed to this blackmail and let the four men join the group.

For a week they hid in a field near the border. Menashe remembered that he ate raw potatoes, berries, anything he could find. He remembered that a woman died and was buried in that field. Finally on a dark night the smugglers reappeared. "We cross tonight!" they whispered. Quickly people gathered their families and their belongings. There was a problem. In the group was a woman with two children. The older child, a seven-year-old girl, had scarlet fever. They would not leave the woman and her children behind. The girl was much too heavy for the woman to carry. They decided that the young men would take turns carrying the sick girl. Menashe offered to go first, while he was fresh. Later when he was tired, one of the other men would carry the girl. The girl was strapped to his back. They began to run. Everyone ran to save himself. The four young men disappeared. Menashe labored on. He thought his chest would explode and he would die. His legs were collapsing. They could not make another step. Surely he would die. "Just one more step, one more," he pleaded with himself until he reached the Dniester.

At the river they ferried the people across in a rowboat. The woman, her two children, and Menashe were among the first to be ferried across.

On the Bessarabia River bank, the smugglers counted the people. Five had not paid the smugglers' fee. The five young men were identified as the ones who did not pay the fee. The four were beaten and robbed of all their belongings. The mother paid for Menashe because he had carried her daughter to Romania.

Once on the other side of the Dniester River, they were hidden in private homes from the Romanian police. Menashe spent the first night with a Jewish family. In the morning he lay on a wagon bed with straw was piled on top of him so that he would be hidden from police and informers. In this way he was brought penniless to Yasser. In Yasser he went to the Jewish Center. At the Koshovato landsmanshaft (brotherhood) he gave his name. They gave him money sent by his Korostoff cousins in New York. They gave him a place to stay. After two months in Yasser he moved to Kishinev. From Kishinev he sent papers to Chaika and Ben Noskoff, their daughters, and Yussel Gubenko that allowed them to enter Romania legally.

In Romania Yussel got a telegram. He learned that his mother and his two brothers-in-laws were dead. Sonya, Yetta, Genessie and six young children were alone. He decided to return. It was very dangerous. If he would be caught, they would kill him. They considered young men who left the U.S.S.R. traitors. He arranged to be rowed back across the Dniester River. In the middle of the river, he was robbed of everything even his shoes and then he was thrown overboard. He swam to the Russian shore. He traveled only at night. He walked barefoot 150 miles back to Tarashta.

In Kishinev, Menashe and the family waited and waited. He could not get a visa to enter the United States. There were quotas and waiting lists. Some of his friends gave up and went to Argentina. After almost two years, an opportunity appeared. Ephraim Bougaslav, the head of another Jewish family, had received a visa. It was for the family and not for individuals. Although the Korostoshevsky’s were not relatives but they instantly became family. The women became their daughters. Ben and Menashe became their sons. Together they traveled to America. This wonderful family took no money. It was a mitzvah, a good deed. May God bless the Bougaslav’s and all their descendants.

They traveled together, second class, on the freighter Migael Ellis. At that time it took a boat eight to ten days to cross the Atlantic. It took the Migael Ellis 31 days to reach the United States. First they traveled from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, stopping in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Algiers, and Gibraltar, before sailing across the Atlantic.

When they reached New York, the Korostoshevskys did not go through Ellis Island. Nachum Korostoff met the boat and collected his relatives. Nachum was a success in America. He knew what to do, he had money, and he owned a car. Menashe spent his first night in America in Nachum's house.

The next morning Joseph came to New York for his brother. Together they returned to Philadelphia and a new life.