Bubbe's Place: Stories

From the Old World to the New

A Family Story

In 1827 Tsar Nicholas I began to draft (forced to join) six year old Jewish boys into the Russian army. He sent his soldiers to Jewish home to collect the little boys. These boys were put into special cantons (camps) for six years. Here they were fed forbidden foods (non Kosher) and taught Christian ways. At 12 years of age they began their military service. After 25 years as a soldier, they were allowed to go home. During those 31 years they were not allowed to visit or even write to their parents.

What could the Jews do to save their sons? People, who had money, paid the collectors to leave their sons at home. Some people bought boys from poor families to take their sons’ places in the roundup. Some people cut off fingers or toes so that their sons would be useless as soldiers. Some people hid their children deep in the forests until the collectors were done.

One six year old was hidden in the woods. He promised he would wait without making a sound. He would wait at the tree. He would not talk if he were found. He waited and waited. It was always dark in the woods. The sun never reached the forest floor. How long had he waited? How many times did he sleep, and wake, and sleep again? How long was it since the last time he ate? He would go and eat those berries and come right back. He cried silently and waited.

As the days passed he had to go further away to find berries and nuts, he always came back to his tree. Was it really his tree? They all looked so much alike. This day he heard voices and axes. He made himself as small as possible and waited shivering under his tree. The voices sounded closer. Maybe if he closed his eyes tightly, those men would not see him.

But they did see him. They were the men of the Gubenko family. They were in the forest to get wood to make willow rakes. They swept up this poor, hungry, dirty boy and took him home to be washed, fed, and loved. For a long time he did not talk. He never told them his name or anything about his family. They knew his story without being told. The Gubenko family raised him as if he had been born to them. They named him and sent him to chedar (Hebrew school). When he grew up, he married a Gubenko daughter. What was his name? David Getzie Gubenko.