Ronnie Dunetz, PhD
I felt extraordinarily privileged on the first week of September, 2023, when I wandered daily on my own through the streets, alleys, riverbanks and public areas of the small town of “Zhetl” (Yiddish), Dzyatlava, in Western Belarus. I had come from Israel in a spirit of “pilgrimage”, to the town where my father grew up, where generations upon generations of my ancestral family had lived their lives, deeply embedded in the Jewish shtetl life which enveloped at its height 75% of the town’s population.
This peaceful town now exuded only serenity, slowness of life, abundant blue skies and green pastures, had I not known what went on there 81 years before it never would have dawned on me that it could be anything other than “slow and serene”. Today only 4 Jews live in Dzyatlava, and even their families, I am told, came to town only after the end of the war. The Shoah, which obliterated a vibrant Jewish community of 450 years, is nowhere to be found on the ground in Dzyatlava, and yet it “exists inside us”, the descendants of the survivors wherever we may be. It is “living history” so long as one seeks to engage in curiosity with the stories, memories, events, people and history of what people left behind. To me, a life-long avid traveller, hiker and “seeker” across lands, cultures and spiritual ideas, there is no greater excitement and challenge than to explore and reconnect with the past- my past, before I was born. To try and “get into the heads” of people I have never known, but whom in some deeply-entrenched way, I can never “forget…
Zhetl “Comes Alive”
For five unforgettable days, I immersed myself in this town of my father and our ancestors, inter-weaving my own knowledge of family history, the history of Zhetl, the anecdotes, memories and stories I had gathered on my own life journey. I stayed with a lovely retired couple in their small cottage with a fertile garden, every morning I would “walk and breathe” the air, the smells, the ambience. I would consciously call to mind the many stories I had read of testimonies and memoirs of survivors of Zhetl, allowing myself to let my mind visualise how it must have been to live here amongst the scores of different kinds of Jews and gentiles; I visualised the hustle and bustle of the Tuesday marketplace, the horse-driven carts, the peasants, the children, the youth, the Rabbis and the young socialists. I recalled the photos my father had in his album of himself and his school friends walking, playing, biking around the lake in the centre of town. Every morning I would walk 250 metres from where I stayed to stand on the very place where my grandparents house once stood, trying to imagine who they were and how they were. A deep yearning and curiosity arose in me to discover, explore, connect to the world before me.
There were other deep yearnings as well. Every day I would walk 250 meters in the other direction from my host’s cottage to the cemetery at the edge of town. To the most tragic of places of all for our family, the place where my grandparents, uncle, cousins and some 2500 aunts and cousins were brutally murdered on August 6, 1942, along with some 2500 Jews from Zhetl and the surrounding area. This was the place where I would try and imagine the complete horror of those fateful hours, during which my father miraculously survived and lived to tell and pass on. This was the place where I would stand silently in meditation, say kaddish and experience the silence and serenity, 81 years later.
I was privileged to be the first descendant of the Dunetz family to come back and “live” in Zhetl, even if it were for only 5 days. I felt honoured to partake in this “inner-guided mission” and I imagined how my late father, Mordechai Dunetz, would have been proud and moved to see me now. I had come to write the last chapter of my doctoral dissertation on the reflections of children of Holocaust survivors in their second half of life on their life experience – and, in essence, I was doing just that myself. I was “re-connecting” in order to deepen my own reflection, allowing history to “join me” on my own existential journey of life. Wherever I went during these five days – in talking in front of high school girls about my father’s journey, in showing a film on my father’s testimony to my gracious hosts, or in conversation with English teachers in the school- I was engaging and embracing “living history”. I had become a “living bridge” to serve them and myself: one foot in the past and the other, here and now, after the great rupture and tragedy, in the present. It was a formative experience I will never forget.
Exactly one month later, on October 7th in Israel, I felt once again how the “earth shook” and how life had changed irrevocably. For me, this is one point in the “existential legacy of the Holocaust”- life, all life, is impermanent and can be totally ruptured at any given moment. We must cherish, cultivate and safeguard the power of hope in our lives.
Incredible Stories of Hope and Resistance
In addition to these memorable days in Zhetl, I came prepared to go in the footsteps of my father’s experience in the war after surviving the massacre in the town in 1942 – to the Novogrudok labour camp and partisan fighting units in the forests. I had come well-prepared for this part of the journey as well, to the best of my ability. In fact, in the year 2000, I had done this very same journey with my parents and brothers, one that we filmed and have memorialised. For me, it was clearly one of the most emotionally charged, meaningful and transformative experiences of my life. Now, I downloaded the video to my phone and had gathered pages and pages of written material about these places, documenting the Partisan routes, battles and stories, as well as the testimonies from the labour camp.
Then, in 2000, I had my father with me, to act as the witness, the “expert”, the authentic version. Now, 23 years later, I was on my own. I needed someone to assist me on my path and my “angel” was none other than the remarkable Tamara Vershitskaya, the researcher, translator, founder of the Museum of Jewish Resistance (JRM) in Novogrudok, and the Jewish Heritage Specialist for the Together Plan. Words are not sufficient to express my deep gratitude for all the tremendous assistance that she extended to me, for many months and in various ways and means. Without her, none of this would have been possible.
I delved into the stories of the Bielski partisans and the tunnel escape from the Novogrudok labour camp (both with which I have deep a personal connection to, through my father and aunt Fania Dunetz Brodsky). I have known both of these inter-related stories my whole life, and always marvelled and wondered just how incredible they were. The Bielski partisan group was one of the most significant organised Jewish resistance operations in World War II, and most likely the largest and most successful effort of Jews saving Jews during the Holocaust; over 1200 Jews were saved by the Bielski brothers and others against all odds. The Novogrudok labour camp tunnel escape, on September 26, 1943, is no doubt one of the most successful prisoner escapes of the Holocaust era, in which Jewish inmates of the camp built a 200-metre long tunnel, the longest hand-dug tunnel of World War II, under the noses of their Nazi captors and local collaborators. Over 240 Jews escaped through the tunnel, with at least 133 survivors – 108 of them who joined the Bielski Partisans.
As I sat sipping my coffee with Tamara in the Novogrudok town square, it suddenly dawned on me, hitting me with a flash: these stories must be told, “experienced” and passed on in a different way! We must find a way to bring more and more people to engage with these stories as “living history, and in doing so all of us have so much to gain. To let them slip away into oblivion would be a great and tragic loss.
These stories are not just for Holocaust descendants, not only for Jews with ancestral roots in the area, but these are “stories for life” for all people from all walks of life and traditions. These are stories of hope, humanity and defiance of the human spirit in existential crisis. By engaging deeply with these stories we can learn what it means to find meaning in life, even in the most devastating situations and times.
Engaging in a new way: the “Existential Retreat
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” (Benjamin Franklin)
To remember our past is a profound act of humanity. To remember the Holocaust is also a sacred act. In Judaism, Zachor (“Remember”) lies at the very foundations of our tradition and practice. I believe that now, nearly 80 years after, we need to expand and deepen what it means “to remember” the Shoah. The time has come for us to take the extra step of “involvement”, of “experiencing” the incredible resistance stories of the Holocaust so that we may learn from them in ways that they teach us not only about them, but about us, our lives, our potential, our deepest humanity and deepest drive of hope and “choosing life”.
Based on my decades of experience as a workshop facilitator and life-coach, focusing on meaning and wisdom in life, I would like to offer a unique, innovative and powerful framework which I will call the ‘Existential Retreat’. I wish to suggest that this first retreat be built specifically around the incredible stories of hope of the Bielski partisans and the escape from the Novogrudok labour camp.
An Existential Retreat is a framework in which participants not only learn about what happened, but attempt to “walk in their shoes”, immerse themselves in the minds of the people to whom these stories belong: how they met their challenges, the questions they asked, the doubts they may have had, the hopes they maintained and the complexity of their decision-making processes under grave existential uncertainty.
In an Existential Retreat, participants don’t stop only at trying to “know” the facts of history, but use this knowledge to share and explore such “big questions” of life within themselves in a supportive group setting, such as:
- How do I deal with uncertainty? How do I find hope in difficult situations?
- How do I see myself as an “individual” and where am I also “part of the group?
- How do I make meaningful choices in my life and what values guide them?
- What is the meaning of “Holocaust Legacy” to me, and how does it manifest in my life?
- What can I learn from these stories to help me be the “best version of myself” in my life today?
There are many things that go on in such a framework, all of which are geared to help participants “look inside themselves” in engaging with the material and activities that are offered. This may include:
- Discussions in pairs and small groups that are open, honest and empathic
- Reflective, free “intuitive writing” exercises
- Thought-provoking videos, talks, testimonies
- Sharing circles, where participants share in confidence how these stories and questions impact them.
- Music that “soothes and enriches” introspection and profound discussion
- Mind-body exercises (optional), such as meditation, yoga, chi-kung, among others
- Short nature walks in beautiful settings
- Free conversation to get to know the other participants
As mentioned below, in frameworks that are “in person” on site in Belarus and nearby countries, there is the added element of visits to commemorative and/or historically important sites.
As this project is only in its early stages, the participants themselves will play an important role in “co-creating” much of what goes on in the retreat itself. I, therefore, urge you to approach this exciting idea with much of your own energy, curiosity and determination- we will be creating something new, important and valuable for us all!
The Existential Retreat is a conduit to both learning about history and letting history “come alive” for us. There is no greater opportunity than to let the relatively unknown stories of the Bielski partisans and the Novogrudok labour camp tunnel escape be that conduit to a profound, meaningful and transformative life-learning experience.
The Existential Retreat: Options before us
As we contemplate how to bring this exciting Existential Retreat concept forward, there are a number of factors one needs to take into account. Some of the options can also be a part of a longer “tour” if that should be of interest. We will be very grateful to hear from our readers how they see this so we may offer the best option for our first programme:
- On-site in Belarus
I have no doubt that the added value of participating in a 3-5 day retreat in Belarus has numerous advantages. We will be in the place where it all happened, there is the ambience, the visits to memorial sites and important geographical locations, we will be able to soak in some of the local culture and history as well as to meet some local individuals of relevance. In addition, being on site “in person” allows for a more powerful experience, in which participants can informally talk with each other, surrounded by beautiful nature to be experienced. On the other hand, as we all know, the geo-political effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on Belarus’s border is a factor that is likely to deter a significant number of potential candidates.
- On-site in Lithuania or Poland
These two countries, bordering Belarus, have significant Holocaust history in their own right, including many similarities, they are easy to fly to and access. Nevertheless, they are not “authentic” to the two stories we are discussing in this retreat.
- On-site in Israel, the US, the UK, or other destination
Under this option, some participants will find it easier to travel to, perhaps facilitating registration. This option does not offer the “on-site” advantages listed above.
- Online retreat
The option of doing such a retreat online really took hold during the Covid pandemic a few years ago. What was once considered impossible is today a viable option. Under this option, the retreat would be structured differently with a few hours a day over a number of days. The big advantage here would be that it could be arranged sooner, the price would be substantially lower. The disadvantage is clear: with no “in person” interaction and not “on site”, parts of the experience will not be possible.
One final note: the number of participants in the Existential Retreat is limited, in order to ensure the intimacy and confidentiality of such a framework.
Regardless of which option we end up offering at this stage, one thing I can safely and confidently say: it will be a powerful, introspective and meaningful experience for all. We will be able to honestly say that we will be honouring those survivors and families in a very special way – by remembering their stories and letting them teach us about hope, meaning and courage in life amidst the darkness which surround us at this time.
“Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.”- Eli Wiesel
Please take a moment to fill in this short survey – click here
Ronnie Dunetz, PhD, has been a workshop facilitator, life coach, logotherapist and storyteller for over twenty years. Born and raised in the US, Ronnie lived in the Far East in his twenties for over 5 years, immersing himself in the philosophical, cultural and psychological traditions of the region. Ronnie has made his home in Israel for over 30 years. He received his doctorate in philosophy in the area of Wisdom Studies in 2023. Recently Ronnie has initiated a new social venture in Israel called The Hope Accelerator, which aspires to strengthen the awareness, tools and practices of individuals to choose hope in challenging times. His website is called Harvesting your Wisdom.