Brown tablecloth with a floral design saved during a pogrom in Ukraine and recovered after the war

Wolf Vova Werba (later Zeev Raveh) was born on May 23, 1923, in Maniewicze, Poland (Prilesnoye, Ukraine) to Shlomo, born in 1893, and Miriam Mancia Cyrulnik, born in 1896. Shlomo had three brothers: Hershel Zvi and Schmuel Baruch, who immigrated to Argentina and Israel, and one sister, Zitka, married to Arie Farbman. Miriam had four siblings: Menachem Mendel, Shikl, Lejbl, and Cipora. Shlomo and Miriam married in 1922. He owned a forest and was a lumber dealer, employing hundreds of Ukrainians in his factory. The family was well off and Vova and his 4 siblings, the youngest, Pola, born December 24, 1924, were well educated and involved in a Zionist youth organization, HeHalutz. The family spoke Yiddish at home and was moderately observant. Summers were spent with their maternal grandmother Gitl. Vova attended the Tarbut Hebrew school before transferring to the Polish public school. He participated in the Zionist hachshara, training to emigrate to Palestine, but it was very difficult to get permission to enter the British controlled territory. In 1937, Vova left for a vocational high school in Lvov to train as a machine technician. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the west, and a few weeks later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Mankiewicze became Soviet territory. Their father’s business was confiscated and Shlomo worked as a clerk in a government office. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and soon occupied the town. On June 27, there was a pogrom and local Ukrainians attacked Jewish citizens and invaded and looted all the Jewish homes. The Werba family survived the pogrom because they had hidden food with a neighbor, Kowalski. The Germans set up a Jewish Council led by Mr. Frucht and Jews were ordered to wear Star of David badges. On August 26, 1941, the Germans rounded up 370 Jewish men, beat and then executed them on the village outskirts. Vova and his father hid in the neighbor’s barn, but two of his paternal uncles, Israel and Arie Farbman, were killed. The winter was harsh and food was scarce. Shlomo removed one pane from the double paned windows and traded it for a sack of flour. Vova refused to be seen wearing the Judenstern, so he never left the house. In July 1942, Vova joined a group of young Jewish men who left for the Kukhov forest to establish a Jewish partisan unit. They were known as the Kruk unit, after their leader, a non-Jewish partisan, Nikolai Konischuk. Conditions were primitive, but the fighting unit and an associated family camp expanded to include several hundred people. They slept in underground dugouts. For over a year, Vova did not bathe or change his clothes and the lice were a plague to everyone. He was part of a 45 member unit led by Berl Lorber from Lishnivka. The Soviet Army arrived in the area in February 1944, and the partisans were ordered to join the Red Army and move onto Rovno. After the war ended on May 7, 1945, Wova returned to his hometown and learned that his parents and sister had been murdered on September 5, 1942. On that day, the 2000 Jews of Mankiewicze were marched into the forest, shot, and buried in a mass grave. His home had been burned down by retreating German forces. Vova stayed a few days with the Kowalski family. Shlomo had given them his furniture and other belongings and they offered to pay Wova for the items, but he refused. He was able to sell the remaining stables and storehouses and buy some clothes. The only item that he was able to recover from his home was a tablecloth. In 1946, Vova was discharged from the Soviet Army. He had earned his high school diploma and received technical drafting training. He joined a refugee group and made his way to the Adriatica displaced persons camp in Milan, Italy. Now called Zeev, he traveled throughout Italy, assisting a writer who was conducting interviews with Holocaust survivors. In 1948, he left for Israel and was immediately inducted into the Air Force. He continued his education and earned a masters in engineering. He was a career officer, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1960. He married Bila, a pianist, that year and they had two sons. He wrote a book, Days of Evil, about his Holocaust experiences. Zeev died, age 89, in August 2009. Brown floral tablecloth, the only family item recovered by Zeev Raveh Werba in Maniewicze, Poland (Prilesnoye, Ukraine), after the war. It was taken when their home was looted during a pogrom by the local Ukrainian population after the June 1941 invasion by Germany. It was found and saved by a neighbor, who returned it to Zeev. He kept the tablecloth with him during the remainder of his military service. When Zeev left for a displaced persons camp in Italy, he used the tablecloth while conducting interviews for a writer researching stories of Holocaust survivors. In September 1939, Zeev's village was occupied by the Soviet Union, which confiscated his father's lumber business. In June 1941, Germany invaded Soviet territory. On June 27, 1941, all the Jewish homes in the town were looted by the local Ukrainian population. In July 1942, 19 year old Zeev escaped to the forest to join a partisan unit. His parents, Shlomo and Mania, and his sister, Pola, were murdered by the Germans and the Ukrainians in early September 1942. Zeev's partisan unit was forced to join the Soviet Army in 1944. He returned briefly to his hometown after the war's end in May 1945. Soon after the war, Zeev deserted the Soviet Army, determined to make his way to Palestine. He joined a group of refugees and reached the Adriatica displaced persons camp in Milan, Italy. He reached Israel in 1948, and was immediately inducted into the Israeli Air Force. No restrictions on access