The Story of David Kahane

Grzymałów 

From 1917 to 1923, he studied in a gymnasia in Ternopil.

In 1923, Kahane went to study in the rabbi seminaries in Breslau (presently — Wroclaw) and in Berlin. Later, he entered the Vienna University where he studied humanities, such as Slavic Studies, Polish and German language and literatures. He presented his doctoral thesis on "Judaism and Jews in the Polish Literature of the 18-19th centuries."

In 1929, he settled down in Lviv, where he started teaching religion in private Jewish and public Polish schools.

In 1930, Dawid Kahane was elected a rabbi in the progressist synagogue "Oze Tov" (at ul. Szajnochi Street, presently — vul. Bankova; non-existent).

In November, of the same year, he became the head of the Research Institute for Tanakh Studies. During that time, he established close connections with the community of historians of Judaism. He was actively engaged in the religious Zionist movement "Mizrachi."

"The [street] with the apartment that I had moved into recently was not included in the ghetto. Thus all my labor and torment were in vain. Together with thousands of other Jews I had to set out to look for a place to live. I looked for three consecutive days but found nothing. I almost succumbed to despair. Where should I go? To whom could I turn? Where could I find a corner for my wife’s elderly parents and for my little girl?"

But as soon as in October, 1941, it was clear that the rabbi's expectations failed.

"Only on the fourth day did my superhuman efforts bear fruit and I managed to find an apartment in Zniesienie. Located in a tiny house, the apartment consisted of one room and a kitchen, which we rented with another family. The house was located on the outskirts of Zniesienie, not far away from the swamp. Its damp walls hurt the eyes. There were no other choices and I felt lucky to have found anything. Eleven people lived in two tiny damp rooms. One could hardly move around the place as the floor was strewn with belongings".

In the process of moving into the ghetto, Kahane was a near miss from getting to the slave labor camp in Kurovychi. A caretaker from the previous apartment informed on him to the gestapo. After that, Dawid had to stay inside his apartment all the time:

"A dozen times a day we would hide in the cellar, trying to evade all kinds of man-catchers. We were too afraid to go out. "The sword without and terror within" (Deuteronomy 32:25) — impossible to stay home and impossible to go out".

"My courageous wife went everywhere selling what was left of our possessions for a little food for our family".

When the "Action Under the Bridge" took place, and a main phase of relocating to the Jewish quarters was over, the police control was lifted from the railway bridges separating this area from the central part of the city.

"Only then did I summon enough courage to go out. I began frequenting the Religious Affairs Department, located in the former building of the Jewish community at 12 Bernstein [now Sholom-Aleikhema] St. on a regular basis."

In January, 1942, along with other rabbis, Dawid Kahane started working in the department of culture of Lviv Judenrat (the name disguised the department for religion). Despite the official ban on activities of the rabbis and group prayers imposed by the occupation authorities, Dawid Kahane, along with other rabbis and the staff of the department, tried to provide for the religious needs of the Jewish community in the city, both ritual (shechita, baking matzah, circumcision), and legal (administering marriage and divorce).

In addition, he was actively engaged in the process of collecting and storing Jewish heritage (mostly, religious items and books) in the department’s basements.

In February, 1942, Kahane had to move places again, along with his family. 

"In early February rumors began about a further constriction of the ghetto area. A Housing Department official revealed to me that the city commandant had said that Zniesienie must be cut off from the ghetto because of its many parks and its Aryan residents who could not be evacuated. This meant that we had to prepare for fresh wanderings, the third uprooting. I didn’t waste much time thinking, and set out right away in search of another apartment. Soon enough I moved to 12 [more likely 21] Zamarstynowska Street I put up my wife’s parents not far away on Balonowa Street. I hauled all my “great” possessions on a toy wagon within a few hours."

In August, 1942, Dawid Kahane, the same as many other Judenrat officials, realized the reduction of the ghetto was coming soon, and another police operation ( the "Aktion") was looming, respectively. That is why he started searching for ways to save himself and his family outside the ghetto.

"My colleague Rabbi Dr. [Kalman] Chameides and I decided to seek refuge with the Ukrainian Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi. There was nothing unusual about this; on more than one occasion Jews sought protection of senior church officials who often evinced understanding for their tragic situation. We had already resolved, in line with the express with of the Religious Affairs Department, to ask Metropolitan Sheptytskyi to hide several hundred Torah scrolls which had been left in the cellar at 12 Bernstein Street. On this occasion we also intended to submit a personal request – to be given refuge at his residence for the duration of the Aktion. The metropolitan had made a name for himself as a righteous man among the nations and we hoped he wouldn’t turn us down. 

We asked for an interview with the metropolitan through a Ukrainian priest, Dr. Gabriel Kostelnik, with whom I had become friends in the course of my many years of educational work in Lvov. The next day we set out in the direction of Jura [St. George] Square to the metropolitan’s palace.”

The Metropolitan warmly welcomed the envoys and agreed to accept the Torah scrolls for hiding. In addition, he expressed his readiness to shelter them and their families. Klyment Sheptytskyi, a brother of the Metropolitan Andrey: "first [...] gave me a letter to the head of convents, the Abbess Iosefa [Olena Viter], who was to take my three-year-old daughter to her convent. He also promised to think about arrangements for other children and asked us to keep in touch with him. This visit on August 14, 1942 [presumably mistaken date, the visit most likely took place on August 7 – T.M.], settled my fate and the fate of a number of Jewish families.”

Two days later, on Sunday, August, 9, Dawid Kahane succeeded to get to the convent at ul. Zbarazka, and made arrangements with sister Josefa to hand out his daughter under her care as soon as on the next morning. However, due to a sudden start of the anti-Jewish operation, they managed to do it only with the help of his good friend on the Arian side of the city, professor Kharkali.

Kahane and his wife spent the first days of the action in a camouflaged bathroom.

"I spent three days in the bathroom and each day was pervaded with the same paralyzing terror. We stayed in the hideout from dawn till night. At night we would go out to stretch our limbs. Our wives would cook some soup. The stomach refused to accustom itself to the Aktion and after three days of hiding in a bathroom, we were hungry. There was not a crust of bread or potatoes or vegetables in our apartment. I began thinking of doing something to get some food. It was clear that the Aktion would last a long time. Staying in our hideout without going out was tantamount to death by starvation. Seeking shelter at the metropolitan’s residence was out of the question. The Jewish district remained sealed. There was only one way of getting out of the cage – to become a phony policeman. For the duration of the Aktion it was possible to get hold of a policeman’s cap and a forged certificate from the Jewish police."

Kahane approached with this request his neighbour Dr. Avraam Roisenman, a deputy head of the Jewish Aid Service (JOD).

"The next morning he brought me a cap, a yellow police armband, and a service book issued by the Jewish Ordnungs-Dienst stating that I was posted at the Second Commissariat at 132 Zamarstynowska Street as assistant policeman."

With the documents, the rabbi could freely move in the streets.

"On Thursday, August 20, before noon, I went out to the street for the first time and reported to the chief of the Second Commissariat. The ghetto streets were empty. Not a living soul could be seen. Now and then a german or Ukrainian policeman passed by, escorting a small group of Jews to a collection point. Here and there shots rang out. The cart of the Burial Department went from house to house collecting the dead. Nothing happened on the streets. All tragedies occurred within apartments, in cellars, attics and compartments concealed by furniture. From time to time a cry rose from the depths, shots were heard accompanied by the familiar sounds of heavy steps – then deadly silence again descended on the streets".

After the "Great Aktion" was over, and a closed ghetto was established, Dr. Kahane, as facilitated by Klymentiy Sheptytskyi, managed to organize a hiding place on an Arian side for his wife, under a fake identity.

Since the Department for Religions stopped functioning and the Judenrat work IDs stopped securing any protection against displacement, the rabbi had to get an official employment at a leather factory LPG (LePeGa) at Horodotska Street.

"In order to be able to maintain contact with the Abbot Kliment Sheptytskyi, with the help of my acquaintances I obtained a pass issued by the well-known German firm LPG (furs and leather), which enabled me to leave the ghetto and stay in the city. The LPG coordinator assigned me to the leather factory at Grodecka [Horodotska] street as a tanner. Again, as in the days of my youth, I had to learn. The factory was a short walk from Jura [St. George] Square, where greetings from my wife and daughter were conveyed to me on a regular basis”.

In the meantime, in a closed ghetto, they started assembling workers in certain buildings or blocks allocated for a factory where they worked. As a result, the territory was transformed into a labor camp — the Julag. At the same time, the police “vacated the residential area from the nonproductive elements” during the permanent "Aktions," and Dawid Kahane was a near escape.

Awaiting for resettlement to the houses allocated for LPG workers, the rabbi had to move places for the fourth time "[a] filthy alley with the ludicrous name Zamarstynow [now Pokutska St.]".

After marking, the prisoners were sent for disinfection and lice control to the baths at Szpitalna Street. There, they had to experience another, more scrupulous search and beating from the camp guards (so-called "askars").

During the entire spring, Kahane continued working at the VІВ company. In terms of a comparatively lighter work mode, he had several opportunities to escape from the camp.

"At the end of March I was surprised to receive a written note from my wife, brought to me by one of our brigade members. At that time she was well hidden in the Studite convent and knew of my incarceration in the Janowski camp. Terrible rumors about the camp prompted her to search for a hiding place for me. Risking her life she waited for several days near the camp gate until she managed to slip a note to one of the prisoners. She wrote that she succeeded in securing for me "a good place at the mother’s, where they wait for you.” This meant that the prioress (mother of the convent) was willing to hide me. In those days it was relatively easy to escape from the VIB brigade but this could have cost the lives of several fellow prisoners. I struggled with my conscience all night and decided to stay in the camp".

"On May 23, 1943, I worked the night shift. Usually workers from the camp reported for duty in the morning. That morning when workers did not come, we realized something was wrong. Several hours later we learned that the camp was under siege and horrific spectacles were taking place there. The Germans were in the process of liquidating six or seven thousand Jews in the camp, to prepare space for healthy Jews from the ghetto due to arrive several days later after its liquidation. After an hour or so the VIB workshop manager received instructions over the telephone to send all night-shift workers back to the camp. We knew what this meant. Everyone decided to try to save himself in any way he could. No attempt was made to defend ourselves or to organize an escape.

I remained hidden in the cellar throughout the day. When darkness fell, between seven and eight in the evening, I decided to set out for the metropolitan and ask for shelter".

Kahane managed to get to the St George Cathedral. After a friendly meeting with Andrey Sheptytskyi, he was placed in the Metropolitan's personal library.

"In one of the corners a hiding place was prepared for me. It was surrounded with books on all sides and a person entering the library could not notice that someone was hidden behind the books. I was not given a bed, but a lounge chair on which I could sleep or rest. For the time being I remained there".

"I stayed in the metropolitan’s library in Jura [St. George] Mountain through June 1, 1943. On the night of June 2, Hrtzai [Hrytsay - ed.] informed me that that very night I would have to leave the palace and move to the Studite monastery at Piotr Skarga Street. It was not safe for me to stay on Jura Mountain. There were too many people, including Germans, coming on business to the palace, which was the center of the Uniate Catholic church."

Late at night, a monk Hrytsay, with his brother Teodosiy, upon a preliminary plan, in line with all due security measures, took Dr. Kahane, under the name of Brother Mateusz, to a St Josafat "Studion" Monastery. Initially, he was placed into a cell, to be later transferred into a specially prepared shelter at a monastery attic. A hiding place where he stayed during the following three months was a size of a medium room, and had two small windows.

In mid-September, following the denouncement about hiding the Jews in the monastery, Germans held an unexpected raid.

"They turned everything upside down: the monks’ cells, the library, the large refectory, the secretariat, and they even searched in the chapel. Finally, they demanded the keys to the attic, but fortunately didn’t find anything. All ended well. However, the metropolitan had decided to trasnfer me back to his palace."

The rabbi was put back to the hiding place in a library of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi. Here, according to his testimony, on September, 26, 1943, he started writing his memoirs.

In the end of October, 1943, for the threat of being uncovered, Dawid Kahane was transferred back to the library of the Studion monastery. In case of search in the library, a special hiding place was arranged. There was a special code signal of an electric doorbell.

"During the winter of 1943-44 we went through six searches. Six times we heard the bell ringing. Six times we experienced the dreaded close calls of hiding Jews. The Germans, however, never suspected anything".

In hiding, Dr. Kahane, along with the monk Tyt, worked to arrange the Studion library and translated certain fragments of the Old Testament. From November, 1943, the rabbi found a huge consolation in teaching and mentoring the younger son of a rabbi Ezekiel Levin, the 11-year-old Nathan. In this situation, Kahane spent the remaining six months of the city’s German occupation.

“On July 27, 1944, Lvov was liberated. The Red Army took over the city. At long last I am free again like any other man”.

After Lviv was liberated from the Nazi occupation, Dawid Kahane worked as a rabbi of Jewish community for some time (in the registration bureau of the few surviving repatriate Jews) in the only surviving synagogue in the central part of the city. Formally, he held a position of a senior librarian in the Jewish library in Lviv.

In February, 1945, along with the family, he left for Warsaw. In a new place, he continued his active work, and in 1947, he became a chair of the rabbi council in Poland and of united Jewish communities. A year after, he became a chief rabbi of the Polish Army (in a rank of a colonel).