CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Perilous Crossing of the Dniester River

First Week of November, 1920

From 1918 to 1940, the Dniester River^I formed part of the border between Russia^II and Romania. Its boundaries originated in the Carpathian Mountains and flowed in a southeasterly direction and emptied into the Black Sea through an estuary. The Dniester meanders for about 840 miles, and its width south of Mogilev-Podolski measures anywhere from five to ten miles. The water usually freezes from sometime in November to January each year.

Crossing the Dniester to enter into Romania illegally was a scary proposition. Some refugees believed stories that if they were caught crossing the border illegally, they would be arrested, shot, or nailed to a tree. After traveling nearly two hundred miles from Belaya Tserkov, sometimes through blizzard conditions, the prospect of having to cross the river to eventually reach the Port of Constanta was horrifying. To survive the experience, smugglers, who commanded large fees, were left in charge of rowing the families safely over to the other side. The pilgrimage would have to be done under the cover of darkness and carefully timed to coincide with the changing of the guards.

So how did this band of eighty poor Jewish refugees know just where along the approximate 840 miles of the meandering river to cross? Barney once again saved the day. He and another gentleman traveled over the Dniester River the evening before the rest of the group in an attempt to secure a safe crossing. Smugglers on the other side of the border quickly saw dollar signs when the young American leader approached them requesting their unique services. Finding himself in an impossible situation, Barney reluctantly agreed to their outrageous demands of five hundred dollars^III per head to cross over the river; he promised to settle with them after the job was done. Of course, once his entourage was safely in Romania, Barney had no intention of paying the full price demanded by these greedy smugglers.^IV

If not for Barney’s lead, his followers would never have pinpointed the most accessible spot to cross the river, which was of great importance for two reasons. Not only was it imperative to find a narrow crossing point, but also crucial to cross through a valley to avoid having to climb over frozen hills and mountains. Mountains randomly neighbored the other side of the Dniester River, making entry into Romania a daunting task.^V

Within a week or two of Channa’s group, at different points along the Dniester, two other families from Stavishche, both with daughters Channa’s age, were forced to travel over those treacherous peaks after crossing the nearly frozen river. Channa’s neighbor Rose Lechtzer later wrote about her family’s parallel struggle to cross over the mountainous border.^VI “Then [we] began the climb up the other side… I was numb from the cold. I sat down on a rock and begged to be left to freeze to death.”^VII She later added, “Our pace [across the mountains] was too slow and it was unbearably cold. Many years have now passed but I still shiver when I think of trudging along on top of that bare mountain with no trees to shield the sharp, cold wind that went through me like a knife.”

Rochela Faynzilberg and her family also faced the same unmerciful mountain climb, closer to the location where Rose and her family had traveled. She would later write that branches used as walking sticks helped with the trek, and every few minutes she would look up, hoping to see the end of the mountains. People threw away their precious belongings to make the climb lighter. Mothers struggled to hold their babies. Everyone kept stumbling, but fear gave them the strength to continue.

Barney’s entourage split up into many different groups in order to make the dangerous voyage across the border. As they all waited together in the small room of a house owned by a smuggler near the river, fear set in. What if Molly’s baby, Fay, let out a loud cry, revealing their hiding place? The family also worried about Daniel Cutler, who had fallen ill with bronchial pneumonia. His father, Yunkel, had no choice but to carry him down to the river by piggyback.

Isaac, Rebecca, Channa, and Sunny were all insistent that Bessie travel with them in their wooden rowboat. They all loaded into the small boat, carrying with them their personal belongings, including clothing and bedding. The smuggler was constantly checking his pocket watch, timing the expedition to the minute.

“Hurry up and get in,” he snapped. “We have to move quickly.”

The smuggler surveyed his group and declared to Isaac, “There are too many people; you should leave someone behind.”

“No,” Isaac answered firmly. “We’re all going to cross together.”

The smuggler shrugged his shoulders and began to row the boat into the cold darkness of the Dniester. The rowboat felt very heavy and was moving at a slow pace. As they paddled toward the middle of the river, Bessie realized that something was terribly wrong.

“Isaac, look, my feet are wet!” she whispered.

Channa looked down to find water gushing into the rowboat.

“Papa,” she asked quietly, “do you think we’re going to drown?”

As they continued rowing slowly toward the middle of the river, water began pouring into the tiny boat, causing it to rock. The boat flipped sideways, throwing its occupants overboard. It was early in November, and the water was so cold; Channa was sure she was going to die. If the man had rowed any farther into deeper water, they would have certainly all died.

Miraculously, Isaac found that he could still stand in the river, and he and his wife were able to grab Channa and Sunny and hold their heads above water. After Channa coughed up a mouthful of water, Bessie took her from her father’s arms, and gently whispered into the child’s ear to stay calm and quiet. She didn’t want the guards to be alerted. Isaac and the smuggler were somehow able to tilt the boat over on its side and pour the water out, and then turn it back upright. Although lucky enough to survive the ordeal, most of their clothing and some of their bedding sank in the Dniester.

The family climbed back into the boat anxiously; valuable time had been lost, and the smuggler informed them that they would have to return to the Ukrainian side of the border. Soaking and shivering, they were disappointed that they were not able to make it over to the other side, as the others from the caravan had done that evening. The smuggler took the sodden refugees home with him so that the family had a place to dry off and rest before attempting once more to cross the river the following night.

“It looks like we’ll be traveling with a much lighter load tomorrow,” Isaac remarked sardonically, referring to the loss of some of their possessions in the river. The smuggler turned to Isaac, looking him seriously in the eye. “God must have been watching over you and your family. A few more minutes, and we would have been in deeper water and we all could have drowned…”

Fortune shined upon them that they were not apprehended that evening by the border guards. Later that evening at the smuggler’s house, Rebecca and Bessie moved to a corner of the room where they were less likely to be seen and opened up the linings of their winter coats. They were all soaked from the fall into the Dniester, and the sisters wanted to make sure that their money and jewels were not ruined. Relieved that there had been no damages or loss, Rebecca handed the smuggler’s wife a ring, paying her off for sheltering them. While fate forced them to stay on the Ukrainian side of the border that evening, the other members of their group congregated together in a Romanian synagogue.

The following night, during the changing of the guards, Isaac, Rebecca, Bessie, Channa, and Sunny were rowed over the Dniester without incident. Late that evening, the last members of Barney’s entourage were taken to the house of another smuggler who lived on the Romanian side of the river. The following morning, the smuggler took them by horse and wagon to a large city located above the Dniester Valley on the river’s tributary. They were now in Kishinev (Chisinau).^VIII

1. I. Channa called the river “Nester.”

2. II. Author note: At times, the border was Ukraine.

3. III. This is today’s equivalent in US dollars for the amount Barney was quoted in Europe.

4. IV. After he arrived in Bucharest, Barney did have a few hundred dollars sent to the smugglers.

5. V. Bernard Sanders, once a resident of Stavishche, wrote in his memoir that a hill approximately two miles steep had to be climbed in order to enter Romania.

6. VI. These personal recollections were extracted from family stories that Rose wrote and later shared with the author in an interview before her death at the age of ninety-seven in 2007.

7. VII. Her brother-in-law carried Rose the rest of the way.

8. VIII. Some of Channa’s older cousins believed that the family crossed over the Dniester River near the town of Sguritsa, in the district of Sorocki. This town is located eighty-six miles north northwest of Kishinev. If true, it may have taken more than a day to travel from Sguritsa to Kishinev by horse and wagon. However, since they were children and unfamiliar with the area, the exact crossing point remains unconfirmed.