My father and his family lived in a small village in Belarus,
Zhelizniki. They had to leave ~1915, when the Germans came and kicked
them out, taking over their home and burning others. My father's family
fled to the forest, living there on whatever they could find, until a
sympathetic Russian peasant came and rescued them, taking them in a
wagon covered with hay to Gomel, where they had family. They told me
that many, many Jews had fled to Gomel and other cities/towns because of
the German invasion, and there was no place to rent anymore. They had to
go to Vyetka, not far >from Gomel, and even there the Jewish part of
Vyetka was overcrowded. They had to live in the non-Jewish section. The
Germans were in Vyetka too, but it was a bigger place, and the Germans
couldn't take over all the Jewish homes. So there were valid reasons
that Jews had to leave their hometowns in Belarus in 1915, not due to
any decree >from the Tsar.

Carol Lipson
cslipson@...