“I was 19 when the Germans occupied Warsaw.” So begins the story of the late Peretz Chorshati, a Holocaust survivor who became a partisan fighter. The incredible account that follows, told in his own words, is entirely true.
Peretz’s father, a member of the Polish underground, knew he wouldn’t be able to protect his son. He smuggled him onto a train heading east, hoping he’d be able to join the partisans. In Peretz’s hand, he placed a small dagger—“just in case.” That was the last time they saw each other.
“I drew my dagger”
At one point during the journey, the train came to a halt, and document checks began. Peretz realized he was in danger—he had no papers. In a moment of courage, he slipped into an empty brake car and continued the journey. There, exhausted, he fell asleep. When he awoke, a German soldier was sitting beside him. Peretz greeted him in Polish—the soldier didn’t suspect a thing. On the contrary, he offered him food and soon fell asleep by the door.
As the train began to slow, Peretz knew it was time to escape—but the soldier was blocking the exit.
“I drew my dagger,” he recalled. “My heart was pounding. I hesitated—I had never hurt anyone before.” In that moment, Peretz remembered the horrors he had seen the Germans inflict on the Jews. He immediately made up his mind and stabbed the soldier, who screamed in pain. Gunshots rang out and whistled over his head. Peretz opened the door, jumped from the moving train, and landed in a ditch. He hit his head and lost consciousness.
A survivor who found life in the forest
When he came to, the train was long gone. He crawled away from the tracks and entered the forest, wandering for days—hungry and weak. Eventually, in the forests of Belarus, he came across the Bielski brothers’ partisan group and joined their ranks.
After the war, Chorshati immigrated to Israel aboard the Birya, an illegal immigrant ship, and joined the Irgun. During the War of Independence, he served as a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade and fought in the battle for Metzudat Yoav, where he was wounded. Later, he established the fire station in Eilat. At the age of 75, he began painting his wartime memories and, with the help of friends, published a book of his drawings titled Daring, Nerve, and Luck: How I Survived. His original paintings are displayed at Yad Vashem.
