B 3ACTEHKE?

[J F Levin]

Colleagues:
I just got a query from the manager of one of the Jewish genealogy 
lists regarding a translation being done
of some archival material i Kaunas.  The translator translated "v 
zastenke" as "in the torture chamber" followed
by a place name.  I could not find zastenok in online Dal', and of 
course in my Ozhegov it seems to mean more or
less that.  But the gentleman who sent the query and I are both sceptical.
I assume this is a 19th Century record, what could it be?  Could it 
have just meant something like "punishment cell"
in a prison?
Jules Levin
PS  Don't let the "Cyrillic" on the subject line fool you.  I cannot 
write Cyrillic in eudora--it was cleverly made entirely
from the Latin keyboard.  So please transliterate if you cite from a 
Russian source.

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