The Bialystoker memorial book

The Bialystoker Memorial Book
(Białystok, Poland)
53°08' / 23°09'

Translation of
Der Bialystoker yisker-bukh

Editor: I. Shmulewitz

Published by Bialystoker Center, NY, 1982

Acknowledgments

Our sincere appreciation to Ms. Alys Kremer, Secretary,
Bialystoker Center & Bikur Cholim, Inc.,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

Our sincere appreciation to Genia Hollander
for typing up the English text to facilitate its addition to this project.

This is from: Der Bialystoker yisker-bukh
The Bialystoker memorial book,
Edited by I. Shmulewitz. Published by Bialystoker Center, NY, 1982

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Bialystok (1982)

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
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Yiddish Translated by Yocheved Klausner

Book Committee, to the Bialystok Landsleit		V
List of contributors		VII
Foreword	Max Rotner	IX

In Old Bialystok

From a little river to a world–city	I. Shmulewitz	3
My Bialystok (poem)	Z. Segalowitz	6
Old Bialystok	Eliezer Feigin	7
One hundred years ago	Avraham Shmuel Hershberg	9
How Avraham Shmuel Hershberg perished		14
The historic town–clock		14
The rise of Zionism		15
The Jews of long ago in the Bialystok region	Dr. Anatol Lestchinski	16
The time of Rabbi Shmuel Mohliver	Dr. Refael Landau	17
The beginning of the Jewish Labor Movement	Mordechai Pogorelski	19
Memories from the ancient past	Tewel Bloch	21
With Dr. Yosef Chazanowitz	Littman Rosenthal	24
Dr. Ludwig Samenhof	Dr. M. Sodarski	26
The great pogrom in Bialystok	David Sehon	28
Our unforgettable old home	Ossip Dimov	32
The synagogues, Batei Midrash and minyanim [prayer groups]		34

The New Times

Our shining past	Pesach Kaplan	37
The beginning of the Twentieth Century	Avraham Reisen	39
The “BUND” in Bialystok	Imanuel Novogrodski	41
he establishment of Po'alei Zion	David Clementinovski	45

The Bialystok Yizkor Book

The relationship with “Habimah”	Ossip Dimov	48
The first Paintings Exhibition	M. Babitch	50
Torah Institutions and “Beautiful Jews”	M. Sirota	52
”Everyday Jews”	M. Sirota	57
The Yiddish theater between the two wars	Sheftel Zak	61
The Jewish Sport Organizations	Pinchas Ginsburg	64
The pogroms	Mordechai Pogorelski	68
Gedalia from Bialystok (poem)	Many Leib	68
The last community in Bialystok	Att. Zvi Clementinovski	69
A fire in the Gur Shtiebel		70

On the Eve of Ruin

Under Polish rule 1919–1939	I. Ch. Kontzipolski	73
The former textile industrialists		74
Jewish life before the war	David Clementinovski	79
The Social–cultural life		86
Memories from the Jewish hospital	Dr. Yakov Sokol	89
The greatness of the synagogue–life in the past	B. Tabatchinski	91
There are no words (poem)	Daniel Tcharni	93
Names of perished teachers		94
The Jewish press before destruction	A. Zbaar	95
The Jewish printing association	Issak Ribolovski and Hershel Kozak	97
At my father's table (poem)	Avraham Shevach	98
The historical calendar of the town	David Clementinovski	99
In the footsteps of the Fathers (poem)	Binyamin Obelski	103
The Landsman Maxim Litvinov	Ben Moshe	104

The Tragic Beginning

Yahrzeit candles [memorial candles] (poem)	Avraham Shevach	109
When borders are on fire	Yakov Patt	110
During troubled times	Yitzhak Haber	111
Under Soviet rule		113
The Jewish war–refugees		116
Bialystok (poem)	Yosef Rubinstein	118
How the refugees were welcomed	Chaim Leib Fuchs	119
We shall not forget! (poem)	Chana Bushel–Solov	120
Our Yurovtze Street	Mordechai Pogorelski	120

Under the Yoke of the Nazis

On the road to destruction		123
The Judenrat and the beginning of suffering		126
Rivke'le the Sabbath–woman [Di Shabesdike]	Pesach Kaplan	130
Life and struggle in the ghetto		130

Suffering before the End

Desperation and hope		135
The day of YIZKOR [remembrance] (poem)	Avraham Zak	136
Pesach Kaplan's diary from the ghetto		137
The death of Pesach Kaplan		149
Sad dates from the ruins		150
The tragic end is coming		151
The echo of the events in Eretz Israel		152
The destruction of Bialystok and surroundings	Dr. Shimon Datner	156
On the threshold of 1942		163
A tragic gathering in the ghetto		167
The destruction of the Province		169
The Ladies' “Aktzia” to Volkovisk		173
Echoes from the Warsaw Ghetto		177
The Tennenboim–Tamaroff Ghetto Archives		179
The tragic will–and–testament of the last Jews		182
Suicides in the ghetto		183

Destruction and Resistance

The end of the Jews of the Region		189
The discovered minutes and announcements of the Judenrat	Yitzhak Zettler	191
The Aktzia in February 1943	Refael Reisner	194
The ghetto–martyr Yitzhak Melamed		201
The last chapter of the old Community		203
An Appeal		205
The ghetto in flames		206
The heroic resistance		211
The second week of slaughter		216
In the Bialystok Ghetto (poem)		220
Pages from a tragic diary	Shimon Amiyel	221
The loud echoes of the heroic resistance		227
Fritz Gustav Friedel – the main murderer		227
The trial and the well–earned punisment		228
The uprising of the Jews in the ghetto	Pesach Burstein	230
The hiding place in the attic	Avrasha Gershuni	232
A witness tells about the uprising		234
“Katzet” (poem)	H. Salman	235
Heroes who perished in the uprising		236
Partial list of the fallen fighters		237
In the days of the Resistance		240
“Marcovtchizne” (poem)		241

After the Liberation

In the town of ruin and devastation		245
The Bialystok alleys (poem)	Avraham Shevach	245
Mourning and memories of the Martyrs	Yitzhak Borenstein	246
In Bialystok August 1944	Srolke Kott	250
The Bialystok weavers (poem)	Z. Segalowitz	252
The first Yom Kippur in the home–town		252
On the Bialystok Roads (poem)	Shlomo Patt	253
The first Passover after the Holocaust	Rabbi Dr. Avraham Kravetz	254
In Bialystok, soon after the War	Pesach Burstein	255
“Eicha Bialystok” [poem, after the Book of Lamentations]	Eliezer Nyudov–Nyevdadovski	258
A letter from the Committee		258
List of Bialystok Jews after the War		259
Greetings and call from Chayke Grossman	Rabbi Mordechai Kirshblum	261
The beginning of a new life	Yedidya Homburg	265
The holy soil of the Zhabye cemetery	Dr. Shimon Datner	268
Memories from the Hebrew High–School		270

The Fate of the Children

The fate of the miracle–children	Shalom Bechman	277
One of the survivors relates	Chana Linn–Kizelstein	279

The Brotherly Help

Help from the Bialystok Center		283
A call from Landsleit, in numbers		284
The echo in the “Bialystoker Stimme”		285
My former home during childhood	Israel Beker	287
Our Bialystok lineage	Freidkes	288
The famous Bialystok artist Benn	A. Parizer	289
Shalom Aleichem à la Bialystok	Aharon Zeitlin	290
Bialystok my home (poem)		291
I visited the old home	Yehuda Greenhoiz	292
A visit in Bialystok 35 years after the destruction	Isaak Ribolovski	293
For us, the war did not end	Chaika Grossman	297
A remembrance and a warning	Dr. Samuel Pisaar	298
How I survived	Beile Bender–Horin	300

Victims and witnesses tell their stories

Heroism on the road to Death	Yosef Blumson	305
Achieved victory, but not victorious	Srolke Kott	307
How I saved myself	Hirsh Feigin	308
After the liquidation of the ghetto	Moshe Bender	310
Mourning of a heroine's father		312
A witness against the Nazi criminals	Pesach Burstein	313
I was disguised as a man	Fany Garfinkel	316
My father's last road	Charles Shweber	318
In the Warsaw “Pawiak”	Arie (Leon) Sherenitz	320
Forever etched in memory	Tzirl (Bercowitz) Steingart	321
Our meeting after the “road of suffering”	Nechama Dinur (Drogotchinski)	324
A will–and–testament for the next generation	Alice Kraemer	325

The Landsleit Over the World

The arrival of the first Landsman	David Sohn	331
Jewish Bialystok in America	Isaak Ribalovski	335
The Old Synagogue in New York		343
Our devoted “Ambassador”	Rabbi Shmuel A. Kronik	344
The leader David Sohn	Louis Silver	346
David Sohn's family	Zalman Heller	348
The strength of a Bialystok origin	Shmuel Yitzhaki	349
My connection with Bialystok	Irving I. Stone	352
Hitler's Jewish victims by countries and numbers		353
Chana'le (poem)	Shmuel Bernstein	353

In Israel

The Organization of Bialystok Jews in Israel	ZalmanYerushalmi and Kopel Lev	357
In the new home in Eretz Israel		358
Zalman Yerushalmi	Chaim Israeli	360
A warm and homelike settlement in Eretz Israel	Avraham Wertheim	361
The contribution of our ancestors	Avraham Liess	363
Kiryat Bialystok		365
At the World–Gathering in New York		366
The appeal and the great response of the Landsleit		367
The printed “Bialystoker Vort” [Bialystok Word]		368

In Australia

Our important activity	P. Albert	371
The devotion of the Landsleit		373
The old and the new in Australia		374

In Argentina

Fifty years of the Association	Wolf Teshinski	377
Life in a new world	D. Sherman	379
In Buenos Aires	Yitzhak Monaker	380

In France

With the Bialystoker in Paris	David Podliashuk	385
The first letter from France		387
The Committee after the War	Fishel Feinfeld	388
Chances of help from America		389
Map and view of Bialystok today		391
Bibliography		392

English

Editorial Committee		IV
To Our Bialystoker landsleit and Friends	The Bialystoker Memorial Book Committee	V
Foreword	Max Ratner	IX

Bialystok of Old
Bialystok – A Historical Survey	I. Shmulewitz	3
Bialystok – The Beginning	Elijezer Fejgin	5
One Hundred Years Ago	Awrom Szmuel Herszberg	6
Rabbi Szmuel Mohilewer	Dr. Szoul Refoel Landau	11
The Jewish Labour Movement	Mordechaj Pogorelski	12
Dr. Josef Chazanowicz – A Profile	Litman Rozental	13
Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof and Esperanto	Dr. M. Sudarski	14
Pogroms in the 19^th Century	Mordechaj Pogorelski	15
The Pogrom Against the Jews	David Sohn	16
The Martyrs of the 1906 Pogrom		18

Bialystok - the Modern Period
Recalling Our Proud Past	Pejsach Kaplan	21
The "Bund" In Bialystok	Emanuel Nowogrodski	22
The Labour Zionist Movement	Dowid Klementynowski	24
Some of the Well-Known Jewish Physicians in Bialystok		25
The Habimah National Theatre	Ossip Dymow	26
The First Jewish Art Exhibition	Maks Babicz	27
Torah Institutions and Leaders	M. Sirota	28
The Athletes and Heroes		29
The Growth of the Silk Industry	Y.H. Kancypolski	30
The Jewish Sports Movement	Pynchos Ginzburg	31
The Jewish Theatre 1919–1939	Szeftel Zak	33
Women of Bialystoker Jewish Aristocracy		34

On the Eve of the Holocaust
Under Polish Jurisdiction 1919-1939	Y.H. Kancypolski	37
The Community before the War	Dowid Klementynowski	38
The Last Kehilla in Bialystok	Zwi Klementynowski	41
Remembering the Jewish Hospital	Dr. Jacob Sokol	42
The School and Education	B. Tabaczynski	43
A Historical Calendar		44
Maxim Litvinov Our Landsman	Dowid Klementynowski	45

The Tragic Beginning
As the Borders Go Up In Flame	Jakow Pat	49
The Yahrzeit Candle	Awrom Szewach	49
The Rise and Fall of Bialystok	Awrom Zbar	50
The Jews Welcome the Refugees	Chaim Lejb Fuks	55


Under Nazi Oppression
The Beginning of the Holocaust		59
Rivkele the Shabbosdike	Pejsach Kaplan	62
The Judenrat's Minutes and Orders	Isaac Czesler	63


Agony Before the End
Pejsach Kaplan's Ghetto Diary		71
The Death of Pejsach Kaplan		74
Bialystok Region in Ruins	Dr. Szymon Datner	75
The Archives of Tenenbaum-Tamarof and Mersik		80
Tragic Messages from the last Jews	Dr. Szymon Datner	81
The “Action” of February 1943	Refoel Rajzner	83
These are the sorrowful dates of our “Yiskor” Calendar		89
An Appeal	Bialystok Ghetto Resistance Organization	90
The Ghetto in Flames	Refoel Rajzner	91
Surrounded by Blood and Fire	Szymon Amiel	98
Fritz Gustav Friedl – Mass Murderer		103

Death and Resistance
The Bialystok Ghetto Uprising	Pejsach Bursztejn	109
Partial List of Martyrs		111
Our Streets	Awrom Szewach	113

After the Liberation
Jews in Bialystok After the War	Jakov Pat and Dr. Chaim Szozskes	117
Memorial in Tribute to the Victims	Izchok Bornsztejn	119
Bialystok in August 1944	Srolke Kot	121
The First Passover after the War	Rabbi Dr. Awrom Krawets	122
With the Jews after the War	Pejsach Bursztejn	123
Bialystok – A Lamentation	Eliezer Newdow-Newadowski	124
The Beginning of a New Life	Yedidia L. Hamburg	125
After the War		126
The Sacred Zabia Cemetery	Dr. Szymon Datner	127
The Hebrew Gymnasium	Dr. Szymon Datner	129
Jewish victims of the Nazis by country		130

The Children's Fate
Saving the Children		133
A Rescued Child Speaks	Chana Lin–Kizlsztejn	134

Assistance from other Bialystokers
The Bialystoker Centre helps		137
Minutes of the Relief Conference	Louis Shreibman	138
A Plea for help from landsleit on Cyprus		139
A letter of appreciation from the Religious Kehilla in Bialystok		139
How the Stimme is appreciated in Poland		140

The Victims' and Witnesses' Accounts
My visit to Bialystok in 1977	Izaak Rybal–Rybalowski	143
For us the war has not yet ended	Chajke Grosman	144
Growing up in the Bialystok Ghetto	Dr. Samuel Pisar	145
My Beloved Home	Israel Beker	146
Sam Solasz – From devastation to triumph	Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick	147
How I survived the Holocaust	Hirsz Fejgin	148
A Father's grief for his daughter		149
The famous artist, Benn	A. Parizer	150
I testified against a war criminal	Pejsach Burszteijn	151
I disguised myself as a man	Fannie Bojarski–Garfinkel	153
A walk to death: My father's story	Charles Schwecher	154
A Bialystoker Jew in Pawjak	Leon Szereniec	156
A legacy for the second generation	Alys Kremer	157
Forever in my memory	Tzirl (Berkowicz) Steingart	158
Reunion after a painful journey	Nechama (Drogoczynski) Dinur	159

Bialystokers All Over the World
Bialystokers in the United States
The first Bialystoker in America	David Sohn	165
Bialystoker Centre and Home – 50 years	Izaak Rybal–Rybalowski, General Secretary	168
Bialystoker Jews in America – A record of proud achievement		172
Max Ratner – A Bialystoker with a heart	Szmuel Izchaki	173
My Bialystok connection	Irving I. Stone	175
Izaak Rybal – A profile	Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick	176
David Sohn, leader of the Landsleit	Louis Silver	177
The family of David Sohn	Zalman Heller	178
David Sohn, Husband and Father	Naomi Kavee and Mildred Spiegel	179
In Israel
Bialystoker Centre in Israel	Zalman Yerushalmi and Kopel Lew	183
Jews in their new home		184
A new settlement in Israel	Avraham Wertheim	185
Pioneers in Israel	Avraham Lis	186
Kiryat Bialystok – A new beginning		187
In Australia
The Bialystoker Centre in Australia	Pejsach Albert	191
In Argentina
The fiftieth anniversary of the Bialystoker Society in Argentina	Wolf Czynski	195
In France
The Bialystoker community in France	David Podliachouk	199
A reminder and a warning	Dr. Samuel Pisar	200
The French committee after the war	Fiszl Fajnfeld	201
Bibliography		202

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