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Translation of
Korczyna; sefer zikaron

Published in New York, 1967

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator and Translator

William Leibner

Our sincere appreciation to Morris Zucker and Isaac Wasserstrom,
of the Korczyner Relief Committee,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Korczyna; sefer zikaron
(Korczyna Memorial Book of a Jewish Town whose People were destroyed by the Germans in World War II),
 New York, 1967 (H. Y., 495 pages)

Purchase details for a printed copy of this translation can be found at https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ybip/YBIP_Korczyna.html

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

A few words by the publisher	11
Anger	13
Introduction	15
First Part
Isaac Englard-Wasserstrom:
The township	19
When did Jewish life begin in Korczyn?	23
The community administration	25
The activities of the people and the elections	26
The rabbis	29
The synagogues	31
The study center	33
The economic situation and occupations of the Jews of Korczyn	35
The economic situation and occupations of the Jews of Korczyn after WWI	37
The spiritual and cultural life of Korczyn since the second half of the 19th century to the outbreak of WWII	41
The first years of the present century	43
The period following WWI	45
Jewish life hundred years ago in Korczyn	48
Friendly relations	50
When someone was sick	51
Sabbath	51
Parental respect	52
Marriages	52
Problems with marrying children	55
Similar situations in the past	56
Relations between Jew and non-Jew prior to WWI	59
Relations between Jew and non-Jew following WWI	61
Aron the crisis	64
The destruction and disappearance of Korczyn	67
The outbreak of the war	71
The entrance of the Germans and the first days of their rule	73
Jews must sweep the market	74
The first Rosh Hashana under German occupation	75
Refugees returning-the first victims of Dinow	76
German soldiers in town	77
Germans keep horses in the study-center- anti-Jewish slogans	78
Polish hoodlums clip sidecurls (peyot) of Jews	79
Germans soldiers rob Jewish homes	80
Germans arrest Lea Blank	82
Jews must wear star of David-contributions	83
The Judenrat	84
Jewish refugees from Lodz and other places	86
Germans ask to be paid for shooting a Jewish dog	87
The pharmacist	87
The Germans tear pieces of facial flesh from Itsche Denn and Avraham Itzhak Kanner	88
The rav escapes from the township	89
Death penalty for listening to the radio	90
Ritual slaughter forbidden – the shochet Moshe Leichtog	90
Poles seize apartments from Jews	92
The Germans attack Russia	94
Jews not allowed to own stores	95
Jews are not permitted to read newspapers	96
Jews must surrender furs under penalty of death	96
Jews are forbidden to leave township	97
Germans demand to be given Jews for an execution	97
Mrs. Korb	98
The Gestapo again arrives to kill Jews	100
The saint Moshe Epstein	102
Terrible news, the Germans are destroying entire Jewish communities	105
Jews must pay taxes and are forbidden to use electricity	106
Young Jews must register to work and old ones are shaving their beards and  side curls	107
The Jewish communities of Korczyn and Kros are erased	109
The liquidation of Korczyn	112
The end of the Jewish community of Korczyn	117
Parchments of the Torah used as insteps in shoes and pages of the Talmud are used as wrapping paper	117
The saints: Wolf Kirschner and his 12 year old son	118
Picture of their tombstone in Polish	119
The saints: Avraham Bezenschtock, his wife, his children, Jochewet Schiff	120
The saint Israel Brenner	122
The Krosner rabbi and his brother in law Naphtali Horowitz	124
The Gestapo grabs children and tosses them into the car – Pessah Kratzer and Yanka Geller	125
Why did we not resist	127
Weissberger- Urbankowa the convert	129
The remnants of the Jews of Korczyn after the liberation	130
Yossel Reich, murdered following the war	131
In the camp Duchatska Wola	132
The editors comment about the author of the song "This is how I feel"	135
Israel Platner – statement	136
This how I feel	137
Aron Atlas – The holy tombstone in memory of Korczyn	140
Our ancestors in Korczyn- Sabbath of our ancestors	142
Zishe Eichorn – about the destruction of my family and our township	144
Bashe Krawtchik (Schiff) – my painful experiences in the German camps	156
Itzhak Fessel – memories from the destruction of Korczyn	169
In memory of my family and relatives	178
Michael Horowitz – what I saw in Maydanek	181
Yossef Weber – the sale	191
The fisher	196
Moshe Zucker	205
Personalities and types	207
Wolf Rapport	208
Leibish Halpern – Shlomo Gimpel Wasserstrom	209
Moshe Rothenberg	211
Aron Atlas – Naphtali Hirtz Halpern	212
Moshe Zucker – Naphtali Raab	213
Moshe Zucker – Mendel Schroit	216
Some reminiscences	219
My mother, Reisel Idel's	224
Mordechai Hersh Baletschanker	228
Yekutiel Kamelhar	234
Haim Dym	238
My teachers	241
Moshe Mechale- My Torah and Rashi teacher	245
My first Talmud teacher- David Stretner [Shtern]	249
Zalke Melamed	251
Reuven Yossef	260
Hersch Yaacov Rossenhendler	263
Mendel Weissman	268
Benyamin Rubin	272
David Ringelheim	276
Leib Wolf Freund	282
Shmuel Aron Kokoshke	284
Shmayahu	286
Avraham, the slow one	291
The wife of the kehilla leader and Neche the fool	294
Ber Fishel	297
Haim Wolf [ Koref ]	302
Yesterday, today and tomorrow	309
Korczyner-Reisher Synagogue	311
Who came once to the USA	312
Yankel Guzik	314
Raphael Meisner and Eliyahu Katz	317
Korczyner Landsmen in the USA	323
The Meisner family	326
Raphael's daughter Sara	329
Sam Meisner, Raphael's son	331
Meir, the son of Nahum Kirschner	333
Hannah Malka, the glazier	339
The old and the new study center	340
The holy arc	346
The painting of the study center	349
Created by me for your Admiration	354
Purim gifts	356
Bread on Bread or the third Shabbath meal	359
Ethical personalities	361
The delayed reading of the torah	366
The desecration of the Eastern wall	373
A Jewish letter carrier by Mordechai Schiff from Jerusalem	376
A Punishment	380
A tragically comical story as told by Mechel Horowitz	383
American bluffers	387
Did you pray already Minha – Moshe Zucker	392
To Tashlich – Moshe Zucker	394
The Eruvin or enclosure in Korczyn – Shmuel Leib Kaufman	397
Haim Dawidowitz – Moshe Zucker	401
The study center – Michael Horowitz	408
On the eve of the Heshvan Yarid in Kros – Mechel Horowitz	414
This is the gate to the heavens and the righteous will enter it – Mechel Horowitz	418
The Zionist organization in Korczyn – Mechel Horowitz	421
Home and environment – Shalom Weissman	427
Another Reminiscence – Shalom Weissman	430
You should buy another laundry basin – Zev Weissman	432
Moshe- you can carry already – Moshe Zucker	436
Bashe Motik's– Mordechai Schiff	439
Picture of a tombstone on Mount Zion	443
Israel Platner –Yizkor	445
List of victims	447-456
Symbolic tombstones and pictures of victims	457-493
An Explanation	495
List of Jewish names that appear in the Korczyner Yizkor Book
List of Jewish names in Korczyna