The Book of Memory to the Jewish Community of Shebreshin

The Book of Memory to the
Jewish Community of Shebreshin
(Szczebrzeszyn, Poland)

50°42' / 22°58'

Translation of
Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Shebreshin

Editors: Dov Shuval, Association of Former Inhabitants
of Shebreshin in Israel and the Diaspora

Published in Haifa, 1984

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This is a translation of: Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Shebreshin (Book of memory to the Jewish community of Shebreshin),
Editors: Dov Shuval, Haifa, Association of Former Inhabitants of Shebreshin in Israel and the Diaspora, 1984 (Y,H,E, 518 pages)

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Szczebrzeszyn

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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Translated by Yocheved Klausner

Foreword [H]	The Editor	11
Foreword [Y]	The Editor	15

Everyday life
The desire to acquire knowledge [H]	Moshe Messinger	23
The desire to acquire knowledge	Moshe Messinger	29
How the young generation flourished [H]	David Fuchs	36
How the young generation flourished	David Fuchs	39
The struggle for cultural progress	Yehoshua Suessbrenner	43
How we have thrown away the long Kapotas [Hasidic garment]	Yehuda Kelner	45
“You should see a nerve doctor”!…	Baruch Bibel	47
Memories from an outsider	Luba Gall	49
A street in Szczebrzeszyn	Emanuel Chmyelash	56
On the shore of Lake Wyepsz	Rivka Smoli (Katz)	59
The competition	Aharon Schrift	62
Heroism (episodes)	Yankel Lamm	67
Poland (a poem)	Pinchas Bibel	71
Sources of livelihood	Moshe Messinger	75
Making a living was very hard [H]	Zvi Treger (Tal)	78
Making a living was very hard	Zvi Treger (Tal)	80
Respectful behavior, honest trading	Emanuel Chmyelash	82
Windows were smashed, but we won the strike	Yankel Itche treger & Leibel Ackerflug	84
On weekdays and on holidays	Yankel Frost	87
Night work in the bakery	Avigdor rieder	89
“Do not miss the train!”	Avraham Becher	92
The Devil was out of work…	Pinchas Bibel	96

The Religious Life
The Synagogue in Szczebrzeszyn, a Work of Art
Modest on the outside, beautifully decorated inside [H]	Eng. David Davidowitz	103
One of the famous synagogues	Meir Balaban	107
Little angels sing a song of praise	Menachem Messinger	109
Crowns of gold and diamonds	Mendel Farber	113
Superb holiness	Chava Sapian	116
A resemblance to the Amsterdam Synagogue [H]	Aharon Less	119
Sabbath in my town	Emanuel Chmyelash	120
Illegal activity in the Shtiebl	Moshe Sisser	125
“Herzl's Blue-White Box”	Feige Ethel Boim	127
Memories from the Heder and the Shtiebl	Aharon Less	128
On the Chair of the Rabbinate	Yankel Lamm	131
The Rabbi is dead	Yosef Boim	133

Legends and Mystery Stories
Why Szczebrzeszyn? [H]	Moshe Messinger	137
Why Szczebrzeszyn?	Moshe Messinger	138
“The Jewish School”	Feige Ethel Boim	139
About the Spanish Exiles in Poland	Menashe Ungar	140
“To hasten Deliverance” [lidchok et haketz] [H]	Efraim Ferber	141
To bring Salvation before its time	Efraim Ferber	143
“Angels transported him from Szczebrzeszyn to Eretz Israel” [H]	Avraham Stern	146
Folk Tales	Mendel Messinger	147
Legendary figures	Yehuda Kelner	149
A far echo from King Solomon's Judgement	Zanvil Aschenberg	152
In the Cemetery	Mendel Farber	155
The Magnificient road of the Seer of Lublin	Aviezer Burstein	156
Deterred by Heaven [H]	Rav Menachem Guttman	161

Days of Suffering and Destruction
Between life and death [H]	Yitzhak Stemmer	167
Between life and death	Yitzhak Stemmer	179
One in a generation - Hersh Getzl Hochbaum	Emanuel Chmyelash	195
From the bunker among the Partisans	Yakov Morgenstern	198
Imprisoned by the Germans	Efraim Farber	200
With the partisans in the forest	A. H.	223
I participated in the battles [H]	Zvi Treger (Tal)	227
I participated in the battles	Zvi Treger (Tal)	229
In the Szczebreszyn hell	Efraim Farber	232
Silent weeping (poems)	Shalom Stern	246
Uprooting the suffering Szczebreszyn Jews	Sigmund Klukovski	253
Remarks on the personality of Dr. S. Klukovski	Devora Fleischer	290
Szczebreszyn under Hitler's occupation	Devorah Fleischer	291
“Tchotcha Marisha” [H]		299
Twenty four children saved from Christian hands	Devora Fleischer	300
The last train	Aharon Schrift	305
The last evening in my home	Sara Fuchs (Ingbar)	306
My ruined town (poem)	Avraham Weinrieb	309
A night of terror	Balche Milstein (Langburd)	311
Wandering	Sheindl Knabel (Stern)	314
In armed battle	Efraim Farber	318
Do not forget the dead! (poem)	Mordechai Elboim	320
Oh, my little town!	Pinchas Bibel	322
My ruined home	Shlomo Reiter	326
Nights of pogroms (poem)	Batya Bibel	329
In the whirl of war	Sime Berger (Elboim)	331
Memories (poem)	Feige Roitman	333
“Why are the survivors silent?”	Shimon Kantz	335
My town Szczebreszyn (poem)	Bracha'le Stern	337
Hallucinations in the Siberian Taiga	Welvel Ingber	339
Posing as Aryans in Belgium	Efraim Farber	342
Disappointment from the socialist regime in Poland [H]	Bella Rosenblum (Scher)	344
Returning from the Red Army	Yehuda Weinstock	345
In Szczebreszyn after the war [H]	Chanoch Becher	347
In Szczebreszyn after the war	Chanoch Becher	349
The Belzec Camp		352
Report about the distribution of lunch and bread to the deported		356

Figures in our town
A gallery of types	Moshe Messinger	363
Warmhearted types	Yehuda Kelner	366
Praiseworthy doers	Yankel Lamm	369
Militarists in appearance - pioneers in spirit	Emanuel Chmyelash	370
The leader and teacher of the “Bund”	David Fuchs	372
Two activists for the people	Zanvil Aschenberg	373
The warmhearted doctor	Berl Ettenberg	376
Mohel [circumciser] and “doctor”	Mendel Farber	377
Exaggerated fanatics	Mendel Farber	378
The Tzadeket [saintly woman]	Chava Sapian	380
Zenik the partisan	Yankel Lamm	381
The Rav and great scholar R'Yechiel Blankman HY"D	Rav R'Avraham Goldschmid	383
The cheerful grandfather	Efraim Farber	384
Hard work, beautiful manners	Efraim Farber	386
Taking care of the needy	Rachel Greenspan	388
Menachem Messinger - an 80-year-old naive person	Ariela Reuveni	390

Old Szczebreszyn
Szczebreszyn of long ago	Dr. Sigmund Klukovski	393
Geographic, ethnic and historic Szczebreszyn		402
The surroundings	Moshe Messinger	408
Szczebreszyn in the Pinkas [register] of the Council of the Four Lands		409

The Life of R'Yakov Reifman
A great Jew and a genial person	Yitzhak Warshavski	417
A great Szczebreszyn pious man and scholar	Yakov Schatzki	423
“It is not permitted to hold it in one's hand”!	Avraham Bernstein	425
How many Yakov Reifman are there in town? [H]	Zvi Kremer	425
In a room like a cage	Solomon Lastik	426
German translatiom of Chanuka and Purim Piyutim [religious poems]		429
“History of the Persecutions”		431
Cover-pages of old books, documents and certificates		432
From the Literature		448
Personalities from the Past		456

Landsmanshaftn [organizations of former residents]
“Former Residents of Szczebreszyn” in Israel		457
The Landsmanshaft in Montreal	Emanuel Chmyelash	460
The Landsmanshaft in New York	Freide Blatt	465

Yizkor pages
In their memory		472
Necrology		473
They fell in the battle with the Hitler enemy		496
They fell in the Israel Wars		497

English Summary

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