Pinkas Zyrardow, Amshinov and Viskit

Memorial Book of Zyrardow,
Amshinov and Viskit

(Zyrardów, Poland)
52°04' / 20°26'

(Mszczonów, Poland)
51°59' / 20°31'

(Wiskitki, Poland)
52°05' / 20°24'

Translation from
Pinkas Zyrardow, Amshinov un Viskit

Edited by: M. W. Bernstein

Published in Buenos Aires, 1961 (Yiddish, 699 pages)

In memory of Yosef (Jose) Funtowicz

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator

Renata Singer

Our sincere appreciation to Mr. Bezalel Tigel, of the Zyrardow Landsmanschaft in Israel,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Zyrardow, Amshinov un Viskit (Memorial Book of Zyrardow,
Amshinov and Viskit), ed. M. W. Bernstein, Association of Former Residents in the USA, Israel, France and Argentina,
Buenos Aires, 1961 (Yiddish, 699 pages).

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/yizkor-book-collection#/?tab= 1718

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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Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

Translated by Renata Singer and Martin Jacobs

Foreword		15

1. The Birth of Zyrardow

The beginnings of the town and the development of the factory		19
A whole regiment of soldiers and Cossacks fight several hundred strikers	Victor Shulman	22
Documents and materials about the first strike in Zyrardow		24
Zyrardow^[1] histories	Y. Polski	28
From Phillippe Girard to Marcel Bussac		29
Zyrardow: the casualty of capitalism	Nusn Haldzband	31
The Yiddish shtetl of Zyrardow	Rabbi Dr. Heszel^[2]Klepfisz	33
For the history of the shul		37
The oldest inhabitants of Zyrardow		39
Zyrardow subscribers to a book written about 60 years ago		41

2. Before the First World War

Zyrardow	L. Feld	49
Zyrardow in my memories	Marcus Yakubovitsh	70
What I remember of Zyrardow	Gedalye Shmulevitsh	83
Memories of our hometown to keep forever	Aaron Tupman	86
Memories of old times	Max Kriger	89
People of our home town	Avrom Birnboym	93
The butchers of Zyrardow commission a Torah scroll	K. Grushka	97
From a stormy time	Harry Koyfman	99
A glance backwards – to Zyrardow	Sam Meppen	102
Zyrardow Station	Meylekh Rotshtayn	108
The birth of Yiddish theater in Zyrardow	Gershon-Meyer Shmetanke	113
The Wagner family		114

3. Between the Two World Wars

The Zionist Movement
Memories of bygone days and years	Yosef Nisnberg	119
Jewish social and political organizations	Mordkhe Bauman	138
The Library and the Drama Circle	Gele Nisnberg-Goldberg	155
“Pod Gviazdem”^[3]	Dovid Yacoby	160
The Free Loan Society in Zyrardow		164
A stormy “Matn Torah”^[4]	Bet-Shin	171
Shoes for the Talmud Torah children		174
The Zionist Movement	Yosef Nisnberg	176
The Establishment of the Bundist Organization in Żyrardów after the First World War	Hertzke Shwartzshtayn	183
This is how Zyrardow lived	Reubn Vaynberg	188
Indelible memories of my unforgettable shtetl	Leybl Tiger	192
A chapter from a stormy period	Yitsik Benek	197
A life that was viciously destroyed	Itshe-Yosl Shmitnikov	202
Zyrardow 1926-36	Yosef Funtovitsh	208
Between World War I and the Holocaust	Avrom Shmulevitsh	220
“Die Stimme”		229
What I remember	Yidl Koyfman	229
Sewing the first flag	Feyge Kurdelas-Miller	233
We act in the theater	Meylekh Nisnboym	235
From “Behind the Woods”	Elye-Ber Kaltan	236
When we were young	Avrom Zimler	245
The Mizrachi Movement in Zyrardow	Bezalel Tigel & David Frydman	252
The Butchers’ Union	Leah Krakov-Yakubovitsh	254
Memories of the “Bleykh”^[5]	Mindl Tiger	256
A story of the desecration of the dead	Yosef Funtovitsh	261
The Women’s Zionist Union “WIZO”	Malke Khanakhovitsh-Goldberg	269
Homey Chronicle	Hersh Koyavski	270
My shtetl Zyrardow	Avrom Kshantshenitser	276
The Yiddish shtetl of Zyrardow^[6]	Rabbi Dr. Heszel Klepfisz	277
Zyrardow diary^[7]	Isruel Sama	280
Documents and photographs of life in Zyrardow between the wars		283
Chronicle of the Zyrardow Press		289

4. Individuals – Personalities – Families

Zyrardow’s “First Man”	Avrom Zimler	297
The Blind Man of Shimanov		298
Shloyme Viskitski		301
In the [course] of generations and families	Yosef Nisnberg	303
About Aaron Albek		307
Figures of Zyrardow	Mordkhe Bauman	308
Rabbi Avrom-Mendl Khanakhovitsh		314
Rabbi Zalman Klepfisz	Rabbi Dr. Heszel Klepfisz	316
The “lamed-vovnik”	Hershl Koyavski	320
The Amshinov Rabbi: Rabbi Yakob-Dovid ben Yosef Kalish		321
Reb Khayim-Yosef’s relief society	Yosef Funtovitsh	322
Reubn Sobol	Leah K. Yakubovitsh	324
Memorial lights for friends	Yosef Nisnberg	325
Yehoshua Shtrazburg & Aaron Haldzband	Nakhman Vayntroyb	328
Reb Moyshe Milenbakh		329
Commemorating Zev (Volf) Nayman^[8]	Yosef Haldzband	330
The Yiddish-Polish school and its director Gomolinski	Sabina^[9]Holshtayn-Bauman	332
A page of memories	Gitl-Klepfisz-Yakhsen	334
My aunt Hana’s golden chain	Hana Vayzman	337
My Kaddish for their unknown graves	Yosef Haldzband	338
On the orphaned roads of my home	Yosef Nisnberg	341
A tombstone for my destroyed home	Avrom Khanzenitzer	345
Chronicles and memories	Malke Khanakhovitsh-Goldberg	348
Around the pump	Tevye Rotshtayn	350
Left is a splinter of memories	Feyge Kimelfeld-Kalikshtayn	351
Nothing more than memories are left	Leybl Brikman	353
Bio-bibliographical details	Avrom Vevyorke	354
Yom Kippur (a poem)	Avrom Vevyorke	356
Clouds	Avrom Vevyorke	356
Bio-bibliographical details	Volf Vevyorke	359
About Volf Vevyorke	Moyshe Dlusznavski	360
The creative road of Volf Vevyorke	Avrom Vaytz	366
Homey Kvass	Volf Vevyorke	366

5. Amshinov

A glance at my annihilated shtetl Amshinov^[10]	Avrom Mendelevitsh	381
My beloved Amshinov	Yirmiyohu Hershman	387
Our destroyed Amshinov	Leybish Goldshtayn	395
Bio-biographical details	Hersh-Dovid Nomberg	403
A lullaby	H. D. Nomberg	405
Chapters from smugglers	Oyser Warshawski	406
Biographical details	Moyshe Apelboym	412
A few concluding words to the Amshinov chapter	A. B. Koltan	414

6. Viskit

History of the community		417
My Home Town, Viskit ^[11]	Gershon-Meyer Shmetanke	423
Viskit between the two World Wars	Toivye and Shama Goldman	432
The “House of Bread” in Viskit		448

7. Destruction – Resistance – Holocaust

Zyrardow (Report from the ghetto)		453
Documents from the Zyrardow ghetto		456
A refugee in hospitable Zyrardow	Itzhak Lipski	463
In those days	M. Boymerder^[12]	464
The lament of the Zyrardower ghetto	Rukhl Fogel	468
Witness of the Holocaust	Mordkhe Bauman	474
The first pogrom and after	Isruel Milnbakh	481
In dark days	Simkhe Haberman	486
Zyrardow in the abyss of the Warsaw Ghetto		493
The 5 Zyrardow heroes of the Warsaw ghetto uprising		497
Between Life and Death	Freydl Sheradzki	501
Sobibor – the slaughter-house for people	Avrom Margulis	505
A child fights with an army of murderers	Arye Dreval	511
My brother falls a hero	Khayim Lipshits	513
How we saved ourselves from the Nazis	Berel Vaytser	517
Living through the Holocaust	Rivke Yakubovitsh-Kribus	521
Just one left: remnant of the Holocaust	Atara Blumenshtayn	524
On 'Aryan papers'	Sabina Holshtayn-Bauman^[13]	527
So I survived	Ikhoyl Elert	539
Of the destruction of Amshinov in the world	Isruel Ayzman	542
Across the hell as Irena Kovalska	Ite Kirshboym-Albert	543
Through pain, hunger and murder	Yente Nashelevitsh	547
The tragic bloodletting of the Zyrardowers in France	L. Tiger	555
From Av. de Versailles to Auschwitz-Birkenau	Rashel Zelmanovitsh-Vaytzner	559
A voice from the other world		561
Meeting with Zyrardow Jews during World War II	Yosele Yakubovitsh	564
My visit to my ancestor’s graves in Poland in 1948	L. Tiger	573
How I found my home	Pincus Meppen	575
Wars, destruction, wandering, without a home	Itshe-Yosl Shmitnikov	576
My visit to Zyrardow in 1948	L. Feld	579
Our shtetl has remained altogether…	Avrom Shulevitsh	583
Where are you my beloves ones?	Mindl Tiger	585
On the ruins of my home	Avrom Zimler	587
How Amshinov looks now	S. L. Shnayderman	595
The end of the sentence	Yosele Yakubovitsh	598
The death of the last Jew	L. Tiger	603

8. Our Landslayt Around the World

The Creations of Workmen’s Circle Branch No 301	Yosef Shmulevitsh	609
Memories of our branch	Max Skurnik	611
Branch 301 and the co-operative movement	A. Grushka	613
Important dates and facts in the life of the branch	L. Feld & B. Kahan	614
The Zyrardow Progressive Society in New York, established March 1924		617
The activities of the Society of those in Israel who left Zyrardow		619
The activities of the Zyradowers in France	Leon Tiger	627
Heroes and Martyrs born in Zyrardow and then lived in France		634
Deported from France		634
The Landslayt Union of Zyrardow, Amshinov and Viskit in Argentina		635
List of those born in our towns Zyrardow, Amshinov and Viskit who died in Argentina		644
Listing of the Zyrardow martyrs		647
Photos of the dead from Zyrardow		659
Listing of the Amshinov martyrs		671
Listing of the Viskit martyrs		677
Necrology		681
A few concluding words	Mordkhe V. Bernstayn

1.	Pronounced Zyrardov. Usually known as Zerdov in Yiddish but not in the Yizkor book return
2.	His name is not directly transliterated but as it appears on his books translated into English return
3.	Polish for "Under the Star" return
4.	The day on which the Jews received the Torah from God return
5.	The Bleykh is probably the name given to the area where the linen was hung to bleach return
6.	Written in Hebrew return
7.	Written in Hebrew return
8.	Written in Hebrew return
9.	aka Shifra Holshtayn-Bauman return
10.	Mszczonow in Polish return
11.	Wiskitki in Polish return
12.	aka Mordkhe Bauman return
13.	aka Shifra Holshtayn-Bauman return

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