Radzyn Podlaski, Poland [Page 312, 326-327]

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[Page 312]

The Holocaust Survivors from Radzyn

On the road to their homeland in Israel and to other countries
(According to material provided by Tzvi Liberzon)

Spring 1945. The battle lines move deeper and deeper into German territory and the Polish territories have fewer and fewer Russian troops: The Soviets are preparing for their grand offensive against Berlin that will be the final blow to Hitlerism.

The Russian Air Force unit, which was stationed in Radzyn at the aerodrome in the Marianka suburb, was sent westward, and only a few Russian military personnel remained. The reactionary Polish Underground Organization, as well as the partisan “Armye Kryova”, utilized this situation and stepped up the war against the few Jewish survivors of the tempest who were scattered about in cities and towns.

Great fear fell upon the few Jews who were left in Radzyn. They could still see before them the sad picture of the seven Jews from the Shtetl of Wohyn who were killed recently by the above-mentioned Polish murderers. The district was shocked again by another murder of Jews this time in Czemierniki among whose victims was Hershel Pontshak from Radzyn.

The life of the Jews in the whole of the Lublin region became more and more difficult and unsafe. The Polish underground organization turned the area into a partisan murder zone, especially so among the scattered Jewish towns. Parczew, Wohyn and Czemierniki again became 'yudenrein'. Jews began fleeing from Lukow too. Traveling from one city to another became perilous. The Polish bandits took people off the trains and automobiles and shot them. Along the way could be seen graffiti 'bi jzida' (beat the Jews) as if the millions of Polish Jewish victims had not been enough. It suddenly became clear to the Jewish survivors that there was no possibility of remaining in Poland and that they must again take the wanderers staff in hand.

From the entire Lublin region the Jews began to move in the direction of Silesia, which had just recently been taken from the Germans. The Russian Army was in control, and life was safe. Many Jews settled in Warsaw. Many others set out on an illegal journey to Italy, from there to sail to Eretz Yisroel.

Many Jews who had survived the war in Russia began arriving in the previously mentioned German evacuated areas. Thus most of the Polish Jewish survivors (including those from Radzyn) were gathered in this Polish-German area, and especially in Lodz, Szczecin, and Dzierzoniow.

Mail from all over the world, from Russia, America and from Eretz Yisroel began arriving with questions about the surviving relatives, as well as with help for the survivors. From here were heard the first of the survivors cries for help.

In Lodz a committee of Radzyner Jews was founded which established a Self-Help Fund and then made contact with the Radzyner Relief in New York. The Radzyn Jews in America (whose leader was the Yaakov Greenblatt succeeded by Mendel Lichtenshtein) responded warmly by giving all possible aid. Committees similar to the one in Lublin were established in Szczecin and Dzierzoniow.

Lodz and its surroundings served only as a temporary oasis. The main stream of survivors of Polish Jewry, including those from Radzyn, went on to Germany, which was already in the hands of the Americans and the British. The Jews gathered in the camps with hope of finding a way from there to Israel. The Jews from Radzyn (approximately 100 souls) were located mostly in Bad-Reichenhall and Ulm.

On the sixth of May 1947 almost all the Radzyn Jews in Germany gathered in Ulm for a memorial service for the departed. This first gathering was both moving and heart-rending. This was the first meeting for many of the survivors since the end of the fearsome war and slaughter. The eulogy was made by Hershel Liberson and the cantor sang the 'El Molle Rachamim' (God The Merciful) prayer. When the gathering heard that four thousand Radzyners had perished, they broke out into weeping that no one could or wanted to calm.

A year later a second memorial took place in Bad-Reichenhall. Fewer Radzyners came to this service because many had left Germany on their way to their new homes.

In 1949 the last Radzyners left Germany (two of them Menachem Appleboim and Menachem Niskern 'of blessed memory' died in Germany). With a curse on their lips, they left for Israel by different direct and indirect routes. Many of them were first sent to the island of Cyprus but most of them found their way to Israel.

With a blessing in their hearts the remnants of Radzyn Jewry reached home.
'One of the first letters received from Poland'
Lodz, 13. vi-46

My Best and Dearest Radzyn Jewish brothers in New York!

A fter more than six and a half nightmarish and difficult years, brought on by the war, after six and a half years being torn away from our homes and families, we a small group of Radzyners , returned from Russia. We found none of our near ones and could not even recognize the town in which we once lived .The houses are gone, and the streets of our Radzyn are unrecognizable. We met only a few Radzyn Jews who were saved from the hands of the German murderers. Just a shadow of the four thousand Radzyner Jews. There are now left in Poland up to 220 Radzyners, spread out among a few towns. We are in a terrible and disastrous state, with no means of making a living, uprooted, hungry and sick. Where we spend the day we do not spend the night, we are literally homeless. The help given by the committee is minimal. Therefore we appeal to you our closest brothers in America to help us materially, the sooner the better. In Lodz we have set up a committee with five members, which quickly organized a campaign among Radzyner Jews to which they contributed their last coins for those who were needier. We collected fifteen thousand zlotes, which we immediately distributed among the most destitute. There are already some seventy Radzyn Jews in Lodz and others will are still coming. If you could send money with an emissary it would be appreciated.

This is the composition of the committee.

Honorary President H. Burstein (The secretary of the Jewish Community in Lodz)

Itsche Meir Reb Eizish
H. Liberzon – president (is already in Austria)
Yisrael Appeloig (has left for Germany)
Moshe Goldfarb – Treasurer
Zavel Fine – Member
Ethel Tshervian – Member

We ask to send all correspondence and aid to the following address:

THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION OF LODZ
66 Zachodnia St.
c/o H. Burystyn for the Committee of Radzyn Jews.
President: Liberson.

PS The only active member of the committee is Yisroel Goldreich, Sheiveh Tzinies' Aron the bookeeper.

A List of Holocaust Survivors who gathered in Germany

Abman, Wolf

Abman, Freda

Eagelnick, Golde

Appleboim, Yankel

Appleboim, Henech

Appleboim, Menachem

Appeloig, Yosef

Appeloig, Blume (Fishboim)

Appeloig, Zelig

Appeloig, Yisroel

Ackereisen, Yitzchak

Ackereisen, Feivel

Ackereisen, Avraham

Barger, Mottel

Butman, Yoel

Blumenkop, Zlote

Blumenkop, Sarah

Blumenkop, Manya

Berman, Regina

Goldbord, Leibl

Gottesdiner, Yisroel

Gottesdiner, Chaya

Gottesdiner, Sarah

Goldwasser, Yosef

Gradovtchick, Leah

Greenberg, Dora

Greenberg, Tetsche (Zilberberg)

Grindland, Chana

Gritzmacher, Sheime

Horowitz, Bashe (Vorember)

Himmelboim, Binyomin

Hirshbein, Yitzchak

Hirshbein, Yossel

Hirshbein, Miriam

Hirshbein, Rachel

Hirshbein, Pola

Herbst, Mendel

Vagonski, Isaac

Volovski, Malka (Burak)

Vassershtrom,Yisroel

Vassershtrom, Menuchah (Fleisik)

Weissgroz, Nechemia

Weissgroz, Rachel

Weissgroz, Malkeh

Weisman, Fradel,

Weitzman, Itke (Goldwasser)

Visoka, Binye (Shulman)

Vrubel, Shiye

Vrubel, Liebe (Fleisik)

Vrubel, Tzviah (Shulman)

Zaltzstein, Zanvel

Zaltzstein, Mordecai

Zilbermintz, Yankel

Zilberberstein, Chaim

Szelonickviat, Berish

Turkeltoib, Yossel

Tannenboim, Tzviah (Appleboim)

Tentzer, Gusta (Finkelstein)

Last, Bracha (Feigenboim)

Liberzson, Hershel

Liberzson, Rachel (Artstein)

Liberzson, Tzviah

Liberzson, Zelig

Leichter, Yoseph

Levin, Tobe(Branitzka)

Moravietz, Rachel (Zysman)

Migdal, Feivel

Mittlebach, Leah (Appleloig)

Mintzmacher, Shalom

Nussboim, Moishe-Hersh

Sudberg, Frania

Sudberg, Chana

Sudberg, Yente

Pasternak, Azshe

Farbiasz, Lieber

Fine, Sara

Finebuch, Bracha (Artstein)

Fleisik, Devora (Lerner)

Fleisik, Michael

Fleisik, Lipe

Friedman, Tzvia (Zysman)

Friedman, Moishe

Freter, Rachel

Kagan, Shoshe (Goldstein)

Korman, Sender

Kupervasser, Devora

Kuperschmid, Moishe

Rovniak, Leibl

Rovniak, Hertzke

Rosenboim, Levi

Rosenboim, ???

Rosenblum, Peretz

Rotshtein, Chaim

Rubinshtein,Yossel

Rubinshtein, Simeh (Weissgrosz)

Shulman,Yisroel

Schtzupak,Yosef

Schmietankah, Nechemia

Schmietankah, Dovid

Schmietankah, Chana (Rosenboim)

Shenker, Shprintze

[Pages 326-327]

Yisrael Lichtenstein: His Last Will and Testament

Idah Zigelman

I met Yisrael Lichtenstein for the first time in 1935 in Warsaw where I had gone after living for many years in Palestine. I saw him then full of youthful energy and ready to take on different functions but most of all he wanted to go to Palestine. His brother in Tel-Aviv and my husband, who was a childhood friend, could not arrange this. The obstacles to his doing so were not overcome and the war of annihilation befell him in Warsaw where he had already developed and became known as an excellent educator and talented editor.

It was a decree from the god of history and memory that he should remain among his people in Warsaw and be the right hand man to Dr. Emmanuel Ringleblum the founder of the secret archive of the Warsaw ghetto.

Already in the winter of 1939-40 when the first group of collectors was established, Israel Lichtenstein became the secretary of the archives and the collector and the preserver of the materials. Because of his training as a metal worker, which he had acquired before beginning his pedagogic work, he succeeded in preserving all the material that was collected during the whole ghetto period and to hide them in metal boxes which he made with his own two hands. He gathered all this material in the kitchen of his former school (“Borochov”).There it was sorted, packed and hidden in a special pit dug in the cellar of the house. He was helped by his wife, the artist Gila Sakstein.

His tremendous eagerness to leave behind some remembrance and documentation of the terrible suffering that the magnificent Jewish community of Warsaw had experienced, gave him and his friends the strength to resist the persecution and the destruction. Until the last moment, they were hiding in the depths of the earth doing their holy work. However, with the ghetto revolt and the third German 'Aktzia', he and his family were destroyed by the Nazi fire.

In one of those boxes, Yisrael Lichtenstein's personal will was found in which we are commanded to remember Amalek forever and to record his foul deeds in eternal disgrace. This part of his will, especially the part about the suffering of our town of Radzyn, was edited with great love and perseverance by my husband who was a close friend of Lichtenstein's and collected and carefully edited this material thus creating The Radzyn Book.

Yes, “those who were lovely and pleasant during their lives, and in their death not divided.”

[Page 328]

Among the fallen

Yisroel'ke Saltzer

Was in recent years a leader and mentor of the Zionist-Pioneer Youth. He was the nerve center of all Zionist activities.

Gershon Hanoch Puntshak

Was among the first members of “Zeire Zion.” He was an educated and refined leader of the Po'alei Zion Zionist Socialists. Fell at Oesweincem.

Shlomo Muscat

One of the spiritual leaders of the Left Po'alei Zion in Radzyn. Murdered by those Poles who gave him refuge.

Yaakov Levi

A leader of the Left Po'alei Zion Youth. Devoted and faithful to both its ideals and to his friends. Fell in the town of Starie-Dorogi in the Minsk district.

Yitzchak Butman

A noble activist of the Bund in Radzyn. He was an intellectual, who lived his whole life in poverty supporting himself by manual labor. Died in exile in Russia.

Leah'tze Gelibter

An activist of the Bund and its representative to the Radzyn City Council. There she was a brave and stubborn opponent of every manifestation of anti-Semitism or reaction.

Moshe- Shua Rotshtein

One of the veteran Bund organizers in Radzyn. He was an intellectual well versed in Yiddish literature. Supported himself by working as a carpenter his whole life.

Chaim-Yitzchak Gelerman

Representative of the Jewish National Fund for some twenty five years. His house served as a meeting place for Zionists of all persuasions.

Matityahu Goldwasser

Served as Gelerman's right hand man in work for the Jewish National Fund and other Zionist funds.Was active and activated others for various Zionist projects.

Simcha Goldwasser

Active in various Jewish national affairs. Director of the Jewish People's Bank after the death of Yaakov Kantor.

Yaakov Blechovitz

Principal of the Jewish National School (later Tarbut School) from the date of its founding in 1916 He educated toward Hebrew and Zionism He played a very important part in the development of the Zionist Pioneer Youth Movements in the city.

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