Destruction of Jaryczow:
Memorial Book to the Martyrs
of Jarczow and Surroundings
(Novyy Yarychiv, Ukraine)
49°55' / 24°18'
Translation of
Khurbn Jaryczow bay Lemberg;
sefer zikaron le-kesoshei
Jaryczow y-sevivoteha
Edited by: Mordekhai Gerstl
Published in New York, 1948
Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator
Errol Schneegurt
Translations
William Leibner [1]
Errol Schneegurt [2]
Elaine Sacks Schneegurt
Verified by
Harry and Regina Roschwalb
This is a translation from:
Khurbn Jaryczow bay Lemberg; sefer zikaron le-kesoshei
Jaryczow y-sevivoteha
;
Destruction of Jaryczow; memorial book to the martyrs
of Jarczow and surroundings;
ed. Mordekhai Gerstl, New York: A. Baum, 1948,
Yiddish.
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THE DESTRUCTION OF YARYCHEV
(NOVVY- YARYCHEV, JARYCHOW, JARYCZOW)
BOOK OF MEMORY
"THE MARTYRED ONES OF YARYCHEV AND OTHER AREAS"
"A short description from the World War Two from the living and
destruction from other shtetls in Poland. With the names from the martyred
ones. All accurate with true facts."
Written by Dr. Harv Mordechai Gerstl
Reviewed by Rabbi Avrhm (Avrhmtshe) Baum
1948
The officers of the Yartchev Relief Society are:
Abraham Baum, Chairman
Kalman (Charlie) Shehr, Treasurer
Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Gerstel
Zeev (William) Taube
Haim Eleazar (Haymi) Sirop
Leizer (Louis) Lacher
Izi Stoltsberg
Abraham Klap
Jacob Zimmerman
Harry Zimmerman
Henry Altman
Ahron Morer
Officers of the Yartchev Society:
Zeev (William) Taube, Past President
Leizer (Louis) Lacher, President
Emanuel Einhorn, Vice-President
Abraham Baum, Recording Secretary and hospital liaison
Izi Stoltsberg, Financial Secretary
Kalman (Charlie) Shehr, Treasurer
Izi Frostak, Sergeant at Arms
Photograph of Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Gerstel, son of Rabbi Meir Gerstel, grandson
of Rabbi Shmuel Gerstel, who was the head of the Jewish Judicial Council of
Yartchev.
Photograph of Abraham (Abramtche) Baum. He devoted his free time and his energy
to help the survivors of the town. He united them with their families in the
United States. Thanks to his efforts the yizkor book was assembled and printed. The erection of the monument for the Yartchev
martyrs is also due in great part to his efforts. He truly devoted himself to
the activities of the landsmanshaft . May G-d reward him.
Introduction
Yartchev, the saintly pious little town, no longer exists. A town whose pious
Jews constantly repented, each hour, each instant. They repented all of the
time, minute-by-minute and second-by-second. Yartchev, like other Jewish towns
in Poland, Russia, Galicia, Lithuania, and Latvia, was destroyed in the tragic
destruction of European Jewry. Among the six million murdered Jews we find our
brothers and sisters from Yartchev and all of the surrounding areas.
The entire German nation—young and old, professors, doctors, and simple
Germans—prided itself as a nation of poets and thinkers. In reality,
however, the Germans distinguished themselves as a nation of murderers. They
joined hands with Polish and Ukrainian murderers and attacked our defenseless
brothers and sisters. They did not spare the old, the sick, the children or the
pregnant women. They tortured, starved, burned and gassed the Jews. German
doctors severed limbs from living Jews and let them bleed to death. The pain
and agony of the dying was recorded with great precision. They calculated the
length of time needed to die or to asphyxiate a Jew. They removed the eyes of
Jews, as was done to the daughter-in-law of the rabbi of Yartchev. They incited
their hungry dogs to attack Jews. The Germans converted Jewish bodies into
soap, and the skins of Jewish infants were transformed into lampshades or
pocketbooks. Thus did the wild beasts exhaust, torture, and kill six million
Jews. Dear brothers and sisters, amongst them were the Jews of Yartchev and the
nearby areas. More than 5,000 Jews were killed in Yartchev, for the town had a
ghetto and all the Jews in the area had to move into it. No Jew was permitted
to live outside the ghetto. It contained Jews from the following hamlets: Old
Yartchev, Kamionka, Stromilowa, Gline, and Premishlan. All the Jews from the
following villages were forced to move to the Ghetto: Podlusik,
Winiek-Zoltaniec, Zadworsche, Idalev, Hereniv, Tzefiriv, Kokiziv Ridianeff and
Borshtziviec. Of course the Jews of Yartchev itself were also moved to the
ghetto.
The Jews lived in the ghetto from 1941 until 1943. Then the final actions took
place on the 15th and 16th of January 1943, the ninth and tenth day of the
month of Shvat, Tashag, on the Friday and Saturday when the Torah portion of
"Ba" is read. With these actions, the Jewish communities ceased to
exist. The area became free of Jews. I am shedding tears for all those martyred
people who were slaughtered and killed. I hope G-d will avenge the blood that
was shed and destroy the perpetrators of these evil deeds and extend His divine
protection over the remnants of the people of Israel and lead them to Salvation.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:
1) The portion of the memorial book that I have translated is the list of victims
and their families and those that were fortunate enough to survive the war. The
Yiddish in the book is phonetic in nature and you will find that there are
several spellings for the same name. This occurs most often with given names. I
also wish to point out that the information seems to have been collected by
households and the names may not always be in true Hebrew alphabetical order. I
attempted to translate this portion of the memorial book, as closely as
possible to the way it was written by the author.
The names are listed in order by surname, first name and middle name.
IN MEMORY OF MY BOBE AND ZEYDE
SARAH (SADIE) BRATER ISAAC
AND
WILHELM (VOLF) ISAAC
TWO SAINTLY PEOPLE
AND
TO THE FAMILY I WAS NOT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO KNOW
Errol Schneegurt
2) I am not an historian, a translator, or a writer, yet I felt the need to
contribute to the memory of the Jews who were killed in Yartchev and in the
surrounding areas. All traces of Jews and Jewish life were obliterated to the
point that someone visiting the area today would not even notice a Jewish
shadow. Yet, Jews lived in Nowy Jarczow (Polish name of town) or Novyy
Yarychev (Ukrainian name of town) since about 1577. They even had a name for
the town, Jaritchiv (Yartchev) pronounced Jartchev.
Generations of Jews lived, created, and vanished. There is no monument for
them, no memorial plaque, no library corner, and no tombstone. The little
information that is available is written mostly in Yiddish,
which—unfortunately—few Jews speak or read today. I therefore
attempted to open a small window on Yartchev and the surrounding areas by
translating the Yiddish yizkor book into English. Please excuse the errors and omissions that were made in
translating the book. We wanted to memorialize the Jews of Yartchev and
vicinity, most of who disappeared without a trace—entire families gone
without a survivor, their names neither known nor recorded. Now all the Jews of
the vicinity are memorialized, especially the members of my wife's family, the
Altmans, Mandels and Lowenkrowns, who lived in the area for generations and
died without a trace.
May their memory be eternal!
Nowy Jarczow
The village of Nowy Jarczow was founded in 1451 by Polish nobility. It was
incorporated as a city in 1563. The Tartars invaded the city twice (1578 and
1695) and practically devastated it. The first Jews appeared in 1577 and
suffered at the hands of the Tartars. In 1628, the city records state that
there were no taxpaying Jews in the city. The Jewish community began to grow
with the final defeat of the Tartars. The Jews developed the ornamental belt
industry that gave Nowy Jarczow its reputation. The Jews also introduced the
weaving industry in town. The great fire of 1872 left 2,000 Jews without a roof
[over their heads]. Almost the entire city burned down, especially the Jewish
section. The city slowly rebuilt itself when World War I came along. Russian
forces looted and burned the Jewish homes. Due to crowded living conditions and
poor sanitary facilities, diseases ravaged the Jewish population. The Ukrainian
provisional government did everything in its power to harass and persecute the
Jewish population, which declined by 40% compared to the year prior to the war.
Most of the Jews left for Lemberg and other large cities in the Austrian Empire
or for America. The Polish authorities restored some semblance of peace and
tranquility, but the city never regained its former economic status. Most of
the Jews who left the town during or immediately after the war never returned
to Nowy Jarczow.
The Jews dealt primarily in small trade and crafts, not in any industry to
speak of. There were six Jewish farmers in Nowy Jarczow. The city was poor and
offered few opportunities to the younger generation, desperate to leave. The
Jews of Nowy Jarczow were very pious; most were followers of the Belzer Rabbi.
The official rabbi of the town was Rabbi Pinhas Zhitomor, but there were
several other rabbis in town.
The city continued to stagnate economically until World War II. First the
Russians and then the Germans occupied the city. The Germans forced the Jews of
Nowy Jarczow and the surrounding hamlets and villages to enter the ghetto. On
January 15th, 1943 all the Jews, some 2,300-2,500, were driven out of the
ghetto and shot. Their bodies were dumped into prepared ditches. Then the
Germans and the Ukrainians began massive hunts for surviving Jews in the
countryside. Few Jews survived this police dragnet. In effect, Nowy Jarczow and
the vicinity became Judenreinas of January 1943.
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE ALTMAN AND BIENSTOCK FAMILIES
FROM THIS AREA OF THE UKRAINE
William Leibner
Jerusalem, 8 February 2000
Yizkor Book Project
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Contact person for this translation
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