[Page XVIII]

While still refugees in Russia, we already had heard much about the terrible mass destruction of Polish Jewry. However, we did not yet know the entire truth. Each of us still lived with the hope that when we returned to Tarnow we would meet a living relative, a friend, or even an acquaintance. We longed for our home and for the exuberant and strong Jewish life that had existed in Tarnow before the war.

On the repatriation trains from Russia, on the way back to Poland, we still hadn't lost the belief that the work of reconstruction would be waiting for us in old Tarnow, that the Jewish community awaited, that the remnants of Jewish schools, Jewish libraries, and all the other Jewish communal, social and philanthropic institutions still existed. We knew that a terrible storm had passed over Tarnow, but thought that the last spark of hope had still not been extinguished, that the storm had only damaged the branches, and that the trunk remained.

We believed this…

In Tarnow, however, we encountered total devastation. We found not a single survivor, nor had anyone escaped (Joshua 8:22). The Jewish quarter was a pile of rubble. Only in the Jewish cemetery did we find a few frightened and starving people who had managed to hide themselves in bunkers and hiding places among the toppled tombstones.

This is what Tarnow looked like in mid-1946, a terrible nightmarish graveyard, where mass murders had been carried out. In such a graveyard no one had yet managed to rebuild a life. And our first thought was to escape as quickly as possible, flee from the destruction and the town drenched in the blood of our nearest and dearest.

But in the depths of our souls a thought burrowed suggesting that not the slightest trace will remain of the 500-year-old Tarnow Jewish community. The memory of the efforts and achievements of the previous generations will be erased, their dreams and hopes gone, their victories and defeats in the struggle for a better tomorrow lost. The persistent question did not subside even for a single minute: what is this? Will the old, magnificent Jewish community be soon forgotten? The clearing out of the ruins of the former Jewish quarter, threatened to destroy the mass graves of the Hitler death factory, and our question remained,

[Page XIX]

will the memory of the tortured Jewish population of Tarnow also disappear?

The answer appeared. It was clear to me that a memorial must be established in the form of a Yizkor book dedicated to the blessed memory of the people of Tarnow. I felt that this sacred obligation rests with me, the last chairman of the Jewish community of Tarnow.

The thought was born, but how does one carry it out? In all of Tarnow there wasn't a scrap of paper remaining to tell the story of the former Jewish life. The records of the community, of societies, schools, political organizations, cultural and social institutions, Jewish newspapers, the local activist leaders–everything was destroyed during the Hitler deluge. Only in one place did I discover documents, in the post-war synagogue which was organized after liberation in one of the halls of Soldinger's Hotel on Goldhammer Street. There in a corner, lay individual abandoned pages of old holy Jewish books, the only remnant of 25,000 Tarnow Jews.

Consequently, I began searching for material for the Yizkor Book at the cemetery, in court decisions, and in Polish libraries, until I uncovered a precious treasure in the library in Jagiellonian University of Krakow: eleven complete (full year) bound volumes of “Tygodnik Zydowzki” (“The Jewish Weekly” – “Yiddish Vokhnblatt”), which appeared in Tarnow from the year 1928 as the publication of the local Zionist organization. There I also found issues of the Krakow “Nowy Dzienik” (“The New Day”) and other materials which led me to additional sources about Tarnow Jewry. Only after I amassed a collection of historical material, could I take on the role of bearing witness, and looked deeply into the documents.

It was difficult to organize the stack of material, because my task was not only to describe the martyrdom of Tarnow Jewry, but also to immortalize the lives of Tarnow Jewry from its earliest years on. My aspiration was to make this Yizkor book a written monument, one inscribed with golden lettering which would be a tribute to Jewish enterprise in Tarnow and the struggle of Tarnow Jews for human rights and workers' rights. I wanted the monument to bear witness to the contribution of Tarnow Jews to the treasured Jewish and general culture. The book would describe how the Jewish community participated in Polish accomplishments as well as Tarnow Jewry's Zionistic efforts and contributions to the building of our own home in the Land of Israel. My intention was that our Yizkor book should reflect all the manifestations of Tarnow Jewish life, from all strata and circles, from each organizational and social activity. But simultaneously I came

[Page XX]

to understand that “I must gather the strength to meet the challenge” because it was clear to me, that I lacked the skill and experience to utilize historical materials and to write historical studies.

Now, after completing the entire work, I ask for the indulgence of professional historians into whose domain I have intruded, because without a doubt, and in no sense of the word could I be considered an authentic historian…

They may consider, as mitigating circumstances, the fact that my only motive was – to immortalize the memory of what to me is the precious Jewry of Tarnow. I worked on this Yizkor book in the manner dictated to me by my heart and my judgment. I began this sacred work in 1946 while still in Krakow, continuing it in Paris in 1948 and (after a long hiatus) finally completing it in Israel, thanks to the help of a group of friends from the editorial committee, who, in difficult periods, supplied me with courage and stamina to complete the book.

I also owe much gratitude for the suggestions and help of capable commentators such as A. Wolf Jasny, and in particular – my friends Daniel Leibel and David Shtokfish, who did not spare any effort or exertion in translating into Yiddish the majority of the material in the book, which had not been written in Yiddish. I wish here to express thanks and recognition. And if here or there an error slipped into the text, they are not to be held responsible.

Finally I would also like to express my thanks to all those who furnished me with information, documents, books, and photographs. A special thanks to those writers who, with their works, helped to enrich this Yizkor book.

I have, with the best intention and strength, carried out an important assignment to immortalize the once magnificent Jewish community of Tarnow. Not only Tarnow Jews will find material in this book about their town and the Jews who once lived there, but also future historians and scholars, who seeking material about the obliterated Jewish life in Poland, will be able to have a modest witness in this book.

– Dr. Avraham Chomet
Editor, Tarnow Yizkor book

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