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Translation of
Sefer Ostrovtsah: le-zikaron ule-'edut
Editor: Gershon Silberberg, Meir Shimon Geshuri
Tel Aviv 1971
Project Coordinator
Our sincere appreciation to Helen Rosenstein Wolf & Genia Hollander
Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Ostrowiec (1971)
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Translated by Yocheved Klausner
Introduction | Yehezkel Ereli (Erlich) | 13 |
Foreword [Y] | Yehezkel Erieli | 15 |
History of the Town and the Jewish Community | ||
On the Rivers of Ostroweic | M. S. Geshuri | 17 |
On the Rivers of Ostroweic [Y] | M. S. Geshuri | 37 |
Rabbis and ADMORs in Ostrowiec | M. S. Geshuri | 59 |
The Rav and ADMOR R'Meir Yechiel Halevi Halstock | ||
Rabbi Yechiel Meir Halevi | Rav Yitzhak Yedidya Frenkel | 70 |
The poor people's ADMOR, standing firm against the powerful | Yehoshua Altman | 71 |
Hassidim telling stories about their rabbi | Yehuda Leib Zuker | 72 |
Lover of people | Yoske Apter | 74 |
The man who has become a legend | Yakov Hocherman | 79 |
Meetings with the rabbi | A. Halevi | 80 |
Din Tora [trial in a religious court] at the Ostrowiec Gaon | Yehoshua Altman | 81 |
The Ostrowiec method of study | Rav Isser Frenkel | 83 |
The greatness of the ADMOR | Yechezkel Ereli (Ehrlich) | 85 |
The Ostrowiec rabbi (poem) [Y] | A. N. Stentzel | 86 |
The Ostrowiec rabbi and his environment | Leizer Kuperman | 87 |
The Ostrovtser [Y] | Y. Opatoshu | 93 |
The Ostrowiec rabbi foresaw the Holocaust [Y] | Dr. Chaim Shoshkes | 95 |
The Ostrowiec Gaon [Y] | S. Petrushka | 97 |
Good words from the rabbi [Y] | Ben-Zion Ratler | 98 |
The great holy man from Ostrowiec | Hillel Zeitlin | 100 |
A forty-year struggle against the body [Y] | S. Palmoni | 102 |
The last minutes of the Ostrowiec Gaon | I. Bronstein | 103 |
Bibliography on the Ostrowiec Gaon | M. S. Geshuri | 106 |
The Rav ADMOR Rabbi Yechezkel'e, May God avenge his blood | ||
The Last of the Ostrowiec Rabbis | Chaim S. Palmon | 108 |
Rabbi Yechezkel in the days of fury and destruction | A. R. | 110 |
The last hours before he was executed | Moshe Friedensohn | 112 |
A lament for the Rav Rabbi Yechezkel | S. Almoni | 113 |
The Martyrdom of the Last Ostrovtser Rebi [Y] | Aron Tsaytlin | 116 |
The death of a martyr, the last ADMOR of Ostrowiec | 118 | |
There Once was a Jewish Town… | ||
Ostrowiec, the town where I grew up | Simcha Mintzberg | 122 |
Ostrowiec in the eyes of a visitor | Yosef Wishnograd | 127 |
Two worlds in one town | Yakov Bildreich | 128 |
My Ostrowiec [Y] | Yehoshua Altman | 130 |
A town between two rivers [Y] | Eliezer Kuperman | 133 |
Pastime of the Jewish youth [Y] | Yechiel Magid-Rosenberg zl | 141 |
The town of my childhood [Y] | Max Grossman | 143 |
The Shulhoyf The Center of Jewish Life [Y] | Efrayim Vartman | 145 |
A vanished world of the past [Y] | Miriam Wattman-Rosenberg | 146 |
Streets and People in Ostrovtse [Y] | Shmuel Shtraytman | 148 |
From my childhood years [Y] | Aharon Urbass | 149 |
A story [Y] | Yehoshua Altman | 152 |
Sabbath and Holyday Jews | ||
Deep-rooted Jews with an original way-of-life | Pinchas Soroka | 155 |
An incident caused by the Blessing after meal [Birkat Hamazon] | I. Birnzweig | 156 |
Sabbath at my home [Y] | Feigush Weintraub-Fertzig | 158 |
My father on Sabbath [Y] | Aharon Urbass | 158 |
A mute prayer [Y] | Chaim Goldsatz | 159 |
The Days of Awe in Town [Y] | Mendl Hartshteyn | 163 |
Shabes and Yontiv in Ostrovtse [Y] | Yekhiel MagidRozenberg | 165 |
Kol Nidrei [Y] | Chaim Goldsatz | 169 |
All the people escorting a Torah Scroll to the synagogue [Y] | Yechiel Magid-Rosenberg | 170 |
My grandmother's prayer | Chaim Goldsatz | 174 |
Figures and Types | ||
R'Meir Ehrlich, may God avenge his blood | Arie Liebman | 175 |
The Community activist and Public worker Moshe Lederman zl | Yechezkel Arieli | 176 |
R'Chaim Aharon Silberberg | Arie Zhavner | 177 |
R'Aizik Mendel Shochet (slaughterer) | Pinchas Soroka | 178 |
R'Mordechai Shimonowitz | Pinchas Soroka | 179 |
R'Mordechai Shimonowitz | Rav Dov Zeid from Zwiehl (Berl Zwiehler) | 179 |
Esther, the modest and humble widow | Moshe Rosenberg | 180 |
The Rav R'Blankman, may God avenge his blood | Rav R'Avraham Goldshmidt | 181 |
Rav Avrehme'le Brieftreger (postman) | Yehuda Leib Zucker | 182 |
R'Mordechai Alter | Naftali Alter | 183 |
R'Yehoshua Riba | 183 | |
R' Leibush Pesach and Chaya Fuchs | Shprintza Matel Blumenfeld | 184 |
Leon Beigelman | Helena Vasko | 185 |
R'Chaim Yakov Yosef Nagel zl | 186 | |
Henech Halpern | I. Birnzweig | 186 |
My friends | Chana Hurwitz | 186 |
Figures and Types | ||
Yochanan's Shtiebel (Hassidic synagogue) | Yehoshua Altman | 187 |
R' Leybush Halshtok of Blessed Memory | Iser Boymfeld | 188 |
Ruben and Khay'ele Shpilman of Blessed Memory | Yehude and Mordkhe Rozenberg | 189 |
R'Israel Rosenberg | Yehuda and Mordechai Rosenberg | 190 |
The rise and annihilation of a family | Moshe Salzman | 192 |
Ostrovtse BarberSurgeons | Mayer Blankman | 196 |
Types from Ostrowiec of old times | Aizik Beinerman | 198 |
Ostrowiec types | Meir Blankman | 203 |
Nothing will be lost | Chaim Goldsatz | 205 |
The Ostrowiec water-carriers | Meir Blankman | 207 |
The Ostrowiec insane | Meir Blankman | 209 |
Mother, I can never forget you! (poem) | Yehoshua Urbass | 212 |
Heders and Yeshivas | ||
The Ostrowiec melamdim [teachers] [Y] | Meir Blankman | 214 |
A Town of Botemedroshim and Khadorim [Y] | Yekhiel MagidRosenberg | 218 |
The Bet-Yosef Yeshiva of the moralists | Yechiel Rosenberg | 220 |
Ostrowiec Becoming Modern | ||
The Development of Modern School Systems | Iser Boymfeld | 224 |
Charitable Jewish Institutions in Town | Paltiel Brikman | 227 |
Chevra Kadisha [burial society] is asking a price | Ch. Fleischman | 229 |
Parties and Associations | Eliezer Kuperman | 230 |
The socialist movement | Aizik Beinerman | 232 |
New Winds Are Blowing | Isser Boymfeld | 233 |
Ostrowiec is becoming modern | M. Piltzmacher | 235 |
Jewish Labor life | Eber Beinerman | 236 |
Social movements in town | M. Piltzmacher | 239 |
Hechalutz wins over the youth | Moshe Rosenberg | 245 |
The activity of young people in our town | A. Halevi | 246 |
Hano'ar Hatzioni calls on the Jews to make Aliya | Moshe Bleiberg | 248 |
Hashomer Hale'umi [Y] | Feivel Kerschenblatt | 252 |
The Revisionist Zionist Movement in Ostrowiec | I. Birnzweig | 252 |
Mizrahi and Tze'irei Mizrahi as reflected in the press | 253 | |
Agudat Israel as reflected in the press | 257 | |
Holocaust and Destruction | ||
Eli Ostrowiec (poem - lament) | Yakov Baharir | 258 |
My life and experiences in the Nazi hell [Y] | Shlomo Horwitz | 261 |
The beginning [Y] | Yehoshua Urbass | 271 |
Chelunia! (poem | Aizik Beinerman | 276 |
The liquidation of the Ostrowiec ghetto [Y] | Leibush Millstein | 277 |
The Zabchinski brothers [Y] | Friedman | 294 |
The Szczebrzeszyn rabbi dies as a martyr [Y] | I. Bernstein | 295 |
Burying the Torah Scrolls in the days of terror | Chana Wittenberg-Gutholz | 296 |
A mother's eulogy [Y] | Bina Weintraub-Shapira | 297 |
The destruction of Ostrowiec (poem) [Y] | Yehoshua Urbass | 298 |
Our attic [Y] | Machtche Silberberg-Zhabner | 305 |
Hazkarat Neshamo [Memorial Service, lit. remembering the souls] [Y] | Aizik Beinerman | 309 |
My uncle R'Chaim Aharon Silberberg [Y] | Leibel Zhabner | 311 |
Photographs of the Ostrowiec Ghetto [Y] | Simcha and Itche Meir Birnzweig | 313 |
The death of R'Mordechai Shimonowitz [Y] | Leibel Zhabner | 315 |
My mother goes to the market [Y] | Leibel Zhabner | 318 |
Ostrowiec my home [Y] | Mordechai Rosenberg | 320 |
The Night of Slaughter April 28 [Y] | Mokhtshe ZshabnerZilberberg | 321 |
The Night of the Execution [Y] | Yechiel MagidRosenberg | 322 |
The horrible Bartholomew Night [Y] | Israel Friedenthal | 323 |
My father's Yahrzeit [memorial day] [Y] | Yechiel Magid-Rosenberg | 326 |
The Lipsker Tzadik [Y] | Aharon Urbass and Yehuda Rosenberg | 327 |
Memorial to the soul of Moshe Lederman zl | Yechezkel Arieli | 328 |
R'Moshe Toppel is giving a Jewish burial [bringing to Kever Israel] [Y] | Mordechai Zev Toppel | 329 |
An orphanage in the ghetto [Y] | Yechezkel Mandel | 330 |
I remember [Y] | Isser Gerber | 335 |
The Savers [Y] | Yehuda Rosenberg | 340 |
The bunker [Y] | Rachel Gutholz- Kamsinski | 342 |
Ostrowiec youths fighting in the Warsaw ghetto [Y] | 345 | |
Ostrowiec in the days of the Holocaust | Bella Schribner | 346 |
Ostrowiec, I shall never forget you [Y] | Malka Appelboim | 351 |
Only ruins have remained [Y] | M.Grossman | 354 |
Polish Murderers [Y] | A. Almoni | 355 |
Ostrowiec during the Holocaust years | Nechemia Warman | 356 |
The young mother from Badzhichov camp [Y] | Aizik Beinerman | 363 |
Gutholz's heroic death in the labor camp | M Bromberg | 365 |
The Nazi roll-call (poem) | Yosef Rosenberg zl | 366 |
The Maker of Aryan Papers [Y] | Berish Brikman | 368 |
In the forced-labor camp in Germany as Christians [Y] | Helena Pirkawska | 369 |
A letter to my sister [Y] | ShamayKodlowitz | 370 |
Among Christians in Warsaw [Y] | Helena Kaletzka | 376 |
Poems and improvisations in the ghetto [Y] | Amnon Eisenstadt | 388 |
A prayer (poem) [Y] | Mordechai Rosenberg | 390 |
Surviving the Nazi hell hiding in a grave [Y] | Yerachmiel Waldman | 391 |
Oh, How bad I feel! (poem) [Y] | Mordechai Rosenberg | 394 |
The sole survivor from Kinev [Y] | Shmuel Nudelman | 396 |
Extermination Camps | ||
Ostrovtse Jews Are Transported to a Deathcamp [Y] | Paltiel GeshriBrikman | 401 |
I Was in Treblinka | Miriam GutholzFeldman | 403 |
We have not lost our hope (the Jewish anthem) [Y] | Aizik Beinerman | 412 |
I Survived the Nazi hell [Y] | Azriel Urbass | 415 |
Out of the gas chamber and down from the gallows [Y] | Menashe Unger | 419 |
At Kever Avot (parents' grave) in Majdanek | Meir Blankman | 422 |
A visit in Auschwitz [Y] | Meir Blankman | 425 |
Graves | Israel Gurfinkel | 430 |
Ostrovtse Partisans [Y] | Wolf Fajnsztadt | 433 |
A group of partisans from Ostrowiec | 435 | |
Murders by the Polish partisans | Shlomo Zweigman | 436 |
Reports from the labor camp | The Testimonies Committee | 440 |
Official Documents Concerning the Extermination in Ostrovtse [Y] | 443 | |
One Righteous in Sodom - the Christian Eva Shaminska | Ariela Reuveni | 446 |
Ostrowiec without Jews | ||
The First Memorial Day in Ostrowiec [Y] | Y. Baharier | 449 |
At the grave of the Jewish partisans [Y] | 452 | |
The Terrible Disappointment of the Liberated Jews of Ostrovtse [Y] | 455 | |
Ostrovtse without Jews [Y] | Dr. Chaim Shoshkes | 456 |
A visit at the ruined home [Y] | Amnon Eisenstadt | 459 |
About the Violated Jewish Cemeteries in Poland [Y] | Mayer Blankman | 469 |
My consolation [Y] | Mordechai Rosenberg | 472 |
A Report of Nazi Crimes in Ostrowiec (Poland) | 474 | |
The Hunt for the Criminals [Y] | 478 | |
Rievele Spillman's violin [Y] | Dr. Yakov Schatzkin | 480 |
Imagination [Y] | Eliezer Kuperman | 481 |
A stone [Y] | Israel Gurfinkel | 482 |
The Surviving Remnant - Dispersed and Scattered | ||
Israel | ||
Activity of the Organization of Former Ostrowiec Residents | Yechezkel Ereli | 487 |
The Organization of Former Ostrowiec Residents in Israel | Yechezkel Ereli | 495 |
A stormy meeting of the Organization | 500 | |
Remember and never forget! | Yechezkel Ereli | 502 |
The destroyer felled our town - massacred without mercy | Yechezkel Ereli | 504 |
The blood of our best sons have sanctified the soil of this land | Yechezkel Ereli | 506 |
Ostrowiecer who fell in Israel's wars and sanctified its soil | 508 | |
Ostrowiecer who died in Israel | ||
R'David Toppel zl | Shoshana Toppel-Israeli | 511 |
Chana Bogyeski zl | S. Choresh | 513 |
Yafa Rosenberg zl | Moshe Rosenberg | 513 |
Genia Levi zl - a noble and fighting figure | Shaul Goldman | 514 |
Dear sister | A. H. | 516 |
Yechiel Meir Levi zl | Halevi | 517 |
Binyamin Meir Eisenman zl | Tzipora | 518 |
In memory of a fiend, Shmuel Nafrastik | Yechezkel Ereli | 519 |
Attorney Rabbi Israel Aharon Friedental zl | Abraham Friedental | 520 |
Simcha Mordechai Zhabner zl | Arie Zhabner | 522 |
Friendship through the chain of generations | 522 | |
Toronto | ||
Ostrowiecer in Toronto | Dr. Chaim Shoshkes | 523 |
A friendship of three generations | 524 | |
The Committee for Ostrowiec Lansleit | A. Vilenski | 525 |
Ostrowiecer in Toronto erect a Memorial for the martyrs | 526 | |
Ceremonial unveiling of the Ostrowiec Memorial | Eber Beinerman | 526 |
A symbolic tomb of the Ostrowiec martyrs | Shaya Zweigman | 528 |
A well deserved Memorial | Eber Beinerman | 529 |
Ostrowiecer in Toronto helping with the Yizkor Book | 532 | |
The Ostrowiec Synagogue in Toronto | 533 | |
New York | ||
The lonely Landsman | Eli Rasberg | 542 |
A public call to the New York Landsleit | 543 | |
R'Zev-Wolf Weiss zl | Eliezer Kuperman | 544 |
Brazil | ||
We May Not Forget the Murderers and the Jewish Helpers | A. Boymfeld | 547 |
My Hometown Ostrovtse! | A. Boymfeld | 549 |
We Do Not Pardon the Jewish Collaborators | Eber Beynerman | 553 |
Argentina | ||
Ostrowiecer in Argentina erect a memorial to the martyrs | I. Branden | |
Initial pages | 4 | |
An Idea Realized | Yehezkel Ereli (Erlich) | 9 |
A Town Between Two Rivers | M. Sh. Geshuri | 13 |
Surviving Child of Hitler's Regime | Eva (Cukier) Singer | 46 |
The Annihilation of a Jewish Community | Leibush Milstein | 47 |
Ostrowiec Societies in NY & Chicago | 99 | |
A Tribute to Our Martyrs | Allan Grossman | 105 |
Ostrovtser Shul in Toronto | 111 |
Yizkor Book Project
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