Zaglembie, Poland

Memorial book of Zaglembie
(Zagłębie, Poland)

Translation of Pinkas Zaglembie

Edited by: J. Rapaport, Zaglembie Society in Melbourne

Published in Tel Aviv, 1972

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Our sincere appreciation to Mr. David Apfelbaum, of the Zaglembie Landsmanshaft in Australia,
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Zaglembie: Memorial book of Zaglembie,
ed. J. Rapaport, Zaglembie Society in Melbourne, Tel Aviv, Hamenora, 1972 (H, Y, E)

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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Translated by
Dr. Hannah Berliner Fischthal
Lance Ackerfeld

Table of Contents – Yiddish Section^[1]

List of photographs		2-489
Introduction	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	13
Our memorial book	Yoysef Orbackh (Joseph Orbach)	14
Our holy goal	Book committee	16
A word from the publishers	D. Apfelbaum, Y. Palukh (Paluch)	18
A Stone on the Road	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	19

Jewish Zagłębie and its history
History of Jewish Zagłębie	Dr. N. M. Gelber	23
Sosnowiec	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	60
Dąbrowa	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	81
Jewish religious life in Zagłębie	M. S. Geshuri	88

Parties and Movements
General Zionists	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	107
Zionist Workers' Party	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	121
Revisionist Movement	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	125
“Hashomer Hatsair”	M. Hampel	133
“Gordonye”	M. Hampel	138
“Hakhaluts”	M. Hampel	139
“Hanoar hatsiyoni”	M. Hampel	144
“Hashakhar” in Będzin	M. Hampel	148
“Mizrachi” and “Tsairi Mizrachi”	Shmuel Broner	150
Labor “Agudat-Yisrael” in Będzin	M. B. Klaynman (Klajnman)	157
“Bund” in Zagłębie	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	175

Memories
O, sweet hours of my childhood!	Alter Verthaym (Wertheim)	183
The part of the Będzin Jews in the Polish struggles for freedom	Moyshe Faynkind (Mojsze Fajnkind)	184
Memories	Dr. Yankev Shatzky (Szacki)	186
Memoires of the first Zionists in Zagłębie	Gerszon Stawski	187
Chaim Nachman Bialik in Sosnowiec	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	196
Dąbrowa, my birth-town	Iser Lavy (Lemkowicz)	199
Memories of Sosnowiec	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Parasol	202
My shtetl Olkusz	Nekhemia (Nechemia) Unger-Drori	204
My shtetl Zagórze, How can I forget you?	K. Nayman (Najman)	207
Blood accusation in Sosnowiec	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	209
From the yeshiva bench straight to the “Bund”	Artur Nunberg	210
Memories of the Bund in Zagłębie	Yakov Belek	213
In the noise of motors	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	215
The only Polish-Hebrew high school, “Yavne”	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	222

Way of Life
Legend of the tombstone	Dr. Yankev Y. Maytlis (Jacob Majtlis)	226
“My home in Zagłębie”	A. N. Shtentsl	230
The Jewish musician	Reuvn Braynin (Ruwen Brajnin)	241
Memories and Prophetic Visions	Dovid Malets	243
“People”	Dovid Mitsmakher (Mitsmacher)	245
Doom of the streets	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	247
“Get Thee Out”	Yosl Kharif-Ostri	249

Writers, Artists, and Scientists
Motek Hampel	Y. A.	250
Max Erik, the Tortured Writer	Motek Hampel	251
K. Tsetnik, the Famed Writer of the Death of the Jews		253
M. Sh. Geshuri (Brukner)		254
Dr. Yankev Maytlis (Dr. Jacob Majtlis)		255
Avrom Nokhum Shtentsl		256
Prof. Yeshua Praver (Prawer)		257
Stanlislav Vigodzki (Wygodzki)		258
Roza Yakubovitsh (Jakubowicz)		260
Dovid Malets		261
Yehuda Yafat (Dovid Shpiro)		262
Shabtai Weiss		263
Avrom Shimin (Shimele) Rotenberg		263
Dovid Mitsmakher (Mitsmacher)		265
Yehuda Erlikh (Erlich)		265
Dovid Zisman		266
Efrayim Klayman		267
Yeshaye Lefkovitsh (Lewkowicz)		268
Yisroel Shvaytser (Szwajcer)		269
Alter Volf Verthaym (Wertheim)		270
Avrom Goldberg		271
Artur (Altush) Viner (Wiener)		273
Yistkhok Lis		275
Shmuel Tsigler (Cygler)		275
Moyshe Apelboym		277
Arn Priver (Aron Priwer)		278
Arye Reznik		279
Rekhl (Rehel) Gutman		280

The Press
“Zagłębie Zeitung”[newspaper]	Mordkhe (Mordechai) Hampel	282
“Dos Yiddishe Vochenblat” [weekly]	Eliezer Elbe	285

Holocaust and Death
The forest	Yoysef (Josef) Fridman	289
In the valley of death	Yeshue (Stanislav) Vigodzki (Wygodzki)	290
Community of Sosnowicz	Shabtai Weiss	293
The Jewish holocaust in German documents	Dr. Nakhman (Nachman) Blumental	295
The past horror	Y. Orbakh (Orbach)	303
My horrible camp-years	Akiva (Kuba) Nayman (Najman)	306
Our heroes and martyrs	Y. Fridman	327
The Judenrat in Zagłębie	M. Parasol	329
Mosze Meryn – the false messiah	Pinchas Orbach	334
On the Night of the 9^th of September	Janka Abrami-Lustig	340
Lost years	F. Shtaynbakh (Sztajnbach)	342
My missions on behalf of Jews and their results	M. Shvarts-Davidovitsh (Szwarc-Dawidowicz)	345
Eichmann's mob	A. N. Shtentsel	348
Jews from Zagłębie during WW II	Layb Shpizman (Szpicman)	350
Memories of the last world war	Rabbi Menakhem (Menachem) Hager	357
In the first days of the Hitler occupation in Sosnowiec	Mikhal (Michael) Hager	359
Bendin youths revolt	Dovid Liver (Dawid Liwer)	361
In the ghetto and camps	Avner Feldman	365
My experiences	Kalmen Khentshinski (Kalman Kenczinski)	379
Pages of a diary	Moyshe Benyomin Klaynman (Klajnman)	381
At my father's tombstone	Rekhl (Rela) Gutman-Groybart	393
Which of her two children should the mother sacrifice on the altar?	Yisroel Shvay[ts]er (Szwajcer)	395
Yom-Kipur in Auschwitz	Zev Montshik (Monczyk)	396
The uprising in the death train	Moyshe Yarkoyni (Yarkoni)	397
My war years – A woman from Będzin		398
Did Zagłębie Jews go to their death like sheep to the slaughter?	Y. F. N.	403
Zagłębie men tell their stories – Yoysef [Josef] Fridman		404
The last letter from Będzin (17.7.43)	Nakhman (Nachman) Blumental	419
The Zagłębie “Hanoar Hatsiyoni” at war with its persecutors	Testimony	422
“I'm not a Nazi,” said the Secretary of the Gestapo		431
In the Gestapo net	Regina Kukelka	434
A mission to Będzin	Sore Erlikhman (Erlichman)	437
In the bunker	Arn (Ahron) Brandes	439
Bendzin “Hashoymer Hatsayir” on alert for folk – honors	Khayke Klinger-Rozenberg	441
Lamentations from Będzin	A. M. Verthaym (Wertheim)	445
Dr. Shloyme Vayntsiher (Weinzieher/Winciher)	Yitskhok Grinboym	446
Dr. Salomon Vayntsiher (Weinzieher/Winciher)	Yoysef Orbakh (Joseph Orbach)	447
Yitskhok Mordkhe (Mordechai) Paysokhzon (Peisachson)	Emmanuel Nowogrodzki	448
Dr. Khayim (Chaim) Perl, the tall bear, Berish Fromer	Yoysef Orbakh (Joseph Orbach)	451
How the Jewish intelligentsia was murdered	Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum	455
My father Simkha [Symcha] Lustig	Yanka Abrami-Lustig	457
My brother Yakub Oksenhendler	F. (Steinbock) Shtaynbok-Oksenhendler	460
My brother Henech	David Zicher	461
Itshe Mayer Fridman, Yoysef [Josef] Goldberg	N. Shtaynits (Sztajnic)	462
Accursed on earth	Yoysef Fridman	464
The death of Faygushe Broner	Fela (Steinbock) Shtaynbok-Oksenhendler	481
After 23 years, a pilgrimage to Będzin		483
To the anniversary of the death of Zagłębie Jews	Y. Orbakh (Orbach)	484
Zagłębie Jews weep	Y. Fridman	485

Table of Contents - Hebrew Section

Editorial	Mordechai Hampel	493
Jews in Będzin	Szymon Rotenberg	494
The emergence of Jewish Dąbrowa	Dr. M. Gelber	498
A Jew from Będzin who was an officer in the Polish Legion during Napoleon's regime	Prof. Dr. Majer Bałaban	500
The reminisces of a Jew from Będzin of the Polish Uprising of 1831 and 1861	Dr. Jakob Szacki	501
Rabbi Isachar Berisz Graubart, z”l – Będzin's rabbi	M. Hampel	502
The Jewish musician (memories)	Ruwen Brajnin	505
An accomplishment of Chaim Nachman Bialik – who converted an assimilated Jew into a Zionist	Gerszon Stawski	506
A day with the pioneers	A. Einhorn	508
In the bowels of the earth	Yitzhak Ben-Zvi	508
From Sosnowiec to “Eretz Yisrael” in 1909	Baruch Priwer	510
The Hebrew-Polish Gymnasia “Yavne”	Motek Hampel	511
Zagłębie in her destruction	David Liwer	516
Thus it began…	D. L.	518
The hanging (taken from the book “Salamandra” )	K. Tzetnik	521
Reflections and thoughts	David Meletz	523
The Sosnowiec community	Shabtai Weiss	525
Synagogues in Zagłębie and their destruction		526
Three years of the agricultural farm in Będzin	Arie Liwer	528
A tear falls on your devastation, city of my parents	Aryeh Ben-Tov (Hessenberg)	531
With a friend in need in Zagłębie…	Dr. Natan Eck	534
Under the soldiers' boots	Hadasa Priwes	535
The youth of Sosnowiec in the resistance movement	Attorney N. A. Szternfinkel	537
How heroes fell	Chawa Lenczner	539
The extermination camp in Auschwitz	M. L.	540
Last letter from Będzin (17^th July 1943)		541
The universe closed in on me	Baruch Gaptak	545
“And you raised my bones from there”	Yechiel Stern	546
In the ghetto and in the camps	Avner Feldman	549
Did the Jews of Zagłębie go to their death like lambs to slaughter?	Y. P. N.	559
The heroism of Hersz-Dawid Skolimowicz	J. Frydman	559
My sister Gucia	Y. Avrahami-Lustig	560
The history of the original, 200 year old ledger of the Będzin “kehila” [community]	M. Hampel	562
The history of the original, 200 year old ledger of the Będzin “kehila” (Yiddish)	Mordechai Hampel	566
Epilogue (Yiddish)	H. Feldman	569
In memory of our beloved ^[2]		573-613

Photographs
Hebrew Section		494-571

Table of Contents – English Section

The last letter from Bendin	Nachman Blumenthal (Jerusalem)	3
The congregation-council	Katzetnik	5
The legend of the grave-stone	Dr. Jacob Maitlis (London)	14
An atonement day in Auschwitz	Zev Maltshil (Israel)	20
The lost years	D. Steinbock (Australia)	23
My evacuation from Buchenwald camp	K. Neuman	28
The past horror	J. Orbach	38
My escape from the German camp	Zosia Wolfowicz-Kleiner	43
On the anniversary of the fall of Zagłębie Jewry	J. Orbach	47
My war years	L. T.	49
The annihilation of the Jewish population of Zagłębie from the Eichmann trial	Mordechai Hampel (Tel Aviv)	57
Jews in Zagłębie during the Second World War	Leib Shpeizman (United States)	60
Itschok Mordechei Peisachson	Emmanuel Nowogrodzki	71
My brother Henech	David Zicher (Australia)	76
Joseph Goldberg		78
Our heroes	Joseph Friedman	79

^[1]	The names appearing here were translated from the Yiddish and we have indicated in brackets the way a number of these names were spelled in the 1939 Będzin census. back
^[2]	The survivor's dedications from the book have been converted into a searchable, alphabetically arranged list of names. For those interested in seeing the original dedications with photographs of the victims, links have been provided to copies of these pages. back

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