Words and pictures: Alon Goldman

Back in May 2019, we published the story of the building at Aleja Tadeusza Kościuszki 14, a building inherited by Mariusz Etryk. Before the War, some 80% of its residents were Jews. While Mariusz had some surnames of the former residents, he contacted World Society Vice-President, Alon Goldman and, we published an appeal for more information about those residents.

With the list he already had and with the help of Alon Goldman and other good people, more information was obtained which culminated in a ceremony, held on 12th February 2020, during which a plaque was unveiled, on the front of the building, telling a little of the building’s history and listing its pre-War residents.

Words and pictures: Alon Goldman and Ania Fanaberia Sidorowicz

Thanks mainly to the efforts of our World Society Vice-President Alon Goldman and Executive Board member Alan Silberstein, the World Society hosted a seminar in Częstochowa, for a large group of Israeli tour guides, about Częstochowa and its rich Jewish history.

These guides accompany tour groups to Poland from Israel and, for them, this event is a great learning experience.

Their time began with a lecture and a guided tour of the Częstochowa Jewish Museum led by Alon Goldman.

In the evening, the tour guides were treated to a celebratory dinner hosted by our World Society President Sigmund Rolat and Deputy Mayor of Częstochowa Dr.Ryszard Stefaniak.

To mark the occasion, Ryszard Welgreen, Deputy Chairman of the Częstochowa branch of the TSKŻ, commissioned a commemorative medal as a souvenir of the tour guides’ visit to Częstochowa.

On the following day, the Israeli guides were themselves given a guided tour of many Częstochowa’s Jewish heritage sites including the Ghetto Heroes Square, the HASAG-Pelcery slave labour camp and the Umschlagplatz, from where 40,000 Jews were transported to their deaths in Treblinka. Along the way, the guides heard first-hand testimony our World Society President, Sigmund Rolat. In the evening, dinner was at the Browar. After the dinner, they gathered around Sigmund, who answered guides’ questions and spoke more of his experiences during those days of horror.

Sources: Gazeta Wyborcza, the Częstochowa City Council

This year, the City of Częstochowa is celebrating the 800th anniversary of its written history. There will be academic conferences, film screenings, cultural events AND a new coat-of-arms.

The crow, which was placed there in the early 1990’s out of respect for Jasna Góra, has disappeared. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, in heraldry, it is a symbol of Satan.

At a press conference held on Thursday 6th February, Częstochowa Mayor Krzysztof Matyjaszczyk promised that “there will be many surprises for locals” as part of the anniversary celebrations.

What is of particular interest to the World Society is that, included in this, will be an upgrade to the Stary Rynek (Old Market Square) which is due to be completed mid-2020. Prior to World War II, the Stary Rynek was a centre of Jewish communal and commercial activity.

Words and pictures: Alon Goldman and the Institute of National Remembrance

In a ceremony held in Warsaw, on 29th January 2020,  Ada Willenberg, the widow of our landsmann Samuel Willenberg z'”l, officially opened an exhibition of her husband’s bronze sculptures depicting his images of Treblinka. Samuel, who sadly passed away in February 2016, was the last living survivor of Treblinka and saw it as his mission to educate others about what happened there.

The Official Opening took place in the presence of a large audience and was attended by the Polish Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Jarosław Selin, and was one of the events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The fifteen sculptures, which arrived in Warsaw from Tel Aviv, depict one of the most tragic episodes of the Holocaust through the most dramatic scenes of routine life in the extermination camp – the death factory which the Nazis established in Treblinka – as burned into Willenberg’s memory.

The exhibition will be on show for a year in Poland and, after its time in Warsaw, will travel to Białystok, Gdańsk, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Szczecin and to Willenberg’s home town Częstochowa.

In Warsaw, the exhibition will be open to the public at the “History Point” Education Centre at ul. Marszałkowsa 21/25 from January 29 until the end of March 2020. Viewing times are:

Mondays to Fridays: 8:00am – 8:00pm.
Saturdays: 9:00am – 2:00pm.
Closed on Sunday.

Visitors to the exhibition can also view the documentary film “The Last Witness of Treblinka” (100 mins.) by American television station WLRN, which tells the story of Samuel Willenberg .

Admission is free.

Groups are asked to coordinate arrival by telephoning: +48-22-576-3009

In Czestochowa, Samuel Willenberg’s hometown, the exibition will go on display in early October 2020, coinciding with the city’s Huberman Violin Festival.

Sources: Alon Goldman, Yad Vashem & POLIN Museum

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Bogdan Jastrzębski, a Częstochowa Righteous Among the Nations. He died in Częstochowa at the age of 94.

His funeral will take place at 12 noon on Thursday 2nd January 2020 at Częstochowa’s Kule Cemetery. Members of the Częstochowa Branch of the TSKŻ will accompany him on his final journey.

Our condolences to his daughters Anna and Barbara, his five grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. In our Jewish tradition, we wish them and all his family long life and that they know no more sorrow.

Those of you who, during our past Reunions, attended the opening and subsequent ceremonies at the Częstochowa Umschlagplatz monument will have had the honour of meeting Bogdan where he was present as an honoured guest.

Both Bogdan and his mother, Maria, were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations on 6th June 1993.

To learn more of their story, go to their listing on this website’s Częstochowa Righteous page or go to their listing on the Yad Vashem website.

Words and pictures: Alon Goldman

On 15th December 2019, members of the Częstochowa branch of the Social-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland (TSKŻ) came together with family and friends to celebrate the beginning of Chanukah 5780.

In the presence of Częstochowa Deputy Mayor, Dr. Ryszard Stefaniak, guests were entertained with Chanuakh songs by Dariusz Wójcik vel Dawidek,  accompanied by pianist Szaweł Lipski.

The venue for the event was the Częstochowa TSKŻ branch’s new home, on the first floor of the Jewish Museum of Częstochowa at ul. Katedralna 8 which, before World War II, was a very Jewish district.

The  newest member of our World Society joined us, just after midnight, on Wednesday 25th September (25th Ellul) –  a beautiful, healthy daughter born to proud parents Yaakov and Elisheva Wasilewicz.

The following day, in shule, by the Torah, she was named Chaya Ita Wasilewicz, after her grandmother, our dear Chaya Ita (Halina) Wasilewicz z”l (pic right), who must be looking down from heaven with immense pride.

A sincere and hearty MAZAL TOV to Yaakov and Elisheva!

Your daughter carries the name of a wonderful lady. May she have a happy, healthy and successful life and bring you great naches.

Words: Alan Silberstein Photos: Asia Fanaberia Sidorowicz

On 12th September 2019, about 20 participants in a Shabbaton, held in Piotrków Trybunalski the previous week, visited Czestochowa, where many also had roots. In particular, many Jews from Piotrków Trybunalski who survived the Holocaust, survived because, in November 1944, they were taken to work as slave labourers in Częstochowa, after the labour camps, where they had previously worked, were liquidated. Those, who were not taken to work in Częstochowa, were sent to Buchenwald. Many worked in the HASAG-Warta armaments factory, one of four HASAG slave labour camps in Częstochowa.

The Shabbaton participants were invited, by the Częstochowa TSKŻ and the World Society of Częstochowa Jews & Their Descendants, to visit important sites in Częstochowa including the Holocaust Memorial designed by Samuel Willenberg, the Jewish Museum, a branch of the Częstochowa Regionalal Museum and the site of the HASAG-Warta slave labour camp.

When it was realised that no sign existed which marked the location of the HASAG-Warta camp, where some 4,000 Jewish prisoners had worked from June 1943 to January 1945, we determined to correct that oversight before last week’s visit. The Director of the Częstochowa Regional Museum Tadeusz Piersiak approached Wojciech Kaczmarski, President of the real estate company Polaris, which had redeveloped the site. Mr. Kaczmarski readily agreed to mount a plaque memorialising the victims of Nazi persecution who had suffered and died at this location. Piotr Stasiak and Hana Eliana Gawronska, both of Warsaw, designed the plaque and Ryszard Welgryn, a leader of the Częstochowa Jewish community and the proprietor of ARTMEDAL, executed the design. All was done in record time so that the plaque could be dedicated last week!

The ceremony was MC’ed by Director Piersiak. Speakers included Częstochowa Deputy Mayor Andrzej Szewiński, Piotrków Trybunalski survivor Robert Dessau, former inmate of HASAG-Warta who was liberated in Częstochowa, Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, Deputy Mayor Naor Yerushalmi of Ness Ziona, Israel (the sister city of Piotrkow Tribunalski) and World Society of Częstochowa Jews representative Alan Silberstein. The official unveiling was performed by Messrs. Szewinski, Dessau, Silberstein and Yerushalmi. Memorial candles and wreaths were placed by representatives of the City of Częstochowa and students from the Jacek Malczewski School of Fine Arts. Also in attendance were many local citizens and volunteers from Piotrków Trybunalski. Only two of the attendees were survivors themselves, Robert Dessau of the United States and Sir Ben Helfgott of the United Kingdom.

The beautiful brass plaque shows three matzevat- or tombstones- with the inscription in three languages, Polish, Hebrew and English:

In memory of the Jews who suffered and died in the German forced labor camp in the Hasag-Warta ammunition factory which was here from 1943 to 1945.

At the bottom, in Yiddish, is the traditional memorial:

Koved zeier ondenk, (May Their Memory Be Honoured).

Behind the matzevot, is a representation of the Western Wall in Jerusalem and above, is a seven-candle menorah, the oldest symbol of the Jewish people. A similar plaque was dedicated at HASAG-Pelcery by the World Society some years ago.

Historical Background

HASAG, an acronym of Hugo Schneider AG, was a German metals goods manufacturer which received contracts to manufacture ammunition for the German war effort, using Jewish slave labour as well as Polish labour. HASAG converted four factories in Czestochowa for this purpose, which were named Pelcery (or Apparatexbau), Czestochwianka, Raków and Warta. The factory at Warta was built as a spinning mill by its Jewish founders in 1896. HASAG operated there from June 1943 through January 1945, employing some 4,000 Jewish prisoners over the period (about 2,000 at any one time). In November 1944, after the liquidation of the slave labour camps in Piotrków, several railcars taking Piotrków Jews to Buchenwald were separated in Częstochowa and about 1,000 Jews from Piotrków were sent to work in three of the HASAG camps, including HASAG-Warta. Days before the liberation of Częstochowa in January 1945, most survivors were taken east to camps like Buchenwald.

After the War, the Warta factory once again produced linen. Since the 1990’s, the site has since been redeveloped into commercial buildings located at ul. Krakowska 45.

The Memory of Treblinka Foundation endeavours to be one of the many institutions which restore the memories of those murdered in the Holocaust. It focuses particularly on those who died in Treblinka or on their way there.

The Foundation has already begun compiling a “Book of Names” of the victims – searching through Yad Vashem’s databases, the reports collected at the Jewish Historical Institute, memoirs, pre-War and post-War sources; interviewing the last living witnesses of the Holocaust and the families of the victims.

In cooperation with Jewish Historical Institute, the Foundation is collecting all available information concerning the victims of the extermination camp in Treblinka. These victims cannot remain anonymous – as the Nazis would have wished. Every name is important.

If you would like to share any information about your family or friends, you can complete the Foundation’s on-line questionnaire. Even just a partially completed questionnaire would be very valuable.

To learn more, click HERE.

All are invited to attend the 2019 Annual Memorial Service of the Association of Częstochowa Jews in Israel which will be held at 5:00pm on Sunday 22nd September 2019 at Wohlin House in Givatayim.

This date marks the 77th anniversary of the beginning of the liquidation of the Częstochowa ghetto.

The program will include the Memorial Service, followed by the Association’s Chairman, Alon Goldman, who will speak about the Association’s activities during the past year and plans for 2020.

Holocaust survivor, Gabi Horowitz, will then recall his memories of Yom Kippur,  21st September 1942, the final day of the “Big Ghetto”.

Project Manager of Yad Vashem’s Commemorative Department, Naama Galil, will then speak on “Resistance and Struggle in Częstochowa During the Holocaust”.

The memorial event will be followed by the Association’s Annual General Meeting, which will include elections to the Association’s Committee for the next year. Anyone interested in standing is encouraged to contact Alon Goldman.