It has always been hoped that our 6th World Society Reunion can be held in Częstochowa on 10th-12th October 2021. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic around the world has made everything uncertain. So we are STILL unsure as to whether the event can take place as hoped or whether we will need to wait until, possibly, next year.

HOWEVER, in order to be able to estimate numbers should we be able to hold our Reunion in October 2021, we are asking people to express their interest in attending.

This is NOT a registration or booking – at this stage, it is ONLY an expression of interest.

Click HERE to express your interest.

Sources: Jolanta Urbanska, Deputy Chair, Częstochowa City Council,

The Częstochowa City Council, today, unanimously passed a resolution declaring, in Częstochowa, 2021 as the Year of Remembrance of the Victims of the Częstochowa Ghetto. Adoption of the resolution is in connection with the 80th anniversary of the ghetto’s establishment.

On 9th April 1941, the German mayor of Częstochowa, Richard Wendler, proclaimed the establishment of a ghetto in the north-eastern part of the city. The Jews were given until 23rd April to move into the ghetto, an area from which 3,000 non-Jewish residents were evicted.

Following the mass deportations in September and October 1942, on 1st November 1942, a much smaller area near the Warta River was established. It became known as the “Small Ghetto”. It was surrounded with barbed wire and had only one gate. With the arrival of Jews from other labour camps, the “small Ghetto” had a population of more than 5,000.

In mid-1943, following further mass murders, the “Small Ghetto” was liquidated. The 4,000 remaining Jews were then sent to slave labour camps – 3,350 to HASAG-Pelcery and the remainder to HASAG-Warta.

Reference: The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettoes During the Holocaust, Vol.1, 2009.

Source: Alon Goldman

Częstochowa, just as in other places across Poland and Israel, commemorated the 78th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Several events were held to mark the occasion.

Source: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Anna Koźmińska (1919–2021), the world’s oldest Righteous Among the Nations (1991) and honoured by the President of Poland with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2016). She passed away on 24th March 2021, at the age of almost 102.

During the Holocaust, in Częstochowa, she and her stepmother, Maria Koźmińska ( née Hoffman), helped Abraham Jabloński, an eight-year-old Jewish boy who, with the help of his family and Polish friends, had escaped from the Częstochowa ghetto.

Despite his “bad appearance”, little Abraham was able to go about quite openly outside the ghetto and was even supposed to serve as an altar boy in the Paulist monastery on Jasna Góra. He hid with the Koźmiński ladies until January 1945.

Click HERE to read the Anna’s story.

Sources: Alon Goldman, Jolanta Urbańska and Gazeta Wyborcza

Yesterday, Holocaust denier vandals desecrated the monument, in memory of Częstochowa Jews, located on the site of the former Umschlagplatz, (now named “Samuel Willenberg Square”) from which approximately 40,000 Czestochowa Jews, from 22nd September 22 to 7th October 1942, were packed into six transports and sent to their deaths at the Treblinka German death camp.

On the monument, the vandals wrote the names of Jürgen Graf, a well-known Holocaust denier, and Ursula Haverbeck, a neo-Nazi Holocaust denier. A complaint was filed by the municipality to the police who opened an investigation and the municipality undertook to take care of the cleanliness of the monument

The desecration was discovered by the Straż Miejski (City Guard), who regularly patrol the area, who immediately reported the crime to police.

In writing to Alon Goldman, Cr. Urbańska stated, “What can I write? That I am ashamed? Yes! Yes! That I’m sorry? Yes! Yes! What can I write? That I’m ashamed? Yes! That I ask for forgiveness? Yes! Today I am ashamed that I’m Polish”.

Thanks to the efforts of Cr. Jolanta Urbańska, and with the urging of World Society Vice-President Alon Goldman, the City Council has now cleaned off all the marks of desecration and restored it to its original condition.

Source: Alon Goldman

It was with great sadness that the World Society learned of the passing of writer and poet Irit Amiel Z”l, who has passed away at the age of ninety. Irit was born in Częstochowa, as Irena Librowicz, on May 5, 1931, to a modern Jewish family. Częstochowa is where she spent her childhood.

In 1941, she and her family were moved into the local ghetto. Just prior to its liquidation, in September 1942, her parents managed to extract her from the ghetto. Irit’s parents, Leon and Natalia Librowicz, died in the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942.

Under a false identity and using false documents. Irit hid in the village of Pocieszna Górka near Piotrków Trybunalski. At the end of World War II, she returned to her hometown where, for a short time, she studied attended high school. With the help of the “Ha’Bricha” organisation, she left for Israel in late 1945. Together with a group of young people, she managed to reach Israel in December 1947, having passed through displaced persons camps in Germany (Biberach an der Riss), Italy (Turin) and Cyprus.

At the beginning of her career in Israel, she lived in Kibbutz Beit Hashita and, from 1949, in Kibbutz Palmachim. It was there that she met Chozi Amiel, whom she married in 1953.

In the late 1970’s, Irit Amiel studied philology, history and literary history at the Open University of Israel. Between 1981 and 1985, she undertook translation studies at Beit Berl and began translating literary texts from Hebrew to Polish and from Polish to Hebrew.

She made her literary debut in 1994 with an anthologyn of Hebrew poems in a book about the Holocaust. A Polish-language edition of the same book was published in that same year. Other literary works followed, all of which were also published in Poland. These include poetry entitled “I Could Not” (1998), “Test in the Holocaust” (1994, 1998), “Here and There” (1999), “Breathe Deeply” (2002) and prose entitled “Burned” (1999), “Dual Display” (2008 ) And “Life – a Temporary Title” (2014). She has twice been nominated for a Nike Literary Award.

Her works have also been published in English, German, Italian and Hungarian.

In May 2014, as part of the “Aleja tu się dziejie” Festival, for the last time, Irit visited Częstochowa with her daughter and took this opportunity to walk with her through her childhood areass. This visit was filmed and a doumentary was made entitled “And Yet I Won – To jednak ja zwyciężyłam”. To view the video, click HERE.

On 29th August 2014, the City of Częstochowa conferred on Irit Amiel an Honorary Award for her cultural activities. The award was presented to her, at her home in Ramat Hen, by our World Society Vice-President Alon Goldman, on behalf of the Mayor of Częstochowa.

We wish her family long life – may her memory be a blessing to her family and to all who knew her.

Pictures: Alon Goldman and the Częstochowa Municipal Museum

Pictures: Błazej Tatarek and Alon Goldman

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Channukah celebrations in Poland will either be held online or not at all. This affects all Jewish Community Centres and branches of the TSKŻ throughout the country.

This, of course, also includes the Częstochowa Branch of the TSKŻ (the Social-Cultural Association of Jews) which, traditionally,  holds a joyous Channukah function each year.

So, in wishing everyone a happy and, most importantly, a healthy Channukah, below are some pictures from the Częstochowa TSKŻ Channukah festivities from 2018 and 2019.

Words and pictures: Alon Goldman

The Association of Częstochowa Jews in Israel held its Annual Memorial Service on Thursday 3rd December 2020, marking the 78th anniversary of the liquidation of the Częstochowa Ghetto.

Unlike in previous years, the Memorial Service was held unconventionally, via Zoom. The Association had endeavoured to postpone the event in the hope that the COVID pandemic situation would improve, thus allowing the Association to held the event as in previous year – but to no avail. This year, the Service had to be “virtual”.

The event was opened by Association Chairman Alon Goldman.

The event was honoured with the presence of the Polish Ambassador to Israel, His Excellency Mr. Marek Magierowski. In his remarks, he noted that the organization’s activity serves as an example of building a bridge between peoples.

In the second part of the Memorial Service, Alon Goldman delivered a lecture entitled “Preserving the Częstochowa Jewish Heritage in the Mirror of Generations”. In the lecture, he reviewed the various activities carried out over the years, from the date of the liberation of Częstochowa by the Russians to the present day, for the preservation of the city’s Jewish heritage. He described the challenges faced and talked about the people whose contribution was significant in these activities in the various areas (click on images to enlarge):