For the next four years, the Jan Długosz University of Częstochowa will award a prize for the best piece of new research into the history of the Jewish community of Częstochowa and the surrounding area.

In the presence of the university’s Rector Prof.Dr.hab.Anna Wypych-Gawrońska and history professors Prof.Dr.hab.Jerzy Mizgalski and Prof.Dr.hab.Janusz Spyra, an agreement was signed between the University and Andrew Rajcher, who is funding the award in memory of his late parents Wolf and Dora Rajcher.

In a ceremony held at the Umschlagplatz monument, Częstochowa remembered its Jewish citizens, victims of the Holocaust, by commemorating the 76th anniversary of the liquidation of the Częstochowa ghetto. The monument site is from where, between 22nd September and 7th October 1942, six train transports departed for Treblinka, carrying around 40,000 Jews to their deaths.

Częstochowa Deputy Mayor, Dr. Ryszard Stefaniak, opened the ceremony, which was attended by around one hundred of the city’s, as well as guests from the United States and Israel.

World Society President, Sigmund Rolat, welcomed all to what is an important commemoration, World Society Vice-President, Alon Goldman, in his address, listed the numerous achievements accomplished in preserving the city’s Jewish heritage, undertaken in recent years in cooperation with the municipal authorities. These included the erection of the monument in front of which he was standing and the establishment of the Jewish Museum of Częstochowa. He acknowledged Sigmund Rolat’s great contribution to these project.

Alon stressed that the preservation of the Jewish cemetery, which is largely still being neglected, is a project that must be completed in partnership with other individuals and organizations.

Alongside the city’s Honour Guard, students from the Malczewski and Słowacki High Schools contributed to the ceremony with poetry reading and a song. A very emotional moment came when Ofri Ben Shitrit, granddaughter of survivor Giza Segal, came from Israel to attend the ceremony and performed the Hebrew song Shir HaMa’alot, while her grandmother Giza watched it live on video in Ramat Gan.

Kaddish was recited by Alon Goldman in memory of the 40,000 victims. Several wreathes were then laid by representatives of the city and by private individuals. Othen then paid their own private tribute at the monument.

The Częstochowa TSKŻ (Social-Cultural Association of Jews) was the venue for the opening of the “Jews in the Polish Army” exhibition, in the presence of Częstochowa Deputy Mayor Ryszard Stefaniak and Częstochowa Museum Director Tadeusz Piersiak.

The exhibition was created through the efforts of the HADAR Committee, together with the Polish Military Centre for Civic Education, the Polish Army Museum, the Katyń Museum, the Jewish Historical Institute and the TSKŻ in Poland. It has already been displayed in other Polish cities and abroad.

The exhibition consists of eighteen panels telling the stories of Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army who fought in Polish uprisings and battles during the 19th and 20th centuries. As well as presenting the Jewish resistance movements and the story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, it tells how Jews fought for Poland’s freedom and independence.

After many years of neglect, a major step has been taken to clean-ep Częstochowa’s Jewish Cemetery. It was a complex task, laden with serious concerns but, in the end, it was made possible thanks to the determination, perseverance, a great deal of goodwill and the great help of the good people who volunteered for the task.

Due to the size of the cemetery (the third largest Jewish cemetery in Poland), it became clear that it would not be possible to deal with the entire area at one time, so that two plots were chosen to begin the work – one, to the left of the main path, on either side of the mass graves, the other, at the top and on the right sidee of the cemetery, past the mass grave of the ŻOB fighters. As with the rest of the cemetery, these two areas were overtaken by dense ground vegetation and a large number of trees which, over the years, had fallen due to the weather.