Home and the Road - the Road and Home

Dom i Droga – Droga i Dom, published in 2020, is the first synthetic work presenting an important and, at the same time, difficult research issue concerning the Jewish community in Częstochowa following World War II.

When Częstochowa was liberated on 17th January 1945, of the almost 30,000 pre-War Częstochowa Jews, 1,215 had survived. Much divided them, but one thing united them – a love for their home city. Their situation, due to the turmoil of history and politics was, for many years, extremely uncertain, especially in the context of the tragedy of the Kielce events in 1946 and, later, in March 1968 and the waves of emigration caused by it.

Against this background, the founding and activity, decades later, of the World Society of Częstochowa Jews and Their Descendants is an extraordinary phenomenon.

The contribution of Sigmund Rolat (a former prisoner in HASAG-Pelcery) is especially significant in the extensive restoration of the old cemetery and the commemoration of the time when Częstochowa Jews were transported to the extermination camp in Treblinka.

The symbols of the HOME (lost as a result of the Holocaust) and the ROAD (forced by the fate of emigration) intertwine, in a distinctive mosaic, overlapping within the subject of this well-written and broadly documented publication.

The authors present a pioneering and a long-awaited, by many, compendium of knowledge about the Jewish community of Częstochowa from 1945 to the present.

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(The numbers in brackets, after each entry, correspond to the appropriate page numbers in the book.)