The Book of Częstochowa (1968) - Volume 1
Sefer Czenstochow
According to Dr.hab.Magdalena Ruta of the Department of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków:
In 1967-1968, a two-volume work was published in Jerusalem. In both Yiddish and Hebrew, it was entitled Sefer Czenstochow [The Book of Częstochow] and was edited by M. Szucman. Its contributors included such well-known names as Jakub Szacki (dec. 1956), Szlomo Waga and Dawid Koniecpoler.
The first volume contains articles about the history of the Jews in the city (by J. Szacki and Sz. Śpiwak), which were divided by topic: Jewish communal institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries, political movements, charitable institutions, commercial life, education and culture, religious life, as well as portraits of individuals associated with the religious life. Pages 637-760 contain the memoirs photographs of people associated with the city.
The second volume is devoted to the Holocaust and the functioning of the ghetto, e.g. religious life, the children, party organisations, etc. Other wartime topics include deportations to Treblinka, the mass murders, Polish-Jewish relations (e.g. the chapter entitled Mencsclecher tat fun a poilisher froi [The Humane Response of a Polish Woman] by Szmuel Niski), the resistance and uprising in HASAG, Jews in the city following liberation, portraits of Częstochowa Jewish activists in the diaspora, landsmannschaften in Israel, the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia and Paris. The book contains the memoirs of individual people (pp. 285−325), including shorts texts about the co-authors of previous memorial books – E. Chrobołowski, Rafael Federman, Prof. Wolf Lesław and Josef Kojfman. A part of the book is devoted to neighbouring Jewish communities in Krzepice, Żarki, Kłobuck, Lelów, Kamyk, Janów, Olsztyn, Mstów, Pajęczno and Koniecpol. The illustrated material includes pictures of the city, people and activities, copies of various documents, as well as maps.
There is no English translation of this book. [Webmaster: until NOW!]
FOR THE FIRST TIME,
both complete volumes of this Yizkor book
have now been PROFESSIONALLY translated into English.
The professional English translation of this two-volume Yizkor book has been made possible by the financial support of the
Wolf Rajcher z”l and Dora Rajcher z”l were both Holocaust survivors from Częstochowa.
They were prisoners in both the “Big Ghetto” and the “Small Ghetto” and, until liberation, were slave labourers in HASAG-Pelcery. Following the War, they emigrated to Melbourne Australia.
Upon the passing of both his parents, their son, Andrew Rajcher, established this charitable fund in their memory.
VOLUME 1
Click on SECTION HEADINGS to reveal chapters.
Chapters are listed in the order in which they appear in the Yizkor Book.
(The numbers in brackets, after each article, correspond to the appropriate column numbers in the volume.)
To view this Yizkor Book in its original Yiddish/Hebrew format
Click HERE.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Dave Horowitz-Larochette
IMPORTANT NOTICE
While the English translation is available for download, it may not, either in part or as a whole, be distributed or published without the prior written permission of Andrew Rajcher, the English-language version copyright-holder.
Other fully or partially translated
Częstochowa Yizkor Books are available on
Click HERE to view them