6th Częstochowa Jews Reunion - Expressions of Interest
6th World Society Reunion
- Expressions of Interest ONLY
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, and if you are interested in attending, we ask that you complete ONE of the two forms below. A group from Israel will only be organised if we have a minimum of twenty Israeli participants.
PLEASE NOTE: Completing ONLY ONE of the forms below is ONLY an Expression of Interest and is NOT asking you for any firm commitment. Once a decision has been made about whether the Reunion can go ahead as planned, you will be contacted.
6th World Society Reunion in Częstochowa – Expression of Interest
First Reunion - April 2004
First Reunion - April 2004
Częstochowa, Poland - Memorial Rollcall at Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery
On Friday 23rd April 2004, in the presence of
- local dignitaries
- members of the local Jewish community, and
- landsleit who had travelled from all around the world to attend our 2004 Reunion
– and as part of the rededication ceremony of the Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery, a Polish Army Honour Company paid tribute to Częstochowa Jewish resistance fighters, the words of which appear below.
(Apel Poległych)
with painful emotions, to honour the victims of Nazi terror – the Jews of Częstochowa
and the surrounding area, for whom this site was a place of fear and tears.
It was precisely here that Jews from the “Big and Small Ghettoes” were selected, tortured,
murdered and transported to Treblinka on trains which ran to a horrific timetable
– route No.594: Częstochowa via Piotrków Trybunalski, Koluszki, Skierniewice,
Warsaw and Małkinia.
:
Compatriots! We stand here in the place where the inalienable rights to freedom and
human dignity were trampled upon. We stand here to revive the memory of the place of
extermination of those who believed in their faith and ideals, who desired a free homeland
and who perished because they were Jews.
Today, their homeland repays its debt to them.
I call upon you, the Jews of Częstochowa, to stand and bear witness to these crimes.
Know that we remember you, your suffering and your death.
I call upon you, the victims of the ghetto pacification, the street executions and round-ups,
to this Memorial Rollcall with the words of a poet, “I call up on you, with voice of an officer
breaking the shell of silence like a grenade echoing the order:
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– MAY THEIR MEMORY BE HONOURED!
I call upon you, Częstochowa natives – for generations bound to their city,
I summon you, Częstochowa families – great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers,
grandfathers and grandmothers, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons,
granddaughters and grandsons.
I call upon you, Jewish children, children of the ghetto
from whom first their childhood was taken, then life.
I summon you, those gassed in Treblinka and martyred in hundreds of places of slaughter.
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– MAY THEIR MEMORY BE HONOURED!
I call upon you, the brave people of Częstochowa
who paid with your lives for helping a Jew.
I summon you, Theordor Popczyk, Bolesław Grzewinski, Jozef Sono with your wife,
Marian Bruść, Jakub and Jozefa Szmaciarsk1, Tadeusz and Czesława Bednarski
martyred for helping Jews.
I call upon you, Elka, deported to Treblinka gas chambers
because you stayed in the ghetto waiting for a Jewish child.
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– MAY THEIR MEMORY BE HONOURED!
I call upon you, Sgt.Tadeusz Mutke,
who paid with your life for leading Jews out of the ghetto.
I summon you, the Jews of Częstochowa,
who commenced an armed uprising against your oppressors in Treblinka.
I call upon you, Henryk Rosenblat and your comrades,
who died with weapons in your hands, fighting the murderers of the Jewish people.
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– THEY DIED WITH HONOUR!
I call upon you, Mordechai Zylberberg “Mojtek” and your friends,
from the Jewish Organisation of Fighters, who died in sn uneven fight
with the Nazi beast.
I summon you, Mendel Fiszlewicz, a fugitive from Treblinka, and you,
Izak Feiner and members of your fighting group.
I call upon you, brave Rywka Glanc and Dr.Adam Wolberg.
I summon you, the six young fighters – Moniek Flamenbaum, Olek Herszenberg,
Janek Krauze, Henryk Rychter, Jerzyk Rozenblat and Szlamek Sztajn,
executed on March 19, 1943, here in the Jewish Cemetery.
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– THEY DIED WITH HONOUR!
I call upon you, the prisoners of HASAG, murdered here in the Częstochowa cemetery.
I summon you, Leon Silberstein, Machel Birenscwajg and all your comrades
who rescued Jewish children – some of them, thanks to you,
are here with us today with their children and grandchildren.
STAND FOR ROLL CALL!
– MAY THEIR MEMORY BE HONOURED!
Today, from this Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery,
and with this Last Roll Call,
let this message spread to the four corners of the world:
NEVER AGAIN GENOCIDE!
NEVER AGAIN HATRED!
NEVER AGAIN RACISM!
NEVER AGAIN WAR!
The event was covered by national Polish television on TVP3.
This was the first time that such a ceremony, involving serving Polish military personnel, has
ever taken place in a Jewish Cemetery in Poland.
