Polish daily about Sokołów

 If you happen to be in Warsaw today, you can read about Sokołów in the largest daily - "Gazeta Wyborcza". The article concerns the translation of memorial books from Yiddish into Polish and the challenges in the study of Polish-Jewish history (especially when it comes to the current town authorities).

Thank you!

 Dear Friends,

I am writing to you to thank you for your help and support so far in commemorating the history of Sokołów Jews. I've been doing this since 2010, and while it seems like a long time, I think there's still a lot to discover.

This year we have completed the translation from Yiddish into Polish of the fifth book about Sokołów - the 815-page Memorial Book https://sokolow.jewish.pl/ksiega-pamieci/ksiega-pamieci/. Together with the other books: two by Simcha Polakiewicz and two by Perec Granatsztejn, it is available online for free for anyone who would like to read it. It has always been important to me that children and young people from schools in Sokołów have access to this history and now it is possible.

I wanted to thank you for a lot of advice, for your help, for sending family photos and documents. All this allowed me to get to know our common history better and learn much more about it. I am very grateful for our personal meetings or e-mail exchanges. Thanks to this, together we changed the world for the better, because we brought back the names of Sokołów Jews to the awareness of the current inhabitants of the town.

They say that a man lives as long as his memory lives on. In Sokołów, the Jews were forgotten for many many years. Now we have turned the tables - their names and stories are known here, local school students read our translation, and researchers quote them in their articles and books.

Of course, there is still a lot to do, but this step was huge and extremely important.

Since I would like to publish books by Simche Polakiewicz and Perec Granatsztejn, I wonder if you have photos of these two writers?

Thank you again for everything we've been able to do together!

Kasia

Węgrów Memorial Book

 A few years ago local authorities in Węgrów said that Polish-Jewish relations were great and we have to translate Memorial Book to prove that. But then they didn't. So I decided to do it.

You can se the result here (it's in Polish, but you can read it with Google Translate and there is one short chapter translated into English).

https://wegrow.jewish.pl/ksiega-pamieci/ksiega-pamieci-wegrowa/

If you want to help and support this project you can do it here: https://pomagam.pl/wegrow

Missing page

As you probably know, this year we are translating the Sokołów Memorial Book (its first 200 pages). This book is in Yiddish, but the copy we have (from the Yiddish Book Center, the same is on the New York library website) has the wrong page number 58. Someone must have made a mistake printing this book because this page is in Hebrew and does not apply to Sokołów, but to some other town.

Is this book in your collection and also has such a wrong page? Or maybe you have the correct page number 58? Let us know!

Attached is also page 57 (this one is ok) just to show you what we are looking for.

In the coming months

We will be extremely busy in the coming months. We will translate from Yiddish into Polish the first part of the Memorial Book of Sokołów Podlaski thanks to the support of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland (the cost of the project is PLN 12,000, of which the Association donated PLN 4,000) and ... surprise - we will translate a part of the Memorial Book of Węgrów from Hebrew into Polish (thanks to a private donor), which we will also publish online for free!

Do you want to support our translations? You can do it here: https://pomagam.pl/sokolowpodlaski

Book translation project

Dear Friends,

I would like to let you know about the project of translating a book from Yiddish into Polish. Thanks to it, the residents of Sokołów will be able to fully learn - previously unknown - the history of the Jewish community in Sokołów. We will post the entire translation for free on the Internet so that everyone can read it.

Any person who will non-anonymously support this project https://pomagam.pl/en/sokolowpodlaski - will find her/his name at http://sokolow.jewish.pl/

Potrzebne wsparcie na tłumaczenie kolejnej książki z jidysz!

Do tej pory przetłumaczyliśmy trzy książki z jidysz na polski. Były to: "Sokołów - moje zniszczone miasteczko" Pereca Granatsztejna, "W cieniu Treblinki" oraz "Dzień w Treblince" Simchy Poliakewicza. Wszystkie znajdują się za darmo na stronie sokolow.jewish.pl.

Historia Żydów z Sokołowa Podlaskiego została opisana w jeszcze jednej książce. To 750-stronicowa Księga Pamięci. Potrzebujemy pomocy, by zrealizować ten ważny projekt. Tłumaczenie tej książki również zamieścimy w Internecie. Zachęcamy Państwo do wpłat na stronie https://pomagam.pl/sokolowpodlaski

Translation of another book about Sokołów

We are still working on in but I wanted to share it with you.

The pain of Jewish history is reflected in the Yiddish language, in which memorial books of many Polish cities and towns were written after the war. This year, the Gszarim Foundation translated into Polish a second such book on the history of Sokołów Podlaski, a small town located east of Warsaw. Below is one of the chapters of this publication in English. The whole text (in Polish) is available at sokolow.jewish.pl.

https://sokolow.jewish.pl/en/

Translation of another Sokolow book

“Good-times” of Early Sokolov Immigrants in Chicago

However much one longs for his 'old home' one, meanwhile, tries to make the best of things as they are and to 'have a good time'. On Sundays and holidays there usually was a gathering at someone's home, someone who already had become more or less established and had his family with him. Often these gatherings were at the home of Chaim Israel Elster, Shamai Greenberg, Mendel Vishni or Chair Leib Rosenbaum. At such affairs there was much to eat and drink. Especially when they celebrated over 'home-made' foods, and dishes they had liked in Sokolov. The delicacies consisted of roasted meats, fried liver, baked fish, and 'kliskelech' with liver, potatoes with 'pope zatse'. Each one of the landslayt brought some foodstuffs or drink. Often, Avrum Bornstein, who was earning well and who was a good sport, bore all the expenses of such an affair.

Read more here: https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Sokolowa_podlaski1/Sokolowa_podlaski1.html

Translation of Yizkor Book

My name is Al Opengart and, along with the support of the Jewish Genealogical Society, I have been working on a project to translate into English, an 800 page, 1962 book about the Polish town of Sokolow-Podlaski from the original Yiddish. The shtetl, from which one or more of your ancestors might have emigrated to America, has a rich history and the book recounts all of it – from its beginnings in the 15th Century though and after the Nazi occupation and defeat.

With the numerous small contributions to JewishGen, the nonprofit organization that is collecting funds, over 100 pages have been translated so far and is now available and can be read at this web page.

http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Sokolowa_podlaski/Sokolowa_podlaski.html

When you open the link, scroll down to the Table of Contents and read any of the sections (hyper-linked in blue), but, in particular, continue scrolling down until you reach "A memorial list of Victims" and you can see the names of the hundreds of our ancestors whose lives were ended under the German occupation. If you wish to support translating additional pages, please use the URL below to access the JewishGen webpage directly and scroll down until you reach the Sokolow Podlaski, Poland – Yizkor Book line:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=23

Your donation will go directly to support this translation, and will be tax deductible. Thank you for your interest and continued support and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Memorial Book

A delayed L’shana Tova to all and a special thanks to those who chose to make a contributions to JewishGen, the nonprofit organization that is collecting funds to translate the Yiddish version of Memorial Book Sokolow-Podlask into English.

The Yizkor service I attended this Yom Kippur brought to mind a newly translated section of Memorial Book Sokolow-Podlask that was completed since my last email.  Through the graciousness of one donor, pages 451 through 457, entitled “The Bedeveled Circle of Danger,” is now available and can be read at this web page.

http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Sokolowa_podlaski/Sokolowa_podlaski.html

When you open the link, scroll down to the Table of Contents and continue scrolling down until you reach page 451.   Click on the sections (hyper-inked in blue) and you can read, in English, the horrors suffered by our ancestors.  At the Yizkor service I attended this Yom Kippur, I remembered my family as well as the hundreds of our ancestors whose lives were ended under the German occupation  I honestly cast a few tears in their memory.

With your more recent donations to JewishGen since the last email, we will be able to continue translate many more pages during 5776.

If you wish to support translating additional pages and/or sections, please use the URL below to access the JewishGen webpage directly and scroll down until you reach the Sokolow Podlaski, Poland – Yizkor Book line:

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=23

Your donation will go directly to support this translation, and will be tax deductible.

Thank you for your interest and continued support and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Al Opengart

Translation of Yizkor Book

Some time ago you expressed interest about my project to translate into English, from Yiddish, a 1962 book about Sokolow-Podlaski, a Polish shetl close to Warsaw from where your, and my, ancestors lived before immigrating to America.

With the excellent support and help from the Jewish Genealogical Society (JewishGen), the first few sections have been translated.  You can now find and read them if you click on the following URL:

http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Sokolowa_podlaski/Sokolowa_podlaski.html

When you open the link, begin to slowly scroll down until you see the Table of Contents.  Click on the sections (hyper-inked in blue) and you can read, in English, the already completed translations.  If you are like me, the few translated sections vividly portray what hard, and often oppressive, lives our ancestors lived in the Old Country.  I count my blessings that at the age of 15, my father left Sokolow with a Visa and arrived in America on the steamship Vauban on February 14, 1921.

After you read the book’s prefaces and the first 3 sections under The Old Home, continue to scroll down the TOC past the Destruction heading to the ‘A memorial list of victims” section.  Click on the hyperlink and you may, as I did, find the names of some of your relatives on the list.

With initial donations to JewishGen, we have so far managed to translate less that 100 of the 816 page book.  For further translations to continue, our best estimates are that something like $20,000 will be needed to continue our translation efforts.  Unless there is a benefactor in our midst, we expect that it will take much time to raise this much money.

If you are so inclined and wish to support translating additional sections, please refer to the information above the “plaques” at the top of the URL.  Your donation will go directly to support The JewishGen Yizkor Book Project, specifically this translation, and will be tax deductible.

If you are so inclined and wish to support translating additional sections, please cut and paste the URL below to access the JewishGen web page directly and scroll down the list until you reach the Sokolow Podlaski, Poland Yizkor Book line.

http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/v_projectslist.asp?project_cat=23

Your donation will go directly to support this translation project, and will be tax deductible.

Thank you for your interest and continued support and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Al Opengart

Translation of Memorial Book

Project Synopsis:  This project is being initiated in order to fund the Yiddish to English translation of this 816 page book, Sefer ha-zikaron; Sokolow-Podlaski  (Memorial Book - Sokolow-Podlaski) for the Jewish Genealogical Society Yizkor library.

Based on an English translation of the Table of Contents, (which can be found at (http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/sokolowa_podlaski/sokolowa_podlaski.html), the book documents the history of the Jews of Sokolow-Podlaski, a small Jewish village located about 35 miles southeast of Warsaw, Poland.

Project Description
Many of the young Jewish men and women who immigrated to the United States from Sokolow-Podlaski in the early part of the twentieth century settled in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris and Israel.  In New York and Chicago, they formed groups that met regularly to maintain contact with each other and the families they had left behind. Today, their first, second, and third generation descendants know little of their Polish heritage and even less about the small shtetl from which their relatives came.  A primary purpose of this project is to fund the translation of Remembrances from Yiddish to English so that present and future generations of Sokolover descendants can learn about the lives, trials, and tribulations of their Polish forebears.

The Memorial Book - Sokolow-Podlaski is a yizkor book; five hundred of the book’s 816 pages are taken up with narratives about the destruction of the Sokolow ghetto, survival and death in concentration camps, survival in the forest, and life in the French Resistance, among other contexts which provided Soklovers haven. Twenty closely printed pages comprise a list of those murdered during the Shoah, another section contains eulogies to individuals whose survivors wanted to remember them in writing, and yet another section includes sponsored yizkor notices.  But if the book memorializes people, it also memorializes a place and a way of life.

The first three hundred pages of the Memorial Book is a section entitled “The Old Home,” that contains numerous vignettes of life as it was lived in Jewish Sokolow for centuries.  This section also includes information about political groups and civic organizations, including the loan and burial funds that were fundamental to Jewish communal life.  The memorial list and necrology that honor the memories of those who did not survive the Shoah enable readers to fulfill the commandment to remember and for this reason they are invaluable.  So are the descriptive and narrative sections of the book that enable us to remember the culture from which we came and, through it, to know who we are.   As those who survived the Shoah or heard about it directly from people who experienced it reach the ends of their lives, it is especially important that the details, the texture, of life as it was, be preserved.

The Memorial Book - Sokolow-Podlaski will interest people who have roots in Sokolow, and it will also interest scholars of pre-Holocaust Jewish Poland, the Holocaust, Polish history, and shtetl life.  With the recent opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, non-Jews in Eastern Europe may wish for access to first-hand accounts of a history that is also theirs, and this book will provide them.

Memorial Book - Sokolow-Podlaski was written in Yiddish.  It is an important book that merits wide availability in English for the Jewish Genealogy Yizkor Library.  Anyone interested in supporting the translation effort, please access the JewishGen web site (above) to make a tax–free donation.  As the translation proceeds, sections will be posted as they are completed.

Project Coordinators Bea Opengart and Alfred Opengart

Excerpts from Yizkor Book

Edited by M. Gelbart. Printed in Tel Aviv, by the landsmanshaften from Israel and America, in 1962. Translated by S. Bergman