International Holocaust Remembrance Day

 A group of survivors returned to Sokołów after the war to find that they were not welcome here. Other people lived in their houses, other people ran their shops, and the mayor of the town told the Jews who had survived the war to move to Węgrów. 

They still managed to visit familiar places - cemeteries, houses of prayer, a bathhouse - and take photos documenting the emptiness left in the town.

Today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 78 years after the end of the war in Sokołów, this emptiness has still not been filled.

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).

Hanukkah 1928

 "People attending a Hanukkah ball for the benefit of the community.

Sokolow 5689 [December 1928]"

I understand it was a charity event, right? Do you know any of these people?

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

Sokolow tombstone

Any chance any of you know where this tombstone is? What city, what place?

It's a picture from the Yizkor Book, but there's no caption.

Cyla Fuks

Have you ever heard of Cyla Fuks (?) from Sterdyń near Sokołów, living in Tel Aviv, 227 Dizengoff Street? In 1967 she wrote z letter to her former neighbour in Sterdyń. She wrote there about succeses of the Israeli army - and that is why the letter was confiscated by Polish police (Poland was then controlled by Russia and Russia was against Israel, that is why it was baned to talk/write anything good about Israeli army). 

I wonder if Cyla left any written testimony about her life in Sterdyń before and during the war. Please, let me know if you know anything about her!

Pinchas Ogrodnik #2

Do you remember Pinchas Ogrodnik, whose tombstone we found in Sterdyń? He was a young boy who got involved with the communist movement. He received communist leaflets from a stranger (he said that in the court, I don't know if it's true, probably not). Communism was a serious crime back then, as the Bolsheviks attacked Poland in 1920. The authorities feared treason. Pinchas was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

What is important - there were a few Poles and a few Jews in the group of suspects. It was NOT "Judeo-communism", as anti-Semites sometimes claim about communists.

In the personal questionnaire (written by a policeman) Pinachas stated in the education column "I can sign my name, but not much more". His parents were: Icko-Moszek and Chaja-Sura nee Nejer.

Pinchas spent 349 days in prison before he died (possibly from tuberculosis, but we have no confirmation of this). Officials noted that he still had 381 days to serve.