JTA Archive

Interesting information about Sokolow Podlaski you can find here - JTA Archive
Just write "Sokolow Podlaski" there and search. You can find there interesting articles written in 1937 and 1938.

Torah scrolls

Two Torah scrolls, one complete and one incomplete, were found in Poland's Sokolow Podlaski district.
The Torah scrolls found Aug. 20 are believed to have belonged to a synagogue in nearby Wegrow.

Read my article about it here

Interview with Alter Ophir

Alter Ophir was email interviewed by the Virtual Shtetl in August 2012. He talks about his family story.

"I don't have many memories or reminisces from Sokolow Podlaski, except one ver vivid memory. Because I was raised in my grandparents' house, I remember that I was sitting with my grandparents in the living room in the dark, and from the outside I hear the clapping of their boots and from the inside of the room the clicking of an very old ground clock in the corner of the living room..."

Read the whole article here

A few words about Treblinka

Ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of local ghettos are organized in many cities in Poland this year. In 1942, hundreds of thousands of Jews from many cities were deported by the Germans to the Treblinka death camp. How many events will the Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom organize in Treblinka? The same number as every year - none.

Treblinka Museum is located in Sokolow Podlaski County and Sokolow is my hometown. I cannot say that I visit the museum very often because there is no shuttle service that could drive me there. Without your own car you won't be able to get there. It's a pity, because in my opinion, even in the so-called tourist season, a small bus could go there even once a day back and forth, maybe only on weekends. However, somebody would have to care about that and apparently nobody does. But I do not want to talk about this...

I have a friend who wrote a book about a man who survived several camps including Auschwitz and Treblinka. Many years after the war that man committed suicide. The author of the book knew him well because they were neighbors. In his work he used testimonies written and published in Yiddish in DP camps. These publications were not previously known to people at the Treblinka museum. Interesting? Not at all. The author of that book was invited to Krakow to share this story with the participants of the meetings at JCC and the Jewish Cultural Center. He wanted also to come to Treblinka and organize such a meeting there. Unfortunately, he does not speak Polish. So he asked me to intercede. When I asked the director of the Treblinka Museum if such an opportunity would be possible, I heard only "no." Why not? I quote: "He is Jewish, and you never know what they really want." I know the director of the museum personally, so maybe he thought he can be so honest with me? Maybe he thought he can talk to me that way? If so, he was wrong, and I began to observe, from a distance, what is happening in Treblinka. And what did I see? Terrifying emptiness.