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.

Sokolow survivors in a Displaced Persons camp

Picture of Sokolow survivors in a Displaced Persons camp in Hess Lichtenau (camp Herzog), Germany, probably in 1947.

The board says:
"God will remember the holy people of Sokolow Podlaski who have been killed, burned and strangled by the cursed nazis in the year 1942"

"The three women on the left of the upper row are my mother (in the middle) and her two sisters. My brother is sitting next to the board, on the right side.
The baby in the right side of the picture is myself, sitting with my Father's sister." - writes Moshe Carmeli

Do you recognize your relatives here?

Rodzina Ciechnowiecki - Szulc 1934

Stoją od prawej: Cwi Ciechnowiecki, Abraham Szulc.

Siedzą od prawej: Feiga Ciechnowiecka, sześcioletni Chaim Szulc, babcia Chawa Ciechnowiecka, jednoroczna Ester Szulc na kolanach matki Chaji Szulc z domu Ciechnowiecki, siostra Estery czteroletnia Josefa Szulc.

W 1939 roku mieszkali przy ulicy Pięknej.

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

Commemoration

Liberated in mid-August 1944

Public Security Office in Sokolow Podlaski states that the area of Sokolow Podlaski district was liberated by the Red Army and at its side the Polish Army in mid-August 1944.

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

Town's bath

Advertisement of town's bath in Polish and Yiddish (1937).

Sokolow Ghetto

circa 1941. Sokolow Ghetto (courtesy of Łukasz Biedka).
2015. Small Market Place (Mały Rynek).

Who Will Tell Our Stories?

Every man, woman and child has a story. For some it is found in the most unlikely of places, during one of the most horrific of times, where actions of a few meant life versus death. Mine is a story of survival: my own and my family's. A story that begins over seventy years ago when my world became engulfed by the evils of Nazism, my family torn apart, my life forever changed and my childhood and innocence ripped away as a 9-year-old boy hiding in a tiny, filthy attic in occupied Poland.
Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-elster/who-will-tell-our-stories_b_7153866.html

Ceremony in Israel

If you are in Israel you are invited to annual ceremony on April 15

Sokolow mezuzah

Helena and Aleksander from Mi Polin about Sokolow mezuzah in the biggest Polish newspaper:
http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,54420,17647409,Szukaja_w_starych_domach_sladow_zydowskiej_obecnosci.html