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 about the Polish police during World War II

In the latest book of Prof. Jan Grabowski about the Polish police during World War II, there is also information about Sokołów, Węgrów and Siedlce. The author quotes many archival records and the book by Simcha Poliakewicz translated by us.

Grabowski's book will be published in Polish in March and in English probably next year. We encourage you to read it!

https://czarne.com.pl/katalog/ksiazki/na-posterunku

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

Upamiętnienie ofiar likwidacji getta

22 września 1942 r. Niemcy rozpoczęli likwidację getta w Sokołowie Podlaskim. Ponad połowa mieszkańców miasta - Żydzi, którzy przez pokolenia przyczyniali się do rozwoju Sokołowa - została wywieziona do Treblinki. Upamiętniliśmy tę tragiczną rocznicę, odczytując fragment książki Simchy Poliakewicza "Dzień w Treblince". Fragment swojego opowiadania "Droga do Treblinki", inspirowanego prawdziwymi wydarzeniami, przeczytała nauczycielka SP1, Wiesława Kwiek. Psalm 23 odczytał nauczyciel SP3, Jacek Odziemczyk.

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/

Commemoration of Sokolow Jews - 2018

Ber-Moshe Szlechter was 29 years old when he and his brother went from Sokołów to Palestine (now Israel) in 1935. Today, on September 23, his son Yoram and granddaughters Mayaan, Sharon and Inbal for the first time came to Sokołów to commemorate those who were murdered during the war.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you to everyone who wants to remember the Jewish history of our town.

Uroczystość upamiętniająca sokołowskich Żydów

Róża Morgensztern

Today I received a postcard sent by Róża Morgensztern in June 1939 to the editorial office of "Express Poranny". Róża took part in the contest. On the back of the card there is a coupon filled in by her, in which she wrote that Henryk Sienkiewicz is the author of "In Desert and Wilderness". Róża was a student and lived in Sokołów at 1 Brzóski Street.

In the Yad Vashem database there is a testimony regarding Roiza Morgenshtern, born in 1924, daughter of Moshe David and Feiga. Roiza was murdered in 1942. She was 18 years old at the time.

From the archive...

In 1956, the Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland wrote a letter to the authorities of Sokołów regarding the mass grave near Piękna street.

"Two citizens set up homesteads adjacent to the mass grave of 400 victims, and a cowshed is located above the grave."

Polish Jews wanted to know what the town authorities are going to do "to secure the holy place against shameful desecration".

We do not know if they got the answer.

List of survivors

Attached document is a list of Polish Jewish survivors in Bialystok, Ciechanowiec, Czyzew, Knyszyn, Zareby Koscielne, Kleszcze, Grodek, Lapy, Krynki, Sokolow Podlaski, Jasionowka, Bransk, Wysokie Mazowieckie, Soloky

Date: 7/12/1945

http://search.archives.jdc.org/multimedia/Documents/Geneva45-54/G45-54_SM/USHMM-GENEVA_00057/USHMM-GENEVA_00057_00457.pdf#search=

Memorial service in Israel

To all our friends who live in Israel,
You are invited to the annual memorial service to our family members from Sokolow Podlaski who were killed in the Shoah.

“Der Tam” in Polish

"Der Tam" was a humorous newspaper, created and handwritten by two uncles of Amir Earon, Avrum-Shiye Weintrob and Aron-Wolf (later known as Zeev) Weintrob. Aron-Wolf was 18 years old, and his brother was few years older. The document was written in 1918 in Węgrów.
Polish translation: Agata Kondrat and Anna Szyba.

Hag Pesach Sameah! Happy Easter! Radosnej Wielkanocy!

A book by Perec Granatsztejn in Polish!

The Gszarim Foundation, thanks to the financial support of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland and private donors, has published a book - translated by Dr Agata Kondrat from Yiddish into Polish - by Perec Granatsztejn "Sokołów - My Destroyed Town". The publication is available for free here.
http://sokolow.jewish.pl/

Historical Jewish Press

On the website with Historical Jewish Press you can find articles mentioning Sokolow
http://jpress.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI/?action=tab&tab=browse&pub=FRW#panel=search&search=0

הצפה
March 09, 1938; Section: Front page, Page: 1

דבר
January 29, 1945; Section: Front page

הצפה
April 02, 1963; Section: Front page, Page: 1

Signatures from 1926

Polska1926 is a new website where we can find signatures of our ancestors. In 1926 the Polish schools conducted a collection of congratulatory signatures on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of American independence. 5,5 million signatures were signed under the Declaration of Admiration and Friendship with the United States.

http://www.polska1926.pl/

The original is in the Library of Congress.

In Sokolow, no signatures of children from the Jewish school were collected, but in the villages near Sokolow, where Jewish children went to one school with Catholic children, their signatures can be found on this document, especially in Sterdyń.

http://www.polska1926.pl/miejscowosci?voivodeship1926=&district1926=Soko%C5%82%C3%B3w+Podlaski&sort=name&per_page=40

Sokolow in USHMM encyclopedia

US Holocaust museum releases first 2 volumes of encyclopedia of Nazi camps and ghettos. Sokolow is mentioned there (vol 2, part A).
https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/encyclopedia-camps-ghettos/volumes-i-and-ii-available-online

Translation of a book by Perec Granatsztajn

We proudly announce that we have received a grant for the translation from Yiddish into Polish a book by Perec Granatsztajn. This translation will be published on the Internet. This way every kid and adult of Sokolow will read it for free. Mazal Tov!

Tombstone

Today I went to the Catholic cemetery in Sokolow to visit my mother's grave. At the cemetery alley I saw a matzeva. Someone put it there. Probably it was earlier on his farm. It is good that this man laid it at the cemetery. He could have thrown it out or destroy it. Thank you anonymous man! It was heavy but I took it home. One day it will come back at Jewish cemetery where it belongs.