Interesting Videos

In this film, “As If It Were Yesterday”, created in 2004, Sigmund Rolat tells of his pre-War life in Częstochowa and of his wartime experiences as a child in the Częstochowa ghetto and in the HASAG-Pelcery slave labour camp.

He also describes returning to Częstochowa, many years after the War,  when he located the grave of his brother, Jerzy, a partisan who was executed by the Nazis at the Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery..

The World Society of Częstochowa Jews & Their Descendants gratefully thanks TV Orion in Częstochowa and, in particular, its Director Cezary Szymański, for helping to make this video accessible on our website.

This film, “Generations of the Shoah – the Sigmund A Rolat Story” is a longer version of that which was shown during the celebrations of Sigmund’s barmitzvah, a Jewish lifecycle event which he shared with Henry, his thirteen-year-old grandson.

The World Society of Częstochowa Jews & Their Descendants gratefully thanks Sharon Danzger and her sons Adam, Ben and Daniel, for permission to feature this film on our website.

Violinist Bronisław Huberman was a Częstochowa Jew who became famous as a child-prodigy.

He owned a rare Stradivarius which, during one of his concert tours, was stolen. For many years, the violin’s fate remained unknown – that was until another world-famous violinist, Joshua Bell, discovered it and, since that time, has played the instrument in all his concerts.

During our World Society’s Third Reunion, in October 2009, the Huberman Stradivarius returned home to Częstochowa, when Joshua Bell gave a concert in the Częstochowa Philharmonic Hall, the site of the New Synagogue which was destroyed during World War II.

With the imminient Nazi threat, Huberman rescued many European Jewish musicians who then, together, formed the Palestine Symphony Orchestra which, today, is known as the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

This is the story of how that instrument returned home to Częstochowa.

The Częstochowa Umschlagplatz Monument, created by our dear landsmann Samuel Willenberg z”l, was dedicated during the World Society’s Third Reunion in October 2009.

During the monument dedication ceremony, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Meir Lau, a former inmate of HASAG-Pelcery, gave this address.