Czenstochov - Our Legacy (1993)

- a Memorial Book edited and published by Harry Klein

This Yizkor Book was published in Montreal, in 1993, edited and published by Harry Klein.

It tells the story of the first and second generations of Holocaust Survivors in Częstochowa Jewish communities in the United States of America and in Canada.

In the book’s preface, Harry Klein writes,

With every passing year, there are fewer survivors of the Holocaust. Their unique ability to testify about the horrors of the Nazi crimes disappears as they die. Their children play an increasingly significant role in perpetuating the memory of that terrible past .

This statement, made by Harry Klein in 1993, carries even more meaning today.

Harry Klein ends his preface with,

Recounting any facet of the Holocaust is not a pleasant task. Hitler and his henchmen went on a rampage of mass murder.Yet, the world did not stop them. The world looked on. This ought to be one of the most powerful lessons we learned. It must never happen again!

According to our Częstochowa Yizkor Book Project coordinator, Andrew Rajcher:

In total, this book contains almost 480 pages, most of which are in English. Only the last 117 pages comprise “The Yiddish Section” – it is only those pages which, when translated into English, will appear in this section of the Częstochowa Yizkor Book Project.

To view the entire book (both Yiddish and English sections), click HERE.

In translating this Yizkor Book, every effort has been made to translate, as accurately as possible, the Yiddish text and to transliterate (and double-check) the names of people and places as they would have been spelt in a historically, accurate manner (surnames may have been changed post-War). This includes the use of Polish diacritics where appropriate.
(Such care and research may not have been carried out in translations of this Yizkor Book appearing elsewhere.) 
PLEASE NOTE: A great number of people are mentioned in this book. If any of these landsleit have relatives, who were in the Landsmannschaften, please email us if the spelling of their name is incorrect.

This Yizkor book, in its entirety, has been professionally translated into English
for the FIRST time.

The professional English translation of this Yizkor book has been made possible by the financial support of the

Wolf Rajcher z”l and Dora Rajcher z”l were both Holocaust survivors from Częstochowa.

They were prisoners in both the “Big Ghetto” and the “Small Ghetto” and, until liberation, were slave labourers in HASAG-Pelcery. Following the War, they emigrated to Melbourne Australia.

Upon the passing of both his parents, their son, Andrew Rajcher, established this charitable fund in their memory.

Chapters/articles are listed in the order in which they appear in the Yizkor Book.
(The numbers in brackets, after each article, correspond to the appropriate page numbers in the Yizkor Book.)

Harry Klein: Foreword (1-1)

Zvi Rosenvein: Our Duty (2-4)

Table of Contents – Yiddish Section (5-5)

Szlojme Waga: An Atmosphere of Fear Reigns in the Ghetto (7-12)

Zvi Rosenvein: The Destruction of a Great Jewish Community (13-15)

Dates of the Deportations in Częstochowa (16-16)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Dr Filip Friedman’s Contribution to the History of Częstochowa (17-20)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Rafał Federman (21-23)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein (24-24)

Harry Klein: How Jewish Life Looked in Częstochowa (25-26)

Harry Klein: Fragments of Jewish Life in Częstochowa on the Eve of the Second World War (27-27)

Harry Klein: Resistance in the Ghettos and Camps (28-29)

The Yiddish Press (30-30)

Chonon Kiel: The Fight to Save the Jewish Cemetery in a Town Without Jews (31-32)

Zvi Rosenvein: Notices From a Different Planet (33-35)

A. Chrobolovsky: Young Jewish Writers in the Yizkor Book Czenstochov (36-38)

[Dr Zvi Cohen]: The Rabbi and Prodigy Reb Nachum Asz ztz’’l (39-42)

[Dr Zvi Cohen]: The Częstochower Rebbe, Reb Awigdor z’’l (43-45)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Personalities and Figures from a Destroyed World – Rabbi Josef Prokosz ztz’’l (46-49)

Szmuel Prokosz: Three Generations (50-50)

George Klein: In Memory of My Parents, Who Perished in Sanctification of [God’s] Name  (51-53)

Zvi Rosenvein: Jakow Klajner RIP (54-55)

Photographs (56-56)

Zvi Rosenvein: Shadows in the Night (57-59)

Harry Klein: I Shall not Forget You, My Shtetl (60-60)

H. Leivick: We Must Not Desecrate Our Martyrs (61-63)

Symcha Silver (Zylberberg) (63-63)

Rabbi Benjamin Borzykowski (64-64)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Cwi Rozenwajn [aka Zvi Rosenvein] (65-67)

Harry Klein: My Bygone Home (68-68)

Harry Klein: For the Thirty Eighth Memorial Service – held on 19th October 1980 (69-71)

Harry Klein: Shoes (72-72)

Liber Brener: Jewish Settlement in Częstochowa After the Second World War (1945-1956)  (73-78)

A. Gelbard: The Częstochowa Uprising  (79-81)

Harry Klein: It’s Still Not Too Late! (82-82)

Zvi Rosenvein: What are We Doing With the Second Generation? (83-84)

Herszl Rozenblum: Israel Bond Dinner in Honour of Lajbke Jakubowicz’s 80th Birthday (85-86)

Hannah Szenes (87-88)

Tadek [Dawid-Zalman] Zylberszac (Zilbert): Episodes From the Nazi Vale of Tears (89-94)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Yecheskel Silver (Zylberberg) RIP (95-96)

Eliasz Sztajnic: Dr Henryk (Herszl) Lajzerowicz RIP (97-97)

Mojsze Sztajman: My Years in Częstochowa (98-99)

Mojsze Sztajman: My Years in Częstochowa (98-99)

The Fallen Heroes of the Częstochowa Resistance Movement (100-112)

Dr Benjamin Orenstein: Szlojme Waga (113-116)

Alternative Title Page to Czenstochover Landsmanshaft of Montreal (117-117)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Dave Horowitz-Larochette

IMPORTANT NOTICE

While the English translation is available for download, it may not, either in part or as a whole, be distributed or published without the prior written permission of Andrew Rajcher, the copyright-holder of this English-language version of the Yiddish Section of this Yizkor Book.