Born, raised and having spent most of his life in Częstochowa, Rafał Federman was a Yiddish writer and journalist. He served as Vice-Chairman of the American section of the World Federation of Polish Jews and was President of the United Czenstochower Relief Committee. He lived in both Poland and the U.S.A. He was a prolific contributor to several Częstochowa Yizkor Books.

According to S. D. Singer:

“Rafał Federman’s memoirs printed in the book ‘Czenstochover Yidn’, were very interesting to read. It was evident, from those autobiographical pages, that Federman had much more to relate.

“Federman, therefore, had a good idea when he decided to elaborate on his memoirs. In fact, he re‐wrote and changed [them] such that a completely new and unique book emerged. This is a cultural‐historical chronicle of the life of a man, written in the form of a long story, with a protagonist ‐ Josef Szalit ‐ and with descriptions of dozens of other Jewish personalities.”

In fact, in the preface to this book, Federman, himself, writes:

“It is with an uneasy feeling that I bring this book, ‘From the Warta River to the East River’, before the reader. My sole intention was to record a chronicle of the times and the environs in which I lived for over sixty years. I thought that, at least, some of my experiences and those of my friends should be recorded somewhere.

“However, not all that I recount here has to do solely with suffering. It was also a life filled with joy, as well as hardships and stumbles.”

While the book’s protagonist and characters are fictitious, the reader should be aware that their experiences and the events described are based in truth.

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

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.)

Part 2 – BY THE EAST RIVER

EPILOGUE

Following liberation at the end of World War II, many Holocaust survivors found themselves in the American Zone of Germany. Many Polish Jews stayed there while they awaited permits to emigrate to other countries.

This was not a speedy process and many of them waited for a few years until they could find a new home.

Just as they created or joined in their new home countries, landmannschaften were also formed in the German Displaced Persons camps and in other places.

Their purpose was to unite survivors from the same region, city or town. Through them, survivors could learn who had survived, what had happened to their hometown and, most importantly, find comfort, strength and support in mourning the loss of their loved ones.

In 1948, marking the sixth anniversary of the deportations of Jews from Częstochowa, the Central Administration of the Częstochower Landsmannschaft in the American Zone in Germany held a Yizkor ceremony, for which this booklet was published.

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, is being professionally translated into English
for the FIRST time.

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.)

This Yizkor Book of memoirs, written by Aba Kaufman, was published in New York, in 1950. It was published by Joseph Kaufman.

A feature of this book is an index of several hundred names of those born in Częstochowa, who were victims of the Nazis.

Not a great deal is known about the author. In the Yizkor Book, “Czenstochov” (1958), Dr. W. Gliksman writes the following about him:

“Aba was the classical type of ‘landsmann’ who maintained, in addition to the physical one, a spiritual connection also with the ‘Old Home’. For him, in his lonely life, being a ‘landsmann’, became an ideal which he quite literally practised at every opportunity day‐to‐day.

He had his unique ways and manners of bringing the duty of a ‘landsmann’ from theory into practice. He never lost the foundation of maintaining his ties with his birthplace.”

Gliksman goes on to say:

“His plan, to publish a collection of names of Częstochowa landsleit victims of Nazism, serves as an example. Aba, peace be upon him, gave Jewish people back the names that the Germans had desired to erase from this earth.”

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.

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.)

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.

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.)

This Yizkor Book was published in Montreal, in 1966, by the Czenstochover Landmannshaft of Montreal.

The organisation can trace its origins back to 16th December 1945, when it was established by longstanding residents of Montreal, who had a profound sentiment for their city which had been destroyed and who wished to support the Survivors. The name of the organisation was then the “Czenstochover Regional Aid Society in Montreal”.

With the post-War stream of immigration to Canada, many landsleit among them, the Society’s work was reorganised, under the new name of the “Czenstochover Society [Landsmannschaft] Montreal”.

According to this Yizkor Book’s introduction:

This book contains historical treatises, documents, testimonies taken from miraculously-saved landsleit, and descriptions of the communal and cultural life of our bygone, cherished Częstochowa. There are essays here about institutions, personalities, outstanding people and common Jews ….

According to our translator David Horowitz-Larochette:

Much of the information found here will probably be completely new. It is not just a re-write of previous Yizkor Books, with an emphasis on Montreal, but it actually provides a great many, new details and insights.

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 Montreal Landsmannschaft, 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.

Click on SECTION HEADINGS to reveal chapters.
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.)

This Yizkor Book, by Dr. Benjamin Orenstein, was published in Montreal in 1949, very soon after he arrived in Canada from post-War Germany.

While this Yizkor Book is only twenty pages long, thereby qualifying more as a “booklet”, it seems to have been often overlooked. Nevertheless, it earns a place within our Project because of the statistics that it contains and because of its author.

Orenstein, in various publications, became a prolific chronicler of events, relating to Częstochowa Jewry, both during and after the Holocaust.

According to his entry in “Częstochowa Jews – A Biographical Dictionary”(Częstochowa, 2019): Benjamin Orenstein,

“… soon left Germany and, on 28th October 1948, he came to Canada and settled in Montreal, where there were many Częstochowa Jews in a very active community.

He was soon elected as the chairman of the local Częstochowa landsmannschaft, later also serving as its general secretary.”

Orenstein is passionate in his commitment to ensuring that the memory of those Częstochowa Jews, who perished in the Holocaust, should be immortalised for posterity. At the end of the introduction to this booklet, he says,

“Oh, you brothers and sisters who have fallen in the active and passive struggle – I immortalise your sacred memory with the blood of my heart!“

This Yizkor book, in its entirety, has been professionally translated into English.

(The numbers in brackets, after each chapter, correspond to the appropriate page numbers in the Yizkor Book.)

This Yizkor Book was published in New York in 1915, immediately after the events, written about, took place. It is an account of the author’s arrest, imprisonment in the Częstochowa prison and eventual release.

While this booklet is not, in the traditional sense, a “Yizkor Book”, and although it lacks historical information such as names etc., it opens up a fascinating window into an epoch, which has seldom been portrayed in other Yizkor Books. It, therefore, warrants its inclusion in our Project.

According to his entry in “Częstochowa Jews – A Biographical Dictionary”(Częstochowa, 2019): Mosze Cieszyński was a

“… journalist, bookseller and publisher. He was born on 8th October 1889 in Częstochowa, the son of Jakub, a fish trader, and Estera Fajgla née Gnendelman.

From 1912, he was the most important contributor to the Jewish press in Częstochowa, starting with the ‘Czenstochower Reklamenblat’, ‘Wochnblat’ and ‘Tageblat’.

“In 1914, together with other committee members of the Bakery Workers’ Union, he was arrested [by the Russian military police] for appearing at a union meeting and spent a couple of months in prison.

“[After his release], in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the War, Cieszyński left for the United States … In 1915, in New York, his “Turme derinerungen” (“Prison Memoirs”) was published.

“In 1922, he settled in Chicago where he opened a bookshop, which became a centre for Jewish readers, writers and intelligentsia from all directions. Cieszyński also published articles on political, social and literary topics for quite a number of newspapers and magazines in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Buenos Aires and in other places.”

This Yizkor book, in its entirety, has been professionally translated into English.

Although this work was originally published as one unbroken story,
we have divided it into three chapters for the reader’s convenience.
(The numbers in brackets, after each chapter, correspond to the appropriate page numbers in the Yizkor Book.)

This Yizkor Book was published in Wrocław, Poland, prior to 1952.

The introduction to this Yizkor Book states:

“This work by Liber Brener which we present, ‘Resistance and Destruction in the Częstochowa Ghetto’, is an expansion and an elaboration of a diary, which the author kept during a lengthy period in the ghetto and [labour] camp. Following liberation, L. Brener recovered these memoirs, revised them and complemented them with an array of German, Polish and Yiddish documents, as well as with testimonies from other surviving Jews from the Częstochowa Ghetto.”

Liber BRENER (1897-1986), was a teacher, social activist and chronicler. He was born on 4^th November 1897 in Turzysk (Wołyń), the son of Naftali and Chana.

The Breners were a poor Chassidic family. His father was a gabbai (managing the court) of the son of the Turzysk tzaddik, Reb Dodie (Dawid Aron Twersk)i, later to become a tzaddik in both Żarki and Częstochowa. His mother owned a small stall selling flour.

After the war, Brener went to work for the Yiddish-Buch publishing house in Warsaw. He was the editor of books published, in Yiddish, for schools and adult readers. The Communist Party’s antisemitic campaign, in 1967 and 1968, forced Brener to leave Poland for Israel.

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.)