[Pages 424-430]

The first Klobucker who walked on Australian soil was Shlomo Granek z”l (of blessed memory), the son of Moshe Granek (from Opatow), a son-in- law of Shalom Lisek. Before then, for a long time he lived in Czestochowa. He arrived in Melbourne with his wife and two children in 1937. He pursued the traditional Klobuck life, and raised his children with this in mind. Shlomo brought his brother, Mordechai Granek, the son-in-law of Yechiel Kroszkowski z”l. Mordechai came with two of his children on the eve of WWII, and he left his wife Breindel, with their other three children in Poland. She survived the murderous disaster with one son. They came to Melbourne right after the war. Until today he is busy being a tailor.

Mordechai Granek also brought the survivors of his family: his brother-in-law and sister-in-law David and Esther Kroszkowski, and the children of his brother-in-law, Avraham Kroszkowski, Shlomo Mordechai, Gitel and Zissel, the daughter of Avraham Diamant and the wife of David Kroszkowski. They have three children today.

After the war others came to Melbourne, including: David Granek, with his son Mordechai; the daughter of Mendel and Chaya Rivka Granek, Rachele, with her husband, Israel Granek; and the daughter of Leibele Granek, Sarah with her husband Chaim Zeltzer. Thus, the survivors of the Granek family moved to Australia and continued their former Jewish traditional lives.

Adele Unglick was the first from her family to come to Australia after the war. She brought with her the surviving young girl, Bashe, daughter of her murdered brother Aaron.
Adele married Gedaliahu, the son of David Chajewski from Krzepice, and she brought her brothers: Leibush, with his wife and children; Meshulam, with his wife and child, and also the two surviving sons of her brother Aaron.

The Chajewski family took an honorable place in the Jewish social

[Pages 425]

Klobucker countrymen in Australia

life in Melbourne and this applied also to some extent to the Unglick family.

*

Reb Yaakov Baruch, the son of Berel Baruch, who in his time in Klobuck was known as a Torah student, came to Australia before the war. His wife and two children stayed in Poland and shared the tragic fate of the majority of Polish Jews.

Today Yaakov lives alone in Sydney. He suffers from his personal tragedy and the Jewish tragedy.

*

Also Avraham Yehoshua, the son of Moshe Yaakov Rosenthal z”l, lives in Melbourne.

He came to Australia during the war, with deported Jews from Germany, where he used to live for many years. He lives a Jewish traditional life, like in the good old time before WWII in Poland.

During the last emigration flow of Polish Jews to Australia, he brought his brother, the writer of these lines, with his wife and two children. He also brought his sister's daughter, Libe, with her husband, Meir Davidowicz, and their two children.

*

First, the son of Wolf Hirsh Rosen, escaped to Russia during the Second World War, and later he lived in Germany from where he made Aliya to Israel. In 1955 he came to Australia and lives in Melbourne.

In Sydney lives Moshe, the son of Shimon Djalowski. He came right after the war, together with many other Jews.

In Melbourne lives the son of Aaron Szperling, Mordechai, and his brother is in America. They are the only ones who survived from the large Szperling family, grandchildren of Reb Meir Szperling. There are also two sons of Mordechai Gelbart, Yankel and Nathan, with their wives and children. They have a very good life.

[Pages 427]

*

In the later years after the war, a group of Klobuckers, who survived the German extermination, came to Australia. They live together in Melbourne: Aaron David Buchweicz with his wife and two children. He lives a Jewish well to do life, and takes part in Jewish social activities. He produces coats for women and makes a (good) living.

In Melbourne also live: the son of Avraham Maas, Berel with his wife Matel, and their child, Kopel, with his wife Chaya and three children.

Leib Baruch and Mendel Shniur, with his wife and three children, live in Sydney, and they live a Jewish traditional life. Also there are Sheindel Azjner (married to Goldfarin) with two children, and her brother, Berel Azjner.

They make a living from trade and live modestly.

[Pages 428]

[Pages 429]

Map of Klobuck sketched by Adele Unglick

[blank page]

Coincidently, we finished writing the Yiskor Book of the murdered community of Klobuck during the days of the Adolf Eichman trial in Jerusalem. (Eichman was) the German mass murderer, who conducted, organized and implemented the extermination of hundreds and hundreds of Jewish communities. It is beyond human ability to present all of the testimonies before the Israeli court, or even of at least one representative from each community, to tell the Israeli judges, and the historical world judges, how the Germans in each town or shtetl specially devised bestial and cunning means to disguise their murderous and thieving intentions towards the Jewish population. Each Yiskor Book's contents of a murdered community is a special indictment by the Jewish people against the Germans. Those who actively or passively watched with indifference, benefited from the robbery, and took part in the extermination of the six millions Jews. The “Sefer Klobuck” that we present to the public is one of those indictments.

The “Sefer Klobuck”, like all of the Yiskor Books, is a joint work of the “Organization of People Originating from Klobuck in Israel”. It gathered the documents and the financial resources for the book from the Klobuckers who contributed to the purpose; it (located) the individuals who took a pen in their hand to describe the life and the death of their community; and (provided) the editor who condensed, filtered and reviewed (the text) to assure the use of proper Yiddish language, and prepared (the book) for print.

Each of the above mentioned participants in the “Sefer Klobuck” made additional efforts to ensure that the book was published in its completeness. The “Sefer Klobuck” included all the knowledge of the Klobuckers about the historical past of

[Page 432]

their former home in the Polish shtetl; and of the old time Jewish way of life, and their livelihoods and cultural activities until the disaster. A special place was made in the Yiskor Book for the Rabbinical traditions, social activists and the social political activities, in which there was wide spread participation, especially when viewed in relation to the relatively small number of Jews in Klobuck.

The tragic experiences of the Jews from Klobuck during the German Jewish extermination was brought to print from the memories of our countrymen, who experienced all of the seven levels of hell, and finally had the chance to be spared from the German annihilation.

Among the memories of 40 friends, often the same facts or stories are remembered. This was done on purpose, because everybody sees each event from his own point of view. The memories of many and their repetitions added to the completeness of the entire way of life of the old time, small, community of Klobuck. This was especially important about the memories of the time of the extermination, because it reinforced the truth of the barbarian events from that time, and according to the Talmudic rule: “two witnesses are needed to convict the indicted”.

In spite of all the efforts made, the “Sefer Klobuck” is not complete to the fullest extent. Missing from the book is a description of the “Bund” activities in Klobuck. The request for an account to write and submit his memories was made from a Czestochower Bundist, who also was active in Klobuck. We did not receive any material from him. It is also our duty to remember in the section “Klobucker Survivors in Israel, France and in Australia” that the writings of the Parisian “Countrymen Union of Klobuckers and Czestochowers” are missing, and the role (in the union) of the well-known writer, editor, social activist and doctor in medicine, Leib Kurland, who had a close connection to the Klobuck Kurland family. From the above mentioned Countrymen Union we did not receive any documents or explanations.

[Page 433]

Page	Line	Printed	Should have been
5	13	missing the name	Yaakov Szmulewicz
178	16	Pesach bran borsht	Pesach beetroot borsht
197	12	David Tzigelman	David Zigelman
200	3	Shimshe Linter	Shimshe Lichter
225	9	Yona Panower	Yona Pankower
225	29	a Klobucker Jew	a Czestochower Jew
255	24	my cousin	my sister's daughter
256	23	Mrs Weinman	Mrs Macha Weinman
256	25	two women	two men
257	14	cousin	sister's daughter
259	15	Yankel Azjner	Yankel Azjner's wife
259	18	a prisoner's daughter	a shochet's daughter
263	10	the men are laughing	the Germans are laughing

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