The Committee of Sochaczewites in Israel
by Joseph Grundwag
The Sochaczew Committee in Israel (the Committee) is
the group that wrote
the Sochaczew Yizkor book, relating their and other Sochaczewite survivors'
memories. The Yizkor Book, Pincas Sochaczew, lists 2,467 of the
Sochaczewites who were killed in the Shoah. However, this is not the full
number of the victims as Sochaczew's Jewish Community totaled over 5,000.
Some victims are, therefore, not included.
The Committee has existed since the 1950's, with an
executive committee that
moved between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv over the years. Joseph Grundwag has
been the Secretary for the past 12 years. Mr. Grundwag left Sochaczew in
1934 to become a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, having taken
part in all the wars Israel has fought. He spent 37 years as the director
of the Jerusalem branch of the Jewish National Fund.
Among the most important activities of the organization
are:
1. The establishment of a memorial monument at the Holon Cemetery in
Israel, including the burial of ashes from the extermination camps in Poland.
2. Conducting an annual memorial service in memory of the Sochazewite
Holocaust victims.
3. Saving the grounds of the Jewish cemetery in Sochaczew from total
deterioration and preventing the Polish authorities from demolishing it in order
to build new low-cost housing, as they did elsewhere. This was accomplished
after a meeting held in 1988 between the Mayor of Sochaczew, Committee
members Arieh Firstenberg and Joseph Grundwag.
4. The construction of a metal fence around the Jewish cemetery in Sochaczew,
with the financial assistance of Mr. Yehuda Widavski, a Sochaczew hassid.
5. In 1991, the Committee built a huge memorial wall within the cemetery
grounds in Sochaczew, with metal plaques in four languages: Hebrew, Yiddish,
English and Polish. Adjacent to the monument is a symbolic grave built of the
fragments of the shattered gravestones found in the area.
6. Members of the "younger generation" have started to participate in the
Committee's activities. The Committee also established a scholarship fund for
higher education, which is granted annually to children or grandchildren of
original Sochaczewites living in Israel. Three scholarships were awarded in
1999 (August 31, 1999) for the eighth consecutive time.
7. Following the construction of the said memorial wall, the Sochaczew Hassidim
built by an Ohel Yizkor, containing two graves of the Admors (Hassidic Rabbis)
Rabbi Shmuel and Rabbi Avreimel, of blessed memory. This followed excavations
to uncover the remains of the two rabbis. Many visitors now flock to the site
and in November 1999, 40 rabbis from Israel visited.
(Photographs donated by Mr. Yosef Grundwag of
Jerusalem)
The unveiling ceremony of the memorial plaque
on the "remembrance wall" which stands in the Sochaczew
cemetery.
23rd July, 1991.
The right side of the remembrance wall. Standing: Aryeh
Firstenberg Ze'ev Szianwald and Yosef Grundwag (speaker).
The deputy mayor addressing the audience.
From left to right: Yosef Grundwag (Sochaczew Organization
Secretary), Ze'ev Szianwald (former Organization Chairman), the
"chazan" David Vishniya (formerly from Sochaczew, a
Holocaust survivor currently living in the U.S.) and Shlomo
Friedman (of blessed memory - was former chairman of the
Sochaczew Organization).
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