[Page 2]

When I had agreed to undertake the collecting of raw material for a Memorial Book for Yavorov, I knew I was up against a tough job of great responsibility.

It is true the committee had granted me a free hand, but being aware of the fact that the life in Yavorov in Galizia was so colourful and my work would spread upon a large and verified scale, I started to work fearing I would not be able to enter into it and should be liable to omit and forget important points and events.

Besides, should all give me a hand, there would be enough material for more than one book. How would I succeed to organize and summarize it all into one limited volume.

But the vast importance of the idea and goal of perpetuating our brethren who were annihilated and their everyday life and the sensitive feelings of the remnants to their old homes and cradles, inserted me the power for this holy challenge.

To describe the large-scale of work, it would be enough to mention the fact that most§ of the Irgun members were willing to perpetuate their homes and families, needing interviews throughout the country and reading many letters and books.

It was not at all easy to awaken the horrible memories of the Holocaust and the pre-war quiet town life, but it had to be done and I took part in many heart-breaking moments.

I asked, again and again, to send written memories and photos and delved in every archive in the country to find remembrances of Yavorov.

With the aid of Dr. N. Birn of the U.S.A., we even managed to get a microfilm of a rare book about Yavorov throughout the centuries. This is a sign and witness of the quantity and quality of the vast amount of work invested in this book.

I feel a great honour in expressing the fact that the deeper I went into this work and the better I learned to know the town and its past Jewish life, the more I was filled with the Holy Spirit of Yavorov.

Now that I have completed my work, I am handing it over, with high respect, to the Committee headed by my dear father-in-law, Mr. Shalom Eichbaum, whose life has been shortened in the efforts to see this Holy Memorial Book finished, having committed that last years in overcoming all the difficulties put in the way, seeing it to be the life enterprise and ideal of the Organization.

I herewith express my thanks to all who aided me willingly and in every possible way.

Special thanks to the people of Yad Vashem, headed by the late Mr. E. Brand, for their kind help and encouragement, and to all the libraries and archives. To Mr. S. Druck for the permission to be helped by his book, “Yudenstadt-Yavorov” for my research. To Mr. Z. Shner of Lochamei Hagetaot, Mr. T. Friedman, Haifa and Mr. A. Kalish and Mr. S. Goldberg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

To all who helped so kindly and willingly, may God's blessing come upon you all.

[Page 5]

To God do I owe grace and thanks to have given me the thought and duty-feelings to find and bring to reality and end to this book of Honour and Memory to the dear town and Holy Community of Yavorov and District.

This is the right way of telling and relating to the next generations the memories still kept in the minds of the remnants of our community.

In the years 1939-1944, when the Nazi and their helpers flooded the world and Judaism first and utmost with the horrible destruction forces, most of our town along with other Jewish communities were cruelly murdered, cutting a long, beautiful and Holy chain of Jewish life.

We know of neither the exact time nor the exact places of their death and burial and we have no consolation.

In order to perpetuate their memories, we, at first, planted trees within “The Wood for the Holy” and stated a “Memorial Board” in the “Holocaust Cellar” in their memory.

But, thinking it not sufficient, the committee took upon itself another Holy goal to found a living monument for our community, including a complete list (as far as possible) of our lost families. Thus, we can honour and consecrate their memories for ever, within all Jewish communities.

We, herewith, express our gratitude to all members and friends of the Yavorov Organization who have contributed to this Mitsvah and have handed us memories, name lists and photos of the old home, thus having reconstructed the daily life in our hometown.

Unfortunately, there were some who did not answer our many appeals. We are truly sorry for this. We would like to express our thanks to our American friend and committee member, Dr. N. Birn, whose great aid in getting, perhaps, the rarest and most important material about Yavorov from behind the “iron curtain”. This was inestimable.

“Yudenstadt Yavorov” from Mr. S. Druck of the U.S.A. was a firm basis for our work on the chapter of the Holocaust in Yavorov. May he be graced for his intensive research.

Special thanks are due to Mrs. E. Altshuler-Hochner, who translated most of the material from Polish, besides her other written contribution for this Book.

We, herewith, thank and bless all our members who contributed all kinds of sums to finance this “Memorial Book”.

Having ended this Holy work, I undertake all criticism due to lack of material and other faults, unintentionally overlooked.

May this “Memorial Book” for our Holy families help to turn the Almighty's eyes upon us, bringing the complete redemption in our days.

In the name of the Yavorov Committee,
S. Eichbaum

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