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From right to left: Yehoshua Ben Ari (Zilberklang,) Arye Goldfarb, The editor M.S. Geshuri, Itamar Hopen

Top row from right to left: Moshe Efrat, Yehoshua Ben Ari (Zilberklang,) Arye Goldfarb, the editor M.S. Geshuri, Itamar Hopen Second row from the right: Yosef Kopf, Moshe Gotbertz Third row: Yaakov Friedler, Zalmen Frumer, Yaakov Mitzner

1	Editorial Committee	3
2	Committee of former Turobin Residents in Israel	4
3	Map of the town Turobin	14
4	Demographic Chart	15
5	The Great Synagogue - views from East and South	45
6	The synagogue turned into a barn	46
7	Symbol over the entrance of the synagogue	47
8	The synagogue viewed from a distance	48
9	Cover page of the book Divrei Shmuel by Turobin rabbi Rav Lifschitz	50
10	Three Bet-Midrash goers	126
11	R'Binyamin Ferstendik	151
12	Group of pioneers in Eretz Israel	164
13	Group of Zionist activists	168
14	Members of the Tarbut Library	170
15	Group of girls active in the Tarbut Library	171
16	Group of Tarbut members, reading in the shade outside town	172
17	Hechalutz organization in Turobin	176
18	Group of Chalutzim (pioneers) before Aliya	178
19	Hechalutz in Turobin	180
20	Devora and Mendel Bergman	185
21	Chaia and Avraham Wechter and their children	187
22	Group of “Bund” members in Turobin	189
23	A class at the Beit Ya'akov School for girls	190
24	The Polish Government-School	191
25	Menis Vogel's tailor workshop	192
26	Workshop of Avraham Frommer and his family	192
27	The Bomfeld Family	199
28	Moshe Schneiderberg's sons	210
29	Tamar (Tema) Goldfarb z”l	213
30	Family of R'Aizik Oberweiss	214
31	The Silberklang Family	216
32	Farewell party to I. Ben-Ari	217
33	The Hopen Family's house	218
34	The Hopen Family	220
35	A telegram from Turobin	221
36	A Red Cross letter from Geneva	222
37	A Red Cross Letter from Warsaw	223
38	The Gotbertz Family	224
39	Lighting a memorial candle in Jerusalem in 1965	225
40	Memorial at Martef Hashoah in Jerusalem	226
41	Unveiling the Memorial at Martef Hashoah	253
42	Map of Poland in September 1939, showing the extermination camps	255
43	View of the town at the time of the Holocaust	271
44	Photograph from the time of destruction	272
45	Mendel Shmurek's family, may God avenge their blood	310
46	Chone Blutman and Avraham Treger	314
47	Survivors from Turobin at an assembly in Ulm, Germany	315
48	Moshe Zimmerman Family	316
49	Zitrinboim Family	335
50	Music of a Modrzyc melody sung in Turobin	353
51	The Kopf Family	361
52	Turobiner Jews in Argentina	364
53	New immigrants and Chalutzim (pioneers)	365
54	Turbiners of Irgun Borochov group pitch their tents in Kfar Yona	367
55	Plowing the land in Kfar Yona	368
56	Laying water pipes in the citrus plantations in Kfar Yona	368
57	“Ghaffirs” (policemen) in Kfar Yona	369
58	The “Secure House”	370
59	Memorial service in Ya'ar Hakedoshim [Forest of the Martyrs]	375
60	Memorial Assembly in Martef Hashoah in Jerusalem	377
Heroes of the War of Independence
61	Uriel Goldfarb	382
62	Efraim Kopf	383
63	Arie (Leibel) Rosenfeld	384
64	The Jaffe-Werber Family	392
65	The Leichter Family	393
66	Kapenboim Hersch and Family	394
67	Shimshon Geyer	395
68	The Freiberg Family	396
69	The Kapenboim's family	397

[Page 8]

[Pages 9-11 Hebrew] [Pages 12-13 Yiddish]

With awe and reverence, I hereby introduce this memorial book to the emigrants from Turobin in Israel and abroad. It was not a large Jewish community in Poland, but a smaller one. We have come to tell of the memories from that small community whose memory is dear to our hearts. It was a town much like the dozens of towns in the Lublin area, a lively cell in the body of Jewish communities in Poland. Its origin is in the distant past centuries ago and its end in the destruction of Polish Jewry within the mass grave of six million Jews, in the gas chambers among the souls of Jews who ascended to the heavens on poisonous fumes, its bones and ashes spread across the Polish lands of exile. This book is the fruit of the labor of a select few.

With the publication of this memorial book, in which the saga of Jewish Turobin is unfolded from its past to its bitter end, we light a candle in memory of the town members who lived, created and worked there for many generations. We Want to shed a light of love and compassion on the public, national, spiritual, religious, and economic lives of the Turobin Jewish community including the events and twists which occurred in the community across the generations. We are erecting a monument in memory of the Turobin community and the memory of its rabbis, activists and ordinary people, the passion of its youth and its pioneers who added a stone to the building of the nation and our land. We have come to tell of its light and shadows, the sun which shined upon the town and the clouds which darkened it, its rabbis and Hassidic greats which served in it since distant generations until before its destruction and the ordinary people who labored and suffered, who hoped and prepared for the future, in pure and total faith in mankind, who stuck to the vison of nations and the destiny and culture of humanity which will redeem any Jew wherever he may be. We have also come to tell of the warriors of free thought who recently emerged in the town, the generations of stirring up and rebellion, the foreseers of Zion, and its social and national activists who served as spokespeople for the tongue–tied masses. Jewish life in Poland before the destruction was rich and varied and Turobin was no different.

The emigrants from Turobin in Israel who arrived as pioneers even before the war of destruction would occasionally visit their hometown Turobin which had served as a warm nest for Jewish life and culture when the vast majority of the town was Jewish and Jewish life bustled everywhere. To this day, the past residents of Turobin in Israel and abroad long for that home in its glory and purity, in its simplicity and warmth, its quality and endearment, identify with it, are proud of its wholeness, steadiness, and its inner liveliness. They carry its memory like that of a mother, which has no equivalent nor can be replaced, and their longing and loving emotions are present among the pages if this book. The Holy Spirit floated along its alleyways and Jewish homes; to this day, its remnants, the remaining Jewish Turobin natives, have not come to terms with the horror of its destruction which is beyond human comprehension. It was as if misfortune thundered down from the sky and death crept up to them. In 5702, the Nazi executioner descended on the community, ended lives, and destroyed the graves of the dead. Thus the light of the community dimmed in such a cruel and tragic manner. Turobin of the physical world is no longer, and its survivors and remnants assimilated in Israel and continue to contribute to our future and culture, our struggles, and battles everywhere. Its Zionists, pioneers, and their sons are as an everlasting flame in memory of Jewish Turobin, a flame burning for past generations and those sacrificed in the massacre. The dozens of Turobin Jews living in Israel and abroad are orphaned and bereaved, one with the memory of their loved ones, cloaked in sadness.

Words cannot express our pain and grief over the deaths of the Turobin martyrs at the hands of murderous vile Nazis and their various collaborators. It is impossible for those of flesh and blood to write and summarize the events of the martyrologic 1939 – 1945. The heavens were sealed to the cries of our tortured brethren before their souls departed. The ears of the enlightened world were sealed when the occupying forces of the “nation of culture” Germany emerged armed with the best tools of destruction, to purge the world of the “global nation.” The words of wrath by the national poet Hayim Nahman Bialik in his poem The Nemirov Burden come to mind.

In a conversation with an editor of a Yizkor Book for another town, he grieved the doubled destruction of the town; a general destruction like many other towns and cities, and the destruction of the intellectual workforce who could have written and described in various sections the lives and behaviors of the town Jews. Only when he approached editing the book were his eyes opened to the fact that he had much work to do due to a lack of people who could bear the burden of writing and resurrect the glorious past where they spent the years of their youth. And indeed, the second destruction is felt nearly in every Yizkor book, even the books of central towns who in the past served as Jewish cultural and literary centers. Turobin was not spared the loss of its intelligent gems, its forces of Torah and culture who made it famous across the region, and for that reason delayed publishing their own Yizkor book. Only after lengthy deliberation and difficulties, after the remnants of the town examined the situation considering reality and capability, came the bold decision to publish the Turobin Yizkor book. Of course, there is a great distance between intentions and deeds. All beginnings are difficult, in addition to its being a first and unique task for members of the town who were ill–prepared for that task in every aspect.

We did not have in our disposal archives and sources of the town itself, who were likely lost prior to the Holocaust for well– known reasons. But we utilized the few historical sources from which we could extract the material on Jewish life in past generations, with various discoveries. The material was gathered slowly and persistently, with sacrifice by the Turobin community. It was gathered [as if] out of thin air with limited resources and much difficulty. The book serves as a monument to the few happy occasions and many sad ones which the Turobin community members experienced, a vessel for blood and tears and a mark of good deeds.

The publication of a Yizkor book to Jewish communities in towns and cities that perished in the Holocaust is dependent on many variables; financial, administrative, and literary ability. We learned From experience that the first thing necessary for such a task is a person who is obsessed with one thing. Such a person could gather those able to contribute to the book, stimulate conversations with ordinary people and people of spirit, remember the forgotten, fundraise from those able to contribute to the best of their needs. He could also speak with community members in Israel and abroad and incentivize financial contribution by sending materials, memories from town life, sketches of characters and images of individuals, as well as enlist the help of those passionate about preserving memories who served as a source of income.

It should be noted that in that aspect the small and remote towns surpass many of the large Jewish towns. Lately, we have been witnessing a phenomenon where small towns publish a quality memorial book containing much material, while notable towns make due with Yizkor books making poor impressions, as if published to do the minimum, with sparse material which is not of significantly higher quality. The Turobin community was fortunate to find some activists who could assist in its time of need and invested their energy to complete the task.

The Turobin book is written in two languages, Hebrew and Yiddish which complement one another. The book contains only 400 pages, considered the minimum amount for Yizkor books. As the editor, I can say that more could have been added if not for lack of funds after requests for assistance by the Turobin community members in America and other countries were declined. The financial burden rested on the shoulders of the Israeli members alone. The extraordinary interest in the book by the members was awakened too late, after the book was sent to print and various sections could not be further postponed. Indeed, most town members did not believe in the task of completing the book, or at least completing it quickly, and regarded the matter with apathy, and also did not heed calls by the initiators for literary participation.

The wide–ranging historical overview of the Turobin community from the day it was established to the end of WWI was done by the editor who took the initiative and gathered, investigated, balanced, and edited material from centuries and made efforts to draw from the depths of memory many details concerning the town. He also wrote the overview of the chain of rabbis and righteous men across the generation In Turobin, in addition to other overviews of life in town and elsewhere. The editor filled a void which existed since the town elders perished without the opportunity to extract old memories from them, by authoring additional essays on town personalities.

We owe special gratitude to Yehoshua Ben Ari who contributed his valuable time, as well as Aharon Bumfeld who devoted himself entirely, and Moshe Gotbertz who worked tirelessly. We thank those who heeded the call and with all their hearts wrote about their experiences in town. We managed to publish here the list of martyrs who closed the last page of the history of Turobin. The list contains the names of most of the martyrs and was prepared carefully with the will to complete it. We must mention the efforts and contributions of an extraordinary man among extraordinary people, Itamar Hopen, whose initiative, energy, and tireless efforts through the years are a decisive contribution to the task of completing the book, as a participant in gathering the material, an author, and coordinator. We would like to sincerely thank the Holocaust survivors who described their experiences and testified of the final moments of the Turobin community. All are commended for their physical and intellectual assistance, to the point of personal sacrifice, for the sake of the book. Many thanks to all those who assisted and encouraged with advice, publication, preparation, and planning for the Yizkor book for the holy community of Turobin.

We know we have not obtained perfection, just as no Yizkor book published so far has achieved perfection. Of course, there will be additional sources and details, as well as people who were not fully and satisfactory described. Not all community members who were approached responded, and so, not all the values and discoveries regarding Jewish Turobin reached the full expression they are worthy of. Despite that, it seems that this book contains the image and soul of Jewish Turobin which was destroyed.

It is with great respect we present Sefer Turobin to the community members residing in Israel and abroad, knowing we have done our best to present the image of the holy community and memorialize it. We hope and pray that the pure image of the town martyrs sacrificed on the altar of destruction, their pure lives, and the sanctification of God and Israel, will forever rest in our memories and the memories of future generations and will serve as an eternal flame. We will follow in their steps and their memory shall never cease from our hearts. May this memorial book stand in the way of the Angel of Forgetfulness which might wreak havoc on the Jews of Turobin and those to follow. May this book rescue from the depths as much as possible the memory of the holy Turobin community in its ascension, peak, and destruction. May the words of this book remain in our hearts and the memory of the pure, holy, and beloved people will ascend and sanctify those cruelly uprooted from the land of the living. May their memory be blessed, and their soul bound in the everlasting bond of the nation.

May this book serve as bowing our heads and recitation of kaddish in memory of the martyrs.

[Page 14]

Map of 1939 Turobin drawn by Meir Af

[Page 15]

Year	Jews	Gentiles
1936	1652	2016	The table is constructed based on a name list of those who perished updated to reflect: 40% of 400 families minimal birthrate over a 3.5 year period = 560 24% death rate compared to birthrate (8% of population) over 3.5 years = 1350 ˜30 to 40 Jewish families residing in nearby villages, whose connection to the Turobin community was jurisdictional, traditional, and essential.
1939	425	686
1939	200 135
1942	2412 2277	2702	Total Exiled to and perished at the Sobibor extermination camp and some at other extermination camps, other than refugees who came from Łódź and other towns numbering over 1000

Israel	98
United States	15
Argentina	10
Canada	5
Uruguay	3
Australia	2
France	2
Total	135
USSR	4
Poland	3

[Page 16]

Number of Jews				Emigration
Place	Before the War	1940	1941	1942	1941	10-12 1939 for the duration
Turobin	1940	2220 X	3100 (1500+1600) III 3300 IX	3528 4 III		Over 1250 from Lodz, Kala, Konin, and others.

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