Entrance to the town (from the side of the bridge)

Market Square (1917)

… Remove the shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you are standing is holy… (Joshua 5:15)

This Yizkor Book is the fruit of the collective labors of the natives of Chozele in Israel, to give expression to the world of experiences tied to our past, and to carry the feelings of agony and sorrow that we hold in our hearts in memory of our dear martyrs who perished in the Holocaust during the time of the Second World War. Approximately 50 of our townsfolk who live in Israel contributed their articles and memories to this book, and we all worked for the common goal to the best of our ability, with love and a fundamental connection to the subject that is more dear to us than anything, in order to erect in this manner a monument and memorial to our community that was destroyed to its foundations.

As is known, our town Chorzele is located on the border that separates Poland (originally Russia) and Eastern Prussia (Germany), two worlds that are far apart from each other not only from an historical and geopolitical perspective, but also from a general Jewish and social–Zionist perspective. Even though the town was always under Polish (Russian) rule, it was influenced to a significant degree in its economic life by the German side. However, it was always a typical Polish (Russian) town in its essence – with rabbis, scholars, honorable communal activists, wealthy and poor people, observant people and free–thinkers, Zealots and heretics, maskilim and ignoramuses, philanthropists and misers, merchants and tradesman, people interested in improving the world and Zionist pioneers. From among the 280 Jewish families (approximately 1,300 individuals) who lived in Chorzele during the 1930s, most had a Zionist outlook. It is a fact that approximately 150 complete or partial families made aliya to the Land of Israel during that period.

The memory of our dear ones who did not succeed in being with us in Israel is holy. To perpetuate their memory, we have undertaken this holy work of publishing a memorial book. Oh, dear former residents of Chorzele: read this book and teach its chapters to your sons and daughters who did not know our community from up close. Teach them to know the wellspring from which our ancestors drew their strength to stand up to the vicissitudes of faith and adversity during the Jewish exile, the power and initiative that was buried within the lives and deeds, private and public, of the Jews of Chorzele. Also, those Jews, some of whom had the foresight to succeed in abandoning their native town while there was still time, to make aliya to the Land of Israel and to demonstrate all the aforementioned traits in building and creativity, in the defense forces (Haganah) and in the War of Independence.

Would it be that the memory of the holy and pure natives of our town who did not merit such shall remain within us forever, and may their souls be bound in the bond of the lives of the generation who continues in actualizing the renaissance of Israel.

[Page 8]

… Listen to this, oh elders, and hear, all the residents of the earth, could this have happened in your days and in the days of your fathers; tell your children about this, and your children to their children, and their children to the following generation.

(Joel 1)

… And I will send portents in the heavens and the earth, blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood before the advent of the great and awesome Day of the Lord; and everyone who calls the name of God will escape because Mount Zion and Jerusalem will be a refuge as God said, and to the survivors whom God has called.

(Joel 3)

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