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In 1933, when the dark clouds of the coming fascist terror in Europe encouraged the dark powers in Poland to carry out pogroms, there awoke in us, the Czenstochower in Los Angeles, the feeling of responsibility for our brothers and sisters in Poland who struggled with pride for their equal rights.

At the beginning of 1933, we, a group of Czenstochower landsleit [people from the same town] (Max and Tessie Feffer, Shirley and Jack Sztibl, Leah and Chaim Leib Szwarc, comrades Israel, May and Harry Grauman) founded the first Patronat [group to provide assistance to political prisoners] on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. We received the trust and encouragement of our sister organization in New York. We had

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functioned for more than a year as a Czenstochower aid organization for political arrestees in Czenstochow and its surrounding areas (Patronat).

Whereas there were not many Czenstochower landsleit then in Los Angeles, it later was decided to become a territorial Patronat that encompassed landsleit from various cities and towns in Poland. Therefore, we changed the name of our committee to Los Angeles Aid Committee for Political Arrestees in Poland (Patronat).

The central committee of the Polish Patronats in New York gave us the great honor of assuming the care of the two prisons in Poland, Fardan and Rawicz, where the majority of the female political arrestees were held. With pride and honor, we carried out our humanitarian aid work on behalf of the fighters [against] and [those martyred to] Polish fascism.

In 1938 our Patronat helped found the Novi Dvor and Vilna Patronat in Los Angeles and together we carried out a series of undertakings and several Patronat meetings against the wild murderers of the Jews in Poland.

Our organization was involved with the important aid work until August 1939 when the Nazi beasts attacked Poland.

The writer of these lines is proud that he was the co-founder and secretary of Czenstochower Patronat and later the general secretary of the General Patronat.

Let us hope that for the so heavily tested Polish Jewry, along with all of humanity, a new epoch of good fortune begins.

Bulletins and announcements from Czenstochower organizations in America

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While still living, Sol Dykerman and Chaya Rozenblat expressed a wish to create a circle for the Dykerman, Kuperman and Tanski families. The purpose of the circle was that the members of the families should stay together.

For various reasons, the circle was founded after their deaths. Its founders were Benjamin Rozenblat, Max Dykerman, Benny, Harry and Morris Kuperman, as well as Dovid Tanski.

Almost all the members of the mentioned families belong to the circle, which numbers over 100 members. Its task is to bring the three families closer together, for them to know each other better, to spend time together and to help everyone who is in need.

The circle comes together once a month and interesting evenings are presented. The atmosphere is a very joyful, intimate one. Meeting each other on one platform, the thread of family that until now had been almost torn becomes connected and stronger.

The circle has a special fund from which gifts are given to members at various opportunities, as well as support for the needy. A committee of two members allocates the support and the question does not have to be brought before the wider membership. This is so as not to embarrass the needy.

The circle had 25 members in the army, among them: Major Hyman Ditman, doctor of medicine; Lieutenant Hyman Rozenblat, in the navy, doctor of philosophy, and Lieutenant Sol Morey. The circle maintained close contact with the members in the army and navy. Packages were sent regularly to every one of them. War Bonds were bought for 100,000 dollars. The circle supported various institutions such as the Red Cross, hospitals and so on. The circle is doing its duty now in the campaign for the Jews in Poland.

The circle plans to strengthen its existence through the creation of medical help in every form for its members.

A meeting of the members of the Rozenblat–Dykerman Circle

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A certain connection of the New York Czenstochower Relief Committee and the United Czenstochower Relief and Ladies Auxiliary with the Czenstochower landsmanschaftn [societies of people from the same town] and aid organizations in other cities in America has existed at almost all times since the aid work for Czenstochow has been carried out. Thus, for example, the Czenstochower Relief Committee in New York helped the organizations in Detroit and Chicago to organize film presentations from the Y.L. Peretz children's home and Jewish public school in Czenstochow.

At the start of the Second World War, when the horrible news arrived about the destruction of our brothers on the other side of the ocean, it became clear that the aid work for Czenstochow would demand such great sums of money and such great effort that it would need to be done in partnership with all friends in America and in other nations. The connection among the Czenstochower landsmanschaftn in America, Eretz-Yisroel and other nations was particularly timely after the decision to publish the book, Czenstochower Yidn. Such a large publication could not be accomplished by a landmanschaft in one city, even as large as New York.

On the 13^th of October 1944 at a meeting of the United Czenstochower Relief, it was decided to turn to all of the Czenstochower landsmanschaftn in America and Canada about sending representatives to a national conference to coordinate the aid activities for Czenstochow and to bring about the publication of the book, Czenstochower Yidn.

On the 25^th of April 1945 the organizing committee of United Czenstochower Relief led by R. Federman, according to an earlier communication with Chicago and Detroit, sent out an appeal to all of the Czenstochower landsmanschaftn in America and Canada to send delegates to the national consultations (conference) in New York on Saturday the 23^rd and Sunday the 24^th of June 1945.

The conference was held at the designated time in the Beethoven Hall, 201 East Fifth Street, New York.

The delegates taking part in the conference were: from Chicago – S. A. Fridman and Mrs. Louis Gras and Mrs. A. Wilinger, A.S. Miska and Mrs. Sam Szlezinger and Mrs. Saul Baum; from the Czenstochower Independent Union in Chicago – Moshe Ceszinski; from the Czenstochower Ladies Aid Society in Chicago – Mrs. Rose Hofman; Czenstochower Aid Union in Toronto and its surroundings – Kenigsberg, Mr. Goldberg and Tsina Arczech.

Czenstochower branch 11 United People's Order (International Workers Order) – R. Berger, D. Tanski.

First Zaloshiner Chevra Anshei Bnei Achim – William Najtigal, Emanuel Wargan; Czentochower Young Men – Karl Buchner, Max Kaminski, Jack Jacobs, Jack Zeidman.

Detroit – Isidor Gliksman.

Czenstochower branch 262 Arbeter Ring, New York – M. Feiner, Y. Szubin.

United Czenstochower Relief in New York.

Here are the greetings from United Czenstochower Relief and Ladies Auxiliary that was shared with the delegates, along with the agenda of the conference, the program of the book, Czenstochower Yidn and projects of the resolutions:

Greetings

Dear Assembled Delegates and Guests,

The Nazi beast was annihilated with the blood of millions of victims from all people of the world and the entire world can breathe easier with us.

Most of the victims of the devastation and genocide that the German-Nazi beasts carried out during the time of their rule were Jews, who the barbaric murderers annihilated and tore out by the roots, leaving small remnants who survived through a miracle.

Coming together today for the conference to consider the best means and ways to help our surviving brothers and sisters in our home-city, our first thought and feeling is for those who gave their lives in the fight with the German murderers, and let us today remember in the front ranks, the Jewish martyrs of our city and of all the Jewish communities who perished at the hands of the cruelest human-animals.

Their pain and suffering, their sacred memory will strengthen us to carry out the work that we have undertaken:

To help the survivors repair their lives and build up the Jewish community and Jewish life in our home city.

We hope to reach our goal with new courage and old beliefs that sustained our people during the course of thousands of years, with the united and shared strength of those gathered here and those who are located in other parts of the world.

Welcome, assembled delegate friends and guests!

The conference opened at 9 o'clock in the evening in a very solemn and earnest mood. There were a large number of guests present in addition to the delegates.

The stage of the presidium was decorated with the American Stars and Stripes on one side and the [Zionist] blue and white flag on the other side. A picture of the not long dead president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, looked down on the assembled from above. Lit candles burned in a Jewish menorah in sacred remembrance of the martyrs from Czenstochow and the hundreds of other cities and shtetlekh [towns] in Poland.

The following inscriptions were found on the stage: “Brukhim habaim” – “Welcome, delegates and guests, to the first National Conference of the Czenstochower in America!” “Building Jewish National Life Everywhere!” “Ten Jews are a minyon; hundreds – a community, thousands – a tribe, 12 tribes – a people.”

There was a general impression that this was an earnest meeting of men of the people for a great thing for the people.

Friend Yakov Ber Silver, chairman of the organizing committee, opened the conference.

Among other things in his opening speech, he said:

The catastrophe of the Jews in the countries under the Nazi authority already was clear to us when we decided to call together a conference of the national Czenstochower organizations and the frightening picture of the Jewish destruction already hovered before our eyes.

National Conference of the Czenstochower Landsmanschaftn in America and Canada

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We felt that it was our elementary duty to organize aid for our surviving brothers and sisters. Today, we already know that humanity is not in a state to absorb the great misfortune that befell our people. We know today that our own indifference and the indifference of the entire ostensibly civilized world bear the complicity for the great crime that was committed against our people.

The answer of the Czenstochower landsmanschaftn to our appeal, the numerous delegates who arrived today, did not disappoint us.

Dear friends, delegates and guests, accept in my name, in the name of our secretary, Rafal Federman, and of our entire organizing committee, our hearty thank you and welcome.

At the assembling of the presidium, the president declared that during the course of the discussions all of the delegates would be represented in the presidium. The following friends were invited to the first meeting: Josef Kaufman, Harry Feierstein, Rafal Federman, Yeta Lenczner, Gussie Gelbard, Karpiel, Moshe Censzinski. Rose Hofman, Sol Baum, Fridman, Isidor Gliksman, Tsina Arczech.

A. Chrabalowski, Abe Kaufman and Chaya Waga-Rautman were chosen as secretaries.

Dr. Rafal Mahler, editor of the book, Czenstochower Yidn, was also invited to join the presidium.

After taking care of all formalities, the chairman gave a bang with his gavel, a sign for everyone assembled to stand up. Miss F. Czarny played the American hymn, Star Spangled Banner, and then Hatikvah on the piano. Then came the words of Friend A. Chrabalowski who honored the memory of those who fell in the fight against Fascist Nazism and the annihilation of millions of Jewish martyrs with the following words:

Our first word and our first thought belongs to our children, our brothers and the children and brothers of all of the people in the world who fell on the battlefields, in the Warsaw, Czenstochow and other ghettos, in the partisan divisions, in the death camps in the fight against the German Nazi murderers – we bow our heads for them with reverence, in deep sadness.

Honor all of their memories!

We Jews took first place among the [victims of the] outrages and hurricanes of death and annihilation carried out by the Nazi murderers. Thousand-year old rooted communities were erased from the earth. Among them was also our home city, our old birthplace, Czenstochow.

We are speaking in human language too weak and too poor, crying out our hearts, suffering painful sorrow for the tens of thousands of brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, young people and children who perished. Sh[imon] Frug's Shtormen Blut un Taykhn Trern [Streams of Blood and Rivers of Tears – written about the pogroms of 1881-1882] will not suffice and no human heart and human feeling can absorb so much ache and pain.

Our great misfortune, our unheard of tragedy, the sorrow and pain of millions perishing from hunger and cold, horrible cruelty and mass murder in the gas chambers – became a thousand times greater in that it remained a quiet tragedy [about which] we ourselves were incapable of shouting out, crying out and suffered the pain.

The world remained deaf and dumb when for many years the calls for help came from the ghettos and death camps and it also is silent now.

The Czechoslovak Lidice is remembered thousands of times and has been written about before and now. Our tragedy – millions of times larger – was passed over in silence. The Nazi robbery, murder and annihilation was done to Jews. To the demand to be paid for all the crimes, we were French, Poles, Belgians, Dutch and so on. The suffering and torture and the heroic fight of the martyrs of all peoples against the Nazis has been presented in dozens of films but as of now no films have been shown about our martyrs and holy ones, our heroes in the ghettos

Generations of us created and developed Jewish life in Czenstochow, built up the first streets of the Gecewizne [neighborhood in Czenstochow]: the Nadrzeczna, Garncarska, Senatorska, Teper and Yatke Streets. Then the old market, the new market, the Ogrodowa, Tilna. Then the First Aleje was established. The

Second Aleje. the Spadek, the Wales, the Dojazdowa Street and so on. Vast stretches were changed into a wide cultural community, institution after institution that were the pride of Poland, such as the Artisans' School, the gardening farm. The new Jewish hospital was erected and an extensive social life sprouted and blossomed in Czenstochow.

The liberation movement in the arena of our lives at the beginning of the 20th century was carried out by a new and young generation that began a fight for a new and freer life. And new institutions, new cultural institutions arose. The Yiddish language, Yiddish songs that were spoken and sung before only in the cellars and poor houses of Gecewizne rang out free and proud from the wide and beautiful rooms of the Literary Society, Lira, Sport and the touring union created by the new Jewish young. They created their own Yiddish press as a beautiful dream amidst the reality. The Y.L. Peretz children's home and folkshul created by our brothers and sisters in America was erected at Krotka 23 as a living legend.

Thousands of our Czenstochower brothers – old and young – emigrated to America, Eretz-Yisroel and other nations and with their effort and work helped to build new Jewish communities and they occupy a respected place everywhere.

The death storm of Nazi annihilation arrived and eradicated, devastated and destroyed everything.

In the ruins, the tragedy of death and annihilation, even just in our city, is so great that the human heart stops and the ability to speak disappears.

Who can describe the fear and pain of a city that night after night, week after week waited for death in the wagons or the gas chambers that would bring an end to their suffering?

Who can describe the outrageousness of the murderers who fooled the remaining tortured ones through dozens of tricks?

Let us, dear friends, engrave this in our minds and in our hearts and never forget it.

Let us give it to our children so that they will remember it!

Let us not forget our brothers and sisters who perished and never forget or forgive their murderers!

Let us erect an eternal light for them not only in Czenstochow, but in the home, in every heart and soul so that its fire of love and sorrow for our martyrs will always glow.

Let us sanctify their memory with our work to help the survivors rebuild their lives for which we have come together today.

The first word, the first thought of our conference we dedicated to those, our martyrs and holy ones.

Let us all stand up, bow our heads in deep grief and sorrow and sanctify and honor their memory!

With tears in our eyes we, the assembled, stand to honor the memory of our brothers and sisters who perished. Mrs. F. Czarny played Chopin's Funeral March.

Honored delegates and guests. Honored conference:

The settling of Czenstochower Jews in America is probably as old as Jewish immigration to America in general. After half a century, the largest number of Czenstochower Jews live in America. Over time, the Czentochowers have created their schools, societies and unions across America. They also never forgot their old home where they left those closest to them and their friends. They always felt their sufferings and joys and always helped to make their lives easier, which always was difficult enough. This is the first time that a conference of Czenstochower organizations in America has come together in which delegates from 13 organizations from various cities in America and Canada are taking part. It is certainly an important event in the life of the Czenstochower Jews here.

What gave rise to the calling of such a conference and that it is taking take place?

A great misfortune, the greatest misfortune in the history of the Jews, had befallen our people. A third of the entire Jewish people has been annihilated in a shameful manner by Hitlerist criminal

fascism. All nations had victims in the war, but no other people suffered a loss like the Jewish people.

The great disaster and misfortune brought forth our conference.

Honored delegates and guests, let us keep this in mind during the entire time of our negotiations.

Therefore, because our misfortune is so large, we do not want the remaining fragment of our people to be ground among the wheels of the further evolution of human society. We must gather all of our strength, all of our remaining strength and say: we will live! And we will live equal to all of the nations! We must intercede for our further existence with deeds, just as our brothers and sisters, our closest and dearest in the Warsaw and Czenstochow ghettos did. We must gather together all of our material and spiritual strength, everyone in his area and further advance our people's life, not as individuals, but as a nation.

Let us have this in mind during our dealings.

Our conference was small at first, but it was very large in substance if we take into account that the focus of our activities is in only one city, one Jewish community, our home city, the city of our parents – Czenstochow.

I want to believe and I am certain of this that our conference will be permeated with the great will to help our surviving brothers and sisters in their present difficult situation and in their further existence and will obtain the most successful results with God's help.

I heartily greet you friend delegates and guests in my name and in the name of all our the members of the United Czenstochower Relief Committee in New York with an enthusiastic welcome and wish you and us fruitful work in the deliberations of the conference and successful results.

Welcome!

“I have traveled almost a thousand miles in order to meet with you again. Like many of you, hundreds of times I have dreamed, fantasized and looked for ways as to how and when to meet with you face to face and to share the grief of our large catastrophe and organize the work for our refugees.

“I have two strong contradictory feelings of joy and grief. I cannot hold back the tears at the horrible Jewish destruction in general and of Czenstochow in particular.

“However, here at the meeting, may the evil eye spare us, there is such a large number of friends whom the 'sword of Damocles' of the murderers did not reach and we represent a Czenstochower Jewish organized community of many thousand Jews who were brought here by the wave of immigration before the Nazi hangmen began the bloody task of murdering and annihilating our most beautiful, most beloved and dearest whom we left in our old home. We cannot suppress the feeling that this was lucky not only for us personally, but for the entire Jewish people.

We here, on American soil, over time grew strong, matured socially, nationally, and in many ways. This is seen at today's conference and in that we have set as a goal the publication of the book, Czenstochower Yidn.

“Many years ago, in 1923, there already were plans in Czenstochow to publish a pinkas [record book, often containing Jewish community records] under the name, On Both Sides of the Ocean. It was then no more than a dream. Now the

dream will be brought to fruition. This is the achievement that makes us proud, although we now live after our most horrible tragedy through all of the Jewish generations.”

The last point on the agenda for the evening meeting was the report by Dr. Rafal Mahler on the theme, “the future of the Jews in Poland.” The most important passages of his content-rich lecture were:

The great trouble of “independent” Poland was the unanswered agricultural question that half of all of the land ownership belonged to a handful of lords. Because of the large mass of poor peasants, trade and industry shrank. Instead of work and land, the reactionaries fed the masses with anti-Semitism and they agitated for pogroms.

The fundamental social reforms that the democratic government of liberated Poland is carrying out, such as the division of the land among the peasants and socializing the heavy industries as well as the Soviet-friendly policies, will create the soil for true democratic and economic development of the land.

The present circumstances of the small number of those rescued Jews is a great deal worse than that of the larger Polish population because they [the Jews] remained literally naked and barefoot. However, the worst is the pogroms organized by the local fascists. Therefore, a large number of the surviving Jews in Poland yearn to emigrate, particularly to Eretz-Yisroel. We are fighting for them so the door of the Jewish homeland will be opened. But Jewish communities in Poland still wish to remain and Jews, as equal citizens of the new Poland, have the possibility of taking part in the building of a new Poland. We must extend our fraternal hand to them and do everything in our power to help them build and reestablish their lives.

President Avraham Ber Senzer opened the meeting and invited Friends Louis Szimkowicz, Ruwin Berger, M. Kep, Yitzhak Gurski and Harry Feierstein, vice president of United Czenstochower Relief, which led the meeting, to join the Presidium.

The proposed agenda was accepted.

Friend R. Federman read the greetings that were received from the United Jewish Appeal, the Joint, ORT, the American Federation of Polish Jews, Russian War Relief, the Jewish Workers' Committee, the Czenstochower Central Committee in Eretz-Yisroel, the Czenstochower Society in Buenos Aires, Dovid Akerman in London, Ivan Ganz, Melbourne, Australia, Godl Fajertag, Tel Aviv, Louis Szwarc, Seattle, Washington. The greetings were received with heavy applause.

Friend Josef Kaufman, finance secretary of United Czenstochow Relief gave a detailed report of the immense aid work in New York and illustrated his presentation with a series of numbers.

Friend Sadie Senzer gave a report from the Ladies Auxiliary in New York.

The delegates reported on the situation of their organizations:

Moshe Ceszinski, Rose Hofman, Harry Goldberg – Toronto; Mrs. Winkler – from the Zaloshiner [Dzialoszyner] Ladies Auxiliary in New York – submitted a check of $100.

A break took place for a snack. The evening meeting began at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Vice president Harry Feierstein turned over the running of the meeting to the president, Friend Avraham Yakov Senzer.

The two most important reports were read – one by Friend Yitzhak Gurski on the theme, “On why and how the construction fund must be transformed.” The second, by Dr. Leon Lajzerowicz, [was] about medical aid for the survivors in Czenstochow. The reports were a great success with their earnestness and thoroughness.

A discussion occurred about the form and character of the national organization that needed to be created by the conference. Taking part were friends: Berger – New York; Kenigberg – Toronto; Tanski – New York.

A resolutions committee was elected consisting of:

Harry Feierstein, Joseph Kaufman, Louis Szimkowicz, Isidor Gliksman, Fajner.

The commission held its meeting in a separate room and came to a unanimous decision about all of the points of the proposed resolutions.

The closing meeting began at seven in the evening under the chairmanship of Friend Josef Kaufman. Friend A. Chrabolowski read the following resolutions that were unanimously accepted by the conference.

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I

The delegates gathered in New York at the national conference of the Czenstochower organizations in America and Canada on the 23^rd and 24^th of June 1945 have become completely aware of the thoughts expressed at the presentations and discussions and have recognized that:

1. The reconstruction and the revival of the physical and spiritual circumstances of the Jewish population in Poland is the most important task at the present moment for all Jewish national organizations throughout the world.
2. The possibility of providing urgent aid for the surviving Jewish population in our home city of Czenstochow needs to be created within the framework of activity of the Czenstochower Aid Organization, such as:
   1. Medical aid, food items and clothing.
   2. Care for orphans and children and the focusing of attention on their education and development.
   3. Constructive aid (craftsmen's tools, machines, production workshops).
   4. Jewish cultural institutions and religious teaching establishments.
   5. Help for the refugees and those deported who are in various nations temporarily.
3. The aid needs to be provided first directly to the leading Jewish institutions in Czenstochow or through existing Jewish national organizations that are active in Poland in general and in Czenstochow in particular, with the agreement of the executive in each case.
4. These tasks apply to all existing Czenstochower organizations wherever they are that have collected and are collecting aid funds.

Therefore, the conference decided:

1. In order to collect funds through the organizations in the most expedient, most productive and most rational way, a joint agreement of all of the organizations taking part in the conference is created.
2. To train an executive committee that was created by the plenipotentiary representatives of the existing organizations who are meeting [because of the present needs], with the purpose of bringing to realization the decisions adopted by the conference.
3. An elected secretary of the executive committee located in New York leads the work of the executive.
4. Until the meeting of the executive committee, the work will be carried out by Rafal Federman, the elected secretary of the conference, in agreement with the executive committee of United Czenstochower Relief in New York.

III

The executive committee is empowered by the conference to carry out the following tasks:

1. To come to an agreement with the Czenstochower aid organizations in other cities in America, Canada and other nations.
2. To aid the organizations to increase their aid funds systematically.
3. To designate the manner and way that all collected funds will be used in agreement with above mentioned adopted decisions.

The conference decides, because of the great importance of individual contact among the surviving Jewish brothers and sisters, many of whom are spread throughout the cities and camps in all of the European nations and even in China with their relatives in America, that the bureau of United Czenstochower Relief that will have the task of searching for and connecting all surviving brothers and sisters with their relatives in all of the cities in America should be reestablished.

In order to inform the Czenstochower landsleit [people from the same town] in New York, in other cities in America and in other nations with the deliberations and decisions of the conference, in order to record the historical work of our conference, which is the first national conference of Jewish landsmanschaftn in America – the conference decided that it would publish a bulletin with the most important material from the conference.

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The National Conference of the Czenstochower Landsmanschaftn in America and Canada that came together to consider the means with which to successfully help to repair and rebuild the Jewish life of the surviving brothers and sisters in our hometown, Czenstochow, thanks the Jewish press: Forvets, Morgn Freiheit, Tog and Morgn Zurnal for their assistance in the work of United Czenstochower Relief in the organizing of the conference.

The Conference heartily thanks United Czenstochower Relief for organizing and successfully leading the national conference.

The Conference decided:

1. Each landsman from Czenstochow is obliged to buy the book, keeping in mind that the profit increases the construction fund for a new Jewish life in the old home.
2. To give the Jewish representation created in Czenstochow as a voluntary gift the necessary copies of the book, Czentochower Yidn.
3. The organization will use every means so that the book will reach every Czenstochower landsman wherever he lives.
4. All organizations commit themselves to collaborate so that the book will be published without fail not later than the end of 1946.
5. The organization commits itself to carry out a campaign among the Czenstochower who are not yet represented in the book with their assessments, biographies, biographies of their children in the army and, in the memorial section, those deceased who are closest to them and to have them do this as quickly as possible.
6. With the publication of the book, let special celebrations be arranged with the help of the executive in every city by Czenstochower organizations for all Czenstochower landsleit. Selling the book should bring in larger sums of money from individuals for the construction fund.
7. All sums received by the organizations from the sale of the book will remain in the treasury of the organization receiving them. Obviously, after the subtraction of the actual costs of the book and this undertaking.
8. Each city accepts for itself a task and takes upon itself the responsibility to sell a minimum of as many books as amounts to half the number of landsleit in the city.

Because of a lack time, the resolutions by A. Chrabalowski about the necessity of contact among the Czenstochower organizations in all parts of the world and by Abe Kaufman about a perpetual flame were not considered. They were added to the minutes of the conference. The resolutions by Friend Tanski about the rights for the surviving Jews in Czenstochow also were not considered.

Friend R. Federman was elected as secretary to carry out the work of the national organization until a national executive is created that would lead the work in accord with the Czenstochower Relief in New York.

After the conference a supper and departure evening took place for the delegates. A large group of Czenstochower landsleit in New York took part. The president Avraham Yakov Senzer took on the chairmanship of the evening. Stella Glazer, the singer, appeared with a series of Yiddish and Hebrew songs which were a great hit with the attendees.

Those assembled responded warmly to the appeal by Friend Yakov Ber Silver and the sum of over 4,000 dollars flowed in.

The provisional central committee that was created in accord with the decision of the conference consisted of the chairman, Friend Avraham Yakov Senzer and secretary – R. Federman.

Copies of the decisions enacted were sent with the first circular to all of the organizations, which were invited to approve and appoint responsible people to the executive at once.

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The provisional central committee made known in the third circular its decision to call the first meeting of the central executive committee in Detroit.

The plenary meeting of the central executive committee of the Czenstochower Aid Union in America and Canada took place on the 24^th of November 1945 in Detroit in the ballroom of the Jewish Cultural Center. They thanked the delegates and guests for the great honor that was granted to the Czenstochower landsmanschaft in Detroit that the first meeting of the central committee to help the surviving brothers in Czenstochow was taking place in their city.

(Photo, caption: Conference of the Central Executive of the Czenstochower Landsmanscaftn in America and Canada, in Detroit.)

The agenda was: 1) minutes of the conference; 2) report of the secretariat of New York Relief; 3) reports from Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and Los Angeles; 4) help for Czenstochow; 5) help for Czenstochowers in France, Belgium and other nations; 6) company for publication of the book, Czenstochower Yidn; 7) resolution and further directives.

There were those authorized from three cities: New York – Avraham Yakov Senzer, R. Federman, Silver, Cap and wife, Lenczner and wife, Frajermojer and wife, Gelber and wife: Chicago – representative Mrs. Fradel [and] guests, Leser and Wilinger; Detroit: Friend Izidor Gliksman, Rechtman, Birnholc and a large number of guests.

The meeting was opened by Friend Avraham Ber Senzer who invited Friend Winter to be secretary. Friend Gliksman greeted [everyone].

The chairman, Friend Senzer, greeted the delegates and guests. He asserted that the Czenstochower Aid Union in America and Canada was the first to unite into a central [organization] that coordinated the aid work. The national Jewish aid organizations, such as the Joint [Distribution Committee], American Federation of Polish Jews, ORT [Organization for Rehabilitation through Training] and the Jewish Workers' Committee recognized the great importance of our pioneering work.

Rafal Federman read the minutes of the historic conference in New York, which were heard with great interest and attention.

Reports from the cities were given: Friend Senzer

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– from New York; Friend Federman – from the provisional central committee: Friend Silver also reported about the agreement with the “Joint” to send clothing and food worth 2,000 dollars to Czenstochow and with “OZA” to send medicine worth a thousand dollars. Friend Fox read the written agreement with the above-mentioned organizations. They were acknowledged and praised by the conference for their good work.

Friend Gliksman read the telegram from the Independent Union in Chicago.

Photographs were taken of the meeting.

A banquet for the members of the central executive and a large number of friends from Detroit took place in the evening.

The second meeting took place on Sunday the 25^th of November.

Friend Rechtman opened the meeting and handed over the chair to Friend Avraham Yakov Senzer.

A report from the friends in Los Angeles was read that they regret that they were not in a position to send a delegate to the meeting. They sent greeting to the meeting and committed themselves to carry out the decisions [made at the meeting].

Friend Isidor Gliksman, in the name of those from Detroit, was in agreement that the central committee should by located in New York. He also reported that the Aid Union in Detroit possesses over $500.

Friend Federman spoke about the names of surviving Jews in Czenstochow, about the connection of the regional committee to the Central Committee in Czenstochow and with the aid committee of the religious community and asked that the representatives of the aid organizations carry out unified aid work and to prevail upon the Czenstochower Union in Toronto to join the Central Committee.

Mrs. Fradel of the Czenstochower Ladies Aid Society in Chicago gave assurances about the support from the group that she represented.

According to the proposal by Friend Gliksman, it was decided to allocate $500 as aid for the Czenstochower landsleit in Paris.

After Friend Silver gave his report about the coming publication of the book, Czenstochower Yidn and Friend Senzer talked about how important it was that the organization determine the number of books they would order, a Central Executive was elected with Friend Avraham Yakov Senzer as president, Friend R. Federman as secretary and one representative from each city where there was a Czenstochow organization.

The greetings to the meeting from the Toronto landsleit were heard and the first meeting of the Central Executive of the Czenstochower organizations and Aid Unions in America was closed.

Declarations Attached to the Official Minutes

We Czenstochower landsleit, assembled Sunday, the 24^th of June 1945, the 13^th of Tevat, 7005, in Beethoven Hall, New York, give a sacred oath:

We will never forget the destruction and annihilation of our brothers and sisters in our old home city; the extermination of tens of thousands of lives of several generations at once and will always remember the thousands of martyrs and holy men whom the bloody German murderers killed.

We will never forget, never forgive and we will not cease to demand revenge against the German murderers for their scandalous murders, limitless cruelties, the annihilation of Jews from entire cities – of an entire people. May the creators and leaders of Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and other torture camps and ghettos and the accursed land in which they were born be eternally cursed.

We will never forget the indifference and the silence and keeping silent of the entire so-called civilized world that remained deaf to the desperate cries for help and calls for rescue that came through the years from the ghettos and killing camps where our brothers and sisters and their families were annihilated en masse.

We will erect in Czenstochow, as an eternal monument, an eternal light for the souls of our martyred known and unknown brother victims.

With heads bent in deep sadness and pain, we stand at the graves of our martyrs and swear a holy oath, to never tire, to never let down our hands in despair, but with all of our strength to continue to help the survivors reestablish their lives and further extend the links of the golden chain of existence of our eternal Jewish people.

1. It is more likely the meeting took place in the afternoon. Return

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