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The Image of the Town

Schodnica, surrounded by mountains and forests, is located near the road that leads from Drohobycz to Turka and continues on to the Carpathian Mountains. The Stryj River flows three kilometers from the town. Several villages surround it: Kropiwnik, Rybnik, Majdan-Holowska, - on one side; on the second side Łastówka, Yasenytsia; and on the third side, towards Skole, the villages of Urycz, Pereprostyna, Podhorodce and more.^[1] The town of Schodnica did not have in anything special other than the oil that was flowing beneath it.

Upon entering the town, you could immediately feel, see, and hear that you were in a petroleum area. Day and night, you could hear the noise of the engines as they removed crude oil from the depths of the earth. Petrol and other byproducts were processed from it. The whole town made a living from it. It was sent around the world and brought wealth to the whole region.

It was a town of khasidim and the ultra-orthodox. Most of its inhabitants were from the older generation. There were two synagogues in the town. The great synagogue, built by the Backenroth family, and the small kloyz.^[2] The khasidic beit midrash was established by R' Mendel Selinger and R' Arysz (Aron) Stein, who were among Schodnica's early residents and public activists. In these synagogues they prayed in a minyan^[3] every day, both morning and evening. After the evening prayer a lesson was held from the Gemara^[4] or in Ein Yaakov.^[5] On the Sabbath, in the afternoon hours, R' Arysz gave a lesson in Midrash Rabba^[6] to elderly Jews.

The Jews of Schodnica who owned oil wells, were partners in wells, or worked as clerks for the well owners were well off. There were other Jews who worked as labourers in the wells or with the machinery. Some companies preferred Jewish workers. The Jewish firm Gartenberg gave a pension for life and a gift of a gold watch to every Jewish worker who had worked for twenty-five years.^[7]

Merchants also did very well; some even became rich since the whole area was densely populated with consumers.

Until 1920, anti-Semitism was not at all apparent. On the contrary, Jews enjoyed a higher standing than their non-Jewish neighbors, because many Jews owned wells and treated their workers well. On Christian holidays and election days for the municipality or parliament, Jewish well owners and other wealthy Jews would hand out gifts. For many years Mr. Aron Lorberbaum served as mayor.

The town consisted of one long street. All the houses belonged to Jews, even though the price of property was very high. One Gentile did live there but he spoke Yiddish almost exclusively.

This small town was known for the large sums of money that were donated to various charities. And indeed, because the Jews of Schodnica gave generously to charity, rabbinical emissaries and representatives of charitable institutions visited it almost every day.

With the outbreak of the World War in 1914, Schodnica was especially active in the mitzvah of hospitality. Because the town is located on the road to the Carpathian Mountains which extend as far as Hungary, during the first months of the war, in August, September, and October in 1914, one hundred thousand refugees, fleeing from the entire area, passed through the town on their way to Hungary. The townspeople showed great hospitality. Every Jewish home cooked and baked, day and night, to feed the refugees and provided accommodation for tens of thousands of people without charge.

This town was truly blessed with Torah and greatness. I would need to write a long book to describe all the Jews who were well-liked in this town and also the various types, both good and bad. I will limit myself to a few personalities who stood out in the life of this town. From the clergy, I will mention the esteemed Rabbi Eichenstein, R' Abraham the ritual slaughterer, R' Kaczyk the Gemara teacher, and

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R' Josef the teacher, who also fulfilled the role of the shamash^[8]. People in Schodnica often said that whoever did not taste the taste of R' Yosel's whip on the eve of Yom Kippur^[9] did not know the taste of Yom Kippur.

The town of Schodnica had the great privilege of having HaRav HaGaon^[10] R' Avraham Kitaigorodski, head of the yeshiva, and his brother R' Eliezer live there for several years. The two brothers brought the light of the Torah to the town, and thanks to them, Schodnica became a place of study. Among the wealthy of Schodnica. the Backenroth family was well known Among the respected and honest Jews were R' B. Elimelech, Itzele Thorn, Neta Bardfeld, and Tevel Barsam.

The rich Jews in Schodnica had one great virtue: as wealthy well owners, they emulated the town's richest man R' Abraham Backenroth. They kept Jewish homes and arranged marriages with rabbinical and privileged families. Although he was a personality, not only in the town but also in government circles, R' Abraham Backenroth behaved modestly and simply, like an ordinary person. Anyone who wanted could catch him on the street for a conversation or settle an important matter. They could also visit his home, as well as his relatives' homes, whenever they wanted. The entire family behaved in this way.

These were good Jews, learned and full of good deeds; they loved their rabbi. They worked hard to fulfill the mitzvah of hospitality and charity and contributed large sums to the poor.

To our misfortune and heartache, few of these dear Jews, these cherished souls with their property and wealth, remain. Some miraculously survived and a few of this large family are here in our country. Considering this and all the millions of dollars that were lost, we wonder – what if these beloved Jews had had more understanding for Zion and the need to rebuild it. Things might have been very different.

In the town of Schodnica there were various Admorim^[11] among the khasidim. Most of them were Belz khasidim who travelled from time to time to Belz and also sent Ma'amadot.^[12] The head of the Belz khasidic group was R' Aron Stein. Members of the Miller family also stood out in this group of khasidim.

One of the most active communal workers was R' Mendel Selinger, an imposing figure with a patriarchal image. He was a gabbai in the kloyz, a member of the burial society (chevra kadisha)^[13] and the society to care for the sick (Linat Tzedek),^[14] and was fervently devoted to all these. He was open-hearted in reaching out to anyone in need and devoted all his days to the religious needs of the community. All the Admorim who visited the town stayed at his home. In general it must be said that all the townspeople were always ready to provide help to those in need. They always looked out for needy people.

There were also educated people in the town: Nussenblatt, Rothberg, and the Kitajgorodski family.

From time to time, a preacher would come to the town and appear in the house of study (Beit ha-Midrash). On a weekday evening, an ordinary, unexceptional preacher would approach the bimah^[15] or the lectern (shtender) next to the Holy Ark. He would strike it with his hand to silence the audience and begin his sermon. These preachers were not a great scholars. Their sermons, which revolved around a verse in the Psalms or in Ecclesiastes, did not excel in depth and genius. But his purpose was to arouse the audience's pity for his family members whom he had left somewhere in poverty. After the evening prayer (Maariv),^[16] the preacher would stand at the entrance holding a plate in which the worshipers threw copper coins. Of course, these preachers did not accumulate large fortunes from their sermons.

A more distinguished preacher would give the sermon on the Sabbath. On eve of the Sabbath a notice would be hung on the door of the house of study that read thus: “Tomorrow, God willing, the weekly Torah portion (Parashat)^[17] for the Sabbath… a famous preacher will give a sermon on current affairs.” It was customary to go early to the house of study to hear such a sermon. A preacher of this type would be a scholar. After his sermon, he would discuss a certain issue in the Talmud and difficult places in the six orders of the Mishnah and Talmud and settle them in longwinded debate. The next day, two residents would go out to the street with the preacher to collect money for him.

Emissaries from Eretz Israel, who sometimes appeared in strange attire, visited the town.

In the house of study, we would always know the time of the year and the holiday or festival we were observing. The arrival of the first day of the month of Elul was immediately known in the house of study when they began to recite psalms and often tested the shofar.^[19] A small group of boys would handle the shofar and triy to blow it. But, Yosel the shamash, a strict Jew, who besides his caretaking duties also taught young children, would chase the boys when he noticed that they were touching the shofar. He would take it from them and send them out. Every night in the week before Rosh Hashanah, the shamash would walk through the town's streets to arouse its Jewish residents to get up for Slichot.^[20] During the deepest hours of sleep, suddenly, there would be a bang on the shutter! The

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shamash would hit it with his special hammer and announce the customary words of awakening: “Please wake up, please get up for the Slichot prayer!” There was no escape from it, and full of anxiety, both from the cold and the horror of the impending doomsday, we got up and went to Slichot.

The days of Rosh Hashanah were spent in prayer in the synagogue. We did not have to walk a long distance for the Tashlikh^[21] prayer because the river passed through the town. It was possible to recognize the essence and the uniqueness of the ten days of repentance on the face of every Jew. On the eve of Yom Kippur, horror prevailed in the entire town [and people devoted themselves] to kapparot,^[22] the preparation of large wax candles for the synagogue, and visiting homes for reconciliation and asking for forgiveness from one to another. The afternoon prayer (Mincha)^[23] was held at an early hour. When you entered the synagogue you would see a large number of bowls with the names of various institutions written on them. Everyone who came to the synagogue, even the poorest, threw money into these bowls.

The synagogue's shamash stood next to the bimah with a strap in his hand and whipped without distinction the poor and the rich, the scholar and the ignorant. Each received the same amount of lashes

The evening of Yom Kippur, shortly before sunset, was a very serious time. The atmosphere was tense; we felt as if we were about to appear before a court.

The synagogue was full. The Torah scrolls were taken out of the Holy Ark. The Jews wore kittels^[24] and prayer shawls; their faces shone with the light of holiness, like angels.

After the Kol Nidre^[25] prayer, which everyone revered, many of the worshipers stayed in the synagogue all night, studying the Torah or reciting psalms.

Yom Kippur was spent in prayer and supplication. But the worshipers reached the peak of fervor during the Ne'ila^[26] prayer.

After finishing the prayer they blessed the new moon.^[27]

R' Shmuel Yona Cohen was an interesting and rare type even then. He was steeped in Torah and wisdom, even though he was not a university student and also had not studied in the secondary school. In spite of this, his knowledge surpassed that of many university graduates. He acquired his education with much hard work. A devout Zionist at heart, he was very active in the Zionist movement for almost forty years. He spoke only Hebrew both at home and with his acquaintances outside his home. During his life, he suffered from bad health; he had from asthma. Although his doctors told him not to work, he could not accept this and died prematurely. His two sons Yehudah and Pinchas Cohen shared their father's two passions: a love of people and a love of the homeland. They are following in their father's footsteps by being active in the Tel Aviv community.

If I had been asked in my childhood who among the righteous ones (Lamed Vav Tzadikim)^[28] walked in my town, I would have answered, without hesitation or doubt, that Pesach the porter was one of them. He was a strange figure of a Jew, always dusted with flour. He was tall and his face was very gawky. His hands were rough and strong. His beard was very strange, one of those beards you never forget.

He looked old but he was strong enough to unload hundreds of sacks of flour in a day. His clothes were patched and he wore a thick rope around his waist all day. As mentioned, R' Pesach made his living as a porter, but in my town there were not many who needed a porter. The owner of the only flour warehouse in the town employed R' Pesach regularly. As well, there was work for a porter on various occasions, especially on the eve of Passover during the move from apartment to apartment. It was known to all that R' Pesach did not have a comfortable life. His clothing, food, and household utensils were not fancy. In spite of it, this porter was respected by all.

Who was the first to arrive early on the Sabbath morning, even on extremely cold days, to immerse himself in the mikveh? It was R' Pesach. Who sat all night in the synagogue on Shavuot, reading Tikkun Leil Shavuot^[29] if not R' Pesach. And who stayed all night in the synagogue on Yom Kippur night to read Psalms? It was also Pesach the porter.

There was not a single mitzvah celebration in the town from which Pesach the porter was absent. Everywhere and at any time, I would see him come but not force his way in. He was happy with the celebrant and suffered with the unfortunate.

On the Sabbath and on holidays, he used to lead the morning (Shacharit)^[30] prayer or other prayers. He read the Torah regularly. I never saw him make a mistake while reading the Torah. From this, I knew that this man was probably a great scholar, but because he was poor he chose to be a porter.

R' Pesach's voice was hoarse and thick. It was difficult to hear him lead the prayer or read the Torah. Why did they choose him for sacred work? It had to be because he was holy and revered. And who knows? Perhaps at night he studied Torah with Elijah the prophet.

A good Jew goes to the mikveh to immerse himself winter and summer, does not skip a prayer, and observes the Torah with awe and reverence. He performs charitable acts every day and earns a living from hard work. He reads the Torah in his free time and studies the Midrash and Aggadah^[31] on Sabbath afternoons. Indeed, R' Pesach was a great tzaddik, one of the thirty-six Tzadikim Nistarim. He was like R' Hanina ben Dosa^[32] who was content with a small quantity of carobs and sustained the world.

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And now his figure is woven in the life of the small town of Schodnica. It is hard for me to return to the kloyz and remember it without this simple, humble Jew. It is difficult for me to describe again the celebration of brit (circumcision), marriage, Simchat Torah, hakafot,^[33] and other celebrations without this dear, honest, Jew. How his hoarse voice trembled as he read during the Ne'ila prayer from the turmoil of his heart.

What is engraved in my memory of Schodnica is not only its rabbi, not only its respected and honest Jews and other scholars, but especially the porter R' Pesach.

Peace to his ashes wherever they may be.

In January 1933, I parted from my relatives and friends in my town Schodnica. I was not born in this town, but over the twenty years that I lived there I made many friends. The town is very close to my heart. Who would have thought then that it would be my destiny to erect a written monument in memory of this town and its Jews. There were beloved Jews in it, faithful to the Torah, pious, and possessed of good virtues. The town was famous for its charitable deeds and devotion to the Zionist ideal, not only on the part of the youth but also on the part of the older generation.

Who could have imagined that I would have to memorialize not only the individual people but the whole town! Who could have imagined the abominable extermination of all the Jews of this town – the old, the young, and women?

Translator's Footnotes

1. Current Ukrainian names for the villages listed in the above order: Schidnytsia, Stryi, Kropyvnyk. Rybnyk, Lastivka, Yasenytsya, Skole, Pereprostynya, Pidhorodtsi. Return
2. Kloyz (Yid): house of worship or study. Return
3. Minyan (lit. number) the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. Return
4. Gemara: rabbinical analysis and commentary on the collection of Jewish law known as the Mishnah. Return
5. Ein Yaakov (lit. well of Jacob) is a multivolume compilation of stories, parables, and biblical interpretation from the Talmud printed together with commentaries. Return
6. Midrash Rabba is the name of the collection linked to the five books of the Torah and the Five Scrolls: Esther, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes, that are read on holidays. Return
7. The petroleum empire of the Gartenberg brothers, Lazar and Moses, included oil exploration and production, as well as refining. Return
8. Shamash (lit. to serve): an official acting as the caretaker of a synagogue. Return
9. Author's footnote: The Hasidim in Poland-Galicia have a custom, originating from the custom of certain Sephardic communities, to be flogged on the afternoon of Yom Kippur eve. The lashes are performed by the synagogue's shamash with a whip, a special leather strap, and they atone for sins that require flogging. Return
10. HaRav HaGaon: the genius rabbi, an honorary title given to teaching rabbis. Return
11. Admor (pl. Admorim): the title is an acronym in Hebrew for Adonenu, Morenu Ve-Ravenu (our master, our teacher our rabbi). Admor is the spiritual leader in the khassidic movement.  Return
12. Ma'amadot - a collection of verses from the Tanakh, Mishnah, and Talmud that are to be recited each day of the week. Return
13. Chevra Kadisha (lit. “Sacred society”) is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition. Return
14. Linat Tzedek: an organization that took care of the the sick who were poor until they could be seen by a doctor.  Return
15. Bimah: a platform in the synagogue for the reading table used when chanting or reading portions of the Torah and the prophets. Return
16. Maariv: a prayer service held in the evening or at night. Return
17. The weekly Torah portion. Return
18. Days of awe: the ten days of repentance and renewal starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur. Return
19.  A ritual musical instrument, made from the horn of a ram or other animal, used on important Jewish public and religious occasions. Return
20. Selichot are Jewish penitential poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays, and on fast days. Return
21. Tashlikh (lit. casting off )a ritual performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. During this ceremony, Jews symbolically cast off the sins of the previous year by tossing pebbles or bread crumbs into flowing water. Return
22. Kapparot is a custom in which the sins of a person are symbolically transferred to a fowl.  Return
23. Mincha: the afternoon prayer service usually held an hour before sunset. Return
24. Kittel a white robe worn in the synagogue on major holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Return
25. Kol Nidre (Aramaic: “All Vows”) a prayer sung at the beginning of the service on the eve of Yom Kippur. Return
26. Ne'ila (lit. locking): the concluding service, a special prayer service that is held only on Yom Kippur. Return
27. Kiddush Levanah (lit. sanctification of the moon) is a ritual performed outside at night, in which a series of prayers are recited to bless the new moon. In the month of Tishrei it is usually delayed until after the conclusion of Yom Kippur. Return
28. Tzadikim Nistarim (lit. hidden righteous ones) or Lamed Vav Tzadikim (lit. thirty-six righteous ones): the minimal number of anonymous righteous ones living in the world in every generation. They are privileged to see the divine presence and the world is sustained because of their merit. Return
29. Tikkun Leil Shavuot: on Shavuot night it is customary to stay up all night and read the Torah in preparation for receiving the Torah the next morning. Return
30. Shacharit: the morning prayer. Return
31. Midrash is ancient rabbinic interpretation of scripture. Aggadah is rabbinic narrative. The two terms are often used interchangeably to refer to those many aspects of rabbinic literature that are not related to Jewish behavior or law. Return
32. R' Hanina ben Dosa was a first century Jewish scholar and a renowned miracle worker.
    He lived in complete poverty and each week he survived on a basket of carob beans. Return
33. Hakafot: (lit. going around in circles) the sevenfold dancing procession made with the Torah scrolls on the holiday of Simchat Torah. Return

It happened on three dates. On 6 Tamuz (1 July) 1941 the Germans arrived in Schodnica and encouraged the Ukrainians to kill and exterminate the Jews. At noon on the same day, they killed Julius WEISER, his wife, and Yehoshua BITTNER. They seized the slaughterer Berish JEKEL, harnessed him to a cart, and dragged him to Lenin's monument. They loaded Lenin's monument on the cart and pulled Berish and the cart through the street shouting and deriding as if they were pulling the G-d of Israel. In the course of the next three days, until 9 Tamuz (4 July), the Ukrainian leaders Halek, Bobeshko, Stempisa, Baran and the priest organized a detailed plan of pogroms against the Jews of Schodnica and the surroundings. They took men, women and children out of their homes, and on the same Sabbath, 9 Tamuz (4 July), they murdered 198 people.

Yitzchak SCHMER	Rabbi EICHENSTEIN and his sons
Manya HOFFMAN and her husband Shmuel	The NUSSENBLATT family
Wolf and Hersh LORBERBAUM	The family of Nutta BARTFELD
Lunek KLINGHOFFER	The KANEL family
Uziel ROSENBERG and his son Shmuel	Hersh and Lipa GARTENBERG
The slaughterer Berish JEKEL and his son Moshe	Leyzer and Natan HOFFNER (Palzer)
Leib BIRNBAUM and his son Yitzchak	Melech BACKENROTH son of Abraham
Yitzchak THORN	Chaim WEINTRAUB
Shlomo BACKENROTH and his family	The BARSAM family
The WEISMANN family	Israel BACKENROTH and his family
The family of Yitzchak GARTNER	The HAUSER family
The shamas Maurer and his family	Abraham KOHL and his wife
	The shamas GOLDFISCHER
	The family of Moshe LANTNER
Jews from the surrounding area, among them:	KLINGHOFFER
Yechiel LANGER	Mordechai LANGER and his son Josef
Benish HOFFMAN	Wolf STUHLBACH and his family
Yerachmiel STUHLBACH	The convert Pepki KUPFERBERG and her Christian husband
The BASS family	R' Nachman PESACH
Moshe LANDAU	Runek NEUMARK
Hersh Heissler	Nachum METZGER
Abraham DIAMANT	Elia DIAMANT
Chana EBENFELD and her daughter Bila	Leib EBENFELD and his son Elisha
	Baruch PESSEL and his family
A number of refugee families from Drohobycz	Malka BITTNER
The son of Hersh RUBINSTEIN	Abraham and Sholem BINDER
The son of A. BLEIBERG and another boy from Majdan, both were killed by the same bullet	Shlomo KOHL, son of Abraham
The young Rabbi Berel and his brother Tzvi SHOCHET	Moshe MARGULIES
Aaron HOROWITZ	The family of Abraham SELINGER
The family of Lev ZALMAN	The family of Meir SELINGER
Wolf BACKENROTH	The brother of Rabbi Avigdor YAKOV
FEDERBUSCH and his family	The family of Isaac ROTHBERG
Miriam GINSBERG and her daughter Friedl	The HIRSHBERG family
Moshe EISENSTEIN and his family	The two sons of Matos SCHNEIDER
Wolf SCHRECKINGER	The family of Chaim BITTNER, his wife Rosa and their son Hirsh
Hersh WILF	Shmuel POSTER
The NURGLICH family	Aizner BLOCH
Hersh the son of Yosef GINSBERG	Meir and Sholem BUKSMAN from Majdan
Chana STARK	Naftali SELINGER
Shmuel SCHARF and his family	Leyzer and Shlomo HOFFMAN

On the second day, they took women and children to dig pits so that they could throw the slain into them. For a number of days they looted everything, everything that they were able to carry. With that the first pogrom ended.

During the month of Elul (September) in 1941, they collected the Jews from the vicinity of Urycz and Pereprostyna, dug a pit and killed them with a machine gun. After these pogroms the rest

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of the people became afraid and a many escaped. Only 280 people remained and every day, many died from hunger, disease and grief.

In August 1942, they seized 60 people and took them to a train in Borysław. In the meantime, many died daily from hunger and other causes. On 22 October 1942, the survivors were ordered to leave Schodnica. The town was then Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). Rabbi Mendel SELINGER died in Drohobycz's great synagogue wrapped in a Tallith and a Kittel. Shulamit POSTER was the last to see him.

Residents of Schodnica murdered in Drohobycz:

Yossi AMES and his family, Shimon STRAUSSMAN, Wolf BIRNBAUM, Frieda WORONER, Shmuel and his family, Yosef SELINGER and his two sons, Yitzchak BIRNBAUM and his daughter Malka, Elia BIRNBAUM and his family, Malka WORONER and her two children, Rosa WORONER, Hersh's wife, and her two children, Leibel BACKENROTH, his wife and his son.

The soldiers desecrated synagogues, turned them into cowsheds, and cut many Torah scrolls to pieces. Four Torah scrolls remained with Babsha*, a number of Jews went to collect them, but they were not able to get them. This is how a Jewish town was destroyed, a place of the Torah and a place of righteousness. Beloved Jews and extraordinary men of action are gone. The calamity is enormous and there is no solace.

These lines will serve as a memorial to the scattered mass graves of the martyrs from Schodnica.

We honor their memory!

* the correct name and identity of this person is not known

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Filled with piety and reverence, I am here to remember and mourn the destruction of the community of Schodnica and the surrounding area. How can we lament the destruction of one community when more than a third of the Jewish people, six million people – men, women and children – were murdered? We need a poet like Bialik to commemorate the enormity of the disaster that befell our people. We need a mourner like Jeremiah to lament, “Oh, that my eyes were a fountain of tears so I could weep day and night for my people who have been slain.”^[1]

I will mention only a few of the esteemed virtues of this pious community. Schodnica was not famous for social institutions. It was famous for two saintly virtues that our sages often talked about: hospitality and charity. I have passed through many countries and cities in the diaspora, but nowhere did I find these two virtues practiced as in Schodnica. There was no organization dedicated to Gemilut Hasadim,^[2] no institution dedicated to hospitality in Schodnica. Each house offered hospitality and its family spent its efforts and money to honor the mitzvah. I cannot remember a Jew from Schodnica who sat down to a Sabbath meal without guests. I will mention the family of Shlomo Erdmann z”l. During the World War,^[3] when it was difficult to get a loaf of bread, their house was open, day or night, to passers-by who would receive board and lodging free of charge. They did not need to ask people to do the Blessing of the Food. Their home stood on the main road to Drohobycz, so that day and night, dozens of people passed by. I remember that during the First World War, thousands of refugee families passed through Schodnica because the town stands at the crossroad of the Carpathian Mountains. All these refugees received board and lodging free of charge.

The virtue of hospitality practiced by Schodnica's Jews made the town famous among the poor in Borysław, Drohobycz, and other communities. Twice a week, on Monday and Thursday, they received lunch, as well as generous alms. Not everyone was rich, but there were wealthy people in Schodnica. Yet there was no difference in class between a rich man like Backenroth z”l,^[4] and the porter R' Nachman Pesach z”l or between a merchant and a distinguished man like the president R' David Schreiber z”l.

Every home was a house of Gemilut Hasadim in its own right. Anyone who needed a loan received it, even if no one was certain it would be repaid. There was no need for a letter of recommendation or collateral. The poor and weak would get their loans more quickly, despite the fact that they may not have been able to repay them.

I bring up these saintly virtues on this day of remembrance because we can learn from these martyrs. Also here, in Israel, we must encourage one another, help our neighbours, and practice these sublime virtues: hospitality and charity. This will be the best way to commemorate the beloved, pious souls who were murdered by the accursed murderers.

On this day of remembrance we must plant in our children's hearts the memory of the destruction of Amalek!^[5] “You shall blot out the name of Amalek!”^[6] There can be no monetary compensation for these martyrs. We are commanded to educate the younger generation to remember the acts of Amalek! We will find some consolation for the survivors, some of whom are here.

We will erect an eternal monument to our relatives in the Martyrs' Forest, a forest of six million trees which is a living monument to the destroyed European diaspora. We will publish a book for generations to come which will commemorate the souls who could not live until this time. We may also start writing a Torah scroll in memory of the martyrs.

Time does not allow us to mention the hundreds of families from Schodnica and surrounding. All were pure and pious; may their memory be blessed!

On this occasion, we will also mention former residents of Schodnica who fell here during the building of our homeland: Michael, son of Yosef Ginzburg, and good and honest Pinchas, son of HaRav Eliezer.

May their memory be blessed!

Translator's Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 9:1 Return
2. Gemilut Hasadim: the giving of loving-kindness. Return
3. First World War Return
4. Members of the Backenroth family accumulated great wealth in the ozokerite and petroleum industries based in the Borys³aw region. Return
5. Amalek or Amalekites: this was a nomadic nation identified in the Bible as a recurrent enemy of the Israelites. Return
6. Deuteronomy 25:19 Return

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