[Page 274]

Translator's note: The Hebrew and Yiddish introduction each have slightly different nuances, so I translated both. First paragraph is the Hebrew, and second is the Yiddish. The Yiddish version notes that the list contains death date information (yahrzeits). These are the names of our brethren of the Children of Israel of Kobylnik, the city of murder, in which men, women, and children, were murdered by the enemy troops and their assistants, during the Holocaust of the Second World War. Their memory will never leave us. The list of Kobylnik martyrs, along with their yahrzeits, who were murdered by the German criminals and their assistants during the great misfortune of the Second World War.

Yehoshua Gordon (son of Herzl) and his son Yisrael Leib, died in November 1950 in Postavy. David Leib Swirski died on 11 Av 5714, 1954, in Toronto, Canada Yehudit Friedman died in 1959 in New York, U.S.A. Avraham Yitzchak Hadash was killed in an automobile accident in 1965 in Kiryat Gat. Yaakov–Feivel Goldzeger was killed in an automobile accident in 1965 in New York, U.S.A. May their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life.

O L–rd, G–d of vengeance; L–rd of vengeance, appear. Raise Yourself up judge of the earth, and give the pride their due. G–d, for how long shall the wicked, for how long shall the wicked triumph?

{Psalm 94}

[Page 287]

Kobylnik natives in Israel, 1967

It is with a feeling of great awe and trepidation and humility that we undertook this holy task of editing and publishing the book Kobylnik. We undertook this task despite our feeling of unworthiness and inefficiency to give expression to the vast catastrophe that has befallen our dear brethren of Kobylnik. No human language is rich and eloquent enough to describe the shocking disaster perpetrated by the Nazi Satan against our unforgettable near and dear ones.

Stunned and bewildered do we stand at the graves of the innocent victims.

Though we ourselves counted the number of the fallen, we feel that we are unequal for the task of evaluating the immense spiritual and moral treasures that disappeared with their untimely death.

25 years have passed since the immense and indescribable tragedy happened and the only thing we can do for the perpetuation of those innocent and holy souls is to collect the few data for publication.

Very few members of this extinguished and glorious community remained alive and these are scattered all over the globe thus making it impossible to make all of them part take in this difficult and formidable work.

Whilst turning the pages of this book, we will see with our mind's eye the life of the community of Kobylnik that has gone forever.

In this book we will see their daily life with its lights and shadows, with its joys and sorrows, struggles and victories, pleasures and sufferings, bitter realities and unrealized dreams.

Let these pages remind us of the “Shma-Israel” utterances of the upright and pure, unstained characters, while bravely facing their fate at the brinks of their own graves.

[Page 295]

The number of those Kobylnikites who escaped death and who could help us in recovering the calamitous events are very small and the “Pincas”, the protocols and minutes of the sessions of the community which were usually kept in the synagogue, were burnt and destroyed thus making the undertaking of the editors more difficult.

It is only the keens and zeal of the publishing boards that has enabled us to accomplish this arduous project. While we do not claim that our enormous efforts to enrol the participation of all those capable of contributing to this book were successful, and that this publication is free of faults and flaws, we feel that the most important facts and data available are well recorded here.

We have endeavoured to ensure the cooperation of the maximum quantity members of the Kobylnik community who survived the calamities, part of whom live in Israel and who helped us in giving an authentic and chronologic account of events during the Nazi occupation of Kobylnik, beginning from 1941 and ending with the liberation in 1944.

The reader will find in this book articles and material from the pens of those who, in our opinion, were qualified to express, in a fitting manner, their personal impressions of the life of some heroes of the community during the mentioned period.

Our work would not be complete if we, in conclusion, would not mention with gratitude the monetary contribution of our “Landlite” in Israel and the U.S.A. which made this publication possible.

Our sincerest thanks to the chief editor of the book, Mr. Itzchak Ziegelman as well as Mr. Itzchak Gordon, the secretary of the Kobylnik society, who headed this venture.

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