The Book of Memory to the Jewish Community of Shebreshin

The Book of Memory to the
Jewish Community of Shebreshin
(Szczebrzeszyn, Poland)

50°42' / 22°58'

Translation of
Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Shebreshin

Editors: Dov Shuval, Association of Former Inhabitants
of Shebreshin in Israel and the Diaspora

Published in Haifa, 1984

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
for the submission of the necrology for placement on the JewishGen web site.

Our sincere appreciation to Genia Hollander
for typing up the English text to facilitate its addition to this project.

This is a translation of: Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Shebreshin (Book of memory to the Jewish community of Shebreshin),
Editors: Dov Shuval, Haifa, Association of Former Inhabitants of Shebreshin in Israel and the Diaspora, 1984 (Y,H,E, 518 pages)

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Szczebrzeszyn

Purchase details for a printed copy of this translation can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ybip/YBIP_Szczebrzeszyn.html

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fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
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Translated by Yocheved Klausner

Foreword [H]	The Editor	11
Foreword [Y]	The Editor	15

Everyday life
The desire to acquire knowledge [H]	Moshe Messinger	23
The desire to acquire knowledge	Moshe Messinger	29
How the young generation flourished [H]	David Fuks	36
How the young generation flourished	David Fuchs	39
The struggle for cultural progress	Yehoshua Zisbrenner	43
How we have thrown away the long Kapotas [Hasidic garment]	Yehuda Kelner	45
You need to see a psychiatrist	Baruch Bibel	47
Memories of a non-Shebreshiner	Luba Gall	49
A street in Szczebrzeszyn	Emanuel Chmielash	56
On the Shore of the River Wieprz	Rivkah Shmali (Katz)	59
The competition	Aharon Shrift	62
Episodes of heroism	Yankel Lamm	67
Poland (a poem)	Pinchas Bibel	71
Economic sources	Moshe Messinger	75
Making a living was very hard [H]	Zvi Treger (Tal)	78
Making a living was very hard	Zvi Treger (Tal)	80
Respectful Behavior, Honest Trading	Emanuel Chmielash	82
Breaking windows-winning the strike	Yankel Itche Treger & Leibl Akerflug	84
On weekdays and on holidays	Yankel Frost	87
Night work in a bakery	Avigdor Rieder	89
Do not miss the train!	Abraham Becher	92
The Devil was out of Work	Pinchas Bibel	96

The Religious Life
The Synagogue in Szczebrzeszyn, a Work of Art
Modest on the Outside, Richly Adorned Inside [H]	Eng. David Davidowitz	103
One of the famous synagogues	Meir Balaban	107
Little Angels Sing a Song of Praise	Menachem Messinger	109
Crowns of gold and diamonds	Mendel Farber	113
Superb holiness	Chava Sapian	116
Resemblance to the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam [H]	Aharon Lass	119
Sabbath in my town	Emanuel Chmielash	120
Illegal activity in the shtibl	Moshe Zisser	125
The Blue-White Boxes of Herzl	Feige Ethel Boim	127
Memories from the Heder and from the Shtibl	Aharon Lass	128
On the Chair of the Rabbinate	Yankel Lam	131
The Rabbi Passed Away	Yosef Boim	133

Legends and Mystery Stories
Why Szczebrzeszyn? [H]	Moshe Messinger	137
Why Shebreshin?	Moshe Messinger	138
The Jewish School	Feige Ethel Boim	139
About the Spanish Exiles in Poland	Menashe Unger	140
“To hasten Deliverance” [lidchok et haketz] [H]	Ephraim Farber	141
Bringing Salvation Before its Time	Ephraim Farber	143
“Angels Carried him from Shebreshin to Eretz Israel” [H]	Avraham Stern	146
Folk Tales	Mendl Messinger	147
Legendary Figures	Yehuda Kelner	149
A Far Echo from King Solomon's Judgment	Zanvel Aschenberg	152
In the Cemetery	Mendl Farber	155
The Magnificent Road of the Seer of Lublin	Aviezer Burstein	156
Prevented by Heaven [H]	Rav Menachem Guttman	161

Days of Suffering and Destruction
Between life and death [H]	Yitzhak Stemmer	167
Between life and death	Yitzhak Stemmer	179
Echad B'Yameinu - Hersh Getzl Hochbaum	Emanuel Chmielash	195
From the Bunkers to the Partisans	Yakov Morgenstern	198
Imprisoned by the Germans	Ephraim Farber	200
With the partisans in the forest	A. H.	223
I participated in the battles [H]	Zvi Treger (Tal)	227
Taking part in the battle	Zvi Treger (Tal)	229
In the hell of Belzec	Efraim Farber	232
Quietly Weeping (poems)	Shalom Stern	246
Uprooting the Szczebrzeszyn Jews	Zigmunt Klukovski	253
Observations on the character of Dr. Klukowski	Devorah Fleisher	290
Szczebreszyn under Hitler's occupation	Devorah Fleischer	291
Tchotcha Marisha [H]	Mendel	299
Twenty-four Children Saved from Christian hands	Devorah Fleischer	300
The last train	Aharon Shrift	305
The last evening in my home	Sarah Fuks (Ingber)	306
My Ruined Town (poem)	Abraham Weinrib	309
A night of terror	Balche Milstein (Langburd)	311
Wandering	Shaindl Knabl (Stern)	314
In armed battle	Ephraim Farber	318
Do Not Forget the Dead! (poem)	Mordechi Elboim	320
Oh, My Little Shtetl	Pinchas Bibel	322
My Ruined Home	Shlomo Reiter	326
Night of Pogroms (poem)	Batya Bibel	329
In the Whirl of War	Simah Berger (Elbaum)	331
Memories (poem)	Feige Roitman	333
Why are the Survivors Silent?	Shimon Kantz	335
My Little Town of Shebreshin (poem)	Brochele Stern	337
Hallucinations in the Siberian Taiga	Velvel Ingber	339
Posing as Aryans in Belgium	Ephraim Farber	342
Disappointed by the Socialist Regime in Poland [H]	Bella Rosenblum (Sher)	344
Returning from the Red Army	Yehuda Weinstock	345
In Shebreshin after the war [H]	Chanoch Becher	347
In Szczebreszyn after the war,/a>	Chanoch Becher	349
The Belzec Camp		352
Report on the Distribution of Lunch and Bread for Refugees and the Quarantined in the Shebreshin Bet Hamidrash During the War		356

Figures in our town
A Gallery of Characters	Moshe Messinger	363
Warmhearted characters	Yehuda Kelner	366
Praiseworthy Doers	Yankel Lam	369
In Appearance, Military–In Spirit, Pioneer	Emanuel Chmielash	370
The Leader and Teacher of the Bund	David Fuchs	372
Two Activists for the People	Zanvel Aschenberg	373
The Good–Hearted Doctor	Berl Entberg	376
Mohel and “Doctor”	Mendl Farber	377
Exaggerated Fanatics	Mendel Farber	378
The Tzadeket (saintly woman)	Chava Sapian	380
Zenik the partisan	Yankel Lam	381
The Great Scholar, Rav Yechiel Blankman	Rav R'Avraham Golshmid	383
The Cheerful Grandfather	Ephraim Farber	384
Hard work, beautiful manners	Ephraim Farber	386
Taking Care of the Needy	Rachel Greenspan	388
Menachem Messinger – the Naïve 80–Year–Old	Ariela Reuveni	390

Old Szczebreszyn
Shebreshin of Long Ago	Dr.Zygmunt Klukowski	393
Geographic, Ethnic, and Historic Shebreshin		402
The Surroundings	Moshe Messinger	408
Shebreshin in the Register [Pinkas] of the “Council of the Four Lands”		410

The History of R' Yakov Reifman
A Great Jew and a Genial Person	Itzhak Warshawski	417
A Great Shebreshiner, Pious Man, and Scholar	Yakov Shatzki	423
It is not Permitted to Hold it in One's Hand	Abraham Bernstein	425
“How Many Yakov Reifmann Are There in the Market?” [H]	Zvi Kramer	425
In a Room like a Cage	Solomon Lastik	426
German Translation of Chanukah and Purim Piyutim [religious poems]		429
“History of the Persecutions of the Jewish People”		431
Cover Pages of Old Books, Documents and Certificates		432
From the Literature		448
Personalities from the Past		456

Landsmanshaftn [organizations of former residents]
The Organization of Former Shebreshin Residents in Israel		457
The Landsmanschaft in Montreal	Emanuel Chmielash	460
The Landsmanschaft in New York	Freide Blatt	465

Yizkor pages
In their memory		472
Necrology		473
They Fell in Battle with the Nazis		496
Fallen in Battle, in the Israel Wars		497

English Summary
Preface	The Editorial Board	I

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