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[Pages 13/14]
The Editor
Translated from Hebrew by Miriam Bulwar David–Hay
Donated by Anne E. Parsons – Department of History, UNC Greensboro
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On the 12th of Tishrei, 5703 , the oppressor's knife was raised and marked the end for the communities of Tuchyn–Kripa and its surroundings. The executioner rose against the dear ones of their families, the heroes and saints of our people, who died as martyrs under the decrees of 5701–5703 in the years of the Second World War. And on the 12th of Tishrei, 5728 , the 25th anniversary, we are publishing this memorial book to elevate their souls .
Great is the responsibility in editing a book like this, as the authors of the memories and the lists did not write them out of pleasure and in the interests of expanding knowledge. Every sentence and every line in this book pours blood, whether it was written by our brothers and sisters who left the valley of tears many years ago, or whether it was written by the scorched remnants who survived the conflagration and went through the seven circles of hell before they were able to arrive to a place of rest and an inheritance among us . With special affection, all the memories and lists were edited, prepared, and corrected, so as to tell our generation, our children, and our children's children, about the glory of the people of the communities of Tuchyn–Kripa, who died as martyrs.
And as great as were the significance and the responsibility, so too were the difficulties and the stumbling blocks that piled up on the way to producing this book. Following the decision to produce a memorial book, the Book Committee made a public appeal to the survivors of Tuchyn–Kripa in Israel and the world to produce lists and photographs about the town and its inhabitants. Some of them responded immediately, but most of the material was collected only in recent months, with great patience, with assistance to the owners of those memories to put them in writing, with meticulous searches in libraries and archives, and out of unbounded love for every scrap of paper.
May they all be blessed who contributed and delivered material and photographs and who gave their assistance in other ways. Especially marked for praise will be the members of the Book Committee, who initiated, exerted, and gave themselves without pause to carrying out this holy and lofty mission in the name of the entire organization of emigrants from Tuchyn–Kripa and its surroundings. Indeed, there are not enough words in a human language to lament enough the size of the catastrophe and the Holocaust, which poured on to the heads of the people of pure and sacred communities.
The surviving people of Tuchyn–Kripa will take it upon themselves, now and for eternity, to add every year on the 12th of Tishrei, the bitter and precipitous memorial day, their hot tears to the well of tears that will never be filled.
Tel Aviv, 12th of Tishrei, 5728 [October 16, 1967]
The 25th memorial day of the martyrs of Tuchyn–Kripa
By the Members of the Book Committee
Translated from Hebrew by Miriam Bulwar David–Hay
Donated by Anne E. Parsons – Department of History, UNC Greensboro
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| Standing (from right): Tzvi Gilberg, Avraham Vinitzer, Pola Brom–Shpigelman, Yosef Sheinfeld Seated: Yehuda Rotenberg, Noach Turok |
Every year, on the 12th of Tishrei, which is the memorial day for the martyrs of Tuchyn–Kripa and their surroundings, the remnants of the destruction gather together with their brothers and sisters, who preceded them and made aliyah [ascended] to the Land of Israel, in order to unite with the memories of their dear ones, who perished as martyrs at the hands of the German and Ukrainian murderers, may their names be blotted out. In the days of the immense Holocaust, which fell upon the Jews of Europe in the years 5701–5703, the communities of Tuchyn–Kripa perished on the bitter and precipitous day of
12th of Tishrei, 5703 – 1942
[September 23, 1942]
[Pages 17/18]
After a long period of preparation and organizational tasks, we have succeeded in publishing the memorial book to eternalize the communities of Tuchyn–Kripa and their dear martyrs. We worked to the best of our abilities to collect all possible materials, in memories and in photographs, in order to revive in these sacred pages the experience of Jewish life, with all the different shades that flowed through it for generations in the communities of Tuchyn–Kripa. Our intention, which is also the desire of all the remnants of Tuchyn–Kripa in Israel and in every place where they may be, is that this book of memory will serve as a memorial candle worthy of the dear Jews, the people of Torah and of tradition, the Zionist and community activists, the socialist fighters, the righteous masses of “Your Nation,” the merciful and the charitable.
A great privilege fell into our hands to establish in the holy ones of our community a “true grace,” and to perpetuate them beyond the pages of this book in our hearts and in the hearts of our sons and daughters for all generations. For them and for Israel for eternity, we have dedicated, as far as we were able to, sections on geography and on history, society and culture, family lists and the names of the martyrs, so that coming generations will look with awe through the pages of this book and will see before their eyes their fathers and their fathers' fathers, the straight and the pure, the heroes and those tortured in the name of God and the nation of Israel and who, in their deaths, willed us life.
We especially mark for praise and for glory the supreme spirit of bravery that beat in the hearts of the rebels of the Tuchyn ghetto, who as the worthy descendants of the Maccabees before them, brought about the miracle of the uprising against their captors and tormenters from the requests of their souls, and with a few against the many, and the weak against the strong, defended their honor and the honor of Israel.
We take this opportunity to express our thanks and our appreciation to all those who extended helping hands to our sacred task, and especially to the Editor, Mr. Benzion Ayalon, the editor of many memorial books, who never shirked any burden or bother, in order to produce the book of a generation, bringing to it, inside and out, the hand of experience and the best skill, as appropriate for this dear memorial monument.
1st of Kislev, 5728 [December 3, 1967]
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