Ciechanow, Poland (Pages 473-474)

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[Page 473]

In Ciechanow After the Destruction

Immediately after the destruction a few Jews started to return to Ciechanow. They came from the death camps, from hiding. Each one hoped to find some trace of their dear ones, thinking that by chance someone may have survived. So the few Ciechanow Jews met and talked about the catastrophe that they had lived through.

The destruction of Ciechanow Jewry could be seen all over. The bones of the martyrs were strewn everywhere. With the Jewish gravestones, roads were paved. The pain and sorrow of those who returned was great. They strengthened themselves and set up a committee that took upon itself the holy task of giving the bones a Jewish burial and to bring back as many as possible of the damaged gravestones.

With the help of the newly set up Polish government, the work was carried out. The bodies of the tortured ones were exhumed. They were put into coffins for their eternal rest in brother-graves in the Jewish cemetery.

After completing the holy work, those who returned erected a memorial from the shattered gravestones, a reminder of the great destruction that the sadistic Germans brought upon the Jews. A garden was planted around the memorial and it is cared for to the present day. This was the final act for the dead that the survivors performed for the Ciechanow Jewish martyrs. Afterwards, these few survivors left Ciechanow, the place where they were born or raised, their home place, that was turned into a Valley of Death by the Germans for the Jews.

The last Ciechanow Jews left for Israel, America and other countries throughout the world in order to build new lives and to carry on with Jewish national life.

Signed: M.P.

The photographs that follow were taken on the spot. They are a documentary confirmation of the German bestiality in exterminating the Jews that spread out also on the graves of the Jews who died in peaceful times, and on the gravestones.

[Page 474]

Survivors who returned

Picture Index

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