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[Page 138]
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First row from right: A. Adler, I. Jahre, and M. Walner. Second row from right:Page Kessler, financial secretary, Sh. Kessler, M. Fishman, protocol secretary,. Page Zelig, president, D.M.Walner, I. Rubinfeld Third row seated from right: L.Tog,H. Heifling, M. Neger, H.Neger, I. Oirez,and M.Filisdorf. |
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The association was established in 1930 in New York city. The founding members were Lea Jahre,the first secretary Hersh Neger. They were very active in helping the people from Dynow and participated in many social programs dedicated to the society. |
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| Standing from right: Rose Rosenberg, Leah Jahre, Leah Adler, Mrs Tog,
Freidel Sheinweiss, Sylvia Cohen, secretary.
Seated from right: Frumit Schweitzer, vice president, Mary Lublin president, Sara Cohen. |
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This is the famous poet and humorist Yaakow Adler or B. Kowner that wrote for many years for the Yiddish paper Forwards in New York. He also wrote for other publications and published many books that were translated into other languages. His literary creations were staged in American as well as in European theaters. Presently he lives in Florida. |
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The Jewish community of Sunik was about two hundred years old. It once belonged to the administration of the kehilla of Lisk (Yiddish)or Linsk (Polish). With time the Jewish community grew and developed. The city became an important industrial city with the opening of a railroad car and a rubber factory. These outlets produced items for Poland and also exported them abroad. The city was also the seat of the regional court to which the hamlet of Dynow belonged.
The famous rabbi of Lublin, the late Rabbi Meir Schapiro was Rabbi of the city and also headed the local Yeshiva until he left for the kehilla of Pietrikow. The position was vacant for a long time until Rabbi Tuvia Horowitz, a son of the Madener Rabbi and a son-in-law of the Ribitcher Rabbi, was appointed Rabbi of the city. He was a well-known figure in the Orthodox world and particularly in the Orthodox political party of “ Agudath Israel”. He was not a unanimous candidate and the opposition refused to
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abide by the choice. He perished during the shoa with his community outside of the city.
In Sunik lived the famous rabbi Dawid and later his son Rabbi Reuven that perished at the hands of the Germans. His followers tried to rescue him; they even suggested that someone else take his place but he refused. The mere thought that another Jew should be killed for his sake was repulsive to his belief. Several dozen Hassidic Jews from Dynow always attended the Rabbi's synagogue during each holiday. There was also another rabbi in town, namely the Dynower Rabbi Dawid that resided at the Fassade.
As the Germans entered the city, they shot a Jewish youngster named Peti. He was slightly disturbed and seeing a group of people being led from a village he decided to join them and soon changed his mind. The Germans chased him until a Jewish passer-by explained to them that the boy was not himself. They thought for a moment and then resumed the chase. They caught the boy and shot him.
On the second day of Rosh Hashana, when the slaughter in Dynow was in full swing, the Germans torched the synagogue, the study center and the Talmud torah. Israel Rabach tried to save torah scrolls from the burning study center. The flames engulfed the building but he decided, at the risk of his life, to enter it. The smoke
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billowed from all sides but he managed to find his way to the Holy Arch and grabbed with trembling hands one torah and made it out of the study center. He then encountered the Germans who grabbed the torah scroll and tossed it back into the fire. Israel Rabach stood and watched as the holy book was consumed by fire. The cannibals were not satisfied with the burning of the torah but also needed a human sacrifice for their war god. They took him to the wall to be shot. He begged them to allow him to say good bye to his wife and children. The murderers granted the request and took him to his place. Terrible screams emerged from the room when the family heard of the news. The wife fainted and the children surrounded the father and did not let him go. The Germans flung the children away and hit the father with a rifle on the head in order to speed up his departure. The father kissed the “mezuzah” along the portal and glanced for the last time at his fainted wife and crying children. The Germans shot him outside the house and dragged his body to the burning torahs. They then tossed the body into the fire. Thus perished Jews with their holy books. His last sounds were “ Oh hear Israel”. The Germans were singing the Horst Wessel song with stress on the line “when Jewish blood spurts from the knives”
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They fired into the house of Yossef Poliwker and arrested his son on the charge that he killed his father. A Jew of Sunik named Shteiger who lived next to the Talmud Torah saw the place on fire and decided to rescue torahs. He managed to save but one torah since everything was ablaze and exited through a window. As he emerged, a German stopped him ripped the torah from him with one hand and threatened him with the pistol in the other hand. He was lucky when a Jewish girl from the Lizer family begged the German not kill him. He was barely saved and managed to reach his home when two Germans entered. They called him rotten Jew and accused him of torching the synagogue. He was forced to follow them and they led him to a group of Jews that was being assembled to be shot. The cruel and terrible pains inflicted on him along the way are beyond description. When he finally reached the assembly area, the other Jews were already taken away. They escorted him to jail with the intention of shooting him with the next batch of Jews.
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Luck was with him again, his pursuers left town and he was freed from prison.
A youngster from Sunik, Dawid's Eiz's son, was in Dynow during the slaughter. He was dragged with other Jews to be killed and per chance survived the slaughter and pretended to be dead. When the murders left the area, he managed to extricate himself from the area. He headed home but stopped at the village of Terwa Woloska synagogue on Saturday to recite the prayer of having survived a terrible event.
Sunik shared the same fate as Dynow. The cruel Gestapo ordered all the Jews of Sunik to leave the city with the exception of a few Jews that they needed. The latter was segregated and permitted to stay in the city. The remainder of the Jews began to wander barefoot and penniless on the other side of the San River. The majority of them perished in the camps and the ghettos. Very few remained alive.
Let these words serve as an eternal memorial to the Jews of Sunik.
May G-d avenge their sufferings and deaths.
May their souls rest in eternal peace.
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