[Page 13]

[Page 14]

Remember the National Catastrophe![1] by Dr. M. Dvorzhetsky Remember the catastrophe of the nation; remember the loss and the resistance, keep the memory for generations to come. Let that memory be with you always, when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you arise.[2] And you shall betroth yourself forever to the memory of brothers who are no more. And the memory shall become part of your flesh and your blood and your bones. Gnash your teeth and remember; when you eat your bread, remember; when you drink your water, remember; when you hear music, remember; when the sun rises, remember; when night falls, remember; on holidays and at celebrations, remember. When you build a house, leave a break in the wall, as a constant reminder of the destruction of the Jewish people. When you plow a field, set up a pile of stones as a monument to those of your brethren who have not been buried in a Jewish cemetery.[3] When you accompany your children to the marriage ceremony, let the memory of those children who will never be married be uppermost in your mind in the midst of your joy. Let them be as one: the living and the dead, the fallen and the survivor, those who are gone and those who remain. Hearken, people of Israel, to the voice that cries out to you from the depths; Do not remain silent, do not remain silent.

Translator's Footnotes

1. This page is translated from the Hebrew, which is written in a biblical prophetic tone. Return
2. The latter part of the sentence is copied verbatim from Deuteronomy 6:7. Return
3. In the Bible, setting up a pile of stones is an act of commemorating an event or a person. Return

[Page 15]

Remember the Devastation of the Jews…[1] by Dr. M. Dvorzhetsky Remember the catastrophe that befell our people, remember the struggle and the revolt, and learn from them. Let this memory be your constant companion, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you wake up. Let the memory of the catastrophe be your bread and your salt, let it permeate you, your blood, your flesh, and your bones. When you build a house, leave a break in a wall, so that you may always notice the destruction of the Jewish people. When you plow a field, set up a pile of stones as a witness and a monument to those of your brethren who have not been buried in a Jewish cemetery. When you accompany your child to the marriage ceremony, let the memory be uppermost in your mind of those children who will never be married, and will never even have anyone to say Kaddish for them.[2] Let them be as one: the living and the dead, the fallen and the survivor, those who are gone and the remnant of the people of Israel. Hearken, people of Israel, to the voice that cries out to you: do not remain silent! Do not forget!

Translator's Footnotes

1. This Yiddish version of the text is more conversational. Return
2. The Kaddish prayer for the dead is usually said by a relative. This sentence implies that no relatives survived the devastation. Return

[Page 16]

[Page 17]

Remember what Amalek did to you!^[1] Let us remember what Hitler (may his name be blotted out) did to us!

Our sacred Torah commands us not to forget, because it is human nature to forget; it is possible to forget even the savagery and the terrible slaughter perpetrated on the Jewish people in Poland and other European countries by the German murderers. The slaughtered included our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, without respecting the weak and the ill, or even the children.

Our Torah commands us: “Write this for a memorial in a book”… because a book reminds us and prevents forgetfulness.^[2]

Let us never forget, down all the future generations, that which the German Amalekites did to us!

Let us not be swayed by the friendship and goodwill that the Germans exhibit. Historical experience teaches us to remember, and never to forget.

The Jewish people have always written down their troubles and misfortunes. The prophet Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations as a reminder of the great national disaster that was the destruction of the Temple.^[3]

The Lament for the two holy communities of Mainz and Worms (which is included in the Lamentations said on the Ninth of Av) mourns: “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.”^[4]

We commemorate the martyrs who died for their faith in 1096 - 1145 by chanting the Av ha-Rachamim prayer every Saturday before the afternoon service.^[5]

[Page 18]

Rabbi Nosn Note Hannover (may his righteous memory be for a blessing) commemorated Jewish bravery, and the martyrs who were killed for their faith, in his book Yeven Metsulah.^[6] Rabbi Shabtai HaKohen (author of Siftei Kohen, may his righteous memory be for a blessing and protect us), set down the sufferings of the Jews during the Khmel'nyts'kyi rebellion against Polish rule led by Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi in his Megillah Afah: the hideous murders and pogroms in the Jewish communities that were widespread during this period.^[7]

Every period in our history has its notable events. The great devastation of our time must be written down, and must be memorialized.

“Write this for a memorial in a book.” Natives of Horodlo in Israel, the United States, Canada, Argentina, and everywhere, let us remember the Horodlo community and its martyrs. Let us inscribe their names in a Yizkor book. Let us preserve for eternity their martyr's path, their suffering and terrible deaths in the gas chambers that the German barbarians established, as well as the other dreadful deaths that they underwent, along with the six million Jews, their brothers and sisters, who were cut down during the devastation of Europe.

Woe is us! The survivors are robbed and broken! Thus wails the mourner during the lamentations of the Ninth of Av. We do not even know the date when our martyrs were murdered, or their memorial day, or the locations of their graves.

May this Yizkor book serve as a monument to the Horodlo community, and forever preserve the sacred memory of the Horodlo martyrs, may God avenge their blood!

How desolate and forlorn lies the city of Horodlo!^[8] Where are the dearly beloved children; our parents; our brothers and sisters; our relatives and friends; the beloved, precious ones? Where is the rabbi who headed the rabbinical court of Horodlo, the old righteous rabbi, one of the greatest Hasids of Radzyn, the author of important books, our teacher and rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leyb HaLevy (may his righteous memory be a blessing for the world to come! may God avenge his blood)? Where is his wife, my mother, the modest, righteous woman

[Page 19]

of great lineage, whose hand was always outstretched to the needy, the God-fearing Mrs. Rivka (may she rest in peace; may God avenge her blood), the grandchild of the renowned rabbi and righteous man, the leader of Kobrin Hasidism (may his righteous memory be a blessing for the world to come)?^[9]

And where are the ritual slaughterers of our town, the righteous men who carried out their sacred function with complete faith? The martyred, innocent, honest Yankev Tshesner; and the other, who was like him, the martyred Mordekhai HaKohen Faygenboym, lesser in age but not in knowledge? May their memory be for a blessing, and may God avenge their blood.

Where are all the pious, innocent Hasids, religious students, and keepers of the commandments?! Where are the ordinary people and all the simple Jews, who were important in our town?! All were killed, and are gone from this world. May the bright memory of the Horodlo martyrs shine forever! We pray to the Almighty to grant rest under the wings of the Shechina to all the Jewish martyrs of Horodlo, along with the other martyrs; and all those who were killed, incinerated, drowned, and hunted down, the babies at their mothers' breasts. May they rest in the Garden of Eden; blessed is God, who restores the deceased to life and will add their souls to the bundle of life!

May the murderous nation be sentenced to eternal shame and disgrace! May the German Nazi people be cursed among the nations, and eternally mocked! May the land that absorbed the blood of our nearest and dearest be cursed above all lands! Woe to the nations with merciless hearts who knew very well what was happening to us, and were silent, when they could have saved tens and hundreds of thousands of lives – and did nothing. Moreover, they closed their doors to the numerous refugees who had barely managed to save themselves. Woe to anyone who did not support these refugees who confronted their exterminators! Woe to you, humanity, for being stubbornly silent and cruelly passive, and thus becoming a partner of the German Nazi Amalek, may his name be blotted out!

Woe to you, hard-hearted humanity, for looking on

[Page 20]

with arms folded as our nation was being annihilated.^[10] You are no better than they! The God of vengeance will avenge the blood of His children, that was shed without cause!

“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people” quoted the great Jew, the Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, the great scholar and righteous Avrom Yitzkhak HaKohen Kook (may his righteous memory be a blessing for the world to come), in a letter he wrote to an elderly member of the Jewish community in the holy city of Jaffa, after the events of 1921, when the blood of our brothers and sisters was shed in our holy land by cursed pogromists.^[11] He ends his letter of the 7^th day of Iyar, 5681, thus:^[12] “Thank God, no Jews in the Land of Israel or elsewhere will be discouraged by this band of vile murderers. Our holy heroes have revived the sacred spirit of the nation, through the blood that they shed. May we soon have the merit of witnessing God's help to his people and his land, and revenge on his enemies. May the nation of Israel succeed soon, in our lifetime. Amen.”

The writer of the foregoing passage, who signs with his tears, is Rabbi Khayim HaLevy Berman, a native of Horodlo, the son of the martyred Rabbi of Horodlo. I headed the rabbinical court of Sienkiewiczóka, Łuck region, Poland; and now am living in Monroe, New York.

Translator's Footnotes

1. Amalek is a nation described in the Hebrew Bible as an age-old enemy of the Israelites, beginning in Exodus. The injunction to remember Amalek's deeds is biblical (Deuteronomy 25:17). Return
2. The quote is from Exodus 17:14. Return
3. The reference is to the First Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Return
4. This lament treats the annihilation of the Jewish communities of Speyer, Mainz and Worms (Germany) among the larger communities that were destroyed at the very beginning of the Crusades, in 1096. The text is from Jeremiah, 9. Similar prayers have been incorporated in Jewish mourning rituals. Return
5. These were the years of the First Crusade and the massacres of Jews that accompanied it. The memorial prayer “Av ha-Rachamim” was written in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, after the destruction of the Ashkenazi communities around the Rhine River by Christian crusaders during the First Crusade. Return
6. Hannover (d. 1683) chronicled the Khmel'nyts'kyi uprising in Ukraine (1648), which was accompanied by widespread massacres of Jews. In Venice in 1653, he published a Hebrew chronicle, titled Yeven metsulah (Deep Swamp), that describes the sufferings of the Jews in the first years of that rebellion. Return
7. Shabtai HaKohen (1621–1662) was a noted scholar, known for his work Siftey Kohen (Lips of a Priest), a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch -- the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism (written by Yosef Karo in 1563. HaKohen's Megillah Afah (Flying Scroll) Return
8. Quoted from Lamentations 1:1. Return
9. This eulogy incorporates a phrase from the biblical Proverbs, 31: 20: “She stretched out her hand to the needy.” Return
10. The phrase “And you stand there looking on with folded arms” is from a well-known poem by the Yiddish poet Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942) that commemorated prewar pogroms in Poland and was sung (to music by Gebirtig) as a song of defiance during the Holocaust. Return
11. Rabbi Kook (1865-1935) was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, a Zionist who is considered one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 20^th century. The letter mentioned begins with a quote from Isaiah 40:1. The events in May 1921 were a series of violent riots that began in Jaffa and spread to other parts of the country, resulting in fatalities and injuries; the majority of the casualties were Jews. Return
12. Original note: The letter was printed in Machanayim, the Israel Defense Army's religious weekly, No. 41, Vol. 4, on 3 Elul 1957, in the tenth year of Israel's existence. [The Gregorian date was May 17, 1921.] Return

[Page 21]

The historical fate that accompanies the Jewish people in exile – that of wandering – did not skip our town, Horodlo. Many Jews of the town took up their walking-sticks many years before the emergence of the Nazi beast in Germany and in the other European countries. Hoping for a brighter future, they traveled to the distant parts of America, Canada, Brazil, and other South American countries. Among the wanderers were those who had had enough of life in the exile of Poland and other countries, and preferred to go to the Land of Israel, our fatherland, and join the ranks of its builders and defenders. Thanks to them, there survives a remnant of the Horodlo community that was destroyed in the devastation of Europe. The small contingent that remains can, and must, establish a monument, in the form of these memorial pages, to the martyrs of the Horodlo community, our parents, brothers, and sisters, who were cruelly murdered together with the rest of the six million Jews by the German murderers (may their name and memory be blotted out) during World War Two.

These martyrs, whose bodies were burned in the crematoria of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor and other death camps, do not even have grave markers. No monuments have been set up over their final resting place. Their sacred ashes alone have been scattered over the soil of Poland and Germany, like dung over the field.

But, if no stone monument has as yet been erected, we must set up another type of monument, a spiritual one, in the form

[Page 22]

of commemorative pages and Yizkor books, which will recount for the ages the actions of the German murderers towards the Jewish people, and how millions of innocent, precious Jews were exterminated. These Yizkor books will detail the humble lives of these Jews and their customs every day as well as on holidays; the mundane and spiritual lives of this large and well-established Jewish population, which was obliterated so savagely.

Among the Yizkor books commemorating the Jewish communities, books written by survivors of cities and towns in Poland, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, and other countries, the Horodlo Yizkor book will take its honored position. It will serve as a monument to our dear ones, the pure, innocent martyrs who were unjustly murdered by the barbaric Germans and their helpers, may their names be blotted out, in such a cruel, horrific manner.

[Page 23]

This Yizkor book has been composed and edited thanks to the initiative of community leaders in Israel, the United States, and Argentina, in order to commemorate the Horodlo community. It will become part of the tragic literature of the devastation, and will join the shelves of Yizkor books for the Jewish communities of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and other European lands – all of which were murdered by the German enemies and their allies.

Although the Horodlo Yizkor book may not attain the scope of the Yizkor books devoted to other, larger towns, it is nonetheless dear to us, as beloved as the Horodlo community itself. This small town enjoyed the advantage of being beloved and cherished by its residents, who knew each other, and were like one large family.

I remember the friendly relations and brotherly feelings in Horodlo. If someone celebrated a joyous occasion, all the Jews of the town joined in. If the reverse happened and someone suffered a misfortune – may God preserve us! – all the residents commiserated.

The kindness of the Horodlo residents and their mutual brotherly feelings were renowned; to this day, natives of Horodlo all over the world continue this attitude.

I remember my father, Leybish (may his memory be for a blessing), who died on July 10, 1951, who would devote days and weeks to the collection of Mo'es Khitin for the needy of Horodlo. He carried out this good deed

[Page 24]

for many years, even when he grew old. Though he was becoming weaker, he would make efforts to locate the poor of Horodlo and hand them the contributions.

The tragic events and the great devastation completely changed the Jewish map. The Horodlo community was obliterated, and the few who remained were scattered throughout the world. It is incumbent upon us to erect a monument to our dear Horodlo community. At the call to publish a Yizkor book, we, a few town natives in the United States, gathered: Henekh Berman, Rabbi Khayim Berman, Moyshe Biderman, Ester and Yankev Tish, Getsl Zis, Yisro'el Fuks, Arn Fuks, and the writer of this contribution. We decided to help accomplish the goal of the initiative, with written materials, pictures and documents, and financial aid. May this Yizkor book serve as an eternal monument to the martyrs of Horodlo, whose blood was shed by the barbarians!

[Page 25]

A yortsayt candle, in whose flame the souls of the cruelly murdered martyrs flicker, is lit every 19^th of Elul in the homes of Horodlo natives worldwide, natives whose souls are enveloped in mourning and sorrow.^[1] These lives were not allowed to run their natural course but were extinguished in a storm of blood. The flames of these memorial candles evoke memories and images of the small Jewish town, so dear to us because of its way of life and the recent deaths of our nearest and dearest in it.

Horodlo was small, but it constituted a world of its own, a Jewish country in miniature. It was one of the Jewish towns in Poland where Jews lived a full Jewish life: the air, the river, the market – all were steeped in Jewishness. The charming, unaffected sound of Torah study could be heard from the kheyders. Scholarship sounded from the houses of study, the brilliance of the rabbi was evident, and the virtuous ritual slaughterers were enveloped in piety. Young people avid for knowledge read the books in the library, and sang in the Zionist organizations. A dream-like shine illuminated the members of the drama club, and those about to emigrate to the Land of Israel glowed with anticipation.

The sound of prayer resounded on Shabbat and weekdays alike from the

[Page 26]

house of study and the artisans' synagogue, and was transformed into ecstasy in the small synagogues of the Radzyn and Turisk Hasidim. Hasidic melodies were borne from one synagogue to the next, filling the air with the Jewish faith that nourished the community.

Shabbat, after a week of hard work, spread feelings of contentment and pleasure through Jews in shining coats and well-kept beards, modest little girls with newly washed braids, and charming boys in caps.

Now the town lies buried in two mass graves of people whose lives were cut short, and whose Torah study was choked off…

Here is where prayers are directed from all parts of the world, wherever Horodlo natives are found; pain-laden prayers shattered by sobs. Prayers resounding through the grass covering the graves: “Yisgadal ve-Yiskadash…”^[2]

[Page 27]

[3]The memorial monument established in 1957, in the Chamber of the Holocaust on Mount Zion, Jerusalem[4]

[Page 28]

In Commemoration of the Horodlo Jewish Community (Hrubieszow county, Poland) May God remember The Horodlo community And its Jews; may He avenge the blood Of our dear brothers and sisters Who were murdered together with their Rabbi and leader Author of Tiferet-Banim and Khok Moshe. By the Germans and their accomplices, may their names be blotted out, during the destruction Of the Jews of Europe during World War II. Their dear, sacred memory will be with us Forever. The Horodlo natives in Israel and abroad.

Translator's Footnotes

1. A memorial candle that burns for 24 hours is lit on the Jewish anniversary (Yiddish: yortsayt) of a death. I do not know why this date was chosen as a memorial day for the martyrs of Horodlo. Return
2. These are the opening words of the Kaddish mourner's prayer, translated as “Sanctified and extolled” [be the name of God]. Return
3. The text in the image of this photo is translated into Yiddish on p. 28. This translation presents the figure caption below the photo on p. 27. Return
4. The Chamber of the Holocaust is a small museum, which was Israel's first museum (1957) dedicated to the devastation in Europe. Return

  Horodło, Poland     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 14 Jul 2024 by LA