Rzeszów, Poland (Pages 350-352, 361-368)

Polish Evidence
on the Extermination of Rzeszów Jews

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

“In the winter of 1942, a communist party cell was founded in the ghetto. Among its members were Salle and Renne Wachtel, Leon Birman, Wadler, Leon Zuckhaft, the Barsch sisters” (page 23).

Aniela Chach writes: “In the first organizing assembly of the district committee, my husband and I took on the task of maintaining contact with the members of the ghetto and organizing party cells there as well as groups of five members, each of the Folk Guard (“gwardia ludova”). My husband was notified by the parents of Leon Zuckhaft at what time and which way Salle Wachtel was going to work, with whom I was in contact in my party activities. During the days of the German occupation, long lines of Jews would march every morning in the direction of Chopin Street as they exited the ghetto gates. So, I stood there and waited. Salle and her sister Renne walked in one of the companies. I carefully infiltrated the marching line, put the ribbon on my arm, and while walking with all the Jews, I informed the sisters about the founding of the party, its plan, and its organization. We also examined the possibility and methods of action within the ghetto and set a date for the next meeting^[1]. A new commissar came to Rzeszów, Albert Paul, who previously worked in Krakow. Terror was rampant in the city. It was said that Paul was the son of an Austrian officer in Rzeszów and was born in our city. According to his instructions, notices were pasted on the walls with the following text: “Jews who leave the quarter, which was marked for them, face the death penalty, the people who help the Jews, or hide them - the same punishment applies to them”. Some of the Jews then managed to escape from the ghetto, hide among the local Poles, or travel to larger cities, where it was easier for them to hide among the crowds.

The Germans imposed collective fines on Jews and in this way took three million gold coins from them. Jewish families are relentlessly transported in farmers' carts, accompanied by policemen, into the walls of the ghetto, thus emptying the surrounding towns and villages of Jews. The Jews were forbidden to take anything with them, except for a backpack, and the abandoned Jewish property was taken by the Germans. A census was also taken of Jewish children up to the age of ten. This worried and alarmed our Jewish members. Due to the contact we were able to establish with the Germans, we were able to receive information about the upcoming “Aktziya” actions to send the Jews locked up in the ghetto to the concentration camps. The Germans began the extermination operations, removing from the prison in Rzeszów more than one hundred and fifty Jews, who were shot by them in the Glogow woods. At the beginning of July, a police company led by District Commissioner Eyhuz and the City Commissar Paul entered the ghetto. They expelled and ran several thousand Jews - old people, children and the sick - to the lot between Kopernik Street and Sobieski Street. The old cemetery existed in this place until 1939. The concentrated Jews had to appear before a “committee”, where they had to leave their belongings. They were sorted and divided into special groups. The old men were put on freight cars and taken, as it turned out later, to the Glogow woods, where they were shot. The belongings were loaded onto cars, and they were taken to the railway workers' house, in front of Dr. Feldmauz's house. The sorting lasted for several hours, and the scorching sun beat mercilessly on the heads of the Jews. Without water and food, the people were in a state of fainting. At 14:00, another company of S.S. soldiers arrived at the ghetto. At the same time, the first convoy of old men, women, and children left the ghetto through the gate on Kopernik Street in the direction of Grunwaldzka Street. As the convoy left through the gate, a gang of drunk S.S. soldiers assaulted it, and in wild screams, they whipped anyone in their path with rubber batons. The beaten and wounded persons passed through Parny Square, Monyushko Street and Pulaski Street^[2], and arrived at the Rzeszów Staroniva Station. Screams of the drunk S.S. soldiers (and of the Ukrainians and Lithuanians from the Division “S.S. Ukraine”), wails of terror from the children, panic in the ranks of the marchers, chaos, attempts to escape accompanied this convoy^[3], but the shots do not stop, people collapse to the ground, at the end of the convoy, drove carts which were loaded with the dead, whose number was increasing. Behind the carts drives the washing car that washes the roads that are soaked with the blood of the victims. And here is the train station, where the freight cars are waiting.

With this method they used to push and squeeze Jews into the cars. And again, carts come, collect the murdered people and bring the dead to the Jewish cemetery in “Chikai”.

Three days later, another “transport” left the ghetto. This time the deportees were given permission to take a small package with them on the road, and in the end of the convoy drove carts that collected the weak and sick and brought them to the train station. Other cars, as before, brought the old people to the Glogow woods, and thus several hundred people were taken out.

On July 14, there was another “transport”, similar to the previous one. The cars which led the weak to the station returned loaded with packages, which the people took with them. This time they sent the patients hospitalized at the Jewish Hospital to the Glogow woods. At night, the shootings, arrests, and attacks in the ghetto continued. On July 19, the fourth “transport” of the Jews of Rzeszów departed, and like its predecessors, all the Jews were sent to the extermination camps. The most terrible and horrible shipment was carried out on August 7. The day before, notices were published in the ghetto, that the next day the labor office (“Arbeitsamt”) would conduct a registration of women fit for work, mothers of babies. When the women gathered at a labor office at a certain time, they were immediately surrounded by the German police, were classified and divided into groups and taken out on the well-known route, “the agony road” to the Staroniva station. Most of the women in the convoy were with babies in their arms. The women who did not showed up at the labor office were taken out of their houses in the same situation they were found by the S.S. soldiers. A mother, who was bathing her baby while Gestapo soldiers broke into the house, was taken without covering his body, and only had time to cover the baby with an apron, and so they went on their last journey. One Pole threw a sheet over the baby, not paying attention to the German sticks. About 1000 people left in the August 7^th transport. Eyhuz and Paul supervised all the transports until the people were put into locked cars. These two diligently carried out Hitler's murderous plans. After these “Aktziya” actions, the ghetto was shrunk and divided into two wings, the larger part was intended for those who were destined for transport, and in the smaller part remained the healthy, who could still work for the “people of the masters”. It was a calculated method by Hitler's servants to make the most of the manpower, and then give them a lead bullet and prepare a mass grave for them.

In one of the meetings with the member Birman, it was agreed between us that the next day at 6 o'clock in the evening, six guys from the ghetto will meet on the road to Staro-Miashchia, by the raspberry bushes, one of the “Folk Guard” members, who will escort them to the woods. I gave this mission to the member Augustin Mitzel. “Gustek” later told me that at the first meeting they discussed the issue of weapons for this group. It was decided to get the weapons by force, with the help of the member Birman, who could no longer stay in the ghetto for security reasons. The young men returned to the ghetto the next day. Unusually, the five young men went to work early. The guard, who knew Birman well, did not have any suspicion. When he began to undress, they suddenly put a coat on his head, tied him up, blocked his mouth, cut the telephone wires, took the guns, broke into the office, where Germans were working, took the weapons from the surprised Germans, tied them up, put on their uniforms and went out to the fields through Podpromia Street, where they managed to hide from the pursuit. They were young boys, and only one of them, Birman, finished his military service. Following them, a second group of seven guys under the command of Yuzek left the ghetto.

The situation in the ghetto was worsen from day to day. Every night we heard gunshots, and every morning, the dead were taken to the cemetery. The poor people in the ghetto suffered from cold and hunger, and they were employed in hard labor. Those with means accumulated food. Our Jewish members worked under these conditions. When we learned that the Germans were preparing to deport women and children, we decided that the Wachtel sisters must leave the ghetto, as their stay in the ghetto involves danger to their lives. We prepared new certificates for them (“kankarte”), and indeed on November 15^th, 1,500 women and children were taken out. The Wachtel sisters hid with the Miunsik family. Unfortunately, however, they returned once again for family reasons to the ghetto, where they were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the city jail. Some time later, the Wachtel sisters and the Licht sisters were brought to the Auschwitz camp where they were murdered. Repeated attempts to contact the ghetto prisoners were unsuccessful and we learned that member Wadler was also shot by the Germans (page 29).

In February 1944 the ghetto was liquidated. The remnants of the prisoners were sent the next day to different camps or were shot by the Germans (page 52).

Memories
by Professor Juliusz Kyas – Krakow – Rzeszów

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

In my many years of work as a teacher at the high school in Rzeszów, I had the good fortune to educate the same class for eight consecutive years. It was at the high school for girls in Rzeszów. As a “rookie teacher”, in addition to the hours of teaching the Polish language, I also received the position of homeroom teacher of a class of twelve girls. Over time, this class grew and I managed to assist over twenty girls to pass the matriculation exam.

Among these twenty girls there were Christians and Jews, I never felt the existence of religious or racial differences, the class was a close-knit unit, the Jewish and Christian girls helped each other in difficult subjects, we formed friendships and in general there was harmony between them.

The cordial ties between me and my apprentices stood the test of time, they did not stop even after the matriculation exam, and they exist until this moment. Before the war, my students would meet at my house during the holidays, we kept in touch by letters and even now, despite being scattered in all parts of the world, I receive letters from Asia, Africa and the United States. On my birthday I receive flowers - a sign of their faithful memory. We met twice at gatherings to celebrate the 25^th and 35^th anniversary of the matriculation exam.

Unfortunately, and to my heart's sorrow, at the aforementioned gatherings, we lacked many students, especially Jewish ones, because they fell victim to Nazi racism. To one of these students, the most talented in the class, I would like to dedicate a tiny bundle of memories.

Hanke Fink was small, thin, with a short braid – for which she was given the nickname “Mouse Tail” - stood out for her unusual intelligence and a great knowledge. She showed many talents, she was an excellent student in all subjects: mathematics, Latin, Polish literature, physics and chemistry. Her beautiful compositions in the Polish language were known and praised. Her spiritual development was influenced by her mother, who was a teacher of the Israeli religion in high school. Hanke used to travel with her mother and on these trips her mother would tell her a lot of things, sometimes I talked with her mother about Hanke's achievements in school and we were both happy with the results.

After the matriculation exam, Hanke chose classical philology as a subject, as she acquired a basic knowledge of Latin and Greek in high school she. She studied without difficulty, completed her studies on time and received a bachelor's degree from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Hanke wanted to work as a school teacher, but it was difficult to get a position in the classical languages department. So, she tried to get an unpaid job in high school. I remember trying to help her, but without success. Disappointed, she stayed at home, and did not use her rich talents. Hanke got married and had a son.

A few days after the outbreak of the war, I learned about the tragic death of one of my students, who was killed by an aerial bomb, in the post office building where she worked in Tarnów.

Through Lviv, where I lived, waves of refugees passed from the west, among them some of my students. Sometimes they visited me and told me about their new plans in connection with the changes that occurred due to the war. There were among them who wanted to pass the time of the storm here, and there were those who wanted to return to Rzeszów, which was occupied by the Germans. They knew that more wanderings and great suffering awaited them. I asked them about Hanke and they told me that she stayed in Rzeszów. When the Germans captured Lviv, it was possible to return to Rzeszów. So, I returned to Rzeszów, the city in which I spent my youth. How has the city changed so much? Within a short distance from my residence stood the shocking and horrifying ghetto…

One day when I passing on the street, I saw a horrifying sight: in the middle of the road, companies of young Jewish girls returned to the ghetto after finishing their arduous work under the supervision of SS men. I stopped on the sidewalk to see if there were any familiar faces among the marchers, four in each column. Suddenly I heard a shout: “Mr. Professor”, one of my students came out of the line - it was Dora, who had visited me in Lviv and asked if she should return to Rzeszów, to her parents' home. Now that she had returned, we met, but under such terrible conditions… We exchanged a few fragmentary sentences for fear that the Germans would notice our conversation, one handshake and she was gone, running to her place in the fourth in the parade. When she got to her place, she said a few words her neighbor in the line, who turned her head towards me. It was Hanke… It is hard for me to describe the expression on her face, she tried to smile but she couldn't bring up a smile, she just stared at me with her black eyes and with that look she tried to speak to me, and I read from that look very clearly about the tragedy of her life, about her talents that went down the drain, about the separation from her family, from her child, about the life of humiliation in the ghetto, the forced labor, and most of all I saw in her eyes the horror of death in agony… that awaited her. She didn't have the courage to step out of line, as Dora did, and approach me. She spoke to me through her eyes, maybe she asked for my help, maybe she begged me to save her life without realizing I was helpless, maybe she was sobbing over the loss of her humanity, maybe she felt her end was coming and wanted to say goodbye to me forever…

I stood still in my place, unable to move. Our silent gazes crossed until the line she was walking in disappeared from my sight as it turned down the street… Hanke's gaze, filled with abysmal sorrow, penetrated deep into the depths of my soul and I will never be able to erase it. After a few days, all the Jewish women from the Rzeszów ghetto were taken to the extermination camp, and Hanke was among them. None of them returned from there.

A Walk Through Rzeszów
by Abraham Mussinger

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

My meeting with Rzeszów after five years of exile was difficult for me and it was no less difficult for me to sketch the straight and crooked lines, from which the geometric figure of the city's Rzeszów was shaped, on all its streets, squares, alleys and public buildings, including the buildings of the community institutions and the Jewish organizations, as engraved in our memory.

Let's start from Marszałkowska Street in the northern part of the city, called Ruska Wieś after the Ruthenian population who lived here before.

This street - which is like the northern entrance gate to the city - is a continuation of the main road leading from the nearby town of Głogów, a distance of about twelve km. This street was populated by Christians and Jews, some of them workers and low-level government officials and some of them artisans and small merchants. The relationship between the Christians and the Jews was normal, and it was hard to imagine that after a few years, some of our Christian neighbors would become the loyal helpers of the German occupier and strive to be built by the robbery and murder that had been committed by the Nazis, with their passive and sometimes also the active support. On this street, in front of the entrance to Oyaski Street, one of the largest residences in the city, the home of the respected Yam family, who also owned a large woodshed adjacent to the same house, was built before the outbreak of the war.

We turn left and enter Oyaski Street that reaches the bridge. From this bridge I was used to watching the loading of thousands of cattle every Friday of the week, which were purchased at the local cattle market by Jewish cattle traders and exporters, such as the Wohlfeld, Kleinmintz and Mardar families.

We get off the bridge and move a few steps south and we end up at the corner of Jablonski Street, next to the department store of the agricultural organizations. From here, on the right, we see Jablonski Street leading to the bridge of the vehicle traffic; on the left, Grotger Street, and opposite we see Grunvaldzka Street up to the shop of a Shayter, Polish of German origin, on Kościuszko Street. Before we cross the intersection to go to the corner of Grunvaldzka Street, where Engerman's pharmacy is located, our gaze encounters the balcony of one of the houses where, in the afternoon hours on summer days, one could see there a handsome man, tall, a well-groomed black beard, sitting engrossed in reading a book or a newspaper. It was Mr. Shlomo Mintzberg, a scholar, a pleasant man, a Zionist activist who was loved by all.

We cross the road, reach Pachman's barber shop, Rosenbaum's restaurant and the corner of Kolontaia Street. The kloiz of Ruska Wieś was located in this street. Here I used to pray every Shabbat. I remember Reb Eliezer Meler, a fish merchant in the area, who would often pass by in front of the Holy Ark.

We cross Kolontaia Street and reach the other corner of the street, where the children's daycare that was established by the Jewish community (No. A/9), pass by the agricultural machinery store of Krash, Mardar's butcher shop and arrive at Wang's guest house, pass by the elementary school and reach the corner of Bernardinska Street. About twenty meters from here, inside Bernardinska Street is Goldberg's printing house (A/46). We cross Bernardinska St. and proceed along Grunvaldzka Street, passing by Izrael's kitchenware store, Tanz's clothing store and arriving at the corner of Grunvaldzka, Farna Church Square, where Ms. Sammy Reich's fashion store was. From here we reach to the corner of Grunvaldzka and Kosciuszko streets and go to the opposite corner, where Birnfeld's delicatessen store was. From here we go back on the east side of Grunvaldzka Street, pass by the Knacht fish preserves store, the Max Bar fabric store and reach the corner of Mateiko Street, continue to Kopernik Street, on the corner of which is the Reb Wolf restaurant. Passing by the store of Emanuel Wind, the activist on behalf of the artisans in the town, passing by the restaurant of Mrs. Shmidt, of Jewish origin, and arrive at the corner of Sobieski Street. Now we cross the street and we are on the other side, at the place where Goldstein's house used to be, where the sewing workshop of the “Satnia” clothing factory used to be. Up the street, we move forward, pass by the entrance to Reb Matish Ekstein's flour mill and reach the corner of the street where Reb Reuven Risner's liquor store used to be. One of the three Risner brothers (one of them immigrated to the United States before the war and the other owned a printing house in the same building and owned a stationery shop) on Kościuszko Street.

We turn right onto Grotger Street known also as Tsiganovka. We pass by the entrance to the Nussbaum family's bicycle factory. On the other side of the street, in one of the low houses, lived Reb Israel Zalman Birman, a Hebrew researcher and writer who devoted himself to teaching and research in the field of Hebrew literature from the Middle Ages. On this street were located three hotels that were owned by Jews, the Geiger Hotel, the Steiner Hotel, which was located directly opposite the train station, and the Imperial Hotel which is at the end of the street and was owned by Horner. From here we turn right and enter Kuliyova Street (the railway). On the corner of the street was Feuerstein's Cafe, a little further from it, on the same side, was the Rigelhuift Restaurant with the Polonia Hall, one of the first theaters for theater performances

And mass gatherings in the town. We reach the corner of the street where Hillinger's paint shop used to be and opposite the corner, on the other side of the railway street, is the Karp Hotel, and in the apartment below is the Kloiz of the Rivititz Chassidim. Here, on the west side of Wolla Square, was a parking lot for buses that ran regularly on lines that connected the town with all the nearby towns and cities. These buses belonged to Christian owners, except for the buses on the Rzeszów - Blazhov line, where Jewish owners could also be found. Not far from here, on the south side of the square, was Faust's gas station, the owner of the Krakówski Hotel opposite, the city's most elegant hotel. Now we turn to the eastern side of the square, to the place where the large building of the public health fund (No. 20) was used to be. Here Dr. Schriver served as chief physician, by virtue of being a veteran of Pilsudski's legionnaires. In the courtyard of the same house there used to be the “HaShachar” association with its rich library. This is also where the first classes to learn the Hebrew language were, under the management of the teachers Reb Meshulam Davidson, Mr. Anshil Lieber and Mr. Yeruham Horowitz. In the late 1920s, there was a residence of a Zionist youth movement here called “Hashomer Hataor”, which was founded by Dr. Reuven Peledshua (Ben Shem) and which concentrated among it the learning youth who could not find their place in “Hashomer Hatzair”. From the members of this movement, the first Beitar nest in Rzeszów was organized, who also set his temporary residence here.

We continue in the east direction and enter Lebovska Street, at the corner of the street bordering Bartosho Street was the Ziganaria Cafe, which was under Jewish ownership. We move further along the street and reach the bridge over the Wisłok River, (No. 24). Near this bridge, at its northern side and on the left bank of the river as far as Smiradezki Boulevard, the Jews of the town would gather on Rosh Hashanah to recite “Tashlich”. The Jews would come here from all over the town while singing and dancing.

Further down the street, continues the national road in the direction of Lanzot through the suburb of Pobitano, where several Jewish families lived, including Giger, Weinbach and Grosshaus. About forty meters from the bridge, on the right side of the road to Lanzot, we enter the road that leads to the town of Tyczyn, about eight km from here. On the right side of the street, we see the facilities of the municipal brick factory (No. 30). South of there (No. 56) we see the buildings of the factory for drying intestines for sausages owned by Highbloom (one of the members of this family, Mr. Yosef Highbloom, was engaged in the field of Jewish youth physical education in the town, who generously contributed to all educational and cultural institutions, gave his life for Kiddush Hashem and was brutally tortured because he refused to be used by the Nazi executioners to reach their goals).

Now we are moving forward along the road, passing a small bridge above the ravine and on the left we can see a wall which is about two and a half meters high, surrounding an area of about twenty dunams. It was the new Jewish cemetery, where Reb Abba Applebaum's grave is located, which was buried here on Shavuot 5694 and the grave of Reb Chaim Wald, the father of Moshe, Meir and Tuvia Yaari, is also located here.

We turn to the right and reach the Wisłok River, cross it by boat and reach the left bank of the river. Here was the city's promenade, with all its facilities. This promenade was built on a Jewish initiative and one of its first owners was Sfarber.

From here we proceed through Delogosh Street to Chopin Street, turn left and reach Leszczynski Street. We turn right again and walk in the direction of Grodzisko Street, pass the sports field of the “Bar Kochva” association (No. 45) on the left side of the street. This sports association - whose founders included Kleinman, Highbloom, Platzer, may he live long life, Rubel and Clarent - excelled in its activity in the field of physical education of the Jewish youth. The football and boxing divisions especially excelled in their actions. It is worth mentioning the football players, such as Mendak Loev, Bobek Hirsch, Shiek Hirsch, Motak Schwartz and the two Keller brothers, one of whom is Dr. Alexander Rosner, may he live long life. Among the boxers, Merl and Gruyer should be mentioned.

A little further on, on the right side of the street, was the building of the Jewish hospital, which was built with the donations of Rzeszów expats who live in the United States. Before it became a hospital, this building was used for many years for holding balls and theater performances. The actors of the “Scene” drama club regularly performed on its stage, as well as amateur actors. It is worth mentioning here Miss Kramer, who was one of the most talented actresses, as well as Nadel and Presser, may they live long life.

From here we move towards Baldachovka Street, reaching the house of Reb Mordechai Adler (No. 36), who had here a small candles factory here, and turn right to Garnatsarska square and reach to the Kloiz (No. 1,35) of Rimenov Chassidim. Here we used to come on Shabbats to enjoy a glass of good draft beer and the onion scones (prisniklach), which were served to us by members of the Reznik family. From here we continue to Spitalna Street, known as “Des Taper Gessle”! This street was populated by the poor Jewish people. Small artisans and porters, who could barely support their families which had many children, lived on this street. We return to Chopin Street and turn left until we reach Narutowitz Street, known as “Drukrovka”, because almost all the houses on this street once belonged to the Druker family. This family was one of the wealthiest in the city and owned one of the brick factories in the vicinity of the town. One of its sons, Mr. Hank Druker, fell victim to a treacherous snitching from one of the Christians neighbors immediately after he returned from the Soviet occupied territory.

We advance along the street westward, here was the Hebrew Kindergarten, run by the kindergarten teacher Miriam Tuchfeld. We advance and pass by the community bath building (No. 58), known by the clowns of the generation as “Shimshon's Bad”, after its director, Reb Shimshon Zilberman. This bath house was the only one in the town and was arranged in a modern way with separate baths, a sweating department, massage, etc.

Now we continue with Blum Street until we reach the Karp family's house. On the second floor of the same building is the E.K.A. bank. (No. A/17) whose manager was Dr. Infeld. We return from here to Blum Street and arrive at the fish market (No. 33) next to Mickiewicz Street. In this place the Jewish fishmongers used to sell their fish on the days before the Shabbats and the Jewish and Christian holidays alike.

However, in December 1938, three quarters of a year before the German invasion of Poland, the academic youth of the “pure Aryan” race found for himself a patriotic occupation, that is: this youth came to the conclusion that in order to save the “homeland”, the Christian population should be prohibited from buying fish from the Jewish fishmongers and they should organize stalls where they will sell fish for the Christian holidays and in this way guarantee the Christian population that the fish are kosher according to the “Shulchan Aruch” of the vilified priest Tastschak. And so, the national Christian youth circles began to roam the streets of the city and with shouts and screams of swój do swego po swoje, prevented the Christians from approaching to the fish stalls of the Jewish fishmongers. This took place while Hitler's troops were placed alert along the borders of Poland. In this way, the hearts of the Christian population were prepared for the coming of the Nazi occupier - with the encouragement of this population, they looted the Jewish stores and handed them over to the loyalists of his regime, who came from the circles of the Fifth Corps.

Opposite the fish market, on the other side of Krechmar Street, was a small urban garden (No. 32), called by the residents of the town “The Beggars' Garden” (No. 32). In the center stood the Adam Mickiewicz monument.

We enter Galenzovsky Street. At the corner of the street, you can see Telar's store, Kruit's hardware store, on the left Simcha Trink's bookstore, a salted fish store owned by Kalman Hertz, a veteran activist of the “Mizrachi” party and one of the activists in the anti-Nazi boycott committee in the town. He was banned by the Gestapo in the first days of their invasion of the town.

On the same side you can see Zucker's jewelry store, Finkel's restaurant, Weinstein's pastry shop, the large house of Reb Asher Zilber, the head of the community. Further on from here is Amcroit's sausages shop. We reach the corner of the street, and turn right onto Abrahamsberg Street, passing by the building, on the top floor of which is the Fishbin Hall, the oldest hall for theater performances. This is also where the first dance school for Jewish youth was located in the years before the First World War. Not far from here, near the building, there was Brewer's restaurant, known as the Bos'niac.

We now turn towards the southwest corner of the square and arrive at the “Muzeum” cinema, the entrance to which is from the Sobieski Street. This cinema belonged to Hauser. We arrive at the home of the Mara De'atra (local rabbi) of Rzeszów, Rabbi Reb Aharon Levin, a delegate in the Polish Sejm and chairman of Agudath Israel in Poland (No. 19). We continue and cross Jeromski Street and reach next to a large lot of about 5 dunams surrounded by an ancient wall, this is the ancient Jewish cemetery (No. 18). This wall was destroyed by the German government in the second month of their invasion of Poland. Opposite the cemetery on the left side of Sobieski Street was the clinic for the poor of the community. In the alley next to the clinic, called Wonzka Street on the map, is the Holoschitzer Vinegar Factory. We continue on Sobieski Street and pass by the house of the Dr. Feldmaus. We continue along the street and find ourselves near the house of Reb Yaakov Rabhon, one of the leaders of the “Mizrachi” in the town and a member of the town council for many years. From here we turn left and enter Tannenbaum Street, formerly Ogrudova Street. Sobieski Street was also formerly known as the “Green” Street.

About 20 meters along the street, on its right side, a magnificent and large building was erected in the late 1920s, it is the building known as the Jewish Culture Hall.

From here we proceed to Kopernika Street, which is Mikoshka Street, named after the river, next to which the street was paved. This street was the center of the tiny trade and on Tuesdays and Fridays of the week, on market days, this street was full of stalls full of goods of all kinds.

We turn left and move forward until we reach the city synagogues (no. 28), one called “Wolishe Shul” and the other, which is located some distance away by Mitskewitz Street, aka the Municipal Synagogue, which was considered as one of the historical sites in this town because of its antiquity and internal architecture. Apart from that, the Rabbi's Beit Midrash was also located here, where Rabbi Aharon Levin used to pray during the winter, as well as the large Kloiz, where the dayanim Reb Yosef Reich and Reb Berish Steinberg prayed. And so, we arrive to the corner of Mitskewitz Street and turn right towards the main square.

On the way we pass by the newspapers shop of Frankel (previously Gerstel), by the basement of the “King of Pips”, by Chaim Wolf Bloy's shop and reach the market square.

At the corner of Mitskewitz Street and the square was one of the oldest houses in the town, it was known as “Estherke's House”, and in it was one of the two Jewish-owned pharmacies, the pharmacy of Mr. Anderman. This is where the representatives of trade and industry in the town would meet to exchange information and clarify matters of great importance of the business world. Sometimes they would go from here to one of the nearby wine houses of Tochfeld or Moses to finalize a commercial deal. Here one could meet representatives of the manufacturing industry, such as: Julius Feibel, Zissel Halper, Fleischer, Karp, Borg, Frankel, Speiser; representatives of the leather industry, such as: Birnbach, Teitelbaum; representatives of the food industry such as: Keshauber, Pepper, Beck; representatives of the flour industry such as: Alter, Hofstetter, Berl Berglas; representatives of the fur industry such as: Hertz Baruch, Spiro; representatives of the paper branch such as: Schiff, Risner, Lieber, Bat, Berish Landoy, Noah Spiro; representatives of the tools branch such as: Izrael, representatives of the goldsmiths branch such as: Schiff, Zucker, Rubin, Shinman, Herstal.

Merchants from the provincial town would also come here to arrange their affairs, and thus one could meet there merchants from the nearby cities, such as Łańcut,

Przeworsk, Jarosław, Przemyśl, Dynów, Baranów, Błażowa, Tyczyn, Pruchnik, Strzyżów, Chodecz, Rzepiska, Sandziszow, Sokołów, Raniżów, Głogów, Kolbuszowa and Tarnobrzeg. The nearby restaurants benefited from this, such as: Reb Shmelke Schmid's restaurant and Reb Motel Landsman. A place where the “Pi Tamid” company set up its table under the management of Mr. Eliezer Engelberg and its collector Mr. Wallach. Among the travelers here one could see a Jew holding a tattered bag in his hand and offering some pamphlets for half a zloty - this was the Yiddish poet Mr. Nahum Sternheim offering his new works to the Jews of the city without any mediation.

We enter Kościuszko Street, with the city hall building (No. 39) on the left and a row of shops on the right, such as Stieglitz's ceramics shop, Hersthal's jewelry shop, Zimmerman Nussbaum's confectionery, Heinrich Speiser's fabric shop, and on the left we are by a large house on the corner with two entrances, one from Slovacki Street and the other from Kościuszko. In the yard of that house there were several shops and workshops. This house was known as “Di Loft Machine” (a/39) whose owners were the Fink family. There were stories about this Jew, that he used to visit the tenants of the shops on the first of the month to collect rent from them. Everyone, of course, would greet him with a “Git Morgen” (good morning), and he would always answer: why “Git Morgen”, why not “Git heint” (give today)?

To the left of Kościuszko Street is Slovacki Street, known as “Das Ruizengesl”. On the left, at the corner of the street and the square, was the flour warehouse of Reb Yaakov Alter, one of the foundation stone of the Zionist movement in the town, a member of the town's council. Here one could see Avraham Rubin's watch store, next to it is Bat's stationery store, and a little further on, Stranger's food store. We continue and reach the square, cross the square, pass by Reb Chaim Wolf Weinfeld's manufacturing store and continue to the end of the street where we see a single home with a wide yard. This is the home of the Estreicher family and in its yard was the training company of the “Beitar” movement.

We return to Kościuszko Street and continue west, we pass near the Toker sisters' dairy restaurant, next to Korkis's shoe store, Mangel's store, Ms. Gravever's cosmetics store, Kasheshover's haberdashery store, the shop of the photographer Shinman, the photographer of the Zionist youth movements, and on the corner of the street opposite the Farni Church is Moshe Freser's furniture store. Now we turn left and enter the Third of May Street, known as “Hearn Gas” Street, on the left side of the street we pass by the hat shop of Winzelberg, one of the representatives of the artisans in the town. We continue and pass by Emil Grauer's stationery store, by a Monderer family's leather goods store and advance to the corner of Dimanitzky Street. On one corner of this street, we see Mr. Borg's fabric store and on the other corner the Olympia movie theater building, which was also owned by a Jew. On the right side of the street, we see the Wax Lottery store, the Partig clothing store, Rosenman's haberdashery store, the post office building and on the corner of Jagello Street there is a second pharmacy owned by Hershderfer. In the 1920s, the top floor of this building housed the headquarters of the Zionist Organization, including the “Maccabi” academic association. We move forward along the street, pass by the Europa Cafe and reach the ancient building of the government high school (no. 43) and a little further the district governor's building (no. 44). This is where Chestnut Avenue begins, which is a continuation of the Third of May Street. From this avenue we would see the criminal and political prisoners, who were imprisoned in the central prison inside the former Lobomirsk Palace (no. 51).

From the Third of May Street we enter Zamkowa Street, on the right we pass by the office of Dr. Zaltzman, a lawyer and veteran Zionist, a little further on is the office of Dr. Aharon Wang, the chairman of the local Zionist Organization, an excellent orator, a member of the town's council and the deputy of the Jewish community leader. At the corner of Scarbova Street is the building of the Income Tax Office (No. 46), which was the place of mental torture and nerve-wracking for merchants and small artisans among the Jewish population.

It is appropriate to mention here the Jewish director of the “Evidencia” office of the land tax located in this house, who was engineer Adolf Mannheim. He was one of the few Jews who occupied a respected position in the government apparatus in the town because of his great expertise. He was a national Jew and generously supported all national foundations. His assistant was government surveyor, Piotr Starer, a converted Jew from the Tarnopol area who lived in Rzeszów with his Christian wife and their only son. With the Nazi invasion and the transfer of the Jewish population to the ghetto, he hid in his house and believed in his innocence that the murderers would not harm him because of his conversion. But his Christian neighbor informed on him to the Gestapo, who came to his house and shot him in front of his wife and child. A similar fate befell the rest of the town's converted Jews.

Now we enter Scarbova street, on the left we pass by the police building (no. 47). And finally, we reach Pulaski Street. For the Jews of Rzeszów, these two streets were the “Path of Suffering”, because the “Death March” of Jews passed through them on their way to the extermination camps. On one of the days of July 1942, these streets were witnesses to a mass murder, and the blood of our brothers and sisters was spilled on them like water.

Small Towns and Villages in the Rzeszów District
by Dr. Moshe Yaari Wald

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

Dozens of small towns and settlements surrounded the Rzeszów community, decorating and beautifying it like a string of pearls. All these communities, small and large alike, were destroyed in the terrible years of the Holocaust. Hundreds and thousands of Jewish families weaved their lives there for generations and the Jewish population that sat densely in the centers of these settlements and filled its squares and streets left their Jewish mark on them. The large Jewish community of the district city of Rzeszów, like the other district cities of Galicia and Poland, was fed by the vitality and original culture of these small communities that surrounded it. The number of Jewish residents in the small towns more than once approached half of the general population, and in order to prevent a Jewish majority in them, the Polish authorities used to annex the surrounding villages, which had a Christian majority, to the city. This practice was accepted even during the days of Austrian rule in Galicia.

Of all the towns and settlements in the villages in the district of Rzeszów, there is not a remnant or a refugee left. Everything burned in the extermination camps or was buried in the giant mass graves in the Polish forests. Only a few of those who survived found refuge in the Land of Israel or abroad - and they did not have the strength to establish a memorial monument for their communities or to pass on to future generations the history of their communities, what they went through and what their fate was during the Holocaust. We, the remnants of the Rzeszów community, will therefore fulfill the sacred duty of Chesed Shel Emet (true charity), and mention the communities around our town.

In Poland itself, the municipal authorities, those who inherited the property of their Jewish residents and neighbors who lived in it for hundreds of years, have not yet initiated the establishment of a memorial monument in the place of the cemeteries which were plowed down and left without tombstones. After all, the tombstones were uprooted and turned into building and paving stones. In the Głogów forests, where pits and excavations for burying the bones of Jewish martyrs were dug by order of the murderers, a monument was indeed erected in memory of the victims of the Nazi monster, but without any mention of our nation, the nation of the murdered people. May the following lines serve as a modest monument to the memory of the martyrs.

Most of the towns' Jews made a living from trade and crafts. On market days, farmers from the surrounding villages would flock to the town to sell their agricultural produce and buy industrial and craft products, clothing and food needs. Jewish artisans were engaged in tailoring, shoemaking, metalworking, blacksmiths, and other professions that were essential for the rural and urban population. There were Jewish carpenters, leather workers, saddle makers, fur makers, hairdressers, watchmakers, lathe operators, goldsmiths, tinsmiths, etc. There were also Jewish families engaged in agriculture and the preparation of kosher dairy products. Jews engaged in bar tendering, the production of spirits and their sale and in managing hostels. There were Jews who made a living by cambism, by lending money to farmers against pawns, or they would buy the village produces - fruits, eggs, etc. - for export to Western European countries. A well-known Jewish profession was wagon driving, and the Jewish “wagon owner” received a lot of publicity in the folk tales.

Most of the Jews of the towns lived in wooden houses and those among the wealthy were the ones who built them brick houses. The clothing was traditional: a felt hat, a black robe (kaftan), sandals in the summer and boots in the winter. At home and in the workshop, the Jew wore a kippah. On Shabbats and holidays, Jews would wear a kapota (robe) made of silk, wear a “shtreimel” or “kolpak” and a fur coat (tilip). Almost all the men had long beards and were adorned with sideburns. There were more “advanced” towns, where there was a district court. In these towns there were also Jewish lawyers and a handful of other liberal professions, such as a doctor, a pharmacist, a dentist - and these Jews dressed and looked like the people of the West.

The way of life was basically similar in all the towns of the district, whose domain extended in Middle Galicia between the rivers Wisłoka, Wislik and San, in a Catholic Polish environment, without Ruthenian mixture, even though 700 years ago this area was included in the boundaries of Red Raisin (Cherbona Roche).

A town, that the smaller it was in scope and in the number of its population, the greater was its piety and conservatism. There were entire settlements where not a single young man or married Jew could be found who shaved his beard. In any case, this was the situation as I remember it at the beginning of the 20th century.

The spirit of ancestors of many generations of Jews reigned over the town. In the dusk of the weekdays, at the end of the day's worries and livelihood pursuits, as well as on Shabbats and holidays, the festive Jewish atmosphere descended on the town, and it maintained customs and mannerisms that persisted since the days of the Kingdom of Poland in the 18^th century, or as people used to say, “as in the days of King Sobieski”. Jewish life was concentrated in a special quarter that was considered an “extraterritorial reserve”. They were different and distinct from the lives of all the surrounding peoples in clothing, in the language of speech, in food, in beliefs and opinions, in morals, customs and manners. The language of the Jews was a juicy and rich Yiddish, rich in German dialects from the 14^th-16^th centuries (Yiddish Yiddish Teitsch from the “Yiddish Teitsch Humash”) which was brought to Poland during the time of King Casimir the Great in the 14^th century, after the persecutions and deportations in the years of the Black Plague that raged in Germany. These wanderings of Jews from the West to the Slavic East continued in the following centuries and with them new Germanic dialects were integrated into the Yiddish language, which was also interspersed with dialects from the Bible, the Talmud and the Midrashim. Expressions such as “Adraba, Kal vachomer, may nafka mina, meile, afle vapele, niti sefer venecheze” and so on were used regularly in the conversation of fathers and elders. The local language of the country, Polish, was not common among the Jews, except perhaps for the women, who assisted their husbands in all practical matters and negotiations with the Poles and with the Polish authorities.

In my mind, I still see the town at the beginning of the century. During the summer days I used to visit the town of Kańczuga. I would travel at night through forests around Łańcut, Błażowa and the other towns, in a cart loaded with goods. When I would arrive in the town on Shabbat evening, I immediately felt the atmosphere of holiness that descended upon it. The sun tilted to the west. From each house the melody of the verses from the Song of Songs )Shir haShirim( was carried. Fathers and sons, old men with their grandchildren started flocking to the Beit Midrash to welcome the Shabbat. The sight on the street was one of a kind in its wonderful variegation. Jews dressed in beautiful silk clothes, wearing “Streimlech”, adorned with beards and sidelocks hurried their way to the houses of prayer. Black, brown, yellow, red of all shades were interspersed here and there with a bright white color or a gray of hair and beard. Here and there the drops of water dripping from the beards were seen, a reminder of the bath of sweat in which Jews were purified a short time before.

In the Beit Midrash, copper and brass candlesticks hung from the wooden ceiling and their candles spread a festive light over the worshipers. The Ba'al Tefillah, wrapped in a tallit, opened with “Let us sing” and the crowd of worshippers burst out after him with roars of enthusiasm and began to move from side to side, while reciting the traditional tune “Let the earth rejoice and all that is in it, then all the trees of the forest will rejoice” … “Rivers will clap their hands, mountains will rejoice together” … It was impossible not to be carried away with this enthusiasm! “Light shines for the righteous and joy for the honest ones” …

Shabbat morning on a summer day. From every house emanated the sounds of “Hama'avirim al hasidra”. The sounds of the “mahapach pashta” and the other ta?amei hamikra (cantillation notes) permeated the air and filled it with all the flavor and grace of “Shnayim mikra ve'echad targum” (the Jewish practice of reading the weekly Torah portion in a prescribed manner). A few hours later, began the procession of fathers and mothers from the synagogue, the Beit Midrash and the Kloiz. The women are dressed in colorful “Turkish” handkerchiefs and a siddur of “korban mincha” in their hands…

Over the years, spirits from the west also penetrated the towns. But these only managed to shake the foundations of life in the town very little. The Mara De'atra, the Rebbe and his Chassidim guarded its walls against the spirits from the outside. And yet slowly the stagnation thawed. The young men who enlisted in the emperor's army had quite an influence and upon their return there was a change in their appearance and clothing. There were already young men who trimmed a bit their beards, wore a tie, secretly read the literature of the Haskalah. Less secretly, they used to read the newspaper “Lumberger Tagblatt” or “HaMitzpeh”. Young women removed the handkerchiefs that covered their hair and put on a wig. Young girls began to visit a Polish school, while the boys continued to study in the traditional “cheders” and they learned a foreign writing with a private teacher.

Near the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, it was already possible to feel and see the budding of progress and Haskalah that sprouted in the minds of the younger generation. The locked and bolted fortress was breached by the power of the national movement, with the onslaught of the great sect of Zionism and Haskalah - the town became a defenseless town. The residents of the towns, young and old, traveled to the big cities on business, saw there the new life and this had its effect on their way of life. Families blessed with sons and daughters sent their sons to other parts of the kingdom and abroad. Girls married grooms from the towns of the province and the town lost its uniformity and hermetically sealed integrity. The processes of internal migration and emigration gave their signals and changed the face of things incessantly. The pace was indeed slow, but a person who returned to visit the town after being absent from it for a long period, clearly saw the transformations that had taken place in the meantime.

And yet, despite the changes and transformations, the town was still a fortress of strength and a source of briskness and strength for a vital and deep-rooted Jewish culture; a buffer and a dam against the spirits of assimilation that raged in the big centers. The hidden light of the ancient Israel's heritage, the one that sustained Jewish life for so many generations, was shining. With the German invasion, the light of life went out in hundreds and thousands of Jewish settlements throughout Poland and Eastern Europe. Judaism and its roots were uprooted from the same vast area that served as its breeding ground for a thousand years.

We will mention briefly the names of some of the communities in Rzeszów district that were destroyed.

There were dozens of towns and hundreds of villages around Rzeszów in which lived good Jews in communities with their rabbis, their rebbes, their community leaders and their scholars, settlements where Torah life and work have been maintained for generations. Twenty years After the destruction of this Judaism, few memorial books were published on behalf of the remnants of the communities and we should cite the memorial books of Łańcut, Dembitz, Görlitz. The remnants of other communities are planning and also prepared documentary material in memory of their community.

Playing in my ears dear names which I heard in my youth, of towns and communities where Jews lived, raised families, managed their lives, and made friends. And I look forward to the day when the Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority will publish the “Community Register Book” of Polish Jewry and there will be a memory in this register of the communities from which no remnants, who could publish a memorial book for them, has survived. Below we will mention the names of some of the communities that were destroyed in Rzeszów district, and the number of Jews in them according to the Polish census from 1921:

The place	Jews	All residents
Głogów	648	2291
Błażowa	230	5123
Dynów	1273	2727
Tyczyn	957	3095
Chudek	332	940
Sokołów	1351	3515
Strwiąż	1104	2188
Przeworsk	1457	3371
Kolbasov	1415	2900
Kańczuga	967	2396
Renzhov	278	1562

The Liberation
by Moshe Reich – Haifa

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

With the withdrawal of the German army in 1944, cities and towns in Poland were liberated. Among them, Rzeszów was also liberated. It was on August 2, 1944. On that day, the Red Army entered the town, taking over the government of the town. In the first days of August, small groups of Jews, of the surviving remnant, began to leave their hiding places and moved into apartments which were left without owners. From the news that were received, we understood that the Red Army would not continue to advance west, but would rather fortify its strategic positions along the Dębica-Warsaw-Prague line. Because of this, for the time being, about three hundred Jews remained in the town, who managed according to the conditions that prevailed in the town. Among these three hundred Jews, there were many from other cities, who were able to escape the extermination, and for various reasons preferred to stay in Rzeszów. We established a Jewish committee which would represent the surviving Jews towards the Polish government and towards the Central Jewish Committee in Warsaw-Prague. We contacted our relatives and informed them of our difficult situation. In the first weeks after the liberation, we were destitute, and could not get food. Rzeszów was a district town. We received initial financial help from the district officials and the Jewish Central Committee in Warsaw. The remnants of the Jews in Poland eagerly awaited the liberation of all of Poland, and for the complete and final victory. The complete defeat of Hitler's Germany was already visible then. In an atmosphere of anticipation and victory over the Germans, began in January 1945 the renewed attack of the Red Army, which led to the liberation of all of Poland and the remnants of the Jews in it. The number of Jews who remained in Rzeszów changed since many went west to other cities, but in their place, Jews from other cities and hiding places also arrived. When Germany surrendered and an armistice agreement was declared on May 8, 1945, Jews from various concentration camps passed through Rzeszów on their way to their countries: Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Greece. These death refugees, who passed through Rzeszów, rested here from their upheavals and tribulations and received financial help to continue their journey. The return of these survivors was not conducted in an orderly manner; some of the survivors made their way back legally, using travel permits they received from the Polish authorities, while others did their way back illegally. Individual groups of Jews joined the Jews who returned to Romania, in order to immigrate to the Land of Israel from there.

This is how the life of the surviving remnant of the Jews of Rzeszów went until June 13, 1945. On that day, a rumor spread in the town that in the basement of a house on Tenenbaum Street, a dead child was found, who was murdered by Jews, in order to use his blood for blood transfusions for the exhausted Jews who stayed in the camps. Fearing riots, almost all the Jews left the town and moved to other cities in Poland. As the main suspect in the murder of the boy, the Polish government banned the Jew Landsman, nowadays a resident of Bnei Brak in Israel, who was held in prison and interrogated for several months and released due to lack of evidence.

A few more Jews came to Rzeszów in the repatriation movement to sort out matters related to property, but they immediately continued on their way to the west. It is therefore possible to determine June 13, 1945 as the day when the Jewish Rzeszów community ceased to exist after hundreds of years.

Rzeszów Revisited in 1962
by Haya Shlisselberg Tamari (Tel Aviv)

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

A period of thirty-three years is a long period, and it certainly should have been pleasant and good to return to my native town after such a long time. But that was not the situation in reality.

My meeting with Rzeszów was the most tragic moment that happened to me. I walked the streets, saw the houses where my acquaintances and friends lived. I saw the streets, alleys, the Wisłok, everything existed. But the Jews, the Jews of Rzeszów, - I did not meet them… Indeed, I knew what was done to the Jews of Rzeszów. However, the disaster was revealed to me in all its horror only when I came face to face with the new reality in our town. I felt that even the houses, the streets and alleys, the shops and the market with the clock were crying with me.

What value does a house have if no one lives in it? It is the person who builds the house and gives it its value, not the other way around….

There was no one to ask where the Jews of the town had gone. I did meet people, even young people, laughing (probably they were even happy) - and I had the feeling that they knew nothing about Rzeszów and its past: neither about the town nor about its people.

Who could I tell about our meetings in the market by the clock? Social meetings, and just causal human meetings?…

After my tour of the town, I went to the Jewish cemetery. I went there on the same road which was previously used to accompany the dead on their last journey.

A ruined and neglected cemetery, but my feeling was here, so to speak, easier, here I came across tombstones, which have people's names (and sometimes names I know and remember) engraved on their plates: the name of the deceased, day of birth the date of death. And also, some words that express the feelings of their relatives…

Our loved ones were not even privileged to be buried in the cemetery: they were murdered as unknowns, and their ashes are scattered somewhere.

I left Rzeszów with a broken heart, with only one prayer: may all the children of the world not experience or go through what the children of Rzeszów went through.

Five Hundred Years; A Summing Up
by Manes Fromer - Holon

Translated by Mira Eckhaus

The Jews were exterminated by Hitler over a period of five years. For five years, a Jewish legacy, which was built during the 500 years of the town's existence, was destroyed. The last Jew, one of the distinguished members of the Communist Party, left the town in 1957 and immigrated to the Land of Israel.

Not a single Jew remained in Rzeszów, while in the world and in Israel there are close to 1000 survivors of this hell. Close to a hundred thousand Jews disappeared from the land of Rzeszów district, and remained only in memories. But we must not be satisfied with expressing sorrow and shedding tears for the victims only in the form of articles and pictures.

We have a duty to honor and commemorate the Jews who were exterminated in such a brutal manner, unparalleled in the history of all humanity. Their commemorate and honor demand an answer that is not ambiguous: why did they spare their lives?

This is a hard-hitting account of five hundred years of living together in Rzeszów, seven hundred years of living in Poland, eighteen hundred years of living in Europe.

During five hundred years of living on the land of Rzeszów, there was not a single case of betrayal by a Jew in his homeland, not a single case of a murder of a Christian neighbor. Jews have always contributed their share to the common homeland. Today, when there are no Jews in Rzeszów, even the haters of Israel know that the Jews did not take with them to the gas chambers in Auschwitz and Majdanek and the other death camps “the legendary treasures of the Jews”. The things that were not robbed and stolen by Hitler's men, remained in Rzeszów and Poland, and added values to Poland in all areas of life. The few refugees, who managed to reach Israel, did not have time to take their possessions, their tools and not even a blanket and a pillow.

Why, then, did almost everyone perish, and not a single guard of the cemetery remained, because there were no graves left? This question demands an answer, for the honor of those who were murdered in the gas chambers. These were not “cursed Jews”. Most of them were fighters, Jews who fought in the last decades for their national and social liberation, these were Jews who in the thirties of the 20th century tried to change the structure of their lives based on healthy national and social foundations, but this struggle stopped in the death camps. The Jews before 1939, during the period between the two wars, aspired to reorganization in the field of employment. They created for themselves life patterns, social and political organizations. One camp, which was the minority, considered the socialist or communist revolution, such as the Soviet Union, as a way to solve the Jewish question. The other camp, which was the majority, considered the productivity of the society, the national cultural revival and the establishment of the homeland in the State of Israel, as the solution.

However, the “final solution” of the Jewish question was carried out by the death regiments of the Germans on the land of Rzeszów and Poland.

The Jews of Poland, including the Jews of Rzeszów, like all the enslaved nations, fought for their national social liberation. However, the tragic events of this struggle were not sufficiently emphasized by the Jewish historians. The smoke of the Auschwitz gas incinerators covered everything.

The other side of the historical account is the way of fire and sword, which leads from the days of Titus, the focus of the Catholic Inquisition, to the gas incinerators in Auschwitz. Haters of Israel for generations knew only this way of solving the Jewish question. This is therefore the historical answer, why the Jews perished, the residents of Rzeszów and the entire state of Poland.

This is a lesson and also a warning, which we learned about these graves, which no longer exists. And another note. Being in Warsaw in 1964, I had the honor of bowing my head before my revered teacher and rabbi, Professor Kotarbinski, the author of the well-known article “After the storm” during the days of disturbances and scandals of the Polish students at the universities in 1935. We, the Jewish students, saw in this professor the symbol of the supreme tradition of humanism in the spirit of Adam Mickiewicz. However, this does not absolve from the bitter truth that the Jews in Poland before 1939 were alone in their struggle for equal rights both in Poland and on their way to Israel, which was blocked by mandatory British government. The truth is that during the stormy Hitler period, our loneliness turned into a complete isolation as if we were sick with the plague. The bitter truth is that in popular Poland not a single memorial monument was dedicated to the one hundred thousand Jews who were murdered.

The land of Rzeszów, the town where we were born and the town where our ancestors lived, the boulevard “under the chestnuts”, will remain engraved in the memory of the last surviving Jewish residents of Rzeszów, and in the eyes of future generations it will be the land of the furnaces, the death camps, a land that swallowed up their loved ones without a trace, without a grave and a tombstone.