[Page 45-47]

The first immigrants from Zloczew to Eretz Israel

Founding the Organisation

From then on, the emigration from Zloczew grew and grew, with the emigrants dispersing to all parts of Israel (then Palestine), to work in the orange groves, building, workshops, and the Kibbutz. In essence, they were all interested in building the country. With the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the State of Israel, emigration increased again, and in 1956, the Zloczew organisation was established. Called the Zloczew Veteran Association, it had three aims -

1. Contacting and incorporating all the Zloczew people in Israel.
   
2. Recording all the people of Zloczew who died in the holocaust.
   
3. Making contact with all Zloczew people, wherever they are.
   

Zloczew veterans in Har Hertzl on Jerusalem

Zloczew veterans in the synagogue on Har Zion in Jerusalem

Yizkor memorials and remembrance services -
The way we organise memorial services and the way we carry them out were recognised as an example of good practice amongst other organisations such as ours representing other towns. Our member, Lupe Faiwlowicz, was responsible for those and we owe him a debt of gratitude. Participation in those memorial services is almost total, something that is unusual, as not everyone from other organisations can achieve that.

Remembering Zloczew's dead – in 1959 we set up a memorial in the Holocaust Museum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem commemorating the Zloczew dead. This was consecrated on the 18^th of May 1959, in the presence of many members of the organisation. Many facsimiles were made of the ceremony and distributed to other Zloczew survivors in Israel and abroad. On days of remembrance, our townspeople remember our martyrs by being near that headstone. As we said before, we have actively collected the names of all our people who were killed in the holocaust. We tried hard to make the list as accurate as possible and so it took us many years to compile. To raise awareness amongst the youth who did not know Zloczew and to tell them what it was like, we tried to have members bring their children to the memorial services. In this way, we also made trips to the holocaust basement in Har Zion (now housed in Yad Vashem).

Zloczew children on a trip in Jerusalem in 1959 organised by the association in order to raise the awareness of the young generation to their parent's past

The publishing of the Zloczew book was the culmination of all our efforts. To do that, we had to keep in touch with all the veterans, wherever they were, not just the existing organisation in New York and Paris, but also with individuals who were not members of any organisation, reporting to them and receiving news from them. We tried to encourage them to come and visit and meet with them whenever we could and especially at times when memorial services were held. This goes on to this very day.

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