טכס ביום השואה 16-4-2015

On Thursday, 16 April 2015, the organization Chairperson, Menachem Lior spoke at the annual Holocaust Memorial Day at the Zaglembie Memorial monument in Modi'in.

"Honored guests,

• Parliament member Dr. Aliza Lavi,
• Representatives of the Polish embassy in Israel
• Pani Maria MARKOWSKA Sekretarka wydzialu Ambasady Polskiej W Israelu
• Mr. Adam Szydłowski from the Będzin municipality
• Mr. Vladek Bulhak – Head of Holocaust Research Institute
• Representative of the city of Modi'in

Thanks and blessings go to:

• Dr. Mrs. Aleksandra Namysło – Historian and researcher from Poland
• Mrs. Ronit Cohen – Principal of the music Conservatory in Re'ut
• Chief Superintendent Klein – Head of Modi'in Police, representative of Police Plain Area and his subordinates
• Mr. Avi Esterzon from the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael)

Who have been going along with us devotedly for many years now.

Friends and Zaglembie members and families.

Today, we commemorate the Holocaust Memorial Day, in our Memorial site for the people of the Zaglembie villages in Israel. The many survivors who made their way to Israel after the war and the close proximity between the atrocities of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel, have turned remembering the Holocaust into a key component in the Israeli identity. During the first years of the state of Israel, survivors felt a deep unwillingness on the part of the old timers in Israel to listen to the horrendous events that had taken place during the war, which forced survivors into silence.
Collective memory of the Holocaust has changed over the past three decades. There is more interest in survivors' personal stories. Survivors open up, share what happened to them back then in the atrocious period, how they survived and how, in moments of crisis and suffering, human spirit was found out to be unbreakable.
They pass their stories on to younger generations as emissaries of the unending journey of history, so that the memory of the holocaust is eternally remembered on the face of the earth. Memorial ceremonies are an important means in ensuring that memory of the Holocaust moves on from one generation to the next, which is our promise to the millions of Jews that perished without a trace into eternal silence: We will forever cherish their memory and the Holocaust atrocities.
70 years have passed since the end of that cursed war. The day is near when there will be no living survivors left to recount the horrors they had been through. Who will tell future generations what happened? We must not put aside the memory of the horrible events!
We must teach the past!
Personally, I have a special experience today. My parents, of blessed memory, Miriam and David Lior were among the founders of the Będzin organization in Israel. My mother chaired the meeting were the decision to unite all Zaglembie organizations was accepted.
Today, I, their son, am honored to take upon myself the role of chair person of the organization. I am coming full circle. Thus, like my family, the organization is undergoing a change of generation. The second and third generation Zaglembie survivors are called to the management wheel and are loyal followers of the founding fathers.
Their activity secures that the memory of the Zaglembie Jewry is kept alive forever.
As part of the Holocaust Memorial Day events in the Zaglembie Communities site, we are going to unveil a monument where the last letter sent from the Będzin underground people is exhibited. It was written 7 July 1943 and was sent to the Israeli representative in Istanbul two weeks before the final liquidation of the ghetto.
Dr. Aleksandra Namysło is curator of the photo exhibition that is here on our memorial site today. These are photos taken before the war as well as during the holocaust in Zaglembie.
Now, if you please, I'll say a few words in Polish for our distinguished guests from Poland with the hope that they become ambassadors of goodwill between us and the people of Zaglembie.

Serdecznie witamy gosci z Polski ktorzy przybyli do nas na dzien Holokostu. Wierze ze bedziecie mostem przyjazni miedzy nami I społeczeństwem Zaglembia.
To summarize, I'd like to thank first and foremost the first generation survivors who came today and honor us with their presence: be well, have a long and healthy life and keep the flame of memory burning.
And to the rest of us, I'd like to say: Let us go on with our activity for the sake of the organization, bringing heats together and keeping the memory of the holocaust forever.

Following is the link to Rabbi's Gilad Kariv speech on behalf of the third generation Zaglembie survivors – In Hebrew.

The Memorial Torch lighters:

First memorial torch
by Honorary President of the Zaglembie Survivors' Organization, Mr. Abraham Green and his granddaughter Naomi Green in memory of Abraham's late mother, Hanna Green- Haida.

Abraham recounts:
"My mother was caught in Będzin during the week of Sukkot – Tabernacles, the Jewish religious festival - 1942. We have never been able to find out what precisely happened on that sad day. Rumors had it that she walked where Jews were not allowed to and was arrested by a German police officer, put into a black SS transit car"שווארצע קארעטקע", (Szwartze Karetke) and taken to Auschwitz through Milowice a mere three quarters of an hour ride from Będzin. My aunt Feila, who lived next door to us in the ghetto called me to tell me mother was caught in Będzin. I asked where she was and if I could go to her. My aunt answered in the negative and shared her apprehension that we were not going to see my mother ever again. It was a terrible blow, a deep fracture in our family, since my mother was its axis. It was the first time I had seen my father break into dire tears. Our flat in the ghetto was now empty. My elder sister, Rywcia was already married and lived in Będzin and my sister Henia had been in hiding for a long time by then. I was 16 at the time and my life had a before (my mother was caught) and after. I was sent to a labor camp four months later in February 1943. My mother was a prayer leader and was a council member in the city of Czeladź for some time active mainly in the social area. She had, for many years, various important activities in the Jewish community as well in that same area. She founded "Ochronka" for children, Beith Yaakov and TOZ in the city of Czeladź. Her main public concern was in the informal organization of women who assisted Jewish family in distress.
About two years prior to the war, my mother gained recognition for her activity for other people. One day, the governor of the county came on a visit to the city. He was the most important person in the area and his visit was unique and out of the ordinary. As customary in such events, a big public assembly was organized on his behalf, with the presence of the city dignitaries. My mother, holding a tray with bread and water on it, marched in the middle with three representatives from the Jewish community to welcome the governor. I was ten at the time and was so emotional at the site that I cried openly. The memory of that event is vividly alive in me even today.
About 70 years later, in 2006, in a festive ceremony in the city of Czeladź, honored by the presence of senators, municipality heads, other dignitaries, reporters and my family members, I was awarded honorary citizenship of the city.

Second Memorial torch
– is raised by deputy honorary president of the Zaglembie Organization, Mr. Yitzhak Greengrass and his grandson Amir Webber in memory of the Greengrass family.

The entire Greengrass family lived in Będzin, in a large building owned by my grandfather. Aunts, uncles and their families lived in that building as well.
I worked in the ghetto at first but as early as 1942, was sent to a labor concentration camp in German factories along with my brother Joseph-David. My father, mother and both my sisters remained in the ghetto until the Germans decided to liquidate all Zaglembie Jewish communities. My father, Nahman was 44 years old, my mother Ester was 45. My eldest sister, Frieda, was 18 and my youngest sister, Adela, was 15. A friend of mine, who shared our yard, told me what happened to my family upon arriving at Auschwitz – Birkenau. Men and women were separated immediately upon arrival to be followed by a selection where younger men and women were sent to hard labor concentration camps. Both my sisters were taken out of the line to be sent to the forced labor camp but since my mother was already very ill, they decided to stay with her, which meant that the three of them were taken directly to the gas chambers. My father was sent to the Fünfteichen Camp. As I was told later, my father lost his glasses, which meant that he could not perform any work. The Nazis beat him to death.
I lost most of my family.
Only my brother Yosef-David and I survived the Holocaust.
I met my wife, Ester Greenzieger, who survived the war, immediately after liberation and we made Aliya together.

Third Memorial Torch
– was raised by the Chair of the Zaglembie Organization, Mr. Menahem Lior and his grandson Omri Reggev in memory of Rutka Laskier.

Mr. Menahem Lior has known Rutka from a young age as both of them were members of the Gordonia youth Movement back in 1940.
In January 2006, Mr. Adam Szydłowski from Będzin informed him that the diary of a certain Rutka Laskier, which was hidden with her Christian friend, Stanislawa Spinska, had been found. Mr. Lior was asked to verify its authenticity. Judging by a few references in the Journal he was certain it was her diary. It turned out that Rutka's father survived, made Aliya and had a new family in Israel, which meant that Rutka Laskier now had a half-sister, Zahava.
The diary was placed with Yad Vashem, is called: Rutka’s Notebook: January- April 1943 and was translated into a few languages including Hebrew, English and Portuguese.

New Publications, by Ayala Peretz
"20 February, 1943: I have a feeling that I’m writing for the last time. There is an Action in town. I’m not allowed to go out and I’m going crazy, imprisoned in my own house... The town is breathlessly waiting in anticipation, and this anticipation is the worst of all...I wish it would end already! This torment; this is hell. I try to escape from these thoughts, of the next day, but they keep haunting me like nagging flies...” From Rutka’s Notebook: January-April 1943 While forming a chilling human and historical document, Holocaust diaries have great documentary value for the understanding of the period from the viewpoint of those who experienced it—as an illustration of life in the ghettos, in camps or in hiding, as well as in battling Holocaust deniers. The best-known diary is, of course, The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank, through which millions of readers were exposed to Anne’s emotional experiences during the Holocaust. However, her journal was not an isolated phenomenon. Many people wrote diaries during the war; some sought to bear witness while others tried to alleviate their suffering through self-expression. Current events come together with individual experience, and moments of terror and despair as the authors await death are described along with instants of fragile hope. Over the past half century, Yad Vashem has invested much effort in finding lost diaries, and their publication is a particularly emotional event. Some were brought to archives by the surviving authors, some retrieved by families or friends, and others were discovered by chance. On 4 June, an historic gathering took place at Yad Vashem, with the publication of Rutka Laskier’s diary, by Yad Vashem, in English and Hebrew, under the title: Rutka’s Notebook: JanuaryApril 1943. The original diary was presented to Yad Vashem for safekeeping by Rutka’s friend Stanislawa Sapinska, who had traveled from Poland to attend the ceremony, held in the presence of Israel’s Ambassador to Poland David Peleg, Rutka Laskier’s sister Dr. Zahava (Laskier) Scherz, (who lives in Israel) and Chairman of the Zaglembie (Poland) World Organization Avraham Green. Like many other girls her age, Rutka Laskier, a young girl from Bedzin, Poland, kept a diary. But Rutka’s diary was different: it recorded her thoughts, feelings and ideas during her incarceration in the town’s ghetto in 1943. The Laskiers had been moved into a house belonging to the Sapinska family, which had been confiscated by the Nazis when the ghetto was established. Stanislawa Sapinska would occasionally go to check on their house, and the two girls soon became friendly. As the outside world slowly closed down on her, Rutka told Stanislawa that she feared she would not survive, and Stanislawa offered to hide the diary in the basement under one of the floorboards. At the end of the war, Stanislawa returned to the house and found the hidden diary. The last entry is from 24 April 1943: days later Rutka Laskier was killed in Auschwitz at the age of 14. Since the end of the war, Stanislawa kept the existence of the diary secret, but last year she was persuaded by her family to expose the world to its heartbreaking contents. Rutka wrote about war, and about love, but her longings are interspersed with descriptions of the horrors taking place around her. Her diary represents tens of thousands of adolescent boys and girls who lived and died during the Holocaust. These few sheets of paper—some 60 handwritten pages in a notebook—reflect the entire universe of an adolescent Jewish girl in the shadow of death.

Following is a section of the diary dating: 5 February 1943:
"We are being closed in on and we will have to be in the ghetto starting next month, a real scary place with stone walls all around it, which is unbearable in the summer. We will not be able to see flowers and fields.
I am so saturated by war atrocities that even the most horrendous news does not move me anymore. I just do not believe I will ever be able to go on the street without the Yellow Star of David on my sleeve.
The Germans put living people into burning furnaces and smash heads of babies with the guns' butts or shove them into plastic bags and gas them to death. It sounds fictitious but it isn't. It is the real truth. Those who haven't seen it will never believe it."
With the annihilation of the Będzin ghetto in August 1943, Rutka was sent to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. She did not survive but her Journal did. Its publication is, in a way, the fulfillment of her unwritten will to document events to be remembered forever.

Fourth Memorial Torch
– was raised by Mrs. Ittah Haida and her grandson Zvi-David in memory of her father Zvi-David Haida.
Zvi-David, the grandson wrote:
My grandmother, Ittah Haida was born in Dąbrowa in January 1923, ninth offspring to a Radomsko Hassidic family faction of the Gur Hassidim, where she grew up and was educated until the war broke out. When she was 19, in the winter of 1942, she was transported from the ghetto to the Greenberg camp near Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she worked for the Gestapo as seamstress in a wool factory. Three years later, in January 1945, she took part in a death march to Volary, (German: Wallern - is a town in South Bohemian Region, Czech Republic) – intended to get rid of as many Jews marching as possible. She persuaded a friend to escape when she understood that their chances of survival were nil. They managed to escape to the woods when the Germans fired at them. She overcame many hardships in the forests of the Czech Republic, eventually finding refuge under assumed identity with a foster family. Her father, Zvi-David brought his ten children up in the light of Torah and Zionism. Three of her brothers made Aiya before the war. Zionism was so deeply ingrained in her that, while in camp, she sold her meager slice of bread for a friend to write the words of Hatikva ( Hope – The national anthem) on a piece of paper.
Her father was put on a transport to Auschwitz in September 1942, where he was murdered in the gas chambers. Before she was taken to the Greenberg concentration camp he said to her:"Don't ever forget that you are a Jewish daughter". This is a message my grandmother and I wish to convey to future generations.
Ittah came as an illegal immigrant during the British Mandate period in 1946, on Aliya B (standing for "illegal") on the Latrun boat. She married Abraham Haida from Będzin who made it through Auschwitz, the sole survivor of his entire family. They built their house in Tel Aviv pleasantly enjoying their two daughters, their many children and great grandchildren.
I am Zvi-David, called after my great grandfather. Coming to raise the memorial torch with my grandmother I am doubly flustered as I am going to get married in about a month, and am happy to continue the eternal chain of life of Am Yisrael (The people of Israel) for generations to come.

Fifth Memorial torch
- is raised by the volunteering secretary of the Zaglembie organization, Mrs. Rachel Bebes and her son Arik, the daughter and grandson of Frenia Rechnitz from Dąbrowa Górnicza in memory of Rachel Lolla and Frenia's cousins and the latter's son whose name and whereabouts remain unknown.
Lolla and Frenia, the two sisters, Abraham's daughters, David Rachel and Hana Rechnitz were caught by the Germans and transported to the Dąbrowa Górnicza ghetto. Frenia was forced to hand her baby for safety to her Polish neighbours. While my mother was alive she never dared ask for his name.
Frenia was afraid for her baby's life and escaped from the ghetto to return and save him. One thing is clear: Neither the baby nor Frenia were ever seen again. Lolla, her younger sister, worked with her aunt Rachel in the ghetto and were taken to the Greenberg labor camp in 1942. They were taken on a death march at the beginning of 1945 in the direction of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Lolla assisted her aunt the whole way. When the British army freed the camp, they were both hospitalized in a British military hospital suffering from typhoid. Lolla did not make it and died as a holocaust survivor younger than twenty years of age.

Sixth Memorial Torch
- was raised by second generation survivors Mr. Yitzhak Opller, an educator son of Menashe from Będzin and Tzipora Grawer from Sosnowiec, and his son Boaz in memory of Abraham Michael Pozmantier, son of Shlomo and Itta, cousin of my father Yitzhak.
Yitzhak wrote a kind of letter to Abraham – Michael:
"My family member, like a grandson to me,
Your father survived but bore no children. I never heard your father mention your name or talk about you. I came to know your name and fate after talking with my father. Only after your father passed away about ten years ago a few photos of his and his family came to my possession. Since then new dimensions were added to them: faces, expressions and colors.
Only on the back of one photo, of Abraham - Michael, do I see the date: 4 March 1941, written. From it a four year old beautiful child is looking at me his face round, his eyes like two big almonds and dense bright hair comes down to his eyes. His small hands are placed forward on a table and he is seated on his loving mother's lap. On Itta's lap. His head leans against hers and he is looking to one side. Completely contradicting other photos of the times where in most of them no one ever smiles or expresses happiness, these two smile lovingly.
What were they thinking about in those days and hours? Were they aware of their dire situation? Did they believe their days were going to improve?
When I look at your photo, Abraham – Michael, I ponder and wonder: how many moments of glee and happiness did you have in your short life? What would have become of you had fate determined otherwise? How would your life have moved on? Where would you have been today?
Your name was nearly forgotten, but today many know your name and watch your photo. I have two grandchildren your age and I promise you that they, and others, will know you and the story of your short and sad life.

Seventh Memorial Torch
- was raised by second generation Dr. Itzhak Shenberg, director and advisor with high-tech companies and his son Jonathan in memory of his sister Henia Szenberg.

"I got to know of Henia Szenberg, my eldest half- sister- of whom my father never spoke – about ten years ago. Five year old Henia attended the Hebrew kindergarten that had just opened in Będzin under the supervision of Ora Galinka. whose handwritten journal describing the Kindergarten daily activities was uncovered about 15 years ago. Henia is  described as:
"A thin, sympathetic, quiet girl with auburn hair, who doesn't eat. She knows all the colors rather well, is quite well developed and clever. She loves to work and is disciplined. (She) has to be aroused from time to time because she is otherwise sad. When she is on her own she feels rather well but when anyone comes to take her she doesn't let them go. She is deeply attached to her home, is very serious. She got used to the kindergarten class and the surroundings, which she loves. She is very clean, as are all her class assignments that are meticulously organized."
The following is a description of Bialik's (later to be proclaimed National Israeli Poet) visit to the Hebrew kindergarten. :
"Thursday 22 October 1931. Bialik walks in. I said to the children:
"Here is Mr. Bialik."
They stood in line with flags in their hands as they marched 'one. two.' and walked into the big room. We circulated it and stood facing him. Henia, Elia and Zabishek gave him flowers. When they returned to their seats we sang: "To the bird" (Which was, and still is, one of his most famous poems recited by young children even today).
Later in the year a Hanukah celebration is documented with Henia taking part as well.:
"Tuesday 8 December 1931. For the fourth hour all parents and children gathered with the children wearing small white and blue neckties. The children on duty handed the parents the programs for the ceremony. I gave each child a candle that I lit....and they sang "Light the Candles"  (Light candles - Many of them
for Hannuka, Raise flags - Many of them for the Maccabees). Shlomo chanted the blessings and the children answered him with "Amen". We got chairs and sat down to listen to the orchestra. I managed to do it rather easily and then Henia took my place to manage the performance. She did it very well and the children played pleasantly. She said:"Noon, evening, night' and I added: "midnight." The orchestra turned out fine....First came Henia who sang "Spinning top (dreidel)" and then Ester walked in dressed in a blue and white costume. We sang and she danced.
All in all, the celebration was excellent and everyone was amazed at the nature, quality and abundance of the program and the children's behavior and organization of the event. I am well satisfied, as the result my load of work is excellent. “

We got a piano in the kindergarten.:
“Tuesday, 2 March 1932 – the children were very busy with the arrival of the piano. It was new for them and rather interesting. They watched closely as it was handled and Henia played a piece called: "Big clock" which I sang twice.”
14 March 1932 – Henia and Ora's birthday celebration in the kindergarten:
“Monday morning – 14 March 1932 – I found out the mothers were preparing something for my birthday. Today was supposed to be Henia's birthday as well. We sat in a square, in the middle of which was a table with napkins on it, a candelabrum with six candles. On one side was a picture we made for Henia and on the other was the box with the spoon, the tea spoon, the fork and knife that I got from the children....We lit candles for Henia and then the children sang:"for Ora." We sat around it. We got crackers and chocolate that Henia had brought. We ate and sat down for the orchestra. When it played, a few children danced, among them Jaffa, Henia, Rachel and Rebecca."
Henia was murdered in 1943 in Auschwitz or in the fighting in Będzin.

Placing the wreaths:

At the beginning of the ceremony, wreaths were placed by third and fourth generation Zaglembie survivors at the foot of the 11 monuments that commemorate the Zaglembie communities.
Wreaths were placed at the end of the ceremony on behalf of The Israeli Parliament, Police, IDF, Modi'in Municipality, the JNF, the Polish Embassy in Israel and the Municipality of Będzin.
Shimshon Jashvitz placed a wreath at the unveiling of the memorial monument that commemorates the last letter sent from the Będzin ghetto.

To pictures gallery, click here