BS”D 18 Iyar 5781 Seven Jews were murdered in the night of 30 April 1946 (five men and two women). As we read in the report by the Commander of the People’s Militia (PM i.e. police) Station in Jurgow to the Commander of the PM in Nowy Targ in the same date: “the bodies lie on the road between Bialka and Gronie. One body lies in a field 50 metres from the main road. The bodies have been partially robbed. Next to one of them a ticket was found, dated 29 April 1946, Kraków-Zakopane. The bodies have bloodied heads, their faces towards the ground, just one body with the face upwards. The murders have been committed by shooting with automatic guns, since bullets of from a PPSh…
BS”D 18 Iyar 5781 On 30 April 1630 Izak Jakubowicz [IPA: /ja.kuˈbɔ.vʲit͡ʂ/] received permission from the king to build a synagogue. However, a few words should be written also about the Jakubowicz family, whose pride was Izak, called sometimes familiarly Reb Ayzik or Reb Yekeles. The cornerstone of the family was Moses Eberls, father of Yacob (reb Yekele) or Jakóbek [pron. “Yakoobek”] the Rich, who became an Elder in the Community and a member of the Codifying Committee (“Council of Seven”), which in 1595 prepared the Statutes of the Community. Jekele had two sons: Izak and Moses. Izak Jakubowicz was an Elder of the Community almost all his life (1608-1647), relinquishing power in his old age to his son Moses. Izak had various businesses: he had a…
BS”D 17 Iyar 5781 Oskar Schinder was born on 28 April 1908 in Zwittau in Moravia (at the time part of Austria-Hungary), now Svitavy in the Czech Republic. When he was 20 he married Emilie Pelzl, the daughter of rich farmers. Oskar worked in the farming machinery factory of his father up to its bankruptcy caused by the international economic crisis. He was then employed as a salesman of a factory from Brno. In 1935 he became a member of the German Sudeten Party (GSP) and later a member of the German Abwehr (intelligence and counter-intelligence). He was arrested in 1938 because of his activities in Czechoslovakia and Poland. He was quickly released after the annexation of the Sudeten by the Third Reich. He became then a…
Today we take a look at the last paragraphs of Chapter 1 of Mesillas Yesharim. In paragraph 15 Rabbi Luzzatto says that one’s attention should be directed to the Creator and that one’s actions should have no other purpose than bringing oneself closer to the creator. Here, in my opinion, we should pay careful attention so that we do not fall into the trap of thinking that only Torah study will bring us closer to the Creator. There are many other mitzvot that we must try to fulfil. I think the idea is that even outside of Torah study we should keep in our background the question of whether an action is bringing one closer to the Creator or distancing us from him. Then to decide when…
“I have been living in Nowa Huta for the last four years. I moved here from Warsaw. Of course I have heard the history of its construction, the one from 70 years ago, but then I heard other things, other places. Because somehow there was a ‘Huta’ before ‘Huta’ ” says Grażyna Olewniczak, a retired journalist. “And once I heard a war story which I had never heard before and it was surprising. I started to look for information and it was not easy to find. It concerned the forced labour camp Baulager 15/XVI, which Germans had founded in the beginning of the 1940s on a very large area: approximately from Mogiła (ulica Klasztorna) to the Central Square. In 1941 the camp was divided into sub-camps: in…
BS”D 14 Iyar 5781 We follow on in Mesillas Yesharim and reach paragraph 14 of Chapter One. In this paragraph, R. Luzzatto states that the main purpose of one’s existence in the world is to do mitzvos, serve the Eternal and overcome problems. He then asserts that the pleasures of this world are meant to allow him to turn his heart towards the service that is his responsibility. It is very interesting to see how things can get lost in other languages and must be read in the original. The word in Hebrew in the text is pronounced “avodah” and carries very different emotional connotations and associations than “service” (the usual English translation). Service in English could be given as “sherut” in Hebrew, depending on the meaning.…
BS”D 13 Iyar 5781 The Armenian community, on 24 April, remembers the anniversary of the beginning of the extermination of its people. On 24 April 1915 the Turkish Minister for Internal Affaits, Talaat Pasza, gave the order for the mass deportations and the murders of Armenians. On that day, in Istambul, 2300 representatives of the Armenian elite were arrested and most were murdered. The deportation of Armenians who lived in Anatolia began on 27 May 1915. They were taken to Syria and Mesopotamia. The Turkish government decided to surround Armenian villages and those who were not murdered on the spot were sent to their death in marches in the desert. Most died of thirst and hunger. Others were thrown in precipices or had horseshoes nailed to their…
BS”D 11 Iyar 5781 Expanding further on Mesillas Yesharim we reach paragraph 11 of Chapter One. R. Luzzatto states that one should understand that the purpose of one’s creation is not one’s role in this world. The first argument is that sickness and death are inevitable. They are, and we keep trying to forget about what we know is certain. It will happen in any case, sooner or later. Yet, I believe we should do what is in our power make them come as late as we reasonably can. They happen because of the will of Hashem. Yet we should not just embrace nihilism and think that nothing is worth doing, since it will end in death. Is life just a thin immaterial surface between the before…
The Jewish Religious Community in Kraków, together with the public in general, does not approve that the place, where people of various nationalities and religions were murdered, be used for self-promotion and political goals. We consider the actions of Mateusz Jaśko, which provoke tension between the inhabitants of Kraków, shocking and irresponsible. In the Plaszow concentration camp many of our brethren, many of our neighbours, many of those who lived in Krakow, died. They belonged to various nationalities. They were brutally murdered. Those who survived were sent to extermination camps, where they met with an equally tragic fate. We do not give our approval for the actions taken by the above-mentioned person under the pretence of serving the population. The citizens of Kraków have the right to…
Jan Sehn was born on 22 April 1909 in Tuszowy Maly. He was a Polish lawyer, a judge and a professor of Penal Law at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the director of the Forensic Institute in Krakow and the President of the Commission of Investigation for Nazi Crimes in Krakow. He was an investigation judge in many trials for war crimes, among which those of Amon Goeth, Rudolf Hoess and Joseph Buehler. He died on 12 December 1965 in Frankfurt while preparing the new Auschwitz trial. He is buried in the Rakowicki cemetery in Krakow. The Forensic insitute bears his name since 1966. Filip Ganczak wrote a book about him and gave an interview in English: https://polishhistory.pl/jan-sehn-polands-forgotten-nazi-hunter/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Sehn . Text Dr D Cohen