A building permission for a synagogue was granted to Izak Jakubowicz by the King on 30th April 1638.  Before we proceed to the topic of the synagogue itself, let us get familiar with the Jakubowicz family. Izak, known as Reb Ajzyk reb Jekeles, was their pride and joy. Mojżesz Eberls, the progenitor of the family, the father  of Jakób, known as reb Jekele – Jakóbek Bogaty, was also a community senior and a member of the Codification Comitee (”Rada Siedmiu”) which developed the qahal charter in 1595.  Jekele had two sons: Izak and  Mojżesz. Izak Jakubowicz held the position of a community senior through amost all his life (1608-1647) only to hand the power to his eldest son, Mojżesz, as an elderly man.  Izak was engaged in…

Born on 18th April 1921 in Zabłocie, Renata Zisman, née  Springut, was a pianist and a long-term teacher. Zisman was a graduate of the State College of Music in both Krakow and Wroclaw.  She spent the war in the Krakow getto as well as in the Płaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe camps, living to see the liberation in the latter. After the war Zisman worked as both a school principal and a teacher at the Witold Rowicki 1st Degree State College of Music in Żywiec. She was a teacher in the grand piano and conducting class. Next, Renata Zisman took up another teaching job at the Władysław Żeleński Secondary State School of Music in Krakow where she lived to her retirement in 1995. She was awarded Gold…

On 11th April1943 the Transocean Agency informed about ”discovering a mass grave with the remains of 3,000 Polish officers”. It was the first official German announcement regarding the Katyn massacre.  In April 1949 NKVD began mass executions of Polish officers who were captured after 17th September 1939. The lowest estimated number of people executed by the Soviets during the Katyn massacre is around 20,000. The group executed by NKVD  consisted of 500 Jews, soldiers of the pre-war Polish Army including Baruch Steinberg (Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army), Mieczysław Birnbaum (a translator and a publicist), well-known Warsaw doctors: Henryk Brendel (GP and gynaecologist), Bronisław Karbowski (otolaryngologist)  as well as Maksymilian Landau  – a legionnaire, a participant of the Poish-Soviet war, but most importantly, a Polish and German…

A dedication ceremony of the New Jewish Cemetery located at Abrahama 3 Street in Krakow took place on 6th April 1932. The first piece of land dedicated to the cemetery was purchased in 1919, followed by another one in 1923. A decision to build a monumental pre-burial house was made quickly. The person made responsible for it was a Krakow architect, engineer Adolf Siódmak. Moreover, the plan provided for a building dedicated to a Chevra Kadisha funeral society (known as ”Szary Domek”). Due to red tape and financial difficulties, the works strang out until 1932 when the cemetery was opened. From1941 the cemetery at Abrahama 3 was the only burial place for Krakow Jews. During WWII the cemetery was completely ruined, while the pre-burial house was blown up.  Two…

Born on 4th April 1881 in Dębica, Rudolf  Reder together with Chaim Hirszman constitute the only two fully documented cases of people who managed to escape the Bełżec camp and survived the German occupation. Historians estimate that around 450,000 people were murdered in Bełżec. In November 1942 Reder was sent to Lviv to help with the purchase of sheet metal. Taking advantage of the German guard’s distraction  Reder managed to run away. After the end of the war, thanks to the efforts of the Regional Jewish Historical Commission in Krakow, Reder’s account was published under the title ”Bełżec” and included an introduction by dr Nella Rost. However, the book came out in a rather limited volume. In 1999 however, this harrowing memoir was re-issued thanks to Judaica, a…