BS”D 20 Iyar 5781 On 2 May 1946 near Krościenko a group of bandits likes to the Partisan Group “Lightning”, led by Józef Kuraś, nom de guerre “Ogień” (Fire)fired against Jewish civilians crossing the border, killing more than 10 of them. “A common element in the leaflets distributed in Podhale by ‘Fire’ was the identification of the Jewish nationality with the communist regime” – we read in the brochure published by the Kraków department of the Institute for National Memory in 2017 under the title “Józef Kuraś ‘Ogien’ and the Partisan Group ‘Błyskawica’ “. “Even when one can see the reasons which led to the execution of Security Department agents and of Party Functionaries, one cannot justify acts of ciolence against common people who were not engaged…
BS”D 20 Iyar 5781 Maria Róża Jakubowicz [pron. IPA /ˈru.ʐa/ /ja.kuˈbɔ.vʲit͡ʂ/ ], may her memory be a blessing, was born on 1 May 1918 in Dobczyce, [IPA /dɔpˈt͡ʂɨt͡sɛ/ ], daughter of Abraham Pistol, peace be upon him. Maria Róża Jakubowicz – as Sławomir Pastuszka wrote in “Nasza Gmina” – was named by the Jews of Kraków “The Mother of the Community” and is regarded as the model Jewish woman. Thanks to her exceptional personality the members of the Community of Kraków could feel an unrivalled togetherness. They could feel like in a real Jewish home, as those which most had lost during the Shoah. Her heroic and courageous role during the Second World War deserves greater mention. After the war, right after she came to Kraków in…
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…
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…