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

Based from https://radio.lublin.pl/2020/11/mogila-w-lesie-krepieckim/ The Krepiecki Woods, 6 km from Lublin, is a place that holds the memory of about 30,000 murdered Jews. A collctive tombstone and monument is in the Woods about 500 metres from a service road, parallel to road S17. It is the place of burial of Jews from the Majdanek Ghetto as well as of Poles, Russians and of prisoners of the Majdanek camp and of the castle of Lublin of various nationalities. Documents show that the first murders took place there on 21-22 April 1942. Germans shot about 2800 Jews. The peak was reached on 3 November 1943, when Germans shot around 18,000 Jews. The Krepiecki woods were also used to murder prisoners who, during slave work in the fields, tried to escape.…

Dwojra Grynberg, known also as Wiera Gran or Vera Gran, the daughter of Elias and Luba, a theatre and film actress, was born on 20 April 1915 in Bialystok. She sang in Polish and French. She was the muse of the Warsaw Ghetto and persecuted after the war, accused of collaborating with the Germans and eventually found not guilty. The life of the talented young artist, who was deprived of her family by the war and who wherever in the world she went, faced a wall of ill-will, resistance and enmity, was tragic. More information in English can be found in the Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiera_Gran She died on 19 November 2007 in Paris, may she rest in peace. Text and layout Dr D Cohen

BS”D 8 Ijar 5781 Ludwik Herz (22), Lonek Lindenberger (24), Beniamin Rose (23), Rutch Joachisman (21) and Henryk Unterbuch (42) were murdered in Nowy Targ on 20 April 1946.1 The victims were made to stand on the side of the road and then were executed. Henryk Unterbuch was the one who – according to the testimony of the driver, Henryk Hałgas – tried to escape. He was shot in the head and chest. The victims were robbed. Right after the murder, another car was stopped, a bus full of people, among them a policeman as well as a sergeant of the border guard unit stationed in the town of Nidzica. After an identification check all passengers were released. [The soldiers] also stopped a truck driven by Wojciech…

BS”D 8 Ijar 5781 An image is said to be more than a thousand words and I am proposing here a short series on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by a well-known English presenter, Mark Felton: part 1: https://youtu.be/NILGN8Zu4YY   part 2: https://youtu.be/DyCuW-wChrw Part 3: https://youtu.be/15kettj4BxU   Hashem willing, we’ll meet on Friday! 🙂 Layout and text: Dr. D. Cohen

BS”D 7 Ijar 5781 On 19 April 1943 at 6 AM the Germans went into the Warsaw Ghetto and were met with “strong and planned counterfire from Jews and bandits. The tank and armoured cars that were involved in the operation were attacked with Molotov cocktails. The tank was set on fire twice. This attack from the enemy caused the initial retreat of the units involved in the operation” – such was the report of the SS and police commander of the Warsaw district, who would then become the executioner of the Warsaw ghetto, Jürgen Stroop. So began the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto, that is, the heroic reation of people who were sentenced to death just because that they were born. On the pictures, starting from…

BS”D 6 Iyar 5781 Renata Zisman, of blessed memory, of the Springut family, was born on 18 April 1921 (10 Nisan 5681) in Zablocie. She was a pianist and a teacher. She graduated from the Public Higher Musical School in Krakow as well as from Wroclaw. She spent the war in the ghetto in Krakow and in the camps in Plaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe until the liberation. After the war, she taught classes in piano and conducting in the Witold Rowicki First Degree Public Music School in Zywiec, as well as being the school’s director. She then taught the piano in the Wladyslaw Zelenski Public Middle Music School in Krakow. She retired in 1995. She was awarded the Gold Cross for Service, the Auschwitz Cross, and…