A picture from 1927.
My father Meir Holcman brought me a rare picture of 70 years ago of the youth football team of Gombin. They were about 13-17 years old and played all the time in a large yard. they also played against teams from the surrounding small towns.
In the picture, from top row, right to left:
- Lipa Blawat - brother of Yosef Blawat.
- Bynim Cohen - was among the Communist leaders in
Poland. My father doesn't know what happened to him.
- My father forgot his name
- Izhak Kilbert
- Kurczik
Second row - from right to left:
- Meir Holtzman, the youngest in the team. (now 83...)
- Chaim Gurker, husband of Geitel Brerzinsky, whose
niece, Jacqueline Burns asked through the "guest book"
last week to have information and be included in Bnei
Gombin mailing list. He was a very good friend of my
father.
- Arczo (Aharon) Hodis - The best football player... My father believes he left before the WW2 to America.
the third row, from right to left:
- Nussan Szwarc - This is Natan Schwartz, uncle of
Gabriel Benaim from Panama... and the great uncle from
Jerusalem of Moshe Scwartz.
Some of the Schwartzs left Gombin before WW2 and
settled in Costa Rica, USA and Panama.
Many others perished in the Holocaust. Remember the
tragic story of Hershel Scwartz, while only 15 years
old, who insisted to get back from the Fire Brigade
gathering, where men selected for forced labor awaited
to their deportation. In the end, they let him go back to
his mother... and he finally shared the same tragic end as all the members of the community, Chelmno...
- Fleishman - the goal keeper. My father forgot his
first name
- Fajwisz Kerber - brother of Umcze Kerber, the dwarf of
Gombin, who survived the war hiding in a train station
in Warsaw, hiding in the cargo benches, among the
boxes, day after day - a few years... he survived and
came to Israel and lived in Qiriat Tivon until he
passed away some years ago.
We believe that all the children in this picture, except my father, are already dead.
Blessed by their memory.
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