We Remember The Children!

The Book: "One of a City and Two of a Family"

A Selection from amongst the Thousand Autobiographies of Jewish Children in Poland

Compiled and Edited by
Benjamin Tenenbaum

Published by "Sifriat Ha'Poalim", Merkhavia, 1947

This material can be used for educational and research purpose only, and is fully copyrighted by Sifriat Hapoalim!

The full List of the Thousand Testimonies taken by Benjamin Tenenbaum is in:
Ghetto Fighters' House Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum

To the memory of my little cousins:
Eli, Szajna, Andjia, Chana, Perla, Eli, Chana Holcman, Chana and Ella Bauman of Gombin, Eli, Rutka, Perla and Bajla Luksenburg of Lodz, the unborn child of Channa nee' Laski and Pinkus Gostinski of Gombin and all the 1.5 million children perished in the Nazi Holocaust.
And I still see their faces...
Staring at me, also now on this screen, through the only one photograph saved from the fire, farewell from my father and the world of the living, crying to me from the abyss:
FORGET ME NOT!

 Cover Page of the Book: "Yeladim Ba'Shoa - Kaddish le'Yaldei Israel" (Children in the Holocaust - Kaddish to the Children of Israel who Perished in the Holocaust, Jacob Weinberger Hashisha, Naharya, 1990.

A Prayer

Introduction

I have a crumbling old book in Hebrew: "One of a City and Two of a Family", compiled and edited by Benjamin Tenenbaum and published by "Sifriat Hapoalim" - Workers' Book Guild (Hashomer Hatzair) <Palestine in 1957.

It is a selection from amongst one thousand autobiographies of Jewish children in Poland (now some of the towns of origin are in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania).

The testimonies are rare in their kind, as the truth of the Nazi Holocaust was described from the eyes of the very few children who survived, when the events were still fresh in their memory and could tell history what happened, out of the one and a half million Jewish children who no more could...

Beside the appalling testimonies described through the painful interviews taken right after the war in the various Jewish orphanages and DP camps, they have genealogical aspect and may be there are relatives of those children out there in this cyber space who might still recognize a name...

I am willing to send the relevant child's Autobiography to anyone who might believe he is related to one of those children.

Anyone who requests this from me, please fill up the form and I shall check your inquiry and send you the requested child's testimony. Please note well, the testimonies are all in Hebrew and I shall not be able to translate them, nor start a search for the survivor on your behalf!

This material can be used for educational and research purpose only, and is fully copyrighted by Sifriat Hapoalim!

Please forgive me if I made a mistake in the spelling of the names or the towns. I shall gladly correct it, if anyone will advise me so.

Please fill the form you find hereunder and I shall reply as soon as I can.

Shalom,

Ada Holtzman
Tel Aviv, Nisan 16, 5760, 21 April 00

List of the Towns Mentioned in the Children' Autobiographies:

BELZ

BORISLAW

BROK

BYTEN

CIECHANOW

CIECHANOWIEC

CZESTOCHOWA

DANIELOWICE

DOBRZYN

DROGOBYCH

GOROSZKOW (?)

HOLSZAN (?)

JEZOW

JIEZNAS

KOVEL

KRAKOW

LODZ

LUBLIN

LWOW

MALKINIA

MATSEYUV

MEDYNIA GLOGOWSKA

MEL'NITSZ

MIEDZYRZEC

MODRZEJOW

NADVORNAYA

NEMENCINE

OSTROWIEC

PILZNO

PODBRODZ

PROSZKOW

PRUZAN (?)

PRZEDBORZ

PRZEMYSL

PULTUSK

ROMANOW

SEROCK

SKIERNIEWICE

SOSNOWIEC

STANISLAWOW

STRYY

TARNOPOL

TOLSTOYE

TOMASZOW MAZOWIECKI

TUCHIN

VILNA

WARSAW

ZAMOSC

The Surnames of the Children:

ABRAMOWICZ

AIZEN

ALTEROWICZ

ARBUZ

BAIMAN

BALER

BAS

BEKER

BIK

BOT

BRECHNER

BRERZIN

BRUCHOWICZ

BRUN

CEITAG

CYMBLER

DIGALA

DOMBINSKI

DOROHOCZKI

DZIALKOWSKA

EKSZTEIN

ELBOIM

FAIMAN

FALK

FELDER

FINKELSZTEIN

FRENKEL

FRIDMAN

GELBER

GERNSZTEIN

GERSZOWICZ

GLASER

GOLDMAN

GOLDRACH

GOLIGER

GOREWICZ

HALPERIN

HALTER

HANDELSMAN

HESSING

HOLDER

IZKOWICZ

IZRAELSKI

JACHTER

JAFFE

KAFTAN

KANTOR

KAPLAN

KATZ

KATZ

KELBERG

KIRSZTEIN

KLIG

KOCH

KOLIG

KON

KOZLOWSKI

KRAIZLER

KRODILAS

KROL

KUTON

LAICHTER

LITNER

LUBIENKER

MAGBUSZEWER

MENDZELEWSKI

MILSZTAJN

MINC

NAIER

NISENBAUM

OBUARZNAK

PELDAR

PFEFFER

PFEFFERKORN

PRIFFER

PROBOSKIN

PUTERMAN

REICHER

REIS

RING

ROBINSON

ROBINSON

ROSSA

ROT

ROZEN

ROZENBLUM

ROZSTRZALENIECZ

SAMET

SEGAL

SLAWIN

SOLNI

SPERSZTEIN

SPIWAK

STERNBLICZ

STIGLIC

STOK

SZAPIRA

SZLEPSKI

SZLIWINSKI

SZNAJDERMAN

SZNIADOWICZ

SZPRINGER

SZTERNFELD

SZTIKGOLD

SZTUDEN

SZTULZAPT

TAICZ

TAUBER

TEICZ

TOMKIN

TRAKINSKI

TREIBICZ

WALDMAN

WALTSZTEIN

WECER

WEINMAN

WENGROWSKI

WILNER

WITKOWSKI

ZILBERBERG

Important Note! To register the whole inquiry with the detailed family history and reasons to believe the Holocaust Child you are searching survived the War and is still alive somewhere, you may refer to JewishGen Holocaust Global Registry

 Email ada Holtzman: ada "at" zchor.org  (replace "at" by @ to avoid spam


The Poem in Yiddish and Hebrew of the Child: Eizik Kac

 

 

From the autobiography of Henia MILSZTAJN, 17 years old (was 10 years old when the war broke out), born on March 1929 in Tomaszow Mazowiecki to her father Menasze and her mother Hinda née KIRSZTAJN

…Hunger prevailed in the ghetto and there were many smugglers who risked their lives and smuggled some food. They were murderously bitten while caught and also executed to death. In spite of this, smuggling food continued. I remember, it was close to the deportation, 10 food smugglers were caught who brought in to the ghetto food from Łódż. All of them were sentenced to be executed by hanging. Among them was a very poor and miserable man. Why this man was doomed to the gallows?  They answered: Jankel, that fat man with red neck gave this man hundred thousand zloty to be hanged instead of him. And the poor man, who was tortured by hunger with his wife and 2 little children' left a letter to his wife, telling her "do not be sad. I leave you a sum of money which will provide your living. I anyway will not survive. I feel the approaching death".

 

The Germans forced all the Jews of the ghetto to gather and see the hanging of the 10. Gendarmes went from home to home and herded the residents. The mob waited about half an hour and then the Germans came with their upholstered cars and started the killing.

 

The victims were brought from the prison. The mob' who resembled a sea of heads' watched the scene' and even though was hundred times more than the 20 gendarmes, did not do anything to stop the bloody spectacle.

 

And them' the executioners laughed loudly. We also heard that one of the victims cried "Shma Israel" and his comrade not win the war, you will die like dogs!" – and already they were swinging in the wind like branches of naked trees in winter.

 

Links:

Yad Vashem

Missing Identity

Amcha

Ada's Shoah Links

Return to Testimonies Page

Return to Holocaust Page

Original page posted on  May 2nd, 2003

Last updated February 18th, 2007