Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Ostrow-Lubelski: Introduction        
Summary: from the Yizkor book of Ostrow-Lubelski
Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Ostrow-Lubelski

Archive/File: places/poland Ostrow.01
Last-modified: 1993/03/24

                 Memorial-Book Ostrow-Lubelski
                 -----------------------------
 
                   Editor: DAVID SHTOCKFISH
         Cociety-Committee: A. Falershtein, President;
           A. Aichenbaum, I. Goldstein, J. Llebhaber,
                    Dr. I. Last, M. Fishman
          Publisher: Ostrow-Lubelski Society -- Israel

                           INTRODUCTION

   Small was our town Ostrow.  One of thousands of towns throughout
   Poland.  Such towns, by the river and in the forest were integrated
   in the pastoral panorama of Poland for hundreds of years.  Ostrow was
   not marked on maps or perpetuated in books.  

   Ostrow did not become famous because of its heroism and wasn't
   blessed with Famous people.  However, the Ostrow Jews were
   God-fearing people, faithful to the Torah and its commandments,
   respectable and honest people without deceit.  They gave their
   charity in secret and were not oblivious to their brothers' distress.
   They supported the poor, the orphan and the widow, and joyfully
   fulfilled the commandments of "Hachnassat Kalah", helping poor girls
   to obtain dowries and to get married.  A holy Jewish congregation.  

   Their lives, like the lives of their fathers, were a constant
   struggle for existence, to support their families and to defend them
   again the inimical and harsh world.  All that the fathers desired was
   to raise their children in Torah, in love of Israel and good deeds.
   And despite the troubles, the gentiles' hatred and the insecurity of
   the morrow, they lived full lives, in their families and communities.
   They knew the joy of Oneg Shabat, of holiday and festival, knew days
   of ecstacy and inspiration, joy, grace and love.

   The young people, too, were open in their minds and hearts to
   everything that transpired and took place among the Jewish people and
   participated actively in the Jewish social and political movements
   desiring to improve the lives of their people, each individual under
   his own flag and according to his world outlook, his road and
   beliefs.  

   Until the German Satan came from the kingdom of death and destroyed
   and slaughtered all of Israel on the soil of Poland, and among them
   also our dear community, Ostrow.  Not one of our town was saved, nor
   has a single survivor remained to tell us and future generations what
   the German Satan did to the Jewish community of Ostrow.  We do not
   have at hand the testimonies of any eyewitness from those terrible
   days.  And therefore the duty devolves upon us, the embers saved from
   the fire that consumed our home, who only by miracle have remained
   alive, the duty and obligation to tell to our children and to our
   children's children, after us, about the town of our birth, to build
   a monument of mourning and tears, of words and cries, to perpetuate
   the memory of the relatives who were slaughtered by human monsters
   the like of whom the human race had never known since God created
   heaven and earth.  

   The participants in this Yizkor Book do not, however, pretend to be
   writers and historians, but only, as we have said, Ostrowites for
   whom the memory of their town has never left their hearts for even a
   single moment, and all they have written they wrote with the blood of
   their hearts -- the memories and pictures always present before their
   eyes, in holiday and festival as in mourning and sorrow.  We who have
   been privileged to witness Israel's rebirth and to find even a single
   moment, and all they have written they wrote with the Exile, have
   brought remnants of the ashes of the slaughtered to Jewish burial in
   the State of Israel, in the words of the Prophet: I have set my
   spirit upon you and you will live and I have set you upon your own
   land.  

   We must confess, this Yizkor Book comes very late, since for
   many years, the early years after our aliya to Israel, we could not
   find the time, despite our pangs of conscience, to publish this book.
   We were few and penniless, and the pangs of absorption into our
   land--Israel, were difricult ones.  Still, despite all this, we
   established an organization to aid our fellow townsmen in their early
   days after immigration.  And always, in times of crisis and need, we
   cherished the memories on the estimated Memorial Day, the end of
   Shevuot (Simhat Torah) and at every meethlg, celebration or party of
   fellow townsmen.  

   You, dear reader, when you take this Yizkor Book in your hands, you
   will feel the breath of the tortured and slaughtered arising out of
   these pages, and your eyes will see our parents' homes that went up
   in flames.  To the last of our days we shall cherish their holy and
   precious memories in our hearts.  

   Some little comfort may we find in our children and grandchildren
   growing and flowering in our blossoming homeland, as the Prophet
   says: And I shall bring back the return of Israel and you shall plant
   upon your land and you shall never again abandon the land that I gave
   you. Amen.  

   This book is being published thanks to the initiative of our townsman
   Mr.  Misha Eckhaus of Australia and his wife Bronva.  We tender our
   thanks and congratulations to the editorial committee headed by
   Avraham Feierstein and the membcrs: Yitzhak Goldstein, Yaakow
   Liebhaber and Dr.  Isidore Last.  We also tender our thanks to the
   editor, Mr. David Shtockfish 

   Adlna Elchenbaum (Alkon )

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