Vabalninkas

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My friend, Owen Ogince, was born in Johannesburg, but lived in Theunissen in the Orange Free State in South Africa. He went to boarding school in a larger city, such as Bloemfontein, typical of the many first generation of South African born Jews who lived in the country areas. Their parents often spoke only Yiddish and Afrikaans, creating an interesting sub culture which in many ways reflected their previous lives in the shtetls of Lithuania. They were often referred to as boerejode. For more information on boerejode, see the end of this post.

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I took the opportunity to visit the shtetl of Vabalninkis in Lithuania, where Owen’s family came from.

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The Jewish Cemetery and the memorial to the Resistance.

 

The Former Synagogue

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Linkuva – Joniskelis – Pasvalys

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Before I get onto this post, to those technologically challenged, here is another one to get your head around:

this post has been written and uploaded aboard an Emirates flight from Warsaw to Dubai en route to my home city of Perth.
I am not daunted by the tyranny of distance and having to spend almost a day in the air getting home. So this is another meaning of “staying connected”

Now onto the post!
Linkuva
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On my way to Vabalninkas from Joniskis, I stopped off in Linkuva, Joniskelis and Pasvalys

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Linkuva town

A Holocaust memorial a few km out of town

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Joniskelis
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Pasvalys

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The Jewish Cemetery

 

Poswohl and Johannesburg

Joniskis

Update:

The Ten Commandments have just been added – thanks to Cliff Marks for providing the update and 2 photos.

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My original photo

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The complex of the two synagogues

I was let into the buildings by a caretaker and revisited an hour later when I was fortunate to meet Linas Vinickas from the local museum. Linas gave me a tour of Jewish Joniskis.

The Raudonoji Synagogue

A short video of Linas Vinickas

The Baltoji Synagogue

Students’ tour of the synagogues

The third synagogue building

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The Mural which includes the actor Laurence Harvey

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Joniškis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Joniškis
City
Skyline of Joniškis
Flag of Joniškis
Flag
Coat of arms of Joniškis
Coat of arms
 
Coordinates: 56°14′0″N 23°36′0″ECoordinates56°14′0″N 23°36′0″E
Country  Lithuania
Ethnographic region Aukštaitija
County Šiauliai County
Municipality Joniškis district municipality
Eldership Joniškis eldership
Capital of Joniškis district municipality
Joniškis eldership
First mentioned 1526
Granted city rights 1616
Government
 • Mayor Gediminas Čepulis
Population (2011)
 • Total 9,900
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Website http://www.joniskis.lt/

 

Joniškis church

Joniškis (About this sound pronunciation ) is a city in northern Lithuania with a population of about 11,150. It is located 40 kilometers north of Šiauliai and 14 kilometers south of the Lithuania–Latvia border. Joniškis is the municipal and administrative center of Joniškis district municipality.

With the Church of the Accession of the Holy Virgin Mary (founded in 1901) and a complex of two Jewish synagogues – Red (built in 1897) and White (built in 1823) at its centre, the town has the status of an urban architectural heritage site.[citation needed]

Joniškis has a Culture Centre, a local venue for music and theatre events.

railway line connecting Riga and Šiauliai runs along the western boundary of the city. West of the railway, the city’s allotment gardens and the Lutheran and Victims of World War II cemeteries are located. Joniškis hosts the Jonas Avyžius Public Library of Joniškis District Municipality

Name

Joniškis is the Lithuanian name of the city. Versions of the name in other languages include PolishJaniszkiRussian: Янишки YanishkiBelarusian: Яні́шкі YanishkiYiddish: יאנישאק YanishokGermanJonischkenLatvianJonišķi

History

Joniškis was established in the beginning of the 16th century. It was mentioned in written sources on 23 February 1536 when Bishops of Vilnius and Samogitia visited the area and found that people still practiced the old pagan faith. People were worshiping the God of Thunder (Perkūnas), fire, snakes and other pagan deities. The bishop of Vilnius, John of the Lithuanian Dukes baptized the locals and established the new parish on 23 February 1536. A wooden church was built and the town of Joniškis was built around it. Bishop of Vilnius named the town Joniškis after his own name Jonas. Joniškis was on the crossroad of important trade roads.[1]

In late 1941, 148 Jewish men were shot near Joniškis in the nearby forest. The remaining Jews (men, women and children) were murdered in the forest in September 1941. 493 people were murdered in total by an Einsatzgruppen of Joniškis policemen and Lituanian nationalists supervised by the Germans.[2]

Notable people

Plateliai to Papile

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My previous visit to the area was in 2014. Here is the link to that post

Plunge, Salantai & Plateliai, Lithuania

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Wikipedia

Some images from this visit:

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A visit with Eugenijus Bunka to Darbenai where we first visited the high school and met teachers Edita and Zivile.

We discussed ideas for the TEC – Tolerance Education Centre program, the school participates in.

Eugenijus and I then visited the town, the Jewish cemetery and Holocaust sites.

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Wikipedia

Holocaust sites

Former Jewish homes

 

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Wikipedia

Holocaust site outside Mazeikiai


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Wikipedia

Running late, so only took a few photos here.

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Yom Hashoah

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If you were unable to attend the Holocaust Commemoration in Perth tonight, here is the programme:

Yom Hashoah

Open pdf Yom Hashoah

Highlights were:

Gavin Chapeikin,  brilliant as MC.

Yiddish songs sung by Karen Feldman

including the Partisans’ Song by Hirsh Glick

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The Partisans’ Song video clip

Hirsh Glick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hirsch Glick (1922 Vilna, Lithuania – 1944 Estonia) was a Jewish poet and partisan.

Glick was born in Vilna in 1922 (at the time a part of inter-war Poland). He began to write Yiddish poetry in his teens and became co-founder of Yungvald (Young Forest), a group of young Jewish poets. After the German assault on Soviet Union in 1941, Hirsh Glick was imprisoned in the Weiße Wache concentration camp and later transferred to Vilna Ghetto. Glick involved himself in the ghetto’s artistic community while simultaneously participating in the underground and took part in the 1942 ghetto uprising. In 1943 he wrote his most famous work, the song Zog nit keynmol, az du geyst dem letstn veg (זאג ניט קיינמאל, אז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג) to the music of the soviet composer Dmitry Pokrass (1899-1978), which became the anthem of the Jewish partisan movement, and Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt. He was inspired to write this work by news that arrived of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.Glick managed to flee when the ghetto was being liquidated in October 1943, but was re-captured. He was later deported to a concentration camp in Estonia. During his captivity he continued to compose songs and poems. In July 1944, with the Soviet Army approaching, Glick escaped. He was never heard from again, and was presumed captured and executed by the Germans (reportedly in August 1944).

A Story of Survival: My mother Fryda Grynberg told by Peter Grynberg

The video clip of Fryda

 

Keynote Speaker – Dr Avril Alba of the University of Sydney

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A Stone Under History’s Wheel

Avril’s excellent address will be reported elsewhere.

Her message was powerful and meaningful, just as that of Emanuel Ringelblum’s during the dark days of the Warsaw Ghetto and still today, many decades after his death!

In the meantime, here is background information on Emanuel Ringelblum, at the core of Avril’s presentation.

Emanuel Ringelblum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel Ringelblum.

Emanuel Ringelblum (November 21, 1900 – March 7, 1944) was a Polish-Jewish historian, politician and social worker, known for his Notes from the Warsaw GhettoNotes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn chronicling the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyń, and the so-called Ringelblum’s Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Before the war

He was born in Buchach, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in Ukraine. Ringelblum graduated from Warsaw University, where he completed his doctoral thesis in 1927 on the history of the Jews of Warsaw during the Middle Ages. Thereafter he taught history in Jewish schools and became a member of a political movement the “Left Po’alei Zion”.[1] He was known as a historian and a specialist in the field of the history of Polish Jews from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century. Before the Second World War Ringelblum worked for social organizations. Most notably, he helped Polish Jews expelled from Germany in 1938 and 1939.

World War II

Plaque in memory of around 40 Jews − among them Emanuel Ringelblum − and the Wolski family, at 77 Grójecka Street in Warsaw

During the war Ringelblum and his family were resettled to the Warsaw Ghetto. There he led a secret operation code-named Oyneg Shabbos(Yiddish for “Sabbath delight”). Together with numerous other Jewish writers, scientists and ordinary people, Ringelblum collected diaries, documents, commissioned papers, and preserved the posters and decrees that comprised the memory of the doomed community. Among approximately 25,000 sheets preserved there are also detailed descriptions of destruction of ghettos in other parts of occupied Poland, the Treblinka extermination campChełmno extermination camp and a number of reports made by scientists conducting research on the effects of famine in the ghettos.

He was also one of the most active members of Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna (Polish for Jewish Social Aid), an organisation established to help the starving people of the Warsaw Ghetto. On the eve of the ghetto’s destruction in the spring of 1943, when all seemed lost, the archive was placed in three milk cans and metal boxes. Parts were buried in the cellars of Warsaw buildings.

Shortly before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Ringelblum and his family escaped from the Ghetto and found refuge outside of it. However, on 7 March 1944 their hiding place (prewar address 81 Grójecka Street) was discovered by the Gestapo; Ringelblum and his family were executed along with those who hid them.[2]

Ringelblum archives

One of the milk cans used to hide documents. From the Ringelblum “Oyneg Shabbos” Archive

The fate of Ringelblum’s archives is only partially known. In September 1946 ten metal boxes were found in the ruins of Warsaw. In December 1950 in a cellar of another ruined house at 68 Nowolipki Street two additional milk cans were found containing more documents. Among them were copies of several underground newspapers, a narrative of deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto, and public notices by the Judenrat (the council of Jewish leaders), but also documents of ordinary life, concert invitations, milk coupons, and chocolate wrappers.

Despite repeated searches, the rest of the archive, including the third milk can, was never found. It is rumoured to be located beneath what is now the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw.

The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw is named for him.

Published works

  • Polish-Jewish Relations during the Second World War (1974)

 

Here are a couple of other items of relevance, which were not part of tonight’s programme:

Heiny Ellert’s Testimony

 

The Passing Of The Baton – Who Will Continue 
Ethan Bloom, a student on the 2015 March of the Living program, shared his story with us at another Holocaust memorial, a few months ago

My life, my existence could be said to be against all odds.   In fact, my life is the result of 3 miracles, – you see I am the grandson of 3 Holocaust survivors. After visiting and seeing the remains of the extermination and concentration camps in Poland, in April last year on the MOTL program, I began to grasp the massive scale of persecution and death that the Jews of Europe were confronted with over 70 years ago. I am now struck by the enormous reality of how my grandparents were among the minority…the minority who survived.

The experiences of my family are not unique or original. They are similar to the hundreds of thousands of other men women and children who came face to face with unprecedented evil that was the Holocaust. No, my family’s story is not original, but because it is the story of my family, it made my personal experience travelling to Poland all the more harrowing and emotional.

My grandma Renata, was just a little girl in Lithuania when the Nazis rose to power in Germany. In 1941 Renata’s father and grandfather were killed in Lithuania, she and her mother survived Kovno ghetto and Studdhof concentration camp which is northern Poland. My Grans life can be defined by a series of remarkable miracles. The first was when she survived the notorious selection process at Kovno Ghetto. She was with her gran in the group of Jews to the left. A family friend discretely removed her to be with her mother in the group to the right,… those destined to live. My grans own grandmother who remained in the group to the left was killed at a mass massacre site, in forest outside Kaunas, called the Ninth Fort. The second miracle in my Gran Renata’s s life was when she survived the Children’s action of the Kovno Ghetto when children were removed and deported to extermination camps in a bid to reduce the size of the ghetto. Terrified she hid for hours under a bed. The third miracle in her life was surviving Studdhof and the labour camps, which was through the sheer determination, sacrifice and love of her own mother. All this at the age of thirteen.

One of the most essential components of the MOTL program is the testimonials, where other students from the trip read out the story of their grandparents or other victims or survivors. The Lopuchowo forest is one of the many forests in Poland, where mass executions of Jews took place during the Nazi period. It was here that I read out the story of my grandmother Renata. I felt haunted and horrified to realise that in a forest not too dissimilar to this in Lithuania, Renata’s father and grandparents were killed. The enormity of this was quite overwhelming. I felt angry at the thought the suffering my Gran had to live through as a child. In spite of her suffering my grandmother Renata is the kindest gentle, caring and loving person.

 

My paternal grandfather George from Budapest spent his life during the war in a constant cycle of escaping from slave labour camps and being recaptured. He would come to escape from the Germans and Hungarians 6 times. Throughout his experiences George would look at a situation that was absurd or abnormal and to alleviate the tension would respond with humour. It is his sense of humour that, in part may have helped him to survive. He always felt that somehow he was born to survive and never gave up.

A year after his bar mitzvah, when he was 14 George’s father was taken away in July 1942 to the Russian front. Jews would be routinely taken away for slave labour by the right wing Hungarian government who were allied to the Nazis. George never saw his father again.

I read George’s story at Umschlagplatz just outside of the site of Warsaw ghetto, this is where they deported the Polish Jews in cattle carts to the various extermination camps of Poland. Whilst my Grandfather was not Polish I felt a sense of overwhelming sadness standing in such a place where people were separated from their loved ones and sent to their deaths.

Auschwitz Birkenau is of particular significance for me. My father’s mother Susie, who I never met was a prisoner at Auschwitz, and was the sole survivor of her family. Listening to her recorded testimonial I was haunted with her recollection of how the nazis forcibly removed Susie and her family from their home. Her father was denied his request to take with him a Kittel (A white linen robe that is used as a burial covering). The Nazis response to Susie’s father was “where you are going you will have no need for it”. As Susie and her family arrived at Auschwitz she was parted from her parents and brother. At selection, Susie and her little sister Anna were sent to the right, due to Susie telling an officer that she was 17 when she was only 14. Susie was then taken into a room where her hair was shaved. Upon asking a nazi officer where her parents and brother were, he took her to a window and pointed outside where a huge fire was burning. Later on Susie was separated from her sister Anna her only remaining relative, who was also sent to the gas chambers.

I read out my grandmother’s testimonial next to the cattle cart on display as an example of the carts that transported Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz Birkenau. I said Kaddish (the Jewish memorial prayer) for my grandmother’s family – her father, mother sister and brother who died there. I was overwhelmed by so many conflicting emotions, profound sadness, and wonderment at her miracle survival, and a feeling of both great pride that I could pay respects for her family.  Being the first person in my immediate family to return to Auschwitz I really felt the sense of responsibility. This was the most moving and incredibly difficult thing I’ve ever done, which would not have been possible without the constant reassuring comfort and support of all others the MOTL trip.

In Poland there was death at every corner. I began to learn and fully appreciate and value the sanctity of life. Israel was like a breath of fresh air after the oppressive sadness and emptiness of Poland.  We took part in the euphoric celebration of Israel’s Independence Day and the celebration of all that Israel signifies. Israel is the new State for all Jews, and all Israelis. Israel represents life, vibrancy and the future.

The MOTL journey with my peers has ignited a torch of remembrance, to remember my grandparents’ suffering, and to forever remember and honour their family members and countless others who were killed. It has taught me an understanding, appreciation and pride in my Jewish heritage and roots. I have learned the dangers of discrimination and prejudice and the importance of tolerance and equality.   I feel stronger, more resilient and enriched because of this unique experience.

Return To Nasielsk

Nasielsk

From: Glenn Kurtz

Dear Friends of Nasielsk!

I am very pleased to announce that the restoration and rededication of Nasielsk’s Jewish cemetery will take place this summer, from 3 – 8 July 2016.

You are invited to participate! Volunteers are welcome for all or any part of the project: a day, a few days, or the entire week.

As those of you who have visited Nasielsk know, the former Jewish cemetery is now a mature forest, overgrown and unkempt. Since no (or very few) headstones remain, our work this summer will be to clear the brush and the forest floor. We expect it will be a multi-year project. Once we have cleared the ground, we can discuss and decide on a memorial and a preservation plan.

We are fortunate and grateful to be partnering with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ), based in Warsaw, and the Matzevah Foundation, based in Atlanta. FODŻ, which has helped restore cemeteries and synagogues throughout Poland, will manage the legal and community relations aspects of the project, while the Matzevah Foundation will help with logistics and labor.

Each participant will be responsible for independent transportation to Warsaw. The Matzevah Foundation will collect a $300 fee to defray administrative and material expenses. Details regarding lodging, local transportation, etc., will be forthcoming in late April.

Our project has the support of Mayor Ruszkowski of Nasielsk and of the local community. We anticipate that high school students and other local volunteers will join us to assist with the clean up. Under the auspices of the cemetery project, we will have the opportunity to share the importance of Jewish history with local community members. As always, we hope our presence will encourage the local community to preserve the memory of Nasielsk’s Jewish history and to incorporate it into the school curriculum.

Finally, during our stay we may be privileged to participate in a ceremony honoring Helena Jagodzińska, sponsored by Yad Vashem and held at the new POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Helena helped Nasielsker Maurice Chandler to survive the war and was named a Righteous Gentile in January 2016. Her family (who accompanied us to the Polin Museum in October 2014) will receive the official commendation.

Please contact me or Michael Valihora with any questions or if you would like to participate.

We hope you will join us!

Glenn

Visit the Nasielsk KehilaLink

Letters From The Pinsker Orphans Left Behind

Click on the link above to view the post.

There are several lists of names which are searchable in the WordPress search engine on the top of the sidebar on the right.

Should you wish to receive an email each time I post, please enter your email address and press “subscribe”. Confirm the email that you will receive. It is free!

Details about David Sandler and his books are available by clicking on the link above.

Litvak Hangout with Cape Town & Kedainiai: A Unique Event!

On 11 February 2016, a unique event will take place!

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Two quite different schools on opposite sides of the world, will link up in a Litvak Hangout.

A joint session between students of Herzlia, the Jewish Day School in Cape Town, South Africa and those of Atzalyno Gimnazija, a high school in Kedainiai, Lithuania will be held at 11am South African and Lithuanian time.

Eli Rabinowitz will make some introductory comments about Jews of Lithuania and South Africa and how the Litvaks got to SA.

Three of the Lithuanian students will talk about the Jewish history, the importance of Kedainiai and the Jewish sites in the town.

Three Herzlia students will talk about their Lithuanian heritage, their family shtetl, and when and how their family came to SA.

And then we will talk about the future!

Click here for the link to watch this event live on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/dvnv7q6arAY

Several people around the world have been working hard to make this event happen:

Laima Ardaviciene, the English teacher at Atzalyno in Kedainiai

Mark Helfrich, Curriculum Head at United Herzlia Schools, Cape Town

Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer at Living Maths, Cape Town

Eli Rabinowitz, Perth Australia.

Read more about Eli’s bond with Atzalyno:

http://elirab.me/australia/my-bond-with-atzalyno-gimnazija-a-school-in-kedainiai-2/

Five New KehilaLinks

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I am pleased to advise that I am now working on five new KehilaLinks.

I compile and manage these Jewish websites as a volunteer for Jewishgen.org, the world’s largest Jewish genealogical organisation.

JewishGen should be the first stop in the journey of discovery of your family history.

If you have roots in these towns, please contact me at eli@elirab.com

I hope you are able to share your family’s story and photos of Jewish life in these places.

Lithuania:

Ziezmariai (Zhezhmir)

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Ukmerge (Vilkomir)

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Latvia

Jelgava (Mitau)

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South Africa

Benoni

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Graaff Reinet

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Have a look at the list of KehilaLinks I manage:

http://elirab.me/litvak-portal/kehilalinks/

Thanks

Eli

In Your Pocket Jewish Sightseeing

In Your Pocket is Europe’s leading provider of urban information, supplying locally produced, practical information for over one hundred cities all over the region. Vilnius In Your Pocket was launched in December  1991.

A number of the In Your Pocket websites have Jewish themes and I have embedded some for you here.

Lithuania

Vilnius

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/vilnius/Jewish-Vilnius_73607f” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Kaunas

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/kaunas/sightseeing/jewishkaunas?#h” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Klaipeda

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/klaipeda/sightseeing/jewishklaipeda” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Poland

Wroclaw

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/wroclaw/Jewish-Wroclaw_73963f” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Warsaw

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/warsaw/Jewish-Warsaw_73755f” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Tarnow

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/tarnow/Jewish-Tarnow_73670f” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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Katowice

[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/Katowice/Jewish-Katowice_71266f” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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Gdansk
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/gdansk/Jewish-Gdansk_73665f” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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Krakow Kazimierz
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/Kazimierz_70207f” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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Krakow Ghetto
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/The-Jewish-Ghetto-in-Krakow_73758f” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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Krakow Plaszow
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/Plaszow-Concentration-Camp_73759f” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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Germany

Berlin Jewish Museum
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/berlin/Judisches-Museum-Berlin_23093v” width=”100%” height=”450″]
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South Africa

Johannesburg
[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com/johannesburg/Johannesburg-Holocaust-and-Genocide-Centre_140496v” width=”100%” height=”450″]
 …………………

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[iframe src=”http://www.inyourpocket.com” width=”100%” height=”450″]

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