The Cieszanow Memorial Book (Cieszanów Poland)

<p>Cieszanow is a small town in southeast Poland near the current border with Ukraine. Prior to World War I it was part of Galicia in the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The town's development stalled after the war.</p><p> </p><p>The Jewish community was <span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>typical in which the spirit and doctrine of the Chasidic movement were dominant. The book also notes that the winds of modernity could not be kept out as younger generations pushed back against elders who were unwilling to let go of the traditions of shtetl life. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As in many other small towns Cieszanow's Jews made their living as shoemakers tailors and bakers trading with their gentile neighbors on market days.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>On September 7</span><sup style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>th</sup><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> 1939 Cieszanów which at that time had approximately 3000 inhabitants a third of them Jews was bombed by the </span>Luftwaffe<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and five days later first German units entered the town arresting members of the local government. The Germans soon retreated (</span>Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>) replaced by the Red Army. In early October 1939 Cieszanów became part of the German </span>General Government<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. In 1942 almost all of the Jewish population of Cieszanów were murdered mostly in </span>Belzec<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. None of the grave stones in the cemetery that was established in the late 19</span><sup style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>th</sup><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> century remain </span><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>because the Nazis used them as road building materials. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>After the war a committee was formed to create a Yizkor book. The editors appealed to survivors and former residents asking them to write their memoirs of the town its people its institutions and share photos they might have. The book contains many pages of photographs of the town's people. It took many years and the book was finally published in Israel in 1970.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>May this book serve as a memorial to the community of Cieszanow that was brutally destroyed in the Holocaust.</span></p>