Wierzbnik-Starachowitz Memorial Book

<p>Starachowice on the Kamienna River became an important mining and industrial center during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the interwar period it annexed its ancient neighbor Wierzbnik forming the town ot Wierzbnik-Starachowice. Jews who began settling here in the early 19th century by 1935 made up 31% of a population of about 8000. During the 1930s Jewish-owned factories produced flour glass ceramics farm tools iron lumber plywood and building materials. There were more than 130 Jewish shops and stores. The Jewish community supported 3 cheders a public school a Tarbut school a yeshiva a synagogue a mikveh several Hassidic shtiblech and a cemetery. </p><p>On September 9 1939 the city was occupied by the Germans. In February 1941 they established a ghetto in Wierzbnik to which Jews from various towns were sent. The ghetto was liquidated on October 27 1942 and many of its prisoners sent to the Treblinka death camp. The Jews who remained were sent to labor camps in the area and finally to Auschwitz. </p><p>The Jewish community of Wierzbnik-Starachowice is no more. This book originally written in Hebrew and Yiddish by emmigrees and survivors shows what it was like and bears witness to its destruction.</p>