In the summer of 1995, we traveled to Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland, to visit the shtetls of our grandparents Although we had done some archival research, the focus of this journey was to stand on the soil where our grandparents had been born, and from which they had emigrated between 1890 and 1910.

We each had a bit of evidence identifying our grandparents' shtetls. Rochelle had the last postcard sent by her grandmother's brother from Poland in 1938 or 1939. Before we left for Eastern Europe, we made contact with extended family and professional guides who could take us to the towns that we wanted to visit.

In most towns, we found no specific remnants of our families, but we were able to walk down the streets with homes which had been standing when our grandparents lived there, and by the rivers where we could imagine our grandmothers washing their clothes and bathing. We came closer to touching base with lost relatives in Dobrzhechov (2.5 miles east of Strzyzow), where we found the house in which Rochelle's two great uncles had lived. Rochelle had a postcard, written by Aron Ichel to his sister Rose in 1938 or 1939. He spoke about his hardships, the sickness of his son, that he and his family had been forced to leave Dobrzhechow and move to Strzyzow, how he went back to the village to get chickens to sell at the market, how he observed the Yahrzeits of their parents, and how he desperately needed money.

We went to Dobrzhechow, a cluster of wooden and stucco houses dominated by a large stone Catholic church. Our guide found a man who knew Aron and David Ichel. He had been a child, so only knew their first names. He pointed out their house and told us where Aron had moved to in Strzyzow. Aron, he said, had been a good man, who even gave boots to one poor peasant who worked for him. Evgenii had told us that Jewish houses generally had doors opening on to the street, so that they could have small shops in them, while the Poles' homes had doors on the sides of their houses. Often, these were bearded up by the Poles who moved into them after the Jews were murdered. And sure enough, Aron's house had a front entrance, a door leading nowhere, with no steps.

Genealogical research involves time, dogged detective work, and luck. Was it 'bashert' or coincidence that Rochelle met Sophie Furman, another Strzyzower, at Klezkamp in the CatskilIs in 1994? This set in motion a series of connections that will lead us, in another trip, to the gravestone of Rochelle's great-grandparents. Sophie put Rochelle in touch with Harry Langsam, a Strzyzower now living in Los Angeles, who had emigrated before the World War II and had translated the shtetl's yizkor book from Yiddish to English. From him, Rochelle learned that many of the Strzyzow Jews were sent to one of the first death camps, Belzec, in 1942. Through him, she also learned about the Strzyzow Society in Israel, and specifically about Chaim Ben-Zvi (Mohrer) , a Tel Aviv octogenarian who traveled to Strzyzow after our visit to restore the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery with the help of a Polish family. We had of course visited the cemetery (as we visited every Jewish cemetery and mass grave on our route) and seen evidence of some restoration funded by the Lauder Foundation, but also a pile of broken gravestones in the middle of the cemetery. Through Harry Langsam, we found out that Ben-Zvi had restored the gravestones ...Now Rochelle and Chaim Ben-Zvi are in direct communication through email, and she has found out that the Ichels were major milk producers for Strzyzow.

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In 1992 the US Commission reported on all the cemeteries in Poland. The report included the following information on Strzyzow's 3 Jewish cemeteries:

The first cemetery was/is located on Przeckawczyka Street, across from the synagogue. It was established in the 16th-17th Century. The cemetery is located in an urban area, isolated, without a sign or marker, but it is surrounded by a continuous fence. Before WWII the cemetery was about 500 square meters, but it does not exist now. It is currently owned by the municipality, and is used as a park.

The second cemetery report is on ul. Daszynskiego. The cemetery location is urban, isolated with no sign or marker. The cemetery is reached by turning directly off a public road; it has a piece of broken fence and no gate. This cemetery was 1,000 sq. meters pre-WWII. No stones are visible. There are no known mass graves. The municipality owns the property. The cemetery property is now used only for recreational purposes.

The third cemetery is on ul. Wschodnia. The last known burial was during WWII. It was established in 1850. The cemetery location: rural, on a hillside, isolated with no sign or plaque. The cemetery has a piece of broken masonry wall and no gate. The cemetery was 500 sq. meters before and after WWII. 1-20 stones are visible with none in their original location and less than 25% broken. The oldest known gravestone is from the 19th century. The municipality owns the property. The cemetery property is now used only for Jewish cemetery purposes.

The photo to the left pictures the remaining tombstones in the former Jewish Cemetery...1986, courtesy of Estelle Guzik.

,b.The following was exerpted from a polish site celebrating the Jewish cemeteries of Poland: http://www.kirkuty.xip.pl/nowyzmigrod.htm:

In Strzyzów there were three Jewish cemeteries . The oldest one located in present Przeclawska street was mentioned for the first time in 1703. Most likely it was set up earlier at the same time when the local kehilla was established.

The second cemetery of the local Jewish community was situated in Daszynskiego street . Today there is a parking lot and kids play football in that place. As a result of the WW II both necropolises vanished.

Till present only the newest cemetery established in the end of the 19th century on Tarnowska Góra survived . Thanks to an initiative of the Nissenbaum Family Foundation as well as Jews form Strzyzów and their progeny, at the turn of the eighties and nineties of the 20th century the necropolis area was tied up and enclosed and few dozen of gravestones were recovered. Mr. Chaim Ben Zwi vel Henryk Moher who comes from Strzyzów did cataloguing works. He made a list of all matzevas and reread names and family names of deceased. The oldest identified matzeva comes from 1884 and commemorates man named Icchak. By the entrance there is a plate with following inscription installed: "The cemetery enclosure was built by the Nissenbaum Family Foundation - Warsaw in agreement with Rabbi Samuel Teitelbaum, Rabbi Josef Chaim Frenkel, Rabbi Abraham Frenkel from New York ". An ohel covering grave of rabbi Alter Horowitz was also erected. On the 20th August 1996 in connection with finish of the ohel erection, a special ceremony took place at the cemetery. The grandson of rabbi and representatives of Jewish groups as well as local authorities and public organizations among others Zygmunt Nissenbaum - chairman of the Nissenbaum Family Foundation and Hertz Frankel - chairman of International Committee on Jews Affairs and the US president advisor on Jewish Affairs and Marek Sliwinski - the town mayor took part in it. After official statements Kaddish was said.

The photographs of the Strzyzow Cemetery below are current and were taken off the Polish Cemetery Web site http://www.kirkuty.xip.pl/strzyzow.htm

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