We’re glad to have you!
It is the objective of the Gombin Jewish Historical & Genealogical Society to preserve the legacy of Jewish history and culture in Gombin, Poland, the town of our ancestral families. We will preserve the record of our family’s roots and genealogy so that the history of 300 years of Jewish life in Gombin will not have been destroyed by the Holocaust.
The preserved record will serve as a basis for the education of current Gombiners now living all over the world and all future generations.
"Boga nie ma"
"There is no God"
Here are my photos from the commemoration event held on Sunday in Gąbin, Poland, to mark the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the town's Jews to the extermination camp at Chelmno-nad-Nerem. Over 2000 Jews were held for 2 days in a field on the edge of the town, and then transported to Chelmno. None survived.
The events of the weekend were organised by a group called Razem Możemy Więcej ('Together we can do more'}, which has been recently established in the town, and hosted by the high school and the town council. Teachers and students from the school participated throughout.
The laying of the stones on the route to the field was the idea of our friend Wojtek Wasilewski. He collected over 2000 granite stones from a river bed near his home in Krakow, in the south of Poland, and brought them up to Gąbin. The school students helped to lay them out, one stone per victim. I laid out 25 stones for the members of my Frankensztajn family, that we know were killed there.
The assembly in the field was addressed by Jan Jędrejewski, who we have met on previous visits. He is now 93, and witnessed the events of the German occupation as a young child. He recalled a young woman walking along the street intoning the phrase "Boga nie ma, Boga nie ma" ("There is no God", or possibly "God is not here").
His account had a profound effect on all who heard it.
[You can scroll down the album page for a quick look, or, much better, use the Slideshow button (top right, below the black Flickr bar) to get full-screen pictures - you can then a) leave the pictures to move on automatically, or b) use the forward and back arrows, or c) use the space-bar to pause and re-start]
bit.ly
Gąbin, Poland. Sunday 24 April, 2022 Commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Ghetto, and the murder of over 2000 Gąbin Jews at the extermination camp at Chelmno-nad-Nerem.Thanks for sharing this here Michael, it must have been an interesting, if solemn, event. I;ll be looking at the entire photo set. Thx again.
More from the recent visit to Gąbin.
You made a good work very touching.
Thank you for sharing this!
This small article appeared in the The Jewish Echo (Glasgow, Scotland Jewish newspaper) on 26th September, 1947. I thought it might be of interest to anyone familiar with Jakub Benjamin Solomon or Moses Poznanski
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On Sunday, April 24th (time to be determined) Virtual Gombin #11, will be hosted from Gąbin by members of the Gombin Society who are traveling to Poland to participate in several days of activities related to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish community in 1942. Anita Greenbaum Brush, Vicki Fingeroot, Marlene Rifkin, and Michael Shade will host a Zoom call, along with Wojtek and Karen Wasilewski and our partner… Read More »
