Jewish History

Jewish Gombin Highlighted at Yad VaShem

The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Israel’s leading Center for Holocaust Remembrance, has launched a new educational program dedicated to the topic of the shtetl. To give both students and the general public an idea of how prewar Jewish shtetl life looked, they selected the Jewish community of Gombin. Using images from the 1937 Sam Rafel film of Gombin and material from the Gombin Yizkor Book, they create a powerful and compelling… Read More »


The Jewish Community of Gąbin, 1918-1945. Magdalena Karczewska. Master’s Thesis, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, 2004

Karczewska History Title Page

Jewish settlement on Gąbin dates to the Middle Ages, and the Jewish Kehila (community) was already established in the 13th Century. That community was destroyed during World War II, but its history lives on. This Master’s Thesis represents the most comprehensive and scholarly historical overview of Jewish Gąbin, with a particular focus on the 20th Century, inter-war period. The original was written in Polish and translated into English by Leon Zamozc. Click here to view… Read More »


Database of headstones in the Gąbin (Gombin) Jewish Cemetery

Matzevah of Pincus Chaja, brother of Bernard Guyer

The Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (Wirtualny Cmentarz) has researched hundreds of Jewish cemeteries through our Poland and created a database of the headstones, documenting all available information including a photo, the text in Hebrew and, in some cases, a translation to English. Click here to view the project’s website. Toggle between Polish and English translation using the Polish and English flag icons in the right side of the navigation bar. Go to Database and… Read More »


Gombin Yizkor Book – Available for Purchase

Gombin. The Life and Destruction of a Jewish Town in Poland. Published by the Gombin Society, Knight Printing Corp, 1969. We now have a link to buy your own Gombin Yizkor Book! A reproduction copy of the complete Yizkor Book can be purchased from the Yiddish Book Center, reprinted from the Yizkor Book collection in the New York Public Library. Click here to go to a form to buy the book. For additional information about… Read More »


Michael Ber Identified – Jewish Prisoners at Buchenwald Concentration Camp

This well-known photo shows Jewish prisoners at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp at the end of WW II. Circled in red at the right is the figure of Gombiner, Michael Ber, who was identified by Dahlia Libin (nee Ber), his granddaughter who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  Michael Ber, z”l, was the son of Abraham and Miriam Ber. Click on the photo below to enlarge. Another Gombiner, Ben Guyer, can be seen standing to the right… Read More »


The Hebrew Popular School in Gombin – the Children’s Mandolin Orchestra

The Hebrew Popular School in Gombin – the Children’s Mandolin Orchestra ~1925, (from the archive of Meir Holtzman z”l). The unforgettable music teacher Icek Rembaum (center). Meir Holcman is standing 2nd to the right. From the book: “Płock the History of An ancient Jewish Community in Poland, Tel Aviv”, 1967, page 442. By Icek Rembaum, a teacher and an educator in Gombin. He was born in Płock and served as the director of the Hebrew… Read More »


Jews Who Found Refuge in Łodz

This photo was provided by Gombiner, Israel Baruch, who is the young boy seated on the floor at the left. It shows a group of Jews who found refuge in Łodz, Poland in 1946 after World War II. Some survived Nazi concentration camps or places of hiding, and others returned from Russia. Avram Zychlinski, brother of Rajzel Zychlinsky, is seated near the right in the first row with his hands crossed. He escaped from Poland… Read More »


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