Sefer Wierzbnik-Starachowice
Wierzbnik-Starachowitz; a memorial book Original Yizkor Book Edited by: Mark Schutzman Wierzbnik-Starachowitz Societies in Israel and the Diaspora, Published in Tel Aviv, 1973 Layout: Jonathan Wind Cover Design: Nina Schwartz Name Indexing: Bena Shklyanoy Hard Cover, 11” by 8.5”, 676 pages with illustrations and photographs.
About This Book
Starachowice, on the Kamienna River, began in the middle ages as a mining and metallurgy settlement. The city became part of Poland after the Partition of 1815 and its steelworks were taken over by the government. More heavy industry was added over the 19th and early 20th centuries. With partition, Jews began to settle in nearby Wierzbnik, once owned by the Benedictine abbey of Świętokrzyskie. Tradition holds that this town was named for its many willow trees (wierzba).
In the interwar period, Wierzbnik was annexed to its powerhouse neighbor, and the new town named Wierzbnik-Starachowice. By the 1930s, Jewish-owned factories here were producing flour, glass, ceramics, farm tools, iron, lumber, and building materials. There were more than 130 Jewish shops and stores. The community had 3 cheders, a public school, a Zionist primary school, a synagogue, a mikvah, several Hassidic shtiblech, and a cemetery. By 1935 the town had a population of 8000, where Jews were about 31 percent.
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 remaining Jewish residents were sent to labor camps in the area and, when those were liquidated, to Auschwitz, where most died.
The Jewish community of Wierzbnik-Starachowice is no more. This book, originally written in Hebrew and Yiddish by emigrés and survivors, shows what it was like and bears witness to its destruction.
Let us never forget.
Place Details
Alternate names:
Wierzbnik [Pol], Vierzhbinik [Yid], Vyerzhbnik [Rus], Wierzbnik-Starachowice [Pol, 1939-1952], Starachowice, Starakhovits, Strachovitza, Verzhbnik, Wierzbnik Starachow, Verzhbnik Starakhov, Vyerzbnik, Vyerzhbanik
Wierzbnik, Poland is located at 51°03' N, 21°05' E, 25 miles S of Radom, 24 miles NE of Kielce, 11 miles SW of Iłża. Since 1952, Wierzbnik is part of Starachowice
Nearby Jewish Communities:
Wąchock 3 miles WNW
Bodzentyn 9 miles SW
Skarżysko-Kamienna 9 miles WNW
Iłża 11 miles NE
Suchedniów 11 miles W
Kunów 11 miles SE
Waśniów 12 miles SSE
Nowa Słupia 13 miles S
Wierzbica 14 miles N
Jastrząb 15 miles NNW
Krajno 15 miles SW
Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski 16 miles ESE
Szydłowiec 16 miles NW
Sienno 17 miles E
Denków 17 miles ESE
Łagów 18 miles S
Skaryszew 20 miles NNE
Daleszyce 20 miles SW
Ćmielów 22 miles ESE
Opatów 23 miles SE
Kazanów 23 miles NE
Kielce 24 miles SW
Iwaniska 24 miles SSE
Wolanów 24 miles NNW
Ciepielów 25 miles NE
Raków 25 miles S
Radom 25 miles N
Lipsko 26 miles ENE
Skrzynno 27 miles NW
Bogoria 28 miles SSE
Tarłów 28 miles E
Ożarów 28 miles ESE
Pierzchnica 28 miles SSW
Przysucha 30 miles NW
Przytyk 30 miles NNW
Solec 30 miles E