In the photo: the walk on the Alley. Little Berek/Berel, while walking on the Alley, was at the age of the older boy in the background. The source of the photo: “Ostrowiec: a monument on the ruins of an annihilated Jewish community”. The Association of Ostrovtser Jews. Tel Aviv 1971. page 26
Monika Pastuszko, 2014.03.30
An article published originally at blogwbudowie.blogspot.com, in Polish
The 3rd May Alley. The promenade for sabbath walks
Berel Blum was born in 1925. He lived in a house by the Market square. In fact, at that time his name was Berek Blumensztok (spelling: blumenshtock). His father, old Blumensztok, delivered stuff to the manor. He was a ropemaker. Berel-Berek had a few siblings. That’s how he reminded his childchood as an elderly man, in 1996 or 1997.
At the day of sabbath we would eat some tchulent. Parents stayed at home after the dinner to take a rest. Children would go out for a walk or to play.
As we were older, usually we chose walks. There was a convenient street for walks, it was a main street called the 3rd May Alley. A lot of girls and boys used to walk there on the shabbath evenings. We had a beautiful park by that main street. We would sit there and took a rest. Finally, late at evening, we came back home.*
Great number of inhibitants of the Alley of 3rd May were Jewish, and the trees at the Alley were planted by the jewish councilman Ludwik Wacholder. After the Holocaust the Alley still functioned for some time as a promenade. But on Friday evenings it must have been too empty without sabbath strollers. Later the traffic on Alley rose and the custom of walks died. The trees planted by Wacholder are still there.
* Blum, Berel Interview 466. Visual History Archive. USC Shoah Foundation. http://sfi.usc.edu. Access: 7.12.2014.