Ostrovtse map

Sites of Jewish Historical Map of Ostrowiec  -DRAFT PAGE

Prepared by Wojtek Mazan

 

Ostrowce is the name of our town in Yiddish, and the nominative case of the plural form of the name in Polish.

Pretty well from the very start, Ostrowiec was a community of Poles and Jews. It was established in 1597, and  the first reference to the local Jewish residents dates back to 1631. From the second half of the 17th century, the number of the Jewish people in Ostrowiec grew, eventually surpassing the Polish population in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the interwar period, this urban area expanded significantly, and  industry developed. It was then that Ostrowiec changed from a town with a shtetl character to an ambitious modern city. Just before World War II, the Jewish community was slightly more than one third of the population of Ostrowiec.

World War II ended the unique nature of  Jewish Ostrowiec. In April 1941, the German occupiers established a ghetto in the town. It included the old town square with adjoining streets, taking up nearly the entire  historic city center. More than 16,000 Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto, including those herded out from the Konin area and from Vienna. About 10 percent of the people in the ghetto died of hunger and disease. The surviving ghetto Jews  were  transported away from October 1941 to March 1943, when the Ostrowiec Ghetto was liquidated. It is estimated that nearly 95 percent of the local Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Few survivors returned to Ostrowiec after the war, but those who did quickly left after the Kielce pogrom in July 1946.

There is no street in Ostrowiec that would have a Jewish citizen as a patron. We will not find a Jewish student among the proud graduates of the schools of Ostrowiec. The Holocaust destroyed the Jewish culture; the vast majority of documents highlighting Jewish Ostrowiec  have been lost or destroyed. We rarely managed to find exact dates  to help describe the Jewish historical sites in town. Most of the information  collected refers to the interwar period. We were not able to specify many places important to Jewish Ostrowiec. In many instances, we had to resort to expressions like "the former site of" or "non-existing". We present this modest map to the users, fully aware of its numerous shortcomings. However, we are also aware that contemporary Ostrowiec is one great "former place".

Wojtek Mazan, Jacek Podsiadło, Łukasz Wójcik

 

 

Authors: Wojtek Mazan, Jacek Podsiadło, Łukasz Wójcik

Editor: Jacek Podsiadło

Translation: Zbigniew Talaga

Graphic design: Maciej Biedka

Implementation: Wojtek Mazan, Anna Boroń

Publisher: The Culture-Creating Association "Nie z tej Bajki"

In cooperation with: The Historical and Archaeological Museum in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski

The project is co-financed by Forum for Dialogue

 

Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski 2024

 

 Below text is not final version but a draft, pre-edited version, subject to minor errors. An edited version will be available later in 2025.

  1. Town Square. The Central square of the town, during the last hundred years of the Jewish presence in Ostrowiec, also the heart of their life. Since the very beginning, the Jews arriving in the town preferably settled in its center. Thus, the square and the neighboring streets were gradually assuming a Jewish character. More and more Jews owned houses around the town square. In the early 19th century, most of the houses belonged to the Jews. Markets arranged in the town square played a special role: the Jews were the main buyers of the crops and goods delivered by farmers whereas the latter were an important part of the customers of Jewish craft workshops, stores and inns. During World War II, the town square was inside the ghetto. It was where Jewish citizens of Ostrowiec were gathered during the liquidation of the ghetto then transported to the Treblinka death camp.
  2. Wąska Uliczka. One of the "landmarks" of Ostrowiec is commonly called so (Narrow Lane). It is a narrowing which is really a continuation of Kościelna Street. The Jews called it Das Schmole Gesel, and jokingly also called Wall Street due to the countless stores, service facilities and craft workshops bunched up within a short distance.
  3. The Lewi House. Building on the corner of Wąska and Okólna streets, once home of Chaim Lewi and his wife Chaja Hendla. Chaim used to run a wine shop here, and Chaja had a haberdasher's shop. Having married their daughter Matla, Josek Nuta Sylman lived here, too. He was a teacher at the yeshiva. His parents were Rabbi Dawid Sylman and Jenta, nee Halsztuk, tzadik Halsztuk's daughter (see 55).
  4. The Alkichen and Cukier House. The building occupied by the Cukier, Adler, Langier and Erlichson families, with Hersh Alkichen's fur store downstairs. Miriam Ziegler, a Holocaust survivor, is Alkichen's granddaughter (see 131).
  5. The Ajzenman House
  6. The Zylberman House
  7. The Szajn House
  8. The Krongold and Żabner House
  9. The Briks and Bederman House
  10. The Lejzor Guterman House. The middle and most gorgeous of the three tenement houses boasting their neo-Gothic facade in the western frontage of the town square hides three tenement houses which were owned by Berl Rosenman, Aron Lejzor Guterman and Jankiel Nisengarten. The middle, most imposing building housed a shop that specialized in imported goods and tobacco products run by Guterman. He was the father-in-law of Abram Mordechaj Alter, a Hasidic merchant, and grandfather of siblings Jochweta and Naftali Alter who survived the war with the help of Henryk Małkiewicz, Righteous Among the Nations.
  11. The Przepiórka House. A low building at 1 Nowa Street that adjoins the town square with its shorter side. The house belonged to Lejb Przepiórka. In the 1930s, there were a drugstore and "Wholesale Pharmacy Products Trading House" owned by Salomon Grosman.
  12. Górna Połać. A customary name for the characteristic northern frontage of the town square and the area behind it up to Stodolna Street, commonly referred to in Yiddish as Hoche Tzahl. It exists owing to the now leveled elevation where Nowa Street was separated with a railing from the town square. The elevation was used as a natural stage for celebrations and manifestations held here.
  13. The Fuks Family House. The building in which Małka Dobra (Dwora) nee Fuks and her husband Mosze Aszer ran a store with building materials and hardware. Their grandson Leon Fuks survived the Holocaust because the Pastuszka family were hiding him (see 81). In hiding, he wrote a poem, "Odjazd", ["Departure"] that describes the liquidation of the Ostrowiec Ghetto. The poem survived up to this date.
  14. The Esther Mintzberg House
  15. The Pfeffer House. In the past, Saul Pfeffer's house, which housed the second oldest bookstore in Ostrowiec. In 1901, he established the bookstore along with a paper and stationery shop. Saul's brother was the famous banker from Ostrowiec, Józef Pfeffer (see 112).
  16. The Frydman House. Office of six Jewish guilds: shoemakers, bootmakers and saddlers; wood and metal craftsmen; tailors and similar jobs; butchers; barbers, photographers; watchmakers and jewelers; bakers and confectioners.
  17. The Kłos Family House
  18. The Szmul Mintzberg House
  19. The Wajcman House
  20. The Najchauz and Różany Families House. Property of Mosze Mendla Najchauz (Neuhaus) who ran a fancy goods shop on the ground floor and Froim Różany, banker (see 58). In the 1930s, there was the "Zachęta" photo studio, whose owner is unknown. Apart from the Najchauz and Różany families, the tenement house was home to families of Rozenbaum the baker, Birencwajg, Ejbeszyc, Rozenberg and Wortman the merchants, the widow of Kuperwaser the merchant, Grynglas the shoemaker and Gelgold the tinsmith (he migrated to America in 1929). Nachman Baran was killed by the Germans in the backyard of the building during the liquidation of the ghetto.
  21. "Ostrowcer Cajtung" magazine editorial office. A tenement house that once stood at 8 Rynek [8 Town Square]. For a short period of time, it housed the editorial office of "Ostrowcer Cajtung", weekly magazine serving Ostrowiec, Opatów and the region. The magazine editors, Lejb Rotsztajn and Mendel Rozenberg, declared it was nonpartisan and apolitical. It had a circulation of 500 copies; the price was 10 groszy. Only few issues were published.
  22. The Szpilman House. Family home of founders and members of a klezmer band, the Szpilman Orchestra, popular in the early interwar period. Brothers Zyla and Izrael Lejb Szpilman, who lived here, established the band in 1889 under the auspices of the Ostrowiec Jewish Society. Members of the Bajgelman (see 122) and Barszcz families also played in the band. Ruben Szpilman, (see 120), Izrael Lejb's son, was the most respected musician. He was father of eight musicians and an uncle to the famous Władysław Szpilman.
  23. The Alterman House. An apartment and small furniture factory here belonged to Mosze (Marian) Alterman, one of the wealthier citizens of Ostrowiec, and chairman of the Makabi sports club. Alterman survived the war despite of his refusal to carry on working for the Jewish Council for which he was sent to Auschwitz. His wife Adela nee Zaidenberg was hiding in Warsaw after the liquidation of the ghetto, but she was killed after she was turned in to Germans by the neighbor to whom the Altermans had entrusted their property. Their daughter Lusia (born in 1938) survived the war; she was hidden in the Franciscan Sisters Convent, in Brwinów. In 1950, Alterman was forced to pay a few thousand zloty to get Lusia out of a children's care facility, in Helenówek; the manager had wanted to adopt the girl. Both Alterman and his daughter migrated to Israel. Lusia, who later was known as Lea Balint, helped those who lost their identity in their childhood during the Holocaust. She helped more than 100 Holocaust survivors track down their true Jewish identities and family histories.
  24. The Kudłowicz Family House. Family home of siblings Szlama and Henia Kudłowicz who survived the Holocaust with the help of Henryk Małkiewicz, Righteous Among the Nations.
  25. The Szlama Pancer House. Once property of Szlama and Drejzla Pancer. Their eldest son, also named Szlama, used to sell tobacco products on Siennieńska Street. The Bajgelmans and Plichtentrajs who were relatives to the Pancers, also lived here.
  26. The Tenenbaum House
  27. The Rozenblat House
  28. The Kopel Pancer House
  29. The Borensztajn House
  30. The Cukierfajn and Naparstek House
  31. The Bajgelman Apartment. The place where once stood a building at the corner of Szeroka and Stodolna streets (the latter was to be renamed after Abram Malinger, physician from Ostrowiec, but the plan war interrupted the plan). Leon (Lejzor) Bajgelman (Beigelman), a local official and social activist, lived in the building. For many years he was secretary of the Jewish Religious Community that was housed in the neighboring building. (see 77). He was also an alderman in the Ostrowiec Town Board. (see 84). He was known as a good speaker and with a commitment in defending the interests of Jewish community, for which he used to be attacked by anti-Semites. Bajgelman, his wife Róża and daughter Ruta died in the Holocaust. In 1941, the building was also home to Hinda Małach (Malahi), who, with her husband Chanina Szerman Małach, wrote an unpublished memoir about their Holocaust experiences.
  32. The Mintzberg House. The oldest building in Ostrowiec, dating back to the 18th century, on Szeroka Street (Joselewicz Street in the years 1938-1939), formerly serving as a postal inn. Before the war, the house belonged to the heirs of Pinkas Mincberg.
  33. The Frydlewski House. This house, which no longer exists, was the home of merchant Mosze Frydlewski. On the night of October 10-11, 1942, after the first day of the liquidation of the ghetto, young Jewish people from the so-called Brojde Group (see 64): Lejb Rappaport, Sura Silman and Dawid Szulman attempted to set fire to the roof of this building. The fire was to stop the clearance or at least disrupt the Nazi plan. The Brojde Group’s efforts were frustrated by torrential rain.
  34. The Pancer House and Gertner Apartment. This building once stood at the pre-war exit of Sienkiewicz Street, property of Froim Pancer who was murdered on April 28, 1942 with his son Hersz Dawid. The four-member family of merchant Izrael Dawid Gertner probably moved into the house in the late 1930s. Gertner's son Abe was killed at the age of 18 in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Abe’s sister Bajla (Bela), who was four years younger, was the only one in the family to survive the Holocaust, which included a stint in Auschwitz. She then returned to Ostrowiec and later moved to a kibbutz in Kielce. At age 17, she was killed in the Kielce pogrom, in 1946.
  35. Rozenfeld's Store. There was a building here which housed a "Colonial Goods and Grocery Store", owned and operated by Lejzor Rozenfeld. Before the war, it was one of six stores which offered "colonial goods". There was also the Warsaw "Haberbusch and Schiele" brewery bottling plant on the premises.
  36. The 1863 Fire. The area of a passage, which had no name, from what was then called Tylna Street (which was to be renamed Ber Meisels Street, in 1938). On the night of June 26-27, 1863, the largest fire in the town’s history broke out in a building which belonged to Hersz Lerner, a sofer, a Torah scribe. About 150 buildings, most of them owned by Jews, burned down. The synagogue was also damaged. The fire killed four people; 563 were victims of the blaze. After the fire, money was raised throughout the regional Radom Governorate to help the fire victims.
  37. The Wolgelernter House. The family home of Jechiel Itamar Wolgelernter (1844-1933) once stood here. Wolgelernter was a Hasid, friend of Ostrowiec Rabbi Halsztuk (see 55). His grandson Chaim Icchak Wolgelernter (1911-1944) studied with Rabbi Chaskiel Halsztuk (see 38). During the war, Chaim wrote a diary and poems that were published in 2015. Jechiel Itamar Wolgelernter's gravestone has been preserved in the Jewish cemetery lapidarium.
  38. The Halsztuk House. This was the site of the spacious house of Rabbi Majer Chil Halsztuk (Meir Jechiel ha-Lewi Halstock - see 55), his wife Ruchla and children Jenta and Chaskiel. He took over the function of Ostrowiec Rabbi after his father. He also established the yeshiva Bejs-Meir. In Sandomierz, the Germans murdered him, his wife Bajla Mirla nee Horowitz and seven sons. In 1924, Dawid Sztajn, a fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was born in the old building; he was the only combatant from the Ostrowiec group of Jewish Combat Organization who survived the war.
  39. The Korenwasser House. The building once stood on the corner of Zatylna (now Tylna) and Mała streets (the latter does not exist anymore). Baker Szymon Korenwasser and his family lived here before the war. His son Chaskiel (1925-1991) survived the Holocaust, and then migrated to France. There, Chaskiel, who later went by the name Charles Corrin, was involved in researching and commemorating the Holocaust, and helped finance Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah.
  40. Starokunowska Street Well. One of the ten public water wells in interwar Ostrowiec, and one of three such wells in the upper part of the town. All that remains of the well is a post-war pump with a lever. Earlier, water was pumped with the use of a showy two-wheel mechanism. The well was used by local residents; paid water carriers equipped with yokes were called wassertregers in Yiddish. During the war, the ghetto Jews were allowed to use only one well and only at certain times. The well was probably located in the northern frontage of the town square, on Nowa Street near the corner of Iłżecka Street.
  41. Monument of Ostrowiec Jews. Unveiled in 2015, the stone pays homage to the Jews of Ostrowiec killed during the Holocaust. The granite plaque fixed to the boulder has an inscription in Polish, English and Hebrew: "In memory of about 15000 Jews from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski and the vicinity murdered by the German genociders during the World War II. Nearby stood a synagogue desecrated and demolished by the German occupiers".

42.The Ostrowiec Synagogue. The former site of the Ostrowiec Synagogue, the center of religious and social life of the Jewish community. The larch wood synagogue had replaced an earlier house of prayer in 1714, which was destroyed by fire. The beautifully decorated synagogue on the Kamienna Escarpment was the center of a complex, which included a beth midrashes, or study hall (see 2), a mikvah (see 3), and kosher slaughterhouse. During the war it was profaned by Germans, and pulled down in unclear circumstances after the clearance action of October 1942.

  1. Beth Midrashes. They were religious and educational centers located near the synagogue. They played the functions of a house of prayer, school and reading room. Three such centers were focused at one place in Ostrowiec: in what was called the old beth midrash, which survived a fire in 1713, seniors used to pray; in the new one, merchants and craftsmen; and in the small one, porters, butchers, bakers and cart drivers prayed. During the war, due to typhus epidemics in February 1940 and March 1942, an isolation hospital was arranged for Jews. The hospital, under the management of Dr. Dawid Majer, had a dedicated staff that included Dr. Abramowicz Junior, Dr. Wajswohl from Łódź, Dr. Mojżesz Schieber (see 111), nurse Mirjam (Mania) Gotlieb and M. Dichterowa the pharmacist who cared for their patients with devotion. In October 1942, during the deportation, all the hospital patients were murdered at the site. The buildings were destroyed towards the end of the war.
  2. The Lederman Tannery. A prosperous hides and skins tanning plant owned by brothers Dawid and Jakub Lederman, established in 1905 by Eliasz Lederman, was one of a few such plants in this industry in Ostrowiec. The company’s imposing headquarters, built on a pond in 1923 designed by Stefan Wąs, attested to their incredible success. The building survived the war, and in the period of the People's Republic of Poland it housed several small enterprises. Its picturesque ruins could still be admired until 2013.
  3. The Lederman House. Mosze Lederman (1899-1942), a merchant, member of the Town Council, and founder and president of the Mizrachi association of Ostrowiec, lived in a building that once stood at 38 Starokunowska Street. He also founded and took care of the Jawne school (see 69). Mosze died in the ghetto; a headstone marking his life and death is part of the lapidarium (see 53). His wife Hinda and daughters Cywia, Chana and Lea were murdered in the Treblinka death camp.
  4. The Lejzor Lederman House. Tanner Lejzor Lederman lived in a house that once stood at what was then 34 Starokunowska Street. In a an anti-Semitic attack at this location, on March 19, 1945, a squad of the former underground Home Army killed Fajga Krongold (see 127), Chaja Szpigiel (see 111), Izrael Lejb Lustig and Otylia Szrajer; the attack left Leon Szpilman (see 114), Maria Szpilman, Chawa Adler, Fajwel Gryner, Fajga Alkichen and Jankiel Lustig wounded. Kazimierz Markwart and Ludwik Krzymiński were charged with murder and sentenced to death.
  5. The Sztern House
  6. The Wajnberg House
  7. The Zygielbaum House
  8. The Zajfman House. This one-story house with a decorative attic, one of the few remaining buildings of the former Jewish district west of the town square, belonged to Szmul Zajfman, a successful dealer in spirits. It is not clear whether two Jewish policemen in the Ostrowiec Ghetto, Abram Zajfman and Lejb Zajfman, were related to him. After the war the two ghetto police officers were accused of sadism, mistreatment of Jews, rapes and looting.
  9. The Jewish Cemetery. The place where the Jews from Ostrowiec and the vicinity were buried since at least the 1730s. Before the Holocaust, the cemetery covered an area of 3.5 hectares. There were plenty of headstones of traditional forms, made of local sandstone. The fenced area was accessed through a gate located in the south-eastern corner. Of the many oak trees that used to grow here, only one survived. During the war, German occupiers committed mass murders of the Jews here. The cemetery was deliberately destroyed, and the headstones were used for paving streets and squares. After the war, the headstones were also damaged by vandals or stolen. In the early 1950s, burials stopped taking place at the cemetery and the graveyard was turned into a park. The bodies are still buried there. Currently, it is the property of the State Treasury entered in the register of historical monuments.
  10. The Mass Grave. The remains of about a thousand Jewish people, murdered during the ghetto liquidation in October, 1942, are in a mass grave or graves in this location. The bodies of the victims had been partly burned before they were buried. Executions were probably performed here, too. It is no longer possible to determine the exact location of the executions. In 2024, one of the graves was discovered. It was marked with a wooden matzevah with the inscription: "Here rest Jews of blessed memory who were murdered at the time of the Holocaust".
  11. The Lapidarium. A place where matzevot are exposed. About 150 matzevot have been preserved at this memorial site. They mainly date back to the 1920s and 1930s. The lapidarium was established in the early 1960s when the cemetery was closed. Broken headstones were used to build a wall around the municipal cemetery on Długa Street, and whole headstones were arranged in rows here. This arrangement marks the former Jewish cemetery, however the headstones are oriented to the west instead of the east. In the late 1970s, headstone fragments excavated during street work were collected here. For years, the place was abandoned and deteriorated. In the 1990s, the old cemetery site was fenced off and designated a historical monument. In 1997, Benjamin Yaari-Wald of Israel renovated the lapidarium at his own expense.
  12. The Oak in the Cemetery. A historical sessile oak tree, about 300 years old, planted probably when the cemetery was established. It is 26 meters high and its trunk is 430 centimeters in circumference. It is a natural monument.
  13. The Ohel of Rabbi Halsztuk. An ohel, a structure that shelters the grave of Rabbi Majer Chil Halsztuk (1850-1928), who was deemed a tzadik beginning in 1892. He was known as the Ostrowcer Raw (Master of Ostrowiec). In his Talmudic studies, Halsztuk used pilpul, an ancient method of seeking the truth via a detailed analysis of a Talmudic text and discussion about it. He was interested in astronomy and mathematics. In 1889, he became the Rabbi of Ostrowiec. At the same time, he began a life-long fast: he used to have only a slice of bread before midnight. It was only on Shabbat when he would indulge in a full meal. He wrote Or Tora (Light of the Thora), a commentary on the Book of Genesis, published in 1921, in Piotrków. The original ohel was destroyed during World War II. In 2015, a new ohel was built as a result of Yehuda Leib Halstuk’s efforts. In the lapidarium, there is a concrete headstone for the tzadik, from 1948. It was made by Jewish survivors of Ostrowiec.
  14. The Brothel. This was the site of the local "house of debauchery". It was run by Aba Grojsfeld. According to a registry that recorded residents of the place, thirty-three young women, Jewish and Catholic, offered their services at Grojsfeld’s brothel between January 1921 and February 1928.
  15. The Gestapo. The buildings at 61 and 63 Sienkiewicza Street housed the Gestapo during the war. The basement was used as a prison; on the second floor, Today, behind the building, in an athletic field, there is a sand pit, where Jewish and Polish prisoners once were executed (see 58).
  16. The Execution Site. The area known as "pits", in and around an athletic field, was the place where the Gestapo executed people; Among the victims there were also Jews, even after the Ostrowiec Ghetto had been liquidated. It is believed the remains of the victims are still buried there.
  17. The Sawmill in the Kuźnia Housing Estate. In 1890, Zygmunt Wielopolski established a wood-processing plant here. Since 1905, it was owned and operated by Izrael Heine, the company grew under his sons Szmul and Lejb (see 65, 74) and his brother-in-law Jochen Silman (see 64).. It was a big enterprise, which covered a few hectares and employed dozens of people. Equipped with a steam motor, the sawmill specialized in the production of planks, logs, laths and slats. In 1943, the property was confiscated by the German occupiers, and then destroyed.
  18. The Collection Point. The place where the Jewish people were herded together during their displacement and transport. On October 10, 1942, after the selection at the Town Square, Jews who were not assigned for work were led to the athletic field at the pre-war Primary School No. 1. There were more than 10,000 women, children and elderly people. They were held here without shelter, food or water for days; in some cases for as long as ten days. They were escorted along Sienkiewicza and Starokunowska streets and Aleja, to the railroad station where trains were waiting for them to be transported to the Treblinka death camp (see 130). Apartment blocks now stand in the area of the former school athletic field. There is also a smaller athletic field.
  19. The All-Boys Junior High School. The school building now houses Chreptowicz High School. In the years 1917-1934, the school was located here but in a building which has not been preserved. The building was erected by merchant Józef Pfeffer as Russian barracks for the purpose of providing protection to Jews after the 1904 pogrom (see 93). Few Jewish students attended the school. Jakub Holler taught Latin and German at the school.
  20. "Amor" Candy Factory. In the 1930s, the "Amor" candy factory operated in one of the buildings that had made up the old Russian barracks. It was founded by Lejb Berman. When Mosze Katz married Hersz Berman’s daughter Gila, this factory of candies, biscuits and wafers was operated by the Berman and Katz families. Their son Rubin Katz, who survived the Holocaust as a boy, wrote the memoir Gone to Pitchipoï.
  21. Papa Szymański's Pension. This was a four-unit tenement house owned by Wiktoria and Jan Szymański. During World War II, the pension was typically referred to as the PPS (the abbreviation for the Polish Socialist Party). At that time, an underground school and press printing house operated here. It was also a hiding spot for Polish activists being hunted down by German occupation officials. The greatest merit of the Szymański family was saving about 40 Jewish residents of Ostrowiec. Through his contacts with the Town Hall, Jan Szymański, a PPS member, teacher and former president of an organization called the Nonpartisan Bloc of Cooperation with the Government, provided Jewish people with Aryan documents based on birth certificates of Poles who were no longer alive, obtained through the Catholic parish. Szymański’s daughter, Ewelina Lipko-Lipczyńska, who helped her sister Wanda’s Jewish school friends and others to escape from the ghetto, was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1966.
  22. The Silman House. Chaim Fiszel Silman built this tenement house in 1922. Silman and his wife Marjem Kajla nee Eiger and their family, along with his wife’s extended family, lived here; part of the building was also rented out to the Bejs-Jakow secondary school for girls. The Silmans' daughters, Basia and Sura, and Marjem Kaila's nephew Abram were active in the Jewish resistance movement during the war. In 1942, with the Brojde Group (see 33), they set up a bunker in the building, and survived the liquidation of the ghetto. The three were members of the Jewish Combat Organization and were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
  23. The Szmul Heine House. This stately tenement house was pulled down in 2014. It was built by Szmul Heine in 1913. He was one of the affluent Heine brothers who were gabbais, honorable synagogue wardens. They owned the Heine Brothers company, established in the early 1930s, along with other factories and plants (see 59, 74). In the 1930s, the building housed a yeshiva, the "Jesoda-Hatora" school for boys, and the Bejs-Josef Talmudic College run by Rabbi Mordechaj Szymenowicz. During the war, the German occupiers organized the offices of the Judenrat in the building. The music school that now stands on the premises obtained a reconstructed facade that reflects the original structure.
  24. The Abramowicz House. The building dates back to the 1930s. It was the home and medical office of Maurycy Abramowicz, a gynecologist and internist widely known among the residents of Ostrowiec.
  25. Site of Dr. Wacholder’s Death. Józef Gawlicki's home in front of which Dr. Ludwik Wacholder, a dentist and social activist, was murdered. In the early interwar years, Wacholder was a respected member of the sanitary and education commissions of the Town Council. He is a symbol of the Polish-Jewish story of Ostrowiec. His murder is also a symbol of the slaughter of the Jewish intelligentsia on April 28, 1942, when 36 people were murdered in the streets, and 72 people were transported to Auschwitz. Before the war, Rabbi Mordechaj Szymenowicz lived in the Gawlicki house.
  26. The Rozenman House. Henoch Rozenman's tenement house was also the site of the "Palma" soap factory. Besides the Rozenman family, members of the Lakryc family who were factory foremen also lived here. In the mid-1920s, Rozenman was an alderman of the Town Council and a member of the Town Board. He was active in the finance and food sections. His daughter Róża survived the Holocaust (thanks to Ewa Lipko-Lipczyńska and Jan Szymański; - see 59). She migrated to Israel after the war.
  27. The Jawne School. This was the location of two Jewish schools run by the Mizrachi Society and the Jawne Jewish Cultural and Educational Association. Both schools were established by the Mizrachi party. They combined religious and secular education. Classes were taught in Polish and Hebrew. One of the principals was Icchak Tzwi Wiener, a prominent Mizrachi activist. The building, erected in the 1920s, was also used for social gatherings and cultural and political events. In the years 1940-1942, the building housed the kitchen of the Jewish Social Mutual Assistance run by Kalman Szajnfarber.
  28. The Rembrandt Studio. In the 1930s, Szmul Muszkies and his wife Małka nee Angienicka operated the Rembrandt Artistic Photography Lab and Portrait Studio at this site. In the annex of the building, the Muszkies family had a spatial atelier that offered natural light for photography. Szmul (45) died in the Holocaust. Małka survived the war and migrated to Canada with her daughters Chaja (Helen Mueller) and Ruta (Ruth Webber). The Gertner family probably lived in the back of the annex until the mid-1930s (see 34).
  29. Księża Droga. The full road no longer exists, but a portion of it has been preserved as a path. In the interwar period, the road used to run to the Kurzacze and Jeleniec forest properties. During the Nazi occupation, the ghetto Jews were forced to march along this route to work at the so-called Jaeger ponds. At that time, the Jews had converted the swamps and small water reservoirs to fish ponds. Currently, the ponds are part of the "Gutwin" water reservoir of recreation center.
  30. The Szerman House
  31. The Fisz House
  32. The Lejb Heine House. This building at 42 Sienneńska Street was once owned by Lejb Heine, one of the renowned Heine brothers (see 59, 65). Beginning in 1918, off and on for about 20 years, Lejb Heine was a member of the Ostrowiec Town Council and president of the Jewish Community Council (see 77).
  33. The Rotter House. This building belonged to Bencjan Rotter, an entrepreneur who also operated a timber yard on the premises in the late 1930s. Beginning in 1937, Rotter was a member of the Jewish Community Council.
  34. The Szklarski House
  35. The Jewish Community. Mosze Boruch Orenstein's building once stood at this site, which, during the interwar period, housed the Board of the Jewish Religious Community Council. Orenstein was a member and then president of the organization. The Board and the Community Council jointly managed the finances of the community, maintained schools and charity organizations and they elected rabbis. However, those decisions were supervised by the county governor and province governor, which enabled state authorities to control the economic and political activities of all Jewish communities. The Ostrowiec Jewish Community received income mainly from fees for ritual slaughter, from its members' contributions and from the fees for maintenance of graves. The community maintained the rabbi, assistant rabbis, ritual slaughterers, cantors, a few officials, payment collector and gravedigger. In addition, the community paid pensions to widows of higher officials. On April 28, 1942, key members of the community were murdered in the offices of the Community: Froim Blum, Jankiel Blum, Bajla Cukierfajn, Liba Fiszer, Izrael Nachman Wajsfeld, Chaim Ida Kristal, Joel Ibenbaum and Josef Targownik (see 67).
  36. The Różany House with Sukkah. Before the war, this building belonged to Froim Różany, a merchant, banker and assistant alderman in 1916. The balcony on its rear wall is the only one of several such balconies preserved in Ostrowiec, which is known to have served as a sukkah. A Sukkah is a closed balcony used as an imitation of a hut during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
  37. The Szpira House
  38. The Major House
  39. The Brukirer House. A merchant named Lejzor Brukirer lived in this home, where, during the war, he hid Rabbi Aleksander Ziskind Ajzensztadt, also known as the Rebbe of Sandomierz, and the rabbi’s family. In the winter of 1941, the Brukirers and Ajzensztadts refused to obey the German order to turn in all fur coats. In a symbolic act of defiance, they burned the family fur coats in a stove. Lejzor's wife and their three sons – Pinkas, Szlama and Mosze – survived the Holocaust thanks to Marianna and Tadeusz Pastuszka who hid them in Chmielów. The Polish couple hid 17 Jewish people. In the 1980s, they were awarded the title of the Righteous Among the Nations.
  40. The Chajt House
  41. The Lerman House
  42. The Town Hall. The site of the local municipal government. Beginning with the first self-government elections in Poland in 1916, Jewish citizens were represented in the local government. In the 1920s, Jewish people held 10 and 9 of the 24 council seats; in the 1930s, Jewish council members held 13 and 8 of 32 seats. In the interwar period, Jewish aldermen in Ostrowiec included: Abram Bajnerman (see 89), Jankiel Blikzylber, Dawid Diament, Josef Finkelsztajn, Josef Halpern, Izrael-Idel Heine, Lejb Heine (see 74), Szmul Lewi, Nusym Nuta Kuperman, Moszek Lederman (see 45), Abram Jakub Mintzberg, Szmul Najdyk, Wolf Politański, Aron Josef Rubinsztajn, Szyja Ryba, Mojżesz Schieber, Róża Schieber (see 111), Szmul Szer, Ludwik Wacholder (see 67), Naftali H. Wajgenszperg, Dawid Zylberdrut and Szmul Zysman. Henoch Rozenman, Lejzor Bajgelman (see 94), Juda Racimora, Jakub Izaak Rubinsztajn (see 88) and Władysław Weinberger were Jewish members of the Town Board.
  43. St. Florian Square. In October, 1942, during the deportation, it was in this square the German occupiers gathered the Jews who had labor permits. Nearby, at the time, the Town Hall housed the German labor office (Arbeitsamt). The Jewish people herded here were mostly young men separated from their families. They were sent to labor camps of industrial plants in Ostrowiec, Starachowice and Skarżysko.
  44. The Wajnsztajn and Mandelkier House
  45. The Lipa House
  46. The Rubinstein Printing House. Jakub Izaak Rubinstein is believed to have started the firm in the 1920s. Rubinstein was an alderman of the Town Council in 1929, 1934 and 1939. Beginning in 1940, he was vice president of the Judenrat, and eventually was president. In 1944, he was murdered by the Germans in unknown circumstances.
  47. The Bajnerman House. This building was home to a family of feldshers, medical or surgical practitioners without full professional qualifications (who were common in this part of Europe). In the 19th century, Hersz Bajernman was a feldsher employed by the Town Hall; his son Alter and Alter’s son Abram were also feldshers. All these so-called unlicensed physicians lived here. The were popular among the people of Ostrowiec. In 1942, Abram Bajernman established a local chapter of the Left Poale Zion Party; prior to the ghetto years, he was an alderman in the Town Council and a member of its social welfare commission. His brother Eliasz Bajnerman, a barber and merchant, lived on Wąska Uliczka. The two brothers were shot dead by the Nazis on April 28 1942. (see 67).
  48. The Gotlieb House
  49. The Grynbal Printing House. Mosze Lejzor Grynbal (Grynblat) owned the "Grafika" printing house and operated it in this building. The printing business operated in the late 1930s. Grynbal and his wife Chaja Estera lived at 26 Town.
  50. The Fiszman Apartment. Szymon Fiszman and his family lived in a building that once stood at 14 Górzysta Street. Fiszman was chairman of the Ostrowiec chapter of the Bund and president of the Haulers Trade Union. He and his 19-year-old son Eliasz were killed April 28 1942 (see 67).
  51. Częstocicka Street. It was the steepest and most "Jewish" street in Ostrowiec in the past. It used to run from Starokunowska Street down, along the present stairs to Górzysta Street, and further to Młyńska Street. On July 23 1904, it was in the middle of the pogrom during which workers of the ironworks seriously wounded two Jews one of them fatally, and vandalized 147 Jewish houses. The workers did not loot the house owing to the self-defense organized by Rabbi Majer Halsztuk (see 55) organized self-defense forces, and, as a result, there was no looting of the homes.
  52. The Szmul Borensztajn House. Borenstein, the owner of a soda water factory, erected this tenement house in the early 1930s. Szmul, his wife Ałta Leja and three of their children died in Treblinka. Their son Jankiel (Jack) Borensztajn was the only family member who survived the Holocaust. In 1957, in Israel, Jack married Nesia Nisenbaum, another survivor from Ostrowiec. Their son, Avi Borenstein, is author and leader the association Jews of Ostrowiec Memorial Project which has for years been restoring the memory of Ostrowiec Jews.
  53. 95. The Mikvah. This building once housed the Jewish community’s mikvah. The structure is at the bottom of a slope, dropping down from where the synagogue once stood. The mikvah dated back to the early 19th century; it existed until the of the war. Water for the ritual bath came from Młynówka Creek, which is connected to the Kamienna River.
  54. The "Rembiszewski & Co." Mill. A group of Jewish entrepreneurs Bencjan Rembiszewski, Szlama Gottman, Szymon Rosenberg, Hersz Sztajnbał and Boruch Rubinsztajn owned and operated this mill. Beginning in the early 1930s, it was part of the electrical power network of Ostrowiec. It supplied electricity to the upper part of the town. The mill operated until 1940.
  55. The Watman House
  56. The Minc House
  57. The Goldsztejn House
  58. The Gelberg House
  59. The Rozencwajg House. Wolf Rozencwajg, who owned a soap and candle factory, along with tenement houses, lived in this home before the war. He had a few residential properties on Młyńska Street. His grandson, Froim Rozencwajg, survived the Holocaust. He hid in his home for a few weeks. He then worked for two months in the family’s factory that was taken over by a treuhänder, Stanisław Biedrzycki. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Froim was sent to a labor camp (see 135), then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He settled in France after the war.
  60. The Gutwilen Property. The property of Jankiel and Szyfra Gutwilen. It comprised a brick house where the couple lived with their four children, lemonade and soda water factory, and a stable. Szlama Gutwilen was the only of the family to survive the Holocaust. The buildings were used after the war and rebuilt many times. That is why they do not even resemble their original form and function.
  61. The House of the Niskiers and others
  62. The Blumensztok House. The house of a big family who earned their living as rope makers. Berel Blumensztok (Blum), son of Hersz and Sara nee Kudłowicz was the only one who survived.
  63. The Worcman House. In the interwar period, part of the building belonged to the Worcmans, and the other part was owned by the Polish Leśkiewicz family.
  64. The Milsztajn House. The building at 32 Kościelna Street. In the 1920s and 30s, Aron Milsztajn ran here a popular shop with clothes and accessories.
  65. The Aron Niskier House. The apartment and shop belonged to the Niskier family. They were purchased by Aron Niskier who came from Szewna and that is why he was commonly called "Aronek Szewner". The shop covered the front part of the building whereas the apartment (with a separate entrance from Młyńska Street) was located back in the yard. The shop offered mainly clothes, but also bicycles and gramophones thrived in the 1930s owing to Aron's son Berel Niskier. For a short time after the war, there was the office of the County Committee of Jews here. Aron Friedenthal was the president of the Committee. At that time, the following Jews lived here from time to time: Szyja Szerman, Aron and Szyja Wajnberg, Fela Silman, Aron Wajnsztok, Tema Fajga Zelwer nee Gutholc, Chana nee Gesundheit Rozenman, Boruch Diament, Hersz Zylberberg, Mosze Wajnryb (future father of Geddy Lee, musician of the rock band Rush), Jakob Moszek Tauman, Jankiel Cytrynbaum and Chana Wurman.
  66. The Klajman House. The three-story tenement house erected to the order of Hersz and Sara Klajman nee Meisels. Sara was a granddaughter of Dow Ber Meisels, Chief Rabbi of Cracow and Warsaw, an entrepreneur and politician who actively supported Polish national uprisings. After they had gotten married, they opened a small bookstore in Ostrowiec. Their house was the place of meetings of the Jewish and Polish intelligetsia. During the war the building was a shelter for many people displaced from Konin and Łódź. The Klajmans had two sons and two daughters (only the latter survived the war). Hersz and Sara died in Treblinka in 1942.
  67. The Akiwa Roset House. A stately, characteristic for Ostrowiec tenement house built in 1912 that belonged to Akiwa (Kiwa) Roset (Rosset). Besides the apartment of the Roset family the building housed a branch of the "Gwarant" footwear factory, office of Mandel Gerszon Zeisel the lawyer (see 111), dentist's office of Hilary Malinger and a workshop of Nusyn (Natan) Kuperman the electrician. There were also a prayer room and charity organizations, House of Bread (Bejs Lechem), the Society of Visitors of the Sick, and the petty loan office. Gecel Goldsztejn's Photo Lab "Studio" was located in the annex. A trace of a mezuzah survived in the door frame until this day. The mezuzah itself was donated to the Mi Polin Foundation.
  68. The Szpigiel House. The place of a stately house of the Szpigiel family. Naftali Izrael Szpigiel, the head of the family ran a big company that traded in metal products. The company had a branch in Kielce too. Only two of his daughters survived the war. Chaja was killed in 1945 (see 46), and Małka migrated to Israel. The building was pulled down in the 1990s.
  69. The Wiślicki House. The tenement house built by merchant Chil Wiślicki. In the 1930s, the Schiebers, married couple both of whom were doctors, lived here. Róża was a laryngologist, and Mojżesz - a radiologist. They were both town council members in the 1930s. Before the war, one of the apartments was dwelled by Mandel Zeisel, a lawyer and an activist of the right wing of the Zionism. In 1939, Zeisel was appointed by the Nazis the president of the Judenrat (Jewish Council), a puppet office established solely to implement German plans. In December 1939, he organized help for a thousand of the Jews of Konin displaced to Ostrowiec. While playing this difficult function, Zeisel tried to maneuver between meeting the expectations of the Germans and alleviating the life of the Jewish community. For example, he distributed the amounts of contributions imposed by the Nazis proportionally to the financial situation of individual persons. That was why he was replaced by Germans with more docile Izaak Rubinstein. Forty-year-old Mandel Zeisel was one of those murdered by the Gestapo on April 28, 1942.
  70. The Pfeffer Bank. The building was erected on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the banker and entrepreneur Józef Pfeffer. The house was designed to the neo-Renaissance style, probably by Stefan Szyller. In the early 20th century, the building housed a police station, and during the Great War there was gendarmerie precinct. After 1918, "Dom Bankowy Józefa Pfeffera w Ostrowcu" (Józef Pfeffer's Bank in Ostrowiec) had its offices in the building. In 1928, the state purchased the building for the Municipal Court. It is currently one of the most stately buildings of Ostrowiec. It houses the police station.
  71. The Szpilman Plaque. The plaque that commemorates the pianist and composer Leon (Lejzor) Szpilman (Leo Spellman - 1913-2012). Leon came from the family of musicians of Ostrowiec (see 22). As a teenager he played in his father Ruben's band (see 120). After they had been displaced, he, his wife and his brother-in-law were hiding at Henryk Wroński's home on Denkowska Street. In 1945, he was wounded when Lederman's house (see 46, 124) was attacked, and he left for Canada. Soon after, he composed "Rhapsody 1939-1945", a monumental masterpiece that was first performed as late as in 2000. The plaque was unveiled in 2016 and Szpilman was then awarded the title of the Honorable Citizen of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.
  72. The Bajgelman House
  73. The Middle School for Girls. The first middle school in Ostrowiec. From 1918 it was at 8 Kilińskiego Street (today 9 Kilińskiego Street). Only few Jewish girls attended the school, rarely more than a few percent of the total number of students. Since 1931, this was the Stanisław Staszic school. It was obligatory for the students of the school to attend Roman-Catholic church services and religion classes. Lessons began and ended with prayers. On the turn of 1920s and 30s, Jakub Holler taught German here, and Ludwik Wacholder (see 67) was a school dentist for a year (1924/5).
  74. The Greber House. The site of the former family house of Isser Greber, one of the five sons of Baruch and Zelda nee Szerman. Isser was the only one of the family who survived the Holocaust. In 1944, right before the liquidation of the labor camp (see 135), he escaped to a forest. He joined the underground troops. Then, he volunteered for the Polish People's Army and he conquered Berlin. He migrated to Israel after the war.
  75. The Jaeger Brickyard. The former "Jadwigów" brickyard owned by Tomasz Głowacki (est. 1894). In the early 1940s, it was taken over under compulsory administration of treuhänder Franz Jaeger, and became the place of forced labor of Jews. It operated until September 1944. The following year it was destroyed by the Nazis during their evacuation from the town.
  76. The Social Insurance Company Hospital. The building of the Sickness Fund, and since 1933 - Social Insurance Company with a hospital. The hospital employed Polish and Jewish doctors. In 1935, there were 9 Jewish doctors of the total 36 physicians. Dermatologist and pediatrician Abram Jeleń (1889-1940 - probably murdered in Katyń) was the director of the department internal diseases.
  77. The Kierbel House. Hendla and Dawid Kierbel's house where Abram Kierbel was born in 1909. The Kargul family rented an apartment here before the war. When three years younger Marian Kargul died, Abram used his documents and became manager of the labor camp in Bodzechów (see 135). He saved many Jews by sending them to the camp. After the war he was accused of demanding ransom from the Jews, but the Citizens Jury of the Central Jewish Committee of Poland considered the charges as unproven and discontinued the proceedings. In the years 1953, 1958 and 1968 he stood trials before Polish courts charged with bribery and economic crimes. He was convicted to 2, 5 and 12 years of imprisonment.
  78. The Szpilman and Agater House. The place where a one-story wooden house stood until 1970s. Before the war, it belonged to tailor Szachna Agater and musician Ruben (Rywan) Szpilman (1869-1942). Ruben, Izrael Lejb's son (see 22), graduated from the Moscow conservatory. Besides official concerts, he used to play at wedding parties, balls, and he was a music teacher. Before the war, Ludwik Wacholder (see 67) used to live and see his patients in the house of Agater and Szpilman.
  79. The Bajnerman House. The other home of the Bajnerman family (see 89). It was located at the place where now McDonald's and Łysica Mall meet. Before the war it was number 40. The Bajnermans were involved in forbidden communist activities. Apart from Abram who was imprisoned after 1905, in the house at the Aleja lived also his brother Izaak, the barber and son Dawid who was accused in 1933 of preparation of communist leaflets, and, due his disability, he was convicted to police supervision. During the war, in the penal labor camp in Bliżyn, Izaak organized an escape of 25 Jewish prisoners. They were later – probably every one - shot by members of the NSZ [National Armed Forces]. He also planned an armed rebellion of the prisoners. The plan failed due to denunciation. He was then imprisoned in Auschwitz, Stutthof, Hailfingen and Dachau. He survived the Holocaust and left for Canada in 1948. He died in 1979.
  80. The Lejzor Bajgelman House. The place where the musically talented Bajgelman family used to live. Szymon Bajgelman played the clarinet in the Szpilman's klezmer orchestra of Ostrowiec (see 22). He, his daughter and eight sons used to play as a family band. Szymon's son Dawid Bajgelman was a violinist and violist but also a conductor, composer and author of lyrics. Among other things, he composed music for the first in Łódź performance of "Dybbuk" by Szymon An-ski. Only Chaim (later Harry) Bajgelman survived the Holocaust. He was a violinist, saxophonist and composer. When he migrated to the USA, he formed The Happy Boys jazz band in New York.
  81. The Miodownik House
  82. "Smołopap". Chaskiel and Jonasz Krongolds' company that specialized in production of greases, pitches and roofing felt. The factory located at the back of where the bus station is now prospered in the interwar period. During the war, Ludwik Krzymiński became its treuhänder, a volksdeutsch displaced from Poznań region. "Smołopap" employed about 200 Jews at that time. The Krongold brothers did not survive the Holocaust, but daughter of Jonasz Fajga Krongold did. She and three other Jews died on March 19, 1945 shot during a robbery of the former Home Army hit squad. The attack was organized by Krzymiński's son, Ludwik too (see 46). Among other things, money of "Smołołap" was stolen then. "Smołołap" operated until 1960s as Fabryka Papy i Smarów "under compulsory state administration". The company is commemorated in the dead-end lane Smolna.
  83. Rectification. "Ostrowiecka Rektyfikacja Spirytusu" [Ostrowiec Spirits Rectification], one of the largest plants of the pre-war Ostrowiec, established in 1912 by the Jewish entrepreneur Adolf Abram Dauman. In the 1930s, the plant was run with Michał Mendel Chein, and Juliusz and Balbina Bergiers. During the war, it was taken over by Germans, and in 1946, nationalized. Nobody of the Dauman family survived the war.
  84. The Erlich's Photo Lab. The tenement house owned by Nusyn Dawid Erlich. It housed his photo lab called Paris in the 1930s. Erlich offered his services since 1897 and he was the first photographer in Ostrowiec (although until 1921 his house was outside the boundaries of the town). He died in the Holocaust in 1942.
  85. The Place of Death of the Sztajn Family. The area where Stanisław Wiktorowicz had a concrete plant. Since July 1944, Wiktorowicz was hiding and using Emil Sztajn (Stein), his wife and their two sons, and on January 9, 1945 he murdered them all, probably with the help of other people whose names he never revealed. As late as two years after that the remains of the Sztajn family were accidentally found. They were immersed in the well. The perpetrator of this crime was sentenced to death.
  86. Railroad Ramps. The railroad sidings from which transports to death camps started during the liquidation of the Ostrowiec Ghetto in 1942. After the escorted march along the 3 May Avenue, the ones to be transported were stuffed in the railroad cars, 150 people in each. During the march and loading many people too weak or those trying to escape were murdered. The acts of cruelty were accompanied with the acts of heroism: the Holocaust survivor Rachel (Róża) Gutholz cherished the memory of Chana Grinblat whoa "with a child in her arms walked in the front of all the children of Ostrowiec who were directed to Treblinka. (...) Chana Grinblat of Szeroka Street was our Janusz Korczak.". In October 1942, three big transports left Ostrowiec: on October 14, 16 and 23. About 11,000 Jews of Ostrowiec died in the German camps. Only individual persons survived.
  87. The Lipa Baumstein House. A stately tenement house which was once a home to a big Baumstein family and a few tenant families. Lipa Baumstein (1865-1930) settled in the then Ostrówek before the Great War. He was a businessman who traded in groceries, fuel and building materials. He also provided transportation services. He made his mark by bequeathing large amounts for completion of the wall around the Jewish cemetery (see 51) and for a dormitory for boys who studied in yeshiva (see 65). His sons Ojzer (Ezra) and Szmul were the leaders of the Zionist movement in Ostrowiec.
  88. Zakłady Ostrowieckie. The biggest industrial plant of the town. The ironworks built in the 1830s were extended in the second part of the century and modernized by bankers Antoni Fraenkel and Władysław Laski, assimilated Jews. Throughout the existence of the steelworks there were no Jews among its employees, except for the period of World War II. Then, the ironworks were taken over by the occupiers, and became a place of slave labor of many Jews for whom a special camp was established next to the plant (see 131).
  89. The Labor Camp in Częstocice. A dozen of barracks fenced with barbed wire. Since April 1943, the camp was a prison for Jews of Ostrowiec who were left in the town after the ghetto liquidation. They were forced to hard, slave work mainly in the ironworks (see 130), in the brickyard (see 117) and at construction of the concrete plant. The area of the camp was a place of robbery, torment and murders perpetrated by German and Austrian supervisors, and by Ukrainian guards. Feldsher Nachman Alman and Dr. Pecker sacrificially cared of the prisoners. Prisoners hid children, some escapes occurred. In the beginning of August 1944 the camp was liquidated, and the prisoners were sent to Auschwitz. Separate transports brought there then 1,443 Ostrowiec Jewish men and 306 Jewish women. Among the latter, there were girls who later became symbols of the fate of Jewish children during the Holocaust. Miriam Frydman (Friedman - see 4), Rutka Muszkies (see 70) and Akiwa Roset's granddaughter (see 109) Pesa Balter were immortalized in the movie made by the Red Army to document liberation of Auschwitz. They were shown in the emblematic movie frames that were copied many times. At the end of the war, Sara Goldfinger was sent to the Neuengamme Camp near Hamburg where she was made to submit to pseudomedical experiments. On April 20, 1945, she was cruelly murdered in the former school in Bullenhuser Damm. Her fate was shared by nineteen Jewish children, another girl from Ostrowiec Lea Kligerman among them.
  90. The "Częstocice" Sugar Mill. The industrial plant, since 1871 it belonged to the company "Fabryki cukru i Rafinerii Częstocice" whose principal shareholders were Jan Gotlib Bloch (financier and industrialist of Jewish origin) and Antoni Edward Fraenkel (merchant and banker of Jewish origin, then owner of the Ostrowiec property) and others.
  91. The Wielopolski Palace. One of the most magnificent buildings in contemporary Ostrowiec. Built for the married couple Maria née Laski and Count Zygmunt Wielopolski around 1887. Maria came from a banking family of Jewish origin. Laski, co-owner of the banking house "S.A. Fraenkel", was the owner of the Ostrowiec estate since 1880. Currently, the palace building houses a branch of the Historical and Archaeological Museum, which has a collection of Judaica in its collection.
  92. The Place of the Murder in Bukowie. A bunker in the forest whose localization is not known. On February 9, 1943, members of the local organization of the Home Army swore in 14 Jews for members of the Home Army, and killed them immediately after that to robbed them. The victims were young conspirators who escaped the Ostrowiec Ghetto shortly before its liquidation. They wanted to join Polish partisan troops. This incident prevented two other groups from saving themselves although they were ready for the escape. Majer Lejb Worcman, Izaak Kenig, Aba Kudłowicz, Rywon Jakubowicz, Josef Frydland, Aleksander Glat, Dawid Grojskop, Moten Wajnsztok, Lejb Mauer, Szlama Szerman, Majlech Brafman, Kelman Grynberg were murdered. Tolek Nasielski and Szlama Cwajgman were wounded but they survived.
  93. The Labor Camp in Bodzechów. The labor camp in Bodzechów for the Jews of Ostrowiec. It functioned in the area of the unfinished Bodzechów concrete plant from September 1942 to February 1943. About 500 people were imprisoned there. The prisoners did slave work for the Austrian company Elin that was electrifying of the vicinity. The prisoners lived in barracks without heating. They were starving. They were often hiding their own children in the camp. During one of the control actions, the Gestapo found about 20 children. They were then shot dead in the Jewish cemetery in Ostrowiec (see 51).