Roots-Key : Fall/Winter 2007

Companion Website Article on “Museums, Large and Small”

Archives, libraries, and Jewish Museums in large cities have been sources of information about our ancestral towns. Small museums, located in towns of all sizes, may also have photographs, documents and artifacts about the Jewish people who lived there. Our readers have discovered small museums and shared this information with us for the Fall/Winter 2007 issue of Roots-Key which focuses on “Town-Wide Research.” Below you will find the museums sent to us in Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine.

Belarus

Baranovichi: Museum of local lore, history and economy
Begoml: National Glory Museum of Begoml 17 Sovetzkaya, 211730, Begoml (02157)33298 Bereza: Local History Museum of Bereza 67 Lenina, 225210, Bereza (01643) 22771 Bezdezh: “Bezdezhsky Fartushok” Local History Museum 9 Pionerskaya Street, Bezdezh village, 225848, Drogichin District (01644) 74999
Borisov: (Ghetto memorial)
Braslav: Institute of Culture 211970, Vitebsk Province 72 Sovietskaya Street (802) 15321445
Brest: Brest Province Local History Museum 60 K.Marksa, 224000, Brest (0162)239116 Fax (0162)237140
Brest: City History Museum 3 Levanevskogo, 224005, Brest (0162) 231765
Bykhov: Local History Museum of Bykhov District 21 Askalenko, 213320, Bykhov (02231) 21558
Diatlovo: Museum of Peoples’ Glory
Disna: Survivors of Disna, living in Israel, United States and Russia visited Disna in 1993 and obtained permission to erect a memorial stone with the inscription “here were killed 3700 Jews by the Nazis and their Belarus collaborators.” The local authorities and orphan home in Disna promised to take care of the memorial and the city dedicated a room for a little museum that tells the story of the Jewish population of Disna before the war. Some of the survivors returned seven years later and were happy to see that the different authorities kept their promise of taking care of the memorial and the museum.
Gantzevichy: Local History Museum of Gantzevichy 1 Zaslonova, 225432, Gantzevichy (01646) 21451
Gomel: Local History Museum of Gomel Province 4 Lenina Square, 246050, Gomel (0232) 539561
Gomel: Fame of War Museum. Branch of Local History Museum of Gomel Province 5 Pus hkina, 246050, Gomel (0232) 775741
Gorodok: History and Culture Museum Gorodok village, 222336, Molodechno District (01773) 28182
Grodno: Byelorussian State Museum of Religion History 8 Sovetskaya Street, 230023, Grodno (0152) 442401
Ivenetz: Museum of F.E. Dzerzhinskogo 222370, Ivenetz, 2 Muzeinaya Street (801) 77253583 Oleg Romanovsky director

photo of the Ivenets Museum and Oleg Romanovsky, the director. He is shyly holding up his medal from the government. – Submitted Florette Lynn

Kamenetz: “ Kamenetz Tower” Museum 39 Lenina, 225050, Kamenetz (01631)22564
Klimovichy: Local History Museum of Klimovichy District 69 Sovetskaya, 213633, Klimovichy (02244) 51865
Kobrin: Military and History Museum of A.V.Suvorov 16 Suvorova, 225860, Kobrin (01642) 25694
Kurenetz: Local History Museum in Kurenetz 2 Partizanskaya Street, Kurenetz village, Vileika District, Minsk Province Eilat Gordin Levitan purchased the home of her great grandparents in Kurenets in the name of JHRG of Belarus and is making it a museum. Kurenets Mayor; Viktor Ulizki, has the key. See her article in Roots-Key, Fall-Winter 2007.
Lida : Museum of local lore, history and economy
Minsk: State Museum of War History of the Republic of Belarus 15 Geroev 120-oi Divizii, 220056, Minsk (017) 2668200
Mir: Mir Branch of National Museum of Art Mir, 231444, Mir (01596) 23035
Mogilev Province: Local History Museum of Mogilev Province 1 Sovetskaya Square, 212030, Mogilev (0222) 257390
Mogilev: Museum of History of Mogilev 13 Leninskaya, 212030, Mogilev (0222) 229946 (0222) 220192
Molodechno: Local History Museum of Minsk Province 4 Tolstogo, 222310, Molodechno (01773) 71824
Mosty: Museum of local lore, history and economy
Myadel: National Glory Museum 222397 Minsk Province, Myadel, 1 Sharangovicha Street (801) 79755544
Nesvizh: National Historical and Cultural Museum 19 Leninskaya, 222603, Nesvizh (01770) 53132
Novogrudok: Museum of History and Culture 231400, Grodno Province, Novogrudok, 2 Grodnenskaya street (801) 59722395 Tamara Vershitskaya, Director <wtamar@mail.ru>

These are the photos of the Novogrudok Museum. You can imagine my shock when I saw the tallit, tfillin and page from a Torah. Tamara, the director, had no idea who donated them. The third photo is of the labor camp. The last photo is a model of the camp made by the boys in the local school. This is a good size museum. Tamara speaks English and she has an e-mail and a website. Novogrodok is the site of a German forced labor camp in which the Jews built a tunnel; you can imagine the hardship and difficulties that took. They escaped one rainy night and many of them were able to survive. It certainly is a part of Shoah history even if ancestors didn’t come from that shtetl. – submitted by Florette Lynn

Oshmyany: F.K. Bogushevich’s Local History Museum in Oshmyany 128 Sovetskaya, 231100, Oshmyany (01593) 42593
Pinsk: History Popular Schooling Museum 58 Gaidaenko, 225710, Pinsk (0165) 330206
Polotzk: Local History Museum. Branch of Polotzk National History and Culture Museum 11 Lenina, 211400, Polotzk (0214) 442715
Rogachev: State Museum of National Glory in Rogachev 58 Lenina, 247673, Rogachev (02339)21983
Slonim: Local History Museum of I.I.Stabrovsky 1 Lenina Square, 231800, Slonim (01562) 21626 I visited in 2004.
Svisloch: Local History Museum 8 Lenina, 231960, Svisloch (01513) 33293
Tolochin: In 2001 my brother and I visited a museum in Tolochin, Belarus. We were taken through it by the “chairman” of the town. One of the displays was of the occupations of the Jews who lived there. – Submitted by Marcia Loeb Baron.
Vileika: Local History Museum of Vileika 8 Svobody Square, 222410 Minsk Province, Vileika, (801) 77156405
Vitebsk: Local History Museum of Vitebsk Province36 Lenina, 210026, Vitebsk (0212) 364712
Vitebsk: Marc Chagal’s estate museum 11 Pokrovskaya, 210026, Vitebsk (0212) 363468
Volozhin: The Yeshiva building is undergoing reconstruction.
Zaosie Village: Mitzkevich’s Estate Museum Zaosie village, 225315, Baranovichi District (0163) 432510
Zaslavl: Trade Mart of History and Culture Museum in Zaslavl 4 Rynochnaya, 223036, Zaslavl (017) 5441152 Thanks to Yuri Dorn for his assistance on the Belarus museum list.

Czech Republic, Bohemia and Moravia

Jewish Museum of Prague: U Staré školy 1,110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic, phone: (+420) 221 711 511, fax. (+420) 221 711 584, E-mail: office@jewishmuseum.cz, http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/aindex.htm
This is a site of the Hartmanice Memorial Association, (Na Dubině 5, 147 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic), which lists local synagogues and their fate: http://www.hartmanice.cz/index.php?s1=t&s2=H&s3=0&s4=0&s5=0&s6=0
Cesky Dub: Collection of artifacts from the Jewish community are in the Podjestedske Museum.
Hartmanice: In south west Bohemia the former home belonging to a Rabbi Simon Adler has been converted into a museum. The town is known as Dobra Voda. Nearby to this small house that is now a museum, you will also find the synagogue in Hartmanice with exhibits. E-mail: <synagoga@hartmanice.cz> for more information. It is very interesting and in a lovely mountain area known for hiking and skiing near the larger town of Susice in S W Bohemia. The Jewish press agency JTA published an article on the restoration of the Hartmanice Synagogue. Czech seeks to turn aging shul into Czech-German-Jewish museum is the title of an article by Pavla Kozakova and published on April 20, 2003. – Submitted by Susan Boyer. Lostice: One very special synagogue in the Czech Republic has a Los Angeles connection. Dr. G. Canter (of the Canter Deli Family), after a visit to Lostice in Moravia, started the project known as Foundation Respect and Tolerance – they document the Jewish history of the towns of Lostice , Mohelnice and Usov in Moravia, Czech Republic ( formerly Loschitz, Müglitz and Mährisch Aussee). The historian in Lostice is Ludek Stipl. <http://www.respectandtolerance.com/uvod-o-nas/en/> -- Submitted by Susan Boyer.
Prostejov: I am sending e-mail addresses of the director of the Prostejov municipal museum Mr. Vaclav Hruska and of Dr. Marie Dokoupilova, who works in the Jewish section. They have a lot of materials about the Kehila which does not exist any more. E-mail Address: mdokoupilova@muzeumpv.cz and vhruska@muzeumpv.cz - Submitted by Maud Michal Beer
Tachov: Tachov/Tachau Museum C. Lesa, Tr. Miru 447, 34701, Tachov, Czech Republic. In 2002, we visited my father’s hometown, Tachov/Tachau in western Bohemia, about 45 minutes drive from Plzen (Pilsen). With about thirty extended family members, we toured the town and visited the museum, now in the former convent. In 2006, I received a token restitution payment for my Grandparents’ home there. I turned the money over to the Museum to continue their work to document the Jewish presence in the town from the 15th century, documenting the cemeteries, etc. A formal dedication for the Jewish Heritage exhibit was held on Jan. 24, 2007. Dr. Vaclav Chvatal and Robert Dvorak were instrumental in the creation of the exhibit, saving the Magen David from the foyer of the former synagogue, some old keys, and pictures of earlier times. We asked, and were honored by having, a plaque there to remember the Jewish families that disappeared in 1938. The other museum-like place of interest is the Plzen synagogue, completed in 1898. It is not far from the center square where the Cathedral sits in the center. A lovely group of young people have helped with the documentation of the cemeteries in the surrounding villages as well. – Submitted by Eleanor G. Feitler.
Trebic: “ Trebic’s Jewish Quarter is the most representative in its kind in Central Europe, It is considered the most complete, including synagogues, Jewish schools, a hospital and a factory. The quarter has a characteristic condominium structure: there were often several owners in one house and buildings were internally subdivided. Above the Jewish Quarter is the Jewish Cemetery, consisting of about 4000 tombstones. All Jewish inhabitants were deported in WWII, nobody returned.” From http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/trebic.html . Trebic has an entire restored ghetto that is a UNESCO site. The Rear Synagogue was built at the turn of the 16th and the 17th centuries. It was used for services only until World War I, then it was the storage of the firm Subak and Sons and after World War II of the state company. Fortunately, it was not destroyed during the Communist regime; that is why it could be renovated and opened again in 1997. Opening hours of the Rare Synagogue (all year): 10:00 a.m.-12:00, 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. The synagogues in Kolin, Mikulov, Hartmanice, Lostice and Trebic all have galleries with exhibits. - Submitted by Susan Boyer.

France

La Hille, France: The Children of La Hille - A Museum A widow of a relative of mine stayed during the war in Chateau de la Hille in South France together with another 100 Jewish children, mainly from Germany. There is a book written about it. A small museum was inaugurated there on June 23rd, 2007 in the presence of twenty of the kinder who stayed there. The museum was built by the initiative of the Jewish community of La Hille, which was a refuge in the South of France for a small number of children; some Viennese children were also hidden there:< http://www.ariege.com/histoire/lahille.html>
Marmoutier: This Alsace Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions of Marmoutier was established by the late Pierre Katz (deceased 2006), a very active member of our Jewish Genealogical Society. This museum has a strong section devoted to Judaism. The house where it is located is a “Renaissance” house that was once the house of rabbis and still has a mikve of the 18th Century. <http://judaisme.sdv.fr/synagog/basrhin/g-p/marmout/musee.htm> In French, but also partly in English. – Submitted by Georges Graner, Webmaster of Cercle de Généalogie Juive, www.genealoj.org

Germany

Affaltrach: Synagoge Affaltrach Museum is an unusual small town museum now housed in what was once the local synagogue. The key person responsible is Martin Ritter who is author of Die Synagoge in Affaltrach: Zur Geschichte der Juden in Kreis und Stadt Heilbronn located in Affaltrach (2001).
Altenkunstadt: This small museum is in the synagogue of Altenkunstadt on the river Main in Upper Franconia, Bavaria. It was established by Josef Motschmann, a native of Altenkunstadt. He received the Obermayer Award in recognition of his many activities memorializing Jewish life in Upper Franconia and especially in recognition of his book on the Jewish cemetery in Burgkunstadt. – Submitted by Hans George Hirsch.
Bad Kissingen , Bavaria : There is a wonderful little museum in the old Jewish Community House, organized by Hans-Juergen Beck, a local history teacher and historian on the Jewish history of the town. – Submitted by Elizabeth Levy.
Bleicherode am Harz: Just a few days ago the old synagogue in der Alten Kanslei plus a small museum was inaugurated in Bleicherode am Harz where my great grandparents lived and my grandfather was born. – Submitted by Silvia Gluck
Buttenhausen: (now Muensingen-Buttenhausen) in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The museum was established by Walter Ott. In recognition of his many activities memorializing the extinct Jewish community of Buttenhausen, he received the Otto-Hirsch Memorial Medaillon awarded in Stuttgart annually to a person who has distinguished himself or herself in the field of Christian-Jewish relations. The Medaillon was established by the City of Stuttgart and the local Gesellschaft fuer Christlich-Juedische Zusammenarbeit, later joined by the Israelitische Religionsgemeinschaft Wuerttembergs (IRG) in 1985 in memory of my father, President of the IRG from 1930 to 1935 and Executive Director of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden from 1933 until his death in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in 1941.- Submitted by Hans George Hirsch.
Franconia: The Jewish Museum of Franconia in Fuerth includes an attic converted to a Succah, and steps leading to a basement mikveh; a second site for this museum is located in the town of Schnaitach. - Submitted by Rodney Eisfelder. <http://www.juedisches-museum.org/>
Hofgeismar: There is a large section on the former Jewish community in the local municipal museum. –Submitted by Ellen Stepak.
Hohenems: This small town was once a very prosperous Jewish community. After World War II, a museum was created which collected material about the Jewish communities along the Upper Rhine river in Baden-Württemberg, and Allgäu ( Southern Bavaria). The town is located in the Vorarlberg region between Bregenz and Vaduz (Lichtenstein). – Submitted by Margot Rosanes-Csuka <www.jm-hohenems.at> <www.alemannia-judaica.de/juedische_museen.htm> <www.Alemannia-judaica.de>
Kestrich: The Rural Jewish Museum in Kestrich, Germany is less then an hour’s drive northeast of Frankfurt. There is quite a bit of information concerning the remains of the Jewish culture in the Feldatal region of Hesse in Germany. All of it is in German. There is a contact person who lives in this area and who is active in an organization to preserve what is left of the Jewish Heritage. They have reclaimed and fixed quite a few synagogues, now museums, mikvahs and cemeteries. – Submitted by Ed Schechter
Michelstadt: The synagogue of Michelstadt was not destroyed in Kristallnacht, because it formed part of the old city wall. It was, however, desecrated and turned into horse stalls or something like that. A non-Jewish teacher from the town decided to restore the building in the 1970s or 1980s and turned it into a Jewish museum, using artifacts he could find. This man, personally (very proudly) took me and showed me the museum. At its dedication, dignitaries from Israel and high-ranking German government people were on hand. – Submitted by Bernard Lowe.
Rotenburg an der Fulda: One museum is in the local Jacob Grimm school; the other in the former mikve building, known as the Hall of Remembrance. There is also a website, which is like a virtual museum. <http://www.hlz.hessen.de/index.php?id=96> The website <www.ag-spurensuche.de> deals with Rotenburg and towns of the vicinity. These include Rhina, Burghaum, Niederaula, Baumbach and Hersfeld. To access the English material, go to “individual modules.” At both sites there is access to the Jewish cemetery of Rotenburg documentation, including many photos. There is also a virtual tour of Rotenburg. The website <www.mikwe.de> deals particularly with Rotenburg an der Fulda. This is an ongoing project of Dr. Heinrich Nuhn, winner of the prestigious Obermayer German Jewish History Award, and his students from the Jacob Grimm School. Soon there will also be documentation of the Bebra Jewish cemetery. Not all of the material has been translated to English. – Submitted by Ellen Stepak Dr. Heinrich Nuhn <h.i.nuhn@gmx.de> Laerchenweg 2 Rotenburg,36199 Germany
Schwaebisch: Schwaebisch Hall is medieval and impressive. We went at the recommendation of Hans Hirsch who had viewed the new Jewish wing in the local history museum. Indeed, the exhibits were historic and interesting, especially the unique surviving wooden Jewish synagogue. That may not be the right word for a place of worship, installed more than a century ago, under the roof (in the attic) of a local Jewish resident. Fallen into disuse, forgotten, then rediscovered, it has now been cleaned up and set up in the museum. While wooden models of this type had been common in Poland and the East, this is one of two known survivors of German origin. (The other one is on display in Jerusalem). - Submitted by George Arnstein.
Schnaittach: See Franconia.
Vohl, Kreis Frankenburg, Hessen: This website is about my grandmother’s hometown’s Jews and the foundation set up by my friends to bring to life the lives of the Jews in Vöhl: http://www.synagoge-voehl.de/ I was there in September when they memorialized the last Jew deported from their town - my great grandmother, Johanna Bachrach Frankenthal. Karl-Heinz Stadtler and Kurt-Willi Julius were the recipients of the Obermayer Award last year and I went to Berlin to watch them accept it. What a thrill. On Vöhl’s website, a map interactively leads to the towns and newspaper information, lists of Jews, and information about their museums. I have been to quite a few of them and they are marvelous reconstructions of the former synagogues, now devoid of Jews, of course.
Hessen: Ernst Klein is the head of his town’s “Rueckblende Gegen das Vergessen e.V.”—the foundation to ‘never forget.’ Ernst Klein, Benfelder Str. 21, 34471 Volkmarsen, Germany. Fax: 0049-5692-995021. - Submitted by Carol Baird.

Hungary

Szentendre: On my first trip to Hungary in 1990, my husband’s friends took us to a small museum in Szentendre, an artist colony north of Budapest. Imre Amos was a Jewish painter who perished in the Holocaust. During the fascist times in Budapest before his deportation, he painted many scenes of life and death in that city. His wife survived and began to paint again in the 1960’s. The former home of the famous artist couple, Imre Ámos and Margit Anna, now features a collection of their work representing the beginning of Expressionist painting in Hungary – Submitted by Edna Berkovits. Amos and Anna Muzeum Bogdányi u. 10 Szentendre, Hungary

Latvia

Web site with information on Latvian museums in towns of all sizes at< http://www.muzeji.lv/index_e.html>
Bauska: I am most familiar with the Bauska Museum in Bauska, Latvia, where some of my family came from. It is located in the center of the shtetl. One room in the Museum is devoted to the Jews of Bauska (of whom there are no longer any). The person who organized and maintains that room is Aigars Urtans. I have visited there twice, the first time being when we traveled with Howard Margol. – Submitted by Charles B. Nam.
Kuldiga (Goldingen): There are museums in Kuldiga (Goldingen) and Mazekai. Neither are specifically Jewish in nature but they do give an idea of what the place was like. The one in Kuldiga is in the old castle on the banks of the Venta. The one in Mazekai is an old pharmacy. – Submitted by Brian Friedman. I have visited the one in Kuldiga mentioned by Brian Friedman, as well as a small private museum in Valdemarpils (aka Sassmacken) that appears not to be listed on the web site. Although these museums are generally not specifically Jewish, exhibits often touch on topics of Jewish interest. The Kuldiga museum, for example, has some exhibits on businesses that were owned by Jews. According to the web site above, in fact, there is a separate museum for the Vulkan’s match factory, which was owned by the Hirschmann family. – Submitted by Bramie Lenhoff.

Lithuania

The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum and Exposition of the Holocaust: Pamenkalnio g. 12, LT-2001 Vilnius; 370-5-2620730, and Pylimo 4, LT-2001, Vilnius; Tel: 370-5-2127912, http://www.jmuseum.lt/index.asp
Kaunas 9 th Fort Museum: The museum contains collections of genocide and holocaust, executed during Soviet's and Hitler's occupation, also are accumulated and protected historic materials of Kaunas strong hold and 9th Fort. 73 Zemaiciu pl. , LT- 47435, Kaunas. Tel. : +370-37-37775 0, +370-37-377748, Tel./fax +370-37-377715, E-mail: jmenciun@zebra.lt
Rumsiskes Folk Museum , A-1 Highway (22 km. from Kaunas): four villages from the 19 th century representing Lithuania’s major regions (Aukstaitija, Dzukija, Suvalkija and Zemaitija) in an open-air museum.
Town museums: http://www.muziejai.lt/Lietmuziejai/government.htm Alytus, Babtai, Birzai, Seduva, Druskininkai, Jonava, Joniskis, Jurbarkas, Kaisiadorys, Kelme, Kedainiai, Kretinga, Kupiskis, Lazdijai, Marijampole, Mazeikiai, Merkine, Moletai, Neringa, Panevezys, Pasvalys, Prienai, Raseiniai, Rokiskis, Skuodas, Silale, Silute, Taurage, Ukmerge, Utena, Vilkaviskis, Zarasai, Zemaiciu.
Museums of Lithuania website where you can search for all types of museums: http://www.muziejai.lt/Panorama.en.htm
Onuskis (Anashishok): In September, 2006, I visited my grandmother’s shtetl on the Lithuanian/Latvian border named Onuskis (Anashishok). To our surprise there was a small “cultural center”/museum and the woman in charge also had restored the nearby Jewish cemetery. The museum is very small since the village at its peak only had about 80 families. There are four rooms in the museum, one dedicated to the local Catholics, one room to the Soviets, one room of artifacts, and one room about the Jews. In the past twelve years, the curator had interviewed the four residents, who remembered the Jews and has put together a map of the village identifying who lived in what house with the notes of the people’s memories. Regina Kopilevich, our wonderful guide, translated the notes from Lithuanian into English for me but only the notes about the Jews. The curator was truly delightful...when I picked up a bowl that had the sign of the Wermacht on the bottom she apologized to me that I had to see that, but she said that is the way it was so she had to keep the bowl in the museum. I would be happy to share anything I got from this small museum.
Kedainiai: Director: Rimantas Žirgulis 19 Didzioji St, LT-57255, Kedainiai. Phone: +370-347-51330, +370-347-53685, +370-347-54469. E-mail: muziejus@kedainiai.omnitel.net Web-site: http://www.kedainiumuziejus.lt/ The Multicultural Centre (former The Small Synagogue) Address: Senoji rinka 12, Kedainiai. Phone +370-347-51778. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10.00–17.00 I visited a few years ago with genealogist/guide Regina Kopelevich, and the director came on a Sunday to open the museum and take us through. – Submitted by Diane Roone.
Kelme: Kelme Area Museum in the Gruzhevski Estate Manor 5 Dvaro St, LT- 86111, Kelme. Tel. /fax +370-427-61065. E-mail: kelmesmuziejus@takas.lt, kelmesmuziejus@delfi.lt We visited the Kelme Museum in 2000 and met with the curator, who had prepared hand-written information she had received about the Jews of Kelme. This included a list of Jewish societies in Kelme in the 1930s, a list of businesses owned by Jews before World War I, and names of Jews who lived there in before World War II. – Submitted by David Hoffman.
Kupiskis: Kupiskis Ethnographic Museum
Mazeikiai: Historical Museum of Mazeikiai (Mazheik in Yiddish) <http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/Mazeikiai/mazeikiu_muziejus.en.htm> Curator: Mr. Algimantas Muturas. The webmasters of the Mazheik Memorial Website (see link below) are in contact with Mr. Muturas and have exchanged with him information and material concerning the Jewish community of this Shtetl. - Submitted by Ilan Ganot, Co-Webmaster, Mazheik Memorial Website <http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Mazeikiai/introduction.html>
Vistytis museum - Vistytis Petras Kriauciunas Secondary School Local Lore Museum at <http://www.muziejai.lt/Vilkaviskis/vistycio_mokyklos_muziejus.en.htm> - Submitted by R E Mitchell.

Netherlands

Aalten: Small synagogue with changing expositions.
Bourtange: Tiny synagogue within the walls of a small border village on the border with Germany in the province of Groningen.
Elburg: Synagogue to be opened in the future for an exposition on Jewish life.
Enschede: Synagogue holds an exposition on Jewish life.
Zwolle: Synagogue holds a permanent exposition on Jews in the Zwolle area; open first Sunday afternoon of each month. NIK - Organization of Jewish Communities in The Netherlands - is a roof organization for Jewish congregations throughout the Netherlands consisting of some 30 congregations. It was established in 1814 to have all Jews under a national umbrella, which until then did not exist. NIK is today active in a variety of fields, including education, culture, rabbinical work, representation, public affairs, chaplaincy, etc. - Submitted by Ruben Vis.

Poland

Bransk, about 36 miles Southwest of Bialystok, is the home of Zbigniew Romaniuk (# 0834726), a local gentile who has become an historian of the Jewish community of Bransk.
Gorlice: In the Southeastern part of present day Poland, there is a local museum (closed on Mondays). – Submitted by Len Markowitz. Muzeum Regionalne PTTK, Im. Ignacego Lukasiewicza, ul. Waska 7-9 38-300 Gorlice, Poland
Ilza: We visited there in May 2006, and they had a few artifacts at that time. – Submitted by Sid Greenberg.
Lancut: There is a well-visited museum inside the beautiful synagogue in Lancut, Poland (formerly in Galicia). Juliusz Ulas Urbanski has been collecting information about the Lezajsk Jewish community (near Lancut) since 1975. – Submitted by Logan J. Kleinwaks. Juliusz Ulas Urbanski 37-300 Lezajsk Ul. Ogrodowa 11 Poland <http://ulas2.republika.pl/ulas1.htm>
Skierniewice: Although I have not seen it, I was told that there is a small museum in the town devoted to their murdered Jewish community. – Submitted by Frayda Zelman.
Sochaczew: When my maternal grandmother, Pesza Szlang, was living there in late 1890’s (she immigrated to the United States in 1898) it was a small town. When we visited in 2001 its population was 40,000. We visited the museum as it was exhibiting “the Jews of Sochaczew”..This is their website: <http://e-sochaczew.pl/muzeum/english/index.html> From that site there is a way to e-mail them and sign their guest book. I wrote to them several times to inquire about where they obtained the artifacts in the exhibit but they never responded in English or Polish. When I was there they would only say the artifacts were authentic. I have some photos taken at the exhibit and a photo of the building if that is of assistance. – Submitted by Jan Meisels Allen.
Strasow: There is a small museum in the town of Staszow in Swietokrzyski voivodship, east of Krakow and the home place of my maternal grandparents. Within the museum is a display of Jewish artifacts, many donated by Jack Goldfarb of New York, NY. Of particular interest is the story of a Torah stored in a plain glass and wood display cabinet. When the synagogue had been set ablaze by the Nazis, a seven-year old gentile boy ran in and retrieved the scrolls. The boy grew to be a man, an important musical composer and conductor. I believe his name is Robert Pana. Among his professional accomplishments were the organization of the military orchestras for Cuba and Nicaragua. He has been recognized by Yad Vashem as a hero and this certificate stands next to the Torah, which he donated some twelve years ago. – Submitted by Jerry Levit.
Tarnobrzeg: Has a museum. – Submitted by Gayle Reilly.
Tykocin: Last Spring we visited the birthplace of my great grandmother, Tykocin, not too far from Bialystok. The old synagogue there is also a museum. Lucy Gold from Bialystok is a great resource to contact. She is very involved in Jewish history in the Bialystok area and is the real driving force behind much of the cemetery restorations <lucygold@vp.pl> We also had as our guide, Krzysztof Malczewski (Kris). He is not Jewish, but is very involved in JRI-Poland and interested in the Polish Jewish community. He is very knowledgeable and extremely nice and caring. Contact him at krystek@a4.pl. Both are tremendous resources.- Submitted by Laurence Morrell.
Sejny: I was in Sejny, Suwalki gubernia, Poland, last June and visited the Borderland Foundation Museum - a remarkable and unusual museum in a tiny town in northeastern Poland on the border of Lithuania. You can see what it is all about by clicking on the following web site. The director is Krzysztof Czyzewski, assisted by Bojena Sjzroder, and her assistant is Robert Tomkiewicz. There is an entire room devoted to articles of Jewish content: books, paintings, a video library and music CDs.< http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art395fr.htm – Submitted by Merle Kastner

Ukraine

Dnepropetrovsk: The main museum in Dnepropetrovsk (pop = 1,000,000) has examples of work books (hours worked per year) records from some Jewish colonies near Hulaipole. – Submitted by Mel Comisarow.
Hulaipole: There’s very good regional museum, the Nester Makhno Museum, in Hulaipole (pop = 30,000), Hulaipole (Rayon), Zaporozhe (Oblast), Ukraine, with among other things, a diorama describing the 1941 German massacre of 850 Jews in Novozlatopol. Novozlatopol is fifteen miles (25 km) east of Hulaipole.
Lubny: Has a museum
Mariupol: The Andre Zhdanov Museum in Mariupol (pop = 500,000?) has several Jewish artifacts on display.
Mukachevo, Ukraine: I was in Mukachevo, Ukraine in 2005 (Hungarian: Muncacs), and outside of town there is a Castle, part of which is a museum of local life, and there is a small room set aside as a remembrance room for the Jews of the town. It has a comprehensive list of all who perished in the Holocaust along with some historical photos, artifacts, etc. My family is from a small village two km from Munkacs, Klucharky (Hungarian: Varkulcsa). While I was in the area of Western Ukraine and N.E. Slovakia, I noticed that in some towns, although there are no Jews or any small museum of remembrance, there ARE some Memorials, if only a stone marker, that may qualify for your project. For example: where a ghetto once was; where the Jews were transported from; where a mass grave is located. These markers usually have some sort of historical information on them. – Submitted by Marshall Katz.
Tovste: There is a museum in one of my family’s ancestral towns -- Tovste, Ukraine (formerly Tluste, Galicia). To my frustration, I was unable to see the museum during my too brief visit to the town last May. From my friend Doug Hykle, who has created a wonderful website about the town, I’ve heard about the dedication of Jaroslav Pawlyk, the museum’s director. See Doug’s acknowledgments at <http://www.tovste.info/Acknowledgements.php>. Elsewhere on his site <http://www.tovste.info/MyStory.php)> Doug describes Pawlyk as “a visionary man who knew more about the village than anyone else.” More information on the museum itself is at < http://www.tovste.info/Architecture/Museum.php>. Dougwas born in Canada, works in Thailand and spends his free time in Ukraine researching Tovste’s history and working on his “fixer-upper” little house there. <http://www.tovste.info/Archives.php> Addresses of Tovste and Zalishchyky museums are listed there. Doug recognizes the importance of the town’s Jews (half the population) in Tluste’s history and has gone to great efforts to research Jewish history there. He led me to the grave of the Baal Shem Tov’s mother in the Jewish cemetery of Tluste and pointed out where Jewish schools, shuls, and even the Judenrat once stood. I spent an extraordinary day with Doug in February, when I drove him to visit a Tluste survivor in New Jersey. Using the photos and maps he brought along, she identified locations of businesses and homes, helping Doug reconstruct the town as it existed in a particular point in time. –Submitted by Renee Steinig