Update: Grandma Helen

After I posted this page, Uncle Izzy (Grandma Helen's late brother) wrote to me with the following information about Grandma:

Your Great Grandmother, Sarah Sugarman come into the USA via Canada. I believe she came in illegally, with your Grandmother "chi-yidis" (Helen) and Helen's brother Louis (Leibel?). They came here in 1921, since I was born in 1922. Great grandpa Samuel (Shmuel) was here legitimately quite a few years earlier, trying to bring them over. Sarah was born in Wierzbenik, Poland (forgive the spelling) as was your grandma. I have tried looking it up, but not too successful. That is about all I can tell you.

I once asked Grandma where in Poland she was from, and I remember her saying it was a village near Radom, an industrial city located roughly in the center of the present-day borders country. Since she also mentioned Wierzbnik, I assume she was referring to Wierzbnik-Starachowice -- now Starachowice, a town of ~50,000.

Wierzbnik-Starachowice was founded in 1624. In 1827 it had a total population of 441, with 8 Jews (1.8%), but by 1921, the year Grandma left, the total population had increased to 5,459 with 2,159 Jews (almost 40%).

On 1 September 1939, the Germans bombed Wierzbnik-Starachowice (it had munitions factories). Many residents fled to nearby villages, and on 9 September the town fell to the Germans. Abuse of the Jews predictably began almost immediately:

"In September 1939, on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Germans broke into the synagogue and while beating the Jews forced them out to the street. Some worshippers were pulled by their beards, and the group of Amishov Hasidim, who prayed in their own shtibel [prayer house] were singled out for special cruelty. After this, the synagogue was set ablaze."

Ironically, the Jewish population if the town increased during this period as refugees from Łódź and Pomerania in Western Poland arrived in Wierzbnik-Starachowice. By February, the number of Jews in Wierzbnik-Starachowice had grown to 3,156 and in May 1941 to some 3,600.

The Jews of Wierzbnik-Starachowice were put in a ghetto on 2 April 1940. Two and a half years later, they were taken away in a great aktzia [deportation]. On 27 October 1942, the 4,000 Jews in the ghetto were herded to the market square. Some 2,000 men fit for work were separated during the 'selection,' and sent to local work camps. The remaining 2,000 Jews, mostly women, children and the elderly, were transported to the death camp Treblinka.

Work camps were established near the munitions factories in Wierzbnik-Starachowice. There were more than 3,000 workers, including most of the Jews pulled from the ghetto for forced labor. One of the camps was in operation until June 1943, and the other until July 1944.

In March 1943, 140 Jews who could no longer work were murdered in the Starachowice camp. A large 'selection' took place at the end of the summer of 1943 after which more than 100 sick Jews were murdered in the adjacent forest. In July 1944, with the advance of the Red Army to the area, the Germans abandoned the camps. At the time of the evacuation, the prisoners rebelled, and 100 succeeded in fleeing to the forests. The Germans chased after them and many of the escapees were captured and killed.

At the end of the war, a few of the survivors returned to Starachowice. In May 1945, Polish members of the anti-Semitic Krayova Army broke into the house of Leibush Brodbeker, and murdered him and several members of his family and beat other Jews. In the wake of these events, the last Jews left the town and moved to Łódź.