Association
Memory and Dialogue. Common History.

We want to recreate half-forgotten part of the Brzesko history, commemorate Jewish community, which was co-creating the city and surrounding villages for several centuries, but was wiped out by German occupiers. We trust that awareness of the common Polish-Jewish history of our region will help us build the present and future based on openness, mutual respect and dialogue over divisions.

"Whoever does not respect and does not value their past is not worthy of respect of the present or right to the future."

J. Piłsudski

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News

16.03.2024 | Redaktor
Laub family

I would like to start this article about the Brzesko Laub family with the history of the tenement house, the current address of which is Legionów Piłsudskiego 1, and the pre-war address – Słotwińska st., 41. In the mid-19th century, a small wooden house used to stand in this place. The 1847 map shows that […]

08.03.2024 | Redaktor
Brzesko descendants of rabbi Kalonimos Kalman Epstein

On June 20, 2023, Hasidim from all over the world came to Krakow  for the bicentenary yahrzait of Rabbi Kalman Kalonimos Epstein, Maor VaShemesh. Krakow rabbi Kalman Kalonimos Epstein (1754-1823), called Maor VaShemesh (From the Light and Sun) after the title of his main work, was a student of outstanding tzaddikim Elimelech from Leżajsk and […]

07.02.2024 | Redaktor
I am also a Galicianer – searching my roots in Galicia, Poland

By Dina Feldman My father’s side – the starting point of falling in love with Poland More than a decade ago I have started to search my roots in Poland. Then I focused mainly on my family from Piotrków Trybunalski, the birthplace of my father Abraham. My father used to tell us a lot about […]

04.02.2024 | Redaktor
Family of the Brzesko dayan Menasche Kapel

The patriarch of the Kapel/Kapler family (this surname was first written as Kapel, but later changed to Kapler) Menasche was born in Brzesko on June 3, 1866, as the son of Hersch and Perel Kapel. He came from an ordinary – not rabbinical – family, and yet he became a dayan (rabbinical judge), which was […]

20.01.2024 | Redaktor
Jewish students of the Brzesko gymnasium whose fate remains unknown.

Despite intensive archival research, it has still not been possible to determine what happened to 31 former students and graduates of the Brzesko gymnasium. With all probability, most of them perished during the war, but we couldn’t find any documents that would confirm it. These are: 1. Bernstein Mindla Born in Bochnia on February 26, […]

17.01.2024 | Redaktor
Moshe Gross, doctor in the Brzesko ghetto

On November 22, 1940, the Jewish Council in Brzesko published an announcement about the search for a doctor in the “Gazeta Żydowska” (“Jewish newspaper”). Doctor Moshe (Maurycy) Gross responded to this appeal. Moshe Gross, son of Markus Hirsch Gross and Róża nee Bornstein, was born in Kraków on August 19, 1909. He studied medicine in […]

24.11.2023 | Redaktor
Fischman-Hammer family

In 2023, we hosted an exceptionally large group of descendants of Brzesko Jews in Brzesko. Among them there were descendants of the Fischman-Hammer family, Mrs. Yona Kohen and her son Uri. Research in several archives resulted in the reconstruction of a substantial part of this family’s history. The oldest known ancestors of the Fischman-Hammer family, […]

21.11.2023 | Redaktor
Kohs-Bierenbaum family

Some time ago, I came across a card on one of the auction sites. It was written by Blume Rosa Kohs from Brzesko on January 16, 1893. This minimal information helped to recreate the history of another Jewish family from Brzesko. When writing this letter, Blume Rosa was 34 years old and was raising nine […]

20.11.2023 | Redaktor
Brzesko Branch of the Westreich Family Tree

by Allan Westreich Book excerpt from The Westreich Family Tree: Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together Using Traditional and Genetic Genealogy.  Edited by Allan H. Westreich, Ph.D.  Published by JewishGen Press, 2023. I’ve been interested in my family history for a long time.  My first active questioning about it was back in high school when my […]

03.10.2023 | Redaktor
Józef Topolski from Jadowniki

Józef Topolski was born in Jadowniki in 1913. The Topolski family had a large farm. Because of untimely death of Stanisław Topolski, young Józef had to take care of the farm. In 1942, Józef Topolski joined the Peasant Battalions – the underground resistance movement which was active in rural areas. Together with several colleagues – […]

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Our mission

Back in 2015 we have started various projects on commemoration of the pre-war Jewish community of Brzesko and vicinity.

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Our initiatives

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Dov Landau: my Brzesko

Former Brzesko resident, Holocaust survivor Dov Landau recalls his childhood times walking the streets of his hometown.

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History of Association

Dr Anna Brzyska,
chairperson of the Association

Although the association „Memory and Dialogue. Common History” was registered in March 2019, we started our first projects on commemoration of the pre-war Jewish community of Brzesko in spring 2015.

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