Shavei Israel emissary to Poland helps family dedicate memorial to Jews from Wolbrom who were murdered in the Holocaust
Albert Narcissus and Rabbi Ellis in Wolbrom cemetery
Before World War Two, the population of the small Polish town of Wolbrom was more than one third Jewish. But, by the end of the Holocaust, the Nazis had murdered nearly the entire Jewish community of 4,500 people. Of the 7-member Narcissus family, only the oldest, 16-year-old Naftali, survived by fleeing Wolbrom before the Germans arrived.
The Narcissus presence in Wolbrom has not been forgotten. A few weeks ago, Naftali’s son Albert, who lives in Australia, flew to Wolbrom to unveil a monument commemorating the family’s roots in the town. Guiding him through the process was Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis, Shavei Israel’s emissary to Katowice. (Wolbrom is 33 miles away from Katowice.)
Rabbi Ellis has been involved with the project from the very beginning, helping to translate the text for the memorial into Hebrew, overseeing where to place it in Wolbrom’s Jewish cemetery, locating family records, and arranging a tour of Wolbrom for the family during their emotional visit.
Rabbi Ellis presided at the dedication of the memorial, which took place on July 21, 2014. Coming from Australia were Albert and his wife Hedda, along with their children and grandchildren. Also attending was Steven D. Reece, president of the Matzevah Foundation, which helps maintain and restore Jewish cemeteries in Poland.
The memorial reads, in English, Hebrew and Polish: “In memory of Abraham and Chaja Narcissus and their loved ones Leib, Harszela, Hiller, Luby and infants, who died in the Shoah, and the sole survivor, Naftali. May their memory be a blessing and their souls woven into the crown of eternal life.”
Albert Narcissus’s grandfather, Abraham, was born in Wolbrom in 1895, the fifth son in a family that traded in grain for its livelihood. “Today is a significant day in the history of my family,” Albert said at the ceremony, the memorial draped by Israeli and Polish flags. “Today would have made my father very happy and proud, because it will ensure the continuity of the family. Without this gravestone, there would be no place that my family and future generations would be able to visit and understand what happened here.”
The Jews of Wolbrom were forced to live in a ghetto during the early war years. Another 3,000 Jews from Krakow arrived in town during this period, leading to severe overcrowding and dire conditions. Liquidation of the ghetto began on September 5, 1942, when most of the Jews were sent to the Belzec concentration camp. Those who remained – about 600 Jews, mostly the sick and infirm – were taken into the woods south of the city and shot by the Germans. By November, most of the Jews who had been hiding to avoid deportation, as well as a few members of the Jewish “police” – numbering another 200 – were captured and killed.
Following the war, 300 Jews initially returned to live in Wolbrom. Most eventually emigrated from Poland to Israel.
We have more pictures from the ceremony unveiling the Narcissus family memorial below.
Australian family with cemetery memorial
Gravestone
An article on the dedication in Polish can be found here.