Cieszanow is a small town in southeast Poland near the current border with Ukraine. Prior to World War I, it was part of Galicia in the Austrian-Hungarian empire. The town's development stalled after the war.
The Jewish community was typical in which the spirit and doctrine of the Chasidic movement were dominant. The book also notes that the "winds of modernity could not be kept out" as younger generations pushed back against elders who were unwilling to let go of the traditions of shtetl life.
As in many other small towns, Cieszanow's Jews made their living as shoemakers, tailors and bakers, trading with their gentile neighbors on market days.
On September 7th, 1939, Cieszanów which at that time had approximately 3,000 inhabitants, a third of them Jews was bombed by the Luftwaffe, and five days later, first German units entered the town, arresting members of the local government. The Germans soon retreated (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), replaced by the Red Army. In early October 1939, Cieszanów became part of the German "General Government". In 1942, almost all of the Jewish population of Cieszanów were murdered, mostly in Belzec. None of the grave stones in the cemetery, that was established in the late 19th century, remain because the Nazis used them as road building materials.
After the war, a committee was formed to create a Yizkor book. The editors appealed to survivors and former residents asking them to write their memoirs of the town, its people, its institutions and share photos they might have. The book contains many pages of photographs of the town's people. It took many years and the book was finally published in Israel in 1970.
May this book serve as a memorial to the community of Cieszanow that was brutally destroyed in the Holocaust.
