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Wielun, Poland ("Wieluń" in Polish) is a small town (population in 2006: about 24,400 inhabitants) situated in the south of central Poland, between the large cities of Łódź and Kraków. A Jewish presence in Wielun was recorded from the early part of the 16th century (1537). Before World War II (1939–1945), Wielun had a large Jewish community (almost half of the local population), which was completely destroyed by the Nazis between 1940 and 1944. The main source regarding the history of Wielun's Jewish community is the "Memorial Book" of Wielun (see below). ==Memorial Book of Wielun== The book was published in Tel Aviv in 1971 by the Wielun Association in Tel Aviv, Israel, which still exists, together with the Memorial Book Committee in the United States. Apart from a lengthy introduction in English, which includes a brief history of the town's Jewish community, the book is in Yiddish and in Hebrew.〔''Jewish Wielun, a Polish shtetl'': Jolly, Philip (2010). ''Jewish Wielun, a Polish shtetl'' (527 pages). Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-4452-8773-7〕 In the English translation from Yiddish of the foreword, in the opening sentence, Moyshe Mendlevitsh spells out clearly what the ''Memorial Book'': "The Wielun Memorial Book constitutes the only remembrance of our former home, which was so brutally and ruthlessly eradicated. The town of Wielun still stands, but its Jewish inhabitants can no longer be found, as they all met with a tragic end. No single breath of Jewish life remains." M Mendlevitsh continues: "Our Memorial Book attempts to reconstruct fleeting moments, occurrences, experiences, and recreate the figures and types of the past, so that nothing may ever be forgotten; to depict the everyday life of our ruined home-town: the days of sorrow, the days of joy and the hope for a better tomorrow." M Mendlevitsh stresses the fact that Wielun was known to Jews as ''Wilojn'' or ''Wilohn'' — the latter being the preferred spelling in all "official Jewish community documents and records". Despite entrenched hostility on the part of the Poles, which M Mendlevitsh mentions, the Jewish community thrived and its members "always took pride in their place of birth". Indeed, "Wielun is a Crown" was a popular Jewish saying. The town of Wielun was clean and prosperous by pre-war Polish standards, and Wielun's Jewish community was known to be well educated. The synagogue (built between 1830 and 1840) was the focal point of Jewish life in Wielun. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Jewish community of Wielun (Poland)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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