Sidney Herbst

Attached is a picture of Sydney during World War I, standing at far left. He was in the Austro-Hungarian Army where they made him a sergeant because he could read and he led the gentile peasants. He fought in the Alps against the Italians . In 1935 he made a cine film of his home town SEDZISZOW that can be viewed online [https://penniefberk.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/tenzer-family-video/]

After the war, he came to America where the Bards gave him a job selling candy.

In the 1930s, Sędziszów Małopolski became one of centers of the Central Industrial Region, and in 1937, a new factoryZakłady Przemysłowe Sędziszów Małopolski was opened. On September 8, 1939, the town was captured by the Wehrmacht. The Germans opened here a ghetto, in which in mid-1942 there were 1,500 local Jews. In July 1942, the Germans murdered 280 Jews at the ghetto, and the remaining population was transported to Belzec extermination camp, where they perished. Sędziszów Małopolski was an important center of the Home Army, whose units participated in Operation Tempest. The town was captured by the Soviets on August 4, 1944.

Jews accounted for a significant proportion of the population at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were over 53% of the population living in the very center of the city. The Market Square and the wide street Wyspiańskiego, to the bridge over Budziszu, the railway and the bakery. In the place where today stands the hospital, they had their temples and synagogues. Despite the distinct religious, linguistic and cultural differences,there was a commitment to the Polish community. When in 1930 a census took place, to the question of nationality most Jews replied: "Polish, the religion of Moses".

Their world, existed for centuries alongside theirs but was razed by the Nazis in a just a few years. The final act of the tragedy of the Jews of Sędziszow played out on July 24, 1942. Here's how these events were witness

"... they set them before the town hall groups: one group were men up to 35 years, the other for over 35 years, a separate group of women. The weak and sick loaded onto carts and they sent down the streets: There was a gate to the Jewish cemetery where a day earlier, the Nazis dug a huge pit for 200 - 300 people. One behind the other wagons drove up and they went like lambs to the slaughter. They saw everything, what happened to those who had gone in front. Brano such a "delinquent", bent his head, was shot in the neck and thrown into the pit. Then the next batch of the same thing happened, until In this way, they murdered about 280 people. Others were sent by the Nazis by train to Belzec, where they were murdered. Thanks to the kindness of the gentile inhabitants of Sędziszowa they saved the lives of approx. 30 Jewish people, after more than 1,000 were iving here before the war. August 4, 1944 the Red Army entered the city. The retreating Germans blew up railway bridges, building stations, and other objects of strategic importance. During the occupation, damage had been approx. 70% of the buildings, including City Hall, the parish church, school, post office, theater, a vicarage. Claimed the lives of 21 residents of Polish nationality, 9 died in prisons and camps, 10 were killed during the fighting in August 1944.

The Jewish cemetery is located in the southern part of the city. The entrance gate is situated at the crossroads of Szkarpowej and Kosciuszko. The gravestones did not survive which the Nazis used to pave the streets and squares. In the southern part of the cemetery are two stone monuments with inscriptions in Hebrew. There was also a mass grave for Jewish residents of Sędziszowa, Ropczyc and Wielopole , murdered 24 July 1942