Kruk- Lewkowicz family in Zychlin

[Tobias Kaye]

Thank you for accepting me into the group! My father, Peretz Kruk, was raised by his grandparents in Zychlin, David Kruk and Dwojra Lewkowicz.

David Kruk was born in Wyszogrod, Poland in 1869, the son of Lajzer Josel and Haja Cipra Kruk. In 1888, at the age of 19, he relocated to the nearby town of Zychlin, presumably to marry and raise a family. David was a pious Jew and became a hebrew school teacher at the local synagogue in Zychlin. He fathered 12 children, although only 5 survived childhood. He and his wife, Dwojra (Devorah) raised their grandson (and my father) Peretz, after his mother died during childbirth. They were extremely poor and always hungry, but otherwise a very loving family. They lived at ul. Kilinskiego #11, steps from the town synagogue (pictured below).

My father told me that several survivors told him of David being taunted outside the Zychlin synagogue by Nazis during Yom Kippur, 1941. They poured gasoline on him and told him to "dance, Jew, dance". When he complied, they casually tossed a match at him and yelled "burn, Jew, burn", and "let's see if your Hebrew God will save you now". My great grandfather had enough time to say the first few words of Kaddish before dying an agonizing death.

Żychlin synagogue during the Interwar Period. From Zychlin-Historia.com.pl

David Kruk

[Avraham Y. Kahana]

Thank you Tobias for sharing your story.

I was trying to write something about the account of your father on his father, z'l. But silence is still what best expresses my feelings.

Regards