Tag #157279 - Interview #78187 (Waclaw Iglicki)

We had a beautiful prayer house, just like the Nozyk Synagogue 5, but even prettier. We used to call it 'shil' [shul]. It was probably built at the beginning of the 1920s, from the member fees of the Jewish community, made of brick, beautiful. Inside there were benches, a carpet, in the middle a platform where the rabbi said prayers on Saturdays. On 9th or 10th September 1939, when the Germans entered Zelechow, the first thing they did, literally, was burning down that prayer house. There was nothing left from the prayer house, only a square. Not a trace. It was a very sad feeling. Such a beautiful place... That prayer house was encircled with a kind of a yard. When it was 'Roshashuna' [Rosh Hashanah] or 'Yom Kipor' [Yom Kippur], then everyone would usually go to that prayer house. My father as well, even though he wasn't particularly religious. On those days not everyone could fit inside. There was a beautiful lawn in that yard, and they prayed there, because they couldn't get inside. Even though it was a very big prayer house, but in the town there were almost 3,500 residents, half of which were Jews.