שענדישוב · ט׳ באב תש״ב
The last rav and the destruction of Jewish Shendishov
The Av–Elul 5778 issue preserves testimony about the final days of the ghetto, the murder at the cemetery, and the deportation of those who remained.
The testimony
The published account names Rabbi Menachem Mendel, the last rav of Shendishov, and describes his suffering during the ghetto period. It records the attempt to flee, his capture and return, and his murder after Tisha B’Av 5702.
The account describes close to five hundred Jews—older people, women, and children from Shendishov and nearby towns—taken to the cemetery and murdered at a mass grave. Those who remained were assembled at the market square and deported by rail toward Bełżec.
Memory attached to place
The cemetery cannot be presented only as the resting place of a Rebbe. It also holds the communal catastrophe of Shendishov. Preservation, access, prayer, and memorial responsibility therefore meet on the same ground.
What later research adds
The older memorial article is now read together with cemetery plans, photographs, municipal contacts, maps, family research, and the present work at the mass grave. The result is no longer a closed account of destruction. It is a developing record of names, place, testimony, and practical שמירה that continues to be enlarged as evidence is verified.