Located along the Skrwa River, Gostynin sits 65 miles northwest of Warsaw. The Jewish community was established in Gostynin in the 1760s, although Jews may have owned a brewery in the town as early as the 1620s. For the next 300 years, the Jewish population of Gostynin grew with Jews playing a major role in the economic, cultural, and political growth of the town.
Written in 1960 by members of the Gostyniner Societies of New York, Chicago, and Israel, this book contains personal memories about the town, of religious leaders, religious practices, sports groups, theatre groups and activities of political organizations. There are also personal accounts of family life including many pictures of family members. A memorial section at the end of the book pays tribute to the town's citizens. There are first-hand accounts of the destruction of the Jewish residents of the town in the Shoah. This can serve as primary source material for scholars of the Shoah. It is difficult reading, but very important. This kind of material should be required reading for those convicted of anti-Semitic acts.
This English translation of the Pinkas Gostynin provides the descendants of the Gostyniner Jews and serious scholars of Eastern Europe Jewry with a picture of this once vibrant town in central Poland. It is a tribute to a Jewish community that no longer exists and the people of Gostynin who perished in the Holocaust.