This is a photo taken in the park in Zabludow in 1939. In the bottom center of the photois Mina Bar-On Gelerstein. Next to her on the left is my second cousin, and Mina's good childhood friend Hana Lopata. On the top of the photo is Mina Levitan, and on the right is Sima Rak.The young man in the photo is Izi Gober. His father owned a pharmacy in Zabludow, and once served as the towns mayor. He was warned that the Germans were going to remove the Jews from Zabludow,and was able to run away with his family. They hid in an area near Zabludow where there were some abandoned cellars. There a Polish women who had been their friendly neighbor supplied them with food. Eventually, he surfaced in the Zabludow Mayors office willing to give himself up to the Germans if they didn't beat or whip him. He was then seen with a broom sweeping the streets in town, but soon disappeared. This photo was taken shortly before Mina and family left for Chile, and just a few months before the start of the war. Mina now lives in Israel. She is the daughter of Eliyahu Gelerstein who was onthe Committee for the original Zabludow Yiskor Book. Her parents where essential membersof the Zabludow Community in Israel for many years. Mina and her brother Akiva where on the Editorial Committee for the "Pages of The Zabludow Yiskor Book", published in Israel,1987. Hana Lopata and her entire family where murdered by the Nazis.

Click here for Mina Bar-On's Zabludow folklore