Jablonka is a sleepy little village located in the Lomza Gubernia within the Bialystok Province in Poland.

Golombek ancestors first settled in Jablonka in the very early 1800s. As Zambrow grew, some migrated the twelve miles away to live in the town. It is known Jews lived in Jablonka from at least 1575.

Arriving in Jablonka was like stepping back in time to the days of our ancestors. The village sits amid beautiful farmlands and is twelve miles from the town of Zambrow, which today is a thriving well-populated town. There are no paved roads and most of the houses are wood, as was the usual means of construction in the 1800s. We felt very out of place driving into the town in our very modern rental car. In fact, not only was our car out of place, but we were also.

The only people we saw were the two milk deliverers who where sitting atop a horse drawn wagon with milk cans on it. They did not seem pleased to see us.

In the early days there was a Jewish cemetery in Jablonka. Today the town firehouse is on the site. My husband’s grandfather, Morris was born and grew up in Jablonka along with his siblings. His father Ziskind was born and died in Jablonka.

From the Wysokie Mazowieckie Yiskor Book…
“In late August 1941, a few days before Rosh Hashanah, the ghetto in Wysokie Mazowieckie, a neighboring town was created. Non-Jews living in the ghetto area were forced out and were given the homes formerly occupied by the Jews. Polish police guarded the ghetto entrance. A Jewish police force inside the ghetto was created by order of the Germans. Hundreds of displaced Jews from neighboring towns, including Jablonka were brought to the ghetto. The ghetto included about 2000 people in the three streets it was created from.

The Judenrat was compelled to provide 250 workers a day for road building and wood harvesting in the forests. Craftsmen—shoemakers, tailors, carpenters and tinsmiths—worked in the countryside and received food in return for their labors. Ghetto residents bartered with residents of the “Aryan side.” In return for food, Jews sold off their remaining possessions and personal effects. They didn’t always get a fair trade. In November of 1942, the Jews from the ghetto were sent to the Zambrow ghetto and then to Auschwitz in January 1943. ”

From the Yiskor book we have learned that the following Golombeks from Jablonka perished in the Holocaust: Meir Dawid, Heina Doba, Sara, The Children, Chaim Reuven, Pessach Mordechai, Nachman and Chaia.