Dear friends,
This year once again we enclosed this letter as an attachment to the invitation to our regular meeting of compatriots and to the Commemoration Ceremony “Mourning for Tortured in the World War II”.
With a team of archivists and historians from several Slovak cities we continue our work on a book with a simple title: “Jews in Žilina”. We were assuming that we would be able to present this book in its final draft form already this year in June. But procuring documents and data for writing a real, trustworthy and well-grounded document is extremely difficult and that is why the work will be delayed till the end of this year.
In this epoch the generation, who survived the “Golden Age” between World Wars, is slowly leaving us never to come back again. It is our duty to record short, but on the other hand an immensely fructuous and rich history of our community in Žilina.
We are asking you very kindly once again to provide us with any documentation (written documents and pictures or rather its copies) describing important events, personalities, sportsmen, families, buildings, monuments, etc., which are relevant to our community in Žilina. We will also be thankful for tape recordings recorded in Slovak, English, German or Hungarian languages. Almost nothing was saved in Žilina from brochures, newspaper articles and different publications issued before 1968. We will be very thankful for all documents you would be able to find and give or lend to us. Names of participants and all resources will be published in the book.
The list of people who provided us so far with help, documents and information is long and we cannot mention them all in this letter. Nevertheless I would like to mention those who sent us information and added on their own initiative a financial help. Two of our friends from USA, Mr. F. Feran and Mr. E. Pick, provided us with a financial help of $1000 each and we are using also this opportunity to thank them again.
The expenses for procuring documents and data, payments to historians and archivists and expenses for publishing the book will go approximately to 500 000 Sk ($25 000), so each financial support helps to create this valuable work.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration in the creation of this book. You can bring your materials or financial support to our regular meeting in summer or send it to our mail address. For a bank transfer you can use our bank institution Slovenská sporiteľňa, address: SLSP, a.s. Suché mýto 4, 81607 Bratislava, SWIFT CODE: GIBASKBX, IBAN: 0900 000 0000 7651 1886, account no. 76511886/900.
Thank you again and see you at the end of June in Žilina.
Yours Sincerely,
Pavel Frankl
Chairman of Jewih Religious Community
In Žilina, February 2, 2008
Address: ŽNO Žilina, Hollého 9, 010 01 Žilina, Slovakia
E-mail: pfsk@nextra.sk
Cell phone: ++421 905 278 280
Tel/Fax: ++421 41 562 0485
