The Wielkie Oczy Foundation

The Wielkie Oczy Foundation, Inc.

The foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that is dedicated to the discovery and preservation of the vital and historical records of the Jewish community of Wielkie Oczy, Poland, as well as the restoration and maintenance of the synagogue building and Jewish cemetery that still exist in the town. Those who can trace their roots to the Jewish community of Wielkie Oczy (and who are on the foundation's mailing list) are located in many countries around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Your contributions will allow the foundation to undertake activities such as these, which have been accomplished in the past or are ongoing:

• Rescued the Wielkie Oczy book of vital records covering Births: 1791 - 1843 and Deaths: 1822 - 1843, and donated it to the Polish National Archives; the entire book is available on CD ROM.

• Organized the cleanup of the Jewish cemetery by students in the town and continue to finance the maintenance of the cemetery

• Financed the construction of a gate, fence around the Jewish cemetery

• Sponsored a detailed survey and documentation of the cemetery and headstones (in Polish), and in April 2019 published an expanded survey of the Jewish cemetery in English entitled This Very Stone Shall Be a Witness: The Jewish Cemetery in Wielkie Oczy by Andrzej Trzciński (learn more here).

• Maintain two websites (in English and Polish) devoted to the town

• Imaged the book of minutes of the Erste Wielkie Oczer, K.U.V. health and welfare society (landsmanshaft) and assisted with its donation to the YIVO archive in NYC; the book is available on CD ROM.

• Along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the foundation facilitated passing title of the town's synagogue to the gmina or town government by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), a precursor to the synagogue's restoration as a town library and memorial to the Jewish community.

• Published in eBook format My Struggles 1939-1945 Under the German Occuation of Poland, a Holocaust era memoir by Wielkie Oczy born Freda Hoffman Zgodzinski (learn more here).

If you would like to support activities like these, please use the PayPal facility below.