Sokołów Podlaski

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Sokołów Podlaski is a town in Poland, in Mazowsze Voivodship, about 80 kilometers east of Warsaw. It is the capital of Sokołów County. Population is 18,434 (2004).

Before World War II, Sokolow Podlaski was home to a large population of Jews. With the German occupation at the beginning of WWII, many Jews fled, a number east to the USSR. Those who remained were rounded up and sent to Treblinka extermination camp where they were murdered.

One of those who fled was Mendel Feldman who left with his sweetheart Frieda (née Altman), her mother Ida Altman, and her sister Leah Altman and financee Wolf Lopata. The family fled to the USSR where they moved constantly eastward as the German Army progressed across Russia. After the war, Mendel Feldman returned to Sokolov and found that all who remained had perished. He and his extended family who had fled were reunited in a displaced persons camp in Austria and after several years migrated to the United States. Mendel and Fried are survived by children Fred Feldman (scientist) who lives in New Hampshire, Charlotte Feldman Jacobs (editor/former congressional aide) who now lives in Potomac, Maryland, and Boris Feldman, lawyer who now lives in Palo Alto, California.

It was the hometown of the father of Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald.