The town

The town of Będzin is located on the Czarna Przemsza River, a tributary of the Wisła [Vistula; Weichsel] in the Dąbrowa-Górnicza mine basin.

During the period of Kazimierz the Great [Casimir III the Great], 65 new towns were established in Poland, half of them by the king himself, a nobles quarter by aristocrats and a church^[1] quarter. Będzin (Będzyn, Bendzin)^[2]was also amongst the new towns established by the king, who in 1358 granted it German rule and “privilege” (Przywilej lokacyjny) as a Burggraf [burgrave; a count of a castle or fortified town] served as Verneo. The first town leader (Wojt) in the same year received lands with two gardens, a materials store, meat and shoes in exchange for a commitment that he would participate in each war under the command of the king on a fine horse (dicendi quo) and equipped with armor, a helmet, and weapons.^[3]

In the 14^th and 15^th century the residents of Silesia often attacked neighboring Będzin, looting and plundering its residents. Being that it was a border settlement, a fortress wall was erected in it in 1364. In 1434 negotiations took place here, to put an end to these assaults. Chancellor Zbigniew Olszyński and the king's advisors met together with Silesian representatives – the princes Mikołaj Raciborski, Wacław Cieszyński and Wacław Oświęcimski, and after discussions that went on for several days a peace agreement was signed.

In 1464 Będzin received from Kazimierz the Fourth, the “privilege” to maintain salt warehouses, according to which each wagon driver transporting salt from Silesia had to stay over in Będzin for three days and sell salt there.

Being that it was located close to an intersection of trade routes the town developed quickly: in 1540 there were already 800 residents in it and 100 residential buildings.

Men who carried out a survey in 1564 report that the butchers gave 24 stones^[4] of milk: 16 bakers each paying 5 pennies: 10 boot makers each paying 4 pennies. A cellar bringing in 2 grzywny^[5], beer making – 2 grzywny: the wooden articles and clay shopkeepers pay market fees of 2 grzywny for 5 markets: drink fees of 1 penny are paid for each barrel of beer of Wrocław [Breslau] manufacture. Leasing fees from the bridge bring in 125 marks to the palace.

During the Zygmunt's kingdoms, Będzin was one of the towns with commodity warehouses, and in 1565 as a market town it received concessions and vast liberties. Traders from abroad came to Będzin and in particular from Breslau and would sell commodities from abroad and bought commodities in Poland.

In 1545 King Zygmunt the First rescinded the commitments to place the town at the behest of the king, his entourage and his clerks, and all those traveling by order of the authorities, and the cavalry – at a fixed price, since the town complained to him of the difficulties involved in fulfilling this commitment.^[6]

In the 16^th century the Arians in the town grew stronger in the town and confiscated the church for themselves, which had already been built in 1365. The Catholics built a new church for themselves; however, after the Arians were wiped out they received the old church back.

On the 9^th of March 1589 an agreement was signed in Będzin between Poland and Austria, according to which Zygmunt the Third was crowned as king of Poland. The Archduke Maximilian, brother of Emperor Rudolf the Second, relinquished any claim to the Polish throne and was released from his imprisonment in the Krasnystaw Palace.

At the end of the 16^th century a wide range of marketing in beef, poultry products and oil took place from Będzin to Silesia.

During the Polish-Swedish War Będzin suffered greatly and was almost completely destroyed. The Sejm decided to re-establish the town being that it was an important border town.

In 1660 a survey report determined that the palace and its rooms were destroyed. The town had no weavers, since all of them had run away as a result of hostile activities. There were also no salt suppliers, and everyone bought lumps of salt in Wieliczka. There were 2 butchers, and they paid a tax of 10 stones of milk. The furriers do not pay royal taxes. There are 3 boot makers, and each of them pays 4 pennies; all the bakers pay 3 gulden. At present in town there are no metal-workers, barrel-makers, wagon-drivers, wood craftsmen. According to testimony, the municipalities collect 12 pennies from the wagon-drivers and allow them to travel with the salt without staying over in the town, in contradiction to the “privilege”.

According to the report of 1673 there were 40 houses in the town with 346 residents.

On his way to Vienna, to defend her from the Turks, Jan Sobieski passed through Będzin on the 20^th of August 1683 with his wife Maria Kazimria and ate lunch with General Karafa, who came to request that he hasten his journey to Vienna.


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In 1789, the last Polish survey was carried out during the period of Stanisław Mieroszewski, according to which 27 gulden and 15 pennies were collected from the town for land taxes, 300 gulden marketing tax from the Catholic residents, 3 gulden from the bakers, 3 gulden from the boot-makers, from the fisherman – 24 gulden in exchange for rights to fish in the Przemsza, 3274 gulden rent from the brewery, 576 gulden from the Starosta mills, 253 gulden from the Jewish butchers, 700 gulden from the kehila, 54 gulden from the Jews for the rent of a palace vegetable garden, 339 gulden and 4 pennies for hay in the meadow, in total 5953 gulden and 29 pennies. According to this report the forests near the town were completely neglected. The forest near the border was also in such a state that trees could not be cut down there.

In the same period the houses in the town were built of wood. Only around the palace was the town surrounded by a wall.

In the years 1795-1808 Będzin together with the whole region subject to the Prussian regime and belonged to the Siewierz district. During the Congress Poland period Będzin was included in the Olkusz district Województwo Radom.

During the Warsaw Princedom period Będzin belonged to the Siewierz district, and later to the Pilica district and in 1813 to the Olkusz district.

The development of the town began in the first quarter of the 19^th century, when the Polish authorities began taking interest in the utilization of the natural resources: quarries, coal and minerals. Coal mines were found between Będzin and Strzyżów in Grodziec and they began working them. In 1817 brick-kilns were established in order to erect zinc foundries. During the same period import offices were established in Będzin.^[7]

In 1863 Będzin was declared a border town, being in the border region of 21 verst^[8], and it was forbidden for Jews to settle in it without a special permit from the government. This prohibition was cancelled in 1867.

In 1827 there were 256 houses and 2,254 residents in the town.

The residents of Będzin took an active part in the Polish Uprising in the years 1830-31.

In the years 1831-57 a degeneration began in the town in all walks of life, social and financial. In 1858 a drastic change took place with the laying of the Ząbkowice-Sosnowiec railway line trade dealings were renewed. In the same year there were 361 houses in the town, of which 121 were mansions, and the number of residents reached 4,140 people.

When the Uprising broke out in 1873 a large percentage of Polish youth were conscripted to the rebel units. In the area around the town there were battles between the rebels and the Russians.

In 1867 Będzin was included as the district town of the Piotrków region.

In the eighteen-seventies there was a considerable advance in the financial development of the town. Apart from government zinc foundries, whose output reached 105,000 pud^[9] in 1877, a brick making factory was established. A large portion of the residents were employed in the Ksabri coalmine, near the town; the output from 29 mines rose to 50,000 pud.

As early as 1860 there were 6 workshops for cotton products that employed 19 people.

In 1860 the number of residents rose to 6,090 people and the number of houses to 365, of which 140 were mansions. In the same year the output of the zinc foundries grew. In 1890 there were 9,222 residents, and in 1897 2,375 residents; and in the whole region 244,443 residents.

In Będzin, in which, as was said, there were coalmines, industries developed, the metal industry, in particular steel, cables and bindings from steel and zinc wire, chemical industries, building materials, ceramics and textiles, and at the beginning of the 20^th century it already served as a industrial and wholesale trade center and employed a considerable number of laborers and workers.

In 1905 Będzin served as a Polish and Jewish socialist center in revolutionary activities against the Russian authorities.

There were marked changes in the configuration of the town during the World War I period with the inclusion of the villages of Małobądź, Gzichów, Brzozowica, that increased the jurisdiction of the town of Będzin.

After World War One an expansion of the steel companies and with them the metallurgy industry, in which the Jewish industrialists played an important role, in particular the processing of zinc and steel, cable manufacture, screws, nails, copper wires; and also the chemical industry and paints, in particular buttons for the clothing industry, that expanded greatly during the years 1924-31 in Zagłębie.

During the years 1939-44 Będzin was occupied by the Nazis, who called it Bendsburg.




The Jewish settlement

Traveling Jewish traders came to the Zagłębie region as early as the 10^th century, not as settlers, but as buyers of products from the region in exchange for commodities they brought with them. In the 11^th and 12^th century refugees from Czechoslovakia arrived, who had run away from there because of severe persecution that was carried out on the Jews. However, it is difficult to determine if they established permanent settlements or continued on into Poland.

In 1226 Jewish families settled in a number of places, like Siewierz, Czeladź, Pilica. Stable Jewish settlement in fact only began in the 14^th century, after the granting of patronage by King Kazimierz the Great in 1368. During these years Jewish settlements were established in Siewierz, Wolbrom, Olkusz and also parts of Silesia. The initial Jewish settlement in Będzin began in the second half of the 15^th century.

In 1453 King Kazimierz the Fourth (1447-92), following efforts by Jews from Będzin, granted a “privilege” to the Zaglembian^[10] Jews, and according to this status the Jews were subject to the royal rule and its representatives – the Wojewoda or the Starosta, and subject to their courthouses.


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The Jews situation improved from a legal standpoint after the granting of patronage by King Stefan Batory [István Báthory / Stephen Báthory], according to which they were entitled to live anywhere and the Jewish traders were comparable with the Christians. In 1584 Będzin there was already a house near the Roses square owned by the Jew Jósek, and in 1584 there was a second Jewish home owner – Jakob. In 1587 a Jew, Jakob-Baruch, bought in the town from the Christian, Marcin Raciborski, and a Jewess, Roza Abrahaman, bought a house with a beer brewery together with a dwelling from Marcin Sieniawski for 700 gulden.

In 1593 the Jew, Marek Wawrzyniec Warmuz bought a house behind the palace.^[11]

During this period the number of Jewish homeowners grew in the various streets of the town and also at the center of town, like Icchak Zalman, Roza Lewkowa, Icek (Icchak) Markowicz, Abram Majerowicz, Jakob and Josef Abramowicz, and others. From this we learn that the Jews were entitled to live and trade in the center of the town.

The Jews also assisted in defending the town against the enemy. When in 1587 the armies of Maximilian the Austrian threatened the town, the rabbi Reb Natan Majteles, who ran the yeshiva in the town, collected fifty ducats from amongst the Jews and passed them on to the Starosta of the palace as a donation of the Jews to fortify and reinforce the walls of the town.

In 1592 King Zygmunt the Third ordered the city council to defend the Jews in Będzin from attacks and to look after their rights that had been given them. The Jews built a wooden synagogue near the walls of the town and a cemetery that was in use till 1831. The cemetery also served the villages in the area: Milowice, Sielce, Tychy [Tichau], Chorzów, Bytom. The cemetery was allocated from municipal land and the town paid a tithe to the church, and the kehila had to pay a special tax to the church for each deceased person – a “burial tax”. More than once arguments broke out on this background between the kehila and the local church priest, and even reached court cases, such that in the case that began in 1687 and continued on till 1695, the burial tax for the kehila was cancelled.

Over time the rights of the Jews were restricted in regards to settling in the city center.^[12] From an organizational-physical point of view their situation was similar to that of Polish Jewry; they paid the same taxes and levies that were imposed on the Jews in general, and in addition to this there were certain payments to the town, to the clergy and so on.

Within the framework of Jewish autonomy, Będzin belonged to the Kraków-Sandomierz State Committee, and according to this it was included in the Kraków district together with the communities of Olkusz, Chrzanów, Wiśnicz, Sanc, Bobowa, Pilica, Oświęcim, Wolbrom.^[13] The relationship between the Jews of Będzin and those in Kraków was very close. Mutual matchmaking was a regular event. The kehila leaders in Kraków had family and relatives in Będzin.^[14] They once refused to receive books from Kraków printing presses and this was how it went:

In 1534 the printers, Szmul Aszer and Elijahu Bnei Chaim from Halitz, opened a printing press and published: “Sha'arei Doresh” and “Merkevet Hamishna” for Reb Anszel, 2 volumes of “Torim” for Aszer Ben Jechiel and two volumes of machzorim [prayer books]. During the printing of these they were forced into converting into Christianity by the Cardinal Gamart. When the Jewish public learned of their conversion to Christianity, they refused to purchase the books from the printing house. At their request, King Zygmunt the First compelled the kehila leaders, by a decree of the 31^st of December 1539, to buy their books, and 3,350 copies for the sum of 1,680 gulden. On this background, the issue led to a clash with the book sellers who came from Kraków, the books were confiscated and incinerated.^[15]

In their difficulty struggle for rights for the kehila, the leaders in Będzin would always confront the leaders in Kraków and together they would lobby for their communities. Thus it occurred in 1666 in the issue of the Asignets.^[16] in covering the costs of the army in its war against the Swedes, when the government imposed a levy on the Jews. In the light of the assaults and clashes on the part of the army, the Four Lands Council decided to extract a levy all at once, and to this end it received from the king's secretary, Kazimier Kowalkowski, a loan to the sum of 26,000 gulden. This sum was drafted from the kehilot, however the payment was not cancelled. Then the Four Lands Council publicized on the 3^rd of May 1666 an announcement to the Jews of Poland, that if the debt for 26,000 gulden wasn't paid, Kowalkowski would be entitled to steal, kidnap, to arrest and to place in jail, publicly and also privately, we and all the Jews located in the Kingdom of Poland, that is to say at fairs, markets, on roads and in our homes. Thus (he would be entitled) to confiscate our merchandise, to lock up synagogues everywhere, to confiscate homes and put Christians in them and whoever they wanted and hold onto them till a full payment was made.^[17] This caused an outburst by the Jews of Będzin, so much so that the town police were brought in. The major, Israel Salamonowicz, was removed from this position and exiled with his family from the town.^[18]


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In 1685 the lobbyists, Szlomo Markowicz and Jonaten Szmuelowicz, managed to receive a kehila “privilege” from King Jan Sobieski the Third.

Regional committee meetings took place during this period in the main in Wodzisław, Pińczów and Stopnica.

At the end of the 17_th century disputes and court cases broke out between Kraków and the branches that had brought about the decision in 1692 the Four Lands Council that Kraków would constitute a special administrative unit. In place of Kraków six small kehilot were prominent – Pińczów, Wodzisław, Olkusz, Szydłów and Chądzyny, however prolonged disputes also broke out between them.

Będzin was already a well known commercial center, to which traders came from outside and arranged their businesses.^[19] Będzin Jews were in commercial contact with Silesia and Germany. Amongst the visitors to the fairs in Leipzig a Jewish trader, Mosze Bendiner, from Będzin was also prominent, who visited the fair there in 1695.^[20] A considerably larger number of Jews visited the fairs in Breslau in the years 1685-96. In 1685 alone amongst the visitors four Jews from Będzin were recorded and they were: Szlomo Juda, Jakob Markus, Mosze Gerstel, Jakob Szymonowicz, and in 1696 Herszl Benjamin.^[21] Apart the aforementioned, Hersz from Będzin was located in Wrocław [Breslau] and dealt in the sale of citrons for the Jews of Poland and by this interfered with Mathias Werling from Zolkawa, who dealt by virtue of a “privilege” that he had received from King Jan Sobieski the Third, in agreement with Jewish leaders of our kingdom (the Four Lands Council) to bring citrons to the Jews of Poland”. King Sobieski requested in a letter of the 11^th of March 1693 from the Wrocław council, that it protect Mathias Werling from “the Jew from Będzin by the name of Hersz living in Wrocław and interfering with his business”.^[22]

Jews from Będzin leased estates and beer breweries in the Kraków environs. It is known to us that in 1688 Hersz Wolfowicz from Będzin leased the beer brewery in Grabowiec, that was owned by the Starosta, Count Raswicz from Będzin. When Hersz refused to renew the lease agreement for the coming year, the Starosta took all his belongings to the palace, and when that didn't help – the Starosta arrested and jailed him in the palace dungeons for a number of weeks. Hersz was also accused of theft, and in spite of the fact that the court acquitted him, the Starosta refused to release him, till he promised not to appeal against him in court. Under pressure, Hersz leased the beer brewery for a further year, and when the contract expired once again, he was arrested once again by the Starosta, who wanted to force him to renew the contract – however, Hersz managed to escape and his wife and children were then arrested.^[23]

In the 17^th century there was a fully organized kehila and the social life spurred the Jewish public to aid and mutual help. In the seventies the “Chevrat Kaddisha” [burial society] was founded. From its ledger we learn^[24] about the varied activities amongst members of the society and for the general public. It filled its tasks in the mitzva of “Chevrat Kaddisha”, however maintained discipline and the morality of its members so much so, that a member was expelled (in 1767) for expressing himself in unprintable words.

Up until the first quarter of the 19^th century apart from the “Chevrat Kaddisha”, that was connected with the “Bikur Cholim” [Visting the sick] as in the other kehilot, there was a society that maintained the “Maoz Ladal” Talmud Torah [ultra-orthodox junior school], a “Hachnasat Kalah” [Providing for the bride], a “Malbish arumim” [Dressing the poor], and also a philanthropic fund “Halvaot chen” [Amiable loans]. These societies acted under the supervision of the kehila. Apart from these societies the kehila also took care of education, and provided not only chadarim [religious primary schools] but also a renown yeshiva [seminary], that was run by the yeshiva leaders and its rabbis.

Of the rabbis before the 19^th century Reb Natan Majtles is well known, who filled an important position in the 16^th century in the community life as well. He passed away at the age of 105^[25]. The names of rabbis that served in the kehila rabbinate after him in the 17^th century and at the beginning of the 18^th century are not known. In the 1860's – according to the “Chevrat Kaddisha” ledger – Rabbi Reb Mosze served in the rabbinical throne, who was elected in 1765 to president of the gabbai'im [beadles], and after him Rabbi Reb Majer served as the rabbi of Będzin, who was a great Torah scholar^[26], and exchanged letters with the rabbi in Prague – Reb Jechezkel Landau known as “Noda beyehuda” [“famous in Judea”]. In 5535 (1775), a strange incident occurred in Będzin. The son of a rich family who was not yet twelve years old was “matched” to the daughter of a scholar and his father gave him a dowry, and the wedding also took place before he had reached the age of twelve, and this young boy blessed the young woman under a chupa [canopy used at Jewish weddings] and with the customary blessings, but they didn't consummate the marriage at all, because the boy was not yet twelve years old. In the meantime altercations and quarrels broke out and the young woman didn't want him. Rabbi Reb Majer and the Bet Din [rabbinical court] approached Rabbi Reb Jechezkel Landau with a question, if the girl wanted could receive a get [divorce] from him. On the 4^th of Elul 5535 (1775) Rabbi Landau replied to him and began with a flowery phrase: [untranslatable]^[27]. In regards the question he decided on the basis of halacha [Jewish Law] interpretations that, in general, the girl could get married again without a get.

Following Reb Majer, Reb Towja served as rabbi in the 1780's and after him from 1784 – 1796 his son Reb Dawid served. From 1796 to 1816 Reb Mosze Hamburger sat on the rabbinical throne.

There was no change in the economic situation of the Jews. The main occupation of the Jews was national retail and wholesale trade.


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In the lists of visitors to the Leipzig and Wrocław [Breslau] fairs there were no longer Będzin traders. The overseas Polish wholesale was transferred in the 18^th century to the Jews of Kraków, Kielce, Lublin, Brzeziny, and Brody.

The leasing of wineries and beer breweries, mills, and also the trade of the agricultural produce remained in the hands of the Jews. In the town they also dealt in the planting of fruit trees and the growing of vegetables, and they leased pastures from the Starosta. In 1775 they paid a lease of 54 gulden^[28]. They also leased the hay harvested in the Starosta fields in exchange for an annual fee of 339 gulden. These were also the same sums according the summary report of 1789^[29].

We only know about a head tax from the year 1717 and it was for a total of 442 gulden and 6 pennies^[30]. Apart from taxes, every year the kehila paid the Starosta an annual sum of 700 gulden, the Jewish butchers 253 gulden. As early as the 17^th century the kehila paid this sum (700 gulden) to the Starosta as protection money (the protection money was called: tymtowe) for tolerance towards the Jews, and this was apart from the rent paid by the lessees.

In the [second] half of the 18^th century there was already a large settlement in the town. Będzin was associated with the Opatów (Apta) area under the framework of the Sandomierz regional committee. In the period between 1746 and1754 the Sandomierz regional committee met for seven sittings. In fact we know of three: In Opatów, Dabrowa and Stopnica. The situation of the Sandomierz regional committee went downhill so much so, that the representatives of the towns and villages approached the Wojewoda [Voivode] Jan Wielopolski with a complaint concerning extortion, irregularities in tax management, money squandered, loan making on the part of the rabbis and town leaders; also the illegal appointment of rabbis as town leaders. Thus, for example, the regional committee paid an annual interest of 15,510 gulden. On the basis of the complaints, the Wojewoda assembled a sitting of the regional committee (congress), in the presence of 2 commissars, in Stopnica on the 6^th of September 1754, that continued to the 13^th of the month. At this assembly it was determined that the listing of the tax that the kehilot collected from the production of brandy, beer and mead weren't transferred to the government.

Będzin together with its branches had to put in 40 gulden in 1754 and also the sum of 6 gulden^[31] given as compensation to the town of Przedbórz, which had suffered greatly from fires. In the committee meeting orders (depositions) were received in 22 branches^[32], in which new arrangements in the field of management, payment of debts, distribution of positions between the rabbi and district leader. To the first, authority was endowed only in religious matters and the second – secular matters (item 15). Apart from this, monetary claims of the leaders and rabbis from the district committee of the sum of 22,549 gulden were rescinded. A decision was received in the matter of auditing accounts and payment of kehila debts to the district committee. It was clear that Będzin as a community in the district committee suffered together with other communities.

In giving the reasoning behind the decisions of the regional assembly (1754) in Stopnica it was said emphatically that they had suffered from bad administration. These types of feelings already pointed towards an imminent breakdown of the Jewish autonomy in Poland.

According to the census that was carried out in 1765 the number of Jews in Będzin was 456, amongst which were 219 men, 237 women, together with the babies only the number rose by 31.

Będzin had affiliations with the town of Modrzejów with 25 Jews (14 men and 11 women) and 5 villages: Niwecka Karczma – 9 Jews (4 men and 11 women), Zagórze – 10 Jews (4 men and 6 women), Długoszyn – 11 Jews (4 men and 7 women), Szczakowa – 26 Jews (9 men and 17 women), Ciężkowice – 22 Jews (14 men and 8 women). All in all in the Będzin kehila (7 settlements) there 268 men and 281 women^[33].

The following numbers are interesting in relation to the Jewish residents: In Będzin there were 113 heads of families amongst the citizens dealing in trades. There were 415 adults (204 men and 211 women) and less than 31 children:

Married men: 14 grandfathers, 103 married fathers – a total of 117.

Widowers and divorcees: 1 grandfather, 1 father and 5 of indefinite age – a total of 7.

Unmarried men: 75 young men, 7 servants, apprentices and orphans – a total of 80.

There were 204 men of all categories.

Married women: 14 grandmothers and 103 mothers – a total of 117.

Widows, divorcees and agunot ["chained" women – women bound in marriage by husbands who refuse to grant a divorce or who is missing and not proved dead]: 7 grandmothers, 1 mother and 3 of indefinite age – a total of 11.

Unmarried women: 70 young women, 13 domestics – a total of 63 [translator: should be 83?]

With orphans of all ages, a total of 211^[34].

From the living standards point of view the following figures are known:

In Będzin there were 48 Jewish families of homeowners and 65 families of rent paying apartments^[35].

Of the 48 homes: there were 1-5 tenants in 92 – [translator: should be 9] homes, 6-10 tenants in 9 homes and 11-15 tenants in 9 homes and 16-25 tenants in 3 homes^[36].

According to the ledger of the Kraków cardinals from 1787 from the 978 residents in Będzin there were only 250 Jews^[37]. However these numbers contradict Tadeusz Cacki in his letter to Naruszewicz in 1791, in which it was said, that the greater half of Będzin was settled by Jews.


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During the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) the Jews of Będzin were its supporters. Reb Jakob Natan, who was called the “Anonymous Rabbi”, collected funds, advocated that the Jews volunteer to the Kościuszko Army, and he himself spied on the Russian positions^[38]. After the liquidation of the Uprising and the Prussian occupation he was arrested and imprisoned in jail. In 1807 he was released by the Poles^[39].

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