[Page 9]

The thought of issuing the almanac or “Pinkas” is not a new one. The idea evolved years ago, and was ready to be printed, but the outbreak of the Second World War made this work impossible to complete.

In 1929, Szymon Rotenberg began writing the story of Jewish Zagłębie in general, and his birth city of Będzin. He alone, for over 10 years had researched in the archives of the records of Zagłębie and the works of Polish historians and old records of the Chevra Kaddisha [burial society] and local Jews who were knowledgeable. Szymon Rotenberg researched everything that had been previously written about Zagłębie and her principal city and when after 10 years of work he completed this monumental work, which filled 500 pages in an album format, it reached the stage when this book was ready to be printed.

When the terrible tragedy of the war destroyed Jewish Zagłębie, the “Zaglembiye Almanakh” also died. I don't know if anyone from Będzin read the “Zaglembiye Almanakh”.

It seems that I was the only person from Będzin to have seen this monumental work, completed and in print.

Rotenberg's younger brother – Hersz Lajb – had a print shop in the house I lived in, on 56 Malachowski (Street). Here Szymon Rotenberg printed three copies of the book. I remember how Szymele, as we used to call him, used to come to the print shop every day to help his brother with this work. Every day he brought new documents, erased and added to complete defects (missing pieces of information) to the already printed pages. His brother's protests did not help; that this work would never be completed.

Szymele did not tire in continuously printing and reprinting. I remember his joy when a new idea was successful – in explaining a legend or to insert a small story of Będzin life.

Finally, the book was completed and ready for printing in 1939. Of the three proof copies that he printed, he gave one to the “Starosta” (district head) of Będzin for the Polish censorship, without which we were not allowed to print. The second copy he divided into sections and sent it to Będzin people throughout the world. Sadly, I was unsuccessful in finding the distributed pages (sections), except for a few pages which his brother in Paris had, and which M. Hampel in Israel possessed.

The third copy he kept for himself, and waiting for confirmation from the Polish censor, in order to begin printing the “Zaglembiye Almanakh”. The horrific war broke out and the printing of the book was not a consideration due to the fact that the Germans did not allow Jewish books to be printed.

The last time I met with Szymele Rotenberg was on July 30, 1943, in the ghetto in front of the house where the youth club met. We sat together, the author of these lines, Israel Gertler, and S. Rotenberg, and discussed how to save the writings (the work) from disappearing. We had already set ourselves to the task of accounting for our time, for we had already come to the conclusion that the days of the ghetto were numbered and that we stood before total annihilation; to which we thought: maybe one of us will remain alive and then we'll know where to find this book.

We decided that Israel Gertler should bring a milk can on the following day, into which we wanted to put the “Almanakh” and also the diary that Szymon Rotenberg wrote in the ghetto. Unfortunately, we were unable to put this plan into effect, because in the morning the “Aussiedlung” (deportation) had already taken place. The last Będzin Jews were taken away by force to the Auschwitz gas chambers.

A week later, I managed to return to the ghetto where 150 Jews still remained. They had the task of liquidating Jewish property. Because of the fact that these Jews were involved in this task, they were entitled to live a further four months.

I immediately went up to Rotenberg's apartment and looked where the “Almanakh” should have been. However, I didn't find the book. Only after the war, when I came to live in Israel, I wrote a letter to the survivors in Będzin. I asked them to look for the lost “Almanakh”; unfortunately without success. After extended investigation together with Bendiner people who were living in Israel, I determined that the “Almanakh” was located with a certain Mr. R. I consulted Rabbi Hager, of blessed memory. With the help of the “Irgun Ole Zagłębie” (Association of Zaglembian Immigrants) we managed to retrieve the book from Mr. R. It was shown that this was the copy that the “Starosta” had previously received. Polish officials found the book after the war. They thought that it was a religious book and handed it over to the Jewish committee. Unfortunately, we weren't entirely content at having found the book. From the monumental work on Zagłębie Jewry, which had around 500 pages, only 100 pages remained. It seems that those people who had the book in their possession didn't look after it. A momentous work, containing ten years' research on Zaglembian Jewry, has been lost.

We hereby publish the part of the book that was saved as written by S. Rotenberg, of blessed memory, without changing the order in which prepared. We owe this to the holy memory of Szymon Rotenberg. We have merely carried out a few corrections and added several remarks.



[Page 10]

Szymon Rotenberg

1. Jews in Będzin

Before we approach the story of the Jews of Będzin, we will firstly give a historical overview about the establishment of the city. Będzin is the regional capital of the district of Kielce. The city lies on the left bank of the “Shvartzer Przemsza” (Black Przemsza River) and as you walk you would encounter the ruins of the old castle. In the 14^th century the city was called Bondien; in the 15^th century: Bondin and Bondzin; in 16^th and 17^th century: Bendin and Bendzim. Beginning in the18^th century: Będzin.

Będzin is one of the oldest cities in Poland. Early in its history the population occupied itself with fishing, and settled around the fortress, which was situated on a tall rocky mountain. During the reign of King Boleslav The Shy (1279-1238), a wooden castle was built on the ruins of the fortress. Boleslav took the colony (village) around the castle and united it with his castle and imparted on it the character of a village with the right to have a market.

Choosing this particular place as for a settlement was not accidental, because in early years, a stream ran through here which was an artery that led from the Przemsza to the Warta River and from there, through the Oder (Odra) River to the Wisla River. An ancient overland route that connected Krakow with Greater Poland through Silesia also ran through Będzin.

To begin with, the Polish king Kazimierz the Great, who understood the importance of the mountain as a strategic point, destroyed the wooden fortress, and in its place built, around the year 1358, a mighty stone castle, which oversaw the Polish border and guarded them from attacks by the aggressive people from German Silesia.

This was a mighty, immense castle built of stone – a three-tiered fortress with 4 meter thick outside walls. A 10-12 meter high wall surrounded the castle. In this particular period, the city still did not have security walls; only wooden walls with wooden gates. When Kazimierz completed this structure, he built the city, transferring the residents from the earlier Będzin settlement, which was located in the Malobadz region of today.

Around 1364, stone defense walls were built and their remnants exist until the present day. In Zamkowa Street are buildings that were built upon the ruins of these walls, as were the Zaulek alleyways and the ancient Jewish cemetery in Zawale Street, and in recent years it is still possible to identify remnants of these walls.

When we speak about the Kościuszko Uprising and about the “campaigns” of the legions of Napoleons armies, we always encounter the name of Berek Joselewicz, as if other Jews did not participate in Napoleon's military battles. However, ledger records from new investigations bring up names of soldiers and other officers in the Polish Army.

One of the exceptional Jewish officers was Jakob Szpot, son of a poor craftsman in Będzin. This officer participated in the Spanish “Campaign”, excelling in the battle and because of this Napoleon awarded him a medal of honor. Szpot also participated in the battle of Moscow and fell in 1812.

Heronim Borowski, a citizen of the Lubklin district, tells of the heroism of Szpot, in “Jutrzenka” from 1861:

In 1908 officer Jakob Szpot served with me in the army in Spain. He was a very upright person and one of the heroes of the regiment. He always went first and in the brutal battles he commanded his men with composure, as if it was a parade on the Parada (festive army ceremony) field. He did not own property but nevertheless distributed a fourth of his wages amongst the soldiers, who excelled in their heroism and behavior. There were many instances of his courage and I will note one of them. In January 1908 Szpot was dispatched by General Chłopicki to conquer the small town of Cuenca [Spain], an important military position, during our Marsch (march) on to Saragossa. Szpot conquered the town, heading 200 soldiers amongst which there were 60 Frenchmen. After a short time he was surrounded by 3,000 Spanish soldiers, to whose aid came local residents. Szpot now had to fight against a double enemy: internal and external. Nevertheless he didn't hesitate and went out towards them. The Spanish knowing that our numbers were few, attacked us with great enmity, however after three hours, they retreated, leaving 300 casualties, excluding wounded of a similar number. Szpot's soldiers also suffered badly and half of them fell or were wounded in the battle. Szpot himself was wounded by a bullet in his leg and a sword to his head. In spite of all this he fought bravely, however the Frenchmen in the regiment refused to continue fighting, since twenty of them were killed, the rest were wounded and those that remained alive were weak and their spirits were low. Szpot pleaded with them to no avail: “We will all be killed, however we must obey the General's order”.

The French surrendered and gave themselves in to the Spanish. Szpot was left with only thirty soldiers and with them he planned for a new battle, which was very bitter. They displayed extraordinary resistance. Szpot was wounded in another two places. His few soldiers asked him to rest a little, however he refused, saying: I promised the General to fight till the last drop of blood. The Spanish overtook the house, in which Szpot was barricaded, set fire to it, however Szpot did not surrender, defending without any hope of surviving. Miraculously the 11^th mounted regiment appeared, having heard shots form this battle. They provided assistance, and thus Szpot was saved with nine of his soldiers who had remained alive. However all of them, to a man, were severely wounded.

In recognition for their heroism, Napoleon awarded them medals of honor, the Order of the “Honor Guard”.

I should add – writes Heronim Borowski – that Szpot was a member of the faith of Moses [Jewish], son of a craftsman in the town of Będzin and he fell in the battle field in 1812.



[Page 34]

One of the anomalies of Jewish economic life is the abnormality of the Jewish labor force. It would be hard to find Jewish people in capitalist countries working in large scale industries, mining and so on. This particular phenomenon of Jewish workers being concentrated in particular branches of small industry, has already been established by Borochov ^[1]. We won't be able to analyze this question because this is a theme on its own, which has already been studied by many economists.

I would like to illustrate this situation with an example from Zagłębie.

Podwale Alleyway

The mining administration, which evolved during the former Congress Poland ^[2] in 1824, was passed on to the renown minister of finance, Prince Lubecki. This minister wished to became acquainted with the position of the Polish miners, and with their needs and requirements, immediately set out on the road. He held meetings wherever he went with engineers and administrators. Amongst the various questions he dealt with was that of Jewish workers in the Polish mines. It is a known fact that the Napoleonic Wars brought about the destruction of the Warsaw principality, which in the main became a part of Russia as Congress Poland. The Jewish masses were devastated through wars, taxes and levies to the battling armies. The poor, hungry masses tried various ways to find an alternative income. They desperately tried to obtain some land ownership, although traditionally this had not been possible and yet others sought to find work in the evolving mining industry.

At the time, in this particular industry, manpower was lacking. They had to bring qualified craftsmen from other countries, in order to build up a work force.

As mentioned, the poor Jews of Zagłębie, mainly from Będzin, were eager to work as miners and wherever the minister, Prince Lubecki, reached he was asked how he would handle this question.

In the book written by the well-known researcher, Professor Natalia Goncziarowska in her book about mining and glassworks in Congress Poland during the years 1815-30, we read about this industry. She noted that a significant number of Jews sought employment in this industry. It was decided that they should be permitted to receive jobs under the condition that they work as day laborers, however, not as permanent workers with a weekly salary. We also read about the efforts of the Jews of Będzin to infiltrate this industry. We learn that the poor in Będzin sought employment in the Ksawery coal mine, which was founded at this time.

At another meeting, Prince Lubecki declared: “One would be able to utilize the poor Jews as coal miners and thus we would receive many laborers for the real work in the mining and glass working industry.” As noted earlier, the decision was that Jews would be only able to be employed as day workers.

How this developed further is not known. Whether Jewish workers were actually employed as mine workers in Zagłębie or whether the decisions made on paper, is not known. The elder citizens of Będzin would have been able to comment on this matter and further research is necessary on this very interesting subject.

The example of Będzin, where Jewish poverty was not any worse than of the Christians, for whom special housing was established and efforts were made to provide good working conditions for them, is a distinct illustration of the sort of ruin that economic anti-Semitism brought on Jewish life. The crippling of the economic structure of the Jewish population was a consequence of the state of the times, as it is today.

Note from the editor:
On further research we found that there were few Jewish coal miners in those times. It turned out that in spite of the efforts of the poor Jews of Będzin to find work in the Zaglembian coal mines, and in spite of the recommendations of the minister, Prince Lubecki, to permit them to be day workers – the local authorities did everything in their power to daunt the aspirations of Zaglembian Jews in these industries.

The reason is economic anti-Semitism as was clearly shown by Dr. Ringelblum.

View from the corner of the Rybna Alleyway (the Butcher's Alleyway)

The old Jewish record books of the various societies not only contain information about the societies and their members but also mention historical materials, which are of great importance to the story of the Jews in the city and even of the Jews in the country.

The social institutions often present a picture of the cultural, economic and sometimes of the political situation in the Jewish “kehila” [community] of the times for which the lists and registrations of the institutions cover.

The record books of the Jewish societies of Będzin are spread out before us and from them we learn that since early times there have been an entire series of cultural, economic and philanthropic institutions which have been called a “Chevra” [society]. Sadly, the most important historical occurrences were not always registered in these institutions; and to this end, one often finds complete notations of events of lesser importance.

It's possible that the educated society members, who were registered in the record books, were interested in even the more insignificant events.

For this particular research, we have made use of following registers: “Będzin Chesed shel emet” [Będzin burial society], “Chevrat Chayatim” [Tailors Association], “Chevrat Hachnassat Kala” [Bridal Fund], “Chevrat Tehilim” [Psalm society], “Chevrat Noseh Hamateh” [“Baton carrying” society], and “Chevrat Malibish Arumim” [Society for clothing the needy].

This particular society is the most important and oldest source for our research.

It is quite a small book, bound in leather, pages numbered 1 to 178, on old dull pages, which are partially yellowed and partially greenish-grey from age. The later pages are made from saturated, heavy and perfectly smooth paper. The first pages, which are numbered, is like an “old vessel filled with ancient wine” in contrast to the later pages on which very few are written on and look like “new but there is nothing new in them”. The book of records is 14 x 16 cm in size – bound in leather with brown canvas covers. There is no title page. On the page before page one is the following written in simple handwriting: The registry of “Chevra Kaddisha” in Będzin from ancient times. Other than that, the following note is on the page:

“In this record book there are several people that were written about in the “Chevra Kaddisha” record book of 5447 [1687] like on page 16 and 17 and also page 5 there is an account page from the year 5440 [1680].“

On page 1 there are important historical significant entries, which is expressed in flowery Hebrew:

“With G-d's help.” … [Hebrew text]

The last 25 years of Jewish life in Zagłębie are – in general – rich in various events. All of these events, which occurred in Jewish social and communal life were always echoed throughout Zagłębie. Jewish Zagłębie always reacted – sometimes greater, sometimes weaker – to all the events that we underwent.

Now, with all those years are behind us, it seems that we are looking into a past that has disappeared long ago. The new era that began after the war, will not allow the tragic situation from before the war to return. However, in the light of the reality we live in, we see that the numerous problems facing the Jews have not disappeared and that the many burning problems have remained in the same actuality that they existed 25 years ago. It also has become clear to us that since the plight of the Jews repeats itself throughout history, 25 years is quite a relatively short interval in time.

The final years of Czarism were very difficult for the Jews in former Russia. After the freedom movement was stifled during the years 1905 to 1906, a reactionary regime with an iron fist was established. Black money was rampant and being under the gendarme's thumb, where no free thought was permitted, social and cultural work was barred in even the most honorable environments since the Czarist spies saw revolutionary shadows everywhere (“fifth columnists”).

It is self evident that when one writes about Jewish life during the last years of Czarism that a whole complex of Jewish persecution and decrees, that would certainly have been carried out with completely brutal severity and had it not been for the world war, the Czarists were prevented from realizing their murderous plans.

In the year 1913, the Czarist government began invoking an old law according to which Jews were not permitted to live in an area within 21 verst ^[3] from the border. The Jews from the Zaglembian villages were, because of this, obligated to leave their homes.

With the participation of Rabbi Jekutiel Zalman Graubart, a Będzin memorandum was edited and a telegram sent to the Ministry of the Interior to prevent this fateful decree. In a separate action the Jewish deputy of the “Gosudarstwenaja Duma” [parliament], Dr. Bomasz, had endeavored to contact high levels in St. Petersburg, in addition Baron David Ginsburg was asked to intervene on this behalf.

In a letter dated March 22^nd, 1944, Icchak Grinbaum wrote to Rabbi Graubart about the reaction to this fateful sentence:

“I have received a letter from the Jews living in the villages from the district of Będzin and asked me to reply to Dr. Bomasz and to write a telegram to the minister to expedite the expulsion and to inform you about this matter. Hence, I am informing you that I wrote to Dr. Bomasz today and also added the necessary material. I will have the telegram ready within the next couple of days and will send it to you promptly.”

During the period of the expulsion we were witness to another tragic event that left behind a substantial impact in the Jewish economic structure. This was the boycott that was organized by the “Endecja” ^[4] against the Jewish population following the election of the Russian parliament in 1912 where, with the help of Jewish votes, the candidate of the PPS ^[5], Jagiello, was elected and the “Endecja” candidate, Kuchaszewski, failed.

In this particular “holy” anti-Jewish act, the entire “Endecja” party and press was antagonized. In the Zaglembian communities a complete chain of cooperative stores were opened, which took away a large number of Christian clientele from the Jewish storekeepers. The boycott drove many thousands of Jewish business owners to the brink of economic destruction and they were wiped out.

The “Endecja”, in their Jewish struggle were not alone; they also had the assimilated Jews of Zagłębie come to their aid, who had not remained behind the times in relation to their friends in Warsaw. As we read in the “Endecja” newspaper “Iskra” number 287 from the year 1912: “The assimilated Jews of Sosnowiec sent a telegram to Warsaw protesting against the non-election of Kuchaszewski.” The assimilated Jews of Będzin sent a similar telegram.

The economic destruction in the Jewish community, which came as a result of the Czarist Jewish persecution and from the boycott was a factor behind the beginnings of mass emigration.

Thousands of emigrants passed through Zagłębie which is encircled by borders; apart from legal emigrants a large number of illegal emigrants flooded the borders, and it quite often occurred that poor emigrants from various cities fell into the hands of professional smugglers who simply robbed and abandoned them to the G-d's care in the Czeladz fields. No amount of warnings helped. The total number of victims continued to grow.

At the Sosnowiec railway station there was a D. K. A. employee with a shiny tin badge on his cap, who moved about there but was not able to render much assistance. Large groups of emigrants passed through Zagłębie, through Myslowice, to Galveston, North and South America, Argentina, Brazil and other countries. We saw the “parade” of Jewish poverty for ourselves. The nearer we drew to the world war, the number of emigrants continued to grow (from Poland, Lithuania and Russia).

On its outset, the world war cut off the stream of emigration and returned the Jewish masses to other directions of pain and suffering.

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