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Translation of “Narol” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Polin
Published by Yad Vashem
Published in Jerusalem
Acknowledgments
Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Polin:
Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland, Volume II, pages 333-335, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
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[Page 333]
(District of Lubaczów, Region of Lwów)
Translated by Jerrold Landau
Donated by Matthew Brown
| Year | General Population |
Jews |
| 1880 | 1,603 | 779 |
| 1900 | 2,116 | 1,030 |
| 1921 | 1,817 | 734 |
Narol, which was called Florianów until 1648, was founded in 1585 as a private city of the nobility. It was granted the status of a city in 1592. Annual fairs and weekly market days were established. During the first decades of its existence, the city developed very well and its merchants even conducted business with Gdańsk. Narol was almost completely destroyed in 1648, when the Chmielnicki armies and their Tatar allies attacked it and conquered it after three days of siege. According to the chroniclers of that time, more than 20,000 men, women and children from the city and the area, both Poles and Jews, who sought refuge in the city that was surrounded by fortifications, were killed or taken prisoner. Those who escaped from the slaughter wandered in the forests of the area for a long time, and the hunger drove them to the point of cannibalism. Before the city recovered, a battle took place again between the Tatars and the Poles, under the command of Jan Sobieski, but this time, the Poles prevailed. The stormy events of the beginning of the 18th century did not spare Narol, and it was only rehabilitated somewhat during the 19th century. During the 1820s, the owners of the city erected a splendid palace in the town, which served as a meeting place for the nobility of the area and a source of livelihood for the local residents. During that period, Narol was also known for the manufacture of wood shingles.
We have information of the first Jews in Narol from documents from 1613. That year, one man testified before the Jewish court in Narol about eleven
[Page 334]
Jews serving in the Cossack units who fought alongside the Poles against the Russians. Forty houses were in Jewish hands in 1629. The number of such houses rose to sixty within fifteen years. The Jewish settlement developed relatively quickly. The economy (the merchandise of the Jewish merchants of Narol reached Gdańsk) came to a halt in a tragic manner during the time of the massacres of Tach ve Tat [1648-1649 – the Chmielnicki massacres]. According to the estimates of the chroniclers of that time, when Chmielnicki's troops reached the entrance to the city, they found more than ten thousand local Jews, and primarily refugees from the area. When the enemy approached, the Jews tried to flee for their lives, with the pretext that they are “not expert in warfare,” but the city owners forbade them from leaving the place. When Chmielnicki's soldiers stormed the city, many Jews closed themselves off in the synagogue. The Cossacks broke through its gate and carried out a cruel slaughter of those inside. The building was set on fire, and those who had already been murdered, the wounded, and the few who had not been slaughtered were all destroyed. When the slaughter abated, the Jews of Przemyśl buried the victims of the sword and the fire.
The Jewish community was rehabilitated during the 18th century; however, it did not return to what it had been previously. In 1766, the royal treasury demanded that the community repay its debt that it accrued from the head tax.
The settlement did not develop during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the local Jews were immersed in an economic depression. In addition, the place was destined for tribulations. There was an attempted blood libel in 1904. A Christian student stabbed his friend with a knife and tossed it into the satchel of a Jewish lad. Rumors spread that the Jewish lad had stabbed a Christian child. The teacher, who saw what had happened, prevented this false libel. In 1908, Jews who were residents of a village near Narol, a husband, wife, and their daughter, were murdered. A pogrom-like atmosphere pervaded the city. A Jewish girl, the daughter of the tavern keeper was captured in 1910, taken to the monastery, and not returned to her parents even after the court ordered that she be returned. In April 1918, the farmers of the area gathered in Narol, armed with sticks and iron bars, and carried out a pogrom on the local Jews. Many were injured, and their property was damaged.
In 1933, an elderly, mentally afflicted Jewish woman started a fire, which destroyed twenty Jewish houses. Twenty-three families (approximately one hundred individuals), mostly poor, were left without a roof over their heads. At that time, an unusual situation took place amongst the Jews – several merchants preferred to rent wagons from the farmers. The Jewish wagon drivers saw this as an impingement on their livelihood, and matters came to clashes. A Jewish merchant who was beaten died from his wounds, and two wagon drivers were taken to trial.
From the names of the rabbis who served in Narol until the massacres of Tach ve Tat, we know the name of Rabbi Moshe-Yirmiya HaKohen the son of Rabbi Eliezer Walshus. He was exiled to Germany during the massacres. He served as a rabbi in Metz, and also was involved in medicine. Rabbi Moshe authored the book Birchat Tov, and died in 1659. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Rabbi Yaakov (the name of his father is unknown) served on the rabbinical seat of Narol. His son Rabbi Avraham inherited his position. After his death in 1851, Rabbi Yitzchak-Meshulam-Zalman Reinman the son of Rabbi David (apparently the son-in-law of Rabbi Avraham) served as the head of the rabbinical court. From 1880, his son, Rabbi Shalom Reinman, continued his tenure. Scions of the Reinman dynasty continued to serve in the rabbinate of Narol between the two world wars: Rabbi Tzvi (1929), followed by Rabbi Leib and Rabbi Chaim (the latter two perished in the Holocaust). It is worthwhile to note that the rabbis of Narol also had authority over the Jewish settlement of nearby Lipsko during the 20th century.
The Hassidic reality and the authority of the Hassidic rabbis in Narol until the outbreak of the First World War did not allow for the development of modern movements there, including the Zionist movement. Hassidim, especially Belzer Hassidim ruled over the community. Even in the elections to the city council that took place in 1934, they erased the names of about fifty people from the list of voters, mainly Zionists. Nevertheless, the Zionist organizations penetrated into Narol during the interwar period, and chapters of the general Zionist organization, Hitachdut, and the revisionists, as well as a chapter of Hanoar Hatzioni, were formed. After its establishment in 1933, more than fifty members registered in the Hatechiya Zionist union. In the elections to the Zionist congress that took place in 1931, the General Zionist list received 154 votes, Mizrachi – 21, Hitachdut – 68, and the Revisionists – 14.
On September 9, 1939, after the Second World War broke out, the Nazis entered the city. That day, they shot one Jew (or three) to death. Two days after their entry, the Nazis opened the cellars belonging to Jews where they stored eggs preserved with pitch – the business of many local Jews – and permitted the Christian population to pillage the eggs as well as the property of the Jews in their homes. The local priest (who was considered as an anti-Semite in the eyes of the Jews up to that time) tried to prevent the pillage. He delivered a public sermon denigrating the pillagers and chased the farmers of the area, who had come to pillage, out of the city. The Nazis summoned the rabbi of the city, Rabbi Meir-Yechiel Shapira (this was apparently on Rosh Hashanah) and imposed a personal obligation on him of 25,000 zloty that the Jews had to pay within two days. They also demanded a gift of non-essential foodstuffs (coffee, chocolate, wine). The rabbi hid in a nearby village, and then escaped to a different city. According to an unconfirmed report, after that, the Germans took out all the Jews to a forest and threatened to kill them, but freed them in the end. Forced labor for the Germans was the daily nightmare of the Jews.
The Jewish settlement in Narol existed for only another two to three weeks. Then, the Germans ordered (or permitted) the Jews to leave the town that was located in the border district, and to move to the area of Soviet rule. Most of the Jews moved to Rawa Ruska. After some time, the Soviet authorities sent these refugees to distant areas of Russia. Because of this, approximately one hundred individuals, a relatively substantial proportion of the pre-war Jewish population, survived the war.
During the first quarter of 1940, the Nazis set up a Jewish work camp in the area of Narol and nearby Lipsko. This was one of the row of camps at the southern edge of the Lublin district, near the German-Soviet border, the purpose of which was to build fortresses at the border. The central camp was Belzec.
[Page 335]
Sources
Yad Vashem Archives: M-1/Q 1227/76; 03/3503.
Yivo: Ezrat Torah 8-50.
Central Zionist Archives: F.3-3.
Hamitzpeh: December 4, 1908, July 15, 1909, May 3, 1918; Di Tzioniste Vach: May 12, 1933, August 4, 1933, June 22, 1934, June 20, 1934.
Chwila: January 18, 1932, June 14, 1933, December 24, 1933; Chwila Wieczorna: July 15, 1935; Hanoar Hacijoni: April 15, 1935; Wschód: October 7, 1910.
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