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In the beginning of 1936, there was not a day when the newspapers were not full of news about the bloody attack on Jews in various cities and towns of Poland. The authorities at the time found the “solution” to the economic and political difficulties in perpetrating blatant incitement against the Jewish population.

In the daily Łódźer press, one reads, along with the news about the preparations of the textile workers to increase their competition with the wealthy industrialists, news about the destruction of Jewish stalls, about the frightening events in Brisk and Mińsk Mazowiecki, and about the attacks against Jewish students in the universities. There is also news about the attitude of the progressive powers in the country. The daily bourgeoisie newspaper Glos Poronny had an article on February 24, 1936 entitled “Working Łódź – Against Anti-Semitism.”

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“The district committee of the professional class union convened a conference yesterday, with representatives of 25 professional unions present. Aside from the question about the preparation for a strike, the chairman of the textile union, Szczerkowski, spoke about the anti-Semitic wave that has overtaken the country; about the political repressions of the professional unions and their leaders; about the need for a struggle against fascism and anti-Semitism.”

That same newspaper writes further that, on the previous Sunday morning, a large meeting took place in the Łódź Philharmonic, in which 3,000 textile workers took part. Szczerkowski, Wolczak, Zajglowa, and Galinski participated. Zdszechowski and Wytaszewki, representatives of the left professional faction, also spoke. None of the speakers failed to mention the need for a struggle against fascism and anti-Semitism.

The textile strike in Łódź broke out on March 2, 1936. At first, the workers that were employed in the middle-industry, where the collective agreement had already turned into a worthless piece of paper, joined the struggle. The strike wave grew with every day, until all the Łódź textile factories were silent. All the textile factories around Łódź joined in solidarity with the strike: in Zgierz, Ozorków, Pabianice, and Tomaszew. They also belonged to the handworker home-workers. At the end of the first week, the strike turned into a general strike of the entire textile industry of the Łódź region. The coat workers also joined the struggle. The employees of the leather and clothing industry also went on strike. On Monday, at the beginning of the second week, the entire proletariat of Łódź was in the fire of the struggle.

That same Monday, March 9^th, 1936, a bloody pogrom took place in the town of Przytyk, near Radom. Wild excesses – as the press of that time had noted – were no news in Sanacja, Poland, but that which took place in Przytyk exceeded all former acts of terror. As we mention those events – let us describe in brief what took place in Przytyk.

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Przytyk is located only 15-16 kilometers from Radom, from the center of the leather industry, where small-town tradesman would purchase or otherwise obtain leather from wealthy merchants to make boots and shoes for them. In Przytyk, there was also a significant number of pelt makers, who sewed furs and brought them to the fairs. There were a significant number of second-rate tailors, sheet metal workers, and furriers, several wagon drivers, porters, and butchers, who knew who to hold up for a shoulder to lean on, and also had a desire to do what was necessary…

Immediately after the First World War, a former resident of Przytyk, a worker in the tailoring trade, joined his wife and child in England. That London tailor, whom the wives always crowned with the name Shimele Goy, left an impression in the minds of the town youth.

Moshe Cuker, the son of the shochet [ritual slaughterer] was a diligent Communist. Reuven Cukerman, the son of the best melamed [children's teacher] of the town, was one of the founders of the professional union in Przytyk. Mottel Bornsztajn, the son of a wealthy wheat businessman, organized courses in the professional union, and taught reading and writing to the town youth. He joined the revolutionary movement.

There were also Jewish landowners in Przytyk – Itche Meir Lenger and his partner Berish Lender. They owned fields, forests, and steam and water mills. The river was also theirs. Jewish fisherman had to pay them annual lease fees. That Berish Lenger had a desire to become a Sejm deputy. He connected with surrounding landowners and wealthy farmers, traveled around the villages and towns, and conducted publicity for his own self. However, his competitors hired a murderer and he was killed.

For some years, good relations existed between the Jewish working population and the surrounding Polish residents. Jewish handworkers sold their work in the fairs. If someone was not able to pay immediately, they were given credit. Jewish village businessmen had a lifelong connection with peasants – from when they came home for the Sabbath until they set out again on Sunday morning. Nobody could imagine that any evil could befall him from the village folk.

“It was specifically those peasants who, for the vast majority of the time, related to the Jews in a friendly manner,” wrote M. Schor in his interpolation to the Polish senate,

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“who warned the Jews that the Endekja agitators are conducting wild incitement of hate against them. The Endekja gangs have been inciting the Christian population and urging the peasants to perpetrate pogroms against Jews already for a long time.”

Professor Schor continues, “Being greatly of ill ease, the Jewish merchants unions in Przytyk turned to the chief of the security organization in Kielce, Sutamski, and to the Starosta in Radom, requesting help by sending more police to the upcoming fair day. The answer was: ‘We have prevented it, there have been no murders.’”

With the appearance of the menacing threat that was drawing nearer with each day, and seeing the passive attitude of the administrative authorities, groups of young workers who were under the influence of the Communist Party of Poland began to organize a self-defense. There were also certain young people who procured weapons, despite having no connection to the Communist Party.

It is simply impossible to describe everything that took place on that Monday, March 9, 1936 in Przytyk. A different section of Professor Schorr's representation to the senate tells about it, in which he interpolated to the interior minister of that time, Raczkiewicz:

“Endekja bands encircled Jewish shops and stores, not permitting the peasants to make their purchases. Around noon, a peasant wanted to purchase pastry from a Jewish shop, and a fight broke out. A panic suddenly overtook the crowd gathered in the market. Some of the peasants began to harness their horses and wagons, and quickly fled. Still others, influenced by the Endekja venomous agitation, started to rob Jewish shops and dwellings.”

They began to get organized, and the largely spontaneous resistance of the Jewish youth and a large portion of the Jewish population in Przytyk began. According to the writing of the aforementioned Łódź daily newspaper Glos Poronny, the following picture is painted:

“The gangs were driven out of the market. They were displaced to the other side of the bridge, to the Zachęta district of the city. Given that

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their murder plan was not perpetrated in the center of the city, they took revenge against the Jews who lived in the Zachęta and Podgajek areas. They attacked a poor Jewish family, the shoemaker Yosef Minkowski, and killed him on the spot. His wife died from her wounds in the Radom hospital; Two young children were also severely wounded. The Minkowskis left behind eight orphans. Two weeks after the bloody events, another two victims died: the tailor Zysman and Mandelblum tried to escape from the market during the time of the great commotion, and Stanislaw Wyszniak fell dead from a revolver bullet. The young tailor Shalom Lesko was accused of shooting Wyszniak.”

The bloody toll was five dead and more than 30 wounded. 57 people, Jews and Poles, were arrested, and appeared in court. Aside from famous Jewish lawyers in the country, people who represented the progressive segment of Polish society also defended the Jewish victims.

The famous lawyer Petroszewicz, deacon of the faculty of law of the University of Vilna and chairman of the “League for Defending Human Rights” society, defending the 60-year-old Jew Feldberg. The lawyer Szumanski defended the main accused person, Shalom Lesko. The renowned lawyers Berenson, Margolies, Ettinger, Kriger, Fenigsztajn, Paschalski, and Lewin also participated as defenders.

The Endekja “heroes” were defended by the infamous Łódź “vest meisters” Kowalski and Szwajdel, as well as lawyers from Radom and Warsaw who, on the one hand, brought forth the known Middle-Ages accusations against Jews in general, and on the other hand – the new Hitler doctrines regarding “solving the Jewish question.”

The defenders of the Jews, first and foremost the lawyers Petroszewicz, Szumanski, and Berenson, portrayed the socio-political factors that influenced the Endekjas and also significant groups of the ruling Sanacja party to turn the needy, suffering peasant population against the Jews. “Through the murder of three million Jews,” called out the lawyer Petroszewicz in court, “ can one give ten million peasants land to

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alleviate the need in the village? Did they want to solve the painful economic difficulties of the country in this manner?! Pogroms! – This is their program, with which they wish to solve all the painful problems!” The lawyer Petroszewicz and Szumanski unmasked the hateful rhetoric of the brazen Endekja lawyers, who had taken on the shameful role of defending the pogrom slogans.

Their justification in the Przytyker trial is very characteristic. Here is a small excerpt: “With the general seriousness of the fact that there were bystanders at the murder of the Minkowskis, the court cannot determine the guilt of those accused in carrying out the act of murder.”

… After two weeks of stubborn struggle, the textile strike ended with the victory of the workers.

On March 17, 1936, the Jewish professional class-unions

Articles from the court in Radom, in one of the newspapers. The headlines are: “Endekja Revenge” and “Jewish Self-Defense”

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and workers unions proclaimed a half day protest strike. That same Łódź newspaper, Glos Poronny, writes the following about that:

“A sign of the protest against the events in Przytyk and against the anti-Semitic attacks on the Jewish population in the city yesterday and throughout the country came to use through an impressive protest strike that lasted for a half a day. Jews and Christians went on strike. Not taking into account that the textile proletariat had returned to work two days previously, they again joined a solidarity struggle led by the Jewish working population. The following factories went on strike: Ettingan's factory went on strike completely, Kroczaszinski's silk factory, the factories of Maza and Lempert, Herszberg and Halberstadt, Gerszowski; The workers' organization in the professional unions of clothing, leather, carpentry, bakers, printers, and hairdressers also went on strike. The shops were also closed.”

This was a segment of the large battle that the working class, the broadest mass of people in Poland, conducted against anti-Semitism, against the wild fascist reaction.

(Folkssztima, Warsaw, March 1966)

Shortly after the tragic events in Przytyk, the folk poet and folksinger M. Gebirtig, in the song S'Brent (It's Burning), shouted out his warning and rage literally prophetically. Being that Gebirtig was murdered by the Nazis in the Krakow Ghetto, and that the aforementioned song became the measure of the mood of the survivors – it was turned by the people into a sort of hymn, a dirge for the great destruction. The truth is that, “It is burning, brothers,

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it is burning” is connected with the Przytyk conflagration, the forerunner of the later, huge conflagration that destroyed a third of our people.

How fine and portentous are the following lines:

“Evil winds with wrath
Tear through, break, and blow
Stronger after the wild flames,
Everything around has already burnt…”

During the 1930s, the ground indeed burnt under the feet of Polish Jewry. The fire, ignited by the Endekja anti-Semitism and the “Naro” pogromchiks; by Sklodkowski's “Owszem”-politics^[1] and the excessive concern for “humane” ritual slaughter – was warmed by Poland's western neighbor, Hitler's Germany. The evil winds from there fanned the local anti-Semitic fire even more strongly. The Jewish student had to sit in the “Jewish bench” in the high schools, and the impoverished tradesman and market businessman were driven from the fairs and from commerce.

On such sullied soil, the Przytyk pogrom took place about three decades ago. This pogrom had a second side to the coin: Jewish self-defense – an organized, purposeful, powerful, and consistent effort. The revolt against the hooligans of that time was so strong and effective that, when the Germans decided to murder European Jewry following the Wannsee Conference six years later, they undertook to understand the driving forces and reasons for the Jewish resistance in Przytyk.

The population of that town in the Radom District, Kielce Region, was 400 families, of which 90% were Jewish. It was specifically in such as settlement that the anti-Semites opposed the Jews. Later, during the years 1934-35, strong anti-Semitic incitement was perpetrated. It started with leaflets and newspaper articles with appeals to purchase only from Poles (“swo da swego po swoja”), and led to pickets of the Jewish businesses and stalls. Later, it went to hooliganism and excesses in Odrzywół and Klwów, until the large pogrom in Przytyk itself.

It took place on March 9, 1936, Shushan Purim. Incited peasants from

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the surrounding villages and hired picketers began to march wildly in the Podgajek and Piaski suburbs. They were armed with sticks, rods, bars, and stones, and some also had weapons. They broke into Jewish homes, and split heads, destroyed furniture, delivered blows, shattered windows, sowing destruction and devastation. They did not spare the elderly or the children. The bestiality of the murderers went so far that they tortured to death the shoemaker Yosef Minkowski and his wife Chaya. Then they dragged the terrified children from under the bed and beat them with death blows.

It would seem that the bestial instincts of the pogromchiks were somewhat assuaged with the death of the Minkowskis. The acts of murder ceased. However, in the center of town, in the market itself, the Jews mounted a fierce resistance. The 20-year-old Orthodox lad Shalom Lesko even shot with a revolver. One peasant fell dead. Przytyk lads prepared for the resistance in a spirited and practical fashion, and an entire crowd of peasants fled from the mighty Jews in confusion and terror. Our Jewish brethren in Przytyk did not want to rely on the police, and especially not on the Starosta, who ironically and cynically responded to every Jewish delegation prior to the events with: “In the meantime, nobody has been killed…”

The spirit of the resistance was so well-rooted in Jewish Przytyk that even the 68-year-old accused, Leizer Feldberg, bravely declared to the judge, “Even had you, Herr Judge, beaten me, I would have defended myself…

Yitzchak Frajdman, one of the most important organizers of the self-defense in Przytyk (who currently lives in Israel) would state that representatives of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.), of the peasants party, Communists, and liberal Poles cooperated with the Jews, and were prepared to help them in the battle against the hooligans.

The events in Przytyk had a great resonance in Poland and in the entire world. Polish Jewry even conducted a one-day protest strike. The JOINT mobilized help for those suffering. The Jewish Agency provided certificates for the Minkowski orphans so that they could make aliya to the Land of Israel.

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The newspapers dealt at length with the events and the court case of Przytyk In the photo: Yosel Minkowski, may G-d avenge his blood, who was murdered with his wife Chaya by the peasants

Already from 8:00 a.m., a crowd of people gathered in front of the Sejmik Building, where the trial was taking place. They saw the hundreds of Jewish and Christian witnesses. They gathered in a large courtyard.

The defense attorneys entered one at a time. The Endekja lawyers headed by Kowalski arrived on wagons driven by Jews.

Immediately thereafter, the Jewish defense attorneys entered: Berenson, Margolies, Krigier and Fenigsztajn. The lawyers Szimanski and Petroszewicz entered together with them. The lawyer Ettinger had not yet arrived. He would arrive later.

Immediately before the beginning of the trial, it became known that the defense of the Jewish accused would be led by the famous Polish lawyer and renowned senate activists Pascholski. That news made a deep impression, and was widely commented on by the crowd in the courtroom.

At around 9:00, the accused were led into the courtroom. They had been brought from jail on three trucks. As they were brought in, the relatives of the accused Jews stood up and burst out weeping as they saw their relatives accompanied by the police. The Jewish accused were in good spirits and greeted their acquaintances and relatives with a wave of the hand.

All the lawyers were already in the hall. The lawyers who were going to bring forward the civil accusations sat separately. The Jewish lawyer Fenigstajn went to sit together with the lawyer Kowalski from Łódź.

The first of the Jewish defenders was the lawyer Berenson. The first of the Endekja defenders…

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Three court divisions were involved with the Przytyk pogrom: the Radom district court, the Lublin court of appeals, and the supreme court in Warsaw. 44 Poles and 14 Jews sat in the accused dock of the first division. 320 Polish and 80 Jewish witnesses were heard. Harsh sentences were handed out, in proportion to the attackers and their victims. Soon after this, the writ of accusation was presented. The following is what Yaakov Leszczynski, the well-known economist and socialist, who attended the Przytyk trial, wrote:

“… It (the writ of accusation – D. Sh.) drags the Jews into the foreground. It places in front those who had the brazenness to defend themselves. The writ of accusation starts as follows: The Jews – Yankel-Avraham Haberberg, Leizer Feldberg, Yankel Zajda, Rafael Honyk, Moshe Furszt, Shaul Krengel, Moshe Cuker, Leib Lenge, Yitzchak Bande, and Yitzchak Frajdman, are accused of attacking the peasants who were hurrying home at the same time that the clash between the peasants and the police was taking place. They beat them with sticks and tools, threw stones at them. In this manner, they wounded Jozef Szimanski in the head, causing a concussion in his brain. They also wounded many other peasants, who received bruises and swelling…”

A group of Jew-baiters were also present in court. Among them was a grandson of the well-known historic apostate Krauzhar. They were in conflict with the defenders of the Jews, Berenson, Ettinger, Margolies, Kriger, headed by the noble Poles such as the deacon Professor Petroszewicz and Szimanski.

As soon as the judge issued a sentence for years in prison, the anti-Semitic press publicized with schadenfreude its verdict against the Jews and Jewish Przytyk. On March 25, 1936, the Dziennik Narodowy wrote: “We can live without Jews.” A second anti-Semitic newspaper wrote triumphantly: “It is accepted that a pure Polish Przytyk will rise in place of the Jewish Przytyk…”

That prophesy was fulfilled. The anti-Semites waited for a Poland without Jews – and this was accomplished by their enemy, Hitlerist

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Germany. Crushed and enslaved, going forward in blood, those beaten in 1939 Poland wandered about in the prime location of total destruction of Jews. Five years later, Przytyk was also Judenrein. Together with the deportation of the entire Przytyk Jewish community in 1941, they also sent Poles away from there. This was carried out by the Hitlerist occupiers blindly and with cruelty toward both peoples, because Przytyk and the region had to turn into a gigantic exercise field for German aviation, which played an exceptionally large role in the planning of the downfall of the Soviet Union.

About a year later, the German authorities became interested in Przytyk once again. This time, specifically for Jewish matters, even though there had been no Jews in the town already for a long time.

In the “Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute” (Warsaw, July-December 1955, number 15-16), A. Rotkowski describes that as long as the German murderers were involved with the “final solution” to the Jewish question, they wanted to explain and understand the Jewish resistance in Przytyk in the year 1936. From Krakow, the headquarters of the central occupation authorities of the General government and of the Jewish aid (Z. S. S.), questions were sent in writing and wired to the Radom district and the local Judenrat regarding how the Jews had formed their self-defense in Przytyk.

“The well-known Przytyk events, dredged up by the occupiers at the beginning of 1942, took on a unique language and gave testimony to the panicked fear of the Hitlerists about an eventual uprising by the Jewish masses” – writes A. Rotkowski.

Don't stand there, brothers, looking on
With futile, folded arms,
Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire! --
Our poor village burns!^[2]

Gebirtig ends his S'Brent with those four lines, knowing that his Przytyk brethren did not stand with folded hands. Rather they attempted to extinguish the fire of the burning town…

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There is no doubt that the later fighters in the ghettos, forests, partisans, and the general resistance in occupied Europe gained a great deal of encouragement and example from the Jewish self-defense in Przytyk.

Przytyk was therefore not merely a steppingstone in our history, but also – a guide.

(“Voice of Israel”, Tel Aviv, March 9, 1966)

Translator's Footnotes

1. Owszem means “Yes”, “certainly” in Polish. Return
2. Translation of this excerpt of the song is from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/song/our-town-is-burning Return

There are dates that one must appropriately mention. However, most have been forgotten simply because we live in an unusual time. Because of this, we cannot have any complaint against anyone, because we move with unusual speed, with all new and fascinating events. However there are Jews who remember enough, and also remind us about other things. They do not let us forget.

We must say something about the people from the Polish town of Przytyk. Jews from that town have a unique reason to remember, and also remind others and not let them forget. For that which those from Przytyk cannot and do not want to forget, and that which they want the world to also remember – is of great historical significance.

When one hears or reads about the name Przytyk, one immediately remembers not only a tragic pogrom perpetrated by anti-Semitic Poles in a Jewish town, but also the heroic resistance of brave Jews. One also remembers the beginning of the terrible end of the wonderful Polish Jewry, of almost a millennium of Jewish life in that land – a wonderful Jewish world that disappeared with gas and crematoria in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, Dachau, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen…

A request from the State of Israel came to the editorial board of the Forward^[1],

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from the association of Jews of Przytyk there, that we write about that tragic, famous date in the life of Jews in their former hometown. “We wish to take the opportunity to remember,” writes the leader of the Przytyk Landsmanshaft in Tel Aviv, “That in the year 1942, during the peak of the extermination aktion of the Jews in Poland, the Nazi murderers took interest in the organization of the Jewish resistance in Przytyk so that they can learn about revolts and resistance to the subjugation of our people.”

Idel Minkowski in the army of the Russian Czar, 1918		Y. Kirszenzwajg, one of the chief accused; N. Minkowski, brother of the murdered one Below: Beila Minkowski, 80 years old, mother of the murdered Minkowski; four Minkowski orphans

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How did Przytyk, a small town near Radom, Poland, become so “famous” in the Jewish and non-Jewish world?

To a large degree, this was because the pogrom that the Poles perpetrated against the Jews there was a prelude to what was to come, without exception, to all Jews in Poland. The destruction of Jews by the Nazi murderers indeed came shortly after that pogrom. Their assistants also included many of the anti-Semitic Poles.

Przytyk demonstrated already that Poles are full of hatred against Jews under all regimes, including also under the current Communist regime. Przytyk was also a call and a warning to the Jews not to wait until it is too late, to save themselves and to extinguish the fire while there is still time.

The tragic historical events in Przytyk demonstrated another thing already then, before the Second World War: Jewish heroism and bravery, Jewish resistance and protecting the honor of our people. It became a symbol of the later Jewish resistance against the Nazis; the current might of the heroic sons in the State of Israel, as well as Jewish resistance and strength that is demonstrated against all enemies of our people, including in our days, and everywhere.

Approximately 500 families lived in the small town of Przytyk, forming 90% of the local general population. One can see that Przytyk was a veritable “Jewish shtetl,” like hundreds of other Jewish shtetls in prewar Poland. The majority of the Jews in Przytyk were poor tradesmen and small-scale businessmen. They toiled hard, and were constantly consumed with worries about how to earn a living.

It was specifically those Jews in the town of Przytyk whom the anti-Semitic Poles selected as their victims. This was a target practice for a large anti-Semitic plan which they wanted to conduct in many other Jewish towns. However, just then in Przytyk, the Polish anti-Semites encountered a veritable Jewish resistance, which demonstrated that it was possible to muster a united Jewish force.

We know well that there was no dearth of attacks against the Jews, persecutions, theft of property, fight against Jewish

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students, economic assaults, etc. by anti-Semitic Poles in pre-war Poland. The story in Przytyk, however, had a completely different character. The anti-Semites attempted to make the town Judenrein, as a prelude to doing so in other Jewish towns in Poland. This was shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, when the reactionary rulers of Poland at that time were closely bound with Hitlerism.

This March 9^th is exactly 35 years from when the Polish pogromchiks perpetrated the slaughter in Przytyk. Peasants arrived suddenly from the surrounding villages and perpetrated the pogrom against the Jews together with the local Poles. The hooligans, armed with axes, rods, stones, wooden sticks, and other implements, suddenly broke into the Jewish homes, and mercilessly beat and badly wounded tens of Jews – men, women, and children. The attackers also stole Jewish goods.

Tens of Jews were wounded from the pogrom in Przytyk, and were taken to the hospital. Aside from them, the pogromchiks also beat the shoemaker Yosef Minkowski and his wife Chaya to death. Their six-year-old son Shmuel was badly beaten over the head with rods.

However, the Jews in Przytyk did not sit by at that time with idle hands. The bestiality of the anti-Semites immediately resulted in resistance from the local Jews. The Jews fought back in an appropriate manner, simply because they had to protect their lives from the murderers. The Jews in Przytyk displayed exceptional heroism at that time in defending their lives. Had they not, the Polish hooligans would certainly have murdered tens if not hundreds of Jews.

The bloody pogrom in Przytyk and the heroic resistance of the local Jews resonated greatly in Poland and in the entire world 35 years ago. The Jews in Poland at that time held protest gatherings. The Bund called the Jewish workers to a two-hour general strike. The JOINT immediately sent appropriate help to those suffering.

Later, a large trial regarding the pogrom took place in Radom, lasting for several weeks. 44 accused Poles and 14 Jews sat in the accused dock. 400 witnesses were heard from, including

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320 Poles and 80 Jews. That trial in prewar Poland ended with a tragically ludicrous verdict. The 44 accused Poles, the pogromchiks, were sentenced to short prison terms of several months. However, seven of the accused Jews who defended their lives were sentenced to five, six, seven, and eight years in prison.

Immediately after the pogrom in Przytyk 35 years ago, a large number of Jews left the town. Many went to the Land of Israel at that time. During the time of the trial, the Polish ant-Semitic newspapers indeed wrote that Przytyk would become Judenrein, and that they would be able to live without the Jews. Unfortunately, that dark prophesy was fulfilled several years later by the Nazis. The Jews of Przytyk, together with millions of other Jews in Poland, were led to their murder. Since then, Przytyk has been Judenrein…

David Shtokfish, editor of the Przytyk Yizkor Book, wrote in Yisrael Shtima of Tel Aviv and AlHamishmar on the 30^th anniversary of the Przytyk events:

“Immediately following the tragic events of Przytyk, the folk poet M. Gebirtig, in the song S'Brent, literally prophetically calls out his warning and rage. Since Gebirtig was murdered by the Nazis in the Krakow Ghetto, and that song became like a measure of the spiritual state of the survivors – it was turned by the people into a sort of hymn and dirge for the great destruction. The truth is that “It is burning, brethren, it is burning” is connected with the Przytyk blaze, the precursor to the later immense conflagration that annihilated one third of our people.

How fine and portentous are the following lines:

Evil winds, full of anger,
Rage and ravage, smash and shatter;
Stronger now that wild flames grow --
All around now burns!…^[2]”

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Connected with the pogrom in Przytyk, the well-known economic researcher, scholar, and former contributor to the Forward [3], Yaakov Leczynski, wrote the following:

“And now there is something which also provides comfort. Przytyk Jews did not allow themselves to be shot like sheep! There were Jews who were prepared to make the greatest and most difficult sacrifices, so long as they do not let our name be shamed and our honor be mocked!”

(Forward, New York, March 1, 1971)

Victims of the Przytyk pogrom

1. Jewish daily newspaper from New York: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forward Return
2. Translation of this excerpt of the song is from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/song/our-town-is-burning Return

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