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A History of the Jews in Siedlce (cont.)

Community and Cultural Activities During the German Occupation in 1914–1918

The difficulties of economic life during the occupation did not stifle cultural and community life. In fact, there was a revival in these areas. The Germans took over the czarist government as “spreaders of culture.” They even sent out a special call to Jews in Yiddish and called on the Jews to find against the czarist overlordship, which created only pogroms for Jews. The arrival of the Germans created new perspectives for Jewish community and cultural life. Community life, which had been stifled under the czarist rule, bubbled like a new spring under the free conditions brought by the Germans.

As soon as the Germans had taken Siedlce, social and cultural activities began in all facets of Jewish life. Religious young men organized a study circle with the aim of studying Tanach with workers. Their goal was to bring knowledge of Tanach to the workers. Almost all such workers in the city would come each evening to the lessons. Although the organization had a strongly religious character and encouraged its members to submit their tefillin once a year for inspection, it still aroused the anger of the Ger Chasidim, who regarded the group with great suspicion, assuming that it was spreading heresy. They reported to the police that the group was disloyal both to the government and to the Jewish Torah, and the police disbanded the group.

At the same time, two workers clubs opened in the city: the “Workers' Union”–which was unaffiliated–and the “Workers' Home,” from the Bund. There no one studied Tanach.

The religious young people did not give up. They formed a fellowship called “Mikra,” with the same goal as the study circle. A Jewish scholar named Lifshitz would learn with everyone each evening between afternoon and evening prayers. A “Beis–HaTalmud” was also created. Permission for the “Beis–HaTalmud” was issued

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in the name of the Siedlce rabbi at the time, R. Chaim Yehudah Ginzburg, who was charged by the government with keeping order and for the rabbinic seminar.

The name of Rabbi Ginzburg lent the “Beis–HaTalmud” prestige. The rabbi was not a native of Siedlce. He was born in Magelnitz in 1856. His first rabbinic office was in the shtetl of Glavatschov, in the Radomir Voivodeship, where he served as rabbi for six years. From there, he returned to his birthplace, Magelnitz, where he served as rabbi for fourteen years. In 1908, a year after the death of Siedlce's famous Rabbi Sh. D. Analik, Rabbi Ginzburg took his place. He served as rabbi there for 22 years, until May 9, 1930, when he died.

Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Ginzburg was an expert in Talmud, in rabbinic decision making, and in all of rabbinic literature. He was considered one of the most important rabbis in Poland, but he was also very modest and was liked by everyone.

The students at the “Beis HaTalmud” received permits to be in the streets after ten in the evening, which was then forbidden under the German supervision. The “Beis–Hatalmud” did not concern itself with political matters, only with studying Talmud and other religious books. Eventually there came a split–some of the members wanted to study secular subjects as well. This raised a storm among the religious students. The conflict spread to the streets, and the Ger Chasidim came out against this institution. They held that in the “Beis–HaTalmud,” which was located at Kilinski 28, lessons were called to order by a bell and on the floor were spittoons, just like in non–Jewish schools. These uproars led to a split. Some–the very religious–created the “Shlomey Emuney Yisroel” organization, which later changed its name to “Agudas Yisroel,” while the progressive wing created a new society called “T'vunah.” “T'vunah” was a national organization. Its statutes allowed it to open branches in other cities. The organization took advantage and opened around ten branches in different cities in Poland. A little while later

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its headquarters moved to Warsaw. Only a branch remained in Siedlce.

“T'vunah” was basically unaffiliated and its goal was “knowledge and reverence for Hashem,” as it proclaimed in an announcement; the organization also dealt with secular studies, with learning languages, like Polish, German, and Hebrew. They arranged separate concerts for men and women.

Eventually “T'nuvah” also experienced a split over attitudes toward Zionism. The majority had decided to join the “Mizrachi” Party. Those who disagreed joined the “Shlomey Emuney Yisroel. In this way, new parties came into being on the streets of Siedlce. From an earlier time, the Zionists and the Folkspartei had existed.

The organization of the religious part of Siedlce Jews into two parties–“Shlomey Emuney Yisroel” and “Mizrachi”–called forth conflicts and there were even scandals regarding meetings. The “Shlomey Emuney Yisroel” once brought Dr. Carlebach and Dr. Cohen to lecture at an open location. The speakers were interrupted by members of the Zionist organization. Levi Gutgelt and the brothers Baruch and Mordechai Yaffa were consequently fined 100 marks each by the police. Dr. Carlebach and Dr. Cohen did not finish their lectures in the original site but, accompanied by two police guards, were taken in a droshke to party headquarters, where they finished their talks.

“Dos yidishe folk” (Vilna), number 30, from 1917, describes this incident and argues with the “Yidishe vort,” the organ of Shlomey Emuney Yisroel,” which tried to present the incident in a different light.

At the same time, the Zionist organization renewed its activities. Hartglass, M.M. Landoy, Levi Gutgelt, brothers Mordechai and Baruch Yaffa Geldman, and others revived the Zionist movement.

Already during the First World War the Zionists conducted a strong propaganda campaign for Eretz Yisroel. In Siedlce, a Jewish student appeared along with the “homeless.”

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The student appeared in Zionist circles and proposed forming a Jewish legion that would fight against the Turks and make Eretz Yisroel a Jewish country. This was even before Jabotinski had formed the Jewish legion.

This idea possessed many Jewish young people in Siedlce, who organized themselves covertly. The student himself, whose name remains unknown, took his plan to the lawyer Gruzenberg in Petersburg. Gruzenberg responded that organizing a legion could bring shame to the Zionists in Turkey. But the young Zionists organized a “march” to Eretz Yisroel, though nothing came of it.

In the first year of the war when need and hunger were so terrible for both Jews and Poles and thousands of unemployed roamed the streets of Siedlce, young Zionists communicated with the landowner from Zhelkower (several kilometers from the city) about working in his fields. These young people wanted to learn about agriculture, so that after the war they could go up to Eretz Yisroel. In a wagon pulled by horses, a group traveled to the landowner's property. They were assured of a good welcome from the czarist police, who still had power in Siedlce. The police stopped the young pioneers near the Raskash bridge as suspected “revolutionaries.” Before the detainees were brought before an inquest, they tried to destroy their coins that were marked with P.A.P. (Palestine Workers' Fund). Only after the landowner had intervened was the group released[91].

The Jewish young people did not work for long because of the great pressure of unemployed Poles on the landowner. He had to break the contract with the Jews and replace them with Poles.

After the Germans took control of the city, the Zionist movement became legal. One could see people openly carrying Keren Kayemes pushkes in the streets.

The Balfour Declaration that was promulgated on November 2, 1917, had a great impact in Siedlce.

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A large gathering was held. One of the speakers was Mordechai–Meir Landau, a son–in–law of Y.N. Wayntroyb. Young Landau was so emotional about this great historical event that during his talk, as he recited the words of R. Yehuda Halevi's poem “Tzion ha–lo tishali,” he had a heart attack, became very ill, and died a short time later[92].

Even before the Balfour Declaration was issued, the Poale Tzion party was becoming stronger in Siedlce, although it had conducted illegal activities in czarist times. The Poale Tzion secured a location and opened the Workers' Home. The party benefitted from having Yosef Slushni in its ranks. In his young years he was involved in the Zionist movement and belonged to the “Tze–irey–Tzion” faction.

After he was forced to return from Eretz Yisroel to Siedlce, as we related earlier, in 1916 he joined the Poale–Tzion party and soon became quite active. He worked hard at organizing the professional trade unions.

On May 1, 1917, Slushni led a workers' demonstration in the city park. Police dispersed the demonstrators, and Slushni was injured and arrested. Soon after he was put on trial and sentenced to two months in prison.

 

Cultural and School Activities

The Hebrew evening courses and Jewish gymnasium

At the instigation of the Zionist activist L. Gutgelt, brothers Mordechai and Baruch Yaffa, M.M. Landau, Wolf Tuchklaper, and the student Galanski[93], on chol ha–moed Succos in 1915, a meeting was called. Taking part were students from the highest classes in the Russian gymnasium, Chasidic young men, and people with maskilik tendencies. The meeting decided to open evening courses.

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The Hebrew evening courses drew the spiritual force of the “Tze–irey–Tzion” party, Zionist organizations like “He–Hachlutz” and “Ha–Shomer Ha–Tza'ir,” numerous self–education circles, the touring and sports clubs, and many others. The courses existed for many years. Statistics show that several thousand young people learned the Hebrew language in these courses, acquired knowledge of Jewish history and of Hebrew literature.

The teachers and students in the evening courses were ruled by the slogan:

“We have our lips [i.e., our language]–who can prevail against us?”

At the same time that the Hebrew evening courses were established, two sisters–Yehudis and Branislava Halbershtam–arrived in Siedlce. They, together with Yadwiga Bialer, opened a school for girls with four classes. These energetic women were held back by none of the economic difficulties that beset the school's founding, and they endured for several years. In 1922, Yehudis Halbershtam decided to continue her studies and returned to her hometown of Warsaw, where several years later she completed her degree and became a teacher in the women's school of Frau Dickshteyn. Her leaving Siedlce resulted in the closure of the school there.

The first “reformed” school in Siedlce was opened in 1915, thanks to the initiative of Monish Ridel. Before that there were in the city kheders of the old type: in a small, stifling room the rabbi with his whip taught his students from early in the morning until late at night. No one taught them how to write. With the opening of the “reformed” school, traditional schooling took on a new form.

The reformed school “Torah v'Da'as” [Torah and Knowledge] had four classes. For two hours of the day, students learned writing, reading, arithmetic, and drawing. The students wore uniforms. The success of the teacher in the class or his loss of the class after the lesson was determined by how the students stayed in their seats. The “reformed” school existed only a few years and was closed by the police. When Ridel went to the authorities, he was told

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that the school was closed because the students wore hats with blue and white crowns.

In addition, the literary–cultural–musical society “Jewish Arts” (“Ha–Zamir”) grew. The cultural revival of Jewish Siedlce at that time found expression in an article that Kalman Levartovski (later “Ba–Levav”) published in the Hebrew daily newspaper “Ha–Tzefirah” (Warsaw) He wrote:

Our quiet and modesty city all at one time changed its outward appearance, as if went from one owner to another. As soon as it was freed from the Russian threat, young people began to arrive. Young people from Chasidic homes started Hebrew evening classes. It took a lot of strength and travails, because even today Chasidim regard such things with a jaundiced eye, as if they were transgressors and sinners, because they started an institution to teach Hebrew. But nothing stopped them. The classes are developing nicely. Nearly two hundred students from every level of society are studying there.

The intelligent youth have revived “Ha–Zamir,” which was established in the city about eight years ago, though the Russian authorities interfered with its activities, until it almost ceased to exist. Recently these culturally inclined young people revived “Ha–Zamir.” First they recruited many new members. With their help, they obtained a new location, larger than the old one. They put in a reading room and a room for playing chess. Altogether “Ha–Zamir” has become a central spot that is necessary for every young person who has spiritual desires. Although “Ha–Zamir” has not yet done a small part of what a cultural institution must do–for example, organizing lectures about Jewish history–we hope that soon the institution will be firmly established and undertake what has to be done.

Last Tuesday (the thirtieth of Kislev), the directors of the Hebrew evening classes arranged a Maccabee evening. The evening opened with a Hebrew reading by teacher E. Goldfarb that set the tone for the gathering. Next

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Hebrew and Yiddish songs were sung by a choir. A variety of compositions were read in Hebrew and Yiddish. Finally there was an entertainment called “Air Mail.” Most of the letters were written in Hebrew. German officers came to the entertainment, including high–ranking individuals, like for example, the city's vice–governor, who asked for one of the organization's officials in whose name the license had been granted. He shook him by the hand and expressed his pleasure at the evening[94].

Such were the Germans during the First World War.

At the same time, four homes for children were opened in the city: “Herzlia” by the Zionist organization, a children's home named for Rabbi Reynem by the “Mizrachi,”

At the same time, four homes for children were opened in the city: “Herzlia” by the Zionist organization, a children's home named for Rabbi Reynem by the “Mizrachi,” the Large Children's Home by the “Bund” and the Dinezon Children's Home by the Folkists, who also opened a school for 150 children. In the school, the basic language was Yiddish.

The library under the aegis of “Jewish Art” also developed, and the number of readers increased. By the end of the First World War there were more than 600, as the following table shows:

Number of Readers in 1913–1918

Year Men Women Total
1913 153 110 263
1914 184 119 303
1915 305 184 489
1916 375 225 600
1917 322 251 573
1918 372 266 638

 

“Jewish Art” also established a dramatic division under the direction of Yakov Tenenboym, who in recent years had taken a leading role in the cultural organization. The following pieces were performed: “Seven after a Horse” (a comedy in three acts by Y. Tenenboym, directed by the author). The premier took place in 1917 in the society's building. The play

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depicted the life of a coachman and stood out for its good humor.

 

Jewish Siedlce in Independent Poland

The Germans occupied Siedlce until 1918. When revolution broke out in Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm was compelled to abdicate and flee to Holland. In all of Poland, not just Siedlce, the Germans were disarmed and expelled by the followers of the later army commander and marshal of Poland–Jozef Pilsudski.

Jews from Siedlce also joined Pilsudski's legions. Here are the names of those known to have joined Pilsudski: Mottl Feinboym, Yakov Feldman, Moyshe Rosenblatt, Yishayahu Wisocki, Yantl Weinappel, Feyvel Nizack, and Abraham Mroz.

In November, 1917, this group was joined to ther 2nd legion regiment, which was quartered in Ostrow–Komanow. The group from Siedlce served in the 8th battalion. Later the group was joined by Zalman Freilich, a former legionnaire from Siedlce who had been interned in a German prison camp for refusing to swear allegiance to the German army. He was later released with a whole group of Pilsudski legionnaires who had been arrested by the Germans for the same infraction. The Jewish legionnaires from Siedlce took part in the disarming of the Germans, which was directed from Nawaweiski Street in Warsaw.

That same Zalman Freilich came to Siedlce. He was sent on a secret mission to the local leaders of the P.A.W about carrying out the disarming of the Germans. Another Siedlce legionnaire, Moyshe Rosenblatt, received an order to go to Lomzhe for the same purpose.

On November 11, 1918, the independent Polish government was established. The Jews hoped that the Polish people, who had been dominated for a hundred twenty–five years, would know in freedom how to treat the Jewish citizens, who, along with the Poles

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had fought for Polish freedom–these hopes almost immediately dissolved. The Polish Jews were bloodily disappointed. Renewed Polish life began with excesses and pogroms against the Jews.

The more secure the Polish government became, the greater grew the anti–Semitism. Polish civil organizations were formed for the purpose of destroying Jewish economic existence. Such specially founded cooperatives and societies as “Razvay,” “Blawat,” and others were also formed in Siedlce. These societies in their rivalry with Jewish merchants and shopkeepers stopped at nothing, whether kosher or not kosher [legal or illegal].

The extermination politics of the Polish government and the economic boycott of the civilian societies went in the direction of not having any business dealings with Jews, including not providing opportunities for work. Governmental positions were given to Poles, even if they were not specialists in the areas. The anti–Semitic slogan “Your own is sacred” was everywhere in non–Jewish Poland. In Siedlce no Jews were accepted as governmental or communal clerks. In the whole communal labor force there was but one Jewish tax collector. Jewish building contractors found no work. Poverty grew among the Jews.

Anti–Semitic agitation was rife in the government, claiming that at the time of the Russian overlordship the Jews favored the Russians, but soon after the outbreak of the Russian–German War, they suddenly became Germanophiles, although thanks to denunciations by the Poles during the war, the Russians hanged many Jews, sent others to Siberia, or put them in jails, and during the German occupation hundreds of Jews suffered in German prisons or prison camps or forced–labor camps, where many of them died or became disabled.

A special place in the anti–Semitic agitation was taken by the accusation that the Jews were enemies of independent Poland and were opposed to the national interests of the Poles. This poisonous incitement was fundamental to the Polish people and to the army. The fiery declaration and protests

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of the responsible Jewish organizations did not help.

Understandably, according to every military or diplomatic pronouncement of the Polish government, the Jews were considered guilty. It was common knowledge that it was dangerous for a Jew to go out in the street, especially for one wearing traditional Jewish clothing. Traveling on a train was a hardship. For such “pleasures,” many Jews paid with their lives. People received death blows and people were often thrown from the train in the middle of the journey. Jews with beards were set upon in the streets and forcefully shaved or had their beards plucked out. Then they used bayonets to carve phrases on the victims: “Long live Poland” or “So dies the rabbi.” And people were forced to sing “How Beautiful.”

Jews were dragged to do military work. Any officer or soldier could seize any Jew for work, without regard for age, on Shabbos or holidays, on the street or at home or in the beis–medresh, during or after prayers, without regard for profession: a doctor, a rabbi, a counselor. So it happened in Siedlce Asher Arzhel and Yisroel Gutgelt, both counselors. Gutgelt had put up the largest sum in Siedlce for war loans, but that did not save him from his fate. Both Jewish representatives were seized for work, and they went through all the usual Jewish suffering–having their beards plucked, receiving savage blows. Their shoes, their clothing, and whatever they had with them was taken. They were forced to sing and proclaim the well–known slogans. They were released after two or three days.

All of the protests and speeches against this injustice were of no help. The request to regulate the system of work seizures was also ineffective, obligating them to willingly supply the required number of workers.

Requisitioning locals for the army clearly marked the preference for requiring mostly Jewish dwellers and locals from Jewish society. It did not help to point out other locals who were more suited to the work. Jewish deserters were sought out not only in public but also in community

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areas and beis–medreshes. The intention was clear: to destroy Jewish community life.

In the spring of 1920, when the war between Poland and the Soviet Union broke out, persecution against Jews erupted throughout Poland, and Siedlce was not excepted. On orders from Commandant Krapowski and his assistant Bayer searches were conducted in Siedlce in all Jewish, political, cultural, and workers' institutions, including even the neutral “Jewish Arts.” The Zionist Bureau and the Mizrachi Organization. The funds of the Keren Kayames were confiscated. The sites of the societies were shut down. Many of the Jewish activists were arrested. The arrested, including the Bundist activist Slushni, were sent to Dombye–a concentration camp near Cracow.

With the retreat of the Polish army, the camp grew worse. A couple of days before the Polish army evacuated Siedlce, all men between 17 and 40 were forced to leave. Thus opened a broad expanse of blackmailed Jews. Each military “official” used all his power in abusing and extorting money from Jews. They were not choosy–they included those released from military service, younger than 17 and older than 40–so that any Jew who had not come across with money was taken into the military just as he was. Every protest was met with sharp anti–Semitic jokes, such as, “You can complain to Rabbi Samuel or you can go to your representative Morgenthau.” There were some who told them to go to the Sejm commission to get them to investigate the events in Pinsk. This was a reference to the Jewish “chutzpah” that had demanded the Polish Sejm to send a commission to investigate the murders of 22 Jewish youth committed by the Polish army in Pinsk.

In such conditions, the Jews of Siedlce were convinced not to show their faces in the public and to close their businesses to unfamiliar customers. The anti–semites and agitators in the Polish army used this report, that the Jews shut up their shops, to claim that it was because the Jews would not sell merchandise to the retreating Polish army.

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This created an atmosphere like that before the Siedlce pogrom in 1906–Jews hid them in attics, in cellars, and those who could escaped to the woods.

News arrived from nearby that conditions in the camp were worse than in Siedlce. Finally the Polish army left the city.

After the occupation of Siedlce by the Red Army, the terrorized Jews began to emerge from their hiding places.

The sudden appearance of Jews in public was immediately interpreted by the anti–Semites as sympathy for the Bolsheviks. In fact, the Jews had no cause for such sympathy, except, perhaps, because the Bolsheviks had not harmed or abused them.

The prices of new goods increased from day to day. The lack of merchandise and the expense in the city forced the Jews to go to the villages to buy food at amazing prices. The merchandise in all the stores, without regard for quality or quantity–from ladies' hats to toys–was like make–believe. Whether one needed or not, it was sold. The Red Army paid with Soviet rubles according to a predetermined price, which was actually quite distant from the true worth of the rubles. And if the merchants would not sell, the goods were confiscated.

In this situation, when the merchant had to take a price based on the actual value of the Soviet ruble, there appeared so–called “friends,” who “explained” to the Red Army soldiers that the Jews wanted to exploit them. This continued from August 7 to 10.

On that day there arrived in Siedlce a hundred bedraggled Jews, men and women, young and old, from Lukow and Adamow. They explained that the Polish people had threatened them with reprisals for their alleged sympathy and help for the retreating Red Army. And the Soviet Army had encouraged them to flee, assuring them that the returning Polish army would slaughter them, as had happened in Ukraine and in White Russia.

Several hours later, the Red Army gave the same advice to the Jews in Siedlce. The fear of the oncoming Polish army

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afflicted the Jews, and a large number joined the chaotic retreat of the Red Army, Jews of different classes and ages. So fled the workers who had been employed by the Red Army, a rabbinic authority with his ten–year–old son, young people eligible for the army who feared that they would not be sent to the camp, older Jews, and anyone who found himself outside the city.

After being in Siedlce for seven days, the Red Army left the city and the Polish army arrived. They brought with them captured Bolsheviks and…fleeing Jews, bruised and beaten up, stark naked, looking barely human. The first soldiers broke into Jewish dwellings, breaking, stealing, and destroying.

Prominent Poles in the city, who feared a repetition in Siedlce of the events of 1906 (the Siedlce pogrom)–because of its effects on international Polish politics–released a statement to the Polish people in which they affirmed the loyalty of the Jews at the time of the occupation by the Russian army. The announcement, however, had no effect on the military powers–no Jewish delegation had been sent to the Polish high officials or to the army leader, Jozef Pilsudski, or to Prime Minister Wincenty Wintos–more effective were the false reports that were spread saying that the Jews had greeted the Bolshevik army with…bread, salt, and flowers.

The socialist Roman Baski provided the following details in the Polish socialist paper “Robotnik” that we cite according to “Ha–Tzefirah”[95]. It shows clearly how confusion arose about the Jewish populace and that a Jewish delegation had met the Red Army with bread, salt, and flowers.

Roman Baski writes:

On Thursday, August 10, the police abandoned Siedlce. A citizens' patrol was organized in the city to take over the duties of the police. In the course of the day, rifle shots were heard, accompanied by cannon

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fire. These were the last Polish soldiers who, while evacuating, shot at the Bolshevik lines.

At eight in the evening, the last Polish soldiers left Siedlce for Warsaw. Silence ruled the town. Each minute awaited the arrival of the Red legions. The city leaders and councilmen assembled in the city hall.

Suddenly a car arrived and stopped in front of the city hall. From the car emerged two prominent Polish government officials. It appeared that they had been delegated by the Polish government. They were Mukhnatzki and Stamirowski. They asked for the Soviet delegation for an armistice, with whom they had been assigned to do business.

The members of the city government responded that no Soviet delegation for an armistice was in the city, though they expected the imminent arrival of the Bolshevik army in Siedlce.

The Polish delegation decided to wait.

They quickly prepared a white flag and put it on their automobile. At the same time, they sent a group of militia men to the Mezritch highway in order to alert the arriving Bolsheviks about the Polish delegation that awaited them in Siedlce. but it so happened that the Bolshevik army entered Siedlce by way of the Mard highway, so that the militia men who had been sent to the Mezritch highway returned to the city after the Bolsheviks were already there.

The sending of the militia outside the city was not without consequences. By chance, this group contained a majority of Jews, so that a report spread that the Jews had gone out to greet the Bolsheviks. Then people with vivid imaginations described the meeting with bread, salt, and flowers. It could not be otherwise–if they went out of the city, then of course they took with them bread and salt, even though no one saw either bread or salt.

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Somewhat different is the matter of the flowers, which has its own story: the Bolshevik regiment that was quartered in Siedlce had a band that played day–in and day–out in the open air. Once it was Shabbos, the only Shabbos when the Bolsheviks were in Siedlce and the band was playing a waltz or a march, some Jewish serving girls, who were carried away by the music gave a few flowers to a trumpet player. That was the basis for the rumor about giving flowers to the Bolsheviks. And this is the foundation for all the slanders that existed about the Jewish populace.

The Jews of Siedlce were again witnesses of how each day soldiers sang anti–Semitic songs, and with the help of the peasants dragged into the city hundreds of Jews who were beaten up, abused, naked, worn out, many on the verge of death. They were thrown into prison, without medical help and without a drop of water. There the unfortunates, despite officers, officials, and diplomatic officials, were viciously tortured.

The detainees in the prison later related that in that vicinity all the Jews were in no better a position and that on the roads and in the fields lay many murdered Jews. Others were drowned in the Bug, among them: Hershel Suchadalski, Yitzchak Shteynberg, Moyshe Janodzhinski, a 70–year–old teacher, bothers Shmuel and Yitzchak Wayntroyb. There were also corpses with their eyes put out and cracked open skulls. They could no longer be recognized.

The Jews in Siedlce itself also suffered hellish pains. As if by a sign, armed bands, directed by a mob, broke into barricaded Jewish homes, viciously beat young and old, including women, who were raped. Many men were seized at work. They were forced to herd cattle and bear heavy loads. After four or five days, some returned home, beaten, abused, naked and barefoot. Some never returned home. They were killed barbarically and thrown into pits along the roads. Among the tortured were: Yechiel Richter, 67, Bunem Friedman, and Mendel Dickshteyn.

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The Accused at a Court Martial

At the same time, the court martial, within twenty–four hours, passed judgment and executed many Jews from Siedlce and the surrounding area. Among them: Avraham Greenshpan, Shoyme Shpiegelman, Yisroel Sarni, Moyshe Nitke, Hersh Warshawski, Moyshe Blumberg, Noson Fille, Yehuda Gwiazde, Moyshe Weizman, Hershel Popowski, Hersh Obfal, Pinchas Weissberg, Yosef Shteynberg, Moyshe Mendelssohn, Chaim Goldberg, Yisroel Ribak, Matisyahu Mandelboym, Ovadiahu Goldman, Avraham Galawski, and others. For many minors, the death sentence was changed to ten years hard imprisonment. Among these: Elkhanan–Mordechai Nautshitshe, Moyshe Gutgold, Zaltzshteyn, and others. The first to be shot were brought to the Jewish cemetery. The rest remained to be buried in the woods, where they were shot.

All those who were sentenced were denied any defense; many of them, not understanding Polish, did not know what they were being asked and what they were charged with.

The operating courts martial and the death sentences for Jews were met with approval by the Polish newspaper “Courier Poranni.” The Polish newspaper tried to glorify the sentences of the military tribunals and presented the Jewish victims as collaborators with the Bolshevik army. They were especially interested in Greenshpan and presented him as a Warsovian who came to Siedlce to serve as secretary of the Bolshevik committee. The truth was that Avraham Greenshpan was the son of a Siedlce merchant, Feivel Greenshpan. He was a Zionist and even a member of the Zionist council. He worked as a clerk and a magistrate in Siedlce. The story that Avraham Greenshpan was the secretary of the Bolshevik committee was a made–up slander that had been formulated by the city leader and later town elder in the Siedlce circle–Kaczlotsch.

In the lying report from the “Courier Poranni,” whch was reprinted in “Ha–Tzefirah”[96], we read:

The Bolshevik followers who were seized with weapons when the Polish army returned to Siedlce were put before a court martial. There were

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about 400 of them. These were Jews. Most of them were not from Siedlce but were deserters from the Polish army who went over to the Bolsheviks and fought against us.

On its first day, the tribunal handed down ten death sentences for participation in armed action against the Polish army.

The death sentences were carried out against five of the condemned. For the other five, the death sentences were commuted to hard labor, because the condemned were minors.

Among those shot was a Greenshpan, a graduate of the Warsaw Business School. Greenshpan arrived in Siedlce a day before the arrival of the Bolsheviks in the city, and he was the secretary of the local communist community for as along as they were in the city.

 

A Report by A. Z. Hartglas About Terror Against Jews

As reported in a communiqué, a gathering of Jewish members of the Sejm was called over the situation that had developed in Siedlce. After a three–day journey, the Sejm deputy, lawyer A. Hartglas, who had been chosen by the Siedlce circle, arrived in the city.

Thanks to his efforts, patrols appeared in the city and stopped the bestial activities of the undisciplined soldiers. The kidnapping of people at work diminished. But there was still danger in going outside of the city.

The conditions of the detainees continued to be awful. They lay in narrow, filthy rooms with indescribable agony from their wounds, without medical aid, hungry, thirsty, and naked. No one knew what awaited them, whether they should say their final confessions [vidui].

Thanks to the efforts of Deputy Hartglas, it was arranged that the city's public kitchen and from the Jewish residents, food would be provided for the 2,000 or so detainees, but something else was needed: when the food was brought, the prison authorities let loose

[Page 191]

the starving captive Bolsheviks, who seized the provisions.

Deputy Hartglas investigated everything that had befallen the Jews and delivered a report to the organization of Jewish Sejm deputies. The report, which we copy from the Hebrew daily “Ha–Tzefirah” of September 3, 1920, says the following:

The general impression in the city on August 23 was very mournful. Jewish stores were locked up from fear of thievery that had progressed to murder. There were cases where people were tortured. Some gave up their money and possessions under threat of terror, even after the arrival of the Bolsheviks. When the Polish army returned, there were outrages in the city. People cut the beards of Jews while the army stood by.

When the Polish army abandoned the city, an order was issued that citizens ages 17–40 should leave Siedlce. Consequently, many Jews hid in cellars and attics out of fear, so that they would not be torn from their families. When the Bolsheviks came to Siedlce, the Jews tried to creep out of their hiding places and to show themselves in the streets, which allowed certain elements of the Polish population, particularly among the working class, to offer their own explanation for this phenomenon.

Despite the slanders of the “Zhetshpaspalita,” no Jewish delegation offered the Bolsheviks a welcome. The Bolsheviks showed no evil intentions. They did not steal but paid for everything, equating a Polish mark with a Soviet ruble.

When the Bolsheviks were in the city, the workers' circles, Polish and Jewish, adopted a sympathetic stance. The P.P.S. in Siedlce on August 14 made a proclamation in which they declared their agreement with the Bolsheviks and called on them for help against the Polish bourgeoisie. (A copy of this proclamation was given to the Ministry of the Interior.) The Jewish communists, overall, did not behave badly. They never denounced a Christian to the Bolsheviks.

[Page 192]

On the other hand, Polish citizens from the workers' circles incited the Bolsheviks against the Jews, accusing the Jewish merchants of profiteering. They brought Russian soldiers and the Bolshevik army to Jewish houses. Aside from that, the followers of the Bolsheviks behaved boldly and violently ripped hats off the heads of people without concern for religion. These people then incited the Polish army against Jews.

The Bolshevik “Revcom” (Revolutionary Committee) was at first composed of the following: 1 Pole from Russia, 1 Jew and 1 apostate from Russia, who later replaced the Pole. The regional commissar was a Pole, a former clerk in the Siedlce magistrate's office. Also the provisional commissar was a Pole–a former Siedlce councilman–and the commandant of the city was a Pole from Russia. The representative of the provisional commissar and leader of the commission was a Pole from Siedlce. At the head of the cavalry was the Pole Lukowski from Siedlce. The Red militia consisted of a hundred men, mostly Poles–train workers and watchmen.

The militia tortured citizens and robbed them. The Jews who were employed by the Red militia mostly fled before the Polish army arrived. The Polish militia remained and joined up with the citizen guard. In general the Bolshevik committee had Jews from the workers' circle and half–intelligent Poles.

After the arrival of the Polish army, a tumult broke out among the Jews. Jews had arrived from Kotzk, Zhelekhow, and Parczew and spread the word from the Bolshevik commander of Lukow that the Jews would be murdered. This news seemed accurate. A week earlier, on August 6, the priest Halbershtam, had informed the rabbi, that a pogrom against Jews was being prepared. If it came to pass, the church building would be open so the Jews could take shelter there. Because of this alarm, Jews began to flee from the city into the woods. In particular the Jews from 17–40 who had not left the city according to the earlier order ran, along with the Polish soldiers who feared being held responsible. In addition

[Page 193]

many Jews found themselves outside the city when the Bolsheviks left. These Jews were away from the city in the villages because of hunger and they wanted to buy from the peasants permission to plant potatoes. They increased the confusion.

When the Polish army was in the city, they immediately began to beat up on the Jews, rob them and take other awful actions against the Jews who had left the city and had now returned. People killed Jews on the roads and in the villages. In Brashkow they killed the teacher Jagodzinski, an old man of 70. Thanks to a miracle, the Jew whose children were studying with the teacher survived. The bodies of twenty murdered Jews were found in the woods around Siedlce..

When I was in Siedlce, people brought from the Golitz Woods four corpses. A clerk from the district court who saw them said that they were so beaten up that they could not be recognized. Among the dead was the Jew Suchadalski, who had fled from the general confusion. The murderers claimed that the killings occurred because the Jews were seized with weapons. This was the source of the legend about 500 armed Jewish communists. Now the talk is of more than a thousand armed Jews.

On August 25, according to the court decree, the Zionist Avraham Greenshpan was shot along with deserters, because he had worked with the Bolsheviks.

I intervened on behalf of the Jews with the city commander H. Pr. Juzwi, who took over the army on August 25. The commander truly devoted his energy to restoring order. He sent out groups of officers to restore order and he began to come to an agreement with the magistrate and the Jewish community to work openly so that the evil period could be considered over.

Food was needed, but not money, because the boycott against Jews went on to such a degree that Jews were pushed out of the lines at food stores and the police could do nothing. No one would sell to the Jews. It appears that hatred for the Jews increased, as one could see from the announcement that was openly issued on August 8 and the revisions

[Page 194]

that were issued on August 21. The revisions were signed by the city president H. Koshlatch, a courteous and upright man, though no friend of the Jews, and there can be no doubt that the revisions were made to clarify the meaning. It is interesting that in the interval between the release of the announcement and the making of the revisions, Prime Minister Witos came to Siedlce and opposed the issuance of the announcement that the Jewish–Polish council had requested.

On August 27, I received news that the excesses against Jews and the kidnapping for hard labor in Siedlce had come to an end.

We give here the above–mentioned announcement and the revisions that were made to it:

“To the inhabitants of Siedlce:

Again the fortunate moment for which we have been waiting has arrived: the hateful army has left our city. On this day we should celebrate with all the solemnity and joy before the whole Polish people. However, these first moments have been desecrated by attacks on Jews. The Polish people, who more than once have brought freedom to other people, must not do this. Truly, there are among the Jews some who hate us, but with full determination we make known that the Jewish citizens support the existence of the Polish kingdom. We urge all the inhabitants of our city not to desecrate our great holiday by falling on other citizens, our neighbors. It is necessary to take a stand to calm down the disturbed atmosphere. One must act with integrity and appropriate speech to the more rancorous so that quiet will exist among the citizens. Any attacks or atrocities against citizens and their property should be avoided. No one should make up his own justice. Every criminal will be uncovered, and those guilty of every attack on the Polish kingdom and on any citizen, those guilty of taking others' property or of atrocities, will meet justice. To punish the crimes committed by

[Page 195]

our enemies, whether Jews or Poles–there are on earth appropriate examples, and in heaven there is a God.

Poles! Be true sons of your heroic parents and ancestors, who bore freedom and rectitude, and if you see someone mistreating citizens, your neighbors, go immediately to the authorities whose job it is to preserve peace and order in our city.

Henrik Pczedetzki–Bishop of Poldlocz
A. Chzhanowski–Chairman of the School Board
M. Shimanski–Commander of the Citizen Guard
Edmund Kozhlatch–President of the City of Siedlce
Siedlce, August 18, 1920.”[97]

 

Aid For The Victims

In the course of several days, about 800 victims came to the Siedlce Aid Committee, which had been organized by the “Joint.” They brought written certificates with not less than two witnesses, legally attesting to the torture, barbarity, damage in money, objects, inventory, merchandise, clothing, linens, and the like. It all amounted to a sum of around 11 million marks.

Here is an account

Damages Before the
Departure of
the Polish Army
After the
Return of the
Polish Army
Total
In cash 75,235 marks 1,002,345 marks 1,077,580
In jewelry 53,800 636,630 690,430
Merchandise 822,500 2,090,686 2,913,186
Orchards, gardens 880,100 49,200 929,300
Workshops 62,100 58, 300 120,400
Inventory 368,300 1,105,000 1,473,300
Clothing, shoes, linen 491,360 3,197,989 3,689,349
Totals 2,753,395 8,140,150 10,893,545

 

Total damages in Siedlce were 10,893,545 marks[98].

[Page 196]

The Siedlce committee, despite its efforts with the central committee in Warsaw, lacked the power to make good even the smallest portion of the losses; not even the poorest could attend to articles of the greatest need cheaply on the streets. A significant number of Siedlce's Jews and Jews from the surrounding areas were hungry, barefoot, and naked. It was heart–rending to see the desperate condition of the Jews, among whom there were some who before the disaster had been wealthy. Daily they besieged the office of the committee, ran from one member to another and departed without aid, because the committee was helpless. Small grants were given for products and clothing, about 200,000 marks, aside from the standing subsidy for the public kitchen. This was like a drop in the ocean. We should mention with gratitude the Siedlce association in New York, who sent five hundred dollars.

The American committee could in no way satisfy the requests of Jews in the ruined shtetls and villages to purchase for the High Holidays at least a few talesim and Torah scrolls the replace those that had been destroyed.

The Jewish population was reduced to poverty. In order to provide the poorest at least with bread, potatoes, and aid–as winter approached–in the midst of need they put out a call for colossal sums. The committee wanted to raise even the necessary sums to mount a defense for the scores of trials, so that a lawyer could rescue people from death sentences and scores of years in prison. It went so far that on Yom Kippur in 1920, during religious services, prayers were halted and money was gathered for the defense of the accused.

 

How the Bolshevik Order Appeared in Siedlce

The Warsaw “Ha–Tzefirah” of 1920 (number 183), wrote that the Jewish press was not permitted to send

[Page 197]

its correspondents into war territories. “Ha–Tzefirah” therefore used material from the Polish newspapers, on the basis of which it described for its readers how life appeared in the short time that the Bolsheviks occupied the Polish cities. The Hebrew paper took no stand on the facts reported in the Polish papers–it had no power to control the news and to investigate it. There are, consequently, a number of errors that resulted from a particular point of view.

The broadest report came from J.Sh, the correspondent of the Polish Socialist “Robotnik” (the paper of the P.P.S), who travelled with the journalist entourage. About Siedlce he writes:

The Bolshevists arrived in Siedlce on Tuesday, August 6, 1920, in the middle of the night. The next evening appeared order number 1, in three languages–Russian, Polish, and Yiddish–signed by the chairs of the revolutionary committee–Alperovitch and two committee members: Pawlik and Pankevitsch. The order stated:

“In accord with the order of the political section of Division 3, a revolutionary committee has been designated for Siedlce, consisting of the following: president–Comrade Alperovitch–and members–Comrades Pawlik and Pankevitsch.

The whole army around Siedlce was in the hands of the revolutionary committee and all working comrades and all Soviet people in the area must report to them. All leaders, councilors, and magistrates are relieved of their duties, and all clerks must suspend the work of their offices until all matters can be handed over to the Soviet army.

Anyone who violates these orders will be punished with the full severity of war– and revolution–time.”

The Polish version was in garbled language…

On the same day an order was issued to the army that was camped in Siedlce

This order was signed by the head of the military division

[Page 198]

and the commandant of the city, the commandant of the division–N. Yesierski–and the military commissar–Kolykov. Yesierski shared in his order that in accord with the orders from the division leader, he would begin from that day to fulfill the function of leader of the local military–division and city commandant. Further, he shared, “the city of Siedlce is declared to be in a state of siege. If the people, who are well known, conduct anti–Soviet agitation, they will be severely punished. They will be shot.” And so on. This order, too, was written in poor Polish.

Two days later, “Order Number 2” was issued by the revolutionary regional committee in Siedlce. The most interesting part of this order was the warning–to the political and professional organizations to register immediately with the leader of the “Revcom,” H. Pawlyuk.

Order Number 3 from the revolutionary committee, on August 14, was published only in Polish and Yiddish. The order threatens and more severe punishment for all who deal in financial speculation and raise prices. Large and small merchants are warned to sell goods for the same prices that existed before the Polish army abandoned the city. It was also forbidden to decline to accept banknotes issued by Poland or to accept them at a lowered value.

Aside from these orders, the Siedlce revolutionary committee made the following announcement: “To the working masses.” The announcement said:

Finally the hour has come when you will no longer be exploited. The bosses will no longer take the results of your overworked energies and then throw you the crumbs. The camp of the workers' army brings you freedom from the yoke of the bourgeois regime and has no claims on your territory. This is not the camp of the czarist army and the bloodthirsty aristocracy.

At this time, when a workers' regime will be fashioned on this earth, a regime made up of Polish workers–no footprint of the Russian army will be found on Polish land.

[Page 199]

At the same time as this announcement, a second announcement appeared in the name of the provisional revolutionary committee of Poland, that was called “Polrevcom.” This announcement indicated that a provisional committee for Poland had been established and had taken the rudder of the government in its hands and taken on this task: until a stabile government of workers and peasants could be formed, to lay the groundwork for the coming soviet order of the Polish socialist republic. To this end, the army, through the revolutionary committee, would take over the aristocratic–bourgeois government and would guarantee the integrity of the Polish earth–and so on.

In the short time of their governing, the revolutionary committee dealt with political matters. They named a “director of the city economy,” a commissar who had to lead the city. This office was given to a certain Lewandowski. He began his activities by publishing an order about cleaning the streets and squares. which was to be done by the owners of the stationary properties.

It appears that the revolutionary committee believed that it would remain, if not forever, in any case for a long time. As evidence we have not only the published orders and announcements, but the sketched out projects for orders that we have seen. These projected but unpublished orders address stable administrative power, dividing up responsibilities, forming commissions for immoveable properties, and so on.

The revolutionary committee also concerned itself with providing intellectual content for the inhabitants of Siedlce. Under the direction of the political division of the revolutionary council, two issues of a wall poster appeared with the name “Warshawianka.” The first issue, on August 16, hotly denounced the establishment of “Polrevcam” in Bialystok and contained a short article about the delegation from capitalist Poland. The second issue, and the last, was published on August 17, the day before the retreat of the Bolsheviks from Siedlce–announced in huge letters that the

[Page 200]

“workers'–government of Poland is moving to Warsaw. The workers' government brings to the proletariat freedom from the chains thrown on them by the capitalists and social traitors of the P.P.S.” This issue of the “Warshawianka” also contained a biography of Markhlewski that said:

The president of “Polrevcom,” Comrade Y. Markhlewski, came from a family of distinguished noblemen. He is a brother of the well–known Professor Markhlewski. Even in his early years, Comrade Markhlewski cut his ties with his aristocratic–bourgeois surroundings and allied himself with the revolutionary movement of Poland and Germany. Comrade Markhlewski wrote many books on theory that deal particularly with questions of agriculture in Poland and Germany.

With this issue, the short life of “Warshavianka” came to an end. On the next day, with the appearance of the morning stars, the Bolsheviks left Siedlce in confusion.

* *
*

The Polish newspaper “Dwa Grosze” (a Jew–hating rag) published a photocopy of the first issue of “Warshawianka,” which showed only that part of the paper that was printed in Yiddish. That Jew–hating rag always distorted the facts in this way, in order to incite the masses against the Jews, implying that they were the Bolsheviks. All the other newspapers acknowledged that the “Warshawianka” had been printed in two languages, in Polish and Yiddish.

According to “Dwa Grosze,” the text of the Bolshevik newspaper read as follows:

Workers of the world, unite.

Warshawianka

Organ of the Polish division of the revolutionary council of the 16th army, August, 1920.

The waves of the world revolution of workers have flooded all of Poland. The mighty Polish proletariat is awakening and taking steps to create a workers government.

Long live the socialist revolution.

Long live the workers' council.

 

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