[Pages 247-248]

We have no exact information about the beginnings of the Jewish settlement in Lubraniec. The presence of Jews in the town is not mentioned before 1691. The first Jews came to Lubraniec from Gombin, Kruszyna, Izbica, Strykow and other places. Seeing the settlement of Jews as an element that could contribute to economic development, the bishops of Kujawy allowed them to purchase plots and build houses.

In 1750, the Jews of Lubraniec received permission from Bishop Valenti Chapsky to build a wooden synagogue and consecrate a cemetery. For the construction of the synagogue, the Jews of Lubraniec received a loan of 1,300 gold coins (at an annual interest rate of 5 percent) from the local monastery. From a certificate of 1779 we also learn that the community had to provide the local church six kilograms of milk per year, supply the monastery with meat for Easter, and pay the monastery 15 gold coins in cash. These taxes and obligations were abolished in 1826. By the end of the 18th century, Lubraniec became the property of the Dombrowski family of the Polish nobility. In 1789, the owner of the estate, K. Dombrowski, renewed the rights that had been given by his father to the Jews of Lubraniec in 1780. The Jews were allowed to engage in trade, marketing beverages and handicrafts. For that, they had to pay the estate owner 4,000 gold coins each year.

From the mid-18th century there was an organized Jewish community in Lubraniec. At the beginning of the 19th century, a new synagogue was built on the site. Data from 1821 show that there were 41 Jewish families of craftsmen, including 23 tailors, 3 furriers, 3 goldsmiths, 3 glaziers, 2 bakers, a capmaker and a shoemaker. Some families worked in transportation. In the mid-19th century, the following welfare organizations operated in Lubraniec: “Bikur Cholim”, “Knesset Orchim” and “Gemilat Hesed”. Among the rabbis who served in the community during the 19^th century, we can mention Yitzhak Yehuda Trunk, who later became Av Beit Din in Ciechanow, and Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Zelig Goldschlag, who passed away in 1926. Lubraniec's last rabbi, Ire Szapiro Klughaupt, served between 1927 and 1939. He perished during the Holocaust in a concentration camp in the Poznan district.

During the interwar period, the Jews of Lubraniec continued to made a living from petty commerce and handicrafts. The relations with the Poles, and especially with the peasants of the surrounding villages, were generally normal. New organizations were established by the Jewish residents, including the “Craftsmen's Union”, the “Small Merchants' Association”, and the “Bank of Artisans and Petty Merchants”. Many Jews of Lubraniec supported the Zionist movement, especially among the younger generations. There were local branches of the “General Zionists”, “Poalei Zion”, “Hashomer Hatzair”, and “Betar”. There was a branch of the “Bund” party as well. Some teenagers were active in a local Communist Party cell that operated illegally. The results of the 1936 elections to the Jewish community council were as follows: “Poalei Zion” two seats, “General Zionists” one seat, “Bund” one seat, and the “Non-partisan Block” 4 seats. On that year, the Jews had four representatives in the municipal council of Lubraniec: two of “Poalei Zion”, one of the “General Zionists”, and one of the “Bund”.

Throughout this period, Jewish boys continued to study as before in the traditional heders, but all the Jewish children attended the Polish public municipal school. At the initiative of the Zionists, a library named after Yitzhak Grinbaum was established in 1916 with hundreds of books in Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish. The “Trumpeldor House” operated as a cultural center, providing space for the activities of literature and drama groups and the “Maccabi” sports club.

In the first days after the outbreak of the war, refugees began to arrive from other towns in central Poland including Osieciny, Aleksandrov and other cities. On September 10, 1939, Lubraniec was captured by the Germans, who began seizing Jews for forced labor. At the end of September, the head of the German administration in the district, Kramer, came to Lubraniec from Wloclawek. He ordered rabbi Klughaupt and the secretary of the community, Haim Kalman, to appear before him in his office and demanded that the Jews of Lubraniec hand over a sum of 70,000 zlotys. After that, the Germans demanded an additional 10,000 zlotys. They confiscated houses and looted Jewish property, turning the synagogue into a warehouse. On the eve of Yom Kippur 1941, the Germans removed the worshipers from the Beit Midrash and forced them to clean the city streets. They abused the rabbi and members of the community. The situation worsened in the summer of 1941, after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. In late June 1941 most of Lubraniec's Jewish men were sent to forced labor camps in the Poznan district. They died there from starvation and disease, and those who survived were sent to Auschwitz. In July 1941, the Germans deported the women and children to Lodz, where most of them perished. Only a small group of about 15 Jews who worked in German businesses were left in Lubraniec. Eventually, they were also sent to their deaths at the extermination camp in Chelmno.

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