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[Page 1]
Wolf Kornmass
We have come to the conclusion of our Pinkas Zamość.
It has taken a full seven years to gather, select and bring together the pain and tears of our slaughtered brothers and sisters; seven years have passed before we were able to realize our objective – to place a memorial for all generations to come, for our annihilated community of Zamość.
We began to think about a Memorial Book seven years ago, even before our landsleit in Israel began to plan a volume [of this nature]. When this idea reached us, we decided to wait. Only after we received the volume, Zamość, in its Glory and its Destruction, which was published in Israel, did we decide to takes steps to action and to realize our project.
Under no circumstances will we minimize the [contribution] of the Israeli Yizkor Book (on the contrary, we took a number of works from there, and inserted them into our Yizkor Book), there were, however, two substantive reasons why, after we became acquainted with the contents of Zamość, in its Destruction and its Glory, that we took the position that it was nevertheless important for us to put out this current volume.
First, the referenced book of eye-witness and remembrance was published in Hebrew, and most of our survivors and our entire family of landsleit around the world, are not comfortably familiar with Hebrew, and will not know what is being set forth therein.
Secondly – The Israeli volume did not fully utilize all the material that is available about Zamość, and there was a need to round out and complete the history of our home city.
Those who will initially acquaint themselves with the contents of Pinkas Zamość will immediately see how much important material, whether about the history of the community, or about the Holocaust, has been added by us.
Also, in our volume, despite its large size, specific details yet are missing, but it contains those details, that it was possible to successfully extract from all corners of the world.
If there are materials that remained in someone's possession that we could have used, and did not find its way into this volume, it is not our fault. Literally, hundreds of letters were sent out, to places where all we had was merely an address. Over the course of years, we [persistently] asked for and demanded material.
I wish also to recall, that much material was sent to us by landsleit that we did not utilize. This occurred in those instances where the submitted facts proved to be repetitive, when someone else had already submitted it before. For this very reason, it was necessary to edit content out of some writings, if these facts had already been covered by someone else.
We made an effort to assure that all points of view that had an influence in our city would find their place in this volume. If someone should feel that “their” point of view was not done justice, let that person know that this was not done intentionally. Everything sent by everyone was utilized in some fashion or another.
It is because of this reason, that we wanted to accommodate everything and everyone's views, that out Pinkas grew to such size. We were thinking of a 400-page book, and it emerged more than three times that size!
The Pinkas is now before its readership, and everyone, with great satisfaction, should be able to attest to the fact that there is nothing “redundant” in it. Every chapter, and every section has its own justification, and needed to be included in our Yizkor Book.
Fate decreed that the sacred mission of technically bringing Pinkas Zamość into the world fall on us, the Zamośćhers of Argentina. In that connection, we are totally aligned with our Zamość colleagues in the world, first in the United
States and Israel, against whose numbers we are not so large. Also, we are not particularly replete with wealthy people.
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It just so happened that it was us, despite our small numbers, and not having a large landsmanschaft, and far from being an organization with means, had the great privilege of being the most active in setting up this memorial to our home city that was cut down.
We had unending difficulties. Not everyone had a supportive attitude to our initiative. It took a great deal of energy until we were able to convince Dr. Yaakov Shatzky ע”ה and others, that they should consent to participate in this undertaking.
If our work is crowned with praise, first and foremost we must pay tribute to the harmonious and collective cooperation of the entire Pinkas Committee, not only the Central Committee, but also the many subcommittees and the special committees. Everyone, in his own way, with boundless commitment, carried out the tasks that this truly risky undertaking demanded.
I will not mention specific names here. They all figure in the list of the Pinkas Committee. I will make an exception only for our so-called “foreign ambassadors.”
These are our friends – the tireless worker Israel Zilber, who was always ready, at every behest, to help either materially or technically, and our friend, Izzy Herman (Itcheh-Leib Herring), who followed our activity from the first day onwards, since we began the preparation of the Pinkas. These comrades from the United States were seconded by Chaim Shpizeisen ע”ה from Israel. He was literally fevered with the concept of this Pinkas, led and united the landsleit from the four corners of the world. Despite himself being a Bundist, he aroused all the organizational activists from Zamość (Zionists and Religious people), convincing them to support the Pinkas with their efforts. And wishing him many more years, a large portion in the creation of our Pinkas is also due to our comrade, Jekuthiel Zwillich, who after Shpizeisen's death, carried out the entire agenda of generating assistance and researching the required material. Let it also be recorded here, that he carried out the painstaking assembly of the names of our martyrs for the necrology in our Pinkas.
In speaking of those who helped with the creation of the materials, I cannot skip over without reminding us of the work of the landsleit, Moshe Freilich (his comments and insights in connection with the writings about the Neustadt), Mendel Finkman, Aharon Ebersfeld, and Zelik Kap for their recollections and insights in the chapter on professional movements.
Finally, I want to recall that our substantial effort surrounding the creation of Pinkas Zamość was coordinated by our Editor, Mordechai Bernstein , who did not stint on energy, to assure that this Pinkas would contain whatever greater amount possible of original material. In this way, I wish to emphasize that it is perhaps the Editor, who is most responsible for this volume being so comprehensive, insofar as it covers [material about] everything and everyone that made an impact, was creative, lived, and fought in Zamość.
It is certain that we would have been fortunate, were we able to publish Pinkas Zamość in concert with a Jubilee of our community; how great would have been our joy if we could have brought this volume as gift to a productive, thriving settlement….
To our great pain, this is not a Jubilee Book, but rather a Yizkor Book, a Book of Lamentation, a new Megillat Eykhah, after hundreds of years of Jewish productivity, that was eradicated along with those who were its creators and activists.
Perhaps we will find a small morsel of solace in that this very Pinkas Zamość will assure that the memories of our dear fathers, mothers, wives and children will never be forgotten; that we will forever remember their martyrdom; that together with a sacred tremor following our recalling them, we will carry with us a deep and eternal curse towards their murderers – against the Amalekites of our Generation, the Nazi Bandits and their hirelings and willingly murderous lackeys.
Pinkas Zamość appears at the tragic 15th anniversary of the annihilation of our dear home city. On the occasion of this bloody Yahrzeit, we declare and swear:
Never, never to forget the sac red memory of our martyrs.
Never, never to forgive their torturers and murderers.
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Dotted lines show the trade routes of the Middle Ages. |
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Before we approach our central purpose, to relate the history of the rise and bloody fall of the city that was a Mother to Israel, the Jewish Community of Zamość , we consider it appropriate to tell of the beginnings of that city in general: by whom and when the city was erected; the various phases of the development of Zamość; the era and the details of the rise and expansion of the settlement; the environs and neighboring settlements; about the roads and transportation arteries that ran through Zamość. It is important to take note of the territory, which was the basis for the establishment of a Jewish presence in this city. Many of the details of our Jewish history in that location are intimately bound up and tied to the general conditions of that place. Many of the occurrences within the Jewish settlement in the area become understandable, when placed against the backdrop of the general history of the city.The following details have been taken from a variety of Polish sources, and especially from the work of Stanislaw Herbst, Zamość (Polish), which appeared in 1955. We took a variety of reproductions from the same source, pictures and maps of the city, that illustrate the underlying data, facts and portrayals.
It is over a thousand years already, that the routes of world commerce pass through the location of present day Zamość, to the other parts of the world. That land, between the Bug and the Vistula, was an attractive objective. The commercial routes of the Middle Ages passed through these places, the transit-caravans from Kiev, (the commercial center of the East) passed through these places on their way to the West.
The commercial route that stretched from the border line of Polesia through Ludomir (Volodymyr-Volyns'kyj) and Ustyluh turned towards the Bug, went to the Vistula, and reached to the Baltic Sea. This route then branched out, and went off in a variety of directions – to Hrubieszow, to Szczebrzeszyn – from there, further on to the San [River], in order to provision Krakow and Prague with merchandise.
At that time, Zamość was not yet on the map.
The invasion wars of the Tatars and Lithuanians ensue along these routes. World transportation comes to a halt. However, a local production capability begins to take form; cities begin to grow; the wide plains become covered with agricultural points of production – estates of the nobility surrounded with peasant villages that spring up. The land becomes worked on, settled, exploited, and bears fruit.
The cities that were so established, the influx of population, causes a further development of agriculture – new tracts of land are continuously taken under human control, to meet the needs of the populace.
The vast areas surrounding present day Zamość were wild and uninhabited. A few isolated locations had small
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settlements, for the most party, these being castles of the nobility, or Christian monasteries.
The settlement of Goraj dates from the year 1420.
The village of Skokówka is first mentioned in 1450. That village (along with neighboring settlements) are bought by the Zamoyskis in 1517.
These very Zamoyskis obtained land from a Siradze family of horsemen, and the founder of this Zamoyski landholding, Tomasz from Lazin was in the area already from the beginning of the 15th century. It was on this Zamoyski estate, that a fortress was constructed at the confluence of the Labunka and Topornica [Rivers]. This castle keep became the residence of the landed estate owner, Stanislaw Zamoyski, in the year 1535. Here, in this first Zamoyski castle, Jan Zamoyski was born, who would later become the Chancellor of Poland, the founder of the city of Zamość.
The following obituary appeared in the New York Times of July 12, 2002:
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By Paul Lewis Jan Zamoyski, the head of one of Poland's richest and most powerful noble families, whose life reflected his country's turbulent and destructive political fate in the 20th century, died on June 29 in Warsaw. He was 90. In May 1939, just months before the invasion by Germany, Count Zamoyski succeeded his father as the 16th master of Zamość, in southeastern Poland. This made him the country's biggest landowner, with nearly 500,000 acres of farmland and forest, sugar refineries, paper mills, sawmills and distilleries, a palace in Warsaw, and major collections of pictures, illuminated manuscripts and early books. A year later, after he had served as a lieutenant in the Polish Army during its futile defense against the Nazis, Count Zamoyski was back in Zamość but leading a double life. Under German orders, he ran his vast agricultural estates to feed the occupying Nazi army. But he also worked secretly with the Polish underground resistance. In 1941, under the Nazis, Zamość was renamed Himmlerstadt, and the occupiers began replacing Poles with German colonists, who were given any blond-haired Polish children younger than 8. Count and Countess Zamoyski tried to help their fellow Poles. About 500 children were saved from deportation and hidden on his estates, according to Adam Zamoyski, a relative now living in London. Valuables were sold to bribe the Nazis, and the count provided secret hiding places for resistance fighters, for people on the run from the Nazis (including Stefan Wyszynski, who became a cardinal and the Roman Catholic primate of Poland), and for escaped Allied prisoners and downed airmen. After the Soviet Army captured the region in 1944, it showed its distaste for aristocrats by imprisoning the count for a year and confiscating his possessions, even though he was by then a colonel in the Polish underground resistance to the Nazi occupation, according to obituaries in two leading Polish dailies. After being forced to take a series of menial jobs, he was arrested by the Communists in 1949 and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment on trumped-up charges of collaboration with the Nazis and of espionage for the West. Released in 1956 after Stalin's death, Count Zamoyski again worked at various lowly jobs before becoming Swissair's Polish representative, a position that made him independent of the Polish Communist authorities and allowed him to travel. Born on the family estates at Klemensowo on June 12, 1912, the count was a direct descendant of an earlier Jan Zamoyski, who as Polish chancellor in 1578 commissioned the Paduan architect Bernardo Morando to build a perfect Renaissance city at Zamość. Count Zamoyski was educated in Poland and France and started on a musical career at the conservatory in Nancy, in eastern France, before his father sent him to study economics in preparation for taking over the family's agricultural estates. Before the Zamoyski palace in Warsaw was bombed in the Nazi invasion, the count had hidden its artistic treasures in the cellars. He was eventually able to begin transferring them to monasteries and museums for safekeeping. After the count's release from prison, Adam Zamoyski said, he continued to oversee this transfer of family treasures to Poland's museums and churches and helped raise money abroad for the restoration of Zamość. In the 1980's, as normal political life became possible again, he also helped re-establish the prewar National Democratic Party as a conservative party, shorn of the anti- Semitic reputation it had acquired in prewar days. In 1989 he won a seat in the Senate in Poland's first free elections in 50 years, serving a single term. For many years he fought, with little success, for the return of Communist-confiscated lands and property to their original owners. His wife, the former Countess Roza Zoltiowska, died in 1976. He is survived by four daughters, Elzbieta Daszewska, Maria Poninska and Agnieszka Roznowska, all of Warsaw, and Gabriella Boguslawska, of Oslo; and a son, Marcin, who managed to buy back about 1,500 acres of the family estates near Zamość that he now farms. The count was buried in the Renaissance cathedral at Zamość, next to the city's founder, his kinsman and namesake. |
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In that time, the land was already covered with a variety of routes, landowners of large estates, and people who owned thousands of peasant workers. Each individual built his own fortress – the residence from which they oversaw their territory. It was from these castles that the one-time commercial transactions were carried out (especially involving grain); the relationship of one territory to another; the administration of local affairs, and the relationship to the central government institutions of the country. Apart from that original Zamoyski castle, the residences of the nobles Firlej (Lubartow), Tarnowski (Izbica-Tarnogrod), Gorka (Szczebrzeszyn) were also to be found in the vicinity. These oldtime magnates were role models for the young, very capable and dynamic aristocrat, Jan Zamoyski, who at the age of 37 had already become the Polish Chancellor.
In the year 1578, Jan Zamoyski married the daughter of the magnate Radziwill. He was, at that time, already a mighty suzerain over six large landed estates. With the consent of the magnates of the period, he decides to construct a modern fortress-castle, in the spirit of the Renaissance that prevailed during that era. This fortress needs to be located at the mid-point of his widely branched Zamoyski regime, in the village of Skokówka, on the border with the tracts that lead in various directions.
According to the plan of the young magnate, it is evident that he wanted to build not only a palatial residence for himself, but, indeed, a large, administrative and commercial center. The layout of the area, and the plan reveal that he had the perspective in his eye that this new settlement, which was to be named Nowy Zamość (because Old Zamość, was the place where the progenitor of the Zamoyskis, Tomasz of Lazin lived at the time) would have to become the most important center of the area. That location was the midpoint of the communication routes of that era, that led to Krasnystaw, Szczebrzeszyn and Tomaszow.
The planned settlement had to also be a mighty fortress, in the style of the latest achievements in the security system of that time. It also needed to be an example of urban design, of aesthetics and practicality, and needed to stand out from the standpoint of architectural craftsmanship.
The act of establishment of the city is traced to April 3, 1579 and was held in the town of Jaroslawiec.
On April 3, 1580, Chancellor Jan Zamoyski issued rights and privileges to those who would take up residence in the new city. This set of privileges, that was institutionalized two months later by the central Polish authority, released all the settlers of any levies, assessments and taxes for a period of twenty years; triennial marks were established; rights to transfer goods to Rus and Volhynia[1] were established.
The first thought of the Chancellor Jan Zamoyski was to build a new type of castle, which would not be similar to those from the Middle Ages – instead of having a security system of water-filled moats, it would be a Renaissance residence – around which an urban populace could come to grow, and [to this end] he selected the hilltop of the village of Zdanów.
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On July 1, 1578, Zamoyski consummates a deal with a prominent architect, who was Bernardo Morando, who was born in Padua. Morando, at that time, was already known in Poland. He began his career by building the Warsaw Palace, imbedding the work that was begun by G. V. Kvarda. Morando also owned the brick making franchise in the city of Warsaw. Jan Zamoyski already had known Morando – in 1673[2], Morando accompanied Zamoyski on his mission to Paris.
The agreement was consummated in Lemberg,[3] where Morando was located, and discharged several responsibilities as royal architect. On October 3, Jan Zamoyski settled on the building plan that was presented.
A city arose, that integrated planning and convenience with unusual beauty. The security needs of that important settlement were also taken into account. The center of the town, the market, Rynek, which occupied an area 100 meters wide and 100 meters long, along with the covered passageways and sideways covered by roofs[4]. The well-planned quarters around the Rynek created an unusual panorama, which was only further enhanced esthetically by the unique decoration of the buildings.
In order to maintain the fortress-like character of the new settlement, three city gates were incorporated into the security system: the Lemberg [Gate], Lublin [Gate] and Szczebrzeszyn [Gate] – communication exit points in various directions.
Apart from the general urban plan of the city, Morando also looked after the special representative municipal buildings, such as the [main] fortress castle, the church, municipal building, and arsenal.
Construction of the castle keep was already underway in the year 1579. The adjacent arsenal was built out in 1582. The construction of the Roman Catholic church began in 1593. The ‘Academy’ building was begun in 1590. Finally, the municipal building was begun in 1591. The rest of the constructed skeleton of the city arose later, which was surrounded by a system of moats and fortifications.
An audit of the construction work conducted in 1591 tells, that at that time there were 275 houses in Zamość, of these 217 were within the city's fortifications, and the remainder on its periphery.
Zamość, at its inception, had a mercantile character. Witness to this are 41 foreigners, who owned houses, among them Armenians, Persians, Greeks, and as will come out in more elaborate relating of detail, Jews from Spain. Among the citizens of the city, there were at that time about 100 craftsmen. It is necessary to separately recall a group of fur workers (eleven men) and weavers (twelve men). With the help of Zamoyski, the Armenian, Murat[5] Jakubowicz obtained a monopoly on the manufacture and trade of sapphires, carpets, Turkish tapestries[6], and indeed, did open a factory for these luxury items. The publications of the Zamość ‘Academy’ had a truly great reputation. It stood out as one of the best of its era. In its well-organized set of publications, important works appeared, whose technical merit could be favorably compared to international publications of the time.
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Morando died in Zamość in 1600. In the final years before his death, he was the Burgomaster of the city. After his death, the rapid-paced construction of the city abated. Not all the projects of the founders of the city had come to fruition yet. It is only in the first 20 years of the 17th century that a further development of the city can be discerned. A further building up of the city is undertaken, and the completion of the principal buildings that had been initiated.
In the year 1622, work on the municipal building is started up again.
In 1639, the ‘Academy’ building is finally completed.
In 1640, the Franciscan church is built, which later, in the 19th century becomes converted into a municipal theater.
The castle keep itself is built in the 18th century, by the architect Columbani.
In the middle of the 17th century, during the period of the Cossack rebellions of Bohdan Chmielnicki, known as G'zerot Ta”kh Ve'T”at[7], Zamość suffered proportionately less. The fortified city was able to defend itself against the attackers. The city however does suffer from a series of heavy fires.
In the year 1666, Zamość and its environs had 253 houses suitable for dwelling, not counting the municipal government buildings, and also not the houses of worship. In this count, were 63 houses of stone wall construction.
During the First Partition of Poland, in 1772, Zamość came under Austrian rule. In the year 1774, the head of the Austrian regime, King, Josef II, settled in Zamość, and lived in a fortified house on the marketplace. Zamość then becomes the administrative center for that region, which then encompassed the area of Galicia and Ludomierz. During this period (in 1782), the Zamość ‘Academy’ is liquidated.
During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, Zamość becomes one of the most important strategic locations. The city holds out on two separate occasions against massive attacks – in the years 1809 and 1813[8]. The importance of the fortress becomes developed, which is continuously renewed, and new points of defense are added to it.
In the later years, also in the first period under Czarist rule, the fortress occupied quite an important position in the vicinity of Zamość, and gave the city a distinct military character.
Incorporating the larger part of the city into the strategic military defense perimeter, caused the peripheries of the city to be built up and joined. The increase in the population did not find [living] space in the city proper, which was drawn into the system of fortresses. Among these peripheral areas, the Nowa Osada deserves special mention, which was known among the Jews as Neustadt.
This area of the city was planned out in the year 1822, following the same plans as the city; in symmetrical quadrilateral streets, with a four-sided marketplace in the middle. This new settlement took the form of a chessboard on both sides of the Lemberg highway, which subsequently became one of the most important Jewish points in Zamość. More about the tragic end of this Neustadt will be related later, in the appropriate place.
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Later, after the Polish rebellion of 1861, the fortress was torn down. The important fortifications are razed. The Czarist authority does not want to have a fort in a Polish city. The events that took place during the rebellion revealed that the Poles utilize such places against the occupiers. Only traces remain from that former fortress, which serve as a memorial relationship that Zamość once had to the military.
After the razing of the defence fortifications and the city gates, the city began to develop. For military and strategic reasons, Zamość did not have a place on the railroad network. The closest railroad station was in Rajoweic, which was on the railroad line from Lublin to Chelm that was built in 1877, 54 kilometers away. It was first in 1915, that a rail line was built between Rajowiec and Belzec (by the German-Austrian occupation authorities). This line included Zamość. A line was built from Zawoda to Ludomir, which cut through Zamość.
As recorded in the referenced book, Zamość by St. Herbst, the population growth in Zamość during the past 100 years is as follows:
Year Residents 1822 4,709 1865 6,222 1897 10,963 1909 14,213 1931 24,273 1939 27,358
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Translator's footnotes:
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