 |
of the First Edition of HaBe'er
|
|
[Page 281]
Religious Periodical Output in Zamość
In another place we will describe the ‘Zamośćher Stimme’ which appeared in Zamość, during the course of several years. We have also excerpted the community chronology of our Jewish life from this weekly periodical. Apart from this periodical, there appeared additionally in Zamość, an array of periodic publications of a religious character. There were: ‘HaBe'er,’ ‘Unser Geist,’ and ‘Zamośćher Vort.’ Again, we incorporate a variety of information about these publications within the limits of what we can do in our Pinkas.
|
|
of the First Edition of HaBe'er |
|
|
This periodical was a Rabbinical journal, which printed various questions and answers, innovative insights and explanations, Tanakh, Talmud and other works.
The first edition, which appeared in the year, ‘May the Lord Bless Us,’ which means 5683 (1923),[1] And one can see that the editor who signs himself, HaK' Zvi Hirsch Friedling, son of R' Dov Berel, ז”ל (Neustadt) עי”א, thought of it as a periodical that was to appear 4 times a year.
As we see from the address, (see the band) that is where the editorial office was. However, HaBe'er was actually printed in other locations, because there was no printing press in Zamość that could be set to print these kinds of Rabbinical interpretive and casuistic type of periodicals.
Number 1 was printed in Warsaw at Wagmeister, Nalewcki 7. Number 2 was set for printing by Kronenberg in Bilgoray, and later editions by the setup of R' Benjamin Liebeskind of Pietrkow.
From Zamość-Neustadt the editor moved to Biskupice, where he became Rabbi (after which he would sign himself HaK' Zvi Hirsch… of Zamość-Neustadt, and currently Bet-Din Senior of Biskupice and the Valley). The editorial office, however, was always in Zamość.
Rabbis from all over the world contributed to this ‘HaBe'er,’ and not only those from Poland.
The second periodical, ‘Unser Geist,’ was in Yiddish already. We reproduce here, the frontispiece of Number 3, from the second year of publication 5689 (1929). The editor is identified as Israel-Dov HaKohen Frishman. The actual initiator and owner of this periodical was also the prior resident of Zamość-Neustadt, and the later Rabbi of Biskupice, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Friedling.
Numbers 3 and 4 of ‘Under Geist,’ were printed in the ‘Print of Kronenberg Feldhandler Zamość.’ The 5th edition (already in 5690 [1930]) was printed in Lublin in the publishing house of ‘Shalmon,’ of R' Ezer Zwecken.
Despite the fact that both of these publications were from Zamość, there is practically nothing in them about life in Zamość.
In ‘HaBe'er,’ there are a couple of innovations by the Dayan of Zamość, Chaim Goldschmid. From ‘Unser Geist,’ (Numbers 4,5 and 6 are before us), there is an obituary in Number 4 by Y. D. Frishman about the previously mentioned Dayan, R' Chaim Goldschmid.
Apart from this, we move onto Zamośćher Vort, about which we write further.
Translator's footnote:
|
|
|
|
From the Yiddish Historical Institute in Poland, we were sent a microfilm of 9 sides, where there was an advertisement of a periodical, Zamośćher Vort, and 8 sides from 2 editions of this periodical: Number 1, which appeared Friday, April 11, 1930, and Number 2 from Friday May 2. We do not know if any additional numbers appeared subsequently.
In order to demonstrate the nature of this Zamość periodical, we have brought the full text of the advertisement here.
Despite the fact that the advertisement does not make clear whether the paper will be partisan, or if it will be apolitical in its complexion, these past two editions reveal that this was a paper of Agudat Israel. We will be able to see this from the excerpts that we will be providing later on.
Both of these numbers had four sides apiece.
It is described that the paper is edited by a collegium. The official editor, for government purposes, figures to be B. Frishman, and the publisher: Ch. Perlmutter. He paper was printed in the print shop of the Weinsteins in Chelm. This fact clarifies why both numbers have (on side 4) a Chelm Section.
In the presentation of the editorial staff, ‘To Our Readers,’ which opens the first number, it says the following:
‘We are stepping forward to present a local publication in our city. We know that the responsibility associated with the undertaking we are assuming is great, a periodical that must have clear significance.’‘It is our hope, however, that we will fulfill our obligation completely. We are therefore certain that the Jewish population in our city will value our work as relevant, and will give us the means to assure our existence. We can summarize our direction in 7 word: ‘Everything that is Jewish is Close to Us.’
The Editorial Staff’
One cannot say, that from this description, that the direction was made clear. However at the head, the dates from both of the editions show the direction – the religious orientation of the publishers. Both of the dates begin with a ב”ה (with the help of the Almighty). Later:
Zamość, Friday, Portion of Tzav, 13 Nissan (Hullin 106) (Number 1).
Zamość, Friday Portion Tazriah-Metzora, 4 Iyyar (Hullin 106) (Number 2).
The editorial staff wanted to give the ‘Daf Yomi,’ but regrettably, the typesetter (or corrector) didn't change the ‘Daf’ and left it as ‘Hullin 106’ for both editions.
The price of the first edition was 25 groschen, and the second one was cheaper – 20 groschen.
The announcements in the first edition are of a Holiday Eve flavor, because it was 13 Nissan, the Eve of Passover.
Abba Friedling advertises his variety of baked goods, chocolate, a variety of sugar products, and delicatessen. All Kosher for Passover.
Sh. D. Fershtendig announces that if you want to have a happy and kosher holiday, you have to buy his Kosher for Passover wine. In passing, he says in his ad, that his wine business is the ‘oldest Jewish wine business that is in
[Page 283]
existence since 1836.’ This means that in 1936, this business would have had to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Did it actually come to pass?
L. Rosen also presents his wine for Passover. He announces: ‘Bring Passover Joy into your home.’ In this manner, he describes that his wine, ‘Carmel,’ is brought ‘directly from the winery’ and is secured by a certification of kashruth by the Gaon, the Tzaddik of Kielce שליט”א, living in Zamość at this time. He does not forget to add that at his place, one receives competitive prices!
Y. Y. Eisenstadt, in his announcement which begins with the loud, blatant ‘And you shall be joyful during your festivals!’ makes a case for a large availability of colonial merchandise, such as: sugar, raisins, cocoa-butter from the best companies, Kosher for Passover, Mehadrin min HaMehadrin.[1]
M. H. Ashin asked the audience: ‘Do you want an Oneg on the Holiday.’ If yes, they should come to transact with him for caps, hats, underwear, the latest styles in ties, shoes fine fabrics, gabardine, jackets, gloves, slippers, socks, etc. Do understand, ‘at competitive prices!’ His firm is also an old one, claiming it has existed since 1903.
There is also an ad (not especially for the holidays) from Y. M. Cohen, where there is a large availability of gold, silver, precious stones, diamonds, plate. As he assures, his firm is an old and well-recognized one, which has been in existence since 1892.
The articles in the paper:
Apart from the announcement ‘To Our Readers!’ and the ads, there is a call ‘to The Jewish Populace!’ Signed by a – B. The call concerns the Charitable Fund (Gemilut Hasadim), that had been in existence already for 5 years, and towards which there is only a weak interest being exhibited. The writer addresses those individuals, to the community, to the Jewish leadership of the town council, that attention should be given and help offered to this important institution.
A second small article: ‘The New Judgement Day,’ signed by B. Landau, takes up the issue of ‘Assessment Commissions,’ that must determine the taxes for merchants, small storekeepers and craftsmen. He proposes that:
‘…therefore there is an obligation on all of the members (of the assessment-commission) not to neglect the meetings. It is necessary to come on time, and the important point – to energetically take up the cause of the poor and oppressed, and to see that no one is harmed.’
Side 2 is taken up by three articles relating to the holiday, with themes about Passover: Leib Szczakacz (Warsaw) – ‘Let Him Who Is Needy, Come in and Eat!’ G. Frishman – ‘Spiritual Liberation.’ A. L. Pearl (Warsaw) – ‘Security’, (A Folk Legend).
Side 3 is taken up by a chronology: ‘Life in Zamość and its Vicinity.’ From this section, we will, indeed excerpt an array of notices and news which will complete the picture of Jewish life in Zamość in the time between the World Wars.
The notice from the town council communicates about the budget for the year 1930-1931.
The preliminary general budget comes to more than a million zlotys (1,110,699). Jewish subsidies take up the following amounts: Jewish schools (Jewish Gymnasium ‘Kadima,’ Peretz School) – 40,000 zlotys; Old Age Home – 2,500 zl; The TOZ organization – 5,000 zl; there also is figured in a sum of 12,000 zl. For summer colonies for Christian and Jewish school youth; 10,500 zl. For food for Christian and Jewish school children; ans 3,000 zl. For books, clothing for poor school children, Jews and Christians.
[Page 284]
There is an accounting from the Bank of the Charitable Fund (Gemilut Hasadim) in Zamość.
The bank has been in existence since May 1927. Up to January 1, 1930, the bank disbursed 2,204 loans in the amount of 144,455 zlotys. 80 percent of the loans disbursed were up to 100 zlotys. The capital that the bank has came to 25,968.50 zl. Out of this, the Joint is owed 13,586.50 zl. Paid in capital has been constituted from one-time support by local contributors, consisting of 9,915 zl. Also from monthly payments of 5,447 zlotys. All of the activities of the bank were controlled through the review committee that consisted of the Messrs. Kleinerman, Cohen, Schliam. In the last 3 months, from January 1 to April 1, 1930, 274 loans were disbursed, for a total sum of 22,710 zlotys.
There is also a notice about a major political trial in Zamość. It is reported that on Wednesday, April 2, the central Zamość judiciary initiated a major political trial against 23 men, who are being accused of communist activity. As defense attorneys the following appeared: Shviontkovsky, Lubovich, Ziegelman and several others from Zamość, as well as 2 lawyers from Warsaw. Over one hundred witnesses were heard, including the Rabbi of Krasnobrod שליט”א.
A rather engaging story is told about an interesting trial against Jewish journalists for conceiving of libels against the Rabbi of Komarov, ז”ל. This story, a real period piece, is worth reproducing as it is presented in the newspaper:
‘On Wednesday, April 2, an interesting legal proceeding was initiated in Lemberg against a number of Jewish journalists for conceiving base canards about the Rabbi of Komarov ז”ל, which elicited great distress from the Jewish community.The story about this is as follows: About a year ago, the Rabbi of Komarov passed away, The Gaon, Rabbi Yekhiel Mikhl Goldberg, ז”ל, leaving a will that after his death that he should be thrown off his bed, that if, by some chance, he had, God forbid, committed some sin, that this will be an atonement for him.
Secondly, he requests that he should be interred beside his mother, who was a great, righteous woman, so that her merit will serve as a support to him.
This was used by the Warsaw correspondent of the New York ‘Forward,’ N. Cooper (a pseudonym for I. J. Singer) writing, no more and no less, that the deceased had left a will in which he had confessed about terrible sins, and open transgressions, and therefore the Rabbi had decreed that he should be buried outside the normal confines, near the most notorious of outcasts.
This sensational report was picked up and repeated in a number of Jewish papers in Poland, A. Rosenfeld (Bontcheh) in ‘Moment,’ as also in the ‘Lodzer Volksblatt.’
The congregation in Komarov, especially the children of the deceased, could not remain silent in the face of such a defamation of the dead, and the son of the deceased, who lives in Lemberg, accused the writer of this libelous story in court.
The accused were: I. J. Singer, A. Rosenfeld (Bontcheh), and also the Editor-in-chief of ‘Moment,’ – Mr. Zvi Prilutsky.
The trial attracted a great deal of attention in Jewish circles, especially among journalists. The accusation is an entirely serious one. As evidence of this, the plaintiffs have arranged that their defense attorney would be the renown Jewish attorney Dr. Leib Landau.
Simultaneously, a trial will take place in the Lodz judiciary courts, against the responsible editor of the ‘Lodzer Volksblatt’, Mr. Kaufman.’
In this section, a notice is also found about the arrival of 500 dollars of Passover aid.
[Page 285]
The notice tells: as was the case each year, at the new year, a 500 dollar contribution came from our respected landsleit in America for Passover support, for the poor Jewish populace in our city. 250 dollars for the Altstadt at the address of the community, and 250 dollars for the Neustadt at the address of Mr. Zimring.
On this side, (side 3), a series of monographs begin under the heading, ‘Great Personalities of Zamość from Bygone Times.’ The author is Y. B. Davidsohn. The writer indicates that there was a large number of great people that were produced by Zamość, and he set himself the goal of telling about part of them. In this edition, he talks about the Maggid of Dubno. Earlier in our Pinkas, we have already presented the biographical details of this personality. From this biography we will only excerpt the style of the headstone that the community placed [on the grave of] the Maggid of Dubno, which is found in this article. The writer recounts:
‘On his headstone, the Zamość community expressed its greatest respect for him. It says:
Passed away ‘In the Good of Tevet’
The Year ‘May Jacob Come to Rest’ [Without the Thousands]
The Renown Orator and Rabbi
Whose Words Were Heard in All Lands
There Was None Like Him Before, And None Like Him Will Ever Come Again, Through Whom The Spirit of God Spoke
Our Teacher R' Yaakov Maggid of This Place, Son of Our Teacher, R' Ze'ev ז”ל[2]’
The fourth, last side, is devoted to the ‘Chelm Section.’ On this side is also found a letter from Hrubieszow. On this side, there already is an explicit mention of the direction of the paper. Among the announcements from Chelm, there is a greeting from ‘Youth of Agudat Israel’; and the letter from Hrubieszow talks about a Bet-Yaakov school.
The second edition of Zamośćher Vort is opened on the first page by two articles that deal with actual issues and demonstrate already the leanings of the paper.
The first is by B. Frishman, under the alarming title, ‘Rescue While There Is Still Time!’ This article concerns itself with the fact that in Zamość there is no ‘General Heder.’ It will suffice to reproduce just the introduction, so as to understand what the alarm was about:
‘The pen trembles in the hand. To begin to write about such a real thing as founding a ‘General Heder’ in Zamość.The current tenor of the times is such, that some parents, literally with tears in their eyes, have begged the writer of these lines, to convey to our paper the sad state of Jewish children, from the ‘younger generation,’ which seeks a place for Torah study together with secular studies and are going about like a flock without a shepherd.
The anger against the ‘I'm all right’ attitude that reigns in our city, among the religious leaders and community activists, who have the capacity to save this young generation from this bad plague, and are doing nothing, is raising the ire [of the people] like dark roiling clouds…
A frightening mood possesses the serious-minded religious Jew, when he sees his like-minded brethren, ‘We are of one mind,’ peering through fog-shrouded lenses with such a cruel stinginess at the want of today's generation that is separated from us, and do not want to come alive with activity utilizing the factual power, so long as the rudder of the community is still in their hands.’
The conclusion is clear – it is necessary to create a Heder.
[Page 286]
The second article on this side is by B. Landau and carried the title: ‘A Call to Action,’ and has a sub-title: About the newly created advisory committee in our city. It is worth glancing at what the purpose of this ‘advisory committee’ was, which will indeed reveal to us a bit of the picture of the Jewish material condition and mood on that time. We will provide a couple of excerpts from this article:
‘The impoverishment of the Jewish masses in Poland is proceeding at a much faster rate than we had imagined. The loss of the sources of income of Jewish merchants, small storekeepers and craftsmen, comes more rapidly than we had anticipated. An the numerical calculations of the statistics about the economic plight of Polish Jewry, and all the ways they can be interpreted regarding the situation, have shown that we were incorrect, and we are witness to the economic decline from the top of the mountain down, of how we Jews live here in Poland.The reasons?
Certainly there are, and probably are carried out by a refined hand, certainly there are people who have an interest in Poland, who want to make the effort to drive the economic condition of the Jews to such a sad state.
Also, here among us in Zamość, several weeks ago – even if very late, but like they say, better late than never – called a meeting in the area of the Jewish populace, with the purpose of founding an advisory council. As is the custom at all Jewish assemblies – a committee of more than 15 individuals was selected, and the committee elected its leadership and it was decided to create a large base of capital with which it would be possible to place an institution on a solid foundation.
From that time on, more than six weeks have gone by, and we hear nothing, and we see nothing being done about it.’
The writer appeals and also alerts [the readers], that some action needs to be taken, because the condition is quite a difficult one. Poverty and need have become very substantial.
On side 2 of this edition, further articles and notices appear:
‘Why Are You Silent?’ with a sub-heading: A call to the New [sic: Neustadt]-Zamość populace. In this ‘call’ the Charitable Loan Bank of the Neustadt is discussed. We want to convey this, which tells about the social atmosphere in that suburb of Jewish laborers and common people.‘The Charitable Loan Bank which at this moment is the most essential institution – whose purpose it is to lighten, as far as possible, the frightening plight of the small shopkeepers and craftsmen, especially in such a poor city as the Neustadt, – has for a time been taken over by 3-4 people, who are running the bank on their own authority, not taking into account at all the opinions of the members. Today's local leadership, ignoring the demands of the membership, who want to take an interest in the fate of this important institution – needs to call a general meeting to know what their current activities are: but regrettably, a number of years have gone by, in which no general meeting has taken place. And our golem-like community lets itself be led around by the nose…
The few shouters who have been taken into the management sit around toasting each other with ‘L'Chaim.’ That is how an important institution is managed, of sufficient importance that America sensed this importance enough and sanctioned our city to receive a loan from the ‘Joint.’
Regrettably, this loan was put into hands of such people that use its proceeds for their own interest, and a member of the management indeed is able to receive a bit of a loan for his loyalty to the President, as well as other assets that secure a place for themselves in the community, town council, and so forth.
[Page 287]
You would think that it would be time already for the common good to occupy a higher place that personal recognition and ambitions. Those who wish to stand at the helm of a social institution must first exert themselves on behalf of the community.If we had such a leadership, then there would be greater support by the city populace, and quite likely, the director of the ‘Joint,’ Mr. Yitzhak Gitterman, would offer more support, as we see by the example of other cities that receive double the size of loans.
Therefore, all the Jews of the Neustadt have to organize and demand that a general meeting be conducted, where a reconstituted management will be elected, and in lodging a general protest against today's not completely effective stewards, who threaten before elections, not to extend loans to those who do not vote for them, and they are believed…
Every single member must contemplate, that the entire work of the bank is dependent only on a more sound leadership. And also seriously consider whether the currently selected leadership will understand its responsibility and the intensive work needed for the development of the Bank, on which the fate of many Jewish storekeepers and craftsmen depend.’
A later article on the same side is by Yekhiel Friedman, under the name of ‘In Pressured Anticipation,’ where he discusses the economic crisis in the land.
On the same side, there is also an article signed with the initials B. S. T. called ‘Final Report of the Investigation Committee,’ which deals with the situation in the Holy Land regarding the British Investigative Commission.
This side ends with a report of ‘A Meeting of the Community,’ and from this report, we discover that:
‘On the previous Saturday night, April 26, there was a community meeting of the council and leadership of our local Jewish community here in the city. The President of the council, H. Sh. Goldstein opened the session and the agenda is presented. 1. Reading of the minutes of the prior meeting; 2. Dealing with the budget of the year 1930; 3. Selection of a Revisions Committee; 4. Open business.In this connection, a motion is made to amend the agenda, so that first, the Revisions Committee should be elected first, afterwards address the budget, which passed.
Afterwards, the minutes were read, and a Revisions Committee was selected, consisting of Messrs. Kornfeld, Y. Sheck, and L. Roit. On the proposal of a chairman to represent the craftsmen, it is decided to co-opt Mr. Mermelstein.
Regarding the budget for the year 1930, it was decided not to vote for a budget commission, because in that case, a long time will elapse until the budget will be decided on – only the leadership will work out the budget and present it to the council for approval. At the end, the request of the local synagogue was transacted, to hire the Hazzan, Mr. Moshe Rudnitsky, as the Cantor of the city of Zamość, and set a salary of 200 Gulden a month.
With that, the meeting was adjourned.’
On side 3, where the section, ‘From Life in Zamość and Vicinity’ is found, the report, ‘A Meeting of Craftsmen About Community Activity,’ is especially characteristic. We read there:
‘On the previous Sabbath, April 26, a meeting of craftsmen took place in the local community, here in our city, about the activity of the native community.The Chairman, Mr. Fuchs, opens the meeting and distributed the report of the Community Dozor, Mr. Sheps, which gives an accounting of his activities in the previous community leadership, demonstrating with facts that by him being in the community leadership he properly safeguarded the interests of craftsmen, and he also stresses that the craftsmen have to demand to make the
[Page 288]
community more aware of the world around them, and after him a report is given by Mr. Hechtkopf of his activities in the current community leadership.After this, the Secretary of the craftsmen, Mr. Mermelstein, submits his report, speaking very substantively and with logical arguments, he criticizes the activity of the community.
He also discusses the activity of the Jewish communities in Poland, beginning with the ‘Va'ad Arba Aratzot.’
It is interesting to note, that when Mr. Mermelstein spoke of the period of the ‘Va'ad Arba Aratzot,.’ a certain leader of the craftsmen made a comparison, that communities at one time gave up poor Jewish children to military service (a blot on Jewish history). Afterwards, Messrs. Wagner and Topf spoke, who criticized the activities of the leadership of the craftsmen in the community.
At the end, the words of the President of the community leadership, Mr. Goldstein, are received, responding to the calls of several speakers of today's gathering who had expressed their concerns. He proposes to those gathered, that they appoint a commission, which should review the activity of the community.
As a result, a commission was elected of the Messrs: Mermelstein, Meinberg and Stegel, who in the course of one month must present a report. After adopted some individual resolutions, the meeting was adjourned.’
On the same side there is a further biography from the series ‘Great Personalities of Zamość from Bygone Times,’ that was started in the first edition by Y. B. Davidsohn. This time, it is the start of the biography of Zvi Hirsch Heller.
About him, enough has already been said in the work of Yaakov Dov Mandelbaum, in our Pinkas, in the chapter,‘The Books of the Rabbis & Sages of Zamość,’ (pp. 221 and further) about Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Heller, and please refer to the entries 27, 28, 29, 58, 59, and 76 of that referenced work.
On the third side, there is also a piece of correspondence from Tarnogrod.
The fourth side is given over to the ‘Chelm Section.’
As previously mentioned – we do not know if subsequent editions of this periodical ever appeared.
Translator's footnotes:
by Yaakov Ne'eman (Neimark), Tel-Aviv
Homeless
A short time before the First World War, my parents sent me away to the small shtetl of Laszczow, close to the Russian-Austrian border, to my grandfather, R' Berel the Dayan. This was a compromise between my father, who began to resist the fanatic surroundings, by sending my two older sisters, Eidel and Hella to a “Heder-Metukan,” and my mother, who at the end, had the position of doing “what the father and mother say to do, and all good and observant people say to do,” who saw in the “Heder-Metukan,” an apostasy and a tool leading away from a righteous path.
In Laszczow, the little shtetl, at my Grandfather Berish's, I was required to be raised in a traditional environment, in real Yiddishkeit and to study with melamdim in Heders. At least not in godless Zamość, so that I might possibly become a God-fearing person and a son of the Torah.
This rather made an impression on me. The trip in those days, through forests, fields, villages and [across] rivers, in an open wagon, sitting between bundles of merchandise from Aharon “Shpiliter.” My first trip outside of the city came about after Passover, immediately following the holiday. The itinerary captivated me, enchanted me. To begin with, it did not disturb me that I was traveling away fro such a warm home.
I studied in a Heder with a melamed. Everything was new to me. The little sukkah-house with the fly-roof, where my grandfather sat and studies from early in the morning until very late at night. The small candle-lit sukkah, was filled with bookcases full of books, which to me, an eight-year-old little boy, quite unfamiliar. My grandmother, small and thin, made us a living from the manufacturing store in the marketplace. It was a quite life for the entire week, except for the market day in the shtetl. At that time, it came to life, Ukrainians from the villages would bring wagons with all manner of good things to sell and to by various merchandise. That is how weeks flowed by.
On Tisha B'Av my grandfather took me along to measure off the cemetery plots. The mood at that time was one of tension. This was the year 1914. One could sense the world catastrophe in the air, despite the fact that no one could imagine its extent. We no longer went to Heder at that time already, waiting for something unknown. So, individual little boys like me, sat on mounds of a dried out rivulet and cut into the dark glistening soil with pieces of wood, houses and bakery ovens. Until our grandmother suddenly came running, out of breath, worried, grabbing me by the hand and dragging me, pulling and pinching me, because I didn't want to leave what I was doing in the middle.
– Come home, quickly, my darling. There is war....Before we even came within sight of my grandfather's house, Russian cavalry entered the town, armed from head to foot. “If you will not be a good little boy, the Cossacks on their horses will impale you on their picks”... And politically informed people in town – and those among them with a sense of strategy – said that the Russians were retreating.
At night, candles were no longer lit in the homes, but also nobody slept either. Residents readied themselves to uproot themselves from this border town. The hubbub in the center of the marketplace did not subside, frightened Jews provisioned themselves with food and water, anticipating that hard days lay ahead. With packages and pails in their hands, they coursed about in the broad, dark emptied marketplace. The talk was that large battles would take place here between the Austrians and the Russians and Jews must not remain in this place.
In the distance, one hears the explosions of artillery shells and the reports of gunfire. A the outside, as soon as daylight broke, everyone came out of their little houses; in groups of three, four and five; telling each other how they lived
[Page 290]
through the night. Little boys bent themselves over, putting their ears to the ground, [and hearing] “how the earth trembles from all the shooting”...
The morning passes, and predictions circulate about. There are those who favor one side, and those for “Efroyim-Yussel,” (Kaiser Franz-Josef II of Austria-Hungary). Late in the afternoon, the [inhabitants of] the town suddenly tear themselves away from their homes. Each individual grabs whatever they can see: a pillow, a goat, a calf, containers of food, “a bread slice in a basket” and who knows where one will spend the coming night...
Everyone left, with no differentiation, young and old, the wealthy and the abject poor, optimists and pessimists, adherents of the Austro-Hungarian regime, and the few adherents of Czar Nicholas II. The first stop was in the village of Ptaetz, hard by a wooded area, on the second side of the river. “Staych Gentiles of Ptaetz” of the nations of the world. But the residents of Ptaetz were not in the village, they had gone off into the fields, dug deep bunkers and hid themselves. The small empty little shacks shook with each discharge of artillery. A misfortune, trouble, the group bites its lips, fallen in harm's way, they all think. The long row of little houses has been emptied. The window panes have been taken out of their frames, in order that they not be shattered. Only a few of the peasants remain.
In the woods, hard by the village, the Russian conscripts have dug themselves into foxholes. The explosions form cannons and rifle fire have shaken up the air. – “we have fallen into the very center of the fire, into a veritable Hell.”
When the fusillade stopped, the entire community of homeless Jews from Laszczow picked itself up from the ground, and once again began to follow the road in the direction of Hrubieszow.
The road stretched on forever. Every time, a second person would faint. The heat was very great, and the miasma that hung over the sides of the road was heavy, barely tolerable...
About ten o'clock at night, we came to a large village, exhausted and thirsty. Many didn't make it, and remained along the way. We spent the night here in the local school. Out first night of being homeless.
The next morning, close to noon, we arrived in Hrubieszow. We thought that here, we would be able to rest, one way or the other. We made our way to the home of R' Yitzhak'l Neimark's guest house. But the disappointment came very rapidly. Everything was shut, the door and the gate. The Jewish populace had left and gone to Dubienkow, Lyubomil; fled the shooting, fled from death. We go further. The great bridge over the Bug River has already been blown up, the Russian military is retreating. After a great deal of pleading, we were permitted to cross the river over the temporary military bridge. As soon as we got the other side, my grandfather hired a peasant's small wagon, because the horses were barely able to pull their load through the deep sands, towards Lyubomil.
Here we sat until after Sukkot, wandering about from place to place, without means, until the heat of battle passes – until the storm abates.
At that time, the Jews of Zamość also held the opinion that it was safer to get away from the front. They could not forget the incident of a Blood-Libel, at which time fourteen of the finest of their youth had been shot to death. In the month of AB of 1914, when the Austrians drew near the city, the Jews of Zamość took to the road, in the direction of Izbicza – Lublin. My grandfather, R' Benjamin Harenfeld resisted the idea, and insisted he would not go, and that he would remain free in his home: “Happy Are They Who Abide In Thy House.” The key to our candy factory were left with him. The warehouse was filled to overflowing with merchandise. At that time, we worked at full steam, because all sugar products were taken to the front. As soon as the Austrians entered the city, the remaining Jews breathed freely, opened their businesses, and the redemption was great. Merchants pleaded for mercy with my grandfather, begging him to open the factory. He no sooner opened, than storekeepers seemed to grow out of the ground, forcing themselves inside, and in a short period of time, emptied out the entire inventory...
[Page 291]
After Sukkot, we began to return to Zamość. We no sooner had returned to the city in the middle of the night, we were forced to spend the night outside of the Altstadt, because the inside of the city was off limits. After spending the night in a small house, very early we came home to my parents.
The First World War (1914-1917)Every time the Russian military pushed forward on the Galician front, the Jews of Zamość got to their feet. Commerce rose, and the provisioning of the Russian military brought income in abundance.
At the same time, bitter news arrived about the destruction of Galicia; death and massacre, destroyed Jewish communities in Poland and Galicia, thousands of Jewish refugees that were torn out of their homes.
Jewish young folk in the Russian Czarist military met at the front, at the time of the bitterly fought battles face-to-face with Jewish soldiers from the Austrian side. With the cry of “Shema Yisrael,” thousands of Jewish soldiers were killed on both sides....
For nearly a year, the city of Zamość did not suffer from the war, despite the fact that it was difficult to forget the tragic first two months, when because of a Blood-Libel, 14 of the best of the young people of the city were shot to death, because of the frightening pogrom actions of individual Polish patriots and annihilators of Jews. Many young people, and fathers of children were mobilized by the Russians, and sent away to the front. From time-to-time, a family might receive notification of the sad news that a son of theirs had fallen at the front.
The Jews of Zamość took a significant part at the time that the Russians celebrated their great victory at Przemysl at the front. The Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Horowitz went at the head of a large Jewish delegation out in the open, with a Sefer Torah in hand, in front of the Russian Orthodox Church, and brought the best wishes of the Jewish community of Zamość. On the opposing side, this victory was accompanied by destruction and death.
On August 15, 1915 the German soldiers marched into the city. The Russian began their evacuation many days before. The archives were carted off, the magazines and ammunition and produce were emptied out, and what was not possible to take was destroyed out in the open. The families of Russian officials rode off. Many prominent Jewish families went off into Russia, taking with them whatever they could, loading their possessions on platforms, going off to the Minsk district, Crimea, the further from the front, the better. Everything became ossified, the streets became emptied of people, the businesses closed up tight.
Those who remained in the city, were severely pressed. Every crack in the gate or entry way created a strong pull to discover what was going on in the city, because the more the situation became graver for the Russians on the Russo-German front, it had a very significant implications for the Jews, suspected of espionage, collusion, and this indeed was the cause of death for many Jews through hasty field military trials.
In a few hours later, the Germans began to march in, with heavy artillery and infantry. The Jews greeted them warmly, standing at the sides, offering water and everything that they required.
In our house there was celebration. A day earlier, my youngest brother, Moshe, had been born – at the height of the artillery barrage. The midwife called me over to my mother's bed and said to me: “Nu, Yankeleh, you won't be an only child anymore.” To which I replied: “ Whatever I will want, one way or the other, I will make happen.”...
Many homes in the city stood empty, German officers who remained billeted in the city took them over, and if that did not suffice, Jewish families gave up a room in their homes. Because of the war situation, it was hard to know how to manage. Everything had been killed off. Slowly, the way to the commandant of the city was found; pretty young ladies got a “schön” and it was much lighter.... business started up again, bringing in a variety of goods, for which we had been severely starved.
[Page 292]
Shortly after this, the city came under Austrian rule. The Austrians were quite liberal and especially when most of the billeted military consisted of soldiers, who were only soldiers because they wore an insignia.
In the summer of 1916, a frightful typhus epidemic broke out; an intestinal form and a form with a rash. There was no family that didn't have someone ill with typhus. Many died. Most of the sick could not be accommodated in the small general hospital. There was a dearth of doctors and medicines. The Hevra Kadisha was engaged, to the extent that even on the Sabbath, the dead would be laid out in wagons and taken to the new cemetery. The mood was somber. The epidemic lasted nearly a half year.
After a long time, Jewish community life began to return to normal... the remaining children grew up. Jewish young men from the Austrian military garrison drew close to the locals. On the Sabbath, and on Festivals, the synagogues, shtiblach and Batei Medrashim would fill up with Jewish soldiers, among them also, many religious-national interesting types. Being forcibly separated from their families and environment for many years, they longed for the warm homey little corner. Indeed, it was these very Jewish conscripts who took a greater part in the Jewish life of the city. A great deal of Jewish patriotism spilled forth during those times. The world war drew to its close. Nations fought for their independence, and the great empires began to disintegrate. Waves of revolt and uprising cascaded over Russia, Germany, etc.
At the initiative of local activists and at the instigation of Jewish soldiers, a scouting organization called “HaShomer HaTza'r” was established in 1917. Mr. Shlifka from Lemberg, himself a member of the movement, founded it. The best of the local idealistic young people joined this organization. A short time after this, we affiliated ourselves with the central organization in Warsaw and Lodz. We began to learn the Hebrew language with savor, with the Sephardic accent – and preparing ourselves for aliyah. A little at a time, we were visited by Krongold, Shenhabi, and others. The Hebrew scouting-songs, and melodies from the Holy Land captivated the Jewish youth of the city. Among the founders were Chava and Joseph Fuchs, Chava Falk, and others.
In the same time. A “Mizrahi” organization was established, which took in a large number of religious Jews, traditional young people who were active in all walks of Jewish life.
I will not forget the abstract discussion about the question: “What will happen to the railroad (?), if Jews should obtain independence in the Land of Israel?” – They immediately founded a Hebrew religious Volksschule, “Yavneh,” which existed until 1920. In those days, this was the only modern Jewish school in Zamość. At the head of “Mizrahi” activity, stood R' Mordechai-Joseph Kronfeld, and R' Baruch Sobol. Among the teachers of the school were the writer, Gitlin (a brother of the book publisher Gitlin, in Warsaw), Tchizh from Lemberg, a young author beginning to write in Polish.
With the return of inspired young people from an aroused Russia, back to Zamość, a “Tze'irei Tzion” was established which later crystallized as a Zionist-Socialist party. At the beginning, R' Zvi Chaim Geliebter, Yitzhak Funt, Zvi Gebet (all in Israel), Israel Roset (killed in Kremieniec by the Nazis) and others belonged to them.
The “Heder Metukan” which existed since 1908, was re-opened anew. Anshel Sobol, the brilliant teacher from Warsaw, was active [here]. Hebrew evening courses, under the direction of the Pinsk teacher Joseph Tchessler, were instituted. Many of the young people of the city heard the lectures of these very courses. He was later known as a young Hebrew writer.
Political and Social life in the city went through its springtime [renaissance]. The battle between the Zionists and non-Zionist streams became sharpened.
The Bund organized the professional unions, and began to seriously position itself against the great influence of the Zionist youth organizations for [the minds of] Jewish youth.
The Red Revolution
January 1918. A wintry Saturday, an afternoon worthy of the “Song of Moses.” The streets are bedded down with a hard-packed layer of snow, well tamped down, and holding its place really finely. The air – dry, frosty. Older people are catching and afternoon nap at this time, literally an Oneg Shabbat. It is only then, that one can regulate the exhaustion accumulated from the six gray days of the week.
In the yards, and on the streets of the city, the children and young folk are playing, some in hideouts, others organizing themselves into two opposing sides, following all the rules of the military; kids from the Altstadt against the Browar Jewish kids; Neustadt kids against the ones from the Altstadt; prisoners are taken, they are confined to dark rooms until nightfall. In the course of all this, both sides suffer furious beatings. Stones, sticks, snowballs, all serve as ammunition and weaponry... the Browar youth are sassy and quick, and drive them back into the gates of the Altstadt. The vale of Moshe Koval, which could be found between the Altstadt and the Lubliner suburb, served as a boundary point. In this way, children imitated their elders and carried on bitter conflict among themselves.
It was on just such a Sabbath day, after noon, a group of armed gentiles draws nigh. Part of them are immediately recognizable: workers from the flour mill, and field hands for the large estates around the city. At their head of this marching group was Leibusz Henteleh, a known persona in the workingman circles of Zamość. He got the nickname, “Henteleh,” because one hand was crippled from a childhood disease. The others, the gentiles, were wearing their everyday work clothes, that is to say, they had just come off of work. All of them were armed with guns, revolvers and hand grenades that were stuck into their belts.
Leibusz Henteleh shouted imprecations frequently against the reactionary Polish regime, against the commandant of the city, who administered the city in the name of the reactionary Polish regime in Warsaw.
They arrived at the “Lubliner Brom” (Broma – a Gate, being in memory of the old famous fortress) or First-of-May Street, as it was later called. They passed through the Magistrate Ring, through the so-called mini-orchards, throughout the Third-of-May Street, in the direction of the “Schloss,” or the keep of the Zamoyskis, to the building of the Senior city Elder (Starosta), where the city commandant resided.
Nobody stood in their way to stop them. Nobody opposed them. Only the children accompanied them, out of curiosity, up to the building of the Starosta on the Academy Street. On arriving at the building of the Starosta, they met up with another group of several tens of revolutionists, which had come from a second street. The protests against the regime became stronger. They shot with their guns into the air, and through the windows of the Starosta. As soon as the shooting started, we scattered like mice. Fire was being returned from the windows. The officials were not there at the time, except for a few, therefore it was not difficult to seize control of the building.
The city was captured by the worker groups, the red revolutionaries. Shortly afterwards, it was made forbidden to go out into the streets. The atmosphere became oppressive. There was no way of knowing how it would look further on. The city was cut off from its environs, and it was not possible to enter or to leave. On the following morning, businesses no longer opened. Craftsmen and workers did not go to work. Everything waited for the events to play themselves out. It was forbidden to go out even to look for bread. Patrols wandered through the streets: armed revolutionaries. The air was disturbed by sporadic gunfire.
At nightfall, the patrols disappeared. An alarm went out that the Rightists had sent an appeal for help, and a large number of Polish military was approaching Zamość. The Jewish residents hid themselves. The nights of Sunday and Monday were very uneasy, gunfire and explosions, screams of people who were dragged out of their houses and hideouts.
[Page 294]
Before dawn, the regular Polish military force began to attack the city. Polish volunteers from the “Endek” Party,[1] surrounded the city. Looking out of the window in the roof, I saw the photographer Stzizowski with a poetic (?) Group of other civilian Polish volunteers coming out into view, with guns in their hands.
As Paderewski's military took control of the city, the soldiers received a free hand. The Jewish resident was well-acquainted with this matter. Three Jews were shot to death. The wife of Itcheh-David Schliam, for looking out of an attic window from her house onto the “courtyard,” the news reporter Bokser, was called out of his house, from the fourth story. In R' Hona Eidelsberg's house, he was taken down the cellar steps and shot through the head with a bullet. He had been informed on that he was selling bullets to the revolutionaries. I cannot recollect the name of the third person killed.
Apart from this, Jewish businesses were emptied out, and as revenge, a large sum of money was demanded. And if this was not enough, mass arrests were made, without any charges. It was sufficient for a Pole to accuse someone of being guilty of participating in the revolution, thereby causing that person to be arrested.
At the outset, many Jewish community activists were arrested. Later, old and young were dragged from the houses. Polish gendarmes made raids in many Jewish homes, robbed everything in the process, that they could lay their hands on.
I will never forget the picture: hand-in-hand we ran to see the tragic image of how several hundred old and young people who were arrested, were surrounded by tens of Polish cavalry men on horses, with naked swords in their hands, they were driven onto the road to Lublin. At the head of this group, I especially remember the recently deceased R' Mendel Funt. They wanted to reveal to the Polish residents who the revolutionaries were. All these were gathered up from their homes, and incarcerated for temporary arrest at the Magistrate's [building], where they were held for several days under unbearable conditions. Following this group came the women, children, and frightened and confused families, crying with heart-rending screams. The guards constantly stepped on these people who came along, and tried to drive them off.
In a number of months later, most of those arrested were gradually released, after much interrogation, which were accompanied with torture.
The Bolshevist InvasionSummer 1920. The Jews of Poland survived dark and difficult days. Pilsudski coveted a Greater Poland, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and went to war against Red Russia. Despite the hard times that Russia had gone through, frightful hunger, unending attacks by the White Guards, supported by England and America, ruined by the battles in the years of the First World War, the barefoot Red Army smote the organized Polish military. They reached the Vistula River, hard by Warsaw.
While suffering such bitter defeats, the Polish government harassed the Jewish populace and the activists without distinction between them. Many thousands of Jews were interned in specially organized concentration camps. Jewish soldiers in the Polish military were interned in a special camp in Jablona, for purposes of isolation. Jewish boys were given field military trials on the slightest suspicion, and death sentences were carried out without any serious reason.
[Page 295]
In Zamość, only one daily paper arrived, “Der Yid,” which the “Agudat Israel” published in Warsaw, on badly colored paper. Other periodicals, in our area, which was close to the front, were forbidden. In the city, the incident with R' Itcheh Meir Manzim was known, that could have ended very tragically. The latter, as a worker for the “Agudah,” and distributor of the previously mentioned Yiddish newspaper in Zamość, had telegraphically requested from the editorship, to increase the number of papers being sent. The request was written in Polish as: “Wiszloc sto Zydov,” (Send one hundred “Yids”). The contents of the telegram elicited a terrible thought against Itcheh-Meir Manzim, and his relatives, because who knew for what purpose he was calling for “reinforcements.” The secret police immediately surrounded the house where he lived, arrested him, and many more activists in the city. Only thanks to the quick intervention of an acquainted Polish patriot was the misinterpretation clarified.
The truth be said, there was a portion of the Jewish populace who was sympathetic to the advance of the Red military. From the first minute when Poland was liberated, the Jewish populace suffered from pogroms, decrees and harassment.
In the days when great battles took place between both armies at the gates of Zamość, the Jewish populace in the city and its vicinity lived in great fear. In the city, authority was in the hands of the militia, which was put together thanks to the cooperation of many parties. The militia could not obtain any weaponry. Dark elements had designs to open up Jewish businesses and houses, rob them, and destroy what they could not appropriate... all at the time that the Jews were lying hidden in cellars and bunkers, and underworld elements began to hack off locks from the businesses. Sunday, the peasants came from the villages and the gentile women came with large boxes, and it was only thanks to the militia members that it did not turn out well for the thieves and robbers, and they turned back to the surrounding villages.
It was completely tragic when the forces of General Bulak-Balachowicz, Petlura's most loyal protegé, and renown perpetrator of pogroms, entered the city.[2] This Ukrainian General, fought on the Polish side at that time. Being exhausted from weeks-long life on the front, tired and hungry, they needed everything: food, clothing, drink and women. All the streets of the city, all the yards and places were occupied by the military groups of the bloody Bulak-Balachowicz. The leadership of the Jewish community began knocking on the doors of the local Polish activists, but all had hidden themselves. The pressure became enormous as night drew near.
An impending pogrom hung in the air. The Jewish residents in the city and the Neustadt readied themselves for this, each in his own way. Gates and doors were reinforced, people hid together, and a small amount of weapons were procured for purposes of defending one's self as best as possible. There was no talk about organized self-defense, and it was forbidden to possess weaponry.
It was the Jews of the Neustadt who suffered the most. Jewish businesses and saloons were wrecked and robbed, a number of houses were opened, and Jewish women were violated. As luck would have it, thanks to the fact that Polish military had defeated the Red Army, the Ukrainian bands received an order to move to a new point.
The harassment of the Jewish populace did not cease even when the war was over. The Polish defense prohibited and obstructed every attempt by the Jews to organize their lives in the city. The intelligentsia, and especially the radicals, tried to be active, but the police obstructed each initiative.
The best of the active labor youth of the city, gathered itself around the reading room of the I. L. Peretz Library, which was found in the best locale of the city, in the house of the rich merchant, Inlander. Our landsleit in America concerned themselves with providing financial resources and books. We received many, many books, from our committed friends.
[Page 296]
The police looked askance at this point of light, and were suspicious that anti-government work was being carried on in this institution. The secret police often would make sweeps of the library, and at the time that a banquet was being held, the police arrived, took everyone into custody, and did an investigation as to the purpose for which the banquet was being held. All the participants were registered, and later, during the mass arrests in connection with the explosion at the Citadel in Warsaw, this list served as a guide and all the participants were detained.
That visit by the police, at that time, resulted in a shameful pogrom in the library. The rooms were demolished, the floors were ripped up, the books, among them very rare copies, were torn.
Shortly afterwards, the Deputy, Dr. Yitzhak Szyfer, the well-known Historian, gave a directed peroration in the Sejm, and demanded an intense investigation and punishment of the perpetrators.
In PrisonOctober 15, 1922, Witos, the so-called “Minister without Cravat,” was the Prime Minister of Poland.[3] The broad ranks of the workers and common masses lived under the most difficult circumstances. The Polish currency was continuously losing its value. It reached to the point where the pay that a worker received had considerably less value at the end of the month than it did at the beginning of the month. Strikes of hundreds and thousands of uninformed workers broke out, as a protest against the regime, that represented the comfortable peasantry and the rich class in Poland.
In Poland, the cynical reply of Witos was quite familiar, to the delegation of the government representatives, which complained to him, that their stipend was insufficient, and their families are going hungry, at the time when many, many citizens were getting rich from speculation: “Do what you want, because tomorrow will be even worse”.....
Shortly afterwards, rebellions by workers and the military broke out, in a number of manufacturing centers, and especially in Krakow; workers put up barricades in the streets; conscripts and officers went over to the side of the fighters. During the time of these occurrences, many were killed and wounded. The government was not at all intimidated, and instead of finding a way to improve the situation, it responded with harassment of the labor activists.
Shabbat, Simkhat Torah, 1922, Warsaw was shaken up by a frightful explosion. The “citadel,” the ammunition magazines, were blown up. Tens of people were killed, hundreds wounded, houses were ruined. All of Poland was shaken up. Premier Witos immediately ordered investigations in all cities of the land, and all elements thought to be of the left wing, were arrested. In Zamość, the secret police did not have a difficult job, all of these “suspects,” were listed with them, and at Saturday night of Simkhat Torah, late at night, the police surrounded many houses in the city and made searches. Twenty-nine labor activists, men and women, Jews, Poles and Ukrainians, activists in the trade unions, members of the leadership of the I. L. Peretz Library, activists of the nationalists-bloc in the Sejm, members of the city council, all were arrested that night, 25 men, among them, myself (then a sixteen year-old boy), and 4 women, among them my oldest sister Eidel. Otherwise, our family was spared.
Here, I open my diary and read the few lines from those days, when we were in prison:
Almost midnight. Everyone, we children and parents are all asleep, tired from the Festival days. I am sleeping close to the window that looks out on the large yard of the Rathaus, and next to me, on a second bed, Joseph Tchessler is sleeping, the well-known Hebrew teacher and writer from Pinsk. In sleep, I hear a rapid banging on the large iron-covered gate of the Rathaus. I sleep as if in a deep sleep, barely raising myself, and bend myself over and look out of the window into the thick darkness. The house guard, Jan, comes down from his post, cursing out of anger that he has
[Page 297]
been awakened so late. He unlocks the gate and opens only one half, and as soon as he sees the important guests, he opens the second half of the gate, widely, and in a graceful manner. Red police entered, he immediately showed them where we were domiciled. Jumping down from the horses, a few stayed below, the remainder immediately came up to us on the steps. Again, a strong, impudent banging on the door. My father, trembling, began to open the door. “We have come to make an inspection” – they informed us – and the purpose of the inspection we knew only too well from previous instances.
It is already close to 3 in the morning, and they are still searching and rummaging. Every paper, every newspaper, every envelope, everything is reviewed.
Before dawn, when it began to get gray, the police officer notified us that my sister Eidel and I are arrested. In the police commissariat the procedure was a short one. We were from anew interrogated again, and separated: me, in a large dark room, of arrested men, and my sister – in a room for women.
Our room was overflowing with arrested people, most of whom for political reasons, who were rounded up in the course of the past night. The others were various lawbreakers. I was the youngest of all, barely 16 years old. A few knew me quite well there, as an activist on behalf of the Peretz Library, as a leader of the school youth. Shortly afterwards they brought in a few others. Only our comrade Fiedler was not sent in so quickly, he was punished for a longer period, even though he was well known from other instances. In the end, the police pushed him into the crowded room also, the door opened widely, and closed quickly, not wanting to hear our protests against the inhuman conditions. There were Poles who sat with us, who served time in Czarist prisons and various exiles.
From Fiedler we learned that in the women's cell were three additional political prisoners apart from my sister, and the rest were streetwalkers and other criminals. You can imagine our state of mind, when we heard this. The conditions in the prison quarters of the commissariat were very difficult. Food was not provided. [We were] in a small room with a small high window that opened onto a courtyard to the general facilities. We were forced to stand for the entire time, because there was no room to sit down. The walls were damp. At every instance, when one of us was called out to be interrogated, he brought back news about what it was that we were being accused of. This news was inconsistent. Tired and hungry, we began our second night of vigil, not knowing what awaits us in the morning. Some said that we will be taken to Lublin, to the famous prison.
It was only early on Monday, that we were quickly taken into the large yard, calling all the names. We were 29, (22 Jews, 4 Ukrainians, and 3 Poles). We were lined up by threes. A large detail of police surrounded us, and ordered us to march forward. Among our relatives, nobody knew that at this hour we would be passing through the city. And so, we came to the jail next to the so-called “Browar.”
Clang! Clang! Clang! In the deep hollow of the long corrugated prison corridor, close by the stairs, a railroad bell hangs. The agile and gleeful guard stands there, with his cunning squinty eyes, with the little hammer in hand, and strikes the bell continuously. At that precise moment, at the time of the early morning summons, we, the new residents, arrived. From a number of the windows, we saw white tablecloths, and we saw no faces, only the hands that held the tablecloths, because the prison guards had made the threat that they would shoot into the windows. This was the way everyone was put under pressure on that morning. Our group of men got a large room. Shortly afterwards, we were visited by the prison warden. Some of us were well-known to him. Standing up in this manner, he presented us with the regulations for the arrested people. Comrade Fiedler was selected as our “Senior,” and as a Deputy to him the former Ukrainian judge (fate would have it, that this very gentile was a member of the building commission of the jail in Czarist times). As soon as the warden left, Comrade Fiedler told all those arrested how to behave, in relation to the prison authority.
We were gnawed at by the thought of what it was that we were being accused of by the rulers.... a few days later, the interrogations began. One at a time, we were called out, and afterwards, not permitted to return to our room. As the youngest of all those arrested, I was treated especially “nicely.” Before my interrogation even began, I was “accorded some respect.” After that, I was asked for the addresses of certain people. At the end, when I thought this tedium was finally ending, two interrogators began anew to beat me, because I was so young and don't get mixed up much in
[Page 298]
politics, because I was so arrogant, because I didn't want to tell anything about Heder... the fact was that I really had nothing to tell, because at that time, I was ideologically close to the Zionist-Socialist parties, and that was my great transgression, for which I was sentenced to one month of arrest for taking active part in the elections for the Polish Sejm for the Nationalist-bloc, at the time that the candidate for Poalei-Tzion, Dr. Yitzhak Szyfer had figured in the Chelm-Zamość regional elections.
Also, the police could not forget my “sin,” and that of my sister Eidel, as activists in the Peretz Library, especially after the police had demolished the library and Dr. Yitzhak Szyfer had lodged a sharp protest in the Sejm, demanding that the police officers who were responsible for the pogrom against a cultural institution, should be punished....
The interrogation lasted nearly three weeks. Various rumors [circulated], that we will be accused of sedition. In the Poland of those times, that meant being imprisoned for a number of years.
Suddenly, an order arrived to release us.
Translator's footnotes:
The Speech of Sejm Deputy Dr. Yitzhak Szyfer Given in the Sejm
In the Yiddish daily paper, “Unser Volkszeitung,” (an organ of the Bund), of October 18 (Number 127) a correspondence from Zamość appeared, under the tile: “Police Destroyed the Peretz Library in Zamość.” In this correspondence, the following is told:
We received correspondence from Zamość: In the night of Sunday, into Monday (meaning the 14th to the 15th of October), the government police, together with secret agents, carried out a break-in at the location of the Peretz Library.
They tore off the stays from the tables, tore off the linoleum from the piles, they ripped up to 5,000 books in the Yiddish, Polish and other languages, tore off, and destroyed the pictures of Peretz, Medem[1], Mickiewicz, and others, that hung on the walls.
In a word – the library looked as if it had come through an actual pogrom. The members of the library leadership immediately notified Senator Lubovich (from “Vizualenia”), who at that time had been elected in Zamość, who went to the location of the library and confirmed the destruction carried out by the police. He promised to present what he had seen to the relevant organs of authority.
The library had more than 7,000 books; in that [count, were] 3,000 Yiddish [books], and as many Polish [books].
After extensive effort, it was possible for the Jewish workers and intelligentsia of Zamość to create such an effective library, which had up to 700 members.
The library was counted as not only one of the most important cultural institutions in Zamość, but of the entire vicinity. And in one night, it was destroyed in a single barbaric act.
[Page 299]
In that same night, the locations of the trade union locations of the tailors, leather workers, and bakers, were also destroyed.
The books and records, that were found there, were torn up. The furniture was broken.
Thirty people, Jews and Christians, were arrested, and the secretary of the Ukrainian Club, Racznik, and the member of the Peretz Library, Neimark.
After reading this correspondence (in the Volkszeitung ), Dr. Szyfer took counsel with his constituents in Zamość (Szyfer was newly-elected by the voters in Zamość), which is completely reported in the referenced correspondence.
The barbarous vandalism of the police organs in Zamość elicited a great sense of unrest in the city, because we were not certain whether or not additional such break-ins and arrests, and other upsets will disturb the peace and order of the city.
In connection with this item, the signers ask the Honorable Minister:
(Translated from the Polish-Yiddish Daily Paper,
“Nash-Psheglod,” Warsaw, Wednesday November 7, 1923).
Translator's footnote:
|
|
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
Zamość, Poland
Yizkor Book Project
JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 20 Mar 2023 by MGH
