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I had been dreaming for many years of writing a fairly lengthy essay on Reisha where I was born and brought up. When I was in London in1907, I was invited by the late Morris Myer, editor of the Yiddish daily which then appeared, “Der Yiddisher Journal”, to write a short article about Rzeszow. The truth is that I wanted to write more, but since I was in foreign countries and always busy with other matters at the time, I could never realise my dream.

Only now, when Jewish Reisha lies in ruins and our fine and interesting city no longer exists, and has been blotted out of the Jewish map and not a single Jew is left – only now am I in a position to describe Jewish life there, grieving in sorrow as I do so.

When I last left Reisha in 1920, about 20,000 Jews lived there. In that year, the deeply rooted Polish anti-Semitism had reached its heights and there was certainly no reason to envy the Jews. It was exactly one year after the savage pogrom which will be described later. There was an active economic boycott of the Jews, and the enmity of the Polish masses was very dangerous.

In spite of all this, the Jewish merchants and shopkeepers went on with their daily business as before, and maybe even more obstinately. But, not all of them could do so, for a large number had become impoverished. This was a result of the Russian invasion of 1914, when a large part of Rzeszow Jewry fled to other parts of Austria. Even so, nobody was dying of starvation there at the time.

Here I wish to restrict myself only to some details about the life of the Jews in Reisha in my own times. What kind of Jews were living there until I finally left the town in 1920? They hardly differed in any way from the Jews of other Galician towns, and were almost identical with those of Central Galicia. Reisha was full of decent, good, God-fearing, honest Jews. But equally there were quite enough bad Jews. There were plenty of Hassidim, yet also quite a significant number of Mitnagdim, who conducted an obstinate war against the Hassidim. There were also simple pious Jews who were neither Hassidim nor Mitnagdim but truly honest and decent people. In addition, there were the so-called “advanced” or, as they were then known, “German” Jews who spoke German, and described themselves as “Followers of the Mosaic Persuasion”. For the most part, these were assimilationists who regarded themselves as Poles. In short, all the different kinds of Jews to be found in Galicia were also present in Reisha.

All-in-all, they made up a community of which nobody needed to be ashamed and certainly not of the small but very active group of Maskilim or “Enlightened”, or the Jewish intellectuals and professionals, though the latter were almost entirely assimilated. We did not have anybody who was particularly outstanding, though quite possibly some of the Maskilim and intellectuals could safely be described that way. In my youth, we had two famous Rabbis: first, Reb Heshel Wallerstein and later Reb Nathan Levin. Both of them were truly outstanding scholars. We also had our own Hassidic Rebbe, Reb Lozerel. Yet he too could hardly be described as truly great.

On the other hand, we had some really fine householders of whom a large part of the Reisha Jews was proud. Of these, the most important were: Reb Mottish Eckstein, a Hassid of Djikov; Noah Schapira, Asher Silber, Mechel Biermann, Nathan Kanner, Zangen, Freilich, Joseph Schenblum and several others whose names I cannot remember at present. All of them were active in communal affairs and representatives of the Community. They conducted communal affairs and some of them were “Radniks”, representatives of Jews on the Municipal Council. Not everybody in Reisha trusted them or felt fond of them, but the majority of the Jews in the city did regard them as their representatives.

In those days, there were no important Jewish social organizations. When I first left Reisha at the end of my 17^th year, there was a Hovevei Zion Association which, however, did not have the

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Slightest influence. If I remember correctly, the leaders were Moshe David Geschwind, Abba Applebaum who was a truly learned Jew and the very youthful but already highly intelligent Kalman Kurtzman. I do not remember how many members this Hovevei Zion society had, but in those days, Reisha was still very far from being a Zionist centre.

While writing these lines, I remember the days when I was still learning at Reb Mendel Bonches' Heder in the Roizen Gass. On one occasion I ran away from Heder and together with other little boys, went to the Market Place in order to see Dr. Theodore Herzl, who was journeying at the time through the Jewish towns of Galicia and had stopped for a while in our town.

The Market was packed with Jews of every kind, who had gathered around the building of the Jewish Kultusgemeinde (Religious Community) where the guest was awaited. Dr. Herzl came driving up to the building accompanied by Moshe David Geschwind and others in an open fiacre. Poles passing by stood still and stared in wonder at this handsome and striking individual.

My older brother, Moshe, was then studying Talmud in the Kloiz (a term frequently used in Galicia for Beth Hamidrash or House of Study), together with other young adolescent, and was entirely steeped in Hassidic thought at the time. He did not go to see the visitor. I ran to the Kloiz in order to tell him what an astoundingly handsome man Dr. Herzl was. But all Moshe did was to slap my face hard and should: “Go back to Heder, you scamp”.

At the time, neither Reisha youth nor its elders were ripe enough for new ideas. As far as I can remember, that is how things were until I left Reisha for America. They were all what we used to call “fanatics”, with a small percentage of progressive intellectuals.

I spent almost five years away from home, not only in America but also in West European countries like England, Germany, Holland and Belgium. During this period, I acquired a little secular knowledge and developed my own outlook. I was convinced that nothing but Socialism could solve the universal Jewish question. By that time, I had already written a number of short articles for Jewish papers in America and in a London Jewish journal, and regarded myself with considerable inner pride as a future “great journalist”.

When I came back to Reisha, I found, to my astonishment, that it was quite a different place from the one I had left. To begin with, there was a Jewish Socialist organization which had not been there earlier. Then, Zionism was quite popular among the Jewish youth and among the significant part of the adults. Even my brother Moshe had become a Zionist and was exerting an influence on a group of former students of the Kloiz, whom he had brought about a small Zionist Society called: “Hashahar”. What's more, he was also flirting with journalism and was contributing to Hebrew papers.

To my great astonishment, a Yiddish weekly came into being not long after, under the name: “Neie Folkszeitung” (New Folks Journal) which attracted both Zionists and non-Zionists. The editor was the then well-known Hebrew teacher, Naphtali Glueckman. My brother was co-editor and the writers included: Abba Applebaum, Hayyim Wald, Mendel Karp, Naphtali Tuchfeld, Levi Hayyim and Ben-Zion Fett? The journal was well edited and well put together, and all the contributors knew how to write well, though they had never studied journalism.

The chief subject of the journal was Zionism, but it also had other tasks including the reforming and democratizing of the Jewish community. It waged a very active war against the old, strictly conservative and truth to tell reactionary methods of the Kultus Gemeinde. As some of the latter's most important representatives were also on the Town Council, which was no less reactionary, the journal attacked them on both fronts. It demanded democratic elections, and pending changes in that direction, it called for reforms which were necessary for the population, Jews and non-Jews alike.

This courageous struggle was not approved by everybody, for the simple reason that they were not yet prepared for a democratic system. Still, it influenced others, particularly the younger generation. By that time there was a good Poalei Zion organization in town, founded and conducted by Markus Buchbinder and Bernard Fish. For some time, they supported the Neie Folkszeitung and helped it considerably. Later on, however, differences broke out between the two Zionist parties and they quarrelled. This led to the establishment of a second Yiddish journal called: “Die Gerechtigkeit” (Justice).

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Officially speaking, the Poalei Zion were not the initiators of the new publication. The actual founder was Ephraim Hirshhorn, a bank official; but the Poalei Zion supported it and even contributed a little money when it was established. Mendel Karp became the editor. He had journalistic ambitions which he could not satisfy in the “Folkszeitung”. At the time he had written a number of articles in the Lemberg “Togblatt” (Daily).

All preparations for “Die Gerechtigkeit” had already been made when Ephraim Hirshhorn, Israel Duker and the other initiators suddenly decided to defer publication. Meanwhile, I had left for Berlin for several weeks, and had completely forgotten the second journal. In Berlin, I visited the famous Kafé des Westens almost every day. At the time it was the spiritual home of Jewish writers from all countries. The famous writers from Russia and elsewhere were regular guests while they were living in Berlin, together with a large number of German-Jewish authors.

In that Café, it was possible to learn more from the conversations of those famous persons that you could in the best of schools. You could learn Jewish history, all the new literature, philosophy, politics, etc. There I made the acquaintance of many people among whom one in particular attracted my attention. This was Dr. Nathan Birnbaum, born in Vienna of Galician parents. I liked his fine long beard; his lofty handsome brow; his flashing eyes; his great powers as a debater and his even greater Jewish nationalism.

I had the honour to become a good friend of his and finally came entirely under his influence, adopting his theories of Jewish national autonomy in the countries of Eastern Europe and the Yiddish language as the general Jewish national language, to be fully recognized by the various Governments.

When I returned to Reisha a few weeks later, I conducted propaganda among my friends and acquaintances in order to gain supporters for Dr. Birnbaum's theories. At this time, the idea of putting out a second journal was revived. Ephraim Hirshhorn came and invited me to contribute and serve as co-editor with Mendel Karp, who had been a good friend of mine ever since my Heder days, when we both had been pupils of Wolf Pakales.

A fortnight later, we jointly issued the first number of the second Yiddish paper in Reisha. Our colleagues were: Ducker, an intellectual sign-painter; Hirshhorn; Zvi Simcha Leder who was already a Yiddishit, and a few more whose names I cannot remember. The “Neie Folkszeitung” ignored the publication of “Die Gerechtigkeit” and disregarded it entirely. But they virtually ignored the readers of Yiddish papers in that way. Those who bought it were dissatisfied with it and criticised our editor Mendel Karp with particular severity.

Hirshhorn and Ducker, who financed the paper, decided that Mendel Karp was not a satisfactory editor and appointed me to the post. The journal then appeared as a fortnightly. Under my editorship, the first two pages were devoted to general affairs, and particularly to Dr. Birnbaum's programme. The other pages were dedicated exclusively to local affairs and particularly to combatting our competitor. This task was undertaken by Hirshhorn and Ducker. The second number was much better than the first. The third, fourth and fifth improved steadily and people began to treat the paper seriously. But – and when is a “but” missing in such cases? – the money of our financiers, Hirshhorn and Ducker, was beginning to run out. We had no other money and as our printer had little faith in our credit-worthiness, “Die Gerechtigkeit” passed away after its sixth number, without even having a proper funeral.

Soon after that, the Wanderlust began in me again. I set out for the Scandinavian countries. When I returned four months later, the “Neie Folkszeitung” had also passed away. The money of the publishers had also run out. And that was the end of the Reisha Yiddish press in those years.

The loss of the journal made very little impression on most Jews of the town. Life continued undisturbed. Elections were held for the Kultus Gemeinde. The Zionists were already a force and conducted a major campaign. Together with other progressive citizens, Jews and Poles alike, demanded that the elections to the Municipal Council, which were held at almost the same time, should be conducted democratically. They demanded an end to the system of first, second and third-grade votes in both institutions. But to achieve this was a dream which was still far from realisation. The

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old reactionaries were elected both to the Community Council and to the Municipal Council. Still, the campaign of the Zionists for their candidates made a deep impression on most of the Jews in town.

Zionist influence kept on increasing and more Jews joined the Zionist Organization. The youth were particularly important. They adopted Zionism in steadily increasing numbers. This was largely thanks to the high school student Samuel Laufban. He was one of the best students of the high school. At the same time, he was a very good teacher and had a great influence on the other students. His sister, a highly cultured girl, also had a great influence on the other girls. Others were the student Reichman, who was the son of an assimilationist official in the Tax Department; Joseph Storch; my kinsman Kanarek; Horner, the son of the owner of the Imperial Hotel near the railway station. Little-by-little, they won over a large number of the younger generation of both sexes for Zionism, and that gave the local Zionist Organization a moral and political force.

Things continued like that until the outbreak of World War I. This was a severe blow for all the Jews of Galicia. In Reisha, as elsewhere thousands of people fled before the invasion of the Russian forces and this brought Jewish life to a standstill, starting from the long Galician-Russian frontier and almost to the gates of Cracow where the Russians were brought to a halt. When the Russian army was driven back later, most of the Jews returned to their former homes. The majority of the Reisha refugees also came back, but part of them remained where they had found a refuge.

Most of those who returned found that their homes and shops had been completely looted. In spit of this, a number succeeded in reestablishing themselves and quite a few soon became rich. But those who had been impoverished, found it hard to organise themselves again. They had to come to the Kultusgemeinde for help. But that was only half the trouble. The real trouble was the anti-Semitism began to raise its head at this time in Rzeszow as in almost all other towns in Galicia. The Poles had hoped during the invasion that the Jewish refugees would not return. But when they did come back, the Poles began to show such hatred as had never been known before.

Still, business was not all bad. Jews traded and trafficked and even the more impoverished ones gradually began to establish a firm economic foundation for themselves. Anti-Semitism grew more and more menacing from day-to-day, but did not make a great impression on them. The Reisha Polish weekly “Glos Rzeszowski” which had always been maliciously anti-Semitic, kept on inciting the Poles against the Jews. In each issue, it pointed to Jews who were becoming richer from day-to-day while the Poles were growing poorer. During the war-years, this paper was widely read by the peasants in the surrounding villages and poisoned them entirely, though they had certainly not been made poor by the War, as the Weekly tried to persuade them.

In my father's inn, the old “Maczkowka”, the peasants cursed the Jews and kept on threatening that accounts would be settled “when the time came”. The same things were said in all the other drinking shops of the town and in the inns of the villages.

But very few Jews took these threats at all seriously. Most of them believed that this was purely temporary and would vanish. The truth was, they thought, that the Poles continued to do business with the Jews even in the most anti-Semitic little towns around Rzeszow.

At the same time, the military situation of Austria was growing worse on all fronts, particularly after America entered the war and strengthened the West. Each new day foreshadowed the defeat of the German and Austrian armies. This encouraged the Poles so that their anti-Semitism continued to grow. The Reisha Jews also gradually began to take the anti-Semitic threats more seriously. At this time, I established the “Yiddishe Folkszeitung”, which was a weekly in Yiddish. My aim was not to fight our enemies, who did not read Yiddish, but to keep the Jews of Reisha informed of all perils, so that they should prepared no matter what happened.

The weekly was favourably received by most of the Jews in town as well as those in Lanzut, Tyczyn, Blazow, Rozwadow, Glogow, Kolbyszow and a number of other little towns around Rzeszow. It found far more readers than the two earlier journals together. I succeeded in making it clear to my reader that there was danger and it was getting worse from day-to-day. However, not all

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Jews took my warning seriously. This continued until the Austrian and German armies collapsed on all fronts and were compelled to capitulate.

Poland came to life again as an independent country, and incorporated Galicia, which had not been part of Poland for 150 years. Soon after, the persecution of the Jews began. True, the new Government in Warsaw proclaimed equal rights for all Polish citizens without distinction of faith or nationality. The trouble began with the so-called “Hallerchiks”, or members of General Haller's army, many of whom had returned from America and now conducted pogroms against the Jews. Then came attacks in all the smaller towns throughout Poland, so that the situation grew very dangerous.

In Reisha and the surrounding towns, anti-Semitism could be very strongly felt, but so-far, there were no attacks. The Jews lived quietly and many of them did not worry in the least. Yet here, as well, their time came on the 3^rd of May, 1919, when the Poles were celebrating their great national holiday.

I devoted the whole of my issue on Friday, 2^nd May, 1919, to the dangers threatening the Jews of Reisha and the surrounding towns. When I, afterwards, appeared in the streets, there were people who reproached me bitterly for “keeping on frightening people”. In Reisha, they knew, everything was quiet and calm. Nobody bothered the Jews, so why did I keep on demanding that Jews must prepare for something that does not exist? Among those who spoke to me in this way were: Dr. Pelzling, leader of the Polish Socialists, Dr. Herman Kraus, a Jewish member of the Municipal Council and Magistrate, Elijah Wang, and others.

The next day they changed their minds for, to my regret, my warning came true.

When I left my home at the corner of Zamkowa street near the District Court, at about 10 a.m. it seemed strange to me that there were far more people, particularly peasants from neighbouring villages, in the streets than usual, even for a holiday. The Herren Gasse which had already changed its name to Polish, was packed full of people moving this way and that. In the market and the surrounding streets, there were also great masses of people. I drew the attention of several friends to this when I met them, but they all remained quite calm and did not believe that it meant anything.

Before long, however, we heard reports that Jews were being attacked and beaten in the large Kloiz and other synagogues. My friends and I ran at once to the large Kloiz where my father used to pray. The windows had all been smashed both in the Kloiz and the neighbouring Bet Hamidrash. Within the Kloiz, Jews were lying on the floor and blood was streaming from many of them. It was the same in the synagogue.

We did our best to reassure the Jews in both synagogues and told them to go home. They ran out swathed in their prayer shawls and ran back home. Those who had the misfortune to live in the Market-place and the neighbouring streets, were stopped by the Poles and murderously beaten. It was a sign that the smashing of the windows in the two synagogues was not chance or due to mischievous little boys, as the Police, afterwards, claimed. It was a well-prepared attack on the Jews and little boys had been sent to smash the windows as a beginning.

A few weeks earlier, I had organised a Jewish self-defence group together with Moshe Elbaum, Simha Seiden, Pinhas Ellenbogen and Ezekiel Levin, the youngest son of Rabbi Nathan Levin. We consisted largely of former soldiers of the Austrian army. When my friends and I saw that the Jews of Reisha were in grave danger, we decided to summon the self-defence group. My friends ran to find them.

Meanwhile, I saw Jews being beaten; how their Tallitim (Prayer shawls) and clothes were being torn off their backs and many of them were bleeding heavily. There was not a single policeman to be seen in the Market Place or the streets nearby. Shops had been forced open and plundered. The dreadful cries of Jews, their womenfolk and children, could be heard from the houses. But there was not the slightest sign of any help from any side. The Jews were simply defenceless and free for plunder.

I ran home as fast as my feet could take me to tell my wife the “good news”. From there, I ran to my parents and told them to close the inn and to come to my home. I did the same to my wife's parents too. But I was unable to remain long at

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home and ran back to town. In the Market place and the ul. Panska, I was happy to see soldiers with fixed bayonets in their rifles. But I soon saw that my happiness was out of place. While some of the soldiers were calmly promenading here and there, others were using their bayonets to force open the iron roll-down shutters and locks on the doors of the shops in the market and nearby. The crowds who were already half-drunk or entirely drunk had forced their way into the liquor shops and now poured into the shops like wild beasts. They grabbed at all possible goods. Whatever they could not take with them they flung out into the street, so that those who could not get in should also obtain their share of Jewish property. Within a few hours, the shops were entirely emptied out.

In the distance, I saw Colonel Jendrzey Zawada who was the second highest military commander after General Szamata. The latter was not in town that day. He was standing calmly with two handsome Polish women, one on either side of him, next to the Court building, chatting with them in a very friendly way. What his eyes could see and particularly the behaviour of his soldiers, did not bother him in the least. Since I knew him, I plucked up my courage and went over to ask him why he did not stop the looting. The Colonel who had always been very friendly, now became as red as a beetroot. His eyes began to shoot sparks. He looked at me for a minute or more with savage hatred. The two women burst out laughing aloud, while Zawada turned away shouting in Polish, “that Jewish impudence!”

Seeing that I would not be able to do anything with him and that there was no relying on his soldiers, I decided to go to the Reisha District Officer, Koncewicz, with whom I had become quite friendly since I had begun editing my weekly. Koncewicz was a very conscientious official and was often to be found at his office even on holidays. I knew that I would find him there. He was not a Pole but a Ukrainian, and I took that fact into consideration as well. The District Government building was surrounded by soldiers who would not permit anybody to enter. But luckily their officer was a boyhood friend of mine who let me in and took me to Koncewicz's office.

As soon as he saw me, he jumped up from his chair and asked what was happening outside. I gave him a detailed report and described the behaviour of Colonel Zawada. Peasants were still arriving in crowds, I told him. They were coming to rob and pillage and beat Jews and maybe kill them as well. Meanwhile, the whole town was without any law and order. The soldiers were helping the pogromists to empty the Jewish shops and homes. Jews were being murderously beaten and there was no sign of any policeman anywhere with the courage to oppose all these acts of violence.

Koncewicz was beside himself: “What can I do?” he asked me. “I called the army and now I hear from you that instead of restoring order, they are taking part in the pogrom”. I answered him that there was one thing that had to done at once: He must summon troops from another town that would possibly not be so obsessed by Jew hatred as the Rzeszow troops and their commander.

Koncewicz nervously paced up and down the room and after a few minutes silence, said to me:

“You know I am a Ukrainian. As long as the Austrians were in charge, it had nothing to do with my post. But now things are different. The truth is that I now feel very uncomfortable, and I've asked the Warsaw authorities to transfer me to Eastern Galicia”.

With those words, he was indicating that he was simply afraid to summon troops from another town. But I insisted. In the middle of this, there was a knock at the door and in came Dr. Wilhelm Hochfeld, who was then Vice-Mayor of Rzeszow, together with Dr. Henryk Wachtel, a town councillor. They both lived nearby and, in that neighbourhood, things were relatively quiet so that they could come to the Government building. Other Jews did not dare show themselves in the street and there were none to be seen anywhere.

When they saw me, they asked whether I had been in town and what was happening there. I gave them the report as well and explained what had brought me. Hochfeld and Wachtel promptly adapted my plan and both of them insisted that Koncewicz must telephone to Jaroslaw where there was a large military garrison. Koncewicz allowed himself to be persuaded. He telephoned to the District Governor of Jaroslaw and received the answer that the latter would soon issue an order

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to send troops. A few minutes later the District Governor of Jaroslaw phoned back that the troops would arrive in Reisha at about 20hr. That hardly satisfied us for it meant that until then, the pogromists would be free to go on with their murderous attacks and robbery. But we could not do anything more and left the building.

Hochfeld and Wachtel hurried back to their homes. I pulled my hat down over my forehead and ears. With a large red flower in my coat lapel, I went back to the market. The situation was just the same, except that there were even more people looting and robbing. When I hurried back to my own home, I was very pleased to find my parents and sister as well as my wife's family. But I could not keep still for long and went out again into the streets. Here I met a small group of Polish intellectuals who were armed with rifles. Among the I saw Dr. Hochfeld, carrying a gun which he had never even seen before. They were patrolling the ul. Panska. I told them that they would do better to go to the market and the neighbouring streets where Jews lived; but they did not have that much courage. Meanwhile, the pogrom continued and nobody was even trying to stop the looting.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, I went to the railway station and saw the soldiers f rom Jaroslaw leaving the train. There must have been about a hundred of them, mostly Ukrainians. To my great delight, their officer was a lieutenant with a Jewish face which could be identified from the distance. I went over to him, introduced myself and naturally asked him at once whether he was a Jew.

“Of course”, he said with a laugh and asked me what was happening in the town. I gave him a brief account of the pogrom. He lined his soldiers up and marched off together with them. At his signal, I went along as well.

As we passed Klapholz's Café we heard the drunken voices of men and women who were singing, yelling and cursing. The officer stopped the soldiers. Taking only a few of them, he entered the large hall of the Café. There we found a whole crowd of drunken men and women. On the floor were a large number of empty liquor bottles, wine and champagne, which the pogromists had emptied.

The officer called on them to disperse but the drunkards began to attack him. One of them yelled: “You are a dirty Jew and we'll murder you!” Another spat at him.

That was all that was wanted. Without waiting for an order, the soldiers set to work on the drunkards with their rifle butts. In less than a minute, the large chamber had become a bloodbath. They did not spare the women and blood began running from their heads. Within a very little while, the hall had been emptied of all the drunkards, and outside, the soldiers dispersed them so that not one was left. Then the officer split his men into several groups. He ordered them to patrol the streets and clear them out. Within two hours, law and order were fully restored.

Many of the peasants yelled as they ran away that they would come back the next morning. In order to prevent this, the officer placed troops at every entry to town.

First thing on Sunday morning, waggons full of peasants began to drive up. Others came riding on horseback or arrived on foot. But not a single one was admitted into the town. That Sunday was quite calm and not a single Jew was attacked. Yet, very few Jews dared to leave their homes. Those who did so, discovered that the pogrom had turned them into paupers. More than a hundred Jews had been injured, many of them very seriously.

By Monday, everything was quiet and those shops that had not been emptied were opened. Naturally the injuries remained unhealed for a very long time. Still, most of the Jews thanked God that things were not even worse.

Late on Monday night, when my wife and I were already asleep, there came a sudden loud bank at the door. I ran over, sked who was knocking and heard the voice of my brother Moshe, who was living in Krosno where he was a partner in a little bank. He entered, embraced me and pressing me to his heard he cried: “Thank God that I find you alive!”

He had come because he had read a report in a Cracow paper about the pogrom and had read that I had been killed. As soon as he read this, he came, as he supposed, to my funeral. The reporter had confused matters. The man who had been so murderously beaten that he was taken for

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dead was my kinsman, young Dr. Kanarek. But he also recovered from his injuries and lived to fall a victim of the German murderers.

This is the story of the first pogrom in the history of Reisha Jewry.

It was one of the crimes which the Poles committed at the very beginning of their national revival. Yet, in comparison with what happened almost twenty years later, when the German murderers broke into Poland and exterminated all the unfortunate Jews who could not, or did not wish to run away, the 1920 pogrom was child's play. No matter how many just complaints we had against the Poles, we must condemn the unbelievable atrocities of the Germans even more. Even the Jews soon forgot the first pogrom in Reisha, but the inhuman German mass murders cannot ever be forgotten by any Jew anywhere.

Everything was completely quiet once the pogrom was over, but the Jews continued to feel unsafe. This could be felt a night in particular. Formerly, Jewish men and women dressed in their best, used to walk up and down the ul. Panska conversing in lively fashion. But for the first fortnight after the pogrom, Jews could only rarely be seen in the streets after dark. The brightly illuminated ul. Panska was “dead”, and even Christians were only rarely to be seen there.

The Jews were in a state of almost black despair. It took a long while before most of them came to themselves after the terrible event. What was even more depressing in the town, however, was the poverty and need of those whose shops and homes had been pillaged. Well-to-do people and even those who were halfway to being rich had been impoverished overnight. Now they needed plain bread. Those who had relatives who had not been affected, were slightly better off. Their kinsfolk helped them and they, the suddenly impoverished ones, made every effort to set themselves on their feet again and succeeded in a relatively short time.

But the situation was different with those unhappy victims who did not have any rich relatives. Their situation was bad indeed. They needed urgent help, but it did not come. The Jews were so frightened and uncertain about the next day that nobody paid the slightest attention to those who had suffered most.

As usual, the Jewish Kultusgemeinde, which was always miserly and was managed by the richest Jews, was not in any hurry to assess the position after the pogrom. When suddenly impoverished people came to ask for help, the Council did, to be sure, help them a little bit. But not all who needed help could persuade themselves to go and ask for help. And those suffered sheer hunger and need.

On my own initiative, I brought together several of the richest Jewish women in Reisha and made the situation clear to them. Mrs. Anna Kahana, one of the finest and most active communal workers we had, helped me in this respect. The women came to a meeting in Mrs. Kahana's home, and set up a “Women's Committee to assist the Suffering”. Mrs. Kahana was elected President. Mrs. Ehrlich, the owner of the large railway restaurant, was Treasurer. Mrs. Kraus, the wife of Dr. Hermann Kraus, the wife of Dr. Teller, Mrs. Esther Wiesenfeld, Mrs. Moshe Ellbaum, Mrs. Elias Wang and a number of other women took over other duties. A large sum of money was raised on the spot.

The Women's Committee opened a Public Kitchen a few days later, which provided food for poor people. Money began to flow in on a larger scale and more and more women joined the Committee. There were many unfortunates who were ashamed to go to the public kitchen, as well as the sick and wounded. The women themselves brought food to the homes of these people. There were some who also received money; not much, but enough to enable them to provide for themselves and begin doing some business and making a living. Even now, all these years later, I feel proud at the large-scale and significant achievement of those fine women. And I think that helping to establish this Committee was really one of the best things I ever did in my home town.

The pogroms in Reisha and the smaller towns of the district stirred up the entire Jewry of Poland. The Jewish members of the Seim (Polish Parliament) protested and demanded protection for the

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Jewish population. There were even a number of non-Jewish members who made similar demands. For there were pogroms in Kolbyszow, Glogow, Sokolow, Ranizow, Dzikow, Rozwadow, Strzyzow, Lancut and other small towns. The worst of these was the one at Kolbyszow where nine Jews, seven men and two women were brutally murdered. Among them was a man aged 92.

Answering protests in the Seim, the Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski proposed to send a Parliamentary Committee to Rzeszow and the surrounding towns, for the purpose of investigating these riots. The Seim adopted his proposal and a committee of six Seim members was appointed, each belonging to a different party. The Chairman was Wincenty Witos, who was to achieve such unhappy fame years later. Dr. Isaac Schipper, a member for Tarnow who was one of the most distinguished historians in the country, was appointed Secretary.

When the committee arrived in Reisha a few days later, Witos demanded that the District Officer Koncewicz should invite the leaders of the various political parties of the town and representatives of all the authorities including the Jews, to a conference with the Seim Committee. He and his companions soon left for Strzyzow in order to conduct the first investigations there.

Koncewicz invited the head of the Gymnasium (Secondary School), Dr. Roman Krogulski, the Mayor; Dr. Niec, a Municipal Councillor and bitter anti-Semite; Dr. Dobrowolski, the Senior Judge of the Rzeszow District Court and four more or less well-known persons from the four largest villages in the vicinity. Of the Jews, he invited Dr. Wilhelm Hochfeld, Vice Mayor, Dr. Henryk Wachtel, Town Councillor and the writer of these lines. All of them accepted the invitation and met at the Government District Offices on the second evening.

Vitos opened the proceedings with an introduction which promptly showed what the Jews could expect from his committee. He accused them of blackening the name of Poland, of lack of faithfulness to the revied Poland through their “impossible” demands for national autonomy. As though that were not enough, he added that the Jews were robbing and ruining the peasants and that was why the peasants were so angry with them. “Under these conditions”, he declared, “it is not surprising that excesses of this kind break out from time-to-time”.

However, at the end of his introduction, he adopted a milder tone and admitted that “the excesses are a c rime which must cease”. He called on all those present to speak freely and without interference of everything that had happened, in order that his committee should be able to make a complete report to the Seim.

The first to speak was the Gymnasium Director whose name I cannot remember. This man was the local leader of Grabski's National Party, and began by striking a party note. He began charging Witos with his own political sins and only later did he go over to the pogrom, making the most disgusting charges against the Jews of Reisha. “What are the Jews making so much noise for?” he asked. He simply and flatly denied that there had been a pogrom. There had been “minor disturbances”, he said, which the police had promptly suppressed.

I interrupted him with the demand that he should point to one single policeman who had been seen in the streets on that day. He made no answer to this, but preferred to attack the District Official Koncewicz for bringing in a Jewish officer with the Ukrainian soldiers.

The second speaker was the notorious Jew hater, Dr. Niec. He also attacked the District Officer and naturally put the whole blame on the Jews “who are a cancer on the body of revived Poland.”

Witos then requested Dr. Hochfeld to make a statement. Hochfeld suggested that I should be examined first. “Nobody here will be able to give a more detailed account of the pogrom than Mr. Wiesenfeld”, he said.

First, Witos inspected me sharply with his piercing eyes and asked whether I was the editor of the local Jewish paper. When I said that I was, he poured out all his fury on the Jewish press which: “ought actually to be eradicated”. Still, he was prepared to listen to what I had to say, even though he would place very little reliance on my words.

I began by rejecting the attacks on District Officer Koncewicz. “Our head representative”, said

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I “should be cited as a model of honesty, uprightness and devotion to his post and responsibilities. If he had acted differently, God alone knows how many Jewish dead we would have had in Reisha today”.

Then I proceeded to the unhappy events in the town, drawing attention to the behaviour of Colonel Zawada and his soldiers. “Zawada”, said I, “ought to be punished for his behaviour and transferred to some other town”. Nor did I spare the police who had not appeared in the streets.

Witos interrupted me with a question: “Why don't you tell who is responsible for all the incidents of which you are talking? Who incited whom? And what were the reasons which led to these occurrences?”

By that time, I was thoroughly disgusted with Witos, and felt an utter contempt for him. I looked at his furiously and asked him in return:

“You, you, Mr. Parliamentary Representative, are asking me who was or still is responsible for those savage disturbances?” “Certainly”, answered Witos.

“In that case”, I went on, “why don't you take your own paper into account? You have just come here ostensibly to conduct an investigation into disturbances. Yet, from your opening words, you emptied fire and brimstone on the local Jews and those who live in other places and you accuse them alone of the pogrom. A pogrom is not a “disturbance”, as you describe what happened. Yes, you, you are the one most responsible and together with you , such fine gentlemen as the Gymnasium Director and Dr. Niec. You incite the ignorant peasant against the Jews. In your popular journal “Piast” you do not permit a single opportunity to pass of putting the blame on the Jews for everything that is bad and harmful in our country. You personally are the Editor of “Piast”, which circulates far and wide in the villages. You write the leading articles. Can you point to a single article of yours in which you have not been inciting the peasants against the Jews?”

Witos was almost beside himself with fury. “Prilutzky!” he shouted angrily. “You are another Prilutzky and have all his impudence”. (Noah Prilutzky was one of the leaders of the Jewish “Folkist” Party which demanded Jewish cultural and political autonomy in Poland).

“No”, I answered. “I am not another Prilutzky, though I would gladly be one. I have given the Seim Commission a true and entirely authentic report of the unhappy events which took place on May 3rd. But that is not enough for you. Do you want me to put the blame on the Jews as you yourself have done, together with our honoured Gymnasium Director and his friend, Dr. Niec? Yes”, I now repeated my earlier words: “You yourself are responsible and the best than can be said of you is that you are only one among those who should be charged with responsibility”.

Witos was fuming so much at my words that he almost lost control of himself. He turned away from me in his temper and speaking to his fellow Parliamentary members, he asked them ironically: “Well, how do you like this fellow? He wants to make us believe the unbelievable, but he hides the fact that certain Jews are fooling you Christian girls and keeping them in dark cellars..”

This remark by the Peasant Leader made even the ever-calm, well-balanced and reserved Dr. Hochfeld lose control of himself. “Haven't you gone a little too far, Mr. Chairman?” he asked Witos angrily.

At this point, I should pause in order to explain the background of the remark made by Witos and Polish girls.

Only a little while before the pogrom, the young daughter of a well-known Reisha lawyer suddenly vanished from home. Her parents, kinsfolk, friends and the police searched for her for days on end without finding her anywhere. She came back on the fifth day with her hair dishevelled, her face scratched and her clothes dirty and torn. Her parents were very happy at her return but they also demanded an explanation. She then began to tell the old, old story. Jews had fooled her and kept her in a dark cellar and wanted her blood for their Matzot. Only on the fifth day did she succeed in climbing out through a little window of the cellar and running away. That was why her face was scratched and her clothes were torn and dirty.

Her parents were both highly intelligent people and did not believe a single word of the story. They went to the Chief of the Rzeszow gendarmerie and asked him to investigate the whole story thoroughly. The officer took the girl into his office and cross-examined her. She soon broke down under this examination and told him the truth. She was

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Very much in love with a certain young man and had spent the time with him. She swore that she had had no sexual relations, but that she loved him so much that she had simply wanted to be together with him.

Her parents had two other children: a boy and a girl, and they sternly ordered both of them not to talk about this affair. But the younger girl could not keep quiet and told the tale in school. Naturally, it spread far and wide and had threatened to endanger the Jews.

Dr. Hochfeld was a good friend of the girl's parents and they themselves told him exactly what had happened. When he heard the anti-Semitic challenge of Witos, he now related the whole story to all those present. They all burst out laughing aloud and after that, I was able to go on with my detailed report about the pogrom. I had several sharper conflicts with Witos, but still I succeeded in telling everything that I had to tell.

Dr. Hochfeld, Dr. Wachtel and Dr. Reich then spoke very briefly, and like me, defended and expressed the highest praise for Koncewicz, the District Officer. They also spoke up for me and praised what I had done on the day of the pogrom. Then came the turn of the four village Elders who put the blame on the Jews like Witos. No one of the other four Seim Deputies said a word. The “investigation” came to an end at half past one in the morning.

The next day, Witos himself sent for Dr. Adolf Schnee, the first Zionist President of the Kultusgemeinde, Dr. Roman Krogulski and the writer of these lines. He demanded independent memorandums from us about the events in Rzeszow, and afterwards, took them and promised us that he would deliver an impartial report to Premier Paderewski in the Seim. I do not know what kind of report the Prime Minister received. But I do know that until the time I left Reisha, nobody heard that he reported anything at all to the Seim. The whole “investigation” was not really worth the amount which the Parliamentary Commission had spent on it.

Henry Morgenthat was one of the richest Jews in New York. He went to America when he was young and like many German Jews, he was lucky and gradually became very rich. He had an important place in American financial affairs and was a very successful person, playing quite a significant part in the political life of the city of New York. He was a Democrat and when the one-time University Professor, Woodrow Wilson, was chosen as candidate for President in 1911 by the Democrats, Morgenthau helped him considerably with his influence and his money. Wilson was elected and when he became President, he showed his appreciation of Morgenthau by appointing him United States Ambassador to Turkey.

At the time of which I am writing, the pogroms and other anti-Semitic persecutions of Jews in Poland had greatly disturbed American Jewry, most of whom came from Eastern Europe. Large protest meetings were held in all the big cities of America; and President Wilson was called on, as a person to whom the Poles owed their national revival more than to anyone else, to take steps which would compel them to treat the Jews of Poland as citizens with equal rights and provide them with protection against all these acts of violence.

President Wilson, thereupon, requested his friend Morgenthau to go to Poland, ascertain the conditions and life of the Jews in the Polish Republic, and bring him back a detailed report. When the news of Wilson's decision was reported in the Warsaw press, it caused great rejoicing among the Jews. Their representatives declared that: “in spite of everything the Jews are not forsaken and alone”. America would interfere on their behalf and Poland would have to reckon with American demands.

Some people may take this as an exaggeration, but it seems to me that I was the only person who was not happy. The reason was that I knew more about Morgenthau and other Jews in America than anyone else in Poland. As said, Morgenthau had immigrated to the U.S.A. from Germany. Like other wealthy Jews of German origin, he had never shown any particular interest in the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who lived in the New York East side.

At the most, the German Jews used to fling a little money to those from Eastern Europe, but that was all they had in common with them. I could not believe that Morgenthau was in any way different.

My doubts were confirmed soon after he came to Rzeszow and went to the home of Dr. Samuel Reich. At the very beginning of the talks, Morgenthau showed what “benefits” the Jews of Poland might

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expect from his “investigations”. Like Witos, Morgenthau began by blaming the Jews for all kinds of sins. Least of all, could he stand their way of dressing. He openly showed his contempt for the Jews in their long kaftans, long beards and ear-locks.

“How”, he wanted to know, “can you respect such Jews, quite apart from loving them?” And if that was not enough for him, he also expressed his dissatisfaction with their “complete lack of patriotism” towards the Polish Republic and country. “They are egoists in their behaviour, so how is it possible for the Christians to live with them?”

Those present in Dr. Reich's home included Dr. Hochfeld and other town councillors and several more entirely assimilated so-called “Jewish leaders” of Rzeszow. Since I had become quite an important person among the assimilationists after the pogrom, I had also been invited to the reception for the American Jewish leader, as the Warsaw papers called him. Needles to say, Morgenthau's words made a very bad impression on me. I began a heated discussion with him and his wife in English, and was far from friendly. But Dr. Reich interrupted the discussion and invited the guest and all those present to proceed to the Kultus Gemeinde, where the Jewish representatives were waiting for him very impatiently.

Henry Morgenthau drove up in President Wilson's large personal automobile, which was driven by the President's own chauffeur, a negro. Morgenthau invited me to accompany him in the car, while all the others drove separately or went on foot.

In front of the building of the Kultusgemeinde in the Market place, stood a great crow, who gave the visitor a tremendous ovation. Dr. Schnee, the President of the Kultusgemeinde, was waiting for him at the entrance and led him to the Conference room. There was no lack of titles to be used on him. Dr. Schnee greeted him as “your Excellency”. Reb Mottish Eckstein turned him into a Senator. Even Dr. Hochfeld addressed him as Mr. Ambassador. One of the people present, Wilf Freilich, if I remember rightly, actually reproached me because I only referred to him as “Mr. Morgenthau”. They simply did not know that in America, titles are dropped as soon as even the highest offices are vacated.

Dr. Schnee and the other representatives had prepared important memorandums; which they wanted to read to Morgenthau. But he was in a hurry, because he wanted to be in Lwow on the same day. He said very little, took all the memorandums and promised to study them. He then took his leave and soon afterwards, left Rzeszow together with his wife. Two American Jewish officers had accompanied Morgenthau, and he left them in Reisha instructing them to visit the smaller towns in which there had been excesses against Jews.

The elder of the two spoke a good Yiddish, but the other who was much younger did not know any. He was Morgenthau's nephew and spoke a little German, so he asked me to accompany him to Kolbiszow where, as I have already related, the worst pogrom in all Poland had taken place. I promised to accompany him. In private life, this officer whose name was Frederick Goodheart, was a professor in Columbia University, New York.

By pure chance, the Reisha Dramatic Society that evening presented a play, which I had written, at Berger's Hall. Both of the officers attended the performance and expressed their enjoyment. Maurice Samuel, the one who spoke Yiddish, is now a famous American Jewish writer.

The next morning, I left, together with Professor Goodheart for Kolbiszow where we first went to a young lawyer who, on the recommendation of Dr. Reich in Reisha, should have been the leader of the local Jews. Now that was a leader once for all. Before we even had an opportunity of shaking off the dust, this little fellow whose name was Dr. Rabbinovitch, displayed himself to us as a far greater Jew-hater than ten gentile antisemites.

He simply fumed and breathed fire and brim-stone at the Jews of Kolbiszow. “They are swindlers, thieves and plain robbers!” he exclaimed. “They themselves are to blame for everything, and they really deserve everything that was done to them”.

I asked him if he would have felt the same way if his own father or mother had been killed in the pogrom. “Of course I would”, he said: “if my parents had been like all the other Jews. But happily, my parents are very decent people. Our Christian neighbours all love us and they would never do us any harm”.

He spoke so fast and with such excitement that I could scarcely manage to translate the contents of his accusations to Professor Goodheart. It went

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on like that for a whole hour and he kept on throwing all the blame on the Jews. I soon grew disgusted at him but compelled myself to keep calm. A large number of Jews had gathered around his house, meanwhile, and I demanded that some of them should be brought in so that we should hear what they had to say as well. But the little lawyer was not prepared even to discuss such a thing. “Me, me alone”, he declaimed, “I'm the one you have to believe. They won't tell you a single word of truth because they are all swindlers and liars”.

All the same, I went to the door, opened it and called in the older Jews whom I saw. What they had to tell about the pogrom and the murdering of two old Jewish women and a man of 92 was simply heart breaking. They all wept and wailed that they had been transformed into beggars, plain and simple, because the pogromists had robbed them of everything. The little lawyer went on barking like a crazy dog. It went so far that I had to tell him to keep his mouth shut. But that did not help either.

The almost entire ruin of Kolbiszow made a dreadful impression even on the almost assimilated American Professor. But neither of could do anything to help the calamity-stricken people, and we left Kolbiszow with aching hearts.

On the way to Kolbiszow, we spent a little time in Glogow and left word among the Jews that we would stop there on our way back. When we returned, we found that almost all the community were waiting for us. Their spokesman was the 85-year-old Joseph Thaler. He invited us into his large dwelling and described the ruin of his little town. Many tears were shed there as well. Happily, there had been no victims among them, but all Jewish possessions had been pillaged from almost all the homes and the Jews were terribly impoverished.

“We don't want any revenge. We aren't complaining about anybody. What has happened has happened and we want to hope that it won't happen again. But we have been made poor and helpless and material help is needed at once. For we won't be able to hold out under the present conditions very long. Maybe God himself wanted to punish us for our sins, but we have suffered enough already and help will have to come from somewhere, though we don't know where than can be”.

Those were the words of old Reb Joseph Thaler whom I knew well as one of the finest people I have ever met. But unhappily, I could not see where help could come from. Just as in Kolbiszow, the destruction was so great that it broke our hearts.

On the way back to Rzeszow, I asked the Professor Officer what his opinion was about the Jews of Glogow. “They seem to be very fine people, but they are not the only ones who have suffered like that”, was his answer. Then he told me about the dreadful situation of the Jews in White Russia and Lithuania, who had suffered just as much and maybe more. What he told me made a very sad impression both about Jewish life in Poland itself and even about the territories under Polish rule.

Yet in spite of all these dreadful facts, Professor Goodheart agreed with the opinions of the Morgenthaus, namely that the Jews who lived under Poland ought to change their way of life completely. They ought to get rid of the old Jewish styles, cut off their beards and ear-locks, start speaking Polish and mingle with the majority of the Polish people. He was “convinced”, he said, that once Jews became more civilized and discarded their own nationalism, their position would become much better. Similar thoughts were included in the report with Morgenthau submitted afterwards to President Wilson, which gave rise to protests on the part of most American Jews.

The Rzeszow Police, which had not felt it necessary to move a finger during the pogrom of May 3rd, were given a new inspector soon after. Krogulski the Mayor who had been abroad on the day of the pogrom, decided on his return that the police needed a new chief who would be younger than the old inspector and capable of establishing stern discipline. So, he entrusted this post to a former officer who had never had the slightest experience in police affairs.

I had known this new inspector from our childhood. Even then, he had been a bitter Jew-hater. Now that he had taken over this important post, he decided to distinguish himself by his treatment of Jews. To begin with, he resolved to clean up the former “Chicken square” where dozens of Jewish families made a living from the stalls they had kept for years on end. When he succeeded in

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this he started to drive away the old market women as well.

His order to drive away the women from the market was issued without any notice. It gravely affected the old women and completely undermined their possibility of making a living. They were all poor women and could barely exist on the few small coins they earned by selling fruit and other trifles. For them, the Inspector's order was a death sentence by starvation.

The market women found themselves in a state of bitter despair. They went to beg for pity from the Inspector and the Mayor, but they were not admitted. They then ran to Michal Bierman, Motish Eckstein and other Jewish Town Councillors and begged for mercy: but not could help them.

In their despair, they came to me. I did not know what I could do for them, but I was so carried away that I decided to discuss the matter with the mayor. It seems that I was the only unpolitical Jew in Rzeszow who was on close terms with him. The reason was that for three years, I had taught him English which he now well knew, and had never asked him for the slightest favour in all that time. So, I hoped that I might really be able to be a good messenger for the market women.

When I cam to Krogulski's office, I found the Police Inspector there. I greeted them both in friendly fashion, and offered to withdraw and wait until the Inspector left. But Krogulski spoke English to me and asked me to tell him what had brought me there all of a sudden. I told him why I had come and appealed to him in the strongest possible terms to take pity on the poor women and not force them to perish of starvation in their old age.

“I find myself in an uncomfortable situation”, he answered. “Quite a few of my Jewish friends have come to me about this and I have turned them down. What are they going to say now if I make an exception to you?”

“They will bless you for having saved the lives of these poor old women”, I answered.

Naturally, the Police Inspector did not understand a single word about our conversation, but now Krogulski turned to him and to my astonishment said he thought it might possibly be better to wait a while so that new plans could be prepared to provide another place for the old women. The Inspector looked at me furiously and grew as red as a beetroot. But that did not bother me. On the contrary, I went even further. Continuing in Polish, I referred to the Inspector's behaviour two weeks earlier when he had driven all the Jews away from the stalls in the “Chicken Square”. Now he was permitting Christians to take over the stalls. Krogulski took this into consideration as well, and instructed the Inspector to return stalls that were still empty to the Jews whom he had driven away.

I simply lacked words to express my thanks to the mayor for his behaviour. The Inspector was twitching this way and that, but Krogulski stood firm. I hurried off to tell the women who were waiting for me at the entrance to the Municipal Offices. When I told them that they could go back to their market places, they al began weeping for joy. They embraced me and kissed me. My own happiness was a great as theirs.

A few days later, a number of former stall-keepers in the Chicken Square also went back to their stalls. But I had the feeling that the Inspector would never forgive me for interfering in this matter. And my feeling was confirmed soon after.

Three weeks after these events, my wife gave birth to our first child, which made us very happy. But the happiness did not last long. My wife suddenly became very ill with blood poisoning, and her life was in great danger. Soon after that, our baby also began to suffer from blood poisoning. I was in despair.

In the middle of all of this, I suddenly heard, one fine day in the first week of June, an exceptionally loud knocking at the door of our home. I hurried over and opened it to find myself facing the only detective in Rzeszow accompanied by two policemen carrying rifles. I asked them what they wanted but without answering, they dashed into my home.

The detective flung himself at everything in the room. He was searching for something but did not say what. He even went to my wife's sick-bed and started searching there. When he finished, he told me that I was under arrest and demanded that I should accompany him. I had no choice, so I reassured my wife as far as possible and went. Two more armed policemen were waiting below. They placed me in their midst and led me as though I were God alone knows what, a dreadful criminal.

The inspector promptly began to examine me.

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I did not answer any questions and only demanded that he should explain his behaviour. Then he sent me to Berger's Hotel accompanied by two policemen. There I met other arrestees like Bernard Fisch, Jacob Alter, Markus Buchbinder, Joseph Storch, Moshe Schipper, Pinhas Ellenbogen, two Jewish socialists and others. Not one of us knew why we had been arrested. I remained in a room at the Hotel under observation for the night.

Yet, I could not fall asleep because I was very worried about my wife and the sick child whom I had left at home with nobody but the wet-nurse that was feeding the baby.

About 8 o'clock in the morning, a policeman came to tell me that the Inspector wanted to see me. This anti-Semite now spoke in a far more friendly way than the day before. He greeted me with a nice “Good morning” but then went on with a sermon about all my supposed “sins” against the Polish people. “Your trouble”, he said, “is that you are far too active in public affairs. In our new Poland we are as correct and unbiased towards the Jews as towards the Christians. But we cannot and shall not permit such busy-bodies as you to exert any influence at all on us. Now you are free and you can go”.

I did not answer a single word but hurried out; took the first horse carriage and asked the driver to take me home as fast as possible. I was happy to find that my wife's condition was no worse at least. But I could not stay long. The cunning Inspector had indicated that District Officer Koncewicz had also had a share in my arrest. So, I hurried to see him.

When I came in, I even forgot the usual “Good morning” and asked him at once why he had had me arrested. Koncewicz stared at me in amazement and asked in return: “I ordered you to be arrested?” He then told me that he had only learnt about the arrest late at night and had immediately telephoned to the Police and demanded my release. But the Police had assured him that I would soon be set free. He had also demanded the liberation of all the other people arrested.

As usual, he was very friendly towards me. He explained that the Police had doubtless used Krogulski's absence to arrest me with the aim of sending me off with all the others to the Polish concentration camp near Dombrowa. Yet, for this, they needed his approval, which he would never have been prepared to give. But he earnestly advised me to leave Rzeszow and go and live somewhere else; for he was expecting to be transferred soon, and there would be nobody then to protect me.

I answered that if I decided to leave Rzeszow, I would go to America where people were free. “That is even better”, he said, “but go soon or it may be too late”. He then took me to his secretary and ordered him to prepare a passport to America for me.

God aided us and my wife recovered as though by a miracle. Only then did I tell her of my conversation with Koncewicz. She insisted that I must go to Warsaw at once to obtain a visa, for she was afraid that they might send me away to the concentration camp. In Warsaw, I received a visa at once, and then my wife began to insist that I should set out as soon as possible, although she had not yet fully recovered.

I did so. I spent several days in Berlin and received a letter from my wife telling me that our child was no longer alive. Heart-broken though I was, I resumed my journey and on October 20^th, 1920, I finally reached New York.

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When the Austro-Hungarian monarchy fell apart in October 1918, Rzeszow found itself in a state of chaos, like all the towns and villages of Galicia. In Vienna where I was studying, it was clear as early as the summer of 1918 that the Habsburg regime was coming to an end, and we stood before the defeat of the central powers, Germany and her allies. I spent my holiday months of July and August in Rzeszow, where I could clearly see the signs of the end, the final convulsions of Austrian rule. The patriotic Polish youth, particularly the youngsters who had volunteered for the Polish Legions, commanded by Joseph Pilsudski, behaved as though the foreign authority had already come to an end. Evening after evening, I saw outbursts of national dissidence. Youngsters sang songs of revolt in chorus; smashed the Imperial symbols; blotted out or obliterated any inscriptions of the words: “Imperial and Royal”, and removed the signs from government buildings. But the actual end came at the close of October, when Central Powers surrendered to the Western Allies.

On 30.10.1918 I was in Vienna for examinations and was an eye-witness to the popular revolt in Parliament Square. The monarchy fell apart and came to an end, and the oppressed nations, including Poland, returned to life. I left Vienna in alarm and hurried home to my parents in Rzeszow.

Jewish officers on Passover leave, 1916. Seated from right: Benzion Fett, Puretz, Dr. Reich, Czwall, Bernard Fish, Elias Wang:
Standing from right: Dr. Kleinhaus, Bernfeld, Goldman, Rosenbaum, Levi Haim, Simon Tanenbaum, Bander, Szlager.

For the first time I crossed new frontiers, the frontier between Austria and Czechoslovakia and the frontier between Czechoslovakia and Poland. The railway carriages were full of soldiers and officers, hungry, torn and tattered, belonging to all the nations of the former Empire. Now they were in a hurry to get back home. The soldiers pulled off the Imperial emblem from their caps and joyously prepared for peace and freedom by enthusiastically tearing off the insignia of rank from the uniforms of the officers and generals. Everybody was equal now. The soldiers placed the emblems of their own nations on their coat lapels and Jewish soldiers also put the Star of David or a blue-white ribbon on their military caps.

I reached Rzeszow. The railway station was crowded chockful with soldiers of all nationalities: Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, etc., who had abandoned the front and were hurrying to their homelands. The red-white flag with Eagle of Poland was flying from the Government buildings. The Polish Commission for the liquidation of Occupation Rule had appointed a temporary administration for the district of Rzeszow (Reisha). It was headed by Dr. S. Jablonski, former mayor, Dr. Roman Krogulski, the Mayor, Antoni Bomba, Austrian M.P. for the Peasant's Party, and Dr. Theofil Niecz an anti-Semite and head of the Nationalist Societies in the town. Not a single representative of the Jews in the town or district was appointed, nor was any one co-opted to the District Administration.

The economic situation in town was very bad indeed. The four years of war had impoverished the entire economic structure. The blockade of the Western Powers had broken off every tie with the world overseas. The shortage of raw materials had brought all civilian industry to a virtual standstill. The military authorities had requisitioned all means of transport. The sources of food such as flour, sugar, etc., were confiscated and diverted chiefly to the Army. In Eastern Galicia, war was waging between Poles and the Ukrainians who demanded independence and separation from Poland. Trade was at a standstill. Whatever business there was, was

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done on a black-market basis. The peasants did not sell their produce for inflation paper money but on a barter basis, agricultural produce for industrial goods or dairy products, vegetables for kerosine and salt, fruit for sugar, etc.

There was no inner security. Jews were afraid to go to the outskirts in the evening. Shots were heard here and there at night. The soldiers who had returned home found nothing awaiting them. Gangs of thieves and robbers made the roads dangerous. The streets were half-lit or not lit at all, because fuel was in short supply. Violence was frequent at all hours of the day and night.

The Poles in Rzeszow set up a National Defence Committee. Police and Special Police were mobilized. The Jewish ex-service men in their uniforms, with the Shield of David on their caps, organized for self-defence and stood on guard in Jewish quarters and in front of synagogues. The municipal authorities faced grave problems, particularly in supplying food to the inhabitants. They could find no way out except to confiscate secret hoards of food in the towns and villages. During those uncertain times, there was a resurgence of the darker instincts among people who had been uprooted from their normal lives during the four years of war. The Jew-hatred which had been kept concealed in times of peace was now allowed free and open expression. Jews were beaten in the streets and on the roads. Soldiers were streaming from all parts of the various fronts, going home by train; particularly the Polish soldiers of General Haller's Brigade who came from France. They maltreated Jews, cut off their beards and ear-locks and flung them out of moving trains.

There was a feeling of ruin and destruction among the Jews. The Polish authorities in town controlled the commercial and industrial departments and discriminated against the Jews at every step. When distributing raw materials and food, they preferred the shops which the Poles opened, and which suddenly appeared everywhere like mushrooms.

The economic situation of the Jews grew steadily worse. Under Austrian rule, trade had been almost entirely in Jewish hands, and most of the workshops and factories had been working for the Austrian War effort. Even then, during the war period, only very small remnants were left for the economic life and industrial work of the civil population in the rear. The storehouses were empty after four years of war, and what remained for the civil population was just the waste and offal. Bread was baked with mouldy flour. In the open market, all trade was done by substitutes. The term “Ersatz” (substitute) was heard on all sides. Instead of coffee, some black powder was sold, while tea was replaced by brown leaves manufactured from potato peel. Woollen or cotton goods were replaced by textiles of the queerest fibres or of paper. Shoe-soles were made of wood, etc.

Under Austria, as remarked, trade had been 90% in Jewish hands. In face of the bitterness which affected the rural and urban population alike, the Polish authorities and nationalist demagogues found only one thing to do: To divert the fury of the proletariat against the Jews who had been the scapegoat since time untold.

In Rzeszow and the small towns of the district, the Jews cried aloud at the violence and robbery and hooliganism. During those days of distress for the population as a whole and our people in particular, well-to-do peasants became rich. They sold their produce at inflated prices. People who had been well-to-do in times of peace, lost their property and were replaced by energetic young men, former assistants in big warehouses whose owners had lost all they had during the Russian invasion because all contact with foreign countries had been broken.

Particularly unhappy was the position of the Jewish intellectuals. The studying youth dreamt of a new world, of social justice, of national liberation. They could see only one way out – to leave anti-Semitic Poland. But the frontiers were closed and barred. Most of the youth who had been educated in the Zionist spirit, and whose hopes had been awakened by the Balfour Declaration, impatiently awaited the opening of the frontiers. In this difficult situation, the Jewish leaders in our town saw that they must organize in order to protect the physical, economic and spiritual existence of the Jews. A National Council was set up, composed of representatives of all currents and parties. This Council published a Proclamation in Yiddish and Polish, signed by the leaders of our community.

The Poles also set up a National Defence Organization, for they too were experiencing a period of anarchy which threatened to overwhelm them. The Communist leaders in the country and elsewhere preached and encouraged the poverty-stricken groups in town and village to confiscate the estates of the Polish nobility. The atmosphere was highly explosive

[Page 59]

and there was a sense of revolution in the air. The Polish National Defence Organization also issued a proclamation to the inhabitants. The Jews were insulted and apprehensive because of one sentence in this document which prohibited the admission of Jews as members. They recognised that this indicated that it was not the task of the Organization to defend the Jewish half of the Rzeszow population.

The Jews were also called upon to lower the price of goods by 75%; which hinted that the Jews were keeping up the prices in order to become rich. Dr. R. Krogulski, the mayor, demanded that the War Profits Tax should be collected by force.

Heavy clouds lowered over the Jews at the end of 1918. Thunder could be heard on the horizon and we awaited a tremendous storm that might burst out any day. Nor was it long in coming. Poland had taken the 3^rd of May as its national festival in memory of the Constitution granted on the 3^rd of May, 1791. On the 3^rd May, 1919, riots against the Jews of Rzeszow and the neighbouring towns broke out with the participation of ruffians from town and country. This was a pogrom according to the familiar formula of robbery, bloodshed and destruction of property. The civil and military authorities did not even lift a finger to stop it. The authorities did nothing for a whole day, until the fires of destruction began to approach the estate of the nobility and the mansions of the rich Christians. Mr. Leon Wiesenfeld, a writer and journalist, now living in Cleveland, U.S.A., has given his account of the pogrom as he saw it in a special contribution.

As mentioned above, the Jews were prepared and were not taken by surprise. The Jewish inhabitants of Rzeszow, including hundreds of demobilised soldiers who had returned from the Front, prepared a National Council and on 15.00.1918 (11 Kislev 5679) published a communiqué. The Council consisted of 15 members representing all the national trends and was headed by a Presidency. The head of this body was Rabbi Nathan Levin and his assistants were Reb Abba Appelbaum and Dr. Kalman Salzmann. The treasurer was A. Lifshitz and the secretaires were: Dr. Eduard Lecker and Kalman Kurzmann. The National Council elected a community of 21 members. Dr. Adolf Schnee was elected Chairman of the Community with Dr. Felix Hopfen and Hayyim Eeisenberg. The Polish Authorities appointed Dr. Adolf Schnee as Commissioner responsible to the Government. These committees were elected:

1) Economics. 2) Culture; 3) Legal assistance; 4) Finance; 5) Information and press.

The Community Council resolved on lowering prices and requested the Government representative to appoint a Joint Committee to fix prices, headed by a Government Official. They also demanded that suitable representation for Jewish merchants and consumers should be secured on this body.

The National Council called on merchants and inn-keepers to carefully obey the instructions and prohibitions of the Government, to keep to the maximum prices announced, and also to close the inns and drink-shops until further notice. The Council also called on the Jewish ex-servicemen to remove the Shield of David sign from their caps.

Representatives of the Council proceeded to Cracow and appeared before Count Lasocki and Mr. Tetmeyer, who were the heads of the Military and Administrative Council of the country. There they submitted a complaint regarding the prohibition of Jewish members in the National Guard. The heads of the Commission promised to view this complaint favourably and to give suitable instructions to Dr. Krogulski, the Commissioner in Rzeszow. Dr. A. Schnee and Dr. Samuel Reich continued the negotiations in this connection with Dr. Krogulski.

On 5.11.19., a Proclamation in Polish appeared in Rzeszow, signed by the Jewish Socialist party (Z.P.S.) the Zionist Organization and the Poalei Zion, in which they demanded recognition of Jewish minority rights, cultural autonomy, political and civic equality and proportional representation in all Government bodies. Communiqué n°5 of the O.O.N. (National Defence Organization) expressed regret at the issue of the Proclamation by the Jewish National Council. They complained because it had been published and distributed in “Jargon”, and remarked that a document of this kind was not likely to calm the general mood.

Finally, the Communiqué stated that the Jews would do better if they refused to purchase stolen or pillaged goods. The same Communiqué also contained a denial of the report that the Jewish Dr. Marek Pelzling, who was a leader of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.) had been dismissed from the leadership group.

The chaos and confusion in our town reached its climax on 3.5.1919. After that, the storm gradually died down, and was followed by years of relative tranquillity.

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