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[Page 69]
by Liber Losh
Translated by Janie Respitz
Facts – People – Manifestations
Precisely in the last decade before the extermination, the Jewish economic and communal life in Shtutshin experienced a progress of emergence. Despite the rise in anti-Semitic “permitted”-policies, which applied to official Polish districts with regard to the Jewish economic positions, which were felt strongly in Shtutshin, the Jewish town developed at a very quick speed in all possible economic spheres. Together with the economic development, the widening activity of the Jewish population in pollical, communal and cultural life also strengthened.
The objective main reason for this phenomenon was the transformation of Shtutshin into an official administrative centre, from 1934, as the expositor of the Lida District, and from 1936 an independent district. This district included the towns: Rozhnake, Orlove, Zholudok, Sabakintze, Ostrin, Novidvor and Kaminke, all the villages and farmyards in the region, together with a population of approximately 40 -50 thousand people. This vicinity was previously connected economically to Shtutshin, the largest and most developed community in the region, but now, with the official upgrade to the level of an independent district centre, the town received encouragement to develop quicker from the official ruling powers. The effective use of the newly obtained possibilities willingly or unwillingly fell into the hands of the Jews, as the rooted decisive majority of the town's population as well as the economic initiators of the past decade.
Before 1930
We were given the opportunity to look at the records of the regional – committee
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“Yekopo” in Vilna, published in 1931[a]. In the chapter “The Economic Situation of the Surrounding Towns in 1928/29”, we are provided with a report based on an investigation of these places by an authority from “Yekopo” Mr. Sholem Cohen. The following is a description of the situation in Shtutshin.
Of a population of 2500, 2000 were Jews.
The main occupations were small business and retail. In town there is an overflow of shops. Besides this, more and more Christian shops are opening in the surrounding villages which draw away profits from the town. In the town proper there was a Christian consumer cooperative and three large wealthy private Christian stores (alcoholic beverages, writing materials and bookkeeping and a haberdashery). At the market, which took place once a week (Thursdays) shopkeepers arrive with all sorts of merchandise, especially old clothes, from all the surrounding towns. The competition due to the calculated motives was very big and the profit was small.
Retail also suffered from competition from the unfamiliar retailers who came to the market and especially from the lack of capital turnover.
Shoemakers and tailors are very stressed. People mainly buy ready made items. In town and all the surrounding villages there were good Christian artisans making everything.
Five bakeries underwent renovations and were working. Other bakeries were closed because they did not have appropriate places and did not have the means to carry out renovations.
Characteristic of the economic situation in those years was the general balance of the Interest Free Loan Society for the years 1926-1929, which was published in another chapter of the “Yekopo” records:
| Income | Expense | |||
| Zlotys | Zlotys | |||
| Loan from “Yekopo” | 2,000 | Paid out loans | 59,748 | |
| Personal means | 5,328 | Paid deposits | 4,275 | |
| Deposits | 4,580 | Paid back “Yekopo” | 400 | |
| Refunded loans | 53,000 | Administrative expenses | 455 | |
| Balance up to 1.1.1930 | 30 | |||
| Total | 64,908 | Total | 64,908 |
The interest Free Loan fund was founded in 1922 by the administration of the artisan's union (Moishe-Khaim Marashinsky, Dovid Friedman and others).
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They only gave out small interest free loans for needy artisans and the like. After the emergence of the district expository, the Interest Free Loan fund was reorganized into a general public bank which gradually attracted new members from all economic circles and expanded its own means and trusts.
The new reorganized administration of the public bank (Shmuel Shneyder – chairman; M.Kh. Marashinsky, Zusl Levit, Y.Hershl Skupsky, Borukh Furman and others) broadened the operations and new financial areas, resulting in the bank developing into a financial institution which served the growing economic development.
The Growth of the Town
Over a period of ten years (1934-1939) the appearance of our town changed completely. Where small wooden houses once stood around the marketplace now stood new three- and four-story brick buildings (there was also a plan to rebuild the historic “circle of shops”). The marketplace and all the streets were paved with sidewalks on both sides and planted trees. The horse market was moved from the centre to near the Russian Orthodox Church, and was replaced with a municipal garden. Close to the horse market and beyond, parallel to Rozhank and Koleyov Streets, a suburb was built.
New buildings, stores and enterprises grew along the rows of trees: in the length of Grodno Street (until the colony),
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and from Vilna Street (until the old cemetery). One could observe the same things going down the hill until the intersection with the Lida-Grodno highway. The new district institutions and establishments were concentrated on the length of the slope. Despite the fact that the new houses and newly arrived population were for the most part not Jewish, the established and newly arrived Jews owned all the new building and dominated all aspects of the economy.
The Jewish Economic Initiative
In this period, the brothers Yudl and Ben-Zion Gontcharovsky and their brother-in-law Bezalel Kliatchkovsky built a large steam mill and the municipal electricity plant. The long time leasee of Kniazh's sawmill, Moishe Glembotsky, brought from afar new machines and increased the production and export from the factory. Yitzkhok Davidovitch invested capital in Kniazh's plywood factory (leased by the Konopatzky brothers) and soon the factory was considered one of the largest of its kind in all of Poland.
This same Yitzkhok Davidovitch founded an action group (Khaim Leyb Lidsky, Berl Frus, Yosef Listovsky and others) which took over the regional concession of cigarette manufacturing and alcoholic beverages. They also had an export office for eggs and butter. The same action group initiated regular communication lines (passenger buses and trucks) from the surrounding towns to Lida, Vilna, Grodno, Volkovisk, Bialystok and Warsaw.
Other forms of active economic initiatives in this period included tar- works (Hirsh Gavrin, Zekharia Losh, Leybl Yevelevitch). They began to export turpentine and delivered tar and wooden coals for private use.
Something else that must be mentioned: A.Magat's printing house and Kopl Poretzky's cinema, which were both opened in Shtutshin in the 1930s.
Jewish business also significantly broadened despite the anti-Semitic incited campaign saying Christians could not buy from Jews. The Jewish merchants and small business owners organized a union. The administration consisted of: Yakov Goldberg, Shmuel Y. Shnayder, Itche-Mendl Levin, Yosef Mostovsky, Yakov Teplitzky and others. They defended themselves against the anti -Semitic attacks and looked for new ways to ensure economic existence.
The Community and Religious Life
The protection of the general religious-communal life was inspired by the Jewish community administration, which was created with the
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emergence of the district and included all the Jewish rural settlements which were integrated in this administrative unit. The members of the Shtutshin Jewish community administration (Itche Mendl Levin, Moishe Ilutivitch, Avrom-Arye Khazanovsky, Zusl Levit, Yitzkhak Davicovitch, Yosef-Eliyahu Zhmudsky, Moishe Shnayder and others) represented the entire Jewish community in the district on all communal issues. The chief rabbi of the general community was Rabbi Yekhiel-Mikhl Rabinovitch.
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(From right): Moishe Ilutovitch and Moishe Shnayder |
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The chief rabbi, Rabbi Yekhiel-Mikhl Rabinovitch (from Baranovitch) took over the rabbinic seat of Shtutshin in 1926, after the previous chief rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda-Leyb Khasman emigrate to the Land of Israel. Even before Rabbi Rabinovitch came to serve as rabbi in Shtutshin (his first rabbinic posting), he was already well known in the rabbinic world for his great Talmudic scholarship. (He was known as “Afiki-Yam”, the title of one of his works), and as a prominent activist in the “Agudat-Yisrael” movement. In Baronovitch (as the son-in-law of the well-known adherent of the Musar movement and lumber merchant Reb Yosef Hurvitz) Rabbi Y.M. Rabinovitch was occupied with learning, religious-communal activity and the lumber business. His early years in Shtutshin he was occupied primarily with learning and sharing his vast rabbinic knowledge, but later he became deeply involved in all religious communal affairs and became the representative figure for the entire Jewish population of the region.
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This is the place to mention other activists and religious leaders who represented the religious-communal life in Shtutshin at the threshold of destruction.
The assistant rabbis in the synagogues (the “old and the New” were: Avrom-Yakov Losh, Itche-Mendl Levin, Moishe Ilutivitch, Osher Musenzon, Mendl Poretzky, Moishe Glembotsky (in previous years: Yoel Levit, Noyekh Krongold, Moishe-Yehoshua Medlinsky, Hirsh Gernitsky, Moishe Shnayder). The beadle of the “new” synagogue was Zelig Khvaletsky and the “old”, Moishe Nutchovsky.
All the those who led prayers on the High Holidays and other holidays were: the scholarly Arye-Leyb Zernshteyn, Khaim-Leyb Prutshansky, Khaim-Yosl Kopelman, Avrom-Yakov Losh.
Those active in the “Khayei Adam” society (they had their own brick synagogue) were mainly artisans: Shayel Shkliar, Khaim-Yosl Kopelman, Alter Skupsky, Itche-Yankl Shnayder and Dovid Friedman. The official prayer leader and Torah reader was Kh. L. Prutshansky (years earlier: the cantor Osher Berezovsky). The rabbi of the society was Reb Rafal, a recluse who devoted all of his time to studying sacred texts. (Years before: The Talmud teacher Reb Velvl Rusiansky).
Those active in the society “Tiferet Bachurim” (in the large wooden synagogue) were mainly religious bachelors and young married men. They were: Dovid and Sholem Prutshansky, Kheme and Binyomin-Moishe Lidsky, Mordkhai Lotsky, Leyb Vasilsky, Eliyau Kravietz. The rabbi of this society was the ritual slaughterer Reb Yakov Abramsky (who also gave private lessons in Mishna and Gomorrah to students who went to secular schools).
Those active in burial society were: Moishe Orliansky, Alter Skupsky, Yankl Vilensky, Itche-Yankl Shnayder and others.
The Political – Communal Life
The political- communal life in town did not have the same connections or influence on the Jewish community as perceived in the large cities, where there were harsh inter-party struggles. These institutions in Shtutshin were a new phenomenon, which included only traditional-religious matters and supported traditional town activists. The activists in the Jewish community (Itche-Mendl Levin, Moishe Ilutovitch, Yitzkhak Davidovitch) were also the Jewish representatives of the town on the local council of the township and the district societal council and no one ever criticized or questioned these representatives.
In general, in the last years in our town, no one felt any seething inter-party struggles or political-social struggles. The “Bund” and “Tskunft” were weakened and the Zionist camp was busy with ongoing work according to instructions from the central organization.
[Page 75]
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| One of the last funerals before the destruction, in the month of Elul 5697 (1037), during the burial at the “New” cemetery of Zvi, son of Moishe Yitzkhak Epshtey. Second from right is the teacher Yosef-Eliyau Zhmudsky and the last one on the left is his eldest son Yitzkhak, (relatives of the deceased). |
[Page 76]
The following youth groups were active: Betar[b], “Hashomer Hatzair”[b] and “Frayheyt”[b], as well as “HeChalutz” and the League for Work in the Land of Israel. The following were active leaders in the last two: Leyb and Motl Senderovsky, Yankl Radunsky, Yosef Mastovsky, Rafael Freidman, Osher Yantshuk, Hershl Levin and others).
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Members in the general Zionist (“El HaMishmar”) were: Itche Mendl Levin, Yosef-Eliyahu Zhmudsky, Osher Katzerovitch, Zekharia Losh, Shmuel Shnayder, Moishe Ilutovitch and others. They were active in collecting money for Keren HaYesod and the Zionist Congress. Collection money for Keren Kayemet (The Jewish National Fund) was done by members of “HeChalutz” and the League for Work in the Land of Israel, run by Yakov Glembotsky.
Culture and Education
The general cultural activity concentrated around the aforementioned political groups, youth organizations and unions. They organized open meetings and discussion evenings, brought in lecturers from the central organs, distributed flyers and appeals, distributed newspapers and journals, held sporting events and ran drama clubs. “HeChalutz” and League for Workers in the Land of Israel had a joint soccer team,
[Page 77]
which participated in inter-party competitions, a dramatic club which performed in the surrounding towns. The leader of both these activities was Moishe Tankus who was a well-known soccer player (referred to as the Star of the Grodno team) as well as a talented reciter of poetry and actor (he was the brother of the famous actor Y. Tanin, from the Vilna Troupe).
The HeChalutz and the League for Workers in the Land of Israel supported the public library and were active in the development of the Tarbut School.
In the year 1934/35 the Tarbut School finally got an appropriate building and widened its opportunities as the only Jewish elementary school. The state public school for Jewish children (the so-called Shabasvuke) only took in around thirty students to the first and second grades and hired one teacher (Esya Fliskin-Shnayder). Approximately 40 students studied in grades 5-7 in the Polish school. The Tarbut school embraced the majority of Jewish school aged children (approximately 350 students) with a preparatory year and 7 grades.
Throughout its existence (from 1920/21) the Tarbut School replaced many teachers with new ones especially from Vilna (Yosef Katz, A.Kharmatz, Y. Gronimov, Khaya Musenzon, A. Dardak, Khaya Sonenzon, Yeska Gershonovitch,
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[Page 78]
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[Page 79]
Y. Rotchjo, Y. Shteyngartn, A.Pozniak, Esther Krom). Only the teacher from Shtutshin, Yosef-Eliyahu Zhmudsky remained with the Tarbut School for its entire twenty years of hardship and successes and walked the final road with his hundreds of students which he educated in Shtutshin.
Yosef-Eliyahu Zhmudsky (born in 1882 in Yatvisok) was a Hebrew teacher and Zionist educator and Shtutshin even before the First World War[c] (at that time he published articles in the Zionist journals “Hayom” and “Hatzfira”). He spent the war years deep inside Russia (Militopl), where he taught Jewish refuge children and published a Hebrew political bulletin. He returned to Shtutshin in 1922 and from then on devoted his educational work to the Tarbut School until the final school year (1938/39 inclusive)[d]. He taught Hebrew and bible to the higher classes. He also gave private lessons in the two subjects required for students who graduated from Tarbut School and wanted to continue their education in the Hebrew high school or the teacher's seminary in Grodno, Lida and Vilna (the Shapiro sisters Rayzl and Rokhl, Meir, Ida and Simkha Marashinsky, Menye, Meir and Polya Glembotsky, Rafael Friedman, Tamara Kalikes, Soreh Losh, Yizkhak and Yudis Zhmudsky and others).
The following received a high school education (academic and professional) in the aforementioned cities: Yosef and Mordkhai komneyetsky, Mones Khazanovsky, Shloyme potzky, Itamar Prus, Eliyahu Tzukerman, Yakov Mazovyetsky, Hirsh Kamneyetsky and others).
The following obtained teaching diplomas in the Shtutshin Polish Teacher's Seminary: Rayzl and Avrom-Morkhai Medlinsky, Dobke Pretsky, Dina Ribinshteyn, Rayzl Yevelevitch, Meir Kaplan, Yitzkhak Tashmovsky, Yakov Kahtsek, Liber Losh. Later on, the following graduated from the pedagogical high school in Shtutshin (for girls only): Rivka Freidman, Libe Yevelovitch, Lize Bialostotsky, Tcherne Khvilevitsky, Lusia Shvedsky.
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The aforementioned graduates of the seminary and high school worked mainly for the Tarbut schools (in the region and towns further away), teaching Polish subjects (Polish language, history and geography of Poland) as well as general subjects (drawing, handcrafts and gymnastics).
From all those who graduated high school only two only two received a university education: Meir Marashinsky studied medicine in Switzerland and then emigrated to Argentina; Yosef Kamenyetsky studied humanities at the university in Vilna and later, (in the years 1940/41) was the director of the Jewish-Soviet high school in Ostrin.
Before the destruction those in Shtutshin with higher education were: the pharmacist Merke Lipman and her sister, a bacteriologist Hinda Yasinovsky. The pharmacist Khaim-Feyvl Marashinsky and the dentist Zina Marshak. The second Jewish dentist came from Lida and the Jewish medical doctor (Y.Heller) came from the region of Vilna.
In Shtutshin we were proud of our two “Zaydkes” (Grandpas) who became world renown chemical-scientists: Dr. Yisroel (Zaydke) Marshak – in Paris; engineer Ben-Zion (Zaydke) Levit – in Tel Aviv.
Both left Shtutshin after the first world war, leaving their families behind and
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remained in contact with the town until the outbreak of the second world war.[e]
The Survivors
The above-mentioned facts and descriptions of the emergence are more widely and comprehensively described by the author of these lines at the eve of the outbreak of the second world war, in a special published collection (from the publishing house in Shtutshin), which was published on the 15th of August 1939, and was to serve as a beginning of a periodical called “Life in Shtutshin”. Two weeks later (September 1st 1939) the Polish-German war broke out and on September 18th 1939 the Rd Army marched into Shtutshin and at that moment the emergence of the town came to an abrupt stop.
In the two years of Soviet rule (1939-1941) the outer appearance of the town changed again, as well as the lifestyle of the Jewish population who wanted to fit in with the new Soviet reality. Approximately 60 Jews at this time were sent deep into Russia. Against this, approximately 200 Jewish refugees settled in Shtutshin. When the Germans entered Shtutshin (June 1941) there were 5000 people, almost 3000 were Jews.
The author of these lines visited Shtutshin in August 1945, a year after the town was liberated by the Red Army from Hitler's rule. He found 8 Jewish people from the pre-war population and together with them compiled a list of all the survivors, who during that year tried to connect with the town, searching for family and friends. The list consisted of 68 people, among them were: 54 people who were sent deep into Russia or escaped with the retreating Red Army (in June 1941); 8 who were in the forests with the partisans; 5 who were hidden by Christians and one who was liberated from the concertation camps.
We are providing here a list (alphabetically according to the Hebrew alphabet) of those who survived:
Ivenitsky Soreh, Itikzon Tsadok, Balansky Taybe, Genia,
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Blokh Berl and his wife Gitl (Vitovsky), Blokh Zviya, Berstovitsky Leyb, Berezovsky Feyfl, Berezovsky Shimon and his son, Gavurin Dovid, Galperin Yehuda, Gonshorovsky Benzion, Halperin Yisroel, Vasilsky Mordkhai, Vitovsky Meylekh, Vayn Binyomin, Vayner Eliyahu, Zhmudsky yakov, Khayt Rafael, Tankus Moishe, Toshmovsky Dovid, Tcherniak Leyzer, Hirsh, Shayne, Yevelyevitch Henie, Katz Shmuel Mordkhai with his wife and two children Losh Liber, Lidsky Yisroel, Lipman (Zhmudsky) Rokhl and her daughter, Mazavietsky Yakov, Mostovsky Yosef, Medlinsky Avrom Mordkhai, his siter rayzl and her daughter, Nutshkovsky Khane, Nutshovsky Leyb and Shloyme, Nibulsky Yosef, Stotsky Khaye, Polatchek Hirsh Leyb, Presman Shmuel, Frish (Listovsky) Sonia and five children (Fania, Miriam, Tsila, Khane, Yitzkhok), Kravietz Dovod, Ratman Mordkhai, Rafalovitch Moishe and his sister Tzvia, Shnayder Shmuel Yakov.
From the above-mentioned people, 39 later went to the State of Israel; 22 remained in Soviet Russia; 7 to various other countries.
In Shtutshin proper, in the field which stretched the length of the eastern side of town, between the “old” and “new” cemetery, are the remains of 2,060 holy corpses of Shtutshin Jews, buried in one large communal grave – a vestige and memorial of the emergence and destruction.
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Original footnotes:
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