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Szczebrzeszyn
Szczebrzeszyn is a town in the Zamość district, in the Lublin voivodship, which is situated on the Wieprz river, in the west-central area of the Roztocze region. It has a population of approximately 5,600.
Worth seeing
- church of St. Mikołaj
- the former Franciscan monastery complex
- the synagogue
- the Orthodox church
- the Jewish cemetery
- the late Baroque palace belonging to the Zamoyski family, built in 1744-1746.
Historical outline
According to archeological research, the first settlers appeared in the area that today comprises the town about five thousand years ago. Then, during the period of great migrations, this territory became depopulated. Settlement resumed in the eighth century. In the tenth century, Szczebrzeszyn and the medieval towns on the upper Wieprz and Bug rivers developed quickly because of their advantageous positions on the trade route linking the Arab world with Europe. As a result, at the same time they became a target for Tatar invasions and a source of rivalry among the indigenous Łędzie, Rusyns, and also the developing state of the Wiślans. From the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, Szczebrzeszyn changed hands many times, being of particular interest to the Poles and the Rusyns. The situation changed in 1352, when King Kazimierz the Great set up his camp near Szczebrzeszyn during his expedition against Lithuania. The first written documents mentioning the existence of Szczebrzeszyn date back to this year. In Latin documents, Szczebrzeszyn is called Scebresinum. Despite the truce with the Lithuanians, concluded by Kazimierz in Szczebrzeszyn, and the transfer to them of the Grody Czerwieńskie (Czerwińsk fortified towns), including Szczebrzeszyn, he persisted in his wish for them to be annexed Poland, which happened finally in 1366.
Szczebrzeszyn received its town charter in the second half of the fourteenth century; the powiat (district) of Szczebrzeszyn was granted to Dymitr of Goraj for his service during the war with the Lithuanians. Dymitr was an unusual figure who had they complete trust of three excessive kings of Poland: Kazimierz the Great, Ludwik the Hungarian (Louis I the Great) and Władysław II Jagiełło. When he died without an heir, Dymitr's property was divided and became scattered. In the sixteenth century, as a result of a royal decree at the diet in Piotrków, the Szczebrzeszyn estates were given to three brothers from Wielkopolska, Łukasz, Stanisław and Andrzej Górka, who founded a Calvinist church and school there. The town became a place of asylum for persecuted dissenters. Among those who went to Szczebrzeszyn were advocates of the Reformation such as Feliks Krucigier and Feliks Stankar. The Górkas also encouraged Jewish settlement, and it is known that from the mid-sixteenth century on, Szczebrzeszyn had a large Jewish community. In 1593, the town became part of the Zamoyski estate, whose owners were decidedly against the Reformation, and so Protestants were forced to leave. The Zamoyskis, who were concentrating on developing nearby Zamość, were not terribly interested in Szczebrzeszyn's condition.
The Synagogue, photo: A.Olej&K. Kobus:
The seventeenth century brought numerous wars and, as a result, the town declined. In 1672, the town was invaded by Tatars, who damaged it heavily and set it on fire. That same year, the hetman Jan Sobieski took refuge in Szczebrzeszyn when the confederation of Gołębie condemned him for the peace he had concluded with Turkey at Buczacz. A confederation was created in Szczebrzeszyn in his defense. As the result of the first partition, Szczebrzeszyn found itself under Austrian rule; then after a short time it formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw. The date 1811 is an important one, for it was in that year that the schools perpetuating the tradition of the Zamoyski Academy, founded in 1594 by chancellor Jan Zamoyski, were moved to Szczebrzeszyn from Zamość. They operated there until 1852. After Napoleon's defeat, Szczebrzeszyn became part of the Russian partition, and never regained its former splendor and significance. The short-lived economic upturn that came when Poland regained its independence did not bring a lasting improvement to the town's situation.
The first German bombs fell on the "Alwa" factory in Szczebrzeszyn already on 6 September 1939. The town itself was bombed three days later, and was occupied by the German army on 13 September. The Soviet army entered Szczebrzeszyn on 27 September, installing a communist government. After 11 days, the town once again found itself in German hands, which was to remain the case until the end of the war. The occupiers repressed the Polish and Jewish population just as it did in all the towns of the Generalgouvernement. The Nazis turned the presbytery into a casino, destroyed the chapel of St. Leonard, closed the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Catherine - ostensibly handing them over to the Orthodox. In the summer of 1943, men were arrested en masse and were sent to work as forced laborers to Germany or directly to concentration camps. On 10 July 1943, the Germans deported Poles from Szczebrzeszyn and nearby villages (Bodaczów, Deszkowice, Rozłopy, Sułów and others). On 31 August 1943, there was a celebration in honor of the new German commune (gmina) of Szczebrzeszyn, called "Deutsche Landgemeinde, kreis Zamość". Szczebrzeszyn was liberated by the Soviet and Polish armies on 25 July 1944.
The Jews of Szczebrzeszyn
Nothing is known of the earliest Jewish settlement in Szczebrzeszyn, and no documents survive. Jews probably came even as early as during the reign of Kazimierz the Great. Jews are first mentioned in a document dated 1507 from the tax records, which indirectly provides information about their numbers and settlement, since it speaks of a well functioning religious community. The Jews of Szczebrzeszyn were primarily involved in trade with Lublin and Gdańsk, but also engaged in crafts. Their numbers grew, and so did their income, as is revealed by the records in the tax registers. In 1560, the owner of Szczebrzeszyn, Andrzej Górka, renewed the Jewish community's privileges; this document, however, was destroyed in a fire at the castle in 1583. Perhaps it was in this same year that the first synagogue also burned down, because a mention of a fire there is dated 1584. The Jews' privileges were confirmed by King Stefan Batory and also by the next owner of the town, Stanisław Górka, which made it possible for the Jewish merchants to engage in trade freely. This situation was confirmed by Górka's successor, Jan Czarnkowski, who also set aside a parcel for the Jewish cemetery.
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When Szczebrzeszyn became part of the Zamoyski estate in 1595, its new owner, Jan Zamoyski, not only confirmed the privileges that had been granted by his predecessors, but also freed the Jews from the rent they had been required to pay for the synagogue and kirkut. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Lezajasz Menechem, son of Izaak, the rabbi of Szczebrzeszyn, was named rabbi of Kraków � the largest Jewish community in Poland that time. In 1648, the community experienced heavy losses as a result of the Chmielnicki uprising. Those events were described by Meir ben Szmuel in a book he published in Kraków in 1650, titled Tsok Ha'ittim. More destruction was wrought by the invasions of Swedes, Turks and Tatars. In 1701, 1727 and 1741, Szczebrzeszyn was host to congresses of Jewish representatives from the Commonwealth, called Council of Four Lands (Va'ad Arba' Aratzot). As a result of the crisis in the Polish state, the partitions, and tax restrictions, the Jewish community also began to decline. The nineteenth-century was marked by strong Hasidic influences, in part thanks to the tsaddik from Jaworów who was active in Szczebrzeszyn at that time, Elimelech Hurwicz. In the late nineteenth century, Jews made up approximately half of Szczebrzeszyn's population. During the interwar period, the Jews from Zwierzyniec and the surrounding area seceded from the Jewish Community of Szczebrzeszyn. They created a separate community with its own synagogue, mikva and cemetery, which still exists today. Before 1939, there were about 3,200 Jews living in Szczebrzeszyn.
Decorations inside the synagogue. Photo: K.W.
During the Second World War, the Nazis created a ghetto in Szczebrzeszyn, where they concentrated Jews from the town and surrounding area, as well as from other locations. After May 1941, the ghetto was pacified many times. The Germans shot Jews on the town's streets; there were also round-ups and arrests, which ended in deportation to Germany for forced labor, and frequently to concentration camps, including Bełżec, to which over 900 Jews from Szczebrzeszyn were sent. The Germans looted and destroyed Jewish property, and burned the synagogue in November 1939. They also carried out executions at the cemetery, which has two mass graves of about 3,000 Jews who were killed. Nazi policies led to almost the complete extermination of Szczebrzeszyn's Jews.
The largest group of Jews from Szczebrzeszyn who managed to survive the war (and their descendants) today lives in Haifa, Israel. In 1984, they published a collective "Memorbuch of the Szczebrzeszyn Jews". The Israeli Association of Szczebrzeszyn Jews funded a monument in memory of the suffering that the Jews from Szczebrzeszyn and the surrounding area experienced at the hands of the Nazis. It was unveiled on 6 August 1991 at the kirkut in Szczebrzeszyn. One of the figures in the famous sculpture "Bread Line", which is part of the Cherry Tree Walk in Washington DC, by George Segal, was modeled on Leon Bibel, a painter and sculptor originally from Szczebrzeszyn.
The Synagogue
The synagogue in Szczebrzeszyn was first mentioned in the late sixteenth century. The synagogue that still stands today was built in the early seventeenth century in the late Renaissance style. Seriously damaged by Chmielnicki's Cossacks, it was rebuilt and also changed somewhat in the eighteenth century. In 1940, after the Germans entered the town, it was burned and later fell into ruin. During the years 1957-1963, it was rebuilt and used as a Cultural Center.
Aron ha-kodesz. Foto: J.J.
The walls of the prayer room are decorated with pilasters and moldings. The tall mansard roof is a reconstruction of the original. One-story women's galleries are adjacent to the prayer room on both the southern and northern sides. On the western side, a one-story annex was added on, where once meetings were held, as well as another women's gallery on the first floor (second floor, US). The prayer room is lower in relation to the level of the vestibule, and its interior is decorated with elaborate stucco work. The wall-paintings that were once there have not survived. The ceiling is a cloister-vault with lunettes, below which is a broad band with pilastered, arcaded niches. The stone Aron ha-kodesh (ark) is also in the late Renaissance style, and has the words of Psalm 16:8 engraved on it: "I have set the Lord always before me". The southern wall is decorated with an image of a holiday menorah, with a stylized pomegranate below it - the symbol of the Promised Land.
The Cemetery
Despite the devastation wreaked by the Nazis, the cemetery has one of the most interesting collections of Jewish tombstones in the Lublin region, as well as the largest. It contains about four hundred matzevot, many of which have lovely details engraved on them, and some of which still have remnants of their original polychromes. They are primarily decorated with plant motifs, but other symbols have also survived, such as palms in a gesture of blessing, or shelves with books.
Important residents of Szczebrzeszyn
Wojciech Basaj, rector of the Kraków Academy, 1562-1564
Jan Siestrzyński, pioneer of Polish phonetics
Rafał Hadziewicz, painter
Józef Brandt, famous painter of historical subjects
Important Jewish Residents of Szczebrzeszyn
Cohen Izahar Ber, sixteenth century, prominent Talmudist
Philip Bibel, author of a collection of memoirs about Szczebrzeszyn titled "Tales of the Shtetl"
Leon Bibel, painter and sculptor
In 1833, Tema Blima Szejner was born in Szczebrzeszyn � the grandmother of the writer and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer.
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