|
Tomaszów Mazowiecki
The city of Tomaszów Mazowiecki was founded around the turn of the 19th century on lands belonging to the Ostrowski family. It was an industrial settlement from the beginning. Deposits of red iron were the initial draw. Later weaving and trade, which were popular in the region, engendered the town�s rapid economic development.
The first Jewish settlers arrived even before the town received its charter in 1830. They arrived at the turn of the century from neighboring towns and were generally innkeepers. At the beginning of the 19th century Jakow Steinman, along with the town's other Jews, began to arrange for both German immigrants and investment capital in order to develop the textile industry; they did so with the consent of Count Antoni Ostrowski.
The Jewish Community in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was officially created in 1831, and built a synagogue at that time. The construction of subsequent prayer houses and synagogues followed the continued development of the Jewish settlement.
Orthodox Jews called the city "Tejma Szaw"-unclean, as Jews worked in the factories on Saturdays.
Photo: from the Tomasz Wi¶niewski collection
From the beginning the industrial settlement in Tomaszów had a well-developed city plan of streets and squares that clearly demarcated their futures in accordance with the overall plan for the town's development. In this deliberate manner new districts were planned along the banks of the Wolbórka River to house weavers who were arriving in the city. The center for the wool trade was planned for the area around the St. Antoni square, which was also known as the Nowy Rynek. Streets with names like Mojżesza and Boźnicza quickly started to appear suggesting that the area was inhabited by a Jewish population. In 1829 plots were assigned on which a synagogue and a Jewish hospital were to be built; 2.8 acres of land was also set aside for a Jewish cemetery. At this time plans for a kosher butcher were also drawn up. It is difficult to say that only wealthy Jews settled in Tomaszów. The city's districts were planned along economic lines and not based on the backgrounds of those who settled. In the beginning Jews faced no restrictions in where they could live and therefore settled throughout the city, deciding on particular streets as their means permitted. Poor Jews who arrived in Tomaszów Mazowiecki settled in the nearby village of Niebory, which was colloquially known by its residents as Precz Bieda and Baraki (Poverty/Misery Be Gone and Barracks, respectively). In accordance with both the law and customs of that time, Jews were free to settle where they liked, after having received prior consent from the town's landlord, of course.
Foto: A.Bia³kowski
After the town's status changed from a privately-held to a government-run municipally (the lands belonging to the Ostrowski family were confiscated for having participated in the November Uprising), which occurred in the middle of 1844, a Jewish district was demarcated in the town. Initially, this area housed 150 families and included Polna, Boźnicza, Mojżesza, Jerozolimska, Handlowa Streets, as well as parts of Kramarska and Wschodnia Streets.
In 1856 after once again expanding the city's limits, a new plot of land in the Lipianki woods was allotted for a cemetery; this included land for a Jewish cemetery as well.
Industry
The Jewish population of Tomaszów grew to the point that by the end of the 19th century Jews comprised over fifty percent of the city's population.
During the second half of the 19th century the textile industry grew. Along side the factories of German settlers, factories were built by Z. and E. Bornstein, Hilary Landsberg and Ch.Rubin. Quickly, because of a decided lack of available plots of land that in essence prevented the expansion and development of factories, industrialists began to move their factories outside the city. This growth led to factories being built in neighboring villages and settlements. In 1889, Bornstein moved his factory from the city to the neighboring village of Starzyce. Kronenberg also left the confines of Tomaszów, moving his iron mill to Gustek. Many others followed suit.
In the 19th century the textile industry in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was the most important economic sector and, as in Łódź, Zgierz and Pabianice, had numerous mills and factories. In addition to the textile plants, there were other, smaller factories that were also important for the region�s economy, including Moryc Cymerman�s lock making plant, which at the beginning of the 20th century began to produce pumps and farming machinery.
The economic situation of the city changed with the outbreak of World War I. From this period, as a result of losing the Russian Empire's textile market, cloth production played an ever-decreasing role in the city's economy. Factories were forced to shift production to meet the needs of the new national market of the reconstituted Polish state.
During the interwar period the ethnic composition of Tomaszów changed in an inopportune way vis-à-vis the Jewish community. During this period, Jews constituted roughly twenty-seven percent of the city's population. The economic crisis, especially during the 1932, led to the demise of a number of longstanding Jewish businesses, including the 1935 auction of M. Salomonowicz's factory.
Charitables
The Jewish community maintained a tradition of charity activity, helping Jews in need, including the Chewra Kadisza (Burial Society); philanthropists also supported orphanages, hospitals, schools and the like. It was not until Poland regained its independence that such charity organizations could legally and formally exist. Jewish communities gladly took advantage of these opportunities to fulfill their civic duty. Jewish political and social organizations quickly began to develop during this period. The charity organization Linas Hacedek played a particularly important role in Tomaszów's Jewish community, especially during tough economic times. In 1933 it opened a soup kitchen that served around 500 lunches a day.
The Jewish community's governing body also played an active role in organizing help for the aid for those most in need. It organized longstanding and one-off programs, including fuel, clothing and food drives. During the 1930s manufacturers, including Samuel and Emanuel Bornsztajn, and Bolesław Szeps, were well-known Jewish philanthropists in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. They funded programs that fed children in both schools and orphanages. Philanthropic organizations in the community raised money to buy schoolbooks for children. They also sent children to summer and day camps, and raised money to help sick children and those threatened by various illnesses, especially tuberculosis.
Trade unions and political parties
In Tomaszów, as in other well-developed industrial cities, trade unions played an important role in organizing the workers of various industries. Jewish workers were courted by trade unions that were also included Poles, and to a lesser degree Germans. The Clothing Workers Trade Union (later known as the Industrial Tailors Trade Union of Tomaszów Mazowiecki), however, mainly counted Jewish workers among its members. Their well-known activists included Jakub Bornsztajn, Jakub Sztajnbok, Szewach Berkowicz and Motel Łokieć, among others. This trade union, along with its social works, was actively engaged organizing cultural and educational activities, mainly through lecture series on various topics.
There were Jewish trade unions that catered to other professions, including, among others, those for cobblers, wood workers, those who worked in leather works factories, as well as the Central Jewish Workers Union, which organized leaders of various professional organizations.
Political parties played an important role for the Jews of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. There were many parties, including the Workers of Zion, the socialist Bund, the Organization of Zionist Revisionists and the New Zionist Organization. Political parties also combined their strength to run as coalitions in local elections. Such parties included the Party of Progressive Jews, the Zionist-Craftsmen-Workers Block, the Jewish Economic Block, the Jewish Association of Property Owners, the Jewish Election Committee (comprised of non-aligned workers, craftsmen sales clerks, etc.), as well as the Union of Jewish Veterans-headed by Władysław Landsberg-that organized former soldiers who had fought for Poland�s independence.
Second World War
In 1939 there were 11,892 people of Jewish descent who lived in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. After taking the city on September 7, 1939, the German army plundered its stores, warehouses and factories. One million zloty worth of goods was taken from the Landsberg factory alone. From the start the Germans began rounding up Jewish residents of the city. On the September 13th alone, over 300 people of Jewish heritage were picked up and sent to Buchenwald. From the beginning of the occupation, the situation in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was worsened by the fact that there was a large number of German settlers and their descendants who, as Volksdeutsche, denounced and identified their former Jewish neighbors, motivated in part by the opportunity to acquire Jewish property.
Very early on the Tomaszowski County Elders' Councils appealed to the German administration to allow Jewish children to attend school; they request was categorically denied. Despite this, at least until the end of 1940, Felis Bernsztajn secretly directed a full range of studies in the Jewish neighborhoods. He later continued this effort in the ghetto.
The German authorities established enormous quotas of food and industrial products that the civilian population was forced to provide their overseers with; this burden was largely borne by the cityA. Additionally all factories and workshops that before the war were owned by Jews were transferred to an administrative trust that in turn found new, German managers. Many properties were also stolen and transferred into the hands of the local Volksdeutsche. Tomaszów Mazowiecki quickly became, once again, a significant producer of textiles, which to a large degree met the needs of the General Government. The seizure of Jewish businesses was not finished until the beginning of 1940.
|
The German plans to build important military facilities and station army units in Tomaszów and its environs generated a demand for large numbers of forced laborers. In the spring of 1940 in the Spalski Forest, a military airport was built, which was followed by bunkers and barracks, all of which were connected by a special rail line to the Reich. It is important to remember that the area around Tomaszów was the area of operations of the famous Major Henryk Dobrzański, codenamed "Hubal". This greatly influenced German efforts to improve security in and around the city, while at the same time increasing their terror of the city's civilian population. From the beginning of the occupation Jews were forced into slave labor, building, among other things, barracks and roads, and dikes along the Wolbórka River.
On the 14th and 16th of November 1940 Germans burned all four synagogues in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. Soon afterwards they banned on all gatherings, funeral services and even notifications of deaths. Jews were ordered to bow before all military police officers and Volksdeutsche. They were also banned from walking on the sidewalk and forced to walk in the middle of the street. On April 29 1940 Jews were banned from walking the city streets altogether.
Photo: A.Bia³kowski
On May 3 the Germans opened the Tomaszów Ghetto. As Jews during the interwar period were allowed to live throughout the city, the location of both the ghetto and the labor camp were chosen rather arbitrarily. Formally the ghetto was opened on December 15 1940. It occupied areas of three of the city's neighborhoods and was located in different parts of the cities. In all the ghetto occupied about 65 hectares. The area was delimited by the following streets: Wschodnia Street, Zgorzelecka Street, Legionów Street, Smugowa Street, Jerozolimska Street, Żwirki-Wigury Street and Polna Street. Work camps created smaller concentrations of Jews and were officially located outside the ghetto on Szeroka Street and between Władysława Street and Projektowa Street.
Photo: A.Bia³kowski
In November 1941 the ghetto was decreased in size and was concentrated between Wschodnia Street, Krzyżowa Street, Zgorzelicka Street, Legionów Street and Smugowa Street. The occupying authority's next move was to close the ghetto entirely. On November 7 1941 warnings were placed on the entrances to the ghetto that stated that all Jews caught beyond the confines of the ghetto would be shot on the spot. Not long after the ghetto was set up Jews from the areas around Tomaszów Mazowiecki were interned there. In March 1941 15,032 people lived in the ghetto. At this tim Germans started deporting Jews to forced labor camps in Bliżyna and Pionki.
The Germans carried out regular operations with the aim of liquidating the residents of the Jewish ghetto. In April 1942 they rounded up and killed Jewish political activists; in the beginning of May they did the same with the bakers and butchers. They then moved against the Jewish intelligentsia: doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc. On May 7 1942 they killed the members of the Council of Elders, shooting eighty people. Executions often took place in the Jewish cemetery where pre-dug mass graves awaited their victims. The nearby village of Węgrzynowice was the site of mass executions of Hungarian Jews.
The final extermination of the Tomaszów Mazowiecki ghetto took place between October 31 and November 2, 1942, during which many people were killed on the spot, with the rest being sent to the Treblinka death camp. The ghetto officially ceased to exist on December 4 1942. Only a group of 920 Jews remained in Tomaszów, for whom a forced labor camp was opened, which in turn was eliminated in September 1943. In May and September 1943 these last remaining Jews were deported to Starachówice.
Of the entire Jewish population of Tomaszów Mazowiecki barely 500 people survived. In Tomaszowski County private individuals tried to help Jews for which many paid with their lives. Bureaucrats tried, too. The mayors of Łaziska and Inowłódz defended Jews in letters to the kreishauptmann, i.e. district captain.
Education
In the beginning Jewish education in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was exclusively religious in character. The Jewish community, synagogues and larger prayer houses opened and ran cheders. Later Talmud-Tora schools were opened. The first general school open to children of various faiths was initially opened in the village of Tobiasze, some six kilometers away, though it was finally moved to Tomaszów Mazowiecki in 1822. Initially the school did not have a fixed location and instead rented space in homes, including Icek Sauder�s at 157 Piekarska Street. It finally found a permanent building at 74 Kaliska Street. At that time Jewish children were required to attend the only, catholic school. Most families decided, however, not to send their children. Jewish children generally attended private schools run by the Jewish community or by prayer houses-cheders. In the 19th century, there were a dozen or so such schools.
In 1833 in accordance with new laws it became possible to open separate schools for different faiths. From 1851 the Jewish population began trying to organize its own school, which was justified on the grounds that most Jewish children did not know Polish, and that most teachers did not know Yiddish-the language spoken by the Jewish population. Another important reason for having a Jewish school was that the catholic schools operated on Saturday and during Jewish holidays. An additional reason was to be found in the elementary school curriculum, which included teaching of religion and Christian customs, which were things that the Jewish community could not accept.
In 1869 the first coeducational Jewish elementary school opened at 42 Kaliska Street (now 8 Wojska Polskiego Street). The school operated under difficult conditions: in one room divided into two teaching areas-by wooden planks�for two separate grades. From 1872 as a result of the growing wave of orthodoxy within the Jewish community, the school began to loose students to private religious education. Continuing one's educational after primary school constituted another problem. The first municipal, four-grade middle school (Aleksandrówka) opened in Tomaszów in 1880; the Jewish male population attended it sporadically.
The first lay schools offering general education were not organized until after Poland gained its independence. In Tomaszów, however, a large portion of both the administrative and financial responsibility of running them rested with the Jewish community. The same was the case with organizing vocational education.
A Coeducational Jewish High School operated during the interwar period. Girls from wealthy homes also attended the private Anna Walkzelfiszowa Girls High School. In addition there were also separate schools for Jewish children and young people, including truncated Matchijak High School. After several visits by state educational authorities, the school acquired the right to become a state high school, and the city even granted a plot of land on which to construct a new building for it.
Culture and newspapers
The market for Jewish newspapers, magazines and other press grew in the city. Daily newspaper appeared, including the Tomaszower Cajtund (1924-1932), along with periodicals and newspapers that were in reality organs of various political parties.
From the 1820s onward the city's theater hosted performances by traveling theater troupes, including provincial Jewish troupes. In 1880, Aron Neufeld put on performances for Jewish audiences in the theater hall, later referred to as Neufeld Hall, at 1 Tkacka Street; he also performed in private halls.
The cultural scene in Tomaszów was not particularly popular. Readings and lectures were organized, including, for example, the Tadeusz Wieniawa-Długoszewski lecture in 1936 that concentrated on the situation of Polish Jews. Art exhibitions were also organized by the city, including one that presented the works that Ignacy Hirszfang painted in Kazimierz nad Wisłą. Tomaszów did not create or maintain stable salons, exhibition galleries or even local theater companies.
Synagogues
The first synagogue in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was opened in 1831, when the Jewish community was officially created. Most likely this was a modest wooden building. The Jewish community soon built a magnificent stone and brick synagogue. The rapid development of the Jewish settlement in the 19th century caused several synagogues and prayer houses to be built, which were destroyed during the war. The Jewish community's synagogue was burned by the Germans in the fall of 1939. The Torah, however, was saved and buried for safekeeping. After the war it was retrieved.
Cemeteries
The first Jewish cemetery was created in 1831 on 2.8 acres of land that were granted by Antoni Ostrowski, the city's owner. The new city plan of 1856 allotted more land to the Jewish cemetery in the Lepianki forest (currently 19 Smutna Street; entrance at 17 Stycznia Street). The grounds of the cemetery, which occupied nearly three hectares of land, was devastated during war. Nearly two thousand gravestones survived, including that of Tzaddik Jakob Elijah. The cemetery is surrounded by a concrete and brick wall. The grounds hold a monument commemorating the city�s Jewish community.
You are welcome to discuss about "Tomaszów Mazowiecki "
|
mapa miejsc
|
)
)
)
)