On the 25^th of June 1943, at the same time as when the security police and Gestapo attacked the bunkers of the fighting organization in the small ghetto, all of the Jewish workers who were working in the ammunition factories were detained there and not allowed back into the ghetto. Liht, the chief director of HASAG-Apparatebau, carried out a roll call of all the workers and declared to them that, “The return of Jews into the ghetto would no longer be considered.” Among the group of Jews being held in the ammunition factory were several active members of the fighting organization who had special jobs there in connection with the manufacture of grenades. Later, they were joined by fighters and activists in the underground movement who by a miracle were not killed during the liquidation of the small ghetto. In the forest, there also remained 23 fighters who were at three separate locations.


[Page 158]


The fighters in the camps did not display any activity during the first two or three weeks; it was noticed that several [showed] a visible depression. And others, as if ashamed that they had survived, expressed at the rare and short gatherings their feeling of envy of those whose fate had permitted them to perish in a fight. Little by little, groups began to be created in the camps of HASAG-Apparatebau and HASAG-Eizenhuta.

The most active element – in a political sense – was the reduced communist group that consisted of about thirty people, divided into five cells. At the head of this organization stood: Sztajnbrecher, who was responsible for the work, Wajnrajch (perished later in Buchenwald), Jadza (Ita) Brener, Sztrausberg and Szwierczewski. The organization would revise political reports and carry out sabotage work in the production. Sympathizers grouped themselves around the core. Kuba Lipsztajn, the communist, was the most vigorous activist. A united front was achieved in the HASAG, at the head of which stood a committee of the following composition: Sztajnbrecher and Wajnrajch (Polish Workers Party), Dimand (Hashomer Hatzair [Socialist-Zionist]), Szimonowicz (left Poalei-Zion [Marxist-Zionists]) and L. Brener (Bund). The worker Josefowicz, a lock-mechanic, who excelled at sabotage work, was among the most devoted independent activists who belonged to the revolt movement here, as well as the fighters, Hilel Fridrajch, Mlodinow, Walczinscki, Prozer, Cymerman, Wernik, Jacek and so on. At first, the liaison between the camp groups and the courier from the Warsaw underground was the Polish worker, Jan Brust, who would smuggle into the Rakow factory everything that “Vladka” from Warsaw had given him and there he would turn over everything. The Jewish comrades would send out everything from here that was designated for us in Pelcery through the Polish worker Woyceck Nabialek. Woyceck would give this to his nephew, Eugeniusz Nabialek, who worked at Pelcery.


[Page 159]


Eugeniusz would smuggle things in here and give it to us. The frequent searches that were carried out when the Polish workers crossed through the factory gates demanded a great deal of care. Everything went on peacefully for a long time. Once, a very strenuous search was carried out when Brust had letters and money with him. Noticing how workers standing in front of him were being checked, he withdrew from the gate and destroyed the letter. Factory security members noticed this and wanted to stop him. He began to run away. The factory security began to fire after him and Brust fell severely wounded. The letters already had been torn into small pieces and widely scattered by the wind. He swallowed several pieces of the letters that were still with him when he fell. However, the money was found on him and confiscated. “Jacek,” the Jewish liaison officer, immediately learned of this and sent out a sum of money from his reserve to rescue Brust. However, his wounds were so severe that no doctor could save him. Jan Brust died a few days later. He perished at his post, tragically, helping the Jews. After this tragic case, contact was transferred to the “Pelcera.” The liaison here was Mendjec, the Polish foreman, and his daughter, who had earlier been in contact with Jankl Gutman, the tailor.

Meanwhile, aid activities kept widening. So those who could not be drawn into the clandestine work could also benefit from the aid, the same security group leaders, Kapos [prisoners assigned by the Germans to carry out various tasks in the ghetto], who worked with the underground movement, received certain sums of money to buy bread and divide it among their groups of workers and also to procure special lunches for the sick workers in their groups. There were also such volunteers who had sums of money at their disposal and they would use it as loans to people to be divided among those suffering from need without them knowing from where the money originated to be paid back after the war. After the Jews from the Lodz ghetto arrived and, later, from Skarzysko, the aid work had to become more intensive, although the means were very limited.


[Page 160]


Several men led by Engineer Afrat, who was an envoy from Warsaw while still in the Skarzysko camp, took part in the aid work among the prisoners from the camp. Doctor Trajwicz (from Bialystok, arrived with the Jews from the Skarzysko camp) was occupied with the aid work in the HASAG-Warta camp with Polya Koczol, the nurse who earlier was at [HASAG] Rakow and there worked with Doctor Glatter and with Wernik and Wilczinski and later was transferred to Warta where she again worked as a nurse in the camp hospital there headed by Dr. Trajwicz. Their activity was severely limited because of the routine that reigned in the Warta camp and because of the fear of the Jewish camp leader and the Jewish policemen there who ruled with an “iron fist as the Germans had ruled,” as well as the inadequate means that would be sent from the Pelcery. The situation there was worse than in the rest of the camps. There could be no talk of creating a fighting group there. The routine in the Warta camp was very severe because there the camp leader of Skarzysko, Bartenschlager, knew mostly what he could do to the insecure Jewish prisoners. The routine also became more severe in Pelcery. The fight leadership in the camps of Rakow and Pelcery provided an exact account of the situation and made intensive attempts to organize the fighting fifths [groups of five members] and to prepare plans for a revolt in case of an “aktsia” [deportation]. The leadership of the fighting group in Pelcery worked out three plans: preparing tools that the “fifths” would use in fighting, disrupting the factory by igniting the dynamite storehouse and organizing a number of substantial groups where resolved fighters would be found who were ready to sacrifice their own lives, attack the work security guards at a designated moment, disarm them, control the factory for a certain time so a larger number of people could escape.


[Page 161]


This responsibility for making special shears and pliers with insulated handles that would be able to cut the wire fence even where it was electrified was given to Adasz Sztajnbrecher, the communist. The remaining members of the leadership allotted the barracks among themselves where each one had to organize and direct a “fifth.”

The comrades in Warsaw expressed their readiness to provide weapons and called for us to provide them with a way to bring the weapons into the camps. However, the searches of the Polish workers in factories became more frequent and more vigorous. Therefore, it became impossible to find among the Polish workers in Pelcery workers who would and could undertake such dangerous smuggling. “Jacek,” who strongly yearned for an armed stand, declared that there was such a specialist in the Eizenhuta, who had found a Polish officer who had agreed to provide weapons. Later, “Jacek” advised that the same person had told him that he was an officer in the A.K. [Armia Krajowa – Home Army, the main Polish resistance movement] and he would do nothing for the Jews.

They had to give up the idea of fighting with weapons in their hands. The underground cells continued to carry on their work: meetings took place, joint conversation were arranged on the memorial days for the deportations in the large and small Czenstochow ghettos and of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The press that would be smuggled in went from hand to hand and they strove to receive radio news from time to time. The radio news was received from male and female workers who would be taken by the German foremen to the “colony” to clean their residences. They attempted to catch something from the radio from time to time. In addition, Fufek Rozencwajg received radio news in the workshop where he worked in a certain manner. They were in constant contact with Warsaw. They did not wait for a courier from Warsaw in cases of need, but sent letters through Jankl Gutman to the liaison, Mędrzec, with whom the Warsaw couriers would stop and he and his daughter or wife would send them to Warsaw to Maria Borkowska at Krochmalna 83.


[Page 162]


On a certain day work security attacked the barracks in the HASAG-Pelcery camp and confiscated all of the collected tools as well as the tools from all of the artisans who would make various things to sell. There were no reasons given for such searches that were repeated several times. However, all of the tools were taken and a decree also was issued that no tools could be found in the barracks square or in the barracks themselves, even those that were necessary to clean [the barracks].

On the 4^th of November 1944, during the search of the Polish workers upon their departure from the Pelcery factory, letters were found on Eugeniusz Nabialek that had been sent by Natka Wernik to “Jacek” at “Rakow” and he was arrested. The second contact person, Wojciech Nabialek, was also arrested in connection with this. The letters that were found on Eugeniusz led to the trail of Natka and Jacek, who were arrested. Both Nabialeks were sent to the Gross Rosen concentration camp where Wojciech perished. Jacek and Natka also were deported. Eugeniusz Nabialek, Jacek and Natka survived. All three were saved by the Red Army.

The fighting mood of the prisoners in the camps changed during the last months before the liberation. The bringing of the Jews to Czenstochow from the Skarzysko and Plaszow camps, which was instigated by Germans, that the Jews were to make room for various people in the camps, caused many to forgot the sad experiences they had been through up to then and was interpreted as a sign that they [the Germans] would not kill any more Jews. We [reported] to the comrades in Warsaw about the atmosphere among the prisoners and about the changing relationships in the camps. The answer from the central party authorities was that we should not have any illusions because the politics of the German fascists in relation to the Jews had not changed in general and if there was no prospects of entering into open struggle, the activists should escape from the camp.


[Page 163]


Because of the danger of collective responsibility, it was decided that the most active should not escape and it also was understood that there would be no possibility of entering into an open fight.

Contact with Warsaw was broken in August 1944 because of the Warsaw Uprising. However, in a few days messengers again were sent to Czenstochow and to Konicepol. The usual couriers from Warsaw renewed contact with Medrzec's daughter and constantly asked after the “health” of her relatives.

Becalel Altman, who was taken out of the camp every morning as a good baker to be a baker outside baking bread for the Germans, became the contact man with the new messenger from Warsaw. The bakery, where Altman would bake the bread, was the meeting point for him and the messenger from the Warsaw underground.

In December 1944 we were convinced of the truth of the warnings from the comrades in Warsaw that the German politics in relation to the Jews had not changed. S.S. members came who took over the entire management of the Jewish camps. The routine became a great deal worse from when [Georg] Bartenschlager had ruled. It became impossible to move from the factory square to the barracks. Only entire labor groups could march out from the barracks to work in closed ranks after the roll call and march into work. It also became impossible to continue to run the kitchen for the sick and the children who had to make sure that the S.S. not notice them. The S.S. had a certain Goldsztajn to help them, whom they brought from the Plaszow camp. This person brought everything to them and beat the prisoners no less than the S.S. members themselves. Therefore, the aid activity from outside was entirely interrupted. On the spot, they [the aid activities] were still carried out with the last reserves, but in a limited amount until the 15^th of August 1945, when the Red Army neared the gates of Czenstochow and the former prisoners became the bosses of their own lives and freedom.

However, great anti-Semitic A.K. bandits under the name Orzel [eagle] were in the Koniecpol area. The Jewish fighters in Koniecpol, not knowing the character of these bandits, began to carry out negotiations about joint actions against the Germans. The exact location and terms of the first meeting were discussed. Several Jewish partisans, with Kuba Ribsztajn at the head, were chosen and waited at the designated place and time for the Polish partisan delegation. Ten partisans arrived with revolvers and automatic weapons. Kuba and his comrades, not suspecting the Polish partisans of anything bad, went toward them with joy and earnestness, not even removing their revolvers from their pockets. As soon as they were face to face, the members of Orzel opened fire on the Jewish group. Several of the already wounded Jewish partisans succeeded in escaping death. All of the rest perished on the spot.

The Jewish fighters in Koniecpol became more cautious after this occurrence. They then assembled bunkers [on the property of] certain Poles and would only leave them at night to carry out attacks on their own at designated points where there were Germans. Even in the bunkers, the small group of Jewish fighters did not have any rest from the reactionary A.K.-bands. The members of Orzel searched for the bunkers of the remaining Jewish partisans. After a while, a large group of them attacked the bunker in which were located: Jehuda Gliksztajn, Bela Zbarowska and Bela Bram.

Amstew expulsion (Mstow) 25th September 1942

[Page 165]


All three were successful in escaping from the murderous hands and disappeared in the forest. The members of the Orzel organized a chase after them. The granat policemen [Blue police – Polish police in the Nazi-occupied area of Poland known as the General Government], who served in Koniecpol, came to their aid. The three Jewish fighters were surrounded in a narrow area of the forest where they were captured under fire from automatic weapons used by the granat policemen and they perished.

A Polish leftist partisan division of Hanis also was located in the Koniecpol area; several members of the Jewish Fighting Organization joined this partisan group, which accepted them in a fraternal and comradely manner. Here, the ŻOB [Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa – Jewish Fighting Organization] members had their first opportunity to demonstrate their exploits and sacrifice. Lejzer Szidlowski particularly excelled here. Lejzer came from Amstow. On the 25^th of September 1942, when the expulsion of the Jews from Amstow began, his family members hid in a bunker where, as Lejzer later said, they were murdered because of a robbery. Lejzer then carried with him the idea of suicide. This feeling disappeared suddenly when he was drawn more strongly into the work of ŻOB in the small ghetto. His external appearance made it possible for him to move more freely as an “Aryan” than others and to carry out very dangerous missions for the organization. He already was trained in his “trade” of carrying out the tasks laid on him by the organization, that even when he was stopped near Wilot (ghetto gate) when he had a weapon on him, he turned around in a deft manner and smuggled and carried the weapon into the ghetto. Lejzer showed a great deal of heroism with his boldness both in the ranks of ŻOB and the ranks of the Gwardia Ludowa [People's Guard]. Lejzer, already wounded, also excelled greatly in the fight against the Germans carried on by the “Hanis” Group in the area of the village, Święta Anna (near Koniecpol). He fell in 1944.

The most secure bunker near Koniecpol, where the fighters maintained themselves, was in the village of Michałów.


[Page 166]


There they were in the Polish family Pindeliak's house, where the wife, Celina Pindeliak, stated that 15 members of ŻOB under the leadership of Boliek Gewercman were with them. The same woman said that only eight of the 15 survived. At the end of January 1945 several of them arrived in Czenstochow and Gewercman, their representative, began to take part in the building of a renewed Jewish community in Czenstochow.

On the 14^th of December 1944 the camps in Czenstochow were taken over by members of the S.S. The routine in the camps, as was said grew a great deal more severe. Boettcher, the S.S. general and police leader of the Radom district, also often began searching the camps. They had to report for the roll call by barracks. That is, all residents of each barrack had to stand in front of their barrack for the roll call and wait until everyone was counted. Then they had to march in closed ranks from the camp to the factory square to work. Goldsztajn, the Jewish camp leader, stood at the gate of the camp among the S.S. members and received reports. Each kapo [prisoner assigned by the Germans to carry out various tasks in the ghetto] had to go at the head of his group of workers and call out to Goldsztajn: “Kapo so and so (here he had to call out his name), how many prisoners.” The men had to remove their hats while marching past Goldsztajn. Those who were a little late in calling out their names or the number of prisoners, as well as those who called out too quietly and not clear enough would [be dealt with by] Goldsztajn, so that even the members of the S.S. maintained that he acted even worse than they. The clothing of the prisoners was again marked with red stripes with a specially prepared paint and special camp clothing (pasiakes). The food also became more meager and the time for eating, that earlier was also limited, was completely eliminated.


[Page 167]


The kapos had to distribute the food among their workers in the halls of the factories and [the workers] also were not permitted to leave their machines when receiving the food and while eating the workers had to watch over the movement of the machines. Contact with the outside world was stopped entirely and the contact between the camps in Czenstochow itself also ceased. The mood of the prisoners was very tense. They still looked for ways to learn something. From time to time they succeeded in receiving a German newspaper from Polish workers, which they smuggled in despite very thorough searches while going through the gates of the factory. The meager news that the German newspapers still gave about the victories of the Red Army encouraged and created the belief that the freedom so longed for would shortly arrive.

Monday, the 15^th of January 1945, 10 o'clock in the morning. Members of the S.S. came to the barracks location in the HASAG-Apparatebau camp and began to whistle. Goldsztajn immediately came running and stood at attention. He received an order to wake up all of the men from the night shift and assemble them at the square near the hospital. His order was carried out. The men from the night shift were chased to the designated square. Whoever was late received the appropriate “lecture” from Goldsztajn. All of those assembled stood at attention and waited with extraordinary nervous tension for what would happen. The S.S. and the work security stood fully armed both at the barracks location and around the outside of the wire. Liht, the factory director, arrived and gave a speech to the assembled Jews that they had to be sent to another camp in Germany, because the Germans wanted to protect the Jewish prisoner from the Bolshevik “danger” that was approaching Czenstochow… Liht simultaneously stressed that the prisoners would first be bathed in the places they would enter and then they would receive other clothing and be taken to work in such locations where no “evil” would happen to them. Therefore, he warned that all had to be obedient and ready to prepare to leave. After this speech by the director everyone was sent to the barracks to prepare their bundles for the departure.


[Page 168]


The barracks immediately were surrounded with armed labor security and it would have been extraordinary if anyone could have wormed their way out from this encirclement. Wagons were placed at the factory square on the same day and everyone being held was taken away under heavy guard.

New transports and new laments from the survivors. Husbands, wives, brothers and sisters of those deported reported voluntarily and asked to be sent with a transport of women so that they would not be torn away from their only surviving relatives. At the same time, all of the prisoners in the camps, HASAG-Eisenhuta and HASAG-Czestochowianka, were taken away.

A rumor spread among the remaining Jews in the HASAG-Apparatebau and HASAG-Warta camps, who were getting ready to be sent out that the Germans already had escaped from Kielce and that the liberation army was already in the shtetlekh: Włoszczowa and Koniecpol. Jews no longer wanted to remain in the barracks and searched for hiding places in the factory square because they wanted to avoid the fate of being deported. Suddenly, the earth began to tremble from bombardments. The German foremen became apprehensive. The bombardments increased from minute to minute and we already saw the distant columns of flames. The Germans became more anxious. The Jews also were tense. They believed that the Germans wanted to blow up the ammunition factories and that they would perish under the ruins. Some of the Jews gathered in the bunkers so as not to perish under the ruins of the factories and others actually hid in the factory halls so as to perish on the spot and not to be dragged away by the Germans. Night fell. The bombardments increased. The Jews who were in the barracks of HASAG-Pelcery (Apparatebau) were encircled by labor security under the leadership of the labor security leader Herman and were ordered to go with them. Only approximately 400 people allowed themselves to be terrorized by labor security and actually were taken away. The remainder of the Jews in the barracks escaped to the factory square and became the bosses there. The Germans now withdrew from the factory in haste. The Jews broke into the “colony,” armed themselves, opened all of the stores and also became the bosses here.


[Page 169]


They looked for Germans: they looked for factory security [men]; the feeling of revenge boiled. The Jews in the Hasag-Warta camp also did not allow themselves to be taken away, listening to the call of the local community workers headed by Dr. Trajwicz.

In the morning of the 17^th of January 1945, Jews also come to the square of Kolonie in the “Pelcery” [labor prison] from the “Warta” [labor prison]. They hugged, they kissed and they cried. We cried from sorrow, we cried from joy. We noticed with surprise that the feeling of sorrow and of farce was much stronger than the joy that we survived.

Approximately 5,200 of the 11,000 Jews who were in the Czenstochow camps during the last months remained [alive]. The rest were dragged away to the camps of Buchenwald and Gross Rozen during the last days before the liberation, where the greater majority perished.

On the 17^th of January 1945, the Soviet liberation army already was in Czenstochow. Five thousand two hundred men opened the gates of the concentration camps and exited to freedom. Five thousand two hundred slaves with death sentences hanging over their heads over the course of five years won back their lives and freedom.

Of the 5,200 Jews who were liberated in Czenstochow, 1,518 were Czenstochower residents before and after the outbreak of the war, of whom 1,240 were born in Czenstochow. The Jews from outside [Czenstochow] little by little left Czenstochow, traveling to their birthplaces. The majority of the Czenstochower residents remained in the city and began rebuilding their lives on new foundations in the newly created free, People's Poland.

« Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page »

  Czestochowa, Poland     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 7 May 2017 by OR