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Neither the intercession by the religious teachers nor bribing Gromnim, the highest police official in town helped him not to force the teachers to carry out their “edicts” to teach the children in a separate room. The children were not permitted to sit around a table, rather they had to sit at special long, narrow tables with attached benches which were called “planks”. These “planks” were placed either one behind the other or in the shape of a horseshoe. The children had to study Russian and arithmetic two hours every day in the state-run elementary school.

At this time the teacher in the Russian elementary school was Khaykl Gutman. A nice Jewish man from Lithuania, a religious man who would pray every Sabbath in the new House of Study. Most fathers were already pleased their children were going to “Shkole”, Russian school as it was time for them to learn a bit of Russian and arithmetic. But why should they sit with bare heads? Jewish children must keep their heads covered.

A delegation went to Khaykl the teacher to try to prevail upon him to allow his pupils to wear caps. Khaykl the teacher showed them a picture of the Czar and the Russian flag that were in the school. He explained, that according to the law, one must remove his hat when entering a place which has a picture of the Czar and a Russian flag. He offered this advice: they should bring a certified Jewish teacher to teach Russian to the children in Heder. Then they would not have to go to the “Shkole” and obey the law of removing hats. Religious Jewish fathers accepted this advice. They brought a religious teacher who wore a Jewish cap, had a beard and sidelocks and wore a long black caftan. His name was Grossman. He would spend his day going from one Heder to another giving lessons, smoking cigars and telling stories in Yiddish, no less, mainly to the Rebbe. And us kids eavesdropped. When the school inspector came from Lomza to inspect the government school and the Heders, Gromnim, the police chief, informed the teachers early that morning. There was a panic. Grossman the teacher began to speak very quickly: “We must remove the cobwebs from the corners; clean the room, wash the floor, we must…we must…”, and he ran off. When the inspector finally arrived with the teacher and Gromnim the policeman, all the boys removed their caps. Even the Rebbe who wore his skullcap stood until the inspector told him to be seated.

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After examining the pupils in Russian and arithmetic the inspector turned to the Grossman and began to speak loudly and in anger. The teacher turned pale and shook with fear. We did not understand what the inspector said to our teacher nor did we understand what he shouted to the Rebbe who was totally confused. The next morning the Rebbe asked Grossman why the inspector was so angry with him. It turns out he was angry that he walls and floor had not been whitewashed for a long time. A few days after the inspection, Grossman told the Rebbe a few stories about inspections in other Heders and the inspector asked forgiveness for his anger.

During the time of Khaykl Gutman, parents wanted their children to study at the government school, especially girls. However, there was only enough place for one child per family. Khaykl's wife, who knew languages opened evening classes in the school where anyone could learn for 1 ruble a month, Yiddish, Russian, Polish and also German. May Jewish children in our town, thanks to this intelligent woman learned to read and write Yiddish, Russian and Polish. There was also a private tutor, Dovid Refalkes, whose surname was Rozental, taught Jewish children to write letters from a sample book and how to write their address in Russian. Before the First World War all Jewish children could read and write Yiddish and many also knew Hebrew, Polish and Russian.

Berish Viseberg of blessed memory, arrived in town. He was the son in law of Rabbi of Prushnitz. He was a learned man and was an ordained rabbi. He was enlightened, knew bible and grammar. His son Yisakhar lives with his family today in Natanya. (Yisakhar Viseberg's son died fighting in the Six Day War). Berish Viseberg opened a printing shop in Makow. He also gave Hebrew lessons. Many young people learned the fundamentals of Hebrew from him and were able to read Hebrew literature and newspapers. Thanks to Berish Viseberg, the youth in town, myself included, began to learn Hebrew language and grammar. He was killed during the holocaust together with his entire family. May their blood be avenged.

On the 20^th of Tamuz 1911, in a lone house among the thick pine trees where people would come spend summer, the first illegal memorial evening for Herzl took place.

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Around thirty people participated. My neighbour, the leader of the illegal “Young Zionists”, Moishe Bzhoza, took me to the evening which left a great impression on me. In a large dark room with closed shutters there was a table with a picture of Dr. Theodore Herzl, veiled in black crepe. Two black eyes peered out of a pale face, framed with dark eyebrows and a rabbinical beard. Two candlesticks with white lit candles were tied together with black ribbon. Under the candlesticks there was a sign with large letters which read: “If you will it, it is not a dream”. People did not speak to one another. When Yekhiel – Meir Pliato, quietly, in his soft tenor voice began to sing the mourner's prayer, everyone had tears in their eyes.

Moishe Bzhoza and Yosef Titonovitch spoke about Dr. Herzl. Titonovitch was an educated young man and a good speaker. (He died of Tuberculosis in 1914. In the edition of “Hatzfira” dated February 10^th 1914 an obituary was published, signed by “Young Zionists” from Makow, and they planted a tree in The Herzl Forest in his memory).

As a result of the revolution, Russia received a parliament from the Czar in 1906, called the Duma in Russian, which brought trouble and tragedy for the Jews including mass pogroms in many towns. In Poland, the dominating party was a national chauvinistic party of the nobility, city bourgeois and petty bourgeois called “Naradova Demokratia” (Naitonal Democrats), in short: “Endeks”. Their representative at the Duma, Domovsky a fanatical anti – Semite and Jew hater joined the Russian Reactionary Party promoting edicts against the Jews. In Warsaw, in the years 1909 – 1910, with the help of Jewish votes, a Polish Social Democrat Jagello was elected to the Duma, against the will of the “Endeks” who demanded Jews vote for their candidate Kukhozhevsky, a well-known anti – Semite. As revenge, they proclaimed a boycott against the Jews. The Polish newspapers which always encouraged anti– Jewish agitation told the Poles not to buy from Jews. There were signs in public places and in newspapers which read “Buy from Your Own”. As mentioned, the Polish population in our region lived well with Jews. There were few Polish shops in our town. A peasant knew he had to buy from Jews as well as sell to Jews.

The “Endeks” in our town opened a cooperative for food articles,

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encouraged and helped by loans from Poles so they could open shops in town and in the villages, deliver propaganda with the help of the church and stop people from buying from Jews. Jewish merchants were anxious. This boycott did not feel good. Slowly, the peasants began to buy from Jews again, where they did not have to stand in line and felt freer and more at home than at the large stores of the cooperative. Due to the boycott and increased anti -Semitism, many Jewish merchants and artisans lost their livelihood and had to wander off to America, where there were already Jews from Makow. They sent dollars to their families in the old home and wrote that in America you really have to work hard, but you can earn a living and they don't bother Jews. About ten years earlier, Jews who needed dowries for their daughters went to America. They would spend a year and return with a few hundred dollars and marry off their daughters. They remaining money was soon “eaten up” and he would return the “Golden Land”. A few men went back and forth but some took their families to America. There were many women in town called “Amerikankes” who remained with their children and for years would receive money from across the ocean to live, until they were reunited.

The arrest of Mendl Beylis in Kiev in 1911 and the accusation that he murdered a Christian boy Yutchinsky for ritual purposes scared the Jews. The anti – Semites in town as in the rest of Poland used this shameful blood libel in their plots against the Jews. Even after Beylis' release in 1913, Poles in town, particularly the youth would still cry out “Jews are all like Beylis”, often accompanied by rock throwing. After the priest Matzoch was sentenced to many years in jail for murder and for stealing the diamond eyes from the statue of Mary, the mother of God in the city of Tchenstochov, Jewish adults and children responded to the Poles who shouted “Jews are all like Beylis” with: “Matzokh is languishing and Beylis lives”.

Our town is situated 40 kilometres from the border of eastern Germany. When the war broke out between Russia and Germany Jews came to our town from the border towns Khorzhel and Yanov, chased out

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by the military power. Among them were families whose main bread winners had been mobilized in the war. These Jews, who were now called “homeless” settled into the Houses of Study, women's synagogues, small synagogues and cellars in private homes, 4-5 families per dwelling. A committee was established to help the poor homeless. Due to a lack of means the committee could barely help the large amount of needy. We began to feel the war in our town. Masses of military from all formations marched and rode through toward the front. The soldiers, with small exceptions, behaved nicely and asked if it was still far to Berlin. Often, soldiers would sleep in private homes. The commandant mobilized men, Jews and Poles to guard the telegraph poles at night which were 7 kilometres from town. The Russian army entered eastern Germany, captured German cities and prepared to march on Berlin. After a strong counter offensive from the German military, the Russian front was surrounded and broken. A portion of the Russian army was taken prisoner and the rest ran back, in disarray. The retreating soldiers robbed Jewish shops and homes, insulted and beat up Jews and accused them of spying for Germany. Two Jews, Furmansky and Orlik were shot by Cossacks and robbed when they were travelling by horse and wagon to the village to sell their goods. The horrible double murder and the dramatic funeral, accompanied by lamenting and crying by the entire Jewish population, cast a feeling of dread, sadness and despair on the Jews who suddenly saw their lives were turned upside down. Large numbers of refugees arrived from the neighbouring town of Prushnitz and told us that the Germans bombed their town which had passed a few times from hand to hand and then was completely destroyed. Hundreds of wounded Russian soldiers, brought by wagon from the front, lay on sacks of straw beside the sidewalks of the marketplace and streets. Jewish women brought them food and drink. Jewish boys and girls walked around with tea pots, bread and fruit, giving to anyone who could eat or drink. Tens of soldiers died without receiving any medical help. They lay there for a few days until they were taken away. A typhus epidemic broke out. Mortality was high. Nine well respected men from town received an order from the military authority saying they must, in order to keep safe, leave town and go to Vitebsk in White Russia.

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Help from Jews in Russia

In June 1915 representatives from the “Moscow Jewish Community”, Mr. Shteynberg and his wife, came to our town to organize help for the homeless. They sent 600 men who could work to Homel where a division of the “Moscow Committee” organized work for them. Families which lived in crowded and poor sanitary conditions received larger and better temporary apartments, rebuilt from various buildings. A special women's committee helped them to get organized, visited and gave whatever help possible. A store was opened where 300 registered poor families received food for free. Mrs. Shteynberg set up a dormitory for the children of the homeless. There they received a proper education from a female teacher as well as meals. A committee comprised of women and girls helped the teacher to wash and comb the children and take them on walks. The youth organized to help the homeless and ease their situation. Mr. Shteynberg rented a house which stood in the middle of the forest and set up an isolated place for typhus patients under the supervision of a doctor and a nurse.^[20]

The front was nearing. One could hear the thunder of canons day and night. At night the sky was red from fires. The government institutions, city hall and command centre left town. A civil militia with Jews and Poles was created to keep order. Intelligence patrols in small groups, cavalry, mainly Cossacks, visited our town often terrorizing the Jewish population. A few bombs from German airplanes fell on our town. During the difficult days of war, on the 20^th of Tamuz, the Young Zionist Organization organized a memorial evening for Dr. Theodore Herzl in the home of Mendl Dzhershgovsky. This was done secretly at great risk. In the large reception hall, without Herzl's picture or candles, those gathered sat and listened to Yekhiel Meir Pliato sing the memorial prayer. Moishe Bzhoza gave a short speech and quoted from Herzl's “Alt -Neu Land”. The streets were filled with

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military and military wagons. Quietly, one by one, the members gathered and quietly, one by one they snuck home around 10 o'clock at night.

In the month of Av, 1915 battles ensued in town. Jews hid in their cellars. One Russian soldier entered the home of Leybish Rebak and grabbed his watch. As he ran out he was hit by a piece of shrapnel and died on the spot.

The Russians retreated, setting the wooden bridge on fire as well as the eastern section of town near the river and a portion of the marketplace. The Germans entered that evening. The Jews wished each other “Mazel Tov” as they were now rid of the Cossacks and the fear of death. It appeared, that from the shooting and bombing, one woman, Rivka Freshberg was killed, and a few Jews, lightly wounded. Firefighters, with help from the youth, began to extinguish the fires. Some were slightly wounded on their feet from bullets of the retreating Russians. The entire residential area near the river was burned. They tried to prevent the fire from spreading throughout the town.

In the war year of 1914- 1915, during the terror and fear of death, Jewish merchants and artisans, street sellers of baked goods, lemonade and fruit, did good business. The masses of marching soldiers bought everything. There were some who grabbed food and ran away. Contractors sold everything they received from the army in town. Russian officers bought the best fabrics, underwear, kerchiefs, perfumes, chocolate and delicacies to send home or to give as gifts to girls who were with them. Soldiers who served behind the front bought boots, cigarettes, haberdashery and food. After the Germans captured our city store owners were left with little merchandise and with many thousands of rubles and Russian bonds. Jews who were sure “the Russians would not go bankrupt” held on to their thousands of paper rubles and bonds until they lost all their value.

Jews in town felt freer and more secure under German occupation than under Russian rule. The Yiddish language made it easier

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to understand the Germans. For the first time on Polish soil, Jewish clerks could get jobs in the district, city hall and other government and municipal institutions. Larger schools were opened with Polish and German as the language of instruction, one for Polish children and the other for Jewish children where Jewish teachers taught every day except Saturday. With the permission of the authorities a cultural society was create under the former illegal name “Lovers of Reading”. The society which previously had its own library, rented a locale with a theatre hall which had been the Polish “Lutnia” society that stopped its activity when the Germans arrived. The “Lovers of Reading”, later called “Community Centre” concentrated on cultural activities for the youth in town disregarding party affiliations. At the time there was not yet a cinema or radio. Every evening the hall was filled with people, especially Friday nights, when they organized the so-called “Box Evenings” and literary trials, or simply readings. From time to time the drama club would perform one act plays, monologues or dramas, such as “The Jewish King Lear” by Gordon. Literary figures came from Warsaw, writers and party leaders, to give talks and lectures. They also organized a Purim party with dancing.

In time, political groups and organizations were organized which later formed the Jewish political – social life in Poland, like the Zionist organization, the orthodox “Shlomi Emunei Yisroel”,

Lag Ba'Omer celebrations of “Pirchei Zion”, Makow, 1918

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“The Bund”, “Mizrachi”, “Poalei Zion”, “Young Mizrachi”, a Zionist youth organization “Prachei Zion” (Flowers of Zion) etc.…

In May 1916 we received the sad news of the death of Sholem Aleichem in New York. Sholem Aleichem was very popular among Yiddish readers, young and old. It was decided to organize a memorial evening with the participation of well – known writers. At that time, Reb Hillel Zeitlin was the most famous writer and journalist. The daily newspaper “Der Moment”, in which Hillel Zeitlin was a contributor, was the most widely read newspaper in town, due to its polemics and other articles. For this reason, Hillel Zeitlin was invited to our memorial evening as the speaker. A reception committee was elected and they decided our important guest would stay at the house of the wealthy man Reb Velvl Bzhoza. Hillel Zeitlin left Warsaw on the Nadvishlansk train and disembarked at the small train station in Poshetzky, 35 kilometres from town. A coach pulled by two horses waited there with a few committee members to bring our guest to town. A delegation went to the edge of town to welcome him. The girls carried flowers and with pounding hearts awaited the arrival of Hillel Zeitlin. Finally, the coach arrived. The teamster stopped the sweaty panting horses. When Hillel Zeitlin and his companions came out of the coach, one of them introduced the welcome committee. The girls gave him the flowers. Hillel Zeitlin, with his long beard, soft eyes,

Hillel Zeitlin's visit to Makow in 1918

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fedora and three – quarter overcoat made an impression not as a writer like Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, but as a Rebbe. This was also the respect shown to him by the youth who received him and treated him like he was their Rebbe and they were his Hasidim. This was the first time many of the youth in town came face to face with a writer. As his coach rode through the streets and marketplace they were filled with people, as was the courtyard of the home where he was staying.

Other writers and journalists who visited our town were: Yosef Heftman, Yisroel Shtern, Z. Segalovitch. Later, Peretz Markish, Orzhekh, Erlikh, Yakov Pat (invited by the “Bund”) and others. Also, actors, like Yosele Kolodny and ordinary wandering troupes, good and bad, came to perform for packed halls.

There was a young man who lived in our town, a son in law, Kalman Shtern from Ostrolenke. He was a Torah scholar, a Hasid who also had knowledge in secular subjects. He was a scribe and also sold prayer shawls. Yisroel Shtern was his brother and often came to visit.

As he would come to visit his brother sometimes on Passover we asked him to speak at a memorial for Y.L. Peretz whose Yortzeyt (anniversary of death) falls during Passover. When we went to his brother's house to discuss it with him we found dire poverty. And even more indigence appeared on Yisroel Shtern's face, clothing and shoes. We were ashamed: A Jewish poet looking like this! We listened to his interesting, original, beautiful speech about Peretz. Yisroel Shtern of blessed memory presented an analogy between Peretz's “The Golden Chain” and Ibsen's “Brand”. Between the rabbi Reb Shloime who wants to bring and eternal Sabbath which the Jews won't allow and the priest Brand, who want s to lead his followers to a poor fishing village, near the Norwegian fjords, to a more beautiful and higher life and they abandon him when they hear the sea is calm and filled with fish.

During his speech, Yisroel Shtern paced the stage with half – closed eyes, and with his poetic language and winged words carried his listeners off to another world. At that moment, the poet Yisroel Shtern himself looked like a spiritual prince emitting a glow. At the banquet which took place at a member's home he read one of his poems which some of us did not understand. He taught us songs: “Yesterday is no Longer”, and

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“Pairs of Doves Standing on and Under the Mountain” with his own interpretation of sadness, longing and prayer.

The growth of the “Bund” in Poland and its fight with the Zionists, aggravated the relations between the Bundists and the nationalist section of youth at the community centre. They took down Dr. Herzl's picture which hung in one of the rooms; they interrupted Zionist speakers. This created scandals and fights.

In February 1918 a memorial evening was planned for Dr. Yekhiel Khlonev who had recently died. The Bundists who were present interrupted the speaker, poked fun and disturbed the memorial ceremony. A fight broke out. They were barely able to calm everyone down and continue with the program. The Zionists paid back the Bundists at their events. It became impossible to work together under one roof. The Zionists were the majority at the community centre. It was the Bundists who had to find another place for their activities.

The “Bund” rented their own space, founded a library and carried out a wide range of cultural work among their members. The drama club successfully performed a few Yiddish plays, among them, Sholem Asch's “Motke the Thief”. One of their members, Leybl Gogol, a fanatic theatre lover, excelled in the role of Motke. He died recently in Israel. His son Shmuel Gogol is a well-known harmonica player in Tel Aviv.

The debates between Bundists and Zionists in town did not stop. Sharp polemics ensued. After a speaker came from the Bund in Warsaw or the Zionist central office, the Zionists, with their sharp tongues would make comments after the Bundist speaker and the Bundists would do the same after a Zionist lecture. This occurred in all the cities and towns in Poland. It brought life, interest and warmth and chased away the boredom in the poor Jewish streets.

After the Bundists left, the community centre belonged to the Zionist organization and their intensive cultural and educational activities took place there.

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The Economic Situation Under German Occupation in 1915

The German occupiers did not particularly persecute Jews. The soldiers hardly stole Jewish possessions. However, the German occupying power robbed the land through confiscations and requisitions of raw materials, metals, grains and manufactured products. The German word “Bashlogt” applied to everyone. When the Germans arrived, there was an order that all brass and copper dishes and items in your home, even candlesticks, must be given to the German authority, even brass doorknobs on doors. This all had to be brought to a specific place and if you did not obey you were severely punished. The Germans even took the large copper soda water canisters from the soda factory. They even tried to take the three large brass bells from the church tower, however the town's Christians protested strongly. The Germans took only two and left the third in the tower. Merchants had to provide lists of all their merchandise, beginning with food as well as textiles, leather and soap. Everything bought and sold had to be written down. In order to receive permission to bring a certain quantity of textiles from Warsaw, the merchant had to present a 10-ruble gold piece to the regional office. Peasants could not freely sell their grain. They had to sell it at a specific place in town at an official government price. All the mills in the region were closed except for one large mill in town which belonged to Reb Bezalel Vilenberg, which milled only for the Germans and was under their control. All the bakeries and baking ovens in town were also sealed, except one bakery, which baked bread that was divided by bread cards. The bread was black, baked from flour mixed with ersatz, which had no taste and burned the stomach. There were also cards for sugar. There was no soap, no kerosene. There was no electricity in town at that time. The houses were lit with carbide lamps which infected the air, especially in winter when the doors and windows were closed. It was forbidden to sew new clothes. Instead of throwing away old clothes, they were patched, repurposed, made from big to small and used. At that time the folk song “I Have an Old Shawl” was popular. Instead of leather shoes, people wore wooden shoes and sandals of various styles. There was great poverty and destitution in town. Jews worked at public jobs,

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on highways and chopping down forests, which the Germans organized to alleviated some of the unemployment. The few that had the talent and luck to know the German person in power in town was able to receive, through various paths, food products and therefore did good business.

The destitution and unemployment among Jews and the lack of essential articles, led to a class of merchants called: “Smugglers”. Older, experienced merchants were helpless due to the German draconian laws, requisitions and “Bashlangnamen”. Audacious boys would go out at night and through back roads and bring from villages and nearby towns essential items such as, fat, kerosene. They would buy wheat from the peasants, milled in some abandoned area in a small watermill, bring the flour to town and sell it secretly to those who had unsealed ovens. The women would bake Challah for the Sabbath or rolls. The Germans created a municipal militia comprised of Jews and Poles to keep order and help the gendarmes combat smuggling.

When the militia captured a smuggler, he could not bribe them. They took everything away: flour, white baked goods from the unlucky bakers, meat from the illegal butchers. Sometimes, they would bring the smuggler to the gendarmes, who would confiscate the merchandise together with the horse and wagon and beat him up. The Germans gave beatings for every small thing to old and young alike.

In April 1917 the regional chief ordered elections to a city council and city hall according to the Kurien system. Three Kuries had to choose 9 councilmen. Jews comprised more than 75% of the population in town. The Poles demanded that the Jews give them an absolute majority on city council. The Jews renounced their right as the majority and gave the Poles 50 % councilmen. The Poles did not agree and boycotted the election. All 9 councilmen elected were Jews. A few Poles were elected to city hall. The Jewish merchant Yakov Meir Segal was elected mayor, and the Pole, Stash Artipikevitch, vice- mayor. One other Pole was a member of the administration of city hall. At one of the meetings of city council it was decided, against the votes of the orthodox, to introduce Jewish subjects for Jewish children in the municipal elementary school. The orthodox councilmen believed Jewish subjects must be taught in Heder.

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Thanks to the initiative of Yishaye Rekant of blessed memory, a passionate enlightened Jew who knew Hebrew, a kindergarten was founded with the help of the Zionist organization, headed by the certified teacher Mrs. L. Asherovsky from Warsaw. It was decided to open a Hebrew school and create a parent committee chaired by Yishaye Rekant. They brought the teacher Anshl Kotziak, a scholar and a good pedagogue to run the school which helped spread the Hebrew language and Jewish knowledge in town. The Zionist organization opened evening Hebrew courses where tens of boys and girls learned Hebrew, bible and Jewish history.

In order to help the large amount of needy people a free kitchen was opened which distributed three hundred hot meals daily. One of the most active who gave his heart and soul to this matter was the communal activist Meir Ostri. He was crowned with the nickname “Cooking Spoon”. At the same time a dormitory was opened for poor children where besides education they received food and some clothing. Young people volunteered to work in the kitchen and dormitory.

In general, one can say, on one hand, the German occupation brought a business crisis, unemployment and poverty. However, on the other hand it gave the youth and Jewish society the opportunity to organize, and allow the Jewish political parties and cultural institutions to become active. They continued and broadened their work also after Poland was liberated, until the arrival of the Nazis, may their names be blotted out, who murdered the Jews together with their religious, cultural and social institutions, which were built over the course of one thousand years of Jewish history in Poland.

The poverty in our town during the last year of German occupation was great. Artisans did not have work and merchants did not earn a livelihood. Women and children whose husbands and fathers were in America, England or other places overseas were starving because men could not send money to their dearest in a country ruled by Germans who were at war with America and England. The organized Jewish community as well as other social institutions were impoverished and did not have the ability to help the destitute. The majority of Jews in town were

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pleased with the departure of the Germans who let them live but took the bread from their mouths.

The authority of the city was taken over by the P.O.W (Polska Organizacja Wojskowa), which was illegal under German occupation. Jews were frightened seeing young Poles armed with guns. The Poles and Polish newspapers wanted revenge when the Germans left. On November 10^th 1918 the Poles in town created a civil committee which called a meeting and a patriotic demonstration in the marketplace. The speakers did not even mention Jews.

The city administration with the Jewish mayor Yakov Meir Segal during the German occupation in the First World War

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Soldiers arrived in town wearing black uniforms with brass buttons and black caps with shiny visors. They were called “Ludovtzi”. Jews were even more frightened: “Who knows what type of guys these are?” This was the military of the Socialist People's Government which was founded in Lublin, led by the worker's leader Dashinsky. The soldiers behaved politely and correctly the short time they were in our town.

On December 14^th 1919 an election took place in city council. Of the 23 councilmen elected 14 were Jews, 9 from the National Bloc and 5 from the “Bund”. Heading the Polish councilmen was the priest Theodore Mateushevitch. At the first meeting of city council he called upon the Jews to help him maintain good relations between Poles and Jews by electing a city council made up only of Poles. Other Polish councilmen declared that if the Jews did not accept the suggestion of the priest, the Poles would leave council.

Due to terror perpetrated on Jews in the country and the oppressive mood in town, the Jewish councilmen, after long deliberation, gave into the pressure of the Poles. At the second meeting of city council a mayor, vice – mayor and a councilman were elected, all Poles. To the contrary, the second councilman was a Jew, a Mizrachist, Hillel Sheynberg. Later it turned out this was a political mistake because with that a precedent for the future was created. A Jew was never elected mayor in our town again although Jews comprised 60 -70 percent of the total population.

In order to increase the number of Poles elected to city council, the Starosta (community elder) coopted two nearby villages to the town increasing the number of Polish councilmen.

At the time of elections to city council as well as the Sejm there were struggles between Jewish parties and groups who presented separate lists. Meetings were organized in Houses of Study, party offices as well as the marketplace. Speakers and functionaries would come to these meeting from Warsaw. At these meeting there were discussions, arguments and sometimes, fist fights. For every election campaign the Bundists brought the popular journalist and writer Yakov Pat, of blessed memory, from Vilna. His sharp and clever

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preacher – like speeches, intertwined with biblical quotes and exegesis always brought out the masses to hear him.

One of the many curiosities in connection to elections in town is worthwhile mentioning:

During the elections to the second city council which took place in the month of Elul 1927, the “Bund” put forth an election proclamation against the candidates from the United National list, reproaching the Zionist candidate for offering a cigarette to the rabbi on a Friday night, when he and other religious Jews came to the Zionist locale to scold the Zionists for desecrating the Sabbath in public. In the same Bundist lampoon it was indicated that another Zionist candidate took a group of Jewish kids to a nearby town on Yom Kippur and organized a party. This calling out ended with these words: “Whoever wants to be signed in the Book of Life should vote for the Bundist list”.

The newspaper of the left – wing “Poalei Zion” in Poland published a facsimile

The Poalei – Zion movement in Makow, 1919

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of those pointing out to show how far the “Bund” galloped down the road of election propaganda for the city councils in order to win votes from religious voters.

They called out Zionist candidates, accused the writer in municipal court after he refused to go to an honour court. A special representative came from the “Bund” in Warsaw reprimanded the members for causing shame to the Bundist party. The writer of the proclamation apologized publicly, withdrew his accusations against the Zionists, paid a fine and peace was restored between the two parties.

In the first elected city council there was harmony and understanding between Jews and Poles. Everyone had good intentions and looked for common ways to rebuild and develop the town for the good of both Jews and Poles. They succeeded in getting a loan from the government for one hundred thousand marks for public works and to ease the unemployment in town. In accordance with the suggestions and initiative of the Jewish councilmen, the council turned to the government and received permission to take wood from surrounding government forests for poor people to cook and heat their ovens during winter, buy flour and potatoes without consignment in order to distribute among the needy in town. The city administration also founded and maintained two kindergartens for poor children, Jewish and Polish. The Jewish kindergarten was placed under the supervision of a special Jewish committee which was elected for this purpose.

The war which broke out in 1920 jolted the already ruined economy, which had remained after the German occupation, and brought price fixing of all articles and inflation and increased the poverty throughout the country, especially in cities and towns.

In addition, the Jews suffered from greater persecution, excesses, murders and robberies by armed Polish soldiers.

The Polish press blamed the Jews for all the problems, even the war, accusing the Jews of being “Bolsheviks, speculators and enemies of the land”.

At that time the Jews in our town “only” suffered shameful actions by the “Halerchikes” who distinguished themselves with scissors

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or plucking Jewish beards and throwing Jews off moving trains. The first victim was an elderly Jew, Reb Moishe Rekhtman who had a lovely long half – grey beard. The “Halerchikes” found him in the marketplace and cut half of it off. Reb Moishe walked around for a long time bandaged until his cut beard grew back.

In 1920 the Bundist party in Poland was banned. The following activists and councilmen were arrested: Yisroel Shikora (today in Israel), Yehonasn Nayman, Aron Yosef Aronovitch (Kirtchekov), Dovid Minoga (Dovid “Torah”), Avrom Malakh and Leybl Gogol of blessed memory, the father of the popular harmonic player in Israel Shmuel Gogol. They were supposed to be sent to the unfortunately famous concentration camp Kartuz [Kartuska] Bereza but in the meantime the area was captured by the Bolsheviks.

For 9 months these Bundist activists wallowed and were tortured in various prisons. Right after the Bolshevik invasion they were freed and came home broken and dejected. It took them a long time to recover and return to normal life.

Not only was the civilian population terrorized by Polish soldiers, Jewish recruits were persecuted and tortured by Polish soldiers as well.

Recruits from Makow in 1927

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When a Jewish recruit arrived in a military camp everything he had was taken from him, even his clothes and shoes, and were never returned. The Jewish recruits suffered especially from instructors, soldiers of a lower military rank. During military exercises they tortured and ridiculed helpless Jewish recruits. They received beatings from all directions, even while standing in line for food. They were woken up at night for various tasks or simply chased, half naked and barefoot outdoors. When I arrived the first day at military camp in Mokotov, Warsaw, I was slapped in the face with a herring while standing in line for food. When I ran to pick up the slung herring and bent down to pick it up, a bucket of cold water was poured on me. I did not remain in that camp for more than a day. That same evening, at a cost, I left with the help of a note which permitted me to stay in a hotel.

City boys, who could not bear the torment, escaped from the army. Others, from the beginning did not appear before the military commission and recruitment offices. By illegal means, they left for Germany, Belgium and France. Some went to America.

There were Jewish soldiers from our town that excelled in the war. Some fell in battle, like Leyb Kersh, Dovid Vaysman, Aron Botshan and others. Their names are mentioned in a report by the P.O.W in our region.^[*]

At the beginning of August 1920, the Bolsheviks entered our town. We did not have an organized communist party. Heading the city committee, which was created by the Bolshevik commissar were: an old Pole who worked at a press machine on the highway and a young Jewish man, Feyvl Blum, who arrived recently and was known in town as Zionist activist and speaker, a member of the “Young Zionists”, co-founder of “Prachei Zion”, the youth organization where he was active. After the revolution in Russia he left the Zionist movement. He also escaped from the Polish army

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and was hidden until the arrival of the Bolsheviks. The Pole and Feyvl Blum would deliver sharp communist speeches at meetings which took place in the marketplace in Yiddish, Russian and Polish. The Pole Artipikevitch was chosen as mayor of our town. The city council was manned by the father, sister and brother of Feyvl Blum. They did not receive any salary but they did receive a loaf of black bread and a bit of food.

The Bolsheviks arrested the priest right away. Jews tried to get him released. We tried to explain to Feyvl Blum, the head of the municipal committee who remained our friend even after he left the Zionist organization that arresting the priest can only bring tragedy for the Jews. The priest was released and Jews breathed freely.

The poorly dressed Russian soldiers bought everything they could and paid with paper money, small bills, torn or cut from long sheets, like large postage stamps.

An order was given by the city commissioner saying that merchants must receive and register their goods in the presence of a communist functionary.

My friend and comrade Feyvl Blum came to our dry goods store to receive the merchandise. He stood in our shop and paid attention to how I measured the fabric., counted the kerchiefs and calculated everything. He explained to me that this must be done for the sake of the revolution and for the sake of the poor and the workers who are being exploited by the bourgeois. He then calmed me down and told me we will not be the first to have our merchandise confiscated because my mother was a widow and he did not think we were bourgeois, only petty bourgeois who they have to win over for the revolution.

Meanwhile, the Russian front was broken near Warsaw. The Bolsheviks chased by the Polish military ran back in a disorganized way, and did not succeed in taking the already registered merchandise from our town. However, they did manage, in a short time, to practically empty our shops, buying everything with their worthless paper rubles, while grabbing clothes and boots from poor tailors and shoemakers.

Many soldiers who had escaped left with the Bolsheviks. Only a small number managed to slip through the Polish border.

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The majority could not run after the fast retreating Bolsheviks and were captured by the Polish military, sent to prison and beaten. The parents of sons who had been arrested were very nervous about the fate of the arrestees. According the law one could receive a death sentence for desertion. There were many cases where Jewish and Polish deserters were sentenced to death. The Jewish National Council at the Sejm, headed by Yitzkhak Grinboym, intervened with the Polish military authority in the government for amnesty due to victory over the Bolsheviks. An amnesty that would also include deserters, of which the majority were Poles. On September 20th, 1920 an amnesty was proclaimed, sign by Yuzef Pilsudsky, chief of the Polish army. The majority of those arrested were freed, and the rest, a short time later.

Feyvl Blum left town with the last Bolshevik soldiers. On a warm night at the end of August he came to us, his childhood friends, to say goodbye. His face which was always pale was white and his black eyes burned with the fire of tuberculosis. The knapsack on his back was made from his father's prayer shawl bag; he was carrying a gun. The girls did not want to say goodbye to him, they didn't even want to talk to him because at meetings, with contempt, he spoke about “the gentle female hands, that do not work and remain empty all day”. Then he warned “these hands will be chopped off if they are lifted up against the Bolshevik authority”. Quietly, practically without any words, we shook hands. We understood it was hard for him to leave town and the friends he had spent so many years with. We were also sad. It was a pity to lose such a joyful and clever friend. No one was able to read Sholem Aleichem stories and monologues aloud as masterfully as he did; and certainly not Reisen's poem which he read with such emotion. Feyvl even wrote his own poetry.

In a letter I received from him a while later from Minsk he wrote he was a contributor to a newspaper, active in the communist party and was writing a book where he was describing Jewish characters in Makow.

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One day I received a letter from him from Vilna, where according to the address I saw he was there using a false pass, on a party mission. He wrote articles and feuilletons for the Vilna “Tog”. His humorous short letters from Vilna, which were published every Friday in the newspaper were very successful and loved by the readers. He wrote under the pseudonym “Feyvele”. He got married in Vilna and his son, who was born here was named “October”. Knowing the secret police had an eye on him, he returned to Russia, got sick with his family illness of Tuberculosis, travelled to Crimea on the Black Sea for treatment. I received a few happy letters from him from the spa. He died at the age of 32-33. He left behind a small book called “Samum” by F. Blum, stories about the lives of plantation workers in Sumara, published by “School and Book”, Moscow, 1928. (From the cover page).

When you find the name Blum, F. in “The Lexicon of Modern Yiddish Literature”, author of the book “Samum”, without details of his life or death, you should know, he was the son from a poor family in Makow, born in 1896.

When the Bolsheviks ran away so did Feyvl's younger brother Velvl Blum, founder and leader of the left wing Poalei Zion in our town.

At the meetings and demonstrations organized by the Bolsheviks in the marketplace, the Russian who led the meeting would announce, just as Feyvl was finishing his speech: “Soon Comrade Blum the second will speak”. Velvel, a short, cross- eyed guy, would go up onto the podium and make people laugh. He spoke quickly and in one breath would quote Marx, Lenin and…Borochov.

In the early years his friends received letters from him. He was a teacher in the Yiddish school. During the mass arrests in Russia he was arrested and never heard from again.

The lack of goods during the Polish – Bolshevik war and after led to price fixing, inflation and the fall in value of Polish currency. In all towns and cities

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the government created a bureau to fight speculation and usury, which focused first and foremost on the small Jewish merchants and shopkeepers. The set prices on goods had to be hung up and visible in all stalls and shops. There were large fines and arrests for those who charged more than the official price. The set prices were often unrealistic. If they were appropriate one day, the next day they were not, as prices went up daily. Peasants and shop owners took what they wanted for their products. The dry goods merchants and fabric importers did not consider going to the bureau to fight the price hikes. The agents of the bureau who were against speculation actually bankrupted the Jewish merchants who were always being punished with large fines for taking a groshn or two above the official price, or had to bribe the agent to leave him alone. Because of this there was a lack of salt, kerosene, sugar and other items in town.

With the fall in value of the Polish mark and because of the quick rise in prices of goods, the few successful merchants in town, that had large credit, became even richer. Some poor also became rich with thousands and millions of marks but their stock shrank from day to day.

There was a wealthy Jew in town, Motl Hurvitz. He was jealous of the large dry goods merchants who were “making millions”. He sold his watermill and began to deal in dry goods and candy. He bought and sold and made volumes of business, millions until…he remained with a few dozen cheap pairs of pants which cost tens of millions of marks. However, with these millions he could not buy back one stone from his mill. Merchants borrowed from “Americans” (women whose husbands were in America), hundreds of dollars with interest; They borrowed dollars or English pounds from girls who had collected this money for their dowries. The price for dollars or pounds increased ten times and there was less merchandise in the shops. If the merchant sold everything, the millions of Polish marks would not be enough to pay for the dollars he borrowed. Because of this, fights broke out in town, people cried. Jews, arbitrators and community workers meddled until the conflicts were solved. Those who borrowed were obligated to pay back their loans. However, Hitler's murderous soldiers,

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may their names be obliterated, tortured and burned the lenders and the borrowers in the crematoria, with the rest of the Jews from our town.

In Makow there were 7 shops with concessions to sell alcohol, 5 Jewish and 2 Polish. When the law was passed at the Sejm to limit the consumption of alcohol, the government took away the 5 Jewish concessions in town. Two Polish merchants remained with permission to sell hard drinks. This happened in many other towns. Jewish deputies demanded interpolation at the Sejm.

In the Warsaw newspaper “Haynt” from September 22^nd 1921, in the section called “What the Post Brings Us”, Mr. K from Makow recounts: It was a non – Jewish holiday and a Sejm deputy from Makow stood on the street in front of the church and began to speak.

Instead of giving a report about his own activities, he read a eulogy for the government. He cursed the laws concerning 8-hour work days and the Jews. The Jews are guilty of everything he said. Jews create inflation Jews squandered Upper Silesia etc. And then the deputy told a story about the cross in the Sejm: “The Jews united with the socialists and prevailed to have the cross hang outside the Sejm in the corridor and not inside. The entire Sejm looks like a Jewish synagogue”.

Hearing these words, the crowd burst into tears. People began to shout: “Death to the Jews!” “Down with the Sejm!” After the deputy spoke, a secretary from some small town took his place and also spoke against the Jews. He said it was forbidden to beat up Jews, it was inappropriate, but the boycott must be applied. You should not do business with Jews. “In general,” this “clever” anti -Semite preached, “it is not worthwhile to sell because the marks the Jews give us are worthless…”

The police stood to the side and guarded this untouchable anti – Semitic deputy who supported the boycott.

The notice ended with these words: “Our folk jokester, Reb Elye Makover, lies there in his grave and listens to

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the anti -Semitic nonsense from the Sejm deputy. He rolls over in his grave laughing and listening to the Makow crowds cry”.

The communal and cultural activities in town did not stop, even during the war with the Bolsheviks. The rooms of the community centre where all the communal activities of the nationalist youth took place, and the library had to be given to the Polish organization “Lutniya”, which renewed its work. It was impossible to find a suitable location in town. The Jewish community centre move to an old wooden storied house with creaking stairs, near the new House of Study. This did not interrupt the development of the Zionist and cultural work.

A large crowd came to the first meeting in their new location to discuss the issues,

Goodbye evening in honour of Reb Moishe Bzhoza when he left for Lodz in 1918

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which were on the agenda for the fourth Zionist Conference in Warsaw, August 17, 1919. Nosn Montsahkovsky (today Shachar in Israel) was elected as a delegate for the conference.

Leafing through the newspaper “Hatzfira” from 1920 I found lists of names of those who donated to The Jewish National Fund and collectors from many cities and towns in Poland, including Makow. I am providing here 2 of the lists in their Hebrew original. They have historical value because of the weddings, engagements and celebrations that took place during this year of crisis and are mentioned in connection with collections for the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet).

“Hatzfira” March 6, 1920 Makow, “Young Zionists” Invitees to the ball at Hendl Fishberg's planted 2 trees in her name.

Invitees to the ball for the groom Reb Gliksberg and the bride Sh. Lilentl	20 marks
Two trees in honour if the bride and groom	20 marks
Moshe Fridman, one tree	15 marks
Simcha Tzentua, one tree	10 marks

On the list of donations and collectors from “Keren Kayemet” in the newspapers in those years we find tens of names of Jews from Makow, familiar names

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of dear, innocent young people with whom we did community work together, studied, discussed, dreamed and sang and believed in a better tomorrow which the revolutions in Russia and Germany were supposed to bring. Only a few of them were saved from the German Nazi hell. The majority are no longer with us. We don't even know where their remains lie.

In May 1920, we celebrated with all Jews the great victory of the Zionist movement after we entered the peace agreement with Turkey, in San Remo. The Balfour declaration that gave Jews the right to build their home in Palestine. A large meeting took place in the new House of Study, which was filled with Jews, young and old. A passionate speech was given by the Hebrew teacher, the talented speaker and Zionist activist, Shmuel Berenholtz of blessed memory, from Ostrov – Mazovietzk. At the celebrations and gatherings, a telegram was read with greetings from London to the worker's committee in Warsaw. It was published in the newspaper and signed by Rivka Sokolov, the wife of Nokhem Sokolov and the daughter of Yitzkhak Hersh Segal from Makow. This greeting, signed by someone from Makow made us feel like relatives at the wedding. Moreover, we believed, that with the acceptance of the Balfour declaration and an agreement with Turkey, the Turkish government would open the doors and gates of the Land of Israel and call on Jews to come and settle. Just as we naively believed that when Poland signed the peace agreement, the rights of all national minorities would be secured and a new chapter would begin for Jews in Poland without discrimination and without persecution.

On a cold snowy winter night, the lawyer Olshvanger and the student Moishe Gordon arrived at the train station in Pasheky, 35 kilometres away. They were representatives from the central office in Warsaw. Olshvanger, the lawyer, had a small beard, a hunched back, wore glassed and was dressed like a Polish officer, with a back pack on his back. They soon felt at home with us.

At this urgent member consultation which was called that same night in the home of Yekhiel Meir Pliato, may his blood be avenged, the president of the Zionist Organization, member of the Jewish Community Council and city councillor, Olshvanger announced that he

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came, according to the circular we received, as a messenger from the Zionist central committee in Warsaw to re-organize the Zionist activity in our town. He wanted to unite our organization with the central office in Warsaw as well as handle a few political problems connected to the struggle with the temporary Jewish National Council for the rights of Jews in Poland. A matter that could not be dealt with in writing.

Moishe Gordon told us he was sent to create a youth – scouting organization which would also be involved with nationalist education of the youth. He presented a plan for the work over the first few months and shared copies of the periodical “Ha Shomer” in Polish as well as a brochure about youth scouts by Badn Paul in Polish.

The scout organization was soon created by members of “Young Zion”. It was comprised mainly of school children. The scout stick, blouse, necktie, hat and short pants, together with walks, games and songs, attracted the youth of our town from all social classes, even religious homes. The youth movement, which was later called “Shomer Hatzair” had a big influence in town. They took part in all national work and collection of money for Zionist funds. During those year, Yehuda Gothelf, today the editor of “Davar”,

A group of scouts called “Reuven” in Makow in 1918

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was head of the “Main Leadership” in Poland. They were the best and most successful in planning activities for “Hashomer Hatzair” in our town in all fields of education and scouting. We always received well collected instructional material from the “Main Leadership” about cultural and educational programs in all the groups. The leaders' manuals which were edited and put together by Yehuda Gotholf, were very helpful for group leaders in their devoted work. They themselves learned as they inspired others to read and learn. Children, boys and girls from fanatic religious families suffered at home. They fought with their parents. Sometimes, fathers would drag their daughters out of their shops by their braids. They could not tolerate the fact that their daughters were going to a place that taught them the song by David Shimoni that advises the youth not to listen to their parents. This song was very popular in “Hashomer”.

The children did not give into the pressure by their parents and continued to go to the club where happiness ruled and they sang and danced. When we meet these members of “Hashomer” today, now grandparents themselves, they remember their romantic young years with love and nostalgia. They remember the campfires in the fields on clear summer nights, organized hikes in the thick forests near our town and nearby small towns and villages, the summer colonies and the club houses in the region, the songs and dancing the Hora which gave them so much joy and chased away the daily worries of the Jewish home in our town. Many of them went to Zionist training camps and today are living in Israel. Some on Kibbutzim and others spread out through various countries and continents. They carry with them the instructions and national education they received from “Hashomer Hatzair” and in Hebrew evening courses where besides Hebrew they learned bible, Jewish history and literature.

The heart breaks and the soul is wrapped in sadness when we remember the hundreds of idealistic youth from Makow who were killed by the Nazi murderers, may their names be blotted out. They were dragged to death camps together with their parents and other Jews from our town.

Thanks to the initiative of the pharmacist Yishayahu Rekant, may his blood be avenged, and others, a branch of “Tarbut” was founded at the same time. They were given permission to open a Hebrew learning institution, library and sports club. The “Tarbut” opened a kindergarten, headed by the certified

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teacher Golde (Zahava) Dzinekevitch. By the way, Zahava grew up in “Hashomer Hatzair”, took the evening Hebrew courses and today is a teacher on Kibbutz Bet – Alfa.

The orthodox party in Poland “Shlomi Emunei Yisroel” had a branch in Makow. The leaders of this party in our town, Reb Velvl Feyntzeyg and Kalmen Shtern, a scribe, were smart, activist orthodox Jews with whom we would quarrel during elections to the Sejm and city council. Once, on a Friday night in winter, they brought the rabbi from our town, Reb Yisroel – Nisn Kupershtokh of blessed memory (who passed away in Israel), to the hall of the Zionist organization which was filled with members who had come to hear a lecture about literature. We were surprised by the sudden visit by the rabbi who came with a few other men. A few of those present who were from religious homes hid under the tables. The speaker, who was standing beside a table near the entrance did not become flustered, he politely welcomed the uninvited guests and asked what they desired. The rabbi, who was a nice man and behaved like a Rebbe, was never a great speaker. In choppy sentences he said:

“I came because they told me that the Zionists desecrate the Sabbath in public. They sit with bear heads, boys and girls together and this is a great sin”.

The speaker replied: “If these boys and girls would not be here, they would be walking together in the dark city park where they would probably desecrate the Sabbath even more. So, it is better that they sit here together and learn something Jewish.”

Kalmen Soyfer said a few moralizing words and began to leave. Then one of the men with him noticed there was no mezuzah when he exited. The rabbi returned and asked them, in the Name of God, to hang a mezuzah on the doorpost, wished them a good Sabbath and left.

In 1924, the “Shlomei Emunei Yisroel”, with the help of a wealthy man Reb Bezalel Vilnberg of blessed memory, built a large wooden building for a Heder called “Foundations of the Torah”. The principal, who taught 240 boys was Reb Velvl Feyntzveyg. Polish and general studies were taught in the Heder following the government program for private elementary school, under the leadership of

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Shmuel Pianko, principal of the government elementary school for Jewish children in town. Children paid tuition but poor children learned for free. The deficit was covered mainly by Reb Bezalel Vilenberg, owner of a mill and member of the Jewish community council.

We are providing a letter from our town which was published in the daily newspaper “Hayom” (“Today”) in 1926, not to provoke anger, God forbid, as the majority of the Jews we argued with are no longer among the living. All were brutally killed during the attacks by “the honourable nation” of Europe. We are republishing he correspondence as a reminder of the disagreements that existed, only to tell the historical truth.

Today, Warsaw, February 17, 1926 [Letter in Hebrew translated by Jerrold Landau]

On Tuesday, 28 Shvat, the Rabbi and Gaon Hager, renowned in the Zionist world as a spokesman and activist for the Keren Kayemet [Jewish National Fund] arrived in Maków.

When the people of the Agudah found out about his arrival, they attempted to discredit him in the eyes of the masses through various disparagements. However, despite all this, he delivered his speech that day in the Mizrachi Hall in the presence of the members of Mizrachi and the Zionists.

His lecture was full of meaningful content and enchanted all those gathered. They unanimously accepted a decision that the lecture be repeated the next day, that is on Wednesday, in the Beis Midrash.

Information about the lecture in the Beis Midrash spread very quickly among all the strata of the crowd, and by dusk, the Beis Midrash was already filled to the brim. The rabbi began his lecture at 5:00 p.m. It enchanted the hearts of the entire audience.

However, the Agudah did not slumber or sleep, and they “led their trained men”^[1] and their rabblerousers to raise a tumult and disrupt the lecturing rabbi in his national work. These deeds aroused great resentment amongst those gathered in the Beis Midrash, and they girded themselves to protect the honor of the rabbi with calls for revenge. They removed the rabblerousers from the Beis Midrash. The rabbi interrupted his lecture to prevent the dispute that broke out between the masses and the Aguda from igniting.

The city was frothing and boiling like a cauldron: It was impossible to quiet and calm the anger and ire of the masses. As a sign of protest against the brazenness of the Agudah, they girded themselves strongly for the benefit of the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael.

Thus, the bad intentions of the Agudah turned out for the good, for this incident brought great benefit to the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael. The charity boxes that had been tossed out by the Agudah people before the rabbi arrived were brought back in. They hoped that the income of the Keren Kayemet would grow greatly from what it had been to that point.

Y. L.

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The truth must be noted: there were in town members of the “Agudah” who contributed to the Jewish National Fund for certain projects and not all religious Jews were members of the “Agudah” which fundamentally was a political party run by the court of the Ger Rebbe.

With the encouragement of the government and the help of Polish financial institutions, Polis businesses opened in town. The food cooperative, which existed before the war, grew. New Polish business emerged for manufacturing, haberdashery, iron, building material and more.

The amount of food shops as well as other stores increased the villages as well. Until the First World War in 1914 many Jewish families lived in the large villages around out town, owned shops and did business and earned a nice living.

With the outbreak of the First World War they had to leave the villages and they never returned. At that time many left for America. The small farmers in our region, the majority of which were calm and good to the Jews, were influenced by the constant anti – Semitic and boycott agitations and began slowly to avoid Jewish businesses.

The greatest cause of impoverishment in town were the heavy taxes.

The merchants and shopkeepers, mainly trade in small measure, did not keep business books. The clerk of the tax bureau in town decided on the tax rate. Formally, there was a tax commission made up of merchants and artisan representatives. however, the clerk rarely took their opinions into account, raising taxes, the first being the “Danino”, which was added to the population right after the Polish – Bolshevik war. Until the taxes on business volume and income, Jewish merchants in town had to pay almost double than the Poles in the same line of business who sold and earned much more than a Jewish merchant.

For many years there was a clerk in Makow for business and income tax who was a young Pole, a cynical anti -Semite and simply, a bad person. His name alone caused fear among the Jews. Men would come to him with complaints and women would come crying due the high taxes which they had to pay, often

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more than the value of their shops. The Pole listened to them with a harden face and watery eyes and did not reply. Jews groaned, protested, sent delegations with memoranda to the “Provisional Jewish National Council” at the Sejm, but nothing helped. Jews cried and paid. If they did not, the tax bureau too everything from their shops and homes, even things he did not own…

Merchants became poor people. They did not have any business capital but nevertheless had to continue doing business to earn a living. There were merchants in town who ran their businesses without their own money. They took loans from other Jews in town. They would borrow one hundred zlotys from one and fifty from another and would travel to Warsaw to bur merchandise, sold at fairs in marks. They would pay back their debts, and then, borrow again, buy and sell, and toil to bring home enough to provide for the Sabbath, holidays and make weddings for their children. As we sing in this sad folk song:

“I possess in my shop two groshn worth of goods, I drag around my poverty and bless the Creator…”

Many small tailor and shoemaker workshops had to liquidate. The tradesmen had to go work for someone else for starvation wages. Others took home work from more successful tailors and shoemakers. When these artisans would take work home the husband, wife and older children would all work to barely have enough for a poor existence, and only in the summer and winter seasons which lasted only 6 months a year.

Merchants, shopkeepers and artisans could only continue to work thanks to the credit from the Jewish Cooperative Bank and the Free Loan Society.

The Cooperative Bank was founded with the help of the “Joint” in June 1926. By the end of the year it had 227 members and a capital of 3,605 zlotys, with 611 zlotys deposited in the bank.

In 1937 the bank had 345 members and a capital of 32,652 zlotys; they gave out loans totaling 384,784 zlotys; deposits – 50, 345 zlotys.

Among the 345 members there were 2 farmers, 155 artisans, 141 small merchants and businessmen, 13 larger merchants and manufacturers (mill owners, leather factories), 34 employees and others. The served a small number of Poles.

A cell of the “Hashomer Hatzair” movement in Malkw, 1930

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Activists in “Hashomer Hatzair”, 1929

A branch of “Hechalutz” in Makow, 1926

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The transportation between towns was from the start in Jewish hands. At first, they travelled in covered wagons and later in horse drawn carriages, coaches and buses. In independent Poland they created an association with the teamsters and placed buses on the roads from Makow to Warsaw and later, Makow to Mlave, through Prushnitz, as well as the towns Ruzhan and Krasnosheltz. The transportation slowly developed and became comfortable and punctual. It provided a livelihood for 10 Jewish families.

In 1932 the government took Jewish concessions on these routes away from the Jews and placed government buses where no Jew could get a job as a driver or conductor. The government only allowed the proprietor of the bus line from Makow to the train station in Pasheky to keep his job because he was a Pole. One of the partners in the bus association, Hersh – Ber Orlik, of blessed memory, who was a driver and was left without an income, immigrated to the Land of Israel, served in the Haganah and fought in the War of Independence. He died two years ago, having had a good reputation among friends and acquaintances.

Many Jews who lost their livelihoods at that time would have gladly emigrated overseas, however they did not have money to cover expenses.

Jewish youth who had absolutely nothing to do in town struggled to go to the Land of Israel. However, during the most difficult years for Jews in independent Poland the English authorities in Mandate Palestine did not permit Jewish immigration. Of the thousands of certificates given by the Jewish Agency, over ten thousand pioneers and members of “Hashomer Hatzair” in Poland, completed the Zionist training camps and were ready to immigrate. In Makow, there were more than 100 young people who wanted to go the Land of Israel. However, only a few lucky ones received certificates and immigrated.

Here are some numbers of Jewish emigration from Makow in the 1930s:

In 1932	10	Jews emigrated	1	To the Land of Israel
In 1933	17	- “ -	14	- “ -
In 1934	2	- “ -	1	- “ -
In 1936	59	- “ -	29	- “ -
1935	20	- “ -	13	- “ -
1937	29	- “ -	18	- “ -

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During the same period only 12 Poles emigrated from our town where they comprised barely 40 percent of the population.

Together with the poverty in mortality increased in our town which can be seen in the numbers below and pertain only to Jews^[*]

Year	Deaths
	Male	Female
1932	3	1
1933	7	10
1934	8	6
1935	15	8
1936	21	12
1937	28	25

After the agreement between Poland and Hitler's Germany in 1934 and the death of Pilsudsky in May 1935, persecutions against the Jews increased in Poland and reached our calm town.

Truth be told, in order to carry out unrest in town the anti -Semites had to bring in students from Warsaw to incite violence on market days and at fairs, encouraging the peasants to attack the Jews by pouring kerosene on the products they bought in Jewish stores and stood in front of Jewish shops and did not allow Poles to enter. But even this was not entirely successful. Thanks to the clerk of public security and the vice – commander of the police who were both fine, honest Poles, serious unrest never befell our town. Let them, at this time be remembered fondly.

This is how life passed in our town, until of Hitler's murderers, may their names be blotted out, arrived and began to torture the Jews, imprison them in ghettos, murdered some on the spot. The remaining thousands of men, women, elderly and children, tormented, sick and dejected, were dragged to death camps and killed by various means, only because they were Jews. Why? What for?

May God avenge their blood!

Kibbutz Shoval, Tammuz, 1968.

Original footnotes:

* I. Wesolek: Monograph Makow, Zarzad, 1938. Return
6. Graetz: Divrei Yamei Yisrael, translated by Sh. P. Rabinovitch, vol. 7, pp. 332,348. Return
7. Versalek: A Monograph of the City of Makov Return
8. Graetz as above, vol. 8, p. 151; Dobnow, vol. 7, pp. 19-20: R. Mahler, pp. 348, 352. Return
9. Prof. Mahler: Divrei Yemei Yisrael, The last Generations, Vol 1, third book, pp. 260, 303, 306. Return
10. Prof. Graetz: Divrei Yemei Yisrael, the last section, translated by Y.A. Trivsh, Vilna 1908, note 2, p. 11. Return
11. Y.Vesolek: A Monograph of the City of Makov Return
12. Rafael Mahler: Divrei Yemei Yisrael – The Last Generations, Vol. 1 chapter iii, p. 64. Return
13. Rafael Mahler: Divrei Yemei Yisrael, The Last Gerations, first volume, their book, page 74. Return
14. Y. Vesolek: Monograph from the City Makov. Return
15. Efraim Kupfer: Legal and Actual Situation of Jews in Poland, Pages from History, Vol. V. Return
16. Y. Vesolek: Monograph form the City Makov. Return
17. Efraim Fishl Nayman: Bet Efraim, New York, 1923, p. 31. Return
18. Sefer Sokolov, edited by Shimon Ravidovitch, Jerusalem, “Personalities of a Nation”, published by the Zionist Library, 1962. Return
19. A larger biography of Rabbi Yehuda – Leyb Groybard of blessed memory was written with love and respect to the great deceased by the writer N. Shemen and can be found in the Book of Stashov published in January 1962 in Israel. Return
20. Moishe Bzhoza: “Hatzfira”, June 17^th 1915. Return

Translator's Footnote:

1. Based on Genesis 14: 14 Return

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