[Page 11]

In 1686 Markuszow received the privilege of a city (municipal self-governance) from king Jan Sobieski. Three years later, guild privileges were established by the same king. There is little doubt that Jews were already living in Markuszow in unknown numbers. That means that after the first half of the 18^th century the community was not completely independent. In the lists of Jewish head taxes of the time, Markuszow was not counted among the communities of the Lublin voivodeship. One theory, in any case, regarding the Jewish head tax, is that Markuszow was dependent on a neighboring larger community, probably that of Korew which is not far away to the northwest. Yet Markuszow was in size already a typical Jewish shtetl like the many hundreds of other shtetls in the Poland of the day. This is seen in the census of 1764.

At the end of that year, a census of Jews in all of Poland took place under the orders of the Sejm. The Sejm kept that revenue from the Jewish head tax, which used to go into the state coffers through the Council of the Four Lands.^[1] (in Poland; in Lithuania through the Vaad Medinat Liteh) The total amount came to a lot less than if it were based on a census of Jews. The Sejm, therefor, decided to terminate the Council of the Four Lands

[Page II]

whose main function as regards the state was the distribution of the income from the head tax on the communities, the carrying out of the census, and the placing the responsibility on each community directly for the amount based on the number of Jewish souls. The head tax levied was above 2 Polish Guilders for every Jew, man and woman, and infants under a year of age.

The results of the census showed that the Sejm had calculated well: Up to 1764 the Jewish head tax sum, according to a 1717 law, was 220,00 guilders for Poland and 60,000 guilders for Lithuania. After the census, the tax reached 859,312 guilders, and in Lithuania, 315,297 guilders. And all of this even though the count was not exact, and the number of Jews was in reality significantly higher than the official one.

The manner of the counting itself lent itself to inaccuracy by its primitiveness and crudeness. In those days the counting did not take place on the same day everywhere in the country, but stretched on for months. The count in each community, according to the law, had to be carried out by a commission of four composed of a rabbi, a parness,^[2] and a shamess^[3] and a shliachtshitz^[4], an “inspector.” They were required to go from house to house and record the heads of the family with their names and nicknames and their wives, children and servants with their names. The village Jews were obliged (under a ban) to come to town for the census.

Obviously, under this system there was an opportunity to hide from the census. Another way to circumvent the census was to represent children over a year old, as infants. The main thing was that the community itself was interested in keeping the count lower than it was in reality especially when it concerned the poor and indigent, because the community was responsible for the tax for all the families, and was obligated to cover the tax for those who were unable to pay. The results of this count

[Page III]

of 1764 should therefore be increased not just for the unrecorded percentage of nursing children, but also through the addition of the probable number of “unregistered inhabitants.” According to an analysis of the census in all of the kingdom of Poland, it seems that the number of uncounted people (except for infants) at any rate, amounted to less than a fifth of those recorded.

According to the census register the number of Jews in Markuszow in 1764 was 237 souls, and in the villages of the area that were included in the Markuszow community, 119 souls. Adding the infants (about 7% of the souls older than a year) the approximate number in the shtetl was 255 and close to 130 in the area villages. Including the unregistered, the real number of Jews in the city was probably greater than 300, and village Jews, 150-155 people.

But even the official numbers from the register, although not comprehensive, reveal interesting aspects of the demographic composition, and the social-economic structure of the Markuszow community in the 18^th century. The 237 registered Jews in shtetl were divided according to sex and age:

Total 237 people:	Men	Women
	100	127
Great grandfathers and great grandmothers		1
Grandfathers and grandmothers	4	10
Parents	58	59
Widows and widowers of undetermined age	2	6
Sons and daughters	36	43
Servants	10	8

While there were only two widowers, the number of widows was 7 times higher and reached 14. It is characteristic that the two widowers were both beggars, and of the 6 widows of unknown age, five lived in rented houses as “lodgers,” i.e. “occupants.”

[Page IV]

It appears that widows and widowers of a poorer class had fewer opportunities to get married again than those of a wealthier class. A light is thrown on the social composition of the community by the housing data. Of the 63 heads of families in the shtetl, 29 lived in their own homes, and 34 lived with others as “lodgers.” Among the 29 houses there were 7 where 2 lodgers lived, and in one, three lodgers together. Also recorded were three Jewish heads of family living as lodgers in non-Jewish homes. Only 8 of the 29 Jewish houses were inhabited by the owners alone without lodgers.

Against the backdrop of poverty, and lack of opportunity, there was a group from a richer class. Well-to-do were doubtless the bosses who hosted sons-in-law, and married sons: one son-in-law is supported by two families, and another two have two married children being supported. A more certain sign of wealth was the number having servants. In truth, servant girls, mostly cooks, were also found in those days in families that were not very well-off: with the minimal wages paid, cooks could be found in the homes of not only storekeepers and tavern keepers, but also a shoichet, a melamed, and a well-established artisan. But “parobkes”, that is, boy servants, were only found in homes of wealthy store owners, especially merchants, innkeepers and landholders.

The 10 Jewish parobkes in the shtetl were recorded for 9 business owners, 5 employing one each without a servant girl, two employing both a servant boy and servant girl, and one had two parobkes and a servant girl. That was the rich man of the shtetl, Kalman ben-Yekutiel. He was recorded as the “arendar^[5] of Markuszow.” That means he was the head arendar who leases from the nobleman all his income from the shtetl. The brew house: the distillery, the market dues, the scale dues, the city gate, etc. He also had living with him a married wine merchant, a distiller. He probably also rented the rathouse of the shtetl from the nobleman because he alone and his household and servants and two lodgers lived there.

[Page V]

Unfortunately, contrary to other shtetls in the Lublin voivodeship, the vocations of the family heads were not recorded except for some: the aforementioned head arendar, a vintner working for him, another vintner who lived separately as a lodger, and a tavern keeper, one of the businessmen who employed a single boy servant. With the example of neighboring Jewish shtetls of about the same size (Kuzmir), or smaller (Baranow) we can assume with the greatest plausibility that the professional structure was the same: Except for a few arendars, tavern keepers and distillers, the community was divided half and half between storekeepers and merchants on one side, and tradesmen on the other, with the addition of several melameds and religious functionaries.

In contrast to the shtetl, the village Jews of the Markuszow community were mostly recorded by their vocation.

Of the 119 recorded village Jews, 62 were men and 57 were women in 30 families. They were spread over 19 villages, mostly 2 families per village, and 10 were the only Jewish families in their village. Just as the settlements were spread out, so were the professions characteristic of those times: nine of the family heads were arendars, 13 tavern keepers, one dairy worker (milker), and 7 only “lodgers,” who probably made a living as distillers, village cobblers, home tutors. A social gradation from rich to poor also existed, although not as marked as in the shtetl: The arendars were richer than the tavern keepers, and the poorest were the “lodgers.” Of the nine arendars, 2 employ one Jewish “parobkeh,” one employs a Jewish servant girl, and one has three Jewish servants, two parobkes and a servant girl. Of the 13 tavern keepers, only two keep Jewish servants, namely a single servant girl, while the lodgers and the milker, as expected, generally didn't have servants. Not recorded are the non-Jewish parobkes and servant girls who were doubtless employed by the arendars and the tavern keepers.

The signatories of the census register of the community were

[Page VI]

Avraham ben-Itzchak Isaac and Shia (Yehoshua) Bchh”R Binyomin. One can be sure that one of them signed as rabbi and one as parness. It was also possible, however, that both were just well regarded businessmen in the shtetl. According to the law, if there was no rabbi or parness in the shtetl, the census had to be carried out by the two “finest Jews” in the shtetl.

What proportion the approximately 60 Jewish families constituted in Markuszow itself in the year of the census, 1764, in relation to the rest of the population, can be calculated with the information of that time: in 1788 the German statistician, Bishing, estimated the number of chimneys in Markuszow to be 120. If a chimney represented a whole house, the Jews in any event constituted a lot more than a quarter of the population of the shtetl, because the 30 Jewish houses (including the rathouse) were more densely inhabited than the houses of the neighbors, due to the large numbers of Jewish lodgers. The number of chimneys given by Bishing is a complete exaggeration, because even in 1827 the official census showed no more than 78 chimneys in Markuszow. The actual importance of the Jews in the shtetl was much bigger than their absolute and relative number. Like all shtetls in old Poland, the Polish population was primarily occupied with agriculture, except for some smiths, shoemakers, etc., whereas the town element in the economic sense, merchants and businessmen, and in the cultural aspect, were exclusively the Jews. The non-Jewish town dwellers were farmers not just by profession, but also with respect to illiteracy.

The Jewish population in Markuszow continued to grow both in absolute numbers, and in proportion to the general population of the shtetl until the 10^th (sic) century, while in the 20^th century a decrease is seen, both relative and absolute.

Year	Total population	Jews	Percent
1764	__	300 (approx.)
1827	808	343	42.5
1857	892	368	41.3

[Page VII]

1861	826	387	47
1885	1256	672	53.5
1897	1732	1123	64.8
1921	1848	1001	54.2

Archivum Glowne, Akta b. Skarbu Koronnego, oddz. 65 B.nr. 22
Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego.
B. Wasiutynski, Ludnosc zydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX Warszawa, 1930, str. 63
Jewreskaya Entziklopedia, Tom X, str. 635
R. Mahler, Statistics for Jews in Lublin Voivodeship, Yunger Historiker, vol 2, Warsaw, 1929, 67-108

Editor's note: After this book was printed, we received the above-mentioned work of Dr. Rafael Mahler that we happily inserted in the book, but without the usual numeration. That is why these pages are listed in Roman numerals.

1. Autonomous body regulating communal life in Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania from the 16^th to the 18^th century Return
2. Elected member of Jewish community council Return
3. Beadle Return
4. Polish nobleman Return
5. An arendar was a tenant farmer Return

[Page 13]

Markuszow–in the republican epoch–a shtetl in the Lublin voivodeship, belonged to the places where Jews had no obstacles to settlement in 1765–365 Jewish taxpayers (head tax) according to the data of 1856–514 Christians, 368 Jews. According to the census of 1897–1732 residents, of whom 1123 Jews.^[a]

Markuszow a shtetl between Lublin and Pulawy, three and a half miles away, an ancient property in the name of the Markuszewskis, Lewart^[b] coat of arms, died out in the 17^th century. At the beginning of the 18^th century Markuszow belonged to the Firlejs. In 1608 a cloister called Holy Spirit was built. The second cloister was erected in 1668 by Jan Czebicki, Kracow bishop. In 1780 the shtetl had 120 houses.^[c]

In the Jewish Historical Institute's in Poland quarterly, “Historical Pages,” (January–June 1950, volume 3, journal 1-2) a major work by T. Brustin-Bernstein titled “Expulsion as a Phase of German Annihilation Policy.” In table no. 9 (in the tables provided in the previously mentioned work), it is recorded that Markuszow belonged to the Pulawy powiat that, before the war, counted 1250 Jews. The seventh month of 1940 there were 1320 Jews, in March 1941–1643 Jews (1510 local Jews, 133 exiles and refugees). The final expulsion and extermination of Markuszow Jewry occurred May 9, 1942. They were taken to the Sobibor extermination camp.^[d]

1. Jevreskaya Entziklopedia, center volume, S. Feterberg, 1913, p. 635 Return
2. Families that descended from the original medieval clan Return
3. M. Balinsky and Sh. Lipinsky, Ancient Poland, second edition, Warsaw 1885, vol. 3 Return
4. The above facts and dates were provided by the historians, Dr. Rafael Mahler (Jerusalem), Yosef Milner (Paris), Dr. Philip Freedman (New York) Return

[Page 14]

Because of the small size of our shtetl, I knew every corner, every little street and house, every store and workshop. Even now, after so many years, torn away from the old home, it is not hard to refresh the memory of the entire panorama of Markuszow–from the first building on the Lublin side to the last house on the Warsaw road.

At the shtetl's entrance stood broadly growing Linden trees on both sides of the road–a sort of natural entry gate to Markuszow. The leaves of the trees served as important remedies. Using steeped “Linden tea” we treated stomachaches, various kinds of pain and diseases. But more than anything, they provided shade for the passerby, cooled his heat, and drove away fatigue. Every wanderer wanted to have the satisfaction of having a nap under the Linden trees. The oldsters would tell of how a Markuszow nobleman, a good-hearted man, ordered the planting of these trees in 1815 on both sides of the road, so that tired travelers could benefit from the shade and rest. Later, another nobleman from Garbow planted cherry trees the length of the road with the same good intent so that the lone traveler could refresh himself.

The Lublin-Warsaw road intersected the shtetl from one end to the other. This was the main street, Lubelska, treed on both sides, and covered with small houses, divided with narrow entryways–the Markuszow streets.

The first building of the shtetl, beginning on the Lublin side, was a {unclear word} stall, the property of the Garbow nobleman, where Jews kept their horses and cows for a price. A little further, to the left, were three kasha mills, one next to the other, and a quiet noise issued from them constantly, a sign that something was being milled there.

[Page 15]

Markuszow business (aside from the weekly market) took place in various stores and shops which were found in every second or third house. Products sold there included fish, meat, wine, manufactured goods, shoes, kitchen utensils, writing materials, and everything that a small town business needs to provide for its customers.

In the center of the shtetl, on the right side of the road, stood a modest sized cloister around which stood the houses of the Christian population. Also there was the fire hall known as the “shopeh” where all the cultural events and theatrical performances of local or outside artists, Jewish and Polish and sometimes also Ukrainian took place.

On the same Lublin street, also in the middle of the shtetl, was the besmedresh, the jewel of Markuszow Jewry, in Gothic style, the broad stairs at the entry for men and to the women's shul. The tall perimeter wall and the taller trees around it clearly separated it from its surroundings. On the wide entry stairs leading to the besmedresh stood four columns, nicely painted, under which all the shtetl's chupah's took place. Left of the besmedresh, a wide street cut through that led to the “lachess”–a grass-covered lawn, low trees and bushes that have many secrets to tell. There was found the “hoif”^[1] where the shtetl young people would spend their free time. Songs sung by the youth, and the sad singing of the shepherds grazing their sheep and goats issued from there. Sometimes these shepherds would pelt us with stones, or throw our clothing in the small river nearby while we swam on a hot day.

After the “lachess” at the edge of the shtetl–the cemetery with its eternal silence that was rent with cries during funerals from orphaned relatives. The cemetery at the very edge of town symbolized the end of life.

Back at the Lublin road, right from the Warsaw side, were several houses after the besmedresh, and among them–the public school (powszechne) and the gmineh^[2] with a large free square, allocated to the weekly market,

[Page 16]

from which shtetl Jews drew their livelihood. Next to the gmineh were the police post and the jail (“kozeh”).

Right of the town hall, the wide avenue led to the non-Jewish cemetery street bejeweled with tall trees on both sides. This street, which began with an empty place where a shul building had been built, had many orchards flanking it on both sides with various fruits, and ended at the Christian cemetery. Left again, because of the trees on both sides, you could see the Koscielna street, a nice avenue, ending at the palace of the nobleman's court, where there were many trees and fish ponds. We swam there in the summers, and skated in the winter.

Next to the nobleman's small courtyard stretched meadows that had a special attraction because of the hay sheaves. Young people spent the beautiful summer nights at the feet of the sheaves singing folk songs and popular songs, carried on with conspiratorial meetings and whispered declarations of love. In one word–the court and the nearby meadows were the nightclubs (in the better sense of the word!) for our youth. There was also a big place there where on a Sunday or Christian holiday dances took place (zabawas, tancowkas) for the Polish youth of the shtetl, and from the surrounding villages. More than one Jewish mother went there to look for her daughter out of fear that, God forbid, she was dancing with a non-Jew…and it used to happen that such a rebellious Jewish girl would be slapped in front of everyone.

Both streets–the cemetery and the Koscielna–led to the Warsaw highway lined by tall Linden trees on both sides. That very spot served many purposes for the Markuszow and the Korew youth in a social as well as a romantic sense. These trees absorbed the stories of a previous generation concerning demons, spirits, monsters, and the evil. The next generation passionately discussed Herzl, Eretz-Israel, Karl Marx, and Russia. And all of this woven through with youthful passion and faith in a better tomorrow.

The shtetl ended at the little bridge. That was the border, but not for our youthful thoughts and dreams which carried far and wide over the shtetl, over the borders of Poland and other lands, and primarily–to Eretz Israel.

1. Literally “courtyard” Return
2. Municipal hall Return

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