[Col. 357]

The years from 1910 until the outbreak of the First World War are considered to be, in the history of the Labour Movement a time of revival when the Labour Movement in Poland shook off the apathy after the blows it received during the reactionary years of 1906–1909. They did not see the dark reaction in Czarist Russia still persisted and the Labour Movement was still being hunted. In many corners of the land, among which were the Jewish printers in Warsaw, began with gusto to shake off the apathy and indifference to the hated Czarist regime.

Political parties resumed their activities and new winds began to blow through the worker's street. In this year a Yiddish weekly called “Di Tsayt” (“The Times”) was published in Peterburg (now Leningrad). In one edition a letter from Warsaw was published, signed by Moishe Zetzer, where he called upon the Jewish printers from Warsaw to organize in order to fight for better economic working conditions.

Apparently, the soil of the Jewish printers was already plowed and ready to organize. The call from the correspondence did have long to wait for the organizing to begin.

They immediately called upon the old members who were active in the fifth year: Briliantshteyn, Fishman^[1], Avreyml Belfer and Yisroel Dovid Hendler and with them a whole group of young members who gathered in Hendler's house for the founding meeting of the illegal Printing Union. They decided to work in a few directions: firstly; to form a committee of a few distinguished printers who would prepare a statute for a legal Printer's Union and try to have it legalized with the Czarist authorities; and secondly, to strike a committee who in the meantime would organize the printers illegally.

The committee working to legalize the Union finished their work quickly. They copied a statute from another union and the specifics for printing were borrowed from the Polish Printers' Union, which at that time existed legally, and submitted it to the administrative office of the Governor General with the request to legalize it. Understandably, waiting for this legalization took too long as it could sit for years in the administrative office without receiving an answer.

The difficult work lay in the hands of illegal workers. They formed a

[Col. 358]

Printer's exchange, where the members of the illegal Printer's Union could gather, and the beginning once a week and after, more often on Leshene Street along Karmelitsky until Psheyazd. Walking back and for the from the section they introduced the printers to each other, discussed the conditions in the print shops where they work and their suffering and collected a membership fee for the illegal Printer's Union.

The amount of printers who came to the exchange grew weekly. The majority of the workers came from Accidents Print Shop, the young typesetters, machine workers, and instructors of the apprentices. The older generation came rarely, primarily because meeting on the street was not pleasant. But many of them had a good attitude toward the illegal Printer's Union and were happy to pay their monthly dues when they came to collect at the print shops. We did not have access at that time to the newspaper workers. The reason being – the Hasidim – were not interested in “subversive literature” and did not want to have anything to do with the “Socialists”.

Often, the illegal Printer's Union organized mass meetings of their members. They would send members of the exchange to various addresses, in attics and cellars where tens of members would gather. There would be a speaker from a political party who would lecture about organizing or political reports.

The exchanges in those days were a reservoir from which political parties could recruit supporters and created party districts. These party districts of printers created the “Bund” and “P.P.S – Levitsye”.This happened in secrecy. No one knew what the other was up to or pretended not to know; the general Union meetings did not adhere to one particular party and they would bring in lecturers from various parties.

In 1912 there was a general meeting for all members of the illegal Printer's Union. About one hundred members squeezed into a clandestine apartment. After a lecture dealing with organizational questions and a lively discussion, an election took place: “Yankelevitch (Yanek) Hendler, Fishman – “Bund”; Finklkroyt (Meirl) Tirman (Moishe Zetzer) – P.P.S – Levitsye”; Filatovsky – “Labour Zionist”; and Konsovitsky – non–partisan (unaffiliated). Besides those elected those who worked to organize the printing masses were Shternfeld, Langer, Rafael Lederman, Avreyml Belfer, Zaynvil Bombas and the pockmarked Heniek.

[Col. 359]

The Czarist secret police soon learned about the illegal Printer's Union and tried to find ways to break it up. Unable to do this through the printers they mobilized Jewish provocateurs who collaborated with the secret police and imposed ways contacting the leaders of the illegal union and hand them over.

Who knows how long the provocateurs worked at making close contact with the leaders of the Printer's Union and if anything at all would have happened without the following coincidence:

At the beginning of 1913 the Polish Printer's Union, who were still somewhat legal– began negotiations with the Polish print shop owners concerning wages. The Polish print shop owners were stubborn about certain points and a strike broke out on the Polish print shop street. Since the illegal Jewish administration already had a plan of action to improve the situation of the workers and to regulate the wages in various printing shops and had already figured out wage tariffs, it seemed the perfect time to take action on the Jewish street.

The administration of the illegal Jewish printer's union contacted the Polish workers in their legal union and adapted their worked–out tariffs to the conditions of the Polish print shops. They also decided to send a demand to the Jewish print shop owners and announce a strike on the same day as the Poles, making it a unified, general strike. The demands to the bosses were: an 8 hour work day (the demand for 8 hours was more demonstrative than substantial), and a pay raise of 30–50 percent.

On the eve of the strike the administrators convened at the home of Hendler, to finalize the decision to strike, to organize the strike action and to connect with the Polish strikers who were to begin their strike in two days. There were already a few hundred printed pamphlets for a call to strike, which were already in the home where the meeting was taking place.

When almost everyone arrived it appeared there were some strangers among the crowd. When we asked our host who they were he explained they were sent from the Warsaw “Bund” as the party had decided to help us with our strike. This was “Henekh Metalovyietz”.

The meeting was stormy because – we knew the Polish workers decided to postpone their strike at the last minute to an unknown date. The question was, should we follow their example and postpone the strike or – as the majority felt, to continue with our struggle. The representative from the “Bund” supported postponement, but the majority wanted to carry it out.

In the middle of the meeting, Hendler's wife (Evke) opened the door having heard a discreet knock. In walked 10 gendarmes in civilian clothes

[Col. 360]

and pointed revolvers and commanded: “Don't move from this place!”.

We all silently remained at our places. Then the investigation began. At first we all had to place our belongings on the table then they searched the house, the kitchen, the vestibule, they found nothing.

Our call to strike was on the table from earlier. It disappeared from the table. We all looked around for it knowing the danger it presented, but we could not see it. No one could figure out this puzzle. How astounded were we when the gendarme officer solved the mystery. He went straight to Mrs. Hendler and pulled the crumpled piece of paper from her mouth. There was no way she could swallow it. Late that night when the formalities ended, we are all taken to the third police station.

Eleven men were arrested including: Yankelevitch, Fishman^[1], Tirman, Shternfeld, Bombas, Konsevitsky, Filotovsky, Henekh Metaloviyetz and Hendler and his wife.

We later learned 300 pamphlets were nailed to the back of the bench where an older policeman sat and slept during our interrogation. This is how our pamphlets were saved and did not fall into the hands of the secret police.

After spending the night in a cell at the third police station, we were brought to the station of the secret police on Dagilovitchevske Street at 11 o'clock in the morning when all the Jews were returning from synagogue. It was the Sabbath. On the way we all sang revolutionary songs like a choir.

From the secret police, after a short interrogation where we were called in one at a time in the middle of the night, we were brought in small groups, 2 or 3 to the nearby central jail on the same street. We were all placed in one cell except for Mrs. Hendler who was sent to the women's section of the same jail.

The majority of our friends who were arrested had never been to jail. They remained calm as they believed this is how they must behave, and everything was alright. Those who had been arrested before by the Czarist secret police were not so calm, especially Hendler who had experienced this before. Firstly, he wondered why we were all in the same cell while the investigation was still ongoing. That meant the secret police gave us the opportunity to discuss our defense. Secondly, he was disturbed after the first interrogation by the question posed to him by the officer. He shouted that this was a provocation and the provocateur was among us. So, who was the provocateur?

In a word: it was happy in the cell, because Hendler was a nervous and honest man. He could not keep anything to himself. He walked around quietly conferring with his comrades

[Col. 361]

And soon everyone learned that the confusion was increasing. The accusations began. First of all, it was put on the table, all the people who knew about the meeting and did not come. There were three: Briliantshteyn, Finklkroyt and Avreyml Belfer. We knew Briliantshteyn was a sick man. He often had gall stone attacks and we knew he would often feel sick and not show up. The second was Finklkroyt. We actually saw him not far from the gate where the meeting took place, walking with his girlfriend Lonia who often went to Hendler's house, and in her muff was the stamp of the illegal printer's union. We were all sure that at any moment he would come in to the meeting. But Hendler defended him because Finklkroyt could not have known that “Henekh” had to take part in the meeting because he only belonged to the P.P.S – Levtziye; the only remaining suspect was Avreyml Belfer, who he would not let go alive.

And a miracle actually happened. On the fourth day of our incarceration the doors open and in comes our comrade Hersh Langer who joyfully exclaims: you guys are all here? He hugged and kissed us all warmly. He then told us all that had happened since our arrest.

First of all – he said – our arrest left a big impression on the city. Everyone was talking about the “big arrest”. Secondly, the printers did not look at this arrest of their representatives. The strike had begun. Our comrade Meir Finklkroyt and a few other comrades continued with the strike action, which was taking big chances. Yesterday there were negotiations with the artisan's union on Miodove Street. The bosses of the print shops have already agreed to half of the demands. They may have agreed to all demands, but since we insisted they intervene on your behalf to release you, they postponed the negotiations for another day to try to succeed. We persuaded them that the informer came from their group, and they were guilty in your arrest.

When asked how he was arrested his answer sounded like an unbelievable detective novel: he was hiding in a closet in the room where the bosses were having their meeting. The guard caught him and handed him over to the police. This is how he came to us.

Whispering began between him and the other members of the “Bund” to find out who was the provocateur. Turns out he brought forth a concrete suspect and all previous suspects suddenly disappeared and everyone calmed down.

A few days later an official entered our cell and read our verdict. The administrator of the Governor General in Warsaw is sentencing us to 1–2 months of jail for holding an illegal meeting. We all opened our eyes wide. That was all?

[Col. 362]

This is what we were afraid of? We were sure we would get at least on year, and then be sent to the far reaching Russian provinces. The gendarmes knew the goals of our meetings. They knew very well we were the administration of the illegal printer's union, especially since they found the pamphlet that called for a strike…we feared much worse. We were sure they would demand a trial, and until the trial we could sit for many months. We also feared the provocateur. We hoped he would not attach us to belonging to a political party, making our lawsuit political. Finally, we were discredited with the fact that “Henekh Metaloviyetz” took part in our meeting – he was well known in the Czarist secret police. This could have made our trial political. Who knows what may have happened. We counted the days until our release.

The happy and joyful Hershl Langer was released a few days later. He spent the whole day in the cell singing. When he was released we were all gloomy. The disagreements continued about who was the provocateur. After Langer was released we knew the provocateur was among us in jail. Only because he was one of us, did the Czarist secret police tone down our guilt and did not want to try us and gave us the mildest possible punishment.

Since I was a minor, I was among those who received the smallest punishment. After my release from jail the general strike was liquidated. But in some places, like the very small print shops, the conflict continued. These were repercussions from the previous strike. This is what happened in the print shop Drakhle on Zshabe Street. A strike – breaker still worked there. As I was returning home from jail I met some friends who told me the story. I entered the print shop with my friends and removed the strike breaker. The owner made a fuss. A policeman came and arrested us. On the way to the police station we bribed him with 20 Kopeks sparing us more time in a Czarist jail.

Once we were all free we learned “Henekh Metaloviyetz”, who sat with us in jail was accused by his party, the “Bund” of being the provocateur. Because of their collaborator “Henekh Metaloviyets” the Czarist secret police staged a comedy in order to save their agent from jail.

The illegal printer's union existed until the outbreak of the First World War. During the war until the German occupation of Warsaw, it collapsed due to a crisis in printing. There was no work. Many of the printers went to serve in the army, going off to far–away places. It remained like this until the emergence of the legal union of Jewish printers in Warsaw at the end of 1915.

(From the “Chronicles of Jewish Printers in Poland” “The New Life” Publishing House, Warsaw, 1949.)

Translator's footnote:

1. Fishman, could be writer Dovid Frishman, active in Warsaw during that period Return

  Warsaw, Poland     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 02 Feb 2020 by JH