[Page 632]

At the beginning of this century (20^th century) I placed myself in conflict with my home; I left my home and moved to Tarnow in order to begin living an independent life against the will of my father. The sturm un drang [turmoil] period then turned me into an agitator in the Jewish neighborhoods, more correct, in the voluntary Jewish ghettos in Galicia.

In Tarnow I first felt what it meant to be an independent person. I went to the Pilzner Gate, where young people waited in the tens or hundreds until a customer appeared for the labor force and would hire them in various trades and businesses for at least two years. There, on the “exchange,” the unemployed and the employers would come together. The boss would carefully look over the person whom he was going to employ, evaluate his work capabilities with his eyes, tap his muscles with his hands and hire a journeyman.

I also was hired in this way. Luckily, my boss was a cultured man; he asked me outright if I could read and write. His conversation with me was carried out in German, Polish and Yiddish. It happened that my answers pleased him because he hired me for two years as a sales clerk (sales employee). The first months I had to do all work without exception, also including housework. Incidentally, without exception, all entrepreneurs acted this way with their newly hired workers. I also was given various other work and my boss felt that this irritated me; they knew my ancestry and this, it

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appears, led to me becoming a visitor in their home, actually a frequent visitor. In those times there was a complete upheaval in the hierarchical relationship between boss and journeyman. And I was lucky in this house. The son of my boss, an attorney and leader of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S. - Polska Partia Socjalistyczna], possessed a rich library of which I was permitted to make use. His sister recommended that I become familiar with the Communist Manifesto. We studied the works of [Friedrich] Engels, [Georgi] Plekhanov, [Moshe] Hess and other socialist theoreticians together. In addition I began “going into” the beautiful literature; [Adam] Mickiewicz, [Juliusz] Slowacki, [Heinrich] Heine, [Leo] Tolstoy and other great writers became close to me, and my own.

Yehosha Landau in 1904 in Tarnow (now in Tel Aviv)

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The Bundists' propaganda literature also had an influence with which I, as a Jew, was strongly pleased and brought me close to Jewish socialism. It is true, the P.P.S. had many, many Jews in its ranks, but we felt that as Jews we were only tolerated there. Despite the strong opposition on the part of the socialist leaders then – such as Karol Sobelson (later Karol Radek), Dr. Diamant, Dr. Liberman, Dr. Perl, Heker, Dr. Drobner (who later joined another group), both Dr. Alders from Vienna, Dr. Elenbogn, Dr. Otto Bauer, Ignaci Daszinski, Josef Pilsudski (who then lived in Galicia as a conspirator) – we founded the Jewish Socialist Party.

The chief founders of the Zh. P. S. were: Henrik Grosman, Yakov Bros, Henrik Szrajber, Moshe Papier, Yehosha Neker, Yona Blum and Dr. Fajner – all from Krakow; Dr. Landau, Dr. Rozen, Dovid Fast, Dr. Eineigler, Winik, Dr. Mozler and Teper – all from western Galicia; Leo Geldsztajn, Braw, Zomerman and I –from Tarnow

The end of 1904 is the correct date to be recorded for the rise of the Zh. P. S., but this was done in secret. The first public appearance of the Zh. P. S. took place on the 1^st of May 1905 when a call was published from the party in the Yiddish, Polish, Ukrainian and German languages. It should be understood that everyone who joined the ranks of the Zh. P. S. was removed from the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S). Thus were we, the Tarnow members of the Zh. P. S., expelled on an evening before the eve of the 1^st of May 1905. The expulsion was carried out by Karol Radek, Szczalkowski, Zigmunt Czulawski, Dr. Simba and Huter. We [worked] to widen the expulsion and, in time, made sure that the professional unions of tailors, bakery journeymen, candle makers and hat makers would go with us. If as the Jewish Socialist Party we would have appeared in the May demonstration with separate slogans in Yiddish and in Polish, the P.P.S. would surely not have permitted us in the general May parade. But thanks to the intervention of Dr. Zigmunt Marek, we were not only tolerated in the general May parade, but we also were permitted, in the name of our 2,000 demonstrators, to make a statement to the 10,000 assembled workers. This first public appearance in the name of Jewish workers aroused the assembled crowd like a bomb – Jews as well as non-Jews. The surprise was even greater that right on the 1^st of May, the day of international workers solidarity, we Jewish workers came and declared ourselves as an autonomous party in the framework of the larger general socialist movement. Our declaration at the meeting, given in the Polish language, ended with

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the words: “We march separately, but fight together with the other national social-democratic parties, for the liberation of the proletariat.”

The national question was one of the most vexing political problems in Austria at that time. The Austrian-Hungarian monarchy consisted of nine nationalities, and the Austrian social-democratic movement also had many nationality groups in its ranks. Characteristically, when all nationalities in the parties were recognized as ethnic groups, there was only one exception – the Jews. According to programmatic attitudes of the Austrian social democracy, every national group had its own party with the rights of national autonomy. Only the Jews were not given this autonomy. They were not recognized as an ethnic group in the party. Dr. Adler, himself a Jew, could not decide according to the general social principle to give Jews national self-determination rights. He, like most social-democratic leaders of Jewish origin, did not want to recognize autonomy for Jewish socialist parties because that would mean for them joining these parties and thus give up their entire influence and dominion in the general Social-Democratic Party. On this terrain, the Zh. P. S. had to endure a difficult struggle with the P.P.S. and with the Austrian S.D.P (Social-Democratic Party) – a struggle that cost a great deal of time, effort and energy. And not only were we not recognized as an ethnic group, they also did not want to give us recognition as proletarian in the actual sense of the word.

The Zh. P. S. did not have an easy task in such a situation. In the struggle to be recognized as a national group, it had to carry on educational work among Jewish workers, organize them, culturally and socially educate them in the spirit of class struggle. However, all of our efforts went toward organizing the Jewish worker, who was exploited in a terrible way. His workday was from 12 to 14 hours for a starvation wage. This reactionary-clerical Austria did not permit the introduction of the 8-hour day. At that time a fight for a 10-hour workday arrived in the industrial area of Austria. The S.D.P. carried on this fight. There were only 11 socialist deputies in the Austrian parliament because the reactionary election law with its curia-system permitted 20 property owners to elect one deputy and 48,000 workers, also one deputy. From this one fact can be seen how the political situation regarding the rights of the Austrian worker looked at the beginning of the present century [20^th century]. However,

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the situation in backward Galicia, where a feudal regime still reigned, was much worse.

And in the Jewish neighborhood? The greatest number of people, among them workers, could not read and right correctly. Religious enslavement and darkness ruled in Jewish homes. The clergy and the kehile [organized Jewish community] imposed their stamp on all of Jewish public life. How often had our important meetings come to nothing because most of the members were…at prayer. I, myself, would strongly experience such people when we set a meeting at the union premises and it could not always take place on time; the members had turned the premises into a minyon [10 men needed for group prayer] and prayed Minkhah-Maariv [afternoon and evening prayers] there. Thus we had to work among an element among whom on one hand we had found illiteracy and on the other hand the constant fear of losing their workplace and income at a time when hunger and need reigned in the Jewish neighborhood.

However, the fighting spirit did not leave us. The opposite, the Tarnow committee of the Zh. P. S. decided just in that atmosphere that is described above to proclaim a strike, actually provoked it. Our demands were: higher wages and a shorter workday. We were uncertain about the outcome of this gigantic challenge. Two thousand five hundred tailors stopped working, which meant that 6,000-7,000 people remained without bread. The party treasury always was empty. At the beginning of the strike, the professional central office in Vienna sent several thousand kronen to us, but mentioned that we had no hope of receiving further support. The fact of help being sent from Vienna strongly encouraged us and we released a rumor for the employers that the capitol city would support our strike. This information forced the employers to enter negotiations with us, which lasted for a long time and were very difficult. There was a conspiracy against us on the part of everyone: the entrepreneurs, the kehile, the clergy and the regime organs. All of them wanted to stamp out the strike of the journeymen – the first mass strike of Jewish workers not only in Tarnow, but also in all of Galicia. A great deal was at stake in connection with this strike – not only the prestige of the Zh. P. S., but also the prestige of the entire Jewish workers movement. And therefore our efforts were multiplied. On me, then a 20-year old young man, was laid the great responsibility to lead the strike and I felt as if it was a difficult burden for me. Dr. Yakov Bros from Krakow and Winik, a tailor from Lemberg, came to help me.

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A question of prestige suddenly arose during the strike and the negotiations. The employers were ready to carry on negotiations with the strikers, but not with me. But the strikers were stubborn and demanded that no one else but I (not a tailor) should carry on the arguments in their name (today I think that this was reckless on my part to provoke this strike, which at that time meant placing on the scale the fate and survival of the Jewish socialist movement in Tarnow). However, I was resolved in my youthful fervor and in my connection to the Jewish masses. With good fortune, there were no strike-breakers and the strike ended with success. The employers, with the exception of one firm, agreed to all of the conditions that had been demanded by the strikers.

The victory of a Jewish workers party evoked wonder. The Zh. P. S. became the strongest party in Tarnow; its influence grew higher than our strength. The elder in our party committee was Zomerman, 26 years old. I, the youngest, was mostly responsible for the party and professional activities. There could be no talk about receiving payment for such work. Without the material help of my father, younger brother, in-laws and my present wife, who knows if I would have been able to fulfill my assignment. Often, the Austrian regime would place active socialists, like Karol Radek, Zigmunt Czulawski, Stczalkowski, Dr. Y. Drobner, Zomerman and others in jail. I would also be taken in police arrest and lost my freedom for periods of time because of our political activity. My family did not forget me during those times and provided the necessary help.

As a Jewish socialist party, we had to carry on not only an economic struggle, but also a political one, connected with concrete slogans against the actions of the central government, municipalities and the kehile. In 1906, the Austrian S.D.P. proclaimed the struggle for general voting rights and held demonstrations throughout the country. We organized the demonstrations in Tarnow together with the P.P.S. [Polish Socialist Party] and Poalei-Zion [Marxist-Zionists], which were carried out with such a size and power, as if a general strike had broken out. All businesses, workshops and factories were closed. The post officials and the train employees joined the demonstration parade. The gathering began at the barracks of the cavalrymen in Tarnow. Over 20,000 people came to hear the joint demands of the Tarnow workers. Appearing before the giant crowd with speeches were Dr. Zigmunt Marek in the name of the P.P.S., the peasant leader [Wincenty] Witos (later the prime minister of the Polish government),

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in the name of the peasants party, and I, in the name of the Jewish workers. Each speaker gave a short statement and we brought the adopted resolution to the district chief, Count [Julian Ritter von] Dunajewski, who threatened us to send the gendarmes and military against us. An answer to this threat came from me that he should not dare to do this because we could cover his people with our hats. He then sentenced me to 14 days in jail, but I did not serve the sentence because an amnesty for political prisoners was issued and I benefitted from it.

The political battle was fought with great bitterness with the arrival of general voting rights to the Austrian parliament. As the Zh. P. S. did not present its own candidate, we united to support the candidate of the P.P.S., Dr. Drobner, against the government's candidate [Roger] Battaglia. The Zionist Party presented Dr. Malc as its candidate. Therefore, the Zh. P. S. made a technical election pact with the Zionists, to vote for the Jewish candidate who would reach a run-off. Dr. Malc did not reach the run-off, which took place between Dr. Drobner and Baron Battaglia. We were sure that the progressive parties would vote for Dr. Drobner.

YA group of Zh. P. S. leaders in Tarnow From left to right: Herman Kliger, of blessed memory, Yehosha Landau and Moshe Zajden, of blessed memory

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The entire reaction [reactionary politicians] – the Austrian, Jewish and Polish, with the help of the Catholic spiritualists, Jewish rabbis and the citizens of all ethnic groups – began terrible activity against the socialist candidate, labeling him as a godless man, bribing non-Jewish voters with money and whiskey; the merchants made threats of repression and with whatever was possible – they paid bribes. My father-in-law was asked to corrupt me with 5,000 krones so I would not carry on any agitation for Drobner. The brave, honest man refused this abominable proposal, but I was placed under arrest until a day after the voting. Despite this terror, corruption and other bad actions, Count Battaglia was elected with only a negligible majority of the votes.

Not yet having forgotten the election struggle to parliament, there came the election to the Tarnow city council. Our candidates, Dr. Zigmunt Szicer (one of the most ingenious heads among the Tarnow socialist intellectuals), Dr. Borgenicht, Zilbiger and Ch. Najger of the Zionists, won the election. I was elected as a representative, but my election was annulled because I was a year too young to have passive^[2] voting rights (24 years old). The Zh. P. S. joined the Zionist parties and Jewish democratic groups during the kehile elections of 1907.

We published an election newspaper with the Zionists, with Zionists co-workers Berkelhamer, Dr. Szpan, Dr. Yitzhak Sziper, Daniel Leibl, Elihu Tisz and Leo Feldsztajn, Zigmunt Braw and I from the Zh. P. S. The Jewish Democratic Zionist list won here, too. The Jewish workers then did not have voting rights for the kehile – the reactionary, assimilated and clericalist institution in Galicia. Dr. Zalc was correct in the statement he gave during the kehile voting after the victory of the Zionists in Tarnow: “We have stormed the Bastille like the French revolutionaries.”

The open appearance of the Jewish Socialist Party, particularly its activists in Tarnow, created for it the appropriate relationship with the widest [number of people] in the masses. The party organized the young and stimulated their interest in socialist literature, books and newspapers. Thanks to the devoted work of Dovid Batist there was success in creating a magnificent youth organization of over 100 young people who thirsted for knowledge. They were particularly interested in Yiddish literature, acquainting themselves with the works of [Y.L.] Peretz, [Peretz] Hirschbein, Anchi [Zalman Yitzhak Aaronsohn], Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch. They organized public discussion evenings about books and writers.

We had to endure many accusations and fuss from the parents of the young people who were drawn into the organization. However, we continued with our work of organizing the young, mainly

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the homeless and impoverished, and we made them proud Jews and class-conscious fighters. And we succeeded with this work.

I had to leave Tarnow in 1911 for grave reasons and when I returned to Tarnow in 1918 from the battlefield, anti-Semitic unrest had broken out there. We [Zh. P. S.] and Poalei-Zion [Marxist-Zionists] and the Zionists created a Jewish self-defense [organization] and gave the anti-Semitic hooligans into its hands. Many of the Zh. P. S. young people excelled in the self-defense [organization], and I met many of my students here in Israel from the organization who continued that tradition of Tarnow effervescence with their work and zeal in Jewish communal life in the kibbutzim [communal settlements], in the city and in the village, in the Haganah [Jewish paramilitary force during the British mandate] and the Israeli Army.

I again was threatened with arrest. I left Tarnow and emigrated to Berlin and from there, later, to Eretz-Yisroel. It is difficult for me to speak further about the activities of the Zh. P. S. Since then, I have always remembered with emotion and strong tenderness that time of youthful temperament, high idealism and self-sacrifice.

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The rise of the Jewish socialist movement in Tarnow dates to the beginning of the 19^th century. The Bund arose first in the year 1920, after the conclusion of the unification conference of the Tarnow Zh. P. S. [Żydowska Partia Socjalistyczna – the Polish name of the Jewish Socialist Party] and the Bund that took place in Krakow. The writer of these lines had the honor to be one of the Tarnow delegates to the unification conference.

I remember (I was then still very young) the main problem that strongly occupied the leading comrades of the Zh. P. S. – how to organize the Jewish tailor workers and the workers employed in other trades, such as: men's hats, bakers and carpenters. Among those active in Zh. P. S. were the Landau brothers, Z. Braw, Wajsman and Zomerman. Their main work consisted of waiting at the workshops for the workers who had finished work, carrying out a conversation with them, inviting them to meetings. The older comrades from the Zh. P. S. derived political pleasure from politics in the ranks of the P.P.S. (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna [Polish Socialist Party]). However, the revolutionary winds that were carried from Russia in 1905-1906 also reached Galicia and then reached Tarnow.

The organizing work had good results. A youth organization arose with several dozen Jewish workers. Mr. Yosef Landau led their educational work. The several comrades would also show more interest in the meetings that were called for the particular trades. An organized group of tailor workers quickly arose. The organization included other trades, mainly the hatmakers branch. Each trade had its activists who carried out the work. For the tailors this included: Wajsman (chairman), Zomerman, Kornhajzer, Moshe Zajden; for the hatmaker workers:

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Zelig Braw, Zemel and Wildsztajn; for the bakery workers: Gotlob, Sznal and Herbst; I cannot remember those from other trades. However, one must underline that the Landau brothers had in all the above-mentioned trades provided much work and effort. They also carried on cultural work. From time to time, passionate discussion meetings would take place in the P.P.S. The leadership of the P.P.S. maintained that we, as a national minority of Jewish workers, needed to join the P.P.S. without reservation. As a Jewish group, understandably, we rejected this idea. After a consultation, we made the decision to create an independent Jewish Socialist Party (Zh. P. S. Żydowska Partia Socjalistyczna). From Krakow, we would be provided with lectures on political and cultural themes. Mainly, Comrades Dr. Szrajber, Dr. Fajner and Dr. Ignac Aleksandrowicz, who were then very popular in Poland, would visit us. The work of the Zh. P. S. group in Tarnow continued in this way until the outbreak of the First World War.

During the First World War, Tarnow was an object for both fighting armies. Almost all of Galicia was occupied by the Tsarist Army and Tarnow Jews lived through difficult times then. It was challenging for them to adapt to the occupying Tsarist regime from which they had to endure huge problems. After eight months, the situation on the front changed; the Russian Army received blows and withdrew from all of Galicia. The Jewish population in Tarnow breathed easier.

No activity was carried out among the Jewish working class during the war. All of our comrades were mobilized in the army. Only two comrades from the youth group remained in the city: Dovid Batist and Moshe Fajerajzn. The two young men did much for the Jewish families whose husbands or sons were away at the front. The remaining women had to take care of various matters in the Austrian offices and it was not easy for them to receive the payment of several kronen for themselves and their children. The male and female officials would always find that some paper was not in order. The poor Jewish women would remain helpless and despondent and, as a result, leave empty-handed. The two above-mentioned comrades opposed this unjust and rotten bureaucracy and almost always with success.

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The year 1918 ended with a military defeat of Austria-Germany-Turkey. The new Poland arose, but Jews lived through difficult times. An anti-Semitic wave was carried across all of Poland, accompanied by pogroms against Jews, who then lived in terrible fear. The provisional Polish government felt too weak to counteract the anti-Semitic rampaging and, therefore, the bands rampaged undisturbed.

One Friday, the marketplace could be seen filled with peasants who had previously prepared sacks in which they could place the looted Jewish items. On all roads that led to the city, masses of peasants, armed with sticks and iron bars, appeared before 10 in the morning. They were supposed to start the murderous actions according to an agreed upon signal, unaware that Tarnow Jews had firmly decided not to permit any pogrom and to fight the hooligans. As always, the Jewish workers stood at the head of the defensive actions.

The young Dovid Batist had already shown himself to be an energetic organizer, he stood in the first row. Armed Jewish workers, many of whom were still dressed in military clothing and many who still possessed their weapons, were placed on all the roads and streets. When the bandits received the signal to begin the pogrom, the Jewish defense groups attacked them with all of their power and the blood of the hooligans began to flow. The wagons that were prepared to drive away with the stolen Jewish possessions were broken to pieces by our workers. The hooligans barely succeeded in catching their horses and quickly returned home. However, not all were able to do so because at the Pilzner gate and at other exits from the city, they met more self-defense groups, specially prepared for this purpose and here the true story was told… The pogromczkies [those carrying out the pogrom] received the right message!

Today, we can remember with pride the Tarnow Jewish workers who did not let the hooligans raise their heads and defeated them in advance. The Jews of Tarnow made a remarkable contribution to the history of Polish Jewry as a whole, and especially to the history of Tarnow.

The economic situation of the Jews in Tarnow then began to

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The Bundist Youth Organization in Tarnow in 1918 In the first row sitting from right to left: Pinkas Ajzen, Gogelfang, Adler, Chaim Yitzhak Korn (now in New York), Hersh Sh. Szindler, Dovid Batist, and the eleventh in the same row, Moshe Fajerajzn In the last row, standing from right to left on the left, the fourth one: Hersh Korn and Oren Sporn (now in Canada)

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worsen from day to day. Jewish workers found themselves in particularly difficult conditions. Hundreds of them returned from the front physically broken and suffering. The new Poland was little concerned about its citizens who returned from the war and remained without a roof over their heads and without work. I remember how the young Dovid Batist then came from a meeting at the kehile [the organization of the Jewish community] and said that help had arrived from America in the form of goods. He asked that a list be prepared immediately of our members and sympathizers who according to the assembled list would receive support from the kehile. We had to endure a great deal of hardship and distress from the hungry and needy people everyone was able to find fault with the kehile leadership that at that time carried out such useful goods distributions. Over the course of several months, a communal kitchen was created where every jobless person received a lunch on the spot and could take home food for his family.

In 1919, the professional union of tailors in Tarnow received a written notice from the Wurzel and Daar clothing firm expressing their willingness to discuss employing several workers to fulfill an order for the Polish military. Our joy was unlimited because this meant employing many jobless tailors. In time, more men's clothing firms began to operate and almost all Jewish tailors in the city received employment in their trade. However, the abnormal post-war years created still more difficulties. Due to rising inflation, wages were devalued, leaving workers financially devastated and unable to afford going on strike. As usual, the entrepreneurs exploited this situation and became more contentious about wages.

The workers lost their patience. They stopped working and called a meeting of all tailors. Comrade Batist, as the main speaker, at first described the political situation in the country and emphasized that not all of the fault of the situation needed to be attributed to the Tarnow entrepreneurs. He said that for deeper reasons, they now lived in an abnormal time. The only thing that had to be done, the speaker said, was to adapt our wages to the economic circumstances, but this could be accomplished only when the labor inspectors took the matter into their hand. Batist, with

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his appearance, won the trust of the Jewish tailor-workers and this elevated him to be a recognized leader of the Tarnow workers movement.

On this occasion, we would like to offer a brief portrait of our beloved Bundist and dedicated worker-activist, Dovid Batist. He came from a petit-bourgeois family. His father, who ran a men's clothing workshop, employed several journeymen-tailors. He would supply the completed goods to his own business with which Batist's mother and sisters were involved Dovid Batist was his parents' only son (he had three sisters). He was sent to study at a gymnazie [secondary school], but he did not graduate. He neglected his classes in order to dedicate himself completely to the Jewish workers movement. He immediately joined the Jewish Socialist Youth and worked there with extraordinary dedication. He grew together with the movement, which made its progress in the years 1919-1921. Batist possessed extraordinary energy and no difficulty stopped him from his chosen purpose. His first co-workers at the Zh. P. S. (later Bund) were: Zelig Braw (chairman), Ahron-

Dovid Batist, of blessed memory

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Szporn (vice chairman), Batist (secretary), Yosef Szporn (treasurer), Kluger. Szwarcbart, Wajcman, Zomerman, Diner, Gotlob. None of those mentioned above (except the writer of these lines) remains alive.

In 1920, the unification conference took place in Krakow. The Zh. P. S. in Galicia merged with the general Jewish Workers Bund – Bund. Even though the Tarnow Bund was officially founded in 1920, the Galician Zh. P. S. was always ideologically close to the Bund. In any case, during the first years of Poland's independence, we drew our spiritual inspiration from the Bund, despite the fact that we were divided by a border and it was not so easy to maintain contact with a political party in another country.

Today, I still remember with emotion when the mandate commission elected me as delegate to the Krakow Conference from Tarnow. I then saw and heard for the first time the leader of the Bund, Józef Portnoy (Noyekh), chairman of the central committee, Henrikh Erlich, Viktor Alter, Kh. Waser, Oczek and other veterans from the movement. The conference lasted two full days, but for me this was only a few minutes. I will never forget the words of Henrikh Erlich, who at the close of the conference turned to the young Bundists: “We have always held you to be good socialists as well as good Bundists, but for a long time we have been divided by two separate borders. The time has come when we can give you our hand and take you into our great Bundist camp. With your numbers and fighting energy, you will cement and strengthen the Bundist movement. You are welcomed by us; be greeted young Bundists and old socialists; begin to do good Bundist work in a new independent Poland.”

For the first time, we, Jewish socialists from Galicia, with the leaders of the Bund, swore devotion to the Bund. With fresh courage and new belief, we returned to Tarnow from the Krakow Unification Conference.

The Jewish workers movement in the city moved to another labor system. A reregistration of all party members was carried out. Not everyone who belonged to the Zh. P. S. now joined the Bund. The professional movement also began to follow new ways.

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It did not take long before Poland was drawn into a war with Bolshevik Russia. The Bund appeared against this war at the Warsaw city council and the entire leadership of the Bund was arrested. The same thing happened in other cities in Poland. In Tarnow, the entire Bundist committee was held in prison. The Polish government declared the Bund illegal in the entire country and the leadership was held in prison without a judgement.

After two days under arrest, the Tarnow committee of the Bund succeeded in being freed pending a trial (which never took place). We immediately turned to underground work as an illegal political organization. A number of comrades were afraid of the conspiratorial activity and left the party ranks (Zelig Braw and Kluger). All remaining Bundists stayed in their positions.

The Polish-Russian War ended. A revival returned in a series of industries, but there was political unrest in the country. The working masses in Poland as well as the poor peasants were not satisfied with the Chjeno-Piast government. The P.P.S. called for public appearances. Demonstrations took place in larger cities with the demand that the government should retreat and that a new election be drawn up for the Sejm [Polish parliament]. Prime Minister [Wincenty] Witos made use of the military to disperse the worker demonstrations.

In November 1923, a bloody confrontation took place in Tarnow between worker demonstrators and the military, who shot at them with machine guns. Eight workers fell dead. The entire city was greatly enraged by the spilling of blood and it took a week before Tarnow became calm after this event. The city council was forced to pay for the funerals of the eight fallen workers. It took some time until the P.P.S. calmed the mood and returned the city to its normal demeanor.

A short time after this event, the Bund decided to emerge from underground and turn to legal activity. Comrade Batist was elected as chairman of the Bundist organization in Tarnow and normal work began, not asking for legalization from the government. The method of not asking for permission was shown to be a good one. The Bund began to carry out its political and cultural activity. The Bundist youth organization, Tsukunft, which had gathered under its flag over 100 young people on the 1st of May 1924, began to be active. The chairman of the first Tsukunft

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organization in Tarnow was Lajzer Binensztok (now in Montreal, Canada).

The union of tailor workers also went through a tumultuous development. The entrepreneurs increased their production and there was a demand for workers. The Daar and Wurzel firm began to manufacture men's clothing on a large scale. Dozens of new firms entered the clothing industry (the Braun brothers, who had a division for women's clothing in the Daar and Wurzel firm became independent and erected a factory for first-class women's clothing). Tarnow became one of the Polish centers in the clothing industry. New enterprises arrived every year. In 1927, a very large factory ([Jozek] Ketz firm) opened, which employed 200 Jewish clothing workers. The men's clothing factory of the brothers Dovid and Shimeon Zajden must also be mentioned. Both survived the Second World War in the Soviet Union; in 1945, they returned to Poland and like most of the Jews left for Israel. Alas, Dovid Zajden did not have the merit to enjoy the Jewish state because he died there in 1951. At this opportunity, I want to say something about the Zajden Brothers firm: I was active in the Tarnow clothing workers union and I often was in contact with men's clothing entrepreneurs on various trade matters. I must admit that not all entrepreneurs in the industry treated their workers fairly. An exception was the Zajden Brothers firm. According to the statistics that the union had for various firms with which it had relationships, it was shown that they were entrepreneurs with a very good relationship with their workers. However, there were other firms that would provoke wild strikes, without any justification. When it now comes to talking about loyalty of the entrepreneur to the worker, I must place the Zajden firm in first place. In the last years, on the eve of the Second World War, I do not remember that Tarnow tailor-workers had complaints about the two Zajden brothers.

I also recall other men's clothing firms in Tarnow that treated their workers well: firm Knecht; firm Keler (intelligent people, with whom one could always come to an agreement); firm Braun Brothers, who would act very honestly in regard to their workers.

Who were the leaders of the Tarnow clothing union? In order to give a correct answer to the question, it must be clear that in Tarnow the professional movement of the tailor-workers grew equally with the clothing industry in Poland. In the 1930s, Tarnow was a city with the

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best men's clothing industry that was under the control of the Tarnow Tailor-Workers Union. Twice a year, price agreements were signed between the entrepreneurs and the professional union. If in the course of a year, smaller incidents took place between the workers and entrepreneurs, a joint commission would regulate the matter with mutual respect shown by both sides.

The union had three divisions: 1) Men's clothing workers who belonged to the class-union. It was led by Yosl Celer – one of the youngest professional activists in Tarnow. He was an exemplary worker activist. He worked in a workshop all day and after work, he devoted himself completely to the professional movement (I often think about our Tarnow professional activists who gave their entire free time to the union without any payment. Here in America, at least 10 paid functionaries would have to be supported for such a professional movement as there was in Tarnow). 2) A branch of the men's clothing [union] was the socialist Artisans Union, led by the Comrades Y. Grinbaum and Sh. Szapiro. 3) A division of the women's clothing workers' union, which arose in Tarnow after the First World War. This trade later developed strongly thanks to the larger factories controlled by the professional union. The women's

Shlomo Sporn, of blessed memory

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clothing division was led by the experienced professional activist and dear Bundist, Shlomo Szporn. Himself a factory worker, he would throw himself into the professional work until late at night after finishing his workday in the workshop. Shlomo Szporn represented the entire Tarnow Garment Workers Union with its large number of members, 3,000 men. He took an active part in almost all aspects of the Tarnow workers movement. In 1934, he was elected as a member of the main central committee of the Garment Workers Union in Warsaw. He was very beloved by the Tarnow tailor-workers because of his honesty and dedication to the matter. Therefore, he often received a mandate from them to represent Jewish workers at the Tarnow city council, kehile and managing committee of the health insurance fund. He also took a series of important management positions in the workers' lives. There was a time when they wanted to give him management work in the Warsaw central committee, but he did not want to be a paid professional. He remained working in a Tarnow workshop and was communally active after work. When the Polish-German War broke out, Shlomo Szporn joined the army, became a prisoner of the Russians, from which he was freed after a short time. He fell into German hands and was interned in a camp for prisoners of war. He spent a year there and then returned to Tarnow. He lived here in the ghetto, but maintained contact with Jewish workers in other worker organizations in Krakow and Warsaw. There are written facts about his daring. He would send trusted men to the two cities and receive instructions from there. At the liquidation of the Tarnow ghetto, Shlomo Szporn was sent to Plaszow, then to Mathausen, where he had to endure murderous torture. His wish to see the end of the hated enemy encouraged him and gave him the strength to endure the most difficult times. However, right at the end of the war, he received an injection of poison. Shlomo Szporn breathed out his honest soul. May his memory be a blessing!

The Bundist party organization in Tarnow erected a complete set of institutions to satisfy the needs of the working masses and simultaneously to serve as a guide. The broadest strata of people would, therefore, warmly answer the appeals of the Bund with regard to political actions and appearances.

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Here I will recall the election action for the Tarnow health insurance fund that the Bund carried out in 1927. There were then two qualified fronts: on one side – the united workers bloc P.P.S. – Bund; on the other side – the bloc of the Polish and Jewish entrepreneurs and manufacturers. The socialist artisans presented their own list (the writer of these lines was actually elected as their representative for the health fund). The election fight was turbulent and difficult. The workers' list had against it a bloc that dispensed much money and they had strewn the street with their literature. While the workers had to put together their election fund from their hard-earned groshn. The Polish workers were not in a position to give a large contribution to the election campaign from their insignificant earnings and, therefore, the Bund had to cover the much larger part of the election expenses. However, the financial difficulty was not an obstacle to leading the campaign with fervor and enthusiasm. The result – the sick fund in Tarnow was managed by the socialist majority. We immediately enlarged the building, hiring the best doctors; providing the apothecary with the needed medications and made sure that sick workers would be sent to a sanitorium for treatment. Most important, the Jewish workers were no longer treated by the doctors employed by the sick fund as if they were second-class citizens. The Polish reaction could not make peace with the idea that socialism should rule in the health fund. After several years of the socialist managing committee, it was dissolved by the regime and a commissar was placed there.

The Bund appeared with its own list for the Sejm elections in Poland, on which the most praise-worthy Bundist, Dr. Gliksman from Krakow (later, leader of the Silesia Social Democratic Party), appeared as a candidate. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Dr. Gliksman escaped to Russia. In 1942 he died of typhus in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

For the second Sejm election, the central committee of the Bund presented the candidacy of Comrade Henrikh Erlich in Tarnow County. Thus the Tarnow Bund was given the honor that the most recognized Bundist leader appeared on their list. Dr. Yehosha Thon was the candidate of the Zionist Party.

The first Sejm election is well etched in my memory. The last pre-election meeting called by the Zionists took place in the New Synagogue. To close the election campaign, the Bund brought the famous people's tribune, P. Dembicer. With the chairman

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of the Zionist meeting, Dr. Szpan, we negotiated about enabling our speaker to appear as an opponent at their meeting. After long negotiations, we received a promise that we would be given such an opportunity. The atmosphere at the meeting was heated to glowing, yet the best order was maintained. Both sides were tactful and listened attentively to the interpretation of the speakers. I remember now the polemic between the Bundist speaker, P. Dembicer, and the young Zionist, Dr. Neiger, son of the famous Zionist activist, Chaim Neiger, of blessed memory. Dembicer showed his illustrious talent then and the audience strongly applauded him. After the meeting, the public carried Dembicer out, as a sign of approval for his beautiful speech. The meeting left a strong impression.

In 1934, the Bund in Tarnow independently participated in voting for the city council. The election nominations in Poland were allocated so that it was not easy to be elected in the workers quarters where the candidates were representatives of the workers. However, we went to vote boldly and certain, although with great difficulty. Every party wanted to be the winner of the election and win more Jewish votes. This election resulted in five Bund mandates [seats], while all of the right-wing Jewish parties, united in a voting-bloc, received eight mandates (the Zionists boycotted the election then and were not represented at the city council). The P.P.S. acquired 12 mandates. As the general number of councilmen in the city council was then 40, the socialist faction had to endure a bitter oppositional struggle. The bourgeois Jewish councilmen always supported the Sanacje [Sanation political movement] and gave this government party a majority. During the five-year term of this city council, there was not one case of the bourgeois Jewish councilmen supporting the Bund, even when it concerned proposals on behalf of the Jewish communal and cultural institutions. They always voted against our proposals. Our only colleagues and supporters were the councilmen from P.P.S. (Polish Socialist Party).

The Bundist councilmen found the greatest difficulty during the budget meeting, when the city council determined its yearly budget. Every faction that was on the city council would send

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to the finance commission its proposals and plans for subsidies for various institutions with a good justification. We demanded a yearly subsidy for the Bundist children's home. When this proposal was brought before the finance commission, the Jewish bourgeois councilmen voted against the proposal (today we can see how unsensible a number of Jewish bourgeois councilmen were who voted against the Bundist proposal. This was quickly done at the order of the Sanacje city president, Dr. Brodrinski). The demand to subsidize a Jewish children's home was defeated with the help of Jewish councilmen.

For five years, the city council was led economically and politically according to the positions of the bourgeois Jewish-Polish majority. They were supported that entire time by the ostensible worker-representatives from the Ch.D. (Chadekes) [name derived from initials of the Chrześcijańska Demokracja – Christian Democrats] and N.P.R. (Enperowtces) [Narodowa Partia Robotnicza – National Worker's Party] [name derived from the initials of the party's name]. These two parties always went hand in hand with the right-wing groupings, against the interests of the worker.

The Bundist faction at the city council dealt with the budget at every opportunity or at regular meetings, or through urgent proposals or interpellations [questioning], trying to unmask the worker hating politics and partially trying to relieve the situation of the working population in Tarnow which bore the load of municipal taxes.

In general, it was difficult for the city council to carry on with its work. The strong opposition of the P.P.S. and the Bund forced the city council to dissolve and to call for new elections. The Bund in Tarnow was now presented with an important task. But before I write about the last city council election in 1939, I will describe several activities of the Bund in 1937/38.

There were several public, legal institutions in Tarnow where Jewish workers were represented by their elected representatives. First of all, the Jewish kehile [organized Jewish community administrative office]. The Bundists at the kehile council always strove to increase the importance of this institution. The Bund endeavored to change the kehile establishment in the aid institutions for the poor strata, help their cultural development and satisfy their needs, such as health, social support and others. A bitter struggle around this question was carried out by the

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the Orthodox faction, which strove to have the kehile take care of the religious needs of the Jewish population. Simultaneously, the Orthodox wanted to rule all of kehile life with political authority and a strong hand, even with the help of the officials of the regime. The Bundist parnosim [elected official of a Jewish community] also strove to have the kehile handle all questions of Jewish life that had a general significance. When the ban against Jewish religious slaughtering of meat was enacted in Poland, a Bundist representative on the kehile council proposed that the kehile protest in an energetic manner against the anti-Semitic statements of the government that led both the campaign against Jewish slaughtering and bloody anti-Semitic pogroms ([in] Przytyk) and the economic boycott.

The Bundist organization in Tarnow was not indifferent to the sad events in 1937 in Przytyk. The party called a public protest: Jewish workers should stop work at a designated time and the entire Jewish population in the city should express its indignation against the anti-Semitic unrest. The 7^th of March 1937 needs to be described as an historic day in the history of Jewish Tarnow. Bundist militiamen appeared in the streets at nine in the morning and ordered the Jewish owners to close their businesses. Tarnow Jews showed an extraordinary discipline and national [Jewish] unity. Despite the strong political differences, national unity was placed higher than narrow party goals. The Bundist influence then reached so far that all Tarnow Jews joined the proclaimed protest strike. Despite the prohibition by the regime, a protest meeting was held at which a unanimous resolution was adopted. The regime organs in Tarnow were notified.

Polish workers also took part in the protest strike. At one of the large enterprises in the city (Szancer's mill), where Polish workers were employed, they did not go to work that day and were on strike for half a day. A representative of Polish workers also appeared at the meeting who expressed the readiness of the Polish working class to help the Jewish population in its fight for right.

The Bundist committee designated a comprehensive commission for the city council elections in 1939 to discuss the

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impending voting with the P.P.S. It was decided that both parties – Bund and P.P.S. – would go to the voting separately, but the election campaign would be led by a general election committee. The candidate lists, according to particular regions were established by each party separately. In the regions where there was a Polish majority, the Bund would not provide a list of their candidates and, therefore, it would need to call for a vote for the P.P.S. It would be the same with regard to the regions, where there was a majority of Jewish residents; the P.P.S. would not propose a list and would ask its followers to vote for the Bund. However, there were serious disruptions on the part of other parties, which put forward separate lists: Fareinikter Yidishe Blok [United Jewish Bloc], Sanacja, Endecja [National Democracy – an anti-Jewish party]. The election campaign took place in all of Jewish Tarnow; dozens of meetings of Jewish and Polish workers took place, but our opponents did not abstain from the election competition. The day of voting was on the 5^th of March 1939. Everything stopped in the city: trade, work. It could immediately be noticed that the majority of Tarnow Jews were voting for the Bund. Our trusted men at the ballot boxes sent over good reports. Tsukunft, the Bundist youth organization, carried out a brilliant campaign among the Jewish voters. We had the first reports at nine in the evening that all of the ballot boxes had our list in front. Of 13 Jewish mandates [seats] (according to the geographical voting districts), the Bund received eight councilmen and the bourgeois Jewish bloc – five. The P.P.S. also won a great victory, winning 15 seats, as opposed to 10 for the Sanajce and two for the Endecja [National Democracy]. The Tarnow city council would now change its character and appearance: 23 socialist councilmen now had a majority at the city council, although it had a strong enough opposition to it of 17 councilmen. However, the Sanajce government was not satisfied with the result of the elections to the Tarnow city council and instructions came from Warsaw to the Krakow province not to permit a change in the presidium of the city council, that is, the previous city president and the two vice presidents (all of them Sanajce) would remain in their offices. The councilmen, on the other hand, could be elected according to the discretion of the majority of the city council. Both workers' parties strongly protested against these unlawful decrees and refused to carry them out. After several weeks of this abnormal situation, a written order came from the provincial office in Krakow that if the city council did not carry out the order, it would be broken up and a government commissar would be placed there. Both workers' party could not permit this because Tarnow already had enough commissarial rule and they decided to go to work. The disposed city president, a stubborn reactionary, did not want to accept the decision of the socialist majority and on this basis there were frequent

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incidents and scandals. The work was severely weakened and the entire communal economy suffered as a result. Finally, the president ended his adventurous politics and according to an order from above, he changed his tactics and made it possible to permit the city council to carry out normal activity.

Decisions about important public works, taxes and subsidies were adopted at meetings at city hall and they then had to be approved by the city council. However, the city council rarely turned down the proposals from the city hall which also had a socialist majority (four city councilmen from both worker parties. Comrade Dovid Batist was the councilman from the Bund). Both presidents and one councilman were from the Sanacje.

The first work carried out by the socialist city council was to bring order to the streets and the worker quarters, repairing the decrepit roads and sidewalks, work that the previous city council absolutely gave no thought to carrying out. The city began to have a very different appearance. The frequent demonstrations before the city council by the unemployed ceased. Hundreds of workers received employment repairing the roads and sidewalks, inspecting a number of streets that were all important for the city.

At one city council meeting, the Bundist faction brought a proposal that there should be a corresponding number of Jewish officials in the municipal offices and institutions because at that time the city council employed a negligible number of Jewish employees which was not close to corresponding to the number of Jewish residents in the city. The Bund's proposal said that new officials who would be hired would have to be Jews. The president tried to show that such a decision was libel to cause difficulties because there had not been any new officials recently and the old ones could not be dismissed because it was not nice and it was not lawful. Y. Sukman, the Bundist councilmen, added another proposal that because a certain number of new officials are hired each year in the newly opened municipal institutions, Jewish officials and none other should be hired and in place of employees dismissed from work because of disciplinary problems. The president tried to postpone the proposal for another meeting, but he was not successful. After the proposal was placed for a vote, it received 28 votes against 12. This time, the bourgeois Jewish councilmen voted for the Bundist proposal.

I will enumerate several Bundist activists and councilmen in 1939:

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The party committee – Dovid Batist (chairman and secretary), Shlomo Szporn (vice chairman), Yosl Celer (treasurer), Oren Szporn, Moshe Fajerajzn, Yosl Sukman, Dr. Leon Mic, Hershl Mincer, Yitzhak Grinbaum, Yakov Brukner, Maks Huter.

Bundist city councilmen: Dovid Batist, Shlomo Szporn, Ahron-Szporn, Leon Mic, Y. Grinbaum, Hershl Mincer, Yosl Sukman, Maks Huter.

Of all of the enumerated leading Tarnow Bundists, no one remains alive except the writer of these lines. The majority of them were annihilated by the Nazis.

The Bundist movement in Tarnow meant not only the strong Bundist party organization, but also the youth-Bund, Tsukunft [Future], the children's organization SKIF [Sotsyalistishe Kinder Farband – Socialist Children's Union], the sports club, Morgnshtern-Jutrzenka [Morning Star-Morning], the working women's organization, the various institutions and societies that were created and led by the Bund. Several words about all of these Bundist organization in Tarnow:

The Bund in our city took care of the young people no less than the older worker. For this reason, the young Jewish workers very quickly found their way to the Tsukunft organization. In the professional

The Youth Bund Tsukunft [Future] in Tarnow in 1926

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unions were also created separate sports sections, whose task it was to take care of the economic interests of the young workers. The youth Bund, Tsukunft, educated the young Jewish workers politically, raised their cultural level, created a communal home for them and enrolled them in the general struggle carried on by all of the workers. [Like] the universities for the children of the well-to-do parents, the self-educating groups at Tsukunft were [the universities] for the poor, Jewish young people.

From time to time, Tsukunft would arrange public meetings and gatherings, at which a large number of young people would always take part. The speakers and activists all came from the young masses and many Tarnow Jewish communal workers had their communal school in Tsukunft. In later years, a Bundist children's organization, SKIF arose [and the sports organization, Morgnshtern (Jutrzenka). The youth Bund, Tsukunft, stayed in close connection with TUR [Towarzystwo Uniwersytetu Robotniczego – Workers' University Society], the Polish socialist young people of the P.P.S. In addition to political education and cultural activities, Tsukunft would arrange summer camps, excursions and colonies. One Tsukunft summer camp is described in Yugnt-Veker [Youth Alarm] of the month of August 1937.

The Bundist sports organization, Morgnshtern, was founded in Tarnow in 1922. Tarnow Jewish workers had never realized that they could be in the position to lead their own sports movement. At that time, only the bourgeois young people benefited from sports, but the working young people began to show an extraordinary interest in sports – and it did not take long before the Bundist sports club, Morgnshtern, became the dominant factor in the Tarnow sports movement.

I remember the public football [soccer] competition between Morgnshtern and the bourgeois Jewish sports club, Shimshon (Samson), which possessed a good football team and over many years took part in championship competitions with various Polish sports clubs. Now everyone was convinced that the young Bundist sports club would lose to the experienced Shimshon. Therefore, it was a great surprise when Morgnshtern won its first match with Shimshon with the score of 1:0. No one in Tarnow imagined such unexpected results. Since the win, every competition between the two Jewish clubs created extraordinary interest. In 1932, Morgnshtern won all of the competitions in the city and outside it and because of this was accepted to the final competition with several clubs from Krakow County. Morgnshtern reached the greatest number of points and entered Class A.

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We must emphasize that the Bund athletes played with extraordinary ambition and dedication.

I also remember one competition between Jutrzenka and Shimshon. Both teams felt that the fight would be difficult and ambitious. Preparations began many weeks earlier. The writer of these lines was then the sports director for [Jutrzenka-] Morgnshtern. The above-mentioned competition was supposed to take place Saturday afternoon. On the same day, I had gone to visit a sick player on our team. Arriving at Staro-Dombrowksa Street, I saw two female acquaintances who approached me and asked:

– Mr. Szporn, you still have time to stroll here? Your Jutrzenka is playing a match today…

I answered the two women that I had to go visit a sick player. But the two women wanted to know something else from me and showed dissatisfaction with my answer. They asked me a concrete question and demanded an immediate answer:

– Tell us, Mr. Szporn, who will win today – Jutreznka or Shimshon?

My answer was that whoever played better would win. However, the women did not let me go. Later, I learned that both women

A group of Bundist leaders in Tarnow in 1934 in front of the Bund house named for B. Michalewicz

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had the complete right to such extraordinary interest in the competition because one of them was the mother of a Jutreznka player, Itshe Szif, and the other one, a mother of a player from Shimshon [sports club], Francblau… I asked both women to come today to see the competition. The answer was that they visit almost every match, but they could not be together on the playing field because they each wanted their son to shoot a goal into their opponent's net. That was how our Jewish mothers were…

Our Jewish working women began to show an interest in worldly matters. It was then a known thing that the largest number of buyers of Yiddish books and newspapers were our widespread Jewish masses and, mainly, the women. Jewish working women in Tarnow in the last years before the outbreak of the Second World War did not only read storybooks on Shabbos [Sabbath] afternoons, but were interested in serious Yiddish books of the classics, took part in communal life and changed the appearance of the Jewish working quarters. The Folkszeitung [People's Newspaper] reached every working house and it is no exaggeration if I attribute this achievement and success to Bundist work. Our party in Tarnow educated the Jewish working women, the young workers and the children of Jewish poverty, helped them grow politically and introduced them to modern Yiddish and global literature.

A group of members of the Tarnow Culture League in 1934

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Dramatic section of the Jutrzenka Sports Club, in Tarnow in 1932

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Most important – leading the young Jewish people out of the crowded, dirty workshop, teaching them to spend their free time usefully at the club, playing field and in the open air. The street no longer was a place for work. There arose the workers home, the Kultur Lige [Cultural League] and other useful institutions and societies. At this opportunity, I want to emphasize that the young, Jewish bourgeoisie had its wonderful educational institutions such as the Safa Berura [Pure Language] school, library and club. Today, we can bless these Jews who did such useful work for our young people, awoke the national consciousness in them and led them on the broad road of communal competition and momentum.

A woman's section was created at the Jutrzenka sports club that carried on light athletics and handball. As Shimshon also had a woman's handball team, both women's teams began a competition. It did not take long and other women athletes took first place in Tarnow County.

The first organizers of the women's sports movement in Tarnow were: the writer of these lines (now in Canada), Erna Fenig and Hanka Gelernter (now in Paris). With the two active women athletes, we succeeded in creating a women's section for handball at Jutrzenka. The two above-mentioned [female] players were factory workers, but they received their sports education from the bourgeois sports club, Shimson. One of the most popular handball players of the Tarnow Morgnshtern was Regina Kaner (now in Montreal, Canada).

Thus the widespread Bundist work in almost all areas of Jewish life proceeded in Tarnow until the 1^st of September 1939, when Hitlerist Germany attacked Poland. Tarnow was occupied by the Nazi army several days later. The first ones who had to leave Tarnow were the active socialist workers.

I remember the arrest of Comrade Maurici Huter, the well-known socialist communal worker, who gave all of his years to the Jewish community in general and to the Socialist Workers movement in particular. He and his son were arrested during the first weeks of the Hitlerist occupation of the city. These arrests threw a deadly fear on everyone and we did not know how to explain this fact. The Huters were terribly tortured in prison. They demanded statements from them or signatures about things of which they had never dreamed.

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According to the investigation, it was shown that the Huters were victims of a provocation. A Polish worker, who had returned from Lemberg, had brought a letter to Huter from the well-known P.P.S. activist, Adam Ciolkosz, in which he wrote that one should not lose courage and that the war and dictators are not eternal. This letter was turned over to the Germans where it was copied and the original was secretly given to the addressee. It was revealed that the one bringing the letter was a provocateur and he had given the letter to the German regime. After a week of torture, there was success in extracting the Huters from German paws. The Tarnow Mayor, Dr. Kriplewski, who had been designated for the office against his will, deserves the credit for their freeing. Risking his own life, he signed for the Huters that they would appear every time it was demanded by the German police. Immediately, on the first night after the Huters' freeing, Dr. Kriplewski, told them to leave Tarnow. Everything was done to take care of the matter so that this idealistic man would not need to suffer. Both Huters perished in Russia. The older Huter perished in Tarnopol, in 1941, when the Red Army withdrew from the Western Region. The younger Huter died in 1945 in the city of Fergana, Uzbekistan (Central Asia).

We succeeded in receiving information from secure sources that there was a decree to arrest the Bundist Party committee and the entire socialist faction in the Tarnow city council. Batist already was no longer in Tarnow. He and Edvard Skwirut, the well-known socialist, had escaped to Przemyśl. They were imprisoned there and each was sentenced to five years.

The first secret consultation of the Bundist Party committee took place in my workshop that was located in Wajnfeld's house at Lwowska Street 22. The decision was: leave Tarnow immediately. Yitzhak Grinbaum and I were the first to leave. I took my oldest son, Henekh, with me so he would be the contact between us and the remaining comrades. We arrived safely in Rzeszów and our young accompanier immediately traveled back to Tarnow, from which he returned to Rzeszów in the morning with the remaining comrades. From there we left for the border. After crossing the Soviet border, we were all held and, after being dragged for several weeks around several prisons, we arrived in Sambor where we again found ourselves under arrest. A number of us were freed, others remained for months in the

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Sambor prison from which they were then sent to Russia, where they received written judgements in their prison cells that they were sentenced to five years in camps (some received 10 years).

In 1941, when Hitler-Germany attacked Russia, General [Wladyslaw] Sikorski signed a pact with the Moscow government that all Polish citizens, without regard to religion and nationality, were immediately freed from prisons and camps and could travel to where they wished, except to the large cities.

On the 4^th of May 1946, I returned to my home city Tarnow from Russia. This was the cruelest for me since my various experiences in Russia, where I had spent two years behind the walls of a prison. The first hour of setting foot on Tarnow soil broke me physically and morally. It was a Sunday morning. Although I knew in 1944 when I was in Russia that my Jewish Tarnow no longer existed, I wanted to have the illusion that perhaps what I had read and heard was not true. Alas, what I later saw exceeded every Jewish fantasy. I walked through Krakowska and Walowa Streets with my only son and did not see one Jew. We were incapable of speaking a word between us. Tears choked [us] and did not permit the least sound. We instinctively asked each other with our gazes: To whom had we come? We saw many Christian passersby, but I could not look them in the eyes because I knew that a large number of them had helped the murderers in their criminal activities . We then walked to Goldhammer Street No. 1, where at that time, the few Jews who returned after the Holocaust were living. The Jewish Committee, kehile, Jewish hospital, kindergarten, people's kitchen and others used to be there. The first Jewish acquaintance who opened the door for me was Layzer Royf, secretary of the Jewish Committee. We kissed each other sincerely, but we were unable to utter a word. Other Jewish acquaintances immediately appeared: Blajwajs, Betribnis, Kornrajch, Celer and others. I learned the tragic truth from them. I began to ask them about hundreds of my acquaintances, but not one of the survivors could confirm who among them had been saved from the Hitlerist hell. It was hard for me to make peace with the thought that this was what remained of noisy, Jewish Tarnow. I decided to go visit the streets where I had once lived. There, on Lwowska and Krupnicza Street I believed I would surely meet one of my tailor acquaintances, party comrades, just the Jews with whom I had been so intimately bound over the course of many, long years, appeared in their name in

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various public institutions. I walked through all of Lwowska Street to the house of the previous children's home that had carried the name of the Bundist leader, Benish Michalewicz, and did not meet anyone. One large ruin remained of the streets that had been designated during the occupation as the Tarnow ghetto. It was difficult to tear myself away from the horrible image of Jewish ruin and death. I stood near our destroyed houses as if immobilized and asked: Remain among the ruins – perhaps, those closest to me are present here? I barely dragged myself to the square where the New Synagogue – the pride of Tarnow Jewry – once stood. Here, I felt that I had lost my strength. I sat on the ground, freed myself of my choked tears that had tormented me the entire time and I cried at our great Holocaust. I remembered how this square once looked, with which great pride it had stood as a sacred place that shone out from among all the surrounding buildings as a beautiful, regal crown of Jewish life. The world and this now empty square were revealed for me in its complete ugly nakedness.

I was drawn to go further. I stopped for a while coming to Szpitalna Street No 26, but could not convince myself to enter the apartment where I had lived for 22 years. From there, I went to the hospital and to the cemetery. Going through the gate and through the remaining headstones, I finally saw my city, Tarnow, and its present condition. Pictures floated by of the most recent past, the familiar names and still more familiar Jews, I see my Jewish Tarnow with the Jews from the small synagogues who would always evoke respect in me and for my own party comrades, the dear Bundists. Their enthusiastic singing of the Bundist Shvue [Oath] echoed in my ears: “Brothers and Sisters in toil and want, all who are scattered and dispersed…” I wanted to hear something from those exterminated Tarnow [residents], but the reality was stronger than my illusions…

For the short time I spent in Tarnow after the liberation, Tarnow Jews gifted me with the honor to be the chairman of the Jewish Committee. I believe that I carried out this work with complete honesty. At my departure from the city, Tarnow Jews said goodbye to me and we mutually wished each other that we would meet in a freer world where Jewish lives would no longer be neglected. This wish came true; a large number of surviving Tarnow Jews now live in the [north and south] American countries.

We also were able to create a Tarnow landsmanschaft [organization of people from the same town] on the Canadian mainland and do good communal work.

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