This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland,
Volume I, pages 67-68, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

[Pages 67-68]

Year	General population	Jews
1793/94	(?)	10
1808	831	32
1827	958	172
1857	1,298	298
1921	1,899	406
1930-39	(?)	About 150 families

Town B (Nowa Brzeźnica) was established in 1287 as a royal possession and in 1718 the king gave it to the Pauline Monastery in Czestochowa. The Paulines were not very happy about the arrival of Jews. Jews were permitted to live in this small town only when royal possessions were secularized during Prussian rule after the second division of Poland. At the end of the 18^th century and the beginning of the 19^th there were several dozen Jews living in Nowa Brzeźnica, who were part of the Dzialoszyn community. According to the data from 1839, the occupational structure of the Jewish population of Nowa Brzeźnica included eight merchants, 14 craftsmen and 3 day-workers.

By 1825, there was already a separate community committee in Nowa Brzeźnica. The committee included Jews from the neighboring village of Stara Brzeźnica and 12 other Nowa Brzeźnica villages in the area in addition to those in Nowa Brzeźnica. Occasionally, even village Jews were elected as parnassim [leaders of the community]. In the 1820's Nowa Brzeźnica had two synagogues, one house of study and a cemetery. It is virtually certain that in the first half of the 19^th century the synagogues and house of study used rented facilities, since the small community was not financially able to build its own structures. In the second half of the 19^th century, the following rabbis served the Nowa Brzeźnica community: Rabbi Meir Wolf Yanowski (around 1860), Rabbi Avraham Ber Rabinowicz (from 1865), Rabbi Eliyahu Zinger (formerly rabbi of Prusicko and Osjaków), who served Kalisz after his term in Nowa Brzeźnica. There was also the Rebbe, Rabbi Yakov Yosef hakohen [member of the priestly class] Rabinowic, son of the rebbe in Radomsko. Rabbi Yakov left Nowa Brzeźnica and settled in Klobuck and died there in 1902. Nowa Brzeźnica's last rabbis were Rabbi Yisroel Lasker (in the 1920's) and Rabbi Yeheil Auerbach, his son-in-law.

In the second half of the 19^th century, and between the two World Wars, the occupational structure of the Jewish population did not change. The economic situation deteriorated for the Jews of Nowa Brzeźnica in the 1930's. The economic boycott against the Jews exacerbated the problem. In 1937, it was very common for the market stalls and stores to be guarded. Anti-Semitic persecution increased in other ways. In April 1937, the cemetery was desecrated and around 50 headstones were broken.

In the political life of the Jewish community, Agudath Yisroel [Union of Israel – anti-Zionists] was very active, as were the General Zionists and the right Poalei Zion [Marxist-Zionists]. Agudath Yisroel managed the Tomkhei Ani'im [Support for the Poor] organization.

With the outbreak of World War II, most of the Jews fled the town and went to neighboring Radomsko. On the second or third of September 1939, a large part of the town went up in flames – the market square and some of the Jewish streets. When the Germans conquered the town, they blamed the returning Jewish refugees for having purposely set fire to in interfere with the German Army's conquest. As a punishment, they arrested a number of Jews and Poles. In prison, the Poles showed no solidarity [with the Jews]. They demanded better conditions than the Jews and identified to the Nazis any Jew whom they did not recognize. The Poles received food and straw beds, while the Jews got nothing. On September 5, 1939, most of the Jewish men in Nowa Brzeźnica were sent to hard labor in the neighboring forests, next to the village of Ostrow. During the period of labor (which lasted for days or weeks), the Jews were beaten or starved. Seven were murdered. When they returned to the town, they found the rest of the Jews (women, children, and returning refugees) in a sorry state. The men were stripped of their beards and traditional clothing. They were living in basements because their homes had been burned or looted by local residents, who would incite the Germans, identifying the Jews and informing on any Jew who had money.

During this period of the approaching conquest, the remaining Jews lived in terribly crowded conditions in the few houses that remained. Apparently, no ghetto was created, however. For a meager salary of 50 pfennigs a day, the Jews were forced to take apart the burned houses. The German settlers who came to town would force Jewish women to work as domestics in their homes. The Jews did not, however, suffer from hunger, since the craftsmen would work secretly for the “Aryan” population and some of the Jews made money smuggling between the General Government and the Reich. Illegal commerce with the surrounding population and obtaining food was not difficult.

On the eve of Tisha B'Av [9^th of Av/August 8^th] 1941, the Nazis rounded up Jews for forced labor. All the Jews were herded together in one place, closed in a building and surrounded by German police. The next day, all those able to do hard labor, 15 years and above (approximately 60 men), were sent from the area. It is virtually certain that from here they were all sent to Sieradz, where German doctors examined them for their fitness for labor. Twenty frail Jews from Nowa Brzeźnica returned shortly thereafter to their homes. The rest were sent to labor camps in the Poznan district, where most either died or went sent to other camps. Only a handful remained alive after the war.

The Jewish settlement in Nowa Brzeźnica was destroyed during Passover 1942. Most of the Jews were transferred to the ghetto in Pajęczno. A group of women remained in Nowa Brzeźnica as forced domestics. In August 1942, the women were sent to parts unknown. Following the destruction of the Jewish settlement in Nowa Brzeźnica, locals looted the remaining Jewish property.

Sources

Yizkor Book of the Radomsk Community and its Environs, Tel Aviv 1967, pp. 485-486.
[Sefer Yizkor LeKehilat Radomsk vehaSeviva, Tel Aviv 1967]

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