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[Page 157]
by David Shtokfish, Ramat Gan
Translated by Jerrold Landau
The nation turned the song “S'Brent” (It is Burning)[1] -- a call of alarm about a Jewish town that is burning -- by the poet and songwriter M. Gebirtig, who was murdered by the Nazis in Krakow, into a hymn of the Holocaust days. However the truth is that this song is connected to the “fire” in Przytyk and served as a sort of prophecy of a fire seventyfold in size, the great destruction that overtook one third of our nation.
Already during the 1930s, the ground was burning beneath the feet of the Jews of Poland. The fire that the anti-Semitic “Endeks” and the rioters from the “Nara” ignited, was fanned by the “contrarian” politics of the interior minister Sklodkowski (“Not Pogroms, but a reaction against the Jews -- on the contrary, on the contrary”), as well as the pretext of “human extortion” -- a new “warming” toward Poland's large western neighbor, Nazi Germany. They wanted to seat the Jewish students of the upper schools on special “Jewish” benches, and to expel the Jewish tradesman and poor peddlers from the fairs and markets.
On this fertile land, the Przytyk pogrom broke out 30 years ago. However, there was another side to that coin -- organized Jewish opposition and self-defense, with consciousness, resoluteness and consistency. That revolt against the hoodlums was so strong and effective that the Germans turned mountains in order to research the reasons for the Jewish opposition in Przytyk and the forces that stood behind it during the Wannasee Conference in which the “Final Solution” was decided.
There were 400 families in that town, in the Radom region, district of Kielce, 90% of whom were Jewish. It was specifically such a settlement that the anti-Semites chose to “purify from Jews”. During 1934-1935, wild anti-Semitic incitement took place in that region. This started with declarations and newspaper articles that called upon the population to purchase only from Poles, and continued with the placing of guards near Jewish stores and stalls, continued wild attacks in the nearby villages of Odsziwul and Kojf, until the turn came for the large pogrom in Przytyk itself.
They Did not Rely on Government “Assistance”
It took place on March 9, 1936, on Shushan Purim (the day after Purim). At first, the incited farmers and drunk riffraff rampaged in the suburbs of Podgajek and Piaski. Armed with sticks, poles, threshing sledges, stones, and some with guns, they broke into Jewish homes, cracked skulls, broke furniture and windows, dished out blows, and sowed ruin and destruction. They had no mercy on the elderly or children. The murderousness
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continued to the point where they threatened the shoemaker Yosef Minkowski and his wife Chaya. Later, they rolled the deathly frightened children from under the bed and beat them with murderous blows.
It seems that with the death of Minkowski, some of the beastly passion of the ruffians was quenched. The murderous deeds ceased. However, in the center of town, in the marketplace itself, the Jews displayed strong resistance. The Orthodox youth Shalom Lasko, approximately 20 years old, even shot a revolver. One of the farmers slunk down dead. The youths of Przytyk were prepared spiritually and practically for opposition, and the masses of farmers fled for their lives in the face of the strong Jews. Our Jewish brethren in Przytyk did not rely on the police and certainly not on the district governor, who responded with enmity and coldness to every Jewish delegation that turned to him before the pogrom: “At this time, there are no more victims”...
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| The funeral of Chaya Minkowski in Radom, 1936 |
Yitzchak Freidman, one of the most important of the self-defense organizers in Przytyk (today in Israel), would state that the representatives of the Polish Socialist Party (P. P. S.), the
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Farmers' Party, as well as the Communists and liberal Poles joined together with the Jews and were prepared to assist in the battle against the hooligans.
The spirit of opposition was so rooted in Jewish Przytyk, that even the 68-year-old accused Leizer Feldberg pointed out strongly to his judge, “Even were you, Your Honor, to have harmed me, I would have defended myself.”
The episode in Przytyk caused a great echo in Poland and throughout the world. The Jews of Poland even organized a one day protest strike. The Joint[2] arranged assistance for the victims. The Jewish Agency granted certificates to the Minkowski orphans, enabling them to make aliya to the Land of Israel.
Equating the Ruffians with the Victims
Three investigations were conducted regarding the disturbances in Przytyk: in the district court of Radom, in the appeals court of Lublin, and in the supreme court in Warsaw. In the first investigation, 44 Poles and 14 Jews sat in the accused dock. 320 Poles and 80 Jews were called to testify. Severe verdicts were issued that did not differentiate between the attackers and the victims. This can be seen from the words of the well-known economist and sociologist Yaakov Lescinski about the content of the writ of accusation:
The Jews were the first to be accused. It begins as follows: “The Jews Yaakov-Avraham Choberberg, Leizer Feldberg, Yankel Zajda... are accused that, simultaneous to the confrontation between the police and the farmers, they attacked the farmers who had begun to return to their homes. They beat them with sticks and other implements, and threw stones at them in such a manner that they wounded (a list of the names of farmers is given here). As a result of this, they had bruises and sores on their bodies...”
In the court, the lawyers “the Jewish gluttons” -- including also the grandson of the well-known apostate Kroizhauer -- pitted themselves against the Jewish defense attorneys Berenson, Ittinger, Margolis, Kreiger, headed by the noble Polish Professor Petrosowicz and Szymanski.
Even before the judges issued a verdict of many years of imprisonment, the anti-Semitic newspapers gleefully published the verdict upon the Jewish community of Poland and on Jewish Przytyk. On March 25, 1936, the following was written in Dziennik Nardowy: “It is possible to live without Jews”. Another anti-Semitic newspaper exclaimed, “We can assume that a pure Polish Przytyk will arise in place of Jewish Przytyk.”
Bitterness and Fear of the Journey
To our tragedy, the Satanic prophesies of the Polish anti-Semites were fulfilled. However, they themselves did not carry out “the purification of Poland from Jews”, but rather the enemy of their homeland -- Hitlerist Germany. Its troops trampled, enslaved, drowned it in rivers of blood, and turned it into the center for their annihilation of the Jews. Five years after the pogrom, Przytyk was indeed “Judenrein”. However, along with the expulsion of the entire Jewish population, the Poles were also expelled. This was perpetrated with the same cruelty
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against both peoples by the Nazi conquerors, for they wanted to turn Przytyk into a giant training field for the German Air Force, which was to have a special role in the preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
One year later, the German government is again mentioned in Przytyk, this time with respect to a specific Jew, even though there were already no Jews there.
In the “Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Society” (Warsaw, 1955, July-December edition) A. Rotkowski tells that when the Germans deliberated about the “final solution” to the Jewish question, they wanted to research the factors surrounding the Jewish opposition in Przytyk in 1936. Questions reached the Judenrat in Radom from Krakow, the seat of the Generalegouvernement, about how the Jews of Przytyk carried out their self-defense. “The well-known events in Przytyk came to light again in the world during the Nazi occupation in 1942, and took on a unique connotation -- the deathly fear of the Germans about the possibility of Jewish resistance”, writes A. Rotkowski.
In his song, Gebirtig requests that the Jewish brethren not stand by with folded hands, but rather extinguish the fire that took hold in the town. He did this with the knowledge that our Jewish brethren in Przytyk did not stand at the side, but rather did attempt to put out the fire. There is no doubt that the resoluteness of heart of the members of the self-defense in that town imparted encouragement to the ghetto fighters and members of the Jewish resistance during the time of the Nazi occupation.
Indeed, Przytyk was not only a bitter point in our history -- but was also a guide.
(“Al Hamishmar”, Tel Aviv, March 14, 1966)
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by Yitzchak Friedman, Tel Aviv
Translated by Jerrold Landau
Przytyk had 500 familles, 90% of whom were Jewish. Several German landowners also lived in that town. The Jews occupied themselves with business, labor and trades, and also earned their livelihood by going to the villages for commerce. Some also engaged in agriculture.
When Poland gained its independence after the First World War, the youth of Przytyk established a “union” without any political or factional leaning. Only later did the Zionist movement and the workers' movement begin to crystallize.
At first Hashomer was the strongest Zionist faction. Its main activity was in the promotion of the value of aliya to the Land of Israel. On the other hand, the workers movement began to develop
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So how does the write of accusation relate to the events in Przytyk?
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| From the Yiddish daily newspaper during the time of the court case in Przytyk - photos and names of the Jewish accused, along with their verdicts: Yechiel Shalom Lasko (top right) -8 years of prison; Eliezer Kerszenzweig (top center) -- 6 years of prison; Eliezer Feldberg (top left) -- 10 months; Yitzchak Friedman (middle right, not mentioned in caption) -- 5 years; Yisrael Kerszenzweig (middle center) -- 5 years; Yaakov Borensztejn (middle left) -- freed; Yitzchak Banda (bottom, not mentioned in caption) -- 8 months. |
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| Avraham Yaakov Haberberg (top) -- 8 months. Moshe Fuerszt (middle right) -- 6 months; Leib Lenga (middle left) -- 8 months; Shaul Krengel (bottom right) -- 6 months; Rafael Honig (bottom left) -- 6 months |
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with the influence of the Bund. The workers' factions conducted their activities primarily in the realm of culture and professions. Numerically the two movements were equal, but the influence of the Zionists was felt more strongly in the town. Thanks to this, several Przytyk youths succeeded in making aliya to the Land of Israel.
The Zionist organization continued to expand to the point where it included an entire row of parties, such as: Mizrachi, Beitar, General Zionists, and Poalei Zion. Even the Poale Agudat Yisrael party in our town was considered to be close to Zionism. Each group conducted its separate cultural and sporting activities.
The radicalization trend of the Jewish youth did not pass over Przytyk. A communist party arose. Even the middle class of the town organized themselves into merchants' unions and trade unions, the activity of which was primarily social and societal.
Anti-Semitic incitement increased throughout the entire region during the 1930s. Endek picketers would stand with sticks near the Jewish businesses and shops in the town, especially on market days, and perpetrate incidents and clashes. Police intervention was not very helpful. The hooligans completely ignored the six Przytyk policemen and were not even afraid of the Radom police who at times acted with resoluteness since the entire region was controlled by the Endeks, which was not to the liking of the Sanacja police.
Witnessing the growth of the Endek bands and the inability or unwillingness of the police to intervene, the Jewish youth of the town reached the unanimous conclusion that they must create a self-defense group in order to not leave Jewish lives and property to abandon. The anti-Semites in the town itself were not so organized and strong, but were assisted by the anti-Semites of the surrounding towns of Kojf , Odsziwul, Dziewice, Opoczne, Nowe Miasto, and Kosuw.
On one occasion, we received news that on a Friday in September 1935, the Endeks were planning a “March on Przytyk” in order to drive out the Jews. On the designated day, the anti-Semites, in accordance with military fashion, barricaded the highway from Radom in several places in order to prevent police assistance from the regional city. However, the Jews also did not stand idly by and did not intend to rely on the police. The already organized self-defense, whose spirited kernel consisted of over 20 energetic youths, armed with brass knuckles, revolvers and sticks, and who had the ability to mobilize several hundred battle-ready and able Jews in case of need. (The writer of these lines was a leader of the self-defense.) The members received detailed instructions about where to be and how to react to any possible provocation and conflict. It seems that those who were to march in Przytyk had accurate information about our decision to launch resistance. At the last minute, they backed down from their plan…
We must note that many members of the P.P.S. and ordinary liberal Poles helped a great deal with propaganda and explanations in fighting against the anti-Semitic pestilence in Przytyk and the region.
[Page 164]
by Sh. Berlinski
Translated by Jerrold Landau
I was led through the now famous Warsaw Lane in Przytyk, where the historic Monday played itself out. The houses on the lane were low and faded. They looked so poignant, with their new, small windows. Before the eyes, one could see the newly installed shutters and doors in the kitchens. From the renovations, one could figure out where the hooligans had perpetrated their acts. If you see new windows and shutters, it is a sign that they “extended their work” in that area. If you also see new doors, it is a sign that a more serious event took place there.
The house in which the Minkowskis had lived was indeed completely renovated.
A daughter of the Minkowskis brought the key and opened for me the door of the home in which they had lived. I do not know why my eye rested upon the crushed straw that lay scattered around the beds. A bed sheet with streaks of blood was hanging on the wall near the beds. There was also a jacket of the Minkowskis that was splattered with blood, and on the floor – blood, blood, blood… I could not take my eyes off the footsteps in the straw, apparently human steps made by boots, which had their effect. Things were so poignant here that the smallest scratch, even a crease, tells one about everything… I have read that hunters in the wild jungles also learn from footsteps -- the footsteps of beasts of prey: what type of struggle took place here, who tore up whom? Where did they flee with the spoils? The footsteps in the jungle were indeed an open book. I also feel the same atmosphere here in Minkowski's room.
The room, I would say, was divided into two parts. One part contained a broken table, broken beds, and broken doors and windows. The second side, as it seems to me, was the peaceful side. There was the home life of the Minkowski family. I want to state the truth, that the second side had no less of an effect on me. I imagine: a noodle board was hanging on the wall, a poor, Jewish noodle board, with dark kneaded dough, certainly from coarse meal, for a pair of little cakes for the Sabbath. There was a lantern on the stove with broken panes. The Minkowski's daughter told me that the lantern belonged to her younger brother, which he used to come home from cheder. Now it stood with all four panes open…
And now the “ornaments” in the house: a towel container on the wall. A gypsum figure of a girl lay in the straw. The figure lay on it side and was smiling foolishly…
A piece of pipe was hanging on a wire in the room and crying out with such a black mouth, telling how it became broken in the middle.
There was the meager shoe workshop… A menacing fear raced forth from there. An awl
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The text is as follows:
Yosef and Chaya |
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| A flyer summoning Polish Jewry to a protest and solidarity strike after the disturbances of Przytyk and the murder of the Minkowski couple | |||
lay there with its prong facing upward ... waiting. For what? For boots? For leather? Who knows what the pointed tools are waiting for today?
A shoemaker's bench was upside down with the three foot forms atop. Thus did it lie helpless, like a bound calf… It was saying: turn me right side up, and I will lie…
I entered a wooden house immersed in hominess. It was the anguished house.
A short, wrinkled, old woman was standing near the stove. The wrinkles covered her entire face, as if scratched by a thread – one next to the other… These are not a deep slices of life. The years took their toll on her face as if on a tree.
The wife of a small-town Jewish tradesman knows all of the sorrows and joys of such a life. The 70-year-old Keila had a husband until not too long ago.
Since that day when her son was murdered, her face was hardened with weeping. Her face had hardened like a shell, having already endured all the tribulations of life, but now it was weeping, as if afflicted constantly. Her mouth with the bare gums was half open. Her wrinkles on her face formed themselves. Her motherly eyes were blinking, and one could not tell when she was weeping and when she was not.
What did I not want to ask her? How old was she, from what does she live on, how many children she has, how does she feel? She looked at me with her weeping face.
Is this a wonder? An ax had been placed before the old woman's eyes, an ax that will never go away. “Since”, she said, “they told in the 'Sond' (the court) that her Yossele was murdered with an ax, the ax stands before my eyes. I wake up at night, and the ax falls upon me… I go into a corner – I see the ax. I go into the storage room to get a piece of wood. I run back: I saw the ax…”
The little house where the murder took place stands nearby. The old woman laments: “I cannot go at all to see Yossele's room. I set out for it ten times and my feet were unwilling to take me there, so I return…”
This old woman -- with her face before me, each and every wrinkle weeping separately -- will not merit to have a son weep for the mother...
(From the YIVO archives, New York).
[Page 167]
by M. Gebirtig
(Written in 1936, after the disturbances in Przytyk.)
Translated by Jerrold Landau
| It is burning, oh brothers, it is burning! Our poor town is unfortunately burning! Angry winds are raging Tearing, breaking, and blowing around -- Everything around is already burning.
And you stand and watch
It is burning, oh brothers, it is burning!
It is burning, oh brothers, it is burning!
Do not stand by, brothers, put out the fire. |
Translator's Footnotes
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by Yaakov Lencynski
Translated by Jerrold Landau
Edited by Erica S. Goldman-Brodie
Jews indeed perpetrated a pogrom in Przytyk against “gentiles”! Have you ever heard of such a thing? We did not know of such in Poland as well. However, now I hold before my eyes the writ of accusation. I read it and wonder in astonishment as it states that the Jews of Przytyk have perpetrated a pogrom against the Christians! For months leading up to the pogrom, the tormented and persecuted Przytyk Jews, who were afraid to appear in the market with their wares, who were terrorized by every small “petty gentile” – those Przytyk Jews, on the well-known terrible day of March 9, during the fair, when there were thousands of village peasants in the town, attacked the Christians with sticks and iron bars. Not only did they fight, but they shot many times. The Jews provoked the pogrom with their shooting and fighting against “gentiles.”
The writ of accusation begins with the 14 Jews who were sitting in the accused dock. They, the Jews, might indeed be given harsh punishments. No word about the fact that they were forced to defend themselves, for they were attacked by a mass behaving like animals, by an incited mob who had already robbed and beaten, and were prepared to murder.Ofcourse, it is difficult to determine when a person has the right to utilize strong measures: at the beginning when one attacks him, when he still has strength and the possibility to save himself from wild attackers; or when he is already lying wounded and beaten, and cannot move – is that when he first has the right to reach for a revolver. The investigation office had to deal with that question, and clearly determined: when the pair of Jewish youth were already shot, when the pogrom was already in progress; or before the onset of the pogrom. In truth it is not important that the pogromchiks murdered the Minkowski family before or after the shots. The pogromchiks did not care who was killed, whether the Minkowskis or anyone else. The writ of accusation determines that the pogromchiks were satisfied when they smelled the odor of Jewish blood, when they saw the corpses of the Minkowskis wallowing in blood, when they could no longer even be recognized.
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So how does the write of accusation relate to the events in Przytyk?
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| The house of the Lesko family in Przytyk. Lesko shot the peasants from the window marked with an X. |
It began with several peasants standing up against the police and preventing them from imposing order. It would indeed be logical to then describe the events precisely, present a picture of the pogrom, of the wild masses, of the agitation that incited the pogrom and the murder, of the attack upon and beating of Jews; in general – of the true pogrom. Then it should describe how the Jews attempted to defend themselves, some with a revolver, and some with a stick. The writer of the writ of accusation, however, describes it completely differently. He places the Jews in the foreground. He portrays them as being so brazen as to defend themselves, out in the front, in front of all. The writ of accusation begins as follows:
“The Jews, Yankel Avraham Haberberg, Leizer Feldberg, Yankel Zajda, Refael Honig, Moshe Ferszt, Shaul Krengel, Moshe Cuker, Leib Lenge, Yitzchak Bande, and Yitzchak Frajdman are accused. At the same time as the conflict between the police and the peasants was taking place, they attacked the peasants who
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were hastening to go home. They beat them with sticks and other instruments, threw stones at them, and thereby injured Jozef Szimanski in the head, giving him a concussion. They also wounded many other peasants who suffered bruises and swelling.”
Already at the introduction, things were turned upside down. Peasants began to flee from the market. Peasants hurried home. Jews came and began to beat them. Innocent sheep were attacked by wild Jewish beasts, who did not let the sheep go home in peace! This is what the Przytyk Jews were capable of doing!
And I did not know at all what type of strongmen we had in Przytyk!…
However, this was not enough. The writ of accusation continues.
“The Jews are accused again of wanting to kill the peasants who were quickly leaving the market, to avoid those shooting at them! They did so several times, but they did not hit their target, for only three peasants were injured, one of them in a life-threatening situation.”
Also, once again – the peasants were not bothering anyone, not touching anyone. They were quiet, calm, nice Przytyk gentiles who were unfortunately running quickly to their wives and children. However the aforementioned ten Jews, armed with revolvers were clearly ready and willing to kill. Those malevolent Jews shot with clear intent to kill, but did not succeed.
After that comes another special accusation against some Jews: against Shalom Lesko, stating that, “He wanted to kill the peasants who were going through the market, that he shot from the window of his house and killed one peasant.”
Also, once again: the peasants were going around the market calmly and the Jew Lesko shot from the window simply for the purpose of killing and murdering.
The same writ specifies that the window was damaged. Who damaged the windowpane through which Lesko later shot? If the peasants were going around so calmly, why would a pane of a Jewish window be broken?
Another accusation is against Yankel Bornsztajn, who also wanted to kill peasants. He shot but did not succeed.
And finally when the writ of accusation finishes with the Jews, with the primary criminals, with the accused; it mentions the 40 accused Christians,
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who “after the peasant was shot” began to attack Jewish houses, “breaking doors and windows, breaking into the houses, destroying all the furniture, breaking everything that they found, beating all the Jews, killing the Jews Yosef and Chaya Minkowski, seriously wounding five Jews and lightly wounding several other Jews.”
So, now it was completely clear: Had the Jews not beaten the peasants who were hurrying home, had the Jews not shot at the peasants who were calmly walking around the market, no pogrom would have taken place, Przytyk would have remained an unknown, dirty town, and would not have become world famous. It was also clear who was guilty.
The trial which commenced on June 2 in Radom was conducted in that same spirit. 14 Jews and 40 Christians were accused. However, the former were given sentences of five or ten years in jail, while the latter were given much lighter sentences.
We put down the writ of accusation and start to read the justifications of the accused. We see that the writer was so carried away with the facts that he saw before his own eyes, that he forgot what he was participating in, and unwillingly divulged a great deal of truth. In truth, he remembers his purpose from time to time and writes that the Jews were armed, that the Jews purchased revolvers in Radom, and that they even saw that the Jews had brought nine revolvers; that the Jews were planning a general attack against the Christians. However, the entire picture that is portrayed in the justification of the writ of accusation is finally adorned with the truth, stating that the Jews had lived for many months in a state of panic, that a boycott of Jewish businesses had been in place for a long time already, that Jewish windowpanes had been open to destruction for a long time, and that a pogrom feeling was in the air that day.
A couple of pictures were indeed included in the justification of the writ of accusation: of people breaking into the house of Yankel Bornsztajn through the windows, of breaking the closet, the table, the benches, throwing
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stones, and what more? At the time the pogromchiks were already in the house, they did not throw stones. This was a sign that Bornsztajn wanted to drive them away with shots. Of course, if Borenstajn had shot, he himself would have denied it.
The Jew Leskohad indeed admitted to shooting, and his fate was very harsh. The dry, hackneyed writing made a terrible impression of the scene in the home of Feiga Szuch. She hid her eight children in the attic, stood by the door of her house, and heroically fought against a mass of peasants who were beating her with sticks. She suffered three severe wounds in the head, a broken backbone, many bruises in the chest and the shoulders – but she saved her children.
There was another poignant scene: in the heat of the pogrom – when the danger was the greatest, a 70-year-old Jewish women, Yocheved Falant went outside to search for her children. She was surrounded, and they beat her murderously, giving her many wounds in the head.
The writing leaves a terrifying impression as it describes how they broke into the residence of the shoemaker Minkowski, and murderously beat him over the head with rods. It described how the children were dragged from under the bed, how the shoemaker's wife fell from the beatings, and how the shoemaker himself was wallowing in a pool of blood.
As you read the hackneyed writing, you imagine before your eyes Kishinev, Homel, Białystok, and tens of other large cities where pogroms took place in Czarist times. The same cruelty, the same sadism, the same wild and beastly occurrences, the same loss of the human visage and humane feelings.
There were indeed somethings that give some comfort. Jews defended themselves! Przytyk Jews did not go to slaughter like sheep! The writ of accusation over-exaggerates, but something did happen. There were young Jews who were prepared to make the most difficult sacrifices so that our name will not be shamed and our honor will not be mocked.
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June 15, 1936
I want to begin my report about the Przytyk trial with the following picture:
More than 400 witnesses had to take the oath. They were led in a number of groups – 320 witnesses: mainly young gentiles with healthy peasant faces. They wore boots, walked through the hall steadily and resolutely, almost with joy, almost with brazenness. They responded to the questions of the court chairman in a loud, brazen, challenging, almost pugnacious manner. That is how one group followed the other. The floor shook from the 320 strong pairs of boots, from the thumping of horseshoes, from the grating of the thick soles.
And this is how it went with the 80 Jewish witnesses: The five orphans of the murdered Minkowskis were in the front – ranging from 6 to 14 years old. Following them was the old grandmother, more than 70 years old, and another ten or so old Jews, bent and twisted; old wives who you could barely see since they were so small and short; and a full group of Jews and Jewesses, torn, pale, beaten, unsteady, with downcast faces, with defeated eyes. They almost looked like a group of beggars, like an itinerant group who had come from a long, difficult journey. Tired, strangers, exhausted, seeking calm and security.
I stood very close to the table of the judge, and could notice the impression that the appearance of that group of witnesses made on everyone: on the judge, on the lawyers, on the journalists -- oppressed, battered! It was not a pleasant sight before the eyes.The contrast with the young, scorched, peasant faces and the tall peasant figures was too great. Everyone was overtaken with completely different feelings. A thought came to everyone unwillingly, even to the beastly, anti-Semitic lawyers, like lightning through the head: here before us stands the beaten and tormented people, here before our eyes are the afflicted and the hunted.
At that time, the trial took on its true historical essence, and everyone was immersed in investigations, interrogations, and tiring themselves with differentiating between the guilty and innocent. At that moment, it sounded like something silly and trifling. It was clear that the stronger ones were fighting. It was even clearer that the weaker ones were beaten – and why were there so many long ceremonies?
In truth, it was not so simple: for those weak grandfathers and tired fathers, specifically those hunched over grandmothers and wrinkled mothers have
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young children. And not all young Jewish children are today short and thin. And even if they were short and thin, they are strong with a completely different wish, with a completely different boldness: not with a dreary wish that G-d will intervene and help, but rather with an active wish not to let people spit in their face; not with prayers and supplications, with requests and begging, but rather with responding to a bullying with an attack.
In that vein, the figure of the young Jewish tailor Lesko was literally symbolic. He was not yet 20 years old, short and thin, nearsighted with glasses on his eyes. He admitted that he shot with a revolver. He indeed hit a peasant, and laid him to the ground. On the third day of the trial, we did not yet determine whether Lesko had to shoot at the moment that he shot. But Lesko from Przytyk, still in a long kapote, only a few years out of Yeshiva, a member of the Mizrachi organization, that is, from the religious Zionist movement, a lad who never heard about weapons, shooting, revolvers or guns from his father and grandfather – specifically that lad was armed and prepared to fight for himself, for his parents, for his brothers and sisters.
43 Christians were convicted. Almost all of them came from one stratum – peasant youth who were dressed for the first time in city clothing: shoes, a necktie, a semi white collar, a pressed suit, with combed hair. This, the first generation of peasants who graduated from a public school, came to the market on the fair day to attack the Jews.
The chairman began to interrogate each accused person for their name and their past. The differences between the Jewish and gentile small-town people quickly became obvious.
“Have you been in jail?” asked the chairman. Almost all the Jews responded, “No!” A few indeed had been in jail, but for Communism. However, a large number of the Christians had been in jail for stealing bedding or a horse, for fighting, for attacking Jews, for theft – these were common crimes in the cities and in towns which themselves were pretty much villages, or which were situated close to a city.
Of course ,one cannot generalize. In Poland, one can also find a sufficient number of Jewish thieves, of Jewish criminals who go around with knives and are prepared to use the knife at the slightest provocation. Both
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| Photocopy of a newspaper: from the daily newspapers in Yiddish that dealt with the trial in Przytyk in depth. The title: in the corridor of the court.[1] |
Father, mother, and brothers of the chief Jewish accused, The Kirsenzwajg brothers.
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[2]types are not widespread among Jews. The main thing – here, in court sit very different groups: on one side attackers, fighters, hooligans, people who have been deluded that all misfortune stems from Jews. On the other side – people who under the worst conditions had to defend themselves and tried to defend themselves, not wanting to hide in the attic or cellar listening to the weeping and shouting of the beaten women and children.
I say, “under the worst conditions,” because the accused Jews denied everything, claiming that this was self-defense, that they had some revolvers, that they wanted to defend themselves from hooligans and murderers – and every person has a right to defend himself.
The difference was apparent during the answers to the questions of the chairman: the fighters were daring, self-assured, and even a somewhat brazen. One even allowed himself to say that they do not want to answer now, and they give up the right to explain later. The angry speech of the court chairman was to no avail – they remained stubbornly silent. By comparison, the Jewish accused were not as sure of themselves. They had fear on their faces, and did not trust those in whose hands lay their fate. Therefore, they answered the matter with dignity and intelligence, not allowing themselves to be misled by the anti-Semitic lawyer.
Let us describe in brief the judge and the lawyers, and you will have before you all the actors in the tragedy that was now playing out in the Radom court.
The chairman of the court makes a completely likeable impression. He presents himself as impartial, serious and honest. His speech to the Christian witnesses can possibly serve as a key to how he wishes to conduct the trial, and also possibly to the outcome of the trial. He demanded from them the truth, for only through the truth can one lessen the hatred between the different segments of society. There have already been enough victims. The battles have cost dearly, and every witness intends to take revenge against anyone. Only by telling the truth can one help restore friendly relations. The chairman spoke those words with a firm and commanding voice. Unfortunately, this did not make any great impression on the Christian witnesses, and they later behaved brazenly and provocatively. This made the impression that there were more pogromchiks and bad people than there were in the defense bench. The chairman
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also made a speech before the Jewish witnesses, but with a somewhat different message. He felt it necessary to mention that an oath without the presence of a rabbi is also an oath, for G-d is everywhere.
However, the chairman had two sitting judges who were known as anti-Semites, and who did not at all hide their antipathy toward the Jewish accused.
The Jewish accused were defended by a group of splendid, very famous lawyers. Aside from the Jews Berenson, Ettinger, Margolis and Kriger, there were the Christians Petroszewicz, Pascholski, and Szimanski.
The first, Petroszewicz, was a Vilna lawyer from the former Russian political defense committee. He was a true lover of humanity, a true Communist sympathizer, a distinguished and venerable jurist who was also a professor at the University of Vilna. Pascholski was the president of the “Stszelzes,” of the local Pilsudski organization that played a significant role in political life in Poland.
There were 15 anti-Semitic lawyers on the side of the pogromchiks. The best of their lawyers from Warsaw and Łódź, aside from Radomers, upheld their “moral” duty to come and save the pogromchiks. From the first moment, they made it clear that they had not come for money or to defend one of the other of the accused, but rather to save the Polish people from the Jewish leeches. Unfortunately, it was a fact that none of them took any money. They came for the duty, and they sweated entire days in court only for the call of duty. In short, they were confirmed, stubborn, veteran anti-Semites. Among them was a young lawyer woman, very pretty, with a very friendly face that was unbecoming of the venomous hate that spewed forth from her mouth every time she asked a question to a Jewish accused. She was very active.
The stage was open: the actors were on the stage. With palpitating hearts, the Jews of Poland and also possibly the Jews throughout the entire world wanted to know every bit of information from that stage.
The two days that I spent at the Przytyk trial were truly historic days. This was not so much because there were great heroes and the entire tragic situation exposed a group of people who were
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attacked daily, who had to be protected by the police, but were not protected, and who were forbidden to defend themselves, and especially to organize a self-defense. Unfortunately, there were no great heroes at the Przytyk trial. Almost all the accused tried to portray themselves as homebodies who were not able to shoot, did not want to shoot, and never even thought about fighting pogromchiks. The witness Lesko was an exception, but we were afraid as that once he fell into this, he would be forced to confess and would deflect the motive of self-defense, of defending oneself against attackers. Lesko, as was known, shot through a window and killed a peasant, and was liable to the harshest punishment.
Let us be impartial to all the Jewish accused who were sitting with fear and trepidation at the trial, in insult and shame, with their honor injured. On the day of the pogrom, they acted very heroically, very bravely, very finely, and in a very dignified fashion. More than one set of shoulders of a hooligan felt the taste of a Jewish iron rod. At that time, they conducted themselves as healthy, normal people do, and they had to deal with the attack.
Indeed, the two days of the trial were historic, for the proceedings of the trial were at a high level, and for not only the pain of several people, but of all the Polish Jews, of the entire group of three million who were literally drowning in tribulations was heard in the courtroom.
In this role came a simple Jew, indeed a coarse Jew from the characters that Sholom Aleichem perpetuated in “Tevye the Milkman.” Specifically those coarse people, firm in their faith, certain in their conscience, without a disheveled nature, open hearted and courageous, not fearful, and not trembling in their skin, prepared to be a sacrifice if such was needed by the public – specifically such people are often heroic, not even aware that they are speaking or acting heroically. Such was it! – that is what is likeable with those coarse, folksy-intelligent people, who even force their enemies to pay attention to them.
Here at the trial, G-d has sent such a type of a folksy person who is not made up or disguised. He played his role absolutely naturally, so honestly, so conscientiously, so truly honestly that within the two days he became
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the central figure. His name also probably remains in the memory through the telegrams: Feldberg, Leizer Feldberg.
He was a tall Jew, 68 years old. He had a pale face from being under arrest for weeks, and several gashes on his naked head. He was deaf, and therefore his entire figure, especially his face, was always strained and bent. He demonstrated his attentiveness from the first day on. His entire appearance was as if shouting out that in a land where an old man can sit in jail for attacking and fighting with innocent peasants, a certain anarchy, discomfort, disorder, and chaos must pervade.One already sensed this with the answer to the first formal questions of the court chairman. Those Jews have a unique inner sense of certainty, a unique clarity of conscience and steadfastness. He approached the court podium upright and responded – and his answer must be believed. He did not feel well on the second day of the trial, and they had to free him from sitting in court, but today, on the fourth day of the trial, he was cross-examined.
We enjoyed honor and contentment during that examination. That 68-year-old Jew declared openly, proudly, loudly, almost as if shouting, that had he been armed at that moment, he would have shot. He approached the judge very closely and looked him straight in the eye: “And even had you, Mr. judge, wanted to harm me, I would also have defended myself!”
That did not leave a significant impression, but his explanation was interesting, piquant, and impressive. He explained, almost poetically, that he belonged to one organization: the organization of Abraham our Forefather! The children of that organization stood under Mount Sinai and first heard G-d's voice, which commanded: “Thou shalt not murder, that shalt not steal!” That same command of G-d is holy until now, the holiest among that organization. This is the initiation to become a member of the Jews, the children of Abraham our Forefather. They do not bother anyone and are happy when people let them work and live in peace. It is only calm and peaceful in the town when there are no knives or rods – Feldberg repeated this several times. With a calm, but strong and commanding voice, he told how they began to work with knives and sticks, how they even beat peasants who daringly approached a Jewish stall, how they transformed the town
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into a hell; and how one fine day, on a market day, turned into a day of catastrophe, and Jews ran to the local and Radom authorities.
He related openly how the Starosta [district governor] received a Jewish delegation, of which he was a member, and how the Starosta cynically pacified the Jews, stating that “in the meantime, nobody has been killed.” In simple words, he explained how they threw the Jewish shoemaker Falant into the river, and how the Jewish delegations had to protect him to save him from being murdered. However, the Starosta joked and stated that they were beating over the pocketbook[3]. “No!” the elderly Leizer Feldberg shouted out during the trial, “They beat us over the head, and not over the pocketbook! Let them leave our heads whole, and the gentiles will want to purchase from us again!”
This does not give over the entire speech of the terrified, tired Jews. It seems that he was a single voice. He uttered the following in prose: “For me, a good priest is better than a bad rabbi.” This left an impression, for one felt the truth of his words.
The following days were even more interesting. First the elderly man showed how he had survived the Przytyk tragedy, which is the tragedy of more than three million Jews. He arrived at the court pale and exhausted. One could see on the face of the elderly man that he had not slept well, and was tormented by something. At the beginning of the sitting, he began by declaring that he has something additional to add to his speech of the previous day. While lying on the hard cot of the jail, he remembered things that he had forgotten to tell yesterday. The elderly man explained in detail how they tossed the Jew Falant into the river, a how he told the Starosta that they had killed a Jew. At that moment, the chairman, the procurator, and the anti-Semitic lawyer Kowalski shouted out, “There were no Jewish deaths!” The elderly Leizer stared at them all with a pair of large, sharp eyes and answered, “They murdered him!” He said those words very quietly, for the question from the aforementioned three had affected him strongly, it seems. However, his glance said all: astonishment and contempt.
He sat there on the accused dock, pale and upset. Several Christian witnesses were interrogated. The Christian witness Ragolski, the owner of the house from which the Minkowskis were so brutally murdered, entered.
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That Ragolski maintained a completely calm composure. He explained that when he arrived in the home of the Minkowskis, he already found the husband dead, and the woman dying. To the question of the chairman as to whether he knew who the murderer was, he answered, “No.” However, as this was happening, the elderly Feldberg jumped up, ran to the judges' desk, and shouted out: “I can no longer hold myself back! I can no longer hold myself back! Pointing to Ragolski, he shouted out even louder, “He, he murdered them! He is the murderer!”
Feldberg collapsed. A few of the accused wept. The sitting was recessed. They took Feldberg to the hospital.
That scene remained before the eyes of all those who were present in the courthouse. Before the anti-Semitic lawyers, among whom was also a grandson of apostate Jews, of the famous historian Kroizhor, smiling with their pure Polish pointed mustache; before the anti-Semitic correspondent Kric whose aim was to obscure the words of every beastly witness and silencing the most important moments in the court – none of them was freed from the effect of Leizer Feldberg, from that folksy individual whose every word, whose every gesture literally shone with folksy wisdom and folksy truth.
June 24, 1936
One can write mountains about the Przytyk trial. Every day, every hour, there are surprises and typical occurrences. Picture after picture flies before you as a film: Jewish and gentile witnesses, old gentiles and old women, old Jews and old gentiles, young village shkotzim [gentiles] and small-town, well-groomed gentiles with neckties. A full gallery of characters, quite interesting, often fascinating, a true laboratory or observatory, an observation point for artists as well as for sociologists, for those who study the path of development of human society.
We see here that this town had produced such people and how the town also cut a bit around them, took to them the natural simplicity and the small-town naivete, smeared them with a small-town pomade, taught them a bit of how to point into a newspaper of a book, awakened in them appetites and lusts, turned them cruel and dark-souled, cynical with sharp teeth. Therefore, they can
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easily tell a lie, and do not have so much fear for a whipping in this world, are not so afraid of a punishment in the world, for they believe more than the town anti-Semite that their party will be victorious. And we can hereby declare that he is brazen; he believes that he has already a half victory or more in his pocket, he feels like the up-and-coming master over the judges and procurators, and has barely any respect for them.
Looking at the group of witnesses with the small-town neckties, one unwillingly recalls the trial in Berlin about the pogrom in Kurfürstendamm[4]. Of course, a Berlin hooligan looks completely different than a Przytyk one, but there is a surprising similarity – the same brazenness that is based on the firm belief that they will slowly take the whip in their hand and seize control. A special cynicism shouts out from that brazenness, but one must admit that it was effective, as it specially influenced the judge and the procurator. Like there in Berlin, so it was also here in Radom. They, those witnesses, should in truth be sitting in the accused dock. They acted in a commanding and strong-handed manner.
In the first letter about the Przytyk trial, we have already made a bit of a comparison between the Jewish and gentile witnesses. However then there was a large group of several hundred gentiles and almost a hundred Jews. Now, they appear one at a time, and for the first time it becomes very clear who is the beater and who is the beaten one. Even the wildly anti-Semitic lawyers often lost their audacity. In cases where they stubbornly twisted the argument to show that the Jews were the fighters and the peasants fled – they appeared disgusting.
Let us present a few more pictures of the testimony from both sides.
There were a few days when the Jewish witnesses uncovered a small corner of the bloody Monday that remains etched as a date in Jewish history – a small corner, for they live in Przytyk in the meantime, despite the belief that they will not be able to maintain themselves there for a long time. They suffered deep wounds in Przytyk, and are afraid of identifying the guilty. They act blind and half-witted, so as to avoid provoking the wild enemy.
Chaya Frajdman is standing there. She was holding a small child by the hand during the pogrom. She begged the hooligans to not bother the child. Therefore, they put all their efforts into her, and gave her all the beatings. The chairman asked her
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to approach the accused dock and identify the guilty. She responded that she does not see well due to the blows in the eyes, so she does not want to take the responsibility upon herself of identifying people.
There is Gedalia Hempel. They cut his eye, broke a rib, and gave him many wounds all over his body. He was in the hospital for a few days. He has not recuperated, and will never fully recuperate. One can see in his face that he was not only depressed, but rather completely depressed. It is not necessary to lose a foot or a hand, to become handicapped, an invalid. From 20 beatings on the side and a few good blows on the head and in the eyes, one can lose more than a foot. That witness as well was nervous, unsure of himself, and afraid to approach the accused dock to clearly identify the hooligans.
They said privately that they recognize the hooligans, but they were afraid of revenge.
Here enters an elderly Jewish woman, the mother of the accused Bornsztajn. Every Przytyk Jewess of age 45 or 50 looks like she is 60 or 65 – with a wrinkled, withered face, droopy eyes, and a terribly thin body. They are all grandmothers. She talks calmly and quietly, but is completely shaken. She paints a picture that she is in the attic with eight children and a six-year-old grandchild, and all were reciting the “vidui” confession (recited before dying). The grandchild asked her, the grandmother, to recite the confession with him. Her testimony presented a scene that was often repeated in the court. One of the judges, the outspoken anti-Semite name Plewoko, asked the elderly Bornsztajn whether she has a son who is a Communist. She answered that she had a son who was a Communist, but he died in prison. She did not even utter a sigh, but one felt that the mother's heart was bleeding. An anti-Semitic lawyer jumped up and asked whether the accused son was also a Communist. The accused Bornsztajn jumped up and insisted that one could find a shekel [token of membership in the Zionist movement] with him already from 1917.
The nationalist democratic (anti-Semitic) lawyers intended to prove that all the Jews were Communists, and the worst Communists from Przytyk were the 14 who sat in the accused dock. One must assert that the mere mention the word “Communism” is like the arrival into the courtroom of the devil with large horns, instilling panic in everyone. The word itself is uttered with a different tone. The anti-Semitic lawyers, the judge, the procurator
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utter the word with a tone as if it is the most disgusting travesty in the world, as if it is such a severe moral crime of which there is none worse. It leaves such an aftertaste: that only Jews can have such a moral deficiency to be Communists… The Jewish accused people trembled, not only because they were in fact not Communists, but also from the feeling that the slightest suspicion, the minutest claim of Communism could bury them. That suspicion could blind the most honest of judges.
A Jew with a white beard strolls in, barely walking. He has spent weeks in the hospital. He was already begging for death. The Angel of Death had indeed been standing near his bed, but left at the last moment. It was not his fate to be released from the life of the Diaspora. He was beaten over the head with iron bars until he lost consciousness. The hooligans did not believe that he was dead, and they did not stop. He came to in the hospital bed several hours later. He felt his inhuman pain from which only death could release him. What could that Leibush Tauber state? He is trembling, for he is still in terror – and one will not be able to get anything from him. That half-dead elderly Jew, however, gave the most vivid testimony regarding who really perpetrated the pogrom, as well as who was capable of acting wildly, murderously, and beastly.
As beastly, murderously, and lowly a person is capable of being, he is still a human being. And even those 44 pogromchiks who considered themselves as grooms, as heroes, and great nationalist fighters; even more so, those anti-Semitic lawyers, those true beasts, those true evil devils who apparently received university education only to make the beast more sharp, sadistic, and cynical – all were created in G-d's image and all had a human spark. It was enough to sit before the judge with Feiga Szuch as a witness – one cannot stand. That mother who had received the blows from ten hooligans so as not to allow a stick or a stone to reach one of her seven children, specifically that broken Jewess returned the wildest of beasts to their human form. That Feiga Szuch, going back a half a year as iron [willed] Jewess, now fainted. How can one not faint when one sees your murderer walking about freely in the corridor? How can one maintain oneself when your murderer still tramples over the witnesses, when that murderer who is now sitting in the accused dock is
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a completely kosher lamb who came to the market to search for brides or to search for the grave of a relative in the cemetery? Furthermore, they cannot stand and allow her to sit before the court. And this is enough – need she tell more? Need she speak more? Her thoroughly broken, damaged body shouts out that wild beasts rampaged in Przytyk, that in Przytyk they murdered for the love of killing, from bloodthirstiness, from the enjoyment of beating weak people in the head with stones. And she states that she remained in the house to give all her seven children time to hide in the attic. They first threw stones through the windows. Then they tore into the house and she, a mother of seven children, received blows.
She now lies on the ground more dead than alive, and the hooligans gather together to leave with a joyous remark that Feiga has already gone to the other world. But unfortunately for them, her body shook, and the hooligans returned and beat her again: “How strong is she, for all the spirits?” one shouted angrily. However, if one is destined to survive, one survives, and Feiga Szuch came to and crawled to her Christian neighbor, with whom she had lived door-to-door for decades. She begged her to let her in for a bit, but the neighbor drover her out of the house. Therefore, Feiga wept: “It is understandable that the hooligans are wild, that is natural. But that Kaszia, the neighbor of many years should act so beastly, that is already unbearable!” She spoke – that remnant of a person had energy. She had a need to speak and identify her murderers, and she identified them: they were three, the chief leader, the chief beater, and the iron rod beater.
The procurator suggests that they should confirm the three whom she recognized from among the other eight. She fainted during that procedure, but she came to and identified the murderer again. Within that weak body, an ordinary soul still lived: in that beaten, wounded head, a healthy brain still functioned – and she recognized everything and wished to speak and identify. Yes, she is made of iron… as the doctor told her when she was brought to the hospital in Radom.
It was not her body that is forged of iron, but rather her soul, her spirit. An old Jewish spirit, forged from true belief, from Jewish faith, and its Jewishness not lost: nothing is new under the sun! There is nothing new in the world! Przytyk is not the first hellish place, and the broken Feiga from Przytyk is not the first Jewish victim! Bigger things have already been seen: burning courtyards, hangings, mass murder, hundreds of destroyed communities! Hundreds of thousands dispossessed and tortured! Feiga of Przytyk
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finds herself in a completely genial society. She did not lose heart! Feiga of Przytyk, a mother of seven children, is a sister of millions of brother and sisters throughout the entire world, and she does not feel like losing in the Radom trial. Everything had already happened, much will still be, Feiga's faith will not be broken, and she will never be beaten!
It is difficult to tell about the orphan witnesses. It even says in the Gemara that orphans cannot have mercy. It is completely natural. I have seen the Jewish orphans in the orphanage. Orphans from a pogroms are not news to me: I have seen them in Kishinev, in Białystok, in Odessa, in Kiev, and in many other cities. I have seen grown and young orphans. However, such calm, collected orphans as the children of the murdered Minkowskis – I have never seen. One could always see in the eyes of the pogrom orphans the remaining terror, the fear that had grabbed hold of the child's soul and held it in a vise. The orphans of the Przytyk pogrom left the impression that they did not yet know that death means to be gone forever, that they would never see their mother's eyes again, that they would never hear their father's voice. They were waiting for a miracle, that the parents would return and come back to them in their own house, in the warm house of the parents. Their true sense of orphanhood was not sensed in the courtroom. Perhaps they themselves felt the essence of orphanhood for the first time in the courtroom. The murderer in the courtroom must have also evoked the parents before their eyes, as well as the axe, the blood, the screaming, the wallowing, the convulsing, the pool of blood, the lying under the bed, and the peeking and seeing as they slaughtered the people – the mother and father – with an axe.
And such it was. The six-year-old orphan could not look at the murderer. The gentle speech of the chairman and the pleas of the Jewish lawyers did not help. He could not look at the murderer, even for the purposes of identification. This was not within the capabilities of a six-year-old child. Therefore, the 12-year-old orphan, Hershel, literally acted heroically. He held open his eyes, a pair of dark eyes – and looked somberly and bravely at the judge, the lawyers, and the accused. He identified the four murderers. He identified them several times, in different poses, indifferent places, mixed in with many others. He identified them so clearly and plainly that even the malevolent lawyers could not evade his hand. He answered all questions briefly and clearly, not
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rehearsed, but from the heart ,from memory, from his sharp eye which will probably forever hold the image of the wild faces of the murderers and the terribly bloodied faces of his mother and father. His testimony moved everybody, and played a great role in the sentencing.
I cannot describe all the Jewish witnesses. One thing is clear: almost all the Jewish witnesses came with injuries on their bodies: some became deaf from the beatings, and others lost their sight; some brought with them 17 wounds, and some brought a wound on the soul; other brought a hole in the head. Almost all were beaten, torn, and ruined physically, spiritually, and materially, with effects forever, for generations.
July 1, 1936
(From the book “Eve of Destruction” – about Jewish life in Poland from 1935-1937. Published by the Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1951. From the “Polish Jewry” series, volume 77.)
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