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The Human Flood
Jewish Holocaust survivors did not exactly receive a warm welcome when they returned to their former homes in Eastern Europe.
Most of their homes were occupied by other people. In many instances, their homes were destroyed and their businesses shattered. The local population was suspicious, cold and hostile. Most of the survivors did not recognize the former areas where they had lived. Jewish refugees, who had hidden during the war, found themselves knocking at the doors to their old homes only to be met, many times, with a punch in the face. The Polish citizens who answered the door, had occupied these Jewish
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| The burial of the Jewish pogrom victims in Kielce, Poland |
homes, often using illegal Nazi documents, and now not only refused to acknowledge any Jewish claim to the property, but resented and probably feared the Jews' return. Finding nothing left for them, the returnees milled around the city looking for shelter, food, even a bit of bread.
During this period, attacks against these Jewish survivors were a daily occurrence. Poland was in the midst of a violent wave of anti–Semitism that bubbled over into the deadly Kielce pogrom that we already mentioned earlier. The Jews in Kielce were accused of killing a Christian child for the blood needed to bake matzot, the unleavened bread Jews eat during the Passover holiday. This “blood–libel” was readily accepted by the Polish masses that rampaged through the streets, killing any Jews they found in the city. The mob was joined by members of the Polish police and other Polish security forces, even though these forces all had to be members of the Communist Party in order to get and keep their jobs. Exacerbating this situation were the nationalist forces that tried to bring down the government. They pointed to the few Jews holding cabinet posts like Yaacov Berman, something unheard of in Poland before World War II, as proof that the Jews controlled Poland. These Jews were of course members of the Communist Party therefore all Jews, especially those that returned from the Soviet Union were all Communists. The Polish masses bought these stories that led to minor anti–Jewish incidents throughout Poland and culminated in the Kielce pogrom.
Resentment was rapidly building against the Polish government. For the first time Jews were in positions of influence and power. Many Poles, who had no love for Jews before the war, were now incensed that Jews had high positions in government. Polish Primate Cardinal August Hlond, condemned the murder of the Jews, but he denied the racist nature of these crimes. To Cardinal Hlond, the Kielce pogrom was a reaction against Jewish bureaucrats serving the communist regime. Another Catholic leader, Cardinal Sapieha, reportedly said that the Jews had brought the violence on themselves. The Jews found themselves caught in a political game where the stakes were life and death.
Special military troops were rushed to Kielce from nearby towns to restore order. The fact that the police and security forces had joined the Kielce mob created panic among the Polish Jewish survivors. Once again, men in uniforms were attacking and killing them. Jewish survivors began to question their safety in Poland. This fear spread quickly to other areas of Eastern Europe[1].
The Polish government was aware of the rising anti–Semitism, but was powerless in the countryside where the nationalist forces dominated the area. Poland was approaching chaos as the two sides were fighting for control of Poland. The government of course did not want to appear as supporting Jews and provide ammunition to the nationalists. Worried that the anti–Communists and general Polish population would claim the government was acting on behalf of the Jews, the Government issued assurances, but they had little effect.
Paralyzed, the country rapidly approached a state of complete anarchy. Sympathetic to and understanding of the Jewish plight, the Polish government saw an option that would quell the uprisings and allow the government to survive: let the Jews leave Poland. Even before the Kielce pogrom, Jews had already decided there was nothing for them in war–ravaged Poland. According to Max (Mordechai) Findling, a Holocaust survivor from the shtetl of Nowy Zmigrod, Galicia, Poland, he returned to his native village after the war and did not find any family survivors. He also encountered a great deal of hostility from the local population. He quickly turned around and headed to the Czech border; he soon reached Germany where he was liberated[2].
In 1945, about 5,000 Polish Jews left Poland and crossed illegally to Czechoslovakia and then to Germany, Austria and Italy. Baltic, Ukrainian, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian Jews joined this ever–growing trickle of illegal Jewish Holocaust survivors that entered Czechoslovakia. Yohanan Cohen, a Palestinian Brichah official in Poland, described for us a typical event along the road. He led a group of Polish Jews through Czechoslovakia[3]. Their papers stated that they were Austrian citizens returning home from captivity. At the Czech town of Moravska–Ostrava the entire group of Jews was arrested and thrown in jail on suspicion of being Austrian Nazis. The Czech chief of police took a dim view of the group and was not particularly well disposed to Austrians or Germans. They were all locked up in jail. No telephones or notes to the outside to inform someone of what happened. Then Cohen ordered someone in the group to play sick. The man was taken to some infirmary where per chance he met a Jewish doctor. He told the doctor the story and begged him to help. Apparently, the doctor informed the Jewish community of the situation, because the next day the head of the community presented himself at the police station and asked to speak to the arrested Jews. They soon convinced him that they were Polish Jews. The next day they received packages of food from the small Jewish community of Ostrava. The community also informed the Joint office in Prague of the situation. The director of the JDC in Prague, Gaynor Jacobson received the news and began to call on his Czechoslovak contacts, notably Toman, to help. The Jews were soon released and on their way out of Czechoslovakia[4].
On another occasion, Cohen crossed the Polish–Czech border with a transport of Polish Jews. They had a collective pass that they were Greek prisoners of war heading home. The Polish border guards ignored the group as did the Czech border guards. “Suddenly a Russian officer attached to the Czech border patrol asked me (Cohen), the leader of the group, to please say something in Greek.” I kept my cool and said “Itgadal veitkadashe shmei rabba”. The officer replied, “Amen”. Apparently the officer was Jewish and
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| Asher Zelig–Zdenek Goldberger Toman |
recognized the Aramaic words that open the “Kaddish” prayer for the deceased. The response of the Russian officer was appropriate and showed that he was familiar with the prayer. Of course, the group continued their illegal journey.
The Polish Brichah used various subterfuges to cross the Polish–Czech border including forged Red Cross passes or concentration camp identification papers that were forged in Krakow, Poland and in other places in Europe[5]. The Czech government was sympathetic to the flight of the Jews from their recently acquired homes. So the transports of illegal Jews rolled across Czechoslovakia. The Czech border police received orders to accept papers without thorough inspection. Even Jews who did not have papers were permitted to enter Czechoslovakia, according to author Tad Szulc. The orders came from Zdenek Toman, the head of the frontier guards of Czechoslovakia.[6]
Following the Kielce pogrom, Polish Jews decided to leave the country by all means. The Polish government ordered Marshal Marian Spychalski, an
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| Yizchak (Antek) Tzuckerman |
avowed Communist and now the Polish deputy minister of defense, to conduct secret negotiations with Yitzchak (Antek) Tzuckerman, one of the leaders of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising and currently an active member of the Central Committee of Polish Jews. The two worked out a secret agreement that was to commence on July 27, 1946, and end about February 1947, and would not be published by either of the parties. The agreement restricted emigration only to Jews, who also were forbidden to take gold, foreign currency or personal papers when they left Poland. All travel arrangements were the responsibility of the Polish Brichah, which would also handle any and all other problems, including medical attention, food and clothing. Neither the Polish government nor any other Polish official were to be involved in this modern exodus. Lastly, Marshal Spychalski verbally informed Tzuckerman that the agreement only applied to the
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| Marshal Marian Spychalski (center) |
Polish–Czech border. While Tzuckerman agreed to this last condition, he was distressed. The Brichah had long been making good use of the short but troublesome journey to the Polish–German border crossing at the port city of Szczecin (Stettin). The crossing point was troublesome due to Polish anti–Semitic attacks on Jews, and the Soviets manning checkpoints along this route. The Russians frequently stopped and searched and sometimes arrested the Jewish refugees. They returned them to the Polish authorities where they faced jail. Now the Polish government had told Tzuckerman this shortcut was off limits. While Tzuckerman understood the reasoning – the Poles wanted to keep the Jewish exit story a secret from both the Soviets and the British – he also knew the Russians were aware that Jews were leaving Poland, although not the extraordinary numbers. The British would have been livid, knowing that many of the fleeing Jews would try to sneak through the blockade around Palestine. And the Poles had another reason not to upset the British. When the Polish government fled Warsaw in 1939 in the face of the Nazi invasion, they took the Polish gold reserves with them, depositing them in English banks. And the gold reserves were still in London. England was in no hurry to return the gold and had used pretext after pretext to delay shipping the precious metal home. While the decision to let most of the Polish Jews leave was quickly turning into a matter of survival for the Polish government, the Poles had no intention of giving the British cause to keep Polish gold any longer than necessary. The Brichah agreed to funnel the massive exodus across the different border points along the Polish–Czech border, notably the village of Nachod.
The Brichah was also determined to use the Szczecin (Stettin) crossing point whenever the need arose, regardless of the dangers.
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| The Village of Nachod on the Czech side of the Czech–Polish border |
In 1946 alone, the Brichah led nearly 30,000 Polish Jewish refugees across the Szczecin border point. The Brichah had another trick: it mingled Jewish refugees on trains carrying German citizens being deported from German areas that had been given to Poland at the Potsdam Conference held in Berlin from July 17 to August 2, 1945. These trains went from Poland directly into Germany. Once the trains stopped in Germany, the Jews were gathered by the Brichah guides and ushered to one of the DP camps in the American zone. After the agreement with Marshal Spychalski was finalized, Tzuckerman brought the document to the Central Committee of Polish Jews for approval. As usual there was disagreement among the Jewish factions: the Communist and Bundist members vociferously objected to the terms. The Jewish Communists were steadily gaining strength in the Central Committee; their allies and the Bundists were also opposed to Jews leaving Poland despite all the real dangers that the Jews faced there. The Jewish Communists and Bundists were determined to build a socialist utopia even though this option or any option that called for remaining in Poland was rejected by most Jewish survivors. The Polish Jewish Communists continued objecting to Jewish emigration from Poland. They believed in a new socialist society where everyone would be equal, and argued that Jews should stay and help with the historic effort. While the actual number of Jewish Communists was small, they were very vocal, influential, and had the support of the Polish Communist Party. The Jewish faction of the communist committee members took the matter all the way up to the office of the Polish Central Committee of the Communist Party. Much to the dismay of these Jewish Communists, they were informed that the top officials of the Communist Party agreed with the terms struck between Spychalski and Tzuckerman.
After that, the Jewish Communists raised no more objections. The Bund had been one of the largest and best organized Jewish workers' organizations in pre–war Poland. Marxist–Socialist in ideology, the Bund was anchored in a firm belief in a Yiddish–speaking cultural autonomy. Vehemently opposed to Zionism, the Bund demanded that Jews fight for their rights where they lived and continued to adhere to this view even after the war. But when the Spychalski–Tzuckerman agreement was brought for a vote at the Central Committee of the Polish Jews, the Bund members were outvoted. Now the question of funding became crucial. The Brichah appealed to the Polish branch of the JDC to finance the legal transport of thousands of Jews out of Poland.
William Bein, head of the JDC office in Warsaw, was already paying the Brichah's expenses to illegally sneak Jews out of Poland. By the time of the Spychalski–Tzuckerman agreement, thousands of Jews had already crossed the Czech–Polish borders: 5,000 in 1945 alone and that number was dwarfed by the number of immigrants crossing in 1946. Bein informed Dr. Joseph Schwartz, JDC Head in Paris, of the rapid increase in refugees illegally leaving Poland, now mostly across the Czech border. Schwartz answered by sending massive shipments of food, clothing and medical supplies to transit camps in Czechoslovakia where the Polish Jewish refugees stopped briefly on their way to the DP camps in Germany and Austria. The reception camps along the Czech borders were enlarged and stocked with provisions for the Jews arriving from Poland. In May 1945, the total Jewish population in post–war Poland was 42,662. By July 1946, with the massive arrival of repatriated Polish Jews from the Soviet Union, the number swelled to 240,489.
Following the terrifying events in Kielce, the Jews already in Poland and those refugees steadily arriving from the Soviet Union needed little urging to leave. According to Cohen, 32,772 Jews illegally left Poland in August 1946, and
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| Polish Jews crossing the Polish–Czech border during the winter while Czech and Polish border guards are exchanging some friendly words. |
11,101 Jews crossed the Polish–Czech border in September.[7] The fear of another pogrom, a frivolous change of government policy toward the Jews, or a crackdown at the borders was always a dark cloud lurking in the Jews' minds. No Jew wanted to take a chance, especially after what they'd endured during the Holocaust.
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| Polish Jews crossing the Polish–Czech border in broad daylight. |
Thousands of Polish Jews crossed the Polish–Czech borders at Kladzko, Walbrzych, Katowice, Krosno and Nowy Sacz. The Association of Polish Jewish Religious Communities actively encouraged Jews to leave Poland. Chief Jewish Chaplain of the Polish Army, Colonel Rabbi David Kahane, who was also the head of the Union of Rabbis in liberated Poland, urged all Polish rabbis to help the Polish Jews crossing the Polish–Czech borders.
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| Polish border guard officers with Polish officials. |
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| Gaynor Israel Jacobson, JDC director in Prague |
The Joint offices in Czechoslovakia and in Poland were placed on a military
footing to cope with the impending mass movements. The Brichah mobilized all its forces to deal with the transports. Jews crossed the Polish–Czech borders prior to this agreement but the numbers were relatively small.
Joseph Schwartz saw the steady growth of the illegal border crossings and decided to call on Gaynor Israel Jacobson who was on vacation in the USA, recuperating from a serious disease he contracted in Greece. Jacobson accepted the post of JDC director in Prague and arrived in Prague in April 1946[8].
Jacobson began to enlarge the transit facilities and the supply stocks of the Joint Organization in Czechoslovakia. He also met with the Brichah Mossad officials in Prague who had their offices in the same building as the Joint[9].
Jacobson then began to make the rounds of the Czech capital. He met Masaryk and thanked him profusely for the help that Czechoslovakia was extending to the Polish Jewish refugees in transit through Czechoslovakia. He also thanked him for the assistance that the Czech government extended to the various Jewish social agencies that dealt with the Czech Jewish survivors. Masaryk told Jacobson that he must meet Zdenek Toman regarding Jewish matters. Jacobson did not know that Toman was Jewish; very few people in Czechoslovakia knew this fact. According to Tad Szulc, Masaryk even called Toman to tell him that Jacobson will visit him[10]. Toman received Jacobson in his office. Jacobson began to explain the Jewish situation in Europe and especially in Czechoslovakia. The two men hit it off – both came from similar backgrounds although different countries: Toman grew up in poor and anti–Semitic Slovakia and Jacobson grew up in New York State where he faced a hostile anti–Jewish environment.
Israel Gaynor Jacobson was born May 12 1892 in Buffalo New York. He reversed his first and middle names so that he was known as Gaynor Israel Jacobson. Gaynor stands for the Hebrew words Gan Or – garden of light. He was very experienced in social work and joined the Joint organization in 1944. Schwartz soon sent him to Italy to handle the special refugee problems there. We already described Jacobson's activities in Italy; he spoke several languages, notably Hebrew and Yiddish.
Toman promised to help Jacobson fulfill his task and assured him that Polish Jewish refugees would continue to cross Czechoslovakia as long as he was chief of security[11]. Jacobson also met Klement Gottwald leader of the Czech Communist party and future leader of the country, Minister of Interior Vaclav Nosek, Zdenek Toman, Nejedly, Minister of Welfare and Labor, and other Czech ministers. The Czech government was well disposed to the plight of East European Jews and was willing to help the Jewish refugees.
Jacobson did not have to wait too long for the avalanche of Jewish refugees pouring into Czechoslovakia. In May of 1946, 3052 Polish Jews crossed illegally to Czechoslovakia, in June of 1946, 8,000, in July of 1946, 19,000. August 1946, 35,346, in September 1946, 12,379 Jews crossed the border illegally[12]. During five months 77,777 Polish Jews crossed the Czech–Polish border at a single place called Nachod. The temporary refugee camp of Nachod could handle about 1000 refugees for a brief period of time. Of course, there were other crossing points along the Czech–Polish
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| Transport of Polish Jews leaving Nachod camp on their way to the Austrian or German D.P. camps |
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| Children's transport arrives at Nachod camp. |
borders namely at Broumov and at Szczecin along the Polish–German border.
The number of Polish Jews leaving Poland was staggering in relationship to the total number of Jews following World War II. Of course, Polish Jews kept returning to Poland from Russia and soon joined the Brichah transports. All of these Jews poured into Czechoslovakia illegally through various Polish border points namely Krosno, Dukla, Nowy Sacz, Katowice, Walbrzych (Wadenburg). Polish Jews also moved through the Szczecin area to Berlin, East Germany and then crossed to the American zone in Berlin. We must also remember that Polish Jews left Poland legally to various Western countries and the USA.
On occasions there were temporary closures of the border and this resulted in pure chaos until the borders were reopened. Here is a description of the arrival of Polish Jewish refugees to Nachod as described by a JTA correspondent:[13] “All night long. Every night, little groups of Jewish refugees stream across the Polish border into the little town known as Nachod in Czechoslovakia; sometimes their clothes are wet up to their waist, their eyes red and bloated from the strain of trying to see through the darkness, their backs bent.” The same author writes, “The Czech–Polish border was reopened last night after being closed for three days. Additional trains have been placed on the Nachod–Bratislava run to speed movements of the Jewish refugees.”
According to Jacobson, the Czechs had a de facto arrangement, whereby a committee representing the Welfare and Labor Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Interior Ministry in conjunction with the Czech Joint and local Czech Jewish representatives handled the transient Polish Jewish refugees that crossed into Czechoslovakia[14]. But the number of refugees increased rapidly and so did the expenses. According to Jacobson, the Czech government had already spent 21.000.000 Czech korunas ($420.000) from January 5th 1946 to the beginning of July 1946[15] on food alone, when the Jewish exodus from Eastern Europe had just begun. The Czechs hoped that UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) would assume some of these costs and the preliminary belief was that Jacobson's organization would pay some of the costs[16]. Czechoslovakia continued to provide food and transportation according to Tad Szulc. The bills were presented to the UNRRA Organization that was supposed to reimburse the Czech government for most of these expenses. The UNRRA however took their time in disbursing the bills; meanwhile they accumulated. But the borders were kept open and trains picked up the refugees and transported them across the country on orders of Zdenek Toman[17].
The Polish Jewish exodus was joined by thousands of Baltic and Romanian Jews. These Jews were not really Romanian but Polish whom the Brichah had smuggled from Poland to Romania following the war, in the hope that they would sail to Palestine. Few managed to reach the shores of Palestine as we mentioned earlier. The Brichah now smuggled these Jews back to Poland and onward to Czechoslovakia. Many Polish Jewish survivors from Eastern Galicia that was part of Poland and was now part of the Soviet Union refused to stay within the new borders. They slowly filtered back to Poland and headed to the Czech borders.
Another special and delicate problem presented was the Sub Carpathian Jews. The area belonged to Czechoslovakia prior to WWII. Following the war, the Soviets decided to attach the area to the Ukraine. The Russians permitted the Czechs and Slovaks to leave the area and move to Czechoslovakia proper. Most of the population was native to the area and therefore presently Soviet citizens including the Jewish residents that were born in Uzhhorod. So the Jews had to stay in the Soviet Union unless papers were provided that proved that they were Czech or Slovak citizens. Toman and Jacobson played a very careful and dangerous game but managed to get most of these Jews out of these areas and into Czechoslovakia, whereupon most of them left the country under Brichah guidance. It is estimated that about 6000–10000 Jews were involved[18]. Toman was deeply involved in these operations and managed to save thousands of Jews like the Berman family. The Bermans survived the Holocaust and settled in Dĕĕcin in Czechoslovakia. Nicholas Berman was born in Uzhhorod, and was therefore a Soviet citizen while Gisele Berman was born in Sobrance, thus a Czechoslovak citizen. She returned to Sobrance and saw a Jewish community slowly rebuilding itself under the leadership of Dr. Hershkovic. On a given day, the Bermans received an invitation to visit Toman's office in Prague. Although the Bermans knew the Goldbergs, the invitation sent chills down their backs. The name of Toman was feared throughout Czechoslovakia. Toman received the Bermans and told them that they must leave Czechoslovakia if they want to live. According to Toman, the Russian secret police would soon begin to round up all Soviet citizens in Czechoslovakia and deport them to the Soviet Union. Toman further stated that in case of arrest he would not be able to protect the Bermans, and urged them to leave the country immediately. They started to look for relatives in the USA who could send them papers. The Bermans also informed other Jews of the news and they too began to make plans for a hasty departure. Needless to add, Toman informed Jacobson of the impending Soviet police action. The Soviet secret police soon visited the JDC offices in Czechoslovakia but did not find too much. The entire operation produced slim pickings.
The Bermans managed to reach the USA where they were successful. Other Jews from the affected areas managed to reach the USA, Britain and the D.P. camps in Germany and Austria. The Soviet police knew that somebody leaked the information but they could not prove it.
Another serious problem arose with the arrival of large groups of orthodox and even Hasidic Jews to Prague[19]. Their attire made them visible in Prague that was off limits to Jewish refugees in transit, for the Czech government did not want to officially publicize these activities. It also did not want to antagonize the British and Americans. Most Jewish refugees crossed Czechoslovakia and reached German or Austrian D.P. camps. The Agudath Israel and the Vaad Hatzala organizations, created by orthodox American rabbis to support orthodox rabbis and yeshiva students, organized transports of Jews and sent them to Prague where they hoped to get visas to the USA. These visas were not often issued; meanwhile the Jews became noticeable in the streets of Prague. The Czech government began to pressure the JDC to move the refugees out of the city. Toman pressured Jacobson to do something. The JDC, the Brichah and the Mossad had their hands full with the orthodox refugees who refused to leave the city. Meanwhile the JDC maintained them. Finally, they consented to move under pressure since the JDC and other organs were told that they must go or Czechoslovakia would close the gates. JDC social workers namely Florence Jacobson, Gaynor's wife, began to explain the seriousness of the situation to the various Hasidic factions, notably the possibility that the Czech government would close the borders and they would be stuck in the country. The orthodox Jews began to cooperate with the Joint and some obtained visas to the USA; others moved to France and still others went to D.P. camps in Germany and Austria.[20]
Footnotes
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