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Rabbi R' Chaim Aharon Zvi Shidkovsky was the Rabbi of Tomaszow in my time. The Hasidim referred to him as ‘The Litvak.’
Up to the age of fifteen, I was absorbed in study and Hasidism, going to the Trisk-Kuzmir shtibl day in and day out, learning at the shtibl. I peered into Hasidic books, and listened to Hasidic tales.
I remember one time, when I went as a messenger from my father ז”ל to deliver a letter to the Rabbi, R' Chaim Aharon Zvi, he received me in a friendly manner, and asked me what I was studying, and simultaneously tested me a bit… from that day on, I became a frequent visitor, almost daily. Twice a week, he would conduct a study lesson for me and his son, Yekhezkiel.
But apart from studying at the lesson, I learned other things there. He had a modern home. A variety of
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worldly people would enter there, and many discussions would interest me. The language of discourse was different from that used by the ordinary Tomaszow Jew. In fact, the Yiddish spoken there was different, spoken with a Litvak dialect, and many times, Russian was also spoken.
Rabbi Chaim Aharon Zvi had studied in Lithuanian Yeshivas, and he was an exceptional student of the Lublin Rabbi, the Gaon R' Hillel Lifschitz ז”ל, the author of ‘Bet Hillel.’ The Rabbi of Lublin had written an explanatory letter to my father, [in which], he recommended and requested that my father support the candidacy of his pupil, R' Chaim Aharon Zvi to become the Rabbi of Tomaszow, which for a long time had been without a Rabbi, because the city was unable to achieve a consensus, therefore there were only men appointed as ‘Directors of the Faith.’ After his first sermon in the ‘Plain Bet HaMedrash’ he was, indeed, hired as the town Rabbi.
With the passage of some time later, when the ‘Kozioner Rabbiner’ Dolgenos died, the town Rabbi R' Chaim Aharon Zvi also became the ‘Kozioner Rabbiner.’
This reminds me of a fine thing he said to the Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi MZA”H ז”ל. As is known throughout Russia, and Poland, which also at that time belonged to Russia, there were two kinds of Rabbis hired by a Jewish community, a Rabbi who was a scholar, a sage, and a God-fearing man, and a Rabbi specified by the government. It was not required that the ‘Kozioner Rabbiner’ scholarly education, he directed the statistics of births and deaths, and officially represented the Jewish community to the government. He was called the ‘Rav MiTa'am,’ meaning a Rabbi set up by the rulers.
In this connection, Rabbi MZA”H had said: Rabbis have four characteristics, just like there are four kinds of species in the Sukkot fruits. the Lulav had taste but no smell, the Etrog has taste and smell, the myrtle leaf has smell but no taste, and the willow has neither taste nor smell (Midrash Rabah).
A Rabbi that has taste but no odor? – that is a Rabbi – MiTa'am, because he does not exude the odor of Torah.
What sort of Rabbi has both taste and an odor? – this is a ‘Rav MiTa'am’ who is also a Torah scholar.
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Who is the Rabbi who has no taste or odor? – This is a Rabbi who cannot study or be a Kozioner Rabbi.
And what sort of Rabbi has an odor and no taste? – This is a Rabbi that can learn, but cannot be appointed by the government….
Rabbi Chaim Aharon Zvi Shidkovsky was both of these: A Rabbi ‘MiTa'am’ appointed by the government, and a Sage.
I learned a great deal from the Rabbi of Tomaszow. Not only Torah, but also secular things. I studied with him for about three years. These were the stormy years of Russian Jewry, the time of the First and Second ‘Duma’ (Parliament), after the Russo-Japanese War, in the time of the Russian pogroms against the Jews.
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Every day, the newspapers brought us new accounts of spilled Jewish blood, which shook up the Jewish reader. In Poland, pogroms took place only in Kielce and Siedlec. In Russia and the Ukraine, much Jewish blood was spilled. The newspapers reported on a pogrom almost every day.
In those days of ‘Sturm und Drang,’ I began to read Hebrew and Russian periodicals. It was the most burgeoning time for the Hebrew Press. ‘HaTzefira,’ and ‘HaTzofeh’ appeared in Warsaw, ‘HaMelitz’ in Petersburg, and ‘HaZman’ in Vilna. Four daily Hebrew papers, and I read almost all of them.
No Yiddish periodicals reached Tomaszow in those years, despite the fact that ‘Der Moment’ was already being published in Warsaw, as well as ‘Heint.’ Later on, Yiddish periodicals also began to arrive in Tomaszow, but a genteel person of standing, who was a Torah scholar, was embarrasses to read a Yiddish periodical. They were referred to as the paper for workers and women. And when the occasion arose that a Hebrew periodical was not delivered, because the censor often intervened, closing them down for a period of time, or confiscated [the issue] for writing articles against the regime, then Russian periodicals were read, so long as one didn't have to resort to reading the ‘Zhargonisheh’ newspapers, which is what the Yiddish papers were called at the time. Many Hebrew writers were opposed in spirit to the Yiddish language, which they called ‘the tongue of the housemaid.’ A struggle over language arose at Zionist gatherings, at which a resolution was adopted: ‘Hebrew or Russian,’ meaning that either Hebrew or Russian was to be spoken.
But Yiddish too, had its advocates. It was, indeed, at that time that ‘The Czernowitz Conference’ took place, at which the great thinker, Nathan Birnbaum ז”ל, the later leader of ‘Agudat Israel,’ called together in Czernowitz, in which the greatest Jewish writers took part.
A variety of discussions took place at the Rabbi's home concerning questions of the day. After the study lesson, ‘politics’ were discussed. And when a Rabbinical Court had to be empaneled, we left the house, and we sat on the bench that was at the side of the house. Non-students also came by, who were better informed on worldly matters, and we, the idle, listened n on, and took part in the discussions. Naturally, this was done quietly, when the Rabbi was taken up with the proceedings of the Court, or just generally with an important matter.
A variety of people would come to visit the Rabbi: Rabbis, preachers, and once an ‘international emissary’ who demanded of the Rabbi that he be given permission to speak in the Bet HaMedrash. Also there were those types who were sent by Yeshivas, institutions from large cities, and it was at those times that we could become acquainted with the larger Jewish world, which was so far from the Jewish life in Tomaszow, as the distance from east to west. I remember one time, a preaching Rabbi came with a wide handsome beard and long hair, that fell over his throat, and he wore a cylindrical top hat on the Sabbath, which was news in Tomaszow. He had difficulties, until the Rabbi granted him permission to speak at the Bet HaMedrash. He called himself an ‘international emissary’ and had been sent by the ‘Odessa Committee.’ On a Sunday, between afternoon and evening prayers, he spoke in the ‘Plain Bet HaMedrash,’ (It was also a Hasidic Bet HaMedrash). He had a resonant voice, began to speak softly, but got louder and louder. It was after the
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pogrom in Gomel[1], and when he portrayed scenes from that pogrom, tears flowed in his audience. Loud crying was also heard from the women's gallery. His talk was laced with Torah quotations and the sayings of the Ancient Sages. He portrayed the ‘Russian Diaspora’ in dark terms. And afterwards, he unfolded the Zionist concept, which we heard for the first time in our town. The impact was very great. I still remember, as if it were today, how he cited passages from Ezekiel, how the prophet sees the valley with the ‘dry bones.’ He limned this image with such talent that we thought lo, we are seeing the prophet Ezekiel with his large unkempt beard, and the mound of the dead, desiccated human bones, and here, it seems that the skeletons bestir themselves, bone connecting to bone, arm to arm, and soon they come to life…
He wanted to bring out the concept that is attributed to Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever ז”ל, about the founders of Hibat Zion and Zionism, the majority of whom were free-thinking people, and this caused the observant orthodox Jews to distance themselves, and for many more to become opponents of Zionism.
One time, at a gathering, Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever spoke about the resuscitation of the dry bones. He recalled a saying of the Ancient Sages (Sanhedrin 92, b): The Gemara asks: ‘and who were these dead that Ezekiel brought back to life? These are people who have no mitzvot to their credit. These are people who forfeited their privilege at the time of the Raising of the Dead. These are the people who covered The Sanctuary with worms and vermin.’ With this saying, Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever explained to the observant folk that Ezekiel also, when he foresaw the revival of the Jewish people, knew that, initially, the first to revitalize the nation in its own land, will be people who do not perform mitzvot, and do not conduct themselves in the same manner as proper Jews.
I was so impressed with this discourse, that I could not sleep that night. I thought a great deal about this speaker, and I decided to write up this ‘event’ for a newspaper. Having said it, I set down to do it, writing and erasing, re-writing it, and sending off two short pieces to ‘HaTzefira.’ I told no one abut it, because I, myself, did not believe that the periodical would print it.
One day after another passed, a week after a week, and I had already given up, and thought, that to begin with, this didn't appeal to the editor, and he dropped it into the dust bin.
On one morning, as I opened the ‘HaTzefira’ periodical, I see my name under the title, ‘Letters from the Hinterlands,’ black on white, yes, really, I did not believe my eyes. My name under the report of the speech of the ‘international emissary.’ And what an impact that made.
I hid myself for several days, as I was afraid to go into the Trisk-Kuzmir shtibl. Two balebatim from the shtibl were subscribers of ‘HaTzefira,’ and I thought that for certain they would publicize my
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correspondence. It was for this reason I was frightened… but one, by chance, hadn't read it, and the second actually praised my writing.
A while later, I receive a letter from the Central Zionist office in Warsaw, with a request that I should take the initiative to establish a Zionist Union in Tomaszow. The letter was signed by N. S. (Nahum Sokolov). My initial reaction was that certainly, an error had been made here, because where do I, a seventeen year-old Bet-HaMedrash student, come to found a union? And how is it that the editor of a great Hebrew Newspaper comes to write to me? I read the letter again, and it is inescapable that at the top, printed in large letters it says: ‘The Office of Zionist Leadership for the Country of Poland, the Warsaw Valley, Address: N. Sokolov, Bureau, to Mr. Moshe Garzytzensky in Tomaszow.’
The letter is typed on a typewriting machine, which I saw for the first time ever, in Hebrew letters, and it looks like it is printed. And even though it is now more than fifty years later, since I received this letter, I remember as if it were today, how overwhelmed I was to read the letter, and I simply didn't know what to do, what am I supposed to reply? Should I answer? Not answer? How does it come for me, a seventeen year-old ‘shtibl-bokhur’ to have dealings with these prominent people, with a great man such as N. Sokolov? All I did was look for a place to hide…
When, today, I glance back at that time, this is already ‘history.’ And the letter, indeed, needs to go into the Zionist archive, so that it should become possible to see how Zionism began to develop in Poland. Today, Bless God, when we have been privileged already to see a State of Israel, it is sadly without a Polish Jewry: Over three million Polish Jews have been exterminated by the Nazis ימ”ש. When one reminds one's self of this, one is seized with a shudder, and a shiver courses through all limbs.
And as I write these lines, the original letters lie before me, Dated: Warsaw 13 Elul 5665 and 6 Tishri 5666 [1905]. To Mr. Garzytzensky in Tomaszow. A half century has gone by since that time, but it seems like it happened just yesterday.
I asked myself: How do they know my address? And how do they come to write to me? And what can I, a youngster do? Am I to become a community activist? – I was helpless, and didn't know what to do, and was even afraid to show anyone the letter. I thought I would be laughed at.
In the end, I decided to reply to them, and tell them the truth. That to begin with, I was just a boy, who was a student in a Bet HaMedrash. And that Tomaszow was a Hasidic shtetl, with Hasidic Shtiblakh.
At that time there were ten or more such shtiblakh and small prayer houses. Religious unions or parties simply did not exist in towns the size of Tomaszow. The Mizrahi and Agudat Yisrael were first founded only after The First World War. I wrote out my answer, indicating that Tomaszow was not the place, and there is no one here with whom to found such a union. And the Hasidim would certainly not tolerate such a thing, and similar replies of this sort. I sent off the letter, and I thought I was rid of the matter, and this caused my heart to become lighter. I also asked how it is that they came to write to me. However, in a short while, I received yet another letter, and my replies were dismissed. And the cause of all this had been my ‘correspondence’ that had been published in ‘HaTzefira.’
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In that time, when I saw my letter published in ‘HaTzefira,’ a thought occurred to me to publish a weekly periodical just for myself… My brother Joseph (ע”ה) הי”ד, who knew Hebrew very well, wrote letters to my parents frequently, and he would add something to me as well, and he encouraged me to write to him almost every week. Accordingly, I wrote him a short piece of four sides every week, and I composed it and made it look like a periodical. In the upper right, in printed letters stood ‘HaMabit.’ I gave it the name ‘HaMabit’ because this is the acronym for my name: Habokhur Moshe Ben Israel Tomaszow. And the Hebrew word ‘HaMabit’ means ‘The One Who Looks,’ and so everything that I had seen and heard I covered in ‘HaMabit.’ News from the house, news from the factory, from the Rabbi's home, etc. I still possess copies of this ‘periodical.’
There is still a living witness who say my ‘HaMabit.’ He lives in Haifa, in the State of Israel, and this is my friend, R' Zusha Kawenczuk. My ‘HaMabit’ fell into his hands under the following circumstances: One day, I bring several copies of ‘HaMabit’ into the shtibl, to show it to my critic R' Nathan Greenwald. As it happens, this R' Nathan was a wise Jewish man, a scholar, and also a reader of ‘HaTzefira.’ And even though he was in the same business as my father, and there was business competition between them, despite this, I was on good terms with him. And when I wrote a piece for which I wanted an opinion as to its quality, I showed it to hum, for him to give me insight. And whatever did not please him, I attempted to improve.
It was in this manner that one time, I brought several copies of ‘HaMabit’ into the shtibl. As it happens, R' Nathan was not there at that time, so temporarily, I placed them in my Gemara, so that I would be able to show it to him on the following day. My friend Zusha took note of this, and when I went home, he took them out of my Gemara. On the following day, when I arrived, and opened the Gemara to take out the copies of ‘HaMabit,’ they were gone… it was only returned a while later. And I became aware that this was the work of R' Zusha.
Incidentally, when my wife and I visited Israel in 5709 [1949], it was my friend R' Zusha who received us. I barely recognized him, with a handsome bearded countenance, a truly Hasidic appearance. His father, R' Shabtai Kawenczuk ז”ל, was the Gabbai of our shtibl for many years, a wise Jewish man, and apart from his businesses, he had a ‘sideline’ serving as a mediator at many Rabbinical Courts. And it was possible to rely on his mediation. He was also a loyal friend to my father ז”ל.
R' Shabtai Kawenczuk discharged his duties as a Gabbai with a firm hand. With discipline: I recall that on the Sabbath of the first portion of Genesis, immediately after worship, he gave a bang on the table, and he called out: I am announcing and notifying that everyone is to place their prayer shawl on the table, and nobody should take their prayer shawls home. And, just as he said it, he placed ‘watchmen’ at the doors of the shtibl, and everyone had to take off their prayer shawl, brought it forward, and meekly carried it over and placed it on the table. On this Sabbath, after the [concluding] ‘An'im Zemirot’ prayer, my father immediately took off his prayer shawl and was the first to place it on the table, so that everyone could see as the line says: Look at what I do, and do accordingly….
The prayer shawls became security for outstanding debts, in connection with the levies each individual had to pay to sustain the shtibl.
After Havdalah, R' Shabs'l would send the prayer shawl to my father, and on the morrow, Sunday in the morning, a note already hung on the door, enumerating the amount each individual was obligated to give, in accordance to an assessment developed by a committee.
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There was, in all years, a Cossack Regiment stationed in Tomaszow, which was a border town between Russia and Austria. Additionally, there were also ‘Watchmen’ who patrolled the border and the vicinity. The Don Cossacks would come from their homes with their horses. A ‘Cossack Steed’ was something else. And when they rode out on maneuvers from their ‘Brigade,’ on the other side of the town outskirts, in a cohort of a hundred troops, with their officers and seniors, all of them rode on horseback with their rifles and long pikes, from the market to the highway. The Regiment Commander rode first, and their music band with the large copper kettle drums and other musical instruments, all riding on the tall Cossack horses, which called forth children and adults to wonder at their might and to hear the music.
Half the town made its living off the Cossacks. There were balebatim, Jewish contractors, providers of livery services, who had contracts for the supply of all products, foodstuffs for the recruits, hay and oats for the horses. Also there were tailors and shoemakers who were ‘busy’ on their behalf.
R' Shmuel Putter, R' Shmuel Neu, and R' Benjamin Weinberg were contractors for hay and oats for many years. My brother, Fishl, ע”ה, who had the nicest and biggest foodstuffs emporium dealt with them all these years. Officers, and the Regimental Commander would come to his store often. And they were very friendly.
In this connection, it is worth noting that all of the contractors had beards, and dressed in the Jewish manner. And all the stores were closed on the Sabbath and open Sunday. The servants of the officers already knew that on Friday they had to shop early in the day.
The ‘elite’ of the Jewish community, that I knew, worshiped in our Trisk-Kuzmir shtibl. I still remember the elderly Jews, of a type one no longer encounters any more. They were committed solely to Torah and to prayer. Decency and piety emanated from them. The eldest of this group, the oldest, and most handsome of these Jews was the ‘Little Joseph.’ He was a spiritual leader. He was called ‘Little Joseph,’ because there also was a ‘Big Joseph,’ bit I did not know the latter.
‘Little Joseph’ as was known, had the appearance of Rabbi Akiva Eiger ז”ל. He wore a spodek as a hat on his head. No one dared to sit in his appointed place, or as it was called, his ‘station,’ in the shtibl. His ‘station’ for the third feast of the Sabbath was at the beginning of the side. I recall him to be the oldest among the ‘Venerable Old Jews.’ His mekhutan, R' Ben-Zion Shokhet, and was also among the really Venerable Jews. He would lead the Musaf services for one day on Rosh Hashanah. These were Jews who were scholarly sages, and who observed the tenets of the Shulkhan Arukh. A second person who led the Musaf prayer during Rosh Hashanah, was R' Mott'leh Greenwald, a merchant, a handsome one of the balebatim, and musically gifted. R' Moti the Gabbai was also an attractive type of individual, an elderly Jewish man, who prayed every morning in his phylacteries and prayer shawl from early morning on until after the noon hour. Apart from ‘Khok[2]’, Psalms, and other studies that are part of the prayer service, he would also study the Tanakh and Mishna while standing by the table. Among the prominent balebatim were: R' Nahum Neu, R' Netanel
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Ratzimer, R' Heschel Schlagbaum, R' Eli' Drimmler, R' Fishl Garzytzensky, R' Nathan Greenwald, R' Sheps'l Kawenczuk, R' Shmuel Meldung, and others from among the younger prominent Jewish men: R' Kalman Ehrlich, R' Yaakov Schlagbaum, R' Yerakhmiel Mermelstein, R' Lipa Honigsfeld, and others. These were Jews who were learned scholars, merchants, and knowledgeable in Torah, an impressive gallery along the eastern wall.
The tables and benches in our shtibl were configured like the letter Khet [sic: A rectangle with only three sides, open on the fourth side] on both sides of the Holy Ark, and on the north and south walls. Between afternoon and evening prayers, there was a recess of one hour on a daily basis. The host would be seated around the tables with open texts of the Gemara under large electric lights. And anyone who did not occupy a place in a timely fashion, could not find a seat at the table. There was also a ‘second place’ in the shtibl, a large baking oven, where matzos were baked on the Eve of Passover. an entirely different sort of inspiration was manifested by us, the young men, each year, several days before Passover, to make all the preparations to clean out the oven, and to get all the implements ready for baking the matzos on Passover Eve. It is difficult to describe the ardor and the commitment we gave to doing this: at the time the matzos were being baked, we would recite the Halle prayer, and verses from the Psalms; every participant had a right to receive a few matzos that were baked on Passover Eve.
There were no Yeshivas in Tomaszow: there were no Yeshivas throughout Poland in the same way as was the case in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Yeshivas garnered a reputation throughout the entire Jewish world. However, in Poland, it was the shtiblakh of each rabbinic dynasty that existed for advanced study, such as [the study of] Gemara with the Tosafot. In Galicia, such an institution was called a ‘kloyz.’ Every refined Jew, whether one of the balebatim, a Hasid, lived out his life in his shtibl. I spent the best part of my youth in our shtibl, the Trisk-Kuzmir shtibl. There was no set curriculum as to what to learn, and when. One learned what one wanted to. There was also no overseer, or director. everyone did what they thought was the right thing. The rules of the shtibl – the Hasidim would say – were in the first section of the Shulkhan Arukh, Orakh Chaim: Yehuda ben Tema says: ‘Be strong as a leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and powerful as a lion.’ No matter how early I would arrive at the shtibl, I always found Jews already seated, one with a book of Psalms, another with a Gemara, another with the Mishna. Whether winter or summer, before dawn, or late at night, whether with a teacher, or with an older young man. When I went out from under the teacher, I studied with my older friend, Ephraim Faygl'eh's, he was a dedicated student, with worldly aspirations. The young men were of various ages, and each learned what they wanted to, as the Sages say: ‘A person will always be capable of learning that to which his heart is drawn’ (Avodah Zarah, 19). The young men who studied in the shtibl were not disciplined, as was the case in either a Yeshiva or in a Heder, the conducted themselves in a free manner, setting their own timetables for study.
Despite the fact that in the shtiblakh there was not a set curriculum, with a lesson from a Head Master, with oversight from a ‘Spiritual Director,’ as was the case in the Lithuanian Yeshivas, but only through self-study, nevertheless, profound sages and scholars, even Gaonim, came out of the shtiblakh. Foremost in the larger cities, such as Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, Radom, etc. young men were found who were scholars that developed into great Rabbis. By and large, the Jews of the shtibl were studious people, genteel folk, some more so, others less, but almost all were people who were acquainted with the Book, i.e. the Pentateuch with Rashi commentaries, a chapter of the Mishna, or the Shulkhan Arukh, with which almost all were conversant. In this regard, they were all in the ambit of being ‘God-fearing.’ It was enough to say of an individual that he worshiped in the Hasidic shtibl: that being tantamount to saying he was a true Jewish person. Foremost, when one entered the shtibl, one had a sense that one was in the company of scholars, because everyone sat with
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either a book, or with a Gemara. One would occasionally see a father sitting and learning with a son. All were looking into books written in Hebrew.
Every Sabbath toward dusk, a Melaveh-Malka was arranged for the very inspired Hasidim, from the leftovers that had remained from the Sabbath foodstuffs that had been provided for these occasions. Many times, a hot borscht with potatoes was cooked in addition, not to say anything if there was coincidentally a Yahrzeit of a Rebbe. On those occasions, a ‘L'Chaim’ was also drunk… the observance for the Maggid of Trisk ז”ל was celebrated with great spirit. My older brothers, Yeshaya and Joseph played on musical instruments, and at the highly inspired Melaveh Malka, they would play Hasidic melodies and also ‘marches.’
The western walls of the Shtiblakh were covered with shelves. Layers of books from above to below, books without end. The complete Talmud Shas, the works of the Rambam, Questions & Responsas, copies of the Shulkhan Arukh, and Hasidic books, books of the God-fearing. Large thick volumes, smaller, and smaller books, without end. In our shtibl, we also had a ‘Tikkun Sefarim.’ One of the young men would go around every Friday with a collection box, to solicit funds for buying new books and rebinding old books. We also had among us ‘silk-stocking young folk’ young people living under subsidy [sic: by in-laws] who sat and studied for almost an entire day: some for the sheer sake of study, and others with a goal in mind… Such a ‘silk stocking young man’ created respect and dignity for his in-laws. They studied so long as their father-in-law provided the subsidy, and then he went on to become a merchant or a ‘wood turner,’…. many gave priority to their study, and went on to become true scholars, ‘Grandiose Jews.’
But, in 1918, when I visited the town of my birth, after my departure for the four years of the War, I didn't recognize it: many neighborhoods of the town had been burned down. There was no trace of the ‘Cossacks.’ All the wooden houses had been burned down. All that was left were the [sic: stone] walls, the stone and brick houses, and many of these were wrecked. People wandered about like shadows, the businesses empty, without any customers, no merchandise. Wen I entered the business premises of my brother Fishl, I didn't recognize it… The shelves almost bare, the joy was absent, the life was absent, and this was also the case in all the other places of business. Tomaszow had become a small, bare town. Also, the Trisk-Kuzmir shtibl was gone. Everything had gone up in smoke. On the Sabbath, the Trisk-Kuzmir Hasidim worshiped at the home of R' Anshel Brand. Many of the people about whom I inquired, my friends, were not there: Many had remained in Russia, many had been killed in the war. The Trisk-Kuzmir Hasidim organized themselves to rebuild the shtibl. Also, our house and factory had been burned down, all that was left was the front wall. Export to Galicia had stopped, and it was no longer a border town. The Rabbi was no longer alive. I did not recognize the Rebbetzin, she was as a widow…. a beautiful scholarly-modern house had been destroyed. With whomever I spoke, I got only groans and sighs: how does one rebuild a home. ‘If I were only Rothschild – I thought to myself – then I could do a lot’… Regrettably, I traveled away from Tomaszow back to Vienna, where we lived during the time of The First World War, with enough money to barely be able to buy a ticket home….
Now, after The Second World War, my town of Tomaszow has again been emptied of its Jews. There no longer are any Jews in Tomaszow. They shared in the fate of the three and one-half million Polish Jews who were exterminated by the cruel and murderous German nation, with the assistance of Polish anti-Semites,
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may their names be erased, and my God avenge their blood.
Earth, earth, do not cover up their blood!
A. H.,[1] Wroclaw
The snow has melted,
Hey you! Look and delight
Soon the sun will shine!
It arouses one from sleep,
And as day begins to barely break,
B
With a nose like a shofar,
He recites his Psalms,
Yaak'leh-Rofeh comes up,
‘And when you cover yourself up
On the parade on the Third of May,
With an insignia that shines in the distance,
An how high he raises his feet,
After his death – the wag quips |
Translator's footnote
by Joseph Moskop
Tomaszow Lubelski was a town like many others with a mixed population, that consisted of Jews and non-Jews. The former constituted the majority in the town. Among the latter were Poles and Russians, or Ukrainians. I say ‘or’ because they [sic: both] spoke Russian and were of the Orthodox faith. But the latter were considered to be Ukrainians by the Ukrainian National Movement. In the latter years under the Polish regime, they practically vanished off the surface of the earth.
In the city, the Jews occupied the center, and the streets around the center. The Polish populace [occupied] – the outer streets and byways.
Over the course of several centuries, Jewish life took hold in the town, with its various religious, social and cultural institutions. There was a very attractive synagogue, houses of study and houses of worship, there was a cemetery, a Hevra Kadisha with a large number of other community-active institutions, which through their work, gave an expression to the religious and Hasidic way of life, up to The First World War.
Up to The First World War, Tomaszow found itself at the southern border of Russian-ruled Poland. Close to, but outside the town, the toll house could be found, where the Russian border officials inspected the papers and baggage of everyone riding through. A few kilometers to the south was already the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As a border town, apart from the 15th Cossack Division, there was also a division of the border patrol, the so-called ‘Obieshchikehs.’ It was not rare to encounter a drunken Cossack terrorizing the people with his drawn sword. However, no serious incidents ever came from this.
These two military divisions, help a bit to provide a living for the Jews. Apart from these, a number of Jewish providers of various products became wealthy from this. Among these providers, or as they were called, ‘contractors,’ were R' Shmuel Putter, R' Leibusz Barg, R' Fishl Garzytzensky, R' Shmuel Neu, R' Benjamin Weinberg, etc.
Up to The First World War, Tomaszow was situated far from a railroad station. The closest one was in Rejowiec, approximately 90 km away. The means of communication consisted of horse and wagon: light passenger wagons, such as coaches, and at the latest, an omnibus traveled only as far as Zamość, which is 35 km to the north, on the highway that leads to Warsaw. All other roads, that led in other various directions, were rough, not paved with either stones or bricks, and they were referred to as ‘Polish Roads.’ In the fall, as also in the beginning of spring, when snow fell, it was very difficult to travel on these Polish Roads. Mud puddles were deep and sticky at that time, and the horses would pull the wagons laden with goods only with great difficulty. And because communication was so difficult, very few people made trips of any substantial distance, and that is why it used to be said that Tomaszow was located in a backwater, a God-forsaken corner of the world.
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Jewish life proceeded normally along the ways that had been laid down by their ancestors, fifties of years earlier. There were Hasidic Jews who worshiped in their Hasidic shtiblakh, and also unlettered Jews, most of them manual laborers, who worshiped in the ‘simple’ Bet HaMedrash, or in the synagogue. The former took the primary place in public life, having an opinion in public affairs, such as in: hiring a Rabbi, a Shokhet, etc. Frequently disputes would break out all over among one group of Hasidim and another in these matters. Such a dispute broke out close to the beginning of the War, regarding the hiring of a Shokhet. The Hasidim of Radzyn proposed a candidate from one of their own, and the others did not want to permit a Shokhet in the city that wore fringes, one of which was dyed in the traditional blue. This dispute took on some very sharp forms.
Apart from periods when such a dispute occurred, life went on placidly on a daily basis. Jews would awake quite early to go pray, one, getting up really early to rush off to a rural village to buy something there from a peasant before his competitor, also a Jew, would not beat him there, another to the workplace of tailors or shoemakers, and then those who first needed to go to the Mikva, and after worship, take in a page of the Gemara, and afterwards open up his place of business. All of this had already become quite routine, and was not remarkable. With the dawn of every day, the Shammes would walk through the town, banging on the shutters to call people to ‘Serve their Creator.’ His usual practice was to knock three times with his wooden cane, the first two together, and the third time, separately, after a pause of some seconds. If however, someone passed away in town, the Shammes would only rap twice. Then all the Jewish men and women would anxiously ask one another: ‘Who came to life this night?’[1]
The places of business opened a bit at a time. Also, the ladies who sat in the marketplace would begin to carry out their stands with greens, fruits, and also dairy products. For several hours each morning, there were also several stands with fresh war baked flat breads and fat bagels. Children on their way to Heder, would buy a flat bread for a two-coin piece, and a small piece of cheese for a groschen, to take with them. For the entire week, the wagons of the peasants would rarely be seen in the marketplace, and the storekeepers would stand in their stores, conversing with one another. Thursday was the market day, or as it was called ‘Der Yarid.’ Peasants from the entire vicinity would then come to town to sell their produce, and livestock, such as cattle, horses, pigs, fowl, eggs, etc., and afterwards buy everything that they needed for their own use. At that time, all the stores were overflowing with customers. In the evenings, the saloons were all full of peasant drinkers.
On Friday, before sunset, the Shammes would circulate and bang out ‘Come to Synagogue,’ at the time of candle-lighting. Jews would hurriedly close up their stores, rushing to their Sabbath preparations. The marketplace becomes empty, and from the various houses of worship, the long, drawn out melodies of the prayers welcoming the Sabbath waft forth. Girls, with their hair freshly braided and in their Sabbath finery go out for a short stroll, until the people go of to pray. After the Friday evening repast, the Kiri Highway becomes crowded with young people going out for a stroll. Jews sit at home or go to the shtibl to review the portion of the week, twice in Hebrew, and once in the Aramaic Targum Onkelos. These same – Hasidic young men, often sit well into the night, telling the tales and miracles of Good Jews. It happens, on one occasion, that the Rebbe comes as a guest for the Sabbath, and at that occasion the town feels itself to be especially festive. On Friday evening, the Rebbe worships in the Synagogue with all his Hasidim. After worship, large masses of other Hasidim arrive to seek the Rebbe's blessing. After eating, the populace goes
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to the Rebbe's Tisch, at who's head the Rebbe sits, with his Hasidim, and those close to him surrounding him, in a full and packed shtibl of the entire town. The Gabbai distributes food tasted by the Rebbe. A person with a good voice sings melodies, and the audience derives pleasure from this. Before the blessing after the meal, the Rebbe delivers a Torah homily in a very soft voice. An enthusiastic dance by the Hasidim ends the ‘Tisch,’ and the last of the Jews escort the Rebbe home. A Tisch of this sort is also conducted by the Rebbe on the Sabbath after noon, or at the Third Feast.
The education of children was a strictly religious one. After the birth of a male child, a group of elementary school children, directed by Belfers (i.e. assistants) come to the mother in confinement, every evening, up to the Brit, who read the Shema prayer, and the first Torah portion and the sentence ‘The Angel Who Redeems Me…’[2] Each of the children receives a sweet, and on the final time, a little piece of honey cake. At the age of three, if the child is a boy, he is taken for the first time to Heder, wrapped in a prayer shawl, where the Rebbe, the assistant and the remaining children in the Heder, are given some food. There are Heders for: 1. The beginners, learning the alphabet up to beginning the study of the Pentateuch. 2. Translation from the Pentateuch with Rashi commentaries. 3. For the older boys, up to Gemara with Tosafot. For the 4-5 year olds, the Belfer comes to their home, helps with getting them dressed, and recites the first prayer, Modeh Ani, along with the child, and takes them to Heder. With girls, he recites the morning prayer for girls. Older children go to Heder by themselves. The Heder is in the home of the Melamed, the children sit crowded around a long table. The Rebbe (Melamed) sits up front with a switch in his hand, enforcing strict discipline. For even the slightest wandering of the eye, from the Pentateuch or the Gemara, one receives a whack with the switch. It was enough that a child would give an innocent smile in the middle of study, and the stern glances of the teacher would fall on the child, whose attention was wandering along with a question: Shim'eleh, where are we up to?! And woe betide Shim'eleh if he didn't know the place. Often, the Rebbe tests the children on Thursday on the material they had learned during the week, and the children are indeed apprehensive about Thursdays. Children regarded Heder as a bleak fate, and they wished that they would get sick, in order to avoid going to Heder. The complaints of the Rebbetzins to their Rebbes did not have a good impact on the children. Since she considered her husband a luckless incompetent, not earing enough to make a living, ‘Proper men make a decent living, and bring all good things into the home, and this is worth nothing.’ The Rebbe would take his anger out on his pupils. Going home from Heder, we play with buttons and sticks, etc., and it happens that the Rebbetzin sees this one time, and tells this to the Rebbe, and no one is spared from punishment. In the winter, when the mud freezes over, or snow falls, the children of one Heder carry out ‘fights’ with the children of other Heders.
A number of years before The First World War, an yeshiva, for boys between the ages of ten and thirteen, opens in Tomaszow. It is divided into three grades. Even though the studies were the same as those in the Heder, the yeshiva brings in many important changes. In place of the crowded living room of the Melamed, the children learn in the long annex, the first grade with R' Nathan Melamed ע”ה, in the Women's sanctuary – the second grade with R' Benjamin Tepler and a smaller group of older boys – in the Tailor's Little Synagogue, with R' Moshe David ע”ה. On every Sabbath, the classes are tested by town balebatim who are educated. After the test, a note is put into a metal box, prepared for this purpose, that has the student's name on it, with a mark, in which Aleph meant ‘weak,’ Bet meant ‘middling’ and Gimel meant ‘good.’ Those who involved themselves in the Yeshiva were: R' Mendl Leubort, R' Mikhl Yuda Pflug הי”ד, et. al. After the outbreak of the War, the Yeshiva ceased to exist.
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After completing Heder at 13-14 years of age, one went on to study in one of the Hasidic Shtiblakh, and one is then counted as a ‘young man’ of the shtibl. Girls would only attend the elementary level of Heder, in order to master Hebrew, that they be able to pray. There were also Jewish teachers who taught the children to write Yiddish, learning from a letter-writer, and a bit of Hebrew. Such individuals included R' Yaakov Scherer ע”ה known as ‘Yaakov Lehrer,’ and R' Joel Handelsman (Joel Badkhan), et. al.
The Jewish settlement stood on a rather low economic level. Apart from several rich families, there were also many wage earners. but there was also no lack of families who had no means to make a living, with a rather significant number who could not afford to permit themselves a bit of meat to eat in the middle of the week, excepting for the Sabbath.
The town subsisted almost entirely off of the rural vicinity, that is, off of the surrounding peasantry. Jews had stores with a variety of goods, some were larger, some were smaller. There were stores, or business establishments for manufacture, leather, shoes, glass products, peasant clothing, many food stores, tea and solid foods, saloons, soda water and sweets, and a row of others. Factories were made from small wooden boards, used by pharmacies. Such establishments were run by R' Israel Garzytzensky ע”ה, R' Yaakov Putter, R' Nathan Greenwald and R' Yekhezkiel Reisenfeld הי”ד. There was a factory for cigarette boxes. The owner was R' Shabtai Friedlander הי”ד and several soda factories belonging to: Zlata Laneil ע”ה, R' ‘Itcheh'leh fun Beidl,’ R' Shakhna Lerner and Shmuel Schwartz (Shmuel Leib'leh's). There was also a factory for swine bristles belonging to R' Getzel Lehrer and Jonah Singer. Two brush factories, one belonging to R' Leibusz Greenbaum, and [the other] to R' Yehoshua Eilin הי”ד.
There were also Jews who derived their sustenance directly from the rural areas, by traveling through the villages, buying up small quantities of grain, flax. barnyard fowl, etc. from the peasants, carrying it back to their home on their own backs, and then first selling it off to merchants operating on a larger scale. There were bigger grain merchants who bought up the smaller lots, and sent them off to the larger cities, or they ground it up and sold the flour to flour merchants. Also, the larger egg merchants would send larger transports of eggs out of the country.
As a border town, there were also Jews in Tomaszow who moved merchandise across the border illegally. They were called ‘Black [marketeers].’ There were also those who illegally smuggled immigrants across the border from foreign places, for whom it was difficult to obtain a governmental pass into their city. A small, insignificant number lived solely off the Jews, such as clergy, which included 3 Rabbis and 3 Shokhets, those who served as a Shammes, one Cantor, and a group of ten or so teachers, two scribes, and several booksellers, from whom one could buy prayer books, bible texts, prayer shawls, phylacteries, and also children's story books in Yiddish.
In a hygienic sense, the city found itself in a very low level. Apart from the stone road that cut through from the Kiri to the Zamość highways, all the other streets, including the marketplace, were unpaved and muddy. The sidewalks of boards was broken in many places, and were totally absent in the hind streets. Not everyone wore whole shoes, and wet socks had to be dried in the kitchens, where food was cooked. The larger part of the townsfolk lived in cramped quarters, families of 8-10 souls often living in one room in which cleanliness cannot be observed in any manner whatsoever. The municipal (Jewish) baths was heated only on Fridays, and in that case, only for men.
Clothing was, in general, traditional-Hasidic. Men usually wear small linen caps, on the Sabbath, Hasidim wear velvet ones. Without exception, all the women wear wigs, most of them cutting off their hair immediately on the second day after the wedding ceremony.
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Generally, the Jews live tranquilly, feeling close to one another. Should, God forbid, a misfortune strike someone, all feel that it is their misfortune. The same is true of joyous occasions. Weddings are celebrated by large numbers of participants, often for the entire night, until daybreak. Everyone fells as if it was their own personal festivity. If it happens that people or families quarrel because of making a living, or over an inheritance, when Yom Kippur Eve arrives, one forgives the other, and wish each other a Happy New Year. Should a Jewish person, God forbid, fail in business, having failed in his enterprises, ways are sought, as far as possible, to help him get back on his feet. The very poor are provided for, making sure , by their neighbors, that they should have fish and meat for the Sabbath. If it occurs that there is a poor young girl for whom it is difficult to arrange a marriage, it becomes a burden to everyone separately and a Jewish daughter is not permitted, God forbid, to remain a spinster.
More or less, this is the way things looked in the sacred congregation of Tomaszow-Lubliner until the year 1914.
On the first Sabbath after the outbreak of the War, in August 1914, in the morning, when Jews were engaged in the midst of their Sabbath repast, a tumult arose in town. Shmuel Putter permitted his team of horses to be hitched, and rode off, and if Shmuel Putter leaves the city on the Sabbath, it is the best sign that the city is in danger. Almost the entire city grabbed those packages, that can be carried, and sets out on the Zamość road. Wagon drivers lay their packages and bedding on their wagons, and set out on the road. As they proceed, they take on children and old people, to the extent they have room, on their wagons. Consequently, only a very small number of residents remain behind in the city. The following Wednesday, the city is taken over by the Austrian military. A fire then breaks out on the Kiri Highway, in which the entire street is carried off by the flames. A little at a time, the residents that fled begin to return to stores and their homes. After three weeks of occupation, the Austrians leave the city. Several days before their departure, they levy an assessment of a large sum of money on the city populace, arresting the Director of the Faith of the city, R' Joseph Leibusz, R' Israel Garzytzensky and R' Shimon Kossowsky as hostages. Being pursued by the Russians, they show themselves willing to take in only a part of the set sum, and they abandon the city, first freeing the hostages. The Russian forces push even further ahead, capturing areas in Galicia. Life again normalizes itself, as the battlefront moves away. Businesses are again open, the peasants come again for the market fair days. Illegal commerce begins in the trafficking of goods to the occupied cities of Galicia.
Children, once again, go to Heder; the mood, however, is tense. War… day in and day out, military cohorts march through the city on their way to the battlefront. and hordes of wounded are transported from the front, women who have their sons or husbands in military service walk about with worried faces, and a sense of insecurity weighs on everyone's spirit. Once again, Jews go the Kabbalat Shabbat prayer on Friday evening, but the tones are not the same. Instead of the elevated sense of spirit, a sense of moodiness is elicited. Lecha Dodi is not sung, and the entire prayer ritual is executed as if by rote, and in this manner, the entire Sabbath loses a great deal of its sacred character. Jews live with an inner fear of the unknown. Here and there, they hear stories from ‘Mediums’ who have prophesied about the swift end of the war. The ‘Table Medium’ becomes quite popular. Anyone who had a table made entirely of wood with no metal, such as a nail, and the like, sits about ten men around the table, with their palms on the top of the table, holding this position for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, they lift up their hands a little higher off the table, and pose questions to the table, such as ‘How much?’ The table levitates onto two legs, and lets itself down with a bang, and the number of bangs is the answer to the question. Jews were very curious to know how many more weeks the war would last, and the tables indeed answered. The trouble was, that among the tables themselves, there was
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no agreement, when one would answer 6 weeks, a second said 8, and the third even 16. The ‘Table Medium’ at that time was the town hero; but this incensed the participants even more. Having no choice, the leading tables were put aside, and the matter of peace was turned over into the hand of fate, hoping that peace would not ask that we wait for it for too long a time.
In the summer months of 1915, the Germans took over the Austrian front, and break through the Russian lines. The retreat of the Russian armies begins. A little at a time, the fighting draws closer to Tomaszow, and a shudder runs through everyone's skin, in considering the dangers that are connected to it. Many Jewish families abandon the city at that time, heading in the direction of going deeper into Russia, in order to distance themselves from the killing fields. On the last night, a great deal of robbery takes place, by the retreating Russian military, [who assault] the defenseless Jewish populace. With the dawn of 16 Tammuz 5675 [June 28, 1915], the shelling of the city by German military commences. Jews live through quite a lot under the shelling. They group themselves together in the houses with stone and concrete walls, for protection. The Synagogue becomes packed with Jewish families, who respond to each report of a cannon with a shout of ‘Shema Yisrael.’ Isolated Cossacks come into these shelter locations and demand money or jewelry from the assembled, frightened Jews. A grenade breaks through into the women's synagogue, and a 20 year-old girl loses a foot as a result of this, and her young life comes to an end eight days later, after intense suffering.
At about 4 in the afternoon, the arriving German military is spotted, and then, first, we breathe easier.
The pulse of municipal economic activity comes to a halt under the German military rule. Stores remain closed, and the peasants don't come into town at all. The Germans take away their produce, and also horses. An illegal trade starts for every type of item. Jews go to the village to buy grain from the peasants, or other produce to be eaten. but if a German spots a Jew carrying something of this nature, he confiscates it. A cholera epidemic breaks out, which claims many victims, and with each passing day, the toll of the dead keeps rising. The Bikur Kholim Society works tirelessly to help those stricken by the disease, but it is rare that any of them is fortunate enough to remain alive. At that time, the Jews of Tomaszow make use of a special ritual, namely: one pairs together a poor groom and a poor bride, an orphan, and the city underwrites their wedding. The wedding takes place in the Hasidic Bet HaMedrash, and from there, the entire community escorts the groom and bride to stand under the canopy which is erected in the cemetery. And noteworthy enough, several days later…. the epidemic ceases.
A civil administration is created under the military administration of the city, in which Jews take an important part. R' Yehoshua'leh Fishelsohn הי”ד, becomes the burgomaster, and the municipal militia is made up mostly of Jews. This is explained by first noting that the majority of the city population was Jewish, and second, the Jews, by virtue of their facility with Yiddish, find it easier to understand the Germans.
After another interval of time, the military administration passes from the Germans to the Austrians. At that time, many easements were introduced to [daily] life, despite the fact that flour and bread were distributed through the use of standards set by ration cards, it is possible to obtain almost all things. People obtain passes for travel to Lemberg without difficulties, and with the small train constructed by the Germans, both young and old travel to the Belzec rail station, from where they travel to Lemberg with the train, conveying merchandise back and forth. The commerce is not legal, but is almost entirely unimpeded. A variety of concessions are granted to the Jews such as: trafficking (tobacco trade) and the principal commerce is obtained by R' Abraham Yitzhak Blonder ע”ה, who becomes rich from it. He thanks the Master of the Universe by sponsoring the writing of a Torah scroll. He escorts the Torah to the Hasidic Bet HaMedrash
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with an intensely joyous parade with music; he also orders a large feast, to which the officials of the kingdom in the town are invited. R' Benjamin Weinberg ע”ה obtains a flour concession, With regard to a variety of other products – R' Israel Lehrman in partnership with his brother-in-law R' Hertz Feldsehn ע”ה. All of the recipients of these concessions become wealthy from this.
Under Austrian hegemony, the entire configuration of the Jewish community undergoes a transformation. Jews have open doors to all the governmental and municipal officials. Overall, they are received in a friendly manner. Jews stop thinking of themselves as second-class citizens. Their national sense of identity is awakened, and takes on an animated form. A Zionist organization is established in Tomaszow. The first speaker they invite, is R; Chaim Gottlieb from Zamość, who speaks to a large audience in the ‘Simple’ Bet HaMedrash. Jews gape, as an Austrian military officer, stands at the door of the Bet HaMedrash, to protect order. A library of Hebrew and Yiddish books is opened. Jewish theater is performed. When has Tomaszow ever seen such? True, the pious Jews manifest a sharp disapproval of these things, but the young people don't want to know anything about it. In many homes, the domestic tranquility between parents and children comes under sharp assault. Young people begin to dress in the European style, exchanging the small Hasidic caps for full-sized hats. In certain Hasidic shtiblakh, this comes to an outbreak of scandals, in which the prayer service is abruptly halted on the appearance of a person wearing such a hat. Parties are established one after another. ‘Mizrahi’ a religious-Zionist organization is established, but it elicits a sharp opposition from the Hasidim, who argue that the ‘Mizrahi’ will ultimately lead the youth off in more free and liberal directions. A progressive Heder is opened, where children are taught in Hebrew. ‘Poalei Zion,’ ‘Tze'irei Zion’, ‘HaShomer HaTza'ir’ are established, as well as ‘HeHalutz,’ which sends young boys and girls off to do agricultural work, to prepare themselves for Aliyah to Israel. The Bund also arrives, which has an anti-Zionist position. Almost all of the young people of the town who rally to these parties, throwing themselves with all of the ardor of their young souls into partisan activities, and not knowing how or from where, the town finds itself in the middle of an inter-partisan cauldron. Disputes with Hasidim vanish, their place taken by heated discussions between the adherents of the various parties. A Rebbe rarely comes as a guest, in contrast with partisan orators who come, literally, every Monday and Thursday, which takes place, apart from the party premises for the members, also in a public hall, and not infrequently in the Bet HaMedrash, at which time one gets ready for a community ‘wedding.’ The members of the speaker's party feel like they are ‘members of a wedding,’ who need to protect [the interests of] the ‘groom,’ to assure that , God forbid, no consternation befall him –to be frequently interrupted, and to eject sharp-tongued opponents It was in this manner that the imprint of Hasidism, that lay on the Jewish settlement for several generations, was leached out and made pale, with the prime place taken over by an inter-partisan ideological struggle, which reigns in the public life of the town. True, each Sabbath, the houses of worship are full of worshipers, and also in the middle of the week Jews attend to prayer, as also do the young, but it has the appearance of an old habit, a natural thing.
It is the year 1918. The War is not yet over, but the intense support for the War is practically done for. As an occupied territory, Tomaszow was not subjected to any draft into military service. Jews accommodated themselves to the new circumstances, and a bit at a time, acclimatized themselves to the Austrian regime. A broad, multi-branched illegal commerce developed, principally with Lemberg. The general situation regarding making a living was without a doubt higher than it was in the pre-War era. As a result, Jews began to take cognizance of the fact that the education of their children had in large measure been neglected. an initiative was then undertaken to establish an elementary school Yeshiva. Among the activists were R' Mikhl Yuda Pflug הי”ד, R' Abraham Yekhezkiel Biederman ע”ה R' Itcheh Meir Gartler, R' Lipa Honigsfeld ע”ה R' Eliezer Gershon Teicher הי”ד R' Sholom Reis הי”ד and others. Immediately after Passover, the Yeshiva opened with two grades. R' Simcha ‘The Melamed of Komarow’ taught the younger grade, in the annex, which was in a long side room on the premises of the ‘Simple’ Bet HaMedrash, which was the
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place of worship for a large number of the less-educated Jews, most of whom were craftsmen. R' Nathan Melamed ע”ה taught the second grade in the women's sanctuary of the ‘Simple’ Bet HaMedrash.
In recollecting Nathan Melamed, it is worth noting that this very R' Nathan ע”ה was a wonder of a Melamed. Himself born in Jozefów, a scion of a working-class family, he married Moshe Fishl's daughter in Tomaszow. He was outstanding in his pedagogical skills, which almost had no peer in the surrounding area. H never struck a child, and nevertheless, the children feared his stare, just as they loved him. Himself an accomplished scholar, he had an awesome capacity for explaining things to children. The town, however, did not have the privilege of retaining him as an educator for a long time. A chronic lung ailment shortened his young life. The town accorded him a final honor with a formidable funeral, when he was escorted to his eternal rest. His funeral came out on the second day of Passover, and of note, on this same festival day, was the funeral of the great scholar, R' Hirsch'eleh Moshe Eli's (Gelernter) ז”ל, and these very two funerals cast a pall over festival sun, which, with all its might, tried to raise the downcast spirits of the Jews of Tomaszow, with its substantive springtime rays.
More than 100 students attended the two grades of the Yeshiva, and the activists began to prepare themselves for the expansion of the Yeshiva, however a tragedy took place that summer, namely: a fire broke out in the middle of the night, and burned down the larger part of the town, together with the Schul. The Yeshiva no longer was opened.
Fall 1918. Austrian soldiers drag themselves along, singly and in groups, banded together, undisciplined, and beaten as if after a battle they have lost, in the direction of the south. They sell off their coats, and other military effects, to lighten their way home. Organized groups of Polish youth stand on the Kiri Highway, taking away the horses and ammunition from the disorganized troops of the disintegrated Austrian army. A Polish civil militia is formed, and Tomaszow becomes part of the liberated independent Poland. A great deal of trouble for Jews is connected with the arrival of the Polish regime, Dormant Polish anti-Semitism is awakened, and races insanely through cities and towns, striking the sensitivities, possessions and sometimes also the lives of Jewish citizens. Jews, from their perspective, see this as nothing more than a natural phenomenon, with which one must make one's peace through submission. Jews feel wronged and insulted, they protest and demand justice, which is expressed in the strongest terms by the Jewish Deputy Yitzhak Greenbaum of the Sejm. A new era of Jewish life is initiated in Poland, in which a generation proceeds with a self-awareness of their Jewish national identity while under threat. A generation that is very focused on every injustice that comes from the anti-Semitic character, reacting with an aggressive decisiveness, like never before. It can be confidently stated, that from this generation, came the fighters for and the builders of, the modern State of Israel. How is this period play out with us in Tomaszow?
Because of a lack of clarity concerning a series of events that took place at that time in our place, during that history-making epoch, I must leave this interesting chapter to those who remember it with greater exactitude and are therefore called to do so.
I would, however, not discharge my obligation, if I did not cite the following episode for which, I myself was an eye witness. In those times, a host of young Polish recruits appeared marching in columns along the highway, in the direction of the Kiri Highway. Jews shut down their places of business, and Jews also fled off the streets, in order to avoid beatings from the Polish recruits that were drawing nigh. In the marketplace close to the highway, diagonally across from the Koscielna Gasse three Jews stood carrying on a
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conversation, and in the fleeing, two of them had also fled, but the third, and that was R' Jekuthiel Fogel ע”ה, then already an older man, was left standing on the spot. The recruits, spotting such a ‘bargain,’ approached the Jew, but he, R' Jekuthiel was not afraid of them, and with his stick, laid out two young hooligans before they even showed any signs of accosting him. And even then, our heroic Jew did not flee. Then the entire host fell upon him and beat him. A patrol of the civil militia rescued him from their hands, and led him, bloodied, into the home of Shmuel Reizl'eh's. R' Jekuthiel went about for a long time with his head bandaged, and had the sympathy of all the Jews of Tomaszow. May his memory be for a blessing.
Translator's footnotes
by Rae Fust
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Old and young, from the poorest of the city, worked in the box factories, beginning with little girls, eight years old, up to married men.
The work began with the sawing and splitting of blocks of wood, after which slats were cut. The ‘children’ were only girls. All the yung boys, without exception went to Heder.
Work commenced very early, and they worked until nine o'clock at night.
For gathering and sorting out the slats, a starting child received 50 kopecks a week.
Older girls became glue appliers. they received a ruble a week.
Those who hammered together the bases earned two rubles a week. The packers were paid by the speed of their packing. One hundred boxes were packed in a single bundle.
Family people were paid four, and even five, rubles a week. Grown boys, who no longer attended Heder, received two rubles a week.
Older boys earned three rubles a week, depending on their job. (Etta'leh Greenwald was her father's secretary, and it was through her that I found out how much each type of individual earned).
There were three box factories in Tomaszow.
The closest box factory to our house was R' Nathan's/ In the city, he was called: ‘Noss'eleh Mott'leh Fultsheh's.’ His mother was called: ‘Shayndl'eh Mott'leh Fultsheh's.’ Among the merchants and tradespeople, he was already called by his last name also: Nathan Greenwald.
R' Nathan's factory was on the Krasnobrod Gasse, not far from the Praga. Since many poor people lived in the Praga, their little children went to
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work in R' Noss'eleh's factory. He, R' Nathan was a ‘modern’ Jew already, he knew Hebrew very well, and wrote to HaTzefira.
As to his wife Mal'tcheh'leh, who was called Mal'tcheh Noss'eleh's, she wore a shytl, just like all the other Tomaszow women of that time. She often helped her husband out with the factory work. Her help consisted of always being occupied with the leasing of enough attic space among the neighbors to dry out the slats, from w2hich the boxes were made.
R' Yisroel'eh the Rov's who also had a box factory in the marketplace on the covered walkway, was called ‘Srolyeh dem Rov's.’ He also dealt in eggs (hortowna) and he was Noss'eleh's closest competitor.
Poor girls from the Praga, when they were seven years old, would ask one another: – Where will you go to work, to Noss'eleh's or ‘Srolyeh dem Rov's?’
The third factory was located on the Kiri Highway (the Lemberg Gasse). The factory belonged to Pesach Putter. Pesach Putter also became a competitor of Nathan's, because Nathan Greenwald had already had his factory for 25 years when the other two factories opened for business, first ‘Srolyeh dem Rov's’, and afterwards Pesach Putter.
When these three box factories were located in a city like Tomaszow, many workers were attracted by the work in these factories. Many girls were seen with their nails stuck together from glue, that they used to put together the boxes. The glue was produced by the factories themselves.
Each factory had a large yard, or a barn or base made of wood. In passing through the factory, one could hear the sounds of sawing and cutting, carving and chopping.
Strong men worked to produce the slats from the blocks of wood. In the production areas of the factory, machines stood, with which the slats were cut in accordance with a set length, bases were cut, with each base in a number and set size. Special cutting tools were also employed to cut the slats.
The boxes were used in the pharmacies.
Entire wagons filled with packages of boxes were conveyed to Ryowiec to the train, and from there to Warsaw, to Kiev, and to wherever they were needed.
The factories produced boxed up to the outbreak of The First World War. Because of the War, the factories closed. R' Nathan Greenwald, who had the oldest box factory in Tomaszow had eight children: six daughters and two sons, who together with a servant girl, made up eleven people [in that household].
In order to feed the family, he also began to deal in gasoline and salt, because his father, Mott'leh Fultsheh's has a cellar in the marketplace for the sale of gasoline. The Greenwalds were known as gasoline merchants. So R' Nathan Greenwald, the former box factory owner, received a concession from the municipal governance to enable him to deal in gasoline and salt. Tomaszow, at that time, was occupied by the Germans, and Austrian military were posted in the town.
When Hitler came to power, the first box manufacturer, Nathan Greenwald, his wife Mal'tcheh, his daughter Sarah'leh and her husband Yeshaya Lehrer and their two children, were killed along with millions of other Jews. Additionally, also their daughter Liebeh'leh with her husband Nathan Szparer.
Honor their memory.
by Rachil Fust-Lehrer
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It was before the First World War, and our factory for processing swine bristles had already been separated from our dwelling.
Outside there was an intense frost. The residents of the Tomaszow Praga closed their shutters early, in order to conserve a bit of warmth.
It was dark outside. Through the cracks in the shutters, a dull glow leaked out, which illuminated a forbidding and frozen earth and a bit of pavement.
It was still. Only from my father's swine bristle factory, did a melody emerge:
‘The wheels turn,
And the machines clack,
The manufacture of swine bristles goes on.
One's head gets busted,
The eyes darken,
Darkened by tears and sweat.’
The song was carried on the stillness of the night and resonated like a prayer:
‘Stop already, you worker,
To shed tears,
You make a stain on the work.
Soon the overseer will come in, angry,
And will whip you away from your work.’
A cold wind began to blow, tearing the shutters from the windows. The melody sorrowfully accompanied the wind:
‘The worker's life,
Is an embittered life,
He never has any rest,
He cannot straighten his back during the day,
And he cannot sleep peacefully at night.’
Aunt Tema with Uncle Jonah Singer, and their family lived opposite us. The windows of our swine bristle factory looked over the factory of Uncle Jonah, from which my father had separated. So the workers picked up the melody and sang it in the production areas.
But the singing of my father's workers in the swine bristle factory carried with more force.
Not far from us, a valley led to the lake where a guards used to live. The path led to the street to the brigade
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building. where the Cossacks were billeted. Passing by our house, they heard the singing of the factory workers often, and picked up the melody.
Young Heder students, with lanterns in their hands, well wrapped in colorful scarves around their necks, would often stop, and take in the words of the songs.
In the neighboring Belz shtibl (where my father worshiped), young teachers sat, and swayed back and forth in front of open Gemara texts, and their tunes would become mixed with the melody of the worker's songs.
The workers worked and sang, no knowing who was the recipient of their songs.
The song was sung differently in each factory, matching their own words to the melody.
My father's factory was lit by small naphtha lamps. The lamps hung over the production areas. At each workstation, there was a worker and a lamp.
The spreaders, who straighten out, sort and lay out the bristles into small batches, stood by their workstations and straightened out the bristles. Their hands were wet and red. The skin on their fingers was soaked like those of a laundress.
The combers stood by their machines which had large combs on them, with long metal teeth, and combed the batches of bristles. Each comber held a bundle of bristles in both hands, standing bent over the comb. They would move their limbs faster and faster, speedier and speedier the bristles ran through the large iron teeth of the comb.
Bandaged fingers, stabbed by the teeth, moved quickly in pain, in order that the swine bristles be made smooth and straight.
The binders would gather the bundles together in round packs, and tired them tightly together with fastening cord.
So the combers combed, the straighteners straightened, and the binders bound the bristles to the sound of the singing.
The air in the factory was filled with the strong smell of the bristles, which were being dried in the oven.
I, a small girl, sat across from the fire from the factory kitchen, and listened to the singing.
My cheeks grew red, and my eyes shimmered from tears that were held back.
– Rekha'leh (Rachel'eh), come inside, it is already time to go to bed! – my mother's voice could be heard saying.
My eyes were sticking closed, but it seemed like a shame to leave the factory.
– Don't you hear your mother calling you?! – my father asked.
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So I picked myself up from the floor, and said in a dissatisfied manner:
– I'm going already, father! and I leave the factory.
The ‘electric lamp’ was lit in our house, and near the kitchen stood a kneading station, and a trough to bake Challah for the Sabbath.
It was Thursday night. My mother, Chaya Nekha (whom in Tomaszow was called: Chaya Getzel Pinia's) was occupied with squeezing raisin wine through a linen napkin in honor of the Sabbath. Her apron was stained, and in the house while she worked, she wore a white head covering on her shaven head fastened with a tie (when she went out of the house, as well as in respect of the Sabbath and Festivals, she would wear a wig).
It was still in the house. My older brother, Chaim Joseph, who had studied for a short time with the Rabbi of Belz, was already back in Tomaszow, and studied until late with the Rabbi, R' Nachman on the Krasnobrod Gasse. My younger little brother, Moshe, was already asleep in a alcove of my father's bed. My sleeping place was already made up, but I didn't want to go to sleep.
I went up to my mother and asked:
– Mama, who made up the song that the workers sing?– What song?
– The song with ‘The wheels turn and the machinery clangs.’
– What do you mean who? Who writes all of the songs? My mother answered me with a question, herself not knowing the name of the composer.
– Mama, something is not right with the song!
– Not right? Why?
– The workers sang it and Father laughed.
– Well, what did you want, that he should cry?
– No, not that. I mean why did they sing the song on our premises?
– Why not? – My mother answered.
– Father is not a mean master. Why then must they sing that by us – I asked sorrowfully.
– Go, little fool, they weren't referring to your father, which is why he laughed. He knew they were not referring to him.
I still was not satisfied with the answer, and I asked again:
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– At our swine bristle factory, no wheels turn, and machines do not clang, so why do they sing such a song?
My mother's smooth brow became furrowed, she sighed and said:
– To tell the truth. I, myself, do not know who wrote this song. I only know, that when it is sung in your father's factory, they say: ‘The swine bristle factory is running,’ and when it is sung in the box factory, they say: ‘The box factory is running,’ but it seems to be most suitable to the tailors. There, wheels do, in fact, turn, and machinery clangs. Accordingly, it is sung in the sewing factories of all cities and towns, because the workers love the song. The workers change it, and insert words that fit their places of work – so my mother said, scrutinizing the raisin wine in the carafe.– But Mama, they don't mean my father, I continued to ask.
No, not your father. After all, he works right along with the workers and treats them better than other balebatim – my mother answered with pride.
It fell silent in the factory.
The workers went home tired. Only Moshe Janower, and Leib'l, remained, because they lived and ate with us.
Apart from serving the family, my mother also served the workers.
by M. Zeldin
In comparison with the brutality of the Nazi destruction, after the bloody extermination of the Six Million Jews by the Brown Beast, many of the decrees and slaughters of prior times seem rather pale. To those belong the pogroms carried out by the bands [under the command] of Bulak-Balakhovich in Polish cities at the time of the establishment of the new Poland, after The First World War, which was resurrected from the dead.
It was a time when the new state struggled for its stabilization. In the motherland, the ten existing provinces of Crown Poland and the genuine Polish areas – the Posen area and Western Galicia, the condition of the regime was sort of semi-stable from the standpoint of state sovereignty. It was clear, that this was Poland. The new state had a difficult way to go in the eastern areas, called ‘Kressyn.’ In that time, a new array of nation states were taking shape, who were supported by a variety of factors, and there were very many elements with claims on this territory. On one side, the Bolsheviks held that they were the legal heirs to this land, which had belonged to Russia, and on the other side, other pretenders appeared – Ukrainians and a variety of other ‘Batkas,’ anti-Bolshevik Czarist officers, who put together ‘armies,’ and carried on in these areas, which in specific times were under anarchy and chaos.
A rather prominent place among these bands and military groups was occupied by the army of the prominent general, Bulak-Balakhovich. This former Czarist general was not a Pole: he was just involved in the battle for Poland. He pretended to become the ruler of Polesia in White Russia, and parts of Wolhynia, if the Bolsheviks were defeated. The territory over which this general projected his control indeed stretched from Kovel'-Wolhynia to the Pinsk marshes and encompassed parts of the Chelm-Zamość areas.
His army consisted of former Czarist White Guards, together with all sorts of Ukrainian-White Russian elements, among them some really lowlife personalities, who saw, in their ‘military’ careers a way to enrich themselves through plunder and murder. For such elements, such an ‘army’ was the best place to be in such chaotic times.
The activity of this army, first and foremost, manifested itself in assault and robbery of Jewish cities and towns. It was referred to, not as a fight against the Jews, bit against ‘Bolsheviks,’ – and do appreciate that this meant the ‘Zyds.’ Plunder, murder, rape, arson, these were the daily practice of these bands. We say bands, in the plural, because apart from this general Bulak-Balakhovich, there were others of this kind.
In the months of August-September 1920, the Bulak-Balakhovich army preyed in the Chelm-Zamość area. In total, as a result of the activities of this band, tens of cities and towns were subject to pogroms. Among them, also was Tomaszow-Lubelski, through this pogrom.
In one ‘march’ of this army, which began on August 8, 1920 in the village of Werbkowice, and later through Hrubieszow, Tyszowce, Komarow, Krasnobrod, Laszczow, Tutszow, they entered Tomaszow. This ‘army’ was in Tomaszow on two occasions. The first time on August 25-26, a patrol entered here, and later, on August 30 and 31, a military detachment arrived. Both incursions were bloody – plunder, rape and destruction.
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At that time, Dr. Yitzhak Szyfer[1] sat in the Polish Sejm at as a Deputy, elected from this region. He came down to this area and carried out a very exacting investigation and probe. On the basis of this investigation, he Jewish caucus of the Sejm , in November 1920 introduced a suitable interpolation to the Polish parliament (Sejm). All the details of destruction in the entire area was preserved in the documents and bulletins of the Jewish faction in the Sejm. We excerpt only those portions that have a relationship to Tomaszow.
Every datum, every detail, every name, is today history, despite the fact that this did not happen very long ago. Especially now, when all the residents have been wiped out: the living witnesses have been exterminated, together with the other evidence of that time, and it is important for the history of this community that nothing should be lost. So, indeed, we bring here, the documents about Tomaszow, as they were and stand. For a variety of reasons, certain names appear only as initials.
All the documents represent eye-witness testimony, which were taken by Dr. Y. Szyfer, verified by him, and entered into the parliament-interpolation.
Document Number 1Letter from the Tomaszow Magistrate to the Commander of Military Unit Number 3.
We advise the commandant, that this evening (August 26, 1920) a detachment of the second division of the Don Cossacks from the Volchansk Division carried out a pogrom against the residents of R\Tomaszow as follows:
M. Z. was raped, and an attempt was made to rape A. L. Apart from this, they carried out actions of plunder amounting to a sum of approximately 300,000 marks. To the extent that is now known, robbery was carried out in the houses of Yitzhak Lieberman, Eliyahu Kreitzer, Yaakov Lederkremmer, Aharon Faldberg, Aharon Feldsehn, Leib'eh Waldberg, Mordechai Gelernter, David Zafern, and many others, who have not yet been audited.
Burgomaster: Krzyzanowski
Secretary Dornfeld
The eye witness account of Shia Fishelsohn, municipal representative in Tomaszow, 33 years of age, and of Chaim Horn, municipal representative, 31 years of age, who declare:
On Wednesday the 25th, or Thursday the 26h of August, a detachment of the Balakhovists passed thhrough our city, which consisted of one officer and approximately 20 soldiers. They stopped over night. They
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immediately went to the Rabbi and demanded a 10,000 mark contribution and two half barrels of spirits. The Rabbi called together the Jewish councilmen and people of means, who assembled the amount referred to, which was turned over to the officer of the Balakhovich detachment by the community councilmen: Benjamin Weinberg, Mendl Reichenberg, and the Rabbi. The officer counted out the money, and remarked in Russian with a smile, ‘Velikolepno!’ (Outstanding!): ‘By tomorrow morning, you must add an additional 10,000 marks.’ When Weinberg asked, in our presence, ‘Why are you subjecting us to a levy?’ the officer replied: ‘You Jews receive the Bolsheviks all around, and that is why I wish to speak with you again in the morning, so that you have a memento, that Russian might had been here.’ In 2-3 hours later, at about 11 o'clock at night, the referred to 20 soldiers began to engage in plunder of the Jewish residences. They robbed the houses and stores of Yaakov Lederkremmer, Ely'eh Kreitzer, Yitzhak Lieberman, Aharon Feldsehn, Leib Waldberg, Mordechai Gelernter, David Zafern, and in general, the entire Jewish neighborhood. The Jews, who live in the outer neighborhoods where there is a Christian majority, were spared. the damages inflicted are estimated at approximately one million marks. Up to eight Jewish women and girls were physically accosted. There were also several incidents of Jews that were beaten. The robbery and rapes lasted until five o'clock in the morning.
On Wednesday, August 26, the local doctor, Zawadzki went off (intervened) to the commandant of the Balakhovich detachment; he found him completely drunk, among overturned bottles. On the same day before noon, this detachment left Tomaszow.
In the course of three days, the town was without any authority in place.
On Monday, August 30, between 600-700 Balakhovists entered the city. They came through the city and set off in the direction of Jezorno (4 km past Tomaszow). During this march through, about 60 men broke off and immediately began to plunder, asking for Jewish domiciles. Corporal Sikorski, from the police in Losinko, took part in this detachment. He pointed out the Jewish houses to the robbers (especially the houses of Chaim Putter, Yaakov Lederkremmer, Israel Lehrman, Leib Schwartzberg, Abraham Blonder) and also personally participated in the plundering. They plundered this way for four hours and afterwards went off in the direction of Jezorno. At night, approximately between 4-5PM, I Shia Fishelsohn, and Josef Gozdek, a shoemaker from Tomaszow (we were both on guard duty at the behest of the municipal militia) encountered Sikorski with six Cossacks on the Lemberg Gasse. Sikorski was standing near Leib Schwartzberg's house beside a wagon loaded with goods, and the Cossacks still persisted in breaking into Jewish homes. They continued to plunder this way for about two hours, when I, Fishelsohn, approached Sikorski with a reproach that he has complicity in the plundering, and he made an effort to come up with an alibi, saying that he will spare my house: He ordered Gozdek to leave immediately, and if not, he will shoot him on the spot.
On Tuesday August 31, before noon, a group of Balakhovists came into the city of about 150 men with an officer at their head. They stationed themselves in various sides of the city as if they were patrolling, and approximately an hour later they took to plunder. My intervention with the officers helped not at all.
The plunder lasted until 5PM. At about 1PM three officers assaulted the residence of the Rabbi, Yerakhmiel Weinberg and demanded a levy of one-half million marks from him as a tribute, threatening him with death. It happens that I, Fishelsohn, entered the Rabbi's house and was present at this scene. I then approached one of the officers, and explained to him that the Rabbi was a poor man, and has no such influence to be able to gather such a sum of money. I presented myself as someone to undertake this task. the officers let the Rabbi go, and went out with me to collect the money from the Jews. We went off to the Lemberg Gasse, and along
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the way, I attempted to negotiate with them, that they should satisfy themselves with 20,000 marks, because the city was severely damaged. I received blows from a nagaika[2] as my reply, and struck with a sword, so that I fell powerless. I have just now been able to get myself into the pharmacy, where I was refreshed.
In the end, the Jews managed to get together and turn over 17,000 marks. The plundering continued for all of Tuesday, and the damages reached several millions. In the process, several tens of Jews were beaten severely and lightly. Up to 50 Jewish women were raped at that time, among them F. L…who was, at the time only 3-4 weeks after childbirth confinement. She was raped by six Cossacks and currently lays sick. Also, N. F. was raped, who also was only several weeks after childbirth. There were several instances of rape against girls that were younger than 15 years of age, and women over the age of 60.
On Tuesday evening, the Polish military arrived, and the city became quiet from that time onwards.
S. Fishelsohn ; Ch. Horn.
Eye Witness Account of Ely'eh Kreitzer, Feldscher, Age 71.
On the night of the 25th and the 26th of August 1920, 10-12 Balakhovists entered my residence and robbed my premises. I was dressed in the European fashion, and I therefore explained to them that I was a Christian, but they did not take that into account. They took away 600 marks, clothing, a silver watch and 8 meters of material. They took to my daughter, who lay ill, and tore off her earrings, and rings, and in the end wanted to rape my younger daughter, whom they had dragged into the kitchen. When I began to shout, they put a revolver to my head. hey dragged my daughter out to the field, but a Polish gendarme came upon them and drove the pogromshchiks away.
Eliyahu Kreitzer
Eye Witness Account of Yaakov Lederkremmer, Age 38, Wine Merchant.
On the night of the 25th to the 26th (of August 1920), a detachment of Balakhovists surrounded my house and wine business. They broke in, and stole about 1,600 marks from the safe, and broke up the furnishings, broke open the door to the wine cellar and carried out a variety of drink stuff worth 150,000 marks. During this plunder, they beat my wife, who, nevertheless, was able to flee from the house. She ran to the officer who was in charge of this detachment, who was at the residence of the tax collector Fanasewicz, where he sat at the table, on which were set out bottles of the stolen wine. She pleaded for his assistance. However, he threatened her with a court martial and death by firing squad. In the end, he turned her over to his orderly, whom he ordered to accompany my wife to my wine store and take a bottle of wine. When my wife found herself in the wine cellar with the orderly, he wanted to rape her. He drew his sword on her. However, she seized the sword, thereby wounding herself, but frustrated the attack of the pogromshchik, and fled from the cellar, the Balakhovists robbed my residence a second time on the night of the 30th and 31st of the same month.
Yaakov Lederkremmer
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Eye Witness Account of Hirsch Bleicher, 52 Years old, Merchant.
On the night of the 30th on the 31st of August (1920) 5 Balakhovists dropped into my home, dragged my two daughters, Sima (22 years old) and Chana-Rivka (19 years old), out to the attic, in order to rape them. They severely wounded my wife with a blow from a sword to the head. I was severely beaten with rifle butts on my back. They robbed goods from my house in the amount of several thousand marks.
Hirsch Bleicher
Eye Witness Account of David Zafern, 45 Years Old, supported by his Children.
On 11 Elul [corresponds to August 25 in 1920] several Balakhovists dropped into my home. They robbed all the value from my pockets: 300 marks and 180 crowns. They robbed 3,000 marks from my son Joseph, while threatening to shoot him. finally, they accosted my daughter, Liebeh-Mindl. When I came to her defense, they threatened me with a revolver. When my son Joseph came to protect his sister, they beat him with rifle butts. In the end, one of them grabbed me by the throat, and put a revolver to my eyes, and the second dragged my daughter away in a second room and raped her there.
These same two broke into my house a second time, and threatened to shoot me, but they ran off quickly.
David Zafern
Addendum of Liebeh-Mindl Zafern, age 18, daughter of David Zafern: I have heard what my father has told: I confirm what he has related.
Document Number 7Eye Witness Account of Shia-Shimon Putter, Age 50, Owner of a Saloon.
On the night of the 25th to the 26th of August (1920) several Balakhovists broke into my home, who beat me and took away 900 marks and 10 dollars.
On the following morning, I communicated this event in a report to two gendarmes who could be found in the local central hotel, together with Dr. Zawadski. At that time, I recognized the two Balakhovists, who robbed and beat me. The gendarmes presented these tow to me. Whether these guilty parties were punished or not, I do not know.
Shia-Shimon Putter
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Eye Witness Account of Joseph Sznycer, Age 29, Merchant.
Five Balakhovists dropped into my home on the 30th of August, took away 150 marks from my brother-in-law Yaakov Winder, and Jekuthiel Vogel, who was in my house, under the threat of being killed by the sword, which they placed against his throat, took 40 marks – he had no more. On the following morning, yet again, 8 Balakhovists with two officers at their head, dropped into my house, and shook out all the belongings, furniture and clothing. They took away the clothing, laundry and loaded it into a wagon that they had brought with them.
Joseph Sznycer
Eye Witness Account of Dvora Stempel, Age 20, living with her parents.
On August 30th the Balakhovists robbed the home of my parents. They took away goods worth 2,000 marks, 1,000 marks cash; and jewelry worth in the neighborhood of 3,400 marks. They also knocked out the windows of the dwelling.
Dvora Stempel
Eye Witness Account of Chana-Sarah Lichtman, Age 35, a trades woman.
On Tuesday the 31st of August, before dawn, Balakhovists robbed my place of business. They took away all of the merchandise that was worth 7,000 marks. My neighbor, Esther Haut, informed me the police corporal Sikorski directed the plunder. She related this to the local military commandant in Tomaszow, Muszczynski.
Chana Lichtman
Eye Witness Account of Aharon Feldsehn, Age 62, Merchant.
Soldiers from Balakhovich's army carried out robberies in my house two times. The first time they took 1,825 marks from me, silverware, and other things. The second time clothing and underwear.
On August 30th, about fifteen Balakhovists broke into the home of my son-in-law, Israel Lehrman, who were led by the police corporal Sikorski, and demanded 100,000 marks. They permitted him to leave the house, in order to get the money, but held his wife and children as hostages. In the end, he brought 5,000 marks, but this sum did not satisfy them, so they plundered the premises, and beat the family in a terrifying manner. My seven-year-old grandson jumped from the window out of terror, and broke a leg. Two Jewish servants at my son-in-law's were raped.
Israel Lehrman, Age 38, son-in-law of Aharon Feldsehn, confirms everything.
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Eye Witness Account of Tsanel[3] Putter, aged 37.
One of the Balakhovists ripped the jewelry off of my wife, Sala. My wife, at that time, was hiding in a Christian home, and a Cossack that entered the house noticed how my wife went pale, and so he called out: ‘Ty Zydowka!’ and then pulled off her jewelry worth about 30,000 marks. The Christians, present in the house, were untouched.
Ts. Putter
Up to this point we have conveyed the incidents of the pogrom in Tomaszow proper. Among the materials of the Sejm, are also found, however, information and eye witness accounts of Tomaszow residents who provided information about the surrounding settlements.
The prior documents have a relationship to the Balakhovist pogroms in Tomaszow. At the outset, we have already taken note that this ‘army’ of bandits was active in the entire vicinity. Among the communities that suffered, they found, among others, the communities of Laszczow and Komarow. In the same archive, apart from the materials associated with the banditry plunder, murders, and rapes by the Balakhovists, we also find documents of fraternal assistance, that Jews rendered to one another in that troubled time. Two letters were preserved, one from the Laszczow community, and the second from Komarow. These letters, to the
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Tomaszow community, are important period documents that illustrate, notwithstanding that Tomaszow was one of the settlements that suffered, the settlement rendered support to the neighboring smaller communities. We convey these letters as they were written. We translate it from the Polish text, which is contained in these Sejm bulletins, which were translated [themselves] from Hebrew.
To the Generous-hearted Jewish populace in Tomaszow.
We received the bread salt and candles that you sent, and we respond with ‘God will repay you,’ despite the fact that the proffered assistance was literally but a drop in the ocean, in light of the greater need that reigns among us. In the course of three days, (the bandits) murdered, spilled innocent blood, robbed, raped women, and one of them actually died. May her death be an expiation for our Jewish settlement. Up to 60 men have been lightly and severely wounded. Up to 100 girls and women raped; the entire worth of the shtetl: cash on hand, jewelry, outerwear, underwear, and things of this nature, were plundered. The plight of the populace is tragic. The majority are hungry, begging for bread, which we do not have. Because we fear to show ourselves outside of the city, we have no opportunity to solicit assistance from distant places. We, therefore, are sending you a plea: take pity on us; collect donations from the residents of your city and if it is possible, request help form Zamość, because the communication link with Zamość is broken.
We ask that your assistance arrive no later than Sunday, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, in order that Jews may have bread for the holiday.
We are keeping our letter brief because of the terribly straitened circumstances which reign here, in connection with the recent events.
To the very prominent Rabbi, Rabbi Yerakhmiel Weinberg, his helpers and the entire Jewish populace of Tomaszow.
You most certainly already know about the frightening pogrom, plundering, murdering, that took place here (in Komarow) on the 14th and also the 21st of Elul [August 28, and September 4, in 1920]. Fifteen men were killed; a large number were wounded and almost the entire Jewish populace was robbed. In the plain sense of the word, they have nothing with which to cover themselves. Widows and orphans have been left without the means to sustain themselves. To make matters worse, this misfortune had to occur on the eve of the High Holy Days, a time when more resources were needed to cover outlays. The expense is unconscionable, and it is not possible to talk about earnings. A panic has seized us to the point that we are afraid to show ourselves in the streets, or outside the city. Apart from this, our greatest difficulty is with primary products.
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In view of the fact that you and your brethren are in the nearest area close to us, we implore of you to send us aid, however more quickly, and also send emissaries to the surrounding neighboring communities regarding help, because we are unable to do this, because ‘someone imprisoned cannot free themselves from prison by their own hand.’ To our sorrow, we must confirm that to this day, nobody had noticed our misfortune. I am compelled to approach you, to arouse the awareness in your hearts; the compassion for us; believe us dear brothers, that those who were not here during these events, will indeed be unable to imagine the extent of our misfortune. Everything that Jeremiah expressed in his ‘Lamentations’ has come to pass with us…
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Permit us to add, in conclusion, that this bloody epoch of Bulak-Balakhovich pogroms, plunder and murder, received no recording in our historiography. There is an extensive literature about the pogroms of that time in Ukraine, in Galicia (Lemberg and its vicinity), about the events in Pinsk, but about these acts of predation, the Jewish chronology is silent. And this march of plunder and murder encompassed hundreds of cities and towns.
It is also known that in the decade of the twenties, two young men from Ratno, Aharon-Yaakov Ginsberg, and Neta Royzkes began to assemble materials about these events. And so, they were arrested by the Polish authorities and the assembled material, a very rich compendium of information, documents, lists, eye witness accounts, and the like, were confiscated.
Translator's footnotes
A prominent historian, one of the leaders of Poalei Tzion (right wing), he was murdered by the Nazis in Majdanek. (See verso side of second smut sheet). Return
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