[Page XXI]

Dedicated to the sanctified memory of my parents, my son, and any other relatives, may they rest in peace.

My parents, Ya'acov and Pertche Shpritzer, belonged to one of the few rich Jewish families in Mosty. They owned a large iron and building material concern and were the chief suppliers for the estate owners in the district and the municipality. My parents were so honest and reliable in all their dealings that their customers, mainly Christians, trusted them implicitly.

Though my father was very busy with his affairs, he always found time to work for the common good. He was spokesman for the Jewish merchants to the taxation department and worked devotedly to further their interests, a difficult task in the anti–Semetic environment of Poland. He had been elected to the Town Council and there too he defended Jewish interests in the never–ending struggle with the non-Jewish councilmen.

My father's proud Jewishness is illuminated by the following episode: One Saturday morning, a representative of the Central Police School in Mosty came to our home, wanting to buy certain building material. My father categorically refused to give it to him on the grounds that Jewish religious law prohibited business dealings on the Sabbath. The representative's urgent requests and even threats to cut off business relations with us did not move my father. The police school later apologized and renewed its contracts with our place of business.

My parents were always ready to help any need Jew,

[Page XXII]

but secretly and discreetly. They would come to the aid of any Mosty Jew as soon as they realized he needed help. In addition, they contributed generously to all the community projects and funds, such as building the synagogue, the beit midrash, and other undertakings. I shall never forget how my mother used to send me to the poor and ill with parcels of food, telling me, “See to it that no one notices what you are bringing them.”' This is the kind of honorable Jewish life style that prevailed in our home till the great Holocaust.

At the outbreak of the war, I was living in Lemberg (Lwow) with my husband, Avraham–Dolek Weiler, and our son, Shmuel (Sever). The Germans bombarded Lemberg heavily on the first day of hostilities, and many Jews were killed including Mostyites who happened to be in the city at the time. We immediately left for Mosty to join my parents, but out of fear we hid a while in a village near Mosty. When we reached Mosty several days later the town had already been occupied by the Germans. They took a number of Jews as hostages, among them my father, but soon freed them, naturally upon payment of large ransom. Soon after, the Germans left Mosty and were replaced by the Russians. The “liberating” Russians wasted no time in nationalizing “private property” and my family was one of the first victims. Like all the others whose property was nationalized, they had to leave Mosty and go at least 100 miles away from the border. But this edict could also be rescinded upon payment of a large bribe. Rumors went around that all the former property owners were going to be sent to Siberia. To save me from such a fate, my parents decided that I should go back to Lemberg.

At the beginning of the winter of 1940, I returned to Lemberg, together with my husband and my son Sever, who was five years old at the time. There we remained, managing somehow, until the Germans attacked the U.S.S.R. They occupied Lemberg almost immediately and on the very same day a frightful pogrom took place. Ukrainians from the entire district flocked

[Page XXIII]

to Lemberg and murdered Jews with axes, scythes and knives, in the most brutal fashion. The news of the Lemberg pogrom soon reached Mosty and my father sent a Christian friend of his to find out how we had fared. The Pole, a man named Gal, told me how the Mosty synagogue had been burnt down with tens of Jews inside. We had to leave our home in Lemberg and move to a tiny room in the ghetto. There we suffered through the pains and woes, together with all the Jews of Lemberg.

In April 1942, the great mass “action” took place in Lemberg. Whoever escaped being shot on the spot was transported to the Belzitz extermination camp. I survived the gruesome “action” by a miracle and decided to get to Mosty somehow. I bribed a Jewish truck driver who used to drive to Mosty accompanied by and S.S.man. After great effort, we arrived in Mosty, but lived in constant fear because we were not registered there. After paying a bribe, I began laboring in the work camp that was under the command of Major Krupa, who dealt humanely with the Jews. We only breathed freely for a short while, and then Major Krupa was replaced by Commander Schultz. Our conditions changed radically then. The men were separated from the rest of us and taken off to work in Zawonie, where they were systematically done away with. Murders were carried out in the ghetto daily and groups transported to the Yanowski camp.

In February 1943, the so-called “women's action” took place. One day, when all the working women gathered for the roll–call to go off to work, the S.S. men and their Ukrainian helpers, under the direction of the arch–murderer, Hildebrand, ringed the roll–call area. Many of the women understood that their end was near. Since we had nothing with which to defend ourselves, we started to run away. The murderers shot the fleeing women, many of whom died on the spot. The remainder were forcibly taken away to the Borowa woods and there liquidated. Some of the women were buried, not quite dead, in the mass grave. The

[Page XXIV]

earth heaved up from the death convulsions and the blood spurted up from the top-most layer of the murdered victims.

I was close to the ghetto so I managed to return to my house which possessed a cellar. When I got there, the cellar was

Passages on the trial of the murderer Hildebrand in which Mosty residents were witnesses.

already full of people who had managed to escape from the slaughter. My son, my cousin and I hid ourselves in a corner near the wall, covering ourselves with pieces of iron. The S.S. men made a search and soon found the Jews hiding in the cellar. I saw one of the murderers coming close to where I was hidden, but fate decided that I would survive and at that very moment someone called him away.

The next day, the frost let up. The melting snow, mixed with clotted blood flooded all the streets and roads with Jewish blood. After every big “action” the Nazis were in the habit of making a short break in the killings in order to fool the survivors. But the murders soon began again. This time, the elderly people and children were sent to Zolkiew and there exterminated. The younger people fit for work were later transported to Potolicze, and from there to Kamionka–Woloska. Together with a group of Jews, I worked there in the railroad yard until the Potolicze camp was liquidated.

Hearing the rumors that the liquidation was to take place, we ran away to the woods, hoping to reach Socal because we heard rumors that that town was to be designated a “Jewish town.” On the way, we were caught by the Ukrainian police who gave my husband a good beating. At police headquarters, we saw a grave being dug for us. But before taking us out to be shot, the police commander sat down to write out a report. Upon hearing that we were Ya'acov Shrpitzer's children, he announced, “I will not kill Shpritzer's children. He always helped our people with everything. He treated the peasants who owed him money very mercifully.” The commander gave us bread and milk and said, “Run away, and don't tell anyone that I freed you.”

We came to the Wierczorki woods and hid there. We had nothing to eat so at night we would steal out to the fields to see if the peasants had left anything behind, perhaps a bit of stale bread or a potato. We got a little food from the peasant

[Page XXVI]

Seventh Day Adventists and thus we struggled along, in hunger and in cold, until the Germans found us and sent us off to the Yanowski camp. Luckily, this happened at a time when the Germans were hoping to receive a truck from the Allies in exchange for every live Jew, so they didn't kill us. We toiled at hard labor and meanwhile the Red Army was approaching.

One day the Germans assembled us, ready to kill us. Just in the nick of time, a new order arrived. We were packed into freight cars and sent off to Przemysl, where we dug trenches. A few days later we arrived at the Plashow camp that was indescribably horrible. Some of us were detailed to buying the dead. Next we were sent to Auschwitz and there a “selection” was made – part of us, including my son Sever were sent to the gas chambers at once and the rest were assigned to barracks and put to hard labor. We suffered from hunger and even more from diarrhea because the water supply was contaminated. My brother Hershel's wife, Surche, together with their son Meir died just before the liberation and the same fate befell my parents.

In December 1944, we were sent off to work in an ammunition factory in Saxony. We worked hard 12 hours a day, hungry and thirsty. When the Allies started to bomb the factory more heavily and with greater frequency, the Germans used to lock us in so that we would be killed there.

In the last days before the liberation, we were once again loaded into crowded freight cars and sent off, shut up in them for 7–8 days without food or water. When we emerged, half–dead, in Czechoslovakia and saw the verdant gardens and the fruit trees in full bloom, we couldn't believe that such blossoming and fresh new life could possibly exist in such a murderous, barbaric world. A few days later, we arrived in Thereisenstadt where we were fed and given medical care. On the 5^th of May, we were freed by the Russians.

After the war, I returned to Mosty. I weighed 30 kilograms. As I stood in the market place, trying to sell a dress I had retrieved

[Page XXVII]

From a peasant, an acquaintance of mine, another peasant, came to me and said, “So this is what is left of your father's great wealth? Don't worry, things will improve.”

We moved to Silesia later and lived in Bytom for a while. By a miracle my husband and I had both survived. In 1949, we came to Israel and put down new roots in the country.

I was born in Zolkiew. My father, Hanoch Singer, was the son of Rabbi Hirsch Harak, a dayan (religious judge) in Mosty. His wife, Hindl, was also the daughter of a Mosty rabbi.

My entire family was killed in Zoliew and Ludmir, except for my sister Bailci, the wife of Zvi Steger. They lived in Mosty and were killed there.

When the Germans started the liquidation of the Jews in Zoliew, my husband and I ran off to my sister in Mosty with the hope of working in the forced labor camp. Since I was a grandchild of Rabbi Hirsch Harak of Mosty and since my sister lived there too, I used to visit the town often and maintained close ties with the young people of Mosty in the years before the war.

I passed the bitter years of the Holocaust with the Jews of Mosty. With them I went through all the terrible persecutions, and there I found a refuge and by a miracle managed to stay alive. This is why I feel such a deep need to describe the mournful events that overtook the sanctified community commemorated in the Memorial Book of Mosty–Wielkie.

Soon after Mosty was occupied, the Germans established a forced labor camp in the town. It was run by Major Krupa who behaved with kindness towards the Jews. It was because of

[Page XXVIII]

Him that many Jews from nearby towns and villages sought refuge in Mosty. The S.S. people resented Major Krupa's humane treatment of the Jews and managed to get him removed from his command. After Krupa's departure, the situation of the Jews changed drastically. The S.S. murderers started to carry out their devilish plan – to physically annihilate the Jewish population.

The first victims were the aged and the children who were taken away to Belzitz and there gassed to death. Then the S.S. spread a false rumor that the town of Jarczow–Nowy had been officially declared a Jewish city. The Jews who voluntarily moved to that town would be able to live and work there until the end of the war. Many Jews went off to Jarczow, among them Levi Steger and his wife. Within two weeks, all those who went had been exterminated.

The S.S. murderers didn't rest from their deeds. Soon afterwards, they carried out the so-called “women's action”. When all the working women gathered at the square for the roll-call to go to work, the S.S. men and their Ukrainian helpers, under the leadership of their commanding officer Hildebrand, surrounded the area and took the women by force to a place called Bagna or Babka, where they were all killed. In the course of the death march, the more than 1,000 women sang “Hatikvah”. On the same day, many men were killed as well. My brother–in–law, Zvi Steger, was shot and killed while crossing the bridge that divides the town in two. His brother, Moshe, was wounded by a bullet and left for dead, but managed to escape; his wound later healed.

Other people killed in the “action” included Sobele Wexler, the beautiful fiancée of Karol Katz, who served as a policeman for the Judenrath. For some unknown reason, probably because he had no suspicion of what awaited the women at the roll–call, he took her out of her hiding place and she perished with all the other women assembled there.

After this horrible slaughter, Obersturmfuhrer Schultz was named camp commander. He picked himself several Jewish helpers.

[Page XXIX]

The handful of Jews remaining worked at the hardest tasks and lived in the illusion that there would be no further “actions”.

After the second “action” in Zolkiew, I came to Mosty and with the help of my sister Bailci, I began working in the kitchen. At that time, a typhus epidemic broke out and nearly all those who caught the disease died from it, among them Tova Kasner, the sister of Shmuel Kasner who now lives in Israel. During the time I worked in the kitchen, I came face to face with the killer, Hildebrand, who personally carried out the third “action” that liquidated the Mosty–Wielie workcamp and wiped out nearly all the Jews who were there. When Hildebrand, accompanied by other S.S. officers visited the kitchen in order to find out how many Mosty Jews came to eat there, he remarked jokingly, “The day after the visit, the most precisely planned, bloody and cruel “action” too place at the same time in Mosty and Zolkiew.”

The Jews had to dig their own mass grave for the massacre that was carried out in the Babka forest. The blood foamed up and overflowed the trenches, covering the white snow with a blanket of red. Major Krupa should be mentioned again at this point. At the time of the third “action” he was heard by witnesses to say to the S.S. men, “Here, against the Jews, you are heroes. Why don't you go fight at Stalingrad and how your heroism at the battlefront?”

The day after my meeting with Hildebrand, my husband and I managed to escape to a forest near Mosty. For three days and nights we hid in a trench there, without food or water. Afterwards, we met up with a few other Jews who managed to escape with their lives from the mass murder.

After the horrible massacre, the Nazis totally liquidated the work camp and the handful of surviving Jews was transferred to Potolice. Along their way, whole families of gentiles stood and taunted and cursed us as we passed. When we reached Potolice,

[Page XXX]

we move into the vacant Jewish houses. Potolice was already “Judenrein”.

We remained there for three weeks. On 21 May 1943, we were transferred to Rawa–Ruska, to the dreadful S.S. work camp. We lived in barracks, men and women separately. It is impossible to put into words how awful our living conditions were – it was simply hell on earth. The cruelty of the Germans and the Ukrainians took the most brutal forms. At the slightest pretext, Jews were shot. Cowed and intimidated, the Jews prayed for the angel of death to redeem them from their tortured lives.

Once a week, we were taken to the bathhouse. All the healthy, well–fed, well–dressed Christian inhabitants looked at the emaciated Jews, full of pain and tattered, with mockery and hatred in their eyes.

My husband was in Rawa–Ruska, as were Yizhak Sheinfeld and Aharon Horowitz, Rabbi Eberstark's son–in–law. Aharon Horowitz was saved by a miracle from burning to death in the synagogue, together with many of the most prominent Jews of Mosty on the third day of the Nazi occupation.

My husband was one of those working in the quarry where he became friends with a Pole named Piotrowski. Hearing that the work camp was about to be liquidated, he ventured to ask his Polish friend if he could hide us when danger would be imminent. Piotrowski's answer gave us hope.

On the 10^th of June, the eve of Shavuoth, Piotrwski met my husband at work and let him know that he had overheard a Gestapo man telling his girl friend that something was going to happen in the camp that day. He offered my husband a hiding place for the night and suggested that he not go back to the camp. My husband thanks him profusely but came back to the camp for me. Cutting through the barbed wire, we left the camp together. Only fifty yards from the camp, a “Volksdeutch” (German resident of Poland) stopped us. Weeping and beseeching,

[Page XXXI]

We gave him our last few coins; he let us be and showed us the way to the forest.

Shortly after we managed to find a hiding place among the thickets, a frightful sight, unfolded before our eyes. Pouring rain, accompanied by thunder and lightening, came down from the skies as though nature itself was setting the stage for a drama of horror. Two kilometers from us, we saw flames and columns of smoke rising to the skies. The entire camp was one great bonfire. The S.S. troops had set fire to the camp from all four sides and 2,000 Jews came to their ends in the burning hell.

That same night, after midnight, we reached the Piotrowski home, five kilometers from the forest. The family was frightened, but they took us in and hid us in the garret among the logs that were stored there.

For 14 months, this great–hearted Christian family hid us, sharing their scant food with us and putting themselves in constant

Ceremony and memorial at “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem

After we were freed in July 1944, we found that this family

[Page XXXII]

Passages on the trial of the Nazi Hildebrand, commander of the Mosty extermination camp.

Sophia Piotrowski receives the engraved certificate and medal at Yad Vashem.

Sophis Piotrowski planting a tree in Herzl Forest in the Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles.

had been forced out of their home in Gorki and was living on the other side of the Bug River. From then on, we shared everything with them and continued helping them with whatever we could.

In 1949, we immigrated to Israel and as soon as we began working, we sent them money regularly, for they were very poor. We helped them educate their children, since that was their dearest wish.

In 1967, we invited Sophia Piotrowski to Israel and she spent five months with us. We did our best to give her pleasure. We arranged for her to visit all the Christian holy sites and she also planted a tree in the Herzl forest in the section of the “righteous gentiles”. She was given a special citation and medal.

Sophia parted from us, happy to have been so greatly honored. She returned to Poland with lovingly given presents for herself, her husband, and her children.

[Page XXXV]

My childhood years were spent in Vienna. I became a member of the “Blau–Weiss” organization there and continued my activity in Zionist affairs when I returned to Poland. My aim in life had been to immigrate to Eretz Israel, but I was kept from fulfilling it by the very limited number of immigration certificates issued by the British mandatory government.

In 1933 I went to Mosty–Wielkie, to the hachshara (agricultural training) farm there together with my friend, Gusta Fried. We arrived on a Wednesday, market day in Mosty, and found our way to the “Hitachdut” office that was located in a small house, simply furnished with bookshelves and benches. The first person we met in Mosty was Zvi Brickner; we met the rest of the group that same evening when they returned from their day's work.

The hachshara base was some distance from the center of town in an abandoned barrack called the “Reit–Schule”; it dated back to the time of the Austrians (before World War I). Its rooms were gigantic. The hachshara group was in bad economic straits; some of its members had permanent jobs and their salaries went to the communal treasury. Most of the group worked at unskilled labor.

I spent more than half a year with the Mosty hachshara group and it was there that I met my future husband, Zvi Nass. We were married in 1937, and went to live at the sawmill. Because of that, my life was saved during the Holocaust and I was also able to hide a number of Jews during the great “action”, among them my friend Miriam Mund.

The “action” took place in February 1942, on a Wednesday.

[Page XXXVI]

Afterwards, I went to see what catastrophe had befallen and I was appalled. The entire ghetto ran with blood. The Gestapo guards had surrounded the ghetto and anyone trying to escape the “action” was shot on the spot. The Jews were lined up in two rows, in one the weaker people who couldn't work, in the other the stronger ones. My father–in–law Moshe Nass survived on that day only because he held a measuring tool in his hand. Among the many victims were Sobele Wexler and Mrs. Brickner, together with her daughter. Over 1,400 people were taken outside the town, cruelly tortured and then shot.

In the second “action” the victims were taken to Rawa–Ruska. Shlomo Nass looked over our barricaded shelter and decided that he didn't want to stay there and be buried alive. He preferred to go to Rawa–Ruska while he was still hale and hearty.

The great liquidation took place in June 1943, and Moshe Nass, his sons Shlomo and Yehezkiel, and Yehezkiel's wife and daughter were shot at that time. My daughter Hannah was also killed.

We had constructed our bunker in the depths of the Wieczorki forest. Life there was unbearable. We were always starving, and lived from raw potatoes and beets. At night Zvi would go out into the field to hunt for food in the hope that the peasants would have left something behind. He sometimes managed to bring back a few ears of grain. My mother–in–law died two months before the liberation because of the awful conditions. When the Russians occupied our area, they freed the handful of people remaining who moved to the house of the Shrpritzer family. We also lived there for a short while. Then we wandered to Lemberg, to Krakow and later to Breslau. From Breslau we moved to the D.P. camp in Germany. Our wanderings lasted nearly two years. Only in 1948 did we manage to reach Eretz Israel.

We put down roots in our homeland, but cruel fat cut short our happiness. On the 4^th of Adar, 8 March 1965, my husband Zvi died after suffering greatly. May his memory be blessed.

[Page XXXVII]

In 1938, after my father's death, my family left Mosty and moved to Lemberg (Lwow). On 22 June 1941, the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union and a week later Lemberg was in their hands. On the same day, persecution of the Jews was initiated; it intensified from day to day. In the very first days of the Nazi occupation of the city, 150,000 Jews were handed over to the Ukrainians to do with as they liked for a week's time. The Ukrainians took full advantage of this free hand; they pillaged and murdered, raped women, and tortured old people and children – and there was no one to stop them. The Jews tried to hide in their homes as best they could, hoping that the first wild frenzy and the venting of age-old hatred of the Jews would die down and the Germans would then institute order so that life could become normal again.

But the persecution and the riots against the Jews only increased until finally Rabbi Yehezkiel Levin, the Chief Rabbi of Lemberg, went personally to Bishop Sheptitzki, the Ukrainian Metropolitan and head of the Russian Preboslavian Church of Galicia. The Rabbi asked the Metropolitan to use his influence on his co–religionists to make them stop killing Jews. I do not know what answer he received from Sheptitzki, but on the way home, he was cornered by Ukrainian hoodlums who dragged him off to a nearby jail and there he was ruthlessly tortured to death.

The outcome of the first week of Nazi rule in Lemberg was thousands of Jews killed, and many more mutilated, in an inhuman manner, by the Ukrainians and the Germans themselves.

The situation improved somewhat after the Germans ordered

[Page XXXVIII]

the Jews to choose a Judenrath (Jewish Council) as their representatives to the Gestapo. The Judenrath actually had no rights, only all kinds of obligations. Its first task was to supply a large contingent of Jews daily as workers for whatever the Nazis wanted done.

When the members of the Judenrath saw that the number going out to work in the morning was greater than the number returning in the evening, the head of the council asked for an explanation of the disappearance of so many people. For his impertinence in even asking such a question, the Gestapo had him shot to death. The remaining members of the Judenrath there upon refused to cooperate further with the Germans and the “Jewish representation” disintegrated as a body.

Not long afterwards, the Gestapo forced the Jewish community to make a large “contribution”; and they set a date on which the sum had to be handed over – otherwise, they threatened to kill 10,000 Jews. Everyone did his best and with great strain the Jewish community managed to raise the money in cash, jewelry and other valuables, and to hand it over on time.

All this took place in the first weeks of the Nazi occupation. We wanted to believe that sooner or later, the Germans would quiet down and allow us to live under their rule. Some of us were in hopes that the United States, which still maintained diplomatic relations with the Third Reich, would intervene on behalf of the Jews. Only too soon did we understand that no one was prepared to succor us. Worst of all, people vanished from our midst every day and were never heard of again. Due to the lack of food and the filthy and crowded living conditions, illness was rampant, especially typhus. There was practically not a single family without someone ill and medicine was unobtainable. Moreover, the fact of illness had to be kept secret, otherwise the Nazis would do away with the patient and sometimes with his whole family too.

One of the cruelest of the Gestapo's edicts was that forcing

[Page XXXIX]

The 150,000 Lemberg Jews to leave their homes on very short notice, and to move to the Jewish area of Kleparov, a known slum. To speed up the transfer, the Germans enlisted the help of the Ukrainian police and 700 men of the Jewish militia. The volunteer Jewish militia consisted primarily of members of the pre–war underworld, as well as some of the “intelligencia” who believed that they would survive if they cooperated with the Nazi murderers – a false hope, for they were the first to be killed in the great “action”.

In the Jewish area, we lived 8 – 10 people crowded into each room. This overcrowding, the hunger and the filth led to the outbreak of epidemics in which thousands of Jews died like flies.

In November 1941, the Germans began bringing large groups of Jews to the railroad station on the pretext of taking them to work camps. They promised that those Jews who went willingly would have better working conditions in the place they would be sent to. Many of us believed them, packed up our personal effects, and volunteered to go. The Nazis did not succeed in fooling us for long; we soon found out that they “work place” was the Belzitz extermination camp from which no one e very returned alive. This was the first “action”, the November “action” of Lemberg.

I too was one of those at the train station waiting to be taken to the work place with good conditions, but at the last moment, some inner voice told me that the Germans were fooling us and I managed to get away and return to my family.

We went through that first winter under the Nazi regime cold and hungry. With spring came the hope that the warmer weather would make life easier. But the beginning of spring only brought a new “action”, the March 1942 “action”. My sister Mina and her husband were among the 12,000 Jews liquidated then. During the summer of 1942, not a day went by without its victims, mainly old people and children who were killed for the pure pleasure of it. The younger people were meanwhile left alive, as

[Page XL]

the Nazis were able to put them to hard labor. In August 1942, the third “action” took place and more than 60,000 Jews were taken to Belzitz and there done away with.

I worked in the Jewish hospital on Rappaport Street and I survived this period by a miracle. One day I came home from work to find an empty house. My whole family had been taken away and I never saw any of them again. I was the only one left.

In the fall of 1942, the ghetto edict was promulgated. The ghetto was even more crowded than the Jewish area had been and the sanitary conditions were even worse. I and a few other girls lived in a room shared by twelve people. We suffered the hunger, the cold, and the illness, yet the urge to live, the inner need to fight for life continued to burn despite the fact that there seemed to be no possibility of remaining alive.

As the number of Jews shrank, the Germans made the ghetto area ever smaller so that those left shouldn't enjoy the use of the vacated apartments. In the end the Germans set up a concentration camp, Camp Yanowski, on the other side of town to which they transferred Jews from the entire region, the remnants of the liquidated communities. The authorities suggested that we also move to the Yanowski Camp, but we had enough experience with German promises of “better conditions” to know that they led only to extermination. As long as we could, we stayed put, certain that anyone passing through the gate of the Yanowski Camp was going to his death.

In December 1942, I met my husband, a man I had known before the war. He alone was left of his entire family, just like me. We were married in a Jewish ceremony by Rabbi Rappaport, the last surviving Rabbi in Lemberg.

My husband worked in a German factory that produced essential war material and he managed to get me work there as well. But this happy situation didn't last long. A rumor went around that Lemberg was slated to become “Judenrein” (free of Jews), and that June 1943 was the time set for the operation.

[Page XLI]

The Jews working in the factory understood that the period of relative quiet was at an end, and ways had to be found to escape. Some fled to the forests, while others found hiding places elsewhere. We didn't manage to get away in time and were taken away to a new camp set up by the Nazis, another station on the way to the “final solution”. This was the worst camp of all. Our food ration was infinitesimal, yet we had to work at hard labor accompanied by blows. We were all distended from hunger. Now I started to wish for death to come and release me from my sufferings.

One day when I was at the end of my strength, a Ukrainian trooper poked a note into my hand. It was from my husband letting me know that his group was going to work in town and that he would try to see our friend Stashek. I immediately understood that he was planning to escape and what he wanted was that I should try to find a way to do the same. So one day when we were taken to the bathhouse, I managed to get out through a toilet window, slide down the drainpipe and hide in a cellar. At night I crept out and set out to the forests to search for my husband. I wandered from one place to another, in constant danger, but not until the beginning of 1944 did I find him, at last, in a forest bunker.

Life in the woods was difficult. Some of our companions fell into the hands of the police and the German soldiers. Yet we were free – and our chance of survival was better than anywhere else. Finally in July 1944, we were liberated by the Soviet Army.

We went back to Lemberg to seek survivors, but only a handful of Jews remained and the houses we had known were in ruins. At the first opportunity, we left the Soviet zone and went back to Poland. From there we continued to Germany and in September 1947 we succeeded, after great effort, in reaching Eretz Israel.

[Page VI]

A town. A town. How can one mourn a town Wiped out altogether, Whose dwellers are dead an Whose dead live in our hearts?

[Page VII]

Introduction

With deepest reverence, we present this Memorial Book of Mosty-Wielkie to the remnants of our town in Eretz Israel and the Diaspora. It is intended, as well, for the future historian who will one day chronicle the last tragic chapter of the history of the Jews of Poland, in their hopeless struggle and their death convulsions during the most dreadful period of the long Eastern European Jewish galut. Our town, Mosty-Wielkie, was an organic and integral part of this episode.

In the course of four years, we have collected and edited material for the memorial book. At the annual memorial meetings for the martyrs of our town, the question is always asked: when will we raise the true monument, not of stone, but in the form of a book of remembrances of our parents, our brothers and our sisters who were burned at the stake? We asked ourselves: Won't we, the last generation of Mosty, be able to do what the Jewish survivors of other communities, large and small, have done?

The aim we had set for ourselves was difficult, even frightening. The first and hardest problem was tracking down the material for the book. We contacted all the former inhabitants of our town in Israel and abroad; we searched the archives of universities and of various libraries; we collected every document, every official paper connected with our community. Little by little, we attached one item to another, connecting and piecing together the bits and pieces of information until, after a tremendous effort and a huge amount of research, we succeeded in building up this memorial to the lives cut short – a monument to the sanctified community of Greater Mosty.

We well know that despite all our efforts, we have not succeeded in recreating a full picture of the life of our town at its peak. There is a paucity of information, as well, on the town's

[Page VIII]

final chapter – the holocaust and the destruction – because so very few of the community survived, coals pulled from the fire at the last moment. To our deep regret, these few did not comply, as we had hoped they would, with our many requests for personal testimony, so that we could have a faithful record for future generations of what the cursed cohorts of Hitler had done to the Jews of Mosty-Wielkie in the enlightened twentieth century, before the eyes of the whole world.

The sudden death in the United States of our fellow townsman and dear friend, the writer and journalist, Moshe Starkman (Hazkoni), deprived the book of valuable material. He had been preparing to write an exhaustive article on his life in Mosty-Wielkie entitled “Mosty – My Enchanted Town”. He did not live to put his thoughts on paper and the memorial book is poorer for the loss.

Our town was the embodiment of full and lively Jewish town life and we have spared no effort to make the book faithfully reflect the rich, varied activities of our community. It is our fervent hope that our children and children's children will concern themselves with it, and that they will take pride and interest in their fathers and grandfathers who, despite the difficult conditions and the distress of galut life, succeeded in creating a way of life so well organized that it could have served as an example for an independent nation.

Purely as a voluntary endeavor, and despite the efforts of the ruling powers to put obstacles in their way, our forefathers managed to set up a sort of nation within a nation, based on their own free choice and readiness to live according to Jewish Oral Law (Halacha) and its rulings. A Jew who lived his life within the limits of the laws and customs of his own people had practically nothing to do with the laws of the gentiles; every dispute was settled by the Jewish religious courts (Batei-Ha'din). To further their children's education, our forefathers established elementary one-room schools (Heders), religious intermediate schools (Talmud Torahs), religious colleges (Yeshivas), and in the later periods, modern Hebrew and Yiddish

[Page IX]

schools, all of which served to keep the Jews independent of the regimes under which they lived.

At a time when the gentiles around them did not even know the meaning of the words “mutual aid”, every Jewish community had established voluntary charitable institutions to visit and aid the ill (Bikur Holim), to give a free night's lodging to the homeless (Linat Ha'Tzedek), to aid poor brides (Hachnasat-Kalah), to supply food to the poor on holidays (M'ot Hitin), to give charity secretly (Matan B'Seter) and many other things from which every needy person would benefit. All these served to carry out the avowed rule of the Torah, “and if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; … he shall live with you…” (Leviticul 25:35).

With the kind permission of the author, Aharon Megged, we should like to quote excerpts from his article, “Kaddish for the Communities of the Galut”, on the subject of memorial books.

“Several days ago, in Saul Bellow's lecture at the PEN Congress in Jerusalem, he remarked that in this generation, in which such multitudes are killed that they are counted in round numbers, one of the functions of literature is 'redemption of the individual victim', to grant him life again, to remove him from numerical anonymity, and to return to him the full meaning and happiness of his life.

“In another form, this function is also performed by these memorial books. They redeem communities, and they redeem the individuals in them. I think of this wonderful phenomenon, so unique that I believe no other people has repeated it: A handful of the remnants of a small community gets together, chooses a committee, collects testimonies, and puts them together 'bone to its bone', in order to cover the sinews and flesh with skin. With boundless devotion, with love, they publish a large, ornate book, designated only for themselves and for the archives – a project of letters and words, each one steeped with much love and many longings, to say nothing of tears.

“After the destruction of the Temple, the Jews sitting

by the waters of Babylon and later on in the other lands of dispersion, wrote books on Eretz Israel. Everything they wrote was connected with this land, where their roots were. They wrote of the land with love and longing. Since the holocaust, Jews in Eretz Israel are writing hundreds of books, and again with love and longing. This constant continuity of the present with the past, this faith in the magic power of words to bring the dead back to life – perhaps this is the secret of the strength of the Jews – the eternal people”.

The Memorial Book of the Jews of Greater Mosty is a collective effort on the part of those who remain of our defunct community. Most of the articles were written by people who are not professional writers. There are repetitions, inaccuracies, even contradictions – faults impossible to prevent in such a book.

We have done our best, but unfortunately we had neither the time nor the means to broaden the scope of the collection and to enhance it. Of our splendid community, only islands of ruins are left. Even the cemetery was destroyed down to its foundations. The burial places of those murdered in the holocaust are completely unknown.

There is a living monument to our dear ones, who perished in dignity in the catastrophe that struck the House of Israel. This monument is our own nation that will remain a secure refuge for our people forever.

[Page XI]

Avraham Ackner, Tel Aviv

The Town of Mosty–Wielkie lies in the district of Zolkiew. The Rata river passes through it, and is a tributary of the Bug River which flows into the Wisia.^[1]

Mosty is located in the low–lying area whose heavy soil is rich in peat. It is surrounded by forests, rivers and sand dunes.

The Rata River crosses the town in two places, and long wooden bridges connect the two sections. It is from this feature that Mosty–Wielkie derives its name which means “Big Bridges” in Polish.

Mosty Wielkie was founded as a village in 1472. When the Tatars invaded Poland, the village was completely destroyed. It was built anew after its liberation from the Tatars and from then on began to grow and develop so rapidly that in a relatively short time, in the year 1549, King Zygmunt August raised it to the rank of a city, naming it Augustow^[2] after himself. He granted it “Magdeburg Rights” which included, among other things, a lowering

[Page XII]

of the tax rates. The list of rights includes the following statement, “Should Jews choose to live in this city, they are entitled to benefit from all the laws and rights, and from the freedom granted to the Jews of Belz”. In 1576, King Stephan Batory confirmed all the privileges granted to the Jews by King Zygmunt August and in 1578 he renewed their license to sell drinks – beer and mead – as well as their right to engage in trade and in handicrafts. Five years later, in 1583, he granted them additional rights and fifty years later in 1633, King Wladyslaw IV gave legal force to the privileges that King Stephan Batory had granted to the Jews of Mosty. These privileges included: the right to own land and buildings and the right to buy, sell and maintain synagogues and cemeteries (Usum Synagogae et loci sepulturae) in accordance with the laws and rights granted to Jews by earlier kings.

Statistics of the year 1628 reveal that the Christian inhabitants of the town paid taxes amounting to 193 gulden, 9 rush and 9 den, while the Jewish house owners paid 10 gulden and Jewish tenants paid 9 gulden. There were, in that year, two Jewish taxpayers in Mosty, one of them a house owner, and the other a tenant. In 1600, there were army barracks and a beer factory in Mosty.

In the 17^th century, the town possessed weaving mills, and at the beginning of the 19^th century, turpentine, asphalt, coal and other mineral derivatives were manufactured in Mosty.

In 1772, the year in which huge sections of Poland were taken over by Russia, Prussia and Austria, Galicia became part of the Austrian Empire. emperor Joseph II made changes and set limitations to the rights the Jews had enjoyed under the kings of Poland. One of the basic changes he made was the transfer of some of the Jews of Galicia to agricultural work. In this way, the “enlightened” emperor hoped to indemnify the Jews for the loss of their livelihood which they suffered as a consequence of his

[Page XIII]

prohibition on their keeping of taverns. In order to attract them to agriculture, the tolerance tax of the Jewish farmers was reduced by 50% and later the emperor cancelled the tolerance tax entirely.

In 1785, when thousands of Jewish families were left without any source of income in the wake of the new Jewish rulings, the emperor took a special step to settle them in agriculture. He worked out a plan to establish 1400 Jewish families throughout Galicia on the land. The Jewish communities in the district of Zolkiew were obligated to assign 75 families as their quota for the settlement project.

By 1792, Mosty, Zolkiew and the other communities in the district had managed to fulfill the quota set for them. In a special report sent by the Governor of Galicia to Vienna, he states that the Jews of the district would carry out their obligation to supply the number of settlers required of them in the framework of the plan. In July 1792, an order was given to the Governor to express his esteem to the authorities of Zolkiew district for their success in carrying out their orders in the matter of Jewish resettlement.

In the district of Zolkiew, 75 Jewish families were settled on 63 tracts. They included 113 men and 113 women, plus 62 boys and 75 girls under the age of 18. The settlers received 75 houses, 75 cow barns and granaries, and 75 sets of tools for agricultural work. They were also supplied with 144 horses, 162 bulls and 248 cows.

When the arrangements were completed, the satisfied Count Furstenbusch announced to the Viennese Government Council that the district of Zolkiew had been exceptional in mobilizing Jewish settlers to the project. These settlers were divided according to location as follows; Zolkiew – 11 families; Kulikow – 5; Magierow – 4; Rawa–Ruska – 8; Niemirow – 3; Mosty–Wielkie – 2; Krystynopol –5; Sokal – 8; Tartakow – 4; Warenz – 4; Belz – 4; Uhnow – 3; Oleszyce – 5; Lubaczow – 3; Cieszanow – 3; Lidski – 3.

The expenses of the settlement scheme were charged to the communities involved. It was estimated that the settlement of each

[Page XIV]

family came to 250 gulden. Every group of between 25 – 40 family heads was obliged to pay for the settlement of one family.

Ninety years later, in 1882, only ten of the families settled on the land at the expense of the community were still engaged in agriculture in all of the district of Zolkiew, and not even one family which had settled at its own expense was still engaged in farming by that time.

In 1785, administrative changes were made in Galicia^[4]. The state was divided into 18 districts. The city of Zolkiew was designated as the capital of the tenth district which contained the following towns: Mosty–Wielkie, Kulikow, Magierow, Niemerow, Krystynopol, Sokal, Tartakow, Warenz, Belz, Uhnow, Oleszyce, Lubaczow, Cieszanow, and Lidski.

According to the “Jewish Regulations: of 1789, each district was to be headed by the regional rabbi. In the other locations, the religious judges or the hazanim served as heads of the communities. The District Rabbis and the community heads were elected only by the Jewish property owners, the rabbis were elected by all the Jews in the district. The first Chief Rabbi of the district of Zolkiew was Rabbi Zvi Meislisch.

The District Rabbi was responsible for looking after the religious needs of the community, for keeping the birth lists, for registering marriages and deaths in the German language, for supervising the functioning of those whose work was connected with Jewish law such as kosher slaughterers, hazanim (singers of prayers in the synagogue), sextons and religious teachers. He was also empowered to carry out excommunications, though only by order of the authorities, and to administer oaths in the synagogue with regard to testimony on political matters.

The yearly salary of the District Rabbi amounted to 400 florins with a bonus of 150 gulden. He was assisted by a religious judge whose yearly salary was 208 florins, in addition to special payment for giving sermons. Besides his regular salary, the Rabbi

[Page XV]

was paid special fees for various services and for registering births, marriages and deaths. The amount paid for the registration depended on the economic category of the registrant, with rates set on a sliding scale of 5, 7, 15, and 30 kreutzer respectively. The rabbi also received a fee for issuing certificates to hazanim, slaughterers, and so on.

The District Rabbi was exempted from paying taxes of the community, but if his wife or any of his trustees kept a place of business, they had to pay the regular business taxes. The Rabbi, according to the law, was forbidden to request gifts or any form of payment for arranging marriages and divorces.

The yearly salaries received by the religious judges in the other communities of the district of Zolkiew were as follows: Mosty–Wielkie – 148 florins; Belz – 170 florins; Cieszanow – 150 florins; Krystynopol – 176 florins; Kulikow – 160 florins; Niemirow – 104 florins; Oleszyce – 25 florins; tartakow – 40 florins; Sokal – 170 florins; Uhnow – 129 florins; Warnez – 57 florins.

In 1788, a census was carried out all over Galicia. There are figures only on the total number of Jews in each district, and no breakdown is made by cities in each district. In the district of Zolkiew which contained 16 communities, 3377 Jewish families consisting of 16,157 souls were enumerated. There were 1662 families who paid taxes according to category B; and 65 according to category C. 1516 families were so poor that they were exempted from paying taxes.

In independent Poland, the Jews paid a head tax of 30 kreutzer per person. During the first tax year after the Austrian conquest in 1774, the head tax was raised to one florin per person, and it had to be paid even on children from the age of one year. The Jews of Galicia paid a total head tax of 41,178 florins that year. In 1776, the head tax was converted into a tolerance tax and an income tax.

After the Jews were empowered to acquire real estate in the year 1860, Jews in the district of Zolkiew applied for permission

[Page XVI]

to buy lots, estates and land. Those whose requests were granted were: Hirsh and Paula Gabel; Hirsh Frosting of Mosty–Wielkie; S. and R. Hoffman from Rawa–Ruska; Katz and Schweitzer from Zolkiew; Hayim Goldberg, the community leader (parness) of Zolkiew; Wanderer, the district community leader of Lubaczow; and Plaster and greental from Zolkiew.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Belz became the most important Hassidic center of Eastern Galicia with the founding of the hatzer (courtyard) of Rabbi Shalom Roach of righteous and blessed memory. Except for a few individuals who sought haskala (enlightenment), Mosty adhered faithfully to the Belz Hassidic movement for as Belz continued to exist. A small minority of Mosty's Hassidim strayed from the straight and narrow path of the Belz movement and joined the hatzer of Hushatiner Hassidim.

It is historical fact that the Haskala (Enlightenment) movement sprang up at about the same time as the Hassidic movement. The cradle of Hassidism, however, was in the Ukraine and from there it branched out and spread to Poland, Galicia and Hungary. The Haskala, on the other hand, was born in Germany and spread slowly throughout Eastern Europe, never becoming a mass movement like its opponent, Hassidism.

At the end of the 18^th and beginning of the 19^th century, the Haskala reached Galicia and by chance – or perhaps not by chance – our area was one of its focuses. The reason for this, of course, was that in 1798, rabbi Nachman Krochmal (Ranak)^[5] settled in Zolkiew. a native of Brody, rabbi Krochmal was one of the learned rabbis who laid the ideological foundations of the Haskala in Galicia. His home in Zolkiew was open to all those who came to seek enlightenment from near and far. One of his most famous followers was the learned Avraham Goldberg^[6], a native of Rawa–Ruska who moved to Zolkiew and from there to Mosty, where he worked to spread the doctrines of Haskala to the

[Page XVII]

young people of the town. As might have been expected, he met with strong opposition from the Belz Hassidim who were known for the fanaticism and bigotry in matters of religion and the Jewish way of life. The zealous Hassidim didn't shrink from using any means, even slander, when “Yiddishkeit” was in danger, in their opinion. In order to get rid of Avraham Goldberg, together with his influence on the youth of the town, they informed the authorities that he had evaded army service. It seems that the Ranak intervened, however, and had him freed. This is borne out by a letter from the learned S. Bik of Zolkiew to the learned Shimshon Bloch of Kulikow, in which he advised the latter to come to Rabbi Nachman Krochmal who would see to his being freed, just as he had freed Avraham Goldberg.

It is appropriate to note, at this point, that not only the Hassidim used the weapon of slander against their opponents; the other side also resorted to this contemptible means. The truth of the matter is that the weapon of informing on someone to the authorities was used by both sides in a number of Galician towns and cities^[7], and arrests were made as a consequence. In Dr. Raphael Mahler's book, Der Kamf Tzvishen Haskala un Hassidut (The War Between Haskala and Hassidim), page 212, he cites the text of an authentic document of informing on a person in Mosty. It reads as follows:

“Haim Herbst of Mosty reports to the authorities that a Jew by the name of Ya'acov Grunem has been living in the town of Mosty for two years. He came from Tomashow in Poland, and posed as a religious inspector and supervisor (mashgiah). He incited the Jewish population to rebel against the orders and laws of the government, an act which caused injury to the treasury of the state. He curses the inspectors (most probably the candle inspectors) and excommunicates them. He puts Meir Ba'al Ha'ness charity collection boxes into the homes of the people and collects money from ones opposed the collection of money for this particular charity for Jerusalem (according to our sources, the maskilim, enlightened ones, opposed the collection of money for this particular charity).

[Page XVIII]

Article in the Appendix of Prof. R. Mahler's book
“Der Kamf Tsvishen Haskala un Haddidut in Galitzia”, New York, 1942, p. 212, Document 4

He exacts a special payment for every transaction, and he has succeeded in convincing his sympathizers to leave the synagogue and to meet for prayers only in the Beit Madras, due to his exaggerated religious fanaticism. He married off his son, Shimon, without a government license.

This letter of Herbst's to the authorities created a storm in Mosty and started a wave of vilification and persecution of Maskilim in the town, carried out fanatically and vigorously. The Hassidim threatened to excommunicate Avraham Goldberg, a leading Maskil and to make him an outcast for reading and distributing Haskalic literature. They fell upon him, burning all the books of Haskala in his possession.

Rabbi Nachman Krochmal was exceedingly pained at this act. He became angry at his pupil, and wrote to him, “Why did this act frighten you, and why are you so afraid of them that it weakened you to the point that you gave over your good, pure books for burning?”

Krochmal felt that his pupil had acted wrongly, for “his unbecoming cowardice made it easier for the fanatics to persecute the young Maskilim. A young 20–year–old like him should be the aggressor, and not let himself be harassed like a flea. So embittered and rebellious did he become in the village of Mosty, that we could not trust him to serve as one of the sextons in our Beit Midrash”.

The Ranak continues, “It is not true that the Hassidim are numerous and that they rule the nation despotically. Upon my word, not only is their name unknown in the cities of Ashkenaz (Germany), and may God protect the heads of our Jewish communities, but they have also failed to gain the upper hand in our land, except in towns like the famous Mosty and Lubitz the elegant where they made some headway and struck deep roots among the village folk who live on the border of Hungary. In the wild lawless Wallachian lands and on the stepped of the Ukraine (they have succeeded in the new settlements recently established by new refugees and exiles from neighboring lands. This situation

[Page XX]

does not exist in the old, famous and learned populous communities like Krakow, Lwow, Lublin, Brody, Tarnopol and others like them, where they would not dare defy us but would like low like silent dogs, unable to bark.”

In Meir Halevi Letteris' book, “Zikaron Ba'sefer”, a case of the murder of Maskil of Mosty by the fanatic Hassidim is described^[8]. This deed shook the Ranak and his followers, especially Avraham Goldberg, whose life was possibly also endangered since he was so active among the youth of Mosty^[9]. The Ranak advises Goldberg to overcome his persecutors “with the axes of my beliefs”. His mentor's encouraging words caused Goldberg to devote himself with all his soul to eliminating the stumbling blocks and overcoming all the obstacles which stood in the way of his “haskala”. He meditated and searched in German literature and, with an excess of love, in the works of Rambam. And if he came across a difficult subject in the course of his studies, he turned to the “lion” of his group, the Ranak, who illuminated the matter for him. Goldberg's poetic talent expressed itself in two satires: “Ma'aseh Tsafon” and “Ma'aseh Rokeach” which were published in 1848. He died in Rawa–Ruska in the year 5610 (1850). The works he left behind were sentenced to be burned by his son – who did not follow in his father's footsteps.

With regard to the murder of the Maskil of Mosty mentioned above, another version of the event is given by fellow townsman, Avraham Ben–Pazi (Goldberg). Ben–Pazi claims that the murder took place, rather, on the background of a dispute with the investigators for the candle tax, who often caused misery to the Jews in the course of collecting the tax. Such incidents occurred in other towns as well, the investigators going so far as to confiscate Sabbath candlesticks and to inform the authorities about non–payment of the tax.

In these straits, the Jews sometimes decided to take revenge on the investigators. In the above case, an investigator in Mosty was murdered and his body dumped into a pit. The relatives of

[Page XXI]

the murdered man suspected Rabbi ariel Greener (Green), the town rabbi, of having a hand in the murder. It was Rabbi Azriel's misfortune that the police found on his table the Rambam's book, “Hayad Hahazaka” (“The Strong Hand”) open to the section on halakhot rotzeach (the oral law on a murderer), which he was probably poring through on the night of the murder. Rabbi Azriel was forced to flee the town, and had to hade away for quite a while at the home of a Jew in a nearby village. Later on, he became Rabbi of Monkatch, the capital of Carpatho–Russia, following the departure of Rabbi Elimelech of Dinow from the post^[10]. Rabbi Azriel Greener ministered to the Monkatch community for ten years. He was a gain (a renowned and learned rabbi), eminent in Torah. He wrote a book in the form of homilies, which remained in handwritten form^[11]. He also wrote a haskama (agreement on point of religious practice) which was included in the books “Pri Kodesh Hilulim” and “Nachlat Azriel”. The change in the form of prayer in a number of synagogues from Ashkenazic to the version of Ha'ari is attributed to him. He died in Monkatch in 5601 (1841). His tombstone bears the words, “He was great in Torah, Sinai, and a mover of mountains.”

For the Year 1987/98 (5658)

Chief Rabbi, rabbi Jehiel Mund.
Chairman of the Community, Chasmal Rapport.
Vice Chairman, Simon Muenz.
Relgious Teacher and Secretary, Pinkas Rapport.

Institutions:
“Tomchi Dalym” (Support for the Needy)
Chairman, Heinrich Jolles
Vice–Chairman, Wigdor Gruber
“Chevra Lina (Overnight Accommodation)
Chairman, Chaim Mann

[Page XXII]

Vice–Chairman, Benjamin Lauterpacht
“Bikur Cholim” (Aid to the Ill)
Chairman, Rabbi Jehiel Mund

Twelve Years Later, 1909/10 (5670)
Chief Rabbi, Jehiel Mund
President of the Commuity, Chaskal Rappaport
Vice President, Simon Muenz
Religious Teacher and Secretary, Jakob Rappaport

Institutions:
Chevra Kadisza” (Buriel Society) – M.D. Bruckner
“Chevra Lina” – Moses Lieberman
“Bikur Cholim” – B. Seidel
Population: 1,000
Income and Expenditures; 4,000 Kronen
Synagogue, Beit Midrash, 3 prayer houses, cemetery more than 300 years old.^[13]

1912/13 (5673)
Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Isak Eberstark
President of the Community, Nuchim Gerner
Vice–President, Chaskal Rappaport
Secretary and Religious Teacher, Jakob Rapport
“Chevra Kadisza) – Majer Schiffenbauer
“Chevra Lina” – Moses Perlmutter
“Bikur Cholim” – Asher Moshe Zinker
Population: 1,000
Income and Expenditures: 7,000 Kronen

The Population of Mosty–Wielkie in the years 1880 – 1890
(According to the book Stanislaw Gruinski^[14]:
1880: 3,809 persons, of these 1,061 Jews (27.9%)
1890: 4,414 persons, of these 1,414 Jews (32.0%)
1900: 4,554 persons, of these 1,1611 Jews (35.4%)

[Page XXIII]

The Cemetery

The Cemetery

According to the figures in “Slownik Geograficzny”, p. 716, Mosty had 3,809 inhabitants in 1880, 490 of them Poles, 2,010 Ukrainians, and 1,309 Jews. The Calendar of Jewish Communities published in Vienna in 1912 gives Mosty a Jewish population of 1,000 for that year. Gruinski's figures on the Jewish population thus differ greatly from the figures in the Calendar of Jewish Communities. If Mosty had 1,061 Jews in 1880 (as given by Gruinski) and 1,1611 in 1900, it represents an increase of 60% in the course of twenty years. It is therefore inconceivable that there were only 1,000 Jews in Mosty in 1912. However, according to the writer, Dr. Avraham Chomat, who is presently writing a book in Yiddish on the Jews of Galicia^[15], the numbers presented in the Vienna calendar are neither exact nor reliable. It is speculated that there was a specific intention in those years to mask the exact number of Jewish inhabitants due to various considerations, for example, evasion of payment of the head tax or other levies. In addition, Jews who had moved from the Russian area were not counted in the census, as they did not have the right to settle permanently and were thus not included in the population lists.

Mosty drew its spiritual inspiration from two sources, the older generation from Belz, and the younger generation from Lwow. The physical nearness of our town to Belz had a not inconsiderable influence on the delineation of the image of the Jewish population and its behavior. Nevertheless, it could objectively be said that the influence of Belz on Mosty was less striking than on other towns of Eastern Galicia. Even the Belz Hassidim, so well–known for their fanaticism and bigotry, exhibited more tolerance to the fresh winds blowing through Jewish Mosty than their brethren did in other places.

The younger generation imbibed its Zionist inspiration from Lwow. After World War I, Lwow became the main Zionist center of Galicia, and the second in importance, after Warsaw, in all

[Page XXV]

of Poland. A contributing factor to Lwow's influence on Mosty was, without a doubt, the close economic connection between the two cities. On any day of the week, there were Mosty merchants going to Lwow to buy merchandise. The young people also paid frequent visits to the big city, and the came into contact with various elements there which had an influence on them. The link between Lwow and Mosty contributed greatly to the development of the Jewish youth of our town, who organized themselves into an assortment of political parties and youth associations, including the General Zionists, “Ha'or”, “Ahva”, “Gordonia”, “Betar”, “Ha'oved”, “Zeirei Agudat Israel” and others. The pioneering youth organizations established hachsharot (agricultural training) battalions in which a large proportion of the youth “prepared itself” to immigrate to the Land of Israel. There was a Hebrew school and a Beit Yaakov school in which teachers from outside came to teach, among them the Jewish poet, A.D. Werbner^[16]. Another teacher of renown was Yitzhak Scheinfeld, a resident of Mosty.

When the Zionist youth movements were first established in Mosty, the older generation, especially the Belz Hassidim, saw them as straying from the true way of life which had been in existence for generations. Nevertheless, they were quite tolerant of them, often simply turning a blind eye to the existence of the Zionist organizations, even though their activities were not to their liking.

The elections to the Polish “Sejm” (parliament) which took place at frequent intervals livened up Jewish public life in our town. The Zionists always appeared on an independent list as part of the National party which the Belz Hassidim opposed with all their might. The Rabbi of Belz used to issue a proclamation to the Jewish voters with the slogan “Dina Demalchuta Dina” (“Obey the law of the government”) by which he meant that the Jews should vote for the Polish Government Party.

During the election season, feelings in Mosty blazed up. The stormy arguments focussed mainly in the Beit Midrash and the Synagogue. The Chief Rabbi would call upon the members of the

[Page XXVI]

Congregation during the Sabbath service and warn them repeatedly, in an agitated manner, to not allow themselves to be persuaded to give their votes to the Zionists. The young people, the majority of whom were Zionists, tried to disrupt the publicity campaign of the Hassidim, but on the other hand in the matter and participated actively, even too actively in the election campaign among the Jews of the town. On election day, they used to have a number of Zionist activists arrested to prevent them from “disturbing” the elections, according to their own interpretation of the word. A strong effort was made to bring to the polls as many voters for the Zionist list as possible, and it was pretty well known how many there were. But in the evening, when the ballot boxes were opened, it appeared that most of the votes given to the Zionist lists had disappeared in a mysterious manner. In order to cover up the deceit, a few of the votes for the Zionist list were left – to prove that the elections were “democratic”.

As soon as the elections were over, the city quieted down, and the Jewish youth took up its normal activities again, without any further molestation by the more religious groups.

The army barracks in Mosty, and afterwards the Police School that was set up there, helped greatly to advance the economic life of the city. There were very few really rich people in the town, perhaps three or four well–to–do families in all. All the rest, or the vast majority, were middle–class – in other words, small businessmen and craftsmen who lived from the work of their own hands. There were no really poverty–stricken people in Mosty. The town had various charitable institutions which aided and sustained the needy, but to be perfectly honest, there weren't many people in need of charity in our town. The town of Mosty was lucky in not possessing abnormal types whom nature had cursed, such as the insane and the maimed whom we used to come across in other towns.

Mosty had the reputation of being a clean town. The Jewish homes were well–kept, even those whose owners were not people of

[Page XXVII]

means. Furthermore, our town was famous for its hospitality. When a visitor would come to spend the Sabbath with relatives, the neighbors from near and far would send drinks to the family in his honor. This pleasant custom made a good impression on the visitor who saw himself as a guest of the whole town. When young people from neighboring villages or from Lwow came to visit with the Zionist circles they would meet with the town's youth in the club rooms, in their homes, or anywhere at all – and would find themselves enfolded in a warm and cordial atmosphere. The youth of Mosty always made a fine impression on the guest.

The appearance of our young people in another town was always pleasant and well–received. It would not be boasting to say that Mosty's younger generation was more progressive than that of other towns and its horizons were wider. Our youngsters were thirsty for knowledge and open to new ideas, and it was perhaps this quality that made them so successful in the company of others.

Mosty was a small town, but its size was outweighed by its lively cultural life. This was in evidence all week long, but most especially on Sabbaths and holidays, when the young people would attend lectures on various subjects. They would carry on discussions and public debates which sometimes lasted for days on end and whose echoes reverberated in all the neighboring towns.

The holocaust which devastated our people in Europe did not by–pass our little town. Our dear ones were shot and burned, massacred and strangled, and put to death in all manner of strange ways. Our community was destroyed and leveled to the ground. Even the old cemetery was devastated and the tombstones taken away, probably for use as paving stones or building materials for the houses and yards of the gentiles who had a hand in the destruction of Jewish Mosty.

Our Mosty, Jewish Mosty, is not more^[17]. Its inhabitants were killed by the oppressors, with the help of the Ukrainians and the

[Page XXVIII]

Poles. She exists only in our memories, she stands before our eyes as she was when we left her long decades ago.

We, the people of Mosty in Israel and abroad, the last generation of its refugees, set up a memorial to her in this book, dedicated to our children, our children's children, and the coming generations.

Footnotes

1. Slownik Geograficzny, p. 716. Return
2. Alexandroni, Y. Se'er Augustow. There was another village named Mostly in the district of Bialystok which King Zygmunt August also raised to the rank of a city and named after himself. Return
3. Gelber, Dr. N. M. Occurrences in East Galician Jewish Communities, Gelber, Dr. N. M. History of the Jews of Zolkiew, (Memorial Book). Return
4. Gelber, Dr. N. M. History of the Jews of Zolkiew. Return
5. Rabidowitz, Dr. Shimon, Kitvei Ranak, Igrot Moreh Nevuchei Ha'zman. Return
6. Tolkes, Yeruham, “ Avraham Goldberg”, Gazit, Nos. 11, 12, 5704 (1943) Return
7. Mahler, Dr. Raphael, Der Kamf Tsvichen Haskala un Hassidut in Galitzia. Return
8. Letteris, Meir Halevi, Zikaron Ba'sefer. Return
9. Tolkes, Yeruham, “Avraham Goldberg”, Gazit' Nos. 11, 12, 5704 (1943) Return
10. Ben_Pazi, Avraham (Goldberg), Rabanei Mosty. In the book “Shem Mishmariya” on the events in the life of Rabbi Azriel, he tells what he heard from the elders of the town of Mosty. Return
11. Weingarten, Shmuel Hacohen, Arim V'lmahot B'Yisrael. Return
12. Kalendar Für Israeliten, Wien, 1897/98 Return
13. According to historical sources, a Jewish community existed in Mosty–Wielkie from the 15^th century on. We know that there were old tombstones of famous rabbis in the cemetery. According to our fell–member, Michael Tubisch (Yannai), there was one wooden tombstone in the cemetery marking the grave of a famous rabbi: “From time to time, in the month of Elul, Hassidim would come to the cemetery, prostrate themselves on his grave, and replace the old tombstone with a new wooden one.”Avraham Ben–Pazi's article, “Yad Vashem L'Kdoshei Ir Moladi'ti Mosty–Wielkie”, which appeared in the book “shem Mishmariya” confirms this story. It is recalled that in the Mosty cemeteryy there is the tombstone of a rabbi who occupied the post of town rabbi in the 16^th century. This rabbi (whose name Ben–Pazi has forgotten) was a friend of the “Rama” (Rabbenu Moshe Isserles), and all those in need of salvation would prostrate themselves on his grave. In the month of Elul, his tomb would resound with the din of the many visitors. There is another source on the old cemetery, “D'var Yom B'Yomo”, by Hayim Knoller from Premishlan, in which he mentions under the topic l'Tishrei 5551 (1791) that the great head of the religious court, the learned and righteous reg Meir Bar Yosef Halevi died on that date. In this connection, it should be noted that one tombstone in the old cemetery was that of a Rabbi Meir who ministered to the Mosty community long after the rabbi mentioned by Ben–Pazi. Rabbi Meir became the son–in–law in his second marriage of the sanctified prophet, Reb Yitzhak Lalevi Horowitz of Lublin. This Rabbi Meir

died on 17 Tishrei 5551, and may well be the same Rabbi Meir of whom Hayim Knoller writes. Return

14. Gruinski, Dr. Stanislaw, Materjaly do kwestji Zydów w Galicji. Return
15. Chomat, Dr. Avraham, Yidden in Galizia. Return
16. “ Sofrim Ivri'im shenispu B'Sho'a”, Yediot Genazim, 5733 (1973) Return
17. Silber, Dr. Maurycy, “ The Jewish Community of Mosty–Wielkie That Is No More”. Return

Bibliography

Alexandroni, W.: Sefer Augustow.
Amir, Anda: “Sha'arit Ha'Plita”, 5735 (1975)
Ben–Pazi (Goldberg), Avraham: “Rabbanei Mosty”, Introduction to Shem “Mi'shmariya”
Chomet, Avraham: Yidden in Galitzia (in manuscript, and about to be published)
Gelber, Dr. Nathan M.: Koroteihen shel Ha'Kehilot B'Mizrach Galitzia
Gelber, Dr. nathan M.: Zolkiew: Sefer Zikaron
Gruinski, Dr. Stanislaw: Materjaly do Kwestji Zydow v Glaicjo, Lwow, 1910
Ha'Encyclopedia Ha'Ivrit: “Haskala” Vol. XV
Kermish, Dr. J.: Akcje wysiedlenia
Kalender für Israeliten Oestreichishe Union in Wien für die Jahren 5658 (1897/98) – 5675 (1914/15)
Klausner, Prof. Joseph: Hasifrut Ha'Ivrit
Knoller, Haim (from Premishlan): D'var Yom B'Yomo
Letteris, Meir Halevy, Zikaron Ba'Sfar
Lexicon Ha'Sifrut Ha'Ivrit B'Dorot Ha'Acharonim
Machzikei Ha'Dat, Lwow, 1881, Sivan 5641
Mahler, Dr. Raphael: Der Kamf Tzvishen Haskala un Hassidut in Galitzia
Megged Aharon: “Kaddish La'Galuyot”, Davar 5731 (1971)
Rabidowitz, Dr. Simon: Kitvei Ranak, Igrot Moreh Nevuchei Ha'Zman.
Schwartz, Pinnas, Selig Ha'Cohen: Shem Ha'Gedolim Me'eretz Hagar
Shall, Dr. Jacob: Zydzi w Galicji w czasie iwazji rosyjskiej
Sibler, Dr. Maurycy: “The Jewish Community of Mosty–Wielkie That Is No More”

[Page XXXII]

Slownik Geograficzny Królewstwa Polskiego, Warszawa 1887
Tolkes, Yeruham, “Avraham Goldberg”, Gazit, Nos. 11, 12, 1943
Weingarten, Shmuel Ha'Cohen: Arim V'Imahot B'Yisrael
Yedio Genazim, 5733 (1973), “Sofrim Ivrim'im Shenispu B'shoa”
Zinberg, Dr. Israel: Hasifrut Ha'Ivrit

Friends accompany Avraham Ackner to the Bus Station upon his departure for Israel in 1935

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