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The first records about Raciąż go back to the 11th century. Raciąż was the seat of the Castellan (governor of the district on behalf of the king). Over time, the settlement developed into a commercial center. In 1425 Raciąż was granted town status. From the 16^th century until the 18^th century, Raciąż was the seat of the governor of the district and the local “Little Sejm” (the assemblies of the aristocracy in the area). After the second partition

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of Poland in 1793, the town was under Prussian rule. In 1807 Raciąż was included in the Duchy of Warsaw and, after the third partition of Poland in 1815, it was controlled by the Russian Empire as part of the territory of Congress Poland until the First World War. During that war, the town was occupied by units of the German army between 1915 and 1918. Between the two World Wars (1918-1939), Raciąż was part of the second independent republic of Poland.

While there is no precise information about the beginnings of Jewish settlement in Raciąż, there were Jewish families living in the town by the 1740s. The presence of 16 Jews is mentioned in 1736 and partial data indicate that two houses were transferred to Jewish ownership in the years 1815-1808.

By 1825 the settlement of Jews was limited to a special quarter. Only wealthy Jews could reside in other neighborhoods of the town. After the abolition of such restrictions by order of the Tzar in 1862, all Jewish families were allowed to settle and own real estate property in Raciąż at large.

The first Jewish settlers in Raciąż leased land (probably to harvest landowners' orchards and extract wood from their forests) and, as the settlement grew, Jewish breadwinners also engaged in trade and crafts. The craftsmen included tailors, hatters, shoemakers, carpenters and blacksmiths. A number of Jews made a living from small-scale industry as owners of liquor distilleries, an oil factory, a sawmill and several workshops for processing leather. Beginning in the 1920s, Raciąż had an organized Jewish community. There was a wooden Beit Midrash at that time. Until the 1850s the community was affiliated to the Radzanów community and the Jews of Raciąż buried their dead in the Radzanów cemetery. In the 1850s a cemetery was consecrated in Raciąż and a new synagogue was built in 1891 with public donations. There were also several shtiebels belonging to followers of the Hasidim of Ger (Góra Kalwaria), Zwoleń, Otwock, and Wołomin, as well as a shtiebel of the “Bnai Israel Hakdushim” Hasidim. The traditional societies were active in the community, including the Chevra Kadisha, Hachnasat Orchim, Bikur Holim, and Talmud Torah which took care of the education of the children from the poor. A Gemilot Hesed fund also operated in the town, giving interest-free loans to the needy.

Among the town's rabbis, we know the names of Issachar Barish Groibart, who served in Raciąż between 1878 and 1881 and later moved to the Przasnysz community. In 1883, Chaim Meshulam Koifman was appointed Rabbi of Raciąż and served there until 1894, when he moved to Gostynin. Rabbi Koifman became widely known thanks to his writings Petach Ohel (Revisions to Tractate Ohalot and Tumas Kohanim), Ma'asseh Rokem (on the laws about lung diseases) and Nes LaShoshanim (on the laws of Hanukkah and innovations on the Shabbat treatise). Reuven Yehuda Neufeld became Rabbi of Raciąż in 1894 and served until 1904, when he moved to Nowy Dwor. He was replaced in 1908 by his younger brother, Yosef Barish Neufeld, who was the last rabbi of Raciąż (died in the Holocaust). Between the two world wars, Yitzchak Mordechai Zlotnik, a distinguished scholar of the community, served as dayan.

During the First World War, hundreds of Jewish refugees from destroyed neighboring towns joined the ranks of the needy in Raciąż. With the help of the “Joint”, a community kitchen was established to distribute hot meals to the poor Jews. Around the same years, a hospital with dozens of beds was also established. An important factor in the development of the town was the railroad, which was built during the war years and shortened the travel time from Raciąż to Warsaw.

Until the First World War, most Jewish children studied in heders and the older ones in the small Yeshiva of the Beit Midrash. A few years before the war, a private elementary school was founded and run by Haim Goldenberg. The impact of the Enlightenment had been visible in Raciąż since the 1860s. Young Jews founded the Old Language Appreciation Association, which organized evening lessons for learning Hebrew. The Association Tefirat Chorim (Glory of the Free) was established in the 1890s under the influence of the socialist movement. It included youngsters who worked in crafts and studied in the Beit Midrash. In 1905, the association joined the Zionist socialist party Poalei Zion.

With the resumption of Polish rule in 1918, units of General Haller's army occupied Raciąż. Under their influence, local thugs set fire to Jewish houses. The event resulted in increased Jewish emigration, mainly young people going to Western countries. During the Polish-Soviet war in 1920, the Red Army occupied Raciąż for a while. After the withdrawal of the Red Army, the Jews of Raciąż restored their workshops and commercial activities. During the economic recession of 1932, rationing was imposed on the town. Several houses as well as the old wooden Beit Midrash were destroyed in a big fire. A new Beit Midrash was built with public funds and the reconstruction of the town was completed in 1934.

During the interwar period most of the Jews of Raciąż continued to make a living from trade and crafts. In addition to the Gemilot Hesed fund, other institutions for mutual aid and economic assistance operated in the town, including the Credit Bank and a branch of Agudat Israel's Merchants' Bank. In 1934, a local branch of the “Union of Jewish Craftsmen in Poland” was established in Raciąż.

After the First World War, almost all the Polish Jewish parties had branches in the town. The Zionist Organization was represented by the General Zionists, Poalei Zion and Mizrachi. By the early 1920s, several Zionist youth movements were also functioning in Raciąż, including Herzliya, Tzeirei Zion (1922) and Hehalutz. Their main focus was on Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language. More youth

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movements were established later, including Hashomer Hatzair (1927), Freiheit (Dror), Hashomer Haleumi, Tzeirei Mizrachi and Betar. In the elections to the 19th Zionist Congress held in 1935, the list Israel Haovedet received 325 votes, Mizrahi 114 votes, Al Hamishmar 31 votes and the coalition Time to Build 16 votes. The local branches of Agudat Israel and Agudat Israel Youth, based on the Ger Hasidim, concentrated their activities on the community institutions and their educational system. At that time, most of the Jews of Raciąż were religious and traditional. The management of the community was dominated by representatives of Agudat Israel, but the influence of the Zionists was also considerable.

In the 1931 internal elections for the committee of the Jewish community, the seats were distributed as follows: Agudat Israel 4, General Zionists 3, and Poalei Zion (Right) 1. The results of the following and last elections for the committee, held in 1936, were as follows: Agudat Israel 5 seats, Poalei Zion 2, and General Zionists 1.

During the interwar period, new Jewish schools were founded in Raciąż. In 1922, a public school was established by the Tarbut Foundation and, in the same year, Agudat Israel opened a Beit Yaakov school for girls. There were also cultural activities for adults. Beit Tarbut ran a drama group, an orchestra, and a Jewish library. A sports club, Hapoel, was also organized in those years.

The general anti-Semitic atmosphere prevalent in Poland during the 1930s was felt in Raciąż. The economic boycott on Jewish trade and crafts weighed heavily on the Jews of the town. Many shopkeepers and owners of stalls who sold wares to farmers on market days lost their livelihood.

Raciąż was occupied by the Germans on September 6, 1939. As soon as they entered the town, German soldiers harassed the Jews and looted their shops. Local Poles and Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) were involved in those actions. In one incident, the Germans shot at the Jews in the market square and hit several of them. The mayor appointed by the Germans, a Volksdeutsche called Toderung, was known as a hater of the Jews. The anti-Jewish decrees and persecutions intensified by the end of September 1939. The members of the community had to wear a yellow patch on their clothes and, on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Germans ordered the Jews to cut their beards. The next morning the Jews of Raciąż were taken out of their homes and forced to spend Yom Kippur sweeping the streets of the town. Compulsory labor, abuses and humiliations were repeated every day. On Sukkot, Rabbi Yosef Berish Neufeld and the community secretary Binyamin Yankilevich were brought to the municipal office and told by the SS that all the Jews of Raciąż would have to leave the town within four days. The deportation was canceled after the Jews paid a ransom of 25,000 zlotys to the German governor who was sitting in Sierpc. A month later, the Germans imposed another payment that the Jews of Raciąż had to pay in full. With the annexation of Raciąż to the Third Reich, the Germans decided to expel the Jews from the town. On November 9, 1939, the Jews were evicted from their homes. The men were taken to the Beit Midrash and the women to the synagogue. The Germans ordered the Jews to hand over all the money and valuables in their possession. On the following day, the SS men led the Raciąż Jews to the train station. At the head of the procession marched the orchestra of the Polish firefighters. At the station, the deportees were packed into freight cars and driven towards Warsaw. At the Pomiechówek train station, the Germans took the deportees off the train because a bridge had been bombed. The journey continued on foot. Some of the Jews of Raciąż remained in Pomiechówek and Nowy Dwor, but most of them ended up in Warsaw. They would eventually share the fate of the Jews of the places to where they had been deported.

Yad Vashem Archives: 03/725.
Central Military Archives: Z-4/3569, S-5/1801.
Gal'ed le-ḳehilat Ratsyonz [Memorial book of Raciąż], Tel Aviv, 1964.
“Haynt” (Warsaw Yiddish newspaper): 18-4-1922, 4-11-1928, 16-6-1930, 7-5-1931, 9-11-1934, 30-7-1935, 25-8-1939.
“Hatzfirah” (Warsaw Hebrew newspaper: 13-8-1890.
“Togblat” (Wloclawek Yiddish newspaper): 1-9-1936.

Translator's note

After the war, abou ten Jewish survivors returned to Raciąż. They were young men and women, aged 18-20, who temporarily settled down in a pre-war Jewish house on 28 Zielona Street while they prepared to emigrate to Mandatory Palestine. On the night of August 13, 1945, the house was attacked by armed members of a Polish underground right-wing militia who demanded valuables and began shooting. Five people were killed and three were injured. Only one of the young Jewish women managed to escape, jumping out of a window and seeking shelter among neighbors. The wounded were taken to the Płońsk hospital, where they were refused help and had to lie down by the wall of the building until the city manager of Płońsk finally ordered the hospital to provide assistance. The crime was investigated by the district authorities from Sierpc and the Ministry of Security. Nobody was ever held accountable. Sources: Helena Bodek, Jak tropione zwierzęta, Wspomnienia [Hunted like animals, Memoirs], Krakow, 1993, pp. 148-151; Adam Dariusz Kotkiewicz, “Mord na Żydach w Raciążu w Sierpniu 1945” [Murder of Jews in Raciąż in August 1945], Notatki Płockie, 2011, 4/229, pp. 38-43.

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