Part 2 - THE STETLS - April 2014

The next morning we all set of together in Jakub’s car & drove to CHMIELNIK, (Yiddish CHMELNIK) where we visited the rebuilt Synagogue which is now a Museum, & met the Curator Piotr KRAWCZYK, who showed us round the exhibition. We were very taken not just by the thought & care used in the reconstruction of the Synagogue itself, but also in the many artefacts of previous JEWISH life in the area prior to WWII. Most of all we were impressed by the passion, thoughtfulness & dedication expressed by Piotr & his staff.

CHMIELNIK SYNAGOGUE SIGN

This was a truly memorable start to our quest. The centrepiece is a reproduction of the original BIMAH, to a slightly smaller size, built in glass, which must be unique. When you go upstairs to what was the women’s section, the space forward of the balcony has been built over, however there is a glass portion over the BIMAH, with the lights from downstairs shining through the GLASS BIMAH, in a quite magical & uplifting manner.

CHMIELNIK SYNAGOGUE GLASS BIMAH JOAN & DEREK

CHMIELNIK SYNAGOGUE WALL & SAFER TORAH

Outside there is a pathway to a memorial of the JEWISH people from CHMIELNIK, & the surrounding small villages who were taken on the transports to the death camps.

Unusually the town was home to Polish Protestants in the 16^th & 17^th centuries. More unusual still was the fact that SEPHARDIC JEWS who had been expelled from SPAIN were granted the privilege of living in CHMIELNIK, & took over the houses when the Protestants were expelled in 1658.

In 1939 the total population was 12,500 of whom 10,275 were Jews i.e. 80% of the population

In 2012 the total population is 4,005 & there isn’t a single Jew living there

Our second SHTETL was the town of POLANIEC [pɔˈwaɲet͡s] (Yiddish Name PLONTCH) close by the VISTULA River, where my Zaide Peretz GARBER (or Perec GERBER in POLISH) & his family came from. JEWISH people have been documented in POLANIEC since 1579. In 1765 they were given the right of permanent residence & permitted to open workshops.

The majority of the Jews were CHASSIDIM & belonged to the PRISSKER dynasty, though this sect seems to have died out after the SHOAH. Nothing is left of the old town & there is no evidence of JEWISH life in what is now a backwater of Polish life, & if it weren’t for a vast power station, where most of the current inhabitants work, there would be little reason for its existence. Though it has a pleasant old market square, most of the buildings are post WWII, we did however find one wooden house that was a good example of what JEWISH families would have lived in. The house had a very narrow frontage, & as the family grew it would be extended at the back to make room for the children.

POLANIEC WOODEN HOUSE

 The site of BETH HAMIDRASH, is a new building which though it has no sign on it belongs to the JEHOVAS WITNESS’S, who have very small presence in POLAND. At the back, & to the side of the old BETH HAMIDRASH & CHEDER is the site of the old SYNAGOGUE, though there are no vestiges of its existence. Likewise thought the sites of both the CEMETERY & MIKVAH, have been established, no sign of their existence has been found. Very disappointing. Despite this I have now found an illustration of a Lino Cut of the Wooden Synagogue in PLONTCH.

POLANIEC SITE OF BETH HAMIDRASH 

POLANIEC SITE OF SYNAGOGUE

POLANIEC SYNAGOGUE LINOCUT

POLANIEC SITE OF MIKVAH

POLANIEC SITE OF CEMETERY

Of the nearly 2,000 Jews who lived in POLANIEC at the beginning of WWII, only 64 survived, of these the BERGER family, who returned to POLANIEC after the war, were murdered by their Polish neighbours.

YIDDISH NAME-PLONTCH

POPULATION 

1900 Jews 1,221 Poles ????

1939 Jews 1,861 Poles ????

1942 Jews 2,000 Poles 2,000

2012 Jews NIL    Poles 8,406

After lunch we drove to STASZOW, (YIDDISH STASHIV) which was an important town for the area, with a busy market held in the main square. We found where Abbish GOLDGRAB lived at No. 23 in the large main square, but later found that the house & its immediate neighbours had been destroyed, probably by artillery fire when the RUSSIANS re-took the town form the GERMANS,

STASZOW MAIN SQUARE

STASZOW ABBISH GOLDGRAB SITE of HOUSE

We met Andrej WAWRYIAK, who showed us around the town & took us to the building where the SYNAGOGUE had been & we read the plaques on the entrance.

STASZOW SITE OF SYNAGOGUE

STASZOW SITE OF SYNAGOGUE PLAQUES

Next door to the SYNAGOGUE, at No.9 was where another of the GOLDGRAB Family had lived, but again this was a new building since WWII.

Andrew also took us behind No. 23 where Abbish GOLDGRAB had lived, but again this was all post WWII. However a little further along the street we did find an original wooden entrance door to the old original building, which was no doubt similar to the one Abbish had lived in.

STASZOW ABBISH GOLDGRAB REAR

DEREK WITH JAKUB IN STASZOW HOUSE ENTRANCE

STASZOW HOUSE ON SQUARE 

We then went slightly out of town to where the Jewish Cemetery is. Here a number of MATZEVOT (Headstones), which were rescued from various places the GERMANS & their POLISH collaborators took them, & these have been placed throughout the cemetery. These don’t’ mark the grave of the person on the Headstone, as they are buried in now unknown parts of the Cemetery. There are also some new Headstones that commemorate the members of one family who were murdered by the GERMANS in the SHOAH.

STASZOW CEMETERY HEADSTONES

STASZOW CEMETERY

STASZOW CEMETERY NEW HEADSTONE

STASZOW CEMETERY AIZENBERG

Finally we visited the STASZOW Museum, which is housed in the basement of a GOMULKA era block of flats, & is run by volunteers. Though there is only one significant Jewish exhibit here, it is very important, as it is a Torah Scroll.

DEREK WITH TORAH IN STASZOW

The story is that when the GERMANS together with their LATVIAN & UKRANIAN stooges sent the last of the Jews of STASZOW to their deaths in TREBLINKA, they then ripped everything out of the SYNAGOGUE & made a huge bonfire in the Main Square. Having now done their “duty” they lost interest & went away leaving the bonfire burning. Watching the bonfire, together with most of the POLES in STASZOW was a young boy, who saw something that hadn’t yet caught fire, which he rescued & took home & hid. Over 60 years later when the Museum opened, he secretly gave the TORAH SCROLL that he had recued from the fire, to the Museum on condition of his anonymity. Well that’s the story, & we’ve certainly seen it. Andrej who we spent the afternoon with, is fine person & showed us his personal scrapbook, where despite loosing a leg he cycled alone from STASZOW to ROME & had an audience with POPE John Paul.

That night we went to the PALACE Hotel in KUROZWEKI, & despite a classical façade, which is the best feature of the hotel, there is nothing else worth saying about the accommodation or food.

KUROOZWEKI PALACE

The next day at Jakubs suggestion we drove to SANDOMIERZ, (Yiddish TZOIZMIR) which is built on a hill, overlooking the VISTULA River, & has the usual town square with mainly post WWII buildings. The main reason for coming here is that the SYNAGOGUE, which still stands is used as the main Archives for Vital Records for the area, which includes all the SHTETLS that my Mothers Family lived in. These are not the JEWISH records, which were of course nearly all destroyed but the Civil Records, which include both JEWS & Poles, & this is where Jakub has done much of his research. Unfortunately the interior of the Synagogue hasn’t been restored, & all we were allowed to see by the officious & unhelpful Pole, was to look through a partially opened door at was just piles of documents on shelves.

SANDOMIERZ MAIN SQUARE

SANDOMIERZ SYNAGOGUE

Its likely JEWS first arrived in SANDOMIERZ in the 13^th Century, & by 1857 there were 980 JEWS living there, comprising 29% of the population. By 1900 this had increased to 3,890 Jews comprising 54% of the population, living mainly round the Main Square, plus ZYDOWSKA Street (Jewish Street), currently called BASZTOWA Street. Prior to WWII the JEWISH population had decreased to 2,437, because of emigration, whilst there were 7,879 POLES. This figure increased to 5,200 Jews when the GHETTO was established in 1942, & Jews from the surrounding SHTETLS were brought in, of whom only a few dozen survived the SHOAH, however they left after post WWII POGRAM’S. Today no JEWS live in SANDOMIERZ.

SANDOMIERZ MEMORIAL

SANDOMIERZ WALL OF MAZOVIOT

After having a coffee in the main square we left & drove to OPATOW (Called APT or APTA in YIDDISH)

Apparently according to Jakub, most of my Mothers various Families, the GARBER’S, the KATZ’S, & the GOLDGRAB’S must at sometime have lived in OPATOW, though at this point we have no proof of this. Once again we saw the mainly rebuilt market square, & once again this had a modern depiction of the well from which water was drawn.

OPATOW MANI SQUARE

OPATOW MAIN SQUARE WATER WELL

OPATOW SYNAGOGUE

The main thing to see is the JEWISH CEMETERY, which was destroyed as most of the others during WWII. This one has been set up in 2012 & unfortunately a Kindergarten which was next to it, opened a playground over part of the cemetery. After intervention from the CHIEF RABBI of POLAND, this has subsequently moved off the cemetery property. Of the SYNAGOGUE, which was on the main Square there is no sign, nor even a plaque.

OPATOW CEMETERY ENTRANCE

Our next port of call, was LAGOW (Yiddish LAGIF),

LAGOW TOWN SIGN

which to me being my Mothers Birthplace was the most important of the whole trip. LAGOW is on the main road between SANDOMIERZ & KIELCE & only a few miles north of STASZOW. Our first stop was the usual main square & in particular No.13 where Edward CRTRYNSKI lives.

EDWARD CRTRYNSKI with DEREK

HOME of  EDWARD CRTRYNSKI 

HOME of EDWARD CRTRYNSKI

Edward who is 81 years old remembers the war years & what things were like for both the JEWS & the POLES. He was also able to tell us where the SYNAGOGUE, MIKVAH, & CEMETERY were. These were only established in 1878, together with the KEHILLAH (Jewish Religious Community) as before this there was a formal ban on Jews permanently settling there, though Jewish merchants had been allowed to sell their wares in the market from 1827. Previously these Jews belong to the OPATOW KEHILLA (though as previously stated, we haven’t as yet found any proof of our family there).

The SYNAGOGUE, which was a wooden structure, stood at the top of the main square on the same side where Edward lives, & is currently a shop, housed in an old wooden building.

LAGOW SITE of SHUL 

The MIKVAH is lower down the hill in what is now a post WWII building that is now a Visitors information Centre.

LAGOW SITE of MIKVAH

Before leaving the town we found a number of old wooden houses that were probably similar to what my family lived in over 100 years ago.

LAGOW OLD WOODEN HOUSE

LAGOW OLD WOODEN HOUSE NEXT DOOR TO OLD MIKVAH

The JEWISH CEMETERY is in a small wooded area a couple of miles out of town. Jakub found the remains of part of a Headstone, but other than that there was no other indication of what this was. Very disappointing.

LAGOW OLD CEMETERY

LAGOW OLD CEMETERY HEADSTONE

According to what I’ve learned, its probable that my Mother, her Siblings & Parents walked from LAGOW to KIELCE, (abt 38 km) & then caught the train from there to KALISZ, on through KONIN, POZNAN to BERLIN, & from there to HAMBURG, which is a total of just under another 950km.

POPULATION 

1897 Jews 1,233 Poles ????

1921 Jews 1,269 Poles ????

1939 Jews 1,861 Poles ????

2012 Jews NIL    Poles 8,406

On our way to KIELCE we passed a small village called MAKOSZYN, though we didn’t bother to stop, as we knew that it was very small, & there was no likelihood of any JEWISH remains. This is the village that Gecel GOLDGRAB lived in, & its possible that he was the innkeeper, as many JEWISH people who lived in small villages, which had a very small JEWISH population were.

We arrived KIELCE in mid-afternoon, & drove through what was the largest town we had been to since leaving KRAKOW. The current population is over 200,000 & is an important city with a main railway line connecting it to WARSZAWA.

At the beginning of the 20^th Century KIELCE had a Population 23,200 of which 6,400 were Jewish, by the beginning of WWII there were 24,000 Jews out of a total of 70,000.

Like most other towns & cities in Occupied Europe the Jews were Murdered by the GERMANS & their willing accomplices. The SYNAGOGUE was used as a prison during the war, & abandoned after the war by the Communists. In the 1970’s the attached MIKVAH & RABBI’S home were destroyed by fire. It is now used as a State Archive.

KIELCE SYNAGOGUE

What separate’s KIELCE from other Polish towns is the degree of anti-Semitism, not only were there POGROMS here before the WWII, but after it as well. No JEWS survived the war & were still living there at the end of the war, however when survivors of the death camps came back to KIELCE in the summer of 1946 & some 200 were housed in a property at 7 Planty Street owned by the JEWISH Committee, riots started by a POLISH boy lying to his father, about being kidnapped by JEWISH people, resulted in the worst massacre of Jews in POLAND after WWII. At least 45 JEWISH people were murdered by the POLISH mob, & the mass exodus of JEWS from POLAND is attributed to this barbarous act on defenceless survivors of the SHOAH by the POLES.

KIELCE POGROM SITE

KIELCE POGROM SITE ADDRESS PLAQUE

KIELCE POGROM SITE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE

We stayed overnight in a large suite in the Best Western Hotel just opposite the station, which was convenient for our departure the next day by train to WARSZAWA.

For ease of understanding below see a map of the various partitions of POLAND

PARTITION of POLAND