Old history of Jewish settlement in Janów

The Jewish community of Janów developed in the first half of the 17th century.[1.1] The first Jews settled there after 1620, and they belonged to the Pinsk county.[1.2] Political and military events of the mid-17th century exerted negative influence on the development of the Jewish community. The Jewish community suffered during the Khmelnytsky uprising and the invasion of the Cossacks, and also as a result of military activities between the Russo-Ukrainian and Republic of Poland armies. In the 18th century, Janowo county enlarged numerically and strengthened economically. Jews were occupied with trade, land lease, and alcohol production. The census of 1765 listed 422 Jews in the town and its environs.[1.3] In the 19th century, the Karlin-Stolin and Lubieszow Hasidic dynasties have gained the support of Jews from Janów. The majority, however, became faithful to the Mitnaggedim. In 1847, 1,283 Jews (56 percent of the population) had lived there. The economic and financial life of the Jews revolved around the market square, where all stores were Jewish-owned. Prosperous merchants exported products such as “Lithuanian” butter. In the second half of the 19th century, Jews were mainly occupied with petty trade and various handicrafts. They were famous in the area as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, furriers, etc. Wealthy Jews achieved success in wood trade. Fires had caused considerable losses in the town and in the life of the Jewish community. In the 1890s, fire had consumed 50 Jewish homes.[1.4] The second half of the 19th century was a time of industrial development in the town. Jewish entrepreneurs played leading role. In 1868, the merchant Awsej Lejser Wołowelski established a winery in the town. Besides that, two brickyards, two tanneries, and a vinegar factory were created in Janów at that time. Two Jews, Wołowelski (employed five workers) and the townsman Chławn Ginzberg, owned the brickyards. Józef Wołowelski and Itzchak Garbarz, both of whom were Jewish, owned the tanneries. In 1879, Abram Itzke, a Jew, opened a factory that produced vinegar and spirit. The products were sold in and around the town.[1.5] In 1897, the Jewish community enlarged to 1,875 people, constituting 62 percent of Janów’s population.[1.6] Jews held leading positions in the town’s economy. A mill, large sawmill, butter manufacture, tannery, and a small power plant, all belonged to entrepreneurial Jews. The numerous artisans occupied an important place in the Jewish community. Jews from Janów processed animal hair and furs; they worked as tailors, cobblers, furriers, hatters, carpenters, builders, masons, tinsmiths, locksmiths, and smiths.[1.7] A separate group of Jews comprised those called “handeles.” They sold their products in villages, and bought farm products there. The development of the town and its economy facilitated Jews’ work in construction. They were also employed in sawmills, mills, and artisan workshops. Hassidim and their opponents divided the Jewish community between themselves, almost into two parts. At the beginning of the 20th century, six synagogues were active in the town. Societies that are specific to Jewish communities were also active in the shtetl. There were five of them before World War I. The Mishna Society had the most members; numbering some 50 men and 50 women. The gabbaim, Marcel and Ruben Dawidis, were among the members. Everyday after prayer, the Society’s members studied a portion of the Mishna (Jewish oral law). The Hevrat Lina Society numbered over 100 men and women. The Society’s members, who visited the sick, used to meet in the tailors’ synagogue (DeChaitim) annually. Members of the Psalm Book Society met regularly, even in the winter when there were terrible blizzards. Similar to other shtetls, the Jews of Janów had their Chevrah Kaddisha (Burial Society). Jewish entrepreneurs participated in charitable activities. The Tailors’ Synagogue and the Large Synagogue were lit with electric lanterns. The old Pomeranz donated them to all synagogues.[1.8] In Janów, there were cheders, in which the following people: Alter Feinstein, Zalman Chertok, Berl Eisenstein, Hershl Fisser, and Zvi Dobowski had taught.[1.9] A traditionally Jewish Talmud Torah was also active.[1.10] Some young Jewish men attended the local yeshiva. At the beginning of the 20th century, most Janów Jews were very religious. Unfortunately, with time, the life of the Jewish community succumbed to secularization and proletarization. Workers began to fight for their rights. Contemporary trends in education and new currents changed the life of the Jewish community. Teenagers enrolled in revolutionary parties and Zionist organizations; and the ideals of Bund, and Russian and Polish social-democracy became popular in the community. Similar to other towns throughout Polesie, Zionist associations were very active in Janów. The councilman Boruch Kapłan headed the townsmen council.[1.11] Before the outbreak of World War I, nearly 5,000 Jews had lived in Janów. Due to political and social-economic reasons, many of them tied their futures with leaving the town. A continuous stream of emigration from the shtetl flowed to Ukrainian towns. Many Jews immigrated to the United States. The German occupation during World War I was hard for the Jewish community. In 1915, when the Christians were deported en masse, or left by themselves, into deep Russia, the Jews remained in Janów. Jewish schools were closed and converted into military hospitals. Municipal offices were located in synagogues. The military police allowed for prayers in private homes. The Germans created groups composed of young people, who performed non-paid forced labor. In 1915-1918, some Jewish families managed to survive thanks to land abandoned by the peasants, who were resettled into Russia in the course of military actions.[1.12] Many Jews became farmers; they even attempted to receive additional plots of land.[1.13]

The interwar period

A census conducted in 1921, showed the 1,988 Jews had lived in Janów (they constituted 65 percent of the population).[1.14] Jewish merchants had quickly renewed their positions, weakened by the wars. Revival of industry began with the advent of peace in the town. The sawmill and mill “Gorbór” belonged to Selman Gorodecki and Samuel Burstein. They were built in 1918, and were located on T. Kościuszko Street. The power plant supplied electricity to the town and the Janów Poleski railroad station. In 1934, 95 people were employed in the enterprises owned by Gorodecki and Burstein.[1.15] Besides “Gorbór,” other sawmills and mills, as well as bakeries owned by Jewish entrepreneurs existed in Janów and its environs. Jewish entrepreneurs invested in new technologies, which allowed expecting profits in the future. A powerhouse, operated by two workers, was active near Chaim Pomerantz’s mill. The entrepreneur had bought the mill from the nobleman Piotr Szałkowski, the owner of the Bronne estate. The power station turned out to be a profitable investment. Sawmill dust served as electricity-generating material, and with that the powerhouse supplied electricity to 427 merchants from the town. At the end of 1937, the income of the enterprise comprised 2,500 zł monthly.[1.16] The activities of many Jewish companies focused on the new railway station. Jewish merchants from Janów took advantage of the town’s convenient geographical location. The road connecting Pinsk with Brest was also conducive to trade. It was used to export wood, wheat, and large horned cattle to Central Poland and farther, through Gdańsk – to the West.[1.17] The town’s Jews possessed hotels and restaurants. One of Gadomski’s popular places was located near the Janów Poleski station.[1.18] The town had suffered greatly as a result of fires. The fire that broke out in 1929 had caused particularly big losses. The fire damaged, in whole or in part, 75 Jewish-owned buildings. The consequences of this fire proved tragic for 120 Jewish families, which were left without roofs over their heads. The losses incurred by the Jewish community constituted the equivalent of 1.5 million zł. The Jewish district was renovated only in the first half of the 1930s. Many houses that were destroyed by the fire were also renovated.[1.1.4] Zionists held a rather strong position in the Jewish community. Lectures open to the public, and attended by young people representing various movements and Zionist ideologies, were presented in the town. The town’s youth belonged to Hechalutz, Hashomer Hatsair, and Betar. The Shomer Haleumi (Noar Hatzioni) movement was created in Janów in 1928, merely a year after the one in Warsaw. Zionist organizations led wide-ranging educational and cultural activities among the shtetl’s residents. Teachers from the Tarbut school used Hebrew to attract the youth. From 1929, the sawmill owned by the two Jewish entrepreneurs, Gorodecki and Burstein, served as a training ground for the Jewish youth of the town and its area.[1.19] There were also Bundists in Janów. In the 1930s, they organized marches against antisemitic excesses in Poland. Part of the Jewish population belonged to Polish political parties. Some young Jews belonged to illegal units of the Communist Party of Western Belorussia and Komsomol. Polish police spied on Szymel Elsztern, the town’s resident, suspecting him of directing a Communist cell in Janów and leading anti-government activity.[1.20] The interwar years were a time of flourishing of the Jewish community in Janów. Various Jewish organizations and cultural and educational institutions were active there. The Tarbut school was open. Wonderful teachers, for example the poet and translator Berl Pomerantz, had taught there.[1.21] There was also a Jewish Community in the Polesie voivodeship. On this territory, Jewish Communities were created based on the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland from 28 October 1925.[1.22]

The shtetl under the Soviet regime (1939-1941)

The beginning of World War II is a tragic page in the lives of Janów’s Jews. Many of them were drafted to the Polish Army. The physician Szymon Szmułowicz, who had practiced in Janów, served as a doctor in the Polish Army and died during the September 1939 campaign.[1.23] In September 1939, the Red Army occupied the town. Immediately following the appointment of a new Soviet regime, the planned liquidation of Jewish communal and religious offices, as well as of political organizations, had begun. The Soviet administration, in the process of Russification, changed the name of the place from “Janów” to Ivanovo. Similarly, names of streets were also changed. Tadeusz Kościuszko Street received an irrelevant name – Pierwszomajowa (First of May) in honor of all working people’s holiday. In fall 1939, a Soviet administration was set up. The new government led a diverse activity aiming at the Sovietization of social, economic, and cultural life. Soviet clerks, physicians, and teachers were brought to territories occupied by the Soviets. The new government enforced the replacement of identification documents, forcing the citizens of the Second Polish Republic to accept Soviet citizenship. Those, who did not want to do it, suffered from repressions.[1.24] Jewish children who had gone to Polish school began to attend Soviet school. Siergiej Rosenberg recalled that all children knew each other well and were friends.[1.25] In the interwar period, one could feel strong antisemitic atmosphere, which did not disappear with the arrival of the Soviets. Rumors spread that during Soviet elections it was better no to elect Jews because they would defend the Jewish population and stand on its side.[1.26] The Soviet administration conducted nationalization of property, in the course of which the Jewish population was bereft of its commercial and industrial enterprises. The activities of Zionist organizations were banned. Soviet anti-religion politics prohibited the activities of traditional Jewish societies, both religious and social. The “bourgeois element” was subject to arrests and exile to the East. Twenty wealthy Jewish families were deported.[1.27] In 1939, 2,938 Jews had lived in the town. The town’s Jewish population had considerably increased. Similar to other towns, families of Jewish refugees arrived in the town from the territories of the Second Polish Republic that had been already occupied by the Nazis. In total, 343 refugees, mainly Jews, came to the town. The situation in the town became complicated because not all refugees managed to find work. Housing problems existed, but the situation was not critical because Jews could settle in with their co-nationals’ families or they received temporary housing.[1.28] Simultaneously, in other towns of the then Soviet Western Belorussia, for example in Slonim, refugees had to live in synagogues, warehouses, and other rooms, inappropriate for normal existence.[1.29] The labor situation was tough – some 100 refugees were listed as unemployed. A Jewish tenant and refugee, who came from Poland in September 1939, had lived with Siergiej Rosenberg’s family. In 1940, the Rosenberg family received 3 ha of land located 5 km away from the town.[1.30]

The Holocaust

The Germans occupied Janów on 27 June 1941.[1.31] On the third day of the war, two German tanks, which had later turned around, drove through Red Partisans Street from the side of Drohiczyn. At night, there was shooting in the town, and Wehrmacht soldiers had entered the town in early morning. The first action of exterminating the Jews took place already in the first month of the occupation. At the beginning of July 1941, the Nazis called on all Jewish men (mainly horse-cart drivers and artisans) to appear with their wagons. They were supposed to transport cargo some 12-15 km from the town. The transport was divided into two groups. The first group returned thanks to the help of one of the Germans, who had advised the Jews to immediately come back. After the second group had fulfilled its work, the Jews were shot to death.[1.1.30] Jews were tormented, and forced to wear yellow patches on their chests and backs. At the beginning of August 1941, another action took place. Policemen and Germans surrounded Janowo. All Jews were herded into a square next to the Eastern Orthodox church. They were let home only in the morning. It was rumored that leaders from Pinsk would come to give a talk. In reality, they were waiting for the Sonderkommando which was supposed to shoot adult Jews. The perpetrators stopped near Pinsk, murdering Jews there. The extermination of Jews from Janów took place most likely within the “Pripyat Swamps” or “Pripiatsee” action. It was aimed against civilians who lived in the Brest, Pinsk, Polesie, and Minsk regions, rather than against Red Army units, which the Germans had encircled. The action took place between 19 July and 31 August 1941, on order of the Reich Commissar, Heinrich Himmler. An SS cavalry brigade of the 162nd and 252nd infantry division was used, commanded by the Supreme Commander of SS and Police of the rear Army “Center” group, SS-Gruppenfuhrer Bach-Zelewski.[1.32] An SS subunit, which came to the town pretending to be a Red Cross commission, as well as local policemen, carried out the raid. Those who attempted to hide or escape were shot on spot. Part of the Jewish population harvested the fields that day. Someone had informed the perpetrators about this. Pinia Garbar and his 18-year-old daughter, Rochl, hid in the field, but the Nazis found them and immediately shot them. Rosenberg’s father and refugees from Poland were chased from the field to the square.[1.33] Three hundred eighty Jewish men over 16 years old were taken out of the town and shot in the Borowica forest landmark. According to other sources, this execution took place on 5 August 1941, and about 800 men were murdered. The Germans took them 3-4 km outside of the town on the Ivanovo-Pinsk road, and shot them 100 m away on the right side of the road (this place is today called Polivka or Gorelice). According to official Soviet information, about 400 people were murdered in the Borowica forest landmark in August 1941.[1.34] Looting of Jewish property had begun after the actions. The Nazis announced that Jews ought to give the occupation authorities their entire cattle (horses, cows, sheep, and goats) in two weeks.[1.35] The Rosenberg family handed over their cow, which gave much milk, to a neighbor, who owned a cold cut factory. In return, the neighbor gave the Rosenbergs meat and sausage, and the Nazis took away this man’s gaunt cow. The Rosenbergs exchanged a horse-drawn cart with one of the peasants for food: butter and potatoes.[1.1.30] At that time, all Jews who lived in the countryside in the Janowo area were being murdered. The Jews from Janów had found out about the fate met by the Jewish community of Motol from those who had survived the massacre.[1.36] A few managed to survive the murder of Motol’s Jews. They moved to Janów, and they were locked in the ghetto. A Judenrat existed in the town. Alter Dziwiński was appointed its president. He had served as the community’s leader before the war. He was able to organize well the supply of food and medicine for the ghetto. Later, the Nazis killed him because he refused to participate in pre-execution “selections” of ghetto inmates.[1.37] The Nazis began to establish the ghetto on the eve of Passover in 1942. It was created in the center of the town, in houses adhering to the market square, Soviet Street, and the mill. The Jewish population had lived there before the war. The ghetto was surrounded with barbed wire, and local police guarded the ghetto’s two gates round the clock. Prisoners were used for forced labor. These were able-bodied people, like teenagers such as Siergiej Rosenberg and his sister Ida.[1.1.30] Two Jewish doctors, Zalberg and Włodawski, worked in the town’s hospital. The Nazis had to reckon with the fact that two out of three physicians in the town were Jewish. The exact number of ghetto inmates in Janów is unknown. According to some data, there were about 2,000 – 3,500 people (including Jews brought there from nearby villages).[1.38] A full-fledged action of exterminating the ghetto inmates took place in June 1942. Five trains (containing mainly Jews) arrived in the Góra Bronna station. The second (combined) train numbered 46 cars, and brought inmates from Drohiczyn, Janów, and Grodziec.[1.39] The cars were overcrowded; no less than 200 people were crammed into each.[1.40] The final liquidation of the ghetto in Janów was conducted in September 1942. SS and SD forces, as well as Polish and Ukrainian collaborators were used for that purpose.[1.41] In early morning on 26 September 1942, police surrounded the ghetto. The perpetrators brought the ghetto’s inmates into the town square. Those people consisted of skilled male workers, the elderly, women, and children. The executioners ordered the people to set in columns and, under increased security, they led them to the execution place located en route to the Rudsk village. Everything had taken place by noon. The ditches were already dug out in the forest near Rudsk – on 24-25 September 1942, the Nazis ordered local peasants to fulfill the task. The execution place was located 4 km away from Janów and 2 km west of the Rudsk village, and 200 m south of the railroad. Maria Kurłowicz and Raisa Kulicz, witnesses to the events, recollected that it was as if the town became extinct that day. The ghetto’s inmates had walked calmly to meet their fate. Mothers drew their children to their breasts. Those in love walked hugging. When the doomed were led into the forest, several people tried to escape. The Nazis shot at them. People were ordered to completely undress; and there was frost. In groups, Jews were taken in front of the pits.[1.42] With German precision, the inmates were placed in the ditches, and then shot. The shoes and clothing of the murdered were, after initial selection, sent to Germany.[1.43] The commission for the investigation of Nazi crimes established that nearly 2,000 people were shot to death that day in the forest near Rudsk.[1.44] The inhabitants of the village had heard the screams and rumble of the shots, but it was only a few days later that they had found out about the fate of Jews from Janów.[1.45] The liquidation of the ghetto continued the next day. On 27 September 1942, mass executions on the territory of the ghetto accompanied the actions. The Nazis murdered people, whom they were unable to take in the Rudsk area. There were many elderly people, women, and children among them. Prior to the execution, people were ordered to remove their clothing and their shoes. After the execution, the Nazis had taken those things.[1.46] Siergiej Rosenberg hid in a village near the town. He recalled how in the evening he looked, crying, at the fire in the ghetto. Shots were audible. People hid in basements, attics, dugouts underneath houses, and in other secret places. The Nazis and their supporters from the police had poured gasoline on houses in the ghetto, and set them on fire. Many people burned alive. The smoke and fire were supposed to force people out of their shelters. Women tried to help their children by smuggling them over the bared wire; they hoped that Christians would save them. Unfortunately, the perpetrators, who encircled the area, threw those children into fire. On 27 September 1942, about 1,500 ghetto inmates, mainly women and children, had died. The occupation authorities ordered the local population to lay the corpses on carts, transport them, and bury them in the forest near Rudsk. This time the Nazis did not murder the 62 artisans, but did that in mid-October 1942.[1.1.31] In 1944, Soviet prisoners of war were forced to uncover the mass graves and, after laying logs in-between them, to burn the corpses. Realizing that the end of the war was approaching, the Nazis tried to hide the traces of their crimes in Janów and its environs. Units of the Red Army liberated the town on 16 July 1944. During the occupation, the Jewish community in Janów had ceased to exist. Most Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their supporters. In total, between 3,150 and 3,500 Jews were murdered in Janów. Presumably, Jews from the Janów county are included in this number. The staff of the State Commission (ГЧК) had indicated that it was impossible to compose a name list of those murdered and shot by the Nazis, because on this territory the occupiers had “shot the entire Jewish population to its root.”[1.47]

After the Shoah

According to some information, about 100 former ghetto inmates survived.[1.48] Some Jews escaped to the forest and joined partisan units. The partisan Mejłech Bakałscuk-Felin testified that a Jewish camp consisting of 16 people was attacked in the Janów Poleski area. Only one person escaped to the partisans.[1.49] During the occupation, in the Janów area, the Nazis had murdered both Jewish escapees from the ghetto and refugees who happened to come there. The victims were of various ages, mainly many young people from families that were murdered in the town. The four Reznik brothers, two Szuster brothers, a brother and sister Batlin, and the Remlents had failed to find shelter in the forest.[1.50] Siergiej Rosenberg was able to survive the ghetto. He served as a shepherd boy at one of the peasant families. Kostia, a Belorussian, had warned him that police was looking for him. Siergiej found shelter at Denis Kondraszuk’s home. He was fed and hidden in a shed. He sat there quietly, for about 10 days. The farmer, his wife, and daughters had brought Siergiej food everyday. The Kondraszuks’ neighbors from other hamlets and villages (Nowe Klonki and Strzelnia) used to visit them. They did not know that a young Jew was hiding there. Siergiej observed the visitors from the shed and feared that they would find him. One day, Denis Kondraszuk called Siergiej to the house. He told him to put on peasant clothing, gave him a bag with food, and took him to the forest and showed him the way frequented by partisans. In 1998, Denis and Maria Kondraszuk received the title “Righteous among the Nations.”[1.51] Sonia Kirz, one of the few young women, survived the ghetto. In an effort to avoid being burnt alive, she hid, but was found and caught. The perpetrators took her together with other Jews into the courtyard of the synagogue. They fired at her, but she was not killed. Sonia managed to get out from underneath the corpses, crossed to another courtyard, and then exited the town. She found the partisan unit named after Siergiej Łazo from the Molotov brigade. She became a nurse. She met her future husband, Judel Reznik, among the partisans.[1.52] After World War II, there were no more Jews in Janów.[1.1.48] Survivors generally did not return to their hometown. Siergiej Rosenberg left to Kherson in Ukraine. Sonia Kirz-Reznik and her husband went to Poland, and then to Israel.[1.53]