The first mention of Jews in Siedlce in historical sources dates back to 1577. According to research conducted at the beginning of the 20^th century, the oldest traces of Jewish settlement in the town – in the form of tombstone inscriptions – date back to 1630. The Jewish inhabitants of Siedlce were mentioned in the privilege of King Władysław IV issued on 8 December 1635.

A total of 39 Jewish families lived in the town in 1730. In 1755, there were 123 houses in Siedlce, 29 of which were inhabited by Jews. In 1756, 631 Jews lived in the town. The Jewish population was smaller in 1787, with 218 Jews living in the town itself and in the village of Stara Wieś. At the end of the 18^th century, in 1794, the local Jewish community once again grew in size and comprised 375 people. King Stanisław August Poniatowski visited the town in 1783 and was greeted by Polish and Jewish delegations.

A kehilla was established in Siedlce in the first period of the Jewish settlement. The community was officially established in the second half of the 18^th century, when the town was owned by Aleksandra Ogińska. There were two Jewish cemeteries in Siedlce, as well as a wooden synagogue which burned down in 1851. In 1794, the kehilla started to build a house for the rabbi; the same building was to house a yeshiva. Until the end of the 18^th century, Jews from Siedlce were mainly involved in trade and lease.

In the 19^th century, the town experienced an economic and demographic revival thanks to the construction of the so-called Brest Route. Local trade and export of goods to the Russian market (including footwear, grain, and other agricultural products) flourished. At the time, Jews gradually gained the dominant position in all sectors of trade. After a fire which ravaged the city in 1854, Jews were engaged in baking daily bread, also for other nationalities. In the second half of the 19^th century, petty crafts developed in the town. It was a period of prosperity for shoemakers, cobblers and tailors.

 In 1820, there were 3,072 Jews living in the town, constituting 70% of the total population. In 1897, the Jewish community consisted of 10,094 people – 67% of the population. The highest percentage of Jews in Siedlce was recorded in 1865 – 73%, that is 7,094 out of all 9,710 inhabitants of the town.

Polish-Jewish relations varied. For example, in 1816 a “ritual murder” trial was held in the town. In 1823, the Podlaskie Provincial Commission prepared a town development plan which included the so-called Jewish district. Jews were to move to a designated area outside the town centre until the end of 1825. They would only be allowed to build brick houses according to approved designs. However, the project was never implemented.

At the beginning of the 19^th century, the third Jewish cemetery was established, known as the New Cemetery. In 1811, a wooden hospital was erected, replaced with a brick building in 1891. An orphanage was founded in 1890.

The wooden synagogue burnt down in the fire of the town in 1851, and its reconstruction began in 1856. This time, it was made of brick and was far more impressive (currently Piłsudskiego Street; Warszawska Street). Several fires broke out during construction works, which largely delayed the building process. The construction was eventually completed in 1876.

Jews from Siedlce, as was the case in other cities, followed various Hasidic dynasties. The town boasted groups of supporters of Simcha Bunim from Przysucha, as well as Hasidim from Góra Kalwaria, Aleksandrów, and Mszczonów. They had their own shtiebelekh and cheders. They were conflicted with the local Misnagdim.

In the years 1905–1907, the Jewish population was bloodily pacified during the revolution sweeping the Russian Partition. On 8 September 1906, from 26 (according to police sources) up to 100 (according to unofficial sources) Jews were killed and several dozen were wounded in the the pogrom organized and carried out by the czarist Okhrana (secret police). Several hundred people were arrested. Many families lost their homes. Shops and houses were looted.

As mentioned before, the Jews of Siedlce were mainly engaged in trade and petty crafts: shoemaking, tailoring, hat making, needle making, etc. With time, the Jewish working class was formed. In the 20^th century, its interests were represented by trade unions, including the Jewish Trade Union (Zionists) and the Jewish Trade Association (Bund).

After the end of World War I and the formation of the reborn Polish state, the Jewish community continued to develop its commercial activities (interrupted for a short time due to the outbreak of the Polish–Bolshevik war in 1920). Jews greatly contributed to the economic development of the entire town.

The publishing market developed in Siedlce. Two of the four printing houses in the town had Jewish owners, as did five of the nine local bookshops. Jews owned several dozen bakeries, nine goldsmiths’ and jewellers’ shops, iron depots, and three mills (1919). They also monopolised the delicatessen market, running most of the city’s restaurants, canteens, confectioneries, and even a tea shop. Jews also owned hotels and two pharmacies.

After World War I, the cooperative movement developed in the city. The Jewish Association of Workers in the Food Industry (initially known as the General Workers’ Cooperative) was established, as well as the Union of Agricultural Workers of the Food Industry in Poland – Siedlce Branch, founded by four Jews and four Poles.

There was a synagogue in the town, as well as numerous smaller prayer houses. According to the list of active synagogues from December 1922, Siedlce boasted a total of 32 houses of prayer, including four owned by the community, with the remaining ones run by private individuals.

The development of the Jewish education system began in the early 20^th century. Jewish children were taught in cheders, in secular Jewish schools with Yiddish or Hebrew as the language of instruction, as well as in public schools. In 1903, a Talmud-Torah school was established in Siedlce. A Hebrew-speaking school was established in 1904 on the initiative of the Zionists; it was maintained exclusively from the funds provided by the parents of the pupils. Subsequent schools were opened during World War I, when the town was under German occupation. Among these was the first four-grade public school for Jewish children with Yiddish as the language of instruction. A six-grade Jewish school was established in 1916. In 1918, a private school was founded by Halbersztat. Attended by children from wealthy families, it had Polish as the language of instruction. The Tarbut school began its activity in the school year 1926/1927.

In Siedlce, as in many other towns, the Jewish population comprised numerous avid readers of local and Warsaw-based newspapers and books. The first private libraries were established at the end of the 19^th century. Their founders were booksellers and sometimes authors. In 1900, the first legal library was registered; it was located in Kagan’s house and run by Mendel Miodownik. The very same year, an illegal library was set up in Kamiński’s tenement house; it was eventually registered in 1904 thanks to the efforts of Icchak Nachum Wajntraub. Subsequent libraries were founded by social organisations and political parties, which maintained them and funded the purchase of books. Most of them were set up after the end of World War I. In 1925, the Tarbut Society established its own library. The Siedlce branch of the CISZO (Central Jewish School Organisation) also ran a library.

The press published in the town reflected the political preferences of Siedlce Jews. It was also distributed in the nearby towns and villages. Most newspapers were issued in Yiddish. From 1922 until the outbreak of World War II, the Zionist Organisation published Siedlecer Wochnblat. Another Zionist periodical, Siedlecer Leben, was published in 1936. The local Bund branch issued Siedlecer Trybune, and the Agudath published Unzer Weg.

The Jews of Siedlce took an active part in the local political life and had their representatives in the Municipal Council. There were several branches of Zionist parties operating in the town: Histadrut, Poale Zion-Left, Poale Zion-Right, Mizrachi, as well as the Hashomer Hatzair scouting movement. The Agudath also had a Siedlce branch. The Folkspartei was established in the town in 1918 (until the 1930s). The Bund and its affiliated youth organisations – Zukunft and Kultur-Liga – were very popular among the local community.

The local political organisations would often found their sports clubs: the Maccabi, the vastly popular “Kadima” Jewish Sports Club, the “Hapoel” Jewish Workers’ Sports Club, the Shtern, the “Shomriya” Sports Club, and the “Ewa” Women's Sports Club.

Despite the overall demographic development of the town in the interwar period, the percentage of the Jewish population started to decrease. In 1918, Jews constituted 54.7% of the population (16,820), but according to the census of 1921, this number fell to 48% (14,685), and in 1931 – to 36.1% (14,793). The decrease resulted from a number of factors, including migration to larger urban centres and to Palestine.

Many inhabitants of Siedlce, including Jews, died in the bombardment of the city carried out in the first days of the war, in September 1939. Ca. 80% of houses was destroyed, which significantly deteriorated the living conditions of the local population. War also had an adverse effect on the Jewish economic life in Siedlce. Developed for many years and bearing great importance for the economic development of the town, the Jewish business activities suddenly came to a halt. The same happened to culture and education.

Siedlce came under German occupation, with the area incorporated into Distrikt Warschau in the General Government. From the very beginning, local Jews were subjected to numerous repressions. On the night of 24/25 December 1939, Germans set fire to the local synagogue. In March 1940, ca. 1,200 Jews were deported to Siedlce from Kalisz and other towns in western Poland – areas incorporated into the Third Reich. Many Jews from Siedlce were imprisoned in penal labour camps in the Lublin region.

At the end of 1940, the German occupation authorities created two open Jewish districts in Siedlce. In August 1941, the Germans established a closed ghetto, covering the area of only one of the districts. Gentile residents were displaced from the area, which was then populated with all the Jews living in Siedlce. The ghetto borders were surrounded with a barbed-wire fence, and crossing them was punishable by death. In October 1941, Jews from nearby towns and villages were also brought to the ghetto. In May 1942, the Roma were imprisoned in the closed district alongside Jews.

The living conditions in the ghetto were disastrous. Overcrowding and terrible sanitary conditions resulted in a typhus epidemic which broke out at the turn of 1942. Jews living in the ghetto were subjected to numerous repressions, including forced labour. A huge problem was the lack of food and the obligation to pay contributions to the German occupier.

The liquidation of the Jewish district in Siedlce began on 22 August 1942. The ghetto inhabitants were driven to the old Jewish cemetery by Germans aided by the local police and gendarmerie. A group of ca. 10,000 people considered unfit for work was separated from the crowd. They were driven to the railway station, and from there taken to the Nazi German death camp Treblinka II. On 24 August 1942, the Germans killed the staff and ca. 100 patients of the Jewish hospital. On the same day in the evening, they began the liquidation of the ghetto and transported ca. 5,000–6,000 Siedlce Jews to Treblinka II. It is estimated that ca. 2,000 people were murdered on the spot. Over the following days, the perpetrators searched the ghetto and murdered those who had managed to hide. Jews deported to Siedlce from the ghettos in Mordy and Łosice were transported to Treblinka II in August 1942.

After the displacement, very few Jews were left in Siedlce. A “residual” ghetto was established to accommodate them. The prisoners were used for cleaning works. The ghetto existed until 28 November 1942, when the last prisoners were transported by the Germans to Treblinka II. The deportation was carried out in an extremely brutal manner. People who did not want to voluntarily join the transport were murdered on the spot, as were small children, the sick, elderly, and infirm who did not have the strength to follow orders. Nearly 600 people were shot.

Over 1,000 Jews from Siedlce survived the war, most of them in the USSR. Only a few returned to their hometown after 1945.

Martyna Rusiniak-Karwat

Bibliography:

• Fainzilber E., Oyf di churves fun mayn cheym (churvn Shedlec), Tel Aviv 1952.
• Kopówka E., Żydzi w Siedlcach 1850–1945, Siedlce 2009.
• Kopówka E., Crago L., “Siedlce,” [in] Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. 2: Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe, ed. M. Dean, Bloomington 2012, vol. II, part A, pp. 428–431.
• Kowalczuk M., “Publiczne biblioteki żydowskie na Podlasiu w XIX i XX w.,” [in] Żydzi na Podlasiu, eds. Chyra-Rolicz Z., Tarasiuk R., Kopówka E., Siedlce 2010, 210–227.

• Markowski A., Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Kingdom of Poland, „Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry” 2015, vol. 27, pp. 219–255.

• Rudnicki Sz., The Siedlce Pogrom, „Kwartalnik Historii Żydów/Jewish History Quarterly” 2010, vol. 1, pp. 18–39.

• “Siedlce,” [in] The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, S. Spector, vol. III, New York 2001, pp. 1176–1178.