Little is known about the Zbąszyń Jews in the Middle Ages. The authors of a seminal study of the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Posen, published at the beginning of the 20th century, Heppner and Herzberg[1.1], suggested that the Zbąski family – the town owners – were tolerant towards Jews and dissenters. Even so, there is only one mention of Jews in medieval records: in 1437, a Jew from Zbąszyń, called Palto, sued a local nobleman to repay a loan[1.2].

This benevolent attitude may have been the result of the Zbąski family’s origin. According to Heppner and Herzberg, they may have been the descendants of King Kazimierz III Wielki and his Jewish mistress Esterke[1.3]. The first names of the Zbąskis are thought to suggest it – they often chose old biblical names, e.g. Abraham. The authors, however, were honest enough to admit that this was just a hypothesis for which there is absolutely no proof in the historical sources[1.4].

In modern times, the Jews are only mentioned in 1711. This is when three Jewish families, composed of 30 people, settled in the town[1.5]. The appearance of Jews in Zbąszyń can be linked to the activities of the contemporary town owners – the Garczyński family. By attracting settlers and expanding the town, they attempted to revive Zbąszyń, which had greatly suffered from wars and the plague outbreak. In 1765, there was a Jewish kehilla in Zbąszyń with 89 members, mostly craftsmen[1.6]. As early as 1779, the town boasted a synagogue and a Jewish school.

Once the town became part of Prussia in 1793, there were 146 Jews in Zbąszyń, with the total number of inhabitants being 953. At the time, the Jewish community paid a protection tax of 126 thalers to the town owners. This obligation was abolished only in the 1830s[1.7].

Becoming subject to the Prussian authority resulted in more rights being granted to Jews and thus – more opportunities. This, in turn, ran into opposition from the Christians who struggled to preserve their former privileged status under Polish rule. To this end, they sent numerous petitions to the Prussian authorities. The situation in Zbąszyń was similar: the townspeople issued a collection of guild documents and charters that would substantiate their dominant position over Jews[1.1.4].

The Jews, on the other hand, also sought to shed feudal burdens and to reduce or eliminate the horrendous debts in which the vast majority of the Jewish communities of Greater Poland found themselves. The Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin holds correspondence from 1797, sent from a Jewish kehilla to the Prussian king. The letter was a request for settling the issue of a debt which Jews owed to the local Catholic parish priest, Zdrojewski, as well as the fees they had to pay to the church. The kehilla also highlighted the fact that the church books were the only place where Jewish debts and customary burdens (some going back to the Polish times) were recorded[1.8].

Another issue tackled in the royal correspondence was the charges that the Greater Poland kehillas, including the one in Zbąszyń, had to pay to participate in fairs held in Frankfurt (Oder). Those fees had been paid by Polish Jews since at least the 16th century. Once the Greater Poland became part of Prussia, such fees were deemed groundless by the Jews of Zbąszyń. They would point to the case of the West Prussian Jewish kehillas, which did not pay this tax, though they had been part of the Polish state until 1772. Another noteworthy fact is that the Jews from Greater Poland had to pay for their participation in Frankfurt fairs as well as the Jews from Międzyrzecz and Skwierzyna.

A single visit cost 3 thalers 4 groschen; most likely, it resulted from the fact that in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, only the kehillas from Międzyrzecz and Skwierzyna were entitled to trade in the March of Brandenburg, as stipulated in the charter issued by Margrave Joachim I in 1532. The Zbąszyń kehilla requested an exemption from the charges and the same treatment as was enjoyed by the kehillas from West Prussia[1.1.8]. This very interesting issue calls for a thorough examination; what is more, it sheds light on the relations between Jewish kehillas in the Commonwealth.

The Jewish population in Zbąszyń was most numerous in 1833 when, among 1,300 inhabitants, there were 336 Jews[1.9]. In subsequent years, this number was consistently dwindling until it reached about 50 people after World War I.[1.10].

During the great fire of 1845, the wooden synagogue was also destroyed. It was rebuilt after a few years with the help of other Jewish kehillas from Greater Poland. At the beginning of the 20th century (1903), the kehilla supported a religious school which was attended by 16 children. Other active organizations included Chevra Kadisha, the Israeli Women Association and the Youth Association[1.11].

After World War I, Zbąszyń was incorporated into Poland and became a border town. The conditions of kehilla kept deteriorating: at that time, there were only 54 Jews out of 5,137 inhabitants. Until 1933, the kehilla was headed by Ksyl Grünberg. Later, after Jewish kehillot in Poznań Province were subject to state reorganization as of 28 September 1932, Zbąszyń became part of a newly established kehilla in Nowy Tomyśl, with Jakub Grzybowski, a Zbąszyń inhabitant, as its head. The new kehilla had 176 members and was composed of the following towns: Nowy Tomyśl, Lwówek, Zbąszyń, Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Buk, Wolsztyn, Rakoniewice, Międzychód and Sieraków. The previous kehillot transferred their assets to the new religious community. In the case of Zbąszyń, these assets amounted to 42,948.64 zlotys. The inventory included 67 items, e.g. the synagogue building, cemetery, purification house (bet tahara) and the former mikveh[1.12].

In 1936, the fees in the amount of 3.5% of income were paid by the following people from Zbąszyń:

1. Domagała Emma – house owner                              20.35 zlotys
2. Ehrlich Ottilie – house owner                                   65.55 zlotys
3. Cohn Leopold – house owner                                  10.00 zlotys
4. Grünberg Ksyl – merchant                                       17.50 zlotys
5. Grzybowski Jakob – merchant                                  94.50 zlotys
6. Jelin Dawid – trader                                                 10.00 zlotys
7. Rosenberg Wolf – trader                                           31.50 zlotys
8. Wajmann Szmul – merchant                                     30.00 zlotys[1.13].

Just like in the other towns of Greater Poland, Jews were victims of attacks from the National Party, which accused them of causing virtually every possible disaster afflicting the Second Polish Republic. During a meeting of the National Party in Zbąszyń in 1938, the leader of the local activists, Tadeusz Górczak, claimed, among other things, that: “The social division into layers and into classes, giving rise to struggles among political parties and their mutual hostility were all caused by communists of Jewish descent. Blinded by this conflict, Poles failed to notice the increasing influence on the state matters exerted by the Jews. The Jewry have become ministers, prominent officials in courts, persecutors, officials in the Supreme Audit Office, army officers, teachers educating Polish children. They have been granted all sorts of monopolies and licences etc. Also, changing the constitution and electoral regulations happened due to Jews and to their benefit”…” [1.1.12].

Also, Polish authorities showed a degree of hostility towards the Jews. Not only was the community kept under surveillance of special services, but they also hindered Jewish commercial activities. An example of such an attitude was the treatment of Natan Hamburger, who was denied a visa to travel to Germany multiple times. In the justification addressed to the county office in Nowy Tomyśl, the vice mayor of Zbąszyń, Niedbała, wrote: “The visa application has been rejected because the applicant is a Jew and as such he can act to the detriment of Poland”[1.1.12].

Until the end of the 1930s, the up-country Zbąszyń was in no way exceptional, and neither were the local Jews. The moment that placed Zbąszyń in the annals of history and made its name recognizable was the events that took place at the end of 1938. Many years later, a prominent specialist in this field, Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewski, described the town as a prelude to the Holocaust.[1.14].

The events were brought about by the policies of the contemporary Polish authorities, which aimed at decreasing the number of Jews in Poland and attempted to strip Polish citizenship from the Jews who had been born in Poland but at the time lived beyond its borders, mainly in Germany. In September 1938, the Polish government issued a decree stipulating that every Polish citizen living permanently abroad was to confirm their citizenship. If they failed to do so, they would lose it. Many of the Polish Jews residing in Germany ignored this obligation. As a result, as of 1 November 1938, they would lose their Polish citizenship. Reluctant to have several thousands of stateless people on their territory, the German authorities secretly decided to deport them to Poland by force. In fact, saving those people from becoming stateless was the German rationale conveyed by Nazi propaganda.

On 28 and 29 October, the Germans deported 17,000 Polish Jews via different points at the Polish border. More than 6,000 reached the border town of Zbąszyń, yet some sources provide the number of 10,000 Jews who got there[1.15]. This discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that the Germans were deporting Jews also near Trzciel (German: Tirschtiegel), in the vicinity of Zbąszyń; in fact, some historians add up these numbers. On 28 and 29 October 1938, 6,074 exiles were recorded in Zbąszyń alone. The ones who came by train were kept in carriages; those who crossed the border on foot were placed in the old barracks of cavalry units or station buildings. During the first two days, once they had been registered, the Jews were allowed to leave freely to their Polish relatives – about 2,336 people did so. This group included a prominent literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, born in 1920 in Włocławek. In post-war Germany, he was known as “the pope of literature”. He described his deportation in his autobiography, Mein Leben.

On 31 October, at 3.30 p.m., exit roads from Zbąszyń and the station were surrounded by police posts, and the government declared Zbąszyń a closed town. The Jews were banned from leaving. Many managed to escape from the town illegally, using the locals’ help. One of the smugglers helping people get around the blockades was the late Aleksander Dura, a town resident. Some witnesses claimed that he smuggled a few dozen people[1.16]. However, getting outside the blockade did not guarantee a successful escape – Polish flying police squads apprehended the runaways even in Poznań, e.g. at the airport or the train station. Consequently, Zbąszyń became a sort of internment camp where Polish citizens were held. They broke no law apart from one – they were Jews. At the time, Polish authorities aimed to remove from Poland as many of the “local Jews” as possible, and for this reason, admitting Jews deported from Germany was initially unacceptable. The government hoped for their return to Nazi Germany, so the Zbąszyń camp was a sort of bargaining chip during their negotiations with the Germans.

In the meantime, the situation in the town became disastrous. The deported Jews were kept in the station buildings and army barracks (c. 1,500 people), the Grzybowski’s mill (1,500 people), the building of the former middle school in Wolności square (400 people), the town gym (120 people), the shooting range (250) and the synagogue (100). Roughly 700 people found accommodation at private houses. Significant help was offered to the deportees by the Jewish Committee for Aiding the Deportees (Polish: Żydowski Komitet Pomocy Wysiedlonym), established before 30 October. It was headed by Emanuel Ringelblum and Yitzhak Gitterman from Warsaw. It was supported by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee with its seat in a mansion house at 37 17 Stycznia 1920 Street, which offered tremendous help to the deportees. During the initial days, the local residents, often on their own initiative, also aided the abandoned Jews. This help was provided by individuals rather than the state. A few hundred charity committees were set up across the country to raise funds. The state aid was symbolic, which resulted in the appalling condition of the deportees.

On 7 November 1938, the Jews sent identical letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and President Ignacy Mościcki in which they wrote, amongst others: “For 10 days, we have been kept in horrible, unbearable conditions, in old wooden stables with leaking roofs. Together with the elderly and children, we are exposed to harsh cold, and we have been deprived of even the basic necessities (water, light, etc.) […] There is a constant threat of an epidemic, which in these conditions could lead to a catastrophe. Locked in barracks, deprived of our personal dignity, we are unable to communicate with the outside world. […] In the name of our rights […], we beg you, Mr President, to have mercy upon us”[1.17]. These tragic events were later described in a letter by Sendel Grynszpan to his son, Herszel, in Paris. On 7 November, Herszel, venting his helpless anger, shot and killed Ernst von Rath, an official of the German embassy. This event was used by the Nazis as a pretext to initiate anti-Semitic riots all over Nazi Germany, which later became known as the Night of Broken Glass (German: Kristallnacht). It took place on 9/10 November 1938 and resulted in the destruction of a few hundred synagogues, many Jewish houses and shops. It was by far the most well-known pre-war act of violence against Jews. It was also a prologue to the tragedy of the forthcoming years.

From the beginning of 1939, a degree of stabilization was restored. On 24 January 1939, German-Polish negotiations were concluded. Germans allowed some of the deported to return to Germany to conclude their administrative and personal issues, whereas Poles agreed to admit the deported and their families gradually[1.18]. The most frequent requirement for leaving Zbąszyń was having relatives in other parts of Poland. First, the relatives had to declare whether they wished to help a given person. Many of the deported had no intention of staying in Poland, and they dreamt of migrating to other countries, preferably outside Europe.

In the course of time, the conditions of the deportees held in Zbąszyń improved to the point where they resumed their religious practices. Since the town synagogue was occupied by 100 deportees, a restaurant at 2 Wolności Square was rented. What made it even more bizarre was the fact that the restaurant’s owner was German. And so, this really came as a shock to the townspeople that the restaurant owned by a German was a temporary synagogue for a few months. Another event that created the impression of normality was a friendly football match played on 4 December 1938 between the local club “Obra” and the “Maccabi” club set up by the deported Jews. The Jewish players won 3:2, which was yet another shocker that entailed some anti-Semitic comments in the local papers. Perhaps for this reason, no subsequent matches were played.

From February 1939, the number of Jews kept in Zbąszyń started to decrease gradually. In April 1939, there were still 2,800 deportees in Zbąszyń. Officially, the internment camp was closed down a few days before World War II. It was when permission was granted to all deportees to leave the town. Not all of them managed to do that, and they were captured by the Germans. They were later transported to ghettoes and camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 1941, a labour camp was established in Zbąszyń, where the Jews from the General Government were held. Most of them died due to exhaustion or were killed.

In modern Zbąszyń, there are no Jews left. What is left of them is the converted synagogue and the Jewish cemetery that is now a square. In October 2008, the 70th anniversary of Zbąszyń events was celebrated. In the hall of the train station in Zbąszyń, where 70 years ago, the deported Jews got off the trains, a film-photo project, Do zobaczenia za rok w Jerozolimie (See you next year in Jerusalem) was presented. The organizers plan to create a permanent memento of these happenings. To this end, they wish to erect a bronze statue of a suitcase. 

Bibliography

• W. Czuchwicki, “Gmina wyznaniowa żydowska”, in: Ziemia Zbąska i jej okolice, Zbąszyń 2006.
• A. Heppner, I. Herzberg, Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der jüdischen Gemeinden in den Posener Landen, Bromberg 1909.
• S. Płóciennik, Deportacja Żydów polskich do Zbąszynia w październiku 1938 roku. Pamięć mieszkańców miasta o tym wydarzeniu 70 lat później, prize-winning paper in the national competition “History and culture of the Polish Jews” in Warsaw in 2008.
• J. Tomaszewski, Preludium Zagłady. Wygnanie Żydów polskich, Warszawa 1998.
• “Zbonszyn”, in: E. Wiesel, Sh. Spector, G. Wigoder (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During Holocaust, New York 2001, p. 1495.