Introduction

This is the tale of the Jewish community in Dzierżoniów, Lower Silesia Poland, which lasted after the Holocaust for about one decade - between 1945 through 1956, although a very small number of Jews continued to live there later. From the historiography view point it might be defined as a living Jewish community in the periphery of a communist state which once tolerated its existence and another time virtually dismantled it.

Dzierżoniów was originally a German town with a relatively very small Jewish community - at its height in 1871, it amounted 185 (2.7% of the population) and along most of the next decades did not exceed dozens. The community was known due to the fact that the town, then Reichenbach, was a center of the provincial textile industry and Jewish families were managing successful businesses that lasted for five decades until the eve of the Second World War. When that ended there were no more Jews in town – the survivors managed to migrate abroad in the last months' prior the war while those who decided to stay perished in the Holocaust atrocities.

During the first few months after the end of the war, when many of the surviving Jews were traveling in the direction of Lower Silesia, which was a part of the "recovered territories" in the south-west of the new Poland, the vast majority arrived in what was named Rychbach. In those days Breslau, the central city of the province[1.1], was mostly under rubble the result of the heavy fighting between the German defenders and the Soviets advancing to the West.

The war did not affect the town itself and this made it the basis for the first settlement of the surviving Jews. It became at once a micro-cosmos of the Jews across Poland who hoped to rebuild their ruined lives in a country shadowed already by the victorious Soviet Union which was within three years to dominate the policies of the Polish governments. Their ultimate goal was the transfer of millions of Germans who remained in the conquered territories and fill the vacuum with new settlers, among them the Jews.

The Jewish settlement in a new, and until then a foreign territory, was believed to be a start point for a new era after the destruction. At the first post-war years the Jews were allowed to manage their interests in a relative national autonomy. But the old rooted forces of anti-Semitism together with the authoritarian communist regime cut short that reality when it was forced to follow the path of the Stalinist Soviet Union to eliminate the previous accomplishments. The Jews were to realize before long that they would not be able to fulfill their dreams on that land.

Their prevailing motive was as told by Shmuel L. Shneiderman, a Polish Jew who immigrated to the US at the beginning of the war and in 1946 paid a fact-finding trip to Poland and found the Jews in Lower Silesia in more encouraging circumstances than elsewhere in the country. In Łódź, just after the notorious pogrom in Kielce, in July, he met a Jew carpenter who was critical of what was going on with the Jews in Poland. "Here we make chairs and benches…but in our homes we sit on the suitcases"[1.2]. It just illustrated the existing mood among the Jews who realized that the new Poland was not going to be their solution but rather their problem. It would take a few years that this perception would materialize in a government sponsored and organized exodus that matched its and the Jews interests. The mythological "Wandering Jew" was again on the roads to look for his good fortune elsewhere.

Self-Identity

When the Soviet troops entered Reichenbach, on 8 May 1945, they found around the hotel "Kaiserhof"(later, hotel Polonia on Kopernika Street) the corpses of a number of German deserters hanged by the SS men prior their withdrawal[1.3]. In the town remained 800 living local German residents[1.4]. Among them there were no Jews. It was the end of the German centuries-long era and the beginning of the new Polish era.

Two Jewish sites remained intact in town: the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. The building, set up in 1875, would turn to be the immediate center of the return to the Jewish roots, national and religious identity feelings after the Holocaust. The other once owned Jewish assets, which already changed their identities before the war, were the textile factories: the Telefunken plants, once owned by the Cohn Brothers, were looted by the Red Army soldiers; the Flechtner plant, owned in the past by Weyl & Nassau, was the first the Polish authorities took over. In February 1946, it employed 473, including 157 Poles, which means the majority were still Germans. The same was to be said about the Jordan plants, originally A. Fleischer, which the Poles took over in August 1946. The factory employed 262 including 86 Poles[1.5].

By this time there were already Jews in town creating the beginnings of a relatively active and vibrant community life, compared to other places in Poland, which were destroyed during the war. The first newcomers were ex-prisoners of the Gross-Rosen Labor Camp and its affiliated branches. Activists of the former labor camp in Reichenbach, who set up a committee of former prisoners, supported their care. On 13 May 1945, less than a week after the end of the war, the committee registered 2622 Jews[1.6]. This was the first place in Poland to care and register surviving Jews. Their origin represented a wide range of European countries: Austria - 7; Belgium - 38; Czechoslovakia - 93; France - 24; Germany - 24; Greece - 1; Hungary - 177; Netherlands - 29; Palestine…1; Poland - 2189; Romania - 32; USSR - 5; Yugoslavia - 2.

The Jews from Central and Western Europe stayed in town for a very short time before going back to their homelands. Many of the natives and residents of Poland returned to their pre-war destinations in search of their families, relatives, and friends. Many of them were painfully disappointed and came back to Lower Silesia to join the Jews who had decided to set up a home in this province. In addition to the committee of the former prisoners, the Jews organized a semi-Jewish police force to protect their lives and property, getting the weapons from Soviet units in the town with whom they kept close ties[1.7].

Five weeks after the end of the war, on 17 June, there was a gathering in the town of delegates representing Jewish committees in the communities of Lower Silesia Jews were already living. The assembly elected a Provincial Jewish Committee and its Chairman, Jacob Egit. The elected committee represented six towns where six thousand Jews were residing and was the provincial branch of the Central Jewish Committee (CJC) in Poland, with its headquarters in the still ruined Warsaw[1.8].

Egit represented the Jewish members of the Polish Communist Party, ‘Frakcja’ (Fraction). They were to hold the central positions at the province as well as at the local committees which operated along political party lines. Egit's election was not due to the communist influence within the Jewish community but rather because it was the dominant party in the new Poland without running it yet. This was evident when the committee chairmanship was not given to an ex-prisoner in the labor camp in Langenbielau (later Bielawa) who also set up the ex-prisoners' committee, Szymon Balicki, or to Mojżesz Linkowski, an ex-prisoner in Gross-Rosen. Instead, the CJC decided that its representative to lead the new establishment was a person who learned about the death and concentration camps in retrospect: Egit resided in the Soviet Union during the war years.

On the evening of the Jewish Committee’s formation, another event took place which signified the rapid renewal of Jewish life in Poland after the war: a performance of Jewish, Polish and Russian songs, and readings from the works of the famous poets, Sholem Aleichem, I.L. Peretz and others, performed by ex-prisoners in Gross-Rosen and other destinations, who arrived from elsewhere in Poland. The evening was organized by Ruth Taru-Kowalska, a Yiddish theatre actress before the war, who had lived in the Soviet Union during the war. In the following months, Zalman Koleśnikow and Chaja Rosenthal, organized the first Jewish theatre in Rychbach, Sziraim, that performed in the province and demonstrated that the Jewish public yearned for a professional and established Jewish theatre. Indeed, the theatre in Rychbach was the precursor of the Nidershlezier Yiddisher Teater (yid., 'Central Jewish Theatre of Lower Silesia') which was set up at a conference of Jewish actors, held in Łódź, in July 1946[1.9].

Rychbach was then seen as the center of new Jewish life in the province. The local committees saw as their immediate mission to provide material and mental assistance to the large influx of survivors who sought a place and opportunities for a new life. In July 1945, there were 1200 Jews in the town and a month later this figure doubled to 2350, which counted almost half of all the Jews living in the province. The trend continued and in January 1946 the figure reached 4132 Jews[1.10]. In May 1946, the local authorities changed the town's name to Dzierżoniów[1.11].

In the surrounding vicinity of Rychbach, apparently there were ideal conditions for people who had just experienced the horrors of the War. On the one hand, there was no physical or significant war destruction, and on the other hand the infrastructure had the potential to enable people who wanted to start of new life - industrial plants, residential buildings and abandoned agricultural farms (where the occupants mostly Germans had already left or were about to leave). Prof Dariusz Stola noted, in referring to the massive Jewish emigration from Poland during the first months after the war, that Lower Silesia reflected for the Jews a paradoxical ideal – the possibility of staying in Poland but at the same time being ‘somewhere else’ as the area had been a ‘foreign territory’. It also meant that they could be within Poland in a different social environment, with another house and landscape but away from their original communities which had now turned to cemeteries. "It is possible, that if such places had not existed, people would have emigrated [from Poland] even faster."[1.12]

During the first year of the Jewish settlement in Rychbach, the number of the Germans still exceeded those of Jews and Poles combined. In March 1946, the town's population numbered about 20,000 of which 14,357 were of German origin[1.13]. Shortly thereafter a process of forced deportation of Germans began, sending them to the Soviet occupied zone in East Germany. These deportations lasted a year, from April 1946 to April 1947. On Garncarska Street in Rychbach was the concentration point for the deportees and their personal belongings from the town and the surrounding settlements.

The first to be expelled were those who expressed a desire to go and those who sympathized with the Nazis. Only professionals who were in employment and were considered essential to the operation and production of plants throughout the region were allowed to stay, as noticed above at the textile industry. During that year the town’s 13,056 Germans left, with only 1305 remaining, most of them experts who could not be replaced by Poles. They received a permit that ensured their continual living in their apartments though this did not always materialize. Towards the end of 1948, only 329 Germans remained in the town and 1600 in the county[1.14].

During the two years, 1946-47, the Jewish community was able to set up a well-established system of independent institutions and organizations to serve its social, cultural and to some extend also economic interests. Obviously, this was only possible with the blessing of the coalition Polish government, in which the Communists though a minority were already dominant, which regarded the Jewish settlement an important element of its national goal, the expulsion of the Germans and filling the vacuum with Poles and Jews.

The Rychbach Jewish committee which represented, as said, the decisions and views of six municipal committees in neighboring communities, was like the provincial committee and like the CJC in Warsaw, composed of representatives of political parties. Their main ideological line was divided along the critical question of whether there was a future for Jews in Poland and if so, what it should be and how it should operate. The position of the Fraction, and more radically the Bund Party, was that the Jews should stay in Poland and bind their fate with that of the State. Confronting them were five Zionist parties whose ultimate goal was going to Eretz Israel (settlement in Palestine).

The representatives of the Fraction held the main roles in the provincial and local committees, including the production department, which was in charge of locating work opportunities and developing economic and business policy, infrastructure, culture and propaganda and youth activities. During 1946, in Lower Silesia were active 40 party cells with 1300 members. The two strongest cells were in Wałbrzych with 350 members and Dzierżoniów, 200 members[1.15]. Ideologically, the Fraction saw productivity as its central objective, and it directed the new Jewish settlers to government establishments, including heavy industries.

The second working sector that the Jewish Communists were proud of was agriculture, which like heavy industry, had not been a widespread occupation among Jews before the war. The Jewish farmer, like the Jewish coal miner, was recognized as a symbol of "the new Jew". There were Jews who were quick to take over German-owned farms, and in Lower Silesia their number was much greater compared to other regions in Poland. In February 1947, in the province there were 64 active farms including 36 in the county of Dzierżoniów[1.16].

In addition to changing the old occupational structure of the Jews, great importance was given to the establishing of a range of cooperatives backed by the ‘JOINT’ (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - (JDC)) and the Government, designed to sell daily services such as, tailoring, footwear, textiles and baking. The Jews were the first to set them up in Lower Silesia in two counties, Dzierżoniów and Wałbrzych. But, in the spirit of those days these cooperatives were also founded on party lines. In a document of the Provincial Committee, that was undated but according to its context was probably written by the end of 1946 beginning 1947, of the 74 cooperatives in the province 11 were in Dzierżoniów, 3 in Bielawa and 3 in Pietrolesie (later Pieszyce). Their management by the parties was: 55 from the Fraction; 4 Bund, 7 Zionists, 8 not affiliated. In Dzierżoniów and Bielawa, the Zionists managed one cooperative each while in Pietrolesie all three were not affiliated[1.17].

The Zionist involvement in the cooperatives was minimal, at only about 10%, both at the provincial and municipal level. They were apparently less interested in the economic aspects of the Jewish settlement and focused their main activities on preparing and training for one purpose: immigration to Palestine. Their efforts centered on young people and the Zionist party’s youth organizations within the framework of the HeHalutz Hatzayir (the Youth Pioneer movement). One of the leading parties in the province was the Ihud Hatsiyonim Hademocratim (Democratic Zionists Union) which operated, as early as 1946, five kibbutzim (collective settlements), in Rychbach, Bielawa and Wałbrzych, designed for young people, up to the age of 35. In addition, the Union operated children and veteran houses.

The first confrontation between the Zionists and the Communists took place following the establishment of the Provincial Committee when the leadership of Jacob Egit, as its chairman, was challenged. In August 1945, a Jewish family named Honik, defiantly criticized the committee’s activities and did not restrain from also criticizing the Polish authorities. Egit decided to expel the family from Rychbach and thus to precede the police. The decision provoked the fury of some Zionist activists who demanded Egit's dismissal. The subject was brought before a senior forum at the CJC in Warsaw, which in the absence of several officials decided to reject the dismissal claim[1.18].

During that period the education of children and young people was of paramount importance to all of the Jewish parties. This too became an area of rivalry and struggle for influence between the Communists, the Zionists and the Religious parties. Some of the debate became heated as it was seen as being related to the consciousness of Jews regarding the future of Palestine. The Provincial Committee had lead responsibility for the scope and content of education even though HeHalutz and the religious congregations were also involved.

As early as July 1945, the CJC already decided to open Jewish schools throughout the country. Most of them were secular in nature but differed in their teaching language of Hebrew and Yiddish and approach to the religion. In the schools under the Committee’s supervision the teaching language was Yiddish while in the HeHalutz schools the teaching was in Hebrew. Yiddish schools operated in all Jewish communities whereas schools where Hebrew was taught in addition to Yiddish were active, from the middle of 1947, in six communities: Wrocław, Dzierżoniów, Bielawa, Wałbrzych, Legnica, Świdnica. The linguistic differences in schools were in part a struggle between ‘class and culture’ within the Jewish communities. An old article re-published in April 1948, by the organ of the Bund party stated that among other things, "the struggle for the Yiddish or Hebrew languages is therefore a struggle of two cultures - an aristocratic culture and labor culture."[1.19]

Alongside these schools, the committees also operated a vocational education system, aimed at preparing young people for practical work and as a reserve workforce. In May 1946, the first branch was opened in Dzierżoniów in order to train 160 Jewish families who operated private farms[1.20]. The schools trained the youngsters general and professional studies in a wide range of subjects related to industry and cooperatives. A few months later, in October, in Dzierżoniów attended 107 the school whereas all over Poland were 623. A year and a half later the figure in town doubled to 202 while across Poland it increased threefold to 1834[1.21].

A foreign visitor to Dzierżoniów, in 1947, praised the town by describing it as a town that no one had heard of before the war but now has quickly become an important centre of Jewish life in Poland: "Dzierżoniów is not just a settlement. It is a large workshop and an educational center, a means for physical and spiritual wound healing caused by the War and enabling to gain an occupation. Mostly it is busy in educating a new generation of Polish Jews, teaching adults a profession, and creating a system of productive work for those who can take part in it ..."[1.22].

A variety of sports attracted the attention of Jewish youth. The first 14 clubs in Lower Silesia, which were set up after the spring of 1946, were Jewish sports clubs (Żydowskie Kluby Sportowe - (ŻKS)). Among the sport branches in Dzierżoniów were table tennis (active since 1946), football (1947) and boxing (1948). That same year the Workers Jews Sport Club, "Gwiazda" (Star), was set up. Except for table tennis, the Jewish clubs did not demonstrate success on the national level. However, they contributed to the popularity of sport among the Jewish population and their existence gave young people a psychological boost enabling them to see their physical capabilities no worse than others[1.23].

The health situation and the demographic structure of the rapidly growing Jewish population in Lower Silesia required immediate action. Tuberculosis was affecting both the former camp prisoners in Poland and the Soviet labor camps. In August 1945, the operation of Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia - (TOZ) (the 'Jewish Health Protection Organization') that had been operating in Poland since the early 1920's through the Second World War, resumed full activity. The provincial center was located in Dzierżoniów on Mickiewicza Street 10. The center had clinics that specialized in the full range of medical services and community health and hygiene education and support. They supervised health care and health education across the entire education system, childrens homes, hostels and kibbutzim from a site on Świerczewskiego Street 19. In October 1948, the provincial office of the organization was moved to Wrocław while in Dzierżoniów remained the clinic for mother and child care[1.24].

The sphere in which the committees and the secular parties were not involved was religion. The Jewish religious community was established in May 1945 (since 1946 its name was the Kongregacja Wyznania Mojżeszowego (the 'Congregation of the Jewish Faith') in Wrocław and in other towns. It set up branches similar to the secular committees as outlined above. The government allowed the freedom of religious worship but stated that the Jewish Religious Communities in Poland were not legally the successors of the pre-war communities, and as such were not the owners of the former German religious assets, e.g. synagogues, prayer houses, cemeteries, ritual baths, etc. Nevertheless, in March 1946, it handed them the management and maintenance of those assets. In Dzierżoniów and other four communities in the province functioned a local Rabbi - the others were Wrocław, Legnica and Wałbrzych[1.25]. The local Rabbi was Mordka Szpiro and the head of the religious community M. Rubin[1.26].

The size of the Jewish community, including those not registered with the local committees, can be reviewed from the size of the annual Passover matzo distribution that was carried out under the supervision of the CJC in Warsaw. In the report of the Provincial Committee in Wrocław, in 1946, it stated that in Lower Silesia 55,597 kilograms were allocated to 37,060 people. In the county of Rychbach 15,320 were in receipt of the distribution and another 150 children in an orphanage in Pietrolesie. In Wrocław there were 7010 and in Wałbrzych 7300[1.27].

A new period began in February 1946, with the arriving of the first Jews repatriates from the Soviet Union back to Poland. These were Jews who had managed to flee east and spent the war in its vast expanses. As in more than forty other communities in Lower Silesia, during the six months of the operation, Dzierżoniów was absorbing immigrants and accordingly the number of its residents increased significantly. At the same time the Germans were being moved to East Germany and thus leaving the town, their homes and jobs were made available to the newcomers. In March 1946, the Jewish population numbered 5832 and two months later it rised to 9495 and by June to 11,051. In June for the first time, the number of Jews in Wrocław was higher than that of Dzierżoniów 15,057[1.28].

In April 1946, the Provincial Committee headquarters was moved from Dzierżoniów to Wrocław, even though the central parts of the city were still in ruins, regaining its status as the central city in Lower Silesia as it had had before the War.

Even during the repatriation operation, more than once the schism between the Zionists and Communists was apparent. The passengers arriving from the Soviet Union, after a very strenuous and exhausting trip that often lasted weeks, were greeted at the train station by representatives of the district committee who were briefing them about the conditions in the designated places. Also on hand were representatives of the Zionist parties, who tried to persuade new arrivals not to stay in Poland and to move on to Palestine. It obviously caused verbal skirmishes between the opposing parties. In one case, at the beginning of the operation in February 1946, a representative of the CJC was told about an event at the station in Wrocław, when an Ihud Party representative tried to persuade people not travel to Rychbach telling them that the Jews were apparently killed there. They seemed to be saying this in order to encourage the new arrivals to stay in Wrocław, because from there it would be easier for them to leave Poland[1.29].

While the operation was approaching its end, on 4th July 1946 groups of Poles in Kielce initiated a pogrom slaughtering 42 Jews and injuring 80. This shocking incident opened wounds that were still not healed and aroused emotional anxiety and fear of the uncertain future for Jews in Poland. The immediate result was a big exodus of Jews leaving the country. During his visit, Shneiderman witnessed in Dzierżoniów, Wrocław, Wałbrzych and other communities "hordes of Jews, many women with infants, crowding in front of the Jewish committee offices begging for food and money to get to Germany, from where they hoped to depart to Palestine or America"[1.30]. Antisemitic outbursts occurred across the country. Jews in Dzierżoniów experienced beatings, there were other incitements and firecrackers were thrown at the local committee offices. The peak of the events in the town was the death of the young pioneer, Bezalel Zilberberg, who was murdered on 26 September 1946, while on duty guarding the Ihud Party kibbutz. No one was arrested but his funeral was attended by almost all the Jews in town and representatives of the municipality and the county and described as a demonstration and protest against the actions of Hitler's successors[1.31].

Another aspect of the Kielce pogrom effects was the departure of Jews from the small and isolated communities to the bigger Jewish communities in larger towns. At the same time Jews continued arriving from Central and Eastern Poland and the Jewish population in Dzierżoniów grew during the six months after the pogrom by about half: their number reaching a peak in November 1946, of 17,800, but a month later it had decreased to 16,000, while the figure in Wrocław decreased to 15,000. Together the two cities were home to about 55% of all Jews in Lower Silesia. However, in February 1947 the figures decreased and a year later, in February 1948, the Jewish population of Dzierżoniów was 6,796 and in Wroclaw, 10,954. At that time the largest Jewish population in Poland was in Łódź, at 15,826; in Szczecin lived 6,628; Kraków 6,397; and Warsaw 6,044. "The highest percentage of Jews relative to the overall number of city residents was in Dzierżoniów, and the most assimilated Jews were in Warsaw"[1.32]. In May 1948, the total population in Dzierżoniów was 21,612, which meant that the Jews constituted more than a quarter of the population[1.33]. The Jews relative high number was exceptional in the Jewish history in Poland after the war, and therefore the town gained, among others, the nickname "Polish Jerusalem"[1.34]. It caused some Poles to call the town maliciously "Żydbach" (Żyd /Jew) but the Jews would respond head held high, "Żydbach"[1.35].

Personal Testimonies

Rychbach, and later Dzierżoniów, became a hub around which new Jewish settlement in Lower Silesia developed. It was in fact the largest hub in Poland immediately after World War II. The first committee established was the Camp Prisoners' Committee, designed to help Holocaust survivors. It was where the first gathering of representatives of the Jews who began arriving en masse from the camps and other parts of Poland. The Committee outlined in a memo the principles for the establishment of the settlement. Among other things, the memo expressed the psychological needs of the survivors to live near others with similar experiences. After the war, that dimension was of vital importance for Jews[1.36]. It was a reason the town became a focal point for foreign visitors wishing to examine more closely what had happened to the people.

Jacob Pat, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Labor Committee, traveled to Poland in early 1946 to look into the Jewish community's needs. As a Bundist he favored the idea of rebuilding a new life in Poland and reintegrate into its economy. While in Rychbach, he witnessed an event that surely elated his spirits. "As the band played Viennese waltzes on the Saturday night of early in 1946, three young Jews danced and swayed celebrating the end of the war…And these were Holocaust survivors, women in sleeveless dresses, their Auschwitz tattoos exposed, clinging tightly to men they had only recently met. Reichenbach was the epicenter of a new Jewish world aborning in the shadow of German forced labor camps." And what amazing was his remark that the "musicians entertaining at the Jews dance were German, by the way, ordered to play just before their eviction"[1.37].

Another Bundist, Pessah Nowik, had emigrated from the Soviet Union to the USA before the First World War, and was a journalist and author of books in Yiddish. He made an extensive six months' tour throughout Europe in 1946, three of them he spent in Poland. His purpose too was to examine the situation of Jews who had survived the Holocaust. At the end of his comprehensive tour he wrote his impressions in a Yiddish book published in 1948 in New York under the title: "Oyrope - Tzwishn Mylchome Un Shulem" ('Europe - between War and Peace'). He believed that in Lower Silesia existed the ‘best odds' for the rebirth of a new Jewish life in Poland.

He described his impressions of Wrocław which was by then already the seat of the Jewish District Committee and where hundreds of Jews were employed in the railway car factory "Pafawag", the largest in Poland and one of the largest in Europe. Nowik wrote: "There was 85 days of fighting here. 85 Days! The Red Army was in Berlin, and here there were still battles." The ruins of the city, he noticed, resembled the ruins of Warsaw; here and there he saw German-language street signs, and Germans still lived there. In spite their relatively large concentration, the Jews still could not develop a foothold in the city and the fact that it was in ruins did not help. Hence, he concluded that greater importance should be given to those Jewish communities in Lower Silesia where Jewish people held a more tangible grip. First and foremost, he mentioned Rychbach which was the heart of Jewish settlement in the province[1.38].

According to Nowik, Rychbach had the following nicknames: "Vilnius of Lower Silesia", "Jerusalem of Lower Silesia", "Tel Aviv". He found the Jewish Culture House, the building of the Jewish Committee near the synagogue, exciting. In the past it had been the home of a German dignitary. He reported that everywhere he saw many Jews: in the synagogue, on the sidewalks, in the middle of the street: Jews from the camps, Soviet Jews. He noted that Jews who had lived in the town for some time were well-dressed, while those who were newer arrivals and had not yet integrated dressed more poorly. But for him the most important factor was that Polish Jews lived! The proof was the Culture House and the sign on its front written in Yiddish – Kultur Hoyz.

Egit told Nowik that when he first arrived in Rychbach, in May 1945, he had chosen the most beautiful German building, saying, “This is it, here will be the committee!” When it was decided to move the headquarters to Wrocław, the house remained the seat of the local Jewish Committee for Rychbach and the surrounding towns. As the area of Rychbach with the highest concentration of Jews in the town, Nowik described the Jewish quarter as a neighborhood where one could listen to Yiddish songs late into the night, and it was where the Jewish theatre was located and the cultural life was very intense. On the walls of these buildings one could see a lot of advertisements for shows, lectures, guest performances and so on. While the level of activity was very low compared to the Jewish life in Poland before the War, it was the resurgence of a healthy Jewish life.

Nowik recounted a story from the time he stayed with Jacub Egit in his apartment. One day there was a knock on the door and a German woman entered and asked if she should come the next day to clean the apartment: "Clean a Jewish house...we felt then that most certainly we were in liberated Lower Silesia."

Another eyewitness, who wrote about Dzierżoniów shortly after the Kielce pogrom was a British reporter for the Manchester Guardian (his name was not specified)[1.39]. He reported that the town police chief was a Jew, as well as two deputies to the district governor. Not identifying names, he wrote that the Police Chief "is probably the first Jew to hold such an office in Poland." Several Jews held senior administrative positions and important roles in many factories and mines. "However, the Jews did not feel safe." Outside the buildings of the Jewish community and the synagogue he regularly saw armed Jewish guards. Thus, even though there were no serious security incidents, Jews were worried, particularly after the Kielce pogrom, and many expressed their desire to leave Poland. The reporter noted that a Jewish doctor with a good practice in Dzierżoniów told him that he was leaving because he was afraid to go out of town to visit a patient, fearing attack after his daughter experienced attacks and insults at her school from non-Jewish fellow pupils. He also reported about a Jewish shop owner who managed his business under a non-Jewish pseudonym as a precaution, in case he might be boycotted.

The third testimony was from Feliks Nieznanowski, a Jew whose family had lived in the Old Town of Warsaw prior the Second World War. During the war he was in the Soviet Union and returned to Poland at its end. He did not want to go to Warsaw as his brother was the only member of his family to survive and lived then in Rychbach. Feliks arrived there in February 1946. His impressions were first-hand and from his personal point of view[1.40].

He found himself with a wooden suitcase and a worn-out Soviet jacket on the street among many Jews, which reminded him of the hustle and bustle of the Jews on Nalewki Street in Old Warsaw. "Hey, who are you? How old are you? Where are you from?" – asked a passer-by, and before he was able to respond the man loaded him and his belongings on his bike and rode to the local Jewish Committee on Daszyńskiego Street, where Feliks’s brother Józef was employed as the director of the youth department of the Provincial Jewish Committee. In front of the building there was a large crowd of Jews who had arrived in the town and were waiting for a place to stay and food to eat, as they had nothing. The two brothers met there for the first time since 1941."Take the keys," said Józef: "There is an apartment: go there as I cannot leave the office now. Find some clothes and get dressed." At the apartment Feliks found a swastika and various Germans clothes, and on opening a drawer he found a pistol. There was also a bathroom and that was the most important thing at that moment!

As he had just arrived from the Soviet Union with left-leaning political beliefs, he was told to join the ZWM, the 'Fighting Youth Union', a communist youth organization established during the war to fight the Germans and now was aligned with the Polish Communist Party. He wrote down his own impressions on Jewish daily life in Rychbach from his political perspective. He emphasized how different groups wrangled over who would be responsible for the distribution of the large amounts of machinery, textiles, materials and varied food products that were funded by the JDC. The goods were arriving at the port of Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea, and then were transported overland to Rychbach. In his opinion, it was "typical of Jews that they quarreled about who would be responsible for all of this, every party wanting to be important." As he was young and still without a family, he proposed himself as the warehouseman, as half the products meant for distribution were already finding their way onto the black market. Lists were prepared and the committees decided how the products were distributed in the cooperatives and factories; however, he believed that many were receiving food and equipment they did not deserve.

Feliks’s attempt to take control of the distribution of goods was not welcomed by the others and he encountered difficulties following the products that were distributed. At some point it was even suggested that the matter should be handled in rotation between the different parties. Feliks became fed up with what was going on and gave up and decided to leave the town. One year after arriving he enlisted in the Polish army, although the Party tried to dissuade him and offered to release him from the service, but he refused and expressed his wish to serve in the army. He was to serve for many years and reached the rank of Major. After marriage he returned and settled in his home city, Warsaw, whereas Józef, his brother, eventually migrated to Israel in the mid 1950's.

The fourth account of Jewish life in Rychbach, came from a research carried out during the years 1947-50 by the Polish Sociologist, Irena Hurwic-Nowakowska. She carried out the first, and in fact the last, survey designed to examine the attitudes and mental state of the Jews in Poland after the Holocaust. The survey was conducted through an anonymous questionnaire in three cities: Warsaw, because it was the capital of Poland, with the largest number of assimilated Jews; Łódź and its surroundings, because of the largest concentration of Jews in Poland at that time; and Dzierżoniów, the town with the highest ratio of Jews within the general population. According to the survey data, in 1947, there were 16,646 inhabitants, in the town, including 6750 Jews. "Dzierżoniów was also interesting as a new type of a settlement in the western territories."[1.41].

In the preamble of the English version of her book, published 35 years later, Hurwic-Nowakowska noted that in 1947 the Jews numbered 37% of the town’s population, which was "quite an exceptional figure considering the postwar conditions. It was there that I found a Jewish community with an indigenous folklore and culture… Postwar Dzierżoniów represented a half-conscious tendency of Jews to live close to each other. Results of the field work and the survey confirm this."[1.42].

Approximately 13,000 questionnaires reached their destination; however, Hurwic- Nowakowski received only 817 responses, approximately 6%, including 107 in Dzierżoniów. She acknowledged that numerically it was not a success, but "the material is much richer in terms of quality: the respondents represent many different social strata, political opinions, and cultural backgrounds, from the most orthodox to the completely assimilated."

One of the issues identified in the survey was that the Jews chose to live together. It was factual before the war when there were areas where the Jewish presence was dense, with entire towns inhabited almost exclusively by Jews, as well as entire quarters in big cities. This may have been an important factor which made Dzierżoniów attractive, with its large number of Jews and Jewish institutions. Many of the Jews had arrived on their own accord to live in a Jewish environment. Due to their number and their percentage of the population, the Jews in Dzierżoniów constituted a more compelling community than the Jews who returned to Warsaw and Łódź. Hurwic-Nowakowski found in her survey that in Dzierżoniów they more often mentioned the Kielce pogrom (one of the respondents was a victim) as an event affecting them personally, while the respondents in Warsaw and Łódź mentioned it less. She concluded that those who were affected more by the tragedy of Kielce looked for a shelter within a Jewish environment[1.43].

One of the survey respondents, an official in a social organization in Dzierżoniów, said that for him Poland was his homeland since it allowed the existence of the Jewish community. As to his future plans, he replied he intended to live among Jews, and therefore had chosen to settle in the town.

"I would try to live wherever Jews are. If the Jewish community in Poland vanished, I too would leave the country. I would prefer, of course, [to live in] democratic countries."[1.44].

Dr Beata Hebzda-Sołogub, who has been researching the Jews presence at the town during the Polish era, noted that they were active and involved mainly in social and culture activities which they developed dynamically and multi-directionally from the beginning and have had a considerable influence on the cultural development of the town. It constituted a component in the adaptation and assimilation of the Jewish community in the town and played an important role in creating and preserving the national consciousness of the Jewish population[1.45].

Community Life

Turnover After the anxious departure of tens of thousands of Jews following the Kielce pogrom, a calm and stable atmosphere prevailed in the Jewish communities, in part due to the border acrossings being blocked, preventing illegal or semi-legal migration from Poland. Since the end of 1946, and for nearly the next two years, the life of the Jews in Dzierżoniów became routine, with all aspects of daily life being as they had been during the previous year and a half. Jewish identity was emphasized, particularly in the fields of culture and education, with direct linkage between the Jewish past and present. In February 1947, the responsibility for cultural affairs was passed from the Provincial Committee to a new body, Żydowskie Towarzystwo Kultury i Sztuki - (ŻTKS) (the 'Jewish Society of Culture and Art'). The organization operated branches in the province, including in Dzierżoniów, and managed cultural houses, clubs, libraries, visual arts, music, evening courses and languages. The cultural life gained significant importance because of the activity of the Jewish theatre which, as said above, was set up in Dzierżoniów. The theatre performed before enthusiastic Jewish audiences in many localities in the province (as mentioned, the Theatre’s permanent home was later set up in Wrocław).

The rivalry between the Communists and Zionists reached its highest point with the establishment of the Jewish Independent State of Israel, in May 1948. The trend had been accelerated already the year before, early in 1947, with the parliamentary general elections to the new Sejm with the cooperation of the Jewish parties. The Communists were proud of the participation rates: in Dzierżoniów it reached 97% and Wrocław and Petrolesie 99%[1.46]. The elections resulted in a landslide victory for the Polish Communist Party, which would soon become the only party in the country – and the cooperation between the Jewish parties would soon come to an end.

In the second half of 1947, the Dzierżoniów Fraction was the largest in the province: 500 members compared to 400 300 in Wałbrzych and Wrocław, respectively, a total of 3500[1.47]. Following the UN Resolution, of November 1947, which endorsed the establishment of two states in Palestine, Jewish and Arab, the reaction of the Fraction was to be grateful to the Soviet Union and the Polish government for supporting the decision, and they organized mass street demonstrations in the province towns. The left wing of the Zionist parties maintained a similar position. They organized a rally in Dzierżoniów carrying banners of gratitude to the governments of the USSR and Poland for their support to realize the Jewish People’s vision to establish a national homeland in Palestine. Party activists of the Zionist Ichud Party treated the rally with mixed feelings[1.48]. 

In the middle of 1948, it was decided to instigate a fund-raising campaign among the Jewish communities in Lower Silesia to build a permanent house for the theatre. During the coming months significant sums were raised. In one of the Fraction reports it was said, inter alia, that the Zionists had been negative on the fundraising because it is "unjustifiable to build a theatre while in Palestine Jewish blood is being shed…and anyway there will be no Jews in Poland, the theatre will be nationalized and the Jews will not utilize it. The Zionist propaganda was a complete failure, however. They found an attentive ear only among the merchants and production workers." [1.49].

The Independence Declaration of the State of Israel, in May 1948, aroused very great enthusiasm among the Jews on all sides of the political arena. However, that historical event was soon to create a radical change in Jewish life in Poland. The first indication was in July 1948, when Jacob Egit, the chairman of the Provincial Committee, was told that the Jewish pavilion at the projected exhibition dealing with the liberated territories (those annexed to Poland at the end of World War II) in Wrocław, in which the Committee invested a lot of work and energy in order to exhibit the achievements of the Jews, was to be incorporated into the general display instead of being separated as planned. It was a surprising announcement in itself as well as one which rang alarm bells as to its meaning. Very soon it was clear: the Soviet Union had decided to change its policy and adopt a strident anti-Israel and anti-Jewish approach which Poland was obliged to follow[1.50].

The central hallmark of the irreversible change was the reorganization of the Jewish committees in order to strengthen the control of the Communists on the committees and include their representatives from the workers' organizations. The change was to match the traditional communist propaganda that actions are done as a response to the alleged demands of the population. That was reflected, for instance, by the employees of a carpet co-operative in Dzierżoniów. They argued that after listening to what was happening in the country they came to the conclusion that the structure and composition of the Jewish committee were not compatible with the socio-economic situation of the Jews in Poland, and therefore it was necessary to reorganize the committees in order to change the representation of the entities which take part in building the Jewish Poland[1.51].

The changes included also the ruling party functionaries among them was the Chairman of the Dzierżoniów Jewish Committee Israel Orlin, who was ousted in December 1948, on charges of economic abuses. Other fired from the party were accused, in one case because of "Jewish nationalism" and in another because of "simultaneous affiliation" at the Polish Communist Party and the "Zionists"[1.52].

Jacob Egit who presided over the Provincial Committee from its beginning and was virtually its spokesman at the inner and outer arenas, was ousted from office several months later and prohibited from leaving Poland. He left the province and settled in Warsaw to manage a Jewish publishing house. Three years later, during the height of last Stalinist anti-Semitic campaign, Egit was arrested and charged, inter alia, of promoting a Jewish nationalistic and autonomous presence in Lower Silesia, and acting for personal financial gains[1.53].

While the communists' grip of the Jewish community tightened, the opposite trend of the desire to migrate to Israel grew. This desire was not hidden nor did its scope decrease, and it even permeated the ranks of the Jewish schools. In November 1948, it was reported that school children in Dzierżoniów refused to listen to talks on unification of the working class, explaining that "they are more interested in the Palestine fighting affairs refusing at the same time to sing the national anthem"[1.1.52].

The same happened at the Jewish school in Bielawa where some children refused to sing the Polish national anthem. When the director asked them why they had not sung it, and had stopped going to school in the middle of the academic year, they responded that "since Poland is not our homeland, we do not need to finish school here"[1.54].

The two issues (1) the taking control by the Communist Party of the regional Jewish committees, and through them control of Jewish community life, and (2) the growing desire of Jews to leave Poland, were virtually two faces of the same coin. The independent organizations established by the Jews since the end of the war faced abolition or nationalization, including the political parties, youth organizations, schools, theatres, co-operatives, health organization, the 'Jewish National Fund' and 'Keren Hayesod'. The JDC, whose assistance to the Holocaust survivors was very significant, was ordered to cease its activities in Poland. In August 1949, instead of the existing religious organization was established as the ritual organization representing the interests of the Jews, Związek Religijny Wyznania Mojżeszowego - (ZRWM) (the 'Religious Union of Mosaic Faith').

In October 1950, the Central Jewish Committee was abolished, along with all province committees, and replaced by one central organization Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce (TSKŻ) (the 'Society of Social-Cultural Jews in Poland'). Despite its official name, the real mission of the organization was to represent the interests of the country only party, the Communist Party, and ideologically oversee the Jewish population in order to strengthen their loyalty to the state[1.55]. TSKŻ together with ZRWM, were henceforth the only two organs to represent the interests of the Jews in Poland.

The other side of the coin was the fact that the Polish government recognized the affinity of large numbers of the Jews with the State of Israel. In August 1949, the Minister of Public Administration (actually the Minister of the Interior) Władysław Wolski told the Israeli Envoy to Warsaw, Israel Barzilaj, of the government's decision to allow, for a defined time, the emigration of Jews from Poland. A month later it released that message to the press. The decision was formally defined as the result of the “internal national needs of the country" and the wish to allow "undesirable elements - Zionist and religious zealots" to leave the country[1.56].

At that time there were 5680 registered Jews in Dzierżoniów compared to 12,240 in Wrocław and 7208 in Wałbrzych[1.57]. As the figures in those two cities had increased since the start of 1948 and migration from Poland was by then prohibited, it should be assumed that the Jews had left Dzierżoniów either for those cities or to other regions in the country.

But, when the migration option materialized the atmosphere of departure encompassed large parts of the Jewish community. Already in a report of March 1949, a communist representative of the Dzierżoniów local committee talked about the increasing interest in emigration: "Since March it is noticeable of people who are still coming to the Jewish Committee in order to get the necessary certifications to get a passport for travel. If at first it was a phenomenon of individuals, now it has taken on a mass character - the same can be seen in Bielawa, Pieszyce, etc."[1.58].

Until August 1950, there were 3730 Jews registered for migration in the Dzierżoniów County that constituted 28% of the Jews in the area. The strong desire to depart existed mainly within the ranks of factory workers, clerks and co-operative employees, those who were supposed to represent the socialist ideals. Moreover, a report of the Jewish Provincial Committee in 1949 stated that in Dzierżoniów even "some of our activists doubted the justice of their anti-exit agitation". And a year later it was Wajner, the Chairman of the County Committee, who defined the situation as serious, because "the Polish fellows are not versed until today and think that the Jews should just travel to their homeland that is Israel, [and] they should not be disturbed"[1.59].

The emigration, together with the elimination of the Jewish institutions, brought to an end a remarkable period the Jews in Dzierżoniów and the province experienced. It was a formal end of the communal Jewish national settlement but not the end of their physical presence. Many remained in the town, some because were denied the emigration request, others did not seek the option of leaving again their homes and were those who still believed in the communist utopia.

The later identified themselves with the objectives of the authoritarian communist regime and the ways and means to achieve them. That was particularly pronounced in the service of the Jews within the frameworks of the Polish internal security forces, which in the period discussed in this article constituted the long, severe and covert arm of the regime. Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, who carried out the researches on the subject, stated that the number of Jews at the senior levels of command and management of these systems was much higher than their percentage of the population. This led to many Poles to believe that Jews virtually ran these systems. According to his data, 13.7% of the commanders and deputy commanders at the national level of the Public Security Ministry (Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego - (MBP)), in fact the General Security Services, were of Jewish descent and their biggest share was in the Lower Silesia Province, 18.7%. And as a part of those figures, during most of the discussed years here that were governed by a Stalinist spirited establishment, in the Dzierżoniów regional office three of the seven commanders were Jews: Arthur Górny, served in 1946-47; Michał (Mojżesz) Wajsman, 1947-48; Adam Kulberg, 1951-54. The same was of the eight Deputy Regional Commanders: Edward Last, 1945-46; Adam Kulberg, 1950-51; Isaac Winnykamień, 1952[1.60].

To the list of top security officials of Jewish descent should be added Franciszek (Efroim) Klitenik, who served as commander of the prisons in Wrocław (1946-47), Dzierżoniów (1947-51), Łódź (1951-58). Dzierżoniów was one of nine towns in Lower Silesia in which death sentences were carried out – eight executions in the years 1946-1950. Shortly after his appointment Klitenik attended personally the execution of the only German accused of war crimes. Within the protocol of the sentence appeared also the name of the Public Prosecutor Eli Wasserstrum. Klitenik attended the last execution in Dzierżoniów, in July 1950[1.61].

Szwagrzyk has pointed out that the Jewish multiplicity in the security apparatus was based on figures, and as such reflected an historical fact. However, the research does not provide an answer as to the question of how numerical figures could be used as an argument in the emotional debate regarding their ranks share which has been ongoing for many years[1.62].

From Staying to Leaving

In June and July 1951, in Lower Silesia were registered 17,205 Jews: in Dzierżoniów and surroundings 2775, Bielawa 1550, Pieszyce 340, Wrocław 4800, Legnica 2925, and Wałbrzych 2000[1.63]. The main Jewish communities remained but now they did not keep the past status. The body forced upon them to represent and promote the objectives of the ruling Communist Party was, as stated, the TSKŻ. That organization was active on two fronts: firstly, around cultural issues, setting up libraries, reading rooms, and organizing valuable artistic performances that were very popular among Jewish people in the large communities in Poland. It also set up cultural centers and theaters which were designed to continue to preserve the national identity of the Jewish community.

The second strand of work was designed to serve the interests and the political propaganda of the party, which in the early 1950's focused on the struggle against "Jewish nationalism and Zionists of all shades". Zionism was identified then as a spy-agency of Anglo-American imperialism. Those were the days of the most extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist Stalinism. In Dzierżoniów, in April 1953, it was reported that a man was arrested suspected of belonging to a spy network related to an operation nicknamed "Jordan"[1.64].

Within the political propaganda framework, the issue of women's membership and activity in the TSKŻ, which seemed unsatisfactory to its functionaries, aroused concern and was published in the press. An organized propaganda campaign all over the country recruited women for various tasks initiated by the party, such as collecting scrap metal and waste-paper. During the election campaign to the new Parliament, Sejm, in October 1952, in Bielawa 80% of the agitators on the streets were women. Some expressed greater ideological extremism than the men, demanding the final eradication of the "remnants of Jewish nationalism". In the same year in Dzierżoniów, Jewish women were the first to collect aid for the North Koreans, who were in a war against the South. However, a group of 15 Jewish women who worked loading coal-cars in a coal-mine in Wałbrzych outdid all other ‘patriotic’ activities, by deciding to celebrate the October Revolution by handing over their wages to families where the husband or son was serving in the Polish Army. At the end of their shift, instead of going home, they went to the TSKŻ branch to report what they had done[1.65]. However, the objective of encouraging more women into occupations yielded limited results, as far as TSKŻ was concerned. Still, in Dzierżoniów the results were relatively more encouraging: in 1951, there were registered 500 unemployed women, whereas four years later their number dropped to 260[1.66].

The issue of Jewish employment, that was central in building the image of the "new Jew" at the post-war period, continued to be so after the mass emigration of 1949-50, although the context differed. It was said above that hundreds of Jews were employed in coal-mines in the early days and that was something the Jewish leaders emphasized and praised. The fact that in the following years the figures dropped was quietly forgotten.

On the other hand, Jewish agriculture, which had also been a new area of work, did not disappeared entirely: about 2% of Jews found their livelihood in farming in the late 1940s, when this sector's first cooperatives were established in Poland. In spring 1950, the first cooperative, "May 1", was set up in Pieszyce. A year later " Dzierżoniów 2" was opened and the following year eighteen Jewish families set up a cooperative in the name of Feliks Dzierżyński, the founder of the Soviet secret service CHEKA in 1917. These cooperatives employed non-Jews too.

In the early 1950s, the Polish government introduced economic plans modeled on those in the Soviet Union. The plan in 1952 was intended, among others, to transfer the majority of employment from the co-operatives to heavy industry. Dzierżoniów, Łódź and Wałbrzych were the cities where the number of Jews employed in co-operatives was the highest, and these were to be significantly downsized. Most of the lay-offs were at the clothing factories[1.67].

The changes in employment and remuneration in the production cooperatives, with significant reductions in wages, was the main reason that year for the departure of hundreds of Jews from the small towns in Lower Silesia. According to local estimates, the Jewish population in Dzierżoniów decreased from 3000 to 2600 and the trend continued. In April 1954, there were a thousand adults and adolescents living in the town who were considered as members of the TSKŻ. It is important to note that the Jewish population figures almost always varied according to the sources. One source was the Israeli legation in Warsaw, which tended to increase them. According to its figures, in December 1954 in Dzierżoniów, Warsaw, Szczecin, Wałbrzych there were 5000 Jews and Kraków 3-4 thousands, while in Wrocław 12,000. The local functionaries argued that in Dzierżoniów and Kraków were 2000 to 2500. It seems that their estimates were closer to the actual figures even though not having the possibilities to collect the full data[1.68].

Another area that the party was involved in was the educational system and its programs. In principle it was similar to the pattern of the provincial and local committees, but this time the supervision was much closely monitored. Party functionaries and TSKŻ activists not only examined schools on their pedagogical subjects but also on their political identity. Schools performed follow-up discussions on "class enemies", while teachers, parents and children were required to toe the line. The Hebrew language was removed from the curriculum in 1951-52 and Jewish history a year later. Instead, a study of the annals of the Jewish people was added, excluding the study of the patriarchs. At the annual festivities the only Jewish topic was glorifying the heroes and martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto. At the end of 1956, there remained across Poland only seven schools teaching the Yiddish language - Łódź and Szczecin, and the rest were in Lower Silesia: Dzierżoniów, Bielawa, Legnica, Wałbrzych, and Wrocław[1.69].

In 1954, there were 2600 Jews in Dzierżoniów a third of them, 820, were listed as members of the TSKŻ. Relative to other branches of the organization in Poland, the sign-ups here were the largest. In 1951, of the 3000 Jews in town, 350 were members[1.70]. However, among the Jews were also who did not find an interest in the organization, arguing that they intended to migrate to Israel, and feared that membership might disrupt that. One factory worker did not fear to express his hostility explicitly: "Through its [the organization’s] window the sun will yet arrive to shine, and the Jewish Communists will pay for everything. In due time everything."[1.71].

Actually, a new light began gradually to dawn at the beginning of 1956, after the secret speech of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, in February, in which he revealed for the first time the extent of Stalin's crimes. This exposure resulted in dramatic changes in Poland, with waves of unrest among the public, an uprising attempt in Poznań and the bringing to light of the evils of the Stalinist regime that had ruled until then. In the second half of 1956, public order in Poland was poor, and the symptoms that had been observed two years earlier worsened. In October, the ruling Communist Party initiated the move necessary to send a message to the public that the changes they demanded were going to be put through: Władysław Gomułka was elected party secretary after years of imprisonment and disqualification from the centers of political activity. One of his first acts was to initiate the opening of the closed gates to Jews wishing to leave Poland.

The atmosphere of the relative openness that prevailed throughout the country, allowed certain circles to interpret it differently. In their eyes the Jews represented the old Stalinist criminal regime, and therefore it was necessary to make them pay. The anti-Semitism of 1956 was one of the results of the thaw following Khrushchev's speech. In Lower Silesia it manifested itself in its most extreme expression, with even situations of racially-motivated pogroms. Less dramatic outbreaks occurred in various locations – in Dzierżoniów and Bielawa where shots were fired on a Jew[1.72].

Many citizens used to write to the Central Committee of the Communist Party with complaints about their living conditions and seeking a cure for their distress. The letters were collected in leaflets and presented to party seniors. Copies of anti-Semitic letters were presented in a special bulletin (No.28, June 1956) only for members of the Politburo. The dimensions of the problem were evident in a statement by Jewish activists in Dzierżoniów adopted at a meeting on 28 October 1956, which accused the local authorities of turning a blind eye to events in which Jews were insulted and attacked: "Recent months have witnessed 40 cases without penalty, of insults and attacks against Jews. We declare that the authorities in the province and county react inappropriately in these incidents and [fail to] intervene. The most painful fact is that only on October 27, there were four cases of assault, only a week after the eighth plenum [of the party]."

In another letter sent to the Party organ Trybuna Ludu, in December 1956, the author pointed out that

"just like in Wrocław, the Jews do not go out after seven o'clock in the evening. All the Jews leave Wrocław and other cities, sites of assault and other incidents. You can come and see for yourself." And the writer concluded that it is a "shame, a terrible shame. The party leadership is silent. Why?"

That question never got a reply[1.73].

Although anti-Semitism was the main reason for the desire and intention to migrate, other reasons were dismissal from work, the economic situation in the country and the recognition that the majority of Jews intended to leave. There were certainly those Jews who had been unable to leave during the previous campaign, of 1949-50, and now sought to do so.

Not all Jews who had declared Israel as their destination went there. The figures in the table below show that the highest percentage of "dropouts" occurred during the first year of the migration, 1956. After the record year of 1957, the numbers of the emigrants decreased sharply and in the following years among them were also repatriates from the Soviet Union, who had returned to Poland in small numbers since 1955, but in their thousands, after the signing of an agreement between Poland and the Soviet Union, in February 1957[1.74].

Year	Number of Emigrants	Israel stated destination	Actual Destination Israel
1956	9,384	6,209	3,680
1957	30,331	30,331	29,526
1958	3,143	3,143	3,124
1959	3,561	3,561	2,546

Jewish migration in those years was a historical milestone in the history of Poland as the small Jewish minority shrank considerably. In the aftermath institutions, businesses, plants were closed. According to surveys conducted by TSKŻ, in 1960-61 it was estimated that in Lower Silesia lived approximately 8,000 to 9,000 Jews, half of them in Wrocław, 1500 in Legnica, 1350 in Wałbrzych, over 400 in Dzierżoniów and around 370 in Świdnica[1.75]. Szyje Bronsztejn, who estimated that about a fifth of the province Jews were repatriates from the Soviet Union, presented another distribution: Wrocław 3800, Legnica 1425, Wałbrzych 1100, Dzierżoniów 320, Świdnica 255, Bielawa 255[1.76]. Indeed, according to the testimony of Mojżesz Jakubowicz, the TSKŻ secretary in Dzierżoniów, in the early 1960s in the town were living 320 Jews[1.77].

The dwindling numbers of the Jews signified that the days of the decade of the Jews in Dzierżoniów, and the active community there, had gone. This is despite a testimony from a woman resident to the effect that in those days Jews flocked to the synagogue during the holidays, and there was a social club, cultural activities, shows and library services[1.78]. It might be assumed that these were Jews who either continued to believe in Communism, or by reason of age, status or economic situation saw no point in leaving and starting a new life elsewhere.

The handful of Jews in the town, and the thousands that still remained in Poland, obviously did not foresee what would happen, further afield. In June 1967, in the midst of the Six Day War in the Middle East and before the dimension of Israel's victory became clear, the Soviet Union and all the Eastern European countries, except Romania, severed diplomatic relations with Israel. Gomułka, who 10 years earlier had been friendly and empathetic with the Jews, was now the leader who initiated a sharp anti-Israel campaign, threatening the remnant of Jews in a style that recalled Stalin's dark days. On June 19 he delivered a speech in which he compared the reaction of the small Jewish community to Israel's victory on the battlefield as the behavior of a fifth column, "and we cannot remain indifferent to people ...who support the aggressor." He urged those concerned to leave Poland. But, due to pressure from his colleagues, Gomułka was forced to accept that the expression ‘fifth column’ should be deleted from the official wording of the speech to be published. It was an unprecedented event that the Party leader agreed to censor his speech which had already been broadcast on the radio![1.79].

The speech provided the press with the ammunition to continue the campaign against Israel and the denunciation of Jews in Poland.

The leadership of TSKŻ came under pressure to condemn the "Israeli aggression". On 8 July, a month after the war ended, the branches in Dzierżoniów, Wałbrzych and Bielawa adopted resolutions to this effect. Four days later, Wrocław branch adopted a similar resolution[1.80]. The more important and sensitive result of the campaign was that the state security branch began to keep a more close watch on the Jewish population.

In retrospect, June 1967 was the preface to a much bigger organized campaign that began in March 1968, when there was growing unrest across Poland following Warsaw student riots. On 19 March, Gomułka delivered another speech in which he emphasized that there was a problem with the identity of some of the Jews who were more closely aligned to Israel than to Poland. He repeated his motif from June that "I assume that the Jews in this category will leave our country sooner or later."[1.81]. The speech was immediately followed up with practical expressions of extreme anti-Semitic propaganda in the mass media and organized incitement in workplaces that led to the dismissal of hundreds and thousands of Jews.

That happened in Dzierżoniów too where in the central square people gathered and shouted: "Jews to Madagascar! Down with Zionism!"[1.82] Local press followed the national press with anti-Jewish texts. The hostility was not only demonstrated in public as Jews were also harassed by phone and threatened in their homes. In the workplace they were treated as second-class citizens and were dismissed without any explanation. And, as had happened nine months earlier, the TSKŻ branches were ordered to pass resolutions following the party line. On March 30, the Wrocław branch decided, inter alia, that "the Jewish community in Wrocław is united around the demands and claims of the party leadership, as expressed in the speech of Comrade Władysław Gomułka." Similar decisions were adopted by the branches in Dzierżoniów, Wałbrzych, Legnica and Świdnica[1.83].

One of the targets in Dzierżoniów was the Jewish library, located within the organization building, which in the early 1950's was regarded alongside the libraries in Wrocław and Wałbrzych as among the 16 biggest libraries in Lower Silesia (in Poland as a whole there were then 26 Jewish libraries). In order to avoid damaging, the foreign language books were transferred to the general public library, but many Yiddish volumes were taken to the library roof and shredded. Luckily, a thousand of copies which were in the possession of private people and Mojżesz Jakubowicz, were rescued[1.84]. The next March and April the windows of the building were broken several times and a smoked candle was thrown through the door[1.85].

The activities of the TSKŻ in Dzierżoniów contracted as with some 30 members, most of them aged over seventy years, it was hard to develop organized and continuing cultural activities. According to Jakubowicz, already by the late 1960's it was difficult to arrange a minyan (the quorum of ten men required for public prayer services). In 1980, the tiny local congregation attempted to set up the synagogue as a museum, sponsored by the Town Council. But the renovation works were not completed and in the process colorful and beautiful murals were lost under the cover of white paint. In 1994 the community became subordinate to the larger Jewish community in Wrocław[1.86].

Epilogue

Dzierżoniów was indeed a promising place for the Jews at the initial phases of their settlement at the end of World War II. The basic conditions for opening a new life after the horrors of the war existed there and therefore, from the beginning it was exceptional in being the only town in post-war Poland that was inhabited by a high percentage of Jews. While not really the classic pre-war shtetl, the Yiddish billboards and Yiddish spoken on the streets was a reminder.

The Jewish presence in Poland in the period discussed in this article was characterized by two major features: assimilation and emigration. Many of the respondents in Hurwic- Nowakowska survey expressed their opinion that assimilation had not solved the Jewish problem and as evidence pointed to the fate of the German Jews doomed by Hitler. Among the respondents 23.9 percent favored assimilation while 76.1 percent opposed it[1.87]. One of the respondents, a barber in Dzierżoniów, said: "As a nation Jews should not assimilate. Whether they want it or not, Jews in Poland will disappear as a national entity in the course of time." A white-collar worker was likewise: "Without natural rebirth of the Jewish people in their own independent national state in Palestine, national-cultural Jewish autonomy in Poland is a house of cards."[1.88]

The national identity reference revealed the differences between the locations of the respondents. Approximately 55% of the Warsaw Jews responded that they were Jews, about 38% Poles, and 3% both; in Łódź the figures were, 78%, 19%, and 2% respectively. In Dzierżoniów, 93.5% identified themselves as Jews and 4.7% as Poles. The third figure was null. As to the question of what was their preferred homeland, in Warsaw 63% responded in favor of Poland and 25.7% for Israel; in Łódź the results were 45.5% and 39.5%; in Dzierżoniów they were 36.4% and 53.3%[1.89].

The Jewish national homeland realization, which was the permanent bone of contention within the Jewish communities, instigated the emigration motivations. After the November 1947 UN resolution, that divided Palestine to a Jewish and an Arab state, the communists in Dzierżoniów observed that "in reactionary circles on the Jewish street excited emigration moods [reached] serious extent." And as the due date of the resolution approached and the situation there deteriorated, in the Jews centers across Poland were noticed military enlisting moods. "In Dzierżoniów occurred two accidents of party members asking for permission to leave for Palestine."[1.90].

The birth of the State of Israel, in May 1948, was indeed a turning point in the history of the Jews in Poland, not just because of the realization of a long living dream, but because it was affecting directly their lives. Within a short period they were to found themselves in a new unforeseeable situation. The Stalinist Soviet Union initiated an extreme anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli policy, followed by Poland, which signaled the end of the Jewish semi-autonomy. In this context two topics should be considered: (1) The Jewish Fraction officials were retard in understanding the government policies formulated in Warsaw. Jakob Egit, the formal leader of the Lower Silesia communities, was astonished when ordered not to exhibit the pavilion the Jews had prepared with great diligence. Decades later he admitted that it was a sharp signal that something is changing[1.91].

The same might be said regarding the emigration topic: in principle, the Jewish Communists objected the legal and illegal migration campaigns as they believed in the future of the Jews in Poland. Hence their reactions to the existing spirits amidst communities to leave the country. They were tardy to realize that letting the Jews to go away served a national goal namely, creating a mono-ethnic state which would not remind the turbulent multinational Poland before the war. That was why the Polish government granted in parallel an exit also for Germans remained on its soil since the war. "The decisions to open the gates for Jews and Germans were a kind of follow up to the postwar population movements of 'ethnic unmixing'". These exoduses would serve as precedents for larger outflows in the mid 1950's[1.92].

(2) The 1949-50 Exodus was comprised of mainly ordinary citizens. The next campaign in the later 1950's was to include also high officials who served within the ranks of the State Organs during the years discussed here. Among them were the staunch and faithful officials who had served in Dzierżoniów.

As said, Jacob Egit after his removal from office in Lower Silesia lived and worked in Warsaw. Released from a short imprisonment he pleaded to emigrate but was denied for years. Finally, in 1957 he and family were free to leave and they traveled to Canada. He became there an active member at the Zionist circles and held high level positions for Canadian Jewish organizations. Among them was his tenure as the Executive Director of the Histadrut in Toronto (the Israeli federation of the trade unions). Egit must have deleted by then his ardent communist past. For instance, when the Jews were celebrating and hailing the UN partition resolution of November 1947, he stated referring to Theodore Herzl, the founder of the Zionist Movement[1.93] : "Herzl could not be a symbol of Jewish political achievements, [the] schemes outlined by him are today outdated." In his autobiography, published three decades after his departure from Poland, Egit dealt in depth with his tenure in Lower Silesia but abstained from discussing the years after his forcibly leaving the community he had worked out and leaded[1.94].

The other three who have been known to cut their ties with the Communist Poland were serving at the Security and Legal organs: Adam Kulberg, Franciszek Klitenik and Eli Wasserstrum. Kulberg was the one who already pointed out in his registration documents that he was of Jewish nationality and of Mosaic faith. Some years after leaving Dzierżoniów he turned down another job at the security services on the ground that he and family intended to migrate to Israel which was only realized in 1968[1.95].

Wasserstrum went there in 1957 and Klitenik in 1969[1.1.61].

It was a sort of a closure: the loyalty of the four with the state (the whereabouts of the other security high officials are unknown) turned to be of no value when they lost confidence in the State's goals. The ultimate outcome to get back and identify themselves with their Jewish roots should be regarded as a very personal sharp curve, considering their early indoctrinations to oppose the Jews identities and aspirations.

After the big exodus of 1956-57, the Jewish population in Dzierżoniów dwindled dramatically and according to a census in 1961, there remained only 320 Jews in the town, within a population of 27,152 (in 1960) i.e., approximately 1.1%[1.96].

That figure dwindled further during continued departures until it reached the final figure of only a very handful of Jews, a process that took place altogether in the course of 25 years!

Today, in Dzierżoniów one will find intact from the past only the Jewish cemetery and the synagogue. That building, that served for almost a century the Jewish presence in the town, was inactive and neglected for many years. In order to prevent its complete decay, the "Beiteinu Chaj - 2004 Foundation" (in Hebrew, Our Home Lives), was set up by Rafael and Dorin Blau, citizens of both Israel and Poland, to restore and operate it as an active Jewish Cultural Center in order to preserve the Jewish Heritage in the town.

Bezalel Lavi

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