Żydzi w Ciechanowcu 1918-1942

Abstract

This paper is based on the material collected by students - members of History Circle at Białystok Branch of Warsaw University. Significant part of thesources comes from oral reports of inhabitants of Ciechanowiec, collected in June 1986. In 1921 about 2 600 Jews (53% of all inhabitants) lived in the town. In 1937 their number grew up to 3 300, while the percentage decreased to 46,3%. Almost all trade in the town was concentrated in Jewish hands. Also among craftsmen 73% were Jews. Tailors were the largest professional group. Altogether Jewish pairticipation in the town's trade and craft amounted to over 77%. The strongest political and cultural influence upon the Jews of Ciechanowiec was exerted by syonist organizations headed by the New Zionist Organization. The Jews of surrounding rural area were mostly influenced by the sicialist party Poalej Syjon. There were two private reliigious schools in the town as well as one private general school With Polish ant Hebrew as languages of instruction. Only one family in the town displayed tendency of assimilation. There were also three temples and two cementaries. Anti-semitic feelings aggravated since the beginning of the activity in Ciechanowiec of the Nationalist Party (Stronictwo Narodowe) in the second half of the thirties. Anti-semitic events were directed primarily against merchants. There were no pickets enforcing boycott in front of workshops or bothering the homes of Jewish intelligentsia. All this indicates economic background of anti-semitism. The majority of participants in storming parties and pickets in front of Jewish shops were peasants from the surrounding area. Much less frequently tbey were inhabitants of the town and never Christians neighbouring Jews on the same street. For them the Jew was not an alien, he was a good neighbour at whose place one shopped or ordered a service. In November 1941 Germans organized a ghetto in the town. The number of persons who went through it is estimated to be 3 000 to 4 000. In November 1942 the ghetto ceased to exist. According to incomplete data, during the Second World War, 16 Jews were hiding in the vicinity of the town.