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This project aims to gather those who were born, lived, and died in the Jewish community of Piaski, Poland. This was the town near Gostyn, once known as Sandberg, Prussia. It is not to be confused with the several other towns named "Piaski", including the infamous encampment near Lublin.
Note: The following is largely based on German and Polish information available in sources online. I’m not clear from whence came all of the original material, but I am attempting to determine this. In some cases, the material appears to have serious inaccuracies, including a discussion about an agreement in Strzelce Wielkie, which is close to another town named Sandberg and far from the correct one. Not all of the original phrases make total sense even in context. I have clarified as best I can, and I am working to determine the original intent. I will be making improvements over time….
The town of Sandberg was never fully Jewish in the sense that most Shtetls were, but there was a substantial Jewish presence for over 100 years.
Sandberg Population
Ethnic Poles dominated the town demographics after 1870, with 1,000 Poles in 1895 and almost 1,900 by 1931. After WWI, the town became almost entirely Polish.
Before the founding of Sandberg in the late 18th century, urban centers such as Gostyń, Pogorzela, Krobia, and Poniec were bound by de non tolerandis judaeis [non-toleration of Jews], which prevented Jews from settling there.
Without any official permission to found a town, the castellan of Śrem, Karol Koszutski, started to build houses in 1773, offering accommodation to subjects from his estates and to other settlers brought by him in the next year. On 15 January 1775, Stanisław August Poniatowski, last King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, granted Koszutski a location privilege for Piaseczna Góra, which met with a protest from the owner of Gostyń, Jan Nepomucen Mycielski. Mycielski argued that Koszutski acted against law when founding the new town: “Should founding of any new towns in the vicinity of the ancient ones be detrimental to the existence of the latter, we demand that they be founded no closer than two miles from the existent ones or in one-mile distance if the towns are divided by a river.”
The magistrates’ court in Poznań ruled in Mycielski’s favor, yet the owner of Piaseczna Góra lodged an appeal to the court in Warsaw. As he was in Marshal Ignacy Twardowski’s and Chancellor Andrzej Stanisław Młodziejowski’s favor, Mycielski was forced to withdraw the complaint.
The register of the magistrate’s office in Sandberg states that the first Jew to settle there was Michel Moses. He arrived on 22 November 1783 and established an inn in the Market Square. By 1800, almost all of 21 distillers and 17 brewers were Jewish. However, the privilege to issue a license for inn-keeping belonged to the town’s owner, who strongly objected when the town council led by mayor Neumann issued such a license in 1829. As a consequence, two Jews had to pay as much as 30 thalers and one of them 60 thalers. Jews were also involved in the tobacco trade and monetary loans. As there were no banks, many inhabitants took advantage of services provided Sandberg Jews such as Luis Pawel.
In 1794, the king accepted the first elders of the Jewish community: Loebel Wolff, Józef Hirschl and Scholem Salomon [Probably Salomonski – sja]. As the number of Jews in Sandberg was significant, the construction of a synagogue was soon approved. It turned out to be too large, and it was rebuilt with residences for shammes and shochet added to the space. The synagogue was situated in Borkowska Street (present Warszawska Street, at that time popularly called Jewish Street). At the exit of the street two poles tied with wire marked the area, so-called Sabbath Eruv, which the Jews were not allowed to leave during the Sabbath.
In less than twenty years since the founding, the fast-developing town of Sandberg became home to 113 Jews, whereas Polish people constituted 21% of the residents there. Within the next two decades, the tendency became even stronger: in 1820 the number of Catholic Poles decreased to 56 people (13%), Evangelical Germans grew to to 177 (41.1%), whereas the number of Jews topped 198 people, which corresponded to 45.9% of the whole population.
Yet there were also some limits imposed on the Jews by the founder. They were not allowed to buy houses from Christians. An exception to the rule was a situation in which a non-Jewish buyer could be not found within a publicly announced time period or a Jew would offer higher price. This was the case in 1802, when Wusch, a tailor, demanded too much for his ruined household and no Christians were interested in purchase. The owner of the town as well as the Prussian authorities gave their consent that the Jew Jasman Pogorzelski would buy the estate. According to the legal adviser Hirschfeld, Pogorzelski offered a sum which exceeded the real value of the house. However, it was not the first time when the followers of the Moses’ faith bought out Christian houses in Sandberg. Before 1802, there had been several such cases. In the same year, a master baker Traugott, who lived under number 3, put his estate for sale. As he could no longer make a living in Sandberg, he bought a house in Osieczna. During two public auctions no Christian buyer could be found and only then, after receiving a ministerial consent, the house was sold to the Jew Michał Loebel for 255 thalars.
After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the Prussian authorities issued a directive, according to which the term “Jew” should have been avoided by the offices. In case it was necessary to determine religious affiliation, the expression Alttestamantarische Religionsverwandte was to be used, which meant “Old Testament relative in faith”. According to the census conducted by the Prussian authorities Partition, Sandberg had 378 residents. Such a large population had no doctor or even a barber. All inhabitants were served by a Jewish “Łaziebnik“. In his bathhouse he washed, shaved, pulled out teeth and bled Jewish as well as Christian inhabitants.
Although in West Prussian provinces the status of Jews was already regulated in 1812, the Grand Duchy of Posen did not grant privileges to the Jewish residents. The regulation concerning a provincial court from 1824, allowed townsmen and peasants as members of this institution, but excluded Jews.
A new law introduced on 1 June 1833, called Vorkäufige Verordunng wegen des Judenwesens im Groβherzongtum Posen (Provisional Regulation on account of the Jews being in Grand Duchy of Posen) distinguished between “naturalized Jews” and “tolerated Jews”. In order to be included in the first group, the Jews had to demonstrate appropriate wealth (about 2,000-5,000 thalars) or contribute to the Prussian state. Other requirements were taking a surname and speaking German. During the first two years after the law was passed, the majority of naturalization certificates were issued in Sandberg – 26. Other Jews belonged to the “tolerated” group. They were under protection of the Prussian government but had to accept certain restrictions when it came to buying estates, changing place of residence and getting married (e.g., no marriage earlier than at the age of 24). By 1847, 27 naturalization certificates and 33 tolerance certificates were issued in Sandberg, while in Gostyń the numbers were respectively 25 and 37. In 1840, Jews inhabited all towns of the county. A large population lived in Borek, but the largest percentage of Jews lived in Sandberg.
As a consequence of the authorities’ policy, the Jews became strongly connected with Prussia and directed against Poles who demanded independence. During the Spring of Nations in 1848, various situations took place, in which the Jews tore white-red bows and reported Polish activists to the Prussian authorities in Leszno. An arrested participant of the fights in Gostyń, Józef Ciążyński, recalled that “in Śrem, on the bridge, the German and Jewish residents spat on the cuffed prisoners and threw sand into their eyes”. Similar behavior led to growing mutual dislike.
Following the Spring of Nations, the division into naturalized and tolerated Jew was abandoned and the residents obtained equal rights. At this point, they could enjoy the citizen rights and take part in the political life and, above all, they could change the place of residence freely. Some Jews from Wielkopolska emigrated to Berlin, Wrocław, Hamburg or even to the United States. The number of Jews residing in Sandberg fell by a half.
The emigration reached its peak in the next twenty years. The number of Jews in Gostyń county dropped from 1,010 persons in 1871 to 509 in 1895. Eight years later, only 370 Jews lived in the Gostyń county, which constituted 3.5% of residents.
In the Greater Poland Uprising (1918-1919) only a few Jews took sides with the Poles. When Poland became independent, another emigration wave followed. In 1921, there were 48,930 residents in the Gostyń county and there were only 50 Jews. In Sandberg, where in 1840 the Jews made up 47% of the total population, there were only two Jews. The last Jewish man in the county, Ewald Jakubowski of Gostyń, left for Berlin in 1927.
The Sandberg Jewish cemetery was in the vicinity of Borkowska Street. In 1933, it made a rather gloomy impression: “Surrounded with high wall it gives a bleak impression, as if a grim secret was hidden behind its walls. You enter the cemetery by a heavy, iron gate, which is permanently closed nowadays. All the graves have been forgotten, the wind has overturned the tombstones and Hebrew inscriptions shine through the moss..
In 1991, a visitor reported: “The approximate size [of the cemetery] before WWII was 0.16 hectares. The area is smaller than 1939. It was vandalized during World War II. No stones are visible. A private individual owns site, which is used for residential buildings. The site was completely devastated because of its conversion to single family housing.”