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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Brzostek, Poland also known as Brzhostik.
'Please help us build up the towns and shtetls in Gesher Galicia and add your profiles. There are far too many for only a handful of users to complete. Do add information about the "place", profiles, stories of your family. You will first need to Join the Project (become a collaborator), if you need help contact curator Pam Karp
Background
Brzostek [%CB%88b%CA%90%C9%94st%C9%9Bk] is a town in Dębica County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland (historic province of Lesser Poland). It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Brzostek and is a local center of education and commerce.
Brzostek gained its Magdeburg rights in 1367, but first documented mentions of the town come from 1123-1125, when a list of possessions of the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec was created. Among a number of villages specified in the document, there is Brzostek (spelled Brestek). For centuries Brzostek remained a small town, frequently destroyed in numerous wars and conflicts. In 1657 the town was burned by the forces of Transylvanian prince George II Rákóczi, who invaded Poland earlier in the year.
- On 18 February 1846 the Galician peasant revolt started in the town (see Jakub Szela), and in the second half of the 19th century, Ignacy Łukasiewicz opened his pharmacy here. In 1934 Brzostek lost its town status, as its population was under 3,000, too small to be officially called a town.
- Its Jewish population was murdered by the Germans in the Holocaust, Brzostek itself was destroyed during World War II in 65%. It regained the town status on 1 January 2009.
Jewish History
(Translator name :MagdalenaR)
Distribution of the Jewish population was very uneven throughout Galicia, which resulted from previous historical relations (the situation before 1772) and from the emergence of new factors as early as the Austrian period.
- For centuries Jews could not settle in Brzostek and the situation changed only as late as 1816 when the Austrian authorities took the town from the Abbey in Tyniec and from that time on the ban of Jewish settlement was no longer in force. According to historical data five Jews lived already at that time in Brzostek. In 1824, names of 19 Jews were listed and in the decade that followed their number grew 67 in the entire parish.
- This brings up a question as to when a Jewish religious community was formed in Brzostek and it does not seem very probable that the community was established before 1845. Then, the revolution broke out in the Empire, so there was not much time to take care of Jewish affairs somewhere in Galicia.
The situation began to change in the second half of the 19th century. The significance of Brzostek increased as it became the county seat in 1854 and remained one until 1866. The number of Jews also increased in the town. Steps were taken in Galicia towards preparing changes in the system according to which Jewish communities functioned. Creation of a new kehilla was possible provided that the Jews would have a synagogue, a mikveh and a school.
31% of the entire population
In 1870, there were 358 Jews (31.9% of the entire population), whereas the whole Jewish community numbered 434 members. The Brzostek community was considered small and it was one of 237 Jewish communities in Galicia. At that time, the Jews had their own synagogue, mikveh, cemetery and a religious school attended by 18 students. Juda Walkenfeld was a rabbi from 1835 on. In The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1880-1890) there was an entry with the following information about Brzostek: The middle class of Brzostek was composed of Jews in the true meaning of the word.
- By 1900 the number of Jews rose to 848 people, while in Brzostek alone there were 508 Jews (38%). In the subsequent twenty years the number of community members decreased to 745, including 479 Jews in the town.
Cheim Wolkenfeld performed his duties as a rabbi from 1914 on. Rabbis were elected for three trial years, after which they would hold the position for the rest of their lives.
Religious community
The Jewish religious community in Brzostek included 20 towns: Bączałka, Błażkowa, Brzostek, Bukowa, Gębiczyna, Głobikówka, Grudna Dolna, Grudna Górna, Gorzejowa, Januszkowice, Kamiennica Dolna, Kamienica Górna, Klecie, Nawsie Brzosteckie, Opacionka, Siedliska, Skurowa, Smarżowa, Wola Brzostecka and Zawadka. Final limits of the kehilla were marked in 1891.
- The managing body of the kehilla was a religious supervisory board elected by community members for a period of six years. A superior stood at its head. However, the situation changed when from 1927 on, the kehilla management board was composed of a rabbi and eight councilors elected for a four-year office.
- The religious community supported the synagogue, mikveh, cemetery and the teacher. The first elections to the kehilla management board that took place in Brzostek in accordance with the new regulations were held on August 28, 1928. On February 5, 1929, Schulim Schonwetter, the owner of a large farm covering 30 morgen, became the chairman of the management board. The Pilzno county head described him as a progressive Orthodox Jew who was very influential in Brzostek.
- A brick synagogue replaced an old wooden one in the early 20th century. The Brzostek community was not rich and most of the people lived in poverty. It was possible to build a new synagogue thanks to financial support offered by American relatives and it was also thanks to their money that a brick building of a prayer house and a ritual bathhouse were put up. Using its own funds the community was able to build a wooden building which served as a cheder – a Jewish school.
Trade and craft
Most of the Jewish families were involved in trade and crafts and only some of them made their living by farming. Basically, the Jews who inhabited Brzostek lived a modest life and there were only two or three families that were better off than the rest. Over half the Jews living in Brzostek would not be able to support themselves but for the help given by their relatives who moved to America.
The information concerning crafts performed in Brzostek in 1912 indicates that there were 22 craftsmen in the town, including eight Jews (one gravedigger, three tailors, one baker, one shoemaker, one glazier and one watchmaker).
Trade was the main sources of income for the Jews in Brzostek. In 1930, the town had 59 traders of whom as many as 51 were Jewish.
- cloths - 6
- cattle - 3
- poultry - 2
- wood - 1
- accessories– 5
- eggs – 3
- ready-made clothes – 1
- kitchen utensils – 1
- dairy – 2
- footwear – 1
- miscellaneous goods – 10
- leathers – 3
- rawhides – 2
- clothes – 1
- liquor production – 2
- grain – 4
- ironware – 3
- soda water – 1
Polish Jewish relations
Generally speaking, the Polish-Jewish relations in Brzostek could be described as good, though worsened during World War One when the Russian authorities started repressing Jews. In 1914 a regulation was issued which imposed a ban limiting freedom of movement for Jews in front line areas. The same year there were instances of rapes of Jewish women committed by soldiers serving in the Siberian regiment.
Some school conflicts came about around the same time when Jewish kids would come to classes wearing the so –called “birydki” (a type of headwear). Teachers would fiercely fight that custom, which led to a situation where some of the children stopped attending school. At the start of the new school year of 1919-1920 Jews conformed to the requirements demanded by school officials.
What confirmed the influential position of Jews in Brzostek was the fact that 5 of 17 members of the town council in 1919 were Jewish. In 1922, the number of councilors grew to 24, of whom 7 were Jewish.
Archive of statistics
Copies of Jewish birth certificate of the Brzostek district from the years 1894-1938 are housed in the Archives of the Office of Vital Statistics in Brzostek and they are an indication of how the number of births had been changing.
- Over the period of 44 years, 956 birth certificates were issued, including 489 for boys and 467 for girls. Most births took place in 1899, the fewest in 1935 and 1937.
The Jewish vital records concerning marriages from 1894 to 1938 provide us with interesting information about marriages concluded among Jews. Only 52% of men were older than their fiancées. A large number of Jewesses (around 30%) got married when they were over 30, which was reflected in the number of offspring they had and that was probably the reason for a drastic drop in birth rate among Jewish families.
- The situation was also the result of the fact that there were more women than men and the fact that young men would very often move to different places looking for better job opportunities and migrating to cities or abroad, usually to the United States.
In the Archive of the Office of Vital Statistics there are also documents that deal with deaths in the Jewish religious community. In the period between 1894 and 1938 the Brzostek community buried 446 of its members. As much as 45% of these people were children under five years old, while elderly people over 60 constituted 15% of deaths.
About 40 families (300 people) lived in Brzostek in 1939. The town square area was inhabited by ten Polish families and the rest of the people living there were Jewish. An average Jewish family numbered 6 to 7 people, although there were also ones with more members, like Aron Sala who had 15 children.
WW11
Before the outbreak of World War Two Brzostek had about 500 Jewish residents who made up 30% of the entire population. The first months of occupation were relatively peaceful, but it changed in 1941 when the Wehrmacht was replaced with the SS.
- From then on, the Nazis started persecutions of Jews, forced them to work, confiscated their property, shut down their shops and took valuable things that belonged to them.
- All the Jews were gathered in a ghetto formed in Brzostek. In 1941, on the order given by the Nazi authorities, the Jews living in the Brzostek ghetto installed flowerbeds in the market square and leveled the ground of the square.
- In the first weeks of the war many Jews escaped to USSR and they managed to survive the war.
- About 80 Jews of Brzostek survived World War Two. Others were murdered in different circumstances.
One of the murder sites was the Jewish cemetery in Brzostek. People were also killed in a camp in Pustkowie and the village of Szebnie where youths were annihilated. There are graves of Jews in the woods in Jaworze where180 people were shot to death by the Nazis on August 12, 1942