Kielce, Poland

KIELCE Kielce district, Poland. Despite a residence ban dating from the 16th century, Jews began settling in 1819. When the ban was lifted by the Russians in 1831, after the failure of the Polish rebellion, Polish merchants backed by the Church engaged in protracted agitation against Jewish residence. The Jews were expelled in 1845, although 101 were present by 1857. After the ban was officially lifted in 1863, the Jewish population grew to 6,173 in 1897 and 11,351 (total 31,171) in 1910. A small class of wealthy Jewish merchants, dealing in building materials and cloth, initiated fundraising campaigns to endow a Jewish hospital, completed in 1897, and a new synagogue, consecrated in 1903. In 1899, a Jewish vocational school was opened. The existence of a modern Jewish school and Hebrew school was short-lived. A Zionist society became active in 1900. Kielce was known as a center of Hasidism. Rabbi Hayyim Shemuel Horowitz, a scion of the Seer of Lublin, was the first of the Hasidim to settle there. Later, Rabbi Mordekhai Twersky of the Chernobyl dynasty (the Rabbi of Kuzmir; d. 1917) established a court. In 1918, a pogrom was staged by the local rabble and demobilized Polish soldiers, killing ten Jews and injuring 400. The Jewish population rose to 15,530 in 1921 and 18,083 (of a total 58,236) in 1931. In 1921, Jews owned 633 workshops, including 422 in the garment industry employing 568 Jews. In the mid-1920s, 4,659 Jewish merchants were registered in the city (82% of the total). Two Jewish banks were founded in the 1920s. Zionist activity was renewed during WWI. A Hashomer Hatzair branch was started in 1916 and Mizrachi became active in 1917. In 1926, Hehalutz started a pioneer training facility, which had a peak membership of 130 in 1933. Throughout the period, the Bund was involved in the city's labor struggle. Agudat Israel was active in education. The community maintained a number of libraries and a small theater. A Jewish weekly, the Kieltzer zeitung, with a circulation of 500, was published in 1932-39. In 1925 an association was founded to raise money for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kielce was one of the antisemitic Endecja Party's strongholds in Poland and a hotbed of anti- Jewish agitation throughout the 1930s. The Germans entered the city on 4 September 1939. A Judenrat was established on 21 September under a regime of forced labor and property confiscation. With the influx of refugees, the Jewish population grew to 25,400 by March 1940, including 3,000 from Cracow and others from Lodz and Kalisz. In February-March 1941, 7,500 Jews arrived from Vienna. Two ghettoes were set up in early April 1941. Jews were employed in local shops and labor camps. Mass Aktians commenced on 20 August 1942, lasting three days. About 21,000 Jews were deported to the Treblinka death camp while another 3,000 were murdered in the city. The 1,600 remaining Jews were confined in a small ghetto. Judenrat members were murdered on 20 November 1942 and 12 of the ghetto's13 doctors and their families were executed on 21 March 1943. Many others were put to work in Hassag munitions factories and other labor camps. An underground group in Ludwikow was uncovered by the Germans and its members were executed. A group of 20 Jews working in Pionki managed to escape to the forest and a few joined the Russian partisans while others were murdered by antisemitic partisans. After the war, around 250 Jews returned, mostly from places of refuge in the Soviet Union. About 200 of them resided in the 7 Planty St. apartment house where the community's offices were also located. On 4 July 1946, thousands of local residents attacked the building, provoked by the alleged kidnapping of a Polish child. During the rioting, 60-70 Jews were murdered, including children and pregnant women. About 100 were injured. Only at the end of the day did Polish soldiers arrive and in the aftermath few in authority condemned the rioting. Its effect upon the Jews of Poland was very traumatic and accelerated flight from Poland to Palestine