Nowy Żmigród
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Nowy Żmigród (Yiddish: זשמיגראד / Zhmigrid) is a village and rural commune in Jasło County. It is located in southern Poland, 8 miles WNW of Dukla and 10 miles S of Jasło.
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[edit] History
Żmigród received the status of a city during the 14th century. Situated on the commercial roads leading to the Ukraine in the east and to Hungary in the south, Żmigród owed its fast growth due to the wine trade, which brought wines to Poland from the Hungarian vineyards.
In 1474 Żmigród was destroyed by the invading Hungarians. The city survived two fires during the 16th century (1522 and 1577). From the 18th century to the end of the 19th century Żmigród began to decline in importance. The place lost its status as a city in 1919 following World War I and the name Nowy (New) was added following World War II.
The main occupations of the Christian population were agriculture, manual trades and weaving.
The population of Żmigród was 2,508 in 1880, 2,289 in 1900 and 1,959 in 1921.
[edit] Jewish community
The first information about Jews in Żmigród dates to 1410. Jews were permitted to settle throughout the city. One hundred years later, it already had a thriving Jewish community surpassing other communities in the area. This fact is supported by the large two-storey synagogue that was built in the 16th century. The Jewish community of Żmigród had under its jurisdiction many Jewish communities including Jaslo and Gorlice. The latter communities had to bring their dead for burial in the Żmigród cemetery. Eventually Gorlice and Jaslo grew and gained their independence from Żmigród.
The community in Żmigród suffered greatly as a result of the Cossack and Swedish invasions. The community had to borrow money during the second half of the 17th century in order to survive. In 1694, the Jewish community borrowed 125 thaler from the bishop of Krosno but was unable to repay it until 1785.
In 1765, 1243 Jews lived in the villages surrounding Żmigród. The total Jewish population of the city of Żmigród and the neighboring areas consisted of 1926 people above the age of one year. Statistics indicate that there were 159 Jewish breadwinners. The Jews owned 67 houses that were very crowded, with some of them occupied by as many as six families.
Upon the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, Żmigród became part of the Galician territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to the financial report of the Austrian authorities in 1781, most of the Jews of Żmigród were in the lowest tax bracket. During the period that called for the resettlement of the Jews, in 1791, the community of Żmigród undertook to resettle on the land 17 families. Each family was to receive 250 florins. The plan was not very successful and only four families settled on the land by 1805.
The Jewish community flourished from the end of the 16th century until the middle of the 18th century. The post of rabbi in Żmigród carried great weight in the area. The community maintained a yeshiva headed by a rabbi. In 1680, Rabbi Avrohom headed the yeshiva. Between the years 1692 and 1695 Rabbi Menachem Mendl headed the community and the yeshiva. He was followed by Rabbi Benyamin Zeev Wolf Rimner in 1698. On his passing away in 1721, the position was given to Rabbi Avrohom Shor, who was succeeded by Rabbi Yehoshua Heshl Blumenfeld in 1770.
The Jewish community began to decline financially in the 19th century. Many of the Jewish residents began to leave the city and some even moved to Gorlice and Jaslo. During the eighties we see a decline of the Jewish population continuing into the 20th century. A great exodus took place during World War I, when many of the Jews of Żmigród left for overseas.
By the 19th century, most Jews in Żmigród were Hasidic, largely following the Sanzer Rov, Rabbi Chaim Halbershtam. They were influential in ensuring that the next incumbent as Rabbi of Żmigród was Benyamin Zeev, a Sanzer chosid. He passed away in 1902 and was succeeded by Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger, a brother-in-law of the Sanzer Rov. He was succeeded in turn by his son-in-law Rabbi Osher Yeshayahu Rubin, a grandson of the Sanzer Rov, who later became the Zhmigrider Rebbe in Sanz. In 1907, anotehr grandson of the Sanzer Rov, Rabbi Sinai Halbershtam, was appointed as Rabbi of Żmigród and served the community until 1939 (he died in Siberia, Russia).
After Żmigród lost its city status in 1919, the Jewish population declined steadily, reaching 800 people in 1939. The community gave the appearance of a poor and abandoned place. The ' Gemilat Hessed” fund that was established with the help of the American Joint in 1927 distributed 30 loans of 3000 złotych each in 1929. The fund faced closure in 1938 due to lack of money. Former residents of Żmigród in the USA kept the fund going.
[edit] Antisemitism
Żmigród faced its first blood libel in 1905. A gentile accused a Jewish family of kidnapping his 14-year old daughter in order to kill her and use her blood for ritual purposes. Five Jews were arrested and detained. Their innocence was proved after a long investigation, and the maid was convicted of perjury and sentenced to three months in jail. It took a long time for passions to settle down in Żmigród. The farmers in the area kept constantly visiting the “martyr” and anti-Jewish rumors kept circulating in the city.
The period between the two world wars started with a pogrom against the Jews of Żmigród in November 1918. Some farmers from the region came with their wagons to the city to buy cheap at the market, meaning to steal the Jewish-owned goods. Indeed, they soon started to rob Jewish homes and stores. Movable items disappeared rapidly; the rest was trampled or destroyed. Jews were beaten, hurt, and some severely injured. The local gentile population and the better educated elements ignored the whole event. Some of the latter even led the mob to Jewish homes.
The ban on the kosher slaughter of meat in 1937 in Nowy Żmigród reached the lowest economic point in Jewish life in the community between the wars. Kosher meat had to be brought from Jaslo and one butcher had the necessary permit.
With the outbreak of World War II, many Jews fled east across the San river but most of them soon returned home. Some of the Jews remained there and were soon rounded up by the Soviet authorities and moved to the interior of the country in 1940.
As soon as the Germans occupied Nowy Żmigród, orders aimed at the Jews began to appear. Jews were not allowed to travel, had to wear armbands and were forced to contribute money and forced labor.
In 1940, many Jews from the area were driven to Nowy Żmigród from as far away as Łódź. The Judenrat and the J.S.S. (Jewish Self Help) local committee provided lodgings, clothing and medical assistance for the needy. Many local Jews as well as poor Jewish refugees received warm meals from the public kitchen.
Early in 1942, a ghetto was established in Nowy Żmigród and more Jews were forced to move into the community from nearby villages. The Jewish population reached 2,000 people with an unbelievable level of overcrowding.
On July 7th 1942, all the Jews were ordered to assemble in the square whereupon they were surrounded by German, Polish and Ukrainian police units. Women, children, sick and elderly people were separated from the able-bodied. The latter were directed to a table where representatives of the various German firms issued them work permits. These were then directed to a separate corner of the square. A blanket was spread in the square and the Jews were forced to deposit all their valuable possessions. On the day of the round up, the head of the Judenrat, Hersh Eisenberg, was murdered by the Germans under the pretext that he did not pay the requested contribution. Three other people were killed with him including his two children. After hours of waiting, 1250 Jews were led to the forest of Halbow where they were killed in prepared pits. Some of the survivors of the round-up were sent on August 15th 1942 to the Zaslaw labor camp near Kraków. Another group of survivors were sent to the Plaszow death camp. The last remnants of the Jewish population were then sent to the Belzec death camp at the end of the summer in 1942.
[edit] References
- פנקס הקהלות פולין Pinkas Hakehillot Polin: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland, Volume III, pages 152-154 (Yad Vashem, Jerusalem)
- Zmigrod - a Shtetl in Galicia
