“THE PROMISED LAND”

The nearly 700-year history of the Jewish community in Wrocław ended with its physical extermination by the German government. Few surviving Jews, scattered throughout Lower Silesia, rebuilt the old structures. In 1945, a completely new chapter began in the Jewish history of the region.

As early as June, the Provincial Jewish Committee, led by Jakub Egita, began its operations. The communist authorities allowed for the organization of a “yishuv,” a structure similar to a Jewish autonomous district. It was to be established in Lower Silesia, with its headquarters in Dzierżoniów, where the largest number of Jews resided.  

The revival of Jewish life in Lower Silesia was impressive. The Central Committee of Jews in Poland re-established the Society for the Protection of Jewish Public Health in Poland, which opened its branches in Lower Silesia in the autumn of 1946. Soon, a network of about a dozen outpatient clinics, medical centers, and paramedic stations, including dental clinics, emerged, as well as the largest hospital in Wałbrzych, named after Dawid Guzik. Near the White Stork Synagogue, the Jewish Religious Congregation found its headquarters. By 1948, 26 Jewish schools were already in operation, including a ballet school and two music schools, where Yiddish and Hebrew were the languages of instruction.

Jewish communities were diverse, with Zionist, religious, or pro-state approaches predominating. This led to a wide variety of schools being established. One of the most important was the institution that initially operated on Włodkowica Street. Due to the small size of the premises and the growing number of students, the school was moved to a building on Pereca Street (Żelazna 57). In its new location, it began to function as the Sholem Aleichem Jewish School, which remained the largest in Poland until its closure. Kindergartens were also of particular importance, one of which was named after Janusz Korczak. Vocational education developed, and the Organization for Creative Development conducted vocational courses, including locksmithing, tailoring, and radio technology.

Jews contributed to the postwar cultural life of Lower Silesia. For a short time, Dzierżoniów became the most important Jewish city in Poland. Symche Natan directed the first postwar theatrical performance here, based on a text by Sholem Aleichem entitled “The Bloody Joke.” Orchestras performed and choirs sang in Dzierżoniów. By mid-1946, several dozen smaller and a few larger cultural institutions were operating in this small Lower Silesian city. From 1946, the Lower Silesian Jewish Theater (Niderszleziszer Jidiszer Teatr) existed in Wrocław, under the direction of Ida Kamińska, with the distinguished director Jakub Rotbaum.

Throughout Lower Silesia, theatrical groups and other local initiatives were established, including in Wałbrzych, Świdnica, and Zagórze Śląskie. The press flourished, with “Nowe Życie – Trybuna WKŻ na Dolnym Śląsku” being published in large numbers. The “Niderszlezje” publishing house was also very active, specializing in publications in Yiddish. Film productions were also created. The famous documentary “Der jidyszer jiszuw in Niderszlezien” from 1946 supported the inclusion of the new territories into the Polish state. However, the creation of a Jewish pavilion during the Exhibition of Recovered Territories was blocked by the state authorities. This was a sign that the activities of Jews in Lower Silesia, which had been so strong in the first year after the war, had to begin to decline from 1946 onwards.

Jews arriving in Lower Silesia in the first months after the war tried to rebuild their lives after the tragedy of the war and the Holocaust. However, everyday problems arose, as well as the need to find their place in a new location where Germans were still present, along with increasing numbers of displaced Polish people. There were indeed a few attempts at revenge against the German population, but any form of vengeance was not a priority. However, it became an important element of world politics, over which ordinary survivors had no influence. Orthodox, liberal Jews, as well as left-wing groups from the pre-war PPS (Polish Socialist Party), Bund, and other groups that openly supported the new system, arrived in Lower Silesia. Zionist groups also operated there, working towards the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine. It was a veritable melting pot.

The Jewish community arriving in Lower Silesia was quickly allowed to establish a Jewish Religious Congregation. The communist authorities did so on February 6, 1945, three months before the Soviet troops captured Wrocław. Religious life among the Jews of Wrocław centered around the only synagogue that remained intact, the Synagogue under the White Stork. Soon, institutions of the Jewish community began to operate, including the Talmud-Tora religious school. Two Jewish cemeteries also came under the administration of the Congregation: the old one on Ślężna Street and the new one on Lotnicza Street. In addition to the aforementioned synagogue, there were also the so-called small synagogue – the Szul, known as the daytime synagogue, located near the synagogue, and prayer halls in Wrocław’s Ołbin district. The slight damage to this district facilitated the revival of life, as Polish repatriates settled here. Two prayer halls for Jews were located on Żeromskiego and Oleśnicka streets. There were also warehouses with food and kosher slaughterhouses. The mikveh, which survived the war, and the Bikur Chojlin Association, which was responsible for the sick and poorest members of the community, were also in operation. Rabbi Szulim Trejstman led the religious services from 1946.

The thriving Jewish community in Jawor was destroyed during the Nazi regime. Numerous traces of it have survived, including the cemetery located on present-day Czesław Miłosz Street, which has been in use since the early 19th century. After the war, a group of several hundred Jews settled in Jawor, operating within the Jewish Committee and the Mosaic Religious Congregation. This community took over the Jewish cemetery, where, on the eve of Yom Kippur, October 4, 1946, they organized an unusual burial, in memory of the criminal actions of Germany during World War II. In the presence of representatives of political parties and Jewish and Polish organizations, tallits and a quantity of RIF soap were buried, which, with a high degree of probability, was made from the fat of murdered prisoners. More than 150 people took part in the ceremony. This unique ceremony served as a reminder of the fate of millions of murdered Jews, and for the communist authorities, it was also intended as a demonstration against the excessively lenient sentences handed down in Nuremberg to German war criminals. The cemetery was used until 1958 and was finally closed in 1974. In its dilapidated state, it was entered in the register of monuments in 1990 and underwent partial renovation in the 21st century.

Lower Silesia was for some a promised land, and for others merely a stopover in the great post-war wandering. In 1946-47, the communist authorities did not put up significant obstacles to Jewish emigration, but poverty, exhaustion, and acts of antisemitism diminished many Jews’ desire to stay in Poland. After the Kielce pogrom in July 1946, Jakub Egit forced the city authorities to provide protection for Jews and for the committees. From that time on, armed guards stood at the entrance to the Committee, which deepened the frustration and sense of alienation.

The activities of legal Zionist parties in Lower Silesia and the work of Brichah (an organization that helped European Jews emigrate to Palestine), as well as other institutions assisting with emigration, provided additional incentives for people to leave. It should be remembered that at this time, the movement of people, especially Jews, was very large in Lower Silesia. At the beginning of 1949, approximately 50,000 Jews lived in Lower Silesia, and according to one of the last censuses of the Jewish population in late spring of that year, only 43,135 people of Jewish nationality were registered. At the end of 1948, the initially favorable attitude of the USSR towards Israel also changed. As a result, the attitude towards the Jewish population in all countries of the Eastern Bloc also changed. Jewish Zionist parties, which were increasingly viewed unfavorably by the communist authorities of the Polish People’s Republic, were gradually being shut down.

The large wave of emigration in 1949-1950 brought about a radical decrease in the Jewish population in Wrocław and Lower Silesia, and put an end to the dreams of an autonomous Jewish settlement structure in post-war Poland. The dream of a new life turned out to be a great illusion.