Remember Jewish Józefów (Bilgoraj)

Pronunciation: Yoz-eff-ov

BRIEF HISTORY OF JEWISH JOZEFOW

Jozefow Bilgorajski, also known as Jozefow Ordynacki or Jozefow Roztoczanski, was established by Tomasz Zamoyski in 1725, on land belonging to the village of Majdan Nepryski. It was the last town to be founded in the Zamosc Estate. Zamoyski wanted the new town to become a commercial, service and administrative center. The development of Jozefow was primarily linked with trade, crafts, and
masonry. Located on the banks of the Niepryszka river, in a region called Central Roztocze, Jozefow is where three parks converge: Roztoczanski National Park, Solska Forest Landscape Park and Krasnobrodzki Landscape Park. Jews began settlement in the town around its incorporation in 1725, mostly living on Sitarski street. In 1865 there were 675 Jews which made up nearly 78% of the town population. By 1921, the number of Jews in the city had grown to 1,050 and remained at 78% of the total population. In 1865, the town had 8 tailors, two blacksmiths, 2 printers of Hebrew books (Szija Waks and Dawid Sadie), 2 elementary school teachers, one gravedigger, 7 bookbinders, one barber surgeon, one carpenter, one cooper, one candle maker, one oil manufacturer, one organist, 8 bakers, 8 sieve makers, 30 farmers, 6 butchers, 2 woodworkers, 6 cobblers, one glazier, 3 innkeepers, 7 salt-traders, one weaver, 4 groats millers, 20 market traders, and 2 bricklayers.

In 1774, a Jewish cemetery and wooden synagogue were established; the latter suffered from several fires. In the late 18th century or at the turn of the 19th century, a new brick synagogue was built. A strong Hasidic influence came to the fore in Jozefow in the second half of the 19th century. During the interwar period, Jozefow was one of six Jewish communities in Bilgoraj County. The local Jewish community council managed the synagogue, cemetery, ritual bath and slaughterhouse. Of all buildings and facilities belonging to the Jewish community, only the shul and cemetery have survived until today.

Jews settled in the southern part of the marketplace. At its western side they built a synagogue, initially wooden, but after a fire in 1850 rebuilt as a brick building. The Jewish cemetery was located in the southern part of the town, and the parish church was built in the eastern part. The Measurement Report of the Town of Jozefow from 1785 lists the following: 7 streets and roads, marketplace, church, presbytery, vicar's house, church organist's house, 16 cottages inhabited by commoners, town hall, granary, synagogue, bath houses, Jewish school, rabbi's house, and 7 distilleries. According to the "Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland", there were 174 houses in Jozefow in 1834, including 157 wooden and 17 brick houses; in 1861 Jozefow had 166 houses, including 20 wood houses. And in 1887 the town of Jozefow had 121 houses, including 27 brick ones.

During and after World War I, political parties formed in the city, including the Bund, Agudas (orthodox), Poa'le Zion and Mizrachi. In the 1920s, He'Halutz Zionist youth groups were established. Fifty male students studied at the Talmud Torah and Yeshiva in town. In 1928, a school for girls called Beit Yaakov Agudas was established.

2,800 Jews resided in Jozefow in 1939. Jews may have also resided in the rural villages near Jozefow Bilgorajski: the villages of Aleksandrow, Dlugi Kat and Susiec, but it is unclear what the population of Jews was in these communities. No record of their existence is available.

THE HOLOCAUST IN JOZEFOW BILGORAJSKI

In September 1939, around 300 Jews from the town fled eastward with the retreating Red Army. The German occupiers set up two labor camps in the suburbs of Jozefow where Jews were placed. Boruch Goldsztajn was appointed chairman of the Judenrat; among its members was Szymon Parzeczewski.

In March, 1941 the Jozefow Ghetto was established, and 600 Jews were sent to Jozefow from Konin. In the summer of 1942, there were about 1,800 Jews in the Jozefow Ghetto.

In May of 1942, the gestapo men in Bilgoraj shot about 120 Jews from Jozefow. On July 13, 1942, after the selection, about 200-400 young men from the ghetto in the suburbs were sent to labor camps in Lublin. Additionally, a group of 1,700 Jewish women, children and elderly, were shot in a mass execution at Mount Winiarczykowej. The execution is described in the book by Christopher R.
Browning called "Ordinary People: 101 Reserve Police Battalion and the Final Solution". A stone monument to commemorate the victims is located on the edge of the forest, near the road leading from Jozefow. The Nazis responsible for the 1,700 deaths include, among many others: Major Wilhelm Trapp, who was sentenced to death in Poland; Heinz Buchmann; Arthur Kammer; and Hauptsturmfuhrers Wolfgang Hoffman and Julius Wohlauf. Buchmann and Kammer received short sentences in prison and the others were not punished. According to one witness of the crime: "When the first truckload of 40 Jews arrived, an equal number of policemen came forward and face to face were paired off with their victims. Led by Kammer, the policemen and Jews marched down the forest path. They turned off into the woods at a point indicated by Captain Wohlauf -- who busied himself throughout the day selecting the execution sites. Kammer then ordered the Jews to lie down in a row. The policemen stepped up behind them, placed their bayonets on the backbone above the shoulder blades as earlier instructed, and -- upon Kammer's orders -- fired in unison."

On August 7, 1942 in the evening, the S.S. surrounded the village of Aleksandrow and terrorized the local Polish population. The Poles were allowed to return to their homes, but 36 Jews remained at the assembly site and were immediately shot on the spot.

At the beginning of November 1942, 600 Jews who remained in Jozefow, many of them from Germany, were transported to the gas chambers at the Belzec Death Camp.

The synagogue was built in the early 19th century on the site of an earlier wooden synagogue that burned down in 1850. The Baroque synagogue was built of limestone obtained from the local quarry. Designed on a rectangular plan, it measured 13.8 by 20 meters. The single-space interior was divided by a wall and consisted of a vestibule and prayer hall. The exterior decoration is limited to pilaster strips on the walls and the decorative entrance, flanked by pilasters topped with a cornice and vases. Inside, a simple Aron ha-Kodesh and arcade niches in the walls have been preserved. Initially, the western wall of the building was adjoined by a wooden vestibule and women's section, dismantled in 1945. The synagogue was used as a place of worship until its devastation by the Nazis in 1941. After the war, from 1950, the building was used by the local cooperative as a storehouse. The original ceiling was destroyed when the roof collapsed in 1964. The former synagogue is now the public library.

The Jewish cemetery was probably established around the mid-18th century. Originally, the cemetery was surrounded by a stone wall with a gate facing the town. In 1848, the cemetery area was expanded. The cemetery was devastated during the Holocaust and the gravestones were used to pave roads and build the foundations of houses. With approximately 400 matzevot placed in 35 rows preserved until today, the cemetery in Jozefow is one of the largest collections of Jewish gravestones in the Lublin region. The oldest gravestone dates back to 1743. The largest grouping of preserved matzevot, dating back to the years 1907-1940, can be found along the eastern side of the cemetery. Men's graves and women's graves are in separate parts of the cemetery. Remnants of polychrome decoration can be seen on gravestones. Jozefow is featured in a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer entitled "The Old Man."

Please review the site content below. Zachor - We Remember.
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[List of 235 Jews who lived in Jozefow in 1942]
[Jozefow Bilgoraj — Jewish cemetery]
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