Trzemeszno is a town located in the eastern part of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland). Its history is inextricably linked with the monastery of Canons Regular, which has been here since the twelfth century (photo 1).
For centuries, the city was the property of the monastery, and only Catholics could settle there. Changes in the national and religious structure of the Trzemeszno community took place only after the Second Partition of Poland (1793), when the town came under the rule of the King of Prussia (photo 2).
The first Evangelicals appeared, and soon the Jews. Their presence in Trzemeszno was to be permanently inscribed in the history of the city for the next 150 years. We must, however, admit, that during the period of partitions Trzemeszno retained mainly Polish character, the vast majority of inhabitants were Poles, with no more than 30% of population being Evangelicals and Jews. It was a rarity in Wielkopolska, where over time the German and Jewish populations had increased.
The first Jews settled in Trzemeszno at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1796, three Jews (out of 766 inhabitants) lived in the city. Their number soon grew rapidly: in 1843 - 413, in 1857 (with 6 villages) - 420 (82 families), in the years 1885-1887 - 350, and in 1905 - 169. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of Jews in Trzemeszno began to decline, in 1913 there were only 114[1]A. Heppner, I, Herzberg, Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der jued. Municipalities in the Poznań Lands,, Koźmin- Bydgoszcz 1909, p. 991.. Several factors played a role: the plague, very high child mortality (only half of those born lived to the age of 10) and, above all, emigration.
The demographic situation of Trzemeszno was changing since Poland regained its independence in 1918. Many Germans and Jews moved out of the city. Jews usually chose the so-called “German option” and most of them left to Germany in 1919-1921. In the early 1920s’, due to the ever-decreasing number of followers, the fate of the Trzemeszno Jewish community also began to be determined. Eventually, it was dissolved before the war and it joined the Inowrocław community[2]Dzieje Trzemeszna [The History of Trzemeszno], Cz. Łuczak [Ed.], Poznań 2002, s. 178-179..
The history of the Jews of Trzemeszno ends with the outbreak of World War II. The first victims were brothers Itzig Abraham and Leo Haase. Together with a group of defenders of the city, they were shot by the Germans on October 5, 1939 in Kociń, 5 kilometers away from Trzemeszno. At the place of the murder there is an obelisk commemorating this event (photo 3).
As part of the action carried out on the orders of the central government of the Reich and the so-called Governor of the Warta Country Arthur Greiser, to cleanse the small Wielkopolska towns of Jews, 17 Jewish inhabitants were sent to the transit camp in Gniezno, from where they were deported to the ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski and where they arrived on December 13, 1939[3]Archive of the E. Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, ref. AJDC 210/550;
Recording of a conversation with Lechosław Majewski from 2012, from the private archive of Maciej Adamski.. According to the residents of Trzemeszno, the remaining group of about 20 Jews were killed in secret executions also in the autumn of 1939.
The text was edited by Agnieszka Kostuch based on the competition work In the Footsteps of Trzemeszno Jews (2014) written by Zuzanna Jatczak and Klaudia Kirszner under the supervision of Maciej Adamski.
Translated by Olimpia Nowicka-Sulla
Przypisy
| ↑1 | A. Heppner, I, Herzberg, Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der jued. Municipalities in the Poznań Lands,, Koźmin- Bydgoszcz 1909, p. 991. |
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| ↑2 | Dzieje Trzemeszna [The History of Trzemeszno], Cz. Łuczak [Ed.], Poznań 2002, s. 178-179. |
| ↑3 | Archive of the E. Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, ref. AJDC 210/550; Recording of a conversation with Lechosław Majewski from 2012, from the private archive of Maciej Adamski. |