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Kielce
[Yiddish, Kieltz] - A city that began as a
trading settlement, mentioned [in sources] as early as the
eleventh
century. It was granted its town charter in the
mid-fourteenth century.
Away from the main trade routes, Kielce was more important
as a mining
center and for the smelting of lead, iron, copper and silver
ore.
As the property of the Krakow bishops, the city had been
granted the
privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis, which remained in force
until the
partitions. After 1815, Kielce was located within the
Kingdom of Poland.
In 1852, there were approximately 100 Jews living there and
belonged to
the Community in Checiny. An independent Community was
founded in 1868,
at which time a cemetery was also founded. In the second
half of the
nineteenth century, the economy revived as industry
developed (building
materials, artificial fertilizers, tanneries, glass) and the
building of
rail connections with the Dabrowa mining region, and later
with
Czestochowa.
Economic changes brought about in increase in
population. In 1882,
there were already about 2,600 Jews living in Kielce, and in
1909, there
were over 11,000. There were over 30 chadarim (plural of
cheder)
operating in the city at that time, as well as private
schools, for the
most part elementary schools, including some for girls.
Jewish political
parties, the Bund and Stronnictwo Postepowo-Demokratyczne
("The
Progressive-Democratic Party") were active.
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A Jewish demonstration demanding political and
cultural autonomy on November 11, 1918, sparked a pogrom
during which
many buildings and schools were destroyed. Despite the
worsening
conflict, whose roots were primarily economic in nature, the
Jewish
Community continued to grow. In 1921, there were
approximately 15,500
Jews living in Kielce (over 37% of the total population).
They were
involved above all in middle- and small-scale enterprises.
There were
numerous crafts organizations, an orphanage, old people's
home, library
and secondary school (gimnazjum).
In 1932-1939, approximately 5,000 Jews from Kielce and
its environs
emigrated to Palestine. In 1939, the Jewish Community
numbered about
25,000 people (over 35% of the total population). During the
Second
World War, several thousand Jews were resettled here from
the smaller
towns nearby, as well as those from the Lodz district,
Poznan and
Vienna. On March 31, 1941, a ghetto was created in the city,
which held a
total of approximately 27,000 people. The Germans created a
Judenrat,
headed first by M. Pelc, and, after his arrest and
deportation to
Auschwitz (brought about by his refusal to carry out Nazi
orders), H.
Lewi held the position. The ghetto was decimated by disease.
In the
course of a few days in August 1942, about 21,000 Jews were
sent to
Treblinka. The remaining group of approximately 2,000 people
were put in
a labor camp; some of them died in Auschwitz, and only a few
managed to
survive.
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After the Second World War ended, about 200
people returned to Kielce, most of whom lived on Planty
Street, where an
orphanage and kibbutz were founded. On July 4, 1946, a
pogrom began
after accusations that a Polish boy had been kidnapped by
Jews.
Forty-two people were killed, and over 40 were injured. The
Kielce
pogrom prompted anti-Jewish incidents in and around the
city; trains,
for example, were stopped and searched for Jews. These
events resulted
in a mass emigration of Jews to Israel and other countries.
Kielce still
has a synagogue dating back to the early twentieth century,
which
currently holds an archive. Communities of Jews whose
ancestors
originally came from Kielce continue to exist in Israel, the
United
States, Canada, Argentina and France.
(H.W./CM)
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