World War II brought the extermination of the Jews of Płock. In February and March 1941, the Nazi occupants deported about 10,000 Jews from Płock and nearby towns to German concentration camps. From around 9,000 of Jewish people living in Płock before the outbreak of […]
In 1841, property with the mortgage number 37 at Grodzka Street was purchased from Anna Kłobuszewska nee Zawidzka and Teofila Białkowska née Kłobuszewska by Samuel Majeran. In the years 1841-1842 Majeran erected a brick tenement house on the square. Since 1873, the owner of the […]
My grandfather, Izydor Wajcman (born 1867), came from a large Jewish family associated with Wyszogród. He was the son of Szmul Jochim (1841-1892), son of Zelik Lewek (born 1794) and Ryfka née Eben (born 1796), and Estera Sura née Albert (1837-1901), daughter of Mosiek Albert (born 1805) and Dwojra née Grosman (born 1808). Mosiek Albert was a grinder by profession. Szmul Jochim Wajcman was the owner of the property located at Rembowska Street (mortgage number 150). He lived there with his wife and children: Lewek Moszek, Ryfka (born 1869), Fajga (born 1870), Zelik (born 1873) and aforementioned Izydor.
My grandfather’s sister Ryfka Wajcman married a merchant named Moszek Aron Sadzawka (1864-1936) from Płock. They had seven children: sons Samuel (born 1896), Szaja (born 1901), Kazriel (1903-1910) and daughters Bajla (born 1897), Dyna (born 1898), Małka (1899-1918) and Gitla (born 1907). Ryfka Wajcman died in Treblinka, just like her son Samuel and his wife Złata and daughter Fajga Rachela.
Fajga Wajcman in 1897 married Moses Henszel. In 1904, they emigrated to the United States. They settled in the New York Bronx.
My grandfather’s brother – Zelik Wajcman married Fruma Wajcman, whom he met among students at the Imperial University of Warsaw. Zelik already had connections with the Zionist movement. Fruma, who came from Belarus, studied dentistry in Warsaw. Zelik and Fruma married in 1906 and soon after they left for Palestine.
In the 1890s, Izydor Wajcman moved to Warsaw. On July 21, 1896, he married Chawa (Ewa) Żurkowska from Płock (born 1873).
My grandmother Chawa was the daughter of Cerka Wyszogród (born 1849) and Jakub Mordka Żurkowski (born 1846) from Zgierz, son of Josek and Liba née Libersztejn. She had two sisters – Liba Fajga (born 1873) and Tauba Iska (born 1876) and brother Moszek Kalman (born 1870). Chawa’s grandfather – Szaja Wyszogród (born 1824) came from Drobin. In 1844 he married Ejdla Czerkas from Warsaw, daughter of Pinkus and Ryfka. According to the information contained in the Płock Calendar for the leap year 1876, Szaja Wyszogród was a merchant of grain and wool. At the same time, he was the owner of a property located at 3 Bielska Street (the mortgage number 118) and a property at 55 Szeroka Street (the mortgage number 135).
My grandmother’s sister – Tauba Iska in 1905 married Jakub Puszet. They both emigrated to Canada after 1912.
In Warsaw, the children of Chawa and Izydor Wajcman were born: Samuel (1899-1963), Józef (1902-1942) and twins: my mother Estera and Marek (Mordechaj) (born 1907, my mother died in 2002, Marek in 1995).
Izydor Wajcman provided for his family working as a private clerk. The family lived at 30 Świętojerska Street (where the Chinese Embassy is currently located). They usually spent their holidays in Otwock, Świder, Krynica, Marienbad or Zakopane. My mother’s family home was connected to Jewish tradition as well as Polish culture and secular upbringing of children. My mother Estera was a member of the socialist-Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. She received her secondary school certificate in Warsaw’s high school. Together with her two brothers, Samuel and Marek, as well as most of her friends, she emigrated to Palestine in the 1930s. My parents were married there (my dad Natan Scheiner was born in 1908 in Lviv).
Józef Wajcman graduated from the Jewish Private Junior High School of the Ascola Society (he received his secondary school certificate on June 5, 1923), then he joined the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the University of Warsaw, which he completed on June 26, 1928. After attending court and lawyer’s apprenticeship with attorney Stanisław Wyszogród, he started working in his own office at 32 Senatorska Street, where he dealt with civil cases. Józef married Lusia (her maiden name remains unknown), with whom he had a daughter, Joasia (born 1937).
After the outbreak of the war, Izydor and Ewa Wajcman were displaced to 21 Franciszkańska Street. They lived with Mejer Puszet (the owner of a pharmacy). It was probably their last address.
My grandparents Izydor and Ewa, their son Józef together with his wife Lusia and their daughter Joasia perished in Treblinka.
Ewa Błyskowska, Bruksela
On August 18, 1920, the Bolshevik army attacked Płock. Until August 19, the city’s civilian population, including women and children, heroically defended themselves on the barricades along with the army, preventing soldiers of Bolshevik Russia from gaining the bridgehead and crossing the Vistula. In the […]
Hechaluc began its activity in Płock in 1923. Its founders were A. Kowalski, F. Fliderblum and M. Kenigsberg. Szymon Margulin, Mojżesz Zander and A. Lejbgot were also part of the board of the organization. The organization’s goal was to emigrate its members to Eretz Israel. […]
The branch of the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party Poale Zion was founded in Płock in 1904. After the Russian Revolution in 1905, the activity of Poale Zion was banned by tsarist police, and the members of the organization went underground. It was only after World War I and the creation of the Polish state that this movement succeeded in establishing branches in almost every city and town, also in Płock.
Poale Zion actively participated in the elections, both to the city authorities of Płock and parliamentary. They conducted evening courses and organized labour unions that were responsible for strikes, as a result of which employers had to pay higher wages to employees. In 1925, members of the organization founded a dramatic theater and sports club called Stern. Members of the organization stood out in their fight against anti-Semitism in the pre-war years and as anti-Nazi fighters during the war.
Most of them were murdered along with the entire Jewish community during the Holocaust.
Bibliography: Plotzk. A History of an Ancient Jewish Community in Poland, ed. E. Eisenberg, Tel-Aviv 1967
Alfred Jesion was born in Płock on January 4, 1919 as the son of the sculptor Hersz Lejzor (Herman) (1886-1933) and Chawa nee Szechtman. The Jesion family lived in a tenement house at 4 Nowy Rynek (New Market Square). Alfred Jesion was interested in sculpture […]
Symcha Guterman was born in Warsaw in 1903 as the third child of Mendel, a Talmudist scholar from Radzymin, and Bajla Gitla nee Fiszman, who came from the village of Kozienice near Radom. Her father was the owner of a mill. During World War I, […]
On March 19, 1860, in Płock, the marriage was concluded between Sura Łaja Koryto (born 1840), the daughter of Beniamin from Sochaczew (1802-1877) and Tyla nee Sierota (1804-1874), and Josek Chaim Fuks (1836-1891), the son of residents of the town of Kutno – Lejb and Ryfka. Josek Chaim Fuks, like his father-in-law Beniamin Koryto, traded in colonial goods. Their stores were located at Szeroka Street. At the same time, Fuks was the owner of the real estate located at Plac Konstantynowski (currently Nowy Rynek), mortgage number 204B.
Sura Łaja and Josek Chaim Fuks had seven children: daughters Tyla (1879-1939), Zysa Liba (born 1862), Ryfka (born 1865), Bajla Rojza (1870-1927) and Estera (1874-1933) and sons Benjamin (1877-1939) and Symcha Lejb (1875-1940). Symcha Lejb Fuks married Ryfka Brana nee Altman (1883-1941), with whom he had seven children: sons Jakub Szulim (born 1911), Izaak Józef (born 1906), Beniamin (born 1915) and Tobiasz (born 1921) and daughters Frymeta (1908-1943), Rojza Liba (1910-1943) and Gnancza (born 1919). In 1908 Bajla Rojza Fuks married Chaim Icek Luidor from Kutno, son of Mordka Hersz and Perla Cyrla nee Gajst. From this relationship three daughters were born: Tyla (born 1912), Zysa (born 1912) and Ryfka (born 1914). The eldest son of Symcha Lejb and Ryfka Brana, Izaak Józef joined the Zionist Movement in Plock at a very young age. In 1933 he married Sura (Sarah) Brana Dach. Sensing what was about to happen and realizing Europe was no longer a safe place – they emigrated to Israel. In 1934 their first son, Aviv (Ben Shai) was born in Tel Aviv.
Symcha Lejb Fuks died on May 20, 1940. He was beaten to death by the Gestapo on Kwiatka Street in Płock. His relatives – Tyla, Ryfka and Beniamin were killed in Gąbin during the bombing of the city on September 10, 1939. Ryfka Brana Fuks née Altman, died on July 1, 1941 in Bodzentyn from a heart attack during deportation. Rojza Liba Fuks died on June 5, 1943 from typhoid in the ghetto in Częstochowa. Similarly, her sister Frymeta. Icek Luidor died on September 20, 1942 from typhoid in Bodzentyn.
The son of Symcha Lejb Fuks – Jakub Szulim survived the Holocaust and after the war joined the District Jewish Committee in Płock (he was the treasurer there) and was one of the founders of the Gerszon Dua Clothing Workshop Cooperative in Płock, which was established in 1949 in the building of the former synagogue at Kwiatka 7 Street. Jakub Szulim Fuks married Chaja Sura Jakubowicz (born 1919), daughter of Dawid and Itta nee Kornmel. Her family came from Drobin. In 1946, their daughter Regina was born, and two years later, son Leonard. At the turn of 1949 and 1950, the Fuks family emigrated to Israel.
Photographs from private collection of Arie Fuks. Thank you!
Unidentified photos:
The Zylber family came from the village of Turza Wielka (Płock poviat, Brudzeń Duży commune). Probably the lack of perspectives prompted the father of the family – Chaim Zylber (born 1871), who worked in the village as a worker, to move in the early 20s […]
