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 […]
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 since his early childhood – at the age of six, he made his first work “Łucznik” (“Archer”), according to Wyspiański’s drawing. He graduated from the Władysław Jagiełło Junior High School, he was a student of Płock artists Fiszel Zylberberg and Czesław Idźkiewicz. He exhibited his works for the first time in 1936 at an exhibition organized by the Płock Artistic Club. Before the outbreak of World War II, there were about 20 sculptural works in his workshop and several sculptures, mostly portraits of people well-known in Płock, among others doctor Ignacy Feinberg. All his works from this period were destroyed by the Germans. During World War II he stayed in the East. He served in the Battalions of Work, then he was a soldier of the First Polish Army. After the war, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1948, as a student, he won the first prize in a contest for creating a bust of General Jarosław Dąbrowski. In 1950, he was awarded for the composition “Ludwik Waryński”. In the same year, the authorities of the Academy of Fine Arts entrusted him with the position of lecturer of sculpture. In 1952 he was appointed an assistant professor and then an associate professor and was elected dean of the faculty. In 1964 he was appointed chairman of the sculpture cathedral of the Academy of Fine Arts and in the same year he was again elected dean of the faculty. In 1969, Alfred Jesion emigrated to Sweden, where he lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm.
In 1985 he retired. He passed away in 1997.
The most important works of Alfred Jesion include the figurative composition of Ludwik Waryński and the design of the monument to Janusz Korczak. His works also include the busts of General Jarosław Dąbrowski, Władysław Broniewski, Fryderyk Chopin, Czesław Idźkiewicz, the head of Julian Tuwim and Stanisław Jerzy Lec. In 1967, Ash made a reconstruction of the monument destroyed by the Germans in Warsaw, sculpted by Edward Wittig. After his emigration, he introduced the subject of the Holocaust to his sculpture. He dedicated to the Holocaust his sculptural series “Wypalone pnie” (“Burned trunks”) and “Paleni” (“The Burned”).
Kazimierz Askanas, summarizing the work of Alfred Jesion in his book “Sztuka Płocka” (“Art of Płock”), notes: “Jesion feels the material of his sculptures in such a convincing way that it seems that the material […] participates in shaping the idea. This gives the artist unquestionable satisfaction and this probably explains the great variety of sculptural material in the works of Jesion – from ceramic clay, burnt wood, granite and bronze. In each of these materials, a deep sense of the structure and artistic possibilities of the selected material and the high sculptural technique of Jesion are clearly visible […] Alfred Jesion’s works strike with the richness and boldness of the creative concept and the great power of artistic expression. This is particularly visible in the artist’s last sculptures, especially in connection with his deep emotional attitude to the Holocaust, whose unreal representations reflect the depth of his experiences.”
The works of Alfred Jesion can be found in the collections of many cultural institutions, including the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Abstract works of Alfred Jesion in the Central Judaica Database: link
Bibliography:
K. Askanas, Sztuka Płocka, Płock 1991
G. Nowak, Żydzi płoccy. Album pamięci, Płock 2015
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 […]
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 of the 20th century to Płock, 25 kilometers away. Here, Chaim Zylber quickly became the owner of a cotton store located at 13 Tumska Street, in a tenement house belonging to Moryc Margulies.
Together with his wife Miriam née Strykowska (born 1872), there had eight children – four sons: Moniek, Natan (Nusen), Szymon and Leon (died in 1935) and daughters: Zosia, Chana (both died at an early age when the family still lived in Turza Wielka), Pessa Jochewet (Pola) and Hela (died in 1938). The Zylber family lived initially at Szeroka Street (currently Józef Kwiatka Street), then in a tenement house at 9 Grodzka Street. Natan, Szymon and Leon Zylber served in the Polish Army.
Pola Zylber (born 1904) married the citizen of Mława – Abraham Nisson, who was a shoemaker by profession. Their daughters – Zosia and Mania – were born in Mława. After two years Pola with her daughters moved to Płock. Zosia and Mania attended the Public General School No. 8, whose manager was Masza (Maria) Bromberger (her biography is available here).
In 1939, the family escaped from Płock from the approaching Germans. Only Miriam Zylber remained in Płock, her son Natan joined her some time later. They both went to the ghetto in Warsaw and were murdered in Treblinka.
Pola with her daughters and Abram Nisson survived the period of World War II in the East. In 1942, Zosia and Mania’s sister – Chana was born in Uzbekistan.
After the war, the Zylber family returned to Płock. Here Zosia Nisson for some time attended the Regina Żółkiewska State Junior High School. In 1948 she left for Israel. Her parents emigrated from Poland in the early 1950s.
Photos courtesy of Hedva Segal and Chana Merenstein. Thank you!
The Zylber – Nisson family before the Holocaust
The Zylber – Nisson family after the Holocaust
The Jewish community of Płock after the Holocaust
The owner of the building in the historicizing style from 1873 was a grain and wool trader Markus Frenkiel Wolffsohn (1830-1910), later his son Izydor (Icek) inherited it. The next owner was the merchant Moszek Firstenberg (born 1852), son of Izrael and Fajga née Szlam, […]
Roza Holcman (born in 1910), daughter of Lejb (1886-1930) and Liza Lea nee Rozenberg (1888-1975), was the first female lawyer in Płock. In 1934, she graduated from the University of Warsaw. She was trained as a legal practitioner by Kazimierz Mayzner (1883-1951) – a well-known […]
Synagogalna Street is one of the streets forming the former Jewish district in Płock. Its name comes from the now-defunct building of the main synagogue located on the square between Synagogalna and Tylna Streets, marked with mortgage number 32 (you can read more about the synagogue here: https://jewishplock.eu/en/the-great-synagogue/). The synagogue was a place of prayer and religious gatherings, there were also ceremonial services on the occasion of the name-day of Ignacy Mościcki, anniversary of the January Uprising or resistance against the invasion of the Bolsheviks. During the occupation, the synagogue was used by the Germans for a car workshop and a bus garage. It was demolished in 1951. At Synagogalna Street before the war, a higher religious school (bet hamidrasz) was located. The building for the synagogue and school was erected by Markus Kazriel Dancygier, who bought the property in 1832. In 1834, he handed the building over to the Jewish commune. In addition to the building, he donated 258 books, including 81 pieces of the Babylonian Talmud, works of Mojżesz Maimonides, Adam Chochmas and two scrolls for the school library. In 1865, at the Synagogalna St. in the home of Dawid Łaski, the Jewish elementary school was opened, headed by Hersz Szejman, and then by Abraham Jakub Papierna. At the end of the 19th century, there were also cheders located at Synagogalna, owned by Matys Gutmacher, Izrael Wolf Kon, Markus Ryża and Szyja Konczewski. Inhabitants of the street traded footwear (Ides Fuks, Lewin Lichtensztajn, Dawid Pokrzywa, Szlama Taub), haberdashery (Szmul Grünbaum), fabrics (Icek Koralczyk, Jojne Horowitz), tobacco products (Szymon Luszyński, Abram Majzner), leather (Mosiek Globus, Józef Szpiro) and flour (Wolf Piechotka). There were two fashion traders on the street – Jakub Kowadło and Chananie Zylberman. According to data from 1926, Jakub Cymbler’s company (colonial goods shop – Synagogalna 6), Izaak Gewircman’s (sale of butter, eggs and fruit – Synagogalna 26), Symcha Kanarek’s (bakery – Synagogalna 22) and Mojżesz Lisser’s (bakery – Synagogalna 16) were all registered there. At the outbreak of World War II, 446 people lived at Synagogalna Street. The street named Niecała was an extension of Synagogalna. In the place of the former buildings of Niecała, today the Square of the Executed 13 is located as well as a monument in honor of Poles, who on September 18, 1942 were hanged by the Nazis.
The defensive tower at 13a Zduńska Street is one of the remains of the medieval fortifications of the city. In the 18th century it was rebuilt into a residential house. The property has changed owners many times over the course of the 19th century. In […]
