Lejzor Brygart was born on March 13, 1893, he was the son of Szlama (1842-1911) and Iska nee Fibus (1855-1918). Szlama Brygart was a butcher by profession. Lejzor had a younger brother – Dawid (born in 1894). In 1913, Lejzor Brygart married Dwojra Ides Bomzon […]
Estera Golde-Stróżecka – freethinker, activist for women’s rights, journalist, political and cultural-educational activist, doctor, was born on August 1, 1872 in Płock, as the daughter of Beniamin and Liba Ruchla nee Goldsztejn. Her father was a well-known merchant, industrialist and philanthrope. After graduating from the […]
The records reveal that Bomzon family have lived in Płock from the beginning of the 19th century. My paternal great-grandfather, Izrael Abram Bomzon (1861-1913) was one of the six children of Dawid Szlama Bomzon (1826-1904) and Ruchla Łaja Bomzon née Liberman (1830-?) and a gingerbread baker. Sometime during the 1890s, he became the manager of a bakery, which was owned by Jenta Fridman née Szrajber and located at 28 Szeroka Street. In addition to managing the bakery, he also began romancing Jenta and was undeterred by her being a widow with three children and seven years older than him. Izrael Abram and Jenta lived together as a de facto husband and wife first at 21/23 Stary Rynek and then at 30 Szeroka Street. They registered their marriage with the Płock civil authorities on 22 August 1901 in order to secure their status and rights of their living children: the twins, Bajla Sura (born first) and Hersz Fajwel (born 14 January 1887 in Płock), Dwojra Ides (born 21 December, 1889 in Płock), Estera (born 16 April 1891 in Płock), Chawa (Eva; born 22 March 1892 in Płock), Lejb (born 17 May 1893 in Płock) and Brucha (born 21 June 1897 and died in 1906 in Płock). They also had a son, Chaim, who was born on 22 December 1895 and died on 12 December 1896 in Płock. After Izrael Abram’s death at age 52 in their home on 22 May 1913, Jenta moved to 20 Szeroka Street to live next door to her daughter, Dwojra Ides, and her husband, Lajzer Brygart. Jenta, my paternal great-grandmother probably perished in the Holocaust.
Bajla Sura Bomzon married Moszek Baruch Ejzenman, a tailor and trader, on 14 April 1907 and they had eight children: Chana Łaja (born 19 April 1909 in Płock), Estera Malka (born 1 April 1910 in Płock), Chaja (born 20 May 1912 in Płock), Iska (born 6 June 1913 in Płock), Lajzer (born 20 June 1915 in Płock), Hinda Ruchla (born 18 March 1917 in Płock), Berek (born 22 September 1919 in Płock), and Perla (born 4 January 1921 in Płock). The family lived at 19 Bielska Street. Chana Łaja, the oldest daughter, married Abram Mordka Łotenberg on 2 September 1928 and they migrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina where they managed a small tailoring factory. Iska, Lajzer (Leon), and Berek (Bernardo) also emigrated in the interwar period to Buenos Aires. Iska married Izsak Łotenberg and managed a women’s clothing store. Lajzer was a barber and Berek was a tailor who created custom tailored menswear. Their emigration was part of an emigration of Jews from Płock to Buenos Aires which started after World War One. Moszek Baruch Ejzenman also left Poland in 1939 to join his family in Buenos Aires. Bajla Sura and Perla perished in the Holocaust and Chaja died in Warsaw in 1938.
Two of Bajla’s daughters, Estera Malka and Ruchla Ejzenman survived the Holocaust in Magnitogorsk, Russia. Hinda Ruchla met her husband, Jósef (Jósiek) Szymanowski in Warsaw, when she went to say good-bye to a friend who was leaving for America before the Holocaust. They lived together and were formally married in 1941 in Magnitogorsk, Russia. They had four children: Leszek (born 11 April 1937 in Warsaw; died 19 September 2000), Mira (born 15 April 1941 in Magnitogorsk, Russia; died 1 August 2018), Roma (born 31 August 1944 in Magnitogorsk, Russia, died 12 October 2020 in Płock), and Krystyna (born 22 December 1950 in Płock). In 1940, she fled Poland with Jósef (Jósiek), her son, Leszek, and her sister, Estera Malka, when the frontier between Nazi-occupied Poland and the USSR was opened for refugees, thereby saving their lives. They wanted Bajla, their mother, to flee with them, but Bajla did not want to leave Jenta, her mother. In 1946, Hinda (Dasza Szymanowska) and her family returned to Płock and they lived at 10 Kościuszki Street until she died on 24 December 2002 in Płock. Her sister, Estera (Elżbieta Eisenman), who never married, also returned to Płock where she worked in the Gerszon Dua Knitting Work Cooperative for 20 years before retiring. She died on 11 March 2005 in Płock and the two sisters are buried in Płock.
Hersz Fajwel Bomzon, Bajla Sura’s twin brother, was a painter and an active member of the revolutionary faction of the Polish Socialist Party, which was outlawed when Poland was under the tsarist Russian partition. He was arrested and imprisoned in Płock under guard on 17 February 1908 by Płock’s gendarmerie after his surveillance by the Tsarist Russian secret police (Okhrana) and a search of the Bomzon family apartment in Askanas house on Szeroka Street where an unregistered loaded Nagan revolver and several illegal documents were found. On 19 September 1908, he was sentenced to four years hard labor in the Hard Labor Prison in Warsaw and deprived of all his rights by the District Military Court. It is assumed that he died in early 1912 because his identity document was returned to Płock in March 1912, six months before his scheduled release from prison on 19 September 1912.
Dwojra Ides Bomzon married Lajzer Brygart on 23 February 1913, and they had four children: Ruchla Łaja (Rushka; born 8 October 1916 in Płock), Iska (Irka; born 3 March 1919 in Płock), Szmył Szłojme (born 4 July 1920 in Płock), and Chanka (born 16 March 1927 in Płock). After Izrael Abram’s death, Lajzer became the bakery’s manager. As its manager, he modernized and expanded the bakery to include the sales of colonial goods and other consumer goods, such as sugar, rice, coffee, tea, cocoa, and tobacco, which were imported from England using Dwojra’s sister, Chawa (Eva), who lived in London, as their agent. Ruchla Łaja, their oldest daughter, married Izrael Hilel Frydenson (Fridenson; born 14 January 1914 in Warsaw) on 8 October 1938. Szmył Szłojme (Sam) was the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust. In 1949, he emigrated to the USA and died on 5 August 2015 at age 95 in Los Angeles.
Estera Bomzon married a trader, Jósef Hersz Cynamon (born 28 April 1886 in Płock) on 27 January 1914, and they had four children: Izrael Abram (born 28 September 1914 in Płock), Chana (born 3 January 1917 in Płock), Lajzer (born 24 October 1922 in Płock;), and Ruchel (born 14 June 1926 in Płock). The family lived at 28 Kwiatka Street. Izrael Abram was the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust. With the outbreak of war, he fled to Russia and joined the Polish army of General Władysław Anders. When Anders’ army reached Palestine (Israel), he left the army and ultimately became a small-scale poultry and citrus fruit farmer near Tel Aviv. He died in 2003 at age 89 in Israel.
Chawa (Eva) Bomzon left Płock in 1910/1911 to live in London, England, where she married Izak (Isaac/Harry) Wagner (born 1892), a barber, and with whom she had three children: Lazarus, Israel (Izzie), and Harry (Wolf, Woofie). Izak Wagner died at age 26 on 31 October 1918 in London, England from post-influenza pneumonia. Following his death, Eva gave birth to a daughter, Helen (Hilda), whose father was Solomon Goldstein, a cabinet maker. Shortly after Helen’s birth, she married Joseph Golding, a tailor, on 17 January 1923 and with whom she had four children: Rose, Martus (Montague/Monty), David, and Nathan. Joseph Golding died at age 33 from bronchopneumonia and bronchitis in 1934. Chawa never returned to or visited Płock during her lifetime. She lived most of her life in the east end of London, England and supported herself by working in a pickle factory and as a seamstress. She died at age 75 from a chest infection and cancer of the common bile duct and is buried in the Western Synagogue Cemetery, Montague Road, Edmonton, Greater London.
My paternal grandfather, Lejb Bomzon, was a baker and confectioner, who worked in Brygart bakery, and married Tauba Żeleźniak (born 1 April 1898 and one of the daughters of Chaim Jósef Żeleźniak and Chana Żeleźniak née Motyl) on 10 May 1917 and they had three children: Izrael Abram (born 7 February 1918 in Płock), Icek Jakub (Kuba; born 10 January 1922 in Płock) and Chana (born 10 June 1926 in Płock). Lejb Bomzon and his family lived at 33 Bielska Street. My maternal great-grandfather, Chaim Jósef Żeleźniak, was a butcher and he perished in the Holocaust. His wife and my maternal great-grandmother, Chana Żeleźniak née Motyl, died in 1915 in Płock.
My father, Izrael Abram Bomzon (Julius) was the only member of his family who survived the Holocaust and he never visited Płock during his lifetime. After his liberation from Buchenwald in 1945, he traveled to Paris, France where he met his wife, Bella Kociołek (born 23 July 1924 in Warsaw). They married on 5 April 1946 (civil) and 7 April 1946 (religious), and after the birth of their only son, Lionel (Arieh; 5 February 1947 in Paris), they emigrated to Sydney, Australia in September 1947. After their arrival in Sydney, Julius worked as an unskilled laborer in a confectionary factory and Bella worked as seamstress. In the late 1950s, they established a small women’s clothing workshop and then opened several women’s clothing stores. They retired in the late 1970s and moved to Israel in 1990 to be close to Arieh and his family. Julius died on 29 May 1996 in Israel and Bella lives in a residential care facility in Hadera, Israel. Arieh married Therle (Tova) Hoffmann (born 7 November 1947) in 1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where they had three sons, Wayne (Ze’ev; born 20 December 1973), Keith (Ilan; born 22 September 1975), and David (born 1 October 1977). On 23 July 1981, Arieh and his family emigrated to Israel and was a member of the Faculty of Medicine’s academic staff of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa until his resignation in September 2006. Arieh’s three sons and their families live in Israel.
Arieh (Lionel) Bomzon
Stanisław (Salomon) Posner was born on November 21, 1868 as the son of Leon and Matylda née Bornstein. His father was one of the proponents of the assimilation, many of his articles were printed in Warsaw’s “Jutrzenka”. Stanisław Posner’s sister was Malwina Garfein-Garska – writer […]
In 1870, the successors of Ojzer Lewita bought from the Town Hall of Płock for 1000 rubles in silver a square bordering from the south with Misjonarska street, from the west with prison buildings, from the north and east with the garden and property of […]
Maurycy Fajans (1827-1897) – a merchant and industrialist, was the son of Herman, a merchant from Sieradz, and Leontyna nee Kon. His brother was a well-known Warsaw photographer and owner of a lithographic and photographic studio Maksymilian Fajans (1825-1890).
Maurycy Fajans was a representative of a Vistula river steamboat company in Włocławek, which belonged to Count Andrzej Zamoyski, then (from 1864) its director. In 1871, after the closing of the company, he purchased some ships, including the “Płock” steamboat. He was also the owner of the Steamboat Workshop in Solec. As we read in the article titled “Jubileusz żeglugi parowej na Wiśle” (“Vistula steamboat jubilee”) in “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” (No. 26 of 1908):
The new buyer had the luckiest hand of all current steamboat owners on the queen of our rivers. Introducing an effective administration, gradually increasing the number of ships, Fajans became wealthy very quickly. Thanks to his lucky hand, he also became the first to establish a successful steamboat business on the Vistula River. In 1884 Fajans continued the previously interrupted shipbuilding business in domestic factories, which he was the manager of. These workshops were improved in such a way that even military orders could be fulfilled. And finally, the first improved steamboats “Kraków” and “Wawel” were produced in the Fajans factory a few years ago, with covered cabins and electric lighting on board. It was a serious step forward in improving the aesthetics of existing steamboats on the Vistula.
Maurycy Fajans was also a business judge (since 1875), a member of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Committee (in the years 1888-1894) and a member of the board of the Warsaw Jewish community. He collaborated with the Płock merchant Ludwik Flatau in the field of grain trade. He was also a member of the Waterworks Construction Association in Płock (next to Zelewek Chessyn, Adolf Weisblatt, Krzysztof Doze and Gustaw Bergson), which was established in 1894, and co-owner of the real estate in Płock marked with mortgage number 515 on the bank of the Vistula.
Bibliography:
Przedpełski J., Stefański J., Żydzi płoccy w dziejach miasta, Płock, 2012
The mikvah, which existed even before the construction of the beautiful building, which is now the seat of the Art Gallery of Płock. The tenement house in which the Society for the Care of Jewish Children and the Shelter for Homeless Jewish Children was located. […]
Stefan Themerson was born on January 25, 1910 as the son of Chaim Mendel aka Mieczysław Themerson (1871-1930) – a medical doctor, writer and publicist, and Sara Liba aka Salomea nee Smulewicz. In 1928 he graduated from the Władysław Jagiełło State Junior High School in […]
Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles, Festival of Shelters) is a holiday commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and wandering in the desert during which they experienced direct divine protection. At the time of this holiday, the sukkot (in Polish „kuczki”) are being built, in which people eat meals, sometimes also sleep, to remind the shelters in which the Israelites stayed in the desert.
What did the sukkot look like in the space of the old, 19th century Płock? In the collection of the Files of the Town of Płock, kept at the State Archives in Płock, there is a design of an outbuilding, made by Zdzisław Zawodziński in 1871, for Abram Josek Lula from Pułtusk, a grain merchant and owner of a property located at 5 Józefa Kwiatka St. The project involved erecting a two-story building, covered with a single-pitched roof: at the ground floor level (with brick walls), this building was to house a woodshed and a cart storage, at the first floor level (with walls covered with oil-painted boards ) – a sukkah was placed. The document shows that the sukkah was a rectangular room with a usable area of 3.35m x 4.75m, 2.74m high (height with roof – 4.57m). A hallway led into the room inside of the sukkah. On the first floor there was also a small room, adjacent to the sukkah on the other side.
In addition to wooden structures, wealthy Jews also erected brick sukkot in their properties. Before 1872, the brick-built sukkah at Synagogalna Street (mortgage no. 39) was built by Szlama Kowalski, and in 1894 at the Old Market Square (mortgage no. 5) – by a well-known Płock merchant and social activist Izrael Kirsztejn (1828-1916).
In the collection of the Files of the Town of of Płock there were also numerous requests to the town authorities for permission to erect sukkot, which were supposed to be rather ephemeral objects – Jews were often obliged to dismantle them after the end of the holiday. In the year 1877 alone 171 such permits were issued. The most of the structures were erected in the heart of the Jewish district – at Szeroka Street, but also at Synagogalna, Niecała, Jerozolimska, Bielska and Więzienna Streets. In the town space, the sukkot could also be found at Dominikańska, Płońska, Mostowa, Misjonarska, Kolegialna, Grodzka, Królewiecka streets and the Old Market Square.
As sources indicate, for the duration of the Sukkot holiday not only were the huts erected in Płock, but also private prayer houses were opened (the Great and the Small Synagogue were able to accommodate a total of only about 1500 people at a time). In 1892, in connection with the approaching holiday, at the request of the Synagogue Supervision and Rabbi Juda Bejman, the Town Council of Płock agreed to open 19 temporary prayer houses, among others at Synagogalna Street at the Dancygier school (mortgage no. 34/5), at Zduńska Street at the seat of Talmud Torah (mortgage no. 107) and at Misjonarska Street at the Izaac Fogel Hospital.
The sukkot preserved in the current city space of Płock
4 Kościuszki Street
The sukkah is visible from Mostowa Street, it is adjacent to the rear wall of the two-story outbuilding, which was built after 1887. This wooden structure is located on the level of the first floor and supported by cast-iron buttresses. It was erected on a plan similar to a square, with a gabled roof covered with sheet metal. The first owner of the property was Jan Fryderyk Gottard Lehnardt, from 1865 – the Maltz family. The last, pre-war owners were Stanisław Tłuchowski and his wife Janina Sabina née Gutowski. There were several Catholic families and only one Jewish living in the property. It was the family of the merchant Tauchen Kapusta (1865-1894). In the interwar period, Moszek Zelman Kapusta (born in 1886) lived here with his wife Elka née Borensztejn and their children.
8 Grodzka Street
A unique, modernist style sukkah is located in the yard of the property at Grodzka 8 and can be seen from the side of Stanisława Małachowskiego Street. It adjoins the rear wall of a 19th century, two-story tenement house, intended for commercial and residential purposes, at the level of the first floor. Before the war, it was the property of Lewek Kilbert (1882-1942). In the interwar period, several Jewish families lived in the property, including the Budnik, Wolrat, Gelibter and Zylberberg families.
9 Tumska Street
The sukkah is located on the back wall of a neo-Gothic, two-storey building erected around 1840. It is located at the level of the first floor and supported by concrete pillars. The hut was built on a square-like plan, with a wooden structure, it is vaulted with a single-pitched roof covered with sheet metal. The sukkah has two small square windows in the gabled part of the front wall. Dawid Chaim Segał was the owner of the property at 9 Tumska street since 1871. In 1912, the property was purchased by Lajbuś and Tauba Smrodynia aka Kon. In the interwar period merchant Nuchim Kuczyński, teacher Dawid Jarząbek, trader Lejb Lajzer Bomzon and corsetist Brana Taubenfligel lived there, among others.
The next three objects resembling sukkot are located at 18 Kazimierza Wielkiego St. as well as at 52 and 53 Sienkiewicza St.
The lost sukkot
15 Grodzka Street
The property is located in the eastern part of the northern frontage of Grodzka Street. The owner of the property from 1838 was Abraham Marsap. In 1864, it was inherited by Dwora aka Dorota Hendelsman nee Marsap, who sold it in the same year to Icek Fogel. In 1866, Mirel Marsap née Pinkus, became the owner. Her heirs sold the property to Paulina Majeran, and she – in 1873 – to Lewin Zeman. In 1875 Bernard Lewin and Markus Grünbaum were the owners of the property in equal parts. In 1880 Michał Żołobow bought it. In the years 1920-1922 the property was inherited by Maria Żołobow, who then sold it to Emil Żółtowski. In 1935 it was purchased by Waleria and Szymon Buksowicz. The sukkah used to be located above the entrance gate, on the back wall of the tenement house, at the height of the second floor. Constructed on a rectangular plan, with a wooden structure, it had an elegant form and modest, geometric architectural details. It was probably built before 1880. A few years ago, it collapsed during the renovation of the building. It has not returned to its place until today.
The corner of Tumska and Królewiecka streets
Until recently, the most characteristic in the city space of Płock was the sukkah in the property located at the intersection of Tumska and Królewiecka streets. The first known owner of this property was Józef Liberman, after the death of whom it was inherited by Markus Liberman, Szaja Liberman, Hana Lichtensztajn nee Liberman and Bajla Liberman. In 1867, the property was purchased by Andrzej Kowalski. From 1878, it was owned by Izrael Lejb and Masza Fiszman. From 1912, its owner was Abram Fiszman, the owner of a mineral water factory. After his death, Sura Ryfka Galewska nee Fiszman, Jakub Józef Fiszman, Lejzor Fiszman, Szoel Fiszman, Fajga Estera Kiełbik née Fiszman and Itta Brucha Firstenberg née Fiszman inherited the property. The sukkah was located on the back wall of a two-storey front building of a service and residential purpose. It was constructed on a plan similar to a square, it was vaulted with a single-pitched roof covered with sheet metal. The walls of the hut originally had large glazing, and the windows were subtly divided by muntins. Based on preserved archival photographs, it can be seen that even at the beginning of the 1980s the technical condition of the sukkah was good. Over the decade, however, it slowly deteriorated, so that at the beginning of the 90s the city conservator of monuments recognized its condition as catastrophic, and the object itself eligible for demolition and reconstruction in accordance with the detailed inventory. At the beginning of 2017, the sukkah was acquired by the Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, which, understanding the special historical value of this object as a material trace of the presence of the Jewish community in Płock and northern Mazovia, decided to subject it to conservation and make it part of the museum exhibition. Let’s hope that soon the reconstructed sukkah from Płock will find an appropriate place in the Polish capital.
Bibliography:
Nowak G., Z życia religijnego płockich Żydów – Święto Sukkot [in:] „Nasze Korzenie” no. 8, 2015, pp. 94-99
The Nobiscum Foundation cordially invites you to the exhibition “The Jewish Count. The story of Stanisław Posner”, which this time we will have the pleasure to present in the exhibition hall of the Municipal Culture Centre in Płońsk to all the guests of the 3rd […]
