Zofia Pakuła née Graubart was the daughter of Abram Nusen aka Natan (born in 1886) and Chaja (born in 1891). She had an older sister Jadwiga (born in 1918). The Graubard family lived at 8 Sienkiewicza St. Natan Graubard was a grain merchant, owner of […]
Icek Nierób was born on January 1, 1925 in Płock, as the son of Abraham and Ryfka (Regina) née Pencherek. Abraham and Ryfka were also the parents of Bela (born 1918), Miriam (born 1920), Leon (born 1922), Terca (twin sister of Icek, who died in […]
April 19, 2020 marks the 77th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In connection with the anniversary, we present two people from the Płock region, whose activities were related to the Warsaw ghetto.
Bronek (Boruch) Szpigel from Wyszogród (1919–2013, pictured on the right) was one of the resistance activists in the Warsaw Ghetto and a participant in the uprising that broke out on April 19, 1943. Before the war, he belonged to the left-wing Bund organization and was a friend of Marek Edelman. From October 1942 he was a member of the Jewish Combat Organization. In the uprising he fought in the area of Smocza, Nowolipki and Leszno. On Nowolipie he detonated one of the two mines possessed by the fighters.
On April 29 he left the ghetto, from May to October 1943 he fought in a partisan unit in the Wyszkowski Forest. During the Warsaw Uprising he stayed at 64 Żelazna Street. After the war, he lived in Canada.
Izaak Bernsztejn (1900-1943, pictured on the left) is also associated with the history of the Warsaw ghetto. He was a lawyer, teacher and publicist from Płock. During the German occupation he stayed in the ghetto. He was a collaborator of Emanuel Ringelblum and wrote to the chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto. Two essays by him were found in the Ringelblum Archive: “Warsaw – 1941” and the “Kelsm Preacher”. Bernsztejn and his family died in the ghetto in unknown circumstances.
In his essay “Hunger in Warsaw”, he wrote:
“… I saw today a black wagon; its open door let me see a box with a corpse. A woman bereft of strength hurried after it, her cry only to herself. A street filled with people who looked at her and heard her cries, astonished yet silent. She ran, she dragged herself after the coffin, like a bird that is wounded and every one around her looked and stared. My friend told me today that of a family of eight in his neighborhood only two remained, a mother and her son. He did not know whom of the two hunger will cut down first. And they walk about, mother and son, yellowish, dried out bodies, lit up with phosphorous shine…”
Bibliography:
Grupińska A., Odczytanie Listy. Opowieść o powstańcach żydowskich, Kraków 2002
Przedpełski J., Stefański J., Żydzi płoccy w dziejach miasta, Płock 2012
Fragment of the essay “Hunger in Warsaw”: http://www.zchor.org
Dawid (Devi) Tuszyński – a painter and master of miniatures, was born in Brzeziny on September 17, 1914 (according to the entries in the registry books for the town of Brzeziny), as a son of Icek Tuszyński (born in 1879) and Sura nee Bajbok (born […]
Under the contract concluded on June 1, 1824 with the Municipal Office of the Town of Płock, the merchant Jakub Lewin Szenwic (born in 1789) received a perpetual lease of the square located at Nowa Street at that time (property 258 E) for an annual […]
Kazimierz Mayzner was born on July 6, 1883 in Warsaw, as the son of Izydor and Anna née Woldenberg. His father was considered a humanist and a patriot, he was an outstanding industrialist, co-owner of a trade company, co-founder of the Mayzner Society of Sugar Factories and sugar factory administrator, member of the Technicians Association in Warsaw and the Public Library Society in Warsaw, founder of schools, shelters and reading rooms. The Woldenberg family was, in turn, one of the more popular and distinguished Jewish families in Płock. Dawid Woldenberg, owner of the property at the former Kanoniczny Square, at Teatralna Street and the property of Nagórki Dobrskie, Wierzbówiec and the palace in Luberadz, was a well-known Płock philanthropist, co-founder of the Town Credit Society and Płock Charity Society. For many years he was also a member of the Volunteer Fire Brigade and a member of the Synagogue Supervision Board.
In 1903, Kazimierz Mayzner graduated from the 5th Government Philological Gymnasium (Middle School) in Warsaw, the graduates of which were, among others, Leo Belmont, Józef Hersz Dawidsohn and Marceli Handelsman. He also studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, then left for Paris, where he also studied painting. In 1911 he graduated in law from Dorpat. In the years 1911–1917 he served as an assistant to lawyer Karol Gustaw Dunin, then as a counselor of the Central Welfare Council. In 1917, Kazimierz Mayzner came to his mother’s hometown, where he took the position of a deputy prosecutor, later a prosecutor, at the District Court in Płock. At that time, he lived in a tenement house at 6 Dobrzyńska Street (currently Kazimierza Wielkiego). In 1918 he joined the Town Council in Płock. During the Polish-Bolshevik war, he volunteered to join the army, where he served for two years as a lieutenant – auditor of the judicial corps.
In 1921 he was entered on the list of lawyers of the Law Council in Warsaw, department of Płock. Although, as Kazimierz Askanas recalls, law was a passion for Kazimierz Mayzner, he also was an activist in various areas of politics: he was associated with the Polish Socialist Party, then the National Workers’ Party and Christian Democracy. At the same time, he was the author of numerous articles published in newspapers and magazines (“Gazeta Polska”, “Scena Polska”, “Życie Mazowsza” and “Dziennik Płocki”), editor of “Przegląd Płocki” and “Głos Płocki”. He was one of the active members of the Tourism Support Association established in 1935 in Płock, whose goal was to promote tourism to Płock and its organization.
The greatest work of Kazimierz Mayzner’s life was the Artistic Club of Płock.
In 1929, with the participation of a small group of artists, musicians, writers as well as experts and art lovers, he set off to promote artistic life in Płock and create an art club in the town. The club was initially called the Płock Artists’ Club, from 1931 – the Płocczan Art Club (in Płock it was known as KAP). Thanks to the efforts of Kazimierz Mayzner, KAP became a user of the Płock theater building with a large exhibition hall and a modernly furnished café with a large garden and dancing space. The Artistic Club of Płock conducted broad activity, becoming the main organizer of cultural life in Płock: it organized exhibitions, lectures, discussions, performances and concerts. At exhibitions, the club presented works of, among others Natan Korzeń, Fiszel Zylberberg, Erna Gutkind, Maksymilian Eljowicz and Abraham Skórnik. Kazimierz Mayzner supported artists, painters and musicians by helping them with selling paintings and in organization of concerts.
As Kazimierz Askanas points out: “KAP’s activities created the town’s cultural and artistic atmosphere, not present there before, encouraging an unusual revival of cultural life, and in particular, creative work. The creation of the Artistic Club of Płock and Kazimierz Mayzner, who was the creator and main activist of this institution, should be considered a unicum on a national scale […] He managed to introduce the Club on the path of broad popularization of culture. At the same time, he expanded the Club’s activities to take care of artistic craftsmanship, and finally – the town’s aesthetics”.
Kazimierz Mayzner’s great success was “Szopki Płockie” (“Płock Farces”) – unusually accurate satires on representatives of the authorities and intelligentsia of Płock and the ideology of BBWR, as well as the exhibition of his play “Dziewczyna z winiarni” (“The Girl from the Winery”), which enjoyed great popularity among the inhabitants of Płock. Kazimierz Mayzner was awarded the laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature and the Gold Cross of Merit.
The activity of the Art Club of Płock was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Kazimierz Mayzner volunteered for the 4th Cavalry Regiment. After the war, he was imprisoned in the Murnau camp. After being released from the camp, he came back to Płock and returned to his legal practice. He died on March 28, 1951.
Bibliography:
Askanas K., Adwokat Kazimierz Mayzner – znana postać na Mazowszu, „Palestra” 30/7(343), 1986, pp. 53-59
Askanas K., Sztuka Płocka, Płock 1991
Przedpełski J., Stefański J., Żydzi płoccy w dziejach miasta, Płock 2012
Our branch of the Szeraszew family comes from Radziłów and thanks to the documents stored in the Łomża department of the State Archives in Białystok it is known, that there were many members of the Szeraszew family in Radziłów and the local area. Joszka Szeraszew […]
Fiszel Zylberberg (1909-1942), graphic artist and painter, was the son of the trader Wolf Zelig and Hena Ruchla nee Nordenberg. At the age of 16 he went to Warsaw, where he studied drawing during private lessons. Since 1930 he studied as a free student of […]
Nusen aka Natan Korzeń was born on April 17, 1895 in Płock, as the son of Szlama Majer and Ruchla Łaja nee Szczawińska. Natan Korzeń, a member of a young group of Polish painters, was considered one of the most important Jewish artists in Poland. Members of his family in Płock were involved in various arts and crafts, and little Natan loved to watch the work of his uncles who were goldsmiths. His grandfather and father had a workshop producing copper items, including those used in Jewish rituals. In order to take formal education in the field of art, Natan left his family home and went to Warsaw. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts under the supervision of professors Stanisław Lentz and Tadeusz Pruszkowski. Still as a student, Korzeń exhibited his works in a Jewish gallery in Warsaw. After graduating, he quickly became one of the best portraitists in Poland. Many notable people employed him for portraits. He was also associated with the Theater School in Warsaw operating since 1929, where he lectured on art history. In addition to portraits, he also painted landscapes and whenever he visited Płock, he left the town in order to paint rural landscapes near it. According to art critic Yehiel Aronson, Korzeń was not influenced by the school of surreal post-impressionism because he had the talent to convey his own longings to the canvas in a realistic way. Korzeń had its own painting workshops in Warsaw and Kazimierz nad Wisłą. His works were exhibited, among other places, in Paris and Warsaw. He had two individual exhibitions in Płock and took part in several group exhibitions. In February 1932, at the exhibition in the Hotel Polski in Płock at 9 Tumska Street, the Art Club of Płock opened the 1st Płock Art Exhibition, which showed two oil works by Korzeń – ‘Portrait of a Boy’ and ‘Houses in Kazimierz’.
During the outbreak of the war, Natan Korzeń settled in Vilnius, because he thought that from there it would be easier for him to escape to the West. In Vilnius, he worked as a stage designer at the Jewish National Theater. His hopes for escape proved to be deceptive, as he ended up in the ghetto, where he took an active part in the cultural life of the Jews living there. The Nazis burned most of his paintings. He was murdered in 1941, probably in Ponary near Vilnius.
An extraordinary 1937 film by Józef Herman Keller and his son Norton has been just published on JewishPlock.eu. The Nobiscum Foundation received the film courtesy of Susan Keller Mouckley, Sandra Brygart Rodriguez and Arieh Bomzon. The film was digitized by the Yad Vashem Institute at […]
