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 […]
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 in Płock in 1890). Shortly after his birth, the Tuszyński family moved to Dawid’s mother’s hometown, where he lived in a tenement house at 6 Jerozolimska Street.
Dawid presented artistic skills from an early age, his works were printed in ”Płomyk” and ”Płomyczek”. Dawid’s first teacher of drawing was the well-known painter from Płock, Erna Gutkind. Before 1939, he studied painting with Abraham Skórnik in Płock and Tadeusz Dobrowolski in Łódź. After the outbreak of World War II, he was mobilized and took part in the battles near Kutno, Łowicz and in the defense of Warsaw. Then he found himself in Siberia. After the war, he went to Paris, where he continued his artistic education. In 1947 he took up studies at the Grande Chaumiere Academy. He created magnificent miniatures that earned him recognition in the artistic world, he also made portraits to order, among others of Charlie Chaplin and Helena Rubinstein. His works were presented, among others in France, Monaco, Belgium, Spain, Israel and the Netherlands. One of his most famous works is the great series of miniatures for the Book of David Psalms – Devi Tuszyński worked on the series for over 20 years. He devoted a series of black and white miniatures entitled “Płock” to the town, where he spent his childhood and youth.
His works are in the collections of the British Museum and the Alexander Pushkin Museum in Moscow, among others. He was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1999, the Płock City Council honored him with the Medal of Merit for Płock. He died on December 15, 2002 in Paris.
Bibliography:
Askanas K., Sztuka Płocka, Płock 1991
Przedpełski J., Stefański J., Żydzi płoccy w dziejach miasta, Płock 2012
Below you’ll find the trailer of the film “Devi, prince of miniature” directed by Mariusz Orski (Polish only):
DEVI_KSIAZE_MINIATURY_2018_Trailer from Tomasz Malinowski colorist on Vimeo.
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 […]
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 the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he learned from Władysław Skoczylas, Felicjan Szczęsny Kowarski and Miłosz Kotarbiński. As a member of the graphic group “Czerń i Biel” [Black and White”], he exhibited his works at the Zachęta Gallery and the Institute of Art Propaganda. In 1936 he presented 61 works in his hometown, among which woodcuts dominated. He completed his education in Paris, where he was sent on scholarship by the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1937 he had an individual exhibition in Paris, he also participated in the international graphics exhibition, he presented his works at the Autumn Salon in 1937 and 1938. In 1938 he exhibited his works in London. He also presented his art in the Baltic countries.
After the outbreak of the war, Fiszel Zylberberg took part in the resistance movement. In 1941 he was arrested in France and imprisoned in the camp of Bonne la-Roland, from where he was transported to Auschwitz, where, sick with typhus, he was murdered in a gas chamber.
Woodcuts by Fiszel Zylberberg (source: www.zchor.org)
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. […]
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 […]
On the night of February 20-21, 1941, the Germans began to deport Jews from Płock. On the morning of February 21, the Jewish population was concentrated on Kwiatka Street and between the synagogue and Bielska Street: “… since 4 in the morning, there was light in all the apartments, people squeezed on the stairs, running from room to room […] the town seemed to be calm, but in front of every Jewish home there were SS guards with bayonets mounted on their weapons. People thought they were fatalists. Whatever will be, will be. But when they saw the SS guards, panic broke out, something was different than usual. Until then all displacement had been carried out by the 13th police battalion […] A short winter day passed in anticipation of the angel of death, no one thought that hell had already broken out, more than 3/4 of the inhabitants were driven out into the street, surrounded by a cordon of SS and gendarmerie. All those bastards used their power to their liking…” Sick and disabled people were killed on the spot. “Heavily wounded people laid on the ground, religious Mayer Kahn suffered from a heart attack, even though he had not been beaten by anyone, it was like a mist had surroundered him, his eyes were clouded, the psalm to the dead flashed through his head, but he no longer could say it, half his body was like made of stone”. In the afternoon, the gathered people were taken away. Ca. 4,000 people were deported to the camp in Działdowo on that day. “The rest of us went back down the street to their homes after long hours of waiting and suffering, and they were summoned the next day.”
The text uses fragments of the testimony of Symcha Guterman (born in 1903) titled “Leaves from Fire”, Polish version published by the Płock Scientific Society in 2004.
Photo of the deportation of Płock Jews from Jakub Guterman’s private collection.
The Arbajter family lived in Płock at 3 Kwiatka Street in the tenement house of Mendel Jakub Perelgryc and his wife Hinda Małka nee Radzik. Hersz Icek Arbajter (1889-1942), son of Mordka and Chaja Hinda nee Żwirek, was a tailor by profession. His wife was […]
