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In the twelfth century a new settlement began to develop nearby, around the seat of the princes of Mazovia, one of whom, Prince Boleslav Kondzezawi, built a magnificent palace there. Because of the topographical situation and the junction of waterways and roads, the town of “Nova Lomza” (“New Lomza”) became a prosperous urban trading center for the region. Old Lomza, on the other hand, remained static, and stayed much as it was in the tenth century. One of the factors contributing to the development of New Lomza was the exemption from the transit tax levied on traffic on the Narew, granted by the Mazovian princes in 1444, which enabled Lomza to become a transshipping center between Prussia and Poland. The Lomza – Danzig road hummed with merchants trading in timber, salt, honey, flax, and grain. In the fifteenth century, Lomza was considered one of the three most important cities of Mazovia, together with Warsaw and Plotsk.
With the absorption of Mazovia into the broader Kingdom of Poland in 1526, the commercial position of the City was somewhat lessened. In 1544 King Sygmunt I Stary of Poland reimposed the “bridge tax” on traffic over the Narew bridges for the benefit of his treasury, and imposed strict regulation on foreign merchants in the City. These measures caused commerce to decline in Lomza, because foreign merchants ceased to visit; but in the reign of Sygmunt II August (1548 – 1572) commercial privileges were again granted to Lomza, as well as the right to hold great fairs three times a year, just as Warsaw and Plotsk. In 1578 the Chairman of the Municipal Council even got from King Stefan Batory permission to establish trade guilds for the artisans of Lomza, and in the same year twenty-eight such guilds were formed, having altogether six hundred artisan members. Permission was also given for the construction of a central warehouse for salt, and a central armory to serve all of Mazovia. Seven large flour mills were built in the City during this time; but during the 1590s, and even more during the seventeenth century, Lomza entered an extended period of decline which was terminated only when the Kingdom of Congress Poland was established in 1815.
For Lomza, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw invasions, natural disasters, and epidemics. Bands of Cossacks, who had rebelled against the nobility, under the leadership of the Hetman Naliwienko, invaded Lomza in 1595, and Cossacks returned in 1604 under the peasant leader Oblomow. Great destruction was wreaked on the City by the Swedish armies. With the melting of the snows in the Spring of 1600, the Narew flooded, and submerged the approaches of the City; a few months later a pestilence broke out. In 1618 a great fire swept through the City, and in 1624 another major epidemic which killed 5021 persons. In consequence of this series of disasters, many deserted the city, and its population dwindled.
The population continued to decrease in the eighteenth century. In 1711 and 1733, Lomza was invaded and sacked by the Korfs, a Mazurian tribe dwelling in the forests around Ostroleka, which had become Catholic zealots. After the second partition of Poland in 1793 and the outbreak of the Kosciusko rebellion, about a thousand men of Lomza and its vicinity volunteered to join the rebels, and the City obligated itself to supply Kosciusko's army with grain and meat. After many long and difficult battles, Lomza found itself essentially destroyed, remaining with only about a dozen wooden houses and about a thousand remaining residents, who lived in poverty. In 1797 the City was conquered by Prussia, and in the eleven years (1797 – 1807) of Prussian rule Lomza was reduced to the status of a village, no longer a municipality. Szczuczyn became the dominant city of the region.
The recovery of Lomza begins with the era of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807 – 1815). Lomza became again the capital of the Department of Augustow, and the seat of the regional administration. Napoleon, during his 1812 Russian campaign, stayed for a time in Lomza, and several hundred of the residents joined his Grand Armee; one of the houses of prayer in the City was turned into a supply depot the Army. Recovery of the city continued after the end of the Duchy of Warsaw and the establishment of “Congress Poland” in 1815; new construction, the expansion of government offices and of workshops increased economic opportunities. Renewed prosperity begins with the completion of the Augustian Canal, which connected the Vistula and Narew rivers in 1839 and the paving of the Warsaw – St. Petersburg road, which passed through Lomza, in 1844. But the construction of the Warsaw - St. Petersburg railway, which by-passed Lomza, in 1862 caused inter-regional commerce to desert Lomza, and the development of Lomza subsequently developed on a base of local trade. After the suppression of the 1863 Polish rebellion, the Russian authorities stationed a permanent garrison in Lomza, including three battalions of cavalry and infantry, which necessitated the construction of barracks; a central prison was also constructed in 1892, and these further improved the economic conditin of the City. In 1898 the large Russian Gymnasium was opened, as were a large printing establishment, a public Community Center, and a distillery for alcoholic beverages, the latter under a monopoly law.
But under the influence of nobles and the Church, Sygmund I promulgated decrees in 1544 reinstating the bridge tax and prohibiting the purchase by Jews of houses in Lomza. In addition, every Jew visiting Lomza was obligated to pay an entry fee of three Zloty. This reduced the number of Jewish merchants coming to the City. Because of pressure from organizations of Catholic artisans, the number of Jewish artisans also decreased. But with all this, the records of the City show that in 1570 Jews were continuing their economic activity, and that every Jew paid the “Poworow tax” in the amount of thirteen Zloty.
In 1556 King Sygmunt August granted to Lomza the privilege “De non tolerandis Judaeus”, prohibiting the residence of Jews in Lomza. For this reason, many Jews left the City, and settled in Piatnica [which is directly across the Narew — SG], to which the prohibition did not apply. Jews were permitted to visit Lomza only on market and fair days, or for the execution of specific business purposes, and to stay for not longer than three days. But the law was not enforced rigorously, and it was possible to extend one's stay. There were even some who remained resident in Lomza in spite of the prohibition. Little by little, the Jewish population grew, even if illegally.
But in the reign of Sigmunt III Wasa, the “Non tolerandis” law was renewed in Lomza, and in 1598 every Jewish resident was expelled. The three-day limitation on sojourning in the City remained. An additional limitation was that imposed by the 1578 law regulating artisans, which permitted Jews to deal only with each other; only Catholic artisans could deal with Catholics. Jewish artisans were also obliged to pay the Catholic guild a tax of six Zloty annually, and to supply a barrel of gunpowder or beer, and a quantity of wax for the preparation of candles to illuminate the guildhouse.
Because the City of Lomza was closed to them, expelled Jews sought a nearby place to settle on which the residence prohibition did not apply. Such a place, as we have said, was Piatnica, and the merchants lived there. But visiting Lomza from Piatnica incurred the payment of a considerable tax, crossing the river, and applying for a permit to remain three days. The more that commercial needs grew, the more onerous this procedure became and the more difficult it was to manage business. Merchants therefore sought a solution closer to Lomza, and found it in a fishing village, Rybaki, on the Lomza bank of the Narew,
This village was at first distant from Lomza, the latter being situated atop a hill. Its advantage was that it was situated on the road between Lomza and Old Lomza, where Jews lived maintained connections with the City. Rybaki itself was absorbed by Lomza only at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The ground in Rybaki was muddy because it was close to the riverbank, and in rainy weather or at the time of the snow melt, it was dangerous to live there. Just before the expulsion of Jews from Lomza in the fifteenth century, a synagogue and Community house were built there, and a cemetery was established. As in other cities, Jews in Rybaki lived crowded together, and as far as possible from the riverbank. The connections between the Jews of Rybaki and Piatnica were maintained over the years; the rabbi and other community officials of Piatnica continued to supervise what happened in Rybaki. Generally, the more affluent Jews lived in Piatnica, while those in Rybaki were petty traders, pedlars, artisans, etc. Gradually, the latter prospered, bought larger parcels of land, and built themselves larger homes. They built a levee on the riverbank at several places, so that floods would not damage the homes, built warehouses for grain and timber, and strengthened their connections with Lomza.
There are no records of Jewish presence in Lomza from 1598 to 1731, and only toward the end of this period did Jews begin again to settle in the City; records show that in 1731 the Municipal council levied a head tax of 585 Zloty on the Jews, according to the evaluation and assessment of Tykocin, which was then the chief Jewish community of the region. In 1739 a head tax of 250 Zloty was levied on the Jews of Lomza – about half the sum levied eight years previously; perhaps protests on the level of the earlier tax had been effective.
The citizens of Lomza were able to apply to the Jews of their city in 1807 a ten-year suspension of civil rights, as decreed by the Duchy of Warsaw, but this lasted only four years, until Napoleon arrived in Lomza on his way to Russia in 1812, and quartered himself in the home of the Jew Yudl Blomowicz, which was the largest house in the City. The enthusiastic reception with which the inhabitants of Lomza greeted the Grand Armee thawed the atmosphere. Residents, both Jews and Poles participated in supplying the Emperor's army. The Jewish Community Council was located in ul. Wozewodska, between the City and the Jewish settlement in Rybaki. The Community was not able to afford a rabbi and rabbinical court of its own, and therefore made do with a single rabbinical judge. Conflicts were referred to the rabbi of Sniadowo, Ze'ev Wolf.
There was no improvement in the legal position of Jews in Lomza when the Kingdom of Poland was established in 1815. True, there was no longer an explicit impediment to permanent residence in the City, but official residence permits were not issued to Jews either. Decrees of the defunct Duchy of Warsaw were still enforced zealously, e.g. forbidding Jews to deal in alcoholic beverages or to maintain a distillery. But the Jewish population grew steadily, and Jews opened shops for textiles, comestibles, and small goods.
On 10 December 1822 all the Jews of Lomza were ordered to move to Rybaki. Those who wished to continue to live in the City were obliged to obtain a special permit, the granting of which was conditional on proof that the applicant possessed capital in excess of a specified sum, and that he had adopted a European style of life (European dress, fluency in European languages, etc.), conditions that few could fulfill. In time, as a result of Jewish lobbying efforts, it was permitted to expand the limits of permitted residence somewhat, to include streets adjacent to Rybaki.
After the Polish rebellion of 1830 [the “Kingdom of Poland” was now part of the Russian Empire — SG], Jews were gradually permitted to settle in all parts of the City, and the Community gradually grew. In 1833 a cemetary and a Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) were established – previously, burials had been in Sniadowo, and only a funeral society existed in Lomza, to organize the funeral to Sniadowo with the participation of the bereaved family.
After the destruction suffered by Lomza in the wake of the suppression of the rebellion, the authorities no longer opposed seriously the settlement of Jews in the City, and in the three decades until 1860 the Jewish population doubled.. One of the causes of this was renewed Jewish activity in shipping from Danzig to Kaunas through the Augustian inter-river canal.
The years 1861 – 1862, the eve of the 1863 Polish rebellion saw reconciliation between the Jewish and Polish populations of Lomza. Some Jews had participated in the demonstrations that heralded the rebellion, and also in the fighting after the rebellion began. Many others gave material support in the form of contributions of money, medical assistance, and food supplies. Between 1856 and 1861 seven Jews of the Community were accused of distributing pro-Polish propaganda and inciting against the Russian officials, and the seven were exiled far from Lomza.
But the final abrogation of the limitations on Jewish residence in Lomza (and in all the rest of the Kingdom of Poland) was the result of a decree promulgated by Tsar Alexander III in June 1862, which caused the Jewish population of Lomza to increase.
The first ever elections for the regional council (Sejmik) took place in Lomza on 24 September 1861. Four Councilors were elected from the City. three Poles and one Jew, Yisrael-Moshe Nowinski, the proprietor of a large sugar factory. In 1865 the factory was burned, and Nowinski moved to Warsaw.
There were also elections to the Municipal Council in 1861. Yehuda-Leib Kaufman was elected to the Council, along with three other Jewish Deputies: Moshe-Leib Kolinski, Jakob Lewin-Naimowicz, and Nachman Tykociner.
About 150 persons were arrested in Lomza after the suppression of the 1863 rebellion, among them over a hundred Jews, including most of the men of influence and property owners of the City. Among the detainees were the three Jewish leaders of Lomza: the physician Dr. Ephraim Edelsztein, who was publicly beaten and tortured until he was covered with is blood; the owner of the sugar factory, Moshe Nowinski; and the merchant Nachman Tykociner. All three were released on bail after a few weeks. About thirty Jews of Lomza and the vicinity were sentenced to prison terms and exile to remote parts of Russia.
On the background of the rebellion and its aftermath, we should mention the memorandum sent by a resident of Lomza, David-Jakob Yellin, to the leaders of the Great Powers. This document was written in several languages, and dispatched through the Russian Governor of “the Kingdom of Poland” to the King of France, the Tsar of Russia, the King of Austria, and the Queen of England. In it, Yellin pleads with these rulers to help a small and persecuted people, the Jews, to redeem anew their land Eretz-Yisrael, and Jerusalem.
But the brief interval of reconciliation between the Polish and Jewish populations had come to an end with the suppression of the rebellion. From this point on, their mutual suspicions grew as the surrender to the authorities' policy of russification intensified. Decrees were promulgated making it obligatory that the rabbi of a community must be fluent in the Russian language, that secular subjects must be taught in the “Cheder”, etc.
At the end of the nineteenth century the Poles tried to exclude Jews from commerce and workshop. “Christian, buy only from Christians” became a popular slogan. Catholic farmers formed a cooperative, the members of which were obligated to purchase their equipment and supplies from the cooperative, which in turn bought their crops. In 1897, the institution of the monopoly law that forbid Jews from producing or trading in alcoholic beverages put an effective end to Jewish economic activity in the City.
In spite of these limitations, the Jewish settlement in Lomza continued to develop from the middle of the nineteenth century. Jews adapted quickly to the needs of the Russian authorities; construction of the barracks made it possible for contractors, suppliers, artisans, attorneys and middle-men to make a living. Jews established several factories in Lomza, the largest of which was the sugar plant. There were also factories for soap, chicory, cotton, bricks, and roofing tiles, as well as seven windmills. There were also several carpenter shops and metal-working shops in Jewish ownership; one of the latter developed into a vocational school under the sponsorship of the “Alliance Israelite Universelle”, and another, founded in 1901, became a major foundry, producing machines that were shipped all over Poland.
In 1892, 426 out of 710 of the artisans in the City (tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, metalsmiths, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, etc.) were Jews, as were 217 of the 334 Master artisans: fifty-three shoemakers, fifty-three tailors, twenty-two cabinetmakers, eighteen bakers, fourteen metalsmiths and tinsmiths, nine confectors, nine watchmakers, eight building carpenters, six hatters, five dyers, five bookbinders, four blacksmiths, two leatherworkers, one meatcutter, one builder, and seven others. Until the promulgation of the monopoly decree, the production of alcoholic beverages was also in Jewish hands.
During the 1905 Russian revolution, many Jewish workers and members of the free professions joined the revolutionary activists in Lomza, and the revolutionaries also found a receptive ear among the Jewish students of the Russian Gymnasium and of the Lomza Yeshiva. Jewish workers organized strikes and participated in demonstrations together with the Polish socialists. Many were arrested after the revolution failed, and sentenced to prison or exile, and others fled or emigrated to lands across the sea.
General elections for the first State Duma were announced in 1906. Jews were entitled to vote, but in fact the franchise was limited to persons who paid yearly rent of at least 96 Rubles or who owned real-estate, so that the great majority of the electors in Lomza were Russians; only 3.6% of the Poles and Jews were qualified. As the elections for the third Duma approached, the electoral system was changed, and fifty “Counselors” were elected from Lomza, and these were to elect Deputies to the Duma. Of the Counselors, twenty-eight were Poles, seventeen Russians, and five Jews.
In general, employment in the Russian administration was closed to Jews, in Lomza as in the rest of the Russian Empire. But a converted Jew named Uri Kovner did serve as an official in the Lomza office of the Finance Ministry until his death.
The Russian Army began its retreat in July 1915. The German Army crossed the Narew, and in August Lomza found itself right at the front. People hid in their basements.
As the Russian retreat from Lomza neared, a civil committee was organized to supervise the City during the transition to German authority. Jews served in the militia raised by this committee, equally with Poles. The German Army entered Lomza at the end of August, and immediately required the City to pay it 60,000 Rubles. It constituted the militia as a police force under the occupation; several Jews had key positions in it: Avraham Mizrach, Chief of Police; Mendel Glinka, Motel Judkewicz, and others. The civil committee was disolved at the end of 1915, and the Germans appointed a German as Mayor and a Pole as his deputy, along with a Municipal Council of twenty-three members. Ten of the Council members were Jews, and four Jews were officials in the City administration. In 1917 the Germans declared elections, and again ten Jews were elected.
The economic situation did not improve after the German conquest. There were shortages of food, clothing, and heating materials, and the Germans often commandeered property and merchandise. The food allotments that were rationed against coupons were inadequate, and the Jewish population, along with others, declined greatly. Shopkeepers raised prices exhorbitantly, and even the rabbinical threat of excommunication did not put an end to the practice. Because of the evacuation of towns in which battles still raged, Lomza became a concentration of tens of thousands of refugee Jews from Brisk, Pinsk, Chomsk, Baranowice, Stolin, and others. The food shortage was somewhat ameliorated for Jews when the Community founded a food cooperative, the first in Lomza. The Jewish Aid Organization, which had been founded at the beginning of the War continued to operate even under German occupation, and greatly aided the many refugees in the City.
Shlomo-Zalman was succeeded by Rabbi Benjamin Diskin, among whose disciples was Yitzhak-Elchanan Spektor, future rabbi of Kaunas. Rabbi Benjamin and his son are responsible, in large measure, for the character of Jewish Lomza, having brought to it much of the Lithuanian tradition, which distinguished Lomza from other towns of the vicinity. Shortly before Benjamin Diskin died in 1846, Sir Moses Montefiore passed through Lomza on his way to St. Petersburg to implore the Russian government to advance the civil rights of the Empire's Jews. The Rabbi went out of the City at the head of the dignitaries of the Community to greet the guest. Rabbi Diskin was invited by the Russian authorities to be a member of the Rabbinical Council that convened in St. Petersburg in 1843.
It had been generally expected that Rabbi Benjamin would be succeeded by his son, Yehoshua-Leib. But being only twenty-five years of age at his father's death, the leaders of the Community did not feel it proper to appoint him to the rabbinate, and instead put him in charge of education. He left Lomza in 1861, and served as rabbi in a number of places. He emigrated to Eretz-Yisrael in 1877, settled in Jerusalem, and founded Yeshiva Ohel Moshe. He also was the head of the Kollel Suwalk-Lomza [the organization of immigrants to Eretz-Yisrael from the gubernii of Lomza and Suwalk — SG].
The chair of Rabbi of Lomza remained vacant for several years, until the arrival in 1867 of Eliahu-Chaim Maizel, who served for the next twelve years. Eliahu-Chaim was considered the greatest rabbi in Russia. He founded the “Pidyon Shvuyim” (Redemption of Prisoners) Fund in Lomza, the purpose of which was to ransom Jews who had been conscripted to the Russian Imperial Army, in order to purchase their release. [Such conscription was for extremely long terms; conscripts could be released in exchange for monetary payment — SG]. Rabbi Maizel investigated and found that the quota of Jewish conscripts from Lomza Gubernia was out of proportion to the number of Jews in the gubernia; the Russian authorities examined the matter, and found his conclusion to be correct. He left Lomza in 1897, and took up the Lodz Rabbinate.
His successor as Rabbi of Lomza was Eliezer-Simcha Rabinowicz, author of “Bikkurei Ya'akov” and “Halachot Eretz-Yisrael". He was a native of Kaunas, and came to Lomza after he had served in the Suwalki Rabbinate. He did not succeed in creating good relations with the dignitaries of the Community, and also came into conflict with the Russian governor of the gubernia in connection with his many efforts to improve the civil rights of the Jews, which he was eminently qualified to do, being expert in matters of civil law and fluent in the Russian language. He was forced to leave Lomza after only a few years.
After the departure of Eliezer-Simcha Rabinowicz, Malchiel Tannenbaum was appointed Rabbi of Lomza, who served about twenty-three years. He collected his innovative thoughts on the Talmud in his book “Turim”, and his responsae were published in “Divrei Malchiel”, in five volumes. He was opposed to the Enlightenment movement, and to the opening of a “Cheder Mtukan” in Lomza. He was also against enrolling Jewish children in the Russian Gymnasium, and opposed to Zionist activity and the opening of a Zionist library in the City. When the Russian authorities convened the sixth all-Russian conference of rabbis in St. Petersburg in 1910, Rabbi Tannenbaum was included among the great sages invited to participate; he fell ill on the way to St. Petersburg and died. His body was brought to Lomza, and was buried there in a funeral attended by a large cortege.
Lomza remained again without a rabbi for four years. After an extensive search and many disagreements, Yehuda-Leib Gordon was invited to Lomza. He was a man of broad education in the Lithuanian tradition, fluent in the Russian language, and knowledgable in secular fields, such as mathematics and the natural sciences. Both the prosecution and defense in the Beilis trial cited his pamphlets in Russian, “What is Chasidism?” and “What is the Talmud?”. [The Beilis trial was a celebrated case of the Blood Libel, in which Mendel Beilis, a factory manager in Kiev, was accused of kidnapping and murdering a Christian child in order to use his blood for the preparation of matzot for Pesach. Believe it or not, this was in 1912. — SG] Rabbi Gordon belonged to the “Chovevei Tzion” (Lovers of Zion) movement, and did much for the advancement of Zionist activity in Lomza. During the First World War, he stood up courageously many times to refute accusations of Jewish spying for Germany, and labored tirelessly to aid the many refugees and otherwise distressed. When Poland resumed its independence, and the condition of the Lomza Yeshiva became parlous, he travelled to the United States to raise contributions of money for its aid, and died while there, in 1925.
Aharon Baksht, who was Rabbi of Suwalki, was then appointed Rabbi of Lomza. He had studied in the Yeshivot of Volozhyn and Slobodka, and belonged to the Musar movement. He served in Lomza six years, and was accustomed to giving lectures in the Lomza Yeshiva. Rabbi Baksht leaned to the Agudat Yisrael party, and during the 1928 elections for the Polish Sejm and Senate campaigned against the Mizrachi party and against Zionists in general. He left Lomza in 1930, to and assume the Rabbinate of Szazli. He was murdered by the Nazis in 1942.
The last rabbi of Lomza before the Second World War was Moshe Shatzkes, who was appointed to the post in 1931. He was known as a non-partisan choice, though he paid annual dues to Keren Yesod [an arm of the Jewish National Fund, thus a Zionist organ — SG]. Rabbi Shatzkes had studied in the yeshivot of Slobodka and Telz. His time in Lomza was marked by anti-Jewish demonstrations, and a boycott of Jewish shops. He was able to escape to Vilnius when the Second World War began, and from there to the United States. His deputy, Yosef Cinowicz, who had held the education portfolio in the Jewish Community for thirty-five years, was elderly and tired. He had filled the rabbinical function over the years during any hiatus between rabbinical appointees. He was arrested by the Nazis and murdered together with the rest of his Community.
Of the religious leadership of Lomza, we should mention Yoel-Leib Herzog (father of Yitshak haLevi Herzog, who became Chief Rabbi of Israel), a charismatic preacher, always welcome in all the Batei Midrash of the Community. He had served as deputy to Rabbi Tannenbaum. He left Lomza, the city of his birth, in 1899 to become Rabbi of Leeds, in England. In 1911 he was elected Rabbi of Paris. His most important book is “Imrei Yoel”, a collection of sermons on the Pentateuch.
Lomza was blessed with many places of prayer.There was a very old Beit Midrash in the area of the Old Jewish Cemetery, which a tradition held to have been built over the ruins of a palace of Casimir the Great; it was replaced by a new and magnificent building, the Great and Central Beit Midrash, in 1841. This is where the Rabbi and the elite of the Community prayed, and in it was also the chamber of the Rabbinical Court, and nearby were the buildings of the “Hekdesh” [shelter for the needy, aged, and infirm — SG], the abbatoir for kosher slaughter, infirmary, Talmud Torah [elementary school — SG], guest lodgings, Yeshiva, etc. After the suppression of the 1863 Polish rebellion, the Beit Midrash was closed by order of the Russian authorities, but was reopened after some lobbying, which included bribery of recalcitrant officials.
There was in Lomza an old wooden synagogue which, with the passage of time, was no longer able to satisfy the needs of the community. It was demolished in 1859, and remained in ruins for the next twenty years. In 1879, on the initiative of Rabbi Eliezer-Simcha Rabinowicz and Noach-Yitzhak Diskin, construction of a new building was begun, and two years later was ready for use. This was a magnificent stone building, with carvings and high windows. In the final years of its existence, it was a fortress of the Zionist movement in Lomza; it was the first Jewish place of prayer in Lomza in which contributions were collected for the Zionist national institutions.
In addition to these two central houses of prayer, we should mention also the beit midrash of the Sh. S. society, where the wealthy of the City prayed; the Beit Midrash “Magen Avraham”, where the elite families of the City prayed, and which was filled with Lithuanian atmosphere, although with an Enlightenment leavening, used by, among others, by those who had formerly prayed in the defunct “Yavetz” Beit Midrash; Beit Midrash “Mesillat Yesharim”, frequented by artisans who gathered also for study; and lastly the small beit midrash called “Chovat Levavot” founded at the end of the nineteenth century, in which the foundations of the Zionist movement in Lomza were laid.
We should mention too the “shtibel” of the Chassidim, the congregation of which was made up of representatives of virtually all the Chassidic courts and dynasties in Poland of the time: Gur, Sokolow, Radzimin, Alexander, and more. It usually had four prayer quorums of householders. During the First World War, after the evacuation of the other towns of the vicinity and the dispersal of their Jewish inhabitants (especially from Ostroleka), the number of Chassidim in the City was further increased.
There were in Lomza a number of traditional societies for Torah study and recitation of psalms: “Chevrat Torah” of the artisans and pedlars, which met daily between afternoon and evening prayers; “Chevrat Bedek Bayit” of the carters, fishmongers, and butchers, who met for prayer and study in the basement of the Central Beit Midrash; “Chevrat Tehillim”, and others. There were also societies of a social character, such as “Chevrat Hachnasat Orchim”, one of the oldest in the Community, which had a building of its own from 1860 for lodging newcomers and transients; another such organization, founded in 1869, supplied wood to poor families for house heating in winter.
In the second half of the nineteenth century the first Jewish hospital in Lomza was erected in the Jewish quarter, between the Talmud Torah and the Old Beit Midrash. Its founders were Dr. Ephraim Edelsztein and Dr. Londinski, the latter a convert from Judaism. In its first years, the hospital treated primarily patients of scant means, at the expense of the Community and the charitable institutions. With time, the number of non-Jewish contributors increased, because non-Jews also received treatment in the hospital. Toward the end of the century, the medical conditions of the hospital improved, and patients came from all the surrounding towns. But the facilities were unable to accomodate all, and it was necessary to build a larger hospital; behind the old building, in 1897 a new building was constructed, larger (three stories) and more magnificent than the old one. The Jewish Hospital, which functioned until the Shoah, was especially noted for its obstetrical, ophthalmological, and surgical units. The hospital was financed primarily by the Jewish Community, but fifteen other Jewish communities in surrounding towns also made monthly or yearly contributions, and the Municipality of Lomza also contributed modestly.
A “Bikkur Cholim” (Care of the Sick) society was associated with the hospital; it collected contributions for the institution, and tended to the needs especially of the poorer patients. Its members came from all elements of the Jewish population, including many artisans, and the hospital's supervisory board was chosen from among them. Within Bikkur Cholim was another society, “Shomrei Laila”, the members of which came to the hospital after working hours to stay with the patients and attend to their needs through the night; they also made up a prayer quorum, so that patients would have the benefit of a framework of public prayer. Another society attached to the hospital was “Linat Tzedek” [which provided shelter to the poor — SG],founded in 1896.
The Lomza Community was also distinguished in the field of youth education. From its inception it operated a Talmud Torah, for which a new purpose-built building was constructed in 1831; it served for the next 90 years. At first, it had ten classrooms, and was later expanded. But in 1922 a new building of three stories was built for it, with twelve classrooms, a room for prayer, an auditorium for assemblies and celebrations, and an apartment for the family of the Rabbi of the City; a large kitchen was in the basement. At first most of the teachers of the Talmud Torah came from the surrounding towns, Sniadowo, Jablonka, Nowogrod, and Piatnica, and lodged in special quarters at the expense of the Community. When Poland became independent, the character of the Talmud Torah changed, and the secular subjects taught in any Polish elementary school, as well as Hebrew language were added to the curriculum, which had formerly included only sacred studies. In 1930 an attempt was made to transfer the Talmud Torah to the supervision of the Community, but this failed, and that function remained in the hands of the special committee which had been constituted for that purpose.
After the Russian authorities promulgated the law preventing the Community from appointing a rabbi a man who lacked the defined minimum of general education, a central institute was opened in Lomza in 1891 for preparing rabbis to sit for the government examination. This school was called the “Talmud Torah for Rabbis”, and was attended by young rabbis who needed to fill out their education to pass the government requirements.
In 1909, the society “Kol Yisrael Chaverim” (All Israel are Comrades) opened a vocational school in Lomza for Jewish children. In this institution the pupils studied both Torah and their chosen craft. The school was located in the Orlovski metalworking shops, which provided both classroom facilities and practical experience. The school was closed at the beginning of the First World War. The combination of Torah and vocational education was very successful also in the “Hashgachat Yetumim” orphans' home, founded in 1893, which continued to flourish during and after the First World War, when the number of orphans increased. This institution received much assistance from the “Joint” [”The American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committe” — SG]. At first, boys and girls were kept segregated in seperate institutions and schools, but these were merged under a snigle management in 1918.
There were also Jewish children who attended the government educational system, e.g. the Russian Gymnasium and the Polish Commercial Gymnasium, both of which were founded at the turn of the nineteenth century. A Russian elementary school for Jewish children was opened in Lomza in 1898, and was maintained at the expense of the Community. In 1900 it had more than one hundred pupils. It continued to operate, with a few changes, even after Poland became independent, and in the end became a Jewish-Polish elementary school of seven classes.
The first schools in which the syllabus had a Zionist orientation were opened at the end of the nineteenth century. The first of these was the school for girls operated by Puah Rakowski, which was founded in 1889, but it was closed after only a short time. In 1897 another girls' school, called “Jehudiah”, opened; it operated until 1901, teaching secular subjects, Russian language, arithmetic, and handicrafts (embroidery, needlework, knitting). It had about sixty pupils during the years of its operation.
The Jewish teachers of Lomza Gubernia organized themselves in a teachers union, which received legal recognition in 1917, after which it functioned as a trade union.
There were several libraries in Lomza, the first established as early as 1894 by a group of educated young men, accumulating in its first year about 500 books in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. In 1905 a group of workmen founded a library and reading room which functioned for many years, after which it passed under the control of the Bund party. Zionists founded a library in the same year, mostly for books in Hebrew, which also passed to the control of a political party, in this case the Techiya, and operated until the Shoah. It contained several thousand books, and was an important educational resource for the youth of Lomza.
In 1920, during the Russo-Polish War, many Jews in Lomza joined the Polish Army. Lomza itself was conquered by the Bolsheviks, who established immediately upon their arrival a Revolutionary Committee (“REVCOM”) and civil offices; a few Jews worked in these, but others suffered from the Soviet occupation, and much Jewish merchandise was confiscated. But the Bolsheviks did not succeed in completing their takeover of the City before Polish units counter-attacked from the direction of Warsaw, and reconquered it. It is important to note that the Jews of Lomza joined the war against the Bolsheviks even before the approach of the Polish advance patrols. The Polish leader, Y. Pilsudski, specifically praised the behavior of the Jews of Lomza at the time, in spite of which a very serious incident occured just after the entry of the first units into the City, when the formations of General Haler entered, and attacked and imprisoned many Jews, accusing them of collaboration with the Bolsheviks. Many Jews were pressed into punitive forced labor, reconstructing the Narew bridges, which had been blown up by the Russian Army in its retreat; cleaning up the damage inflicted on the City by the battle; and other such tasks. Two Deputies in the Polish Sejm, Grinbaum and Hirschhorn, demanded parliamentary debate on these events.
The Jewish Community Council consisted of fifteen members. In 1921 the government appointed the Council and its presidium consisting of Flatow, Strikowski, and Chaimowicz. The Council was chosen by election in subsequent years. In 1924, the Zionist parties were unable to form a coalition, despite the fact they together they constituted the largest bloc in the Council, six mandates, and the body was controlled instead by the religious bloc, with five mandates; this balance continued throughout the 1920s. In 1932 the winner was the list of Po'alei Tzion – Socialist Zionists, and they formed a coalition with the list of the Progressive Artisans, for a bloc of six representatives on the Council. In 1936 the religious bloc won again, with the following results: Agudat Yisrael, four seats; Mizrachi, three; Bund, four; Po'alei Tzion – Socialist Zionists, one; General Zionists, one; Merchants List, one.
The Zionist parties were represented in both the Community Council and the Municipal Council, but their weight was less than that of the Bund in the Municipality and that of Agudat Yisrael in the Community Council.
The first expression of modern Zionism can be seen in David Yellin's 1863 memorandum, already mentioned. In that document, Yellin requests, inter alia, that Jews be allowed to continue to dress in their traditional garb, “which is a precondition for liberation from their exile”. In 1872, the year of publication of Peretz Smulanski's book “A People Of The World”, a group of academics convened in Lomza, and formed a society called “Friends of Zion and Jerusalem”, which was a chapter of a center in Warsaw. More Zionist clubs and circles arose in Lomza during the 1890s, and in 1891 a special beit midrash was founded for “Chovevei Tzion” (Lovers of Zion), who raised contributions of money for the purchase of land in Eretz-Yisrael and for the support of settlers there. In 1896, at the initiative of Avraham-Zwi Frankel, the “'Olei Rgalim” society was founded, to collect money to be used to finance the journey to Eretz-Yisrael of one of its members, to be chosen by lot. The person chosen would be an emissary, who would travel throughout the country, and upon his return render a report to the members on his observations there. This society very quickly grew to number fifty members. “Bnot Tzion” (Daughters of Zion), a Poland-wide organization of young women, was founded in Lomza in 1898; its members volunteered to teach the Hebrew language and Jewish History to girls. The society developed into the “Jehudiah” school for girls. A school for boys, “Tze'irei Chovevei Tzion” opened in 1900, ana syllabus similar to those of Bnot Tzion and Jehudiah.
A Zionist youth organization, “haTechiya” (Rebirth), was formed in 1909, and had great influence among the Jewish youth. It established a library which grew with time. In 1914 haTechiya obtained the use of a room in the hall of “haZamir” (a musical club which had been founded at the turn of the century), so that the library would be also a resource for the club. But haZamir closed at the beginning of the First World War, and haTechiya became nearly inactive. When Lomza came under German control in 1915, haTechiya received a permit to become active again, this time as “Youth Organization For The Study of Judaism”. Its library grew further, it started evening classes for the study of Hebrew language and Jewish History, and opened a Hebrew garden named for Sholem Aleichem, which functioned until the Shoah.
The haTechiya club was the center of Zionist activity in Lomza. It was led by a board of nine members, who established committees for the various fields in which the club was active: gymnastics, library, preparation for Aliya, dues collection, night classes, garden, Keren Kayemet (“Jewish National Fund”), etc. It was because of the influence of haTechiya that chapters of the Mizrachi and Po'alei Tzion parties were founded in Lomza. Two other youth organizations existed in Lomza, “haNo'ar haTzioni” (Zionist Youth) and “heChalutz haKlali haTzioni” (General Zionist Pioneer).
The Mizrachi chapter in Lomza was founded in 1917. It's influence on the Zionist scene, which was formerly dominated by haTechiya, expanded. The party succeeded in bringing under its wing the area of Jewish education in the city, particularly the Modern Orthodox education. The Talmud Torah, with several hundred pupils, was under its control in the years before the Shoah. Mizrachi had auxiliary organizations called “Mizrachi Women”, “Mizrachi Youth” (which had a large following among both Yeshiva students and young Chasidim), and “haPo'al haMizrachi” (The Mizrachi Worker). The latter grew from the ranks of religious workmen and the apprentices of artisans, and during the 1930s included several dozen members in the City.
The first chapter of Po'alei Tzion in Lomza was founded in 1903, and numbered initially about twenty members. Because the authorities had banned it, its activity was “underground”. It grew mostly among the workers, and amid conflict with the Bund [the Bund being a non/anti-Zionist party — SG]. In 1904 it organized a strike around demands for the reduction of the workday to ten hours and the increase of wages. About 300 workers were involved in the strike, the success of which contributed to the prestige of the party and brought several dozen additional members, from among both the workers and the free professions. After the suppression of the 1905 Russian revolution, the authorities intensified their hostility to Po'alei Tzion, and the party's Lomza chapter dissolved. During the German occupation after 1915, it was reconstituted, this time more energetically, as some of the members of haTechiya were added to the cadre remaining from 1905, making for a total membership of many dozen activists, especially after Poland became independent in 1920. When the party split, most of its members went with the leftist faction, the remainder with the rightist (in fact, merely more moderate). The leftist group grew stronger, and achieved success among the trade unions, and it participated in the municipal elections. It opened a workers' kitchen, a nightschool, and a consumers' cooperative. In the social sphere, it published several issues of a periodical called “Der Hammer”, and had a dramatics circle and a chorus.
The rightist faction of Po'alei Tzion merged in 1924 with the “Tze'irei Tzion – Socialist Zionists” party, which was formed by people who had left the Tze'rei Tzion party. The latter had grown from within haTechiya, and organized officially in 1918; it was active in Lomza among the school youth, the middle class, and the free professions. It was joined later also by workmen and artisans. But it split before its first year had past, in Lomza as in the rest of “Congress Poland”, to leftist and rightist factions. In order to attain official recognition in the City, Tze'irei Tzion was declared a chapter of the “Friends of the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem”.
In 1927 a Lomza chapter of the “Freiheit” youth movement was formed in Lomza, associated with “Po'alei-Tzion-Right / Tze'irei Tzion / Socialist Zionists”. Its members were the children of workers and students in the highschool. It had a nightschool to enable working youth to expand their education, in the framework of the “Red Scouts”. In 1929 members of “Po'alei-Tzion / Socialist Zionists” took part in a May Day demonstration together with the Polish Socialist Party and the Bund, but the Bund prevented the “Po'alei-Tzion / Socialist Zionists”, whose flag was embroidered with Zionist-Socialist slogans, from participating in the general demonstration. The strength of the “Po'alei-Tzion / Socialist Zionists” grew rapidly in Lomza, and in the 1932 Community Council elections they won for the first time.
The Revisionist Party was also active in Lomza from 1927, as was the “haShomer haLe'umi” movement in the City. Its first members were graduates of haTechiya, and they later formed the Betar movement, which had in the 1930s several dozen members. The State Party was also represented in Lomza. When Shlomo ben Yosef was hanged in Eretz-Yisrael by the British Mandatory authorities in 1938, the Revisionists organized a large deonstration, in which all the Zionist parties participated.
Besides the Zionist parties, Zionist youth movements also arose, the first of these, resembling the Scouts, having been organized in 1917. The “haShomer haTza'ir” (Young Guard) group was established in Lomza in 1918, one of the first in Poland; its graduates continued their activity in “heChalutz” (The Pioneer), in kibbutz-like collective farms, in preparation for Aliya to Eretz-Yisrael, and dozens of them did in fact emigrate there. An organized cadre from Lomza settled on Kibbutz 'Ein-haShofet, in the Hills of Ephraim, and some individuals did so on other kibbutzim. Other such movements dating from 1917 were “ha'Ivri haTza'ir” (Young Hebrew) and “Herzlia”; the former merged into the latter a year later, and Herzlia continued its activity until 1921. Some of its members then moved to another movement, which was associated with the Socialist Zionists, and others to haShomer haTza'ir. The farms for preparation for Aliya were scattered among the villages around Lomza.
Most of the Zionist organizations in Lomza cooperated with the haChalutz movement, which was established in Lomza in 1919. About thirty of the members of this movement emigrated to Eretz-Yisrael in 1921 - 22. In spite of the limitations that were placed on immigration to Eretz-Yisrael by the British, the activity of haChalutz only gathered strength, and in 1924 various partisan organizations arose within heChalutz: “heChalutz haMizrachi”, “heChalutz haTzioni”, “heChalutz haTza'ir”; and the number of heChalutz members increased to eight hundred. From 1929 to 1939 some factories of Lomza also became centers of preparation for Aliya, and in 1934 a group of artisans called “ha'Oved” organized itself as an associate of haChalutz.
Results of the elections in Lomza for delegates to the Zionist Congresses were as follows.
For the fifteenth Congress in 1927 there were 566 votes, of which for the General Zionists, 67; Mizrachi, 248; Hitachdut, 12; Po'alei-Tzion/Socialist Zionists, 53. [These total 380, leaving 186 unexplained. — SG]
For the twentieth Congress in 1935 there were 1202 votes, of which for “'Al haMishmar” (On Guard), 16; “'Et Livnot” (Time to Build), 30; haMizrachi, 460; State Party, 1; Eretz-Yisrael/Labor Bloc, 695.
Lomza was also an important organizational center of a spectrum of other Jewish parties. from “Agudat Yisrael” to the Bund. Agudat Yisrael was established in Lomza during the German occupation during the First World War. At that time, the Chief Jewish Chaplain of the German Army, 'Azriel Carlebach, came to Lomza specifically to found this party. The rabbi of Lomza, Rabbi Gordon was among the first supporters of the movement. Many Chasidim and other Haredi residents opposed to Mizrachi joined it. As the Second World War approached, the influence of Agudat Yisrael increased in Lomza, mainly as a result of the support of Rabbi Baksht and the lobbying efforts of its members with the Polish authorities. Just before the war, the chairman of the Community Council was Mendel Kalinski, a member of Agudat Yisrael. The party was also active in banking, in the mutual aid societies, and in the aid agency that was maintained by contributions from American Jewry. In times when the Zionists were not doing well, e.g. during 1926 - 1928, the Bund on the left and the Aguda on the right profited electorally, and one or the other triumphed in elections for the municipality and for the Community Council.
The Lomza chapter of the Bund was founded in 1897, and participated in the revolutionary activity that preceded the revolution of 1905. The movement began by acting among the workers, organizing strikes and educational activity. After the revolution was suppressed in Russia, activists of the Bund in Lomza were pursued by the authorities, and many were arrested and exiled. In 1908 the Bund received a permit to open a library for Yiddish books [the Bund was devoted to Yiddish — SG] and a reading room, and these became the home of the party. In 1916, under the German occupation, it received a permit to establish a club for the education of workers, the “Arbeiter Bildungs Verein” (ABP). Visitors to this club included not only workers, but also many of the school youth and members of the free professions. In 1917 the club obtained the use of the largest hall in the city, able to accomodate several hundred persons. In the same year, the club split into two parties, the Socialist Zionists and the Bund. At first the ABP hall continued to serve both parties, but during the struggle for the liberation of Poland the Bund tightened its relationship with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), and this cooperation continued on and off after Polish independence. In 1919 conflict developed between the Socialist Zionists and the Bund; the latter withdrew from the ABP club and established their own club, “Der Gresser Club”, named for the Bund leader, Bronislaw Grosser [but the name of the club is a play on words – “The Bigger Club” — SG]. Thislibrary for Yiddish books, named for another Bund leader, Wladimir Medem. The members of the Bund continued their activity among the workers and the trade unions. In the 1930s they established a consumer cooperative called “Einigkeit”, in which needs were sold at low prices, in an effort to combat inflation. In 1918 the Bund founded its associated youth movement, “Zukunft” (The Future), a children's club, and a women's club. The Bund was often successful in municipal elections and those for the Community Council during the 1930s. In 1934 it had eight representatives in the Municipal Council, and four in 1939, the last election before the Shoah. In the 1936 election for the Community Council, four Bund candidates were elected. In 1939, when Lomza passed under Soviet control, Bund activity was prohibited, and its local leaders were arrested and sent into exile, from which they never returned.
There were also many Jews in the ranks of Communist party in Lomza. The beginnings of the party in the City were in 1918 - 1919, especially among the workers and the intelligentia. With the Bolshevik conquest in 1920, many of its members participated in the REVCOM that was established in the City. When the Red Army withdrew from Lomza, not a few Party members went with them, and with Polish independence the party went underground. Many of the youth were arrested, especially between 1926 and 1929, as suspected Communists. In January 1927 there was a trial of fifty-two persons accused of Communism, fifty of them Jews; eleven were sentenced to prison terms. In spite of the political trials and arrests, the Communist movement continued in Lomza, and many Jews remained members.
The poet Yerachmiel Steigman was born and educated in Lomza, and produced his opus there, as did the brothers Mark. Aharon Mark was a poet, linguist, and translator; Berl Mark, his brother, was a journalist, author and historian, and after the Shoah headed the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. The home of the editor and author Szmuel Zaromow became a shelter for these authors and poets, and he acted as their literary agent and guide.
A theatrical troupe was formed in Lomza in 1905, and it performed both in the local theater and in the Zamir drama and music club. Esther-Rachel Kaminski, “mother of the Yiddish stage”, sponsored the troupe, and appeared with it often from 1918 to 1926. Her husband, the actor and theatrical manager Avraham Kaminski, died in Lomza and is buried there.
There were several Jewish sports clubs in Lomza, the largest of which was Maccabi [which still exists today in Israel, as do the Betar and haPoel sport clubs — SG], founded in 1916 by haTechiya, with an early membership of over one hundred. In 1923 Maccabi formed football and basketball teams. Maccabi functioned in Lomza until the Shoah. In 1931 disagreements surfaced among the women members of Maccabi, and a breakaway group formed another club called “Eva”. The Bund also had a sports club, as did haPo'el.
The condition of the Jewish artisans was equally poor during this time, and their attempts at organization in the Bund and Po'alei Tzion were of little help. The craft guilds of the Catholic artisans had succeeded in making it difficult or impossible for the Jewish artisans to compete. In 1934 the 1927 law regulating artisans was amended. In order to obtain government registration, it was necessary to obtain a certificate from recognized artisans approved by a government Bureau of Artisans. This requirement was coupled with the refusal of the Catholic guilds to accept Jewish lads as apprentices, so that they were unable to satisfy the requirements of the law. At this time there were about 250 Jewish artisan workshops, and only about a hundred of Catholic artisans. In early 1938, Jewish artisans were able to establish a Lomza branch of the ORT (“Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training") [which operates a network of vocational high schools in Israel to this day. — SG], which set up a program of vocational training courses in various trades. But these plans did not have time to come to fruition, because of the outbreak of the Second World War and the Shoah.
In 1936, sanitation inspectors determined that every Jewish bakery in Lomza failed to satisfy the City's hygienic requirements, and forbid them from baking bread. Ten of these bakeries then formed a cooperative, and built a large and modern bakery, with electrical equipment. This bakery was adequate to supply all the needs of the Community, so that the other seven Jewish bakeries became superfluous, and had to close. In the same year, the same also happened to the Jewish butchershops, in the wake of the law prohibiting kosher slaughter. In 1939 the franchise of purchasing skins from animals slaughtered in the abbatoirs of the City was taken from Jewish hands that had always held it, and given instead to Christians, depriving Jewish tanners and leatherworkers of livelihood. Similar steps were taken also against Jewish cinema houses. The union of Jewish office workers, which had several dozen members in 1930, essentially ceased to exist by 1938.
In Lomza, as in the rest of Poland, the boycott of Jewish commerce became more effective in the latter half of the 1930s. In 1936 Polish youngsters, incited by the local clergy in the churches, stood at the entrance to Jewish shops to prevent Christian customers from entering. Bands of Polish hooligans frequently assaulted Jewish merchants in the market or on fair days, and damaged or stole their merchandise. In 1932 Jews organized self-defense teams from among the members of the Maccabi and Stern sport clubs. These would post themselves, armed with billy-clubs, brass knuckles and iron bars, at strategic points in the street and at places where the ruffians would congregate. They guarded especially the Synagogue and the entrances of the larger shops on the main streets. The self-defense teams did not always succeed in preventing the attacks on Jews. Sometimes the police would actually interfere to restore public order.
Especially serious riots erupted on 6 and 20 August and 8 September 1937. In the latter case, things got to the point that pupils of the Polish elementary school attacked pupils of the Jewish elementary school with knives, and several of the latter were seriously injured. On 23 March 1938 hooligans broke into the New Jewish Cemetery, shattered dozens of headstones, and damaged dozens more. The police opened an investigation, but “did not arrive at results”. On 25 October 1938 hooligans broke into one of the Jewish social clubs and, finding there only a few persons studying Torah, began to break windows of the nearby Jewish houses; over a thousand windows were broken.
In early 1938, eight families native to Lomza, who had been living in Prussia for decades, were expelled back to Poland. At the initiative of members of WIZO and the “Yiddisher Gesellshaftlicher Klub” formed a non-partisan committee to extend aid to these displaced persons, to locate living arrangements for them, and to find them places of employment.
All these events were harbingers of the evil things to come. Even the patriotic manifestations for the Polish homeland, especially in 1938 - 39 made no difference. Lomza Jews had participated in all the campaigns for contributions to the support of the Polish Army, but the attitudes of others toward them were not ameliorated, and the discriminatory decrees of the end of the decade were not averted.
The German Army remained in Lomza only eighteen days, but during this short time found many ways to mistreat the Jews of the City, especially in their places of prayer. Germans would enter during times of prayer, beat the congregants, and desecrate Torah scrolls. There were instances of firing upon civilians. On 28 September the Red Army entered Lomza, and found and City half demolished, in which commerce and industry no longer existed. The Soviets began to fortify the vicinity, and one of the fortified points was the railway station at Tshervonny Bor. All the homes of the wealthy of Lomza and vicinity were taken, and their residents evicted; their real property and personal possessions were also confiscated. Speculators and price inflaters were arrested, imprisoned, and then exiled. The Soviets did supply employment to the City, in industry, construction, warehousing, and clerical functions. In many respects, life in Lomza returned to a more or less normal routine. But the Soviet authorities made many arrests in the City, claiming that the detainees were guilty of political activity or of belonging to the wealthy class. Jews also suffered from the wave of arrests. At first three were arrested on an accusation of “Trotskyism”, then a number of Zionist activists were detained, and Revisionists, and Bund members. Many Jews were pressed into service with the Red Army and posted to the Russian interior. During the Russian occupation, the Lomza Yeshiva had been transferred to Vilnius, and afterward to a village near Telz. But the movements did not save the students oYeshiva from liquidation during the Nazi occupation in 1941, and virtually all of them perished then.
On the first day of the war between Germany and the USSR, 22 June 1941, Lomza was again bombed by German aircraft. Only a few of the populace succeeded in escaping along with the Soviet withdrawal. The first weeks after the Wehrmacht entered the City on 24 June past fairly quietly, but on 4 July a proclamation was issued, ordering all Jews to wear the Yellow Patch on the front and back of their outer garments. Immediately after this the Germans began to abduct and mistreat Jews. They commandeered the more spacious homes, especially those of Jews, for their offices and to billet officers. The home of the Donowicz family was taken, on the pretext that it had hidden a Russian spy. During July, trucks began to arrive at places of employment, to be loaded by the Germans with fifty persons each, supposedly to be taken for a labor detail, but no person so taken ever returned. All these Jews were shot or buried alive in the Galczyn forest. Peasants in the nearby village recounted that each morning they heard the rattle of machine guns. In this manner, some two thousand of the Jews of Lomza were murdered.
In the City itself, the Germans harrassed Jews in the street, cut beards and sidelocks, and enjoyed the humiliation of Jewish passers-by. There were also arrests according to prepared lists of names, especially of the intelligentia and those accused of Communism. Activists from the period of Soviet occupation received “special treatment”, and in this the Germans were aided by Polish informers.
In mid July 1941the Germans ordered the Jews to establish a Jewish Council, the “Judenrat”. Some of the members of this council had long been political functionaries; its chairman was Mendel Mushinski, and his deputy Mendel Kolinski. The counselor was Dr. Szymon Goldlust, and among the members were the physician Dr. Hefner, engineer Moshe Rosental, Tabulicki, Yankel Talczinski, and others. A Jewish police was raised; Krystal was appointed its Superintendent and Solomon Herbert, who had come to Lomza as a refugee from Germany, its Chief of Police.
On 12 August 1941 all Jews were ordered to move into the Ghetto. The Ghetto was defined as the area of the Old Market (Stary Rynek) and its surrounding streets: all of ul. Senatorska to the Green Market, the Rybaki neighborhood from the side of ul. Zeliona, and the alley opposite the Convent. Because all the moving had to be executed within a single day, there was a crowded crush of people trying to get through the main entry to this area on ul. Senatorska, and the German policemen, in their efforts “to maintain order”, rained blows with their billy-clubs on the heads of the people trying to obey the order. Just before the move to the Ghetto, the Germans levied on the Jewish population a tax of twenty-five kilograms of gold [worth about $23000 at the price of gold then current, in 1941 dollars — SG]. In the event of failure to raise this sum, the Germans threatened to open fire on the entire Jewish Quarter. Estimates of the number of persons who were compressed into the tiny Ghetto range from 10,000 to 18,000; these came from the villages of Jedwabne, Stawiski, Piatnica, Lomzica, Wizna, Rotki, and others in the vicinity. The Ghetto became more and more crowded, and often six families were living together in a single room.
On 16 August all the inmates of the Ghetto were summoned to the Green Market, near the Old Jewish Cemetery, to be tallied and classified. They were ordered to line up, men on one side, women on the other, in ranks. The Chairman of the Judenrat was handed a list of those who were to step forward, about two hundred names; one story has it that these were “accused” of Communism. All these were taken to the Galczyn forest and shot. After these names were called and the men carried away, work cards were distributed – only to those who could prove that they had a place of employment.
A few weeks after this rollcall, the remaining Jews of Piatnica and Lomzica were brought to the Ghetto. Because of the crowded conditions, which had just become even worse, the Chairman of the Judenrat requested of the Germans permission to expand the the Ghetto. The Germans acceded to this request, on condition that the Community pay an additional half million Marks. A rumor that the limits were to be widened swept the Ghetto, but on 17 September, before the expansion could take place, the residents were again ordered to assemble in the Green Market at five o'clock in the morning, and to stand in ranks of six. On this occasion, the Germans cut out all those who did not have a stamped work card. More than two thousand men and women, more than a fifth of the population of the Ghetto, were carried off to the Galczyn forest. Thus did the Germans “solve” the problem of crowding in the Ghetto. The final victims of this major “Aktie” were the Jews of Galczyn itself, who numbered about thirty, including children and the elderly. These were brought to the German police station in Lomza, and held in the basement of the building, which originally belonged to the Brzezinski Brickyard. Together with the Jews, two Poles were also confined, and these succeeded in breaking through the bars on the window and escaping, followed by the Jews. But having nowhere to run, the latter stole into the Ghetto. On the morrow, the police demanded that forty Jews be handed over to them, plus two members of the Judenrat chosen by that body. At first, the Judenrat refused to chose members to sacrifice, so the Gestapo itself chose Tabulinski and Jankel Galczinski. Afterward, the Germans began to raid homes, to fill the quota they had set. The Judenrat gave in, and collected a group of forty elderly, disabled, and insane persons, which were brought to the Gestapo offices, and these were taken to the Galczyn forest and shot to death.
After the Aktie of 17 September, the Ghetto was surrounded by barbed-wire. Entry and exit were strictly forbidden, except with a special permit from the Gestapo. A gate was constructed on ul. Senatorska, with the inscription written over it in large letters in German and Polish: “DANGER, DISEASE”. Jewish policemen stood guard just inside the gate, and Polish and German sentries just outside it. Those who worked outside the Ghetto left through the gate at five o'clock in the morning, and returned through it in the evening.
Agencies of support and of mutual help were organized in the Ghetto. A kitchen was set up which distributed about a thousand meals a day to those too poor to supply meals for themselves. Especially active in the kitchen were Paula Brzezinska and Zina Kokoshka, but there were many other volunteers too. There were also an orphanage, a home for the elderly, and a hospital in the Ghetto. All these institutions struggled to maintain their existence, and suffered from lack of means to do so. The teachers were very active, volunteering to hold classes in secret, after the Germans forbid establishment of Jewish schools.
The rations supplied to the Ghetto against ration cards were inadequate, and even the frequent smuggling of food from outside did not solve the problem. The conditions of malnutrition and poor sanitation caused disease, and epidemics such as dysentery and the typhus which broke out virulently in the winter of 1941. Those affected died within days, despite the efforts of Dr. Hefner and Dr. Menkes to save them.
The Germans demanded that factories useful for the German war effort be set up in the Ghetto, and the Jews were required to find a place, equipment, and in most cases raw materials for these with their own devices. Thus factories for ammunition, soap, leather, boots, and grease were set up. For those who worked outside the Ghetto, the work at Rotki and Ostroleka was especially difficult. In these two places the work was quarrying and road paving, and about three hundred persons worked in each place. At the end of the working day, they returned sick or injured, and with permanent damage to health.
Besides the factories, there were also workshops that were set up on the initiative of the Judenrat, managed by the artisans among the Ghetto inmates. These manufactured products for the Germans in Lomza, such as shoes, garments, furs, etc. – certainly lighter work than quarrying and paving in Rotki and Ostroleka.
Together with the threat of Akties, the hunger, and the hard labor, the Jews in the Ghetto suffered continually from physical mistreatment by the Germans. Every detected smuggling or minor infraction brought severe punishment. But there are testimonies of resistance in the Lomza Ghetto. In one such case, a group of Jews was imprisoned for listening secretly to radio news broadcasts from abroad. Another tells of the Jew Gagowicz, a worker in the ammunition factory, who destroyed raw materials with fire. In mid-1942, Lomza Jews that had escaped being locked up in the Ghetto joined the partisan units that functioned in the frameword of the “Gwardia Ludowa” (Popular Guard), a military organization of the Polish (mainly Communist) left.
The last remaining residents of the Lomza Ghetto remained in the Zambrow barracks until 14 to 18 January 1943, when they were shipped from there to Auschwitz for extermination. The great majority of the members of the Lomza Jewish Community perished in the Shoah. After the war, Jewish Lomza was gone, and did not arise again.