Frysztak

They kidnapped several others, shot them on the way to Sztrzyżów and buried them at a nearby Catholic graveyard. In spring 1940, they murdered nine Jews on the Jewish cemetery and in winter 1941 and 1942 four others, just like that, on the street. In 1941, a forced labor camp was established near Frysztak, at first only for Jews from Warsaw. By then, the Jewish police had already existed, as well as the Judenrat, ran by Samuel Baldinger.

The ghetto was established in 1942 and liquidated the same year, on July 3. Locked inside were Jews from Warsaw, Frysztak and neighboring villages: 1,600 people altogether. 850 of them, mainly women, children and the elderly, were taken to the woods near Warzyce and murdered. 250 people were shot in Krajowice, in a forest near Jasło. Those who had not been executed were sent to the Jasło ghetto. Most of them eventually died in Bełżec death camp. The 35 Jews who were clearing out the deserted city, were later sent to the Przemyśl ghetto.

Many hid in the woods. 60 were murdered in the autumn of 1942 by the Blue Police and the gestapo. In January 1943, the Germans shot another 35 people. In the same month, in Kobyle near Frysztak they murdered 40 Jews who were hiding there, and in March – three Jews hidden by Maria Bieszczad in Stępina, 10 km away from Frysztak. In July – four children at a cemetery. In August, in the woods near Warzyce – another group from Frysztak and Jasło. No more than twenty Frysztak Jews survived the war.

Students who participated in School of Dialogue workshops organized a walking tour following the footsteps of local Jewish families. Their intention was to show the everyday life of pre-war Frysztak and to feel the atmosphere of a multicultural town, dominated by the rhythm of holidays and traditions of both cultures: Hanukkah and Christmas, Pesach and Easter, New Year’s Eve and Rosh Hashanah.

During the tour students quoted memories of the oldest local inhabitants connected with their childhood and times of war, about their friends and the hunger; what Frysztak had once looked like, what the Jews looked like, what were the relations between them and others: friendly or hostile, and if the latter, what was the reason. Who pulled whose hair, who hid whose shoe in the closet. The girls learned some music, took their instruments and provided entertainment during the long, cold stops: sometimes it was a wedding melody played on the violin, sometimes a tune for a flute ensemble.

Everybody gathered on St. Florian’s Square at 2:30 pm. Students spoke briefly about the town’s history, they mentioned that Frysztak used to be situated not on the hill, but at its foot, they quoted legends connected with the town’s name and explained its etymology – that it might derive either from “Freistag” or from “Frühstück”. On the market square, they mentioned that its shape used to be rectangular, therefore different than now. In the place of an empty building there used to be a Jewish factory; after the war there was a soup kitchen, bakery and a maternity ward. Here the teenagers said what childbirth means for Jews – for them, life begins at the moment of birth and the child is pure and free from sin, while the woman is considered unclean (“niddah”) after childbirth. The “niddah” period after the birth of a son lasts 7 days and 14 days after the birth of a daughter. Once the child is born, its father goes to the synagogue to recite a blessing for the health of the mother and the child.

Later, they stopped by the former school (the so-called “new school”), which functioned for a short period of time after 1929. It had 7 classrooms, an administrative office, school principal’s apartment and a workshop. Here the students quoted the words of Mrs. Tymczak, who reminisced about Jews and Jewish children, especially Basia Rybak, the best student in her class, who was killed during the war. Next, the group headed to the former pharmacy, built in 1870 and remodeled in 1900. it was there that people used to buy everything that the Frysztak doctor prescribed: medicines, syrups, tinctures and bandages. In the place of the health care center there used to be an empty square which belonged to the Strzelec club – Frysztak’s sports organization.

The square was also the place of various local and national ceremonies or games, such as jumping in sacks or races with potato in hand. The students described the Frysztak Vespers (June 16, 1898) – what exactly happened on that day and what triggered these events. That rods, bats and stones were used. That windows were broken and shops were robbed.

On the weekly open-air market one could buy everything from soap to farm animals. In 1934, 29 Jewish shops were registered in Frysztak. They ran along the street, side by side: shops downstairs, apartments upstairs. Leather goods, shoes, coats, scarves, buttons. Two out of four bakeries were Jewish. There were flour mills and lumber mills. A building ceramics factory opened in Glinik Dolny during the interwar period. Yet another factory was situated near Mrs. Krokowa’s florist shop. There were also two craftsmen’s guilds. Tailors, cobblers, tinsmiths, butchers, potters and blacksmiths were members of the first one, and weavers belonged to the second one. Catholics and Jews alike.
Most of the preserved Jewish houses are located on Gołębiowska Street. Now they have been remodeled and covered with plaster, so at first glance it is impossible to tell, one has to know.

It should also be mentioned that the old wooden synagogue, which burned down in 1890, was located where the Lotto kiosk now stands. It is said that Jews used to meet in the synagogue several times a day: to play cards, drink tea in winter, to pray, talk and read the Torah. The Torah that belonged to the rabbi of Frysztak, Chude Halbersztam, was taken to the United States before the war. While at the Jewish cemetery, the students talked about funeral traditions and the meaning of symbols on the matzevot: hands, broken candles or animals. They explained that every man who enters the graveyard has to wear a hat and that one simply cannot take a shortcut through the cemetery. Also, that after leaving a cemetery it is necessary to wash one’s hands – which everyone did.

The group went back to school along Gołębiowska Street.

School of Dialogue program in Frysztak was made possible by the support from HARVEY KRUGER.

Project was co-financed from the funds granted by the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund.

In appreciation to Friends of the Forum for supporting the School of Dialogue educational program.