Jews in Silesia

PREFACE

 

 

This volume is the outcome of a three-day conference entitled The History and Culture of Jews in Silesia', which was held in May 2000 at the University of Wrocław. The organisers of the conference were: the Research Centre for the Culture and Languages of Polish Jews, the University of Wroclaw in co-operation the Tesin Museum (Muzeum Tesinska) in Cesky Tesin, the Regional Ar­chives in Opava (Zemsky Archiv v Opave), and Upper Silesian Foundation in Ratingen (Stiftung Haus Oberschlesien Ratingen). This volume contains almost all the papers and contributions from the Conference (only one participant did not make his paper available for publication) and - we can assume - this is a true re­flection of the state of research on the past of the Jewish community in Silesia. Undoubtedly, the reader will notice the scarcity of works devoted to the history of the Jewish culture in Silesia, even though both the title of the conference and the --quest for papers pointed to the culture as the area of research of foremost significance to the organisers. The predominance of studies of the post-emancipation period is particularly evident. Only two of the lectures and two archival contributions were devoted to medieval and early-modern history. However, the most distinguishing feature of this volume is the lacuna of synthetic studies and of works inching upon broader subject areas of the history of the Jewish community in Silesia. It would appear that even ten years after the spectacular revival of research into the Silesian Jews, research is still confined to the stage of fundamental factographic studies, the identifying of sources, contributions and modest attempts at local research. Nevertheless, the rapid development of scholarship in certain areas (the history of the Holocaust in particular) and. in recent years, the history of the post-War period, is a very positive indication. Another positive aspect is the recognition of the significance of archival materials. The reports which deal with the of particular archives, groups or even archival units, constitute a consid­er of this work. Thus, we hope that work in previously neglected research II equally advance, and that soon it will be possible to put together a corn-e synthesis of the history of the Jews in Silesia. Recognition of this potential was one of the intentions of the conference organiser

We hope that this volume will contribute to the achieving of this goal, thanks both to the co-operation that exists between the Czech. German and Polish centres studying the history of the Silesian Jews (which was another of the organisers' intentions) and to the contribution to the expansion of our knowledge that the arti­cles contained in this volume represent.

            Finally, we would like to thank all those who assisted us with the preparations for the Conference, and later in the publication of this volume: above all Professor Jerzy Woronczak and Professor Karol Jońca, the scholarly patrons of the Confer­ence; and Sarah Cozens and Professor Leon Chameides, whose thorough scrutiny of the post-Conference volume helped us to avoid numerous oversights. We also express our gratitude to all those who are not mentioned here, but who assisted us in subsequent stages of work on the Conference and the post-Conference volume.

University of Wroclaw                                                       Marcin Wodziński and Janusz Spyra
December 31 2000

Preface
Table of contents
Abbreviations
Jerzy Woronczak
Introduction
I. MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY MODERN TIMES
Mateusz Golinski
Jewss in Medieval Legnica - Their Location in the Municipal Area
Janusz Spyra
Conversion of Jews in Cieszyn Silesia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries  

II. FROM THE EMANCIPATION TO THE HOLOCAUST
Małgorzata Śliż
The Number and Distribution of the Jewish Population in the Area of
Austrian Silesia According to the Census of December 31 1900    

Jacek Proszyk
A History of Jewish Social Welfare in Bielsko 1860-1939  

Halina Dudała
Jews in Upper-Silesian Grammar Schools in the Second Half :he Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

Marein Wodziński
'Walking in the Steel Boots of Faith...' Anti-Semitic Journalism i the Voivodship of Silesia 1922-1939  

Aleksandra Namysło
The Religious Life of Katowice Jews in the Inter-War Period

III. NAZISM - ANTI-SEMITISM - THE HOLOCAUST
Marek Maciejewski
Silesian Nazi Nationalism and Anti-Semitism 1921-1933

Karol Jonca
The Final Solution to the 'Jewish Problem' in the Silesian Provin, 1940-1945

Alfred Konieczny
The 'Schmelt Organisation' in Silesia

Mecislav Borak
The situation of the Jewish Population in the Territory of Czech Silesia during the Occupation 1938-1945

Ewa Kozerska
Pius XI and German Anti-Semitism

Małgorzata Hasiewicz
Cardinal Bertram and the German Episcopate's Attitude towards Nazi Anti-Semitism before 1933
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IV. POST-WAR SILESIA
Bozena Szaynok
Jews in Lower Silesia 1945-1950

Andrzej Nowak
The Jewish Settlement in ChojnÓw 1945-1950

Ewa Waszkiewicz
The Religious Life of Lower-Silesian Jews in 1945-1968  

Wojciech Jaworski
Jewish Religious Communities in Upper Silesia 1945-1970 

V. CULTURE AND LANDMARKS
Karel Muller
Jewish Seals in Austrian Silesia in the Eighteenth Century.....

Jerzy Woronczak
The Jewish Cemetery in Biała (Zulz)

Jan Paweł Woronczak
The Cemetery of the Jewish Community in Wielowieś

Jaroslav Klenovsky
The Jewish Landmarks of Opava Silesia.....................

Magdalena Ruta
The Quest of Identity - Kalman Segal

VI. ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
Stefi Jersch-Wenzel
Inventory of Archival Resources for the History of Jews in the Polish Archives (the Former East Prussian Provinces 1722-1945) - a Research Project

Milos Kouril
Emigres from Prudnik and the Jewish Community in Osoblaha

Lenka Matusikova
Registers of Jewish Communities in Austrian (Bohemian) Silesia 1784-1949

Pavel Sramek
Archival Resources on Jewish Associations and Corporations in the Opava Area  

Miroslaw Sadowski and Tomasz Scheffler
From the Studies of the Death Rate of Jewish People in Wrocław in the Period of Nazi Deportations 1941-1944

Miroslaw Sadowski and Tomasz Scheffler
Some Studies of Nazi Euthanasia in Wrocław in the Period of the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Problem'

Janusz Oszytko
Jewish Matters in the 1930s in the Archives of the Opole Gestapo

VII. REMINISCENCES, MISCELLANEA
Leon Chameides
Rabbi Kalman Chameides - One of the Last Spiritual Leaders
0f Katowice. A Tribute

Peer Beck
Samuel Scharf of Orlova

Ruth Atzmon-Cohn
This is the Story of those Times  

Peter Chmiel
Contemporary German Research on the History of Upper-Silesian Jews

Indexes
List of illustrations