Wizna is one of the
oldest villages in Mazovia. The village is situated near the bank of the river
Biebrza toward the Narew, 25 miles east
of Lomza. It is first mentioned in sources in 1113. In 1170 a castle of the
local ruler was here. In the 13th century the settlement suffered from the
invasion of the Prussian tribes (Sudowim-Yiczwim) [Jadzwing?] and the Lithuanians. In
1294 the town was burned to the ground at the hands of crusading knights. In
1296 Boleslaw, Prince of Mazovia built the town anew and erected a fortress - an
act that elevated the importance of the place. In the middle of the 14th century the village was added to the Principality of Plutzk. In 1435
Wizna received the status (or charter) of "city." With the annexation of Mazovia
to the Kingdom of Poland in 1526, Wizna still continued to serve as a center of
some importance, and the members of the Polish Royal family settled there. Wizna
also served as an important center of communication and commerce, especially due
to the fact that at the same time there was an increase in the trafficking of
goods on rivers. Her path was crossed by tree laden barges and products from
Russia to Mazovia and from Mazovia to Lithuania. Following the Third Partition
of Poland (1795) Wizna's greatness declined. In 1870 she even lost the status of
"city."
|
Year |
Total Population |
Number of Jews |
% |
1765 |
? |
75 |
---- |
1857 |
1,861 |
492 |
26% |
1808 |
1,241 |
205 |
17% |
1827 |
1,766 |
390 |
22% |
1857 |
1,861 |
492 |
26% |
1890 |
2,984 |
567 |
19% |
1921 |
2,670 |
714 |
27% |
|
|
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There is no information
in our hands as to the beginnings of the Jewish settlement of Wizna. In 1765
there were 16 families there. The Jews were occupied with trades and petty
commerce. One of the more developed trades was the manufacture of textiles from
raw wool. In 1892 Wizna had 23 Jews working in this trade out of 32
overall employed thus: 11 tailors, 9 shoemakers, 2 blacksmiths, and 1
carpenter.
The Jewish Community
was small and because of that in the years between the two World Wars there was
no Jewish High School. Mosaic [Jewish] children studied in the Polish High
School. Those more well-off studied in the Jewish Schools that were in the neighboring town of Jedwabne or in Lomza. Only
in 1928 did the Zionist activists in the community decide to found a Jewish
school there, containing four grades where the language of instruction would be
Hebrew, and they turned to and requested permission for this from the local
education minister. Relying on a verbal agreement with the minister, a hall was
rented, furniture was bought, and the necessary equipment was acquired, and even
an agreement was reached with three teachers that they would come to teach in
the school. However, right before the beginning of the school year, the minister
informed them that official permission would not be granted to open the high
school.
In the town there were
several branches of the Zionist parties that were active, and in the elections
for the community council, that was established in June of 1931, 5 Zionists,
and 3 tradesmen were elected. In the elections for the 20th
Zionist Congress, that took place in 1937, the General Zionists in Wizna won
25 votes, the Mizrachi Party 32 votes and the Official Land of
Israel Workers Party won 77 votes.
In Wizna there was a
Jewish Cooperative Bank. In 1926 there were more than 100 members, and
the bank gave out more than 50 loans in the sums ranging from 100 to
200 zlotys. During this time the bank joined the Central Administration
of Jewish Cooperative Banks in Warsaw.
In the late 1930's the
Jews of Wizna suffered from the rise of open anti-Semitism. Because of a law
that forbid craftsmen that didn't possess a certificate of "registered
craftsmen" to employ workers, many Jewish workshops were closed. Due to the
incitement of the anti-Semites, a boycott was placed on the Jewish shops. There
were also incidents of attacks by Polish gangs and the destruction of Jewish
property.
During World War Two
Already at the
beginning of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, Wizna was bombed and
most of the Jewish Quarter was burned and destroyed. Only a few Jewish houses
remained intact. Most of the residents left the town in shock and hid themselves
in the surrounding fields and swamps.
On the 24th of
June, 1941 the Germans entered Wizna and most of the inhabitants returned to the
town. The Jews packed themselves into the few houses that had survived the
bombings. Immediately the local Polish gangs started to harass them. Three Jews
were attacked and died of their wounds. Jewish houses and shops were looted.
Simultaneously a proclamation was made forbidding Poles to give shelter to Jews.
At the end of June,
15 Jews were murdered in Wizna and at the beginning of July a second group
was murdered, also of some 15 individuals. The first group was shot outside
the city and the second group in the middle of town. In both cases the victims
were ordered to dig their own graves before being taken out to be killed.
Afterwards the Germans permitted some of the corpses to be transferred for
burial in the town's Jewish Cemetery.
In July 1941 the
Germans announced together, in collaboration with the local Wojt (head of the
village), that all the Jews were to leave Wizna and work in the adjacent towns
of Lomza and Jedwabne. Most of the Jews of Wizna moved to the close, neighboring
town of Jedwabne, were rounded up
into a barn and met their end inside it after it was burned. About 200 of the
2,000 Jews that died in the granary were from Wizna. The
Wizna Jews that went to Lomza were transferred to the ghetto and their fate was
the same as the fate of the Jews there.
Sources:
AYW"S 016/1992, 016/4391.
AT"M S-5/1801.
Sefer Zicharon Kehilat Lomza, Tel Aviv 1967, pp 73, 86.
"Heint" [Today - Warsaw Yiddish Newspaper]
14.11.1926, 8.6.1928, 9.11.1934 .
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