Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund

Bernard Goldstein, Marvin S. Zuckerman

Description

Bernard Goldstein’s memoir describes a hard world of taverns, toughs, thieves, and prostitutes; of slaughterhouse workers, handcart porters, and wagon drivers; and of fist-and gunfights with everyone from anti-Semites and Communists to hostile police, which is to say that it depicts a totally different view of life in prewar Poland than the one usually portrayed. As such, the book offers a corrective view in the form of social history, one that commands attention and demands respect for the vitality and activism of the generation of Polish Jews so brutally annihilated by the barbarism of the Nazis. In Warsaw, a city with over 300,000 Jews (one third of the population), Bernstein was the Jewish Labor Bund’s “enforcer,” organizer, and head of their militia—the one who carried out daily, on-the-street organization of unions; the fighting off of Communists, Polish anti-Semitic hooligans, and antagonistic police; marshaling and protecting demonstrations; and even settling family disputes, some of them arising from the new secular, socialist culture being fostered by the Bund. Goldstein’s is a portrait of tough Jews willing to do battle—worldly, modern individuals dedicated to their folk culture and the survival of their people. It delivers an unparalleled street-level view of vibrant Jewish life in Poland between the wars: of Jewish masses entering modern life, of Jewish workers fighting for their rights, of optimism, of greater assertiveness and self-confidence, of armed combat, and even of scenes depicting the seamy, semi-criminal elements. It provides a representation of life in Poland before the great catastrophe of World War II, a life of flowering literary activity, secular political journalism, successful political struggle, immersion in modern politics, fights for worker rights and benefits, a strong social-democratic labor movement, creation of a secular school system in Yiddish, and a youth movement that later provided the heroic fighters for the courageous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Foreword

Translator’s Preface

Acknowledgments

Bernard Goldstein: A Chronology

Translator’s Note

Original Introduction by Dr. Emanuel Sherer, General Secretary of the Jewish Labor Bund

1. I Go Home

2. Back in Warsaw

3. Praga

4. The Seven Lions

5. The First of May Demonstration in Praga, 1920

6. Pogrom at the Praga Bund Club

7. Janek Jankelewicz

8. The Cracow Convention

9. A Hail of Persecutions

10. Illegal Work—Once Again

11. The Danzig Convention

12. Coming to the Defense of the Movement

13. Organizing the Bund Militia

14. The Communists and the Underworld

15. The 1922 Election Campaign

16. Unifying the Trade Union Movement

17. The Slaughterers Union

18. Three Slaughterer Dynasties

19. The Transport Workers Union: Back Porters

20. Back Porter Types

21. Rope and Handcart Porters

22. The Food Workers Union

23. The Bakers Union

24. Bagel Bakers and Peddlers

25. A Day in a Slaughter House

26. Jewish and Polish Meat Workers

27. At Parties and Celebrations

28. Resistance: The First of May Demonstration, 1923

29. Struggles over the Saturday Edition of the Folkstsaytung

30. Commissar Cechnowski

31. Kalmen the Bootmaker’s Death

32. The Piłsudski Coup, the PPS, and the FRACs

33. The FRAC Militia

34. A New Gang of Communist Strong-Arms

35. Communists Shoot at a Workers Convention

36. Morgnshtern

37. The Labor Sports Olympiad in Prague

38. Ominous Dark Clouds on All Sides

39. Concerns about Self-Defense

40. A Wave of Wildcat Strikes

41. An Attempted Murderous Assault on Me

42. In Zakopane

43. Attacks on a Night School

44. The Medem Sanitarium Attacked

45. Another Attempt on My Life

46. Krochmalna Street

47. Fat Yosl

48. Khaskele

49. “Malematke”

50. Yukele

51. Troubles with Cultural Awakening

52. The Militia Comes to the Aid of Bundist Members on the Warsaw City Council

53. First of May Demonstrations Under the Piłsudski Regime

54. A Joint First of May Demonstration with the PPS

55. In Red Vienna

56. Street Fights with the Polish Hitlerites

57. Battles over the Boycotting of Jewish Businesses

58. The “Ghetto Benches” in the Universities

59. My Son at the SKIF Camp

60. The Bakers Union Turns Away from the Communists; The Murder of Neuerman

61. Nathan (Nokhem) Chanin’s Visit to Warsaw

62. Three Bloody Attacks in One Day

63. Temptations and Doubts

64. Shloyme Mendelson

65. In the Trap of the Shetshke Gang

66. The FRACs Try to Take Over the Newspaper Deliverers Union

67. The FRAC Transport Workers Union and Itshe “Zbukh”

68. Returning Stolen Goods to a Leather Merchant

69. Among the Retail Clerks; Another Worker Murdered

70. Auctioning off the Folkstsaytung

71. A Defeat for the Priest, Father Trzeciak

72. Przytyk and the Protest-Strike on March 17, 1936

73. The Pogrom in Minsk-Mazowiecki

74. Antisemitic Hooligans Kill a Jewish Child during a First of May Demonstration

75. Oenerowcy Leaders Are Taught a Lesson

76. Guarding the Folkstsaytung

77. The Pogrom in Brisk

78. The Bund’s Warsaw Locales

79. A Bombing of the Bund Offices—And Our Answer to the Oenerowcy

80. An Oenerowcy Attempt to Murder Comrade Henryk Erlich

81. December 18, 1938

82. A Final Look at Our Youth

Glossary of Terms, Names, and Acronyms

References

Index

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Jewish

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612494470
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund
A Memoir of Interwar Poland
Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies
Zev Garber, Editor
Los Angeles Valley College

Bernard Goldstein (1889–1959). From the Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York.
Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund
A Memoir of Interwar Poland
Bernard Goldstein
Translated by Marvin S. Zuckerman
Preface by Victor Gilinsky
Introduction by Emanuel Sherer, General Secretary, Jewish Labor Bund
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
© Copyright 2016 by Marvin Zuckerman. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Originally published in Yiddish by Unser Tsait, New York, 1960.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Goldstein, Bernard, 1889- author.
Title: Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland/by Bernard Goldstein; translated by Marvin S. Zuckerman; preface by Victor Gilinsky; introduction by Emanuel Sherer, PhD, General Secretary, Jewish Labor Bund.
Other titles: Tsvantsig yor in Varshever “Bund.” English.
Description: West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, [2016] | © 2016 | Series: Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015048692| ISBN 9781557537492 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781612494470 (epub) | ISBN 9781612494463 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Ogólny Ż ydowski Zwi ą zek Robotniczy “Bund” w Polsce. | Jews—Poland—Warsaw.
Classification: LCC HD8537.O42 G6513 2016 | DDC 305.892/4043841—dc22
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015048692
Cover image: Poster stating, “There where we live, there is our country! A democratic republic! Full political and national rights for Jews! Ensure that the voice of the Jewish working class is heard at the constituent assembly!” Kiev, ca. 1918. The poster further urges Jews to vote for the Bund candidates, Slate 9, in an election following the Russian Revolution, when non-Bolshevik parties were still being tolerated by the Communist regime. From the Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York.
This volume is gratefully dedicated to Leo Melamed in appreciation of his generous contribution to this project and to his beloved parents Faygl and Itzchok Melamdovitch ardent Bialystok Bundists, both .
I have always regarded memoirs as source material. A memoir provides a record not so much of the memoirist as of the memoirist’s world.
—Arthur Golden

Figure 2. The flag reads “BUND.” Artist unknown. From the translator’s private collection.
Contents
Foreword
Translator’s Preface
Acknowledgments
Bernard Goldstein: A Chronology
Translator’s Note
Original Introduction by Dr. Emanuel Sherer, General Secretary of the Jewish Labor Bund
1. I Go Home
2. Back in Warsaw
3. Praga
4. The Seven Lions
5. The First of May Demonstration in Praga, 1920
6. Pogrom at the Praga Bund Club
7. Janek Jankelewicz
8. The Cracow Convention
9. A Hail of Persecutions
10. Illegal Work—Once Again
11. The Danzig Convention
12. Coming to the Defense of the Movement
13. Organizing the Bund Militia
14. The Communists and the Underworld
15. The 1922 Election Campaign
16. Unifying the Trade Union Movement
17. The Slaughterers Union
18. Three Slaughterer Dynasties
19. The Transport Workers Union: Back Porters
20. Back Porter Types
21. Rope and Handcart Porters
22. The Food Workers Union
23. The Bakers Union
24. Bagel Bakers and Peddlers
25. A Day in a Slaughter House
26. Jewish and Polish Meat Workers
27. At Parties and Celebrations
28. Resistance: The First of May Demonstration, 1923
29. Struggles over the Saturday Edition of the Folkstsaytung
30. Commissar Cechnowski
31. Kalmen the Bootmaker’s Death
32. The Piłsudski Coup, the PPS, and the FRACs
33. The FRAC Militia
34. A New Gang of Communist Strong-Arms
35. Communists Shoot at a Workers Convention
36. Morgnshtern
37. The Labor Sports Olympiad in Prague
38. Ominous Dark Clouds on All Sides
39. Concerns about Self-Defense
40. A Wave of Wildcat Strikes
41. An Attempted Murderous Assault on Me
42. In Zakopane
43. Attacks on a Night School
44. The Medem Sanitarium Attacked
45. Another Attempt on My Life
46. Krochmalna Street
47. Fat Yosl
48. Khaskele
49. “Malematke”
50. Yukele
51. Troubles with Cultural Awakening
52. The Militia Comes to the Aid of Bundist Members on the Warsaw City Council
53. First of May Demonstrations Under the Piłsudski Regime
54. A Joint First of May Demonstration with the PPS
55. In Red Vienna
56. Street Fights with the Polish Hitlerites
57. Battles over the Boycotting of Jewish Businesses
58. The “Ghetto Benches” in the Universities
59. My Son at the SKIF Camp
60. The Bakers Union Turns Away from the Communists; The Murder of Neuerman
61. Nathan (Nokhem) Chanin’s Visit to Warsaw
62. Three Bloody Attacks in One Day
63. Temptations and Doubts
64. Shloyme Mendelson
65. In the Trap of the Shetshke Gang
66. The FRACs Try to Take Over the Newspaper Deliverers Union
67. The FRAC Transport Workers Union and Itshe “Zbukh”
68. Returning Stolen Goods to a Leather Merchant
69. Among the Retail Clerks; Another Worker Murdered
70. Auctioning off the Folkstsaytung
71. A Defeat for the Priest, Father Trzeciak
72. Przytyk and the Protest-Strike on March 17, 1936
73. The Pogrom in Minsk-Mazowiecki
74. Antisemitic Hooligans Kill a Jewish Child during a First of May Demonstration
75. Oenerowcy Leaders Are Taught a Lesson
76. Guarding the Folkstsaytung
77. The Pogrom in Brisk
78. The Bund’s Warsaw Locales
79. A Bombing of the Bund Offices—And Our Answer to the Oenerowcy
80. An Oenerowcy Attempt to Murder Comrade Henryk Erlich
81. December 18, 1938
82. A Final Look at Our Youth
Glossary of Terms, Names, and Acronyms
References
Index
Foreword
Some memoirs transcend their detailed recollections of an individual’s experience to illuminate a time past in a way that historical accounts cannot do. That is what Bernard Goldstein’s memoir does for the Jewish world in Poland between the world wars.
The Jewish community in Poland was at the time the largest single concentration of Jews in the world, the heartland of the East European Yiddish-speaking cultural world. It was also the capital of the Jewish Socialist labor movement, the most popular Jewish movement—more so than Zionism—on the eve of World War II. It produced remarkably energetic and creative people, some of whom came to the United States and played key roles in the American labor movement and in the Democratic Party.
All this was of course utterly destroyed by Hitler’s Germany. In the end, Zionism prevailed, led by early emigrants from the Jewish community in Poland. But in their struggle to create a new nation in Palestine their public narrative emphasized the bravery of Israel’s defenders in contrast with the defenseless Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The reality of the vibrant, rough and tumble pre-World War II Jewish world in Poland has been submerged by the subsequent Holocaust literature and the subsequent focus on Israel.
The picture Bernard Goldstein paints of Jewish life in Poland before World War II is a very different one from the widely held caricature of timorous Jews. It was a time of struggle but also of optimism, greater assertiveness, and self-confidence. It is important to bring that earlier period back to life to balance the historical account. Jewish readers with roots in Eastern Europe will find much here to be proud of.
Between the wars, Goldstein was head of the Militia of the Bund, as the Jewish Social-Democratic Labor Party was called. He provides an unparalleled street-level view of the political struggles for the Jewish masses in Poland, then emerging into the secular modern world, and the fights to organize the Jewish workers. Goldstein and his tough operatives got involved with a broad cross-section of the Jewish and Polish societies, including their seamy sides, all of which he writes about with a keen eye. His sketches of the Jewish underworld in Warsaw recall Isaac Babel’s descriptions of the Jewish criminal world in Odessa.
“Comrade” Bernard, as he was known, organized street demonstrations and protests. Against great odds he gained union rights for Jewish workers such as the slaughterers, bakers, and teamsters, and battled for higher pay and better working conditions. He knew the workers well, as he was the one they went to with their complaints and even their personal problems. Throughout, and in line with his party’s directives, he maintained and taught a high ethical standard of behavior.
Goldstein’s book consists of a series of short anecdotal chapters based on what he personally witnessed and played a part in—fighting off an armed attack by the Jewish Communists; defending a street demonstration; attending a gangster wedding; repulsing Polish hooligans attacking Jews in Warsaw’s park; protecting a pr