Kazimierz Dolny - guidebook

The royal port

Picturesquely located next to the Vistula river crossing, Kazimierz Dolny became a royal city already in the 14th century. The favourable geographical location at the intersection of land and water trade routes effectively stimulated the development of the city. Cereal brought here was transported up the Vistula River to Gdańsk and then farther on to European ports. The residents of Kazimierz engaged in boatbuilding and traded in cereal, timber, wine, and salt. Granaries located near the river and richly ornamented Renaissance tenement houses gave evidence of the economic prosperity of the city.

 

The Market

As painter Wojciech Gerson recalled:

The market square is typical because it has traditional, wooden and masonry arcades, a well with a wheel of considerable size and long chain; the place always swarms with jabbering Jews, who on Saturday are joined by Jewish women that like to dress up for Sabbath and promenade around the place.

 The spatial layout of the city results from the fact that a town was chartered according to the Magdeburg law. The market, a network of streets, and churches were located on a relatively small area. The castle, tower, and Franciscan monastery were erected on the hills surrounding the centre. When Jewish settlements appeared here in the 2nd half of the 15th century, there was not too much space to establish a Jewish quarter. Jews settled eastwards from the market—around the so called Minor Market. In the vicinity, there were a synagogue, prayer house, rabbi’s house, and other commune buildings. Jews also lived at Lubelska Street—at the end of it, past the town's gate, there was a graveyard—and with the passing of time they spread around the whole city.

 

The Synagogue (Minor Market)

The first shul in Kazimierz was made of wood. In the 2nd half of the 16th century, the Jews of Kazimierz erected a masonry synagogue. It was destroyed and rebuilt after the historical turmoil of the 2nd half of the 17th century and once again towards the end of the 1st quarter of the 18th century. A large part of the present day building dates back to the 2nd half of the 18th century, except for the interior walls which were replaced towards the end of the 19th century and renovated in the interwar period. Narthexes with women’s galleries above them were added to a square prayer room on the south-east and south-west sides. A prayer room for men was covered with a domical vault which was built in the lower part of a timber roof truss and covered with polychrome. In the 19th century, next to the shul, there were small shops which belonged to the Jewish community and were rented to Jews in exchange for payments made to the municipal budget. The Jews of Kazimierz appreciated the historical value of buildings—in 1922, the shul was dated on 1220. It was destroyed towards the end of World War II. In 1953, it was rebuilt according to a project by Karol Siciński. The walls of a prayer room for men were built of limestone and—as before the war—they were not plastered from the outside. A Polish cross gable roof covered with shingles and a wooden vault but without polychrome were reconstructed. The building was used as a cinema and concert hall. In 2003, the shul was taken over by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, which turned it into an exhibition room, souvenir shop, and guest rooms. A memorial plaque commemorating the Jewish community of Kazimierz was set in the wall of the building.

 

The fall and revival

The period of prosperity of the Jewish community was put to a stop by the war turmoil in the middle of the 17th century—caused by Khmelnytsky's Cossacks, Swedes, the army of Rakoczi as well as Polish troops, fires, and bubonic plague. In 1661, there were only 7 Jewish houses in the city. It started to rebuild only after it was granted a new charter issued by king Jan III Sobieski in 1676.

We decided that unfaithful Jews [...] shall be granted freedom and allowed to [...] relish the freedom enjoyed by other burghers and residents of the city. They shall be granted the right to trade in whatever products they wish such as salt, herring—both wholesale and retail—to bake both rye and white wheat bread, to brew beer and mead, build their own breweries or rent them from burghers; Jews shall be allowed to enjoy all freedoms granted in the city as well as those granted in other nearby crown cities. Moreover, we allow them to buy squares and buildings as well as to renovate old ones and erect buildings on plots of land which remain empty.

 

Singing Chasids of Kazimierz

A pupil of the Seer of Lublin and a highly gifted composer and musician, Chasidic tzadik Ezechiel Ben Cwi-Hirsz Taub (1772–1856) settled down in Kazimierz Dolny in the 1920s. Supporters of Ezechiel Taub—known as the Chasids of Kazimierz (kuzmir chasidim)—became famous for emphasizing the role of music and singing in the service of God, which was in accordance with the tzadik’s saying: I cannot enjoy Sabbath without a new melody. In 1925, one of his descendants—Shmuel Eliyahu Taub of Dęblin (1905–1984)—together with a group of his supporters moved to Palestine and set up an agricultural settlement. The tradition of singing songs composed by the Chasids of Kaziemierz survived till this day.

Every third person in Kazimierz is a painter.

 

The artists' colony

The unique landscape of Kazimierz Dolny attracted painters already in the 18th century. An important landmark was the year 1909 when Władysław Ślewiński—a friend of Paul Gauguin and a professor at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts—started organizing here plein air painting sessions with his students. Since that time, Kazimierz—surrounded by the aura of a city of painters—was gradually turning into an artists’ colony. Another professor of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts—Tadeusz Pruszkowski—should be given credit for this change. Annual plein air painting sessions which he organized since 1913 were attended by young artists—both Christians and Jews. Artists, who were coming to Kazimierz more and more often, admired “unique landscape,” “warm, familiar atmosphere,” “Polish beauty,” and “wistful poetry tugging at the heartstrings”. Kazimierz was very hospitable to its guests and repaid with an everyday display of its charms.

Painters were followed by men of letters and ordinary holidaymakers who were looking for a beautiful place where they could relax. As a result, the landscape of Kazimierz was rendered numerous times in both literary and visual works. Among visiting artists, there were also many Jews. The town on the Vistula River left its mark in the works of artists such as Maurycy Trębacz (1861–1941), Natan Korzeń (1895–1941), Roman Rozental (1897–1942), Izrael Tykociński (1895–1942), Józef Gabowicz (1862–1939), Eliasz Kanarek (1902–1969) or brothers Efraim and Menasze Seidenbeutel (1903–1945). Painters became an integral part of the city’s landscape and their presence had its influence on the awakening of many talents among the native residents of Kazimierz.

One unusual person painting the town was Szmul Wodnicki (1901–1971)—a shoemaker born in Kazimierz who, at the same time, worked as a painter. Dispirited by a difficult life in Poland, he emigrated with his family to Palestine in 1934, however, he continued painting the landscapes of Kazimierz till the end of his life. Chaim Goldberg (1917–2004) was born in a family of another shoemaker from Kazimierz and, already as a young boy, he observed artists and made his first steps as a painter. Thanks to contacts with artists established in Kazimierz Dolny, Chaim decided in the 1930s to enrol in the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He developed as a mature artist after World War II and the motifs from his home town became one of the leading subjects in his works.

In the summer of 1929, me and Jakub Rotbaum appeared at a literary evening devoted to the presence of Jews in contemporary poetry, which was held on the veranda of a pension belonging to the family of Szenderowicze. It had to be organized again since only half of the people who wanted to participate in the meeting could enter the room. After my introduction, Jakub Rotbaum recited poems by Julian Tuwim, Józef Wittlin, Brunon Jasieński, Anatol Sztern, and Adam Ważyk—translated into Yiddish by me—and followed each poem with the reading of its Polish original. It was probably the only literary evening held in two languages—Jewish and Polish—which was, by the way, attended by two of these poets—Anatol Sztern and Adam Ważyk.

During all those years when Jakub Rotbaum spent his summer months in Kazimierz, he immortalized many people who lived here in his charcoal and sanguine drawings. Except for Jakub Rotbaum, Chaim Hanft, and Henryk Berlewi, all Jewish painters who painted the landscape of Kazimierz and local Jews before the mass murder of Jews were killed.

Szmuel Sznajderman, Artistic family in Kazimierz, in: Pinkes Kusmir (Hebrew for: The Chronicle of Kazimierz), Tel Aviv, 1970, trans. M.Adamczyk-Garbowska, after: Tam był kiedyś mój dom…

 

Kazimierz in films

The picturesqueness of the city also attracted filmmakers looking for landscapes which would suit films directed in Yiddish. This is where a blockbuster titled Yiddle with His Fiddle was directed (1936, dir. by Józef Green, Jan Nowina-Przybylski) with Molly Picon in the main role. Some more films that were shot here include: One out of 36 [Jeden z trzydziestu sześciu] (1925, dir. by Henryk Szaro), In Polish woods [W lasach polskich] based on the prose by Joseph Opatoshu (1929, dir. by Jonas Turkow) and The Dybbuk (1936, dir. by Michał Waszyński).

Many years after the war, the atmosphere of the pre-war shtetl—an artists’ colony—was recreated in a Polish film titled Two moons [Dwa księżyce] (1993, dir. by Andrzej Barański) based on short stories by Maria Kuncewiczowa. The history of Kazimierz Dolny was also immortalized in a documentary titled Snapshots from Kazimierz [Album Kazimierski] (2001) directed by Tadeusz Pałka.

 

City portraits

Everyday life of Kazimierz—a former Jewish shtetl—was documented in the photographs of Benedykt Jerzy Dorys (real name Rotenberg), a portrait photographer of the crème de la crème of Warsaw who spent his holidays here in the 1930s. His photography of the pre-war Kazimierz is believed to be an instance of the first Polish reportage photography. A permanent exhibition of these photos can be seen in the former synagogue in Kazimierz.

Many paintings of Kazimierz are put on display in the Celejowska House—a branch of the Nadwiślańskie Museum. Museum collections include numerous photos and documents connected with the history of the Jewish community in the city. One interesting exposition which comprises Jewish liturgical objects can be seen in the Goldsmith Museum.

Among numerous literary renditions of Kazimierz, two novels—The Shtetl (1901) by Sholem Asch and Summer by Adolf Rudnicki (1938)—play a particularly important role. An interesting description of the city from the beginning of the 1930s was included by Jacob Glatstein in a volume of reportage titled Wen Jasz iz geforn (Yid. When Yash Set Out, 1935). A selection of texts about Kazimierz Dolny can be found in an anthology titled Kazimierz vel Kuzmir. A city of different dreams [Kazimierz vel Kuzmir. Miasteczko różnych snów] (2006, red. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska).

 

The present ferryman, Chaim, is fifty years old. He is tall and slender. His face is elongated; he has a long, white beard and a furrowed forehead. Chaim is the child of water, he grew up by the water and—who knows—perhaps it will become his grave. [...] In summer, water is Chaim’s only source of income. All week he is with his boat on the water, and the sail stands between clouds and their reflection on the water surface... Sabbath. Water respects Jewish customs, it observes the Sabbath as well as other holidays; it remains calm, and waves kiss each other. Chaim is sitting with his wife at the doors, he is praying and she is reading “Cene urene”, a prayer book for women. They are telling waves about God’s miracles and each wave catches a word, says “Amen” and disappears in the distance. 

The shtetl had something which was particularly noteworthy: a market, an extraordinary market; people who were there looked as if they were on stage, there was always somebody on duty: carriers by day, dreamers by night. Somebody stopped—it seemed that the role required it; he turned into a side street to go about his business which was known to everybody since everybody knew everything about their neighbours—again it seemed that he was acting according to an unwritten but obligatory script. From this market—which was seemingly the main source of life—one would go behind the scenes in order to—after doing one’s bit—go back again and bow down before invisible forces.

Below ran a river, there were ruins on the hills; nearby there were also ravines, numerous tobacco plantations, arable farming land, woods, and meadows; each part had a different landscape which was always beautiful. In ravines, gusts of slight, warm wind would give one a feeling as if they entered into a magical circle and long-forgotten characters were about to appear. People doubt whether miraculous places exist but there were so many of them here.

 

World War II and the mass murder of Jews

In 1939, Kazimierz had 4,641 residents, including approx. 2,500 Jews. After the outbreak of World War II, Germans were relatively quick to establish a ghetto in Kazimierz—already in 1940—to which they displaced Jews from the city and surrounding areas. It was located on a small Jewish quarter around the Minor Market. In the brewery at Puławska St., they created a forced labour camp which was open between spring 1940 and autumn 1942. Its prisoners (over 100 people) worked in a quarry and in the city. Pavements and steps at the camp as well as in the city (near the Gestapo headquarters based in the building belonging to the Order of the Reformati) were made of matzevas by prisoners. In March 1942, the ghetto inmates were displaced to the ghetto in Opole Lubelskie and next they were transported to one of the death camps—reportedly in Bełżec. During the liquidation of the labour camp, Jews who worked there were transported again and a dozen or so were shot in autumn 1943 at the new Jewish graveyard.

 

The old Jewish graveyard (Lubelska St.)

The graveyard is thought to have been established towards the end of the 15th century near the road leading to Lublin—outside the Lublin Gate, on the Sitarz Hill—and was open till the 1950s. It was the burial place of, among others, the tzadikim of Kazimierz from the Taub dynasty—Ezechiel and Efraim. The graveyard was surrounded by a wall made of limestone. During World War II, Germans forced Jews to liquidate this burial place and—after matzevas were removed from the area—various buildings were erected. In 1954, a nearby school was extended in such a way that one of its parts was built on the area which previously belonged to the graveyard. The southern part of the graveyard—from the side of Lubelska St.—was levelled and a school football pitch was built there. The upper part of the graveyard with burials and a ruined wall survived. One matzeva in its lowest part still carries a fragment of inscription from the end of the 17th century.

 

The new Jewish graveyard (Czerniawy St.)

The new Jewish graveyard was established in the 2nd part of the 19th century near the road to Opole, in the area called “Czerniawy”. A plot of land allocated for the graveyard—located on the hill slope on the eastern side of the road—was donated in 1851 by Herszek Mandelsberg. The area was surrounded with a wall and a funeral house was erected here. The graveyard was rectangular and covered the area of 0.64 ha. It was the site of executions of a dozen of so people—Jews and Poles. In 1984, “the Wailing Wall” according to a design by Tadeusz Augustyniak was erected here—it is a tall and long wall in the centre of the graveyard with a “crack” in the middle built along the longer axis which has a few hundred broken matzevas regained from the city set in it. In front of the wall, a group of several dozen complete matzevas was placed on the grassy slope. Behind the wall, approx. 25 overturned matzevas were placed in the hornbeam woods.

 

The present day

Nowadays, Kazimierz Dolny is one of the most important tourist attractions in Eastern Poland. There are many hotels, pensions, and restaurants. Traditions of a summer resort and artists’ colony are still cultivated. Apart from cultural events such as the festival of Folk Bands and Singers, the Two Riversides Film and Art Festival, and the Alternative Music Festival “Kazimiernikejszyn”, the cultural offer of the city includes events alluding to the Jewish history of the city, e.g. the Klezmer Music and Tradition Festival (between 2006 and 2012) or the Pardes Festival—the Encounters with Jewish Culture (since 2013).

I know people who have breakfast in Warsaw, lunch in London, and dinner in Paris. But they always come back to Kazimierz for the night. Because this is the city of their dreams.

 

Authors: Paweł Sygowski, Emil Majuk