PERETZ Origin of surname

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852 - 1915) born in Zamosc, Poland. In the years 1877 - 1887 worked as a lawyer. In 1891 worked as a junior clerk in the burial department of the Warsaw community.
One of the founders of the new Yiddish literature and key figure in Hebrew literature. His controversial writing contributed to the Jewish workers' movement. His protagonists are Hasidim and simple people, devout in their religion in spite of their hard lives. He is a pioneer in the short story and symbolical plays in the Yiddish literature.

Daniel Peretz (1927-2000), footballer, born in Bucharest, Romania. He started playing for Ciocanul Bucharest, formerly known as Maccabi Bucharest, a Jewish team founded in 1919, banned during the Holocaust and refounded with its new name in 1946. After the establishment of the Communist regime in Romania, Ciocanul Bucharest was renamed Dinamo Bucharest and became of the leading soccer clubs in Romania. In 1950 Peretz moved to Rapid, another soccer club of Bucharest, and then to Flacăra București, a Bucharest based club that was transferred to Ploiesti and changed its name to Petrolul. Peretz’s team won the Romanian championship in 1958-1959. He also played a number of times in the Romanian national team. Peretz immigrated to Israel in 1960, and in 1962 he joined Maccabi Netanya soccer club.  

Valga

Latvian: Valka; German: Walk; Russian: Валк, Валга / Valga

A border town between Estonia and Latvia, on the banks of the river Pedel, Estonia.
 

21st Century

The town of Valga has a Jewish cemetery. Estonia has several murder and burial locations from the Second World War also in Valga.

History

Valga originated as a small village named Pedel, at the end of the 13th century. It achieved town status in 1584, and in 1783 became the district town. Light industry developed in Valga, and there were cultural and educational institutions. In 1920 the town was split between Latvia and Estonia and until 1940 the larger part was in independent Estonia (1918-1940).

The Jewish community was founded in 1859 by three soldiers who were serving in the army of Tsar Nicolai I. When they were joined by other Jews, they bought a sefer torah and organized public prayers in one of the houses. The teacher who was hired was also the shochet (ritual slaughterer). A cemetery was opened. The records book of the hevra kadisha (burial society) was started in 1869; at that period, the first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Lichtenstein, officiated. In 1871 a synagogue was organized in the home of the philanthropist, Yosef Shein. After his death the building came under the ownership of the community. From his legacy a gemilluth hesed (benevolent fund) was established.

In 1881 the community numbered 339, comprising 8% of the population of the town. In the same year 75% of the Jews affirmed that Yiddish was their mother tongue.

In 1914 there were 784 Jews living in Valga but they now formed only 4% of the total population.

After the establishment of Estonia as an independent state, in 1920, the community was about half its pre 1914 size.

In 1926 the community council established a cultural administration which acted in co-ordination with the Jewish autonomous system in Estonia. The community of Valga had two representatives on the national cultural council.

At first the Jewish children studied in hadarim (rooms for elementary religious studies). From the beginning of the 20th century they began to attend the general schools. Under Estonian sovereignty a Jewish kindergarten and school were opened, supported by the municipality, using Hebrew as the teaching language. The school, the only one in Estonia among the provincial towns, served as the focus for the community's cultural activities. The school contained a library in which the cultural committee provided courses in Hebrew, bible study and Jewish history, and organized cultural evenings.

The decrease in the number of Jews continued also in the thirties. Many left for Tallinn, the capital, and others emigrated overseas.

More than a third of Jewish inhabitants earned a living in commerce. The others were industrialists, workers, shop assistants, teachers, clerical workers, tradesmen and members of the free professions. Jews owned five companies. The economic situation of the members of the community was satisfactory in general. 15 members were property owners. In 1935 nine families received welfare assistance from the women's society.

After the 1917 revolution the community intensified its public activities. Valga provided services for 500 Jewish soldiers who were in the 12th Russian army. A printing press was available to them. At the initiative of the soldiers' committee a branch of Poalei Zion was opened, a town committee of the Zionist organization was founded, and in conjunction with the local Jews, a branch of the Bund was established. A member of this party was elected as a representative on the municipal council.

During Estonia's war of independence (1918-1920) 24 young members of the community fought in the ranks of the Estonian army. Between the two world wars, the following were active: Hehalutz, Yiddisher Yugent Farband (a non-political association of Jewish youth), a Yiddish cultural club named after Yehuda Leib Peretz and Licht (light) a cultural association for leftists. A branch of Hashomer Ha'tsa'ir-Netzah was opened in 1932.

In 1939 there were 50 Jewish families living in Valga.


The Holocaust Period

Following the non-aggression pact signed by Ribbentrop and Molotov on behalf of Germany and the USSR respectively (August 1939), Estonia was annexed by the USSR. In the summer of 1940 Jewish public activities were gradually ended and the community institutions were disbanded.

After the German invasion of the USSR (June 22, 1941) several members of the community succeeded in fleeing to the interior of Russia. Those Jews who remained in the town were murdered during the summer or autumn of that year, by the Germans and by Estonian collaborators.

Salantai

A small town in the Kretinga district, north-western Lithuania.

The beginning of Jewish settlement lies in the 17th century. In 1766, 276 Jews were registered as paying head tax. In 1847, 990 Jews lived in Salantai and in 1897 their number reached 1106. Prior to World War I there were about 1,200 in the town, after the war 800.

Salantai had an old synagogue, a prayer house and two "shtibel"s. At the beginning of the 20th century there existed a yeshiva and five "heder"s for children. In addition there was a yeshiva of the Tiferet Bahurim and several study groups. The community had its charitable institutions.

During the period of Lithuania's independence between the two world wars more than 100 pupils studied Talmud torah or a Hebrew school of the tarbut network. In 1926 the library of the Jewish community in the name of V.S. Peretz had 1,600 books.

Salantai was known for its rabbis and torah scholars, among them Rabbi Hillel Milyakowsky known as Rabbi Hillel of Salant. The last officiating rabbi was Rabbi Meir Zvi Kalef.

The Salantai Jews made a living mainly from trade and crafts. There were two weekly market days. A small factory producing paraffin candles was owned and staffed by Jews. Among the Jewish artisans were shoemakers, tailors, hatters, smiths, glaziers, a tanner, a tinsmith and a watchmaker.

Between the two world wars there were Zionist activities in Salantai with branches of Hamisrachi, Zeire Zion and Agudat Israel. Many Jews emigrated to the Americas and South Africa; the Zionist youth went to Eretz Israel.

Prior to World War II there were about 150 Jewish families in Salantai.


The Holocaust Period

After the outbreak of World War II (September 1, 1939) and the occupation of Poland by the Germans, Lithuania came under Soviet rule and at the end of summer 1940 was annexed by the Soviet Union.

Salantai was taken by the Germans on the day of their attack on Soviet Russia (June 22, 1941). On German orders all the Jewish men were assembled in the streets of the town; the nationalistic Lithuanians who acted as the henchmen of the Germans beat the Jews and robbed them of the money and valuables they had on them, to the applause of the Lithuanian spectators. Jews and non-Jews suspected of Soviet activities were arrested and shot. Groups of Jews were forced to dig pits for the victims.

Most of the Jews who tried to flee into Russia when the war broke out were killed or returned to the town. Those who tried to hide among the peasants were forced to return because of the peasants' fear of the German orders forbidding shelter or help for Jews.

At the end of June the nationalistic Lithuanians burnt all the books taken from the synagogue and Jewish houses in the main square of Salantai. On July 1, 1941 all were only allowed to take money and valuables with them; at the entrance to the synagogue the Germans had put large baskets to collect the money and valuables. A Lithuanian mob looted the deserted Jewish homes. The Jews were kept in the synagogue for a long period under heavy Lithuanian guard; every night 10 Jewish men were taken out and shot.

At the beginning of July 150 young Jewish women and girls were sent to work for the peasants; after about four weeks the peasants were ordered to return them to a farm in the village of Salin; on September 12 they were murdered and buried in pits prepared beforehand. One young woman succeeded in escaping; she returned to the peasant who had employed her and he hid her until the end of the war.

The men who still remained in the synagogue were murdered on July 10, 1941 and buried in pits dug on the banks of the nearby river. The women and children were murdered on July 20, 1941 near a village 8 km from Salantai and buried in a masgrave.

Daugavpils

Also: Dvinsk, Duenaburg.

The district town in the Latgale region, Latvia.

Daugavpils, situated on the Daugava river (formerly Dvina), was established in the 13th century and named Duenaburg, and was governed by the Livonian order (an order of German Christian knights). In 1561 Daugavpils came under Polish-Lithuanian rule. Dinaburg attained the status of a city in 1582. At the first partition of Poland   in 1772, it was annexed by Russia and it became the district town of the Vitebsk region. In 1893 the name was changed to Dvinsk. Between 1920-1940 it was part of independent Latvia, from which time it was called Daugavpils.

Jews began to come to Daugavpils from Poland   and Lithuania in the 17th century. The community was organized after the annexation by Russia. In 1772 there were 176 Jewish residents and by 1805 the number had swelled to almost 800. Their residence was confined to the old town. The rapid growth of the Jewish community dates from 1835 with the inclusion of the town in the Pale of Settlement, regions in western Russia in which Jews were permitted to live, from the end of the 18th century. In 1847 there were 2,918 Jews living in the town and by 1897 this had grown to 32,400.

In the Dvinsk community, in the tradition of neighboring Lithuania, there were hassidim and mitnagdim (opponents of the hassidim). The rivalry between the two streams split the community at the end of the 19th century.

In 1865 a beginning was made on the construction of the large synagogue Choir Shul. With the passage of time some 40 synagogues were built in the city, as well as three Talmudei torah and yeshivoth.

In the 20th century two of the leading rabbis of their time officiated in the city. Rabbi Meir Simcha Hacohen of the mitnagdim stream occupied the rabbinical chair of the Kahal Sha`ar synagogue for 39 years. He was known by the Jewish public for his Talmudic erudition as shown in his book Or Same'ach (interpretations of the Rambam). The hassidic rabbi, Josef Rosen, known as the Sage of Rogatchov, author of the book Keeper of Secrets was Rabbi of the Planover Minyan synagogue for 50 years.

Charitable institutions maintained by the community, Cholim", a fund for the provision of flour for pesach, a soup kitchen for the poor, an old-aged home, a synagogue, a low-priced cafe and a benevolent society.

Several secular Jewish schools (mostly private) were operative from the 1860s. Heder Metukan, where secular subjects also were studied, was opened in 1900. A Jewish vocational school (carpentry and metalwork), which was opened in 1887, was among the largest of its kind run by the various communities in Russia. In 1901 the municipality was responsible for three Jewish schools, and some of them began to teach Hebrew. In 1902, a vocational school for girls was opened, as well as two libraries. At this time only 24% of the Jewish children were educated at secular institutions. The majority attended hadarim, Talmud torah and yeshivoth. From 1913 on, one of the schools taught through the medium of Yiddish.

On the eve of World War I the Jewish population of Dvinsk was 55,680.

In 1915, the community extended help to hundreds of Jewish refugees who settled in the town. From 1916-1918 the majority of the residents abandoned Dvinsk because of the fighting raging there.

In 1920 there were 11,838 Jews in the town. They elected a community council and began to organize their lives anew. When Latvia was independent, in the framework of a national cultural autonomy for minorities according to the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the languages of instruction in the Jewish schools and the educational institutions of Agudat Israel Torah Ve`derech Eretz were Yiddish and Hebrew. In two out of five elementary schools Yiddish was the medium of teaching, in two it was Hebrew and in one Russian was used. The Jewish high school began teaching in the Russian language, later both Yiddish and Hebrew were added. The local yeshivah belonged to the yeshivoth network Beth Josef named after the Sage from Rogatchov. During the thirties an additional yeshivah was opened.

In 1934 during the dictatorship, inspection over Jewish educational institutions passed into the hands of Agudath Israel and the language of instruction became Yiddish.

There was a drama circle in the town, in addition to a large library and printing press.


The living conditions and economic situation of the first Jews in the place were hard. Following the law of 1876, many Jews from the farms and estates came to the town causing intense overcrowding. Several years later an exodus began with people going to the USA and South Africa. Work on building fortifications and a large military camp provided many sources of employment for the Jews of the town. Jewish building contractors gave work to Jewish laborers and tradesmen. Others were suppliers of clothing, footwear, food, wood and metal work to the army. Only a few Jews worked in agriculture.

From the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the completion of the railway junction, the economy of the town developed. Jews were prominent in the industrial sector and they were also the leaders in the textile branch. Half the Jewish breadwinners were engaged in commerce, and others were artisans and members of the free professions. After World War I, with the annexation of the town by Latvia, industry suffered as a result of being cut off from the markets in the USSR. During this period many people moved to the capital, Riga, or became petty traders.

During the first quarter of the 20th century several peoples` bank, and a co-operative credit fund of the artisans and laborers.

From 1920-1934 Latvia was a democracy; the posts in the municipal departments of economy, administration and finance were manned by Jews.

Zionist activities in Dvinsk commenced at the end of the 19th century. A branch of Poalei Zion was opened in 1901. The Zionist Socialists and Young Zion were organized a number of years after this. The youth formed groups at the the renaissance of the Bar Kochva scout movement. From the pioneering youth, an offshoot of Bar Kochva, Gordonia, Herzliya and He'chalutz Hamizrachi. A pioneering preparatory kibbutz was started in 1920 and many of the young people went on Aliyah to Eretz Israel.

Dvinsk was the center for the workers parties and in 1893 and again in 1897, groups of Jewish socialists joined in the workers` strikes in the town. Following the pogroms of 1903-1905 against the Jews of Russia, Jewish youth, mainly from the workers parties, were active in self-defense units. The Bund began to organize at the end of the 19th century. In independent Latvia, in the framework of a democratic Latvian socialist party, it was active as an autonomous unit on the Jewish problem. The head of the movement, Dr. Noah Maisel who was a member of the community council, was elected to the municipal council and as a representative of the Social Democrats in the Seim (parliament).

During the course of time most of the political functions of the community were assumed by the Bund and the United Zionist Socialist Party. The General Zionists, the Mizrachi and the Seimistim, who were in favor of Jewish autonomy in the place where they lived, were active in the town.

A number of clubs were opened; named after Brenner, Peretz and Bialik, and a sports club for the Jews of Dvinsk.

Anti-semitism reared its head during the 1920s and from 1934 increased in intensity under the dictatorship of Karl Ulmanis. Activities of the Zionist and socialist organizations were brought to an end.

In 1935 the Jewish community was 11,116.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov accord, signed in August 1939 on behalf of Germany and the USSR, the Red Army entered Latvia and set up a Soviet regime in the summer of 1940. Many Jewish owned stores and factories were nationalized. Communal organizations were broken up. A number of the Jews joined the new government and also obtained key positions or worked in enterprises which were set up.

A week before the outbreak of war between Germany and the USSR (June 22,1941), Jews who owned property, and those who were considered disloyal to the government, were exiled to Siberia. After the outbreak of the war, and with the approach of the German army, many Jews attempted to escape to the interior of Russia but only a relatively small number was successful. Many were killed on the road by German aerial attacks or were murdered by members of the Latvian fascist organization.

Hundreds of young Jews of the town served in the Red Army, in the Latvian division. Most of them were killed in action.

On June 26,1941, the town was captured by German forces. Between June 29 and July 2, Jewish men aged 16 to 60 were ordered to appear daily at the market square. From here they were taken to the gaol. After a week`s imprisonment, a number of men were taken to the nearby railway park where they were murdered. Some of the prisoners, among them doctors and artisans, were released. The remainder were sent to forced labor.

On July 15 all the synagogues were commandeered except for the Kahal Sha`ar and Planover Minyan Synagogues and the Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star.

A ghetto was set up on July 26 in barracks and stables on the other side of the river. About 15,000 people from the town and surrounding villages were crammed into this space, without proper sanitation. A Jewish committee and Jewish police force was appointed to manage life in the ghetto. Doctors improvised a hospital and several workshops were started.

During the first days of the ghetto a classified list was drawn up. The elderly, the sick and those unfit for work were taken to the forest in the area and murdered. This was followed by the murder of the Jews of the nearby towns in the provincial action, the liquidation of the Jews from the small towns.

Work permits were issued to those who were employed outside the ghetto.

The destruction of the community of Dvinsk itself began with two massive actions in the second and third weeks of August 1941, in the Pogulianka forest.

According to German sources, 10,162 Jews of Dvinsk and the surroundings were killed in the early months of the occupation.

After a further action, on November 8 and 9 of the same year, only those Jews (and their families) who were employed on vital work remained in Dvinsk. They were about 1,000 in number. About 500 of them were allowed to live at their places of work, outside the ghetto. The remaining Jews were taken to the Pogulianka forest and murdered.

Following a typhus epidemic at the end of November the ghetto was put in quarantine for four months. In addition to those who died of typhus there were many more deaths from starvation.

On May 17, 1942 the ghetto was liquidated and all the inhabitants were butchered, including the council members and internal police force and their families.

Only about 400 Jews remained in the town, and then a resistance movement was organized. The members obtained weapons and trained secretly in their use. The aim was to join the partisans across the border. Only some 15 of them were successful.

On October 26, 1943, the last of the Jews of the town were sent to the camp in Kaiserwald (in Latvian Meza Parks) in the vicinity of Riga. Some of them committed suicide on the way.

About 20 Jews managed to survive by going into hiding.


After the war communal life was renewed. In 1946 the community numbered around 2,000. At the service of the synagogue also acted as shochet (ritual slaughterer) and mohel. Drama and cultural circles were organized for Yiddish speakers. These organizations were closed down in the 1960s on the orders of the government.

In 1972 the cemetery was closed, and only the synagogue continued to function.

Wolomin

Town in Masovian Voivodship, east central Poland.

21st Century

On the heritage center in the town of Wolomin a plaque was installed for residents who had saved Jewish lives.

History

The town developed toward the close of the 19th century, and, situated on the Warsaw-Bialystok railway line, it became a commercial and industrial center. Jews numbered 3,079 (49.3% of the total population) in 1921.

Although they were active in the town's development, during the 1930s they were ousted from their positions and by 1939 their proportion of the town population had fallen to 22 (3,000 Jews). In general, Jews earned their livelihood from commerce, from such crafts as dyeing, baking, tailoring, and joinery, and from letting houses to summer guests. Some Jews also owned tanneries and glass factories. Communal and cultural activities revolved around the Peretz library and the Maccabi and Ha-Po'el societies. Jews won five of the municipal council's 24 seats in the 1934 elections. Ze'ev Bergeisen, who was rabbi from the early 1900s until the Holocaust, had a profound influence on the life of the Jewish community.

The Holocaust Period

On the outbreak of World War II there were about 3,000 Jews in Wolomin. A large-scale aktion took place on October 4-6, 1942 when over 600 Jews were shot in Wolomin and the rest deported to the Treblinka death camp. After the war the Jewish community of Wolomin was not reconstituted.