Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: Verteps and Szopka

Portable Vertep stage with puppets.

Christmas was the beginning of a festive time in Eastern Europe.  In Ukraine, festivities began on Christmas day, celebrated on January 7, according to the Julian calendar and concluded  on January 19, with the celebration of the Epiphany.

 

Vertep puppets, 17th century.

Ukrainian Vertep

One of the most interesting  Ukrainian Christmas customs was caroling and vertep.  Vertep is a portable puppet theater, which was carried by carolers from village to village. This custom began in the 16^th century, and reached the height of its popularity in the 1750’s.  Students at the Mohyla Academy in Kiev, contributed many ideas to the theater, including the two part performance.

 

Vertep, 1945, Ivano-Frankivsk Region

The theater itself was small and portable.  It was a two-story structure, with two stages, one on top of the other. The stages had horizontal and vertical grooves cut into the floors, which enabled the puppeteer to move the puppets around. The puppets were wooden, with a wire attached to one leg, which enabled the puppeteer,who was standing behind the stage, to control the puppet’s movements.  The plays were accompanied by music, a choir, cymbals. flute, drum, violin and bandura, a  large Ukrainian stringed instrument, similar to a lute. 

Each play had two acts.   The first act, performed on the upper stage, was religious.  The nativity story was presented and sometimes a story about Rachel and King Herod was performed.  The second act took place on the lower stage.  Short, humorous scenes were performed to entertain the spectators.  There were stock characters, representing people in village life.  Every play included “Kozak Zaporzhets,” a character who represented a hero popular in Ukrainian folk tales.  The Kozak character was always larger than the other puppets, he smoked a pipe and played the bandura.  The stories were about daily life with characters representing greed, cowardice, and cheating.  The Kozak always prevailed, outwitting all, including the devil. 

 

Kozak Zaporzhets, a character in Vertep plays

Vertep plays declined in the middle of the 1800’s, which is probably why my grandmother and great-aunts never mentioned them. Vertep lives on in miniature nativity scenes displayed in people’s homes, and carolers dressed up as characters from the vertep plays.  Vertep plays continue today in Ukraine and the United States with live actors instead of puppets playing the characters.

 

Carolers dressed as characters from Vertep plays

Polish Szopka   

A custom similar to Vertep developed in Poland.  It began in the 13th century with a creche, displayed in a church in Krakow.  Living nativities followed and when dialogue was added they became jaselka plays.  By the eighteenth century the still figurines in nativities  were replaced by puppets, first stick puppets, then marionettes. Puppet shows were banned from the church, and moved into the towns and villages. They became associated with caroling and lost some of their religious connections. The plays were a reflection of daily life in Poland, making fun of everyday situations.

 

Szopka with two stages.

The  theaters, called szopkas, were carried from town to town by carolers. They performed religious and secular plays often with real Polish characters such as Tadeuz Kosciuszko, or mythical ones like Pan Twardowski and the Dragon of Wawel. 

Krakow is the center of szopka making and many are made for the tourist market. People built elaborate szopkas with two towers, resembling St Mary’s Church in Krakow and a central dome modeled after the Zygmunt Chapel of Wawel Castle.  The practice of building szopkas declined during World War I, but was revived in the 1920’s. Today, the city of Krakow  sponsors a Szopka contest every year. 

Contemporary Szopka puppets in front of traditional characters.

Sources:  

Brama, "Ukrainian Christmas Puppet Theater, VERTEP". www.brama.com/art/christmas
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, "Vertep, New Year,  Epithany". www.encyclopedia of Ukraine.com

Polish American Journal, "Szopka, A Fairy Tale Stable." www.polamjournal.com/holidays

Rukutvory-Ukrainian Folk Art on Line, rukutvory.com.ua

Genealogical Mysteries: The Final Word on Joseph Koshuba

The mysterious Joseph Koshuba was the subject of my first blog post in March of 2013.  Since then I solved the puzzle of the identity of Joseph, several times, and most of my solutions were way off.

Joseph Koshuba was my great uncle, and brother of my grandfather, John Koshuba.  Joseph died suddenly in 1919, leaving his wife Florence and three children.  I have a lot of family pictures, and my main source, my mother, identified many (unknown to me) family members.  In the wedding picture below, my mother identified the man in the first row, on the  far left as Joseph Koshuba. 
  

Wedding of John Koshuba and Pauline Rychly , November 1916.

The picture above is  of my grandmother Pauline Rychly Koshuba's wedding to John Koshuba in November, 1916.  Florence Koshuba is in the first row on the far right. My mother also identified her. I assumed that the man standing behind her, with his arm on her shoulder was Joseph Koshuba. At the time I assumed that because his hand was on Florence's shoulder. Since my mother was born in 1918, two weeks before Joseph died, I assumed that she was just guessing that the man on the left was Joseph. Now I know that she was right.  How could I prove it?

Top row from the left: Florence and unknown man,. Front row: Fred Koshuba, Joseph Koshuba and Katherine Florence. Source: Susan Strickler.

This picture was also taken at my grandmother's wedding.  It is of Florence, her two children and  the man I assumed  to be her husband Joseph standing next to her. The seated man with the little girl on his lap appears to be the man on the left in the picture above.  Why is he in this picture?  I revised my theory.  Maybe he was John Koshuba's brother-in-law, Peter Wons or perhaps he was Dymtro Popko, since his wife, Pelagia Rychly Popko was standing behind him in the large wedding picture. This picture was sent to me by Joseph Koshuba's grand-daughters, and they said that the baby girl was their aunt, Katherine Florence. So why was she sitting on Peter Wons' lap?  Well, since I assumed he was her uncle, it would make sense.

 

Wedding of Florence Holmberg to Joseph Koshuba, Feburary 1913.  Source: Ed Wons.

This picture is from the wedding of Florence Holmberg Koshuba's to Joseph Koshuba in February, 1913.  It was sent to me by Ed Wons,the grandson of Peter Wons and a Koshuba family cousin. This picture proved my theory about the identity of the man in the pictures from my grandmother's wedding wrong. Ed said that in this picture Peter Wons is in the second row, on the left right behind his wife, and John and Joseph's sister, Teckla Koshuba Wons.The two little boys in the picture are their sons. Now I know that Peter Wons is definitely not the man behind Florence in the group picture of my grandmother's wedding.

 Florence was identified as the bride by her grand-daughters. The groom is Joseph Koshuba, since I have the record showing that he married Florence Holmberg in February, 1913. The man on the left with with little girl on his lap in the 1916 wedding picture is Joseph. The man standing next to Florence in the Koshuba family picture taken at my grandmother's wedding in 1916 is not Joseph, neither is the man standing behind Florence in the large group picture from her wedding.

Joseph  and John Koshuba with an unknown man in the middle, wearing sashes and hats of the Zapororzhie Sich Society. 1912. Source: Pauline Noznick.

The next mystery:  who was the man with the moustache?  In this  picture from 1912,  Joseph Koshuba is on the left and John Koshuba is on the right.  The man with the mustache is in the middle. He may either be a relative or a close family friend.  Look again at the Holmberg-Koshuba wedding--is the man with the moustache in the second row on with right--without the mustache? If it is him, he had regrown the mustache by 1916.

What conclusions have I drawn from this mystery? Don't be a lazy or sloppy genealogist . DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING.  Wait until proof is found.   Remember, patience is the genealogist's friend. I have fallen into these traps myself--first, I assumed that my mother misidentified Joseph Koshuba.  Then I assumed that another man was Joseph, mainly because he had his hand on Florence Koshuba's shoulder. In order to make my story work, I assumed that the man who turned out to be Joseph was either Dymtro Popko or Peter Wons.  All wrong.  I found documentation of Joseph and Florence's marriage when Joseph's grand-daughters identified Florence as the bride in the 1913 wedding picture.  I also had a copy of the marriage license, documenting the marriage. That solved the mystery of Joseph Koshuba--and the identity of the man in my grandmother's wedding picture.

BLOG POSTS ABOUT THE KOSHUBA FAMILY

Big Breakthrough in the Koshuba Family
Finding Fred Koshuba
Joseph Koshuba One Year Later 
Assumptions: The Fred Koshuba Story
The Koshuba Brothers
The Genealogy of the Holmberg-Koshuba Family
The Genealogy of the Kleviak Koshuba Family

Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: Hanukkah.

An Eastern European silver Hunukkiah.

While Christians in Eastern Europe were celebrating St Nicholas Day and Christmas, Jews celebrated Hanukkah, known as the “Festival of Lights.”  Hanukkah, a festival lasting eight days usually occurred in December.  The holiday is based on a historical event, the liberation of Israel from the Syrian Greeks in 164 BCE (I am using the abbreviation for Before the Common Era, an alternative to the older BC or Before Christ).

The composer Handel wrote an oratorio about Judas Maccabee.  It is often performed  during the Hanukkah season.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the ruler of the Syrian Greeks, began to harden his rule of Israel,  defiling the Temple in Jerusalem and banning the Jewish religion and requiring the Jews to follow Greek cultural practices.  The Maccabees, a group of Jews led by Judah Maccabees and four of his brothers, sons of the priest Matthias, fought for over three years to liberate and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem.  Because the victory happened during the holiday of Sukkot, which happened in early fall, the Maccabees decided to celebrate Sukkot after the Temple was rededicated, on the 25^th day of the month of Kislev, in the year 164 B.C.E.  Since Sukkot is a seven day observance, Hanukkah used the same time frame.

 

Painting by Auguste Dore, "The Victor, Judas Maccabeus"

The story of Hanukkah was told by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, writing 250 years later, calling it the Festival of Lights. In the Mishnah, the oldest part of the Talmud, written a century after Josephus, the Festival of Lights became known as Hanukkah, (dedication in Hebrew) In the Talmud, completed 600 years after the victory of the Maccabees, the story of Hanukkah centered on the miracle of the jar of oil.  Although the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks was unexpected, the fact that a jar of oil, containing enough oil for one day, lasted for eight was considered miraculous.   By this time, fasting and mourning were not allowed during the Hanukkah festival.

A special candelabra, called a Hanukkiah was used for the holiday.  It had places for either eight candles or oil pots, and one spot for the Chumash, a candle used to light the others.  At first, the Hanukkiah was simple, but with time, they became more elaborate or fanciful. 

Chocolate coins made in Israel by Elite.

Hanukkah was a happy holiday, no work was allowed while the candles burned, so that time was filled with games. Children played dreidel, a small spinning toy, and adults played games of chance. Children were given coins as gifts on the fifth day of the holiday, a part of this small gift was expected to go to charity. 
 

Old dreidel.

Gelt remains today as foil covered chocolate coins.  My father-in-law always gave everyone in the family a dollar bill, announcing that it was Hanukkah gelt. Fried foods, usually prepared using rendered goose fat were eaten all over

Sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts.

Eastern Europe during Hanukkah. In Poland, jelly doughnuts were the preferred treat, in Lithuania, fried potato pancakes called latkes were favored. Cracklings, fried crisp goose skin, called gribenes in Yiddish, were a special treat.

Potato latkes

With the development of Zionism, Hanukkah took on a new meaning.  The idea of fighting for freedom and for national identity became associated with Hanukkah.  As Jews left Eastern Europe for Palestine in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, often they had to defend themselves.  The story of Hanukkah and the Maccabees was the story of freedom and liberty.  The founding of Israel continued these ideas.  The Jews defeated the Greeks in 164 BCE, because they were deprived of their religion and identity. The Holocaust raised the same issues of oppression, religious freedom and cultural identity that Hanukkah did two thousand years ago.

Celebrating Hanukkah in the Lodz Ghetto, World War Two.  Source: Yadvashem

I have not been blogging for the past few weeks, since my brother was very ill and passed away on November 16, 2014.  he suffered from leukemia and developed acute myeletic leukemia.He was a great brother, and had many friends. I miss him.

Pete and me, January 2012.

Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: St Nicholas Day in Ukraine and Poland

St Nicholas Day, painting on glass by Yaroslava Surmach Mills, 1975.  In the painting, a Ukrainian St Nicholas is with an angel and a devil.  Notice the boy on the right with a branch in his hand.  He appears to be crying, probably because a gift of a willow branch means that his behavior needs to improve.

St Nicholas Day is a children's holiday.  It is celebrated in December, either on the sixth or the nineteenth, depending on people's religious affiliation.
Saint Nicholas, who lived in the fourth century, was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia, which today is in Turkey.  He is known as the patron saint of children, agriculture and sailors.  
 

Icon of St Nicholas, the patron saint of mariners.

He is one of the most popular saints in Ukraine, his icon is displayed in Ukrainian homes and churches. Many Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches are named in his honor.  St Nicholas Day is a very old festival,coming to Ukraine with Christianity in the tenth century.

Ukrainian postage stamp showing parents putting gifts under their child's pillow, with St Nicholas watching through the window.

Saint Nicholas, known to Ukrainian children as Svyaty Mykolay, wears a bishop's mitre and carries a crozier.  When he visits, he is accompanied by an angel and occasionally, a devil.  He brings gifts to children, usually fruit and cookies.  Sometimes the angel quizzes the children about religious subjects, and St Nicholas reminds them to do good deeds.   In some areas, St Nicholas comes after the children are asleep and leaves small gifts under their pillow. He might leave a willow branch under the pillow to encourage a child to be on his/her best behavior. In other areas, the children leave their empty shoes and St Nicholas fills them with goodies for  the good children and coal for the bad. Many churches put on plays and pageants about St Nicholas, telling his story, and encouraging children do good.  

St Nicholas Pageant, 1912.  St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Mahony, PA

My first and only encounter with St Nicholas was in St Paul, Minnesota.  I was a  young child, and my grandparents recruited a relative to dress as St Nicholas.  When he came into their living room, dressed in bishop's vestments, and I began to cry out in fear.   The next year, Santa Claus came down the chimney and left gifts under the tree.  St Nicholas never reappeared.

St Nicholas visits the children of the Svitlychka Ukrainian Cooperative Nursery School, Jenkintown, PA.

In old Ukraine,  St Nicholas Day took two forms.  One was warm Nicholas,  his festival was the twenty-second of May.  This was an agricultural celebration, since St Nicholas was also the patron saint of farming.  Farmers would take their horses to the fields for their first grazing, sheep would be sheared and buckwheat sown.  It was also believed that St Nicholas would protect livestock from wolves.  

St Nicholas Icon from Holy Spirit Ukrainian Orthodox Sobor, Regina, SK.

The other form of St Nicholas was "old" or "cold" Nicholas," celebrated in December. Saint Nicholas day heralded the beginning of cold winter weather.  Folk beliefs said that old Nicholas brought the first snow by shaking his beard.

In Poland, St Nicholas comes riding a white horse or rides in a sleigh.  He is accompanied by an angel.  He usually brings a special cookie called a pierniczki, fruit and holy pictures.  In some homes he leaves gifts under the children's pillow, in others he leaves them in their shoes. Some Polish children write to St Nicholas asking for gifts.  If they are well behaved, the gifts may arrive on Christmas day.

Polish children and St. Nicholas. The Polish St Nicolas wears a Roman Catholic bishop's mitre, the Ukrainian saint wears an Eastern Rite mitre.

Pierniczki

Poppy Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day

photo by Carla Anne Coroy.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918,  the hostilities of World War One ended.  It was an armistice, an agreement to lay down weapons and stop fighting.  There was no surrender by defeated parties.  Combat ended and the soldiers went home.

The end of the War is remembered  in countries involved in World War One on November 11.  For many years it was called Armistice Day, but in the United States in 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day.  Today, In many countries it is called Remembrance Day, and the symbol associated with it is a red poppy.

Remembrance Day, London 2014.  photo from The Daily Mail.

A few days ago I saw a story on the national news about Remembrance Day in Great Britain.  For this year's commemoration, an artist created a red ceramic poppy, each one representing a soldier from the British Empire who died in World War One.  The poppies were placed in the moat surrounding the Tower of London.  In Great Britain, Remembrance day is the Sunday closest to November 11.  Last Sunday, the crowds came to see the poppies, people hung pictures of family members who died in World War One on the fence around the moat.  It was quite a sight, especially since World War One was fought one hundred years ago.

How did the poppy become the symbol of the end of the most devastating war the world had known?  It started with a poem written by a Canadian doctor, Lt. Col. John McRae, in 1915, who was serving in Europe during World War One.  He titled his poem "We Will Not Sleep".  It is known today by its alternate title, "In Flanders' Fields." 

Illustrated 'In Flanders' Fields"  from the collection of the Canadian War Museum

A woman, Moina Belle Michael, who was volunteering in what we would call today a USO, in New York City, saw a copy of the poem in a magazine on November 9, 1918.  She vowed to wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance.  She started a campaign to make the red poppy a symbol to remember those who lost their lives in The Great War.  In 1919, the newly formed American Legion adopted the memorial poppy as a symbol.  In 1921, artificial red poppies, made in France, were sold in the United States to raise funds for rehabilitation and resettlement of areas in France that were devastated by battles in the War.  Although the poppy did not become a symbol for Armistice Day in the United States, Poppy Day did become a way to raise funds for the American Legion at Memorial Day in May.

In 1954,  The Armistice Day holiday became Veterans Day.  Instead of  remembering war dead, it honors all living veterans.  Memorial Day, the last Monday in May is the day that honors American soldiers who died in wars. 

However in many other countries, November 11 continues to be a day of remembrance for those who died in World War One, and the red poppy is the symbol of those who lost their lives in World War One, one hundred years ago.

The Covid 19 Pandemic and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

This rhyme was popular in 1918

When I first posted this article in 2014, I thought that pandemics were something in history books, the advances in medicine guaranteed that pandemics were something that would never happen again in the United States.
Only six years later, we are in the middle of another pandemic, caused not by the influenza virus, but by Covid 19, a virus from the same family as the common cold.  Much to my surprise, history seems to be repeating itself.  There is no cure available, the only thing that people can do to prevent contracting the very contagious virus is to isolate themselves and try to avoid contact with infected people and those who may be carriers of the virus.  Governments responded in the same way as they did 100 years ago, closed schools, businesses, entertainment venues and told people to isolate themselves in their homes.  Like today, the disease is lethal and there is no treatment.  Most people survive the virus, but many people succumb to it and die.

There are similarities between the 1918 Pandemic and the Covid 19 Pandemic.  Many people believed that the virus started in China. People in 1918 looked for cures, none of which were effective.  People were asked to self isolate and wear masks in public.  There was a shortage of doctors and nurses, and people to handle the resulting deaths and burials.  In 1918, people got tired of self isolation and in the summer of 1918, decided not to stay at home in isolation.  The result of this was a second and more lethal wave of the flu in the fall.  It is ironic that looking back 102 years to see how the 1918 flu was contained resulted in people using many of the same measures.

One hundred and two years ago, in 1918, the United States faced a pandemic so lethal that 195,000 people died from it just during the month of October. At the time it was called the Spanish Flu, but it didn’t originate in Spain.  It was a quick killer, hitting young adults, many dying within a day or two after showing symptoms.  Nobody knows how many people died of the flu in 1918-1919, but it is estimated that as many as one-third of the world’s population at the time was infected, and as many as 50 million died, more than three times the number of deaths in World War One. It is believed that more people died in a year from the flu pandemic than the bubonic plague, the Black Death of the Middle Ages, killed in a century. When the Flu Pandemic ended in 1919, 28% of the American population had been infected and between 500,000 and 675,000 people died.

It reached its height in October of 1918, just before the end of World War I.  The War, with its concentration of troops probably helped its spread and made it a pandemic.  It was deadly, killed quickly, sometimes within hours.  
Schools, theaters and other public places in the United States were closed to keep the flu from spreading.  Deaths were so numerous, that funeral homes and cemeteries couldn't handle the numbers. People were buried in mass graves, and the size of funerals were limited and often held outdoors in order to curtail the spread of the disease. There was no treatment, quarantine was about the only preventative measure that was effective.

There are several theories about the origin of the Flu in 1918, one points to the town of Etaples in France, which was a major troop staging area, and the location of a military hospital.  Other theories point to the East, specifically China, which experienced an outbreak of respiratory illness in November 1917, which was identical to Spanish flu.  How did the flu get from China to Europe?  China wasn’t involved in World War One, but the link may have been Chinese workers brought to the Western Front, in Europe, to labor behind the front lines.  Travel, now worldwide due to the war, helped the flu virus spread from Europe to the rest of the world.  Soldiers in close quarters were easily infected due to physical proximity, weakened immune systems because of poor nutrition, exposure to chemical weapons, and stress.

There were three waves of flu in 1918.  The first, which hit in the spring and early summer, was mild, and most of the people who contracted it survived. In the United States, it was first reported in Haskell County, Kansas, in early January 1918.  By March 11, it had spread to Queens, New York.  People who were sickened by flu in the first wave were lucky, since they  recovered from the flu, they developed immunity to the virus.  A second more dangerous strain appeared in August 1918, in three places at almost the same time: Brest, France, Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa, and Boston Massachusetts.  Between January and August, the virus had mutated and became deadly. The third wave continued through the spring of 1919.

This map views the earth from the top--the North Pole, showing the spread of the virus from China to the rest of the world.

In May 1918, young soldiers in Europe came down with the flu, most recovered, but some developed a virulent form of pneumonia.  Within two months, the flu spread from the military to the civilian populations of European cities.  It continued its spread into Asia, Africa, and South America and back to North America.

During the last week of August, dockworkers in Boston, Massachusetts developed flu symptoms of high fevers, severe muscle and joint pain.  Between five and ten percent of the men with flu developed pneumonia.   The flu spread quickly to the city of Boston.  By mid-September it had spread to California, North Dakota, Florida and Texas.

It was a young person’s pandemic.  In 1918-1919, ninety-nine percent of Spanish Flu deaths were people under the age of 65. In people between the ages of twenty and 40 years old, the rate was fifty percent.  It differed from previous flu outbreaks in that its symptoms were so severe.  Most people died of bacterial pneumonia, a secondary infection.  It also killed directly, causing massive hemorrhages and edema of the lungs.  Nurses noted fevers as high as 105 degrees and unusually severe bloody noses. Often the affected person turned blue, and spit bloody mucus.  It was not usual for a person to die with a day or two of contracting the disease.

 

People did not know how to stop the disease.  One common solution was to require that everybody wear a face mask. Posters appeared asking people to cover their mouths and noses when the sneezed or coughed. Another prevention method was to encourage men to stop spitting.  Drinking alcohol was believed too prevent the flu that became popular, so popular that it caused liquor shortages.  Closing places where people gathered like churches and theaters was common.

There were so many cases that accurate records could not be kept.  There was also a shortage of doctors and nurses, and those who were available often came down with the flu themselves.  Undertakers ran out of caskets, and there was a shortage of gravediggers. Schools, theaters and businesses closed. Telegraph and telephone service stopped because the operators were sick.  Garbage went uncollected and mail was not delivered.  Since there was no known cause or treatment, people tried other remedies like carrying a potato in a pocket, or carrying a bag of camphor. Wearing a special amulet around the neck.  By November of 1918, the number of new cases started to decline.

People were willing to try anything to prevent the flu, and there were business people willing to capitalize on that.

The flu disappeared almost a quickly as it appeared.  People wanted to forget about it.  Most people didn’t realize how dangerous it was.  When the Spanish flu pandemic began, it was believed that bacteria caused the disease.  Late in 1918, scientists and doctors realized that the cause was a virus. Although the existence of viruses had been known for about 20 years, was not until 1933 that the type A flu virus was isolated, and not until 1944 that a vaccine for type A flu was available.  

Although there have been several flu pandemics since 1919, none have been as severe. The flu pandemic of 1958-1959, (the Asian Flu), killed two million people worldwide and 70,000 in the United States.  Another pandemic in 1968-1969 (Hong Kong Flu) killed one million people worldwide and 33,000 in the United States. In the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010 (Swine Flu), 12,000 Americans died. Influenza is still a dangerous disease, but now there are effective vaccines and treatments for it, and modern flu pandemic have never been as lethal as the one in 1918.

World War One in Eastern Europe: The German Occupation in Bransk, Poland.

The Main Street of Bransk, 1907  source: The Kresy Siberia Virtual Museum

World War One in Northern Poland was similar to the war in Galicia in several ways.   In the first month of the war, August 1914, Austrian ruled Galicia was invaded by Russia, and quick military victories led to two-year occupation.  The Russians were eager to claim lands that they considered part of Russia, and worked hard to “Russify” the people they conquered.  Click here to read about the Russian Occupation in Galicia 

Northern Poland also was occupied by a foreign power, Germany. Victories in the Battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, in August 1914, enabled the Germans to occupy Northern Poland, which had been ruled by Russia for almost 200 years. During the almost three year occupation, the Germans were interested in using the people for their own economic gain. 

Bransk is located about 160 km NE of Warsaw.   It is just above the square labeled Treblinka.

Bransk is in northern Poland, located about 150 km northeast of Warsaw. When World War One began, it was ruled by Russia. It is southeast of Szczuczyn, the home of my husband’s ancestors. At the beginning of World War One, The population of Bransk was about 4300, 51% Jewish.

When World War One began in August 1914, the first event that involved the people of Bransk was mobilization notices that came from the Russian authorities.  Next, the Russian army came through on their way to invade German ruled Prussia.  Mixes with the regular Russian Army soldiers, were Cossacks on horseback and Jewish soldiers, easily identified by their beards.  The Bransk Jewish community set up a Kosher kitchen to meet the dietary needs of the Jewish soldiers.  The Russians also warned the Jews against “betraying them to the Germans.”  In Bransk, on the subject of which side to support, the Jews were divided, some supported the Russians, others the Germans.  

Rabbi Szkop

The German army quickly defeated the Russians, and took over the Russian ruled areas of Poland. Russian Cossack soldiers planned to burn Bransk as they retreated.  Rabbi Szkop, an important Jewish leader in the town, collected money to give to the Cossacks, so they would leave the village unharmed.  He even bribed their leader by giving him his gold watch.

Russian Cossacks, 1915.

In September 1915, Bransk was taken over by the Germans, who occupied the town for over three years.  Their occupation was hard on the people and many were forced to work for the Germans as laborers.  People who couldn’t work up to German expectations were beaten.  The Germans appointed “communal representatives” who helped them to chose people for forced labor.  The poorest people were chosen first, then men and finally women.

Polish civilians fleeing the Advancing German Army in Russian Poland. Source: Imperial War Museum

The Germans requisitioned bread and food supplies from the merchants, and then sold the bread back to the villagers, many of them were sickened by it.  Disease came to the town in the form of scarlet fever and typhoid.  Many people hid their illness from the Germans, since there were rumors that when the Germans hospitalized people, they were poisoned.  Food shortages led to smuggling, and protests and the belief that the richest people received favorable treatment from the Germans.

In 1917, The Russian Revolution and the chaos that came with it, forced the Russians give up their war effort. As a result, the Germans relaxed their rule in Poland.  The forced labor stopped, political parties returned and books reappeared.  On November 11, 1918, World War ended with an armistice.  The Germans packed up and left an impoverished Bransk.

Source: Hoffman, Eva,  Shtetl, The Life and Death of A Small Town and The World of Polish Jews. Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1997