Y. H. KANCYPOLSKI UNDER POLISH JURISDICTION 1919— 1939 Fotiowing the defeats suffered by the German armies in France at the end of 1918, a revolution erupted in Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland, while an armistice was concluded among the belligerents. Bialystok, which was then a key railroad center and far from the war front, served the Germans as a depot for unloading and maintaining arms, ammuni- tion, food and clothing for their army. As soon as the revolution broke out against the German regime, its commandant in Bialystok, a celebrated general, shot himself, unable to bear the humiliation of defeat. Poland, until then divided into three sections for one hundred years among Germany, Austria and Rus- sia — enslaved and oppressed, almost as if responding on cue — immediately threw off its shackles and stood in Opposition against its conquerors. Many Poles set fire to the German warehouses, looting guns, clothing and food. Young Polish boys brandished rifles over their shoulders, organizing them- selves into legions to expel the German occupiers. Wherever they found a German soldier they threw him to the ground, pulled off his coat and shoes and chased him back on his way to Germany. Ultimately, however, many Jews suffered from this resurgent Polish nationalism. For several months, at a railroad station between Warsaw and Bialystok, Jews were pulled off the trains ostensibly to be searched. In fact they were brutally beaten and robbed and had their beards sheared off against their will. Later on things quieted down. Bialystok began manufacturing uniforms and blankets for the Polish Army. Poland fought against Russia for two years and Bialystok had more than enough work for its factories. Finally, after peace was concluded in 1920, many Bia- lystoker merchants and manufacturers returned from Russia, where they had gone in 1915 to join the Czarist armies. They returned to factories and machines that had been severely neglected. Everything was gradually put into good working order. For three years business boomed, since commodities had been scarce for the Polish population during the war. Bialystok fared well. In 1924 the Polish govern- ment established a sound currency. Business in Poland returned to normal and conditions stabilized. Bialystok did, however, miss its German and Russian markets. The rest of Poland could do with only three months worth of supplies manufactured in Bialystok. Under the early Polish jurisdiction, factories remained idle in Bia- lystok for seven to eight months per year. Workers received no unemployment benefits from the government. The Bialystoker Memorial Book A mass migration of Jewish merchants, factory owners and workers from Bialystok began. They went to Rumania, Yugoslavia, and even to Australia. But the majority went to Israel and the Americas. Because of the chronic depression that plagued Bialystok’s industry, a delegation of manufacturers appealed to the Polish government to ease the tax burden on Jewish merchants and factory owners and to encourage the Polish army to place orders with them. The government answered that it did not care whether Bialystok’s industry collapsed altogether. Poland could live without Bialystok. As for taxes, the government’s minister claimed that the Jews would find an answer. After all, they supposedly had rich relatives in America who would not abandon them. With the exception of the years 1931-35, when Bia- lystok was able to export its products to India, China and Spain, the decade of the thirties was a crisis period for industry. * * א With the establishment of the new Polish regime, a different system was instituted within the Bialystok city administration. All cities in Poland were to acquire a Polish character, meaning that Jews lost control over the economy in their towns. Voting districts were gerry- mandered; Bialystok was tacked on to smaller towns nearby. Jews became a minority, dropping from 55 to 47 percent. Appeals for voters to register as well as plat- form explanations and slates of candidates were printed only in Polish, which the majority of Jews in 1924 did not understand. As a result, they decided to boycott the elections, thus ensuring that the newly chosen city administration consisted entirely of Poles. The latter even claimed it was a great honor for them that the Jews had such unquestioning confidence in their ability to oversee the economy of the proud city of Bialystok. Soon the Polish citizens realized they could not do without Jews in positions of authority. The city’s econ- omy deteriorated sharply. The Polish-dominated administration was set aside and new elections were called. Now the shoe was on the other foot. The Polish citizens refused to vote and the Jews participated fully in the voting. As a consequence, although Jews were in the minority within the gerrymandered districts, they became a majority in the city government. In order not to alienate the Poles, however, Jews in Bialystok voted for a Polish city president and for a Jew as vice- president.