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Kalwaria, Poland #poland #general
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Marcia Segal
Hello all,
I'm trying to understand an aspect of Polish history. In 1883 the town of Kalwaria, in Poland, was "degraded" (as one web site puts it), until 1919. What would this mean for the Jewish population? According to a passenger list, three of my relatives came to the US from Kalwaria (if the document is to be believed) in 1892. This suggests to me that, once they had the money, they got out because life was difficult for them as Jews. Does anyone have insights regarding this or any town that became "degraded?" Many thanks. Sincerely, Marcia Segal (great-granddaughter of Kalwaria residents)
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elkus@...
While I don't know about "degrading," Feviel ELKUS my GGF likely came from Kalwaria and I found this wonderful essay about the life of Jews there:
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lita/lit1499.html William Elkus Los Angeles CA Researching: ELKUS, ROTHENBERG, BONOWICZ, BRANISKI, ROSENTHAL, KIRSTEIN, ZAGOWSKI, PRENSKA, GRUN, BURDENOUK, LEVIT, BROITMAN, SINGER
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Jill Whitehead
Kalwaria was part of Suwalki Gubernia in NE Poland until the WW1 Peace Settlement in 1919 when it went into Lithuania. This area was on the front line in both WW1 and WW2. Most emigrees left early because they were close to the Baltic. All my great grandparents left this area between 1865 and 1875 to go to the UK, following the 1863 Uprising, and enforced conscription of young men into the Tsar's Army. This early migration meant there were not many people left compared to before, and I should imagine the "degrading" may refer to that.
Jill Whitehead, Surrey, UK
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Alexander Sharon
Degrading refers to the town that lost it's "city rights" and became a village. In Polish this is knowns known as "utrata praw miejskich".
Alexander Sharon
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Sherri Bobish
Alexander, Did "utrata praw miejskich" result from a city having a smaller population than previously, or were there political reasons? Thank you, Sherri Bobish
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Krzysztof Witaszek
Hello
Kalwaria (after 1890 called Kalwaria Zebrzydowska) lost its town privileges in 1896, so it could not effect your ancestors emigration in 1892.
Town privilleges meant: self administration, possibility to organize markets and craftsman guilds and others.
I cannot tell what it meant in practice to the Jews.
See the brief article about the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska history
Krzysztof Witaszek
Lublin
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Alexander Sharon
Hi Sherri,
The reasons for the degradation were various, although you are correct, mainly economic (the settlements were small and the population worked mainly in agriculture), sometimes political (e.eg. during partitions, or after the suppression of January 1863 Uprising). Town degradation process in Poland has ceased very recently, just during 70ies of the last century. Sometime following degradation, town status has been reinstated and degraded again. Below is the sample of towns in Galicia changing their civic status toward the end of 19th century (1896). Follow sample of the first town listed: Bolechow Established as town in 1612 changed to "small town" in 1784, in 1818 changed back to town, in 1868 changed to small town, in 1879 changed again to town, in 1896 back to small town (town parish), from 1933 again known as town, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine 1896
Best, Alexander Sharon
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Alexander Sharon
Kalwaria Zabrzydowska was a smaller town in Wadowice region of Poland.
The proper Polish Kalwaria is known as Góra Kalwaria or Ger in Yiddish, located within Grójec district, some 20 miles distance from Warszawa. This was a place were Hasidic Gur (Ger) dynasty have resided. Gora Kalwaria (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) Polish Gora Kalwaria and Lithuanian Kalvarija had equal number of the Jewish residents, about 3,000. Alexander Sharon JGFF editor
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