craftsmen who worked using small manually-operated machines, usually as
cottage workers manufacturing for major Warsaw entrepreneurs. The workat-
home tailors (who specialised in trousers, jackets, etc.) also delivered finished
items of clothing to Warsaw storehouses.
The largest factories were: Hajdenkruk’s tannery, known for high-quality
sole leather, the ether and ethereal oil factory, the “Sztancmetal” factory
(metal goods) employing 400 workers, the carpentry workshops (farming
machine parts), the nail factory, three sweets factories, two box factories,
the leather accessories workshops, and the “Mastewal” factory of wood-andcement
boards. Moreover, there were several larger yards with building materials
and fuel. Hosiers, tailors, shoemakers, and petty traders were the most
numerous.
The attitude of the Polish population toward the Jewish population before
the war was usually proper. During the last three years there was, as everywhere
else, a boycott of Jewish traders (an influence of the local and non-local
ONR).
The political authorities (county governor’s office), as always, supported
the reactionary administration of the Jewish Community. As for KKO,¹⁰⁸³ the
Jews took credits from there and they also had a representative in the management, who assessed the creditworthiness and solvency of Jewish borrowers. But there was one case when the Jews assumed collective responsibility for a Jew who had failed to pay back the sum of 4,000 zlotys.
During the last decade, most mayors had a proper attitude toward the
Jewish population. The municipality even contributed 40 per cent of the costs
of the school for Jewish children erected by a Jewish cooperative.
The war started.
During the first couple of days, 40 people died from bombs and three
Jewish houses were destroyed. During 6–10 September, almost all the Jewish
population left their homes and went to Warsaw on the electric commuter
train, by carts, or on foot. Only a small percentage hid in nearby villages
only to return several days later. Both the former and the latter left all their
property at the mercy of fate and some of the remaining Poles. All the shops
were plundered and all the furniture was stolen from flats, as departures
were in panic, some left their property without proper protection. As always,
1083 Abbreviation of Polish Komunalna Kasa Oszczędności (Communal Savings Bank).
