war.⁷⁸¹ Until 1918, Jews were very wealthy, built all the school buildings and
donated them to the municipality. In 1919–1920, Jews fled in panic, selling for
next to nothing or giving away the finest and largest properties worth many
tens of millions. At first, it was also very hard for a Jew to remain or settle
there (for fear of pogroms). The outbreak of war in 1939 found about 45 families,
half of them long-established, the other half newcomers.⁷⁸² The kehillah
board had 10 members,⁷⁸³ 3 of them newcomers, but communal affairs
were conducted authoritatively by the strong personality of Dr Levy. There
was a rabbi, Dr Erich Simon, an interest-free loan fund established under the
direction of Dr Levy, a Zionist organisation⁷⁸⁴ [. . .] headed by Meyer Smolarz
and Dr Simon-Elkes (may he rest in peace). According to the Polish ordinance
on Jewish communal bodies in Pomerania,⁷⁸⁵ the gmina included the
towns of Kruszwica, Pakość,⁷⁸⁶ Mogilno, Strzelno,⁷⁸⁷ Barcin, Gniewkowo,⁷⁸⁸
and villages. At the head of Jewish life stood two remarkable personalities:
1. Dr Warschauer, a renowned physician, inventor of the [. . .] introduced it in
his own sanatorium, a philanthropist, held high the flag of the Jewish community;
2. Dr Levy, whose life was as characteristic [4] as his death. Dr Levy,
an assessor, came from [. . .]. His great-grandfather was a rabbi in Inowrocław;⁷⁸⁹
his father, Dr Michał Levy⁷⁹⁰ [. . .] discovered the now-large limestone quarries
781 i.e. WWI.
782 After WWI the Inowrocław Jews, most of whom were assimilated into German culture, began to immigrate to Germany in large numbers. Jews from central and eastern Poland, known also as Congress Poland, began to settle in Inowrocław in the mid-1920s.
783 Among those elected in 1937 were: Leopold Levy, Wilhelm Warschauer, Artur Joel, Szmul Kaczmarek, Ludwik Lippmann, Moritz Hirsch, Józef Abraham and Stanisław Simon.
784 A branch of the General Zionists Organisation was established in 1937.
785 The ordinance of the Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education “Regarding territorial division of Jewish religious communities in the Pomeranian and Poznań provinces” of 28 September 1932 introduced a new administrative division for Jewish communities. As the Jewish population of those territories was relatively small, small communities were joined together into larger ones to be able to finance the community functionaries and religious institutions.
786 Pakość (Inowrocław County).
787 Strzelno (Mogilno County).
788 Barcin, Gniewkowo (Inowrocław County).
789 A reference to his great-great-grandfather, Mojżesz (Moses) Aron Levy, who died in 1799.
790 Leopold’s grandfather, Michał Levy (1807–1879), merchant and industrialist, town councillor and one of its wealthiest citizens, the main initiator and shareholder of the
