a chevra bikur cholim.⁹⁴³ The whole Jewish press was widely circulated. The best
public speakers and the most famous painters and artists were in Kutno.
Relations between the general population and the Jews were good. Jews
were proportionally represented on the town council relative to a total population
of 27,000. Many Jews were active in the municipal administration.
Until the very last, the town had a PPS majority. The mayor was a democrat,
a PPS senator,⁹⁴⁴ who worked hand-in-hand with the Jews.
Jews took part in all municipal deliberations concerning [3] buildings,
szkoły,⁹⁴⁵ ochronki,⁹⁴⁶ starostwo, etc. (3). For many years, Jewish officials held
prestigious positions on the town council. Typically, the caretaker working
at the municipality until the expulsion was a Jew, Noyekh Gurkier.⁹⁴⁷ During
the owszem⁹⁴⁸ period, the main official agencies continued to buy from Jews.
This included the 37th Infantry Regiment, which had helped Piłsudski assume
power in 1926 and now, from the most senior officer down to the simple
foot-soldier, openly bought from Jews.
During the notorious picketing period, the administration and police
took very strong action against the pickets, so that the [. . .] plague was not
as rampant in Kutno as in other towns and shtetls.
In Kutno there was vibrant Jewish life in all fields, with splendid, famous
traditions. But that was only until the tragic outbreak of the war, when Jewish
life was destroyed to the root.
When the terrifying word “war” seized people’s lives like a malarial fever,
the young [3a] did not understand. They had not felt nor known the taste of
943 (Hebrew) society for visiting the sick.
944 Eugeniusz Filipowicz (1903–1999), military man, politician, mayor of Kutno from 1934 to 1939 (with breaks); member of the Sejm in 1938; until 6 September chief of national defence in Kutno. Active in the Polish underground, arrested by the Gestapo several times but managed to escape, in 1998 recognised as an Honourable Citizen of the town of Kutno.
945 (Polish) schools, i.e. public, non-Jewish schools.
946 (Polish) nurseries.
947 Born 7 May 1888, see https://jri-poland.org/kutno_ghetto_inhabitants_list.htm
(accessed 15 January 2019).
948 (Polish) “by all means.” On 4 June 1936 prime minister Felicjan Sławoj Składowski made a speech in which he strongly condemned violence against Jews but accepted or, as most historians argue, promoted — economic boycott: “economic struggle, by any means, but no physical harm.” Economic boycott of Jews became government policy, and the period from 1936 onwards was often referred as the “owszem” period.
