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Remembering the Jewish Community of

Mishnitz, Poland

Remembered by Linda Winiker

My grandmother, Becky (Bracha) Kaslowitz Winiker, came from the town of Mishnitz, located on the border of Poland and Germany. Much of the information that I have about this town comes from the Yizkor book about the town of Ostrolenka. There is a chapter about Mishnitz in this book that I will quote from. “Mishnitz is a bedroom community for Ostrolenka and was connected to it by a small railway.” Almost the whole town consisted of a small street that ran directly to a highway. The houses were one story and made of wood. After World War I, when everything had been burned and destroyed, some Mishnitzers returned from the surrounding places where they had stayed during the war. The Jewish population consisted of 240-250 families. According to statistical records from before World War I, in 1897 about 1800 Jewish people lived in Mishnitz.

Mishnitz was also a commercial town that had business relations with the surrounding area. Many people from nearby towns used to come there to do business. A large part of the economy had to do with the German border, and many people derived a living smuggling silk, raisins, and similar things. However, the economy of the town consisted of more than that. There were also shops and market days, in which people dealt whatever they could.

That Mishnitz was a tightly knit small town, a town of “all for one and one for all,” can be shown by the story of a Jew from Kharzhel named Yitzhak Eli. One time Yitzhak Eli brought a wagon loaded with flour from Kharzhel (a town 35 kilometers from Mishnitz) to Mishnitz and could not easily sell it. The wagon driver, a Christian from the nearby village, became impatient and began to take the bags of flour off the wagon and threw them into the middle of the street leaving Yitzhak Eli to G-d’s mercy. As soon as this was noticed, people from all corners of the town ran over with "kiankes" (sticks), in their hands. Woman as well as men, small and big, attacked the Christian. They unhitched the horse and took the “hortshikes” (merchandise). They let him stand there until the Christian asked for mercy, that the “hortshikes” be given back, and that he should be left alone. He promised with passion to be: good and devout: and too know from then on how to behave. The story stirred up all of Mishnitz at that time and called forth warm feelings from all the inhabitants of the town.

Jewish social life came to expression in the Shul, at Jewish celebrations and private gatherings. Plays were put on every so often at the Fire Station. Mostly artists who were either passing through or were invited played there. In this way, Mishnitz lived for many years in its own unique way until Hitlerite murderers came in and, in the blink of an eye, erased it from the living world. People say that before the Nazis came, a large number of Mishnitzer Jews fell in a bombardment of the small train station. After that, the Jews were spread out and scattered in different ghettos and death camps where they gave up their holy souls. “May G-d avenge their blood.”

My grandmother came to this countrywith her aunt when she was fifteen. She left behind her father, stepmother, three siblings, and many other relatives, all of whom perished in the Holocaust.

Mishnitz may also be spelled Myszyniec, and is located in the Bialystok district of Poland.