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Dr. Michał Strykowski, prewar photo; Ghetto Fighters House, Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot, Israel

Strykowski was born on June 13, 1903, in Konin. He was a veterinarian by profession. In 1924 he graduated from the local Jewish gymnasium headed at the time by Leopold Infeld (1898–1968)[1] who later became a world-renowned theoretical physicist and close associate of Albert Einstein. In 1935 he graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Warsaw[2]. While he was in Konin, he lived in a small house at 3 Maja Street together with his father, the owner of a shop selling nails and other metal products, and his brother Natan, a lawyer by education (although not working in the business). It was a representative sector of the city running through the Konin market square (the so-called Big Market) and the town hall, inhabited by a significant number of Jews before the war. Near the Big Market (called Groyser Mark by Konin Jews) there was Teper Mark (Yiddish: Pottery Market) – the center of the local Jewish community[3]. Shortly before September 1, 1939, about 2,500 out of 12,000 inhabitants of this town were Jews, so they constituted about 20 percent of the total population[4].

Together with his brother, Strykowski became involved in the activities of the local revisionist movement. The Konin branch was created as a result of a division within the left-wing Zionist scouting organization Hashomer Hatzair (Hebrew: Young Guard). Those of its members who came closer to the ideas propagated by Włodzimierz/Władymir Ze’ew Żabotyński (Jabotinsky, 1880–1940) have formed their own party. The differences between these two groups are probably best described by Jozef Lewandowski (born Izaak Lipszyc, 1923–2007) – a historian born in Konin, forced immigrant from March 1968 residing, until he died, in Sweden[5]: “Revisionists were generally well educated, they belonged to the patriciate and often were acculturated in such a way that that it was only in their excessively good Polish language that their Jewishness could be discerned. The Chalutzim [members of Hashomer Hatzair – Sz. P.], on the other hand, were of commoner origin or pretended to be plebeian and they were more deeply rooted in Jewish culture”[6]. The Revisionists used to dress militarily, wearing brown denim overalls and caps trimmed with blue and white tape (the official colors of their party). The Revisionists in Konin conducted a wide range of activities – e.g. they organized Hachshara camps and/or colonies (professional training preparing for life in Palestine), agitated in the elections to the Zionist Congress, carried out numerous social campaigns – like “buy Israeli”, promoting the purchase of products from Eretz Israel[7]. Besides the Strykowski brothers amongst the founders and leading members of Revisionism Zionism in Konin were also Lutek Ejzen, Jechezekiel Kot, Abraham Lewin, and Mosze Lipczyc. In 1933, a women’s section was established largely due to the efforts of Kelcze Ejz(e)n[8].

Jabotinsky – the founder and main ideologue of this movement – was deeply concerned about the events in Germany after 1933, and insisted on the necessity of self-defence against the growing wave of anti-Semitism in Europe (including the use of violence in response to violence), rejection of the concept of Diaspora, decisive defense of Jewish interests in Palestine through mass emigration (“Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan”) and the establishment of a Jewish army. On September 8, 1938, at a meeting with his supporters in a tightly packed synagogue in Poznań at the intersection of Wroniecka and Stawna streets (one of the many such events at the time, it’s highly possible that Michał Strykowski was in the audience), Jabotinsky criticized the actions of the so-called “stam-Zionists”[9] aiming to concentrate in Eretz Israel “only the best elements of world Jewry, while the revisionists, using simple mathematics, seek to locate all the Jewry, or at least the greater its part, in Palestine”[10]. He compared the aspirations of the General Zionists in this matter to squeezing a lemon and throwing it away after extracting the juice from its inside (he returned to this comparison many times during his speech). He called for the abandonment of Hawlaga – an official policy adopted by the Jewish Agency[11] in response to the wave of riots in British-mandated Palestine in 1929–1930, assuming restraint, non-violence response to the local Arab population. The Revisionist broke with it, arguing that it was in fact counterproductive – its result was the increasing conquest of Palestine by the Arabs. As was the case in many other such meetings, people listened to him with curiosity, but apart from his staunch supporters, hardly anyone took his words seriously back then[12].

Michał Strykowski moved from Konin to Warsaw. Before the war broke out, he lived at 8 Franciszkańska Street. It’s there where he received his education and steadily climbed up the political career ladder. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Polish Zionist-Revisionist Party. However, he did not forget about his hometown. He supplied the Jewish library in Konin – one of the largest in the region, it’s believed that in 1922 there was a total amount of over five thousand volumes in Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew, Russian and other languages (more than in neighboring Kalisz, which was a far bigger city with much larger Jewish population)[13]  – with books purchased at discount prices in Warsaw’s secondhand bookshops. “Thanks to his sensitivity and knowledge, we had the newest Polish literature in Konin, as well as translations from French, German and English. Interestingly, this went without ideological prejudices, because we even had publications by Céline[14] and Nowaczyński[15], who, as it’s known, were hostile to Jews”[16]  – Lewandowski recalls. “I remember Michał Strykowski – he continues – I remember seeing him occasionally. He was medium-height, had brown hair, without distinct features described as «Jewish», and was several years older than me. I did not socialize with him, although I knew his father and his brother, Natan, an old bachelor at the time, also a dozen or so years older than me”[17].

Like many Jews in the late 1930s, Strykowski was especially interested in the Palestinian issue, as manifested by several of his articles published in the Zionist-Revisionist-oriented magazine “Trybuna Akademicka” (“Academic Tribune”)[18], in which he presented views very similar to Jabotinsky’s. In one of them (from November–December 1938), under the title Ziemia dwóm obiecana… (The Land Promised to both Peoples), he discusses the geopolitical situation accompanying the announcement of the so-called Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917) on the restoration of a “Jewish national home” in Palestine. The lack of significant progress in the implementation of this declaration and tardiness on the part of its guarantors (Great Britain and other Entente states) led to the formulation of the following, rather bitter conclusion: “21 years that have passed since the Balfour Declaration have not changed nothing in this respect. The same doubts arise today, and of course, Jewry cannot decide the future state of affairs at the present time. There is only one possibility for the Jewish state-building action at this moment: the freedom movement in Ireland. Sinn Féin [original Irish term – Sz. P.[19]] means «by ourselves»”. Another article – the one from January–February 1939 titled Problem czasu w dziele realizacji syjonizmu (The Question of Time in Implementing Zionism) – began with the motto from Don Quixote by Cervantes: “On the great clock of history one word is written: Now”. He encouraged people to break off the habit of excessive theorizing, so common among Jews, in favor of taking actual steps – accelerating emigration to Palestine, giving this phenomenon a mass character, and strengthening Jewish settlement competing with the Arabs. The outbreak of World War II less than nine months later prevented the fulfillment of these resolves, and Strykowski himself was deprived of the opportunity to reach Eretz Israel.

After the borders of the Warsaw ghetto were closed on November 16, 1940, Franciszkańska Street, where Strykowski lived, belonged in its entirety to the “closed district”[20]. In December 1941, the eastern section of the street was excluded from the ghetto[21]. However, this didn’t apply to the building at number 8. One of the bunkers was located at this address, where civilians were hiding during the ghetto uprising in April and May 1943[22]. Strykowski’s wartime fate remains largely unknown, he rarely appears in testimonies of surviving Jewish Military Union members, such as Wdowiński or Perec Laskier. Strykowski was supposed to be a member of its political committee, together with Wdowiński and Rodal. This organization was established in the autumn of 1942, shortly after the creation of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB, Jewish Fighting Organization) on July 28, 1942, during the Great Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto (Grossaktion). Jewish Military Union for the most part consisted of right-wing Zionist activists and the Betar Movement (Revisionist Zionist youth organization founded in 1923, an addition to the “senior party”), many of whom serving prior in the Polish army, fighting against the Germans in September 1939, therefore having proper military background and experience behind them. During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Jewish Fighting Organization and the Jewish Military Union fought due to tactical and ideological differences that remained unresolved. Zionist Revisionists wanted to join the Jewish Fighting Organization but they couldn’t agree with one of conditions imposed on them, namely that they had to do so as individuals, not as an entire unit. Both groups took different positions when it came to the issue of leadership (Jewish Military Union wanted military men/veterans in the leading position, Jewish Fighting Organization backed civilians) or strategy (the former opted for inflicting the greatest possible losses on the Germans in short-lived but effective skirmishes, after which they would need to leave the ghetto and continue guerilla warfare in surrounding forests; the latter adhered to the idea of fighting till the bitter end, i.e. – death). Jewish Military Union Fighters operated in the vicinity of Plac Muranowski (Muranowski Square). Their headquarters was set in the building at number 7/9. It was connected to the Aryan site by an underground passage, which they used in the later time, after three days of intensive fighting. Two flags were hung on the top of this building on the second day of the uprising (April, 20, 1943) – a red and white one (Polish national colors) and the blue-white one with the Star of David (future Israeli flag) – became the symbol of their resistance[23].

Michał Strykowski died in September 1943 in the forced labor camp in Poniatowa. It is not known how and when he ended up in this camp, and the circumstances of his death are not fully known. He could have died in one of the executions – by accident or in connection with finding weapons and preparing for armed resistance[24].

Information (erroneous) about his (probable) participation in the fighting during the ghetto uprising and his later death in a skirmish on June 19, 1943, after finding a hideout in an apartment at 11/13 Grzybowska Street in Warsaw, where some of the surviving members of the ŻZW, led by Paweł Frenkel, stayed after the fall of the ghetto uprising, can be found in the digitalized archival resources of the Ghetto Fighters Museum in the Lochamei HaGetaot kibbutz. Brother Natan survived the war in the USSR and later emigrated to Israel, where he took the name Ahikam. He was the president of the Konin landsmanshaft in Israel and one of the editors of the Konin Memorial Book published in 1968[25].

Notes:

[1] On Leopold Infeld’s short stay in Konin in years 1922–1924, see: L. Infeld,  Szkice z przeszłości. Wspomnienia, Warszawa 1964, p. 47 et seq.; T. Richmond, Uporczywe echo. Sztetl Konin – poszukiwanie, translated from English by P. Szymczak, Poznań 2001, pp. 125–140 et seq.

[2] He earned a PhD in veterinary, see: D. Libionka, L. Weinbaum, Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze, op. cit., p. 326.

[3] More on Teper Mark in the recollections of Konin Jews, see: T. Richmond, Uporczywe echo. Sztetl Konin – poszukiwanie, op. cit., pp. 46–50.

[4] See: Wirtualny Sztetl. Demografia, https://sztetl.org.pl/en/node/21034.

[5] Historian, employee of the Military Political Academy in Warsaw, Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences and universities in Stockholm and Uppsala. After the antisemitic campaign in March 1968, he moved to Sweden. Author of many books and articles published e.g. in the Paris-based Polish-émigré literary-political magazine “Kultura” (“Culture”). Lipszyc/Lewandowski stayed in Konin for the first sixteen years of his life. He left his hometown together with his parents and younger sister Bajla (Bela) at the end of November 1939, heading to the eastern border. He survived the war in the USSR. In 1944 he returned to the country as a soldier of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie (Polish People’s Army). His sister joined the Anders’ Army in Iran, ended up in an orphanage, and together with Jewish soldiers managed to get to Palestine. She settled there, finished psychology studies, and worked as a clinic manager and researcher. Their parents – Abram and Tauba – died of hunger in 1942 in Szafruchan near Bukhara (Uzbekistan). Lewandowski was one of the few surviving Jews from Konin. He described his impressions of his short stay in his hometown shortly after the war in a self-published essay titled Cztery dni w Atlantydzie (Four days in Atlantis). The first edition appeared in Sweden in 1991, the second one was published in Konin in 1996 under the changed title Moja Atlantyda (My Atlantis).

[6] J. Lewandowski, Archeologia niepamięci (Archeology of Non-Memory), Midrasz, 4 (108), 2006; see also the online version: http://www.jozeflewandowski.se/texter/Archeologia_niepamieci.htm. 

[7] Eretz Israel - the Hebrew name for Palestine as the territory given by Yahweh to the Israeli people. It became the official term used by activists of the Zionist movement to describe the area of the British mandate in Palestine, and now the geographical area of Israel, see: https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Erec-Israel;3898412.htm.  

[8] See: Z Księgi Pamięci gminy żydowskiej Konina (From the Memorial Book of the Jewish Community of Konin), trans. from Yiddish by K. Modelski, Miasteczko Poznań, 1 (40) / 2021, pp. 62-63.

[9] A pejorative term with regards to those Zionist groups that took a more conciliatory stance towards Palestine than the Revisionist Zionists.

[10] State Archive in Poznań (AP Poznań), Urząd Wojewódzki w Poznaniu, Sprawy polityczne, Sprawozdania z życia mniejszości narodowych od 1 maja do 31 października 1938 r. (Voivodeship Office in Poznań, Political matters, Reports on the life of national minorities from May 1 to October 31, 1938), signature: 53/296/0/2.1/5709, pp. 87-88.

[11] The executive body of the World Zionist Organization, which included many political groups that represented Zionist movement.

[12] In the audience witnessing Jabotinsky’s speech was, among others, Fira Mełamedzon (1915–2014), who lived in Poznań from 1927 to 1939. This is how she recalls that very day: “I remember that he stood in front of Aron Hakodesh [an altar cabinet in the form of a decorative wooden box used to store Torah scrolls in the synagogue  – Sz. P.], there were many people around him as he began to speak. He gestured with expression, but did not wave his arms – «Jews, get out of here!» – he cried – «Believe Hitler! What he preaches, his words, his threats, are true. Trust me, he'll squeeze the blood out of you like one squeezes a lemon». He reached out and clenched his fist. I still have that image in my mind. People listened to him attentively, but hardly anyone took what he said seriously. […] It was thought that he was exaggerating”. The thread with lemon interestingly reflects the meanders of memory – it appears in both cited sources (the report for the Poznań Voivode and Fira’s memoir), but in a slightly different context. See: Fira. Poznań Jews. A Tale of Life, ed. A. Niziołek, K. Kosakowska, Poznań 2014, p. 196: see also: https://www.fira1915.pl/f10-zeew-zabotynski-w.../.

[13] On the Jewish library in Konin, see e.g.: J. Lewandowski, Moja Atlantyda, Konin 1996, pp. 76-78; T. Richmond, Uporczywe echo. Sztetl Konin – poszukiwanie, op. cit. pp. 308-316.

[14] Louis-Ferdinand Céline (born Louis-Ferdinand Destouches) (1894–1961) – French writer and essayist, famous for his scandalous novel from 1932 Journey to the End of the Night. He remains a controversial figure because of his anti-Semitic views and collaboration with German occupiers during the period of Vichy France (1940–1944).

[15] Adolf Nowaczyński (1876-1944) – writer, publicist, social activist ideologically associated with the National Democracy. A self-proclaimed representative of “intelligent”, “sublime” or “non-violent” version anti-Semitism, called “our Adolf” by some Jewish journalists.

[16] J. Lewandowski, Archeologia niepamięci, op. cit.

[17] Ibidem.

[18] Strykowski also published several other articles in this magazine, in 1939 he joined its editorial squad. See: D. Libionka, L. Weinbaum, Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze, op. cit., p. 327.

[19] A reference to the Irish independence organization whose activities led to the creation of the Irish Republic in 1916.

[20] See: B. Engelking, J. Leociak, Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście, Warsaw 2001, pp. 140–145.

[21] Ibidem, p. 102.

[22] Ibidem, p. 754.

[23] See: B. Borys, Zapomniana walka. Udział ŻZW w powstaniu w getcie warszawskim, op. cit.

^[23] See: T. Richmond, Uporczywe echo. Sztetl Konin – poszukiwanie, op. cit., p. 206, 308–16, 396, 430–434; J. Lewandowski, Archeologia niepamięci, op. cit.

[24] D. Libionka, L. Weinbaum, Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze, op. cit., pp. 567–568.

[25] T. Richmond, Uporczywe echo. Sztetl Konin – poszukiwanie, op. cit.; J. Lewandowski, Archeologia niepamięci, op. cit.