In the pre-war period about 750 (another estimation is of about 600) Jews lived in Boćki. The Germans bombed Boćki on September 1st (may occur a short while after September 6, 1939, causing death of many Boćki residents including at least 3 Jews. The Germans withdrew at the end of September and the area was annexed due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to Belarus. The reoccupation occurred on June 25, 1941 when a Whermacht unit captured Boćki. Seven Jews were murdered that day. On July 7, 1941 The Jews were expelled by the Germans from their homes with 2 hours notice to report into a makeshift prison in the poorest part of the Jewish neighborhood. They returned to their homes only several days later to find out that their chattels were stolen. A Jewish council and police force were nominated. On March 1942 the Jewish people of Boćki were resettled in two ghettos that were created in Boćki, they were fenced, and the passage between them was prohibited. The ghetto residents were forced to do labor projects for the Germans and the Poles. On November 2, 1942 the ghetto was liquidated: The Jewish people were ordered to gather on the square in front of the synagogue. Convoy of carts of Christian local peasants carried the elderly, women and children Jews from Boćki To Bielsk Podlaski ghetto. The men followed the convoy on foot. In the ghetto of Bielsk-Podlaski there were 7,000 local Jews, and 4,000 more were brought from Boćki, Bransk, Narew, and Orla. They were deported in eleven transports of 1,000 in each transport, between November 2nd and the 11th." Most of Bocki Jews were murdered by gas on arrival to Treblinka death camp. Some male craftsmen were allowed by the Germans to return from Bielsk Podlaski ghetto to Boćki. In final liquidation on December 1942 many tried to escape but most were either shot, found in searches, caught and sent to death camps or handed in (until June 1943) by local Poles. Only one Boćki ghetto resident survived: Max Farber.
Bielsk district, Bialystok county
| Year | General Population | Jewish |
|---|---|---|
| 1676 | --- | 44 |
| 1716 | --- | 96 |
| 1799 | 1,513 | 616 |
| 1847 | --- | 2,567 |
| 1897 | 2,636 | 1,409 |
| 1921 | 1,719 | 725 |
Bocki is situated 18 km from the district town Bielsk, on the river Nurzec.
In 1509 King Zygmunt the 1st granted them with rights of town according to the Magdenburg
Rights and in 1513, Its owner - prince Sapieha built there a church.
Later it belonged to the Pranicki nobility family and to Potocki nobility family.
It was sold to the Russians on 1823.
Bocki became famous for manufacturing whips and general leather products.
Until the construction of the railway Bialystok - Bielsk at the second half of the 19th
century Bocki had a mail station. At the end of the 19th century they built a brick klin,
a brewery and a tannery factory.
At the end of WWI Bocki was included in Poland and in 1934 it lost its position as town.
From September 1939 Bocki was under Soviet rule and in the end of June 1941 it was occupied
by the Germans. In the summer of 1944 Bocki was released by the Soviet army.
The Jewish people until the end of WWI
According to a document from 1577 Jewish people settled in Bocki in early 16th century, and
an old tombstone from 1648 indicates the existence of a Jewish cemetery. Those years the community
of Bocki was subjected to the community of the Tykocin county and paid its taxes through it to
"the Committee of The Jews of Lithuania".
According to local regulation from 1658, Jewish people were forbidden to leave Bocki without the
permission of prince Sapieha. Nearby villages also had Jewish communities. On 1748 the Bocki Jews
were forbidden to sell or give their homes or lands and they had to pay road taxes to the land
owners(which they could convert to work in repairing roads), and a poll tax to the crown. In the
tax book of Bocki from
1733 there were 79 Jewish family heads, 58 of them "citizens of the town" (homeowners and landowners).
According to a document from 1772 there were among the Jews two butchers, two bakers, five tailors
one hat maker and one bookbinder. The number of craftsmen in Bocki was constantly growing and there
were also tinsel producers, tanners, berbers, furriers and some Klezmer musicians.
Some of the Jews had Pubs and Inns, these were usually log cabins built in a uniform style. One of
them, a widow turned her pub into an inn and lodge for vacationers. The lodge was one of the best in
the area. Polish nobles and officials were among its guests.
Seven of the Jewish traders ("the big") exported cattle, leather and tobacco of local production to
distant markets and imported goods such as coffee, rice, sugar oil from Spain and more. They went far
to trade -to the cities of Ukraine and Russia
( MogileV, Smolensk) and to the big markets in Hamburg, Leipzig and Frankfurt on the Oder in Germany.
This trade opened new markets to the Polish kingdom and contributed to the acceleration of its economic
development. On their roads of trade the traders of Bocki visited also the markets of the Shtetl
Kleszczele. On their travels to distant lands they also imported raw materials for local craftsmen
and bought their products to sell in the distant. This has increased the domestic workers industry
in Bocki. Despite their wealth, the big traders needed guarantees and credit from the community
institutions. Graf Potocki himself, the owner of the town in the mid 18th century lent 7,000 Zloty
to Abraham son of Shimon, the biggest leaser of the town and to the "big seven" he lent money to
buy bulls, anise and tobacco.
Alongside the "big" there were among the Jews of Bocki small traders, shopkeepers and market stallholders.
At the end of the 18th century Jews had about 13 shops and stalls -11 for fabric, 1 for brandy and one
general merchandise, and during 1772-1798 they leased 15 breweries and 15 brandy distilleries.
At the beginning of the 19th century Jews were restricted in their trading activities and their economic
situation worsened. In a big fire on 1834 many of their homes and public buildings were burned and the
community notebook also burned. On 1837 a new "community notebook" was opened which was also burned later.
On 1847 the community reached its peak at 2,567 members. On 1872 epidemic broke out in town.
It may be that the decline in number of Jews after that peak has to do partially with the epidemic but
the main cause was probably the migration overseas, a trend that accelerated in the transition from the
19th to the 20th century( but the Jewish part of the population remained more than a half).
The first Jews of Bocki built a small house of prayer. On 1722 the archdiocese rejected their request for
permssion to renovate it or the construction of a new synagogue instesd of it, and only on 1750 with the
intervention of Graf Potocki, the Jews got the desired permit and built a synagogue. At about the same
time the community opened a new cemetery after the old one from the 17th century was filled to capacity.
Alongside of the old "Burial society" new charities were established in Bocki in the 19th century such as
"The justice lodging" and "visiting the sick".
On the second half of the 19th century the synagogue was burned and in the years 1884-1887 the community
built in its place a new spacious synagogue and two "Batey Midrash" ("learning housus" -a.r).
Among the rabbis of the community we know of R' David Saul Katsenelbogen
(1761-1819); his son R' Arye Leib Katsenelbogen; R' Yerucham Altshuller (passed 1856); R' Shmuel Hirsh
Citron; R' Zeev Volf Lifshits; R' Malkiel Tsvi Tenenboim, who was one of the greatest lithuanian "Halacha
responders" (until 1883); R' Zelig Ruben Bengis, who left on 1912 and later on migrated to Jerusalem,
Israel where he served as the head of the court of the orthodox community,; R' Yochanan Mirski (from 1912)
a zionist who moved to Zabludow and perished there. Also buried in the cemetery of Bocki "The Rabbi from
Brisk" R' Yaakov Shor who served as the rabbi of the community and died in the epidemic on 1855.
At the end of the 19th century as the "enlightenment" spread, the youngs of Bocki joined "Chovevey Zion"
movement and later on to the Zionistic movement. At the same time a branch of the "Bund" was founded in the
town. About 100 of the children of the community still studied in six "cheiders" (rooms, a.r) but some of
the boys and most of the girls already went to a Russian national school in Bocki and the community
participated in its funding and maintenance. During WW1 the front line was close to Bocki. The Russian
military authorities blamed the Jews of disloyalty and chased them.
The Jewish people between WWI and WWII
During the war (WWI a.r) the Jews were reduced to ruin, and aferwards they needed assistance. The Jewish
traders bank that was established in Bocki in the 1920's and the local charity fund helped them with convenient
loans. They also established a Jewish traders union. Despite the assistance the Jews were unable to make a
living., mainly because the Polish government discriminated against them with its economical policy. Many traders
and craftsman couldn't stand the heavy tax burden imposed on self employed small business owners. It was difficult
to compete with the new Polish cooperatives established with the assistance of the authorities. During the late
1930's Situation became worse when on top of these, were added the anti-Semitism and incitement of economic boycott.
Despite the economic hardship there were a vibrant public life, acted in Bocki several parties and Zionistic
youth movements and their members were also active in cultural activities (See drama theatre club photo , a.r).
The Rabbi of Bocki from 1924 (1922 according to his son, a.r) was R' Nissan Shmoshkovic Ben Tsion, who migrated to
Israel on 1935 and served as the head of the court of the orthodox community in Haifa. The last Rabbi R' Chaim
Shlomo Zimni perished in the holocaust.
During WWII
On September 1st the Germans bombed Bocki and caused deaths. On September 17th the Red Army entered the town and
the Soviet regime was introduced in. At the end of June 1941, with the beginning of the German invasion to the
Soviet Union, there were fierce battles near Bocki. Three local Jews were killed and many others fled into the
countryside or hid in the Jewish cemetery out of town (the new one, Bocki 2 a.r).
When they returned to their homes after tha battles subsided, they found out that most of their property was
stolen during their absence. The Germans conquered Bocki on June 25, 1941 and murdered 7 Jews that same day among
them a woman and her two children. On July 7, 1941 the Jews were ordered to leave their homes within two hours
and to leave behind them most of their valuables. They were housed in small poor houses that the Germans allocated.
Many didn't have room in the houses and they remained outside. Several days later the military governor in Bielsk
ordered to release the Jews back to their homes, which were emptied from their content.
From the beginning of the German occupation Jews were kidnapped for forced labor.
They were employed in clearing the ruins caused by the fighting, repairing roads, and agriculture work. The Jewish
workers received a meager portions of food, of low quality and their superiors, Polish policemen abused and beat
them. A short while after the German occupation, the Germans nominated Judenrat (Jewish council, a.r) and Jewish
police who imposed order on the recruitment to the forced labor.
Forced labor was mandatory for Jews aged 13 to 60 men and women.
On March 1942 settled in Bocki a force of German gendarmes and SS soldiers, and the Jews had to give them proper
furnished houses. Rabbi Zimni, in his position as the head of the Judenrat forced Jews to evacuate their homes,
renovate them and renew the furniture and equipment that was looted from the houses. The Germans threatened anyone
who violates the orders with death penalty and the Jews conducted that instruction. Some of the Jews who were
evacuated from their homes were placed in four ramshackle houses in a back alley, while the rest of them moved to
the synagogue and the two "Batey Midrash" in some distance from that alley. On this way two ghettos were created
in Bocki. On June 1942 they were fenced and closed and the Jewish police was assigned to maintain order in them.
On November 2, 1942 SS men and German police surrounded the two ghettos. The Jews were brought to the synagogue
square, where (Polish, a.r) farmers were already waiting with their carts.
Men were marched under heavy guard to Bielsk while women, children sick and the elder were brought there in the
carts. Some Jews that hid in a farmer's barn were discovered and shot dead. A group of Jewish craftsmen was brought
back to the ghetto from Bielsk and the rest were sent to Treblinka and perished. Among the deportees was rabbi
Chaim Shlomo Zimni . The craftsmen from Bocki and from Bielsk went through a few more selections. Few of them were
sent to different labor camps and eventually murdered, others were probably sent to Bialystok ghetto and on the
beginning of 1943 sent to Auschwitz death camp.
During the deportation from Bocki many tried to escape or hide. Most of them were discovered and shot dead, and
those managed to escape to the fields or the farms were given away to the Germans. Out of about 600 Jews in Bocki
on the eve of the war only 3 survived : two who escaped to the Soviet Union on June 1941 and the third who (jumped
from the train and a.r) hid in a farm of a farmer friend from a near by village.
1Pinkas haKehillot notebook of the Jewish communities;,Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities
from Their Foundation till after the Holocaust, is the name of each volume of a series presenting collected historical
information and demographic data on Eastern European countries' Jewish communities, Pinkasei haKehillot (pl) is one of
the most important projects undertaken by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It is ongoing for about 40 years and contains 22
volumes as for 2011.
2Translated by Amir Rubinstein, remarks italized in brackets were added by me to the original text