Reuven Luwkowicz (Part I)

Can you tell me where you were born?

My name is Reuven Luwkowicz. I was born in Czenstochova, Poland, which borders Germany. It was a very frum shtetl. There were 120,000 residents, of which 50,000 were Jewish. The town had all kosher butcher stores. There were mashgichim and everyone was very careful with kashrus. We were able to trust the owners of every store. Everything was under the watchful eye of the kehillah and there were no private hashgachos.

There was a tremendous amount of chessed and hachnasas orchim being done. We had Jewish philanthropists who took care of the town. There was a large Jewish hospital, an old-age home and an orphan’s home.

Was there anti-Semitism in your town?

The anti-Semitism in our town was horrific. I grew up wearing a cap instead of a yarmulke. Nobody dared to walk outside wearing chassidishe clothing. There were no shtreimlach to be seen. There were constant pogroms.

I always say that today, in America, we don’t feel the galus.

What do you remember about your family?

I was 17 years old at the onset of the war.

I am the only survivor of my family. I had two older sisters. One of them was married about nine months when the Germans invaded. I also had one younger brother. The chinuch that we got at home doesn’t exist today. My parents gave me an education, taught me how to learn and taught us to respect others. I was very close to my mother, who was a tremendous baalas chessed. Every day she would visit the poor people of the town and bring them food. My father had a clothing factory.

I never sleep with a pillow, and this is the reason: In 1938, they began chasing out of Germany all those Jews who were not German citizens. These people didn’t have anywhere to go. My father, z”l, went to the train station and brought home a large family. He fed them and they lived with us, to the extent that my father gave them his pillow to make them comfortable. Since then, I never sleep with a pillow.

Where did you learn before the war?

I attended a cheder and I had a private Rebbi in the morning. For a few hours in the afternoon, I worked at a printing press owned by a Jew, Weiss. At this printing press I was an apprentice to a man named Stuka. The law was that an apprentice received $1.50 a week, but I received nothing.

When they realized that I knew how to write they allowed me to write for their weekly newspaper, Unzer Vegh. Mr. Weiss was a kind Jew and allowed me to print and sell stationery. I was permitted to keep the money I received from these sales.

In the same town there was a German printer whose name was also Weiss. When I went out selling my wares, people assumed that I was the son of Weiss the German printer. No one suspected that I was Jewish and they purchased the merchandise from me.

There was one man to whom Weiss the German printer owed a lot of money, and each time I sold him goods, he would deduct a small percentage of the money he owed to compensate for the money that Weiss the German printer owed him. He assumed it was my father. I did other business with the Polish anti-Semitic organization known as Endecia.

Which Rabbanim lived in your town?

The father-in-law of the Satmar Rebbe, zy”a, lived in our town. Often on Friday nights, my father took me to the tisch of the Rebbe. The Lelover Rebbe, zy”a, visited quite often, and he always stayed at our house.

to be continued…

These survivors’ memoirs are being compiled by Project Witness.