Spotlight: Koło (Konin Research Area)

Koło (Polish) or Koil (Yiddish) is a town near the Warta River in the Poznan district of Central Poland. Its Jewish community began to flourish when King Sigismund II Augustus wrote a letter in 1564 allowing Jews to live in the city and to engage in trade. In 1611, there were 24 Jewish-owned houses. As the years went by, Jews were required to pay annual taxes for security, polls, and for Hebrew books which had to be individually stamped. Construction on Koło’s synagogue started in 1763. 52% of trade was conducted by Jews in 1897, demonstrating the significant role that the Jewish community played in the town’s economic life.

At its peak in 1931, the Jewish population reached approximately 6,000 (or 44% of the town). On September 19, 1939, the German army arrived in Kolo and proceeded to torture and murder its Jews inhabitants. A ghetto was established. On December 8 – 10, 1941, the Kolo ghetto was liquidated with a majority of the Jews deported to the Chelmno death camp.

Several interesting personalities were from Koło. Szymon Heller/Geller and his second wife, Hudessa Krzewin, lived in Koło and had several children in the early 1880’s. As the family moved from town to town, Szymon opened schools for the deaf where children were taught to speak and read. As a bonus, they even received lessons in “piety.” After one year of study, children were able to pray and read Hebrew script. After five years, they were able “understand and speak all the words with all the people.” 

Abraham Moshe Harap (? – 1986), a Holocaust survivor, directed plays for the “Hazomir” theatrical troupe in the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp and wrote a book about the destruction of Koło. Reverend Naphtali Levy (1836/1840-1894), son of Rabbi Pinchas Wolf Levy, dayan in Koło, emigrated to England in 1874. He served as a minister and shochet in London before moving to Southport, Lancashire. He was also a boot manufacturer.

Notary Records

Between 1861-1980, 13 different notaries, appointed by local government officials, prepared and maintained legal documents and contracts for both Jewish and non-Jewish residents in Koło. Their work has been preserved in the Polish State Archives. They have been catalogued and are ready for a JRI-Poland project in which scans can be acquired and professional genealogists hired to summarize them. Typically, notarial documents record a variety of business transactions and familial agreements such as when an individual purchases a house, sells a tangible good, enters a prenuptial arrangement, or seeks a divorce. 

Pre-1826 Jewish Vital Records

The mixed civil parish records, in which Jews appear alongside their non-Jewish counterparts, provide information on births, marriages and deaths for the years 1811-1825. Usually, each record has to be examined one by one (because there is no surname index with corresponding record numbers). It is a tedious effort which can be further complicated by poor handwriting. One might need to take out a magnifying glass to read see that this is an 1818 death record for a woman named Ryfka.

Nonetheless, some scribes were helpful when they created four columns on the right-hand side of each birth record to note whether the infant was a boy or a girl, and Catholic or Jewish. 

Jewish Vital Records 1826-1910

Koło researchers are fortunate because birth, marriage and death records for 1826-1910 have survived largely intact. The only year for which we do not have scans is 1843. The three most common surnames in the JRI-Poland database for Jews from Koło are: WOLKOWICZ, LEWIN, and LACHMAN. Occaisionally, one comes across a surprise notation on a birth or marriage record what was inserted years later about a person’s death date and death place. Perec Gliksman, for example, was born in 1880 but perished on December 31, 1941 in Chelmno. Such notations make the historical account of the deportation of the Koło Jews to the Chelmno extermination camp all the more real.

Early vital records were written in Polish: later records were written in Russian Cyrillic. All of the records between 1826-1884 have been extracted by JRI-Poland. We are hoping that a current fundraising project will enable us to continue to extract the records between 1885-1910 and perhaps even acquire post 1910 vital records to further our knowledge of Koło’s Jewish community. 

To contribute to the Koło Project Town Fund, please use this link to make a donation. 

Donations to JRI-Poland are tax-deductible for US taxpayers to the extent allowable by law.