Historical Background and Interviews
I. Ludvipol: A Modem Shtetl Ludvipol: A Modern Shtetl
To counter ethnic Ukrainian dominance in Volhynia, the Polish government attempted to strengthen the Polish presence in the area and encouraged Poles to relocate there, with government loans for land and businesses. The “Swoj do swego” (Polish for “Stick to your own”) movement was an organized attempt to coerce Poles into using only Polish businesses and services. At the same time, the end of the partition meant new borders, and the new borders separated Jews in Volhynia from their tradi- tional centers of learning and trade. Cultural, family, social, and economic ties were severed when Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa (now in Russia) were replaced by Vilna and Grodno, largely unfamil- iar to Ludvipol’s inhabitants. Families were split, as they found themselves living in different countries. Transportation came to a standstill, and constantly changing currencies wreaked havoc on the value of money, especially paper money. Food became scarce, and people hoarded it toward worse times ahead. Commerce and trade all but stopped. In addition, two major disasters struck Lud - vipol. In 1918, a fire destroyed much of the town, with numerous families losing everything. A typhus epidemic followed, reducing the population drastically. With Eastern Europe’s economy in decline, international Jew- ish organizations came to the rescue. The People’s Relief Com- mittee to Aid Jews in Europe and Palestine reminded Jews that they are responsible for one another and that, quoting the Mishna (the written version of Jewish oral laws), “to save one person is to save the world.” The American Jewish Joint Distribution Com- mittee (JDC or “the Joint”), established just a few years earlier to distribute the funds raised by Jewish organizations, sent mon- ey, supplies, and volunteers to Ludvipol. It reported in June 1920 that conditions were deplorable and getting worse by the day. The committee’s report said that Ludvipol’s Jewish community was “unique” in its particularly large number of orphans, about 25 per- cent of its children, including 15 with no home. Although a public kitchen in Ludvipol was providing food for 175 youngsters in June, the committee’s December report indicated that it was no longer “Swój
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