Wyszogrod is a town in Poland in Wojewodztwo Mazowsze , located in the middle of Plonsk Upland, by the Vistula River. The population of Wyszogrod is 2 800 inhabitants (as of 2001). The town of Wyszogrod was an early Slavic settlement as early as 10th century. In 11th century it became fortified and started to act as a local centre of commerce. In 12th century it became the seat of local castellany and soon it became one of the seats of Dukes of Masovia. Relocated on Magdeburg Law in 1398, Wyszogrod became one of the most important inland ports and centres of textile production in the area.
The town appears for the first time in the 'Deeds of Kings' in 1231 (S. Geogr. Dict.), but in the 'Universal Encyclopedia' the year 1095 is mentioned, the well-known year the first crusade and Jewish emigration from Germany. There it already appears as a town from which 'Boleslaw the Courageous received certain monies' for the Benedictine monks (id.) ? and that always means, 'From its Jews'; for already at that time the town was rich in taxes and excises and labor-turnover, which goes together with industry and trade only ? which spells presence of Jews. We know that in times of peace Jewish merchants from Frankfort-on-the-Oder and Berlin used to ship their merchandise via the Baltic Sea up the Vistula river to Cracow and Lublin, and to carry on the way home field and forest products from Poland. We may assume that they did not keep off Wyszogrod with its natural landing pier of the Vistula. It is sure that the same Jews who were the factor in the development of Cracow, Warsaw and Plock, were also the factor in the development and wealth of Wyszogrod, which had an attractive power to Jews and 'did not endure prohibition of residence of Jews for ages' (S. 'Jewish Encyc. [in Russian]'). In 1905, when the first crusaders committed the horrible massacre of the Jews in the Rheinland, (S. R. Eliezer's from Mainz 'Kuntras HTN'U'), Dubnov writes (IV, par. 55) 'the emigration changed into a mass flight'; Dinaburg admits ('Israel in exile') 'We have no specific information about the flight and its dimensions, but on the ground of rabbinic and other contemporary notes we learn that 'Jewish merchants from Germany and France visited Poland and Russia and took in time root in the towns they visited'. Which means, they built there houses for themselves and in times of stress they made their temporary residences into permanent homes. This certainly happened in Wyszogrod, too. Prof. Mahler asserts explicitly: ...although Jews as permanent citizens in Poland settled in the 12th century, there is much evidence that Jews settled in Poland already two centuries before it, or earlier even'. |
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