Grave monument on Lodz Jewish cemetery
Polish industrialist, born at Aleksandrow near Lodz. One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland. The son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, he built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/ Karol Scheibler, the most important producer of Lodz, a 'multicultural' (as we would say today) city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Lodz "The promised land" (ziemia obiecana, 1899), filmed later by Wajda (1974).
The role of Poznanski and other investors, typical representatives of early industrialization, has often been distorted, not only by partisan historians of the foregone socialist period (also influenced by subtle antisemitism). Until today, the role of 'capitalists', be it in Britain ("Manchester capitalism"), Germany or Poland has been depicted in a biased, negative way, underlining mass misery and exploitation. Credit must be given to the critics' aim, most prominently in the works of Marx and Engels, to depict the misery of the masses.
However, a more balanced judgement has to take into account that it was market economy, vulgo 'capitalism', and industrialization which led the masses out of centuries of misery of feudalism, personal dependence and agricultural methods of production, by rapid growth with quick effects also on the social sitation of workers. Whatever can be said about social discrepancy and, e.g. in Poland, class society, it must be underlined that the thousands of peasants coming to Lodz (after 1830) and to other industrial centres did so because - in the logic of the market - their economic situation improved and was an alternative to labour in agriculture.
Nor were the 'capitalists' of Lodz (of Manchester, Wuppertal or Lyons) without 'social conscience'. On the contrary, they often engaged in philantropic activities. In Central Europe, they provided especially their workers and families with well-organised facilities like dwellings, schools, hospitals and modest social security.
The city of Lodz after 1989 has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars.
The sites linked to Poznanski's memory are among the most prominent ones of the city : The huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa street; the nearby Poznanski Palace, today a museum (including an exposition about Artur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznanski's marble tomb on the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Poznanski's tomb is probably the world's largest Jewish grave monument.
Although Poznanski was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forebids any luxury for funerals and tombs.
On the front of the building, nowadays only the word "Poznanski" is visible, in big letters. In former times, there was also the writing : "I nadszedł czas śmierci Izraela. I westchnęli synowie Izraela. Był ozdobą Izraela i czynił dobro w Izraelu".
Izrael and his wife Leonia (born Hertz) are buried in separate marble (porphyr) sarcophaguses.
More about Poznanski's grave on http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauzoleum_Izraela_Pozna%C5%84skiego (in Polish); about Lodz in his time on http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/pc3.htm . To the German reader, Doeblin's "Reise in Polen" can be recommended (although about the Jewish Lodz of the 1920s).
Please see also my description of Karl/ Karol Scheibler's monument, the gravesite of another Lodz tycoon:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13378537
zikhrono livrakha זיכרונו לברכה
Polish industrialist, born at Aleksandrow near Lodz. One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland. The son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, he built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/ Karol Scheibler, the most important producer of Lodz, a 'multicultural' (as we would say today) city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Lodz "The promised land" (ziemia obiecana, 1899), filmed later by Wajda (1974).
The role of Poznanski and other investors, typical representatives of early industrialization, has often been distorted, not only by partisan historians of the foregone socialist period (also influenced by subtle antisemitism). Until today, the role of 'capitalists', be it in Britain ("Manchester capitalism"), Germany or Poland has been depicted in a biased, negative way, underlining mass misery and exploitation. Credit must be given to the critics' aim, most prominently in the works of Marx and Engels, to depict the misery of the masses.
However, a more balanced judgement has to take into account that it was market economy, vulgo 'capitalism', and industrialization which led the masses out of centuries of misery of feudalism, personal dependence and agricultural methods of production, by rapid growth with quick effects also on the social sitation of workers. Whatever can be said about social discrepancy and, e.g. in Poland, class society, it must be underlined that the thousands of peasants coming to Lodz (after 1830) and to other industrial centres did so because - in the logic of the market - their economic situation improved and was an alternative to labour in agriculture.
Nor were the 'capitalists' of Lodz (of Manchester, Wuppertal or Lyons) without 'social conscience'. On the contrary, they often engaged in philantropic activities. In Central Europe, they provided especially their workers and families with well-organised facilities like dwellings, schools, hospitals and modest social security.
The city of Lodz after 1989 has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars.
The sites linked to Poznanski's memory are among the most prominent ones of the city : The huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa street; the nearby Poznanski Palace, today a museum (including an exposition about Artur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznanski's marble tomb on the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Poznanski's tomb is probably the world's largest Jewish grave monument.
Although Poznanski was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forebids any luxury for funerals and tombs.
On the front of the building, nowadays only the word "Poznanski" is visible, in big letters. In former times, there was also the writing : "I nadszedł czas śmierci Izraela. I westchnęli synowie Izraela. Był ozdobą Izraela i czynił dobro w Izraelu".
Izrael and his wife Leonia (born Hertz) are buried in separate marble (porphyr) sarcophaguses.
More about Poznanski's grave on http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauzoleum_Izraela_Pozna%C5%84skiego (in Polish); about Lodz in his time on http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/pc3.htm . To the German reader, Doeblin's "Reise in Polen" can be recommended (although about the Jewish Lodz of the 1920s).
Please see also my description of Karl/ Karol Scheibler's monument, the gravesite of another Lodz tycoon:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13378537
zikhrono livrakha זיכרונו לברכה
Grave monument on Lodz Jewish cemetery
Polish industrialist, born at Aleksandrow near Lodz. One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland. The son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, he built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/ Karol Scheibler, the most important producer of Lodz, a 'multicultural' (as we would say today) city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Lodz "The promised land" (ziemia obiecana, 1899), filmed later by Wajda (1974).
The role of Poznanski and other investors, typical representatives of early industrialization, has often been distorted, not only by partisan historians of the foregone socialist period (also influenced by subtle antisemitism). Until today, the role of 'capitalists', be it in Britain ("Manchester capitalism"), Germany or Poland has been depicted in a biased, negative way, underlining mass misery and exploitation. Credit must be given to the critics' aim, most prominently in the works of Marx and Engels, to depict the misery of the masses.
However, a more balanced judgement has to take into account that it was market economy, vulgo 'capitalism', and industrialization which led the masses out of centuries of misery of feudalism, personal dependence and agricultural methods of production, by rapid growth with quick effects also on the social sitation of workers. Whatever can be said about social discrepancy and, e.g. in Poland, class society, it must be underlined that the thousands of peasants coming to Lodz (after 1830) and to other industrial centres did so because - in the logic of the market - their economic situation improved and was an alternative to labour in agriculture.
Nor were the 'capitalists' of Lodz (of Manchester, Wuppertal or Lyons) without 'social conscience'. On the contrary, they often engaged in philantropic activities. In Central Europe, they provided especially their workers and families with well-organised facilities like dwellings, schools, hospitals and modest social security.
The city of Lodz after 1989 has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars.
The sites linked to Poznanski's memory are among the most prominent ones of the city : The huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa street; the nearby Poznanski Palace, today a museum (including an exposition about Artur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznanski's marble tomb on the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Poznanski's tomb is probably the world's largest Jewish grave monument.
Although Poznanski was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forebids any luxury for funerals and tombs.
On the front of the building, nowadays only the word "Poznanski" is visible, in big letters. In former times, there was also the writing : "I nadszedł czas śmierci Izraela. I westchnęli synowie Izraela. Był ozdobą Izraela i czynił dobro w Izraelu".
Izrael and his wife Leonia (born Hertz) are buried in separate marble (porphyr) sarcophaguses.
More about Poznanski's grave on http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauzoleum_Izraela_Pozna%C5%84skiego (in Polish); about Lodz in his time on http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/pc3.htm . To the German reader, Doeblin's "Reise in Polen" can be recommended (although about the Jewish Lodz of the 1920s).
Please see also my description of Karl/ Karol Scheibler's monument, the gravesite of another Lodz tycoon:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13378537
zikhrono livrakha זיכרונו לברכה
Polish industrialist, born at Aleksandrow near Lodz. One of the most eminent entrepreneurs in the Russian-dominated part of Poland. The son of a Jewish merchant of Kowal, he built up a textile empire and became, next to Karl/ Karol Scheibler, the most important producer of Lodz, a 'multicultural' (as we would say today) city mainly populated by Poles (Catholic and Jewish) and Germans. The bourgeoisie of these groups was described in Reymont's novel about Lodz "The promised land" (ziemia obiecana, 1899), filmed later by Wajda (1974).
The role of Poznanski and other investors, typical representatives of early industrialization, has often been distorted, not only by partisan historians of the foregone socialist period (also influenced by subtle antisemitism). Until today, the role of 'capitalists', be it in Britain ("Manchester capitalism"), Germany or Poland has been depicted in a biased, negative way, underlining mass misery and exploitation. Credit must be given to the critics' aim, most prominently in the works of Marx and Engels, to depict the misery of the masses.
However, a more balanced judgement has to take into account that it was market economy, vulgo 'capitalism', and industrialization which led the masses out of centuries of misery of feudalism, personal dependence and agricultural methods of production, by rapid growth with quick effects also on the social sitation of workers. Whatever can be said about social discrepancy and, e.g. in Poland, class society, it must be underlined that the thousands of peasants coming to Lodz (after 1830) and to other industrial centres did so because - in the logic of the market - their economic situation improved and was an alternative to labour in agriculture.
Nor were the 'capitalists' of Lodz (of Manchester, Wuppertal or Lyons) without 'social conscience'. On the contrary, they often engaged in philantropic activities. In Central Europe, they provided especially their workers and families with well-organised facilities like dwellings, schools, hospitals and modest social security.
The city of Lodz after 1989 has rediscovered its industrial heritage, a unique ensemble of architecture, preserved despite two World Wars.
The sites linked to Poznanski's memory are among the most prominent ones of the city : The huge factory buildings in Ogrodowa street; the nearby Poznanski Palace, today a museum (including an exposition about Artur Rubinstein, another 'Lodschermensch'); and Poznanski's marble tomb on the Jewish cemetery, the biggest Israelite graveyard in Europe. Poznanski's tomb is probably the world's largest Jewish grave monument.
Although Poznanski was devout to the belief of his ancestors, it must be noted that the generous style of his grave monument is scarcely compatible with Jewish tradition, as that religion forebids any luxury for funerals and tombs.
On the front of the building, nowadays only the word "Poznanski" is visible, in big letters. In former times, there was also the writing : "I nadszedł czas śmierci Izraela. I westchnęli synowie Izraela. Był ozdobą Izraela i czynił dobro w Izraelu".
Izrael and his wife Leonia (born Hertz) are buried in separate marble (porphyr) sarcophaguses.
More about Poznanski's grave on http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauzoleum_Izraela_Pozna%C5%84skiego (in Polish); about Lodz in his time on http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/pc3.htm . To the German reader, Doeblin's "Reise in Polen" can be recommended (although about the Jewish Lodz of the 1920s).
Please see also my description of Karl/ Karol Scheibler's monument, the gravesite of another Lodz tycoon:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13378537
zikhrono livrakha זיכרונו לברכה
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