Youth movement uniform of a Jewish boy in the “Hasmoneans” Group, HaShomer HaDati branch, Kałuszyn, Poland. C. 1930s.
Buttoned shirt, short trousers, red tie, and khaki-brown cap. On the arm is an embroidered Star of David with the inscription “Kałuszyn” (a small town in eastern Poland near Warsaw) in Hebrew.
Kałuszyn was a small town in eastern Poland, near Warsaw. Before the Holocaust, it had a Jewish population of about 5,000 – constituting the majority of the town’s residents, and was known for its Zionist spirit and vibrant youth activity. In the early 1930s, branches of several youth movements operated there, including: Hashomer Hadati (“The Hasmoneans Group”), Betar, Hashomer Hatzair, Dror, as well as ultra-Orthodox or traditional groups. The Hasmoneans Group was a sub-movement within Hashomer Hadati (“The Inner Circles”), which was organized in Poland in the second half of the 1920s under the sponsorship of the Torah Va’Avodah movement and the Mizrachi. It was a religious educational, “pioneering scouting movement striving for the redemption of the nation and the land, rebelling against the life of exile, and educating toward the realization of the Torah Va’Avodah ideal in the Land of Israel.” The movement drew inspiration from Jewish sources, Hasidism, socialism, and the earlier-founded Hashomer Hatzair. Hashomer Hadati nurtured a deep connection to nature, opposed assimilation and secularization, and emphasized study, contemplation, and self-enrichment in Judaism, Zionism, and general culture. The branch in Kałuszyn was one of the most prominent in the Hashomer Hadati movement, and it is known that its members participated in pioneering (kibbutz-style) training programs in the Lublin and Kozienice regions in preparation for aliyah to the Land of Israel.
During the Holocaust, Kałuszyn was occupied by the Nazis as early as September 1939. The community was liquidated through deportation to the Międzyrzec Ghetto and later to Treblinka. Members of the Hashomer Hadati branch and The Hasmoneans Group from Kałuszyn were active in various ghettos; some joined religious and Zionist underground movements and even attempted to organize a religious resistance movement. Only a few of them survived the Holocaust. Following the town’s capture by the Germans, Jews were subjected to various decrees, including ransom payments backed by hostage-taking to ensure compliance, confiscation of property and homes, and mandatory wearing of armbands. At the same time, a Judenrat was appointed and ordered to supply Jewish forced laborers to the authorities. On August 17–18, 1940, all of the town’s Jews were deported to nearby settlements. Most were later murdered in the forests of Kazimierz Biskupi.
See a photograph of members of the movement in the Wikipedia entry “Zionist Jewish Youth Movements” (In Hebrew), where a group photo of members of Brit HaHashmona’im from the Kałuszyn area is featured. We have attached it here (The photo is not part of the item for sale).
Stains and signs of wear from use, but well preserved since the war years.
