Sunday, February 04, 2018

A Polish Victim of Arab Terror - In 1937

Stanisław Sluga (or Sludze)*



was a Polish Christian.  He came to Mandate Palestine as a migrant worker. He had been employed in other countries in the Middle East also.

While working in Nes Ziona, he was shot and died a few days later of his wounds. A victim of indiscriminate, anti-Jewish Arab terror.

From an entry in a book on the first two years of the 1936-1939 riots ("Disturbances"):





He arrived in Palestine in 1933 and was an agricultural worker in Rehovot and Nes Tziona. He even joined the Histadrut (who paid his burial costs). He also visited Ethiopia and the Hejaz including Mecca (a spy?).  He then returned to Mandate Palestine and worked in Nes Ziona. 

He was shot at Bet Oved on March 5th by an Arab who approached him and asked for an orange.  He died five days later.

He was married and had a daughter.  He was planning on traveling to South America.  He had been previously beaten by Arabs while working in Lydda.  He became very suspicious of Arabs and could not understand his fellow Jewish laborers who sought out understanding and solidarity with the Arabs based on principles of socialism.

I am seeking any and all information about him, his family, his background, etc.

Were there any newspaper clippings in Polish newspapers at the time?

What happened to his descendants?  Do Poles today know about him?

Is there a memorial dedicated to him?

In fact, if there is none, on the background of the current tension between Israel and Poland, establishing one might be helpful.

He came from Piotrków, which is south-east of Lodz.  The Jewish memorial book of the town asserts that while in Palestine he


urged his Jewish friends to organize a defense against the Arab rioters.

Here are the clippings I managed to collect.

In English:




Three blood transfusions donated by Jews.












And in Hebrew.

Sluga provided testimony from his hospital bed:



A claim he recognized his killer when the police arranged a confrontation in the hospital:



His funeral, in Jaffa:


Davar's editorial on March 11:


A trial report:


The suspected murderer is set free due to lack of corroborating evidence:




In Polish Hungarian:


If anybody can locate contemporary Polish newspaper reports or can contact anyone in Piotrków and discover any item, it would be appreciated.


*
I have been informed by a Polish contact that

Sługa (means servant in Polish), Słudze - result of declension in Polish language. 

So now we have to find out his real name. 

And the mystery continues.

Thanks to Ievgen Matseliukh this clipping from the front page of a local newspaper has been found:



It reads:

"New turmoil in Palestine. Arab shot Polish citizen.Jerusalem. Stanisaw Sługa, Polish worker and citizen of Poland, was shot by an unknown Arab in Ness Ziona region, near Tel-Aviv. In serious condition, he was taken to the hospital in Tel Aviv and immediately operated on. The Arab, who shot Sługa, managed to escape. Consul-general of the Republic of Poland in Jerusalem Hulanicki went to Tel Aviv in order to personally check victim’s health condition.Yesterday morning an armed assault was committed on Jew by unknown perpetrators near the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Victim was severely wounded.In the afternoon new incidents between Jews and Arabs happened, one Arab was killed, another – wounded.Tension grows by every hour in the outskirts of Jerusalem, more disorders are likely to happen."
^

1 comment:

Bill said...

The "Polish" article is actually in Hungarian.