Jaeger Brickyard

Lake Jaeger

The famous brickyard in Ostrowiec was actually established in 1896 by Tomasz Głowacki which for many years prospered in the city and together with the Władysław Klepacki refractory factory, gave rise to Ostrowieckie Zakłady Materiałów Ogniotalnych. (Today the modern company can be seen here. )  Pictures of the old buildings can be seen here. The Głowacki factory was on Kilińskiego Street on the corner of Cegielniana Street.

During World War II, the German occupiers renamed the factory Jaeger Works/Brickyard.  At that time, about 200 Jews, mostly women, worked in this factory.

The slave laborers were involved in digging clay from the ponds north of the town in an area today called Gutwin.

 

Some people hid at the factory, including Rubin Katz and Paula Lebovics.)

Below is excerpt from Gone to Pitchipoi, Rubin Katz, pg 108..

"...The only possible place where I could try to hide, it was decided, was at the Głowacki brick factory that the Germans had renamed Jaeger Works. The complex covered a large area that offered good scope for hiding, with vast grounds and a number of old factory buildings and warehouses with extensive bushes and shrubbery nearby. ...
Apart from making bricks for building and hardened fire-bricks for lining the steelwork furnaces, Jaeger was turned into a plant supplying various items for the Nazi war effort, like sledges for the Eastern front.
Although the brickyard area offered good scope for hiding, I hated staying near the ponds there. Apart from the discomfort, the area was teeming with water-rats..."

The Jaeger Ponds

in Polish from Wojtek Mazan's blog

The Ostrowiec Roots of Ewa Głowacka's Prima Ballerina

Ewa Głowacka speaks about her great grandfather who built the factory (article in Polish)

" ...in 1896,...Tomasz Głowacki, [her] great-grandfather, built a brickyard, which prospered in the town for many years, and together with Władysław Klepacki's factory of refractory materials gave rise to the Ostrowiecki Zakłady Materialów Refractory."