Pesah Singer

SINGER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from Jewish communal functionaries or titles.

Singer, the German and Yiddish equivalent of the Hebrew Meshorer, spotlights the musical role of the Cantor in the Jewish synagogue. Originally, Singer was a personal title or nickname, for a Cantor or his family. The surname Bass describes the vocal quality of the Cantor.

The name is recorded with Isaak Ben Avigdor Bass in 1600. One of the earliest documented related family names is Sanckmeister (from the German Singmeister, that is "song master"), recorded with Lezer Sankmeister in 1439 and Heinrich Sanckmeister in 1449. Singer and Chasan ("cantor" in Hebrew) are recorded in Prague in the early 16th century. The Italian equivalent Cantarini was the name of a well-known 16th century Italian family. Cantori is mentioned in the 16th century. Cantor is documented as a Jewish family name in 1679, Senger in 1683, Bassista in the 17th century, Schulsinger in 1709, Sulsinger in 1724, Kanter in 1736, and Vorsinger in 1784. Slavic equivalents include Solovej (literally "nightingale") and Spivak. A Romanian form is Dascal(u), literally "sexton".

Three Singer brothers, Herschel, Jakob and Moses, from Teschen/Tesin/Cieszin in Silesia are listed among the visitors of the Leipzig (Germany) fair in 1676.

Distinguished bearers of the German Jewish family name Singer include the 17th century Yiddish writer, Salomo Ben Naphtali Singer; the Galician-born Austro-Hungarian Field Marshal lieutenant Joseph Singer (1797-1871), who was chief of staff of the Austrian army in Italy; the Moravian-born writer and managing editor of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia Isidore Singer (1859-1939) and founder the American League for the Rights of Man; and the British historian of science and medicine Charles Joseph Singer (1876-1960), who was president of the International Union of the History of Science. In the 20th century Singer is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Singer family, who lived in the town of Zhadova (Jadova) near Czernowitz, northern Bukovina (now in Ukraine), prior to World War II (1939-1945). The entire Jewish community of Zhadova was deported to death camps in July 1941.

Bratislava

German: Pressburg, Hungarian: Pozsony

Capital of Slovakia. Part of Hungary until 1918

Bratislava was the chartered capital of the kings of Hungary. It was one of the most ancient and important Jewish centers in the Danube region. The first Jews probably arrived with the Roman legions, but the first documented evidence of their presence in the city dates from the 13th century. In 1291 the community was granted a charter by King Andrew the III and a synagogue is first mentioned in 1335.

The Jews of Bratislava mainly engaged in moneylending, but there were also merchants, artisans, vineyard owners, and vintners. The Jews were expelled from Hungary in 1360, but returned in 1367. In 1371 the municipality introduced the Judenbuch, which regulated financial dealings between Jews and Christians.

Money matters between Jews and Christians, however, could unexpectedly take complicated turns. King Sigismund granted Christians an exemption for the year 1392 from paying interest on loans borrowed from Jews. Later, in 1441 and 1450, all outstanding debts owed to Jews were cancelled, and in 1475 Jews were forbidden from accepting real estate as security. Ladislas II prevented Jews from attempting to leave Bratislava in 1506 by confiscating the property of those who had already left. This proved to be somewhat ironic since the Jews were eventually expelled from Bratislava, and Hungary as a whole, in 1526. Instead, the Jews began settling in the surrounding areas of Shlossberg and Zuckermandel. A Jewish community was not reestablished in Bratislava until the end of the seventeenth century when Samuel Oppenheimer resettled the city. He was followed by other Jews, some of whom were born locally and others who came from Vienna, which had expelled its Jews in 1670, Bohemia and Moravia, as well as a small number from Poland. A synagogue was built in 1695 where the first known rabbi to work there was Yom Tov Lipmann. In 1699 the court Jew Simon Michael, who had settled in Bratislava in 1693, was appointed as head of the community. He built a beit midrash and bought land to build a cemetery.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the Jews of Bratislava were leaders in both the business and religious worlds. In business they were among the leaders of the textile trade, while the religious leader Rabbi Moses Sofer (better known as the Hatam Sofer) turned Bratislava into a center of Jewish life. The Hatam Sofer became a leader of Orthodoxy, and is perhaps best known for his (ironically radical) statement that "He-hadash asur min haTorah," "Innovation is forbidden according to the Torah." His status as a rabbi, teacher, scholar, rosh yeshiva, and halakhist was unparalleled. Upon his death his son, Avraham Shmuel Binyamin (otherwise known as the Ketav Sofer) and then his grandson Simcha Bumen, and his great-grandson Akiva succeeded him in turn. Other outstanding rabbis that served in the city before the Hatam Sofer were Moshe Harif of Lemberg, Akiva Eger (the elder), Yitzhak Landau of Kukla, Meir Barbi of Halberstadt, and Meshulam Igra of Tymenitsa. Each was an outstanding Talmudic scholar, and Landau and Barbi established large and prestigious yeshivas.

In spite of the Hatam Sofer's uncompromising Orthodoxy, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) made important inroads, particularly among the wealthy merchants and intellectuals in the city. In 1820 those who were in favor of the Haskalah succeeded in establishing an elementary school that combined religious and secular studies. Shortly thereafter the community's Orthodox majority also built a Talmud Torah that combined religious and secular studies, under the supervision of the city's chief rabbi.

The community was also split during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. While those who were in favor of reform, led by Adolf Neustadt, enthusiastically supported the revolution, joining the National Guard and advocating for Jewish emancipation, the Orthodox leadership distanced themselves from these actions. Anti-Jewish riots subsequently broke out during the revolution around Easter; the Jews of Bratislava suffered the worst violence. While no Bratislavan Jews were killed, there were many who were severely beaten, and there was enormous damage done to property. The Jewish Quarter was placed under military protection, and Jews who lived elsewhere had to move within it. The violence prompted calls to emigrate to the US.

The Revolution of 1848 would not be the last time that the Jews of Bratislava were the victims of pogroms and anti-Jewish violence. 1850 saw more anti-Jewish riots around the holiday of Easter. Further outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence followed the Tiszaeszlar blood libel in 1882 and 1883, as well as after other blood libels in 1887 and 1889.

Tensions continued to grow between the Orthodox and the maskilim within the community. After 1869 the Orthodox, Neologist, and Status Quo Ante factions in Bratislava formed separate congregations. The Orthodox provincial office (Landseskanzlei) later became notorious for its opposition to Zionism. The Neolog and Status Quo Ante congregations united in 1928 as the Jeshurun Federation.

Jewish institutions in Bratislava included religious schools, charitable organizations, and a Jewish hospital. The Hungarian Zionist organization was founded in Bratislava in 1902, and the World Mizrachi Organization was founded in 1904; the latter sparked protests from over 100 rabbis. The first Hungarian Zionist Congress was held in Bratislava in March 1903 and the city became the Hungarian center for the Zionist Organization in Hungary.

With the establishment of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava also became the center of Agudas Yisroel in Czechoslovakia, in addition to remaining a Zionist center. Several Jewish newspapers and a Hebrew weekly, "HaYehudi," were printed in the city. There were also over 300 Hebrew and Yiddish books printed in the city between 1831 and 1930. The Orthodox Jewish Communities of Slovakia was established in the city, enabling the Orthodox community to cut ties with Hungary.

The German army occupied Czechoslovakia in March, 1938 and soon established an independent Slovak state. Even before the declaration of the independent state, there were attacks on the synagogue and yeshiva on November 11, 1938. Nearly 1,000 Jewish students were expelled from the university and anti-Jewish terror, restrictive measures, and pogroms increased. With the establishment of the Slovak state, Jews continued to suffer from discrimination. Akiva Shreiber and a number of his yeshiva students succeeded in leaving Bratislava for Palestine at the end of 1939.

Nonetheless, the Jewish population of Bratislava peaked in 1940 at 18,000 people (13% of the total population of the city). This was in spite of the fact that Jewish organizations, with the exception of religious communal activities, were prohibited from organizing activities. Additionally, Jews were evicted from various neighborhoods, Jewish students were expelled from public schools, and Jewish properties were confiscated. By the fall of 1941 about half of the city's population had been forcibly sent from the city to the provinces; by the summer of 1942 two-thirds of the Jews of Bratislava were sent to concentration or extermination camps. Gisi Fleischmann of WIZO and Mikhael Dov Ber Weissmandel began organizing an underground resistance movement. They contacted international Jewish organizations, in the hopes that they could save the Jews who remained in the city and the surrounding area. August 1944 saw a Slovak uprising, and the country was subsequently occupied by the Germans. At that point, the remaining Jews in Bratislava were deported.

In the end, approximately 13,000 Jews from Bratislava were killed during the Holocaust. After the war, the city was an important transit point for the thousands of displaced Jews who were making their way to other countries and began to rebuild. The Orthodox and Neolog communities united and maintained two cemetaries, a mikvah, a slaughterhouse, a soup kitchen, a matzah bakery, a Jewish hospital, an old age home, and a Jewish orphanage. Zionist activity resumed; HaShomer HaTzair and Bnei Akiva led activities for orphans preparing to emigrate to Mandate Palestine. Maccabi HaTzair and Beitar were also active. Though there was an attempt to reopen the Pressburg Yeshiva, it ultimately failed.

After the communist takeover, thousands more Jews left the city, most of whom went to Israel. According to an agreement made with Israel, 4,000 Jews were permitted to leave and enter Israel at the end of the 1940s while 2,000 remained in Bratislava. In 1969 there were 1,500 Jews in the city.

The 1990s saw the opening of a number of memorials and places of Jewish interest. A Jewish cultural heritage museum was opened in the old Jewish Quarter. A memorial plaque was added to the Orthodox cemetery in memory of the 13,000 Jewish victims of Bratislava who were killed during the Holocaust. Additionally, in 1997 a monument commemorating the Slovakian Jewish victims of the Nazis was erected on the site where the Pressburg Yeshiva once stood. Jewish organizations and municipal authorities worked together to renovate and reopen the grave of the Hatam Sofer, among other rabbis, to the public.

In the year 2000 there were 800 Jews living in Bratislava.

Uhersky Brod

German: Ungarish Brod
Jewish sources: Brode

A town in Southeast Moravia, Czech Republic.

Uhersky Brod is located in the Vizovice Highlands, 47 miles (76km) east of Brno. Until 1918 it was part of the Austrian Empire. Between the two World Wars, and between the end of World War II and 1993, it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Over 1,000 tombstones have been preserved in the Jewish cemetery, including that of Rabbi Nathan Nata Hannover, who was killed in 1683. The ceremonial hall, which was built in 1906, contains a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The cemetery can be accessed freely.

A Torah scroll that was sent from Uhersky Brod to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague during World War II is on permanent loan to Congregation B'nai Emunah in San Francisco, California.

HISTORY

Uhersky Brod was home to an important Jewish community, probably beginning around the 13th century, though the first documentary evidence of a community dates to 1470. There were four Jewish families living in the town in 1558 and 18 in 1615.

The Jewish population grew after the expulsion of Jews from Vienna in 1670, when many of the expellees came to settle in Uhersky Brod. However, life soon took a dark turn for the Jews of Uhersky Brod. A plague that broke out in 1683 killed 438 of the town's Jews. Shortly thereafter, on July 14 of that year Kuruc soldiers (anti-Habsburg rebels who led a series of uprisings in Hungary between 1671 and 1711) massacred hundreds of the town's Jews, took several hostages, and destroyed 65 Jewish homes. Among those killed during the Kuruc massacre was Nathan Nata Hannover, the author of Yeven Metzulah and Sha'arei Ziyon, who had previously escaped the Chmielnicki massacres before arriving in Uhersky Brod. An elegy in memory of the Kuruc massacre was recited in the community on the 20th day of the Jewish month of Tammuz. Many of the massacre's survivors crossed the border into northern Hungary (present-day Slovakia), where they formed new Jewish communities in Trencin, Nove Mesto nad Vahom, Cachtiace, Beckov, and Vrbove. These communities became affiliated with Uhersky Brod.

In spite of these tragedies, the community was reconstituted shortly after the Kuruc massacre and developed rapidly. The synagogue was rebuilt, and beginning in the 17th century a number of notable rabbis served the community. The community's first known rabbi was David ben Samuel HaLevi (known as the Taz); other rabbis included Moses Nascher (1844-1854), who was the first to deliver sermons in German, Hermann Roth (1834-1864, served from 1854-1864), who established a German Jewish school, Moses David Hoffmann (1864-1889), and Moritz Jung (1890-1912), who established a gymnasium in 1891 that combined Jewish studies with a general education. In 1910 he also founded a yeshiva. Rabbi Kalman Nuernberger served the community from 1913 until World War II.

During the Revolutions of 1848, Jewish members of the national guard successfully prevented anti-Jewish riots from erupting in Uhersky Brod; as a result, however, they were subsequently forced out of the militia.

In 1870 a new Jewish cemetery was opened on the east side of the town. Later, in 1941, the old cemetery was closed, and the gravestones were transported to the new cemetery.

Uhersky Brod became one of the strongest Orthodox communities in Moravia, and was a center of religious and Zionist activities. However, in 1872 the community's ultra-Orthodox faction seceded, in protest against the decision to move the bimah and the synagogue's introduction of a choir. Though both factions were Orthodox, they spent decades bitterly divided.

In 1910 the Jewish population was 1,200. The Jewish population was 529 in 1930.

Notable figures from Uhersky Brod include the Sabbatian leader Yehuda Leib Prossnitz (c. 1670-c.1740), the rabbi and Jewish scholar Moses Samuel Zuckermandel (1836-1917), and the rabbi and historian Adolf Frankl-Grun (1847-1916).

THE HOLOCAUST

In March 1939, when the region of Bohemia and Moravia was occupied by German forces and became a protectorate of Nazi Germany, the community of Uhersky Brod numbered 489. Along with Jews throughout the protectorate, the Jews of Uhersky Brod were subject to the discrimination and violence affecting Jews throughout the region. In 1941 Felix Brunn, the community's leader, was arrested by the Gestapo along with seven members of the community council. They were all executed on charges of conducting anti-German underground activities. At the end of the year, local fascists set fire to the Great Synagogue.

350 Jews from Uherske Hradiste were expelled to Uhersky Brod in early 1942 and were housed with, and supported by, local Jewish families. Uhersky Brod eventually became a center where Jews throughout Southeast Moravia were concentrated before their deportation, first to the Terezin (Theresienstadt) Ghetto, and then to concentration and death camps. At this time, ritual objects from the synagogue were sent to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague. During the month of January 1943, three transports with a total of 2,837 Jews from Uhersky Brod were sent to the Terezin Ghetto, and then to Auschwitz. Eighty-one survived.

POSTWAR

After the war 30 survivors returned to Uhersky Brod. With the assistance of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee the community was reconstituted. It became a center of religious and social life for smaller communities in the area. The Jews of this renewed community were also proudly Zionist; in 1948 the Uhersky Brod community donated 500,000 crowns to purchase arms for Israel and financed the training of two of its members for the Israel Air Force.

After the rise of communism, however, anti-Semitic riots broke out in the town. Jews from Uhersky Brod began emigrating to Israel; in 1949, after 20 Jews left for Israel, the community was dissolved; those who remained became affiliated with the Jewish community of Kyjov.

In 1948 a Holocaust memorial was erected in the Jewish cemetery's ceremonial hall, which displayed the names of the Holocaust victims from the town.

Spisska Stara Ves

(in Hungarian: Szepesofalu; in German: Altendorf)

A town in north-central Slovakia.

Spisska Stara Ves lies at the foot of the Magura mountains, up in the high Tatra mountains, on the border with Poland. The place was first mentioned in records in 1326 and was granted the status of a town by Sigmund, the King of Luxemburg, in 1399. In 1850 the town became the district town of the district of Zamagura. Most of its inhabitants are farmers. Until 1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

It appears that Jews were living at Spisska Stara Ves already in the 17th century, but the time when they formed an organized community is not known. It is known however that there was a synagogue at the place in the 18th century and apparently also a cemetery. A legend is told that around 1750 a famous rabbi and his brother came to Spisska Stara Ves from Russia to die there, because their study of the kabalah convinced them that in the cemetery of Spisska Stara Ves they would find eternal peace, as in the Holy Land. In the community’s register there are entries of the year 1812. From the year 1850 the entries were made in Hebrew and in Hungarian. The wooden prayer house, whose time of building is not known, was burnt down in 1760. In place of it a synagogue was built, and alongside it a prayer room for a minyan. Near the synagogue stood the community building that included three apartments: one for the rabbi and his family, one for the shohet, who was also the cantor, and his family, and one for the beadle and his family. The mikveh (purification bath) and the slaughter house were also in that building.

The community was an Orthodox one, and more than a dozen small communities in the area were affiliated to it. Among the communities’ institutions were a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society, and a fund for loans without interest. The first rabbi on record is Rabbi Yoel Bloch. In 1922 Rabbi Mark Strasser was the rabbi and Dr. Oskar Shoenfeld the president.

At the end of the 1920’s Rabbi Mor Fischer occupied the chair of rabbi, Alexander Kuecher was the president, Geza Mangl vice president, and Adolf Goldberg the gabai. Later G. Mangl became president. The children attended the state school and were given lessons in religion by the teacher Jacob Apel. Some of the children continued their studies at the German gymnasium in the town Kezmarok.

In the 1920’s there were among the Jews of Spisska Stara Ves 11 merchants, 10 craftsmen, and 3 innkeepers. There were two Jewish lawyers in the town already at the beginning of the century. The chief of the local gendarmerie, the head of the post office, the manager of the workshop, and the only doctor in the place were Jewish. Jews owned also an agricultural estate, a saw mill, a distillery of spirits, a liqueurs work, a central wholesale and store for tobacco, and an inn.

The Jews were integrated in the local society and politics. Jews served in the army in World War I and some of them were killed in action. At the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, between the two world wars, most of the Jews of Spisska Stara Ves declared themselves as Slovaks. Jews were members of the town’s council and served in the district offices, in the fire brigade and in other institutions. In those years a Zionist activity also started to develop.

Rabbi Fischer opposed the opening of local branches of Hashomer Hazair and Maccabi Hazair but allowed the opening of branches of Hamizrachi and the religious youth movement Bnei Akiva, and of Betar. In 1937, in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 55 Jews of the town took part, 42 of them voted for Hamizrachi.

In 1930 218 Jews lived at Spisska Stara Ves.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. In March 1939 Slovakia became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime removed the Jews from the social end economic life of the country and in the spring of 1942 began the deportation of the Jews of Slovakia to the death camps in Poland.

Members of the “Hlinka Guard” (the folk party) were active in the organization and carrying out of the deportations. The folk party had many supporters in Spisska Stara Ves. Already in 1933 the Catholic Diacon Podolski nursed the hatred of the Jews, assisted in their deportation and influenced the local inhabitants not to save or extend any help to the Jews. It appears that most of the Jews of Spisska Stara Ves were deported between the end of March and the end of June 1942. They were dispatched via the town Poprad to the camps around Lublin and to Auschwitz where most of them were murdered. In October 1942 a lull in the deportations set in. At that time only a small number of Jews, who were exempt from deportations or who found a hiding place, were still in Spisska Stara Ves.

In the summer of 1944 an uprising against the Fascist regime of Slovakia broke out. The Germans entered the country in order to suppress the uprising and the Jews who were still in the area escaped to the mountains and some of them joined the partisans.

In 1945, when the war ended, about a dozen survivors returned to the town. They were met with hostility by the inhabitants, and particularly by the Diacon Podolski, who now served the new regime, and did his utmost to frustrate any return of Jewish property to the owners. The synagogue was turned into a grain depot and one night before it was to become a cinema, the building was destroyed by fire. Pinhas Korach, one of the survivors, managed to remove the scrolls of the torah from the burning building. He transferred a few to Kezmarok and buried the others in the Jewish cemetery. In the late 1940’s most of the survivors went to Eretz Israel.

Visitors form Israel in 1990 wanted to unearth the scrolls but could not find them. The site of the cemetery was now a football ground.

Varpalota

A small town in the Veszprem district, north west Hungary.

Jews from Austria, who had been expelled by Kaiser Karl III, began to settle in Varpalota at the beginning of the 18th century, under the protection of the family of Count Zichy. The majority of the Jews were merchants or lease holders. The others were engaged in peddling, mainly in agricultural products. The town developed with the opening of the railway line early in the 19th century, and the opening of a coalmine. There were a hevra kadisha, charitable and educational institutions. Relations with the Christian inhabitants were generally good. The Jewish hospital was opened to all the inhabitants during an epidemic. At the ceremonial opening of the synagogue in 1840, representatives of the churches, district authorities and municipality were present. In 1878 the community joined those who accepted the status quo, a request to abstain from taking a stand on the haredim (orthodox) and maskilim (moderates) issue at the Jewish Congress in 1869.

During the period of the White Terror, riots against the Jews instigated by right wing military elements (1919-21), the Jews did not suffer thanks to the support given by the other inhabitants.

In 1930 there were 227 Jewish residents; in 1869 the number was 695.

The Holocaust Period

In 1942 Jews, who were conscripted for forced labor, were brought to Varpalota, work on fortifications and in services together with other Hungarian citizens whom the authorities would not permit to join the armed forces. The Jews were used to fell the trees in the forests in the area. They were helped in numerous ways by the community.

In the middle of May 1944, all the Jews were assembled in a ghetto in the synagogue and surrounding buildings. Later, they were transferred to the Szekesfehervar ghetto. Between June 17 and 21 they were transported to Auschwitz.

After the war only a few individuals returned, but they did not renew communal life.

Papa

A town in the Veszprem district, North West Hungary.

Documents from 1698 indicate the presence of Jews in the place. Since then Jewish settlement grew rapidly. The census of 1736 shows the town had the largest number of Jews in the area.

Relations of the inhabitants towards the Jews were generally good, although there were occasional anti-Semitic outbursts; such as in 1830 following a plague, again in 1848 during the national War of Liberation and in 1882 after the Tiszaeszlar blood libel. However, none of these was of long duration. In the Tiszaeszlar incident, the Jews (particularly the butchers and tanning workers) defended themselves.

In the main the Jews made a living from commerce and small-scale industry. In the first half of the 19th century over 100 Jewish families worked in the tanning industry. There were also land lease-holders and important industrialists.
The community was officially founded in 1748 when the Jews received the protection of the estates owner, count Eszterhazy, who permitted them to settle there; to build a synagogue and to erect a cemetery. The community had a 100 dunam parcel of land at its disposal and with the proceeds thereof, the institutions that were founded were able to operate.

The Hevra Kadisha was established in 1739; the protocol of its establishment was written in Hebrew at the beginning, followed later by Yiddish and Hungarian. In 1850 the Hevra Kadisha opened a hospital. There were charitable institutions which assisted the needy and visited the sick, and an old-aged home. The synagogue was consecrated in 1846; count Eszterhazy donated the bricks for the building. Because of differences between the Haredim (orthodox) and Maskilim (enlightened) at the Jewish congress in 1868, the community joined the orthodox stream which refused to accept the decisions of congress. In 1875 a small group broke away and established a Neolog (reform) community which advocated integration into Hungarian society and amendments to the religious way of life.

In 1845 a school, for which the building materials were donated by count Eszterhazy, was opened. It was closed temporarily during the national war of liberation. It later became a state school with over 500 pupils. There were also religious educational institutions.

In 1904 a "Hovevei Zion" society was founded. Later on Zionist activities increased and in the 1930s there was a branch of the Zionist youth movement and also of the Hungarian Zionist organization (which had 120 members), as well as others such as "Hashomer Ha'tsair".

During World War I 20 Jews were killed in action.

During the period of the "white terror" (pogroms against the Jews instigated by right wing military elements, 1919-21, after the fall of the communist regime), two Jews were murdered together with a group of communists.

In 1930 the community numbered 2,567 (12% of the total). The comparative figures in 1880 were 3,550 and 24.2%.


The Holocaust Period
In 1938, after the publication of "discriminatory laws" which aimed at limiting Jewish participation in the economic and cultural fields, the majority of the Jews lost their means of livelihood. In 1939 Papa became a center for forced labor workers from the area. They were organized in labor battalions together with other Hungarian citizens whom the authorities would not permit to join the armed forces. The young people were sent to various places, some within the country and others to the Ukraine. Of the latter group, only a few survivors returned after the war.

In the spring of 1944, after the German occupation, several leading members of the community were arrested and taken to concentration camps in Sarvar and Nagykanizsa. From here they were sent to Auschwitz where they all perished.
In the second half of May a ghetto was set up in the area around the synagogue, which comprised 6-8 streets.

Together with Jews from the surroundings, there were about 2,800 people in the ghetto. At the beginning of June all the fit young people were conscripted for forced labor. The wealthy Jews were interrogated under torture in order to make them reveal where they had hidden their valuables. The Christian residents of the town expressed resentment against the use of this violence. One member of the gendarmerie was charged on these grounds after the war and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

In the ghetto there was a communal kitchen and the inmates did not suffer from hunger. The ghetto police were Jewish and doctors attended to the sick.

In the middle of June they were removed from the ghetto and held in a chemical fertilizers factory, without food or sanitary facilities. The municipality sent small supplies of food.
At the beginning of July they were loaded into cattle cars and transported to Auschwitz. 51 Jews, who were included in the Kastner "Bergen-Belsen train", were removed and sent to Budapest; the majority remained alive.

After the war about 500 people returned to Papa; communal life was renewed. The synagogue and cemetery were renovated and a memorial was erected to the martyrs. After the 1956 anti-Russian revolt, the people began to leave the town by degrees - the majority went overseas, including a few who went on aliyah to Israel. In 1972 there were only 50 Jews left in the place.