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The Jewish Community of Poprad

Poprad

In German: Deutschendorf

A town in north-east Slovakia. Until 1918 Poprad belonged to the district of Szepes (in Slovak Spis) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and since then until 1993 it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

There is very little left of the Jewish community in Poprad. In 1990 there were still a few Jews living in Poprad.  The Jewish cemetery whose tombstones were broken and scattered was repaired recently.  The synagogue houses a printing press but a memorial plaque for victims of the holocaust was dedicated there in 1992. In 2004, a plaque was dedicated at the railway station in memory of the Jewish girls deported to Auschwitz.


HISTORY

Jewish settlement came relatively late because they were forbidden from settling in mining towns (there was copper mining). Most of the founders of the Jewish community of Poprad came from the town of Huncovce (in Hungarian: Hunfalva). The community registered in 1879 as an orthodox community. A prayer house was dedicated in the 1880’s and a synagogue was built in 1906 and enlarged a few years later. Next to the synagogue there was also a beth midrash (Jewish study hall). Rabbi Aharon Grunberg was the first rabbi.  A Jewish elementary school was opened in the town in 1908.  There were fifty students and the language of instruction was German. Franz Gottlieb taught there and wrote a history of Poprad’s Jewish community. A Talmud torah school was founded in 1924 by the initiative of Mor Klein.

There was a hevra kaddisha (burial society), an interest free loan society  and a women’s society engaged in social work. The community employed a cantor and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). Jews living in a number of villages in the area were also registered in the community. The economic situation was generally good and many Jews made their living in commerce. Most businesses in the town were owned by Jews.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Aharon Gruenberg, occupied the post until his death in 1907. He was followed by Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Praguer. He too served until his death, a few years before the holocaust.

The president of the community in 1922 was the engineer Whitman. In the late 1920’s the president was the manufacturer Henrik Kleinberger. Mor Klein was honorary president for life.

Most of the Jews of Poprad were merchants and craftsmen. There were also doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, clerks and others. A sawmill owned by a Jew employed 70 workers. The economic condition of most of the Jews was stable, but there were also some poor families who were supported by institutions of the community.

In World War I, 38 members of the community joined the Hungarian army. Following the war, at the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, lively political and Zionist activity developed in Poprad. The third convention of the National Federation of the Jews of Slovakia in 1924 took place in Poprad. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist congress, 158 Shekels (membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right) were acquired by the Jews of Poprad.

In 1935 a world convention of Hashomer Hazair was held in the town and the radio station of Kosice broadcast proceedings of the convention, even in Hebrew. Maccabi Hazair and the general Zionists were also active in the town. There was also Bnei Akiva and Beitar youth movements.  In the early 1930’s a number of halutzim, trainees of the local training for aliyah, went to Israel.

The Jews of Poprad were also active in local politics and formed a National Jewish Party headed by Dr. Alfred Low. In the general elections of 1928, the party received 195 votes and Dr. Lowe was chosen as deputy mayor. He continued in this role after the 1931 elections as well.

In 1930 618 Jews were living in Poprad, 15,3% of the total population of the town.


THE HOLOCAUST

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia declared its autonomy in October 1938 and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic manifestations and harassment of Jews under the protection of the authorities and with their encouragement soon set in. Gradually the Jews were removed from the social and economic life of the country and deprived of their livelihood. At the end of 1940, 606 Jews were still living in the town. On August 13, 1940 there were riots against the Jewish community resulting in the destruction of property. In the spring of 1941, licenses for businesses were denied and larger Jewish businesses were Arayanized.

In March 1942 a transit camp was set up in the military barracks of Poprad, to which thousands of the Jews of Slovakia were brought. It was one of the five camps through which the Jews of Slovakia were deported to ghettos and death camps in Poland. The first train from Slovakia to the extermination camps left Poprad on March 26,1942 and carried approximately 1,000 Jewish women to Auschwitz. On the 3rd of April and the 23rd of April two additional transports of 1,000 Jews each left Poprad to Auschwitz. On May 25 a transport of 1,000 Jews left Poprad for Rajowicze, and five additional transports left between May 28 and June 13. The men were taken to Lublin and the women to Izbica and Sobibor.  In all, 10,000 Jews were deported from Poprad’s transit camp to extermination camps in Poland and most were murdered.
 

POSTWAR

At the end of the war, a few dozen survivors of the community returned to Poprad and community life was renewed briefly and the synagogue was repaired for services.  In 1947 the community raised 17,000 kronen to plant a forest in Israel in memory of the martyrs of the shoah. In 1949, most of Poprad’s Jews emigrated to Israel.

Huncovce

In German: Hondorf; in Hungarian: Hunfalu or Hunfalva

A small town in north-eastern Slovakia.

Huncovce is situated on the river Poprad, between the towns Poprad in the south and Kezmarok in the north. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Huncovce is known in the Jewish world thanks to its yeshivot, in which over 10,000 torah scholars were trained in the course of the years. The Jewish community of Huncovce is one of the oldest in the region of Spis (in Hungarian Szepes). The region was inhabited mostly by Germans, who opposed the settlement of Jews in the towns of the district. The first Jews came to Huncovce in the 17th century. In 1728 there were still only two Jewish families in the town, and in 1754 the number rose to 31, but the community was organized only in the 1760’s.

The old synagogue was burnt down around 1760. The fire destroyed also important documents and rabbinical literature. In 1821 a new splendid synagogue in the baroque style was consecrated, with a mikveh (purification bath) in its cellar. In 1844 an elementary Jewish school was opened.

In the middle of the 19th century when the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Hungary were abolished, many Jews moved from Huncovce to the towns of Spiska Nova Ves, to Levica and to Poprad.

In 1851 the community consisted of 928 Jews. In 1860 there were about 200 Jewish families in the place and in 1900 the number dwindled to just 40.

The first rabbi of Huncovce, Rabbi Benjamin Sinai, died in 1708. The second rabbi of Huncovce is on record in 1757. He was followed by Rabbi Rappoport, the author of the book Bigdei Kodesh; Rabbi Jehezkel Levy; Rabbi Joav Billizer; and Rabbi Jehezkel Weil. In 1812 Rabbi Mordecai Broda, the grandson of Rabbi Abrahm Broda of Frankfurt/Main was appointed. He was succeeded by Rabbi Solomon Perlstein who in 1833 became the district rabbi. Since then until the end of the 19th century Huncovce became the center for the Jews of the Spis region.

At the beginning of the 19th century there were three yeshivot at Huncovce. Following the decrease in the Jewish population at the place only one yeshiova was left, which developed particularly under its head Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg (1825-1918). Rabbi Rosenberg was regarded in his congregation as a wonder-maker and was called Zadik. A monument was built over his grave.

The yeshiva was the second most important in Europe, after the Yeshiva of Pressburg. It was recognized as an institute of higher education by the Hungarian authorities and also by the Republic of Czechoslovakia. In the years 1908-1910 it was attended by 300 students from all over the world. In 1929 living quarters were built for the students but in 1931, when Rabbi Joseph Horowitz, the head of the yeshiva, left the town, the yeshiva was closed. The majority of the Jews of Huncovce made their living in trade and crafts.

In 1848, when the Hungarian revolted against the Austrian rule, Jews of Huncovce joined as volunteers the Hungarian rebels and eight of them fall in battle. After the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) the Jews of Huncovce became integrated in the life of the Hungarian society and economy. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia, that came into being in 1918, the Jews were given a national-cultural autonomy. At that time started also Zionist activity in the town. In 1926, prior to the election to the 15th Zionist Congress, 12 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired at Huncovce.

In 1930, 194 Jews were living at Huncovce.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. In October Slovakia declared its autonomy and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country. In 1941 only 75 Jews lived in the town. In 1942 all the Jews of Huncovce and the neighborhood except one were taken to Poprad and from there deported to Auschwitz in Poland, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

Only a few survivors of the community returned to Huncovce after the war. The synagogue building, which during the war suffered damage in air raids, was turned into a warehouse. At the end of the century, many tombstones in the old cemetery, which borders the river, were found under water. One tombstone was of the year 1697. At the new cemetery, which was opened in the 19th century, the tombstones were found in place, undamaged.

Dobsina

German: Dobschau

A small town in central Slovakia.

Dobsina lies on the river Slana, in an area of iron and copper mines, and attracts tourists who come to see the ice cave in the place. Until 1918 Dobsina was part of Hungary, and since then until 1993, part of the republic of Czechoslovakia.

A Jewish community was organized at Dobsina in 1857. A synagogue was built and a cemetery consecrated. The community was attached to the rabbinate of the community of Roznava. Its institutions included a hevra kaddisha, a women’s society, and a Talmud torah school.

Following the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary in 1867, the community belonged to the orthodox stream, which opposed any change in the halakha.

In 1922 there were about 250 members in the community. Dr Joseph Rosinger was then the president. In matters of religion the community referred to Rabbi Izu Lamberger of Roznava. The secretary was Shimon Hertz.

In the late 1920s , the president was Arthur Altschuk. In addition to the elected committee, there were also a gabai (manager of the synagogue), a treasurer, and a controller.

The majority of the Jews of Dobsina engaged in trade, mostly in clothing and footwear. There were also doctors, one dentist, and a painter.

In the 1930s, the Zionist youth organisation Maccabi Ha-Zair was active in the town. Its members studied Hebrew and Hebrew songs. In 1927, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, two Shekels, membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right, were purchased by the Jews of Dobsina.

In 1930, 78 Jews were living in the town.


The Holocaust Period

On March, 14, 1939, about 6 months before the outbreak of World War II, Slovakia declared its independence and became a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime gradually removed the Jews from the economic and social life of the country. The number of the Jews at Dobsina at the end of 1940 was 127.

The authorities established at the town a Jewish center, through which its orders were carried out. The expulsion of the Jews of Slovakia to concentration and extermination camps in Poland began with the expulsion of some 2000 young men and women on the 26th and 27th of March 1942. Most of the Jews of Dobsina were expelled, apparently via Poprad, between the beginning of April and mid-June 1942, and subsequently murdered by the Germans.

About 15 of the Jews of Dobsina survived the war, most of them later emigrated to Israel. At Dobsina there is no longer any trace of the former Jewish community, except the cemetery, now covered with noxious weeds.

Košice

Yiddish: קאשוי, Kashoi; Hungarian: Kassa; German: Kaschau

A city in eastern Slovakia. Until World War I (1914-1918) Kosice was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary and known as Kassa. After World War I it became part of Czechoslovakia. Since 1993 it has been part of Slovakia.

21ST CENTURY

Four of the five major synagogues that existed in Kosice before the war have remained standing. The Neolog synagogue was converted into a philharmonic hall, and the Star of David that once adorned it was moved to the Jewish cemetery to serve as a Holocaust memorial. The Chassidic synagogue was converted into a lab building.

One Orthodox synagogue underwent a process of restoration, and serves as the center of Kosice’s Jewish community. The complex includes community offices, a kosher cafeteria, and a small synagogue. It also includes a mikvah (ritual bath) dating from the 19th century.

A second former Orthodox synagogue was abandoned and remained in a state of neglect for years. Beginning in the 21st century it began undergoing a process of restoration and renovation.

The Jewish cemetery in Kosice has continued to be used through the 21st century.

In 2001 the Jewish population of Kosice was 406.

 

HISTORY

Jews from nearby Rozhanovce (Hungarian: Rozgony) came to Kosice only for market days until 1840, when they received permission to settle there. Though some of the city’s residents still attempted to prevent the Jews from settling there, the city's Jewish population grew significantly and Kosice became one of the larger Jewish communities in Hungary. In 1869 there were 2,178 Jews (10% of the total population) in Kosice and by 1910 there were 6,723 (15%). Additionally, Kosice would absorb many refugees from World War I who chose to remain in the city after the war, so by 1930 there were 11,195 Jews living in Kosice (16.4% of the total population).

Economically, the Jews of Kosice benefitted from a number of developments that took place over the years. Jews were heavily involved in the city’s major industries: the brewery, flour mills, brickworks, and the soap factory. The community experienced further economic gains in 1860 with the arrival of a railroad interchange to Kosice. After World War I, the community profited from the town's position as the gateway to Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Carpatho-Russia) in the newly created Czechoslovakian Republic. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established its institutional headquarters in the town, as did other Jewish and Zionist institutions.

Kosice housed two major Jewish communities, the Orthodox and the Neolog, each of which had their own synagogue and even separate sections in the Jewish cemetery. Both communities also supported Jewish schools in which the language of instruction was Hungarian and/or Slovak. Indeed, the Kosice Yeshiva was among those recognized by the government as an institution of higher learning. A new Neolog synagogue was built in 1927, which included 600 seats for men and 500 for women, along with an elementary school, rooms for teachers, a gymnasium, a laboratory, and an office. That same year, the Orthodox community (which increased from 236 members in 1914 to 700 in 1927) constructed its own Moorish-style synagogue building.

THE HOLOCAUST

Immediately after Hungary annexed the city in November 1938, a number of antisemitic economic restrictions were applied, first against those holding government licenses (tobacconists, restaurateurs, and lawyers), and then expanded to include other professions.

After World War II (1939-1945) broke out in September 1939, refugees from Slovakia and Poland came to Kosice; in 1940 there were 3,000 people being supported by the Hungarian Jewish Relief Organization (OMZSA) in Kosice. Kosice absorbed another wave of refugees when the Slovakian deportations began in 1942.

Beginning in 1940, all Jewish men between the ages of 40 and 45 were conscripted for forced labor, and those between 21 and 40 were forced to serve in the Hungarian Army labor battalions serving in Russia.

When Hungary was occupied by the Germans on March 19, 1944, forty members of the Orthodox and Neolog communities were arrested and held as hostages. Large sums of money were demanded as ransom for the community. A Judenrat was also formed, made up of members from both the Orthodox and Neolog communities.

On April 28, 1944 the Jews of the city began to be concentrated in specific areas; 11,830 Jews were confined to 11 streets, which were then reduced to 3 on April 30. Finally, the Jews were ordered to move into the four-acre area of the local brick factory, which was located on the outskirts of the town.

Deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau began on May 15th, 1944. By June 7th, there were no Jews left in Kosice.  70% of the Jews from Kosice were killed.  

POSTWAR

After the war, a number of Jewish groups returned to the city but the Jewish population continued to decline. During the 1960s the Jewish population of Kosice was approximately 1,300.

Izbica Lubelska

A village in the Krasnystaw County of the Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland.

In 1856 the Jewish population together with that of Tarnogora numbered 1, 594 (62.8% of the total population). In Izbica proper the number of Jews was 3,019 (95%) in 1897 and 2,862 (92.7%) in 1921. At that time the Polish authorities opposed the establishment of a municipal council so as to prevent its being in Jewish hands. The town was known in the Hasidic world through the Tzaddik Mordecai Joseph Leiner of Izbica, a disciple of Mendel of Kotsk. Mordecai Joseph, founder of the Hasidic dynasty of Izbica, was followed by his son Jacob, author of Beit Ya'akov and father of the Tzaddik Gershon Chanokh Leiner of Radzyn.

On the outbreak of World War II there were some 4,000 Jews in Izbica Lubelska. In December 1939 about 2,500 Jews from Lodz and Kolo were forced to settle there, and during March and April 1942 an additional 1,000, mostly from Czechoslovakia, were deported to the town. On March 24, 1942, about 2,200 Jews were deported from Izbica Lubelska to Belzec death camp. By the end of that year the entire Jewish population of the town, including the deportees, had been exterminated in the Belzec and Sobibor death camps or shot.

Lipiany

Lipany; in Hungarian: Hethars

A small town in the district of Saris, north Slovakia.


Lipiany is situated in an agricultural area, near the town of Sabinov. Lipiany began developing in the 16th century, when merchandise intended for Poland used to be transported through it. Following the peace between Hungary and Austria in 1867 Lipiany became a central town, with government offices. Until 1918 the town was in the sub-district of Saros in Hungary and since then, until 1993, in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Jews had lived in Lipiany already in the middle of the 18th century. They had come from Poland, Austria and Moravia. A community began to be organised in 1840. A hevra kaddisha (burial society) was formed and a cemetery was consecrated. Previously the dead of Lipiany used to be buried at the cemetery of the nearby village Brezovice.

Yehuda Leib Hartmann, one of the founders of the community, was then the head of the Jewish congregation of the whole sub-district and the shohet (ritual slaughterer) also served the whole region. In 1859 a wooden synagogue was built at Lipiany.

At the beginning, the community of Lipiany was affiliated to the Rabbinate of Pecsujfalva (Pecovska) and only in 1873 it became an autonomous orthodox community. Rabbi Moses Margareten was appointed as rabbi and he served in that capacity until his death in 1898. After him, the Rabbi of Brezovice served as the rabbi of Lipiany, and Rabbi Yoel Klein served as the dayan (judge) until his death in 1907. Israel Weinberg was the cantor (choir leader) and shohet (kosher slaughterer).

In 1929 the community built a magnificent synagogue, designed by Jeno Barkany of Presov, and next to it also a community house. The architect Barkany designed also the town hall of Lipiany. In addition to the central synagogue, the community had also a bet midrash and a small yeshiva.

Three Jews of Lipiany won a title that gave them the right to add the name of the town to their name. Dr. Henrik Neumann, a lecturer of the university of Vienna and a world famous specialist in ear diseases; Adsolf Neumann, for great achievements in the sphere of economics; and the educator Hermann Neumann.

The writer Hermann Kopp came to Lipiany in 1875 and reorganised the community’s institutions. His new form of organisation served later as a model for other orthodox communities in Hungary. In the late 1930’s the head of the community was David Handler.

Most of the Jews of Lipiany found their living as merchants, craftsmen and carters. There were also a few doctors and one dentist.

The relations between the Jews of Lipiany and the other inhabitants were good. At the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, between the two world wars, the political and Zionist activity in the community intensified. Hermann Kopp, who had been one of the founders of Hamizrachi in Hungary, founded in 1900 a society for the settlement of Eretz Israel and took part in the Zionist Congresses in Basle. His articles were published in Jewish periodicals that were widely read in the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, 44 shekels (membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right) were acquired at Lipiany, and in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, in 1937, 8 Jews of Lipiany took part. In the 1930’s, the Zionist youth movements Hashomer Hazair and Betar were active in the place. 15 young people of the community went to Eretz Iisrael in the years 1938-1939.

In 1930, 283 Jews were living at Lipiany.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismembered and on the 14th of March 1939 Slovakia became an independent state, a satellite of Germany. The Jews were gradually removed from the economic and social life of the country and many were left without any means of livelihood. When the Jewish children were removed from the general schools, the community organised classes at the synagogue.

At the end of March 1942, squads of the Hlinka Guard took the young Jewish women out of their homes and concentraterd them at the town of Poprad. From there they were deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. A few months later, the Jewish families were deported to the extermination camp of Treblinka. Only a few Jews whose work was essential to the authorities and some who managed to hide, were left in Lipiany. In 1944 they too were deported to the camps.

A few Jewish survivors returned to Lipiany after the war and in the late 1940’s they went to Eretz Israel. The synagogue building was requisitioned by the authorities for public purposes.

Spisska Nova Ves

In Hungarian: Iglo, in German: Zipser Neudorf

A town in east Slovakia.

Spisska Nova Ves lies at the foot of the high Tatra mountains, in a region of mines and spas. The railway junction at the place serves to convey the local iron and the wood products to various destinations. The town was founded in 1268 by settlers from Germany. Until 1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then until 1993 part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Spisska Nova Ves enjoyed the status of a mining town and as such refused to allow the settlement of Jews in it even after the abolition in 1840 of the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in the towns of Hungary. As a result, Jews were then living mainly in the neighboring villages Markusovce and Smizany (in Hungarian: Szepesvemeg), where they lived a community life. Jews were allowed to settle in Spisska Nova Ves only in the 1850s and already in the 1860s they began to organize institutions of a regular community and engaged a teacher for their children.

In 1867 the Jews of Hungary were granted full civil rights and the community of Spisska Nova Ves was given in 1872 official recognition. The community joined the status quo ante stream of communities, which refrained from taking side in the dispute between the orthodox and Neolog factions in the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary in 1868/9. In that year a private Jewish school was established in the town. In 1867 the school was acquired by the community and with the help of the local council it was turned into a general elementary school, with 36 pupils. In 1912 a new building was erected for the school, with a library and a meeting hall. The synagogue was built in 1899 and the community’s institutions were then a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society and a bikkur holim (visiting the sick) society.

The first rabbi of the community was Rabbi Aharon Kraus. When he died in 1929 he was succeeded by Rabbi Dr. Bertalan Rosenstein. Simon Polack, the president of the community for 18 years, was also the president of the town’s union of merchants, a member of the town’s council and a member of the board of a bank. When he died, he was succeeded by the lawyer Dr. Singer as the head of the community.

Most of the Jews of Spisska Nova Ves were merchants or craftsmen. Some were of the liberal professions.

At the time of the Republic of Czchoslovakia, between the two world wars, the Jews were recognized as a national minority with appropriate rights. This encouraged them to take an active part in the public and political life of the country, as well as in Zionist activity. Most of the Zionists in the town were followers of the General Zionists Party and the women were members of Wizo. The Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hazair, which was founded in the 1920s as the Hashomer Kadimah movement, opened a club in the building of the Jewish school. In the late 1930s there was also a small group of Betar at Spisska Nova Ves. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, 148 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right, were acquired by the Jews of the town, and in 1937, prior to the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 54 shekels.

In 1930 about 300 Jewish families were living in Spisska Nova Ves, 733 persons.


The Holocaust Period

About a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Munich Agreement of 1938 forced the Republic of Czechoslovakia to cede parts of the country to Nazi Germany and the republic disintegrated. Slovakia at first declared its autonomy and on March 14, 1939, it became an independent state, a satellite of Germany. Anti-Jewish laws gradually removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country, until they were finally deprived of all their civil rights and property.

At the end of 1940, 720 Jews were living in Spisska Nova Ves. In the spring of 1942 the Slovaks began to deport the Jews to concentration and death camps in Poland. In the first batch, on March 26, 1942, 1,000 young women were sent to Auschwitz via the town of Poprad. On the following day 1,000 young men were similarly deported via Zilina. These two transports included also some of the youth of Spisska Nova Ves. Whole Jewish families of the town and its near neighborhood were dispatched in April or on May 29, when a train with 1,032 Jews left the town. The men were moved to Lublin and the women to Izbicza, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime of the country broke out in the center of Slovakia. Young Jewish men who had been in hiding or in labor camps joined the rebellious partisans. The German army entered Slovakia in order to suppress the mutiny and captured many of the hiding and fighting Jews. Two young Jewish men of Spisska Nova Ves were killed in fighting the Germans. The synagogue was set on fire and completely destroyed at the end of 1944.

In 1945, after the war, four or five members of the community returned to Spisska Nova Ves from the camps. Two of them stayed and the others emigrated overseas. Jews from other places settled in Spisska Nova Ves and Hashomer Hazair renewed its activity. Some of its trainees went to Israel in the late 1940s. On the site of the demolished synagogue a cinema was built.

Visitors in 1990 found the Jewish cemetery fenced but very neglected and the gravestones broken.

Stara Lubovna

In German: Lublau; in Hungarian: Olublo

A small town in north Slovakia.

Stara Lubovna lies at the foot of the high Tatra mountains, near the Polish border, north east of the town Poprad, on the road that leads to it. Until 1918 the region was part of Hungary, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

No clear information is available as to the beginning of Jewish settlement in the place and the time of its organization as a community. We only know that the community of Stara Lubovna had a cemetery, a synagogue, a Talmud torah school, a hevra kaddisha (burial society), and a bikkur holim society. The Jews of Stara Lubovna were Orthodox and the community belonged to the Orthodox stream.

In 1922 about 1000 Jews were registered in the register of the community, including apparently also the Jews of the neighboring smaller settlements. Theophil Green was then the head of the community, S. L. Friedmann was the rabbi and Adolf Englander the secretary. In the 1930’s B. Blayer was the head of the community and Isidor Friedmann the rabbi.

Most of the Jews of the town engaged in trade but there were also craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, tinsmiths) and some professional people, like doctors and lawyers. The Jews of Stara Lubovna, along with the rest of the Jews of Hungary, received full civil rights in 1867 and participated in the economic and social life of the town. That was the position also following World War I, when the newly established Republic of Czechoslovakia recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights.

In 1926, prior to the 15th Zionist Congress, 16 shekels membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right were acquired in Stara Lubovna, and in 1937, in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 36 Jews of the community took part. A smaller part of the young people of the town were members in the Zionist youth movements. Benei Akiva, Hashomer Hazair, and Hehalutz. Some of them also joined the training groups for Aliyah of the movements and went to Eretz Israel before World War II broke out.

In 1930, 351 Jews were living at Stara Lubovna.


The Holocaust Period

The Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, caused the Republic of Czechoslovakia to disintegrate. Slovkia declared on October 6, 1938, its autonomy, and on March 14, 1939, became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany.

The Fascist regime of Slovakia gradually removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country and many Jews were left without any means of livelihood. Jewish men were drafted to forced labor in a military framework, the sixth battalion of the Slovak army. At the end of March 1942 began the mass deportation of the Jews of Slovakia to concentration and extermination camps in Poland. Most of them were murdered in the camps by the Germans. The Jews of Stara Lubovna were deported, apparently in April, to Auschwitz through Poprad. A lull in the deportations set in in October 1942.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime broke out in central Slovakia. The German army entered the country in order to suppress the revolt, and the then remaining Jews were also deported to the extermination camps in the autumn of that year.

Only a handful of Jewish families of Stara Lubovna survived the war. With time they left the place and so there were no longer any Jews at Stara Lubovna and the neighborhood.

A visitor in 1989 found the cemetery duly fenced but only a few tombstones were in place.

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.

Slovakia

Slovenská republika - Slovak Republic
A country in central Europe, until 1993 part of Czechoslovakia, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 2,600 out of 5,450,000. Main Jewish organization:

Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí v Slovenskej republike - Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia
Panenská 4
811 03 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 02-5441 2167
Fax: 02-5441 1106
Email: office@uzzno.sk
Website: http://www.uzzno.sk/

מארקושובצה Markušovce 

בהונגרית: MARKUSFALVA

כפר במזרח סלובקיה.


הכפר מארקושובצה שוכן מדרום לעיירה ספישסקה נובה וס (SPISSKA NOVA VES). עד 1918 השתייך האזור לממלכת הונגריה, ומאז עד 1993 - לרפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית.

אמנם כמה "יהודי חסות" (מוגנים תמורת מסים ושרותים) ישבו במקום כבר במאה ה- 17, אבל ישיבת קבע של יהודים במארקושובצה החלה רק במאה ה- 18, באמצע המאה הוקם בית תפילה שקירותיו היו בנויים בולי-עץ עבים. המקווה שנשתמר במרתף בניין בית התפילה היה כנראה העתיק ביותר בסלובקיה. בית הכנסת החדש נבנה אף הוא בבולי- עץ. יסודות הבניין היו אבן ולבני- בניין, כיפתו עוצבה בסיגנון ניאוגותי. בבית הכנסת הייתה עזרת נשים. בבניין עצמו הייתה דירת החזן ובמרתפו - המקווה. מימי המקווה נבעו ממעיינות, ובימי גשם עלה מפלס המים עד לתקרה. בכפר היה בית ספר יהודי, שלמדו בו גם ילדים נוצרים.

בית העלמין קודש כקילומטר אחד מהכפר, על הדרך לעיר ספישסקה ולאכי SPISSKE VLACHY. מקצת המצבות עשויות אבן- חול, אחרות גרנית שוודית.

ב- 1867 קיבלו יהודי האזור זכויות אזרח וברפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית שבין שתי מלחמות העולם הם הוכרו כמיעוט לאומי בעל זכויות. באותה התקופה הייתה פעילות כלשהי במארקושובצה, ולקראת הבחירות לקונגרס הציוני ה-ט"ו (1927) שולמו בכפר מסים להסתדרות הציונית (300 קרונות צ'כיים).

ב- 1938 ישבו במארקושובצה 34 יהודים.


תקופת השואה

הסכם מינכן מספטמבר 1938, כמעט שנה לפני פרוץ מלחמת העולם השנייה, הביא להתפרקות הרפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית. ב- 6 באוקטובר 1938 הכריזה סלובקיה על אוטונומיה, ואחר- כך נעשתה מדינה עצמאית בחסות גרמניה הנאצית. היהודים הורחקו מחיי הציבור ומהכלכלה, נכסיהם ועיסקיהם הועברו לידי סלובקים בני "הגזע הארי".

לפי סטאטיסטיקה סלובקית ב- 1940 ישבו במארקושובצה 30 יהודים. בין מרס לספטמבר 1942 נמסרו רוב יהודי סלובקיה לידי הגרמנים על אדמת פולין, ושם שולחו למחנות ריכוז והשמדה. לאחר הפוגה של שנתיים חודשו הגירושים בספטמבר 1944. רוב המגורשים ניספו.


אחרי המלחמה לא חודשו החיים היהודיים בכפר. בשנות הששים של המאה העשרים לא חי אף יהודי אחד במארקושובצה. באותה העת היו אולם "צידוק הדין" וגדר האבן של בית העלמין הרוסים, ורוב המצבות היו שבורות ומכוסות צמחייה עבותה.

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The Jewish Community of Poprad

Poprad

In German: Deutschendorf

A town in north-east Slovakia. Until 1918 Poprad belonged to the district of Szepes (in Slovak Spis) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and since then until 1993 it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

There is very little left of the Jewish community in Poprad. In 1990 there were still a few Jews living in Poprad.  The Jewish cemetery whose tombstones were broken and scattered was repaired recently.  The synagogue houses a printing press but a memorial plaque for victims of the holocaust was dedicated there in 1992. In 2004, a plaque was dedicated at the railway station in memory of the Jewish girls deported to Auschwitz.


HISTORY

Jewish settlement came relatively late because they were forbidden from settling in mining towns (there was copper mining). Most of the founders of the Jewish community of Poprad came from the town of Huncovce (in Hungarian: Hunfalva). The community registered in 1879 as an orthodox community. A prayer house was dedicated in the 1880’s and a synagogue was built in 1906 and enlarged a few years later. Next to the synagogue there was also a beth midrash (Jewish study hall). Rabbi Aharon Grunberg was the first rabbi.  A Jewish elementary school was opened in the town in 1908.  There were fifty students and the language of instruction was German. Franz Gottlieb taught there and wrote a history of Poprad’s Jewish community. A Talmud torah school was founded in 1924 by the initiative of Mor Klein.

There was a hevra kaddisha (burial society), an interest free loan society  and a women’s society engaged in social work. The community employed a cantor and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). Jews living in a number of villages in the area were also registered in the community. The economic situation was generally good and many Jews made their living in commerce. Most businesses in the town were owned by Jews.

The first rabbi of the community, Rabbi Aharon Gruenberg, occupied the post until his death in 1907. He was followed by Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Praguer. He too served until his death, a few years before the holocaust.

The president of the community in 1922 was the engineer Whitman. In the late 1920’s the president was the manufacturer Henrik Kleinberger. Mor Klein was honorary president for life.

Most of the Jews of Poprad were merchants and craftsmen. There were also doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, clerks and others. A sawmill owned by a Jew employed 70 workers. The economic condition of most of the Jews was stable, but there were also some poor families who were supported by institutions of the community.

In World War I, 38 members of the community joined the Hungarian army. Following the war, at the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, lively political and Zionist activity developed in Poprad. The third convention of the National Federation of the Jews of Slovakia in 1924 took place in Poprad. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist congress, 158 Shekels (membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right) were acquired by the Jews of Poprad.

In 1935 a world convention of Hashomer Hazair was held in the town and the radio station of Kosice broadcast proceedings of the convention, even in Hebrew. Maccabi Hazair and the general Zionists were also active in the town. There was also Bnei Akiva and Beitar youth movements.  In the early 1930’s a number of halutzim, trainees of the local training for aliyah, went to Israel.

The Jews of Poprad were also active in local politics and formed a National Jewish Party headed by Dr. Alfred Low. In the general elections of 1928, the party received 195 votes and Dr. Lowe was chosen as deputy mayor. He continued in this role after the 1931 elections as well.

In 1930 618 Jews were living in Poprad, 15,3% of the total population of the town.


THE HOLOCAUST

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. Slovakia declared its autonomy in October 1938 and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic manifestations and harassment of Jews under the protection of the authorities and with their encouragement soon set in. Gradually the Jews were removed from the social and economic life of the country and deprived of their livelihood. At the end of 1940, 606 Jews were still living in the town. On August 13, 1940 there were riots against the Jewish community resulting in the destruction of property. In the spring of 1941, licenses for businesses were denied and larger Jewish businesses were Arayanized.

In March 1942 a transit camp was set up in the military barracks of Poprad, to which thousands of the Jews of Slovakia were brought. It was one of the five camps through which the Jews of Slovakia were deported to ghettos and death camps in Poland. The first train from Slovakia to the extermination camps left Poprad on March 26,1942 and carried approximately 1,000 Jewish women to Auschwitz. On the 3rd of April and the 23rd of April two additional transports of 1,000 Jews each left Poprad to Auschwitz. On May 25 a transport of 1,000 Jews left Poprad for Rajowicze, and five additional transports left between May 28 and June 13. The men were taken to Lublin and the women to Izbica and Sobibor.  In all, 10,000 Jews were deported from Poprad’s transit camp to extermination camps in Poland and most were murdered.
 

POSTWAR

At the end of the war, a few dozen survivors of the community returned to Poprad and community life was renewed briefly and the synagogue was repaired for services.  In 1947 the community raised 17,000 kronen to plant a forest in Israel in memory of the martyrs of the shoah. In 1949, most of Poprad’s Jews emigrated to Israel.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People

Huncovce

Huncovce

In German: Hondorf; in Hungarian: Hunfalu or Hunfalva

A small town in north-eastern Slovakia.

Huncovce is situated on the river Poprad, between the towns Poprad in the south and Kezmarok in the north. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Huncovce is known in the Jewish world thanks to its yeshivot, in which over 10,000 torah scholars were trained in the course of the years. The Jewish community of Huncovce is one of the oldest in the region of Spis (in Hungarian Szepes). The region was inhabited mostly by Germans, who opposed the settlement of Jews in the towns of the district. The first Jews came to Huncovce in the 17th century. In 1728 there were still only two Jewish families in the town, and in 1754 the number rose to 31, but the community was organized only in the 1760’s.

The old synagogue was burnt down around 1760. The fire destroyed also important documents and rabbinical literature. In 1821 a new splendid synagogue in the baroque style was consecrated, with a mikveh (purification bath) in its cellar. In 1844 an elementary Jewish school was opened.

In the middle of the 19th century when the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Hungary were abolished, many Jews moved from Huncovce to the towns of Spiska Nova Ves, to Levica and to Poprad.

In 1851 the community consisted of 928 Jews. In 1860 there were about 200 Jewish families in the place and in 1900 the number dwindled to just 40.

The first rabbi of Huncovce, Rabbi Benjamin Sinai, died in 1708. The second rabbi of Huncovce is on record in 1757. He was followed by Rabbi Rappoport, the author of the book Bigdei Kodesh; Rabbi Jehezkel Levy; Rabbi Joav Billizer; and Rabbi Jehezkel Weil. In 1812 Rabbi Mordecai Broda, the grandson of Rabbi Abrahm Broda of Frankfurt/Main was appointed. He was succeeded by Rabbi Solomon Perlstein who in 1833 became the district rabbi. Since then until the end of the 19th century Huncovce became the center for the Jews of the Spis region.

At the beginning of the 19th century there were three yeshivot at Huncovce. Following the decrease in the Jewish population at the place only one yeshiova was left, which developed particularly under its head Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg (1825-1918). Rabbi Rosenberg was regarded in his congregation as a wonder-maker and was called Zadik. A monument was built over his grave.

The yeshiva was the second most important in Europe, after the Yeshiva of Pressburg. It was recognized as an institute of higher education by the Hungarian authorities and also by the Republic of Czechoslovakia. In the years 1908-1910 it was attended by 300 students from all over the world. In 1929 living quarters were built for the students but in 1931, when Rabbi Joseph Horowitz, the head of the yeshiva, left the town, the yeshiva was closed. The majority of the Jews of Huncovce made their living in trade and crafts.

In 1848, when the Hungarian revolted against the Austrian rule, Jews of Huncovce joined as volunteers the Hungarian rebels and eight of them fall in battle. After the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary (1867) the Jews of Huncovce became integrated in the life of the Hungarian society and economy. In the Republic of Czechoslovakia, that came into being in 1918, the Jews were given a national-cultural autonomy. At that time started also Zionist activity in the town. In 1926, prior to the election to the 15th Zionist Congress, 12 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right were acquired at Huncovce.

In 1930, 194 Jews were living at Huncovce.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. In October Slovakia declared its autonomy and in March 1939 became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country. In 1941 only 75 Jews lived in the town. In 1942 all the Jews of Huncovce and the neighborhood except one were taken to Poprad and from there deported to Auschwitz in Poland, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

Only a few survivors of the community returned to Huncovce after the war. The synagogue building, which during the war suffered damage in air raids, was turned into a warehouse. At the end of the century, many tombstones in the old cemetery, which borders the river, were found under water. One tombstone was of the year 1697. At the new cemetery, which was opened in the 19th century, the tombstones were found in place, undamaged.

Dobsina

Dobsina

German: Dobschau

A small town in central Slovakia.

Dobsina lies on the river Slana, in an area of iron and copper mines, and attracts tourists who come to see the ice cave in the place. Until 1918 Dobsina was part of Hungary, and since then until 1993, part of the republic of Czechoslovakia.

A Jewish community was organized at Dobsina in 1857. A synagogue was built and a cemetery consecrated. The community was attached to the rabbinate of the community of Roznava. Its institutions included a hevra kaddisha, a women’s society, and a Talmud torah school.

Following the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary in 1867, the community belonged to the orthodox stream, which opposed any change in the halakha.

In 1922 there were about 250 members in the community. Dr Joseph Rosinger was then the president. In matters of religion the community referred to Rabbi Izu Lamberger of Roznava. The secretary was Shimon Hertz.

In the late 1920s , the president was Arthur Altschuk. In addition to the elected committee, there were also a gabai (manager of the synagogue), a treasurer, and a controller.

The majority of the Jews of Dobsina engaged in trade, mostly in clothing and footwear. There were also doctors, one dentist, and a painter.

In the 1930s, the Zionist youth organisation Maccabi Ha-Zair was active in the town. Its members studied Hebrew and Hebrew songs. In 1927, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, two Shekels, membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right, were purchased by the Jews of Dobsina.

In 1930, 78 Jews were living in the town.


The Holocaust Period

On March, 14, 1939, about 6 months before the outbreak of World War II, Slovakia declared its independence and became a satellite of Nazi Germany. The Fascist regime gradually removed the Jews from the economic and social life of the country. The number of the Jews at Dobsina at the end of 1940 was 127.

The authorities established at the town a Jewish center, through which its orders were carried out. The expulsion of the Jews of Slovakia to concentration and extermination camps in Poland began with the expulsion of some 2000 young men and women on the 26th and 27th of March 1942. Most of the Jews of Dobsina were expelled, apparently via Poprad, between the beginning of April and mid-June 1942, and subsequently murdered by the Germans.

About 15 of the Jews of Dobsina survived the war, most of them later emigrated to Israel. At Dobsina there is no longer any trace of the former Jewish community, except the cemetery, now covered with noxious weeds.

Kosice, Slovakia

Košice

Yiddish: קאשוי, Kashoi; Hungarian: Kassa; German: Kaschau

A city in eastern Slovakia. Until World War I (1914-1918) Kosice was part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary and known as Kassa. After World War I it became part of Czechoslovakia. Since 1993 it has been part of Slovakia.

21ST CENTURY

Four of the five major synagogues that existed in Kosice before the war have remained standing. The Neolog synagogue was converted into a philharmonic hall, and the Star of David that once adorned it was moved to the Jewish cemetery to serve as a Holocaust memorial. The Chassidic synagogue was converted into a lab building.

One Orthodox synagogue underwent a process of restoration, and serves as the center of Kosice’s Jewish community. The complex includes community offices, a kosher cafeteria, and a small synagogue. It also includes a mikvah (ritual bath) dating from the 19th century.

A second former Orthodox synagogue was abandoned and remained in a state of neglect for years. Beginning in the 21st century it began undergoing a process of restoration and renovation.

The Jewish cemetery in Kosice has continued to be used through the 21st century.

In 2001 the Jewish population of Kosice was 406.

 

HISTORY

Jews from nearby Rozhanovce (Hungarian: Rozgony) came to Kosice only for market days until 1840, when they received permission to settle there. Though some of the city’s residents still attempted to prevent the Jews from settling there, the city's Jewish population grew significantly and Kosice became one of the larger Jewish communities in Hungary. In 1869 there were 2,178 Jews (10% of the total population) in Kosice and by 1910 there were 6,723 (15%). Additionally, Kosice would absorb many refugees from World War I who chose to remain in the city after the war, so by 1930 there were 11,195 Jews living in Kosice (16.4% of the total population).

Economically, the Jews of Kosice benefitted from a number of developments that took place over the years. Jews were heavily involved in the city’s major industries: the brewery, flour mills, brickworks, and the soap factory. The community experienced further economic gains in 1860 with the arrival of a railroad interchange to Kosice. After World War I, the community profited from the town's position as the gateway to Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Carpatho-Russia) in the newly created Czechoslovakian Republic. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established its institutional headquarters in the town, as did other Jewish and Zionist institutions.

Kosice housed two major Jewish communities, the Orthodox and the Neolog, each of which had their own synagogue and even separate sections in the Jewish cemetery. Both communities also supported Jewish schools in which the language of instruction was Hungarian and/or Slovak. Indeed, the Kosice Yeshiva was among those recognized by the government as an institution of higher learning. A new Neolog synagogue was built in 1927, which included 600 seats for men and 500 for women, along with an elementary school, rooms for teachers, a gymnasium, a laboratory, and an office. That same year, the Orthodox community (which increased from 236 members in 1914 to 700 in 1927) constructed its own Moorish-style synagogue building.

THE HOLOCAUST

Immediately after Hungary annexed the city in November 1938, a number of antisemitic economic restrictions were applied, first against those holding government licenses (tobacconists, restaurateurs, and lawyers), and then expanded to include other professions.

After World War II (1939-1945) broke out in September 1939, refugees from Slovakia and Poland came to Kosice; in 1940 there were 3,000 people being supported by the Hungarian Jewish Relief Organization (OMZSA) in Kosice. Kosice absorbed another wave of refugees when the Slovakian deportations began in 1942.

Beginning in 1940, all Jewish men between the ages of 40 and 45 were conscripted for forced labor, and those between 21 and 40 were forced to serve in the Hungarian Army labor battalions serving in Russia.

When Hungary was occupied by the Germans on March 19, 1944, forty members of the Orthodox and Neolog communities were arrested and held as hostages. Large sums of money were demanded as ransom for the community. A Judenrat was also formed, made up of members from both the Orthodox and Neolog communities.

On April 28, 1944 the Jews of the city began to be concentrated in specific areas; 11,830 Jews were confined to 11 streets, which were then reduced to 3 on April 30. Finally, the Jews were ordered to move into the four-acre area of the local brick factory, which was located on the outskirts of the town.

Deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau began on May 15th, 1944. By June 7th, there were no Jews left in Kosice.  70% of the Jews from Kosice were killed.  

POSTWAR

After the war, a number of Jewish groups returned to the city but the Jewish population continued to decline. During the 1960s the Jewish population of Kosice was approximately 1,300.

Izbica Lubelska

Izbica Lubelska

A village in the Krasnystaw County of the Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland.

In 1856 the Jewish population together with that of Tarnogora numbered 1, 594 (62.8% of the total population). In Izbica proper the number of Jews was 3,019 (95%) in 1897 and 2,862 (92.7%) in 1921. At that time the Polish authorities opposed the establishment of a municipal council so as to prevent its being in Jewish hands. The town was known in the Hasidic world through the Tzaddik Mordecai Joseph Leiner of Izbica, a disciple of Mendel of Kotsk. Mordecai Joseph, founder of the Hasidic dynasty of Izbica, was followed by his son Jacob, author of Beit Ya'akov and father of the Tzaddik Gershon Chanokh Leiner of Radzyn.

On the outbreak of World War II there were some 4,000 Jews in Izbica Lubelska. In December 1939 about 2,500 Jews from Lodz and Kolo were forced to settle there, and during March and April 1942 an additional 1,000, mostly from Czechoslovakia, were deported to the town. On March 24, 1942, about 2,200 Jews were deported from Izbica Lubelska to Belzec death camp. By the end of that year the entire Jewish population of the town, including the deportees, had been exterminated in the Belzec and Sobibor death camps or shot.

Lipiany

Lipiany

Lipany; in Hungarian: Hethars

A small town in the district of Saris, north Slovakia.


Lipiany is situated in an agricultural area, near the town of Sabinov. Lipiany began developing in the 16th century, when merchandise intended for Poland used to be transported through it. Following the peace between Hungary and Austria in 1867 Lipiany became a central town, with government offices. Until 1918 the town was in the sub-district of Saros in Hungary and since then, until 1993, in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Jews had lived in Lipiany already in the middle of the 18th century. They had come from Poland, Austria and Moravia. A community began to be organised in 1840. A hevra kaddisha (burial society) was formed and a cemetery was consecrated. Previously the dead of Lipiany used to be buried at the cemetery of the nearby village Brezovice.

Yehuda Leib Hartmann, one of the founders of the community, was then the head of the Jewish congregation of the whole sub-district and the shohet (ritual slaughterer) also served the whole region. In 1859 a wooden synagogue was built at Lipiany.

At the beginning, the community of Lipiany was affiliated to the Rabbinate of Pecsujfalva (Pecovska) and only in 1873 it became an autonomous orthodox community. Rabbi Moses Margareten was appointed as rabbi and he served in that capacity until his death in 1898. After him, the Rabbi of Brezovice served as the rabbi of Lipiany, and Rabbi Yoel Klein served as the dayan (judge) until his death in 1907. Israel Weinberg was the cantor (choir leader) and shohet (kosher slaughterer).

In 1929 the community built a magnificent synagogue, designed by Jeno Barkany of Presov, and next to it also a community house. The architect Barkany designed also the town hall of Lipiany. In addition to the central synagogue, the community had also a bet midrash and a small yeshiva.

Three Jews of Lipiany won a title that gave them the right to add the name of the town to their name. Dr. Henrik Neumann, a lecturer of the university of Vienna and a world famous specialist in ear diseases; Adsolf Neumann, for great achievements in the sphere of economics; and the educator Hermann Neumann.

The writer Hermann Kopp came to Lipiany in 1875 and reorganised the community’s institutions. His new form of organisation served later as a model for other orthodox communities in Hungary. In the late 1930’s the head of the community was David Handler.

Most of the Jews of Lipiany found their living as merchants, craftsmen and carters. There were also a few doctors and one dentist.

The relations between the Jews of Lipiany and the other inhabitants were good. At the time of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, between the two world wars, the political and Zionist activity in the community intensified. Hermann Kopp, who had been one of the founders of Hamizrachi in Hungary, founded in 1900 a society for the settlement of Eretz Israel and took part in the Zionist Congresses in Basle. His articles were published in Jewish periodicals that were widely read in the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, 44 shekels (membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right) were acquired at Lipiany, and in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, in 1937, 8 Jews of Lipiany took part. In the 1930’s, the Zionist youth movements Hashomer Hazair and Betar were active in the place. 15 young people of the community went to Eretz Iisrael in the years 1938-1939.

In 1930, 283 Jews were living at Lipiany.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was dismembered and on the 14th of March 1939 Slovakia became an independent state, a satellite of Germany. The Jews were gradually removed from the economic and social life of the country and many were left without any means of livelihood. When the Jewish children were removed from the general schools, the community organised classes at the synagogue.

At the end of March 1942, squads of the Hlinka Guard took the young Jewish women out of their homes and concentraterd them at the town of Poprad. From there they were deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. A few months later, the Jewish families were deported to the extermination camp of Treblinka. Only a few Jews whose work was essential to the authorities and some who managed to hide, were left in Lipiany. In 1944 they too were deported to the camps.

A few Jewish survivors returned to Lipiany after the war and in the late 1940’s they went to Eretz Israel. The synagogue building was requisitioned by the authorities for public purposes.

Spisska Nova Ves

Spisska Nova Ves

In Hungarian: Iglo, in German: Zipser Neudorf

A town in east Slovakia.

Spisska Nova Ves lies at the foot of the high Tatra mountains, in a region of mines and spas. The railway junction at the place serves to convey the local iron and the wood products to various destinations. The town was founded in 1268 by settlers from Germany. Until 1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and since then until 1993 part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

Spisska Nova Ves enjoyed the status of a mining town and as such refused to allow the settlement of Jews in it even after the abolition in 1840 of the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in the towns of Hungary. As a result, Jews were then living mainly in the neighboring villages Markusovce and Smizany (in Hungarian: Szepesvemeg), where they lived a community life. Jews were allowed to settle in Spisska Nova Ves only in the 1850s and already in the 1860s they began to organize institutions of a regular community and engaged a teacher for their children.

In 1867 the Jews of Hungary were granted full civil rights and the community of Spisska Nova Ves was given in 1872 official recognition. The community joined the status quo ante stream of communities, which refrained from taking side in the dispute between the orthodox and Neolog factions in the General Congress of the Jews of Hungary in 1868/9. In that year a private Jewish school was established in the town. In 1867 the school was acquired by the community and with the help of the local council it was turned into a general elementary school, with 36 pupils. In 1912 a new building was erected for the school, with a library and a meeting hall. The synagogue was built in 1899 and the community’s institutions were then a hevra kaddisha (burial society), a women’s society and a bikkur holim (visiting the sick) society.

The first rabbi of the community was Rabbi Aharon Kraus. When he died in 1929 he was succeeded by Rabbi Dr. Bertalan Rosenstein. Simon Polack, the president of the community for 18 years, was also the president of the town’s union of merchants, a member of the town’s council and a member of the board of a bank. When he died, he was succeeded by the lawyer Dr. Singer as the head of the community.

Most of the Jews of Spisska Nova Ves were merchants or craftsmen. Some were of the liberal professions.

At the time of the Republic of Czchoslovakia, between the two world wars, the Jews were recognized as a national minority with appropriate rights. This encouraged them to take an active part in the public and political life of the country, as well as in Zionist activity. Most of the Zionists in the town were followers of the General Zionists Party and the women were members of Wizo. The Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hazair, which was founded in the 1920s as the Hashomer Kadimah movement, opened a club in the building of the Jewish school. In the late 1930s there was also a small group of Betar at Spisska Nova Ves. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, 148 shekels membership in the Zionist organization and a voting right, were acquired by the Jews of the town, and in 1937, prior to the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 54 shekels.

In 1930 about 300 Jewish families were living in Spisska Nova Ves, 733 persons.


The Holocaust Period

About a year before the outbreak of World War II, the Munich Agreement of 1938 forced the Republic of Czechoslovakia to cede parts of the country to Nazi Germany and the republic disintegrated. Slovakia at first declared its autonomy and on March 14, 1939, it became an independent state, a satellite of Germany. Anti-Jewish laws gradually removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country, until they were finally deprived of all their civil rights and property.

At the end of 1940, 720 Jews were living in Spisska Nova Ves. In the spring of 1942 the Slovaks began to deport the Jews to concentration and death camps in Poland. In the first batch, on March 26, 1942, 1,000 young women were sent to Auschwitz via the town of Poprad. On the following day 1,000 young men were similarly deported via Zilina. These two transports included also some of the youth of Spisska Nova Ves. Whole Jewish families of the town and its near neighborhood were dispatched in April or on May 29, when a train with 1,032 Jews left the town. The men were moved to Lublin and the women to Izbicza, where most of them were murdered by the Germans.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime of the country broke out in the center of Slovakia. Young Jewish men who had been in hiding or in labor camps joined the rebellious partisans. The German army entered Slovakia in order to suppress the mutiny and captured many of the hiding and fighting Jews. Two young Jewish men of Spisska Nova Ves were killed in fighting the Germans. The synagogue was set on fire and completely destroyed at the end of 1944.

In 1945, after the war, four or five members of the community returned to Spisska Nova Ves from the camps. Two of them stayed and the others emigrated overseas. Jews from other places settled in Spisska Nova Ves and Hashomer Hazair renewed its activity. Some of its trainees went to Israel in the late 1940s. On the site of the demolished synagogue a cinema was built.

Visitors in 1990 found the Jewish cemetery fenced but very neglected and the gravestones broken.

Stara Lubovna

Stara Lubovna

In German: Lublau; in Hungarian: Olublo

A small town in north Slovakia.

Stara Lubovna lies at the foot of the high Tatra mountains, near the Polish border, north east of the town Poprad, on the road that leads to it. Until 1918 the region was part of Hungary, and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

No clear information is available as to the beginning of Jewish settlement in the place and the time of its organization as a community. We only know that the community of Stara Lubovna had a cemetery, a synagogue, a Talmud torah school, a hevra kaddisha (burial society), and a bikkur holim society. The Jews of Stara Lubovna were Orthodox and the community belonged to the Orthodox stream.

In 1922 about 1000 Jews were registered in the register of the community, including apparently also the Jews of the neighboring smaller settlements. Theophil Green was then the head of the community, S. L. Friedmann was the rabbi and Adolf Englander the secretary. In the 1930’s B. Blayer was the head of the community and Isidor Friedmann the rabbi.

Most of the Jews of the town engaged in trade but there were also craftsmen (shoemakers, tailors, tinsmiths) and some professional people, like doctors and lawyers. The Jews of Stara Lubovna, along with the rest of the Jews of Hungary, received full civil rights in 1867 and participated in the economic and social life of the town. That was the position also following World War I, when the newly established Republic of Czechoslovakia recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights.

In 1926, prior to the 15th Zionist Congress, 16 shekels membership in the Zionist organisation and a voting right were acquired in Stara Lubovna, and in 1937, in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress, 36 Jews of the community took part. A smaller part of the young people of the town were members in the Zionist youth movements. Benei Akiva, Hashomer Hazair, and Hehalutz. Some of them also joined the training groups for Aliyah of the movements and went to Eretz Israel before World War II broke out.

In 1930, 351 Jews were living at Stara Lubovna.


The Holocaust Period

The Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, caused the Republic of Czechoslovakia to disintegrate. Slovkia declared on October 6, 1938, its autonomy, and on March 14, 1939, became an independent state, a satellite of Nazi Germany.

The Fascist regime of Slovakia gradually removed the Jews from the social and economic life of the country and many Jews were left without any means of livelihood. Jewish men were drafted to forced labor in a military framework, the sixth battalion of the Slovak army. At the end of March 1942 began the mass deportation of the Jews of Slovakia to concentration and extermination camps in Poland. Most of them were murdered in the camps by the Germans. The Jews of Stara Lubovna were deported, apparently in April, to Auschwitz through Poprad. A lull in the deportations set in in October 1942.

In the summer of 1944 a revolt against the Fascist regime broke out in central Slovakia. The German army entered the country in order to suppress the revolt, and the then remaining Jews were also deported to the extermination camps in the autumn of that year.

Only a handful of Jewish families of Stara Lubovna survived the war. With time they left the place and so there were no longer any Jews at Stara Lubovna and the neighborhood.

A visitor in 1989 found the cemetery duly fenced but only a few tombstones were in place.

Spisska Stara Ves

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.

Slovakia

Slovakia

Slovenská republika - Slovak Republic
A country in central Europe, until 1993 part of Czechoslovakia, member of the European Union (EU).

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 2,600 out of 5,450,000. Main Jewish organization:

Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí v Slovenskej republike - Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia
Panenská 4
811 03 Bratislava
Slovakia
Phone: 02-5441 2167
Fax: 02-5441 1106
Email: office@uzzno.sk
Website: http://www.uzzno.sk/

Markusovce

מארקושובצה Markušovce 

בהונגרית: MARKUSFALVA

כפר במזרח סלובקיה.


הכפר מארקושובצה שוכן מדרום לעיירה ספישסקה נובה וס (SPISSKA NOVA VES). עד 1918 השתייך האזור לממלכת הונגריה, ומאז עד 1993 - לרפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית.

אמנם כמה "יהודי חסות" (מוגנים תמורת מסים ושרותים) ישבו במקום כבר במאה ה- 17, אבל ישיבת קבע של יהודים במארקושובצה החלה רק במאה ה- 18, באמצע המאה הוקם בית תפילה שקירותיו היו בנויים בולי-עץ עבים. המקווה שנשתמר במרתף בניין בית התפילה היה כנראה העתיק ביותר בסלובקיה. בית הכנסת החדש נבנה אף הוא בבולי- עץ. יסודות הבניין היו אבן ולבני- בניין, כיפתו עוצבה בסיגנון ניאוגותי. בבית הכנסת הייתה עזרת נשים. בבניין עצמו הייתה דירת החזן ובמרתפו - המקווה. מימי המקווה נבעו ממעיינות, ובימי גשם עלה מפלס המים עד לתקרה. בכפר היה בית ספר יהודי, שלמדו בו גם ילדים נוצרים.

בית העלמין קודש כקילומטר אחד מהכפר, על הדרך לעיר ספישסקה ולאכי SPISSKE VLACHY. מקצת המצבות עשויות אבן- חול, אחרות גרנית שוודית.

ב- 1867 קיבלו יהודי האזור זכויות אזרח וברפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית שבין שתי מלחמות העולם הם הוכרו כמיעוט לאומי בעל זכויות. באותה התקופה הייתה פעילות כלשהי במארקושובצה, ולקראת הבחירות לקונגרס הציוני ה-ט"ו (1927) שולמו בכפר מסים להסתדרות הציונית (300 קרונות צ'כיים).

ב- 1938 ישבו במארקושובצה 34 יהודים.


תקופת השואה

הסכם מינכן מספטמבר 1938, כמעט שנה לפני פרוץ מלחמת העולם השנייה, הביא להתפרקות הרפובליקה הצ'כוסלובקית. ב- 6 באוקטובר 1938 הכריזה סלובקיה על אוטונומיה, ואחר- כך נעשתה מדינה עצמאית בחסות גרמניה הנאצית. היהודים הורחקו מחיי הציבור ומהכלכלה, נכסיהם ועיסקיהם הועברו לידי סלובקים בני "הגזע הארי".

לפי סטאטיסטיקה סלובקית ב- 1940 ישבו במארקושובצה 30 יהודים. בין מרס לספטמבר 1942 נמסרו רוב יהודי סלובקיה לידי הגרמנים על אדמת פולין, ושם שולחו למחנות ריכוז והשמדה. לאחר הפוגה של שנתיים חודשו הגירושים בספטמבר 1944. רוב המגורשים ניספו.


אחרי המלחמה לא חודשו החיים היהודיים בכפר. בשנות הששים של המאה העשרים לא חי אף יהודי אחד במארקושובצה. באותה העת היו אולם "צידוק הדין" וגדר האבן של בית העלמין הרוסים, ורוב המצבות היו שבורות ומכוסות צמחייה עבותה.