KRAUS Origin of surname

RUDICH

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 a physical characteristic or nickname

This family name is derived from the Polish term “rude”, a short form of “rude włosy”, meaning “ginger haired”, with addition of the German/Yiddish adjectival suffix “-ich”.

Nicknames have been used to identify people since ancient times by Jews and non-Jew alike. In the Jewish tradition, the boundary between personal names and nicknames has always been fluid, resulting in a wide variety of family names.

Rudich is documented as a Jewish family name with the Romanian-born Israeli journalist and poet Mayer (Marcu Moise) Rudich (1913-1991), known as M. Rudich.

Bernat Krausz (1851-1916), editor.

Born in Kajászószentpéter, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). The son of a rabbi, he left Hungary as a young man, at first to Vienna, Austria, and later to Berlin, Germany, and became a journalist. He made important international contacts, and enjoyed the goodwill of the imperial court of China. The "Ostasiatischer Lloyd", which he published and edited, was a journal for German interests in the Far East. Krausz was also persona grata with the Austro-Hungarian Embassy at Berlin. For many years he was president of the Hungarian Society at Berlin, and assisted many Hungarians studying there.
Krausz died in Vienna.

Judah Ha-Kohen Krauss (1858-1939), rabbi and halakhist born in Csaszta, Baranya county, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He was ordained by his teacher Moses Schick, by Moses Pollak, the Av Bet Din of Bonyhad, and by Eliezer Susman of Paks. In 1885 Krauss was appointed rabbi of Lackenbach, Austria, where he served for 50 years. The community was one of the oldest in Hungary and had a long tradition of learning. Here Krauss founded a yeshivah, which attracted many students, and his fame spread, especially as a preacher. At the request of Moses Schick, he published homiletical and aggadic works in German written in Hebrew characters. He also published and edited in six volumes "Davar be-Itto" (1909-1913), a religious homiletical journal which became a source book for preachers and lecturers in German-speaking countries. Krauss paid especial attention to the education of youth. In 1935, he emigrated to Jerusalem, Israel, where he devoted himself to study.
Krauss wrote: "Simkhat ha-Nefesh"; "Minhagei Izrael"; "Ben Melekh ve-ha-Nazir"; "Divrei Emet"; "Moreh la-Derekh"; and "Divrei Shalom".

Samuel Krauss (1866-1948), historian, philologist and Talmudic scholar born in Ukk, western Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at Papa Yeshivah and at the Budapest rabbinical seminary and university. From 1894 to 1906 Krauss taught Bible and Hebrew at the Jewish teachers' seminary in Budapest. In 1906 he began to teach Bible, history, and liturgy at the Israelitische-Theologische Lehranstalt in Vienna, Austria. It was due to his efforts that the college did not succumb to financial difficulties after World War I. Krauss was appointed head of the seminary in 1932 and rector in 1937. Krauss founded the "Vienna Verein juedische Geschichte und Literatur", and was active in many communal institutions. During the Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Nazis destroyed his valuable library and papers, and he fled to England, joining his daughter in Cambridge, where he remained until his death.

Kraus wrote over 1,300 articles and monographs, many of them major works, ranging widely in Judaica, philology, history, Bible, Talmud, Christianity and medieval Hebrew literature. One of his early works in philology: "Griechische und Lateinische Lehnwoerter im Talmud" (2 vol., 1898-99; repr. 1964), deals with the problems of phonetics, grammar, and transcription, and also with words borrowed from other languages. He also prepared a volume of additions and corrections to A. Kohut's "Arukh" entitled "Tosefot ha-Arukh ha-Shalem" (1936, repr. 1955). Among Krauss' historical studies was "Antonius und Rabbi" (1910), in which he offered his solution to the problem of the identity of the Talmudic Antonius, the friend of Judah ha-Nasi. On the then little-known Byzantine period in Jewish history, Krauss contributed "Studien zur byzantinisch-juedischen Geschichte" (in "Jahresbericht der Israelitisch-Theologischen Lehranstalt", vol. 21, 1914). Krauss wrote on the aliyah of the Polish Hasidim in the 18th century (in "Abhandlungen … Chajes" (1933, 51-95), and on Viennese and Austrian Jewish history in "Wiener Geserah vom Jahre 1421" (1922), in "Geschichte der israelitischen Armenanstalt" (1922), and in "Joachim Edler von Popper" (1926). His "Vier Jahrtausende juedischen Palaestinas" (1922) demonstrates the unbroken record of a Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Kraus contributed to A. Kahana's edition of the Hebrew Bible, a modern commentary of Isaiah (1905). He also cooperated in the Hungarian Bible translation edited by Bacher and Banoczi, Szentiras (1898-1907). Krauss' greatest work is his "Talmudische Archeologie" (3 vol., 1910-12; repr. 1966), a classic description of every aspect of life reflected in Talmudic and Midrashic literature. A similar work in Hebrew is his unfinished "Kadmoniyyot ha-Talmud" (2 vol., 1914-23). The history of the synagogue is described in his "Synagogale Altertuemer" (1922., repr. 1966). His last work, "Korot Battei ha- Tefillah be-Israel", ed. by A. R. Malachi (1955), was an extension and continuation of this work. His "Griechen und Roemer" (in Monumenta hebraica: Monumenta Talmudica, 5 pt. 1, 1914) and "Paras ve-Romi ba-Talmud u-va-Midrashim" (1948) also deal with the talmudic period. Kraus contributed to German and English publications on Sanhedrin, Makkot and Mishna, and a Hungarian translation of the Talmudic tractate Derekh Erez. Krauss also tackled the subject of Christianity in his "Leben Jesu nach juedischen Quellen" (1902) and in several articles. His interest in Hebrew poetry of the Spanish period is reflected in his "Givat Sha'ul" (1923), and in his "Mishbezet ha-Tarshish" (1926), on Moses ibn Ezra. His "Geschichte der juedischen Aerzte" (1930) is a description of the work and status of Jewish physicians of the Middle Ages. In his "Zur Orgelfrage" (1919), Krauss expressed his conservative stance concerning the use of organs in synagogues. He contributed ahundreds of articles to the "Jewish Encyclopedia", the "Encyclopedia Judaica" (German), and the "Juedische Lexikon". He wrote biographies of his teachers Wilhelm Bacher, David Kaufmann, and Alexander Kohut.

Zsigmond Krausz (1815-1874), journalist and communal leader, born in Gyorsziget, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at several yeshivot, was a school teacher for some time and subsequently became a businesssman. He took part in the emancipation movement of Hungarian Jewry, but opposed any reform of religious and communal life. He was one of the leaders and founders of the Shomre Hadath Association ("Guardians of the Faith"), the nucleus of the national Orthodox organization of Hungary which effectively resisted Reform Jewish tendencies in the country. Krausz, a delegate at the general congress of the Jews of Hungary held in Budapest (1868-1869), introduced the plan of the Shomre Hadath for community organization. After the Congress he fought against the enforcement of the resolutions which had been passed by the Reform majority. When, in 1871, in consequence of the protests of the Shomre Hadath, the Hungarian government permitted the Orthodox Jews to form a separate autonomous community, Krausz became a member of the Central Committee of the Orthodox Jewish group.

Krausz wrote articles against anti-Semitism, and he published in 1857 a series of articles on the Jewish religion and the Talmud in the largest Hungarian daily, "Pesti Naplo". He maintained a lively correspondence on Jewish subjects and halakhic questions with leading contemporary personalities and did much to foster the friendly attitude of some Hungarian statesmen toward Orthodox aspirations for organizational independence from the Reform movement.

Among his published works and articles are: "Ueber die biblischen Benennungen der Schal und Muscheltiere" (in "Ben Chananja"; 1858); "Die grosse Synode, ihr Uhrsprung und ihre Wirkungen" (1859), "Einige Worte an die schreibenden Judenfeinde" (1861); "Eine Israelitische Stimme zur Begruessung der edlen magyarischen Nation" (1861); "Die Aufgabe des gesetzestreuen Judentums im vereinigten vaterlande" (1870). He was editor of the Hungarian-language weekly, "Magyar Zsido" (1968-1969).

Krausz died in Mezobereny, Hungary.

Simon Krausz de Érd (1873-1938), banker, born in Torna, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Turna nad Bedvou, Slovakia). He was one of the leading financiers of Hungary. The Hungarian government occasionally turned to him for advice on its financial operations, and as a member of the assembly of the city of Budapest he participated in directing its financial policy.

The son of poor parents, Krausz founded a banking house at the age of twenty-seven in partnership with Mor Bettelheim, which operated for twenty-four years. He was elected a member of the council of the Budapest Commodity and Stock Exchange and a member of the assembly of the city of Budapest.

In 1915 Hungarian nobility was bestowed upon him with the use of the title "de Erd." He was also a member of the committee of the Jewish congregation of Pest. In 1924 he became president of the Anglo-Hungarian Bank and in 1929 president of the Association of Hungarian bankers. He was not, however, connected for long with the Anglo-Hungarian Bank, but founded a private banking house again. He was a member of board of directors of many industrial companies and banks.

Krausz was a well-known figure of Budapest society. To him making money was an art like other arts, but which enabled one to help others for whom art spelled poverty. Krausz' great interest in human nature and human ambitions, in the mechanism of society and career-making made him a practical philanthropist. He gave lavishly for many causes, national or individual. Even after he had lost all of his fortune he preserved to the end his good name and his popularity.

Karl Kraus (1874-1936), satirist and poet, was one of the greatest stylists in the German language, born in Jičín (Gitschin, in German), Czech Republic (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was raised in Vienna, Vienna. In 1898 he converted to Catholicism. In 1899 he founded Die Fackl, a satirical magazine and one of the most important journals in Vienna, which he edited until his death. As a conservative moralist he tirelessly attacked liberalism and the permissive intellectual atmosphere. He had no kind words for Judaism or Jews either, and he blamed the Jews themselves and the Jewish press for anti-Semitism.

His satirical essays were collected in six volumes (1908-1937) including Sittlichkeit und  Kriminalität (“Morality and Criminality”, 1908) and Heine und die Folgen (“Heine and the Results”, 1910). His epigrams and aphorisms appeared in four volumes (1909-1927). One of his most important works, Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (“The Last Days of Mankind”), a gigantic stage drama, could not be produced on stage due to its length. It was recognized only in 1980 and gained international recognition. The Untergang der Welt durch schwarze Magic (“Decline of Mankind through Black Magic”) was published in 1922. His lyric poetry appeared in nine volumes, entitled Woerte in Versen. Auswahl aus dem Werk, a selection from eleven of his works was published in 1961.

Karl Kraus died in Vienna.

Mircea Crișan (born Mauriciu Kraus, aka Mircea Krishan) (1924-2013), actor, cabaret artist, director and comedian, born in Maramures, Romania. As a child he went on tour with his parents who were employed at a circus wagon. He started his artistic career at the Baraseum Jewish Theater in Bucharest in 1943. After WW II he studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Bucharest from 1944 to 1946. In the 1950s and 1960s he starred in several Romanian comedies and in the theater and became one of the most famous comedians in Romania, regarded as the "King of Humor" of Romania of the 1960s. In 1968, while in a tour at the Olympia Music Hall in Paris, he defected and moved to Western Germany. In Germany he began a second successful career appearing in a number of TV serials, including Derrick, Polizeiruf 110, and Großstadtrevier. He was a sketch partner of the Dutch show master Rudi Carell and then of the German actress Gisela Schlüter. From 1993 to 2006 he performed more than ten times at the Störtebeker Festival on the island of Rügen, Germany. Crișan died in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Bustyn

In Ukrainian: Bushtino; in Hungarian: Bustyahaza

A small town in the sub-district of Tachovo or Tyachiv, Carpatho-Russia, Ukraine.

Bustyn lies about 20 km south east of the town Chust. The majority of the inhabitants are Ruthenians (Ukraines), the minority Hungarians. Until 1918 the sub-district of Tachovo was in the district Maramaros of Hungary, and at the end of World War I it was annexed to the new Republic of Czechoslovakia. In the years 1939-1945 the area was under Hungarian occupation and in 1945 it was annexed to Ukraine, then a Republic of the Soviet Union.
 

In 1728 one Jew was living at Bustyn, under the protection of the noble of the area. He produced wines, kept an inn and leased 3 flour mills. After him no Jews lived at the place for a period of one hundred years because of the opposition of the Christian inhabitants. Only in the 1850s, following the abolition of the restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Hungary, Jews began to settle in Bustyn. In 1880 there were 142 Jews in the town and by 1910 their number rose to 579.

The Jews of Bustyn differed from the other Jews of Maramaros. All of them indeed adhered to tradition but not all of them wore the streimel headdress and some kept their beards short. Some of them were maskilim (enlightened) and spoke German, Hungarian, and Czech. Most of the Jews of Bustyn were hasidim of Sziget or Spinka. The community was linked to the Rabbinate of Tachovo and did not have its own rabbi. At the beginning of the 1930s Rabbi Avishai Horowitz, the son-in-law of the Admor of Spinka, Rabbi Ithamar Leifer, was elected as the Rabbi of Bustyn but because of the opposition of the hasidim of Sziget the appointment was not realized.

Public prayers were first held in private houses. In the first synagogue, the “Central Schul”, which was built of wood, were about 200 seats. The second synagogue, the “Handel Schul”, was built in the late 1920s and had some 150 seats. The synagogue was built on the site of a former old synagogue. The synagogue of the villagers, the “Dorfs Schul”, was in use particularly on the Sabbath and feast days. A big bet midrash was at the home of the Admor Ithamar Leifer. A small bet midrash was in the Chocolate Street and near it the old mikveh.

For scores of years the children of the community had been taught by private melamdim (teachers of small children). A Talmud torah school was founded only in the 1930s. In the period between the two world wars about 20% of the youth studied at the yeshivot of the district or at the big yeshivot of Slovakia. Many studied at the civil school Polgari of Tachovo, at the Hebrew gymnasium of Uzhorod or at Mukacevo (Munkacs) and at the trade school of Sevlus (Vinogradov from 1947). A few studied medicine, law or engineering at Bratislava or Brno.

Among the institutions of the community were a Talmud study society and a women’s charity society. A hevra kaddisha (burial society) was founded when the community was first organized but a cemetery was consecrated only at the end of the 19th century. Until then the dead of Bustyn had been buried in the nearby villages. A shohet (ritual slaughterer) was employed at Bustyn from 1868.

In 1921 there were about 1300 Jews at Bustyn. The head of the community was then Kalman Kraus, who had been elected for life. Eliaz Teitelbaum was the rabbi. Among later heads of the community were Koppel Krois, Haim Sherter and Jacov Feig.

In the valley in which Bustyn is situated fruits and grains were grown and Bustyn served as a wholesale and ritail trade center for agricultural and other products. The flourishing economy of Bustyn attracted Jews to settle in the town and most of its trade was in the hands of Jews. About one third of the Jewish households made their living in the lumber industry (cutting, sawmills and transportation). Among the Jews were big merchants of lumber, owners of woods, wines and spirit stores, and textile stores. Among the craftsmen were cobblers, tailors, carpenters, and others. Some 50 Jews were carters. One Jew set up a factory for walking sticks.

In 1867 the Jews were granted civil rights and the Republic of Czechoslovakia in the period between the two world wars recognized them as a national minority with appropriate rights. At that time a few Jews served on the rural council. Emanuel Kraus was elected in 1926 to the post of the vice chairman of the local council. One of his sons, Alexander Kraus, was an assistant of Edvard Benes, the President of the Republic, and in 1938 went with him to London, the seat of the National Council in exile.

In 1927 a Zionist gathering was held at Bustyn, in which 200 young Jews participated. On that occasion a branch of the Betar movement was set up at Bustyn, with some 80 members. In their club Hebrew classes, lectures and prayers were held. In 1930 a group of Hehalutz Hazair was formed, with some 100 members. In 1933 the National Religious Youth and the Youth of Agudat Israel were also organized, most of them students of yeshivot.

From 1933 until the outbreak of World War II some 80 young Jews and a few families of Bustyn emigrated to Eretz Israel. Prior to the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress in 1937, 32 Shekels membership in the Zionist Organization and a voting right were acquired at Bustyn.

In 1930, 1,042 Jews were living at Bustyn.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, about a year before World War II broke out, the Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated. The region of Carpatho-Russia, with Bustyn in it, was granted in November 1938 a national Ruthenian autonomy. The Ukrainians (Ruthenians) persecuted the Jews until the autonomy was occupied by the Hungarian army on 15.3.1939. The Hungarians continued in the same vein. The Jews were deprived of their work and trade permits and many families were left without their means of livelihood. In the summer of 1941 Jews without Hungarian citizenship were deported to Kamenets Podolski in the Ukraine or to the German occupied parts of Poland. On the 9th of August Hungarian jendarmes held up Jews and transported them to Jasina, where they were further expelled across the border. At the end of two weeks, during which about 200 families, among them also Hungarian citizens, had been expelled across the border, an order was given to stop the deportations and to
return the deportees. A few dozens were returned to Bustyn, but 60% of the Jews of the town had already been murdered in various places in the Ukraine and Poland. Several Jews managed to escape from the killing site at Kamenets Podolski and found their way back to Hungary.

In 1941 Jewish men were mobilized to the military auxiliary force of Hungary and were sent to the Ukrainian front, where they found their death. Jews who were captured by the Russians and who asked to fight the Germans in the ranks of the Red Army were however rejected and taken to prisoner of war camps. About a dozen of them finally joined the Czech legion of general Svoboda. Another ten Jews of Bustyn served in the Czech brigade which faught in the framework of the allied forces.

In 1941 a number of work companies of Jews were brought to Bustyn for the purpose of preparing a military airfield. Some of them were accommodated at the synagogues of the town and were assisted by the community. In a census of that year 994 Jews were counted at Bustyn.

On 19.3.1944 the German forces entered Hungary. On 16.4.1944, immediatey after Pesach, the Jews of Bustyn were taken by train to the ghetto of Mateszalka, where thousands of Jews of the vicinity were concentrated for deportation to the death camps. The Jews of Bustyn were sent to Auschwitz in the third transport on 29.5.44. (the second day of Shavuot). All the synagogues and batei midrash of Bustyn were destroyed in the course of the war.

Some Jewish survivors returned to Bustyn after the war. They set up a public kitchen and prayer rooms for men and for women.

As from 1947, when the authorities forbade public prayers, the prayers were held at private homes.

In the years 1945-47 some 30 Jewish families lived at Bustyn. The majority of them had lived before the war in settlements around the town. A few years later most of them emigrated to Eretz Israel. When they left, the mikveh building (purification bath) was turned into a warehouse.

In the 1980s six Jews were living at Bustyn. At that time the cemetery was desolate and tombstones ahd been removed for building purposes. The grave of the Zaddik Rabbi Mordecai of Nadvorna was then intact.

Snina

In Hungarian: Szinna

A small town in east Slovakia.

Snina is situated near the frontier with Ukraine, near the town of Humenne. The residents of Snina earn their living mostly from the forests in the area. Until 1918 Snina was part of Hungary and then, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
 

21st Century

There are no longer any Jews living in Snina.

 

History

It is not known exactly when Jewish settlement began in Snina. In 1750, 19 Jews were recorded among the 206 inhabitants of the place, most of whom were Greek-Catholics. A tombstone dated  1843 at the local Jewish cemetery and the community register of 1851 are the first tangible testimonies to organized Jewish life at Snina. A synagogue was built in 1842.  In the 19th century Jews from Galicia settled in Snina and their numbers steadily increased. Most of them made their living from small businesses, peddling, and some from craftsmanship and agriculture

When the Hungarian Jewish communities split in 1869, Snina defined itself as Orthodox and joined the Organization of Orthodox Kehilot.  Rabbi Shmuel Segal Krauss, served until 1912, and after him, Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein author of  “Mateh Reuven”, was elected to lead. He opened a small yeshiva in Snina.  Rabbi Moshe Halberstam, the dayan and teacher, presided at his side.  In 1893 a new synagogue opened which conducted  services in the Ashkenazi nusach (rite), and a few years later a second synagogue was established for Hasidim in the Sephardic nusach. Next to the synagogue a community center was built with apartments for the community's workers (chazzan (cantor), shochet (ritual slaughter), and melamdim (teachers).

In the first 60 years, the kehila opened a basic school in which the languages of instruction were in German and Hungarian, and it was managed by the teacher Manheim from Budapest.

With the outbreak of World War I, 37 of Snina's Jews were drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and 7 fell in battle.  Many Jews fled the village because of the threat of a Russian invasion.

When the Republic of Czechoslovakia was established, in October 1918,  Jews were recognized as a national minority with appropriate rights and this brought about an awakening of social and political activity in the community

After the war, many Jews returned but it was quite a while until life in the town returned to its regular routine. The kehila  returned and reorganized.  In 1922 it consisted of 190 families, its yearly budget was 38,000 Kronen and Moritz Srulovitz was its head. The kehila  was comprised of a synagogue, a kloyz (a small synagogue or place for study), beth-midrash (study hall), community center, ritual bath, a chicken, slaughterhouse, a butcher shop and a cemetery, and it employed three full-time employees and some temporary ones. Rabbi Klein continued to administer the yeshiva in which some dozens of young men studied. Rav Simcha Goldberger served as the instructor. The yeshiva boys came mostly from poor families.  In addition to the established Chevra Kadisha (burial society) Snina had other charitable groups such as, the “Jewish Women's Association”, the gemach (acts of charity and kindness group) and the “Talmud Torah group”, that supported it (the Talmud Torah). In this period, the kehila no longer maintained it own school, and the children learned in the local public school. Most of them also studied religious subjects with the teacher Moshe Weil in the Talmud Torah.

In the inter-war period the “Agudas Yisroel” party was the largest in Snina. It provided extensive educational activities, and also ran the youth movement “Tseirey Agudas Yisroel” for boys and “Beis Yakov” for girls.  During these same years Zionist activities also began which included teaching Hebrew and raising money for Karen Kayemet and Keren Hayesod.   The active Zionist parties in Snina were the “Mizrachi,” “General Zionists,” “The League for Working Eretz-Yisrael,” and the “Beitar”. In the years 1922-1940 Hapoel Hamizrachi, the General Zionists and Betar joined together and became the United Zionist Movement, with Dr. Kornfeld at its head. In 1929, Snina's Jews collected 1,500 Kronen in donations for Keren Kayemet to plant a forest in Israel in the name of Czechoslovakia's president, Jan Masaryk. The National Jewish Party was also active in Snina and participated in local municipal elections. 

The Jews of Snina were very religious and did not mix much with  non-Jews, unlike their brethren in other places in Slovakia at that time. Only a few of them, mostly those with more open professions, served the general public – the district doctor, Ferdinand Kornfeld, district doctor Herman Hofman, and two senior clerks in the district government.

Despite the fact that the Jewish population of Snina was about 10%, they had a large part in the economy - principally in trade, business, and small industry. In the first two decades there were among them, 30 merchants, 11 business owners (5 shoemakers, 3 tailors, a butcher, tinker, and a baker), a few farmers, expert builders, two doctors, a lawyer, some clerks. A large factory for wood working, a factory for light drinks, and an “economy bank” were owned by Jews.

In 1930, 390 Jews were living at Snina.


The Holocaust

The Republic of Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a result of the Munich Agreement of September 1938, almost a year before World War I broke out. Slovakia declared its autonomy on October 6, 1938, and became an independent state and a satellite of Germany on March 14,1939.   At that time there were 420 Jews living in Snina. The head  of the kehila was Herman Dim and Rabbi Klein continued to lead it. New racist laws removed Jews from the social and economic life of the country, until they were totally deprived of civil rights and dispossessed of their property. Jewish children were banned from public schools in the 1940/1 school year. The community opened a Jewish school with eight classes. In 1941 Jewish businesses were closed or aryanized. Many Jews were drafted for hard labor.

In the spring of 1942 deportations from Snina began. On March 21 young Jewish men and women were rounded up. On March 22, about 50 young Jewish women from Snina and its environs were sent to the collection camp in Poprad  and on the 25th they were deported from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Dozens of young men were sent to the collection camp in Zilina  and deported from there to the Majdanek Nazi concentration camp in the Lublin region of Poland. On May 7, the authorities began to round up most of the remaining Jews with the intent of deportation. A non-Jewish local resident offered to hide Rabbi Klein, but the rabbi refused to cut himself off from his congregation and was deported with them. Most of the Jews of Snina and its environs were taken to the concentration center in Humenné and on May 11 joined the transport to the Chelm Ghetto in the Lublin region, and from there they were deported to the Nazi death camp in Sobibor.

In the fall of 1942, after the deportations stopped, eight Jewish families remained in Snina and two more in adjoining settlements, all of whom held exemption certificates and their deportations were deferred. In May 1944 the last of Snina's Jews were evacuated to western Slovakia. In September 1944,  as the Germans were entering Slovakia, some of them succeeded in escaping and hiding. But some fell into the hands of the Germans and were deported to extermination camps.

Postwar

In 1945, after the war, Jewish survivors who returned to Snina, were met with hostility and violence. Ten Jewish women, who had survived the camps, settled down in the village Koblasov, near Snina. One night they were murdered in their sleep by a band of banderists, a group of antisemitic Poles under the leadership of Stefan Bandera. One only of these women, who managed to hide, escaped death. She emigrated later to the USA.  In 1948 only five Jewish families lived there. Jews all left Snina within a few years of their return, most of them to Israel.  All the institutions of the community had been destroyed, the synagogue was turned into an apartment house and the abandoned cemetery alone remained as a memorial to the former Jewish life at Snina.