Braunsberg

Residential - Braniewo (Braunsberg), Warmia-Masuria

First Jewish presence: 1740s; peak Jewish population: 169 in 1880; Jewish population in 1933: 67

The Jewish community of Braunsberg (present-day Braniewo, Poland) was founded in the early 1880s, after which a small prayer hall was consecrated on Lindenstrasse. In 1855, in response to growing population numbers, the community erected a synagogue on Fleischerstrasse. Local Jews also maintained a cemetery on Bahnhofstrasse. Jews and Gentiles coexisted peacefully in Braunsberg. A prominent Jewish dentist from nearby Koenigsberg, who was very active in Braunsberg, received honorary citizenship in appreciation of his work. Of the 80 Jews living in Braunsberg when the Nazis rose to power, most had left by 1939. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), the synagogue was set on fire and the cemetery desecrated, after which the few remaining Jews were forced to abandon their homes and businesses. The synagogue ruins were razed. In 1940, only 10 Jews lived in Braunsberg; no information is available about their fate.

Moshe Finkel

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

Notes

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschen Sprachraum, Klaus Dieter-Alicke, [publisher] Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008.

Details

Date Added	May 20, 2020
Category	Residential
Country	PL
State	Warmia-Masuria
City	Braniewo (Braunsberg)
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Braunsberg

First Jewish presence: 1740s; peak Jewish population: 169 in 1880; Jewish population in 1933: 67

Moshe Finkel

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ germansynagogues.bh.org.il

Notes

Details

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Jason Guberman

Executive Director

Jason Guberman-P., A social entrepreneur who specializes in building broad coalitions and melding intellectual and technical innovation, serves as founding Executive Director of Digital Heritage Mapping and is the coordinator of the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Joshua Shamsi

Project Director

Joshua Shamsi, is Project Director for the Atlas of Jewish Life and Lead Photographer/Outreach Director for the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life.

Eddie Ashkenazie

Researcher

Eddie Ashkenazie, is a Yeshiva University PhD student focusing his studies on the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in the modern era.

Avital Hirsch

Avital Hirsch graduated Magna Cum Laude from Binghamton University with a BA in language and linguistics. She has studied in Rome at Istituto Lorenzo de Medici.

Glenn Dynner

Editor

Glenn Dynner. Professor of Religion, Sarah Lawrence College. BA, Brandeis University. MA, McGill University. PhD, Brandeis University. Scholar of East European Jewry with a focus on the social history of Hasidism and the Haskalah.

Chrystie Sherman

Photographer

Born in Chicago, Chrystie Sherman was educated at the University of Vermont, the University of Paris, and New York University Graduate School of Film and Television.

Gentian Xhaxiu

Researcher

Gentian Xhaxhiu, was born in Tirana, Albania, in April 1988. He has attained a Master Degree in “EU Business Law” and has successfully completed the Annual Programme of the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe.