Treuburg

First Jewish presence: unknown; peak Jewish population: 103 in 1880; Jewish population in 1933: unknown

In 1840, the Jewish community of Treuburg (Olecko in today’s Poland), founded in the 19th century or earlier, established a synagogue in the marketplace, at 28 Morgen. Treuburg Jews also maintained a mikveh, a Jewish school and a cemetery. In 1871, Treuburg became one of the first places in Prussia where a Jew was appointed as a judge. Another prominent Treuburg Jew, Kurt Blumenfeld (1884-1963), was chairman of the Jewish Zionist Organization from 1924 to 1933. In 1931/32, at which point 94 Jews lived in Treuburg, a Mr. Braude instructed 15 Jewish children in religious studies. Fifty-seven Jews lived in Treuburg in 1937. Later, on Pogrom Night (November 1938), the synagogue was burned down. Most of the remaining Jews left after the pogrom, so that by May 1939, only 25 still lived in Treuburg. The cemetery was destroyed during the Nazi period. In January 1940, Treuburg’s remaining Jewish residents were deported to the Polish town of Biala Podlaska (where Jews were forced to live together in severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions). A local Jewish family (in Treuburg), the Czerminskis, were deported on December 6, 1939: biographical documents for Sally Czerminski and David Czerminski were later filed at Yad Vashem. At least 56 Treuburg Jews perished in the Shoah, a number that includes those who relocated to other places in Germany; the Hirsch family, for example, was deported to Auschwitz from Berlin on November 29, 1942.

Esther Sarah Evans

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

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