Annopol Jewish Community
The Jewish community in Annopol , a Polish town in the Kraśnicki powiat in the Lublin Voivodeship , was founded in the 18th century and destroyed by the German occupiers during the Holocaust .
history
Jews are first recorded in writing in Annopol in the 18th century. According to a census from 1787, 106 Jews lived in the village, which was 44% of the total population. The Jews in Annopol were mainly grain and cattle dealers, producers of alcoholic beverages, tenants of inns, as well as artisans and moneylenders.
To the northwest of the market there was a square with a synagogue , next to which was the Jewish cemetery . In the 19th century there were already two synagogues and at the end of the 19th century the New Cemetery was established outside the city.
Nachman Rubinstein (1828–1878), Elimelech Rubinstein (1878–1923) and Nachman Baruch Rubinstein worked as rabbis . In the 19th century, Jews dominated the city's economic and social life. Many Jewish craftsmen were active in the city, there were also many Jewish shops and trading companies. The Jewish hospital was founded and financed by the wealthiest Jewish citizens.
In the middle of the 19th century, the authorities forbade Jews to wear traditional clothing, sidelocks and beards. The Jewish schools and the Jewish hospital were closed. Due to the poor economic development, a wave of migration of the Jewish population from Annopol to larger cities or overseas began at the end of the 19th century.
As a result of the First World War , the number of community members grew rapidly, so that in 1921 Jews made up 73% of the total population. The Jews mainly worked as craftsmen (42%) or as traders (37%). In 1931 there were 1,388 Jews living in Annopol. The Jewish proportion of the population was 68.5% in the 1930s.
time of the nationalsocialism
During the Second World War , the German occupiers set up a labor camp for Jews in the nearby towns of Rachów and Janiszów. In the spring of 1940 a ghetto with around 2000 Jews was set up in Annopol , which also included Jews from Kalisz and Łódź . The liquidation of the ghetto began on October 15, 1943: after the first selection, around 400 people were deported to the labor camps in Gościeradów and Janiszów. The elderly and the sick were murdered on the spot, the remaining inhabitants of the ghetto were taken to the ghetto in Kraśnik, from where they were deported to the Belzec extermination camp in November . During the German occupation, the two synagogues in Annopol were destroyed by the Germans and the Jewish cemeteries devastated.