Mordy is a town in
Siedlce County
__NOTOC__
Siedlce County ( pl, powiat siedlecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government r ...
,
Masovian Voivodeship
The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. The ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, with 1,831 inhabitants (2004).
History of Mordy
Jewish Community
After the First World War there were approximately 1,800 Jews in Mordy - more than half of its population. They were mostly employed in trade and peddling, while a few were tradesmen - mainly tailors and cobblers. The community ran a fund for loans underwritten by
The Joint. There were several
Hasidic
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
Shtiebel
A shtiebel ( ''shtibl'', pl. ''shtiblekh'' or shtiebels, meaning "little house" or "little room" cognate with German Stübel) is a place used for communal Jewish prayer. In contrast to a formal synagogue, a shtiebel is far smaller and approached ...
s in town, as well as
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
parties such as the
Bund and
Agudat Yisrael
Agudat Yisrael ( he, אֲגוּדָּת יִשְׂרָאֵל, lit., ''Union of Israel'', also transliterated ''Agudath Israel'', or, in Yiddish, ''Agudas Yisroel'') is a Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party re ...
. There was a Jewish public library and a Jewish culture club.
In 1920 Polish troops killed several leaders of the
Bund, accused of supporting the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
during the
Polish-Soviet War.
The German army invaded Mordy in September 1939, but left after two days. The
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
replaced the Germans only to retreat after some two weeks, and Germans re-captured the town. In the following months Mordy, being close to the
Bug River
uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг
, name_etymology =
, image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg
, image_size = 250
, image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland
, map = Vi ...
, served as a transit point for thousands of Jews who tried to move into the area controlled by the Soviets. Moshe Gershon Levenberg, a former chairman of the community, served as the head of the
Judenrat
A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every com ...
, which was established in autumn of 1939.
Many Jews were recruited as forced labor in a camp near Mordy, to drain swamps, together with Jews from other near-by towns. During 1940 an influx of Jewish refugees into the town began, and at the year's end, the number of Jews rose to about 2,000. In the spring of 1941, five-hundred Jews were brought to the camp from
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
.
In November 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established with 3,360 residents. At the end of 1941, Jewish refugees were brought into the ghetto, and by May 1942 the number of inhabitants rose to 3817. At the beginning of 1942 the
SS executed some Jews who smuggled food. During May and June 1942, some 450 Jewish refugees arrived from
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
,
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
and other places.
The Mordy ghetto was liquidated on August 22, 1942. All residents, about 4,500 people were transferred to
Siedlce
Siedlce [] ( yi, שעדליץ ) is a city in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). Situated in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously the city was the capital of a separate Siedlce Voivodeship (1975–1998). The city is situated b ...
, then deported to
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
together with Jews from other places in the area.
Yad Vashem Ghettos Encyclopedia (Hebrew text)
/ref>
References
External links
Jewish Community in Mordy
on Virtual Shtetl
{{Siedlce-geo-stub
Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship
Siedlce County
Lublin Governorate
Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Holocaust locations in Poland