Nyírmada is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

History

The jewish community

Jews began to settle in Nyírmada in the middle of the 19th century. There was a Jewish-owned

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

and factories for soda, liquor, vinegar, soap and chemicals. The Jewish community began to function in 1860, and at the time of the rift in Hungarian Jewry at the Congress of Hungarian Jews (1869,1868) it joined the Orthodox stream. There was a burial society that cared for the sick, an elementary school, a "

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah (, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew language, H ...

" and a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

. And operated mikveh, rabbi and shochat. A fire that broke out in the city in 1892 burned down the synagogue building and the school building. A few years later the buildings were rebuilt. The Jews of Nyírmada were integrated into the social and cultural life of the town and during the

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

many members of the community enlisted in the army, 17 of whom killed in battle. The status and rights of Hungarian Jews were restricted even before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when the pro-German Hungarian government enacted "Jewish laws" in 1938. In March 1944, with the entry of the German army into Hungary, the local Jews were ordered to wear

yellow badge The yellow badge, also known as the yellow patch, the Jewish badge, or the yellow star (, ), was an accessory that Jews were required to wear in certain non-Jewish societies throughout history. A Jew's ethno-religious identity, which would be d ...

and on 19 April 1944, the Jews were concentrated in the buildings of the "beit midrash" and the synagogue and their homes were confiscated. At the end of April, they were transported to the

Kisvárda Kisvárda (; , ) is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary near the border of Slovakia and Ukraine. It is the 3rd largest town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg after Nyíregyháza and Mátészalka ...

ghetto, and a month later were sent to the

Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

extermination camp near

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. The youngest of them were transferred to the

Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

concentration camp in Germany. After the war, 40 survivors returned to Nyírmada. They renewed community life, but over the years abandoned the place, and by 1957 Jews no longer lived in the city.Documentation of the Jewish communities in the Kishwarda area
/ref>

References

External links

The jewish community in Nyírmada
On

JewishGen JewishGen is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 as an international electronic resource for Jewish genealogy. In 2003, JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York ...

website. Populated places in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Jewish communities in Hungary {{Szabolcs-geo-stub