Jewish Mementos in Vas Comitatus

Szentgotthárd

Jews were not allowed to live in Szentgotthárd up to the 19th century, only the Rohonc merchants were allowed to stay provisionally. The community counted only 50 people in 1870, up to 1910 its numbers increased to 305 members.

With the protection of the abbey the Jews started settling from the middle of the century on, but did not found an independent community, they belonged to the Németújvár community. With the establishment of estate districts in 1885 the Szentgotthárd Congressional Mother Community was founded, 1866 they had their own cemetery, from 1898 on they also possessed a prayer house which by the beginning of the 20th century had already grown too small so that in 1936 a new synagogue was built.
At the time of the 1944 census 166 people belonged to the community. The ghetto was established in May 1944 on the property of the mower factory, 119 Jews from Szentgotthárd and 30 from the surroundings were brought here and deported to Auschwitz on July 4. The community reorganized after the war and in 1949 counted 35 members. 1947 the memorial for the deported and the forced laborers was put up on the site next to the former synagogue. As the synagogue had already been torn down, the memorial was later brought to the Jewish cemetery of Szombathely where it stands to this day.

by Scholem Alejchem & Alexandra Vogt

2012.07.06