Trenčin Memorial


The Trenčin Memorial 
for 1593 victims - Zavraždení 1942-1945. Restored with Participation and Contributions from Trenčin Survivors 1999 - 2002.
Names of the Trenčin victims were authenticated through a review process by editors from Slovakia, Israel, USA, Canada and Germany.
These reviews took place over a period of over two years to establish the Memorial as a historical monument. The list is incomplete because it omits at least 28 small children for whom records were not available. Copies available at Trenčin Holocaust Organization

Trenčín

Trenčín (German: Trentschin; Hungarian: Trencsén) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around 120 km (75 mi) from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 56,000, which makes it the ninth largest municipality of the country and is the seat of the Trenčín Region and the Trenčín District. It has a medieval castle, situated on a rock above the city. Full Article

Trenčín Jewish History

TRENCIN (Slovak Trenčín; Hung. Trencsén; Ger. Trentschin), town in western Slovakia.

In the 14th century there were several Jews in Trencin. In the 16th century Jews reappeared. After the Kuruc invasion of Ubersky Brod in 1683, some Jews took refuge in Trencin. For the next 100 years, the community was under Ubersky Brod's jurisdiction. In 1734 the Jews took a secret oath to use only Ubersky Brod's court in disputes and to avoid the Hungarian court system.

The Trencin Jews tried to develop community life. They established a ḥevra kaddisha and held services on the Sabbath and holidays in private homes. They also had a mikveh. In 1736 there was a Jewish school, and in 1760 the community hired its first rabbi, David Kahn Casid (d. 1783).

The municipal authorities were not well disposed toward the Jewish community. It charged the Jews municipal and state taxes and prohibited several religious rituals, such as marriage and circumcision. To perform these rituals, the Jews were charged heavy taxes. They were forbidden to employ Christian servants. The authorities tried to curtail the expansion of the community.

In 1703 Jews opened a factory that produced a scarce oil for tanning hides. During the first quarter of the 18th century, Jews were engaged in trade in hides and bones, and in producing spirits. In 1787 a fire destroyed the community's archives. In 1834 the congregation owned a small wooden synagogue. During the first half of the 19th century, the school system was expanded. Most of the schools had been privately owned but slowly became public and then government-owned. The major government-run Jewish elementary school was established in 1857. It had an excellent reputation, and many gentile children were enrolled.

After the Congress of Hungarian Jewry in 1868, the Trencin congregation joined the Reform (Neolog) stream of Jewry. In 1911 a new synagogue was constructed, often described as one of the most beautiful in Hungary. The congregation had a ḥevra kaddisha, a cemetery, and a kosher butcher. There were several social, women's, religious, and charitable societies. During World War I, 150 men enlisted in the army.

From 1785 the community underwent rapid expansion. In that year there were 388 Jews in Trencin. In 1848 there were 688, while 50 years later the community numbered 1,113. An increase was seen in 1922 when the community reached its peak of 2,115. In 1930 the number decreased to 1,539.

At the end of World War I, mobs looted Jewish property and homes and injured and even murdered Jews. When the disturbances subsided, the Jewish community recovered and contributed significantly to economic life. Several local factories were owned by Jewish entrepreneurs. Outstanding among them was one that produced natural oil. It supported local agriculture and provided employment.

Jews were well represented in the educated strata and comprised much of Trencin's intelligentsia. There was active political and social life in the community. In 1932 five Jews were elected to the municipal council, four of them from the Jewish party. A number of Zionist groups influenced the community. The congregation belonged to the Slovakia-wide Jeshurun association, which unified the Neolog and Status Quo congregations. There was also a small Orthodox group.

On the eve of the deportations in 1942, there were 2,500 Jews in Trencin and environs; in Trencin itself there were 1,619. Most of them perished in the extermination camps in Poland. In 1947 there were 228 Jews in Trencin. In the small synagogue, the names of the victims were inscribed on the walls. Most of the survivors emigrated or settled in other parts of Czechoslovakia. The rest attempted to preserve Jewish life.

In 1968, during the Prague Spring, another wave of emigration took place. In 1978 a memorial was unveiled in the cemetery for Jewish anti-Fascist fighters and victims of the Holocaust. The Reform synagogue served as the city's cultural center.

The following are profiles of some of the early Jewish residents of Trencin:

1. Knöpfelmacher, Isaac (c1785-1847)
2. Meisel, Zacharias (c1763-1838)
3. Pick, Bernard (c1740-c1822)
4. Tauber, Leopold (1803-1887)
5. Turcsan, Markus (c1786-bef. 1818)
6. Zerkowitz, Lazar (c1756-c1808)
7. Zerkowitz, Nathan Samuel (1783-1847)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• M. Lányi and H. Propper, A szlovenszkói zsidó hitközségek története (1933);
• R. Iltis (ed.), Die aussaeen unter Traenen mit Jubel werden sie ernten (1959), 195–8; *Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929), 913;
• E. Bárkány-L. Dojc, Zidovské nábozenské obce na Slovensku (1991), 221–24.[Yeshayahu Jelinek (2nd ed.)]

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Trenčín City

Trenčín City -- The Jewish community in this former county seat was founded by immigrants from Moravia. They established their communal presence outside the walls, in a neighborhood that is now fully merged with the old town center. The Jewish community grew from 81 in 1727 to 989 in 1869, when the Jews represented one quarter of the total city population.

After the Budapest Congress of 1868-1869, which formally split Hungarian Jewry, the Jews in Trenčín opted for an independent Status Quo Ante community orientation. There were 1,619 Jewish residents in the city in 1940, but only 326 Jews survived the Holocaust. The tiny community today has about a dozen members; it maintains a small prayer room in the former synagogue complex, and also a cemetery, located on Partizánska Street.

Trenčín – Synagogue

The Trenčín Synagogue, constructed in 1913, was designed by the architect Richard Scheibner from Berlin. The building represents a trend towards minimizing exterior decoration while preserving monumental classical forms: it is a mélange of Byzantine and Art Nouveau styles and modern concrete dome construction.

The sanctuary is a large hall, which, as can be seen from old photographs, was once colorfully decorated. Today, only some fragments, including the stained glass windows, blue dome decoration and the chandelier are preserved.

In the back part of the building, a small prayer hall, with a Holocaust memorial plaque listing the victims from Trenčín, serves as an occasional assembly place for the tiny local Jewish community.