A History of Central Eastern Europe

JEWISH SYNAGOGUE & CEMETERY
Kossuth Lajos utca
The KAESZTENBAUM SCHOOL was open by 1744, the HEVRAH KADDISHAH (Jewish burial society)
was incorporated in 1772 and a Jewish Hospital opened around this time. A Jewish synagogue
was first built at SÁTORALJAÚJHELY in 1790 located ‘behind’ Town Hall; it was demolished in
1887 in order to build a new synagogue. Upon demolition, 8 subterranean chambers were found
which probably served as dungeons attached to town hall. The now-abandoned Jewish cemetery
has an open pavilion covered with a decorative copper dome that has a dual purpose: as a waiting
room and as the place where the traditional cleansing required by the prescriptions of Judaism
after leaving a cemetery can be completed.
A splinter-group formed the basis of the Orthodox Jewish community who had a separate
synagogue, NAGYZSINAGÓGA, and established a higher yeshiva (1922–44) at Dózsa György utca
13. The Hassidic community became the 3 rd Jewish community here when it splintered from the
Orthodox adding a 3 rd synagogue to town. Each faction also maintained separate prayer-houses
and schools. The presence of 3 synagogues, with their attached facilities, attests to the sizeable
Jewish population of the town.
After the German invasion on the 19 th of March in 1944, about 4,000 Jews from the town were
confined to a designated ghetto. They were joined by another 11,000 from nearby villages in the
cramped ghetto; there were 20–25 people allotted to a single room. All were deported to the
death camp at AUSCHWITZ between May 16 and June 3 in four transports; of the more than 15,000
captives, only 555 survived. This near-extinction experience did not reverse itself after the war;
less than half the number of WW II survivors are found living in SÁTORALJAÚJHELY in 1953 –
204. Of the once sizeable and vibrant community, all that remains is a single, small prayer house,
the old abandoned cemetery and a newer cemetery that is
still operating.
SZENTHÁROMSÁG KÁPOLNA Rákóczi utca 29
In 1740 a chapel in honor of the Holy Trinity was built on
Ujhíd utca after the latest bubonic plague epidemic had
passed. This street is now Rákóczi utca and only the dome
of SZENTHÁROMSÁG KÁPOLNA remains where it serves to
mark the former site of the Catholic poorhouse.
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