|
All the world is one big Chelm." - Isaac Bashevis Singer Lublin | Opatow | Parczew | Piaski | Radzyn | Rejowiec | Sawin | Swierze | Szczebrzeszyn | Tomaszow | Tyszowce | Zamosc | Zolkiewka Chełm is located in southeast Poland and has a current population of 67,700. The city is southeast of Lublin, north of Zamosc, and 25 km. from the border with Ukraine. The first mention of Jews living in the city is in the 14th Century. By 1630 the Jewish population was 30% of the total city population. From 1648 to 1657, there was a Cossack war of liberation from Poland called the Khmelnytsky Uprising, during which 400 Chełm Jews perished. Most Jewish Ukrainian communities were devastated by the uprising and ensuing massacres. The community had been revived by the beginning of the 18th century, when the Jews of Chełm played an important part in the export trade. The Jewish community numbered 1,500 in 1765, 1,902 in 1827, 2,493 in 1857, 7,226 in 1897, 13,537 in 1931, and more than 15,000 in 1939. The Jewish population in 1921 was 12,064 out of 23,221 total. By 1939, the Jewish population rose to more than 15,000. Chełm was highly regarded as a center of Torah study in Europe. The Chełm Ghetto was established in 1940 and lasted until November 15, 1942. It included ~11,000 Jews from Chełm and 2,000 from Slovakia. The Nazis took over the city on Oct. 7, 1939 and immediately initiated a series of pogroms in which scores of Jews lost their lives. Included in these massacres were executions of Jews at the cemetery. On Dec. 1, 1939, 1,800 Jewish men from Chełm and nearby Hrubieszow between the ages of 15 and 60 were driven in a death march to the Soviet-held town of Sokal. En route, 1,400 of the men were shot. Only 150 survived. The first mass deportation from Chełm took place in May of 1942, and 4,300 Jews (including 2,000 Slovakian Jews) were sent to the Sobibor death camp. On October 27, 3,000 were sent on a forced march to Wlodawa, some 50 km. north of Chełm. Few survived. On November 6, 1942 the last Jews of Chełm were sent to Sobibor for extermination. Only a handful of workers were left in the city's prison; of these, 15 survived and were liberated on July 22, 1944. Those who had left for Russia in 1939 probably joined the army. Several Jews lived in Chełm until the 1950s. Prof. Stanislaw Batawia of Poland says that the Chelm Lubelski Hospital patients -- including 128 women, 304 men, and 18 children -- were shot on the hospital grounds, and then mass-buried under the eyes of the Polish hospital staff in Jan. 1940. The S.S. wanted the hospital for its quarters. The Nazis destroyed most Jewish buildings, including the synagogue located on the corner of Krzywa and Szkolna Streets. A small synagogue in Chełm was built in 1912 from donations of the Jewish population. In 2006 the synagogue was turned into a Polish bar called "McKenzie Saloon". About 21 houses of prayer in the city were private. Most of them were situated on Adrjanowska, Lubelska, Szkolna and Wesola Streets. The oldest house of prayer, owned by Fiszel Lowensztajn, stood at 8 Adrjanowska Street and dated from 1852. In 1862 another prayer house that belonged to Mr. Rajtman was established at 2 Siedlecka Street. In the 1880s new prayer houses owned by the families Rozenter, Engel, Wajc, Horowic and Nuwendsztern were established. The cemetery is located at Kolejowa Street and dates back to the 17th Century. Fifty graves are still visible at the cemetery and a memorial has been erected to memorialize the community. Once a thriving Jewish city, today there is no Jewish population or sign of Jewish life in Chełm. Please donate to the Jewish Records Index - Poland translation of Chelm records. Without your support, we can't appropriately memorialize our families. Please review the site content below. Zachor - We Remember. [History] [Surnames] [Martyrs of Chełm] [Holocaust] [Personal Accounts] [Yizkor Books] [Synagogues] [Jewish Cemetery] [1] [Family Photos] [Other Chełm Photos] [Chełm Photo Recovery Project] [March of the Chelm Jews to Sokal] [Martyr List (incomplete)] [Wikipedia - Chełm] [Notable Residents] [Pre-War Jewish Property List] [Yizkor Translation Project Description] [English Draft of Yizkor Book] [Donate!] [Education in Chelm] [Family Research in Southeast Poland] [Chełmer Organization of Israel] [Chelm: Tracing the Lost Shtetl (in Hebrew)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------  Click to subscribe to Chelm   Pre-war views of Chelm.       Jewish partisans from Chelm: A. Kan, Itke Safran, Israel Trager.  Unidentified Jewish girls from Chelm.  Pre-war photo at Chelm Jewish cemetery, Szuchmacher family pictured.  A summer camp in Uhrusk where Chelm youngsters went.      Chelm survivors.  Escapees from the Sobibor Death Camp, including several from Chelm.   Here lie the prisoners from Stalag 319B and the Jews from the ghetto in Chelm. About three hundred people from the Chelm Ghetto are buried at this location.  Malkow, Poland -- the site where 50 Jews were buried on the march from Hrubieszow to Sokal. Zbigniew Nizinski from The Lasting Memory Foundation is working to memorialize these victims.   Chelm today Join the Chełm group on Facebook! City of Chełm: Article: A 60 Year Old Treasure is Found in Poland Autograph Book from Haya Berger of Chelm (from Eli Morav) The Chassidic Route: Chelm Chelm eGroup Chelm Yizkor Books Online (no English) Chelm Yizkor Book Translation Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage: Chelm Yizkor Book Memorials Chelm Death March Victims - "Sefer Ha'Zvaot" There were two Chelm shuls on the lower east side of Manhattan: Chelmer Erste Congregation, with 27 members; President, Baruch Rosenbaum; Secretary, Gabriel Raiff; and Shomrei Ha-dath Anshei Chelm, 22 members + cemetery. President Alter Saltz, born 1877. List of Chelm Surnames Buried in NYC Plots Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Duvernay, Quebec) Families of Chełm: Baum family Berland family Brucker family Cwibel family Czesny/Czesner family Fishbein family Gaum family Horowitz family Korenzyer family Lazer family Nisenbaum family Schwartz family Stein family Szpic family Zak family Zisman/Zysman/Zussman family Zyskind family Rabbis of Chełm: - Judah Aaron, 1522 - Elijah Ba'al Shem ben Judah Aaron, 1570-1583 - Samuel Eidels, 1606-1615 - Shlomo of Chelm - Yitzhak Hochgelernter - Shlomo Yehuda Lederer - Josef Mincer, 1890-1903 - Chaim Nuta Mandelbojm - Yehuda Lejb Milner - Israel Najhojz - Gedalia Leiner - Moshe Adamchyk - Yehuda Mendelson Survivors of Chełm: Chelm Jews Escape from the Borek Forest Shlomo Alster Sara Perec Bernard Edward Dunietz Sheila Peretz Etons Sonia Ribeizen Hurgin Felicia Berland Hyatt (testimony) Esther Feldman Icikson Jack G. Hanka K. Mimi Yurfest Kanner May Sherman Kaplan Hanka Kent (testimony) Rachel L. Esther Ajzen Lewin Yehuda Nudel Chaim Powroznik (see also: under Shlomo Alster) Bessie Drecksler Punsky Esther Raab Bernice Goldman Stemer Rose Toren Kalmen Wewryk Notable Residents of Chelm: Notable Residents Leon Fleischer Tzipora Livneh Celia Zuckerberg Zylbercweig Righteous People of Chelm: - Alexander Pechersky - Wrona family Genealogy: Jewish Records Indexing Poland - Chelm Jewish Vital Records in the Polish State Archives Remember Your Family: The DNA Shoah Project: Connecting Descendants Central Judaica Database - Museum of History of Polish Jews Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors on Facebook Guide to the YIVO Archives Holocaust News/Events from Generations of the Shoah Int'l Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database JewishGen Family Finder JewishGen Holocaust Database JRI-Poland: Search for Your Family Museum of History of Polish Jews Introduction Yad Vashem: Search for Your Family Yad Vashem: Submit Names of Your Family Members Yad Vashem Requests Photos of Shoah Survivors and Families ISRAEL: Shaun Waksman, shaunwaksman@gmail.com Kish 42, Petah Tikva 49235 ISRAEL Jewish - Chelm . org U.S.: Aaron, genealogykid20@aol.com  |
 |
JewishGen Homepage |
