Remember Jewish Zamość - Genealogy Group

Pronunciation: Zah-mosh

SE POLAND SHTETL LINKS: Bilgoraj | Chelm | Czemierniki | Dubienka | Grabowiec | Hrubieszow | Krasnik | Krasnystaw | Krylow
Laszczow | Lublin | Opatow | Parczew | Piaski | Radzyn | Rejowiec | Sawin | Swierze | Szczebrzeszyn | Tomaszow | Tyszowce | Zolkiewka

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Zamość is located in southeast Poland and has a current population of 66,000.
Zamosc is located 30 kilometers northwest of Hrubieszów and 90 km. south and east of Lublin.
Jews in the city date back to at least the late 16th century. Sephardic Jews settled in the city initially
and were later joined by Ashkenazi Jews in the 17th century. By 1765 the Jewish population was 1765.

The Jewish population in 1921 was 9,383. In 1939, the population was 24,000 with 12,000 Jews. Jews
contributed to 80 percent of the local trade, 65 percent of crafts and 54 percent of industry in the city.
The first wooden synagogue was built in Zamość between 1590 and 1603 at 9 Zamenhofa
Street. The synagogue was restored in 2011. The local community is planning to make it into a museum.
The new synagogue was constructed at 32 Gminna Street in 1872. Between 1909 and 1913 it was
expanded. Destroyed in WWII, it was reconstructed in 1948 and was used as a pre-school. But the
current building of the former small synagogue is used by the Pentecostal Church in Zamość.

After a few days of heavy bombardment, which especially damaged the Jewish quarter, the German
Army entered Zamość on Sept. 14, 1939. Immediately after capturing the city, Nazis
organized a series of pogroms, motivated by the desire to loot Jewish property. On Sept. 26, 1939,
the Soviet army entered the city, but handed the city back to the Germans two weeks later, in
accordance with the new Soviet-German demarcation line. About 5,000 Jews left the city at the time
that the Soviet Army withdrew. The remaining Jewish population suffered brutality and persecutions.

Heinrich Himmler decided that the area around Zamość would be the first large area of
German settlement in Poland. The Germans hoped that within ten years about 3 million Germans
would settle in the territory administrated exclusively by the Nazi S.S. In October 1939, the Nazis
selected a Judenrat and forced it to pay a "contribution" of 100,000 zlotys ($20,000) and the
daily delivery of 250 Jews for hard labor. In December 1939 several hundred Jews expelled from
Lodz, Kalo, and Wloclawek in western Poland were settled in Zamosc. Early in the spring of 1941
an open ghetto was established around Hrubieszowska Street, and the first deportation from the
city took place on April 11, 1942 (on the eve of Passover). The entire Jewish population was ordered
to gather in the city's market, whereupon gunfire was directed at the crowd killing hundreds on the
spot. About 3,000 Jews were forced to board waiting trains which took them to the Belzec Death
Camp. From May 1-3, 1942, about 2,100 Jews from Dortmund, Germany and from Czechoslovakia
were taken to Zamość. Almost all of them were deported to Belzec on May 27 and murdered.
The third mass deportation started on Oct. 16, 1942. All Jews were again ordered to gather in the
city's market, and afterward were driven to Izbica, 25 km. from Zamość. Many were shot on
the way, and the rest -- after a short stay in Izbica -- were deported to Belzec and murdered. In this
deportation the Jews offered passive resistance and hundreds went into hiding in prepared shelters.
The Nazis brought in Polish firemen to open the shelters by destroying the walls and removing other
obstacles. Several hundred Jews were discovered in hiding and imprisoned for eight days in the city's
cinema hall without food or water; subsequently, all those who were still alive were brought to the
Jewish cemetery and executed. A few hundred Jews were able to escape to the surrounding forests.
Most of them crossed the Bug River, made contact with Soviet guerrillas in the Polesie forest, and
joined various local partisan groups. After the war, some 300 Jews settled in Zamość (270 from the
Soviet Union, and 30 survivors of the Holocaust in Zamość), but after a short stay they left Poland.

There are two Jewish cemeteries in Zamość. The original cemetery was set up at the end
of the 17th century and located at Partyzantow Street. The last burial took place in 1941. During
the Holocaust, the Nazis completely destroyed it. The "Province Culture House" was constructed
on top of the desecrated remains of Jewish ancestors. A second Jewish cemetery was established
in 1907, but was subsequently destroyed in the Holocaust. Fragments of numerous tombstones
remain, dating only as far back as 1934. In 1950, Zamość Holocaust survivors erected a
monument and a lapidary made of tombstones and parts left from the Jewish cemeteries
of the city. On the monument is a plaque with the inscription "Thou shall not kill". In
1991, a metal fence was constructed around the former cemetery.

Please donate to the Jewish Records Index - Poland translation of Zamosc records.
Without your support, we can't appropriately memorialize our families.
Please review the site content below. Zachor - We Remember.

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[In Hebrew] [Surnames] [Books] [Wikipedia - Zamość]
[Economic Life in Zamosc] [Notable Residents]
[Great Synagogue] [Sephardim in Zamość] [Sephardim in Poland]
[Ghetto Account] [Zamosc Judenrat List]
[Holocaust] [List of Holocaust Victims from Zamosc]
[List of Pre-War Zamosc Immigrations to America]
[Family Research in Southeast Poland]
[Israeli Organization of Zamość Jewry]
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Old Zamosc Organizations:
Zamoscher Society, New York
First Zamoscher Congregation Bikur Cholim, Flushing, NY
Zamosc Progressive Society, New York
Zamoscher Progressive Young Men 375 Workman's Circle, Elmont, New York
Zamoscher Beneficial Association, Progressive Young Men of Philadelphia
Friends of Zamosc, Philadelphia
Zamostcher Relief Committee
Montreal Zamoscher Society, Canada
Zamoscher Yiskor Book Committee, Argentina
Zamoscher Yisker Book Committee, Argentina
Zamostcher Relief Committee - Argentina
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Click to subscribe to Zamosc





Two families from Zamosc: left, Weinryb family; right, Mendelsohn family.


Great Zamosc Synagogue, 9 Zamenhofa Street, before restoration.



Inside of the old Jewish synagogue in Zamosc.



Line up of Zamosc Jews.



Jews in the Zamosc ghetto.






The famous Zamosc city market / square.



Map of the central city of Zamosc. The Great Synagogue built in the 1600s was located at 9 Zamenhofa St.,
which is now a library. The mikvah was at 5 Zamenhofa St., which is presently a night club or jazz club.



Map of the Zamosc metro area. Partyzantow Street, where the original cemetery was located, is now a cultural center.
Prosta Street is where the new cemetery was founded in 1906 and where graves remain and a Holocaust memorial
was constructed. Droga Meczennikow is a rotunda where the museum of martyrology is housed. This was a site of mass
executions of Zamosc Jews during the Holocaust. At 32 Gminna Street (or nearby at Mikalaya Reja) there was a
synagogue constructed in 1872 that was destroyed in 1939. It is now a nursery school.


Restored Zamosc Cemetery on Prosta Street.


Wall Memorial to Zamosc Victims at Cemetery. Constructed out of previously destroyed graves.


Memorial to Zamosc Holocaust Victims at Jewish Cemetery.



LINKS

Join the Zamosc group on Facebook!

City of Zamość:

Holocaust Testimony - Fiszelzon
Holocaust Testimony + photos - Mieczyslaw Weinryb
Once Their Was Our Home: Film about Zamosc by Ewa Szprynger
Revitalization of the Zamosc Synagogue
Society for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland: Zamosc
The Zamosc Ghetto (see also: Life in Zamosc Ghetto)
Zamosc Ghetto Photos
Zamosc Jews
Zamosc eGroup
Zamosc Yizkor Book Online (no English)
Jewish Community of Zamosc
Jewish Resistance and Extermination in Zamosc
Pinkas Hakehillot Polin: Zamosc During the Holocaust
Simon Wiesenthal Center - Zamosc
Restored Zamosc Synagogue
Old Zamosc Synagogue
Zamosc Sephardic Synagogue
Mount Zion Cemetery in Flushing, New York

Lists of Zamosc:

Surnames in Zamosc Society Cemetery Plots in NY and NJ
People Buried from Zamosc in NY/NJ Plots
First Zamosher Congregation in Flushing, New York
Lists of New York Zamosc Residents

Families of Zamość:

Bergman family
Brondwajn family
Brumer family
Czesny family
Ejnes family
Fuks family
Glibter family
Griner family
Holzman family
Kenigsberg family
Kranz family
Mahl family
Markfeld family
Matys family
Mendelsohn family
Mendelson family
Peres family
Rajman family
Rozenberg family
Sztych family
Truk family
Weinryb family
Zoberman family

Survivors of Zamość:

Tauba Fuks Biterman
Rose C.
Sender Fleschler
Isidore K.
Yisrael "Harry" Kranc
Maria Kusmierczuk (non-Jew)
Henryk Lewandowski
Irene Wechter Lieblich
Gerald Maiman
Boruch Silberklang
George Storch
Mieczyslaw Weinryb
Lea Zegen Weiselman
Rachel Z.
Yechiel Zoberman

Notable Residents of Zamosc:

Notable Residents
Berish Beckerman
Hania Gerson, wife of Philipp Frank
Rabbi Yitzhak Kranz, son of the Maggid of Dubno
Yosef Retik

Rabbis of Zamosc:

Shlomo of Zamosc
Avraham Chmerlosz
Aryeh Leib
Tzvi Hersh Katz, 1687
Meir HaLevi ben Menashe
Nachman (grandson of Aryeh Leib)
Aryeh Leib of Lublin, 1730
Yakov Yitzhak Hochgelernter, 1740
Rabbi Yaacov ben Zeev Krantz, 1786-1804
Yosef Hochgelernter
Yitzhak Yakov Hochgelernter
Shlomo Chelma
Tzvi Hirsz Baszka
Ba'al Shem Harishon
Avraham bar David
Mosze Yehoshua Heszel Wahl
Nachman Szlomo HaLevi
Aryeh Yehuda Yakov Majzeles
Szlomo Zalman
Josef Szlomo Szabtai HaLevi Horowitz, 1889-1928
Lejb Brondwajn
Aryeh Erjon
Moszko Chaim Blum
Mordechai HaLevi Horowitz Sternfeld, 1928-WWII

Righteous Gentiles of Zamosc:

Bajak family
John Damski
Christine Damski (born Sara Rozen)
Maria Kusmierczuk

Photos of Zamosc:

Zamosc Class Photos

Genealogy:

Polish Archives at Lublin
Polish Archives at Zamosc
We Remember Jewish Zamosc (Hebrew)
Jewish Records Indexing Poland - Zamosc
Jewish Vital Records in the Polish State Archives
Remember Jewish Zamosc!
Zamosc: Traces of the Past
Visiting Zamosc

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


CONTACTS

ISRAEL: Issy Schek, info@zamosc-jews.com
The Israeli Organization of Zamość Jewry & Their Descendants
PO Box 16090, Tel-Aviv 61160, Israel
Zamosc - Jews . com

U.K.: Sheila Grossnass, sgrossnass@tiscali.co.uk

U.S.: Aaron, genealogykid20@aol.com


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