Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary: Hajdusámson

“Hajdusámson” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Hungary
47º36'N, 21º46'E

Translation of the “Hajdusámson” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary

Edited by: Theodore Lavi

Published in Jerusalem, 1975

Acknowledgments
Project Coordinator
Francine Shapiro

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for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Hungary,
Edited by Theodore Lavi, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. Pages 270-271.

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[Pages 270-271]

Hajdusámson

Translated by Shlomo Sné
Edited by Francine Shapiro

Small town in the Hajdu district, 7 kilometers from Debrecen
Population (1941):7,320
Called Samson by Jews

Jewish Population

Year Number

1735/36 6

1748 252

1840 418

1880 333

1930 268

1941 216

1946 62

1949 34

Until the Second World War

The first Jews settled in Haidusámson in the first half of the eighteenth century, and their main source of income was bringing merchandise to the Debrecen market. Jews were not permitted to settle there until 1840. Indeed, in 1840, when its gates were opened for Jews, the first Jewish settlers in Debrecen were Jews from Haidusámson. In addition to merchants, Haidusámson Jews included artisans and some farmers. The community organized in the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1869 when the Jewish communities in Hungary split, it defined itself Orthodox, and the nearby community of Vamospércs was subject to it. It had a synagogue, mikva, Hevra Kadisha, school, Talmud Torah with a cheder, yeshiva, and Tiferet Bachurim Society.

One famous rabbi in Haidusámson was Itzhak Yakov Blum (died in 1851). Some of his Halachic answers and letters were published in the booklet Beit Yakov, in addition to the book Beit Shearim (Munkács, 1889), that was published by his son, Rabbi Amram Blum. Many of the Jews of Haidusámson lost their incomes in 1938 after the publication of the discrimination laws. The young men were taken for forced labor in 1941. Some of them remained in the state, and others were sent to the Ukraine.

The Holocaust

Right after Passover the Jews of Haidusámson along with the Jews of Vamospércs were transported to a farm- type concentration camp near Debrecen. They stayed there without food, subject to the policemen who molested and tortured them. In the middle of June they were transported to a brick factory near Debrecen where the entire district's Jews were concentrated. On June 24 those arrested, among them Haidusámson's Jews, were divided into two groups. One was sent to Austria and from there arrived in Theresienstadt in March 1945. Most of those in that group survived. The second group, which included most of the Jews of Haidusámson, was taken to Auschwitz. About 30 men and women including Rabbit Gabriel Yehuda Illiovics, who was a local rabbi until the Holocaust, returned to Haidusámson after the war. The rabbi tried to reorganize his community, but the returnees gradually scattered, and the rabbi finally left. Only three Jewish families remained in Haidusámson in 1951.

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Year	Number
1735/36	6
1748	252
1840	418
1880	333
1930	268
1941	216
1946	62
1949	34