[Pages 494-495]

Year	Number
1735	38
1770	83
1795	190
1799	297
1809	49 (families)
1817	53     “
1822	77     “
1831	74     “
1869	740 (individuals)
1930	389     “
1941	300     “
1946	56     “
1960	--

Until the Second World War

A document dated 1703 lists the rights and obligations of a Jewish butcher.

There are no documents about the establishment and development of the community at its start. We only know that it was under the authority of Rohonc until the middle of the eighteenth century. The community regulations were drawn up in 1705, but they were ratified by the Royal Council 150 years later. In the middle of the eighteenth century the community disconnected itself from Rohonc, and in 1868 it defined itself as Neolog. All the communities of the sub-district were under its authority from 1885.

In 1851 the cemetery was full, and the estate owner Prince Batthányi gave the community a large piece of land without cost, on condition that it would be fenced and used only as a cemetery. However, the area of the old cemetery would be returned to him. In 1869 the prince was made an honorary member of the Hevra Kadisha. In 1909 the cemetery was full, and the Hevra Kadisha bought a third piece of land for this purpose.

Besides the Hevra Kadisha there were other social institutions. The most important were: a Women's Association, a Young Women's Association, Bikur Holim, an association to assist the poor called Maskil El Dal, an old age home, and a mutual savings institution. There was also a public library. Besides these, the local Jews supported the national institutions of Hungarian Jews, such as the National Patronage Society, the Jewish Teachers' Association, Artists' Association, etc.

The synagogue, built in the eighteenth century, was structurally unsound. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Hatam Sofer permitted it to be destroyed in order to replace it with a new synagogue, in answer to Rabbi Bodánszky's request. Finally Prince Batthányi donated another plot of land and a new synagogue was built, dedicated in 1922.

When the community was separated from Rohonc, Jehoshua Falk was designated the local rabbi. In 1780 he aroused a storm by issuing a faulty writ of divorce. Rabbis Elazar Kalir from Rohonc and Meir Barbi from Pozsony declared the document invalid. To strengthen its validity, they sent it to Rabbi Yeheskel Landa, the famous rabbi of Prague, who ratified its invalid status, and ordered Rabbi Falk never to dare in the future write a writ of divorce only by himself.

Other memorable Körmend rabbis: Rabbi Elyakim Getz Koenigsberg (died in 1840) was mentioned a few times in the answers of Hatam Sofer. Rabbi Itzhak Bodánszky (until 1882) is mentioned in the answers of Katav Sofer. Rabbi Dr. Ignatz Krausz (1916-1944) published a chapter from the Karaite book, Ktab Al Muktabi by Yusuf L. Basir (Budapest 1911). He was lost in the Holocaust.

The school was established in 1860 on a piece of land bought from Prince Batthányi, and three teachers were hired to teach in it. In 1878 a teacher of handicrafts was added. There were 143 pupils in it in 1894. Most came from neighboring villages, but the number of pupils dropped after schools opened in these settlements.

After the publication of the Discrimination Laws in 1938, the social relations between Jews and Christians were almost completely disconnected. This situation influenced local Jewish youths to intensify the activities of the local Zionist branch that had been established in 1935. Some devoted themselves to agricultural training for the purpose of immigrating to Palestine. When Zionist activity was prohibited in 1941 by the Interior Ministry, this development was halted. Discriminatory laws were not strictly enforced except for the prohibition on traveling, and the confiscation of cars, typewriters, jewelry, and radios.

The Holocaust

Fifteen men were pressed into forced labor at the beginning of June, and taken to Köszeg. A short time later the Körmend Jews were transported to the ghetto in Szombathely. The non-Jewish citizens of Körmend stood quietly in the streets on this day and looked at the town's Jews. They were all marched to the railway station, except the old and the ill, who were put in carts. Those expelled were taken out quickly without giving them an opportunity to take any food or clothing. The majority of Körmend's Jews were taken to Auschwitz. The remainder, all men, were taken from Auschwitz to Mühldorf near Munich and lost their lives doing underground construction.

After the war 13 women and one man returned from Auschwitz, and 23 men returned from forced labor. They then renewed communal life. In the basement of the burned synagogue they found furniture, so they placed it in an apartment and made it suitable for prayer. Körmend is close to the Austrian border, and for this reason those who returned helped Jews who left Hungary and Romania to cross the border on the way to Palestine. But those who returned to Körmend slowly dispersed. Their prayers continued until Succot 1949. In 1950 a memorial stone was erected in the cemetery in memory of the martyrs of Körmend.

  Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. Hungary     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 20 Jul 2009 by LA