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Background

Kisvárda (in Yiddish - Kleinwardein) is a town in northeast Hungary.  The Jewish community was organized in 1796: at first it was subordinate to the community of Nagykálló, but became independent in 1843 when Isaiah Banet was appointed to the rabbinate.  In the main, the members of the community were leaseholders, petty tradesman and peddlers.  The synagogue was erected in 1801.  The Jewish population rose from 118 in 1784 to 500 in 1840, and to 1,483 in 1860.  The first rabbi of Kisvárda was Moses Mikhaelowitz (1818-24), who was succeeded by Moses b. Amram Grunwald.  Also among the rabbis of Kisvárda was Moses Hayyim Segal (1896-1942).  Kisvárda had many hadarim and a yeshiva.  From 1932 the Zionist movement had an active following.  Dov Gruner, a member of the Irgun Zev'ai Le'ummi executed by the Mandatory government in Palestine, was born in Kisvárda.  The Jewish population numbered 3,454 in 1920, 3,658 in 1930 and 3,770 in 1941.  In the revolution of 1918 the Jewish inhabitants were persecuted.  From then on anti-Semitism increased: an armed mob attacked the Jews in 1938.  In 1940 the Jews were enlisted into forced labor gangs and in 1942 they were deported to the front.  After the German occupation (Spring 1944), a ghetto was set up and 7,000 Jews from the town and the neighboring villages were concentrated there.  On Shavuot, the Jews were deported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.  After World War II, the community was reorganized.  The Jewish population dwindled from 804 in 1946 to 650 in 1948 and 355 in 1953.

(Source: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4049/kisvarda.html).

Database

The database consists of 3,516 residents from Kisvárda, Hungary ghetto prior to their deportation April 10-13, 1944.  The list is typewritten and in Hungarian.

The list is alphabetical by head-of-household surname and includes the actual house address.  When running a search, consider doing a universal search for the same address which might include other relatives with different surnames.

The fields of the database are as follows:

• Page Number
• Serial Number
• Surname
• Given Name
• Title/Status
• Occupation
• Maiden Name
• Maiden Given Name
• Street Address
• Year of Birth
• Mother's Maiden Surname
• Mother's Given Name
• Comments

Hungarian Naming Conventions for Certain Females:

There are a few naming conventions to be aware of when searching for women in this database.  If a woman was listed as a widow (özv.) or as head of household, her name is listed as her husband's name with a "né" attached to his first name.

For example, the wife of KATZ, David would be KATZ, Davidné.  The "né" designation is equivalent to the present-day English "Mrs." title.  Therefore the wife's name would be listed as Mrs. David Katz.  (In some cases, the wife's name has been abbreviated to the first letter of the husband's name followed by the "né" designation.  Using the above example, David Katz's wife might be listed as "D. né" or "D-né".

In many cases, if you find the wife's name designated with the "né", you will also find the wife's maiden surname and given name in the "Maiden Name" and "Maiden Given Name" fields.

Hungarian Occupations:

To assist the researcher with Hungarian occupations, please see JewishGen InfoFile "Hungarian Occupations" at: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/HungarianOccupations.html.

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from the files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Kisvárda nagykozseg v. 347 70d III).  This information is accessible to you today thanks to the effort of the following JewishGen volunteers who are responsible for the transcription of this file: Nolan Altman (coordinator), Nancy Biederman, Eve Blum, Shana Egan, Cecile Epstein, Kurt Friedlaender, Harry Green, Ernest Kallmann, Bill Liebner, Shimon Neumann, and Karen Weinberg.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Susan King, Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to the Research Division headed by Joyce Field and to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altman
April, 2005

Searching the Database

This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database and the JewishGen Hungary Database.

Copyright ©2005 JewishGen, Inc.
Last Update: 15 Sep 2005 by WSB.