Jews in Szombathely in 1944

Introduction

Szombathely is the county-town of Vas megye (Vas County), in western Hungary, near the Austrian border.  It was the center of the Third District of the Gendarmerie and of the Army until 1945.  According to the order of the Ministry of the Interior, on 4 April, 1944 the Jews of Hungary, including the Jews of Szombathely, underwent obligatory registration.  The registration information included first and last name, name of mother, place and date of birth, address, name of spouse, names of children, occupation, and subscription of telephone and radio.  The list enabled the concentration and deportation of the local Jews to Auschwitz.

This is the data from one of those lists, which included 3,116 names.  The dataset's fields are:

• Page number of list
• Number on page
• Surname
• First Name
• Husband's First Name
• Maiden Name
• Marital Status
• Place of Birth [abbreviations expanded]
• Date of Birth
• Mother's Maiden Name
• Mother's First Name
• Profession [with abbreviations expanded – see Hungarian-English Translations]
• Address [clarifications provided as known]

Once transcribed by JewishGen volunteers, as with other lists exchanged under the Yad Vashem data sharing agreement, the transcribed lists are then validated by Yad Vashem before being made available online.  The data in brackets for place of birth, profession and address were provided as part of the Yad Vashem validation efforts, and were not part of the original data.  In most cases this information is an expansion of abbreviated terms in the original, and is being provided in brackets along side the original data.  This information and the translation of professions have been added as research aids.

Background — Jews in Szombathely

The first Jews arrived at what was then the Roman city of Savaria in the first century A.D.  This city was destroyed in 445.  Although we know of Jews trading in the town from the sixteenth century, Jews were not allowed to settle there until 1840.

On April 4, 1848 the Jewish community was attacked and the Synagogue was destroyed.  The city authorities, who supported the attackers, tried to expel the Jews from the city, but the central authorities stepped in and did not allow this.

In 1871 the community split, and a separate Orthodox community was established.  The split did not bring much strife, and the two communities lived in harmony.  The community was a vibrant one, with all the institutions typical of a Jewish community.

In 1919 the Jews of the town were accused of supporting Austrian annexation of the town, and a few Jews were killed in pogroms caused by this accusation.  In 1941 about 3,400 Jews lived here, nearly 10% of the population.

Jews were inducted into labor battalions starting in 1942.  In May 1944, Jews were concentrated in the local ghetto.  A few months later they were deported to Auschwitz.  About fifty Jews survived and returned after the Holocaust.

A copy of this list was given to Yad Vashem in 1995 by the Jewish community of Szombathely, where the original still resides.

Bibliography

• Pinkas HaKehillot: Hungary

Acknowledgements

The information contained in this database was indexed as part of the data sharing agreement between Yad Vashem and JewishGen.  Thanks to Zvi Bernhardt and the Hall of Names staff, the data was provided from the files of Yad Vashem (file 0.15/H317).  This information is accessible to you today thanks to the efforts of the following JewishGen volunteers who are responsible for the transcription of this file: Mark Benisz (coordinator), Norman Greenfield, Charles Gluckman, Renee Marcus, Al Hersh, Max Heffler, Attila Rona, and Mindy Sokoloff.

Searching the Database

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