Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary: Mezotur

“Mezotur” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Hungary

47°00' / 20°38'

Translation of the “Mezotur” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary

Edited by: Theodore Lavi

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1975

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Francine Shapiro

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
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.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

[Pages 343-344]

Mezotur

Town in the area of Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok. The population in 1941 was 28,192.

Jewish Population

Year	Number	% of Total Population
1840	17	0.1
1869	673	3.3
1900	836	3.3
1930	584	2.1
1941	406	1.4
1946	210	0.7
1949	124	-
1953	58	-
1955	40	-
1961	26	-

Until the Second World War

The first Jews settled in Mezotur in the first half of the nineteenth century. Their numbers grew quickly, and after a short period Mezotur became a famous community. At the beginning of the twentieth century these numbers fell, because the Jews in Mezotur preferred bigger places. The Jews of Mezotur were merchants and artisans, and a minority practiced the free professions (a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, clerks, etc.). Some of them were owners of farms, and others owned successful businesses, such as a steam-powered mill, brick factory, lumberyard with 120 employees, and a textile factory.

The community was established in 1835 under the leadership of Binyamin Zeev Wolf Fikszler, who had come there two years previously, and was designated the first rabbi of the community.

There were (these communal institutions: Hevra Kadisha (organized in 1828, it also tended welfare cases), and a Women's Association, (organized in 1873, it built, among other things, a hostel for aged women). Besides the rabbi, the community had a hazan, schochet, melamed, and shamash. The synagogue was built in the second half of the nineteenth century.

During the split of the communities in Hungary, the nineteenth community called itself Neolog. A little group organized an Orthodox minyan in a private house.

The school was established in 1859. There were three teachers in 1870. At this time the school moved to a building of its own. Between 1870 and 1890 there were 120 pupils in the school. Afterwards the number dropped, and in 1895 there were only 75 pupils.

During the First World War 16 of the Jews of Mezotur were killed at the front, and in the period of the White Terror (1919) one Jew was murdered.
A committee was established to support Jewish students who were not permitted to study at the universities of Hungary because of discrimination laws, and were forced to study abroad between the two world wars.

In 1936 a Youth Circle was established that was a social focus for Jewish youth that offered social and cultural activities.

In 1938 all land that Jews owned was nationalized, and some factories were taken from their owners.

The Holocaust

Some 150 of the Jews of Mezotur were put into forced labor in 1940. Adults were freed after a few months. In 1942 30 more Jews were conscripted, and transported to the River Don area. Only a few returned after the war.

On April 3, 1944 some of the Jews of Mezotur were imprisoned under the pretext of dispersing inimical elements. They were taken to a camp in the city of Nagykanizsa, and from there to Auschwitz.

Later all the Jews were concentrated in a ghetto in a brick factory. The Jews themselves had to take care of all aspects of their livelihood, and were permitted to leave in order to buy whatever they needed for two hours every morning.

On June 16 they were transported from Nagykanizsa to Szolnok, where the majority of Jews of the area were concentrated. They stayed there for two weeks, suffering from hunger, overcrowding, and torture. Afterwards they were divided into two groups. One was sent to Austria and the second to Auschwitz. Among those murdered in Auschwitz was the last rabbi of Mezotur, Rabbi Philip Schultz (1931-1944).

After the war some of those expelled into Austria returned, but only a few from Auschwitz. The community was reorganized, and for a short time the Hevra Kadisha, Women's Association and shochet were active. The synagogue and the cemetery were untouched during the war.

In 1947 a memorial was erected to the 166 martyrs who were murdered in the Holocaust. Afterwards the number of Jews in Mezotur dropped. By1961 only 26 Jews remained.

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

Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
This web page created by Max Heffler