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Nagyecsed is a town in the District of Szátmar, near the Kraszna River, 50 kilometers from Nyiregyháza. It is known for its famous fortress, which played a role in the many battles that took placed there during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Its population in 1941 was 7,534.

Year	Population
1815	16
1880	117
1900	236
1930	533
1941	600
1963	3 families

The first Jews arrived in Nagyecsed at the end of the 18^th century, after the draining of the Ecsedi–láp swamps, which gave Nagyecsed fertile ground. Its farmers were blessed with bountiful crops of sugar beets, potatoes, and grain. The economic success attracted Jews to the area.

Most of the Jews of Nagyecsed were merchants of grain and other agricultural products. The minority were tradesmen, including a shoemaker, carpenter, butcher, and tailor. Others were wagon drivers, leasers of estates, a physician, and an owner of a flourmill. A few supplied wood for building.

The community was Orthodox, and its members were known for the great piety. The birthrate was very high, with an average of seven or eight children per family.

In the town, there was a Chevra Kadisha [burial society], synagogue (built in 1850), cemetery, mikva [ritual bath], Chevra Mishnayos [Mishna study group], Chevra Shas [Talmud study group], Gemilut Chasadim organization [charitable organization], women's organization, and Tiferet Bachurim.

There was a rabbi, shochet [ritual slaughterer], shamash [beadle], and melamed [teacher of children] serving the community.

There was no Jewish school in Nagyecsed. The children studied in the Christian school, and received religion lessons from a Jewish teacher. In 1920, a special building was built for the Talmud Torah, including the cheder.

During the years of the Revolution of the Left and the White terror (1919–1922), the Jews of Nagyecsed suffered greatly from gangs of hooligans, first Romanians, and then Hungarians. Some Jews were imprisoned in a Blockade Camp.

With the issuance of the discrimination laws in 1939, the farmers continued

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to work on their lands – a rare occurrence in Hungary during those days.

In 1941, 120 Jewish men of Nagyecsed were taken for forced labor and sent to Ukraine. Only a few survived.

In 1942, the government banned business with Jewish shops. Having no choice, they began to peddle slaughtered fowl in the communities of the region.

With the German conquest in 1944, the Jews of Nagyecsed began to be separated from their Christian neighbors, and they were forbidden to appear on the roads of the town. They could go out to purchase food for only one hour a day, at noon. Immediately after Passover, the Jews of Nagyecsed were concentrated in the synagogue and the home of the rabbi. Two days later, 600 Jews of Nagyecsed, including the old rabbi of the community, Rabbi David Teitelbaum (1912–1944), were transported to the Mátészalka ghetto, from where they were taken to Auschwitz.

A few of the forced labor workers as well as some Auschwitz survivors returned after the war. They found the synagogue destroyed and the cemetery desecrated. They revived the community with the assistance of the JOINT.

When the State of Israel arose, most of the Jews of Nagyecsed decided to make aliya to the Land. The community sold the Talmud Torah building and the lot that was designated for the building of a new synagogue. They used the money to finance the aliya of the group, which also included refugees from Romania who reached Nagyecsed in various ways.

The community was liquidated in 1963, and only three families remained.

Yad Vashem Archives E 7–4/113–114.
Borovszky: Szatmár vármegye, p. 122. In: Magyarország vm–i.
Fényes, E: Magrarország geographiai szótára, p. 289.

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