[Page 532]

Year	Number	% of the Total population
1900	288	3.2
1910	357	3.1
1920	260	2.0
1930	245	1.7
1941	243	1.3
1946	67

The first Jews only settled in the second half of the 19^th century, due to the stubborn opposition of the German (Swabian) population to the settlement of Jews there. Most of the Jew's livelihood was in nearby Budapest, where they held various jobs.

The community was founded in 1885, and the settlements where subject to, Csep, Csepel, Haraszti, Szigetszentmiklos, Taksony, Tokol. A rabbi served in the community. The school was founded in 1872. In the 30's, when persecution of Hungarian Jews began, they established hotels that earned good reputations, even outside of the Hungarian borders.

The attitude of the local population towards the Jewish population and the Jews that would visit for their holidays, between the two world wars was usually hostile, however nothing apart from the hostile attitude developed.

Until the 1862 the community was subject to Balatonfokajar: from then on, the community became independent. A more religious society was founded in 1863. In the same year a mikveh was built.

An association for women and an association for boys was established. The school was already running in 1862, and in 1874 the new building was integrated.

The synagogue was established in 1869. I will mention rabbi Gabrial Dessauer (1905–1878), a gifted scholar, who wrote several books of song: Hand of Gabrial (1883), Ariel (1859), along with Halevi Flag and Singing Songs.

In the First World War 11 Jews from the community sadly perished. Immediately after the fall of the communist reign, in 1919, passed to the control of the national Hungarian army headquarters to Horthy Miklos, and there an activism centre was created ‘White Terrorism' they went berserk especially in western areas. Members of the terrorist groups, who where among Horthy's closest Officers, brought Jews from around the area here, and tormented them with death. 300 Jews where murdered brutally here, there bodies were sent to a lake in Alaton. Some Jews that managed to run away to Budapest and remained there until the rule of the gangs was abolished.

In 1937 the rabbies of the Jewish community of Adand joined the community.

In 1938 German tourists arrived here, they organised demonstrations in the streets and in restaurants under the titles of ‘Jews get out of Hungary’.

In autumn, 1940, 60 Jewish men were recruited into forced labour. Soon after the men aged 40 and above where let go. Later many discrimination laws where put in place. On the 2^nd of March 1944, a month before the law of denying the rights of Jewish merchants came into force, the licences of the owners of Jewish shops and businesses where already taken away from them. On the 5^th of April Jews where ordered to wear the yellow star and fire their Christian maids. Their houses and apartments where taken away from them and given to Hungarians whose homes had been destroyed by bombs.

In May 1944 Jews where taken to camp Komakut in the city of Aspram. It was in abandoned barracks, over time they filled with garbage, the Jews where ordered to clean it so it could be used for storage. Before there move to this ghetto, Jews where forced to pay their taxes for an entire year.

In the ghetto the community managed to organise life necessity's well; the doctors who lived in the ghetto established a small hospital, and we also managed to organize a nursery and even a school. The youth would organize and attend activities for the community and where sometimes given the role of running shops within the ghetto. In comparison this ghetto was in a much better situation than others elsewhere, especially considering the hostile attitude of the German population.

The harassment Jews had to suffer just got worse and more widespread, in 1943 a Jewish doctor was beaten to death because she was on her way to a night check–up, after the Germans arrived, in April 1944, all Jews where concentrated into several small flats, it was extremely crowded. On the 28^th of June a new law was enforced, the law said that Jews could not leave these crowded small flats they had been placed in. on the 1^st of July Jews where transferred to Budapest, there they where placed on boats and taken to a place nearby Bekesmegyer, and after that where transferred to a ghetto in Bakash–Majar: on the 30^th of July they where sent, together with the rest of the Jews with them to Auschwitz. After the war some Jews returned, those who returned tried to renew and recreate the community life once again. They renovated the synagogue which was re–established in 1947, however, sadly most of the Jews who came back slowly left the community.

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