Langendorf

General information: First Jewish presence: 1660; peak Jewish population: 279 in 1817; Jewish population in 1933: 30
Summary: The Jewish community of Langendorf (present-day Wielowies, Poland), the first in this district, developed into a center of Jewish life during the 1700s. Towards the end of the 18th century, in fact, Jews made up a third of the total population. In 1812, however, when laws governing Jewish residential rights were relaxed, many Langendorf Jews left for other towns and cities. In 1771, the community replaced its 17th-century, wooden prayer house with a stone synagogue, the first of its kind in Silesia. Langendorf Jews also maintained a school and, after 1700, a cemetery; the latter was closed down in the early 20th century, at which point it contained 2,000 graves. In 1933, as a result of decades of steady decline of the Jewish population, only 30 Jews lived in Langendorf. Although the synagogue building was no longer owned by Jews on Pogrom Night, SS and SA men destroyed its interior; the building, however, was not set on fire, for the new owner intended to convert it into a storage site for grain. Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized and plundered, and Jewish men were taken into custody. The last deportation of Jews from Langendorf left in 1942.
Author / Sources: Ruth Martina Trucks
Sources: EJL, LJG
www.sztetl.org.pl
Located in: silesia