Ortelsburg
General information: First Jewish presence: 1768; peak Jewish population: 199 in 1871; Jewish population in 1933: approximately 120
Summary: The history of Jewish Ortelsburg (Polish: Szczytno) began
in 1768, when Berek Samulowitz and Isaak Lewin received
permission to settle there. The community consecrated a
cemetery in 1815; a synagogue in 1835; and a new synagogue
and mikveh, on Polnische Strasse, in 1886. Russian troops
destroyed the synagogue during the first weeks of World War
I, and it was not until 1923 that a new house of worship,
designed by August Wiegand, was inaugurated in Ortelsburg.
Beginning in 1835, the Jews of Ortelsburg employed a
chazzan and a Jewish teacher. In 1847, Ortelsburg founded
a synagogue community with the Jews of Friedrichsdorf,
Passenheim, Schwentainen and Willenberg; it was not,
however, until years later that the government officially
approved the “statutes for the synagogue community of
Ortelsburg.”
The Deutsche Freiheitsbewegung (German Freedom
Movement) triggered an increase in anti-Jewish violence.
In the early 1930s, stones and fire bombs were thrown at
and into Jewish homes; Nazis attacked Jews on the street.
In March 1933, the Nazi Party won more than 87% of the
local vote.
On Pogrom Night (November 9-10, 1938), the synagogue
was burned down. Seventy-five local Jews perished in the
camps.
Author / Sources: Esther Sarah Evans
Sources: EJL, LJG
www.sztetl.org
Sources: EJL, LJG
www.sztetl.org
Located in: east-prussia