History of the Jews in Gdańsk
[1][2][3] In 1308 Gdańsk was taken over by the Teutonic Knights and a year later, the Grand Master of the Order, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, forbid Jews to settle or remain in the city in an edict of non-toleration ("de non tolerandis Judaeis").
This was opposed by the Jewish merchants through a boycott of the Danzig owned banking house in Kowno (which had to be closed down) and through the intercession of the Polish Kings on behalf of the Council of the Four Lands.
The negotiations that finally broke the stalemate included concessions by the Polish king in religious matters that also concerned Jews.
As Gershon C. Bacon states:[1] This was the beginning of the association of Danzig Jewry with Germany, the German economy and German culture, which lasted until the dissolution of the community in the Nazi era.Although the emancipation edict of 1812 improved the legal status of Jews in Prussia, anti-Jewish riots (pogroms) occurred in 1819 with the Hep-Hep riots as well as in 1821,[7] and the legal rights of Jews were often questioned by local officials.
Besides the traditional Centralverein Danziger Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (CV; Central Association of Danzig Citizens of Jewish Faith), led by Bernhard Kamnitzer, Jews from Russia and Poland founded the new "OSE" association, which also provided for charitable services such as a kindergarten, a public soup kitchen, a clothing store, occupational counselling, and a job service, as well as for a theatre for the people's edification and entertainment.
The native Jews tried to maintain their German-Liberal style community and their leadership made several attempts to restrict the participation of foreigners in the election of the Repräsentantenversammlung (legislative assembly of representatives) of Synagogengemeinde Danzig.
[1] However, naturalised immigrants could vote so that also proponents of "Agudas Jisro'el" and "Misrachi", forming Jüdische Volkspartei (Yiddish: ייִדישע פֿאָלקספּאַרטײַ; Polish: fołkspartaj) ran for seats and eventually won some.
[12] On 23 October 1937 60 shops and several private residences were damaged in a Pogrom which followed a speech of the Nazi Party's Gauleiter of the city, Albert Forster.
[5][12] In 1938 Forster initiated an official policy of repression against Jews; Jewish businesses were seized and handed over to Gentile Danzigers, Jews were forbidden to attend theaters, cinemas, public baths and swimming pools, or stay in hotels within the city, and, with the approval of the city's senate, barred from the medical, legal and notary professions.
[1] Following these riots the Nazi senate (government) introduced the racialist Nuremberg laws in November 1938[12][15] and the Jewish community decided to organize its emigration.
[17] After the invasion of Poland by Wehrmacht and SS Heimwehr Danzig, followed by the German annexation of Danzig Free City, about 130 Jews were held in a "ghetto" in a building on Milchkannengasse street (today's ulica Stągiewna), and another group was imprisoned, along with the city's Poles, at the Victoriaschule, an old gymnasium building, where they were beaten and tortured.
[4] The last group that managed to leave for Palestine departed in August 1940, with many of them facing the Patria disaster in Haifa port.
[5][12] Of those who remained, 395 were deported during February and March 1941 to Warsaw Ghetto and 200 from the Jewish old age home were sent to Theresienstadt[5] and Auschwitz.
At the end of World War II 22 Jewish partners of mixed marriages, who had remained in the city, survived.
[5] About 350 individuals, from the areas surrounding the city, reported to the regional offices of the Central Committee of Polish Jews in the summer of 1945.
[4] Jakub Szadaj, a native of Gdańsk involved in Jewish cultural activities in the city and a prominent member of the democratic anti-communist opposition, was also arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison (later commuted to five).
[21] An annual festival, the Baltic Days of Jewish Culture (Bałtyckie Dni Kultury Żydowskiej), has been taking place in Gdańsk since 1999.
[24][25] In 2001 the only remaining pre-war synagogue, used as a warehouse for store furniture and as music school after World War II, was transferred to the Jewish community.
[26] A photo exhibit "Żydzi gdańscy—Obrazy nieistniejącego świata" (Jews of Gdańsk—Images of a lost world) was held in the Opatów Palace in Oliwa in 2008.
In addition to helping with the organization of the Baltic Days of Jewish Culture, it offers Hebrew lessons and keeps contact with the Beit Warszawa congregation in Warsaw.
