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This is project is for Jewish Families from or connected to the town of Bydgoszcz, Poland (formerly Bromberg in Posen, Prussia).
Jews first started to settle in the vicinity of Bydgoszcz in the Middle Ages. The royal charter of 1555 forbade Jews from living in the town itself. The incoming Jews settled in the neighbouring Fordon, which boasted an active kehilla. A new stage of the Jewish settlement in the town situated on the Brda River began in 1766. After the First Partition of Poland (1772), four Jewish families were registered as residents of Bydgoszcz. In 1774, there were 11 Jews living in Bydgoszcz. In 1804, this number amounted to 40, in 1816 – 233, 1837 – 420, 1842 – 683, 1852 – 820, 1861 – 1,372, 1871 – 1,963. The Jewish community started to constitute a bigger and bigger percentage of the population, from 0.7% to 7.8% over the previously defined period. In the last three decades of the 19th century, however, the Jewish population of the town shrank in size.Located in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship, Poland at 53°7′N 18°0′E
External Links:
- Bydgoszcz on Wikipedia
- Bydgoszczc on Virtual Shtetl
- Bydgoszcz records on JRI-Poland.org
- Bydgoszcz Locality Page on Jewishgen.org
From the International Jewish Cemetery Project: Accessed May 7, 2020. BYDGOSZCZ: Bydgoskie Print Email Coat of arms of BydgoszczAlternate names: Bydgoszcz [Pol], Bromberg [Ger], Bydgostia [Latin]. 53°09' N, 18°00' E. Jewish population: 1,889 in 1880. synagogue: Bydgoszcz Synagogue was built in 1884, designed by Alfred Muttrey to replace of old wooden synagogue on Pod Blankami Street. The synagogue was destroyed during WWII. [April 2009]
Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland on the Brda and Vistula rivers with a population of 360,142 in June 2008. It has been the co-capital with Toruń in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship (1947-1998) and before that, of the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1945-1947). Since 1999 it is also the seat of Bydgoszcz County. Bydgoszcz is part of the metroplex Bydgoszcz-Toruń and seat of Casimir the Great University, University of Technology and Life Sciences and a conservatory as well as a Collegium Medicum of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń with a famous concert hall and opera house. The city is an important link in a water system connected via Noteć, Warta, Odra, Elbe with the Rhine and Rotterdam. In 1807 Bydgoszcz became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, but returned to Prussia in 1815. After 1871, the city was part of the German Empire. After World War I and the Great Poland Uprising, Bydgoszcz was annexed to Poland in 1919 and in 1938 to the Pomeranian Voivodeship. From 1939-45, Bydgoszcz was annexed to the Reichsgau Wartheland by the Nazis whose Wehrmacht occupied the town on September 9. The city's Jewish citizens were tormented, thousands sent to concentration camps and others just executed here. Bydgoszcz was the site of Bromberg-Ost, a female subcamp of Stutthof, a subcamp staffed by several female SS guards (Aufseherin) and commanded by Oberaufseherin. A deportation camp in Smukała village, now part of Bydgoszcz, was yet another place that the 37,000 citizens of this city, whether Jewish or not, died during the war. In 1945 Bydgoszcz was liberated by the Soviet army.[April 2009]
BYDGOSZCZ I: US Commission No. POCE000588
Cemetery: ulica Piastowa, Fordon. 1992 population: over 100,000 with no Jews.
Local: municipal council of Bydgoszcz. Regional: manager, Olga Romanowska- Grabowska, Panstwowa Sluzba Ochrony Zabytkow. The earliest known Jewish community was 55 persons in Fordon in 1674 and 11 Jews in 1772. 1871 census was 1,963 Jews with August 31, 1939 Jewish population of 2,055. The unlandmarked Jewish cemetery was established in the 18th-19th century. The isolated urban hillside has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off of a public road, access is open to all with no wall, fence, gate or visible tombstones. The size before World War II and currently is .95 ha. The municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are recreational and residential. The cemetery is visited rarely. There has been no vandalism in the last ten years. The cemetery has no known mass graves.
Magdalena Grabowska, Bydgoszcz, ulica Sanatoryjna 40, tel. 277335 completed survey on October 30, 1992, using cemetery card: 1990 W KZ Bydgoszcz. Grabowska visited the site on October 26, 1992, but no interviews were conducted.
NOTE: Before WWII, the 1 ha. cemetery was surrounded by a wall and was destroyed by the Nazis.No trace is left. [April 2009]
BYDGOSZCZ II: US Comm no. POCE000589
This unlandmarked cemetery located at ulica Szubinska was established at the beginning of the 20th century. The isolated urban flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, site is open to all with no wall, fence or gate. The size of the cemetery is 1.7 hectares, now and before World War II. No tombstones or mass graves are visible. Municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are residential. The cemetery is visited rarely. It has not been vandalized in the last ten years with no maintenance. Security, weather erosion and incompatible development are slight threats.
Magdalena Grabowska, Bydgoszcz, ulica Sanatoryjna 40, tel. 277335 completed survey on October 30, 1992, using cemetery card 1990 card of cemetery WKZ Bydgoszcz. She visited on October 26, 1992. No interviews were conducted.
BYDGOSZCZ (III): US Commission no. POCE000590
The cemetery is located at ulica Filarecka 2. This unlandmarked cemetery was established in 18-19th century. The isolated urban crown of a hill has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no wall, fence or gate. The size of the cemetery both before and after World War II is 12 hectares. No tombstones are visible; no known mass graves exist. Municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are recreational and residential. The cemetery is visited rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. No maintenance. Security, weather erosion, and vegetation are slight threats.
Magdalena Grabowska, Bydgoszcz, ulica Sanatoryjna 40, tel. 277335 completed survey on October 30, 1992, using a cemetery card 1990 WKZ Bydgoszcz. She visited on October 26, 1992, but no interviews were conducted.
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry JOWBR database lists 221 total matches found connected to or from Bromberg. The matches include data transcribed from markers and tombstones across the world.
JewishGen Family Finder JGFF search assistant database lists about 100 researchers with interests in 150 different family names from Bromberg as of March 24, 2021.
YadVashem database contains about 1500 entries for people who perished in the Holocaust who claimed Bromberg as a town connection or birthplace.
Update May 2023: Researchers report about a site: It's a government-run Polish website that handles records from just the Polish State Archive branches in Torun and Bydgoszcz, covering just Pomerania: https://www.genealogiawarchiwach.pl/
It's slow and hard to use. Searches time out constantly. But it does have 690,000+ scanned and transcribed (sometimes only partially transcribed, but you can check the image for full data) records online -- including from Hohensalza/Inowroclaw.