Follow
This Jewish Town Project attempts to collect and identify individuals from the town of Obrzycko near Szamotuly, also known as Obersitzko. It was formerly in the Grand Duchy of Posen. Meyer's Gazetteer lists it as: Obersitzko, Kr. Samter, Posen, Preußen.
Luft, The Naturalized Jews of the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1834 and 1835 revised edition, published by Avotaynu, in 2004, lists the town of Obrzycko in Samter County along with the towns of Samter, Pinne, Wronke, Neubrück. Samter had 111 persons made citizens while Obrzycko had 112 persons. Pinne had 52, Wronke had 42 and Neubrück had 8.
From the International Jewish Cemetery Project: Alternate names: Obrzycko [Pol], Obersitzko [Ger], אובורניקי / אובז'יצקו .' [Yid]. 52°42 N, 16°32' E, 27 miles NW of Poznań (Posen), 6 miles NNW of Szamotuły (Samter). Jewish population: 379 (1871). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VII, pp. 354-355: "Obrzycko". Gmina Obrzycko is a rural administrative district in Szamotuły powiat, Greater Poland Voivodeship,in west-central Poland with its seat is the town of Obrzycko, although the town is not part of the gmina with a 2006 total population of 4,219. Gmina Obrzycko contains the villages and settlements of Annogóra, Antoniny, Borownik, Brączewo, Bugaj, Chraplewo, Daniele, Dobrogostowo, Gaj Mały, Jaryszewo, Karczemka, Karolin, Kobylniki, Koźmin, Lizbona, Modrak, Nowina, Obrowo, Obrzycko-Zamek, Ordzin, Pęckowo, Piotrowo, Słopanowo, Słopanowo-Huby, Stobnicko and Zielonagóra. Synagogue photos. [June 2009] US Commission No. POCE000465 Alternate German name: Obersitzko. The town is in the region Pozrawskie at 16º32' 52º42', 50 km from Poznania. The cemetery is located in ul. Stawra. Present town population is 1000-5000 with no Jews. Village: Urzad Gminy, tel. 72. Regional: region Konserwator Zabytkow, 61.716 Poznan, ul. Kosciuszki 93, tel. 69646. 1921 Conservative Jewish population was 75 (5%). Approximate distance from congregation was 0.3 km. The isolated suburban flat land has no signs or markers. Access is turning directly off a public road. The cemetery has no walls, fences or gates and is open to all. No stones are visible. Municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are residential. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. There is no maintenance. Pniewski Staurmir(?) Poznan visited site and completed survey in August 1991. A German map of 1940 (or 1740) was documentation. US Commission No. POCE000465. In Poznan. The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file. [2000] Last Updated on Sunday, 21 June 2009 01:26 Accessed August 19, 2016
Source: www.sztetl.org.pl Translator name :Agnieszka Floriańczyk Many new settlers came to Obrzycko in the mid-17th century and most probably Jews were also among them. The then owner of the town granted the Jews many privileges but also imposed on them various duties and bans. They were allowed to build a synagogue and establish a Jewish cemetery, but they were forbidden to trade in spices and iron articles. However, the living conditions in the town, were so favourable that the community was growing rapidly. Around 1750, there were about 200 Jews in Obrzycko. When the town was incorporated to Prussia in 1793, this number increased to 476, which made up 30% of the total population. The most flourishing period for the Jewish community in Obrzycko was the year 1840, when the community had 606 members.
An organized Jeiwsh community in Obrzycko was established in 1825. However, the synagogue and cemetery had functioned already in the 17th century, due to the permission granted by the town’s owner. The synagogue was used until the mid-1840s, when its state became so poor that a new synagogue had to be built in its place. The construction of the synagogue and the financial matters related to it were the reason of long lasting disagreements between the community members. In the 1820s, a new Jewish school was been opened in the town.
Local Jewish merchants ran various businesses successfully, opened stores, and the more affluent established factories in the second half of the 19th century. In 1833, Abraham Berliner was born in Obrzycko - later a famous Talmudic scholar, professor of the Jewish culture and literature on the rabbinic seminar in Berlin (died in 1915)[1.1].
At the same time, more and more Jewish inhaitants of Obrzycko decided to leave the town, which resulted in the community diminishing. In 1857, the community still had 512 members, in 1871 there were 379 Jews, and in 1890 only 274. The tendency did not change at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903, the Jewish community amounted to 170 and in 1907 to only 150 members. The town saw a large migration after incorporation to Poland in 1919. In 1921, there were still 75 Jews in Obrzycko, but in the 1920s the community was officially disbanded, since it was too small to function independently. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, in Obrzycko lived only several people of Jewish descent. Between 1942 and 1944, a German camp operated in the town, which was subordinate to the extermination camp in Stutthof.
Bibliography Obrzycko, [in:] The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Sh. Spector, G. Wigoder (eds.), New York (2001), p. 923. Accessed August 19 2016
Yad Vashem lists about 150 individuals with a connection to this town who perished in the Holocaust. Most lived in large cities, principally Berlin and were born in Obrzycko. Some records are based on Pages of Testimony, a rich source of data.
From the Biographical Index of Rabbi's BHR1 published by the Steinheim Institute in Germany we find three Rabbi's who were connected to Obrzycko but left to practice in other towns. You may look directly at it at this site: http://www.steinheim-institut.de/dbs/rabbiner-index/query.html You may also refer to the Biographical Handbook of the Rabbi's (BHR), in Germany, at the same site.