Dedicated to the memory of 400 years of a Jewish community that was brutally annihilated by the Nazis, in WWII.

A sub-Project of Jewish Communities of Mozavia District, Poland

This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Radom, Poland.

• Radom, Poland JewishGen
• We Remember Jewish Radom Zchor
• Radom Jewish Community Yivo
• Radom Ghetto Wikipedia
• Radom Holocaust Archives HEART
• Danziger Family from Radom Geni Project
• Radomer Societies around the world JewishGen
• Beth Radom in Toronto Congregation

Radom, a city in the Mazovia province of southeast Poland, established in about 1350. A reference to a “Jewish” street in the town comes from documents dated 1567. In 1724, a Jew was accused of blasphemy and burned at the stake, and Radom’s Catholic population subsequently obtained the privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis from the king, forbidding Jewish residence in the city. For breaking this prohibition, a royal court in 1746 fined Radom’s Jews 1,000 grzywien and ordered their complete expulsion. Jews soon managed to return, however, and established a community. In 1789 the town’s Catholic residents agreed to further Jewish settlement in exchange for a monopoly on trade in salt. At the time, perhaps 100 Jews resided in Radom, with approximately 300 others in nearby villages.

By 1827, about 1,000 Jews lived in Radom (representing 23.2% of the city’s population); they worked mainly as peddlers or artisans. Despite the efforts of the city’s non-Jewish residents, all attempts to force Jews out of the city failed. In 1829, an illegal house of prayer functioned, and two years later a cemetery for Jewish cholera victims was established on the outskirts of the town; in 1837, this cemetery was acknowledged as the official, legal burial ground for Jews. That same year saw the official demarcation of a Jewish quarter, and in 1844 the community built a synagogue. Private donations also made possible the establishment of a Jewish hospital with 25 beds. By 1860, the community numbered 2,723 (about 27% of the city’s population), among them three rabbis. Jews continued to work mainly in trade and crafts, but also were among Radom’s pioneering entrepreneurs, mostly in the tanning business.

After Polish independence in 1918, Radom was included in Kielce province. In 1921, the city’s Jewish population numbered 24,465 (39.7% of all residents); in 1931, there were 25,159 Jews (32.3%), but by 1938 their numbers had fallen to 24,745, as did their percentage of the total (29%).

With the Nazi occupation of 1939, Radom became the capital of one of four districts of the Generalgouvernement. With forced resettlements, the city’s Jewish population increased dramatically, reaching about 33,000 by 1942. In April 1941, the Germans established two ghettos in the city—the “large ghetto” in the city center and the “small” ghetto in the Glinica neighborhood. Despite extreme hardship and persecution, ghetto residents organized a well-developed network of self-help organizations and a civilian resistance movement that included clandestine schooling, a theater, and literary activities. The Germans liquidated the Glinica ghetto on 4 August 1942, the larger ghetto 12 days later. Most of Radom’s Jews were murdered at Treblinka. About 3,000 remained in town as laborers; in the end they were housed in a camp near Szkolna Street, which from 1944 was linked to the Majdanek concentration camp. In the summer of 1944, most were sent to the Vaihingen camp near Stuttgart, where the survivors were liberated.

After the war, many Jews settled in Radom, at least temporarily. In the summer of 1945 they numbered 1,198, formed a district Jewish committee, and set up a house of prayer and a shelter. This number quickly diminished, however, as Jews faced antisemitism and acts of violence, including beatings, assault, and murder. After the Kielce pogrom of July 1946, most of the city’s remaining Jews left. By 1947 barely 99 remained, and by the next year that number had shrunk to 30. Radom’s Jews made their last public appearance in August 1950, during the unveiling ceremony of a monument commemorating the period of occupation, erected where Radom’s synagogue had once stood.

Family Surname Tree-top Index (work in progress)

• Hofman-- Mosek Binem *
• Rubinsztein-- Jankel *
• Szpajzer-- Lejbus *
• Warda-- Jankel *