Glogau, Germany

GLOGAU (Pol. Glogow) Lower Silesia, Gennany, today Poland. Jews are mentioned in 1280 as residents of a separate street and maintaining a synagogue and cemetery. The general expulsion order of 1484 was not enforced in Glogau and Jews continued to live there in the 15th—16th centuries. In 1582, when all the Jews of Silesia and Bohemia were expelled, the Jews of Glogau and Zuelz (Upper Silesia) were the only two communities allowed to remain. The community grew rapidly and in the 17th century consecrated three new cemeteries. In 1636, a synagogue and a new Jewish residential quarter were dedicated. The Jewish population grew from 1,564 in 1725 to 1,644 in 1756 and nearly 2,000 in 1790. Subsequently it declined, to 716 in 1900; 700 in 1931; and 503 on the eve of the Nazi rise to power in 1933. The community maintained two synagogues and various organizations, including a sports club and a B’nai B’rith lodge. A Zionist study group was founded in March 1933 and a Jewish War Veterans Association youth group was started in July. By 1936, the Jewish population had dropped to 307. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue and Jewish stores were burned. Many emigrated in 1939; 120 Jews remained. After the deportations to the Theresienstadt ghetto and General Gouvernement territory from March 1942, six intermarried Jews remained in November 1942.