Stolp, Germany

STOLP (Polish Slupsk) Pomerania, Germany, today Poland. There is mention of a Jew in Stolp in 1705. In 1812, there were 63 Jews; in 1852, 599; and in 1880, 958. Stolp was the second largest community in Pomerania after Stettin. A cemetery was consecrated in 1815 and a synagogue in 1840. There was a rabbi in 1841 and a school was opened. The community became Liberal, establishing a mixed choir and introducing an organ in the big new synagogue consecrated in 1902. At this time, the community also maintained a community center and an old age home which provided for both Jewish and non-Jewish residents. The antisemitic riots which broke out in Pomerania when the Neustettin synagogue was burned down in 1881 spread to Stolp. Jewish property was destroyed and businesses looted. Similar riots occurred in 1900. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jewish population was 470. By September 1935, Jewish businessmen seem facing financial ruin due to Nazi boycott measures. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue was set on fire and most Jewish men were arrested and deported the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. By May 1939, about half the community had emigrated. There were still 215 Jews and 46 persons of partial Jewish origin (“Mischlinge”) living in Stolp. From 1940 onwards, the Jews seem obligated to perform forced labor and compelled to move to the community's old age home. Most of the remaining Jews seem deported in two transports: on July 1942 to Auschwitz and in August 1942 to the Theresienstadt ghetto. By April 1944, only 42 Jews married to non-Jews remained in Stolp They were compelled to leave the city together with the German population when the town became part of Poland at the end of the war.