Usti nad Labem, Czechoslovakia

USTI NAD LABEM, Bohemia (Sudetenland), Czechoslovakia. Jews were probably present before 1556 but were subsequently expelled and only returned in the late 19th cent. A cemetery was consecrated in 1866 and a synagogue in 1880. In the 20th century, the Jewish population maintained a level of nearly 1,000. Jews were active in the coal industry and ran the largest battery factory in Central Europe. Most left during the Sudetenland crisis of summer and fall 1938. The synagogue was destroyed on 1 January 1939. The remaining Jews were put to forced labor and afterwards sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Of the 366 Jews who were deported, 224 perished, most in the death camps of the Zamosc, Riga, and Lodz areas.