Brieg, Germany

BRIEG (Pol. Brzeg), lower Silesia, Germany, today in Poland. Jews settled in the 14th century and established a synagogue and cemetery. The community was spared the Black Death persecutions of 1349-50 and continued to exist until it was finally expelled in 1453. Jews are again mentioned in the 16th and 17th centuries, with a Jew allowed to open a Hebrew-Yiddish printing press in1689. There was an organized community in the last third of the 18th century. It maintained a synagogue (consecrated in 1799) and a cemetery (1781), but large-scale Jewish settlement only occurred in the mid-19th century. In 1846, the Jewish population was 373, rising to a peak of 448 in 1885. The community was Orthodox in character though there was also an organization of Liberal Jews. In 1933, the Jewish population was 255, dropping to 160 in1938. On Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938), the synagogue and nine Jewish stores and taverns were destroyed while four Jews were arrested. A number of Jewish families subsequently emigrated to Europe, leaving 123 Jews in the city. Deportations to the Theresienstadt ghetto and General Gouvemement territory commenced in March 1942. In October 1942, nine intermarried Jews remained.