also known as: Beregkisfalud (HU), Selce (CZ), Siltze (RU), Siltz (Yid)
48°18' N / 22°59' E
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Sil'tse
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1920 and 1938-1944) with the name of Beregkisfalud
in Bereg megye (county), next part of Czechoslovakia (1920-1938) with the name of Selce
in Podkarpatská Rus (Sub-Carpathia), then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945-1991) with the name of Siltze
and, since 1991, known as Sil'tse, in the Irshavsky (Irshavs'kyy) rayon (district) of Zakarpats'ka oblast (county) of Ukraine.
Other spellings/names for Sil'tse are Kisfalud,
Szilce-Kisfalud.
In Yiddish, Sil'tse was referred to as Siltz
.
Sil'tse is located about two miles southwest of Irshava, fourteen miles of northeast Berehove and twenty-one miles southeast of Mukacheve.
Beregkisfalud is found mentioned in 1466 in a first decree.
Jews probably settled in Sil'tse during the first half of the 18th century.
In 1877, the population of Sil'tse was 1,107 made up of Rusyns, Hungarians, Germans and Jews and comprised the following religions: Roman Catholic (6), Greek Catholic (934) and Jewish (167 or 15% of the total population).
Sil'tse had about 50 Jewish families, seven of which named BLOBSTEIN.
By 1930, during the period of the Czechoslovakian Republic, most Jewish children attended a Czech state school, receiving their religious education in a cheder (religious school).
After the Hungarian occupation of Sil'tse in March of 1939, the Jews were cut off from their sources of livelihood and, in 1940-41, many young people were drafted into the Hungarian forced labor battalions and sent to the eastern front, where many died.
In late August, 1941, the local Jews who could not prove Hungarian citizenship—some complete families—were expelled to Kamenets-Podolski, where they were murdered together with thousands of other Jews from the area who similarly lacked Hungarian citizenship.
In late April, 1944, the remaining Jews in Sil'tse were rounded up and forcibly moved to the ghetto in Munkács and in mid-May 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz.
After the war, a few survivors returned to Sil'tse.
Today, Sil'tse has about 3,112 inhabitants (2001). A great number of the Jews of Sil'tse were murdered in the Holocaust and no Jews live there today.
Sources (portions): Michael A. BLAIN, USA The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001), p. 1159.
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