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Stropkov, Slovak Republic

General Information

 

Until the Holocaust, Jews, who made up about half of Stropkov,  owned most of the stores in town, dealing in  groceries, fabrics, salt,  lumber and building materials.  Jews were also farmers, tavern keepers, bankers, teachers,  lawyers,  butchers, bakers, leatherworkers, metalworkers, shoemakers, seamstresses, tailors, and cobblers….   But for all their efforts, mos  lived in poverty. Even into the twentieth century, few Jewish Stropkovers had running water, ice boxes, telephones, or radios.   But they enjoyed a spiritually rewarding way of life. 

 

Shtetl Variant name:  Stropko (Hungarian) 

Administrative District:  Zemplin County

Location

  • Latitude 49°12' N, Longitude  21°39' E
  • c20 miles NE of Prešov (Eperjes)
  • c40 NE of Kosice (Kassa)
  • c220 miles ENE of Bratislava (Pressburg)

Maps

 

            Dateline Slovakia

·         1867: Slovakia, historically part of the Hungarian Monarchy, joins the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

·         1914-1918:  During World War One, Slovakia is aligned with Germany.

·         1918: Slovakia joins the newly-formed Independent Republic of Czecho-slovakia. 

·       1938: The Slovakian government adopts anti-Semitic economic and social measures. 

·       1939:  Slovakia proclaims”independence," actually becoming a Nazi puppet state.

·       August 1944:  Slovak National Uprising defeated.

·        October 1944:  German Occupation of Slovakia.

·        1945: Slovakian Liberation by the USSR.

·        1991: "Velvet Revolution" creates the  Slovak Republic.

 

          Dateline Jewish Stropkov

·         c1650: Jews arrive in Stropkov, possibly fleeing Polish pogroms.

·         c1700: Jews are exiled from Stropkov to Tisinec, a village just north, where they establish the Tisinec Jewish Cemetery.

·         c1800: Jews return to Stropkov.

·         c1800-1942:  "Mother" Stropkov, the largest Jewish congregation in the area, shares her religious facilities (synagogues, burial societies, kosher butchers, rabbinical court, mikveh, and school system) with Jews in nearby "daughter" villages.

  

·         1892: Jews dedicate the Stropkov Jewish cemetery, discontinuing burials in Tisinec.

·         1939: The anti-Semitic Hlinka Party controls the  Stropkov Town Council.

·         1942: Jews of Stropkov-area number c2000 souls.

·         May-October 1942:  Hlinka deports  Stropkov-area Jews  to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Maidanek, and “unknown destinations.”

·         October 1944: Countrywide Deportations resume.

·         November 1944:  Russian Forces liberate  Stropkov.   

·         c100 Stropkover Jews survive.

       

       Visit Stropkov, sixty years later

 

            Research Links and Databases

 

Explore Jewish Life in Stropkov:

    Faces of Jewish Stropkov

    Rabbis of Stropkov

               

      Explore Stropkov in Holocaust Resources:

      The  Deportations 

      Fate of the May 23, 1942 transport to Rejowiec, Poland

     Their Names, Their Fate-- listing Jewish Stropkovers 1942-45:  those who perished, those who  survived  excerpted from  Amsel, Melody, Between Galicia and Hungary: The Jews of Stropkov, (Bergenfield, NJ) 

     Yad Vashem Pages of Remembrance

    JewishGen Holocaust Global Registry

    JewishGen Holocaust Database

 

    Explore  Stropkov in General Databases:

    JewishGen Hungary Special Interest Group (SIG)

    JewishGen  Hungary Database 

    JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF).

    JewishGen Discussion Group Message Archive.

    Hungarian SIG Discussion Group Message Archive.

    JewishGen Yizkor Book Database

    Family Tree of the Jewish People

    JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR).

 

References:

Amsel, Melody, Between Galicia and Hungary: The Jews of Stropkov, (Bergenfield, NJ 2002)

Weinstein, Avraham Avish, Seyfer Zichron Stropkov, (Brooklyn 1968)

    "Genealogical Adventure," M. Amsel, Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy,    Number 4, Winter 1997.

 

     "Researching Holocaust Victims from a Single Town," M. Amsel,  Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy,Number 1, Spring 2002.

   

 

 

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