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Chop
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1920 and 1938-1944) with the name of Csap
in and Ung megye (county), next part of Czechoslovakia (1920-1938) with the name Čop
in Podkarpatská Rus (Sub-Carpathia), then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945-1991) with the name of Chop and, since 1991, known as Chop in the Mukachevskiy (Mukachivs'kyy) rayon (district) and the Zakarpats'ka oblast (county) of Ukraine.
Other spellings/names for Chop are Tschop, Czop, Csapi, Csop and Chap.
Chop is located 14 miles SSW of Uzhhorod, 24 miles W of Mukacheve and is a Hungarian border crossing point.
Chop was first mentioned in 1281 and is situated in the Tysa Lowland bordering nearby Hungary and Slovakia.
The first town across the border from Chop in Slovakia is Čierna nad Tisou while in Hungary, the first city is Záhony.
In the 1870s, Chop became an important border railway junction where today, the Lviv-Stryi-Budapest railway line meets the Lviv-Uzhgorod-Košice line. Chop has railway servicing and transshipment areas and a brick and tile factory.
The first Jews probably settled in Chop in the first half of the 19th century. In 1880, the Jewish population was 133 (of 1,178 or 11% of the total population).
By 1877, the population of Chop was 1,191 made up of Hungarians, Rusyns and Jews and comprised the following religions: Roman Catholic (337); Greek Catholic (94); Agnostic (9); Reformed (558), and Jewish (193 or 16% of the total population).
A few Jewish families of Chop were farmers and the Zionist youth organizations were very active.
By 1921, the number of Jews in Chop grew to 431, but after the Hungarians annexed Chop in November of 1938, and by 1941, the Jewish population dropped to 359.
Many of the Jews of Chop were drafted into the Hungarian Labor Battalions—in 1941—for forced labor or service on the eastern front, where most died.
In April 1944, the Jews of Chop were forceably moved to the Ghetto in Uzhhorod and then were deported to Auschwitz in mid-May 1944.
Because Chop was a strategic rail terminus, in late 1944, Chop was the site of a month-long battle between German and Soviet troops and on November 23, 1944, the Soviet army occupied the village—but to late to save the Jews.
Today, Chop, the westernmost point of Ukraine, is a still a small town with about 8,919 inhabitants (2001) comprised of 40% (Ukrainians), 39.2% (ethnic Hungarians) and 20.8% (Gypsies, Russians, Slovaks, Belarusians and Jews). A great number of the Jews of Chop were murdered in the Holocaust and few Jews live there today—if any—the very elderly.
Sources (portions): The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001), pp. 269-270. Wikipedia
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Compiled and created by: Marshall J. KATZ, USA with assistance from
Association of Jews from Uzhorod and Vicinity, Inc.
Jordan AUSLANDER, USA
M. Y. EHRENREICH, USA Genealogy Indexer
Eugene KATZ, USA
Ferenc KOLESZAR, Hungary Lo Tishkach Foundation - European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative
Nevek-Klarsfeld
Prof. Dr. Ágnes SÁGVÁRI, Hungary
Anita (née LEIBOWITZ) STIEGLITZ
Ari TESLER, Belgium
The Center of Jewish Education in Ukraine USHMM, Washington, D.C. Wikipedia
Amos Israel ZEZMER, France
and the following JewishGen members/descendants and contributors of Chop Jewish families:
Yael Wolf PORTUGHEIS, Israel
Pamela WEISBERGER Z"L, USA
Joanna WOGULIS, USA
below for pronunciation. )
