also known as: Alsóapsa (HU), Nižní Apša (CZ), Dubrava (RU), Unter-Apsa (Yid)
48°00' N / 23°50' E
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Nyzhnya Apsha
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1920 and 1938-1944) with the name of Alsóapsa
in Máramaros megye (county), next part of Czechoslovakia (1920-1938) with the name of Nižní Apša
in Podkarpatská Rus (Sub-Carpathia), then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945-1991) with the name of Dubrava
and, since 1991, known as Nyzhnya Apsha, in the Irshavsky rayon (district) of Zakarpats'ka oblast (county) of Ukraine.
In Yiddish, Nyzhnya Apsha was known as Unter-Apsa.
Other spellings/names for Nyzhnya Apsha are Apșa de Jos, Dibrovo, Nizhna Apsha, Nizhnyaya Apsha and Apsia de diosu.
Nyzhnya Apsha is located about twelve miles east of Tyachiv (Técső).
Jews probably settled in Nyzhnya Apsha in the mid-18th century.
In 1768, the Jewish population was 18 and in 1830, the Jewish population was 57.
By 1880, the Jewish population was 409 (of a total population of 3,466).
In 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population rose to 867.
The Zionists and Agudat Israel were active in the 1920s and 1930s.
Then by 1941, the Jewish population increased to 978.
With the Hungarian occupation of Nyzhnya Apsha in March, 1939, Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations. In 1940-41, dozens of Jews from Nyzhnya Apsha were drafted into forced labor battalions and others were drafted for service on the Eastern front, where most died.
In 1941, another few dozen Jewish families without Hungarian citizenship were expelled to Nazi occupied Ukrainian territory, to Kamenets-Podolski, and murdered there.
The remaining Jews of Nyzhnya Apsha were deported to Auschwitz late May, 1944.
A great many of the Jews from Nyzhnya Apsha were murdered in Auschwitz and any survivors settled elsewhere, mostly in Czechoslovakia.
In 2001, Nyzhnya Apsha had about 7,227 inhabitants and no Jews live there today.
Sources (portions): The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001) p. 896
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