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ing agricultural produce for the local market. In addition, 177
shops of the town’s 234 belonged to Jews, and they were the
majority among artisans, accounting for 28 of 30 tailors and
18 of 19 furriers. A Hebrew school and a public library functioned
and served as a cultural center for local Jews.
Holocaust Period
In September 1939 the Soviets annexed Berestechko, nationalized
the economy, closed all Jewish communal institutions,
and disbanded all parties and organization. The Hebrew
school was turned into a Yiddish one.
On June 23, 1941, the Germans captured the city. On
August 8 German police with the help of local Ukrainians
rounded up 300 Jewish men and executed them near the local
castle. A Judenrat was chosen from among former public
activists and a heavy tax was levied on the Jews. From October
5 to 14 a ghetto was set up , surrounded by barbed wire. Some
needed artisans were housed in separate quarters. Later Jews
from nearby villages were brought in, causing great crowding
in living quarters. From September 7 to 9, 1942, the ghetto
population was murdered, with only a few managing to escape
and hide. Berestechko was recaptured by the Soviet Army on
April 24, 1944. The few survivors who returned from the Soviet
Union found their homes in ruins.
Add. Bibliography: PK Polin: Volhin ve-Polesie, S.V.
[Aharon Weiss / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
BERETTYÓÚJFALU, town in Hajdú (in 1944 Bihar) county,
eastern Hungary. Jews first settled in the town at the beginning
of the 19th century, having moved in mostly from neighboring
Zsáka. Their number ranged from 125 (2.5% of the total)
in 1840 to 1,083 (9.9%) in 1930. According to the census
of 1941, the last before the Holocaust, the town had a Jewish
population of 982, representing 8.3% of the total of 11,781.
The community established a ḥevra kaddisha in 1807, and
built its first synagogue in 1840 and a mikveh in 1866. After
the communal rift of 1868–69, the community identified itself
as Orthodox. In 1876, the community established a Jewish
elementary school. In 1885, several small Jewish communities
in the neighboring villages, including that of Csökmö,
joined the larger community of Berettyóújfalu. By 1920 the
town also boasted a ḥasidic congregation. Among the rabbis
who served the community were Amram *Blum (1883–1907),
Mordechay Friedmann (1912–30), and Béla Benzion Blum,
Amram’s son (1930–44). Rabbi Béla Blum perished in the
ghetto of Budapest.
During World War II, the Jews were subjected to drastic
discriminatory measures, and many of the Jewish males were
conscripted for forced labor. Shortly after the German occupation
of Hungary in March 1944, the Jews were rounded up and
first concentrated in a local ghetto. The ghetto also included
the Jews from the neighboring villages in the district of Berettyóújfalu,
including those of Bakonszeg, Csökmö, Hencida,
Váncsod, and Zsáka. On June 7, the ghetto population was first
transferred to the local brickyard, and a day later to the ghetto
bereza
of Nagyvárad (Rom. Oradea), from where they were deported
to Auschwitz a few days later.
After the war 150 survivors, many among them former
labor servicemen, returned. According to the census of 1949,
the town had 221 Jews. These continued to maintain a congregation
until 1956. The synagogue was sold in 1964. Most of
the Jews either moved to other places or emigrated. In 1968
there were some 20 Jews living in the town; by the end of the
century only two.
Bibliography: M.M. Stein, Magyar rabbik, 3 (1907), 12; 5
(1909), 5f.; Z. Nadányi, Bihar vármegye, (1938), 454; S. Kiss, Berettyóujfalu
és környéke, (1940), 6, 15; Braham, Politics; PK Hungaria,
183–84.
[Randolph Braham (2nd ed.)]
BEREZA (also Kartusskaya Bereza; Pol. Bereza Kartuska),
town in Brest district, Belorussian S.S.R.; until 1795 and between
the two world wars in Poland; today in Belarus. A Jewish
community existed there from the beginning of the 17th
century. Erection of a synagogue was authorized in 1629. The
community numbered 242 in 1766, 515 in 1847, and 2,623 in
1897 (42.1% of the total population). At the end of the 19th century
barracks were built for the Russian army, which benefited
Jewish tradesmen. Although their number decreased to 2,163
by 1921, the Jews still formed 61.3% of the total population.
The main occupation of the Jews was in the lumber industry:
sawmills, furniture, and other wood products, which were
mostly exported. A number of noted rabbis served in Bereza,
including Isaac Elhanan *Spektor who officiated there when
a young man (1839–46), and Elijah *Klatzkin (1881–94). In
the 1920s Jews served as the mayor and deputy mayor of the
town. Jewish children studied in three schools: Hebrew, Yiddish,
and a talmud torah.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
1939–1941
After the outbreak of World War II and the Soviet-German
agreement on the division of Poland, Bereza fell to Soviet
rule. All public, independent political activity of a national
character was forbidden. The Jews’ sources of livelihood were
reduced by the creation of a network of government-owned
stores, cooperatives, and services.
Holocaust Period
On June 23, 1941, a day after the outbreak of war between Germany
and the U.S.S.R. German forces entered Bereza. On June
26 the synagogue and houses nearby were burned down. The
community faced kidnappings for forced labor, starvation, and
disease throughout that winter (1941–42). In July 1942 a ghetto
was established, comprising two sections: ghetto “A” for “productive”
persons employed by the Germans; and ghetto “B” for
the “nonproductive,” nonworking members of the community.
On July 15, 1942, the inmates of ghetto “B” were taken to Brona
Góra and murdered. Some of the Jews in ghetto “A” attempted
to flee to the forests, or to *Pruzhany Ghetto, which was still
free from deportations. On October 15, 1942, the Germans
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