Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary: Szentes

“Szentes” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Hungary

46°40' / 20°19'
[46°39' / 20°16']

Translation of the “Szentes” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary

Edited by: Theodore Lavi

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1975

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This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Hungary: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Hungary,
Edited by Theodore Lavi, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

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[Page 405]

Szentes

City in the area of Csongrad, on the Tisza River. The population in 1941: 34,394

Jewish Population

Year	Number
1840	200
1869	919
1900	945
1910	813
1920	754
1941	510
1944	450

Until the Second World War

In 1742 twenty Jewish families received permission to settle there. Until the nineteenth century the Jewish community grew, then shrank because of the low birth rate.

The majority of Jews in Szentes were merchants, but there were also farmers, members of the free professions, and clerks. In 1930 there were 147 merchants, three wholesalers, three farmers, ten lawyers, sixteen doctors, and 32 private clerks.

The community was founded in 1800 and the Hevra Kadisha in 1810.

The community had a rabbi.

In 1869 the community defined itself as Neolog after the religious split, and there was a strong assimilationist orientation.

Some time after 1920 a library was opened in the community, and a committee was organized to research the community's history.

The Young Women's Association (established 1921), was active in matters of charity. A society for the support of the poor was established in 1864. A Women's Association was established in 1866.

The synagogue was built in 1871. The school was opened in 1841. The built was burnt in 1860, and a new one was constructed the following year. In 1866 the Austrian authorities closed the institution briefly.

From 1938, after the publication of Discrimination Laws, social relations between Jews and Christians were ended because of anti-Semitic agitation. The local newspaper also published a lot of anti- Jewish material. Often glass windows were shattered in the synagogue and private homes under the influence of this agitation. Some Jews from Szentes were arrested because of malicious lies.

The Holocaust

After the Germans entered Szentes on May 9, 1944, they created a ghetto, and brought the Jews from Szeghalom to it. Community leadership supplied food with the help of suppliers, who were permitted to enter the ghetto from time to time. On June 16 the Jews of Szentes were taken to railway cars and brought to a brick factory in Szeged, where they were kept under cruel conditions, crowded in with other district Jews. On June 24 and June 26 they were transported to Auschwitz or to Austria.

After the war about 120 Jews returned, the majority of them those who were arrested (during the war) in Austria. The community reorganized and a memorial was built to their martyrs.

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