“Rusnė” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Lithuania

55° 17' / 21° 22'

Translation of the “Rusnė” chapter from
Pinkas HaKehillot Lita

Written by Josef Rosin

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1996

 

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This is a translation from: Pinkas HaKehillot Lita: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania,
Editor: Prof. Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Josef Rosin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.

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(Page 636)

Rusnė

In Yiddish, Rusne; in German: Ruß

Written by Josef Rosin

Translated by Shimon Joffe

A town in Klaipėda province, 8 km south-west of Heidekrug (Šilutė), near the Rusnė River, one of the arms of the Nemunas river delta.  Until 1923, it was under Prussian rule [Ruß, in Kreis Heydekrug, Ostpreußen].  Between the years 1923-1939, during the period of Lithuanian independence, it became a county center in the autonomous province of Klaipėda (called Memel by the Jews).

Before the First World War, the town was an important center for the export of timber from Russia to Klaipėda.  Jews settled there at the beginning of the 19th century (the families of Eizenheim, H M Vazbutzki, Tsamor and others).  It had 1,997 inhabitants in 1815.  In 1855, a few dozen Jews lived in the town.  In 1857, it already had a synagogue and a mikve (ritual bathhouse).  In 1884, a beautiful large synagogue was built.  In 1925, it had 1,509 inhabitants, with an unknown number of Jews.  With the annexation of the Klaipėda province to Germany in the spring of 1939, all the Jews left the town and settled in Lithuania.  With the conquest of Lithuania by the Germans in June 1941, they shared the fate of the other Lithuanian Jews.

Bibliography:

YIVO - Lithuanian Communities' Collection: pp. 63778-63786.

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