Piestany,the community

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_slovakia/slo443.html

There was Zionist activity in Piestany from the beginning of the twentieth century, and in 1904 S. B. Rosner of Piestany was the delegate to the World Mizrachi conference in Bratislava. Jews were also active in town affairs, and in general society. Piestany was the birthplace of the Slovak Jewish author Geza Vermuth (1901-1956), who advocated Jews becoming strongly involved in their local community. Many Jews fought in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War, and some fell in battle.


The community also had a Talmud Torah. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Vrba continued in office after the war. In 1919 he was among the founders of the Central Chamber of the Orthodox communities in Slovakia, and president until his death. In the1920's he established a yeshiva in Piestany with approximately 50 students. He was also active in general public life. Jews and non-Jews honored him very much. His varied activities made it difficult for him to fulfill his offices as a rabbi and head of a yeshiva The Dayan, Rabbi Issachar Shlomo Teichtal, the author of Em Habanim Smecha, and other books, was the acting rabbi, and he also directed the yeshiva. After many quarrels about the direction of the community, the central chamber of the Orthodox community in Slovakia nominated a community director of its own in 1928. In 1931 Rabbi Shlomo Teichtal, opened a yeshiva of his own, Moriah, which had more than 50 students, and it existed until 1942. After the death of Rabbi Kalman Vrba in 1932, Rabbi Benzion Yosef, son of Rav Shmuel David Unger (a descendant of a famous rabbinical family), was elected as the new Orthodox rabbi in Piestany. Rabbi Unger, too, opened a yeshiva of his own in Piestany. In 1920 a large branch of Agudat Yisroel was established in Piestany, including the youth movement, Tzeiorei Agudat Yisroel, and the girls' institutions, Bet Yakov and Yehudit.


HaShomer HaZair had an agricultural training farm for young people who wanted to live in Eretz Yisroel. There were also branches of WIZO, and the Maccabi Sport Association, (established in 1921, headed by Imrich Plus and Desider Komrosh). The Maccabi Club in Piestany, one of the biggest in Slovakia, was also a social center, mainly for youngsters. In 1929 the Zionists of Piestany collected 9,500 crowns as donations to the Keren Kayemet for planting a forest in Eretz Yisroel, in memory of Czechoslovakia's president, T.G. Masaryk. Just before the Fifteenth Zionist congress in 1927, 25 Shekels were sold in Piestany, 198 shekels before the Seventeenth Congress in 1931, and 370 shekels before the Twenty-First congress in 1939. We can learn about the proportions of the Zionist camp in the city from the results of the elections to the Eighteenth Zionist Congress in 1933: General Zionists: 40%, Mizrachi: 30%, Revisionists: 20%, and Eretz Yisroel Ovedet: 10%. The National Jewish Party was also strong in Piestany.




At the beginning of the 1920's there were five Jewish members on the City Council. In the 1928 elections, the National Jewish Party was the third in the city, with 545 votes (12.5%), which gave it 4 mandates in the Council. In the 1938 elections it got three mandates, and an Orthodox Jewish Party, the Democratic Jewish Party, got two mandates. According to the population census of 1931 there were more than 1,250 (13.5% of the city population) Jews. Only 530 of them listed themselves as Jews according to Jews as nationality. Most listed themselves as Slovakian and German. Jews were active in public life.

The Period of the Holocaust


As soon as Slovakian autonomy was established, the Jews were persecuted. On November 5, 1938, 88 Jews, inhabitants of the subdistrict (65 of them from Piestany) who lacked Slovakian citizenship were expelled to the No Man's Land of the Slovakia-Hungary border.



The members of the “Hlinka Guards” organized anti-Jewish riots at the beginning of March 1939, including robbery and destruction of property.



Radical elements in the local government insisted on expelling the Jews from the town, so that they would not “make the Slovakian spa unclean by their presence.”



There were more 1,500 Jews in Piestany in 1940. About 140 families were members of the Yeshurun community, led by Ferdinand Komelosch. Ignatz Fierst headed the Orthodox community, followed by Desider Weinberger. Alexander Rubin, a merchant, was nominated in 1940 as head of the other “Jewish Center” in the subdistrict.



Rabbi Benzion Unger still continued in his position. During 1941 the authorities closed about 260 Jewish businesses in Piestany and in the subdistrict. (Their total annual revenue was estimated at 36,000,000 crowns.) Another 45 large businesses with annual revenue of 26,000,000 crowns were given to Arizators. The majority of Jews remained without employment or sources of income. Many of them were restricted in October 1941, and sent to forced labor camps.



The expulsion from Piestany to death camps in Poland began at the end of March 1942. On March 24 the authorities hunted Jewish youths from Piestany and the surrounding area. Those captured were added to a transport to the Maidanek camp in the Lublin district of Poland. On March 27 the Jewish young women were concentrated for expulsion. About 60 of them succeeded in fleeing, but another 40 were captured, and were taken to the transit camp in Patronka. On April 1 they were sent from there on a sealed train to the Auschwitz extermination camp. On April 26, 1942 they began to expel families. About 330 Jews, inhabitants of Piestany and surroundings, were sent to Nové Mesto. On April 27 they were added to a transport from there to the Opole ghetto in the Lublin district. Another 369 Jews from Piestany and the area were sent on May 8, 1942 to the transit camp in Sered, and expelled from there to the extermination camps and ghettos in the Lublin district. In the summer of 1942 some other small Jewish groups were expelled from Piestany from the collection camp in Zilina to various camps in Poland. The Dayan, Rabbi Issachar, and Shlomo Teichtal and his daughters tried to go to Hungary during the expulsions, but they were captured. The rabbi of Nitra, Shmuel David Unger, succeeded in ransoming them at a very high price. About 90% of the Jews of Piestany and the sub district were expelled to Poland or ghettoes in the spring and summer of 1942, more than in the other sub districts of Slovakia.

When the expulsions stopped, 75 Jews remained in the city with protection documents. (28 families received special protection documents from President Tiso.) Another 80 Jews who pretended to be converts were saved from expulsion. The community reorganized, and the rabbis of the two communities remained in Piestany until September 1944. The central synagogue in Piestany was confiscated, and became a depot for the property of those who were expelled. The building of the local Jewish school was also confiscated, and turned into a Roman Catholic school. The Jewish community opened a small school in an improvised structure for the few dozen children who still remained in Piestany and surroundings after the expulsions. The director of the school that existed until the summer of 1944 was Alexander Mittelman. The city authorities reported to the Interior Ministry in May 1943 that 119 Jews remained in Piestany, and they insisted on expelling them, too. 210 Jews with protection documents were living in Piestany and its environs at the beginning of 1944.


After the suppression of the Slovakian revolt in September 1944, Piestany was occupied by a German S.S unit. Some Jews succeeded in fleeing on the eve of the occupation. The majority, among them the Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Benzion Josef Unger, the liberal rabbi, Rabbi Eleazer Arnold Levi, and the Dayan, Rabbi Issachar Shlomo Teichtel, were captured by the Germans and expelled through the camp at Sered to the camp at Auschwitz, and other camps in Poland. Rabbi Unger was murdered by the Germans in the Sered camp. Those who were lost during the Holocaust totaled about 1,500 of the Jews of Piestany and the subdistrict.