Polska / kujawsko-pomorskie
|Synagogues, prayer houses and others||Cemeteries||Sites of martyrdom||Judaica in museums||Andere|
|Province:||kujawsko-pomorskie / poznańskie (before 1939)|
|County:||bydgoski / bydgoski (before 1939)|
|Community:||Bydgoszcz / Bydgoszcz (before 1939)|
|Other names:||Bidgostia [j.łaciński]|
Tomasz Kawski /
Bydgoszcz – a city in northern Poland, the capital of Kujawy-Pomorania Province. It lies by the Brda River and the Bydgoszcz Canal, 264 km northwest of Warsaw.
Tomasz Kawski /
The history of Jews from Bydgoszcz can be divided into four periods: the first – from the end of the Middle Ages to 1555, the second – from 1770s to 1920, the third – from 1920 to the end of 1939, and the fourth – from 1945 to 1970s.
The first Jews started to settle in Bydgoszcz in the Middle Ages. This fact was confirmed by the sources from 1507 in which indicate the existence of an organized settlement. It can be assumed that the first Jewish settlers came to Bydgoszcz at the end of the 15th century or at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The development of the community was impeded by the Royal Privilege from 1555 banning Jews from living in the town or in its suburbs. In fact, the order was not strictly obeyed. A small number of Jews continued to live in the town during the next decades (1569-1578), as well as for a short time in 1713.
The next period in the history of the Jewish diaspora is connected with the Partitions of Poland. The Prussians allowed only 4 Jewish families (a total of 11 people) to settle in Bydgoszcz in 1772. In the following decades, up until the 1870s, the number of Jews contiuned to grow. In 1788, there were 41 Jewish residents in the town (2% of the total town’s population), in 1816 – 233 (3.8%), in 1837 – 420 (5.6%), in 1861 – 1,372 (6.6%), in 1871 – 1,963 (7.8%), in 1885 – 1,488 (3.2%), in 1900 – 1,519 (2.9%), in 1910 – 1,345 (2.3%). The growth of Jewish population was caused by the migration movements that took place at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Some people moved to big cities in central Germany, whereas others migrated to America.
Initially, the Jews from Bydgoszcz belonged to the Fordon kehilla. But at the beginning of the 19th century they began to make attempts to establish their own community. The first Jewish cemetery was created in Bydgoszcz in 1816, and another, the so-called “new cemetery”, was establised in the second half of the 19th century. In 1820, ritual baths were rented and a house of prayer was opened at Pod Blankami Street. In 1834, a synagogue was opened. On June 29, 1834, the kehilla of Bydgoszcz finally gained its independence from Fordon. In 1852, Julius Gebhardt Ph.D. became the first rabbi in the town and served the office until 1885. His successors were: Wilhelm Klemperer Ph.D. (1885-1892), Gotchild Walter Ph.D. (18
Tomasz Kawski /
Until 1772 – the Kingdom of Poland, the Inowrocław Province (the Inowroclaw Province)
1772-1807 – Prussia, the Netze District
1807-1815 – the Duchy of Warsaw, the Bydgoszcz Department
1815-1920 – Prussia (Germany), the Grand Duchy of Poznań (Poznan), the Bydgoszcz region, the Bydgoszcz County
1920-1939 – Poland, the Poznań Province (the Poznan Province) between 1920-1938 than the Pomerania Province between 1938-1939, the Bydgoszcz County
1939-1945 – Germany (the Third Reich), the Gdańsk – Western Prussia Province (the Gdansk-Western Prussia Province), the Bydgoszcz region, the Bydgoszcz County
1945-1998 – Poland, the Bydgoszcz Province (between 1945-1950, the Pomerania Province with its seat in Bydgoszcz)
Since 1999 – the seat of the provincial governor of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province
The population of the city: in 1600 the population numbered 5,000 ; in 1660 – 2,000; in 1772 – 900; in 1785 – 3,500; in 1816 – 6,100; in 1883 – 6,700; in 1849 – 10,200; in 1858 – 17,700; in 1871 – 41,200; in 1910 – 58,000; in 1921 – 90,000; in 1939 – 143,000; in 1946 – 134,600; in 1956 – 214,000; in 1975 – 256,000; in 1980 – 350,000; in 2006 – 363,500.
The burgh (the Slavic settlement) of Bydgoszcz was established in 1038. As a boundary stronghold it guarded the country first from Prussian and later from Teutonic Knights invasions. The castellany (district governed by a chatelaine) of Bydgoszcz was first mentioned in the historical documents from 1283. In the 11th and 12th centuries, nearby the borough, a local settlement started to develop by taking advantage of its location on the Amber Route. In the vicinity of Bydgoszcz flowed the Vistula River which was bypassing by crossing the shallows of the Brda River. In the 12th century in the town was erected a Roman church, dedicated to St. Giles.
Circa 1300, the Duchy of Bydgoszcz and Wyszogród was established. In 1330, the burgh was captured by the Teutonic Knights army. However, in 1343, Bydgoszcz again became part of the Kingdom of Poland. On April 19, 1346 Bydgoszcz was granted the town charter under Magdeburg law and was given the name of Kunigesburg (Królewiec; Krolewiec) by the king of Poland, Kazimierz III Wielki ( Casimir III the Great). In 1347, a castle was built in Bydg
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