Komitet Żydowski w Ostrowcu Świętokrzyskim (Sygn. 359)

Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski is located in the Świętokrzyskie province and has 70,000 inhabitants. Jews began to settle here in the middle of the 16th century, when Ostrów was transforming from a settlement into a town. In the 17th and 18th century, the town was owned by noble families, and back then a Jewish community existed and administered a cemetery and a synagogue. In the 17th century Jews constituted around 20% of inhabitants, in the 18th century it was 35%, whereas in the 19th century – half of the town’s population. In 1928, Jews of Ostrowiec held one-third of positions in the town council and the majority in the county council. There were four synagogues and forty two house of prayers operating in the town. On September 7, 1939, the Germans invaded the town. They created a Judenrat and forced the Jews to work in German factories. In 1941 the Germans established a ghetto, and the first deportation to Treblinka began in 1942. In 1943, the Germans sent a group of Jews to the work camp in Sandomierz and Blizyn, and a work camp was set up in the local mill. The camp was liquidated in 1944, and the remaining Jews were sent to Auschwitz. In May 1945, less than two hundred Jews lived in Ostrowiec. Most of them left abroad, the rest stayed until 1968.