Brick manufactured by the Czeke brick factory in Kőszeg

Broken brick manufactured by the Kőszeg brick factory

Object

Brick manufactured by the Kőszeg Varosi Teglagyàr (Kőszeg Urban Brickworks) in Kőszeg, Hungary. Jewish residency in the town began in the 14th century and continued for five hundred years. From 1919 to 1921, Jews in Kőszeg and throughout Hungary were targeted by the White Terror pogroms for their perceived association with communism. Leading up to World War II, the Jewish population in the town was approximately one hundred people. In December 1940, a forced labor camp was established with Jewish and non-Jewish workers at a brick field and an old brewery in the town. The camp housed eight thousand laborers who were forced to march ten kilometers to and from work. They worked ten hour days, seven days a week, with only a daily ration of 17 ounces of bread. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary and the Jews of Kőszeg along with other Jews from the surrounding area were confined to a small ghetto in the town. On July 4, they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German occupied Poland. In March 1945, the Germans liquidated the labor camp. As part of the liquidation, ninety five sick laborers were locked in a sealed barrack and gassed to death on the property of the brick factory. In 1985, a park and a memorial were erected on the property of the former brick factory.