Kosice is a city in southeastern Slovakia. The first Jews settled in Kosice in 1843. By 1930, over 11,000 Jews lived in the city. The city was annexed by Hungary in November, 1938, and beginning in 1940, most Jewish men were either conscripted into Hungarian forced labor camps or the Hungarian army fighting in Russia. When the Germans occupied the city in March, 1944, they immediately began the creation of a ghetto and by April 28, 1944, almost 12,000 Jews were confined to eleven streets. On May 15, 1944, deportations began to Auschwitz, and by June 7, 1944, no Jews remained. Today, there are about 700 Jews living in the area.
Depicted in the postcard below is the Neolog Synagogue in Kosice. This synagogue was completed in 1927 and exemplifies a style that existed in the years around 1930 in which geometric shapes and large stretches of plain wall reflected forms found in other types of buildings.
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
Carole Herselle Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe, P.302-09
http://www.slovakia.org/society-jews.htm
Copyright © 1998-2001 Edward Victor