Hajduboszormeny Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery of Hajdúböszörmény was established as early as 1860, since oldest tombstone found in the cemetery dates to that year. The last known burial conducted in the cemetery was in 2007. The cemetery has been fenced, and there are a few ohalim and a Holocaust memorial.

By the 1850’s, there was already an organized Jewish community in Hajdúböszörmény. The Chevra Kadisha was established in 1846. The land for the cemetery was donated to the community by the village. The oldest gravestone (1848) marks the burial place of Ezriel Katz. The Jewish community of Hajdúböszörmény was Orthodox. The unity of the community disintegrated in 1890, when litigation between Rabbi Áron Fried and some of his followers deteriorated to a point where some formed a separate, Hasidic community. According to Yad Vashem (https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/he/research/ghettos_encyclopedia/ghetto_details.asp?cid=277), in January 1941, 934 Jews lived in the Hajdúböszörmény, accounting for about 3% of the total population. Most of the city’s Jews were artisans and merchants, and many worked in grain trade. The Jewish community in the city was Orthodox and maintained its own an elementary school.

In 1942, when Jewish refugees from elsewhere in Eastern Europe arrived in the city, the local police ordered the Jewish community to report any refugees and to refrain from assisting them. The German army occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. According to a census conducted in the second week of April 1944, the Orthodox community of Hajdúböszörmény accounted for 930 people. The Hungarian administration remained intact after the occupation. Following the German occupation, the Jews were concentrated in ghettos and deported followings orders issued by Hungarian Authorities (central and local government). In May 1944, the deputy head of the Hajdú district, Laszlo Szilassy, ordered the establishment of ghettos in his district. Antal Szalkay, the mayor of Hajdúböszörmény, assigned the synagogue and its surroundings to the ghetto, and on May 27, 1944, the transition into the ghetto began. At the beginning of June 1944, about forty men from the ghetto were recruited for forced labour. On the morning of June 16, 1944, all the thew Jews in the ghetto were brought to the pig market, where the Hungarian gendarmes confiscated their valuables. They were then transferred to the transport centre of the Serly brick factory in Debrecen, and between June 25 and 28 1944 they were deported – some to Strasshof in Austria, and some to Auschwitz.