CHECINY

CHECINY (Pol. Chęciny ), small town in Kielce province, Poland. A Jewish community is first recorded there in 1465. In 1656, during the Swedish-Polish war, 150 Jews were murdered by the soldiers of Stefan *Czarniecki. There were 912 Jews living in Checiny in 1765, including a large number occupied in the salt trade, 14 bakers, 11 distillers, and 5 butchers. The city council granted the right to manufacture and trade in alcoholic beverages to Jews. The Polish kings Michael Wisniowiecki and John iii Sobieski confirmed the trading rights of the Jews in the town. For some time the Jews in Checiny formed the large majority of the population, numbering 2,860 in 1856 (76%), 4,361 in 1897 (70%), 2,825 in 1921 (55%), and 3,100 in 1939 (60%).

Holocaust Period

The German Army entered the town on Sept. 5, 1939, and during the winter, Jews from *Kielce and from the territory of Warthegau incorporated into the Third Reich were deported there. On June 24, 1940, 250 young men were sent from Checiny to the forced labor camp in *Cieszanow, where all of them perished. In June 1941 a closed ghetto was established. In June 1942, 105 men were deported to the forced labor camp in Skarzysko-Kamienna. On Sept. 13, 1942 (the second day of Rosh Ha-Shanah), the ghetto was liquidated, and the entire remaining population deported to *Treblinka death camp for extermination. The Jewish community in Checiny was not re-founded after the war.

[Stefan Krakowski]

bibliography:

L. Lewin, Die Judenverfolgungen im zweiten schwedisch-polnischen Kriege (1901); Rutkowski, in: bŻih, 15–16 (1955), 75–82. add. bibliography: M. Paulewicz, "Osadnictwo zydowskie w Checinach," in: bŻih, no. 2, 94 (1975), 25–30; idem, "Stan demograficzno-ekonomiczny mieszczan checinskich narodowosci zydowskiej w 1919 r.," in: bŻih, 3, 111 (1979), 106–12; A. Penkalla, Zydowskie slady w wojewodztwie kieleckim i radomskim (1992), 29–32.