KRZEPICE

KRZEPICE , town in Kielce province, S. Poland. Jewish presence in Krzepice is attested to as early as 1633. In 1730 a synagogue was built. The 1765 census recorded 116 Jewish poll tax payers in Krzepice and vicinity. A separate Jewish quarter, Nowokrzepice (New Krzepice), was founded in 1795 and a synagogue established. Between 1823 and 1862 the Russian authorities restricted Jewish emigration from the interior of the country into Krzepice since the town was located on the Prussian border. The synagogue, which existed until World War ii, was built in pseudo-classical style with frontal columns. The community numbered 322 (21% of the total population) in 1808, increasing to 876 (43%) in 1827, and 1,057 (49%) in 1857. In 1897 their number had grown to 1,395 (43%) and in 1921 to 1,772 (43%). Apart from shopkeeping, the Jews made their living as tailors, hatters, carpenters, and locksmiths.

[Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)]

Holocaust Period

The Germans captured Krzepice on Sept. 1, 1939, and within a few weeks a fine ("contribution") of 20,000 zlotys was imposed upon the Jewish community; the confiscation of Jewish property also began. In March 1940 the transport of Jewish youth to forced-labor camps began and continued at an accelerated rate throughout 1941. In June 1942 the large majority of the Jews were transported to *Auschwitz. Some tried to escape and found temporary refuge in the Czestochowa ghetto. After the deportation of June 1942, only a few families of artisans remained in the city, and they were later transferred to the Sosnowiec ghetto.

[Aharon Weiss]

bibliography:

K.S. Muznerowski, Krepice w przszłosci (1914); M. Baliński and T. Lipiński, Starożytna Polska, 2 (1845), index; Lódź, Wojewódzkie Archiwum Państwowe, Anteriozia piotrkowskiego rządu gubernskiego, nos. 2517–19; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce… (1930), 30. add. bibliography: "Tavnit Sefer Zikaron le-Kehilat Kshepitz ve-ha-Sevivah," in: Sefer Klobuck (1960), 222, 264, 266.