First Stop: Levoča, Slovakia (formerly known as Lőcse, Hungary)

This is a view of Levoča from my hotel room. It was the first stop in my journey to discover the land where our family came from.(See the slideshow at the bottom of this page for more photos of Levoča.)

There were two reasons why I stopped at Levoča. First, it houses one of three State Archives in Eastern Slovakia with many of our family's birth, death and marriage records. Second, it was the home town of Jonas Fischmann and his family. Jonas was the brother-in-law of Elias Szendrovics and the brother of Hani Fischmann, my great-grandparents. Jonas emigrated to the United States in 1913, (click on link to view Jonas' original Petition for Naturalization) arriving at Ellis Island on 18 September on the Grosser Kurfürst (click on link for more information on the ship they took) from Bremen, Germany with his wife, Rosa (maiden name, Rezi Braun) and six children (Rudolf, Ella, Harry, Louis, Oscar and Julia). They settled in Chicago, Illinois where Jonas started a successful fruit and vegetable store. I remember visiting Chicago as a child in the late 1950s to visit his eldest daughter that I always referred to as Aunt Ella. She was a very kind woman.

I found four different spellings of the Fischmann name in the archives. The earliest spelling is Fishman on a birth record from 1851, Fisman in 1852, Fischman (with just one 'n' at the end) on a death record in 1854 and Fischmann with two n's at the end of the name in the 1869 Census of Hungarian Jews. This last spelling was the one Jonas used on his Petition for Naturlization that was filed on 17 March 1921. At the time of the Petition, Jonas resided at 1510 No. Campbell Ave in Chicago.

There are many descendants of Jonas and Rosa in the United States today. Most still live in Illinois but others have moved to other states such as California. The family tree documenting all of the Fischmann descendants is still incomplete.

State Archives

One of the first things I learned during my visit to the State Archives is that copies of all the records found in Slovakia are also kept by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a vault in Salt Lake City. It is not really necessary to travel to Eastern Europe to obtain these records. The Mormons have made copies of virtually all of the old Jewish birth, death and marriage records throughout Europe. One could just as easily fly to Utah and spend the time in the Mormon's Family History Library to research family records. But this is not the only reason why I went. First and foremost, I wanted to see the places where my ancestors lived so that I could "walk in their shoes" and experience the landscape as they did over a hundred years ago.

Jewish Cemetery

One of the things I did after the archives closed at the end of the day was go out and search for the Jewish cemetery that was a short distance outside of town. A woman who was helping me at the archives drew a map to show me how to find it. It is not something you would be able to find on your own. I had to walk down a dirt road and up a hill. When I reached the top of hill where the cemetery was located I turned around to find a nice view of Levoča.

The entrance to the cemetery was locked but I found an easy way to get in. What I found once in the cemetery was very saddening. Vandals have toppled over most of the graves, many are missing headstones, many that remain are broken, and a couple of the graves had actually been opened up and left that way. The desecration of the cemetery began in late 1944 when Levoča was conquered by the Germans and continued after the war ended.

Here are a few graves that I had found were opened up:

Although a few of the gravestones appeared to have been restored, probably by relatives, most were knocked over or broken.

I took as many pictures as I could of the headstones that still contained information about the person who had been buried there and posted them on the JewishGen website (see examples in slideshow below). It is my hope someone who is not able to travel to Levoča will be able to find a relative they may have been looking for online. The graves go back to the 1800s. It is the only remnant that is left to remind us that a thriving Jewish population once lived here. (See history of the Jewish community in Levoča below.)

Flat tire

On another evening I decided to drive to Polanovce (blog post on my visit to Polanovce coming soon), 25 kilometres away, which is where the Fischmann family came from. This is the birth place of Hannah Fischmann, wife of Elias Szendrovics and many other members of the Fischmann family. By the time I got there, the sun had just gone down and so I was not able to explore the village. I turned around and decided to come back another day. On the way back I got a flat tire just as it started raining.

From the side of the rode I could see a building that turned out to be a bar several hundred feet down the road. When I entered, the bar was filled with men but the bartender was a woman. No one spoke English but luckily I was able communicate with the bartender in German. After explaining to the bartender what had happened, she got on the phone and called a friend who was a mechanic. He agreed to come and take a look. I thanked her and went outside to wait at the car. About a half hour later, a man pulled up and got out of his car. He didn't speak English or German but the problem was obvious. He jacked up the car in the rain -- by this time it was raining pretty hard -- took the tire off and disappeard. I waited about an hour in the back of my car while it was jacked up. He finally came back, put the tire back on and I was good to go. I took money out of my pocket and pointed to bills to ask how much he wanted. He shook his hands and head to say no. He would not accept anything for fixing my flat tire. I couldn't believe it. He came out at night in the rain to help a stranger from another country and didn't want anything for his efforts. It was an extraordinary moment and taught me an important lesson in kindness.

Early History of Levoča

The view from my hotel room looked over the historic center of Levoča (formerly Lőcse), in the scenic region of Spiš (formerly Szepes), which was inhabited as early as the Stone Age.

In the 11th century, this region became part of the Kingdom of Hungary and remained such until 1918 when the boundaries were redrawn after WWI and Levoča became part of the newly formed Czechoslovakia.

In the 15th century, Levoča was located on an intersection of trade routes between Poland and Hungary and became a rich center of commerce. It exported iron, copper, furs, leather, corn, and wine. The town was also an important cultural center.

Due to the economic importance of the town, fortifications around the town were built in the 13th -14th century (see photos in slideshow below). During the 16th and 17th century, the town walls were rebuilt and renewed.

The economic importance of the town diminished in 1871 when the new Košice–Bohumín Railway was built just 8 km (5 miles) to the south, bypassing Levoča and going through the nearby town of Igló, (today known as Spišská Nová Ves) where my grandfather and his siblings were born.

On 28 June 2009, Levoča was added by UNESCO to its World Heritage List. The town contains buildings from different periods that include examples of gothic, renaissance and baroque styles of architecture (see photos in slideshow below).

Jewish Settlement of Levoča

The settlement of Jews in Levoča occurred relatively late. Jews were prohibited to live there for centuries. The first group of Jews to settle in Levoča arrived from Huncovce, Hungary in 1840. In 1845 about 10 Jewish families were known to live there and a Jewish community (kehila) was established headed by Samuel, the son of Abraham Winter. The first Jews of Levoča made their living from establishing small businesses, peddling, and leasing taverns.

Here is a summary of the growth and decline of the Jewish population in Levoča from 1848 to 1948:

In 1850, Jews in Levoča had a prayer room in a private home and some other communal institutions. The kehila supported a ritual slaughterer (shochet) who also served as the prayer leader and religion teacher. In the 1870s the kehila steadily grew and by the 1880s had additional communal institutions including a cemetery that was two kilometers away from the center of town (see photos in slideshow below) and employed two teachers. Other institutions included the Chevra Kadisha (ritual burial society), the societies of Bikur Cholim (Visiting the Sick), a “Jewish Women's Organization” which was active in charity and an orphanage that was supported by the kehila's funds. In 1899, Levoča dedicated a grand, spacious synagogue built in the Oriental style, outside of the city's wall because Jews were not allowed to live in the town itself. A school and ritual bath (mikveh) were also built next to the synagogue. The Jewish school had a five-year syllabus and instruction was in German. That same year, Levoča elected Rabbi Dr. Gustav Levi as rabbi over the kehila and the surrounding district.

In 1902, a Jewish butcher was presumed to have killed a Christian boy. This incident aroused great interest in the Jewish community throughout Hungary. The defense attorney, Dr. Fried, who later was elected as mayor during World War I, debunked the accusation and the Jewish butcher went free.

Impact of the Shoah on the Jews of Levoča

(Adapted from translation of the “Levoca” chapter from Pinkas Hakehillot Slovakia, Edited by Yehoshua Robert Buchler and Ruth Shashak, Published by Yad Vashem, 2003)

After Slovakia received its autonomy in October 1938, Jews began to be persecuted. On November 4, 1938, fifty-five of Levoča's Jews citizens were deported to the no-man's land on the Slovakian-Hungarian border. They were held there several weeks without shelter and in difficult circumstances. Most of them were allowed to return home only after the intervention of Jewish organizations. In January 1939, the authorities halted the activities of the Jewish Nationalist Party and its representatives were dismissed from the city council.

With the establishment of the Slovakian State on March 14, 1939, members of the German minority who belonged to the Nazi Party, raided Jewish homes and businesses in Levoča causing heavy damage to property. On March 23, 1939 looting and destruction of property continued. In August 1939, fascist youths attacked the summer camp of Hashomer Hatsair in the outskirts of the city and led to its dissolution. That same year, licenses for several Jewish doctors and lawyers were revoked and several Jewish taverns were shut down. Jews were also dismissed from community service.

In 1940, the lawyer Dr. Artur HÖFLICH was elected as head of the “Jewish Center” for the district of Levoča. That year violence against the Jews was renewed. In May 1940, young Germans attacked Jewish homes, broke windows and broke into shops. Several Jews were arrested and accused of illegal activities. In August 1940, ninety Jewish men were drafted for hard labor and sent to “Labor Centers.” Throughout 1941, the authorities shut down about 70 Jewish businesses (with yearly income of more than 13 million Kronen) and in the whole of Levoča's district 138 businesses were shut down. Ten large businesses and enterprises, with an annual income of 4.5 million Kronen, were turned over to Aryans chosen to run large Jewish businesses. In 1942, Dr. Artur HÖFFLICH headed the “status quo” kehila, the secretary was Armin TENNENBAUM. Rabbi Julius KLEIN continued to lead the rabbinate and the Chevra Kadisha.

Deportations of Jews from Levoča began in March 1942. On the 21st of the month, about 40 young women from Levoča and another 43 girls from neighboring villages were taken to the transit camp in Poprad and on March 25, 1942 they were added to the first transport from Slovakia to the Auschwitz extermination camp. At the time of the roundup, 15 young women escaped, and were labeled as “deserters.” On April 1, 1942, the hunt was renewed for the young women. A second group of 16 young women also succeeded in escaping. Dozens of young people from Levoča and surroundings were sent via the transit camp in Žilina to Majdanek, in the Lublin area of Poland.

Deportation of families began on May 24, 1942. That day, 522 Jews (about 190 from Levoča and the rest from its district) were rounded up in the synagogue and the local gym. Two days later, on May 26, they were taken to the train station and added to the transport that left on May 29, 1942 from Spišská Nová Ves to extermination camps and ghettoes in the Lublin area of Poland. Additional groups of Jews were sent that summer via the Poprad transit camp to extermination camps in Poland. On September 22, 1942, 75 patients from the district hospital were sent via the Žilina camp to Auschwitz, and on October 19, 1942, 22 patients from the psychiatric hospital in Levoča were sent to Žilina, and the following day to the Auschwitz extermination camp. About 80% of the Jews of Levoča and its surroundings were deported in 1942 to extermination camps.

At the end of the wave of deportations 55 Jews who had letters of exemption remained in Levoča along with an additional 30 Jews who converted to save themselves, or who were married to non-Jews. As a result their deportations were deferred. Within the whole Levoča district 170 Jews remained. The few remaining Jews in Levoča joined together in one kehila. At the beginning of 1944, there still remained 196 Jews with exemption letters, about 90 of them from Levoča. In May 1944 about 30 Jews who were evacuated from eastern Slovakia arrived in Levoča. The Jewish school under the management of Alexander HANDELSMAN continued to exist until the end of June 1944.

On September 2, 1944, Levoča was conquered by the Germans and immediately created a unit of Nazi security police. Jews who were caught were deported to extermination camps or shot on the spot. Several Levoča families found refuge in the remote village Olšavica and were saved by the merit of the priest Michael MAŠLEJ, who was later named a “Righteous Gentile” by Yad Vashem. Members of the security police were aided by local Germans and together they conducted a widespread hunt for Jews and partisans. They captured 269 people and sent 110 of them to concentration camps. The remainder, mostly Jews, were killed on the spot. Rabbi Julius KLEIN and his wife were among the murdered. The Germans destroyed the synagogue, the adjoining mikveh, the school building and desecrated the Jewish cemetery. Several Jews joined with the partisans during the Slovak Rebellion and some fought in the Czechoslovak army. Karol ADLER, of Levoča, group commander of the partisans, was wounded in Germany captivity and killed by hanging.

At the end of the war, several Jews who had hidden in forests or who were deported and survived, returned to Levoča. The kehila life was renewed and several public buildings were renovated for use. Zionist activities were also renewed and continued until most of the Jews emigrated to Israel in 1949. In the 1960s there remained a small kehila of 60 people. The cemetery that was desecrated during the war when most of its gravestones were destroyed, continues to be neglected. As recently as 1990, a few Jewish families still lived in Levoča.