SZCZERCOW

SZCZERCOW, village near Belchatow, in Lodz province, central Poland. Eighty-eight Jews were living in Szczercow in 1808 (17% of the total population). During the 19th century there were no restrictions on Jewish settlement in the locality, and the number of Jews grew to 186 (14%) in 1827, 371 (22%) in 1857, 962 (34%) in 1897, and 1,513 (35%) in 1921. In the latter half of the 19th century, Szczercow Jews engaged in crafts (weaving, tanning, tailoring, shoemaking), transportation, and petty trade. -Holocaust Period In 1939 Szczercow had a population of 3,200 Jews and 1,800 non-Jews. During the first few days of World War II, the town was completely burned down, and the Jews, homeless and bereft of their possessions, escaped to the nearby town of zelow , while 150 found shelter in the city of belchatow . A small group of Jews apparently returned to the town and, according to one source of information, the Germans deported   the remnant of the Jewish community at the end of 1941 or early in 1942. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 51; D. Dabrowska, in: BŻIH, no. 13–14 (1955). (Danuta Dombrowska)