CHORZÓW

CHORZÓW, city in Katowice province, Poland. It was amalgamated in 1934 with the industrial town Krolewska Huta (Koenigshuette), and with Maciejkowice, Hajduki Nowe, and Hajduki Wielkie to form the present city. Jews are mentioned in Koenigshuette in 1829. In 1854 they were affiliated to the Beuthen (bytom ) community, and by 1865 had built a synagogue. The Jewish school passed to municipal administration in 1873. The rabbinate was established in 1890. Toward the end of the 19th century several small industrial enterprises were established by Jews in the area, and a number of Jews entered the technical branches of the metalworking and mining industries. The Jewish population in Koenigshuette numbered 640 in 1860, 1,020 in 1880, and 4,000 in 1931. In Chorzów it totaled 95 in 1880, and 2,811 in 1931. -Holocaust Period When the German army entered the city on Sept. 5, 1939, the anti-Jewish terror began. In December 1939 the entire Jewish population was ordered to leave. Most of the refugees went to the General Gouvernement, while some settled in dabrowa gornicza . Chorzów was one of the first cities in Poland to be officially proclaimed "judenrein." After the war the Jewish community there was not reconstituted. (Stefan Krakowski) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Rutkowski, Kronika miasta Królewskiej Huty (1927); Yad Vashem Archives, M1-Q/151. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Maser et al., Juden in Oberschlesien, I (1992) 122–25.